PR Trend: The Power of SEO

What is SEO?

SEO (search engine optimization): noun. The process of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or a web page to users of a web search engine. –Wikipedia

To put it simply, SEO is the practice of directing and increasing traffic to your website and its content through major search engines like Google.

SEO & PR

According to Public Relations Today, “Consciously using SEO tactics will drive more traffic to your site and campaign, as well as boost your brand’s visibility.”

The main aspects of SEO are:

  • Keywords
    • Use keywords that attract a wide variety of people. PR Today recommends asking these questions when brainstorming which to include: “When people use that search term, what do they want to get? Are they doing basic research or are they in the middle of the funnel looking for a solution to their problem?”
  • Links
    • It’s important to include backlinks (a hyperlink from one web page to another website) from reputable sites that are also relevant to your brand or business. This could be links to interviews with influencers within your field, videos, relevant infographics, etc. “Backlinks to your site are like votes in popularity — they tell Google that other sites recognize your value and that Google should too,” says PR Today.
  • Audience
    • Research your target audience. This will help you to gather the questions they may have. You can do this with tools like social media insights and Google Analytics. Create your content with a specific group of people in mind, focus on your niche, and start small in terms of audience.

 

“Research shows that sites who rank on the first page of Google get 91.5% of all organic search traffic. And 51% of all site traffic comes from search engines.”

 

PR is crucial to SEO. If you’ve successfully promoted your brand/biz and it’s featured on another site, make sure to showcase that on your own social media platforms and website. Search Engine Journal says: “When someone is thinking of buying from you they’re much more likely to pull the trigger if publications (or sites) they recognize have featured you.”

This post merely scratches the surface of the world of SEO. Want to know more? Simply search it up on Google…since you clicked on this article, your algorithm already knows what to show you next. 😉

Cre8con 2019 Recap

On Friday, September 27th, I attended my very first Cre8con! This annual event is a conference that celebrates and explores creative work across all industries. Each year, a selection of keynote speakers gives a presentation on what inspires them in their work, the challenges they’ve faced, and their adventures in the creative field.

There were a lot of amazing speakers at the conference this year. Here my three favorites!

Schuyler Telleen

A 2-time Emmy award winner, member of the Screen Actors Guild and successful Production Designer and Graphic Designer, Schuyler captured the audience within seconds of hitting the stage. He walked into the spotlight visibly shaking, reading off notecards that he began to drop. His voice faltering, he looked out into the crowd and whispered: “I’m…I’m sorry. I can’t do this,” and ran off stage. The crowd, hoping to encourage Schuyler to come back, began cheering: “You can do it!” And suddenly, Schuyler came back onto the stage a different person. Laughing, he exclaimed: “And that was improv!” The crowd burst into applause and laughter.

Schuyler has an impressive resume. He’s worked on Portlandia, Shrill, American Vandal and Trinkets as a Production Designer. As a Graphic Designer, he’s worked on Mad Men, Veep, Parks and Recreation, and Glee. For Parks and Rec fans, you can thank Schuyler for the iconic “Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness.” Yeah. He MADE that. It blew my mind, too.

Ruth E. Carter

Ruth is an fierce, Academy Award-winning Costume Designer. This year, she won an Academy Award for her work on Black Panther. To make that win even cooler, she’s the first African-American woman to win in that category. She has had two additional Academy Award nominations for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, plus an Emmy nomination in 2016 for the reboot of Roots.

Ruth shared behind-the-scenes photos of work on the set of Black Panther, explaining the intricate process that comes along with costume design, and the satisfaction of watching it all come together on the big screen. Ruth’s main piece of advice about working in the creative industry was this: lead with your passions. Don’t let anyone treat you less than you deserve, and fight for what you love.

Photo by The Hollywood Reporter

Ken Davenport

Ken is a 2-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer who is well-known for his work on the popular Broadway show, Kinky Boots. He is one of the co-founders of TEDxBroadway, has been featured in Vanity Fair, and has even gotten a mention in Jay Leno’s monologue on The Tonight Show.

Ken was so inspiring. In his talk, he emphasized the importance of focusing on the things you do know how to do instead of what you don’t when it comes to creative projects and jobs. You will naturally be able to eliminate the things you don’t like/don’t want to become an expert in if you do this.

