In June 2015, a new, hyperspecific website named Van Winkle’s went live. It was billed as an online destination for “all aspects of sleep and various nocturnal adventures” by its editorial director, Elizabeth Spiers, formerly an editor at Gawker and the Observer.
In its first week, the site’s pieces included a listicle about dream sequence clichés and a 2,800-word feature on the rise of benzodiazepine prescriptions. Its editor-in-chief, Jeff Koyen, heralded it as “the first editorial venture of its kind.”
What he meant by that had as much to do with its niche subject matter as it did its funding source: Van Winkle’s was not a traditionally independent journalistic venture, but the latest product of mattress startup Casper.
“We have a long-term vision for Casper to become the dedicated brand for all things sleep, and part of owning that category is owning the best content related to it,” Casper CEO Philip Krim told The Wall Street Journal at the time, speaking pure startup. He later added: “The mandate is to create awesome content and that’s it.”
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Here's a profile of Van Winkle's "news" and some interesting insight into content marketing and journalism. More recommended reading. 9/10
Reputation is everything. And on the internet, that couldn't be more true.It's important to always know what people are saying about you -- whether it's your customers, your competitors, or the press. And on any given day, it can be tricky to keep up with what your audience is sharing across a variety of social media platforms.
So, we've rounded up some of the best free social media and brand monitoring tools from around the vast web of social networks.
Nearly all of these tools are free, but some offer paid versions with more features and capabilities. Let's dive into each one -- and see if you want to test them out today....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Check out these free social media and brand monitoring tools to take your social game to the next level.
The Campaign Legal Center is complaining in a letter to the White House that a top adviser to President Donald Trump may be illegally accepting outside professional services.
Steve Bannon has worked with publicist Alexandra Preate since he was head of Breitbart News. Preate has continued to work with reporters on Bannon’s behalf even though she is not a government employee. A recent article by the Center for Public Integrity quotes an associate of Preate’s saying she doesn’t receive pay from Bannon.
The Campaign Legal Center says that appears to be a violation of what’s called the Antideficiency Act. The law says government employees “may not accept voluntary services for (the) government or employ personal services exceeding that authorized by law.”...
The Russian attempt to influence the 2016 American presidential election, using what intelligence agencies call “active measures,” has dominated U.S. headlines.There is, however, a second front in Russia’s effort to shape the hearts and minds of American citizens, and it’s received almost no attention in mainstream U.S. media outlets since the election.
As someone who studies the growth of global public relations, I’ve researched the roles PR firms play in shaping public perceptions of international affairs.
For years, Russia has been involved in public relations campaigns that have been developed and deployed by prominent, U.S.-based, global PR firms – campaigns intended to influence American public opinion and policy in ways that advance Russia’s strategic interests....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
PR or propaganda? Is public relations simply a more insidious form of fake news asks Sue Curry Jansen?
The world's worst press release landed in my inbox the other day.
Competition is stiff for that title but this release, which came with the subject line, "Lifesaving information for Chicago citizens," ran away with the crown.
After a cheery, "Hi Mary," it began:
"We are only a little over a halfway through with 2017 and Chicago's violence shows no signs of stopping."
No argument there. Violence is the curse, the tragic flaw, the interminable disease of this great city — a psychological undercurrent even in the many neighborhoods that rarely witness it; and this wasn't the first press release I've ever gotten that takes note of that fact. I routinely get pitches involving violence, some with ideas that sound productive, like programs that work with kids in struggling parts of town.
The world's worst press release wasn't one of those.
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Not the worst news release I've ever seen but pretty bad. A nothingburger.
Brandless, a company which can best be described as an online hybrid of Trader Joe’s and Ikea’s kitchen section, just raised a $35m Series B to be the “Procter & Gamble for millennials.”
Their site launched yesterday, and is already selling everything from colanders to quinoa puffs — all for a flat fee of $3 per item.
And they’re doing it all without a “brand”…or are they?
