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Insights for Leaders Navigating
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.

Building and Maintaining Momentum as Spaceflight Prepares to Execute an Industry First

Our client Spaceflight Inc. is no stranger to executing industry firsts. In December 2018, the company launched the largest number of satellites from a U.S.-based launch vehicle, and in Feb. 2019, the company launched the first privately funded lunar lander on the first-ever rideshare mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO).

In June of 2021, Spaceflight executed another industry first by launching the first-ever electric propulsion orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-2 mission. Spaceflight’s SXRS-5 mission was also the first time the company had launched two Sherpa vehicles, Sherpa-FX2 and Sherpa-LTE1, from a single mission. This important milestone not only demonstrated the company’s leadership in the industry, but its commitment to innovation and creating tools and services that enable their customers to get their satellites to the orbit they need on their timeline.

We worked closely with Spaceflight’s marketing team to craft a plan that would create excitement about the launch in the weeks leading up to takeoff.

First, we considered the compelling elements of this story. Then we strategized three key outreach campaigns as well as when to share them publicly and how to offer them to journalists in a strategic way.

We started our campaign by introducing the details of Spaceflight’s SXRS-5 mission in a press release. This included information about the number of payloads onboard, the customers flying, what Sherpa vehicles would carry satellites and which had propulsion units.

Next, we knew the hardware Spaceflight had constructed, its two Sherpa vehicles, would offer a unique visual story. We worked closely with the team to offer behind-the-scenes tours of Spaceflight’s integration facilities so journalists could get a close-up look at the hardware, technology and integration process.

Finally, we wanted to highlight Spaceflight’s engineering prowess and the unique, modular design of its Sherpa vehicles. To do this, we crafted a press release that broke down the Sherpa vehicles from a technical standpoint and described their versatility, the subsystems used to construct customized vehicles and the benefits that provides to customers.

Once we had these three key elements in place, we worked with the marketing team to brainstorm other ideas and mediums to build buzz and share interesting information about the mission. This included targeted outreach to industry podcasts, sharing customer missions through blogs posted on Spaceflight’s website and shared on social media, and finally a series of videos in which the mission and Sherpa vehicles were described in “bite-size” pieces for our audiences.

The series of campaigns have been a strong success, leading to eight media briefings, six customer stories and the list of coverage below.

We continue to be impressed by the Spaceflight team’s ability to develop and execute ground-breaking missions. Congratulations!

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Making the Most of Hybrid Meetings

The disruptions of the pandemic have left a lasting mark on corporate culture around the world, particularly in terms of where work occurs. A recent report from Accenture PLC found that 83 percent of workers viewed a hybrid work model to be optimal, and companies, from Microsoft to Ford Motor Company, have indicated they plan to accommodate this preference moving forward.

With this shift, the way workers collaborate will also need to change. According to a survey conducted by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), three out of five corporate meeting organizers responded that they expect to hold at least one hybrid meeting in 2021. The survey also showed that, while 71 percent of respondents said meetings with a combination of remote and in-person attendees were not part of their previous programming, 65 percent are now interested in holding hybrid meetings.

As this new form of collaboration gains traction, it is in our best interest to establish norms around hybrid meetings and find ways to elevate the experience. To guarantee that hybrid meetings are efficient and effective, it is important to keep three things in mind: inclusion, facilitation, and follow-up.

 

Inclusion is key

By definition, a meeting brings people together to achieve a shared objective. For that to be accomplished, each participant, regardless of physical location, must be able to participate and engage with other attendees. The most consequential effort organizers can take in planning a hybrid meeting is to focus on inclusivity. The goal is to have every participant feel engaged and productive, no matter their location.

To involve all, it is critical that participants can hear what’s being said. After a year of engaging entirely over videoconference, attendees will have a baseline expectation of high-quality audio. No remote participant should ever need to ask for a comment to be repeated. A conference room outfitted with a quality audio system is an ideal location for this sort of meeting. However, the same effect can be accomplished using strategically placed microphones or by passing a microphone among participants.