He encouraged the crowd to plan to do one thing every day to move a project along, whether you’re working on something personal or for your career. At the end of his talk, he left plenty of time for questions. A common question was simply how to get started, especially when you find yourself in a creative rut. Ken’s answer was to start doing something, anything, even if it’s not perfect or exactly what you hope to do. Often times, this can transform into something amazing.

Ken at The Tony Awards

Hook, Line and Sinker: How to Engage Your Audience

Whether you’re writing a blog entry or social media post, hooking your reader is crucial. Successful content catches the eye of its audience with just the first line, then continues to engage them. Here are a few tips to enhance your content.

Write a Killer Headline

Like the headline to this blog post, start with a title that builds an image in the reader’s mind, poses a question, or sparks interest. According to PRDaily, “A proven headline approach is to begin with a topical keyword phrase, followed by a colon—or dash—followed by a statement or question.” In addition, let your interest in the subject shine through. Use words that conjure up emotions and compel the reader to click.

Include Interesting Visuals

Pepper in a few visuals within the post to break up text. Readers will be more likely to continue reading if their eyes are drawn to engaging visuals. Use relevant infographics, bright photos, and shots of people. Fun fact: “Georgia Institute of Technology and Yahoo Labs researchers looked at 1.1 million photos on Instagram and found that pictures with human faces are 38 percent more likely to receive likes than photos with no faces. They’re also 32 percent more likely to attract comments.” –Georgia Tech  

As human beings, we are attracted to faces. Use that to your advantage with your content!

Use Outbound Links

Don’t just describe interesting people, products and studies…show the reader where they can find more information. Including external links boosts SEO. Plus, according to SEOProfessor.com, “If you provide backlinks to high authority pages, you build a search engine’s trust in your website that you are a legitimate player in your field, which will increase a search engine’s confidence when serving up your page as a result to their users.”

End with a Call to Action

Wrapping up your post with a phrase like: “What tips do you have? Tweet us!” encourages readers to connect with you and future content.

Gen Z’s Commitment to Activism

Now more than ever, all eyes are on our world leaders. And many of these eyes belong to the younger generation, known as Gen Z. (Born in the mid-1990s to early-2000s.) With the issue of climate change becoming a global crisis, Trump’s border control policies impacting immigrant children, plus the rise of school shootings, these issues can no longer be ignored.

This post will mostly focus on two of those major topics: climate change and gun violence.

The Global Climate Strikes

Last week, Global Climate Strikes took place all over the world, a protest to demand action regarding climate change. According to Wikipedia, “the strikes’ key dates include 20 September, which was three days before the United Nations Climate Summit, and 27 September, together with the full week from 20 to 27 September proposed for a worldwide general climate strike, the Earth Strike.” The event was part of the school strike for climate movement, led and inspired by Swedish climate activist, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg. It was the largest climate strike in world history.

Over 4 million people participated in these strikes worldwide, the majority of them being young students. The L.A. Times comments on Gen Z activism: “How fortunate we are that members of Gen Z are devoting their adolescences to correcting our country’s painful course, the conditions of which elder generations created or enabled by our inaction.”

Greta Thunberg

Greta, a 16-year-old environmental activist from Sweden, has become the face of Gen Z activism. In May of this year, TIME magazine named her a “next generation role model,” and the media has even dubbed her influence across the world as the “Greta Thunberg effect.” Greta has used social media as a tool to spread her message of urgency about climate change, all starting when she posted pictures of her solo strike outside of the Swedish Parliament. The purpose of her strike was to demand that the Swedish government work to reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

Greta’s Impact:

  • “August 2019: a doubling in the number of children’s books being published which address the climate crisis was reported, with a similar increase in the sales of such books—all aimed at empowering young people to save the planet.
  • Inspired by Thunberg, wealthy philanthropists and investors from the United States have donated almost half a million pounds to support Extinction Rebellion and school strike groups to establish the Climate Emergency Fund.
  • February 2019: Thunberg shared a stage with the then President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. Climate issues also played a significant role in European elections in May 2019, as Green parties nearly doubled their vote, boosting their MEP numbers to a projected 71. Many of the gains came from northern European countries where young people have taken to the streets inspired by Thunberg.
  • June 2019: Swedish Railways (SJ) reported that the number of Swedes taking the train for domestic journeys had risen by 8% from the previous year, reflecting growing public concern about the impact of flying on CO2 emissions that is highlighted by Thunberg’s refusal to fly to international conferences.
  • Being embarrassed or ashamed to take a plane because of its environmental impact has been described on social media as ‘Flygskam’ or “Shame of flying”, along with the hashtag #jagstannarpåmarken, which translates as #istayontheground.” –Wikipedia

