The Definitive Guide to Selecting The Right Spokesperson
[By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications] One of the most common decisions we encounter when clients face a crisis situation is helping them choose the individual who will serve as their spokesperson. Rarely does anyone volunteer for this assignment and most draftees accept it with grudging resignation. In truth, being a spokesperson is a high-risk job […]
Why Peyton Manning Gave Budweiser $3 Million in Free Advertising
From Time Magazine: Anheuser-Busch InBev plunked down about $15 million for Super Bowl advertisements this year to promote its Budweiser and Bud Light brands. But one of the company’s most memorable plugs during Sunday’s game—from Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning—came for free. In a post-game interview with CBS’s Tracy Wolfson, Manning said he planned to […]
Crisis Management – How to Appear Confident & Self-Assured, Even When You’re Not
Stereotypes are tough to challenge or break. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, executive director, school superintendent, hospital administrator, businessperson, consultant or one of a thousand other job titles, the usual, and unfortunate, model of gravitas and accomplishment is the 60-year-old, gray-haired male. Especially when it “hits the fan,” clients look for both the familiar, the trustworthy – […]
10 Body Language Tricks to Power Up Your Career in 2016
From body language expert Carol Kinsey Goman: Body language can be your greatest career asset. Here are ten simple and powerful tips to help you have a super successful 2016. 1) To make a great first impression, begin before you enter the room. In business interactions, first impressions are crucial. Once someone mentally labels you […]
5 Crisis Management Resolutions for 2016
[By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications] Unless your organization was incredibly lucky this past year, either something bad happened to you, or you – or someone associated with you – did something bad to someone else. Even though we work with clients in crisis virtually every day, we are constantly amazed by the never-ending variety of […]
The Jingeling Christmas Thing – How a Message Became a Tradition
[By Howard Fencl, APR] At our annual staff holiday luncheon this year, I did what I invariably do – dredge up a TV news war story and serve it up with our entrée. My TV news career stretches all the way back to 1978, so I have a few tales to tell. Because it’s the […]
Confessions of a TV News Executive, Part 2 – The Ambush Interview
[By Howard Fencl, APR] You’re grappling with serious challenges that threaten your organization, and perhaps your career. Someone leaks an internal e-mail to the media, and reporters have been leaving you voicemail messages all day asking for your comment on the issue. Your company’s unwritten policy is to ignore the media, and your general counsel […]
Confessions of a TV News Executive
[by Howard Fencl, APR] I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I earned my stripes in TV producing newscasts and managing newsrooms for the better part of twenty years, and I can now freely admit the following: I loved reporters who came trotting breathlessly back into the newsroom with video of anyone who got belligerent and […]
Tips & Techniques to Help Anyone Become a Better Speaker
From our good friend – and a terrific writer – Marilyn Cavicchia at the American Bar Association: If you’ve ever heard Tim Eigo speak at Annual or Midyear meetings or at the ABA Bar Leadership Institute, you know that this is a guy who loves to present. While it is true that Eigo, editor of the […]
Timely TV News Interview Advice (from Another Time)
[by Howard Fencl] On Halloween, I will travel to Columbus to attend a TV newsroom reunion for WBNS-TV reporters, producers, videographers, engineers and news managers. It promises to be a horrifying, creaky affair – no costumes, just the unwelcome mask of old age necessitating name tags with our headshots from the 1980s in the event we […]