(Jim Crane owner of Houston Astros, photo credit Forbes) The Houston Astros held a “rules breaking” press conference last week to discuss the allegations of sign stealing. Not only did the Astros break the rules of baseball they also broke many tenets of proper public relations practice. To recap, the…

Academy Award winning films share a common thread. It is their ability to connect with the audience in a way that creates a positive emotive response and, at the same, differentiates their performance from those of other films. A business owner should share the same goal. That is to elevate…

Awards season is upon us. Hollywood’s finest have already adorned the red carpet for the Golden Globes, SAG awards and Grammys. The Academy Awards will soon be center stage. Business owners should also consider the start of 2020 as their awards season. This is an excellent time to plan on…

Your website is your calling card to the world. In many cases it is the first point of contact between you, your firm and potential customers. A properly designed and well-written website can go a long way to enhancing any type of perception you wish to create with your targeted…

Have you been the subject of some negative media coverage? As your company grows (adding employees, launching new products and expanding to new markets) so do the possibilities for some critical press coverage. Here are several action steps to take to handle those situations… 1. Be prepared. Sounds simple but…

Nabisco opened the cages and the media began to play. In a move that garnered national media attention, Nabisco decided to change its Barnum’s Animal Cracker packaging. Several PR lessons can be learned from Nabisco’s strategy. Some background…The cookie company adjusted its graphics to eliminate the current look of the…

So your company was just featured in a newspaper article. Perhaps you were interviewed for a segment on the 10pm News or supplied comments for an industry blog. Bottom line is you just got some great press. The question now becomes how to get the biggest PR bang for the buck,…

What is your job? That question came up at a talk we did recently with a PR class at a local university. For public relations practitioners today, and for many marketing professionals, the answer seems to be simple… Our job is to facilitate change. Depending on the scope of the…

Looking for big publicity placements for your business? Start by thinking small. Many brand new companies, and a few recently minted fast-growing ones, make the mistake of attempting to land a big article in a major national publication, or national TV news network. The thought is that the national publicity…