Contact us

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.

Announcement Recap: Spaceflight Industries Signs Definitive Agreement to Sell the Launch Business

On Feb. 11, 2020, our long-time client Spaceflight Industries, the parent company of Spaceflight and BlackSky, announced the signing of a definite agreement to sell Spaceflight, Inc., the company’s rideshare launch business. Mitsui & Co., Ltd., in partnership with Yamasa, Co., plans to acquire the launch company to expand its portfolio and enter the space industry through an established and influential company.

The acquisition transaction will now undergo review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which evaluates the national security aspects of foreign direct investment in the U.S. economy. The review process takes several months, and the companies anticipate the deal to be approved in the second quarter of 2020.

As you’d assume, this news was incredibly important to all parties involved as it signified a considerable change, which would position all companies for growth that would support their long-term goals. For this announcement we worked closely with teams from both Spaceflight and BlackSky to develop a detailed FAQ that addressed anticipated questions from all audiences. This included considering customers for both companies, partners, key industry players, potential customers and even the varying teams at Spaceflight Industries.

Once we secured the necessary input on the FAQ, we used this as a foundational material to develop other content, such as the press release, blog posts, external Q&As and social content. Then it came time to consider the announcement strategy. Normally for news of this significance, we would have offered it to a handful of key media contacts under embargo, however, due to contractual obligations, we were unable to do so.

As soon as the announcement crossed the wire, we delivered the release to more than 100 media contacts. This included individuals who have covered Spaceflight Industries, Spaceflight or BlackSky in the past, and those who cover industry news. As anticipated, there were several inquiries from reporters seeking more details about the deal. We scheduled a handful of briefings, with both the Spaceflight Industries president/BlackSky CEO and the Spaceflight CEO, so the journalists could understand how each business will benefit from the deal and what this means for the future of each business. The briefings led to a couple of follow-up articles.

The announcement generated a lot of interest and resulted in a significant amount of coverage. Below is an overview of most of the coverage secured.

Congratulations to Spaceflight Industries, BlackSky and Spaceflight on this important milestone and their continued success!

Spaceflight Industries Coverage Overview

Read More

Contextualizing the News

On a recent long walk I decided to listen to the January 31 episode of The Daily, in which host Michael Barbaro interviewed Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The New York Times.

Their discussion focused on The Time’s coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign and how articles leading up to the election contextualized the candidates, and perhaps unfairly, influenced readers’ perceptions. They then moved to the current challenges of covering American politics.

It was a fascinating discussion, and a couple of things immediately jumped out at me, elements that I think are worth exploring, especially if you work in public relations or journalism. Even as simply a consumer of news, the ideas in this podcast hold important relevance.

Consider the example of how The Times covered Bernie Sanders. The day that Sanders announced his candidacy in the 2016 election, the paper published an article that offered this:

“Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, announced Thursday that he was running for president as a Democrat, injecting a progressive voice into the contest and providing Hillary Rodham Clinton with her first official rival for the party’s nomination. Avoiding the fanfare that several Republicans have chosen so far when announcing their candidacies, Mr. Sanders issued a statement to supporters that laid out his goals for reducing income inequality, addressing climate change and scaling back the influence of money in politics. ‘After a year of travel, discussion, and dialogue, I have decided to be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president,’ Mr. Sanders said in an email early Thursday.

Mr. Sanders’s bid is considered a long shot, but his unflinching commitment to stances popular with the left — such as opposing foreign military interventions and reining in big banks — could force Mrs. Clinton to address these issues more deeply.”

In the podcast, Barbaro points out the phrase “long shot” that characterizes Mr. Sanders’ chances. This upset and frustrated some Times’ readers because they felt the coverage unfairly influenced or impacted how voters perceived the candidate.

Baquet didn’t agree. He still believes it is great lead to the story and that Bernie Sanders was indeed a long shot. He goes on to explain that journalism is, by its nature, flawed and that, “The flaws are [that] you do have to tell people what to think.”

I fundamentally disagree. Why not assume people are smart and that if they don’t understand the context of information presented, and feel it is important, they will seek out additional context and clarification?

Furthermore, wasn’t the conjecture that Mr. Sanders’ bid was considered a long shot actually just the reporter’s opinion? As I consider this article, I think it could have been improved if this information was attributed to an expert – and not by inference the reporter – who could offer verifiable proof (statistics, poll numbers, etc.) that Sanders was indeed a long shot.