March For Our Lives

Gun violence in schools is a deadly trend.“Since April 17, 2007, 320 people have been shot on college and university campuses in the U.S.,” according to the Collegiate Times. And it’s no secret that gun violence in the U.S. has significantly increased in the last decade. “2018 was the highest year for the number of victims killed, including the shooter, with 51 killed,” with California, Texas and Florida being the states that have experienced the most school shootings, according to Campus Safety Magazine.

In March of last year, an estimate of 2 million people across the U.S. participated in “March For Our Lives” to end gun violence in schools, making it one of the largest protests in American history. This march occurred after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida in February of last year.

Gen Z faces an entirely knew set of problems. As school shootings continue to occur across the U.S., sitting and waiting for someone to do something is no longer an option – so students are standing up for themselves. This recent video produced by Sandy Hook Promise depicts that – students are now taking on adult roles in an attempt to preserve their futures.

New Ways of Activism

Social media is the number one tool for young activists to connect with each other, share opinions, and set up events/gatherings. With access to instantaneous sites like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, activism has gone digital. According to PEW, “around half of Americans have engaged in some form of political or social-minded activity on social media in the past year.”

“White Gen-Zers are more willing to explore and understand racial politics and issues, in part because POC Gen-Z have the ability to be more vocal through social media.” –KultureHub

Paralleling activism in the ’60s/’70s, music is still a popular way to protest. Popular U.K. alternative band, The 1975, recently released a self-titled single, “The 1975,” which features a powerful 4 minutes of Greta Thunberg urging people to “wake up” and get involved. This was an incredibly effective way to reach Gen Z activists and beyond, as the band’s target audience tends to fall in that category. Listen here:

Why Do Gen Z Kids Care?

School shootings. Climate change. #BlackLivesMatter. #MeToo. Child immigrants. All these issues impact younger generations and their lives directly. In addition, with more and more of these issues becoming popular points of conversation, a trend is on the rise. Abby Leedy, an 18-year-old co-coordinator of the Sunrise Movement’s Philadelphia hub, spoke with The Intercept on why people her age are so in-tune with world issues:

“She first got interested in activism her freshman year, and in the time since — marked by Donald Trump’s election, and the upswing in youth activism following the Parkland school shooting (an inspiration to Thunberg) — has seen it go more mainstream, reaching beyond the usual suspects. ‘There’s just a lot more people, and it seems a lot more socially acceptable,’ she said. ‘It’s cooler to care about political stuff, which is really exciting.'”

 

Gen Z and young activists refuse to stay silent any longer. What will you speak up about?

 

All photos are free from Pixabay.

PR Networking 101

Networking is the foundation of PR. From connecting with potential clients, to maintaining strong relationships with current ones, networking is essential. Building connections with fellow PR professionals is just as important.

Whether you are a seasoned PR rep or a recent college graduate, here are a four basic networking tips you should know!

1. Attend Events

Attending industry events is a great way to get your name out there and talk to people on the same career path. When attending these events, talk to as many people as you can*. Ask questions, swap business cards, and have a spiel about yourself and your career goals ready.

PR/Ad Networking Event Resources:

*You never know who might have a connection with a company you want to work for. Find out who works for who, and ask the people you meet to set up an email introduction with those companies.

2. Connect With Professionals On LinkedIn

Along with following businesses and firms you’re interested in on LinkedIn, connect with their employees. After attending a networking event or doing an interview (informational or official), connecting with the person you met is really important. It shows your commitment to keeping in contact with the rep and your overall interest in the position. Keep your LinkedIn profile up to date, your resume down to one page*, and provide samples of your work.

*Simplify your resume so that it isn’t longer than one page. Long, overly-detailed resumes are off-putting to employers and may make it seem like you are including irrelevant info to fill up the page.

3. Build a Personal Brand On Social Media

Give fellow PR peeps and potential employers an idea of who you are. By building your personal brand on social media (website, Instagram, Twitter etc.), users get an idea of what’s important to you, your goals, and showcase what makes you unique.