It is also important to ensure that all participants have equal visibility. While it may seem like a simple solution to have each participant, those physically in the room and those joining virtually, log into a video conference platform with their own laptop, that defeats the purpose of meeting in person. The goal is to give every attendee a clear view of the faces of the other participants, regardless of location.

A simple but effective way to accomplish this is to connect several laptops equipped with webcams to a conferencing platform. One laptop can be set on each side of the meeting table with the camera capturing the attendees on the opposite side. The remaining laptops can be arranged to share the meeting visuals, such as presentation slides or a wall of post-it notes, with off-site participants. Such a set-up gives each visual component of the meeting space its own position on the remote participants’ screens. Similarly, to keep remote participants top of mind, it may be helpful to display individual remote attendees on monitors positioned prominently in the room.

Providing virtual participants an accurate and complete view of the meeting space also translates into comprehensive meeting recordings which, a recent study by Panopto and Wainhouse Research found, 86% of daily video conferencing users value.

Videoconferencing technology is rapidly evolving to bridge the distance between remote and in-person meeting attendees. Providers like Microsoft and Zoom have announced that they are leveraging innovations like facial detection and optimized gallery views to better simulate a meeting room.

 

Intentional facilitation

The next step is to bring all these pieces together into a cohesive, collaborative experience. This is where facilitation comes in, and care should be taken to test the technology and rehearse the flow of the meeting. By involving participants in this step, meeting organizers can let attendees know what to expect and give them time to prepare.

It is also useful to assign an onsite meeting facilitator to ensure that remote participants are not forgotten and that subtleties present in the room are translated to those not co-located. The facilitator should draw the remote participants into the conversation and make sure their voices are heard. One creative way, suggested in this Harvard Business Review article, is to connect each person joining remotely with an in-person attendee or “avatar.” These participants are linked by a direct line of communication so that the remote attendee can get assistance without the discomfort of interrupting the group. This could be anything from clearing a blocked camera angle, or discretely asking a quiet participant to speak more clearly, to placing a post-it note in a brainstorming exercise.

 

Thoughtful feedback

As with any new initiative, feedback is a crucial step to ensuring that hybrid meetings are productive moving forward. By soliciting feedback in a thoughtfully designed survey, organizers can fine tune their process and improve the experience of remote and in-person participants in the future.

At its core, making the most of hybrid meetings requires creativity from organizers and participants. It’s clear that this new form of collaboration is here to stay, and we can ensure effective hybrid interaction by creating an environment where every participant, regardless of location, is on equal footing.

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Is It Credible? Exploring What Factors Americans Trust in News Stories

It’s a simple question that, when asked, can bring a flood of responses: What makes a news story trustworthy?

A host of factors, which can vary among differing groups.

The Pew Research Center recently conducted a survey to examine those factors that Americans see as important when deciding whether they trust a news story. The findings may not come as a shock, as many Americans have their own biases regarding where they go for news. But the results provide insight into what different folks value when determining a story’s credibility.

The survey found that the bulk of U.S. adults believe that, when deciding if a news story is trustworthy, it is “at least somewhat important” to consider each of the five surveyed factors, with the news outlet that publishes the story leading the way:

  • The news organization that publishes the story (88%)
  • The sources cited in it (86%)
  • Their gut instinct about the story (77%)
  • The person who shared the story with them (68%)
  • The specific journalist who reported it (66%)
  • It has a lot of shares/comments/likes on social media (24%)

However, when taking it a step further in importance, the survey found that fewer U.S. adults view these factors as “very important” in news trustworthiness:  

  • The news organization that publishes the story (50%)
  • The sources cited in it (47%)
  • Their gut instinct about the story (30%)
  • The person who shared the story with them (24%)
  • The specific journalist who reported it (23%)
  • It has a lot of shares/comments/likes on social media (6%)

Political affiliation also influences how Americans determine news story credibility, with slight differences across party lines:

“Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents were slightly more likely than Republicans and GOP leaners to say it’s very important to consider the news organization that publishes a story (55% vs. 47%) and the sources that are cited in it (51% vs. 44%). Republicans, in turn, are more likely than Democrats to see their own gut instinct as very important (35% vs. 26%), though this is a minority view in both parties.”

