Traditional celebrity has certainly taken some hits as of late. Observers have questioned whether celebrity tweets—which cost brands as much as $8,000 each—are really worth the money. As a recent report in USA Today noted, ads at this year’s Superbowl were chock full of celebrities, at a high cost to brands, even though ads with celebrities in general prove 3% less effective than ads without them—an effect that has been multiplied in recent super bowl advertising. And some in the non-profit world have argued that it’s engagement rather than celebrity that really moves consumers to act.

Influencers such as bloggers and YouTube personalities are now stepping in to challenge celebrities as effective brand-builders. TJMaxx recently featured a fashion blogger in its television advertising, buying into a broader trend that has seen the rise of agents selling the services of bloggers. As Stephanie Smirnov, President and Chief Creative Officer, DeVries Public Relations, notes, “Social media has democratized influence and we now have a greatly expanded pool of talent to draw from when identifying brand ambassadors and spokespeople … Research already tells us consumers are influenced as much and sometimes more by bloggers than celebrities when making purchases. That’s a seismic shift from where we were two or three years ago.”

Smirnov observes that brands are routinely asking PR teams to go beyond traditional influencers. “A celebrity spokesperson might get you booked on the “Today” show, but the right mix of celebrity plus social media influencers will accelerate consumer uptake and sharing of your message or call-to-action. The ideal PR program leverages both.” The very definition of “A List” might be changing in the eyes of marketers. “For a lot of our clients, a red carpet superstar or Oscar winner would be at the top of the celebrity wish list; now, it’s as likely to be a reality TV star with a devoted social media following.”

As others argue, social media has made traditional celebrities more valuable, not less, a contention that might explain the ever more astronomical fees A-listers claim. Suzanne Haber, Chief of Media Innovations at Marina Maher Communications, holds that social media has increased the reach of celebrities, making them more powerful as brandbuilders. “The choice of a celebrity now goes well beyond their traditional assets. We carefully analyze their social media graph. We’re not just looking at how extensive their graph is, but also whether their fans are targets for the brand. We at MMC typically do not recommend a celebrity or brand ambassador unless they have a strong online presence to extend the reach and frequency of our messages.”

According to both Haber and Smirnov, firms today must change the metrics they use in evaluating celebrities to account for social media. In selecting celebrities for campaigns, Marina Maher uses a proprietary tool measuring both online and offline relevance to the brand, to popular culture, and to the brand’s target audience, as well as the celebrity’s social media footprint. Smirnov relates that in addition to older metrics like Q scores, she regards Klout scores as equally if not more important. “A celebrity with 500,000 actively engaged social media fans is probably more valuable to us than one with five million passive followers.”

If firms have altered the way they use and evaluate celebrities, emerging platforms and practices are pushing the envelope even further, with untold consequences. Lady Gaga, who boasts over 18 million Twitter followers, has announced her plans to start a new social networking website for celebrities, while another social platform called WhoSay will allow celebrities to control their own content with fans. Celebrities and marketers are also continuing to discover the implications of gaffes and celebrity-brand mismatches in an age of immediate and constant communications. With all this activity swirling around us, it’s incumbent on firms to monitor developments closely and constantly re-evaluate and innovate their approach to celebrities.

The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. last week hosted the first in its series of “Social Media 4 Social Good” events featuring interviews with strategists and entrepreneurs who are “using social media to make positive contributions to the world.” At the event, UN Foundation’s VP of Communications and Public Relations Aaron Sherinian emphasized how digital tools have broadened international reach and changed communication approaches in the world of nonprofits, international development and global health.

Sherinian also highlighted several examples of effective social media campaigns, including the UN Foundation’s Girl Up campaign and USAID’s FWD, which he described as a “genius use of social media.”

