Author Archives: zer0_admin

By Colleen Martin, Principal

If, like me, you have been working in Public Relations (or, more specifically, media relations) for more than a decade, chances are at some point in your career, you have either lost a client or failed to gain a client because you haven’t been able to prove the value and ROI of an ongoing public relations program.

When times are tough and belts have to tighten, PR is often seen as a luxury to cut back on, an unnecessary line-item on a company’s list of monthly expenses.

Unlike email marketing that leaves behind a trail of clicks, PR is a lot more fuzzy, but no less impactful for an organization of any size. When sales and PR work together strategically, and there is communication about industry trends and customer needs and pain points, the result can be a powerful combination that drives greater revenues, thought leadership, and delivers that key “IT” factor that is so hard to measure, but is invaluable to any organization – credibility.

At Zer0 to 5ive, we work with tech and biotech companies that span numerous industries and stages of development, from pre-product seed-funded companies, to large, publicly traded Fortune 500 enterprises. We have seen firsthand how PR can put a product or company on the map that previously didn’t exist or that had little name recognition within the industry, or how a PR program can be part of driving next-level prospect interest and thought leadership for a growth-stage company.

PR is so much more than writing and pitching press releases. When coordinated with, and leveraged by, sales, PR can work to drive powerful results all around.

Below are some of the things we do with our clients sales teams:

Hold weekly calls between PR and sales teams

With one of our clients, once a week, we have what we call a “Voice of the Customer” call, where a few members of the sales team share the conversations they have been having in the field, talk about what’s resonating, and where our message may be falling flat. For the PR team, we share any interesting conversations we have been having with the media, any hot trends we think we should be commenting on, and positive or negative feedback from reporters.

Share articles with customers and prospects

Did you just score an awesome article in Forbes or one of the top trade publications for your client’s key audience? Don’t assume their customers and prospects have seen it! Take advantage of the positive ink by encouraging them to email it to prospects and customers with an “in case you missed it, thought I would send this article along” note, include it in their company newsletter, post on their website, mention it in a blog and promote it on social media.

Leverage events to build media buzz and attract attention from prospects

If your client is speaking at an upcoming event or exhibiting at an important industry conference, you have potential gold. Work with the sales team to secure a list of registered attendees for the event and identify media and analysts attending. Draft a press release and reach out to reporters and analysts to set up in-person interviews with leadership at the booth. Both sales and PR teams can work together to build buzz at the event on social media channels and engage with attendees and prospects. Make sure marketing posts about it on the website and company blog. PR teams can capture key takeaways from the conference and invite conversations with the CEO after the event to discuss key trends and thoughts on industry news.

Promote happy customers and success stories

Does your client have customers that are seeing reduced costs, higher ROI, or improved performance based on their product or service? Don’t keep it a secret. Sales and PR should work together to spread the word. Ask sales if you can develop a case study that identifies the problem, solution and benefit seen with hard, quantifiable metrics that can be used as a PR asset for pitching the media. Once the case study is written, use it to attain a feature story or a byline that can further promoted (see #2!).

Ensure the right message is reaching the right audience

There is a famous philosophical saying that ‘if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” – the same could be said about a PR message coming from your company. Sales, marketing and PR teams should work together to make sure that they are putting out consistent messages and that they are reaching the right audiences. At Zer0 to 5ive, we regularly hold Chalk Talks that provide a positioning and messaging foundation for all communications. When this is coordinated, we have seen many clients received inbound leads from articles and news, putting a premium on the value of PR for their organization.

Do you have go-to tips or strategies to keep your PR and sales teams working well together? Share them with us on Twitter @Zer0to5ive!

By Michelle Pujadas, Founder & co-CEO

Wow! We made it! 20 years, nearly 200 clients, a body of work, peer and client recognition, a whole lot of fun, and many bottles of champagne to celebrate over the years. I appreciate all who have been a part of our journey, and especially those who are still on the road with us.

The 0to5 team, along with some willing co-conspirators, made this video surprise for us – and I LOVE IT!! Thank you all!!