Fighting the “false narrative” of consumption Created in 2016 by entrepreneur Ido Leffler and Sherpa Capital partner, Tina Sharkey, Brandless has raised almost $50m thus far on the bet that younger consumers don’t care as much about brands as big CPG companies would like investors to believe....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
The "brandless" brand that's getting traction with millennials and other consumers.
Google announced today that it’s given ‘News’ a minimalist, clutter-free makeover, allowing readers to easily access the one thing they visit the section for: news.
The sparkly UI is clean and pared-back, designed for comfortable browsing and reading. Google has adopted a card layout format “that makes it easier to browse, scan and identify related articles about a story.” Articles are aligned in a ‘Story Cards’, which display overviews of the stories and expand to reveal articles of different perspectives.
Possibly the most essential feature of the entire redesign is the already existing ‘Fact Check’ feature, which has been moved to the right column, making it more convenient for you to investigate claims on a story.
I recently interviewed Cision global CEO Kevin Akeroyd. We rarely interview vendor CEOs, but Cision is an interesting case. Why? Very simple – Cision, or rather GTCR, the private equity fund backing it, has spent $2 billion dollars on buying PR/communications point solutions across data, content and measurement.
Yes that’s right, that’s not a typo, I did say two billion dollars. That’s massively more than anyone else has ever spent on PR/comms tools – ever. By a huge margin.
I’ve worked around the PR vendor market for about 10 years, I don’t pretend to be the world’s leading expert on it, but I get, I understand it.
And what I’ve never quite got my head around is why Cision spent quite so much money in this market; in the end presumably GTCR will want to make a profit on any exit. So I was looking forward to catching up with Kevin. It’s a long read but it’s an interesting perspective on:
-Why Cision has spent so much
- The role cloud technology has played in changing the advertising, paid content and marketing sectors
- The simple reason why PR budgets have not increased at the same rate as paid media budgets, despite the depreciating returns in the advertising sector
Jeff Domansky's insight:
PR Moment interviews Cision global CEO Kevin Akeroyd and find out why Cision, or rather GTCR, the private equity fund backing it, has spent $2 billion dollars on buying PR/communications point solutions across data, content and measurement.
In addition to giving you a weather update whenever you need it, The Weather Channel is known as an unapologetic defender of the idea, backed by basically the entire science community, that climate change is real, and a real threat to life on earth as we know it.
It is unsurprising then, that the front page of its digital site would address President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord, announced today. The way it did, it, however, is a work of art.
It starts in a straightforward enough manner, with a main story whose headline reads “Trump Pulls U.S. Out of Paris Climate Agreement; What That Means.” That may be the point when you notice that the group of stories below are all about climate change, and that the atypical headlines of seven of them collectively send an unequivocal message.
Put them all together, and this is what you get: “So, What Happens to Earth Now? Still Don’t Care? Proof You Should …and More Proof… …and Even More Proof… …Or the Imminent Collapse of a Key Ice Shelf… …or Antarctica Turning Green… …or California’s Coast Disappearing Into the Sea…”...
Jeff Domansky's insight:
“Still Don’t Care? Proof You Should” is The Weather Channel's response to Trump.
Professional writing isn’t easy. As a blogger, journalist or reporter, you have to meet several challenges to stay at the top of your trade. You have to stay up to date with the latest developments and at the same time write timely, compelling and unique content.
The same goes for scientists, researchers and analysts and other professionals whose job involves a lot of writing.
With the deluge of information being published on the web every day, things aren’t getting easier. You have to juggle speed, style, quality and content simultaneously if you want to succeed in reaching your audience.
Fortunately, Artificial Intelligence, which is fast permeating every aspect of human life, has a few tricks up its sleeve to boost the efforts of professional writers....
