O'dwyer's Nov. '19 Technology PR Magazine
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Communications & New Media Nov. 2019 I Vol. 33 No. 7 THE TECHNOLOGY ISSUE Communications strategies to grow B2B tech brands PR for SaaS companies Strategies, challenges for tech startups Managing communications through an IPO Content’s evolving role in tech Investor presentation fundamentals How Artificial Intelligence is changing PR Tech trends for 2020 Is single-channel communications bad for B2B brands? Why PR should integrate with paid media ‘Legacy’: the dirtiest word in tech? Mindful engagement habits for PR pros NOVEMBER 2019 | www.odwyerpr.com Vol. 33, No. 7 Nov. 2019 EDITORIAL CONTENT’S EVOLVING ROLE IN TECH Brand storytelling and content DIVERSE WORKFORCE 6 24 marketing are now must-haves. PAYS DIVIDENDS CLAIMING PR’S SEAT Inclusive workplaces boost morale AT THE TABLE and brand engagement. 8 New technologies help PR pros 26 provide more integrated comms. 14 SOCIAL, GREEN ISSUES TOP CONCERNS OF GEN ZERS WHY AGENCY ACQUISITION Gen Z wants companies to act on DISCUSSIONS FALL APART social, environmental issues. 9 The key factors that you should 28 always take into account. MANAGING COMMS THROUGH AN IPO BREAKING THROUGH Communications strategies for THE CLUTTER companies facing IPOs. 10 How to engage the right 29 audiences with the right stories. MINDFUL ENGAGEMENT FOR DISENGAGED PR PROS ‘LEGACY,’ THE DIRTIEST How mindfulness can help handle WORD IN TECH 23 stress and settle conflicts. 12 The word that makes companies WWW.ODWYERPR.COM 30 sound status quo, not innovative. HOW AI CAN FREE PR FROM Daily, up-to-the-minute PR news MUNDANE TASKS THREE TECH TRENDS Artificial intelligence can open up FOR 2020 opportunities for the industry. 14 Developments that will affect the 31 tech world in 2020 and beyond. PR CHALLENGES FOR TECH STARTUPS THE ‘LOPSIDED’ STATE OF Tips on finding the right strategies TECH PR and tactics for tech PR programs. 16 Trade shows aren’t the only way 32 to connect with tech clients. DOES SINGLE-CHANNEL WORK FOR B2B BRANDS? TOP STRATEGIES FOR How a multi-channel strategy can TECH STARTUPS help you connect with buyers. 17 Startups need to communicate 33 their story and their successes. A COMMS STRATEGY TO GROW B2B TECH BRANDS The key initiatives to focus on PROFILES OF TECHNOLOGY when taking tech brands global. 18 34 PR FIRMS WHY DOING PR FOR SAAS RANKINGS OF TOP TECH IS SO PAINFUL PR FIRMS Ways to get media coverage for EDITORIAL CALENDAR 2019 software-as-a-service products. 20 45 January: Crisis Comms. / Buyer’s Guide WASHINGTON REPORT INVESTOR PRESENTATION March: Food & Beverage FUNDAMENTALS How startups can snag investor 48 May: PR Firm Rankings attention with their presentation. 22 COLUMNS July: Travel, Tourism & International PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT August: Financial, I.R. & Prof Services IT’S TIME TO BURST THE Fraser P. Seitel COLLEGE DEBT BUBBLE 42 October: Healthcare & Medical The admissions scandal could FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT benefit community colleges. 23 43 Richard Goldstein November: Technology & Social Media ADVERTISERS 5W Public Relations .................................................. 3 Hotwire .................................................................... 11 Padilla ..................................................................... 27 Edelman .................................................................... 5 ICR ........................................................................... 7 PAN Communications ............................................. 13 Finn Partners ................................... Inside front cover InkHouse ................................................................ 19 Peppercomm ............................................. Back cover Firecracker PR ........................................................... 9 Karbo Communications ............................................ 8 Stanton ................................................................... 15 The Hoffman Agency .............................................. 21 LaunchSquad ......................................................... 25 O’Dwyer’s is published bi-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 bi-monthly. 