Brian Lee, Author at Public Relations, Advertising & Social Media - Revelation

Best PR Practices for New Developments

Posted on February 16, 2018February 9, 2021 by Brian Lee

multi-family-home-rendering

INTRODUCTION

Proposed developments–including residential, commercial, mixed-use, stadiums and arenas–are monumental public relations projects. That’s because they require:

Working with many stakeholders such as residents, neighborhood associations, coalitions, businesses, elected officials and regulators;
Conducting public outreach through open houses, town hall meetings and small group meetings;
Changing public opinion through editorials, letters-to-the-editor, testimonials; and
Fighting misinformation using media relations, your website and social media.

Using our unique #HeartOverHead approach, here are best practices to help you get your development approved. Continue reading “Best PR Practices for New Developments” →

Super Bowl ads 2018: staff opinions

Posted on February 5, 2018January 30, 2020 by Brian Lee

BRIAN:

I really liked the Tide commercials for spoofing other commercials, including other Procter & Gamble products such as Old Spice. In fact, I’ll admit to being tricked. For example, when I saw a Clydesdale at the beginning of a commercial, I thought it was going to be a Budweiser commercial, but it was actually Tide. This goes to show that commercials for various sets of products (e.g. cars, prescription meds) follow a fairly uniform playbook. Because of the negative publicity surrounding Tide Pods, these commercials also did a good job of generating positive feelings toward Tide.

Big thumbs down to T-Mobile (equality) and Dodge Ram (Martin Luther King Jr.) for misappropriating political/social themes into their commercials. Was there no one at these companies (or at their agencies) who thought these commercials would be a bad idea? Continue reading “Super Bowl ads 2018: staff opinions” →

C-Suite Still Undervalues PR

Posted on February 1, 2018 by Brian Lee

conference room If executives in the C-Suite, which often is missing a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Chief Communications Officer (CC), actually valued PR, companies would:

Spend more resources on reputation management. A Deloitte study showed that when your reputation is damaged, there is a corresponding loss of revenue, brand value, customers and/or stock price,
Seek the counsel of their communications staff before making any major decision to learn of potential reactions and consequences, and
Have a crisis communications plan that’s updated at least yearly.

Instead, you see companies continue to make boneheaded mistakes that make you wonder, what in the world were they thinking?

A recent article titled “Lesson Plan: Business Leaders Still Don’t Understand Strategic Communication” sheds some light. Research conducted by the authors showed that despite the recent introduction of strategic communication coursework to the MBA programs at various universities, the students:

Often do not see the strategic dimensions of communication,
Often don’t see a clear connection between communication activities and business results, and
Have little understanding of the importance of related strategic communication issues, such as corporate social responsibility and internal communications.

For PR practitioners, this means we’re still fighting for a seat at the table, and we may continue to do so for another generation.