4. Ask For Informational Interviews

Even if there are no open positions at a company you are hoping to work for, it doesn’t hurt to ask for an informational interview. By doing this, you can get a feel for the company (if the interview is at their firm), meet a rep, and get your name on their radar. Make sure to leave a physical copy of your resume with them, and follow up afterwards with a thank you email or handwritten note!

5 Portland Brands Worth Following

 

Instagram, as discussed in our previous blog post, is a major marketing tool. From small brands that are just beginning to build their fanbase, to super brands using the app to promote new products, this platform is used heavily to showcase businesses and what makes them stand out.

Here are five local Portland brands that are worth your follow!

Spin Laundry Lounge

“Portland’s only eco-friendly laundromat, bar and cafe places state-of-the-art, energy-efficient Electrolux washers and dryers + sustainable laundry products, in a retro-mod cafe/bar environment. Complete with coffee, beer, wine, and local eats.” –Spin Laundry Lounge

With over 4,000 followers, Spin’s content ranges from cute shots of their well-lit space (always an eye-catcher), the coffee shop attached to their business, the arcade area in the back, and snaps of cute dogs that come to visit. Plus, the account regularly gives away Spin gear through various contests. Spin’s socials convey their goal to remain a welcoming, fun lounge space to chill…not just a place to do laundry.

Powell’s Books

This iconic Portland landmark markets themselves not only to PDX regulars, but to customers all over the country. A few of their most popular posts are personal stories from Powell’s employees (that you actually want to read!), display art at the various locations, staff picks, and hilarious/cute book reviews by young readers. While documenting the store’s events and new items, Powell’s also uses Instagram to convey their cozy, home-like atmosphere. Their main message? Powell’s is a space where readers of all ages are welcome to come in, explore, and get lost in a good book.

Tender Loving Empire

You know those Instagram pages that post such great pictures of their product, it makes you want to buy it all on the spot? Yeah, that’s TLE. With their use of color, contrast, and sweet snaps of their unique products, it’s no wonder this PDX brand has over 16,000 followers. TLE’s merch doesn’t fall under one genre — from funky jewelry, records from the TLE music label, pet toys and art prints, TLE covers all the bases. Their Instagram account gives fans an inside, first look at new products, news about their record label, and upcoming events. (Including in-store performances from artists and a variety of panel discussions!)

Portland Gear

As Pat mentioned in our previous blog post, “Portland Gear leveraged Instagram to perfectly position its company and its personal commitment to our community, sports teams, and great design.”

Portland Gear, as founder Marcus Harvey says, was created as a way to harness Portland’s unique energy into something tangible. His gear has expanded beyond just hats and shirts now – the company even has its own trademarked beer! The iconic Portland “P” can be found everywhere, recognizable even to people who don’t live in Oregon. Plus, the vibrant teal color (similar to the PDX airport carpet) included in almost all of the Portland Gear products will forever be associated with the brand.

Salt & Straw

Salt & Straw, Portland’s most popular gourmet ice cream shop has been around since 2011, and it’s only getting bigger. Their Instagram features snaps of Salt & Straw fanatics getting their fix, funny fan tweets, contests for followers to win a free pint, and more. Their latest campaign has brought student’s imaginative ice cream flavor ideas to life –like Ellie, from Addams Elementary, who came up with a “PB & C” flavor: “In the PB and C is peanut butter ice-cream, ripe sliced bannans, hot fuge and chocklet chips. The choclet chip are in the icecream. My isperashun is my dad loveing peanut butter and bannas together. Also, its poshonul you can put appels instead of bannas.”

What are your favorite brands to follow?

Crisis Communication In the World of PR

What Is Crisis Communication?

“Crisis communication is a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation.” –Wikipedia

When something unexpected happens and affects the success of your company, PR professionals step in. While emphasizing transparency, honesty, and acknowledging any customer concerns, crisis communication also includes taking preventative measures for future crises.

Company Crises

Crises come in all different forms. A few crises companies may face:

  • Lawsuits
  • Labor troubles
  • Fires
  • Product recalls
  • Workplace harassment
  • Poor customer service
  • Theft
  • Fraud

A negative review on social media or a hate comment doesn’t qualify as a crisis. An issue becomes a crisis only when it affects/hinders workflow or harms the brand’s reputation. Media monitoring is incredibly important for this reason. In order for your company to maintain a positive reputation, knowing how customers see your brand is vital. According to TalkWalker.com, “Don’t stop monitoring. Running sentiment analysis during a crisis will determine how your customers, influencers, prospects, and your industry are reacting. How they’re reacting will carry significant weight and if negative, could harm your brand.” By keeping a close eye on social media conversations about your company, you may be able to prevent a crisis before it even occurs.

