Lead Balloon - Marketing, Public Relations and Strategic Communications Stories

When Justin Shriber was the Vice President of Marketing for LinkedIn Sales and Marketing Solutions, he was charged with emceeing the social media juggernaut's Sales Leaders Summit mainstage.

And with hip-hop legend and business magnate Russell Simmons lined up to serve as headliner, the hall was packed with people eager to hear Simmons's stories from the early days of hip-hop and his entrepreneurial awakening.

Instead, what they got was a strange tirade from an uncooperative guest in front of an increasingly uncomfortable live audience, made even stranger by the fact that, within a few months, Russell Simmons would flee the country to escape criminal prosecution for a string of assault charges.

These days, Justin is the Chief Marketing Officer at People.ai, an AI automation sales and CRM solutions provider. But in this episode, he looks back on this morality tale about the dangers of influencer marketing, relives the longest 45 minutes of his career, and recounts the lessons that he learned about planning a live event and relying on an unreliable celebrity.

You can watch Justin's on-stage dance with Shaq right here.

These two YouTube Videos were instrumental in researching this episode.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three weeks after accepting a new role as an American Airlines spokeswoman in 1995, Jennifer R. Hudson was paged out of bed in the middle of the night.

The worst had happened.

Flight 965 had disappeared in the mountains of Colombia, and Jennifer needed to report to the scene of the crash to coordinate the company's public relations response. Unnerved and uncertain, she had to push aside her doubts and power through what would become one of the most harrowing experiences of her career.

Jennifer would go on to serve as a Vice President of Communications for British Airways, a PR Manager at the Sabre Group, and eventually the head of her own independent agency, Think Beyond PR.

But the experience of immersing herself in a tragedy that cost 159 lives sticks with her to this day, forging a set of PR instincts and resolve that have served her well. And for those of us who think we're having a hard day in the PR trenches, her tale is an important lesson in coping through pressure, humility and determination.

-----

You can learn more about the crash of Flight 965 in this episode of Mayday, from which we sampled some expert interviews, survivor recollections and black box reenactments to help build context for Jennifer's story.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Home to the Masters Tournament, the Augusta National Golf Club typically serves as a backdrop for sports drama.

But in 2002, the club itself became the story, as its men-only membership policy came under the microscope in an unexpected and sensational showdown between women's rights activists and the club's defiant adherence to "tradition."

The tale of how the conflict came to a head is an unlikely Public Relations parable in its own right, driven by two iconoclasts of their era: Augusta National chair Hootie Johnson and Dr. Martha Burk, the chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations.

And, as a signature sponsor of the Masters Tournament, Coca-Cola had to thread the PR needle, trying to land on the right side of history without alienating the powerful Augusta National Golf Club, the pro golf establishment and all of their supporters.

In this episode, retired Coca-Cola Vice President of Communications Ben Deutsch shares his recollection of the showdown, and Dr. Martha Burk explains how she orchestrated an effective pressure campaign against Masters Tournament sponsors and Augusta National members.

Plus, Ben Deutsch shares a few more tales from his tenure at Coca-Cola, and some of the important lessons he learned while overseeing the communications operation of one of the world's most recognizable brands.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before he went on to become Coca-Cola's global vice president of corporate communication, Ben Deutsch was plucked from his dream job in Coke's Sports PR section and dropped into a global media relations director role that he could only assume would be a snooze fest.

As it turned out, he'd wind up as the media point person while the iconic brand navigated one of the most tumultuous periods in its 135-year history. 

From a near-disaster at the 1998 World Cup to a soda-fueled health scare in Belgium, from a whistleblower suit that attracted the SEC's attention to an off-hand comment that jeopardized Deutsch's standing with the company's leadership, the former Coke executive opens up about his tenure with the global marketing juggernaut and shares insights from which communications professionals in any industry can learn.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What constitutes "politics" in America has crept into new, ugly territory. And with the deadly Capitol insurrection on January 6, it finally became impossible for businesses to ignore the danger that rising nationalism poses to democracy.