Afterall, in this same interview, Baquet says, “The most powerful writing lets the person talk, lets the person say what he has to say. And it is usually so evident that what the person has to say is [for example] racist or anti-Semitic, that to actually get in the way and say it yourself is less powerful.”

He goes on to say that others should do the labeling and the New York Times should stick to objectively covering what happened.

In this dark era of rampant disinformation, when some unscrupulous politicians seem to be repeatedly acting deceptively and where sources can be obfuscated and shadowy, it is more important than ever that journalists from accredited and respected publications scrutinize their reporting to ensure that they’re as objective as possible – and that may mean less characterization of information, not more.

At the same time, I’d like to see more schools and academic institutions focus on educating their students about the importance of finding a broad range of news sources as they work to understand an industry.

Times’ journalists and editors don’t have a crystal ball to see into the future, and by trying to tell people what to think, the venerable publication may undermine its credibility by appearing biased. It grows ever harder to find even simple truth.

Read More

How Hiking in Patagonia Reinforced the Value of a Few Best Practices

I recently returned from a two-week hiking adventure in Patagonia – a bucket-list trip to celebrate a milestone birthday. While truly a vacation adventure, the amazing experience reinforced the importance of some business best practices.

Establish Shared Expectations
When planning a project or activity, establishing clear, shared expectations reduces confusion and ensures everyone is aligned on the approach and the objective. Prior to departure, the adventure travel company provided detailed packing and gear lists, and screened guests to ensure they were up for the strenuous hikes that were planned. During the multi-day hiking adventure our guides took time each evening to lay out the next day’s activities, including what time we’d leave, the distance we would cover, aspects of the terrain and elevation gain, as well as predicted weather and what layers to pack. They set our expectations clearly about what we would be facing the coming day so we would be prepared, and the only surprises were the extraordinary peaks and vistas.

And while there can be, and were, unexpected events (e.g., severe winds), we were all aligned and then could appreciate and understand the resulting decision, which in our case meant deciding not to hike to the higher, more exposed viewpoint where a hiker in a different group had been blown off the trail and suffered a broken leg.

Similarly, at Communiqué PR we work to establish shared expectations with our clients so collectively we can make the best decisions, drive the results they are looking for, and eliminate surprises. When something unforeseen arises, we can adjust and adapt in order to achieve the expected results.

Shift Your Perspective
We can get locked into believing our personal perspective is accurate and the only way to see something. However, it is rarely as black and white as we think. While hiking in Patagonia, we looked up to see what appeared to be one, solid, remarkable peak. Only after hiking a few miles and changing our viewpoint did we see it was three separate peaks – all equally impressive.

Our guide had explained this but from the original viewpoint, our group could not distinguish the three peaks from each other. In business we can get locked into believing our viewpoint is correct and we aren’t able to see the perspectives shared by others. Being open to the other realities can ensure you are making good decisions. It is a good reminder to try to “see” things from other points of view.

In business this can mean soliciting input from others, considering how a message might be received by disparate audiences and/or evaluating the position of a decision maker (e.g., economic buyer, user buyer or coach) and how that position influences their perspective. By considering these alternative perspectives we will be better able to drive the right results.

Celebrate Accomplishments Together
At the end of each day, our group would gather to share photos and stories from the day’s journey. We reflected on the distance covered, the challenges we overcame, including crazy wind and nagging blisters, and shared our gratitude for such an amazing adventure. Celebrating together made each day’s success all the sweeter.

It is easy to forget to celebrate accomplishments. We get busy doing the work and forget to take time to reflect and celebrate the results achieved. We move on to the next project. At Communiqué PR, we aim to take time to gather to celebrate the small wins and the big accomplishments, as well as just have time together outside of doing the work. It can be challenging to make the time and, admittedly, there are times we have let it slide. But each time we get together to celebrate with our team, it makes the successes more meaningful.

I am incredibly grateful for my remarkable team. Their expertise, dedication, and support made it possible for me to experience this bucket-list trip. The trip provided me with an opportunity to get some distance from work, shift my perspective a bit, and celebrate life!

Also, I want to give a shout out to MT Sobek and its Patagonia team, who made this trip so unbelievably fabulous. 

Read More

Evaluating Video Marketing in 2020

Video has become an increasingly popular tool for organizations looking to improve their marketing and sales campaigns. In the past three years, the number of organizations leveraging video tools has increased by 24 percent, demonstrating a steady growth of adoption.

