Podcasts about peppercomm

On this episode of The Transfix Take On, Robert Duda, Senior Vice President of Automotive and Transportation Strategist at Peppercomm, delves into the pressing challenges and promising opportunities within the trucking industry. Robert addresses the critical issues of driver shortage and retention, exploring the appeal of trucking as a career. Our conversation navigates the impact of regulations, the vital role of effective communication, and the importance of supporting drivers' mental health and well-being. Additionally, we discuss community building within the trucking industry, the unique internal culture at Peppercomm, and the impactful initiatives of St. Christopher's Fund. Join us as we explore the complexities of driver turnover and the essential role of communication and community within trucking companies. -- Disclaimer: All views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Transfix, Inc. or any parent companies or affiliates or the companies with which the participants are affiliated, and may have been previously disseminated by them. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are based upon information considered reliable, but neither Transfix, Inc. nor its affiliates, nor the companies with which such participants are affiliated, warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. All such views and opinions are subject to change.

Francesco Lagutaine, chief marketing, communications officer at M&T Bank, and Jacqueline Kolek, senior partner and chief innovation officer at PR and marketing agency Peppercomm, join host Matthew Schwartz to discuss the long-standing relationship between M&T Bank and Peppercomm and why it's increasingly important crucial that brand managers view their PR agencies as partners and not vendors.

Today, we are celebrating 100 episodes of the PR Wine Down podcast! To our long-time listeners and newcomers alike — thank you for “wining down” with us!  On today's episode, April and Laura welcome Clayton Fletcher, acclaimed comedian and Chief Comedy Officer at Peppercomm. He is here to discuss the book he recently co-authored with Peppercomm CEO Steve Cody, “The ROI of LOL.” Tune in for an interesting discussion about what PR professionals can learn from best practices in comedy — and why Peppercomm makes it a requirement that new team members take a stand-up class. Tips include: how to use best practices from stand-up and improvisation to improve communication skills, how comedy tricks can improve client relations and workplace culture, and why it's important to have fun in the workplace.  Later in this episode, April and Laura take a walk down memory lane by revisiting our first-ever Anonymous PR Horror Story, to see if they still have the same advice, 100 episodes later. Get “The ROI of LOL” here: https://roilol.com/ Follow Clayton's work here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clayton-fletcher-88625b52  Connect with Trust Relations: Have an anonymous PR horror story to share or questions you want to be answered on the show? Email us at contact@prwinedown.com. You can stream the show live at 2:00 pm ET every Saturday, on ElectroMagnetic Radio. You can also connect with Trust Relations on our website or on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com. Send in a voice message here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/prwinedown  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/prwinedown/message

Do you ever feel like maybe we leaders take ourselves too seriously? If you find yourself wound up about a missed detail and yelling at one of your employees because if of it, you need to hear from Steve Cody about the importance of humor. He is the CEO and Founder of Peppercomm where humor is a core value of his highly successful and recognized strategic communications firm.  He is also co-authoring a book called the ROI of LOL due out this year. In this episode, you will learn:Why it's so important in today's negative environment to inject humor into your corporate cultureHow humour and his skills as a stand-up comedienne has transformed Steve's company and him personally and professionallyWhy it's especially important for leaders to not take themselves too seriously and the  impact it has on employeesHow turnover can be reduced by admitting your mistakes and being realistic with your teamMuch more!//WHEN YOU'RE READY, HERE'S HOW WE CAN HELP YOU//TAKE THE FREE 5-MINUTE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT ASSESSMENThttps://turningthecornerllc.com/hr/employee-engagement/assessmentDOWNLOAD A FREE SELF-ASSESSMENT:https://turningthecornerllc.com/free-assessment/SCHEDULE A CALL WITH A HUMAN RESOURCES CONSULTANThttps://turningthecornerllc.com/

Do you know how vulnerable your organization is to a crisis? In this episode, Jackie Kolek, the chief innovation officer at Peppercomm, explains why it is essential to measure and monitor an organization's exposure to a crisis, and the worst-case scenarios if they don't pay attention to their vulnerability.Quotes"Leaders, both in the private and public sectors, must redefine their perception of crisis. It goes beyond mere operational considerations; it demands a holistic approach." - Jackie Kolek"When an organization aspires to embody certain values, failure to truly live up to them and take real action creates a substantial vulnerability."- Jackie KolekFeatured GuestJackie KolekChief Innovation Officer, PeppercommLinkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinekolek/https://www.peppercomm.com/Chapters00:01 | Introduction01:37 | Strategize to Address Both Tangible and Intangible Vulnerabilities05:58 | Strained Relations: Anheuser Bush's Brand Vulnerabilities in the Face of Backlash08:16 | Rethinking Crisis: A Call for Leaders to Listen and Redefine09:48 | How Global Landscape Transformed Crisis Preparedness11:37 | Understanding Stakeholders for Effective Messages13:05 | Unveiling Organizational Vulnerabilities with Rep Compass.17:25 | Harnessing Data for Effective Crisis Management: Prevention and Response.19:16 | Identifying Stakeholder Concerns for Survival: The Constituent Matrix.20:45 | Navigating Outages with Effective Crisis Management22:24 | Preparedness in Action: Testing Plans, Simulating Crises, and Clarifying Roles.25:25 | OutroProduced by Heartcast Mediahttp://www.heartcastmedia.comThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5602540/advertisement