The impact of social media has been particularly striking in times of crisis as organizations have used digital platforms to mobilize mass audiences for rapid response efforts and donations. Two of the most recognized examples of this are what occurred around the tsunami in Japan and the earthquake in Haiti. We’ve seen the impact of relief organizations such as the Red Cross turning to online and mobile platforms to provide up-to-date information on events and to solicit donations from concerned citizens from around the world. In fact, a Time magazine story last year explored how “social media is changing disaster response”

In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, Xenophon Strategies kicked into high gear, handling virtually all elements of disaster response communications on behalf of the Salvation Army. Social media came into the mix as Xenophon gathered information and packaged it for internal and external consumption. In addition to press releases and media alerts, Xenophon created blog stories and Facebook and Twitter posts. The Salvation Army’s blog saw thousands of click-throughs, serving as one of the main pathways to donations via the Salvation Army’s online donation system. The organization’s Facebook page welcomed 3,000 new fans, with its Twitter account gaining 350 new followers within a week after the earthquake.

Social media has also proven to be a powerful tool for communicating with donors and advocates on a sustained basis. In an age of shrinking or uncertain budgets, social media provides nonprofits with an affordable way to reach and engage constituencies, helping to build deeper and more personal relationships with supporters.

Social media also enables communities to mobilize with amazing speed. In the immediate aftermath of the London riots last year, Londoners, linked by Twitter, turned out in impressive and inspiring numbers to clean up.

Although many public relations firms count nonprofits as paying clients, firms also are creating innovative social campaigns on a pro bono basis, building on our industry’s longstanding tradition of doing good and giving back. Last year, GolinHarris promoted an auction benefiting the Education Fund, a nonprofit that provides school supplies to Miami public schools. The GolinHarris team established a Twitter presence for the event, leveraged a pre-existing Facebook page, and engaged local influencers to use their social platforms to raise awareness about the event. As a result, the event raised $100,000, up from $80,000 the year before, and generated 47 stories in local and Spanish-language media.

Small, local pro bono campaigns like this can make all the difference for nonprofits, but they can also yield great benefits for firms. Innovative social campaigns often lead to increased visibility for a firm. In addition, firms working on these initiatives can offer employees across the organization a chance to work on new and interesting projects with colleagues they might not ordinarily interact with. Pro bono investments also serve as a powerful recruitment and retention tool, since many people (especially Millennials) gravitate to employers that care passionately about working with non-profits and leveraging their skill sets to advance social good. Finally, pro bono projects of any kind can help firms build relationships in local communities that often lead to lucrative paying work.

The starting point for engagement is developing and sharing compelling content. This is where public relations firms can bring the most value.  We know how to get key stakeholders such as influencers, community leaders and supporters to rally behind a cause — we do that every day. And, it’s incredibly satisfying and vital to put our capabilities to work for worthy causes that make a difference in the communities where we live and work.

Although firms are already doing so much for nonprofits using social media, we can do more. The explosive growth in the social space creates new opportunities every day for firms to design creative and innovative communications programs. It’s an important opportunity for our industry to demonstrate our corporate citizenship.

Be sure to celebrate the work you’re doing both internally and externally. At my firm, we hold a “Making a Difference” competition where our people vote on the top three pro bono initiatives our teams have supported around the world. We make additional donations to those organizations and give awards to the teams working on those programs for the innovative and inspiring work they do on behalf of these organizations in their local communities. Also, think about how you might concentrate your efforts to support a handful of major initiatives, so that you can have more impact.

The Council of PR Firms hopes to generate more discussion and enthusiasm among our member firms around working with non-profit organizations.  To that end, starting today, we will be posting examples of some of the exceptional work from our colleagues. Please take a moment to share some recent examples with us.

The airwaves, Internet, and public space today are cluttered with mediocre musical re-makes and mash-ups. It isn’t just music. Many of 2011’s big films were remakes or established franchises (Mission Impossible, anyone? Captain America?), and 80s movie classics like Steel Magnolia, Footloose and Dirty Dancing are waiting in the wings in the months and years to come. On the boob tube, we’ve already seen Hawaii 5-0, and Dallas is next in line, even though we already know who shot J.R.

Product marketing seems obsessed with a walk down memory lane. Click “retro” on Zappho and almost 2,000 items come up, from diaper bags to bikinis, puma jackets to Panini grills. Not long ago, Mashable offered its top ten list of “modern gadgets with retro styling,” including a camera, a set of headphones, and a calculator. Open the current People Magazine, and you’ll find an ad for Campbell’s “Slow Kettle style” soups.  Ah, the comforts of yesteryear.

