The Innovator's Mic

The story behind Theranos became a media sensation, with books, podcasts, documentaries and, soon, a movie all charting the highs and lows of the much-hyped health tech “unicorn” that falsely promised to change the way blood is tested.

But on this episode, March's Rebecca Ferrick and Angelica Bishop explain why Theranos also offers a cautionary tale for journalists, PR, and marketing pros about the line between hype and deception. We're covering Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, as the latest selection of the Overbooked book club.

Overbooked will keep on rolling in Q3: Every quarter, we’ll select a book with a technology innovation theme to read together, and we’ll be announcing our next selection soon. If you have any ideas or recommendations on great books to read, tweet us @MarchComms.

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The wellness tech industry encompasses much more than fitness bands and apps. There's lots of innovation happening in the way consumers monitor and improve their nutrition, sleep, mental health, and even plan for end-of-life care. On this week's Hacks and Flacks we talk to March's resident wellness tech experts, Kalyn Schieffer and Kelsey Johnson, to understand how this industry is evolving and the things tech PR and marketing professionals need to know to help well-tech brands tell their story.

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The principles of good marketing - know your customer, build a brand, find creative ways to tell your story - apply in any business, including brewing. To find out how craft breweries stand out in an increasingly competitive space, Manny and guest host Lizzy Snell talked to Liz and Jared Kiraly, the owners of Bone Up Brewing Company in Everett, Massachusetts. They tell the story behind Bone Up, their quirky mascot Horatio, and how Liz applied her design and marketing background toward creating a fun, social beer brand.

Subscribe to Bone Up's blog at boneup.beer/blog

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Chris Penn, co-founder of Trust Insights and an authority on analytics, digital marketing and marketing tech, joins Hacks and Flacks to tell us about the latest advancements in data science for marketing and public relations. We discuss artificial intelligence and machine learning for marketing, the connection between SEO and PR, and he provides some definitive answers on some of our team's lingering PR and marketing questions - like what's the rule around duplicate content and keyword density?

• Check out Chris's latest book, AI for Marketers (Second Edition) at AIforMarketersBook.com
• Find free courses from Google Analytics and HubSpot
• Find free statistics courses on MIT OpenCourseWare

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March's Kelly O'Brien and Alex Jafarzadeh chop it up over Conversational Marketing, the new release from Drift's David Cancel & Dave Gerhardt and the first selection of Overbooked, the new March book club. Alex and Kelly talk about the lessons that PR professionals and marketers can learn from the book, including insights on customer loyalty and why it's important to market like you're an actual human being.

Plus, we feature bonus audio from Dave Gerhardt's recent appearance at the March Innovators Collective, where he talks about the role social proof played in creating buzz for Conversational Marketing before its release.

Overbooked will keep on rolling in Q2: Every quarter, we’ll select a hot new release with a technology innovation theme to read together, and we'll be announcing our next selection in April. If you have any ideas or recommendations on great books to read, Tweet us @MarchComms.

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True to our credo - "Innovation Inside Out" - March has launched a series of events called the March Innovators Collective (MIC). Our first event was held in early March (appropriate), and where EVP Jodi Petrie hosted a panel discussion with three Boston marketing luminaries: Jeanne Hopkins of Lola.com, Jessica Meher of Notarize, and Dave Gerhardt of Drift.

The conversation covered a lot of ground: what's in the DNA of a good marketer? What marketing trends need to go away? How can brands build communities of loyal buyers? Jeanne, Jessica, and Dave give their expert answers, and in this episode, we present the live audio from the panel discussion. And, in a one-on-one conversation with Jodi, Dave shares one tip that came in handy when marketing his new book "Conversational Marketing," which we think is great advice for marketing just about anything.

The concept of influencer marketing is nothing new, but it's been in the news a lot lately. And brands are more interested than ever in partnerships for sales, awareness or engagement campaigns. In this episode, we tackle influencer marketing from several different angles.

First, we interview Jess Ann Kirby, an influencer who has worked directly with brands, to find out how this works as a content creator. You can follow Jess Ann Kirby at her website www.jessannkirby.com and podcast Cozy Ranch Radio.

Then, March Director of Digital Services Caroline Black and Account Director/Zoom practice lead Kelly O'Brien share best practices and explain how influencer marketing is paid marketing, but managed like a PR relationship.

Links:

• The Ringer: The Influencer Who Didn’t Influence: Luka Sabbat and the Fame Economy of 2018
• The Atlantic: Rising Instagram Stars Are Posting Fake Sponsored Content

When most people think about innovation they might focus on innovative technology. But there is also a lot of innovation occurring in storytelling and communications. Customers are more discerning in both consumer and B2B environments, so it means businesses of all kinds have to find creative ways to tell compelling stories to buyers. Diana Marszalek, senior reporter at The Holmes Report, just finished a series of articles on this topic, and she tells us what she heard from brands and agencies on both sides of this challenge.

Read the series here:

Brand Storytelling Driven By Purpose, New Platforms

Brands Mix Traditional Storytelling And 21st Century Techniques In Driving Their Messages

On this week's Hacks and Flacks, we discuss the growing podcasting industry and the continued challenges around podcast discovery. Kevin Goldberg, founder and editor of DiscoverPods, joins the show to recap his ongoing coverage of a scheme in which fraudsters are gaming the Apple Podcasts charts to make their shows appear more popular than they really are, and why that's making things harder for podcast listeners.

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On this week's Hacks and Flacks, we discuss the concept of a brand story. First, we ask March EVP Jodi Petrie why it's important for a brand to take the time to define its story. Then, we talk to March co-founders Martin Jones and Cheryl Gale about the recent process our agency went through to re-imagine our own brand, with lessons for companies like yours. 

LINKS:

• Follow March Communications on Twitter:@MarchComms
• Visit our blog: MarchComms.com/blog

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