Steve discusses the power of humor in business, and how the tenets of humor change perspectives on leadership styles and open participants' minds to creative ways of thinking and engaging. Research shows that training rooted in humor principles improves engagement, enhances creative problem-solving, and deepens communication and collaboration with coworkers. Humor releases important hormones like dopamine, creating new neural pathways and freeing the brain up to see new possibilities. Humor can markedly enhance productivity and collegiality in post-merger integrations, serve as a catalyst for an employee base to not only accept, but embrace, change and play a starring role in attracting and retaining the best and the brightest employees. Listeners will learn skills for building and strengthening rapport and improving leadership skills. Participants won't be transformed into stand-up comedians, but rather experience an introduction to leadership based on the principles of humor.Peppercomm 

An interesting and useful conversation by Jamil with Armel Leslie from Peaks Strategies The Opportunities and Challenges of Public Relations within the Crypto Industry, with Armel Leslie and Peaks Strategies Armel Leslie is a Partner at Peaks Strategies delivering integrated brand-building campaigns for clients across the capital markets ecosystem with a strong reputation and expertise across alternative investment management and digital assets/crypto. Armel began his career at Walek & Associates in 1999 where he rose to a Partner by the time of its sale to integrated PR agency Peppercomm in 2013, where Armel was Senior Director of Capital Markets. Following his time at Peppercomm, Armel was a Senior Vice President at Sloane & Company, where he oversaw some of the firm's leading financial services clients.He graduated cum laude with a BA in History from Baruch College (CUNY) in New York, where he worked at the Press Office his senior year. A Native of South Africa, he also attended the University of South Africa (UNISA). He is a Board Member and Treasurer of American Friends of Tikvot, a philanthropic organization headquartered in Israel. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crypto-hipster-podcast/support

On the latest edition of The PR Week, Atari's David Lowey sits in to talk about his company's 50th anniversary and the sheer scale of the gaming industry. Plus: Major people moves at HP, McDonald's, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, BCW, Marina Maher Communications and DisneyJen Psaki reportedly negotiating for her own show on Peacock; The somewhat overshadowed Grammy Awards; Ukrainian marketers' and PR pros' efforts; Ruder Finn acquires Peppercomm.Follow us on Twitter: @PRWeekUS

We all could use a laugh nowadays...right?! In our latest episode, host Matthew Schwartz talks to Jenna Lebel, CMO at Liberty Mutual Insurance, and Steve Cody, founder of PR and marketing agency Peppercomm (and a stand-up comedian) talk about using comedy in marketing and advertising and why finding the funny can be serious business.

We all could use a laugh nowadays...right?! In our latest episode, host Matthew Schwartz talks to Jenna Lebel, CMO at Liberty Mutual Insurance, and Steve Cody, founder of PR and marketing agency Peppercomm (and a stand-up comedian) talk about using comedy in marketing and advertising and why finding the funny can be serious business.

Listen to our insightful discussion with renowned comedian Clayton Fletcher, as he weighs in on how the business world has gone from looking at comedy and humor as a “nice to have” to a necessity that helps solve different challenges and pain points with their employees and client interactions. Clayton also discusses: What has changed in how businesses approach humor in his last 13 years as Chief Comedy Officer for PeppercommHow he identifies the innate qualities each person has that makes them funny as storytellersThe ways in which teaching humor in business has changed with a more politically divisive environment.  The increasing need for comedy service offerings such as the ones Peppercomm offers