4 NOVEMBER 2019 | WWW.ODWYERPR.COM EDITORIAL Can the media be saved? t’s hard to imagine the state of the U.S. media getting worse than it currently is. And yet, something tells me we’ll find ourselves surveying new lows next year. I Partisan pandering and a polarizing political climate have left trust in the national news at EDITOR-IN-CHIEF a nadir. Fewer than a third of Americans (31 percent) trust reporting by national news outlets Kevin McCauley these days, according to a new Knight Foundation/Gallup study, and an October survey from [email protected] Morning Consult found that media organizations now account for nearly all of the companies with the biggest net favorability gaps between Democrats and Republicans (see more on pg. 8). PUBLISHER Trust and confidence in the media among Americans identifying as conservative stands at only John O’Dwyer 23 percent, according to a 2018 Poynter Institute survey. [email protected] Then there’s the fact that calling the news business an unstable enterprise in 2019 qualifies for understatement of the year. The number of newspaper newsroom employees dropped by nearly half (47 percent) between 2008 and 2018, or from about 71,000 staffers to 38,000, according to SENIOR EDITOR Jon Gingerich Pew Research numbers. A 2019 New York Post report found that job losses across the U.S. news [email protected] sector rose 28 percent in 2018 alone. Consider this year’s casualties so far. The closure of Youngstown Ohio’sThe Vindicator, which ASSOCIATE EDITOR debuted in 1869, has left that Steel Valley mainstay as the largest city in the country without a Steve Barnes daily print paper. Washington, D.C.’s Vox Media now owns New York magazine. The pending [email protected] merger of the nation’s two largest newspaper chains—GateHouse Media and Gannett—despite creating the largest U.S. media company by print circulation, may lead to the end of USA Today’s CONTRIBUTING EDITORS print version, according to rumors. Family Circle, which has been in publication since 1932 and Fraser Seitel Richard Goldstein still boasts a circulation of four million, will shutter by the end of the year. I could go on. All this consolidation and cost-cutting means smaller newsrooms, dwindling resources, fewer pages, less content. This, in turn, assures fewer future readers, which results in declining future EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS ad revenues, setting the stage for more future cuts. Our news industry is circling the drain. & RESEARCH At the same time, it deserves mentioning that online adverting is booming. Digital ad revenues Jane Landers in the U.S. surpassed TV ad spends several years ago and crossed the $100 billion threshold for Melissa Webell the first time in 2018, according to an Interactive Advertising Bureau report. Ad spending in digital video alone—via social media and streaming platforms, as well as across mobile devices Advertising Sales: and programmatic exchanges—is expected to gain 21 percent in the U.S. this year to more than John O’Dwyer $36 billion, according to new eMarketer estimates. [email protected] And yet, distrust in digital media is even higher than that for its polarizing analogue counter- part. Partisanship and the “fake news” phenomenon have rendered the Internet a playground for the misinformed, worsening the media’s ongoing trust problem. Online news outlets, regardless O’Dwyer’s is published seven times a year of whether they lean left or right, are seen as the least-trusted media brands in America, accord- for $60.00 ($7.00 a single issue) by the ing to a 2017 University of Missouri study. And a 2018 Cision report found that more than half J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc. of Americans (56 percent) claim fake news via the Internet has made them more skeptical of 271 Madison Ave., #600 New York, NY 10016. content produced by bona fide newsrooms. A majority of Americans (63 percent) now consider (212) 679-2471 Fae: (212) 683-2750. the fake news phenomenon to be a “major problem” in the U.S., according to a 2019 Institute for Public Relations survey, one on par with gun violence (also 63 percent) and terrorism (66 © Copyright 2019 J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc. percent). Everyone is a content publisher these days, but as it turns out, not everyone should be. The OTHER PUBLICATIONS: current online model also isn’t a sustainable one, and if the press is going to be saved in this country, we need to fortify a sense of trust in the only economically viable media environment www.odwyerpr.com we’re going to have left in five years. Breaking news, commentary, useful data- Consider the one area of media where some semblance of trust remains: the local news. All bases and more. things considered, trust in local media outlets remains unusually high when compared to their O’Dwyer’s Newsletter national counterparts. According to the Knight /Gallup survey, nearly half of Americans (45 A four-page weekly with general PR percent) trust reporting by their local news “a great deal,” 61 percent believe these outlets do a news, media appointments and placement good job of educating them on what’s going on in their community, and 51 percent don’t feel opportunities.