We’re also celebrating our anniversary year with sponsorships of Philly Startup Leaders’ PHL Innovation Picnic on June 27th and the PACT Capital Conference, PACTCAPCON 2019, on September 26th – we hope to see you there!

Last but not least, I’m hoping to get one of my long-term goals – writing a marketing book – at least started this year. We started identifying core go-to-market activities that would increase the opportunity for success 20 years ago with our Zer0 to 5ive Roadmap™. Beyond that, there is an interesting balance of funding, burn rate, product development, market readiness, and that all-important first successful client, among other things. I’ll be soliciting some advice to entrepreneurs and lessons learned from the broader tech community, so would love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to email me your contribution: michelle@0to5.com.

By Michelle Pujadas, Founder & co-CEO

Have you ever had a book impact your business life in a meaningful and long-lasting way? For me, that book is Crossing the Chasm. I first read it in the mid-1990’s and it stuck. Like good glue. When we started Zer0 to 5ive in 1999, the positioning model in Crossing the Chasm became the heart of Step 2 of our Zer0 to 5ive Roadmap – positioning and messaging – the core of all sales and marketing. I reread the book a number of times, and it became required reading for all Zer0 to 5ivers.

I’m not the only one who loves Crossing the Chasm. Over the past 20 years, I can attribute at least 10 client wins to a shared love and dedication to the tenets of Crossing the Chasm: “People change their behavior due to pain! Mainstream buyers want a complete solution!” It seems so obvious now, but back then it was a light bulb moment that has been shared by millions over the years.

A few years ago, we had a number of interns for the summer and my first assignment to them was to read Crossing the Chasm and do a presentation on it. They made their way through it, some understanding the concepts better than others, but all recognizing that technology marketing is different. Two years later, I heard from two of the interns that they had to read Crossing the Chasm for their class and felt fully prepared. How great it was to hear that! And better yet, it’s rewarding to hear that this book that has been part of my life for more than 20 years is alive and well!

We have a whole list of favorite books, but others that I have read and actively used include: Selling the Invisible, Play Harder, Blue Ocean Strategy, and Contagious: Why Things Catch On.

Send me some of your favorites at michelle@0to5.com!

By Michelle Pujadas, Founder & co-CEO

The Zer0 to 5ive Roadmap™ dominated the early years of Zer0 to 5ive, and it is in large part what we built the company around. It was 1999 and the internet boom was in full swing. Companies with an “i” or “e” in the front of their names were seeing crazy valuations, and everyone had the next best idea for how their company was going to disintermediate something. Companies with little or no revenue were taking out full-page WSJ ads at nearly $100K each, and new entrepreneurs, brimming with confidence, were signing 10-year leases on real estate, committing up to 50% of their raise – I kid you not. It was in this context that the Roadmap became the go-to service for many venture capitalists and entrepreneurs looking for sanity, and a pragmatic go-to-market plan.

The Zer0 to 5ive Roadmap is a research-based process for building a strong brand and messaging foundation, and a viable go-to-market plan. If you asked any marketing pro to come up with the steps for creating a strong plan and brand foundation, you would probably see some semblance of the Roadmap. What’s magic about the roadmap is that it is just that – a roadmap to help you move confidently from Point A to Point B in a way that makes sense and as importantly, protects you from many brand and marketing pitfalls. It was popular in 1999 and remains so today.

The Roadmap consists of 6 steps, 0 through 5:

0 – Objectives
1 – Research
2 – Positioning and Messaging
3 – Brand Strategy
4 – Brand Identity
5 – Go-to-Market Plan

View (or download) full details here:
The Zer0 to 5ive Roadmap™: Getting to a Go-to-Market Plan

I encourage every early-stage entrepreneur to use it with their team to ensure the best possible start, and every growth-stage entrepreneur and marketer to use it when planning a product launch or market expansion. A full Roadmap can take 8 or 10 weeks to complete. In our early days, the final deliverable would be 4-inch thick binder jammed with research, analysis, ppt slides and creative, much different than today!