An interesting and useful conversation by Jamil with Armel Leslie from Peaks Strategies The Opportunities and Challenges of Public Relations within the Crypto Industry, with Armel Leslie and Peaks Strategies Armel Leslie is a Partner at Peaks Strategies delivering integrated brand-building campaigns for clients across the capital markets ecosystem with a strong reputation and expertise across alternative investment management and digital assets/crypto. Armel began his career at Walek & Associates in 1999 where he rose to a Partner by the time of its sale to integrated PR agency Peppercomm in 2013, where Armel was Senior Director of Capital Markets. Following his time at Peppercomm, Armel was a Senior Vice President at Sloane & Company, where he oversaw some of the firm's leading financial services clients.He graduated cum laude with a BA in History from Baruch College (CUNY) in New York, where he worked at the Press Office his senior year. A Native of South Africa, he also attended the University of South Africa (UNISA). He is a Board Member and Treasurer of American Friends of Tikvot, a philanthropic organization headquartered in Israel. Jamil Hasan is a crypto and blockchain focused podcast host at the Irish Tech News and spearheads our weekend content “The Crypto Corner” where he interviews founders, entrepreneurs and global thought leaders. Prior to his endeavors into the crypto-verse in July 2017, Jamil built an impressive career as a data, operations, financial, technology and business analyst and manager in Corporate America, including twelve years at American International Group and its related companies. Since entering the crypto universe, Jamil has been an advisor, entrepreneur, investor and author. His books “Blockchain Ethics: A Bridge to Abundance” (2018) and “Re-Generation X” (2020) not only discuss the benefits of blockchain technology, but also capture Jamil's experience on how he has transitioned from being a loyal yet downsized former corporate employee to a self sovereign individual. With over ninety podcasts under his belt since he joined our team in February 2021, and with four years of experience both managing his own crypto portfolio and providing crypto guidance and counsel to select clients, Jamil continues to seek opportunities to help others navigate this still nascent industry. Jamil's primary focus outside of podcast hosting is helping former corporate employees gain the necessary skills and vision to build their own crypto portfolios and create wealth for the long-term.

Angela Sullivan, head of communications for the Americas at Xero, a New Zealand-based company and a Peppercomm client, sits down with Steve and Paul to talk about how humor works in a large, global organization like Xero, and how the business owners they serve are learning to take a lighthearted approach in a challenging climate. On this episode, you'll hear Angela's thoughts on:The difference between humor in the U.S. and humor in New Zealand and AustraliaHow humor is part of keeping it #humanUsing humor when confronted with microaggressions when she moved back to the U.S. from Asia as a teenager 

Steve Cody is CEO at Peppercomm, a fully-integrated strategic communications firm headquartered in NYC, with offices located in San Francisco and London. AS CEO, he does it all: from implementing strategy and counseling clients to leading business development and bringing new products and services to market. He is the current chairman of the Institute for Public Relations, a longtime member of the Arthur W. Page Society, a member of the advisory councils of the College of Charleston and the University of Florida, and was named one of Northeastern University's 100 most successful alumni. He is co-author of the book “What's keeping your customers up at night?” and the host of the "Laughing Matters" podcast that features people from all walks of life who share one belief: laughing matters. The PR Podcast is your view inside the public relations business. We talk with great PR people, reporters and communicators on how they weave narratives that are informative and fun. Host Jody Fisher has worked in New York City PR for more than 20 years, representing clients across the healthcare, higher education, financial services, real estate, entertainment and non-profit verticals. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @ThePRPodcast. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theprpodcast/support

As 2021 tells 2020 “hold my beer”, Peppercomm's David Goldstein and Courtney Ellul discuss insights and best practices from the recently released “Inauguration Playbook: Managing Fear, Confusion and Stress Among Employees”. We discuss what internal communications professionals need to know about communicating with their employees based on insights captured by Peppercomm's proprietary Mindset.AI artificial intelligence software. 

Peppercomm's Rob Duda talks with the agency's new Chief Digital Officer Stephen Corsi about why he feels a PR agency is best suited to create and execute digital strategies. We also discuss why he chose Peppercomm and what he feels are the latest digital trends we'll see in 2021. 

Steve Cody is more than just the CEO of the marketing communications company Peppercomm: he's an innovator, he's a leader, and he's a... comedian? In this special episode, David sits down with Cody and they discuss the value of stand-up and improv comedy in today's workplace. We chat about: -When Steve got comfortable using humor in the workplace. -Steve's stand-up origin story. -The distinction between joke-telling and storytelling. -How Steve convinced his company to incorporate stand-up comedy training into their culture. -The edge that using comedy gives Peppercomm when competing for clients and creative job recruits. -Why leaders need to be more vulnerable in today's workplace. -The value of giving mental health breaks to his team. -COVID and how Steve responded in a very human way. -How Peppercomm has maintained their comedy-centric culture remotely. -And more!!! Produced by Golden Ox Studio | Music: Producedbyzip

Peppercomm CEO and Founder Steve Cody talks to Senior Partners Jackie Kolek and Ann Barlow about the emotional state of the public during this unpredictable and controversial election captured by Peppercomm's proprietary Mindset.AI artificial intelligence software and how it compares to 2016. Hear from the team about what CCOs and CHROs can do to support their employees and what communications professionals need to know during this tumultuous time. 

Peppercomm's Rob Duda talks with Red Eye Radio host Eric Harley about his experience covering the trucking industry on overnight radio for more than 25 years and the current state of the trucking industry. 

