By Megan Fredette, Account Executive, Consumer Throughout the last few years, the Stanley Tumbler craze has gained momentous virality, taking over as an online and in-store phenomenon. In turn, it has left many of us asking the question, “how has a drinkware product taken over the consumer market space by storm?” Here are our takeaways of the key strategies Stanley implemented to overtake the hydration market. 1) Know Your Customer, But Embrace New Ones As a century-old brand, Stanley had a well-established name within the male-dominated outdoor & workwear space. However, their niche posit ..read more

By Amanda Munroe, SVP, Technology We’re about through Q2 and it’s safe to say that generative AI has been the singular dominating topic of discussion with our technology clients for much of it. In every call, strategy meeting and brainstorm, nearly every client (AI startup or not) asked how we, their PR team, can tie them to the genAI discussion. The goals and motives vary, from showing a competitive product differentiator to becoming a thought leader to, well, simply exploiting a hot topic for earned media hits. As PR people, we’re used to jumping on the news agenda, search trends and breakin ..read more

By Leslie Clavin, VP, Editorial Services For two decades, SHIFT has guided clients through communications challenges as automation and artificial intelligence entered, disrupted and transformed their markets, from healthcare to manufacturing to transportation and beyond. Now, it has finally come for us: AI in public relations is here. You’ll have read the headlines. Generative AI (genAI) burst onto the scene in late 2022 with the public availability of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, one of many apps that create text, images, videos and audio content based on its learnings from massive data stores. Adoption ..read more

Now, in an emerging market, is the time for AI startups to kickstart a strategic AI-PR program, and mind the gap between industry and consumer awareness From mainstream media to trade press and corporate blogs, artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (genAI), in particular, seems to be everywhere. In fact, it is. We found coverage on the topic was up nearly 3,000% in H1 2023 versus the previous period. With red hot interest and hype cycle in full effect, it is a critical business moment for AI startups and AI PR programs. To help AI startups inform their PR efforts, we decided to uncove ..read more

By Amanda Munroe, SVP, Technology We’re about through Q2 and it’s safe to say that generative AI has been the singular dominating topic of discussion with our technology clients for much of it. In every call, strategy meeting and brainstorm, nearly every client (AI startup or not) asked how we, their PR team, can tie them to the genAI discussion. The goals and motives vary, from showing a competitive product differentiator to becoming a thought leader to, well, simply exploiting a hot topic for earned media hits. As PR people, we’re used to jumping on the news agenda, search trends and breakin ..read more

As social media ad costs , companies are needing to press harder on other growth levers for their D2C marketing. If approached with a modern ethos, PR can be one of them. But what does “modern PR” mean? To us, it’s not just pursuing media relations — or any tactic — blindly, but rather looking through the lens of where your audiences spend time and how you can be relevant in those spaces. Not every campaign needs highly produced creative or to run across every single channel. But it does need to focus on extending across the right ones, with content that is useful and meaningful to its intende ..read more

By Leslie Clavin, VP, Editorial Services For two decades, SHIFT has guided clients through communications challenges as automation and artificial intelligence entered, disrupted and transformed their markets, from healthcare to manufacturing to transportation and beyond. Now, it has finally come for us: AI in public relations is here. You’ll have read the headlines. Generative AI (genAI) burst onto the scene in late 2022 with the public availability of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, one of many apps that create text, images, videos and audio content based on its learnings from massive data stores. Adoption ..read more

Late last month, two SHIFTers were among the thousands of attendees at the blockchain world’s marquee event: Consensus 2023, a web3 marketing frenzy. Held in downtown Austin for the second year in a row and put on by the media outlet CoinDesk, this year’s event was markedly different from last year’s in a few ways.  First, dehydration wasn’t a concern. In perhaps the easiest decision CoinDesk had following sweltering 105 degree conference days last year, the event was moved from June up to late April when the only real perspiration was from the sky.  Secondly, it was a more subdued a ..read more

By Sarah Babbitt, VP, Agency Marketing CEOs and top company executives have always been under a microscope. Today, though, that microscope is magnified, especially internally. And people are split on how executives are doing with their internal communications strategy. 60% of people said executive teams are sincere in their communications, but just 53% said they prioritize internal communications enough in a new survey we ran. Why executive communications are being scrutinized. There are a few reasons why workers are more fixated on internal executive communications: Financial pressures have ..read more

By Reva Seth, Senior Advisor The social values of brands and companies remain top of mind for consumers, customers and cultural influencers. In fact, 70% of consumers believe brands must take a public stand on social and political issues. And 66% who do say it is because they believe brands can create real change. This shift will continue to grow since transparency on values and business operations are increasingly essential to the younger generation. As a result, more leaders and founders are revisiting the open letter. What is an open letter? An open letter is a message intended for a specif ..read more