Pew Research conducted the survey among 12,045 U.S. adults from March 8-14, 2021. It served as one of the latest reports on how media is viewed among Americans, which in recent years, has included more distrust and skepticism.

Last year, Gallup’s annual Governance poll found that many Americans remain distrustful of mass media, with six in 10 respondents saying they have “not very much” trust (27%) or “none at all” (33%) in mass media. Gallup has conducted its poll on trust in mass media since 1972. Overall, public trust remained at or exceeded the majority level until 2004, when it fell to 44%. After hitting 50% the next year, it has not risen above 47%. The sharpest decline since the poll’s inception came in 2016, when the trust level fell to 32%.

These poll and survey findings raise good questions about how we view news, what we value and trust in news reporting, and where our biases may lie. Sometimes, to really get to the heart of the matter, it may be best to turn the question on ourselves: What do you think makes a news story trustworthy?

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Intentional Query Design: Second of a Three-Part Series

A well-written question will mean the same thing to all respondents.

Jennifer Leigh Brown

When creating a survey, if you’re hoping to receive accurate and insightful answers, the phrasing and functionality of your survey queries can determine the success of your results. Questions that are poorly worded, biased, confusing or don’t allow respondents to accurately reflect on their experiences can result in erroneous data. Answering these queries is a waste of time for respondents and, worse, their responses can be misconstrued in a surveyor’s findings.

In my last blog, Thoughtful Survey Design, I detailed how to identify your survey purpose, determine your target population and determine questions that will help determine demographics. For this post, we’re diving into the meat of surveys and the importance of crafting thoughtful, well-phrased and unbiased questions. First, I’ll define some crucial terms around survey development:

  • Respondent – an individual of the target population.
  • Bias – a factor that affects the representative capacity of a question, including how clearly and easily respondents can respond to a question.
  • Satisficing – a tendency for respondents to put in the least amount of effort they can when answering a survey.
  • Skip logic – when some survey questions are conditional and only appear if relevant. Use this feature to filter your respondents and the questions they face based on their responses.
  • Qualitative data – Labels, names and descriptive information. Occurrences can be counted and you can determine proportions and percentages.
    • Nominal data are categories, names, or labels that don’t have an innate order. This can include data like country, brand name or mode of transportation.
    • Ordinal data is nominal information that contains a sense of ranking or order. This can include data like year in college or a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
  • Quantitative data – Indicates how many or how much of something on a numerical scale. Further statistics can be calculated with this data.
    • Interval data is recorded with standard units of measurement with equal intervals. This can include temperature, SAT scores or your credit score.
    • Ratio data is interval data but with a meaningful zero point that represents the absence of that characteristic. This includes weight, time, distance and count.

 

Question Types

Before crafting your questions, it’s important to know what type of results you want. If you want proportion and frequency statistics, text responses, and relative comparisons, you’ll likely have to ask different questions than if you want statistics like averages, standard deviations and probability distributions. To help clarify, below are some key question modalities and the output they’ll give you.