What’s going on here? Why are we looking back? Where’s our creative mojo? In his 2011 book Retromania, music critic Simon Reynolds laments what he terms a “recession of creativity”: “What was lacking in the 2000s was movements and movement. One manifestation of the sense of deceleration: 2010 didn’t feel that different from 2009, or even 2004. Whereas in the past, the difference between years…felt intense.”

A sensitive soul might be forgiven for wondering if real originality ground to a halt during the Presidency of Bill Clinton (interesting, by the way, how freely commentators throw around his strategy of triangulation these days when talking about Barack Obama, as if even political strategies have become derivative).

A really sensitive soul might fret over the wholesale decline of Western civilization. Reynolds again: “The world economy was brought down by derivatives and bad debt; music has been depleted of meaning through derivativeness and indebtedness.”

Responding to my email questions, Marian Salzman, CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR North America, reassured me that originality is not dead, although it needs some revitalization. “I think genuinely original people today can still think of genuinely original ideas. What’s different, though, is that collaboration is much easier now, and inspiration just a search term away, so it’s also easier to do a lot of research, put a nice package together, and seem original without actually doing original work.”

Salzman buttressed her argument by pointing to what she sees as a profusion of laziness that is preventing marketers from creating truly great work:

The real enemy of great today is laziness spun out of the confusion of what’s life and what’s work, and of the blurring of the boundaries between home and office, friends and colleagues, networking and socializing, even researching and recreational reading. We’ve lost some of the discipline that the Greatest Generation inflicted upon us when the work day was 9AM-6PM and when the work week was Monday to Friday, and we’ve replaced it with a boundary-less world where good enough is sometimes good enough, and that’s really a bad thing. Today the walls are gone, the rules missing in action, and we have to hope that a spirit of greatness drives someone to go fresh, be fresh, and actually break and sustain a sweat.

One thing seems clear: The person who does will stand to benefit. Depressing as it may look, retromania represents a huge opportunity for those relatively few firms willing and able to go bold.

Salzman counsels firms to cultivate originality by welcoming in the unconventional. “Maybe its partner a 62 year old with a 22 year old, or a Hispanic art director with and Orthodox Jewish copywriter. Mix it up!” More broadly, firms might strive to create a culture where originality is valued above all else and people feel free to try crazy things, even if that means sometimes looking stupid in the process. Such a culture would allow employees to structure their work experience in ways that encourage originality, most notably by building in a certain amount of solitude, slowness, and freedom from technology. As Pico Iyer pointed out in a recent New York Times op-ed, “We have more and more ways to communicate…but less and less to say. Partly because we’re so busy communicating. And … we’re rushing to meet so many deadlines that we hardly register that what we need most are lifelines.”

Do you think culture and marketing have lost the edge? Or is all this talk about retromania itself so much nostalgia for a past that wasn’t nearly as bold, fresh, or interesting as it seems? We want to know!

If you consider the broader American sports landscape, the NFL remains the big dog, with millions engaging each week across a variety of channels. In 2011, the NFL accounted for nine of the Top 10 television programs, topped by the broadcast of the Super Bowl, which claimed 111 million viewers.  Last year’s labor strife and lockout, which truncated training camps and threatened the start of the season, didn’t affect business–a  fact evidenced late in 2011 when the television networks renewed their partnerships with the league for healthy increases.

As the NFL has grown in popularity, so has the Super Bowl, to the point where it stands today as a natural place—perhaps the ultimate place—for successful public relations activation.  The sheer amount of media attentions is staggering. This year, thousands of media members will descend upon Indianapolis looking for compelling content and topical guests. Many of the media are holed up on “Radio Row,” a collection of national and local sports radio outlets broadcasting live from the Super Bowl media center virtually around the clock.  This is coupled by the presence of various ESPN and NFL Network shows, along with a host of other sports and celebrity-driven programs, such as Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Brands present at the Super Bowl enjoy a tremendous opportunity to leverage this “captive audience.” NFL players and Hollywood stars swarm constantly around the media center, conducting interviews to discuss which team has the better offensive line, their fondest Super Bowl memories, and, of course, to deliver the key messages of the brands they are representing. The Super Bowl might be the only place where Madonna, Joe Namath and Drew Brees all stand next to one another promoting an endeavor.