That A.I. will step into professional writing is a foregone conclusion. A lot of us use Grammarly, MS.Word autocorrect, and a few other apps. Grammarly uses A.I. Unfortunately, the autocorrect function appended to most word-processing software can be 'pesky' and over-zealous in their efforts to identify mistakes. I switch off any of these while working on a blog. Sometimes these autocorrection apps might even change the tone and even the meaning of a sentence. In the meantime, I would state quite equivocally that some of the Artificial Intelligence assisted Apps are getter better and better, wonder if I should hire the services of A.I. to run my blog!
Marketers Cruise Capt. Lou Edwards shares a collection of 101 cool tools and technology used and recommended by the biggest names in marketing.
The tools include the following categories: audio, video, communication, social media, management, automation, productivity, content marketing, scheduling, task management, books, and tips. A very useful reference.
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Lou Edwards has a great collection of 101 cool tools and technology recommended by top marketers.
It seems like every few months a new buzzword gets thrown around and this month’s buzzword is MAdTech. “Have you heard about MAdTech? It’s going to be game changing!!” Oh really? While I appreciate the excitement that the buzz creates, the excitement seems to revolve more around the hopes of change than around utilizing a viable solution and innovative technique to get results.
So, what exactly is MAdtech? Well, to put it concisely: it is the combination of Marketing technology and Advertising technology, hence “M+Ad = MAd”.1 Let’s examine what MAdtech means for the automotive industry, and how your dealership can smash the competition with this powerful capability....
On the PRCA logo appear the words ‘The Power of Communication’. That’s because of our strong belief in the power of our industry – it changes behaviour; it changes lives; it changes companies and Governments. And most of that power is used for good. But just occasionally, it is used instead for the wrong purposes.
Today, we expelled Bell Pottinger from the PRCA. We did so because of their unethical and racially divisive work on the Oakbay Capital account in South Africa. We did so because they had used the power of communication for a morally wrong purpose. .
Jeff Domansky's insight:
In our 48-year history, these are the harshest sanctions PRCA ever has handed down to a member. They reflect the severity of Bell Pottinger’s breaches of PRCE ethical frameworks. And they reflect how seriously PRCE takes those frameworks
Edelman has just worked with the Reuters Institute on the release of its new report on the state of the media industry around the world.
There are a few shocking findings, most notably the rise of niche politicized outlets, such as the left-wing Aristegui Noticias in Mexico and the far-right leaning Breitbart in the U.S.; the inclination of some consumers to opt out of news altogether; and the stunningly low trust in media in markets such as South Korea on the basis of excessive business and political influence. Here are the most important findings....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Lots of news insights and a few surprises in this Reuters report.
Behind the scenes, as law enforcement officials tried to stem protests against the Dakota Access pipeline, alumni from the George W. Bush White House were leading a crisis communications effort to discredit pipeline protesters. This revelation comes from documents obtained via an open records request from the Laramie County Sheriff’s Department in Wyoming.
Emails show that the firms Delve and Off the Record Strategies, apparently on contract with the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA), worked in secret on talking points, media outreach, and communications training for law enforcement dealing with Dakota Access opponents mobilized at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
As previously reported by DeSmog Blog, the GOP-connected firm DCI Group led the forward-facing public relations efforts for Dakota Access via a front group called Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now (MAIN). Today MAIN has morphed into a national effort known as Grow America’s Infrastructure Now (GAIN).
Delve is an opposition research firm run by Jeff Berkowitz, former Republican National Committee research director and official in the George W. Bush White House. His company led research efforts on behalf of the sheriffs’ association. Off the Record Strategies, meanwhile, guided the sheriffs’ behind-the-scenes communications strategy. Mark Pfeifle runs the secretive firm, and also served as communications advisor in the Bush administration, leading PR efforts for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Behind the scenes and who was pulling the levers in the Dakota Access pipeline protests..
If a 150-million-year-old Brachiosaurus could talk, what would it say?You can find out at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, where many of the exhibits will soon tell their own stories using local voices, thanks to an initiative from local museum advertising specialist Leo Burnett.