  1. Multiple Choice. Multiple choice questions are a flexible and relatively easy-to-use question style for both surveyors and respondents. This format can allow for just one response (forced-choice) or for the respondent to select all the options that apply to them, but Pew Research suggests that forced-choice questions yield more accurate data. The data these questions yield is easy to parse; typically results are a count of the number of responses to each option, or, in the case of the multiple-answer option, a matrix of each respondent and their choices. Depending on the options the question offers, this question type can result in qualitative or quantitative data.
    1. Binary/Dichotomous. These questions offer just two choices, such as yes/no. These questions don’t provide a neutral option or allow the respondent to express nuance, but can be useful for skip logic that allows respondents to go into detail with further questions based on their choice. These questions can provide ratio data if the binary choices are translated to 1s and 0s.
    2. Rating. Questions that ask you to rate something, like from one to five stars, are typically easy to understand and translate across language barriers. These scales seem to make opinions and experiences quantifiable, but the data you receive is actually ordinal because the intervals aren’t standard.
    3. Likert Scales. These are a type of rating question, typically ranging from a 1 for “strongly agree” to a 5 for “strongly disagree.” Similarly, semantic differential questions ask you to complete a sentence with one of the options provided. Like Rating questions, Likert and semantic differential questions result in ordinal data.
  2. Rank Order. Ranking questions require respondents to order the options provided based on a perceived quality. The respondent is required to make choices between two or more things which can offer further insight into the respondents’ opinions. These questions can be frustrating and time-consuming, so make sure to limit the number of items and use these questions thoughtfully. As the options themselves have no order, the data collected is nominal.
  3. Text Boxes. Text boxes can vary in size and character limit but accept free responses from participants. Typically, this data is nominal, but some survey tools allow you to specify that you only want to receive numerals. This can be useful for gathering phone numbers, zip codes, ages and more.
  4. Submission. Requesting that your respondent upload a file or submit a picture can be a useful way to receive more information from respondents but can be confusing or invasive. Be clear on the submission you expect, acceptable file types, how to upload, and file size requirements.

 

Writing Queries

With your main survey focus in mind, start coming up with key takeaways to glean from the survey. You’ll use these core topics to develop survey questions. For example, your main focus could be to determine the best ice cream flavors to offer in Seattle. Some core topics might include determining respondent’s favorite flavors, exploring the boundary between interesting and off-putting flavor combinations, or ascertaining appropriate price ranges.

Based on your core topics, pair what kind of data will be able to address the topics. If you want to know a price that people would pay for a unique ice cream flavor, you’ll need to use a question style that offers quantitative data, likely a slider. If you want to get ideas for ice cream toppings, a text box will allow the respondent to respond freely.

From there, start drafting the queries. Use creativity and the 5 Ws (and H) of journalism to navigate and delve into your core topics. Once you’ve developed your first draft of your survey queries, double-check that you follow these best practices:

  • Keep vocabulary simple and check your grammar. Avoid jargon, use fewer words when possible, stick to active voice and consider using an informal, conversational tone to make your survey more inviting. Make sure to avoid double negatives and unclear references.
  • Be specific. Clarify any specificities around time frame, location, scope or experience.
  • Ask one thing at a time. Asking multiple things within the same question can confuse respondents. If additional instructions, examples or context is needed, try to keep these in a separate sentence.
  • Avoid leading/loaded questions. These questions make assumptions about the respondent or their experience that are hard for them to deny. For example, asking, “Why is ice cream your favorite dessert?” assumes that ice cream is their favorite dessert. In addition, acquiescence bias is the tendency for people to agree to a statement, regardless of the content. Rephrasing the question can mitigate this bias in many cases.
  • Offer comprehensive options. Research your population to determine the best options to include. If there are many more options available, consider using “of the following” to allow your respondent to answer in good faith. If your options are not comprehensive, you can also use an “other” option with a text box to capture their response – this doesn’t seem to affect the reliability or validity of the data.
  • Use extreme judgments like “never” and “always” carefully. For most subjects, there are exceptions and gray areas; using a scale with options between always and never tends to capture data better.
  • Vary your question types. Respondents can get irritated or lazy when they are asked the same type of question repeatedly, which can lead to satisficing. Varying question types and difficulty can make your survey more interesting to complete.

 

Survey Assembly

Once you’ve drafted your queries and made sure they’re well-phrased, unbiased, comprehensive and will help you address your core topics, it’s time to arrange them into an order that will make sense and encourage the respondents to answer all queries. If you need help eliminating unnecessary questions, consider learning about how you can choose your best idea.