The star power at a Super Bowl, combined with the power of social media, provides a strong consumer connection point for brands.  Now more than ever, brands can extend their reach, engage influencers and give their audiences a real sense of “being there” for the festivities during the week, whether posting photos and tweeting from different events, live streaming a spokesperson Q&A, providing more exclusive content, and engaging in a dialogue. As our Catalyst Fan Engagement Study shows, sports fans are 55% more likely to purchase a product if an athlete mentions it on Facebook or Twitter.  Using the period around the Super Bowl, when NFL fans are naturally even more engaged, is a perfect time to leverage relevant spokespeople for social media content.

Is it all too excessive?  Well, no. People love the sport, are craving content, and are seeking new ways to engage.  Brands are capitalizing on that and are – smartly – crafting their marketing programs accordingly.  While ads remain a focal point, brands enjoy much more leeway than ever to play in this space.

For our agency, the Super Bowl Week is one of the biggest of the year for us. We have teams in Indianapolis representing multiple clients, including ESPN, Under Armour, and Timex. It’s a great deal of work, but also an opportunity to make a great impact for our clients, build and strengthen media relationships, and see what other brands out there are doing to capitalize on the Super Bowl.

Come Sunday, it’s time to relax a little, sit back, and enjoy the game.

What should growing public relations firms do to manage their success most effectively? We queried three executives who have experienced growth first hand—Brandon Edwards, President of Revive Public Relations; Mark Eber, President and Partner of IMRE; and Matthew J. Harrington, CEO of Edelman U.S.—and compiled the following five tips:

1. Evolve the Culture: As a business grows, you can’t expect its culture to remain exactly as it was when employees were few. Yet you can’t leave culture to chance, either. As Eber notes, “Companies need to provide a culture based on its core values but with the personality and flare of the employees that make up the different offices or departments.” Harrington emphasizes the importance of sustaining core values: “While the world and the PR business continue to evolve, what your firm stands for, its north star, shouldn’t waver.” Edwards warns that “culture is a fragile thing, and once it’s been eroded or damaged it is incredibly difficult to bring it back.  Remember all the reasons why you started the firm in the first place, everything you love about the people you work with and the clients you serve and the great work you get to do – and keep those thoughts at the center of everything you do every day.”

 

2. Keep Focused on Employees: When companies are small, senior leaders can more easily provide hands on attention and mentorship.  As firms grow, they need to find new ways to nurture increasingly larger groups of young employees. Eber again: “When you raise the bar with every new hire, the onus is on the firm to provide mentorship, clear career paths and on-going learning opportunities.” Edelman’s Harrington agrees: “We seek ways to constantly create meaningful opportunities for key talent to grow, whether that’s across geographies or practices, or as client relations managers.” Edwards notes that growing firms often fall down by becoming less selective about whom they hire in the first place. “Be picky,” he advises, “maintain high standards, and turn away business before you compromise on the quality of a hire.” 

 

3. Don’t cash in too early or often: The challenge of meeting increased demand usually requires that businesses make new investments, yet public relations firms operate in a service industry and generally operate with few hard assets. Growing firms should take care not to “pull too much cash out of the business and leave it undercapitalized,” warns Edwards. “Good times should fund future growth and provide security rather than simply funding large distributions to the shareholders.  It’s almost impossible to have too much cash on hand, and access to a credit facility, even when times are good and growth is fast.”



 

4. Keep bureaucracy in check: When companies grow, Harrington observes, they sometimes mistakenly create overly cumbersome organizations that encourage silos and impede collaboration. “A business needs to be smart ab out the structure it builds, a structure in service of its clients and talent, while ensuring that leadership remain in the thick of day-to-day business as much as possible. Dan Edelman, Edelman’s chairman and founder, said that every one of us is an account executive, and that philosophy continues to guide us.” Edelman keeps bureaucracy flatter by creating open offices that facilitate collaboration and by enabling senior leaders to partake in day-to-day operations such as pitches and client meetings.

