Clients Say the Darndest Things

Now that Mad Men is returning, I began to revisit some of my favorite quotes from seasons past. For those of us that work at an agency - where client service is an obsession, not just a profession - you can't help yourself. Which made me think back to the more memorable quotes I've heard from those I've had the privilege of working with on the client side over time. No worries, the names and faces have been deleted to...

What's Going on With Our Heroes?

No surprise. Like I am sure is happening in many companies today, the conversation is hot and heavy around Lance Armstrong’s interview this evening with Oprah Winfrey and the brewing controversy around Manti Te’o’s fictional/non-fictional girlfriend. Like most companies, opinions, humor and fascination abound at LPP. Which led to this blog. “What’s going on with our 'heroes'?" I still fondly remember the summer of 1998, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were chasing the heralded Roger Maris home run record....

Imagine doing PR for this?

Those of us who do PR for a living have good days and bad days. But on those bad days, it provides great perspective to think about the tough PR assignments that could be on your plate, "but for the grace of God." My colleague Don Jennings pointed out two last week that gave me a chuckle and reminded me how great it is to represent technology, health care and clean tech organizations. The first was last month's Ig Nobel...

When pitching around natural disasters, think before you act

As many of us are digging out from under trees, pumping water from basements, dealing with screaming kids chomping at the bit to get back to school (Okay, maybe that last one is wishful thinking on the parents' part), it sometimes takes a disaster for common sense to ring true. Many in the PR community are weighing in now on what is or is not appropriate to be pitching to media about what Hurricane Sandy has done to large parts...

Time is Running Out...TechTrailblazer Awards Deadline! #TTawards

This is not another post on a last-minute store sale. Nor is this a post on a get-rich-quick scheme. What this is, is a post on one of the industry's newest award ventures, the Tech Trailblazer Awards -- @TechTrailblaze and #TTAwards for the Twitter-inclined. I covered the launch of the awards last month in a post here. It isn't often you can say "thank you" for your service provider outage, but in this case for those of us who wait...

What Would Mom Say?

When New York Times Food columnist Mark Bittman issued an apology for using an "inappropriate phrase to refer to the late VP of PR for Chick-fil-A," reaction was what you would expect. The Huffington Post did a short write up, which covers off on the details. The offending phrase was removed, and Bittman's original post now omits the "inappropriate phrase." While mentioning this on Twitter, Liem Nguyen noted in a tweet response, "If you can't say something nice...." Which got...

#FF @TechTrailblaze

Every once in a while you know you have a great idea, but the time may not be right. It could be something you share in a proposal, or suggest to a friend, or bounce off a few colleagues. You know it's good, but no one quite knows how it could work or when they could do it. That was the case with the latest global award the TechTrailBlazers. The brainchild of Rose Ross, chief trailblazer at the Tech Trailblazers...

Talking Storage with Jerome Wendt, DCIG: Part Two

I sat down with Jerome Wendt, founder and principal at DCIG, while he was in town to attend the Dell Storage Forum. DCIG is an analyst firm that is heavily focused on data center technologies, with deep roots in the storage industry. In this conversation, Jerome shares some of his thoughts on the flash frenzy and as well as the interesting things end users are telling him. The following is the second installment of a two-part conversation with Jerome (Read...

Talking Storage with Jerome Wendt, DCIG: Part One

I had a chance to sit down with Jerome Wendt, founder and principal at DCIG, an analyst firm that is heavily focused on data center technologies, with deep roots in the storage industry. Jerome and I have known each other for years, and he was gracious enough to talk through areas of recent focus and provide a little more detail on the work he and others at his firm have been doing with the Buyer’s Guides. The following is the...

How Tech PR Pros Can Work Effectively With Media

Last night, LPP hosted the Publicity Club of New England's latest media roundtable discussion. The evening's focus was "Tech's Hot Trends," and was moderated by Matthew Lloyd, director of communications at iRobot (aka @mattlloydbos). Panelists included Michael Farrell, newest technology reporter at The Boston Globe (aka @globembfarrell), Gregory Gomer, managing editor at BostInno (aka @sliggity), Eric Lundquist, VP Editorial at InformationWeek/ United Business Media (aka @ESLundquist), Dan Primack, senior editor at FORTUNE (aka @danprimack), and Dan Rowinski, writer at ReadWriteWeb...