In October 1987, all eyes were on the small town of Midland, Texas, where an 18-month-old girl named Jessica McClure had fallen 22 feet to the bottom of an abandoned water well. Rescuers decided the only way to pull out “Baby Jessica” was to drill a parallel shaft through which they could pull her up,…
If social media ceased to exist, experiential marketing would, too. That’s according to experiential-focused NA Collective, a New York indie agency described as half production studio, half creative shop. “I’ve been doing experiential my entire career, so it’s really cool to see how social media changed the game for it,” said Chiara Adin, NA founding…
Growing up, Heidi Pellerano wanted to be an Olympic athlete and the first Puerto Rican woman on the moon. Instead, she earned a degree in electrical engineering from Duke University and got a job working for a consulting firm embedded at the Pentagon with the Air Force’s B-1 bomber team, which sought to rebuild the…
Anyone who’s ever had an infuriatingly long call with a company over a big bill probably doesn’t exactly have a warm and fuzzy feeling about that brand. But in a world where consumers can buy enough groceries to feed a family of four at the click of a button, demands are becoming increasingly complex–and customer…
Consumers have long exchanged data for services they find valuable, like email addresses or location for free Wi-Fi and social media profiles for easier site logins, but they are starting to let platforms into their lives like never before, even going so far as to consent to vehicle tracking and access to their homes. While…
For decades, fast-food chains have chased quick sales with limited-time promotions and products (R.I.P. McDonald’s McPizza and Wendy’s 2012 luxe hamburger with lobster claws and caviar) and revenue-minded marketing intended to drive incremental foot traffic to restaurants. But with changing consumer tastes for healthier options and new technologies that streamline ordering and delivery, quick-serve restaurants…
After years of headlines about consultancies eating ad agencies’ lunches, the two groups are increasingly starting to look alike. Since everything in marketing revolves around the client, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’re driving these changes. Faced with new challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace, clients are demanding a wider range of services…
When brands have a crisis, they call the Winston Wolfe of public relations, Harlan Loeb. Loeb, who runs Edelman’s crisis and risk mitigation practice, didn’t grow up in the PR business. A lawyer by background, he found himself in the crisis management world after serving as the Midwest counsel for the Anti-Defamation League working on…
I recently got a call from an influential player in the advertising business. She had a simple question: “Are advertising holding companies relevant today? Should they even exist?” At the time I didn’t have an answer. I love advertising and agencies. The industry holds some of the smartest, most thoughtful and creative people I’ve ever…
These days, if you’re going to successfully market goods or services to digitally savvy consumers, you better be skilled at using the latest technologies and hippest channels to forge meaningful messages that delight and inspire. Toward that end, “It’s a tremendous competitive advantage to have a leader who can survey the confusing and rapidly changing…
What will cities of the near future look like when buildings, cars, people and a whole slew of other things can communicate with each other? Earlier this month, tech companies and telecoms at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, tried to answer that question, showing off their plans for 5G–a next-generation wireless network that will…
It was a chicken joke of epic proportions, but it took a while for the punch line to land. For nearly two weeks last month, nearly 900 KFC franchises in the U.K. were unable to obtain fresh chicken parts thanks to a cock-up with the company’s new delivery firm. KFC U.K. needed to acknowledge the…
ABC’s surprise revival of American Idol, which had ended its run on Fox in 2016 after 15 seasons, dominated last May’s broadcast upfront week. While ABC touted the pickup as a great fit for its network, its rivals publicly questioned the economics of the move. “The price is so expensive, you need a 35 share…
When it happens, it moves so fast that your initial feeling is disorientation. That quickly flips to nausea, fear and then panic. I’m of course talking about a brand crisis unfolding before the world, supercharged by social media and shared and commented on into oblivion. You’ve been dragged. It’s a tough position for both individuals…
The best way to survive a brand crisis is to start planning before the crisis hits. Get your plans in order Each crisis may come as a surprise, but your response should not be. Smart organizations have a crisis management plan in place that involves every aspect of the organization–including HR, legal and technical. “Ninety-five…
Not so long ago, we’d only initiate a conversation with a brand if something had gone wrong, but we’re now starting to use conversation to do much more: to explore options, to make purchases and even to investigate medical issues. Whether it’s in the form of instant messaging or voice-user interfaces, conversation is becoming an…
Nearly 20 percent of U.S. households now contain 10 or more connected devices, and as consumers increasingly work new communication tools into their daily lives, they are also demanding multichannel options when they need customer service and expect it to be faster and easier to use than ever. Not all companies, however, are meeting those…
While many people move between jobs over the course of a career, Denise Korn has worked at the company she founded for 25 years. In 1992, Korn established Korn Design, specializing in real estate, hospitality and culture, and from the very start, she worked with high-profile clients from the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach to the Liberty…
Pok?mon Go and a dancing hot dog: two augmented reality stars that burst into the tech universe over the last two years. One hundred million people downloaded Pok?mon Go. And the hot dog, which was a Snapchat filter, has been so popular that Snap recently turned it into a plush doll. For retail brands, AR…
Bette Nesmith Graham was in a terrible fix. It was 1954, and the Texas Bank and Trust, where she worked as a secretary, had just replaced its old manual typewriters with new IBM electrics. Graham had never been a great typist in the first place, and the IBM machines’ feather-touch keys caused her to make…
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