Online Presence and Preventing Crises

Company employees should adhere to strict social media guidelines. Everything and anything posted by your company will be viewed, shared, and criticized, so its important to establish what is and isn’t okay to share. Social media blunders are all too common these days, but they’re easy to avoid by proofreading and simply double-checking to make sure nothing has been shared that shouldn’t be.

In the Midst of a Crisis

If a crisis does occur, it’s important to take action as quickly as possible. The company’s CEO, marketing team and HR should all be involved, and one of the first steps is to identify who will speak to the media and answer questions on behalf of the company. According to TalkWalker, these are the most important guidelines to follow in dealing with a crisis:

Taking responsibility for the issue is crucial. According to Forbes, “In today’s real-time world of social media, and with critics everywhere, reputation management matters more than ever and it can be lost in an instant. The tenets of any crisis communication are to be proactive, be transparent, and be accountable. When put into action it looks like this: acknowledge the incident, accept responsibility, and apologize.”

Before taking any action, issuing a public apology takes precedence. In doing this, it’s important for companies to remain human in how they react. “Saying ‘you’ll look into it’ doesn’t make anyone feel better. Saying you’re deeply saddened by what went down and will work on making things better is important,” says Forbes. Another important note: NEVER go silent on social media about what’s going on.

Working to understand the situation, listening to customer concerns, then responding accordingly = effective crisis communication.

 

AM:PM PR offers crisis communication services! Find out more information here.

How To Grow Your Brand Through Instagram

 

“Instagram has over 800 million monthly active users and the platform is a great marketing tool if utilized effectively.”Forbes

Looking to expand your personal brand or business by using Instagram? Here are a few helpful tips.

Your Bio

Let’s start with the basics — your bio. It’s typically the first thing users see when they visit your Insta page. You want it to be short and sweet. While remaining eye-catching, simple and creative, you also want your bio to give a snapshot of you who you are. Brainstorm a few words associated with your company/brand, and that will help you come up with a phrase users will remember.

AM:PM PR’s Instagram bio: Creativity. Strategy. Socks with sandals. #ampmpr

Consistency

Keep your content consistent. Although it’s fun to experiment with filters, users will keep visiting your page if it follows a general theme. Choose one filter for the majority of your photos, and pay attention to how much white/blank space is present in each of your photos. A balance between the two is important. If you switch off between these two styles of photos or simply stick to just one, it will result in a overall more visually-appealing page.

It’s important to be regular with your posting schedule. Post every day and include a group of relevant hashtags under each photo. This will allow new users to discover your page, plus, unchanging hashtags will pool your content into Insta categories related to your field.

Examples of hashtags for a food blog/Instagram:

#foodblogger #food #foodie #foodphotography #instafood #foodstagram #foodlover #yummy #delicious #foodblog #foodies #healthyfood #instagood

AM:PM PR’s usual hashtags:

#agency #publicrelations #PR #pdx #branding #agencylife #portland #creative #art #portlandia #business #pragency #socialmedia #follow #brand #creativeagency #ampmpr #instafollow #instagood #creativity #media

Engage

Follow similar users. Not only will this increase your followers, (similar businesses will typically follow back) but you can also gather ideas for future content. Comment on other’s posts, reply to Insta stories and message people who reply to yours. You’ll grow an engaged fanbase in no time.

Connecting Your Website or Blog

If you are using Instagram to ultimately promote a larger businesses, website or blog, make sure to link your Insta appropriately.

When promoting new blog content on your Instagram page, here’s a few tricks:

  • Use call to action words. Examples: “New blog post is up! Click the link in my bio to check it out,” “You aren’t going to want to miss this week’s blog post! Visit the link in my bio to read.”
  • Use a platform like TapBio to immediately direct users to your latest blog post. “Rather than constantly changing your Instagram profile URL (to go with your latest post), you can easily add slides equipped with links to your Tap Bio corresponding to your latest Instagram posts. Tap Bio could be a powerful tool for social media stars, digital entrepreneurs or anyone trying to market themselves via Instagram.” – TechCrunch
  • Use Instagram stories to continue promoting your latest blog post through out the week. Use Insta stories to advertise new content instead of repetitive photos on your feed.