In minutes, that realization changed everything about the way businesses and organizations communicate about politics, and the Lincoln Project is a major force driving that shift.

Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson is a political strategist, a former member of the Republican party, and a media consultant with a rich, broad background in the world of political ad strategy.

And in this episode, we'll discuss the business imperative driving a growing number of conservative business organizations to turn on the modern Republican party. We’ll learn in-depth details about the strategic media offensive the Lincoln Project led against Donald Trump’s re-election. And we’ll discuss why, like it or not, the illusion separating the worlds of business and politics shattered on January 6th.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Covid-19 vaccination efforts finally getting underway, communicating properly about this process is critical to saving lives and re-opening the economy.

That responsibility extends beyond the traditional bounds of public health communication, according to public health experts, and touches nearly every strategic communicator in the country--and indeed every American citizen.

In this episode, we welcome back two past guests to the show.

Bill Pierce was formerly a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services in the George W. Bush Administration. Today he’s a crisis communications consultant at APCO Worldwide and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University.

And Dr. Maria Sundaram is an epidemiologist and post-doctoral fellow at IC/ES, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto, and a global authority on Covid-19. These world-class public health communicators are in agreement that how we all communicate about the vaccination process going forward will play a major part in how many lives are saved.

We’ll also explore what needs to happen from a StratComm standpoint, the best ways to deal with all the misinformation about vaccines, what went wrong in the last year, and why this could be a turning point in the war on Covid.

Because if we do it right this time, communicators could still help save the world. 

(Pictured in this week's podcast art: Dusty's hero, his wife, getting her vaccination as a frontline M.D.)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In public relations, "going rogue" is a notion that sets teeth on edge for most PR practitioners.

But sometimes, when the conventional approach fails, the only way forward is to throw carefully-laid plans out the window and wing it.

In 2013, when a government shutdown closed the National Parks to visitors on the eve of her long-planned PR junket, (W)right On Communications founder Julie Wright faced a choice. She could either abandon months of planning and waste an opportunity to showcase some of California's most epic scenery to a hand-picked group of influential travel writers, or she could bend the rules, take a calculated risk and skirt some barricades.

So she went rogue, and the trip that resulted was as hair-raising as it was memorable. In this episode of Lead Balloon, she shares the epic tale, as well as the important lessons she learned about asking forgiveness instead of permission... and BEAR SAFETY. Travel writers Diane Lebow and Laura Kiniry also share their recollections of the trip, and explain why every PR practitioner needs a little bit of "rogue" in them.

Learn more about (W)right On Communications, visit Diane Lebow's website and check out Laura Kiniry's Instagram feed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1988 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in a tank is an image that has become synonymous with abject public relations failure. And for marketers and PR practitioners, it serves as an enduring reminder of the power that our mistakes have to burn down powerful people and institutions in one moment of lapsed judgment.

Josh King was a junior campaign staffer for the Dukakis campaign, and went on to serve as White House director of production for presidential events under President Bill Clinton. Kevin Sullivan served as White House communications director under President George W. Bush.

And with another election this week--chock full of its own PR lessons and case studies--Josh and Kevin will shed new light on the political legend of Dukakis in a Tank, offer a glimpse behind the scenes of the Clinton and Bush administrations, and explore 32 years worth of other presidential PR blunders.

Because, after participating in democracy this year, we've all earned a good chuckle...

Also, please vote if you haven't yet.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've just received some incredible news here at Podcamp Media world headquarters in Milwaukee.

Lead Balloon is Adweek's 2020 "Marketing Podcast of the Year," and Dusty is "just gobsmacked."

This is like pulling down an "Emmy" or an "Oscar" in podcasting. And since it's 2020 and, well, Covid, there won't be an opportunity to accept some hardware on a podium.

So in this quick special update, Dusty attempts to parse his thoughts on what it means for the show and the future of Podcamp Media.

Please do sign up for the Podcamp newsletter for more updates on new developments. Cheers everyone.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices