Every day, I’m puzzled by the number of people I see checking mobile email in the darndest of places – during meetings, mid-conversation on a pub patio, etc.    
Even worse is where you see people’s thumbs hard at work sending a message. As they enter an elevator (presumably minutes, if not seconds, from plunking themselves [...]

Several months ago I had the pleasure of hearing a presentation by Dave Power. You may know him better as JD Power, the founder of the customer satisfaction, service and product rating company. Dave is passing the leadership torch in his firm now, but he has an amazing depth of experience in the business of [...]

A few weeks ago I noticed a half-page ad in a print newspaper placed by a public relations agency. The ad touted the PR industry awards that the agency recently won.
I swooned.
The irony of advertising agencies going after awards has been discussed many times before. The marketing value of winning industry awards is mainly in [...]

Here in Canada, as in many other countries, the iPhone 3G went on sale July 11th. There were the predictable media stories about long lines and people camping overnight to get their hands on the precious gizmo. As usual, relatively few journalists had anything negative to say about the product; Apple can apparently do no [...]

When I go online for a video snack, the last thing I want to see is an ad. It’s the same mentality that drives me to shell out extra cash to Rogers each month for a PVR – it makes TV watching and skipping through ads that much more enjoyable.  
I don’t care if it’s [...]

We PR people put a lot of stock in headlines. A headline is weighted heavily in terms of the overall “value” that an article might have. Readers read the headline first, and it’s generally the headline that will make them decide whether or not to read the text.
I know that I’m like just about everyone [...]

As China continues to take a rightful old arse kicking in the news these days leading up to the Olympics, it has been interesting as a communicator to watch how Beijing officials attempt to manage not only hostile protestors, but also resulting media coverage. From doping issues to human rights violations to tarnished torch relays [...]

A grew up watching / suffering through Andy Rooney’s “A Few Minutes With . . .” on 60 Minutes so . . . have you ever noticed that some public relations people (usually in the UK) use “PR” as a verb or a gerund?
 
“Let’s PR this,” they’ll say, or, “That was a good job of PRing [...]

If you’ve trolled through some of my other colleague’s postings, you may have noticed that a few of us were fortunate enough to attend an international PR conference in London last week.  And while the featured speakers and workshops have sparked lots of ideas for future musings about the state of the PR industry, my [...]