Going through the entire Roadmap process is a huge undertaking with real impact, providing tremendous value to our clients who will make critical decisions based on our recommendations. Importantly, the Roadmap has taught me, and everyone who has worked on one, how to think and approach every engagement. It’s a lesson that we share and promote vigorously throughout the organization. We know that you can’t jump to the end, without going through the process of learning, analyzing and thinking.

At last count, the Zer0 to 5ive team has completed close to 100 whole or partial Roadmaps and more than 150 positioning and messaging sessions. The Roadmap approach has been used by early-stage companies and industry leaders. We would love for you to use it for your next planning session, or have us help you implement it!

By Michelle Pujadas, Founder & Co-CEO

Zer0 to 5ive celebrates its 20th Anniversary in 20 days – May 21st. It’s hard to believe that so much time has gone by since we opened our doors. This will be the first of a series of blog posts celebrating the last 20 years, recognizing many of the people who made our success possible, and looking forward to the next 20 (!!).

Zer0 to 5ive was a long time in coming. In 1998, I was an SVP at Ketchum’s Pittsburgh office, leading its Tech Practice and traveling 13 days a month, with two young girls at home. I loved the job, the people, and the clients, but Ketchum was looking for big global companies for its tech roster, and Pittsburgh – home to Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, and Duquesne universities – was becoming a hub of startups. These startups had big ideas, but little idea of how to launch into the market, never mind build a long-term brand. From this “perfect storm” came the idea of starting Zer0 to 5ive, which at the time would focus solely on emerging tech. The “when” and “how” was on my mind until I finally pulled the trigger in 1999, with Santi – then President of a Westinghouse division and now my co-CEO – filing the paperwork on May 21, to become “official” as Zer0 to 5ive, LLC.

Getting to our own launch – and early success and momentum – involved many people whom I want to thank. Some I still know and talk to regularly; others I have lost touch with over the years, but still feel their impact. So a BIG THANK YOU to Mike Bolton, former Managing Partner of PA Early Stage and SVP at Safeguard Scientifics, who encouraged me to go it alone and provided many an introduction; Harry Wallaesa, former President of Safeguard Scientifics, who had the confidence to bring me on as VP of Marketing for Safeguard, while also acquiring one-third of Zer0 to 5ive with the idea of providing real marketing services to Safeguard’s growing portfolio of companies; Bob Longo, our very first client at Carnegie Learning, who then went on to bring us into a number of other edtech opportunities—including working on Apple’s PowerSchool brand for 4+ years—and who remains a friend today; Laurie Mizrahi, who designed our wonderful logo, in return for messaging; and Jennifer Helfer, our first employee, who has gone on to be an agency superstar in London.

Additional THANKS to Paul McKeon, CEO of Crescent Communications in Atlanta, and his business partner, Ruth Doering, who entrusted the expansion of Crescent when I left Atlanta to move to Pittsburgh, knowing that we would ultimately be folded into Ketchum and that I would have a home in Ketchum’s Pittsburgh office. Zer0 to 5ive is modeled after Crescent – one of the first agencies to understand the power of integrated marketing for tech companies.

In our early months and years, we had wonderful co-workers, clients and partners – thank you to all who believed in us, especially those from the Safeguard family and its various venture funds, and to the 0to5ers who helped the Zer0 to 5ive Roadmap™ become a reality and a sought-after service, and who made Zer0 to 5ive an agency that clients returned to again and again.

Last, but certainly not least, a big THANK YOU to my husband Santi, who believed that I could do it, supported me, and then left his own thriving career to join me to ensure Zer0 to 5ive would be a commercial success – who knew that revenues and cash flow were not the same??!!

Stay tuned for more posts from me over the coming days and weeks!

Six ways for startups, early stage and established companies to expand their brand and connect with a target audience

In addition to branding your products and services, it’s also important to establish a brand identity and build an authentic brand image for your company–especially if you’re a startup or an early stage company.

Beyond company logos, fonts and design styles, you can increase the possibility of establishing strong connections with clients and prospects if you expand your brand identity to reflect your organization’s values. Factors such as corporate responsibility, dedication to relevant causes, and transparency can help build a foundation for trust with your audience in today’s market.