 

5. Execute around a strategy. Your firm may be growing, but do you have a clear destination? As Edwards argues, strategic planning is vital, and firms shouldn’t hesitate to go outside to get the help they need. “You need to make sure you’re getting past the platitudes and the egos in assessing capabilities, future growth opportunities, and needed investments.  With the right research and analysis, the strategic plan should provide a roadmap for the firm’s future, and pursuing opportunistic business or talent should take a back seat to opportunities and priorities highlighted in the plan. Stay true to the plan!” Eber adds that whatever the strategy, firms should seek to constantly reinvent themselves in line with a vision. “Apple’s Steve Jobs didn’t constantly take the pulse of the tech consumer.  He invented new technology.  We are doing the same in our space—not following trends, but growing expertise and systems in new areas that resonate with clients and prospects.” 

No matter how disciplined you are, and how much you try to prepare for growth, the process of expansion will hold surprises, both good and bad. “One lesson I’ve learned,” Edwards muses, “is that we are never quite as smart as we think we are when things are going well, and never quite as dumb as we feel when things are challenging.”

What are your thoughts on growth? Is there important wisdom we haven’t shared? We look forward to your contributions in our comments section!

First thing’s first: A full 70% of firms report that final 2011 revenues will be higher than in 2010. Only 13% anticipate lower revenues. In the context of a still-uncertain overall economy, the council is projecting about 10% year-over-year industry growth. About half of our members experienced double-digit growth, figures consistent across all revenue categories. Of course, some practice areas did see more growth over others. As has been the case in the past, over half our members reported strong movement in consumer products and healthcare. A new player this time around seems to be energy, with almost a quarter of our members reporting growth in that area.

New business also looks strong, with over 60% of firms enjoying a better new business pipeline than a year ago. The big story here is integration: Almost half of all firms reported that new business opportunities were “more integrated than ever,” with fewer than a quarter reporting that their opportunities consisted mainly of traditional public relations. For most firms, budgets at existing clients seemed about as certain as a year earlier, while about a quarter of firms reported them more certain. Over a third  (35.5%) of firms anticipated higher budgets in 2012, up from only 21.8% in our Q3 survey, suggesting a recent uptick in bullishness.

Jobs may be an election year issue, but I’m happy to report that we in public relations are doing our part. Over 60% of firms reported increased headcounts at the end of 2011 as compared to a year earlier. Looking ahead to 2012, a majority of firms anticipated boosts in hiring, while fewer than 10% predicted reduced hiring. Openings are popping up at all levels: Almost two thirds of firms report a swelling in the mid ranks (Account Executive/Account Supervisor), while half reported hiring in the entry level positions and 46% in Vice President/Senior Vice President. A third of all firms planned to increase the ranks of non-traditional hires coming from outside public relations.

We asked a number of questions designed to provide a more nuanced picture of our industry in the year ahead. Not surprisingly, about three-quarters of firms expect growth in social media, while over a third also expected growth in business-to-business, corporate communications, and issues management. Most firms plan to innovate in some way, with about two-thirds launching a new practice, 60.3% launching a new internal process, and 57.1% partnering with outside firms to expand their capabilities.

As 2012 gets underway, we have every reason to feel proud about what public relations has accomplished. Ours is a vibrant industry rapidly evolving to meet the needs of a changing marketplace. While the global economy does pose some uncertainty—over a third of respondents weren’t yet sure how global economic conditions would affect their business in 2012—we seem to enjoy as strong a chance as any to withstand any bumps.

Are these numbers hot enough for you? How is the industry looking where you sit? We’d love to hear about it in our comments section!

We invited three leading lights in political communications to mull it over with us: Mark McKinnon, Global Vice Chairman at Hill+Knowlton Strategies; Nick Ragone, political author and Partner/Director of Ketchum’s Washington office; and Blois Olson, Principal and Executive Vice President at Tunheim. All agreed that this year’s campaign offered some clear strategic “do’s” and “don’t’s” for those times when you’ve got a market leader on your hand, but it’s not so lonely at the top as the leader would like.

First, front-runners should be consistent. Adopt a strategy and stick to it, even when under attack. Remembering back to his work on the 2004 Bush campaign, McKinnon noted that, “our strategy focused on a national security frame. When the Abu Ghraib crisis broke, many thought we should shift strategies, but we stuck to our guns. Meanwhile, John Kerry was all over the map. People want consistency in their commander-in-chief, so even a flawed but consistent strategy is better than one that shifts and tries to adapt to a changing environment.” Ragone agrees: “Staying on message is critical, both in the political and business realms.  There’s so much clutter and background noise that any deviation from message will create confusion. The best candidates and brands have very sharable narratives that they don’t deviate from.”