According to an infographic from Depositphotos, 80 percent of marketers say leveraging video has helped increase website traffic and generate leads. Further, according to the same infographic, 95 percent of key messages are retained when the content is in video form, which can drastically improve efficiency of campaigns and justify the investment into video.

PR Daily recently published Depositphotos’ infographic data in its article, “Infographic: The state of video marketing for 2020.” In this post they highlighted some of the infographic’s most compelling statistics, one of which uncovered how Facebook still ranks as the No. 1 social media platform for consumers to watch brand videos, beating Twitter.

With this data in mind, decision makers are well positioned to increase ROI on their marketing campaigns through the integration of video. Further, with video proven to increase web traffic and generate sales leads, video’s benefits can cross into other departments and ultimately have a positive impact on organizations’ bottom lines.

In addition to creating video advertisements and investing in webinar content, below are three ways companies can creatively integrate videos into existing campaigns:

  • Improving training and support. Explainer videos have emerged as a way for organizations to better clarify their products and solutions to key audiences. Videos are a great alternative for visual learners and can help employees and customers internalize data before reaching out for help. In fact, according to data, 41 percent of marketers say that investing in video has helped them reduce support calls. Organizations can save time and resources to support more complex problems and invest in other areas of the company.
  • Giving presentations a second life. Attending or hosting industry trade shows can be a huge time investment for executives and the entire company. Depending on the location of these shows, marketing teams can spend hours investing in show collateral, including presentations, with only a small number of their target audience ever seeing the content. Marketers can expand the reach of this content and get the most out of their investments by recording presentations or transferring decks into video formats that can then be shared with a wider audience.
  • Amplifying announcements or company updates. Video is also a great way to tease out announcements or demonstrate company milestones that have a visual component. This could be a series of videos sharing features of a new product or solution, or executives could share their new office space in a video, which can illustrate the update better than a written document. Further, marketing executives can share details about software updated with a guided video of the screen or by interviewing an engineer or member of the product team and sharing the video on social media and on other channels.

In addition to the use cases outlined above, marketers can leverage video in vlogging (video blogs), video product demos and video case studies. These are just a few of the ways marketing teams can begin to integrate video into their existing strategies and see the impressive results video can deliver (e.g., increase web traffic, improve engagement and increase sales).

Investing in professional video tools or partnering with digital production firms can be a big investment; however, there are smaller steps companies can take to integrate video in ways that align with their budget and current equipment. To learn more about breaking into the video medium, check out the blog post, “How to Integrate Video into Your Upcoming PR and Marketing Campaigns.”

Read More

Acumatica Summit 2020 Deemed the Best Yet

Acumatica, the world’s fastest-growing cloud ERP company, opened its 2020 Summit to record-breaking attendance in Las Vegas last week with more than 2,500 customer, partner, media and analyst participants. Following multi-platinum icon Lizzo’s New Year’s Eve show at The Chelsea concert venue at The Cosmopolitan, Acumatica CEO Jon Roskill packed the same venue for the Summit keynote – don’t underestimate a tech event, people! This is more than a conference, it’s an experience.

The company celebrated its customer-centric culture highlighting customer of the year awards, product announcements and live demonstrations, an acquisition that is already shaking up the industry, and noteworthy partnerships and integrations, including but not limited to:

  • The improvement of Acumatica Manufacturing Edition, enabled by the acquisition of JAAS Systems, a complete end-to-end manufacturing solution for make-to-stock, make-to-order, engineer-to-order, project-centric, job shop, batch and repetitive manufacturing companies.
  • The release of a new Payroll module as part of Acumatica 2020R1, followed by an exclusive CFMA offer for prospective customers of Acumatica Construction Edition.
  • A strategic alliance with BDO, the international network of public accounting, tax, consulting and business advisory firms, to serve midmarket customers with exceptionally complex needs, large national or international requirements, and companies that value independence in their ERP selection or implementation process.
  • New integrations with Smartsheet and Adobe Document Cloud.
  • Customer of the Year Power Storage Solutions, an innovative power solution provider. Formed when Interstate Batteries spun off some divisions, the newly born company needed to extract data and processes from six solutions. It was able to combine them within a single Acumatica instance in a very short timescale. The company has now been live on their new system a little over a year.
  • Impact Customer of the Year Food Maven, selected for its socially conscious approach to bringing agility and flexibility to the U.S. food system.

A clear through line in Acumatica’s unique approach and reflected throughout the resulting coverage below is the company’s commitment to customer-friendly business practices.