Highlights

A fairly new feature, Instagram highlights are an awesome way to display your archive of Insta stories. To organize them, divide the highlights into categories. Add a creative, consistent cover for each that compliments your theme colors for an extra touch. (See below for AM:PM’s highlights.)

Need more ideas/content inspo? Check out AM:PM’s Instagram page here!

PR Trend: Artificial Intelligence and Public Relations

What Is AI?

Artificial Intelligence: noun. A branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers, the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior. -Merriam-Webster Dictionary

AI infiltrates our lives more than you may realize. For example, that voice to text feature on your phone, Google maps, and customization of your Facebook feed? Yep, it all stems from AI. But don’t worry, these robots aren’t evil. And they aren’t taking over the world…just your Instagram feed.

AI & PR

The majority of the media you consume is tailored to align with your thoughts and opinions. This data is collected and customized for you based on what you engage with. In the world of PR, this is extremely valuable information. According to Forbes, “With real-time data being used as an asset, professionals in the PR and media industries are able to provide their audience with content they want, rather than content they find annoying.” AI allows PR professionals to target niche audiences with specific content and advertisements. As a tool for marketing, AI is transforming the PR industry.

How Do PR Professionals Use AI?

According to PR Daily, “If you do something more than twice, it’s a good candidate for automation.” This means that AI could be useful for routine tasks like monitoring client media coverage, summarizing negative/positive articles and analyzing data. A major advantage to AI could be its ability to quickly track a potential crisis your brand may face. AI frees up time for PR professionals to focus on client projects that require human understanding and creativity. (Something AI bots will never fully grasp. 😉 )

“All these AI applications will help PR folks save a ton of time on longer projects, resulting in increased opportunities to focus on what really defines a PR agency: ideas.” –Big Fish Communications

Why Are People Concerned About AI?

As PR professionals and consumers of media, should AI in the business world concern us? John Bara, president and CMO of a leading predictive marketing technology company, says no: “Savvy PR professionals will understand that big data and AI can provide their readership with amazing, data-rich research on a myriad of topics. Companies should not fear big data and AI. Instead, they should embrace the trend and experiment.”

It is also not likely that AI will steal jobs. The core of the PR industry is forming relationships. The personal connections that agency’s and businesses form with their clients can never be replaced by AI. PR succeeds through the cultivation of authentic relationships.

Pat’s Picks: Top 3 Fave Brands

Today’s blog post highlights AM:PM PR Co-Founder Pat McCormick and his three favorite brands!

Apple

“Hi, my name is Pat and I’m an Applephile. I need to make that admission to explain why I have Apple’s marketing at the top of my list of faves. Apple infuses its brand in every element of its products and marketing – from ads to packaging, to the look, feel and function of its products. My latest Apple acquisition is my Apple Card. Like other Apple products, it’s clean, simple, minimal. It lives in the Apple universe with my Apple MacBook Pro, Apple iPad Pro, iPhone XS Max, Apple Watch, Apple HomePod, Apple TV and Apple Music. (Full disclosure: I’m an Apple stockholder.)

Disney

My second fave is Disney. Family and friends are familiar with my tradition of taking my grandchildren to Disneyland between their 9th and 10th birthdays. So far, I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy 9 great Disney stays with 9 amazing grandchildren. It’ll be awhile before I can take Haxton, who just turned 3 last week.
The Disney marketing that’s caught my eye recently is its upcoming launch of Disney+, the new streaming service. Disney’s D23 Expo, the annual gathering of the Official Disney Fan Club, was this past weekend and a number of new program announcements were released. The company made great use of its social media, digital tools and traditional media relations. Disney+ will to tap into the existing and future Disney media libraries as well as Pixar, the Marvel Universe, the Star Wars franchise and National Geographic. Cost will be $7.50/month, about half of a Netflix subscription. I’m also a Disney stockholder.
~

Portland Gear

Third fave is Portland Gear. The company and its founder, Marcus Harvey, have a great origin story. He leveraged Instagram to perfectly position his company and his personal commitment to our community, its sports teams, and great design. Portland Gear is my nominee for the best example of developing a brand from a great idea which resulted in significant success using Instagram.”