For those of you who are not familiar with the Pan-Mass Challenge, or the PMC, it is the largest single athletic charity event in the country. This 2-day cycling event, founded by Billy Starr in 1980, engaged 6800 participants and raised $63 million for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute last year. People …
Isobel Parke was born in 1926 in Dorset, UK, the 3rd of 5 daughters of Charles and Jean Hamilton Gordon Parke. She graduated from the Winsor School, Boston, MA, and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, UK, with a degree in History in 1947. Isobel worked for a short time at the UK Ministry of Education. After …
Yesterday, it was the dismissal of a teacher at the Fieldston private school as a result of anti-Semitic remarks that enflamed tensions between Jewish parents and school administrators. Today, it is concern over the Coronavirus and its impact on boarding schools with Chinese pupils and international study programs abroad. What will it be tomorrow? While …
My colleague Jayme Simoes and I had the pleasure of presenting on the topic of branding twice recently, first at the NH Nonprofits Conference and Expo and again at PRSA’s Northeast District Conference, NEXPRSA, in Providence, R.I. Here are a few highlights: A brand is a space in the mind. It’s more than a logo …
Read more “Stand Out From The Crowd: Research-Based Branding”
I’m delighted to be visiting the PRSA Tucson chapter this spring to talk about “The Art & Science of Behavioral PR Research: Effective Strategies For Measuring Outcomes and Return On Investment”. To give you a sense of what I’ll be talking about on April 23rd, read on! Choosing the right strategies (for example, using the …
While attending PRSA’s International Conference in Austin this year, I thought how proud JJ&W’s founder, Patrick Jackson, would have been of all the conversations revolving around measuring behavioral outcomes and the PR practitioner’s role as relationship-builders and strategists… particularly at a time when our organizations, and our country, need these skills the most. A few …
If your first thought when presented with a public relations problem or opportunity is to brainstorm tactics – e.g. “let’s do a newsletter” “send a tweet”, “post on Facebook”, “hold a meeting” — then you are planning, but not strategically. If your first thoughts are: “how does this opportunity fit with our overall goals?”, “what …
Read more “Strategic PR Planning Is Critical To An Organization’s Success”
Pat Jackson, JJ&W’s founder, was a behaviorist. Plain and simple. He taught those of us fortunate enough to work with him over the years to learn to be behaviorists, too. Behavior change is hard – ask anyone who has tried to go on a diet, stop smoking or change a dominant personality trait – so …
Read more “Patrick Jackson and The Start of Modern Behavioral Public Relations”
Whether you’re in charge of designing a rewards and recognition for your organization, or putting an awards program together for your industry, the question to ask yourself is: what behaviors are we trying to motivate? Teamwork? Employee retention? An above-and-beyond work ethic? Awareness? And the million dollar question: Is our current recognition program doing the …
Read more “Designing Recognition Programs That Motivate Behavior”
For a long time, the focus for internal communications has been building and measuring employee engagement. How “engaged” are our employees in our organization and in what they do? How does our workforce compare to others? Fortunately, there are all kinds of tools to measure employee engagement and see how your organization rates compared to …