Communications – Page 4 – universal positive

Brand thyself

March 11, 2024March 27, 2017 by Roger Darnell

For years now, career counselors, management consultants, self-help gurus and many others have encouraged us to apply the concepts of brand management to ourselves. For anyone who is beginning this daunting process, just getting going can be a big challenge considering how much advice there is to be found. Bearing that in mind, I wanted to provide some guidance. First, I invite you to check-out the video playlist I’ve embedded above, which will help you get a handle on the main ideas at work here so you can begin applying them to yourself. The playlist also includes several more in-depth presentations, including a complete course in Personal Branding Education.

Below you’ll find several excellent articles that will allow you to get fully up-to-speed. Finally, for a couple of examples of how everything can add up once you’ve successfully applied these lessons, I invite you to check-out the web presence for author Bret Easton Ellis at http://BretEastonEllis.com. On a more personal note, you might also be interested to see http://RKDarnell.com.

Sharing secrets: Smart planning and production for marketing content

March 11, 2024January 13, 2017 by Roger Darnell

Ever since hearing that failing to plan is a sure plan for failure, I have been a firm believer in taking the time necessary to diligently and intelligently lay out plans for anything I’m seriously aiming to accomplish. When I attended the ReCourses New Business Summit (NBS) back in 2012 thanks to David C. Baker and Blair Enns, I witnessed a new approach for how creative businesses and professionals can change the way they handle sales. My understanding on the secret is this: The key is to think and operate like a publisher. Along those lines, naturally, the business model requires successful handling of content. The NBS lessons were very timely for me, as you have seen here; I have deep admiration for innovative publishers of all sizes, and as time moves forward, I hope to follow the best of them and achieve my own version of greatness.

Over the past two years, this idea of content marketing has really caught fire, so for anyone beginning the planning process of fathoming these types of practices and putting them to work in new ways, you are in luck. It’s my pleasure to share five different highly qualified paths toward brilliant content marketing – each of which is focused on helping to facilitate solid thinking and planning.

Sharing Secrets: Prioritize, Maximize, and Rise, Through Science

March 11, 2024August 26, 2016 by Roger Darnell

Hard pressed for time? Me, too. Maybe that’s the reason why it seems to be getting harder and harder to be productive. Working in the Creative Industry as I do, too often, each nudge forward is met with two new delays. Making progress is definitely possible, but the battle to be successful is constant, even for those of us who are adept at being agile and persevering at scale.

By and large, my clients create premium content… which is mostly audiovisual data of the highest caliber. Luckily for us, the market for this premier subject matter is on the rise in countless ways. For me in my role as a press agent – which spans strategic marketing, writing, artistic development of premium audiovisual content, cross-channel marketing leadership, media relations and customer service expertise – even despite abundant complications, the means of marketing are becoming more refined.

To help us all focus and succeed in the time we have to work with, here are five innovative Creative Industry ideas aimed at optimizing our energy and efficiency.

Olympic openers

March 11, 2024August 5, 2016 by Roger Darnell

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Danny Boyle’s 2012 Summer Olympics “large-canvas nation-themed spectacle” of an opening ceremony will always be remembered as one of the most eccentric and memorable Games’ kickoffs in history. Since NBC’s broadcast reportedly attracted nearly 41 million viewers, THR has also named it the highest rated Summer Olympics opening of all time.

My reaction:

Great to know: Filmmaker Jonathan Lim

May 10, 2024April 26, 2016 by Roger Darnell

I recently had the chance to meet filmmaker Jonathan Lim, whose dramatic feature film “Pali Road” is opening in theaters in 20 U.S. cities across America later this week. Jonathan wrote and directed the film, which was entirely shot on-location in Hawaii and is the first Hawaii-China co-production in history. While Jonathan describes it as a mystery and a romantic thriller, here’s how it’s introduced by the programmers of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, who have chosen the film to close the festival’s 32nd edition, this Thursday night, 28 April:

“…As stylish as it is mysterious, ‘Pali Road’ by Jonathan Lim echoes the most daring and challenging of classic Hollywood mysteries. If you look closely, you’ll find a hint of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 romantic mystery “Rebecca” starring Joan Fontaine; and maybe even espy a nod to George Cukor’s legendary “Gaslight” (1944) starring the great Ingrid Bergman…”

Read moreGreat to know: Filmmaker Jonathan Lim

Our common fascination with uncommon videos

May 10, 2024January 12, 2016 by Roger Darnell

I firmly believe that life is as different as all of the organisms that experience it, and even if we’re just talking about humans, that is an infinite amount of diversity. What’s important or interesting to me may be the last thing in the world you want to think about. Still, when you find a piece of video content that has made it onto one of YouTube’s “Most Viral” charts, there’s a pretty good chance that most people will want to watch it.