As I explained in my last blog, start your survey with screening questions to confirm all participants are part of the intended population and, if they are not, use skip logic to cut their survey short.

The question order is mainly subjective, but here are some guidelines that can improve your results. Research from Ohio State University’s Jon Krosnick suggests that interspersing easy questions between hard or time-consuming questions will make the survey seem more interesting and easier to complete.

Grouping questions into themes will help one question give context to another. Progress bars and similar indicators can boost the completion rate. Funneling, starting with broad, easy questions, progressing to specific and time-consuming questions, and then finishing with quicker and optional questions, gives the respondent time to “warm up” and makes the survey seem quicker with a slide to the finish line.

To this end, consider placing optional demographic questions at the end of the survey.

After writing the introduction to your survey and uploading your questions onto your survey platform of choice, test your survey on yourself and others. This is a chance to check your timing, verify the usability of your survey tool, add context and instructions as needed and judge if you need to account for further edge cases within your close-ended questions. Finally, this testing will give you some scrap data from the program to check that the output will be usable when you go to analyze your results.

The final step is to publish it! Share your survey with the goal of exceeding your minimum sample size within your target population. Check out my last blog for more information about sampling.

I will go into more depth about how to analyze your results in my July 2021 blog – come back to learn more!

You should now have a targeted survey for a well-defined population that will give you data to tackle your core topics. You’ve given respondents the best chance to communicate their experiences easily and accurately. All that’s left to do is to see what they say.

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Delta-Q Launches New Partner Program

Last month, we collaborated with Delta-Q Technologies (Delta-Q) to launch its new partner program, “Charged by Delta-Q.” The program is a battery compatibility initiative to help original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) identify and deploy quality power systems in their equipment.

Delta-Q created this program to increase collaboration among battery manufacturers and OEMs. The program provides OEMs with a library of power systems that have been tested and validated with Delta-Q’s chargers, software and charge algorithms.

Leading up to the announcement, we worked closely with Delta-Q and its partners to discuss program messaging and media strategy, and to finalize materials. When sharing the program with media, some reporters were surprised to learn that Delta-Q successfully launched a partner program that relied on competitors to collaborate. Despite being competitors, the battery partners were eager to join because they have a shared vision around the quality of charging and the future of the electric vehicle (EV) industry.

Delta-Q selected the initial nine battery manufacturers to join the program because all the companies have shared values around trust and equipment performance. Delta-Q will continue to strategically grow its program, carefully vetting battery companies with the same lens on values and collaboration.

Below is a list of the articles secured from our media outreach around the announcement. To learn more about Delta-Q’s battery compatibility and its partners, visit the program website. 

 