Peppercomm's Rob Duda talks with Erin Streeter, SVP of Communications & Brand Strategy at the National Association of Manufacturers, and Laura Putre, Senior Editor at IndustryWeek, about the vital role internal and external communications played in the manufacturing industry during COVID19.  

In our latest episode, Peppercomm's Melissa Vigue talks marketing trends and changes in consumer behavior with Stacy DeBroff, CEO & Founder of Influence Central.

Peppercomm's Rob Duda talks cars and communications with Patrick George, Editorial Director at The Drive. 

Most communications pros and senior executives in a new survey report their communication team was prepared for COVID-19, according to findings scheduled for release Monday by the Institute for Public Relations and Peppercomm. Only public health officials were considered credible messengers, while elected officials and social media sources scored low. The news media’s reporting of the pandemic didn’t fare so well either.PR Nation is the first to report details of the survey, completed just three days ago, on Tuesday, March 10. In this special episode, Robert discusses the results with Dr. Tina McCorkindale, President and CEO of the Institute for Public Relations (IPR), and Steve Cody, IPR Chairman and Founder and CEO of Peppercomm.Links:Institute for Public RelationsGuest: Dr. Tina McCorkindaleGuest: Steve CodyHow the COVID-19 virus sparked panic

The inaugural edition of Peppercomm's monthly podcast, Fast Pitch, features an interview with David Lenok, Senior Editor at Wealthmanagement.com and Trusts & Estates. We discuss what's on the horizon for wealth management in 2020, how David and his team make editorial decisions, and how he likes to work with PR professionals.

Overview The Stevens Group is pleased to present a new podcast series that salutes the masters of public relations and revels in their observations, insights and advice to PR professionals.  This new series is part of the ongoing partnership between The Stevens Group and CommPRO to bring to PR, digital/interactive and marketing communications agencies the wisdom of those who have reached the top of the PR profession.     About Our Guest Steve Cody, Founder / CEO, Peppercomm I'm a comedian, climber and dog lover, but not necessarily in that order. I am also the founder and CEO of Peppercomm, a fully-integrated strategic communications firm headquartered in NYC, with offices located in San Francisco and London. In that role I'm responsible for everything from implementing strategy and counseling clients to leading business development and bringing new products and services to market. In short, I do everything but clean windows. My biggest passion is helping others. I derive immense satisfaction from mentoring students, guest lecturing at the universities who are brave enough to invite me to speak, and helping fellow mid-life marketing communications professionals who have lost their way in life. There may be hope for us yet. I am the current chairman of the Institute for Public Relations, a longtime member of the Arthur W. Page Society, a member of the advisory councils of the College of Charleston and the University of Florida, and was named one of Northeastern University's 100 most successful alumni. I have also co-authored “What's keeping your customers up at night?” which was published by McGraw-Hill in 2003 and has put thousands of readers to sleep over the years. I'm proud to say that I've used my love of stand-up comedy to raise more than $100,000 for countless charities. I'm just as proud to see Chris and Catharine, my two children, grow up to become successful professionals. I'm confident the family tradition will continue with my grandson, Adrian Joseph “A.J.” Cody. May he outperform us all. A sense of humor means: A person has the resiliency to deal with the realities of the modern world while maintaining his energy, drive, enthusiasm and smile. Life's far too short. Loosen up

Overview The Stevens Group is pleased to present a new podcast series that salutes the masters of public relations and revels in their observations, insights and advice to PR professionals.  This new series is part of the ongoing partnership between The Stevens Group and CommPRO to bring to PR, digital/interactive and marketing communications agencies the wisdom of those who have reached the top of the PR profession.     About Our Guest Steve Cody, Founder / CEO, Peppercomm I’m a comedian, climber and dog lover, but not necessarily in that order. I am also the founder and CEO of Peppercomm, a fully-integrated strategic communications firm headquartered in NYC, with offices located in San Francisco and London. In that role I’m responsible for everything from implementing strategy and counseling clients to leading business development and bringing new products and services to market. In short, I do everything but clean windows. My biggest passion is helping others. I derive immense satisfaction from mentoring students, guest lecturing at the universities who are brave enough to invite me to speak, and helping fellow mid-life marketing communications professionals who have lost their way in life. There may be hope for us yet. I am the current chairman of the Institute for Public Relations, a longtime member of the Arthur W. Page Society, a member of the advisory councils of the College of Charleston and the University of Florida, and was named one of Northeastern University’s 100 most successful alumni. I have also co-authored “What’s keeping your customers up at night?” which was published by McGraw-Hill in 2003 and has put thousands of readers to sleep over the years. I’m proud to say that I’ve used my love of stand-up comedy to raise more than $100,000 for countless charities. I’m just as proud to see Chris and Catharine, my two children, grow up to become successful professionals. I’m confident the family tradition will continue with my grandson, Adrian Joseph “A.J.” Cody. May he outperform us all. A sense of humor means: A person has the resiliency to deal with the realities of the modern world while maintaining his energy, drive, enthusiasm and smile. Life’s far too short. Loosen up