The easiest way to start building your brand identity is to show your audience who you are and how you got here. Start with these six ways to establish, grow and share your brand identity:

Write a strong mission statement and/or brand story.

In addition to an elevator pitch about who you are and what you do, the About page on your website can also be a great place to share your story. Describe who founded your company, when and why they founded it, and be sure to include any personal details that led to the birth of your brand.

For example, if you’re developing a product or an application to solve a problem you experienced in your own life, tell that story on your website, on social media or on product packaging. It’s an easy way to find an audience who can relate and see the potential use cases of your services for themselves.

While you’re at it, incorporate that sentiment in a mission statement that clearly defines your purpose and the principles that will guide you. A mission is not reserved only for non-profits–it’s simply a way to convey your goals and your values, and it’s a great place to start building your brand identity.

Establish a company culture

Once you’ve defined your mission, you can establish an authentic company culture that reflects it. To get started, think about your own work-life values and implement them in your company. Do you strive toward a healthy work-life balance? Do you love company retreats with team bonding and skill-building exercises? Do you support working remotely or work-from-home options for employees? Or, maybe you want to send out a weekly all-staff email showing praise and gratitude for team members who have done an exceptional job.

Decide what type of company culture you want to create and stick to it. Let prospective employees know what you have to offer, and keep it going once they join the team. Your employees will live and breathe your brand identity, and it will show in their interactions with prospects, customers and colleagues.

Create a workspace that reflects your brand values

Whether your team works remotely, in an office or a combination of both, you can create a workspace that reflects your brand values. If you’re working remotely, start a Slack channel that’s just for fun conversations, and one that’s just for internal news and communications unrelated to specific projects. Your team will feel connected, informed, supported and heard even if you aren’t in the same place.

If you have an office space, think about easy ways you can make it your own. Add a dry erase or chalk wall just for inspirational and motivational messages. Choose furniture or wall art that fits with the colors and styles you’ve established for your brand, so it feels cohesive to employees and guests (and looks great in photos!). Even if you have a co-working or shared space, you can highlight how that aligns with your values.

Showcase your employees in new ways

Framing a photo of your employee of the month may not be the most inspired method of employee appreciation, but there are other simple ways to make your team members feel noticed. You could feature an employee spotlight on your blog or Careers page with a fun Q&A about their likes and interests. You could welcome them to the team with a social media post during their first week. You could survey employees to gather testimonials on their favorite parts of working with the team, and share them on LinkedIn.

Don’t be afraid to pull back the curtain and humanize the talented team you’ve built! It can also mean a lot for customers to put a face to the name they may have only met over the phone or online.

Choose relevant charities to support as a team

According to Entrepreneur, corporate giving improves company culture and provides an opportunity for organizations to reinforce their purpose. Consider choosing one (or a few) non-profit organizations to support as a team. Gather a group to participate in a charity walk, or offer an employee donation-matching program. Alternatively, you could provide employees with a set number of PTO time, which they can use to perform charitable work during normal business hours.

Then, ask employees to submit photos or blog posts describing their experiences, so you can share them with your audience. It’s a great way to make new connections, boost morale, build your brand identity and support a worthy cause all at the same time.

Highlight your brand identity with pictures & videos online

It may be obvious by now, but it’s worth repeating–now that you’ve done the work, share it with your audience. Let outsiders in on your company culture by posting about the environment you’ve built. You may already have content at your fingertips that could endear your audience to your organization.

One way or another, the atmosphere you create internally will become a major part of your brand identity, and that identity will be perceived by your audience. Make sure it’s an image you can be proud of by starting from the ground up.

By Erica Warnitsky, Strategist

Business-to-business (B2B) event marketing offers prospects a chance to interact with a company and get a first-hand account of its products, services, brand and expertise. To be effective, events must make a lasting impact. As a result, events are trending towards a more inclusive, collaborative and blended experience for exhibitors and attendees alike. As BizBash founder, David Adler, puts it: “All experiences are morphing together into the festivalization of events.” Concerts are merging with conferences, industry tradeshows are adding consumer elements, and keynote speakers are passing their mics to the audience for increased attendee participation.

