O'dwyer's Nov. '17 Technology PR Magazine
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Communications & New Media Nov. 2017 I Vol. 31 No. 11 THE TECHNOLOGY ISSUE Augmented reality: not technology for technology’s sake Standing out in today’s noisy tech landscape Thought leadership: going beyond the buzzword Chasing press mentions = PR with blinders Choosing agency partners for global growth Employer branding: an insider’s view When hackers target PR firms Five common mistakes in tech PR November 2017 | www.odwyerpr.com Vol. 30. No. 11 Nov. 2017 EDITORIAL THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: BEYOND THE BUZZWORD To create cutting-edge ideas, MILLENNIALS MOST LIKELY TO 6 23 it takes a little bit of courage IGNORE PRODUCT RECALLS EMPLOYER BRANDING: AN 8 INSIDE VIEW FOR PR PEOPLE EVENTS COULD DRIVE Recruiting top talent remains a MAGAZINES’ GROWTH 24 competitive and critical challenge. 14 8 AR ISN’T TECHNOLOGY FOR FACEBOOK USE PLUMMETS TECHNOLOGY’S SAKE ACROSS MIDDLE EAST The biggest goal of Augmented 9 25 Reality is finding client solutions. VIRAL CONTENT VS. NEWS FOR SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO COMPANY STORYTELLING 9 Cutting through the chatter to COMMUNICATING IN 26 deliver effective messages. TURBULENT TIMES Tech has a responsibility to keep FIVE COMMON MISTAKES 25 pace with a transformed world. 10 IN TECH PR WWW.ODWYERPR.COM Subtle, everyday behaviors that Daily, up-to-the-minute PR news 27 can sink client relationships. EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES, SMARTPHONE-LEVEL IMPACT How technologies on the horizon CHASING PRESS MENTIONS: will change the world we live in. 12 PR WITH BLINDERS Earned media opportunities can 28 top mentions in business pubs. WHEN HACKERS TARGET PUBLIC RELATIONS FIRMS GETTING PR OFF How to safeguard your information THE DESERT ISLAND and prevent a further crisis. 14 For continued success, firms need 29 to move outside the comfort zone. EXPANDING BANDWIDTH Tech clients have growing need PROFILES OF TOP TECH for strategic communications. 16 30 PR FIRMS WHAT THE ‘BETTER RANKINGS OF TOP TECH ECONOMY’ MEANS FOR PR PR FIRMS EDITORIAL CALENDAR 2017 Increasing consumer power is a good thing for the industry. 18 41 January: Crisis Comms. / Buyer’s Guide WASHINGTON REPORT February: Environmental & P.A. March: Food & Beverage PICKING PARTNERS FOR April: Broadcast & Social Media OVERSEAS GROWTH 44 How to find the right partners May: PR Firm Rankings when your firm is going global. 20 COLUMNS June: Global & Multicultural July: Travel & Tourism PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT August: Financial/I.R. Fraser P Seitel HOW TO STAND OUT 42 September: Beauty & Fashion IN A NOISY SPACE October: Healthcare & Medical How to use psychology to make FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT November: High-Tech contact with your clients. 22 43 Richard Goldstein December: Entertainment & Sports ADVERTISERS 5W Public Relations . 3 Karbo Communications . 8 Peppercomm . Back cover Airfoil . 15 LaunchSquad . 17 Racepoint Global . 13 The Hoffman Agency . 11 Marketing Maven . Inside front cover Strauss Media Strategies . 9 Hotwire . 5 Omega World Travel . 33 TV Access . 42 ICR . 21 PAN Communications . 7 O’Dwyer’s is published monthly for $60.00 a year ($7.00 for a single issue) by the J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc., 271 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. (212) 679-2471; fax: (212) 683-2750. Periodical postage paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to O’Dwyer’s, 271 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. O’Dwyer’s PR Report ISSN: 1931-8316. Published monthly. 4 NOVEMBER 2017 | WWW.ODWYERPR.COM EDITORIAL Trump, press scramble to rebuild Mueller narrative pecial Counsel Robert Mueller’s bombshell first indictments against former Trump cam- paign aides in the Russia investigation were revelatory for a number of reasons. First, the Scharges were substantive and wide-reaching enough to suggest the investigation won’t be EDITOR-IN-CHIEF going away anytime soon. Jack O’Dwyer Second, they underscored the lengths to which Trump loyalists in the media will go to keep [email protected] their audiences dancing to the drumbeat of denial, with the usual menu of dismissive claims that it’s all a witch hunt, or fake news, or launching a disinformation campaign of whataboutisms in ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER a desperate attempt to redirect us to the real story: namely, Hillary Clinton’s 2009 deal to grant John O’Dwyer U.S. uranium production to a Russian nuclear energy agency while she was Secretary of State, or [email protected] “fake news” outlet the Washington Post’s October report that the Clinton campaign helped fund the infamous 2016 Trump dossier. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, along with his business associate Richard SENIOR EDITOR Jon Gingerich Gates, were hit with a dozen counts not actually linked to anything involving the 2016 campaign: [email protected] tax evasion, money laundering and intentionally conspiring to defraud the government by fail- ing to register lobbying work for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party with the Justice Depart- SENIOR EDITOR ment. Manafort, who’s now the first campaign chief since Watergate to be indicted, has pleaded Kevin McCauley not guilty to those charges. [email protected] Then there’s the case of George Papadopoulos, the 30-year-old former Trump foreign policy advisor who was quietly arrested in July and pleaded guilty in October to lying to federal inves- ASSOCIATE EDITOR tigators regarding his months-long attempts to arrange meetings between the Trump camp and Steve Barnes high-ranking Russian government officials. Manafort, Gates and other senior Trump officials [email protected] apparently knew what Papadopoulos was doing, as did Agriculture Dept. adviser Sam Clovis, who encouraged Papadopoulos to seal the deal on a meeting. So, why are we just hearing about CONTRIBUTING EDITORS it now? Unsealed court papers show Papadopoulos had been lending “proactive cooperation” to Fraser Seitel the investigation since his arrest, meaning for more than three months he may have worn a wire Richard Goldstein in exchange for cutting a plea deal, and his work with federal investigators could produce further charges against other staffers. This is very bad news. EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS So far, Trump and his administration have responded to the news with wild feats of obscuran- & RESEARCH tism, utilizing a confusing communications strategy that serves to both distance the President Jane Landers from the allegations while, simultaneously, casting the developments as no big deal. Trump on Oct. 30 took to Twitter to respond to the arrests, claiming Manafort’s unlawful activities oc- curred “years ago,” and “long before [Manafort] came to the campaign.” This is incorrect. Ac- cording to Mueller’s Oct. 30 indictment, Manafort hid Ukrainian payments from U.S. authorities John O’Dwyer Advertising Sales Manager between “approximately 2006 through at least 2016,” during which time he was serving as Trump [email protected] campaign Chairman. On Papadopoulos, Trump cast the former advisor as a “young, low level volunteer” who “has already proven to be a liar.” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeated these talking points, claiming O’Dwyer’s is published monthly for $60.00 the former campaign members were indicted on charges that had “nothing to do with the Pres- a year ($7.00 a single issue) by the ident.” She then doubled down on the image of Papadopoulos as a glorified coffee boy, referring J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc. to him as an unpaid volunteer on an advisory council that met once in the course of a year. 271 Madison Ave., #600 Predictably, Trump’s allies in the media have fallen lock-step behind these clumsy PR efforts, New York, NY 10016. desperately attempting to spin a confusing narrative of often-contradictory talking points that (212) 679-2471 Fax: (212) 683-2750. downplay the indictments while attempting to use the opportunity as a chance to rally their au- © Copyright 2017 J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc. diences to follow them down the rabbit hole after their own cherry-picked conspiracy theories involving Hillary Clinton. OTHER PUBLICATIONS: Sean Hannity, who’s gone absolutely ballistic over the scandal, laid bare his paranoid, fevered delusions in an October monologue, claiming there’s “zero evidence of Trump Russia collusion” www.odwyerpr.com before pivoting into a baseless conspiracy theory that Mueller is somehow “clearly complicit” in Breaking news, commentary, useful data- Clinton’s 2009 Uranium One scandal. Jesse Watters, appearing on “The Five,” also used the news bases and more. as a classic “but Hillary!” bait-and-switch, claiming that what “Papadopoulos did, Hillary did 10 O’Dwyer’s Newsletter times worse.” Sidney Powell, speaking on “Fox & Friends,” claimed that “the entire investigation A four-page weekly with general PR was set up, basically, to impugn this presidency and to make it as hard as possible for Mr. Trump news, media appointments and placement to carry out his duties.” opportunities. In a series of bizarre new developments, both the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board have penned editorials calling for Mueller’s resignation. In the strangest twist O’Dwyer’s Directory of PR Firms of all, Fox has now set its sights on the judges presiding over the Paul Manafort case, reporting Listings of more than 1,250 PR firms throughout the U.S. and abroad. that one judge has a son who was allegedly convicted of selling heroin, and that another donated $1,000 to Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. O’Dwyer’s PR Buyer’s Guide There’s another unlikely ally that has aligned with this narrative. Speaking with the media on Products and services for the PR industry Oct. 31, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the investigation “over-the-top Russo- in 50 categories. phobic hysteria” and the suggestion of any election meddling “fantasies” without “a single piece jobs.odwyerpr.com of proof.” Politics truly makes strange bedfellows.