Second, front-runners should be focused. While it’s tempting to try to increase share rapidly by attempting to diverse audiences, front-runners should do so deliberately. Olson likens the Republican campaign to soft drinks and cereals. “If you think about cola brands, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola are leaders, and they have seen some market share slip in soft drinks.  Mostly they have lost it to upstart beverages, not to each other. First it was Snapple, then water and energy drinks.  As long as the GOP field is crowded, as soon as someone doesn’t like the taste of something, they can pick a different brand. Meanwhile, Romney was the flavor that his fans knew and stuck with.”  While it may be tempting for Romney to segment the market and pick off certain segments, Olson urges careful timing. “Original Cheerios are great for General Mills, but they can keep more people with the brand as they add Honey Nut, fruit flavored, frosted etc. Romney is waiting to add his different flavors until the most of the challengers to his front runner brand have left the race.”

Third, be real. It’s tempting to try to paper over a candidate’s weakness with audience members or customers, but front-runners who do so risk seeming false. “If your candidate is weak,” McKinnon urges, “don’t try and pretend he’s Superman. He doesn’t have to be. He just has to be stronger than the other weaklings. Too many campaigns try and oversell and then their candidate can’t deliver and they come up short. John McCain’s campaign fell apart in the summer of 2007. He was able to recover because he ate his humble pie and stuck it out with almost no staff and no money.” Olson agrees: “Don’t confuse people. Simple and stable strategies work for brands and politicians.  Don’t get too cocky. Go for modest, incremental growth.”

Fourth,  be nice be less mean. Ragone notes that attacking opponents is usually a risky strategy for front-runners, whether they’re weak or not. “There’s an old saying in boxing: Never punch down to an opponent.  Attaching weaker opponents only diminishes the front-runner.  Mitt Romney was smart not to attack Newt Gingrich directly, but rather allow his Super PAC to do it. And the same holds true for brands. A good communications strategy enhances the positive attributes of the person or brand and minimizes any shortcomings.”

The corporate world is full of companies and even entire industries that inspire misgivings among customers. Like Romney, market leading cellphone companies, banks, oil companies, and cable companies all have large customer bases yet remain vulnerable to upstarts with seemingly attractive combinations of selling points. With thoughtful strategies, public relations firms can keep challengers at bay and the weak front-runner on top over the long run.  Yet firm and clients can avoid frustration and demoralization by retaining relatively modest goals for their strategies. Notes Ragone, “There’s always a limit to communication strategies, whether it’s for companies or individuals. At the end of the day, you’re only as good as your candidate or product.”

Common sense tells us that vacations provide a chance to clear our heads and refresh so that we can become more productive upon our return. Yet the latest psychological research is confirming that vacations can enhance performance in one especially important respect: Creativity.

That’s good news, because creativity is more important on the job than ever. As we reported in an earlier posting, a 2011 IBM global survey of CEOs found that creativity was regarded as the “most crucial factor for future success” in a “highly volatile, increasingly complex business environment.” Another survey of U.S. manufacturing executives found that a large percentage considered “successful design thinking and creativity” as the primary advantage U.S. manufacturers have over those in other countries.

A stressful few days off spent shuttling kids around and fighting long lines at an amusement park while keeping tabs on things back at the office probably won’t replenish your creative juices. On the other hand, you don’t need to opt out for a month-long spiritual junket across the Himalayas, either. Recent findings in psychology are exciting because they inspire some simple suggestions for structuring your next vacation to maximize your own creative development:

• Use time away to catch up on sleep. Most of us don’t get enough of it, and it’s essential for performing creative tasks well.  We might even find that getting sleep during a vacation helps us resolve specific problems befuddling us on the job. As an article in Psychology Today noted, “…sleeping on a problem apparently allows for a restructuring of the brain connections, ‘setting the stage for the emergence of insight.’”
• Create Psychological Distance from Work: It’s tempting to keep our smartphones on, even if we travel to another country.  Unfortunately, that might damage our ability to replenish our creative stores. Several studies have shown that just thinking about things distant from the here and now can enhance creativity.
• Vacation with People Whom You Love: When participants in one study were “primed with thoughts of love,” they grew more creative. On the other hand, they became less creative “when primed with carnal desire.” (I’ll leave it to you to figure out what to do with that…)
• Take Time in Nature. This one is a little speculative. Scientists in Britain are embarking in a three-year research project to discover whether listening to the sounds of birds singing improves our ability to relax and think creatively. As the psychologist running the study noted, “a great deal of anecdotal evidence suggests that we respond positively to birdsong.”
• Read Something Crazy: Those of us who like to read might be tempted to choose the latest business book, or a title that otherwise bears directly on our work.  Think again: Research has found that reading absurd stories by Kafka increased the ability to recognize hidden patterns.  Apparently, absurdity forces our minds to work harder to make meaning out of what we encounter, thus enhancing our creative skills.
• Play Games—Especially Video Games: Believe it or not, a recent study has found that playing video games, even violent ones, makes kids more creative.
• Spend Time with Your Kids: If you spend time interacting with children, you might find yourself more inclined to think like them. And one study has found that just thinking about life from the point of view of our 7-year-old selves improves our creative performance.

Departing from the research for just a moment, here’s an eighth tip: When your vacation is over, plan a mindful re-entry into work. Spend ten or fifteen minutes reflecting on what you learned during the vacation and set goals for what you’d like to achieve in your work. Come up with a plan to deal with the onslaught of post-vacation emails and other work, so that the effect of the stress doesn’t sap up all the creative energies you’ve had so much fun unleashing during your time off.

Business leaders in our industry and elsewhere are doing many things to encourage creativity and innovation in their workforces. In the second of the CEO surveys mentioned above, a plurality of respondents reported that they sought to enhance creativity in their firms by “encouraging internal innovation competition an initiatives.” But what if something as simple as a vacation could also provide us with the creative boost we need to do better at our jobs?

It’s a possibility we all would do well to consider—and to plan for!

But the term innovation has steadily been under assault with claims of overuse and falling victim to hyperbolic reference – and in some cases there is merit to the criticism. Just last week LinkedIn cited innovation as one of its most overused buzzwords in 2011.

The LinkedIn remarks offer a key insight into what our industry must do to help resurrect innovation from the dust bin of overused marketing rhetoric.

“As a general term, this sounds wishy-washy. If applied in a real context, such as “my innovative design increased our online sales by 20 percent”, then you’re good.”

Better than good, I would argue – you’re golden. Not just on a personal level when describing your work experience, but applying rigor in communications efforts to always emphasize the impact the innovation brought to bear – that can make all the difference.

Communications professionals hold a unique position when it comes to innovation because we can help address the two most common misuses of the term:

The white knight syndrome. Innovation can solve everything! Job growth? Innovation! Societal issues around health, education, etc.? Innovation! Want to lose 20 pounds in 30 days? Good luck with that, especially around this time of year. But you get the point – we must challenge our clients and partner with them to not just hold up innovation as a savior for all that is wrong and every challenge we face in business and society. Doing so diminishes the areas where innovation IS making a big difference and changing things for the better. But, when coupled with what the innovation is solving for, and the opportunity it is opening up in very tangible ways … that gives the white knight some actual armor.

Related to the white knight syndrome, I had the honor of giving a talk at TEDGlobal this past year at the TEDUniversity forum. It was on innovation and impact, and one of the anecdotes I relayed was how aspirin came to market. Aspirin had existed for some time, but as innovative as it was, it was held back due to the side effects of stomach discomfort when ingested. But a Bayer employee developed (innovated!) a buffering compound that addressed the side effects. Then something horrible and fortuitous happened – the great flu pandemic of 1918. It took a horrible toll of lives, but arguably hundreds of thousands of lives were saved due to aspirin being used as a fever reducer. The story of aspirin caught on and spread around the world – because it was not only an innovation, but one with tangible and meaningful impact. It saved lives.

