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Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.

From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.

Living in Damage Control Mode: A Look at Planned Parenthood’s PR Strategy in the Age of Political Polarity

Every morning before leaving the house, Betty Cockrum makes sure she is camera-ready. For the average CEO this is an unnecessary precaution, but as the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, last-minute media appearances are a frequent occurrence. Cockrum has been interviewed for HBO, Vice, Rolling Stone, the Daily Show, and countless other news outlets to defend Planned Parenthood’s mission as the organization finds itself at the center of a divisive political issue that is threatening its federal funding.

Cockrum recently took time out of her busy schedule to discuss her approach to PR with the Puget Sound chapter of PRSA. She shared what it’s like to constantly play defense as Congress members and grassroots groups alike publicly oppose Planned Parenthood and how she leverages the constant stream of incoming media requests to clarify misconceptions and shift the conversation back to the organization’s core mission.

A Defensive Approach

Cockrum and her team do not have much time to think about offensive PR strategies. Instead, they leverage the steady stream of incoming media requests to ensure Planned Parenthood’s messaging is part of the media conversation around women’s reproductive health.

This also allows Cockrum to educate the public on Planned Parenthood’s core mission: providing reproductive healthcare to women. Planned Parenthood has become associated with the pro-choice/pro-life debate, and as a result many people have lost sight of the fact that its services extend far beyond providing abortions. In reality, abortions only comprise about 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services and no federal funding is spent on abortion services. Continuing to educate the public about the broad range of healthcare services Planned Parenthood provides to 2.5 million women – from cancer screenings, to contraception, to general healthcare services like flu vaccines – is now more critical than ever as Planned Parenthood faces losing its federal funding.

With Planned Parenthood’s government funding at risk, private donations are incredibly important. Positive media interviews can lead to a bump in donations. When Cockrum appeared on the The Rachel Maddow Show, she says Planned Parenthood received close to $30,000 in donations the day after the show aired. Planned Parenthood has also seen an uptick in donations since the election: the organization has received more than 400,000 donations from across the country.

Fighting Political Jargon with Logical Facts

In today’s age of alternative facts, an unprecedented amount of misleading information is being spread by politicians, grassroots organizations and media. The “war of words,” as Cockrum calls it, is especially fierce around women’s reproductive health. Cockrum’s strategy is to fight political jargon with logical facts. For example, when politicians and reporters use the term “chemical abortion,” Cockrum corrects them, explaining that the medically correct term is “medical abortion.”

However, once something is in print Cockrum rarely asks for a correction because she feels this draws more attention to the mistake. Instead, she works to educate reporters so they understand why political jargon is misleading and the importance of using neutral, medically accurate language.

Dealing with Crisis

As the spokesperson for an organization that is at the center of a deeply divisive political issue, Cockrum has extensive experience with crisis communications. In fact, she says for the past six months she has been living in damage-control mode. Her advice for others dealing with crisis communications is to address the issue as early as possible, and if your organization has made a mistake, always give the appropriate audience a sincere apology. Once the crisis starts to calm down, take a critical look at what went wrong and how you’ll do things differently moving forward to prevent it from happening again.

Cockrum has been leading Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky for 15 years, and she plans to retire in June. During her tenure, she has grown a thick skin against criticism. In an interview with the Indy Star she said, “With every passing encounter that’s unpleasant, you get a little more stoic about it, you grow a little more skin. But when it’s all said and done, you come back to truth. And truth is, we do good stuff, and we make a real difference in real people’s lives every single day.”

If you’d like to support Planned Parenthood, you can make a donation here.

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Bellevue-based St. Thomas School Redefines 21st Century Learning

Last spring Communique PR kicked off its engagement with St. Thomas School (STS), a private, non-sectarian school for preschool through 8th-grade students. Tucked away on the eastside of Seattle in Medina, Wash., STS is ahead of the curve as one of five schools in the U.S. selected to be a Microsoft Showcase School, a global community of schools that work closely with Microsoft to lead digital innovation in education to improve learning outcomes.

Tasked with aiding in the content development for the STS Blog, we’ve had a lot of fun learning about the school’s extensive curriculum and sharing how the school supports the academic, professional and personal growth of its students. As well, we’ve had the opportunity to get to know a few of the school’s great faculty members while conducting interviews in order to write posts and brainstorm new topics.

Learning about STS through the lens of its faculty members has been an exciting experience. We’ve been given a behind-the-scenes look at school life and have been blown away by the teachers’ and the administration’s passion for its students, their development and success. It’s been educational and enjoyable to share STS’ joy of learning with the community through topics such as the importance of STEM subjects in early education, how parents can support personalized learning at home, the role of Edgework in schooling, the importance of providing teachers with new educational programs and more.

