No Such Thing As Bad Publicity?

By Ann Smith | Sep 15, 2014

Does the old adage that there’s no such thing as bad publicity still hold true? Urban Outfitters is in the hot seat over a “vintage” Kent State sweatshirt that appeared as though it had blood splatters across it. The apology The company posted an apology on twitter shortly after the first media stories about backlash […]

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#WhyIStayed: A Social Movement of Domestic Violence Support

By Ann Smith | Sep 10, 2014

Last week marked the opening day of the NFL season and within a few days the national spotlight was shining an ugly beam on one of the league’s star players. On Monday the world was seeing the horrific altercation between Baltimore Raven’s star Ray Rice and his wife Janay in a casino elevator where he […]

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Spreading Awareness Through the #Icebucketchallenge

By Ann Smith | Aug 20, 2014

Unless you live under a rock, the ALS #icebucketchallenge has probably taken over your newsfeed at some point in the last few weeks. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. To #strikeoutALS, people post a […]

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Prepare for the Unexpected with a Crisis Communications Plan

By Ann Smith | Aug 6, 2014

Basic steps for your crisis communications plan The recent water contamination in Toledo, Ohio underscores the need for all types of organizations to have a plan for how they will handle communications in a crisis. Most of us won’t be facing a life-or-death situation, as the city of Toledo did, but nevertheless a bit of advance […]

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Networking made easier for Introverts

By Ann Smith | Aug 5, 2014

Does the thought of networking make you anxious? Nervous? As an introvert and recent college graduate I have experienced the anxieties that comes from networking with business professionals. I know the importance of gaining these valuable connections to grow in my career, but that never makes it easier to walk into a room full of […]

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Jennifer Huston, the "Missing Person"

By Ann Smith | Aug 1, 2014

For the past week I’ve becoming increasingly consumed with the ongoing search for Dundee woman Jennifer Huston.  On the outskirts of Portland, Dundee and neighboring Newberg where she was last seen are quite close to where I live in Tualatin and my kids went to school in Sherwood. I am not here to speculate or […]

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Be Brief or Be Ignored

By Ann Smith | Jul 23, 2014

This week’s Fast Company Leadership quote comes from Joseph McCormack, author of Brief: Making a Bigger Statement by Saying Less. Despite the irony that this man wrote an entire book on brevity, its a message I find valuable today. Today was the day I broke my iPhone and have reverted back to a non-smart phone. I […]

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Sports Metaphors Lost in Translation

By Ann Smith | Jul 18, 2014

With the FIFA World Cup behind us, I’d like to turn your attention to the sports metaphors that pop up again and again in all types of business communications. These are often misused or misunderstood in presentations and company newsletters or mailings alike, often because the recipient does not follow organized sports or grew up […]

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Eye-opening Always ad redefines the #LikeaGirl stereotype

By Ann Smith | Jul 9, 2014

The ad was uploaded to the Always YouTube on June 26th and has received over 30 million views all over the world. After watching the video though it makes you think, aren’t we over the #LikeaGirl insult? “I don’t think we are past the ‘run like a girl’ stereotype. Look at the women in this […]

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A Rose by Any Other Name…

By Ann Smith | Jul 1, 2014

You might end up calling your marketing and PR efforts by an entirely different name if the rest of the industry follows Procter & Gamble’s lead in renaming its overall marketing organization “Brand Management.” According to Ad Age, the new department now includes the functions the rest of us are still calling marketing, market research, […]

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Need a Quick Laugh? Twitter Now Supports GIFs

By Ann Smith | Jun 19, 2014

You can celebrate! Twitter announced yesterday that it will support animated GIFs on Twitter as well as on its Iphone and Android mobile apps. To be technical, the letters “GIF” actually stand for “Graphics Interchange Format,” which is a compressed image file format that can be quickly transmitted over a network or the Internet. In […]

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Small Businesses Benefit from Small Size, Authenticity

By Ann Smith | Jun 18, 2014

Living in Oregon, we are fortunate to be able to identify the provenance of many of the products we use and the produce and meats we consume. More so than anywhere else I’ve lived, there’s the ability to shop locally, with any number of locally owned and run businesses and services complementing the offerings of […]

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