The agency wrote more than 100 short scripts, each a paragraph or two long, designed to capture the “voice” of various plants, animals and minerals in the museum’s permanent collection. The write-ups combine history and humor. For example, the Brachiosaurus bemoans its girth while also discussing the contributions of paleontologist Elmer Riggs.
Everyday Chicagoans are invited to record the first-person monologues in a special pop-up audio booth that is traveling around the city this summer. (It visited Chinatown this weekend.) Ultimately, the best voiceovers will be accessible via smartphone for Field visitors to enjoy on audio tours....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Storytelling on a historic scale for Chicago’s Field Museum.
This short video was produced to show how quick and easy it is to produce a video from an existing blog post using the free Lumen 5 video tool.
Lumen 5 is an AI-powered video creation platform that turns blog posts into engaging videos. Using the tool is easy, intuitive and surprisingly fast. After producing a few Lumen 5 videos, I expect you could create one in as little as 10 minutes from existing content like a blog post. You can see my original blog post here http://bit.ly/LaoTzu8 to compare it with the video produced so effortlessly.
The creative and marketing possibilities are very intriguing and so far Lumen 5 is free although it may offer more features for a price in the future. For now, it's an interesting tool to explore.
Businesses, bloggers, trainers, authors and really anyone can use it to produce social content to drive audience engagement online. Great thing is you can focus on your message, visuals and creativity without having to touch the technology.
You can get more info and demos for the app at www.lumen5.com.
Jeff Domansky's insight:
With Lumen 5, producing video content for social media is simple, easy, intuitive and fast. My demo was taken from an older blog post about writing for the internet. Lots of potential for this tool.
With Lumen 5, producing video content for social media is simple, easy intuitive and fast. My demo was taken from an older blog post about writing for the internet. Lots of potential for this tool.
Earlier this year, Hack PR had a problem. The unorthodox public relations firm had snapped up a new client, a deep-pocketed entrepreneur with political ambitions. Unfortunately, nobody really knew who he was, and the campaign it launched for him failed to convert into any real coverage save for a couple of pieces in the Huffington Post and The Washington Times. They needed another idea.
So, in their words, they hustled.There’s an old Internet joke that says politicians should wear the logos of their donors, much like Nascar drivers wear the logos of their sponsors. Taking inspiration from that, Hack PR pitched the idea to its client that it try and make it law through a California ballot initiative.
But unfortunately, this didn’t pan out either. It wasn’t for lack of trying. The firm took the provocative step of printing a full-sized cutout of everyone in the California Legislature, adorned with the logos of Chevron and AT&T, and other prolific donors. These were left at the steps of the Sacramento State Capital building for all to see. But as before, nada.
Then....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
More and more PR firms and PACs see Reddit as a place to get results. Here's one example.
Fresco is a lot like Uber. But unlike similar apps where you request a car, takeout, or a even a dog walker, Fresco puts a call out for a photojournalist. A newsroom posts a request for video of, say, a crime scene, and a Fresco user in the area can accept, take a video of it, and upload it to Fresco. If the news outlet uses it, the Fresco user gets paid $50.
TV news stations across the country are using the app, but Fresco is particularly appealing to KTBY, a station in Anchorage, Alaska. Alaska is a big state, and many of KTBY’s viewers live in remote villages that are hours away by plane. It’s hard to cover those communities without spending a ton of money and time. In a Fresco promotional video, Scott Centers, COO of Coastal Television Broadcasting Company, which owns KTBY, marvels that Fresco offers an affordable alternative.
Amazon’s $13.7 billion proposed acquisition of Whole Foods rocked the grocery industry last week. We’ve got a wide range of Industry opinion, expert analysis and perspectives on the deal and what it means for the US grocery trade.
CNBC reported that shares of Whole Foods jumped 28% on news of the proposed Amazon acquisition. Cowen and Company reports 12% of US consumers bought groceries online in 2016. CNBC also called Amazon’s plan “a brilliant acquisition” and “a slam dunk.”