In addition to writing for the blog, we have also secured contributed article placements in a couple of Seattle’s local parenting blogs, a national ed-tech publication, as well as secured editorial coverage in a local newspaper. Below is a growing list of the content we have developed on behalf of STS and its faculty:

STS Blog Posts:

Editorial Coverage & Contributed Articles:

As we come upon the one-year anniversary of our relationship with STS, we look forward to continuing to share its passion for learning with the community.

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In 2016, Content Was King: Supporting Dell EMC With Blogs and Bylines

The role of a PR practitioner has changed significantly over the past several years, especially as the media industry continues to evolve, social media becomes more influential, and editorial teams continue to shrink.

While earned media placements and good old-fashioned story pitching remain foundational activities for PR agencies, many organizations are relying on their PR partners to serve as content development hubs for blog posts, contributed articles, marketing collateral and other materials.

Communiqué PR has worked with Dell EMC for the past year and a half and increasingly our focus has been on developing content for the company’s blogs (EMC Emerging Tech and EMC Pulse) that can also be repurposed for contributed articles, speaker proposals and award submissions.

In 2016, we worked with Dell EMC’s CTOs and other subject matter experts from the company’s vertical teams encompassing media and entertainment, life sciences, healthcare, analytics, EDA and video surveillance to develop 19 blog posts. Topics ranged from customer case studies, takeaways and highlights from industry trade shows, and perspective on industry trends and market drivers. Some blog posts that we developed with Dell EMC last year include the following:

Communiqué also secured and developed 10 contributed articles in key trade publications for Dell EMC. With smaller editorial teams and limited resources to conduct briefings and write in-depth feature articles, many publications are turning to byline articles from industry thought leaders (provided they are vendor neutral and not sales pitches). In 2016, we secured the following bylines for Dell EMC’s executives:

Are your PR teams helping to support your content development and owned-media programs? We’d love to hear what’s working and what some of your lessons learned might be – let us know!

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Connecting with Generation Z

In the next several years, millions of people born in 1998 or later will reach adulthood. Commonly known as Generation Z, this cohort of nearly 70 million young Americans will comprise slightly more than 20 percent of the U.S. population.

Like the generations before them, members of Gen Z have had unique life experiences that have shaped their perceptions, values and concerns. Perhaps one of the biggest influences on this generation is the proliferation of social media.

Gen Z is widely considered to be the first generation to grow up in a world where social media use is the norm, whereas millennials are considered to be the first generation to grow up with computers in their homes. While millennials are regarded as more digitally savvy than Generation X and Baby Boomers, when they grew up social media was still relatively new.

Now, as Gen Z is on the cusp of having increased spending power, many brands are working hard to figure out how they can capture their attention and connect with them emotionally. To do this, marketers need to understand them and their behavior. They also must know how Gen Z is engaging online and who is influencing them.

Fortunately, researchers have been busy. They’ve found the influencers of Gen Z often are self-made celebrities, many of whom they’ve likely discovered on YouTube or Instagram. More traditional music and entertainment celebrities are still influencers, but because of Gen Z’s entrepreneurial bent and the hours they spend online, they have a wider group of stars and rising stars to follow.

Another study by Goldman Sachs found that, among other things, Gen Z is much more cautious on social media when compared to millennials. Today’s teens are all too aware of the importance of managing their online reputations and deep digital footprints. They often spend hours creating and curating content that enhances their image. If an online image or post fails to garner the right reaction from their friends, these teens are quick to remove it.

Sean Martin, growth marketing manager with Directive Consulting, explained that members of Gen Z share significant information about themselves via social media platforms, but they also are concerned about privacy and dislike having brands scrape their social profiles for personal data.

“They find it jarring to receive direct messages or emails from brands with whom they have not engaged,” said Martin. “Brands need to motivate younger people to proactively engage with them. To do this, marketers should continue to consider creating fun, snappy content.”

A quick Internet search will turn up many examples of brands that have done this well. For instance, brands like Taco Bell, Gatorade and Starbucks have created Snapchat Geofilters, overlays that communicate the “where and when” of a Snap message, that have been massively successful. According to an article published by DigiDay, Gatorade’s Super Bowl 2016 Snapchat filter received 160 million impressions. With numbers like this, it is no wonder that brands are investing in these types of campaigns.

“This is a generation who is discerning about advertising,” added Martin. “Gen Z picks up on inauthentic attempts from a mile away and shuts them down, but Geofilters are a subtle, sneaky and effective way of advertising to them.”

According Angela Fernandez, a vice president with Ketchum, Gen Z’s attention span is about eight seconds, whereas millennials have a 12-second attention span. Snapchat capitalizes on this and it may be one reason it’s so popular with this group.