Hey, it’s Stiles from Brand Content Studios and here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of April 30, 2019. I took a vacation last week, sue me. Let’s see what’s going on.   -Step right up my friends and behold a marketing technology elixir that’s so powerful it’s guaranteed to put a song in your heart and a spring in your step. Yes this amazing marvel of modern technology has what’s good for what ails you, no matter what that might be. Sure it’s a little expensive but can you really put a price on dreams coming true and complete peace of mind? In the old days what you just heard was called a snake oil sales pitch. Today, some think a lot of the marketing technology that’s rolling through town is also, a lot of snake oil. It’s a $100B-plus business. And if you’ve ever seen one of those infographics that shows every platform and player in it, your eyes are now probably glazed over like a Krispy Kreme. Mike Doyle at retailer City Beach is calling it out. He says these tools are complex, you get bit with implementation costs, and these platforms require staff expertise and the learning curve that comes with it. He thinks there’s a shakeout coming…or there should be. Gartner says Martech is now the biggest budget allocation in marketing budgets at 29%. The tech tools are being bought, but are they really helping anybody? Andy Lark’s the former CMO of Commonwealth Bank and Foxtel and he says marketers in big companies are “really struggling”. Is it because they’re stupid? Nope. It’s the tech products. He analyzed 50 martech systems over two years and found very few could actually deliver on their claims. They automate spam and call it marketing automation. Even if these tech platforms did work as promised, the buyers can’t get the maximum value out of them because they aren’t set up to do so. They don’t have a data flow system up and running, and, here’s the hammer I keep banging, the ability to create good content to run through these systems is nowhere to be found. There’s a lot of content stuff, it’s just lousy and doesn’t inspire anyone to do anything. So why are all these marketing tech platforms still out there and still selling? Because nobody who bought into one wants to admit they made a mistake, and the platforms know it. Lark says, “Marketers are being asked to do more with less, so they buy into digital hallucinations.” https://www.afr.com/business/media-and-marketing/cmo-brief/shakeout-in-100bn-martech-sector-as-marketers-struggle-20190321-p5160w   So to follow up on that first story, let’s take a look at CMI’s 2019 Content Management and Strategy Survey on how marketers are using tech tools. The verdict of that survey agrees…marketers are awash in tech tool options, too awash. Well here’s the good news, businesses are getting a little more serious about taking a strategic approach to content as opposed to just putting on the lame show and hoping for the best. 76% take a strategic approach and 59% have a documented content management strategy. Well, I say that’s good news but 59% is still a crazy low number for people that actually have a plan. Most say their content strategy includes business goals, roles and responsibilities, measurements, desired outcomes, workflows, timeframes, and governance. The bad news is most businesses are struggling, there’s that word struggle again, to use tech tools that actually help them activate content at scale. The CMI survey shows 42% have “not yet acquired” the right tech to manage content. Another 42% got the tech but aren’t using it to its potential. The numbers show a lot of marketing technology was bought in 2018, kind of a boom year for that sort of thing, but marketers don’t seem to be getting better at using what they have. 78% said “we have some systems in place, but there’s a lot of manual work.” Meaning scalability ain’t happenin’. Now what’s the underlying gremlin that’s driving this latent dissatisfaction? It’s the digital hallucination we mentioned earlier. There was, and is, a belief out there that if you spend enough, you can flip a switch and the robots will do all your marketing and qualified leads will rain down on you forever. Need proof? In 2019, marketers are spending 29% of their budget on tech and 28% on humans. Half even said their business had “too much technology.” The reality that’s settling in is, if you don’t have humans that know how to make other humans care enough to take desired calls to action…all your shiny, top dollar marketing technology is a ghost town. https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2019/04/content-management-technology-research/   LinkedIn took a step toward looking less serious and getting more like Facebook, rolling out its own versions of Reaction Buttons so people can express themselves beyond a simple Like. They said it’s because LinkedIn users were asking for more ways to express themselves and make themselves understood. Were they really? Apparently, just saying you like something is wholesale unclear and confusing. Does a like mean you like like it or love like it or like that you posted it or like it cause it changed my like life? Who knows? So here they are, the new expression list is the obviously inadequate Like, then there’s Celebrate to praise a promotion or achievement – you can’t like that, you need to celebrate it. There’s Love, which is way more than like but don’t love too much because that’s inappropriate in a business setting. There’s Insightful which means you think there were some really deep thoughts. Lastly there’s Curious, which signals you’d like to learn more about the topic and start getting spammed on it. So how did LinkedIn arrive at these particular expressions? They analyzed the top words people used in comments, and apparently you used the word “curious” a lot. LinkedIn has not responded to my suggestions for additional reaction buttons including “Hire Me Dammit”, “Inflated Resume Available on Request,” and “Yeah I Get it, You Want to Be a Speaker/Author for a Living.”   https://www.business2community.com/linkedin/linkedin-rolling-out-reaction-buttons-02194635   Want to know the future? Your usual palm reader is on vacation? Well don’t worry because some members of the Ad Age Collective have predicted what’s going to impact content marketing most in the next couple of years. Maggie O’Neill at Peppercomm says brands will increasingly have to take a stand on divisive social matters. Sounds like a reckless unnecessary risk to me but that’s what Maggie sees coming. Hootsuite’s Greg Perotto says social media will go beyond marketing and become an integral part of how businesses deliver customer experiences. Troy Osinoff at JUICE says look out, data’s going to get scarcer and that’ll make it harder to target and retarget. Why? Because the tech giants will have to adapt to growing oversight about how they get and use data and because we’re all getting queasier about where and how our data is used. Kurt Kaufer at Ad Results Media predicts podcasting will rapidly expand, an easy prediction since that’s already happening. But he adds better measurement and attribution will have advertisers jumping in at an unprecedented rate. Fuze’s Brian Kardon thinks AI will play a greater role in campaign decisions. Again, not really a prediction but somebody had to stick the AI buzzword in there somewhere. It’s a law now. And my new hero Michael Lisovetsky at JUICE says all this tech will only make human creativity more important. The platforms and tech will grow commoditized but brilliant people with great ideas will always be rare and have tremendous value. The prediction is our industry will finally wake up to that. https://adage.com/article/executive-collective/future-media-and-marketing-eight-predictions-industry-pros/2165846   That’s the Content Marketing Quickie for this week. It’s always like this, it’s short, you’ll get something to talk about at networking events, and it’ll get at least half a grin out of you. So hopefully it’s worthy of you subscribing. And we’ll see what happens next week.

