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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.

Seattle-Based StratusCore Announces General Availability of its Platform to Reimagine Hollywood and Digital Production

While motion imagery takes viewers to new worlds, the content creation process has been stuck in the dark ages – until now. In January, our client StratusCore, a virtual content production company, announced the general availability of its cloud-based digital content production platform and suite of tools for the digital content community. By coming out of stealth mode, StratusCore has made its platform and suite of tools available for productions, studios and artists worldwide.

Despite CGI and other technological innovations, the content creation process has been surprisingly archaic until recently. Typically, artists are forced to lug around heavy, insecure equipment, and must invest thousands of dollars in tools, which can be a barrier to entry. Studios and productions still face asset security and artist control loopholes. Today’s productions, artists and studios, however, now have access to a cloud-based platform that streamlines the entire content creation process, from inception and creation to rendering and delivery.

Nestled in the heart of the Madrona neighborhood in Seattle, StratusCore has already gained serious traction in Hollywood, with customers including Netflix, Sony, Universal, DreamWorks and more using the industry-compliant platform. Considering the explosive growth of digital content creation and the surge in subscription services, from Hulu to Netflix, the content creation industry is booming, but the technology that powers it is ripe for disruption.

With its cloud-based content creation platform, StratusCore helps some of the world’s largest productions and studios create, manage, store and process their data-intensive assets securely. In an age of hacks and leaks, particularly in an industry where assets are everything, this platform is paving the way for secure digital content production.

In case you missed it, here’s a recap of the coverage we secured for StratusCore’s general availability announcement:

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What, Exactly, Is Thought Leadership?

Over the time that I have worked at Communiqué, the term “thought leader” has popped up frequently. In fact, it’s kind of been everywhere. Thought leaders are mentioned in articles, blog posts are written about the importance of developing thought leadership, and thought leaders are sought out for speaking opportunities.

At first, I didn’t give the term much thought because, in context, I assumed it was simply a vague title referring to an expert in a particular industry. However, as I saw it more and more, questions began to nag at me. If a thought leader is just an expert, why wouldn’t he or she be referred to as such? Is there a difference between thought leaders and experts? If they are different, what exactly is the importance of thought leadership? And is everyone else as confused by this term as I am? In short, I decided to do some digging.

For those of you who, like me, may be a little fuzzy on the details of thought leaders and thought leadership, an overarching definition is a good place to start. While there are a number of ways to explain what a thought leader is, during my research I found a blog post that described it in a way that resonated well with me:

“Welcome to the NEW thought leader: passionate, smart, professional subject matter experts who have advanced the conversation around their particular areas of interest and expertise. But New Thought Leaders are more than experts – they’re genuine authorities. They are people the media come to for quotes; they bob up often as interview guests on podcasts; publishers approach them to write books; people come to hear them speak!”

This definition makes two things very clear: 1) Experts and thought leaders are linked, but are not the same thing; and 2) the term’s current popularity stems from the fact that it has been recently redefined. It is a classic syllogism (e.g., all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares) in that all thought leaders are experts, but not all experts are thought leaders. What differentiates the two is how active the person is in society’s current social space, which is the driver behind the redefinition. Someone could be the leading expert in their field, and not be a thought leader simply because no one knows about what they are doing. Thought leaders, on the other hand, are active participants on social media and are constantly engaged in their industry’s dialogue. Society both recognizes them and regards them as a viable, important source of information.

This brings me to the importance of thought leadership. Without thought leaders or thought leadership, the amount of valuable information available would be diminished, as would the push for innovation. Thought leaders have big ideas and can put experts and other individuals on the right path toward making those ideas a reality, meaning thought leaders truly need to be leaders – leaders that are engaged and consistently sharing their ideas with the broader public. This could include contributing content to publications, being interviewed for article quotes, speaking at major industry events, or actively using social media to keep others updated on industry trends. Whatever the medium, a thought leader’s focus is on using a platform to help people better understand their industry and push the boundaries of what is currently known.

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Hitting ‘Refresh’ On Your Marketing Content

It’s no question that visual content has seen an uptick in the past year. Between the growing popularity and competition between major social media apps such as Snapchat and Instagram, as well as the steady hype around VR integrations to enhance the user experience, the opportunity for diversifying marketing campaigns and introducing exciting visuals such a video, is vast.

When you wake up in the morning, you can guarantee that your inbox will be flooded sales emails. As consumers, we are exposed to mass amounts of content up to the minute – so much content, that even reading through one unsolicited email can be a daunting task. In fact, four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.

With that overwhelming fact and statistics of similar gravity, standing out from the pack can be difficult. Consumers are so selective with their attention spans that businesses must switch up marketing campaigns in order to keep up with our changing expectations and preferences.