“Acumatica is dedicated to helping our customers achieve digital transformation, said Acumatica CEO Jon Roskill. “The ways in which Cloud ERP technology can streamline operations and improve business efficiency are nothing short of exceptional, and Acumatica’s product is second to none.”

Customer-friendly business practices are not new for Acumatica. In fact, Roskill sees such a void in a customer-centric approach in the industry that he issued a challenge to other cloud ERP software vendors to fix their unscrupulous business practices. He believes customers should not have to lose sleep over additional costs limiting their growth.

Communiqué PR had the opportunity to drive the media strategy and offer some of the top-tier industry publications a sneak peek at the announcements slated for Summit in advance. Below, we’ve included highlights of the coverage that resulted from Summit, with additional articles pending publication.

Read More

No Two Blogs Alike: Analyzing Live Blog Coverage of Coronavirus News

The recent Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in China has left many people on edge about public health and glued to their TVs, tablets and smartphones for constant updates on the management of the new respiratory virus.

There is always fear and intrigue around illnesses that the public hasn’t seen before. As the number of reported cases of infection rises around the world, many are actively trying to stay informed to adopt best practices for avoiding the spread of the disease.

Several prominent news organizations have taken to live blogging – an effective approach that can be useful for keeping any audience informed – to provide real-time updates on coronavirus developments and inform the public. Here are a few takeaways on how the live blogs of three national outlets compare.

CNN
For those without a news subscription and looking for free updates, CNN.com is the place to go. CNN’s real-time blog coverage of coronavirus dates back to the evening of Jan. 29, with nearly three updates offered per hour. The blog provides a running tally of total cases – more than 8,000 to date – as well as the total number of coronavirus-related deaths and a list of countries where the coronavirus cases and deaths have been reported. This is a very simple yet essential snapshot for readers looking for a quick overview.

CNN also provides a map tracking coronavirus in real time and a graphic listing common symptoms and potential complications. Readers can see how long it’s been since each post has published, though the timestamps don’t include the publication date. Still, for the comprehensive overviews and visual elements alone, this live blog is reliable and incredibly useful for readers looking to quickly bring themselves up to speed on coronavirus news. It serves well as a one-stop shop.

The New York Times
The New York Times also provides a live blog on coronavirus news, though with a lower quantity of updates than some of its competitors, with some 13 posts on Jan. 30. Registration is required to access this blog, but after doing so, users can access it as one of their five free articles per month. Right at the top, the blog features a “Here’s what you need to know” overview that outlines the primary points of interest around this news. The New York Times blog is unique in the fact that readers are given the option to read the updates in Chinese, which given the origin of the virus and where the most people are affected, couldn’t be more appropriate.

Like CNN, The New York Times offers a map tracking the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. However, while this blog offers many photos accompanying each update, it lacks visual elements like infographics to distill some of the critical details around this news and help readers quickly absorb important information. Also, the blog updates aren’t timestamped, so readers are unable to tell when specifically each update was published, though related news articles at the bottom of the page date back to Jan. 29.

The Washington Post
The Washington Post does an admirable job providing real-time updates on coronavirus developments, offering readers approximately two updates per hour. As with The New York Times, registration is required to access WaPo’s live blog, so readers must use one of their three free articles per month to reach it. The live blog offers an overview with bulleted highlights at the top of the page and a “What you need to know about coronavirus” breakout box at the bottom of the page, which includes a map of the spread of coronavirus and an FAQ of the disease. Though if you’re not a paying subscriber, one must be mindful of where you click to not lose access to your limited free articles.

Like CNN’s blog, each blog post is timestamped, and even though they don’t include the publication date, readers can see that the blog updates date back to the afternoon of Jan. 29. When it comes to visual elements, WaPo’s blog offers compelling photos and news videos for several posts but is lacking when it comes to infographics. It is a solid blog overall but infinitely more useful for paying subscribers.

 

These aren’t the only three news outlets providing real-time coverage of coronavirus, but they are among the most prominent. While there were similarities between each outlet’s live blog, no two were identical. Each had their own approach to coverage and unique blend of aggregated stories.

For the reader, identifying the most ideal live blog ultimately comes down to 1) whether you are a paying customer and 2) what you hope to get from your news blog. All three of the listed outlets do an exceptional job of providing real-time news updates about a serious public health issue that’s captivating a global audience. There’s no shortage of breaking news – just remember to refresh!

Read More