Whether you’re exhibiting at an upcoming tradeshow or planning your next big conference, these five trends will help give you a competitive edge in today’s evolving event landscape.

It’s All About the Theme

Gone are the days when you could show up to a conference and pop up a table with a branded tablecloth. Today, brands are taking a deeper dive into campaign themes and must strategically bring their theme to life through booth design and activation in order to stay competitive in a sea of booths.

At AI Summit last year, ParallelM aimed to effectively communicate their value as “The MLOps Company.” The Company worked with Zer0 to 5ive to launch MLOps.org – a resource for data science, operations & engineering, and business teams to understand and implement machine learning operationalization – and wanted to make an impact at the event. Zer0 to 5ive developed a branded booth backdrop, counter, and pull up banner, as well as an MLOps sticker to help bring the brand and message to life.

With clever designs and supporting materials, there are endless ways to support your message and brand through booth design and engagement.

Less Is More

Conferences and tradeshows can be aesthetically overwhelming for attendees. There’s so much to see in so little time, that the last thing people want to see is convoluted messaging on booth displays.

If it takes attendees more than 5 seconds to read and understand your message, you’ve lost them. Keep it short, impactful and to the point. One great way to do this is by including an eye-catching industry statistic that speaks to your product or service. Another is a graphic that conveys how your product’s benefits. Additional information can be provided in banner stands, brochures and handouts.

In order to get the most out of your messaging, be sure to remember the following:

• Keep messaging and imagery at eye level. Anything lower than 20 inches off the ground will go unnoticed
• People take in tradeshow graphics like they do a newspaper – left to right and top to bottom – so arrange your messaging accordingly
• Use your brand colors wisely and consistently to avoid visual overload and maintain your theme

Dynamic Data Collection

Every business knows that collecting information is key when exhibiting at an event. A captivating digital experience can seamlessly generate leads and collect user information, while garnering the full attention of your potential client through entertainment. With gamification abilities and VR experiences, brands can now demonstrate their products and services in an engaging, hands-on way that is sure to pique the interest of attendees and drive traffic to their booth.

At DIA, Zer0 to 5ive’s client, Greenphire, paired their eye-popping graphics with an interactive superhero quiz and a selfie booth. Not only did their creative activation draw people into their booth, but it also served as a way to collect emails and generate leads among a captive audience.

No matter the digital integration, be sure it is well executed and fits with your overarching theme.

Engage Your Audience (Either Live or Virtually)

Tradeshow trends are leaning toward increased participation by attendees. We will likely see a gradual decline in the speaker-centric event model, and future conferences and tradeshows will focus on increased interaction between speakers and attendees.

Similar to Reddit’s AMA (Ask Me Anything) threads, where there is a direct exchange between the speaker and audience, conferences will seek attendee participation and engagement beyond the typical five minutes of Q&A at the end of the session.

This trend isn’t exclusive to speakers either. It can – and should – be implemented in booth activations as well. Have the company’s CEO do a live AMA via social media or conduct an interactive survey to get feedback and insights from attendees, and get creative!

Experience. Watch. Repeat.

Live streaming offers a number of benefits for conference planners, exhibitors, and attendees alike and will, without question, become even more prevalent at conferences in the coming years. A few benefits include:

• Opportunity to generate a larger audience by removing geographical and physical restrictions
• Seamless integration into social media campaigns through the use of Facebook LIVE, Instagram LIVE and event hashtags, allowing organizers and exhibitors to create shareable content, while enabling virtual attendees to contribute to the conversation
• On-demand sharing post-event enables continued visibility and can be used to follow up with attendees, showcase the event to potential sponsors, or promote the next year’s event

Although it’s tough to replace attending an event in-person, there are certainly benefits to live streaming capabilities.

One thing we can count on in the event industry is that there will always be new trends emerging. Stay current on the latest trends and keep these five in your back pocket for your next big event. We’re already excited to see what the rest of 2019 brings!