Ann Barlow, West Coast President/ Head of Employee Engagement at Peppercomm, a strategic communications and marketing firm whose purpose is promote, protect, and connect clients—and “to use its innovation and imagination to inspire people to come to know and trust the organizations it works with.” The 23-year-old Peppercomm has its roots in PR, and, although its focus today is on integrated communications, the PR influence persists in the questions it asks: What do clients need? What problems need to be solved? and What is the agency trying to create? Ann participated in a panel, “Prescription for Sexual Harassment,” at the March 2019 South by Southwest creativity conference in Austin, TX. She places the onus on companies to create opportunities for people to “actually listen to each other.” Solving workplace problems like sexual harassment will require open discussions about things people might think are okay, but actually are not. Clarity about such issues . . . and working toward solving them . . . will improve individual and business performance. People work better in more collaborative, purpose-driven, listening environments, which Ann calls “cultures of innovation.” Ann sees a difference in what the younger generation of workers demands as employees from the companies where they work—that their companies take a stand on social issues. She feels that companies that have a “North Star” will have an easier time attracting and retaining talent . . . and that companies that are purpose-driven perform better financially   Ann is researching what needs to change inside organizations . . . and the interrelationship of employee engagement, business structure, how people within organizations listen to each other, and productivity. She intends to publish the results of that study on her company's website at: http://www.peppercomm.com/ Ann can be reached at her company's website or on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-barlow-4a42371/

Joining me on this week's episode is Steve Cody, the founder and CEO of Peppercomm, a purpose-driven, strategic, integrative communications and marketing agency. Frankly, Steve is one of the most incisive and insightful PR pros I have ever met. In this free-wheeling discussion, Steve addressed a number of key ethical issues including: Unexpected ethics pitfalls How to build an ethical team Where companies and agencies fail ethically Ethics in research Diversity failures