  1. OEM Industry Update: New Charged by Delta-Q Program Aids Electric Vehicle Development – 6/8/21
  2. The Cleanzine: New Battery Compatibility Program facilitates innovation and collaboration among electric battery, charging, and equipment sectors – 6/3/21
  3. EeNews Newsletter: Weekly News and Technology Update – May 28, 2021 – 5/27/21
  4. Forklift Action Newsletter: News Edition #1027 – 5/27/21
  5. Forklift Action: Delta-Q flags compatibility – 5/27/21
  6. EeNews: Delta-Q launches battery compatibility partner program – 5/26/21
  7. International Rental News: Delta-Q launches battery compatibility program – 5/25/21
  8. Supply Chain 24/7: Delta-Q Technologies launches battery compatibility program – 5/25/21
  9. Material Handling 24/7: Delta-Q Technologies launches battery compatibility program – 5/25/21
  10. Modern Materials Handling: Delta-Q Technologies launches battery compatibility program – 5/25/21
  11. CleanLink: Delta-Q Launches Battery Compatibility Program – 5/25/21
  12. Access, Lift & Handlers: Delta-Q launches battery compatibility program – 5/25/21
  13. Alt Energy Magazine: RELiON Battery Joins Delta-Q Technologies’ Battery Compatibility Program – 5/25/21
  14. BodyWorx: Delta-Q Technologies Launches Battery Compatibility Program – 5/25/21
  15. Material Handling Wholesaler: Flux Power joins Delta-Q Technologies’ Battery Compatibility Program – 5/24/21
  16. New Power Progress: Delta-Q launches battery compatibility program – 5/24/21
  17. OEM Off-Highway: Delta-Q Technologies Launches Battery Compatibility Program – 5/24/21
  18. Canadian Manufacturing: Delta-Q Technologies launches battery compatibility program – 5/24/21
  19. Lift and Access: Delta-Q Launches New Partner Program – 5/24/21
  20. Electronic Products & Technology: Delta-Q Technologies launches battery compatibility program – 5/24/21
  21. RV News: Vancouver Battery Supplier Launches New Partner Program – 5/24/21
  22. North American Clean Energy: Delta-Q Technologies Launches Battery Compatibility Program – 5/24/21
  23. Modern Materials Handling: Flux Power joins Delta-Q Technologies’ battery compatibility program – 5/24/21
  24. Material Handling Network: Flux Power Joins Delta-Q Technologies’ Battery Compatibility Program – 5/24/21
  25. Supply Chain Management Review: Flux Power joins Delta-Q Technologies’ battery compatibility program – 5/24/21
  26. Lift & Hoist International: Flux Power joins Delta-Q battery compatibility program – 5/24/21
  27. Material Handling 24/7: Flux Power joins Delta-Q Technologies’ battery compatibility program – 5/24/21

 

We’re thrilled about the initial response to the program and eager to help Delta-Q and its partners share program milestones.

To learn more about our work with Delta-Q, check out the following blog posts:

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The Evolution of PR Measurement

One interesting trend that surfaced in Ragan’s 2021 Communications Benchmark Report is that communicators are measuring their work more frequently. And, they are using the data more strategically with a streamlined focus on benchmarking, identifying the best channels and making better editorial decisions.

According to the study, last year 30 percent of respondents described their measurement efforts as ad hoc. This year that number decreased to 17 percent, with a large increase in monthly measurement efforts, from 24 percent of respondents last year to 37 percent this year.

The report highlighted several factors that influenced this shift. Typically speaking, communicators are more likely to be involved in strategic decisions. Communicators have access to the CEO. The most fascinating trend in the report indicates the pandemic actually provided a silver lining for communicators – which seems unthinkable – in that their value to their organizations rose exponentially. The report highlights that the work of communicators moved to center stage with a shift to the remote work environment, and initiatives such as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs.

As our work as communicators comes into sharper focus and play, so does the importance of measuring success. Overall, 78 percent of respondents in the study measure their communications effectiveness. Additionally, the report found that communicators are more satisfied with their measurement efforts. With 41 percent of respondents reporting they are either satisfied or very satisfied with their ability to measure communications effectiveness. This is a significant uptick from the 28 percent of respondents who said the same thing in 2020, which clearly indicates communicators are more focused on evaluating their work.

The Benchmark Report also found that communicators are getting innovative about applying the measurement in more strategic ways. In years past, the focus was on identifying the most effective channels to disseminate your message. That focus has been bypassed this year. The data in the report shows that in 2021 there is significantly more focus on making better editorial content decisions and on benchmarking best practices. The report credits the notion that there is less of a perceived need to gain a seat at the table for strategic decisions, as the access to the C-suite increased throughout 2020 organically while communicators also forged new company-wide alliances.

Beyond measurement, the report provides a deep dive into the data and analysis of the major trends in the profession over the last 12 months, including:

  • How the crises of 2020 impacted the discipline
  • Communicators’ outlook and priorities for the next three years
  • Communications budgets
  • Technology trends and product rankings
  • Trends in communications planning and measurement
  • Crisis-communications policies
  • Trends in both internal and external communications channels
  • Team structures

If you’re interested in learning more, you can download a copy of Ragan’s third annual Communications Benchmark Report here.

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