By Deirdre Purdy, Senior Strategist

In this book review, Zer0 to 5ive’s Alyson Kuritz features Bernadette Jiwa’s “Marketing A Love Story: How to Matter to Your Customers“.

It’s a simple concept, but oftentimes an overlooked one: in order to be effective in marketing, you have to see the world through the eyes of your customers. What do they really want? Why will someone really care about this? Bernadette Jiwa points out in her book, “Marketing A Love Story,” that the best marketing is accomplished by communicating how our ideas translate into value and solve real problems. She explains that if we find ways to authentically show people that we care about them, we have a better chance of mattering to them.

In the age of technology and instant gratification, where there are a dozen options for streaming TV, getting a ride or selecting a phone, delivering a positive customer experience is one of the most valuable investments a company can make.

The introduction of the book recounts her time as a bean counter for a grocery store. Often times while stocking shelves, she’d be approached by a customer needing help locating or reaching a product, but instead of helping them herself, she’d pass them along to another clerk as she had been instructed to do. She reflected on how odd it was that the store spent so much time trying to get people in and out, but not to offer the best, most memorable experience, to keep them coming back.

As the title implies, the book is divided up into a number of blog posts, or “love stories” as she refers to them, in three distinct categories: strategy, context and story. The brief pieces utilize real-life examples and analogies, making it easy to for the reader to consume and to read on to the next short story. In this blog post, I have highlighted one entry from each section that resonated the most with me and my career as a communications professional.

Strategy

Life After Launch Day: Introducing the One-Page Marketing Plan

Jiwa compares launch day to giving birth. As a marketer who has helped launch many companies and products (and at the time of writing this post was very pregnant), I felt like she was writing this post for me. What do the two have in common? It’s quite simple, actually. You read the books, you take the classes, you have a 10 point plan for every scenario that could happen during 20 hours of labor, but what about the next 20 years?

Oftentimes organizations get so caught up in activities leading up to the launch that it’s easy to overlook the long-term strategy. She says “day one is easy to imagine – but what’s the plan for day two?” To succeed beyond the first 24 hours, she outlines the key elements that should go into every one-page marketing plan:

• Why
• Who
• Difference
• Price and positioning
• Distribution
• Platform
• Promotion strategy
• Conversion strategy
• Growth strategy
• Referral strategy
• Strategy for increasing transaction value
• Retention strategy

Context

The Value of Asking ‘What If?’

“Because we’ve always done it that way” is a risky trap to fall into, and one that doesn’t often come with much reward. Jiwa reminds us of that with an example of Marriott testing a pilot program, which offered dining credit or loyalty points in exchange for each day without housekeeping.

Why would they do that? It turns out that each daily room cleaning costs Marriott at least $22. They began to explore ways that their residents could get more value out of that cost. What if they value privacy or “being green” more than a made bed? It turns out that they were onto something, and customers appreciated the option.

Jiwa explained that stepping out of your comfort zone feels risky because you might find out that all the hard work you’ve put in place might not be the best solution. However, not asking the question guarantees you’re going nowhere.

Story

How to Tell the Story of Your Idea Using the Value Proposition Hack

One of the biggest challenges isn’t coming up with a great idea; it’s how to communicate the value of that idea to its customers. This is hard to do if you don’t have a place to start, so she developed the ‘value proposition hack’ for people to explain the value of an idea in a single sentence.

We do ________ so that you can do/feel/be _________.

We created ________ so you don’t have to do/feel/be______.

This ‘love story’ stood out to me because it was closely aligned with what we’re taught on day one of working at Zer0 to 5ive: Geoffrey Moore’s positioning model, featured in his book, Crossing the Chasm. Moore takes the value proposition hack a few steps further, and in addition to showing the value your company offers, also highlights what differentiates you from the competition in the market.

Whether you are someone with ten or more years experience in marketing and PR like me, or you’re an entrepreneur or a student, I highly recommend reading this book. It might serve as a refresher for concepts you’re already familiar with, or could open your eyes to a different way to position your company. Either way, it was entertaining, included tangible, real-world examples, and was digestible in a single train ride – always a plus!

