The Public Relations Blog

Why It Happens:

3 ways your company can deal with internet trolls in 2017 and beyond

Earlier this month, fast-food chain Wendy’s earned numerous headlines because its social media team challenged a heckler on the Twitter playground. Upworthy writer Parker Molloy captured the entire exchange before Wendy’s deleted its comments and the critic, @NHRide (aka Thuggy-D), deleted his Twitter account. It went like this:

You see it every year: news stories about people camping out early to be the first recipients of Black Friday shopping deals.

It may surprise you to learn that some of these people are decoys, paid by stores or manufacturers to generate buzz for their products.

This is a public relations and marketing tactic that companies have used for years, and is it right for your company? Is it a scam?

When executives voluntarily engage in hot topics trending in the media, particularly politics, they sometimes forget that their positions are not bully pulpits or soapboxes.

Often, dangerous roads lie ahead for alienating customers, stockholders and employees.

In cases where emotions run high and trigger a public reaction before public relations processes can be helpful, PR teams frequently find themselves rebounding from derision instead of working to promote success.

Want to boost your company’s PR power? Report to the C-suite

The public relations departments of the nation’s most successful companies are shaking things up – and the results could help businesses communicate like the nation’s top money-makers, boosting their brand reputations and revenues.

Developing a public relations plan can seem like a tedious, time-consuming task, but with the right planning and a coherent map, you will ultimately save time and money and enjoy more success. Here are the basic elements to any great PR plan:

Whether you thought Lady Gaga nailed the national anthem or you hailed the combination of Coldplay, Beyonce and Bruno Mars’ halftime show, Super Bowl 50 proved to be yet another stunner.

Denver's defense led the Broncos (and Peyton Manning) to victory while MVPs from Super Bowls past showed us they can still rock a tailored suit.

Are you ready for some football (or the ads)?

The Super Bowl is fraught with traditions: adult beverages, hot wings and viewers gripped by an exciting football game and intricately woven-in advertisements.

Most of us have our list of favorite commercials, yet corporations don’t spend millions on creative ads simply for the sake of being creative. They want their messaging contained within the ads to stand out equally as strong.

The Super Bowl is the Holy Grail of advertising. But membership to this elite club costs north of $5 million per 30-second commercial. And that is some serious capital.

What if your business can’t afford such a significant investment? The answer, quite simply, is to invest your money wisely in other forms of public relations and marketing.

Since 1989, USA Today has tallied the top-ranked Super Bowl commercials through its Ad Meter ranking system.

This approach combines results from a privately selected panel and feedback obtained through social media to determine commercial rank.

As we gear up for Super Bowl Sunday, here’s a brief look at the top three Super Bowl ads and what made them so memorable.