The other day, while waiting for my plane to board, I was treated to a throaty remake of the Beatles classic “Penny Lane” running over the airport PA system. Didn’t catch the artist, but didn’t need to: The re-make, of very recent vintage, was decent, but it didn’t ring half as true to my forty-something…

Today’s market is a dynamic one for marketing services. It’s a “jump ball” environment, and public relations firms, ad agencies, branding and digital shops, among others, are all seeing opportunities to compete but also to collaborate in new ways. Clients and prospects clearly seem less concerned about which discipline to work with; it’s all about…

Creativity pays, which is why we all want that next great idea, that flash of brilliance that will delight clients and keep them coming back for more. What if I told you that a firm out there has devised a pathbreaking new tool, at relatively low cost, for harnessing some of the best young minds? …

We admire it. We crave it.  We want to have more of it than the next guy. And for good reason: Our business depends on it. I’m talking about creativity. In public relations as in other creative industries, the workhorse of creativity has traditionally been the brainstorm session. Gather people in a room, assign a…

Even after years of exposure to one another, PR and Procurement still isn’t a match made in heaven. Dealing with client procurement departments often remains exasperating, due in large part to procurement’s lack of understanding of what public relations firms do for their companies.  Some of the concerns raised on the agency side relate to…

The question of who owns intellectual property (IP) created during a new business pitch is becoming an increasingly hot button issue in today’s marketplace. As Ad Age reported, the 4A’s recently sent an official letter to consultants urging them to use contract language “that reflects advertising agencies’ right to retain creative ideas presented during new-business…