The acquisition news had a big impact on retail and grocery stocks, causing a huge drop in share value of tens of billions of dollars. Kroger shares dropped 11% and Walmart was down 5% while Costco and Target each slipped 6%....
The Body Shop’s content strives to inform current customers about its history and raise awareness for the work they do. The majority of its global content marketing focuses on its corporate social responsibility programs and social good messaging.
Social media is key for the company, and YouTube is as an especially strong channel. One ongoing video series is tutorials for upcycling Body Shop packaging into creative, new items.
Another series details from where The Body Shop sources ingredients and packaging, like paper from the Himalayan Bansbari community, and tea tree oil from the foothills of Mount Kenya....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
The Body Shop’s content marketing focuses on its corporate social responsibility programs and social good messaging for causes like ending animal testing.
Traditional advertising went after “share of mind”–the idea was to get you to associate a brand with a single idea, a single emotion. Volvo: safety. Jaguar: speed. Coke: happiness. The Economist: success. Bang, bang, bang, went the ads, hammering the same idea into your mind every time you saw one.
Advertising briefs evolved to focus the creatives on a single USP and a single message. Tell them we’re the Ultimate Driving Machine. Tell them in a thrilling way. It worked when you saw ads infrequently on television, in a Sunday magazine, or on a billboard on your morning commute.
It hasn’t worked online. Audiences have stopped engaging with advertising. Big brands like Pepsi and P&G have slashed investment in Facebook spending. The agencies’ response has been to create new formats of ads that take over a page, dominate our mobiles’ screens, and generally scream at us. And when somebody screams at you for long enough, you put in earplugs and ignore them. Or, in the case of the online world, you install an ad blocker, as much of the U.K. population has now done.
Yet there are many brands online that people don’t want to block. We asked over 5,000 people around the world to tell us about the brands whose content they actively sought out, then analyzed what those brands did. The results were surprisingly consistent. Popular brands had multifaceted personalities. They could make you laugh, or cheer, or lean forward and take notes. They’d stopped hammering away at a share of mind, and were expanding to achieve a share of emotion....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Fast Company asked more than 5,000 people to tell us about the brands they sought out, then we analyzed what those brands did. The results were surprisingly consistent. A must-read for PR, marketing, advertising pros. 10/10
A recent press release from the Acme Hotel Co. in River North, Chicago, included these phrases: Snapchat Spectacles, Amazon Echo, ESP Guitar, DIY cocktail.
Yes, it may be time to provide a translating service for hoteliers trying to keep up with speeding changes related to technology and demographics. This hotel, whose website says it’s targeted at the “tragically hip,” offers Snapchat Spectacles at the front desk on a first-come, first-served basis. The glasses have a button on them which, when pressed, will create a 10-second video “snap” that is wirelessly uploaded to the memories page of a personal Snapchat, readied to be posted for friends and family to see.
Of course, the in-room Amazon Echo — one of those personal digital “assistants” now rampant among the tech savvy — can help guests decide where to go in town to get the best videos. The DIY (do-it-yourself) cocktails can be created with an in-room kit that costs $18, makes two drinks “and the shaker is yours.”...
Apparently fake news is a thing in France, too. And apparently it was rampant during the run up to the just concluded presidential election. Emmanuel Macron won by a large margin but it seems there was a lot semi-truths being thrown about.
To help combat the spate of fake news surrounding the election, J. Walter Thompson Paris worked with French news organization Liberation to create CheckNews.fr , a search engine staffed by actual human journalists for three days leading up to the election. These journalists answered any search query made with links to multiple sources providing truthful answers to each query....
To get content containing either thought or leadership enter:
To get content containing both thought and leadership enter:
To get content containing the expression thought leadership enter:
You can enter several keywords and you can refine them whenever you want. Our suggestion engine uses more signals but entering a few keywords here will rapidly give you great content to curate.
Your new post is loading...
Here's a profile of Van Winkle's "news" and some interesting insight into content marketing and journalism. More recommended reading. 9/10