Video marketing is a great way to do just that. Videos are a creative way to share news and connect with your current and potential customers. Integrating visuals, such as video clips, into your company’s social media accounts, blog posts and distribution of marketing content can help raise awareness around your brand and can even inspire new ideas with a fresh platform in the mix.

The infographic (another great visual option) below offers a cheat sheet, illustrating the “why,” “where” and “how-to” for helping businesses use video marketing to better connect with their target audiences. In addition to the infographic’s examples for perfecting video marketing strategies, three additional opportunities to test out video campaigns include:

  • Helpful how-tos. How-to videos and checklists allow the viewer to understand how your product works, as well as envision himself/herself using it.
  • Visual results. Using videos to showcase survey and research results will save your audience time from having to scroll through pages of data. Videos that quickly and comprehensively communicate results will be best for spiking interest in the data and intrigue in future reports.
  • Repurposed content. If your company has previously written content that was particularly popular among your audience, you may want to consider resurfacing it. Posting a short video “teasing” the topic on social media can entice viewers to click on the link, driving traffic to your website and making great use of evergreen content.

Altogether, diversifying your marketing mix with video will not go unnoticed. One in four consumers actually lose interest in a company if it doesn’t have video. If done effectively, your customers will thank you for sparing them from another bland report and may even inspire them to share your fresh content on their social media channels.

Has your company mixed things up with cool video clips or visuals? Let us know in the comments section below!

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A Communications Provider with SaaS: Flowroute’s PR Wins in 2016

 

Last month we met with our client Flowroute to kick off 2017 planning and recap some of the great results that Communiqué PR and the Flowroute team secured in 2016.

We’ve been working with Flowroute for a little over a year now and both the company and its broader industry has grown significantly.

Flowroute provides cloud-based communications services, enabling businesses to integrate calling and messaging into mobile applications. Think about the last time you texted a driver with a car sharing service or booked a vacation rental through a mobile app, for example. Cloud-based service providers like Flowroute aren’t tied to a physical infrastructure – their business is based on delivering open access to telecom resources such as phone numbers, inbound and outbound calling, text messaging and advanced signaling data.

We focused our media relations in 2016 on a combination of news-driven outreach and proactive pitches that capitalized on timely industry trends. This ensured that we were communicating regularly with journalists, analysts and influencers, and keeping Flowroute top of mind. In all, more than 50 percent of Flowroute’s coverage came from corporate and product news, while almost 40 percent originated from proactive pitching.

Communiqué PR also targeted industry analysts and influencers as part of our 2016 efforts for Flowroute. The benefits of this are manifold: (1) analysts serve as advisors for enterprise organizations looking to make a purchase decision; (2) analysts also frequently contribute to industry publication as columnists, so it’s possible to secure editorial coverage from an analyst briefing – a win-win! And (3) analysts often serve as moderators or co-chairs for industry conferences – this can lead to speaker placement if your company and technology are on their radar.

Below are some of the highlights of the results that Communiqué PR was able to secure for Flowroute:

  • Developed 18 proactive pitches, targeting enterprise trade press, top-tier business media, developer-focused publications and the channel/partner press
  • Secured 50+ briefings with press and analysts
  • Secured 103 articles over the course of 2016, including nine contributed articles for Flowroute executives
  • Vast majority of coverage came from technology-focused publications (70 percent), followed by local Seattle media (13 percent) and marketing trade press (7 percent)
  • Nearly half of the coverage (48 percent) was stand-alone, meaning Flowroute was the only vendor mentioned
  • A third of the coverage came from industry wrap-up articles about cloud communications, CPaaS, Unified Communications, etc.

A sample of 2016’s coverage is below:

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University of Oregon’s Journalistic Learning Initiative

According to Ed Madison, a professor at University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, “Acknowledging and honoring students’ intrinsic interests is often a gateway to deeper and more complex learning.”

This belief, and his subsequent research around it, led Madison to work with Esther Wojcicki, the creator of the esteemed journalism program at Palo Alto High School, and Tara Lynda Guber, the founder of Yoga Ed to establish the donor-funded Journalistic Learning Initiative (JLI), a program for middle and high school students. JLI is a collaboration between the School of Journalism and Communication and the College of Education.

It all started when Madison decided to pursue his Ph.D. in Mass Communications and Society. After a successful 30-year career in journalism, where he served as one of founding producers for CNN and then produced content for a number of major networks, studios, and record companies, Madison was ready for a change and went back to school.

“As part of my doctorate work,” explained Madison, “I had the opportunity to meet Esther Wojcicki and learn about the journalism program she created. Woj, as she is affectionately called, and the other dynamic instructors at Palo Alto High School are having a tremendous impact on kids. Their work inspired my dissertation and then the creation of JLI.”