NEW MIKE KANE CAST - iTunes|Android|Spotify In this special episode, I got the privilege of talking with Sam Ford, Director of Cultural Intelligence at Simon & Schuster. Sam's range of expertise is incredible, and includes a few shared passions: Intellectual life, Kentucky, and, of course, professional wrestling. Sam shares his small-town roots and early love of the USWA out of Memphis, and shows how he has combined that love of pro wrestling with a deep knowledge of comparative media to become an expert who remains a fan! If you've ever turned on a TV set, this episode will inform and entertain you! (From samford.wordpress.com) Sam Ford is Director of Cultural Intelligence for Simon & Schuster, a CBS company. In addition, he is leading various initiatives of the Future of Work in Kentucky with the MIT Open Documentary Lab, the University of Southern California Annenberg School’s Civic Paths team, and other partners, and is a member of the Kentucky team taking part in the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP), the first U.S. region to ever be accepted to the program. As a Knight News Innovation Fellow with Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, he is co-leading the Community Stories Lab with Dr. Andrea Wenzel–work which received the inaugural Research Prize for Professional Relevance from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in 2018. Sam also serves as a research affiliate with MIT’s Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing and as an instructor in Western Kentucky University’s Popular Culture Studies Program. He is also co-founder of the Artisanal Economies Project. With Henry Jenkins and Joshua Green, Sam co-authored the 2013 NYU Press book Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, which was released in paperback in Spring 2018. The book has also been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Italian, Swedish, and Polish. It was named one of Strategy+Business’ 2013 Best Business Books and voted as a “Top 10 Best Marketing Book You Read This Summer” by the readers of Advertising Age. He is also co-editor, with Abigail De Kosnik and C. Lee Harrington, of the 2011 book The Survival of Soap Opera: Transformations for a New Media Era as well. He frequently publishes academic work on media fandom, transmedia storytelling, professional wrestling, soap operas, the marketing and communications world, and a range of other subjects.  In 2015, Sam launched and ran the Center for Innovation & Engagement at Univision’s Fusion Media Group (as FMG’s VP, Innovation & Engagement), which he ran through the end of 2016. In that role, he helped manage relationships with a range of academic, industry, nonprofit organizations, and other key communities that are focused on innovation and experimentation in storytelling or new ways of building deeper relationships with key audiences and communities. He also collaborated with teams throughout the portfolio company to foster, build, and scale new approaches to storytelling and audience engagement. The Center was the subject of a Harvard Nieman Lab feature, and projects the Center played a key role in designing were honored with a Shorty Social Good Award and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. Before joining Univision/Fusion Media Group, Sam worked for strategic communications and marketing firm Peppercomm from 2007-2015, where he was named both 2014 Digital Communicator of the Year and a 2014 Social Media MVP by PR News, as well as 2011 Social Media Innovator of the Year by Bulldog Reporter. During that time, Sam served as both a member of the Board of Directors of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and as co-chair of their Ethics Committee. From 2005-2008, Sam was co-founder and later research manager of the MIT Convergence Culture Consortium. He also acted as co-organizer of the MIT Futures of Entertainment conference series from 2006-2012. Sam has been a contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Inc. He has also written for Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, BusinessWeek, Advertising Age, The Huffington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, Harvard’s Nieman Lab, Knowledge@Wharton, Columbia Journalism Review, Poynter, Tribeca, Portfolio, Chief Marketer, CMO.com, PRWeek, PR News, The Public Relations Strategist, Communication World, O’Dwyer PR, Firm Voice, PropertyCasualty360, Global HR News, TABB Forum, SLAM! Sports, and various other publications. He began his career as a reporter and columnist for various Kentucky newspapers and, in 2006, won a Kentucky Press Association award for Best Feature. Sam has appeared in documentaries Soap Life, Who Shot the Daytime Soap?, and VICE’s Lil Bub and Friendz and has been quoted in/on, or had his work cited by, a wide range of publications/shows, including The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, Mashable, CNN, APM Marketplace, BBC World Service, PRI’s TheWorld, CNBC, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Quartz, Fortune, Forbes, Investor’s Business Daily, CIO, Hollywood Reporter, Les Inrocks, Asahi Shimbun, Nikkei, DePers, Harvard’s Nieman Lab, American Press Institute, Knowledge@Wharton, The Washington Times, HLN, Venture Beat, AdWeek, MediaShift, ESPN: The Magazine, Télérama, Mental Floss, Boing Boing, Slashdot, Buzzfeed, Metro, Reader’s Digest, CableFAX, Soap Opera Weekly, The San Jose Mercury-News, and MIT Slice of Life…and most proudly as trivia on Jeopardy! and NPR’s Ask Me Another, as well as The New York Times crossword. In addition to being a featured speaker at South by Southwest on several occasions, Sam has spoken or moderated at a wide range of in-person and virtual events, including National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE), Social Media Week NYC, Future of Storytelling, Front End of Innovation, Back End of Innovation, Media Insights & Engagement Conference, Planning-ness, Annual Insurance Executives Conference, Media Days Munich, NeoTVLab in Argentina, Cartagena Inspira in Colombia, Consumer Culture Theory conference, Console-ing Passions, Flow, and Social Media for Utilities, as well as events for MIT, the University of Southern California, Brown University, UC-Berkeley, Northeastern University, Aberystwyth University in Wales, Western Kentucky University, ESOMAR, the Public Relations Society of America, CTAM, the Advertising Research Foundation, the Association of Cable Communicators, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, PR News, CableFAX, the Popular Culture Association, the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the Association for Corporate Growth, the Luxury Marketing Council, the American Association of University Presses, the Association of Management Consulting Firms, the International Association of Business Communicators, the Association of National Advertisers, MarketingProfs, the Kentucky Press Association, the Kentucky Travel Industry Association, the Corporate Communication Leaders Forum, Donate Life America, Social Media Today, and a range of other forums. Sam received his Master’s degree from MIT’s Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing and a Bachelor’s degree from Western Kentucky University as part of the Honors Program, where he majored in news/editorial journalism, communication studies, mass communication, and English, with a minor in film studies. Currently, he serves as a member of the inaugural MIT Graduate Alumni Council. He is also past chair of WKU’s Department of Communication Advisory Council and a member of  WKU’s Popular Culture Studies Program Curriculum Committee and the WKU Department of Communication Ad Hoc Curriculum Committee. Previously, he served as a member of WKU’s Young Alumni Council and WKU’s Advertising+Public Relations Professional Advisory Committee. Sam is also on the editorial board of USC’s Case Studies in Strategic Communication, the Organization for Transformative Works’ Transformative Works and Cultures, and Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal. He lives between New York City and Bowling Green, Ky., with wife Amanda and daughters Emma and Harper.

