I came across two opinion statistics this week that made me wonder where we’re headed. Trust is a huge issue, in my business, public relations, trust is key. I learned, and firmly believe, that image is nothing, reputation is everything.
In the latest American Pulse Survey published by BIGresearch, trust is virtually non-existent for politicians and [...]

So my friend Russ Page convinced me to go to the Seth Godin event promoting his book, “The Dip,” overall I thought it was a great presentation and I hope the books is as insightful and informative. Although I have a copy of the book, I haven’t started reading it yet.
Anyway, Seth makes some great [...]

Marketers and wise PR professionals often extend offers to consumers and audiences to gain their ends, this is known as reciprocity. It makes a ton of sense, I give you something of value to you and you give me something of value to me.
Google offers personalization and various services like Gmail, Google Apps, in the [...]

I saw a video the other day that got me to thinking about what goes into determining packaging for products so as to line up with advertising and branding. There are a lot of aspects that go into this process, but here I will briefly share two schools of thought and then the video. When [...]

A while back I wrote about what I thought it took to make a good commercial, read it here. Well, I’ve decided to continue the thought as a regular topic.
What I’d like to do is present advertisements and commercials representing various brands and not only post a copy of the ad/commercial but also rate it [...]

Okay, I’m not an advertiser, but with the advent of Web 2.0, the truth is that we can all be advertisers, advocates or spokespeople for anything. So what makes a good commercial? Well, for me it is something that is incongruent, something funny, something that breaks the mold, something that makes me think or is [...]

It should come as no surprise to marketers and communicators that we as people yearn for a sense of belonging. With that said, it should then come as no surprise that creating this connection between product and consumer through some sort of affiliation can be a super-successful strategy.
This struck me recently as I though about [...]

In a recent post, Russ Page talks about the value of PR versus using PPC advertising on the Web.
You know, I am a relative newcomer to the PR field, but I think I see where executives have a hard time with PR. Executives are concerned with value, and PR, unlike advertising, doesn’t always bring immediate [...]

How many times have you received an email purporting some great advice only to find out that, in the end, they’re only trying to sell you something? Granted, that is what businesses do, but what about freebies or reciprocity? I get the whole,”we’re in business to make money” mentality–it’s called capitalism. But I feel that [...]