Each year nearly one-third of Palo Alto High School’s 1800 students participate in its journalism program and they produce seven different publications, many of which consistently win top national honors. In addition, the program helps these students learn key skills around critical thinking, research, and collaboration that will help them throughout their lives.

Guber also has had a long commitment to transforming education. In addition to Yoga Ed., she was a founding member of the board of directors of The Accelerated School, an internationally recognized charter public school in South Central Los Angeles and TIME magazine Elementary School of the Year. When she heard Wojcicki speak about the Palo Alto program, she got involved.

Madison soon began to explore high school language arts instruction methods and journalism’s potential influence on the overall student learning process. His research found that high school journalism students rated social-situated learning, intrinsic motivation, and skill enhancement higher than their non-journalism counterparts did. This became the cornerstone of the JLI curricula.

Instead of learning from lectures and textbooks, journalistic-learning students complete situational-based work, which is aligned with their current course work or individual interests. For instance, one instructor asked her students to select a beat – such as robotics, arts or gaming – and find an expert to interview. Leveraging online databases and articles, students identified and scheduled in-person or Skype meetings with them. They then produced articles summarizing their findings.

From this activity, students gained practical experience citing sources, improved their proficiency in non-fiction reading, and developed better writing and editing skills. Students also benefited by having their work reviewed by peers before they published it online.

Another key element of the program is ensuring that busy middle and high school teachers have the right support. To address this issue, the JLI works with UO’s College of Education to match recent UO Journalism graduates with teachers. The graduates provide teachers with support helping them to identify and design specific projects. They also help each week in the classroom to answer technology questions, and they assist students with research.

The cost of implementing this program varies by location, but it is not as expensive as one might imagine. For $10,000 to $20,000, donors can underwrite a semester and make a huge difference in students’ lives. Moreover, donors have the opportunity to visit classrooms to see firsthand the impact they are making.

“We have quite a unique model and initial results have exceeded our expectations,” explained Madison. “Our intent is to aggressively scale these programs nationally.”  The first JLI pilot program took place during spring 2016 in Oregon. Additional pilot projects will take place in Los Angeles in 2017.

For more information on these programs, or to hear about them from the students themselves, please check out these videos.

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Is Your PR Firm Meeting Your Service Needs?

By now, we all know that meaningful relationships are the cornerstone to being successful in PR. From a client’s perspective, strong relationships can be the deciding factor when selecting a PR firm or reevaluating whether it’s time to seek out a new PR partner. With so many options available (a Google search for PR firms returned more than 30 results in the Seattle area alone), it can be difficult to determine which PR firm will provide the best client service.

At Communiqué PR, we believe the most rewarding engagements occur when PR isn’t viewed as a separate entity but rather as an extension of a client’s communications team. Achieving this level of trust and familiarity with a client doesn’t happen overnight and requires exceptional client care. To find out if your PR firm is delivering top-notch service, here are five questions to ask yourself:

  1. How well does your agency know you? If an agency isn’t knowledgeable about your business or industry, it’s impossible for it be a powerful advocate for you. While it isn’t a requirement for your PR team to be a full-fledged expert in your field, you should expect it to be aware of major industry news and the potential impact on your company. A qualified PR agency will take the time to learn who your biggest competitors are, your business and communication objectives, and the current industry landscape in order to tailor its recommendations accordingly.
  2. Do you feel like a top priority? Regardless if you’re a startup with a limited budget, you should still receive the same class of service as a Fortune 500 company with a six-figure retainer. Although there may be some limitations on the number of activities a firm can perform on a smaller budget, the same care and attention should be present in every interaction. If you’re being quoted dates for projects that seem unreasonably long or the quality of the work is suffering, it may be time to consult a new PR partner.
  3. Are you receiving prompt responses? When you send an email, your PR representative should promptly respond to either a) provide the answer to the question you posed or b) acknowledge the receipt of your email and inform you he/she is researching the answer to your question. Communicating that your email has been received is a small yet significant way to demonstrate a commitment to transparency and eliminate any unnecessary speculation.   
  4.  Is your PR contact more than an email address? Although email is often the most preferred form of communication in business, you should still have regular phone calls and the occasional in-person meeting with your PR team. Unless there are special circumstances that prohibit phone calls or face-to-face meetings, a PR firm with your best interest will suggest scheduling these to ensure you’re aligned on strategy and further strengthen rapport.
  5. Does your PR firm provide a summary of next steps? No matter how brief or informal a meeting or call may seem, you should always receive a recap of the discussion with next steps and estimated dates for completion. Presenting a summary of the conversation ensures both parties are clear on the resulting action items and can help prevent misunderstandings.

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll be able to choose a PR firm that can be a trusted partner by your side. For more on this topic, check out our previous blog posts:

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