As you probably know, YouTube released its latest news about these charts about a month ago. The news and accompanying videos were subsequently splashed in feature stories in these media outlets, to name but a few.

Sharing secrets: How to write stories for The Associated Press

May 10, 2024December 9, 2015 by Roger Darnell

Back in 2000 when I was working for The Terpin Group in Los Angeles leading PR campaigns for dot-com companies with extremely high aspirations, my colleagues and I knew that there was absolutely one way of hitting a home run, and that was placing a story with The Associated Press. AP stories generate massive exposure, as they are syndicated in major media outlets across the country and around the world. And of course, if you have a story that’s good enough for the AP, it’s good enough for everyone. With this in mind, imagine how powerful it would be if you had the chance, today, to meet with Paul Caluori, the AP’s Global Director of Digital Services, and Philana Patterson, the AP’s Small Business and Breaking News Editor, to learn what they look for in story submissions. Thanks to Business Wire, it’s on.

Back in February of this year, Business Wire hosted a webinar featuring Paul and Philana, where they shared exactly these types of insights. Here are a few of the bullet points from the secrets they shared.

Best-case scenario: Kathryn Hempel, Cutters Studios

May 10, 2024September 16, 2015 by Roger Darnell

Generally speaking, on the best days, my job breaks down to a careful balance of art and craft. I’m hoping that this art/craft angle will be an interesting way to talk about some others I admire, and what we’re achieving together. Due to the uncommon success of our joint efforts, I’m choosing Kathryn Hempel and all her colleagues at Cutters Studios as the perfect subjects to explore a new variation on the classic case study, which I’m calling a “Best-Case Scenario.”

With love to director Brad Tucker for putting us all in contact, a lot went into making Cutters Studios a solid fit for me when we joined forces last year. The very first “Cutters” commercial editorial facility had opened in Chicago 34 years earlier, but by January 2014, the parent Cutters Studios group was also operating studios in Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City and Tokyo… spanning all aspects of commercial production, post-production and creative development. Relatively soon after partnering up, I learned about the Always #likeagirl campaign that Kathryn was editing for Leo Burnett and Chelsea Pictures director Lauren Greenfield, and I had a chance to counsel everyone on all the ways we might use PR to promote the work and everyone behind it.

By then, I already had a very good sense of what sets Cutters apart:

Interested in being a guest speaker? Start early!

May 10, 2024July 21, 2015 by Roger Darnell

If you have the goal of becoming a successful guest speaker in the business world, I have some tips to share about getting started. These are based on my experiences working with some very talented people who are currently on-the-rise as star presenters, including Erin Sarofsky – and Chad Hutson and Jason White, the principals of Leviathan. Here are the preliminary tips (two more follow below):

Start early
Focus on these efforts as a key business activity
Set your sights strategically to target the right opportunities
Have a very specific vision for your proposed presentation and communicate it with the correct person before the deadline while also providing a well-organized summary of your speaking history
Read moreInterested in being a guest speaker? Start early!

What’s the impact of winning a Cannes Lion?

May 10, 2024June 26, 2015 by Roger Darnell

Happy Friday, friends! I hope your work week is wrapping up nicely and that you’ll soon be able to enjoy some well-earned downtime, like a lot of people have been doing all week in Cannes (kidding, of course). Before ending this week, I wanted to share this video I’m embedding here from experience design agency Freestate, and a few more comments about the significance of winning a Cannes Lion award.

As you can hear first-hand from FreeState’s creative director Adam Scott in this video directed by Ilan Metev, FreeState won a Gold Design Lion at Cannes in 2013 after designing the world’s largest kinetic sculptures for Blackpool’s promenade. Under the heading of “Why Winning a Lion Matters – An Agency’s View,” Mr. Scott enlightens us while pedaling his bike around the city: “Sometimes it’s hard to find your way, and especially hard given it’s so darn crowded out here…. How do you stand out,” he asks.

And about the results of winning Cannes Lion Gold, he continues: “I would say people are far more interested in our approach, and that has to be a good thing. And well, if it can happen to us then it can certainly happen to you.”

Isn’t that lovely? Also, to me, it’s a perfect summation to what it means to win a Cannes Lion.

Meanwhile, the image I’m providing here offers a newer angle into this discussion. Taken hours ago