By Alyson Kuritz, Director

A public relations crisis can happen to any company of any size at any time. Sometimes, they happen quickly, like a product failure or a personal scandal involving a top executive. Others build up slowly, like a growing customer service issue. Lately you can’t go online or turn on the TV without reading about a company’s or person’s public relations crisis unfolding.

A PR crisis can rattle even the most seasoned PR professionals. When a company is not prepared for an unexpected situation, it can spiral out of control quickly, with PR professionals scrambling to do damage control. While companies cannot always prevent a crisis from happening, it pays to be prepared and ready for action when the crisis hits.

Damage Control: The Essential Lessons of Crisis Management

Preparation can help turn a negative situation into a positive outcome. However, sometimes in a crisis, a “positive” outcome is not possible – but you can turn a negative outcome into something when the impact is minimized. And to do that, you need the skills to understand how to manage a crisis.

That reality is one of the key lessons conveyed by the book, “Damage Control: The Essential Lessons of Crisis Management,” by authors Eric Dezenhall and John Weber, which turns some of the conventional crisis wisdom on its head.

The book provides a detailed overview on modern crisis management and presents real-life case studies and best practices for making “bad situations less bad” through preparation, messaging and crisis management strategies.

Keep Calm and Call the Crisis Team

The book touches on examples of crisis management strategies including media relations, dissuasion, offensive techniques, and knowing when to “execute a strategic retreat.”

And, while often much of the focus of crisis management is on PR, the book points out that while PR is an integral part of managing any crisis, crisis management goes beyond messaging and communication – and can include legal action, restitution, and more.

Successfully handling a crisis is about planning, quick thinking and strong leadership. And, the authors say that while no plan can anticipate all possible crisis scenarios, executives need to at least have an educated guess about what awaits them in the years ahead.

Prepare for These 10 Company Crisis Trends

In the book, the authors share 10 key trends shaping tomorrow’s crisis environment:

1. Corporate mission creep: Companies of all sizes are committing to social, civic and environmental responsibilities and goals, outside of the day-to-day business. Crisis managers will need to learn to multitask across the sometimes-contradictory goals of the greater good vs. shareholder value.
2. The demise of science: While “sound science” was rarely questioned in the past, the proliferation of “fake news” and pseudo-science have made consumers more discerning when it comes to believing studies and research in support of a product.
3. Outspent and outgunned: In the past, large companies were able to buy their way out of a crisis. Now, many NGOs fighting against the large corporations are well funded and PR savvy, and able to launch large-scale campaigns to the turn public and media sentiment against the large corporations.
4. Is junior covering your crisis?: As money and advertising continue to take precedence over public interest journalism in many newsrooms, reporting quality will suffer. Too few reporters, with little experience or training, doing little research and poor reporting will create an environment ripe for mischief, misrepresentation and malfeasance.
5. Wall street war zone: Businesses are becoming more aware of the need to act more responsibly, and embracing environmental and social policies, so as to not alienate those invested in their companies.
6. Everyone’s a pundit: While the mainstream media is still the main source of news for many people, news of any type is now crowd sourced from around the globe 24/7, increasing both the likelihood of an issue becoming a crisis, and the speed at which it does.
7. Make ‘em laugh: Today, a large chunk of the American public gets their news from comedians. This trend will continue, providing a barometer of just how deep a corporate crisis has worked its way into the public consciousness.
8. Your brand is a target: For large companies, a well-known brand can be both an asset and a liability, as anti-corporate campaigners will continue to promote their issues by associating it with a well-known brand. In the future, companies will need to couple promotional campaigns with brand-defense campaigns to mitigate these efforts.
9. Protecting intellectual property: In today’s “open source” culture, businesses will be increasingly pressured to share their knowledge at a reduced return. Communications teams will need to know where to draw the distinction between altruism and protecting intellectual property.
10. The porous corporation: Attacks from within a corporation can be equally as devastating as external attacks. Digital and social media has made it easier than ever for employees to share sensitive company documents with others.

No matter how big or well-regarded your business, chances are your company will face a PR crisis at some point.

