With both business and communications evolving faster than ever, and with companies increasingly relying on innovation to fuel growth and competitive advantage, talking about innovations is becoming more important—and trickier. The famous flop of “New Coke” back in the 1980s reminds us what can happen when companies don’t properly introduce innovations (although in that case,…

Two weeks ago, APCO’s Margery Kraus wrote in this blog of the blurring lines between every major marketing practice. PR firms are producing advertisements, ad agencies are controlling massive social media campaigns, and branding shops are helping define SEO strategies. As these traditionally silo-ed marketing areas continue to blend and overlap, one nascent offshoot in…

If I have one impression to share about the panel discussion the Council put on last weekend at this year’s SXSW conference, and about the conference in general, it is the sheer energy, excitement, and interest we encountered. We have attended SXSW these past two years in the belief that as marketing communications gets more…

Why would a PR company buy an ad agency? Isn’t that backwards? This is a question I’ve been asked a lot in the weeks since my firm, APCO Worldwide, announced it had purchased a majority share in creative powerhouse StrawberryFrog. StrawberryFrog is a great agency with innovative leaders, a winning philosophy, iconic clients and a…

With the red carpets for this year’s Academy Awards unrolling as we speak, we were wondering: Is the A-list still as valuable as it once was to a brand in our age of social media? Are brands missing out if they’re not visible at an event like the Academy Awards? And how do we measure…

Facebook’s coming IPO has shone a spotlight on the financial upside of social media, but it’s important to keep in mind how much potential social platforms hold for serving the public good. Social media is helping advance the mission of non-profit organizations across a broad range of issues.  In fact, nonprofits account for some of…

Longevity is often something worth celebrating. And so it is with great pride and gratitude, along with an equal measure of humility, that I am delighted to say that Text 100 and Ketchum have achieved 10 great years working alongside IBM as its global public relations partners. Way back in 2001, IBM’s agency review process…

We use our “Firm Showcase” feature to celebrate the most exciting, pathbreaking models, techniques, and approaches in our industry. This week, our attention turns to a large agency that made headlines for doing something that many companies have talked about but few have done: Aggressively altering their model to meet the demands of today’s clients….

Risk, instability, uncertainty, change, volatility: These are the buzzwords of our time, and they apply to changing markets as much as they do to changing geo-political conditions and even our changing physical environment. The question is: What do we in the public relations industry do about it? How can we better run our firms to…

During my 30 years in various corporate PR roles, I had always thought I was a pretty good client.  If I knew then what I know now – after eight years on the agency side – I could have been a great client. Readers of the July 5 issue of this blog had suggested a…