On this edition of the Lubetkin on Communications Podcast, we chat with Ken Jacobs, the principal of Jacobs Executive Coaching and Jacobs Communications Consulting.   About the Guest Ken Jacobs Ken Jacobs is the principal of Jacobs Executive Coaching, which offers leadership coaching to communications and public relations executives, managers, and leaders who want to achieve breakthrough results. Jacobs has been coaching leaders and executives since 2007. Jacobs holds Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credentials from the International Coach Federation (ICF), of which he is a member, and is accredited as a Certified Professional Coach (CPC) and Energy Leadership Index (ELI) Master Practitioner by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC.) Jacobs is also the principal of Jacobs Communications Consulting LLC, which helps public relations and communications agencies grow and manage business, improve client service and relationships, and enhance staff performance, communications, and leadership skills. It does so via executive coaching, training, and consulting. Jacobs has worked with a number of respected communications firms, such as Catalyst, Cooney Waters Group, Coyne Public Relations, CRT/tanaka (Now Padilla/CRT), DBC Public Relations, Idea Grove, Ink & Roses, Jones PR, M Booth Associates, MSLGroup, MWW, Peppercomm, Portavoce PR, R&J PR, Ruder Finn, SPI Group, Stern Strategy Group, and Taylor, among others. Prior to launching his companies, Jacobs spent 25 years in management and leadership positions with such agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather Public Relations; Ogilvy, Adams & Rinehart; Marina Maher Communications (MMC); and Maloney & Fox.

Three Comparative Media Studies alums -- Sam Ford, Rekha Murthy, and Parmesh Shahani -- return to discuss their post-graduate lives. Sam Ford is Director of Audience Engagement at strategic communication and marketing firm Peppercomm. He is co-author of the 2013 book Spreadable Media and co-editor of the 2011 book The Survival of Soap Opera. Sam is a contributing author to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Inc.; a research affiliate with MIT’s Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing; and an instructor with Western Kentucky University’s Popular Culture Studies Program. Sam currently serves as Co-Chair of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s Ethics Committee. He has recently published work with The Journal of Fandom Studies, Panorama Social, Cinema Journal, The Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, Advertising Age, PRWeek, PR News, O’Dwyer PR, IABC Communication World, The Public Relations Strategist, PropertyCasualty360, Oxford University Press Bibliographies, and the NYU Press book, Making Media Work, among other outlets. He’s based in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Rekha Murthy is Director of Projects + Partnerships at PRX, where she finds innovative ways for public media stations and producers to reach audiences and earn revenue. Rekha runs PRX’s digital distribution program, where she forges new, non-broadcast pathways for audio works. These range from established channels like iTunes and Amazon, to aggregators like TuneIn and Stitcher, to entertainment and education services large and small. As part of PRX’s award-winning Apps team, Rekha has set new standards for public media’s mobile strategy and adoption with apps including the Public Radio Player, This American Life, and for major stations. She launched PRX’s iTunes distribution service, making independent productions and major national programs available for sale in the iTunes Store. Rekha advises various transmedia initiatives for public media and served on the board of the Integrated Media Association (now part of Greater Public). Before PRX, Rekha was a producer for NPR’s All Things Considered and an editor of NPR.org. She’s been a project manager and user experience designer for web and mobile clients. Parmesh Shahani, listed in 2012 as one of 25 Indians to watch out for by Financial Times, is the head of the Godrej India Culture Lab — an experimental idea-space that cross-­pollinates the best ideas and people working on India from across the academic, creative and corporate worlds to explore what it means to be modern and Indian. In addition, Parmesh also serves as the Editor-at-large for Verve magazine, India. He is a Yale World Fellow, currently spending a semester in New Haven. He is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, TED Fellow, and a Utrecht University-Impakt Fellow. Parmesh’s masters’ thesis at CMS was released as a book “Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India” by Sage Publications in 2008. You can follow Parmesh on Twitter at @parmeshs.