At Zer0 to 5ive, we know the importance of crisis planning, and recommend to all PR clients that they put into place a crisis communications plan with a media response protocol and template messages. While we can’t be prepared for everything – we can at least have a plan of action should a crisis occur.

By Jennifer Moritz, Managing Principal

In today’s digital-focused world its hard to find someone who isn’t on social media – whether it be your grandfather using Facebook to check in on the grandkids or your teenage niece posting every chance she gets. As of 2017, 81% of the population had at least one social media profile, so leveraging these channels is a must for every business’ marketing plan.

Social media is a fast communications channel that may be overwhelming to marketers trying to grab attention. Gary Vaynerchuck, author of the book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How To Tell Your Story In a Noisy Social World, argues that even if marketers are posting a constant stream of fresh content, they need to think that the social media equation requires both quantity and quality. Brands need to look relevant, engaged and authentic in order to attract their target audience and stand out from the crowd. Vaynerchuck cautions about boring content, noting that only outstanding content can break through the noise.

Vaynerchuck identifies 6 rules the make great content and compelling stories for social media:

1) It’s Native – Native content amps up your story’s power and seamlessly blends in any social media platform. Native content can range from sharing a quote, a picture, an idea, a song, a spoof, or something else – there’s not exact formula, but just have to be something that is relatable to your brand without looking like a straight up advertisement to sell. Native content is crafted to mimic everything that makes a platform attractive and valuable to a consumer, and also offers the same value as other content that people consume on the platform. This content has to engage the consumer at an emotional level. Native content has been compared to infomercials, but isn’t as cheesy when done correctly. Native content should hit the consumer’s emotional center and make them take that next step and share with other users, thus extending your reach.

2) It Doesn’t Interrupt – Ads and marketing are supposed to evoke emotion and make consumers act on that feeling. For content marketing in social media, it should positively effect, or augment, your consumer’s experience. People have no patience anymore, and social media content has to ensure it is providing value, as well as engagement. They might not buy anything today, but will far be likely to buy from a brand that understands them.

3) It Doesn’t Make Demands – Often – Companies need to be engaging and find shared interests with their audience so that their social media content doesn’t always come with a “sell” message. A makeup company can offer makeup and grooming tips so that its audience sees them as an industry resource and establishes trust. Then, when a sales message is pushed out it feels more like a recommendation from a friend than a sales call. Bottom line: Provide content that is not only relevant to your brand, but also interesting to your audience so that you keep their attention.

4) It Leverages Pop Culture – Take a minute and think about the brands that are constantly noted for excelling at social media. What do they have in common? Leveraging popular and timely events/news/music in a creative and fun way that still manages to tie back to their brand. Personify your brands by leveraging pop culture and showing your audience that you’re just like them. For example, Bud Light used a native post on Facebook with a bottle of Bud Light that says, “Summer is coming.” This was a clear nod to the popular HBO show, Game of Thrones, highlighting the fact that Bud Light understood that many  of their consumers were anticipating the show.

5) It’s Micro  – Social media content should be really considered “micro-content” – tiny unique nuggets of information, humor, commentary or inspiration that you reimagine everyday, as you respond to today’s conversations in real time.  Vaynerchuck uses the example of a blackout during the 2013 Super Bowl, where Oreo responded with a simple tweet “Power Out? No Problem” with a photo of a lone cookie in the dark that said, “you can still dunk in the dark.” This was a reminder that Oreo is a fun brand and a cookie for all occasions. Oreo wasn’t overtly selling, but responded in a timely manner with original micro content, which made the brand seem almost human. Social media is 24/7 and should be talking all the time.

6) It’s Consistent and Self Aware – Though your micro-content will vary every day, it must consistently answer the question, “Who are we?” Your core story must remain constant, as well as your personality and brand identity. When you know your message, it’s simple to keep it consistent in every setting. Creating micro-content is simply a way to adapt to the circumstances of your audience and is one of your brand’s best chances of being noticed.

These characteristics of great content should be used when building a social media strategy and will help ensure that you get noticed.

By Patrick Reilly