Trite rhetoric. The other trend around innovation, as evidenced by the LinkedIn piece, is the tendency for communicators to abandon the term for fear of backlash that it is too buzzword-ish. Again, this is unfortunately too often a fair critique of communicators. As a firm that has worked with innovators since our inception, we feel the fierce urgency behind making sure we advocate for innovation to be experienced as something more than filler in a press release. We must hold ourselves, our clients and our industry to a higher standard and ensure every time we employ innovation we’re making sure it answers this question: To what end does this innovation make an impact in the world?

Kathy Cripps’ blog post touched on some very salient ways that our industry is, and can continue, innovating. But as a colleague of mine recently pointed out, even rapidly evolving spaces like social media should largely be considered the new normal and not the latest bright, shiny object. We must enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to test, refine and improve what we are doing in social media, while still pushing ourselves to experiment at the fringes – in particularly in areas of measurement, engagement and insight.

Of course I view independence as one of the great drivers of innovation. And see others in our industry embracing the flexibility independence. People like Elise Mitchell, Michael Kempner and Richard Edelman are all not only talented and respected competitors, they are showing how an independent approach can push the envelope for our industry and our clients. We need more of this approach – regardless of whether it originates from independent agencies or our colleagues who are part of larger conglomerates.

So this would be my ask to those of us in the communications industry today, and what I hold myself accountable for as well:

• Become a staunch defender of the term (and all it stands for). Make sure the white knight is armored up and help get innovation off the trite rhetoric list by critiquing it radically before ever uttering it publicly – and most importantly viewing it with rigor through the impact lens, not just the coolness of the idea lens.

• Be bold and fail forward. We’re going to have to keep pushing ourselves beyond repackaging old ideas under new names and making incremental innovations in our own work if we want communications to lead in the new normal. We will collectively fail, adjust and improve.

If we do these things, together and in competing with one another, then innovation can find its way back to the deserved spot of honor that a true white knight should occupy.

This new level of interaction is most prominent in long-term conditions such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and asthma where successful management requires collaboration between patient and healthcare professional. Helping patients understand their condition and working with them to manage the underlying disease and symptoms is key to successful and efficient healthcare. The ubiquity of smart phones and tablet computers in the physician’s office allows communicators to develop dynamic and interactive resources that help healthcare providers improve communication with patients. This enhanced engagement means that both get the most out of appointments, the patient leaves with a better understanding of their disease and treatment, and the healthcare professional is confident that the patient will take their treatment correctly. A great example is the AFIB Educator app developed by AFSTAT, which visually demonstrates the importance of atrial fibrillation management strategies. This user-friendly app has been well-received by providers and resulted in greater understanding of this complex disease among patients.

Collaboration and engagement between healthcare stakeholders can help us address two of communications most important priorities – the disparities in healthcare provision and access to medicines. HIV and AIDS is a good example where there are well-established stakeholder groups, initiatives, education and data; however there is a glaring gap in support specifically for women with HIV, who comprise approximately 50% of cases worldwide. Not only do women face different societal challenges to men, they also face unique clinical issues such as family planning, but women are disproportionately less involved in research and there are fewer trials that address these important issues.

Women For Positive Action (WFPA) is a global programme led by women with HIV together with the healthcare providers working together to address these specific issues. The WFPA faculty collaborate to provide education, support and empowerment for women with HIV, and improving awareness among HIV specialists and researchers. Through this programme, women’s needs in HIV and AIDS have been headlined across congresses, the medical press, patient forums and the pharmaceutical industry.

Digital innovations are driving unprecedented connectivity and strong interaction across patient and healthcare communities.  Online communities are providing patients and caregivers the opportunity to share and support in greater numbers, frequency and speed. Many of these communities are developing with facilitation through organisations such as PatientsLikeMe and HealthUnlocked in Europe, creating communities in a trusted and open environment. These communities are connecting with healthcare professionals and the industry to provide new knowledge of diseases in the real world through the shared patient experiences. Furthermore, the communities are starting to work with researchers to evaluate treatments and meaningful outcomes. A more connected future will provide the opportunity to link patient-reported outcomes with clinical data in real time, thereby revolutionising the way we evaluate the effectiveness of treatments and care.  Healthcare communications is engaged in a new era where interaction among stakeholders encompasses sharing of information, collaboration in research, enabling access to data and medicines and the meaningful measurement of outcomes.