Sometimes, you have to take a gamble to get your name out there. Novig serves as an example of using controversial advertising to grab people’s attention, but there’s a fine line between controversy and crisis. The sports trading app recently released an advertisement featuring Sydney Sweeney that...
Did summer seem long? It did to crisis managers. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, at least 12 organizations faced significant reputational events. But these weren’t simply “PR crises.” Good Good Golf and Callaway lost a partnership, retail distribution, a television program, a PGA Tour...
Buc-ee’s is known for a lot of things: its enormous convenience stores, squeaky clean restrooms, and, of course, the beaver. It’s also known to be a company that protects its brand or a bully that makes smaller businesses change their logos depending on how you look at it. Well, you’ve probably...
You cannot rush the things that produce the best outcomes. A Super Bowl–winning team is not built in a single practice, sourdough bread cannot rise in an hour, and consumer trust can take months and years to earn (and keep). The same is true for strategic thinking — especially when it comes to...
* We’re foregoing any puns this month with the serious topic. Nestlé and Danone are facing scrutiny following widespread recalls of infant formula products due to the presence of cereulide, a toxin that can cause vomiting and diarrhea and poses particular risks for infants. There have been 144...
I used to work for a remarkable woman named Sharon Carstairs. She has been in Canadian politics since she was a child and her dad was premier of Nova Scotia. She followed his footsteps rising all the way to a cabinet member in the Chretien government. To this day, she is one of the smartest people...
A while back, premium exercise bike brand Peloton learned a hard lesson in how quickly perception can overtake intent. They ran a holiday TV ad featuring a husband gifting his (very thin) wife a Peloton bike. The spot follows her documenting a year of workouts and ends with her thanking him for...
I’ll bet every one of us has said something like, “I kept telling them this was going to happen, but I guess it just fell on deaf ears.” Their ears were tuned to another stimulus. German biologist Jakob von Uexküll defined the unique sensory environment an animal experiences as its umwelt. It is a...
Do you remember the Cracker Barrel outrage when they tried to evolve their brand? It was their first logo update in nearly 50 years. They rolled out a cleaner, text-only look and dropped the iconic “Old Timer.” There was a lot of customer outrage, right? That’s what it looked like at first. It...
As a new year begins, most of us are thinking about personal goals and ways to hit the ground running, whether it’s finally tackling that pile of unread books, decluttering the basement once and for all, or flossing daily to silence the dentist’s scolding. But businesses need resolutions too, and...
As a leader, you’re expected to have vision – not just for opportunities, but for risks too. But what happens when you see something concerning on the horizon, and you're not sure it will materialize? Do you hesitate? You don't want to be seen as that leader, the one who always sounds the alarm,...
As the year winds down (gulp, how?) and we gather to reflect on what we’re grateful for this coming Thanksgiving, it’s natural to count the obvious blessings: growth milestones, successful launches, strong partnerships. But in the world of business, there’s another kind of gratitude. One that is...
Is your organization prepared to respond to a crisis and protect its hard-earned reputation? Take our quiz and find out!