However, others disagree with claims that teens like Snapchat because it feels more spontaneous and authentic than other forms of social media. They assert that teens feel comfortable sharing on Snapchat because they have more control over how long photos or videos are visible to recipients.

Regardless of Gen Z’s motivations, Snapchat is incredibly popular and marketers are looking for ways to have continuous engagement with them on the platform. In the coming years, it will be interesting to see how this generation’s behavior online will evolve with technological advancements and how marketers will respond with the development of more sophisticated campaigns.

For further reading about Generation Z, please check out these articles.

Goldman Sachs is Over Millennials

Generation Z is Changing the Face of Marketing

New Kids on the Block

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The Ultimate Cheatsheet for Critical Thinking

As my colleague Beth covered in a previous blog, the ability to think critically is essential to PR and communications professionals. Everyday clients rely on us to evaluate their news to determine its value, anticipate potential outcomes and analyze industry trends.

Because the concept of critical thinking is universally accepted as an important skill for every individual to possess, there are a countless number of articles, books and curriculums dedicated to the topic. Recently, I came across the Global Digital Citizen Foundation’s “The Ultimate Cheatsheet for Critical Thinking” that contains several helpful questions to stimulate the cognitive process. Divided into six categories (Who, What, Where, When, Why and How), the 48 questions have multiple use-case scenarios. While the checklist may not have been created specifically with the public relations industry in mind, it is still an effective resource to consult before writing your client’s next pitch or announcement.

For example, even the most seasoned PR professionals can recall a time when they pitched a story and received less than enthusiastic responses from journalists. (Except for me – reporters always respond to my emails within the hour and either cover the news or provide constructive feedback. I’m kidding, of course.) Undoubtedly a significant amount of time and thought went into crafting the pitch, and it’s easy to feel discouraged when the results fail to align with the effort. In this situation, asking the following questions may prompt you to target different outlets or uncover a new angle to follow up with media:

  • What would be a counter-argument?
  • Who will be the key people in this?
  • Where are there similar concepts/situations?
  • Why is there a need for this today?
  • How does this disrupt things?

Another common exercise we assist clients with is establishing their messaging framework. Within organizations, consensus can often vary on the positioning statement, key differentiators and target audiences. It can be difficult for the co-founder to receive feedback that, while his/her company description may be technically accurate, the jargon-laden paragraph fails to resonate with journalists. Questions from the checklist to keep in mind while developing messaging include:

  • Where do we see [our product] in the real world?
  • Where is there the most need for this?
  • How does this benefit us/others?
  • Why should people know about this?
  • How do we see this in the future?

Finally, while Communiqué PR’s clients range from startups to publicly traded companies, they all have one characteristic in common: Each has a compelling story to tell. When considering a PR engagement with a potential new client, it’s important to ask:

  • What are the strengths/weaknesses?
  • Why is it relevant to me/others?
  • Why is there a need for this today?
  • How is this similar to [the leading competitor in the space]?
  • Where are the areas for improvement?

Whether critical thinking is an area you want to improve or you view yourself as an expert critical thinker, I encourage periodically referencing the checklist. Its applications are limitless and can be particularly useful when developing communication plans, building media lists and corresponding with clients.

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Interroll Rolls Forward to ProMat 2017

In 2016, Communique PR began working with Swiss-based Interroll (https://www.interroll.us/) to help build awareness of its logistics solutions for the U.S. market.

With a strong track record and long history, the company is a leader in the global logistics industry. Interroll offers a broad product range in its four product groups: rollers, drives, conveyors/sorters, and pallet/carton flow. The company’s solutions are used by a broad cross-section of OEMs and system integrators in distribution centers for larger retailers/ecommerce companies, and in the food processing and automotive and tire industries, among others.

To help bring this industry to life, consider the  November 2016 GeekWire article with videos that show how Amazon uses solutions like Interroll’s in its distribution center: Inside look: How Amazon’s robots help pick, pack, and ship your holiday purchases. As displayed in the GeekWire video, advanced conveyor and sortation systems are an integral part of the fulfillment process. The growth of the conveyor systems market and the increasing demand for facility efficiency has made working with Interroll and in this sector both exciting and informative.

Given the breadth of uses of Interroll’s solutions, we have been able to successfully work with a wide variety of publications to tell the Interroll story. Below is a sampling of some of the editorial coverage and contributed articles we have helped secure for the company.

We recently announced Interroll’s welcoming of its 50th Partner to join their international customer program, “Rolling On Interroll,” and look forward to continued success with this dynamic company. Look for Interroll at ProMat 2017 in Chicago in April!

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