Congrats To The Team @ The Horn Group (& Lois Paul.. & Fleishman…)
The Horn Group hit the 15 year mark this week. Congrats to Sabrina and crew! Nice post here on how they got there. You know they’re entrepreneurs just reading the blog. And because fellow tech entrepreneurs live in the basement!
And guess what, it’s Lois Paul’s 20th anniversary this week – and Fleishman-Hillard’s 60th anniversary in September. Congrats to all.
Measurement Moves
Measurement leader Cymfony today launched its Influence 2.0 initiative with a new set of analytics – Market Influence Analytics:
Messages in the Influence 2.0 world must run the gauntlet of traditional and social media sources on the way to reach their intended target. Along the way they are amended, appended, extended and up-ended. Understanding the paths of influence and how this affects the audience’s reception of the message requires a different kind of service than PR measurement or CGM monitoring.
Taking a quick look at what they are up to, Cymfony is making some strong moves toward understanding the power of recommendation (their measurement engine has a unique advantage here) that should make them attractive to any F1000 looking to track influence vs. opportunities to see. Here is what they have to say on the initiative:
Cymfony’s goal is to kick off an industry-wide effort to fully understand the changes underway, and educate companies, brands, marketers, PR professionals and others who aren’t as deeply immersed in these changes as we are.
This is a great initiative and I like what they are up to here. Igniting a dialog is as important as launching the ideas and solutions. Understanding recommendation and its relationship to OTS should be something that every communicator is looking at. Moreover, it extends the communications measurement mandate into the heart of product, brand and marketing management.
You can read more in the first chapter of their eBook and are encouraging you to contribute to the conversation via their wiki. And they’ve updated their site along with new blog.
Deb Eastman of Biz360 has also launched a blog.
The Hightest Paid Person In PR?
Is Steve Parrish the highest paid person in PR? Perhaps. According to the NYTimes Magazine the senior vice president of corporate affairs at Altria (think Philip Morris and Malboro pulled in a cool $14m last year.
The revealing read points as much to his personal transformation as to the shift in position and message at Philip Morris – a company that has evolved from claiming that cigarettes weren’t addictive and an individual choice to one in which they “area addictive and cause the disease and death of hundreds of thousands of people every year”; and, “when you set tobacco on fire and inhale it into your lungs, bad things happen”.
Moreover, Nocera’s piece points to the intrinsic link between communications strategy and business strategy. Philip Morris has shifted from a position vehemently opposed to the regulation of the industry to supporting it, for instance. In doing so the message has caused a shift in some of its opponents message.
“There is no question, then, that Parrish and Philip Morris USA are hoping that regulation could help lead the company to reclaim some legitimacy. From a business perspective, that could result in a higher stock price…”
This is arguably one of the most dramatic and socially significant shifts in message we have seen undertaken by a corporation.
Tokyo Again…
I’ll be posting light this week. Am back in Tokyo with LogLogic partners and customers.
If you are a frequent user of the AA San Jose to Tokyo flight make the most of it now through October. After that, it is canceled. American Airlines in all their wisdom believes that canceling a flight that is perpetually overbooked is smart. First dumb move. Second dumb move, thinking that we will fly through Las Angeles. AA has some great employees manning the desk in San Jose and on that flight. Loosing them – Third dumb move. Coupled with a mileage program which barely works and the meaninglessness of the Star Alliance this all makes for more reasons to fly with others. Perhaps their only saving grace is the absolute ineptitude of their long-haul competitors.
Still – nothing will make me fly through LAX…
