Category Archives: Public Relations

PR Tip: Even When You Don’t Have a Lot, Work With What You’ve Got

Driving past a Berwyn condominium development recently, the banner draped in front of the building made a simple declaration: “New Pricing!” I flashed back to more than four years ago, when a similarly simple phrase was behind a public relations and marketing effort to spark more sales at the development known as Century Station: “work […]

Wrigley Field Hot Dog Vendor Uses Colorful Visual Aid to Boost Sales

The Wrigley Field vendor had a booming voice and a tiny rubber hot dog–a powerful combination that worked wonders as he patrolled the aisles behind home plate earlier this week at the Chicago Cubs’ Tuesday evening game against the Miami Marlins. “I’m not buying a hot dog,” I told him, “but can I take your […]

Tone Plays Instrumental Role in Jabbing Competition, Remembering Audience

For the first time, not-so-new verbiage atop a pint of Ben & Jerry’s recently caught my eye: “still 16 oz.” Yes… and a dozen is “still” 12 and there are “still” 60 seconds in a minute? What’s the story behind this seemingly needless reminder that a pint is steadfastly maintaining its 16-ounce status in 2013? […]

Smartphone Proves to Be Powerful PR Asset

You know that whole business about sliced bread–as in, this or that development being the “best thing since” the aforementioned subdivided sandwich-centric food item? This generation may want to revise that line and insert “smartphone cameras” in sliced bread’s clichéd place. For a few years, my HTC Evo has taken photographs with remarkable clarity. It […]

Facebook Shift to ‘Boost Post’ Inspires Bevy of Tongue-in-Cheek Ideas

Not long ago, I began seeing “Boost Post” instead of “Promote Post” on the various Facebook pages that I administer. Whether it was the Five Seasons Family Sports Clubs in Northbrook and Burr Ridge, McAdam Landscaping in Forest Park, the Kenosha Area Business Alliance, my own Inside Edge PR page, or any of the others, […]

Chicago Pediatric Dentist’s Playful Display Creates Buzz, Bigger Smiles

With a colorful, playful sign out front touting its “little teeth big smiles” motto, Children’s Dentistry of Forest Park has been an eye-catching attraction along Harlem Avenue for years. But the practice’s founder, Dr. Jerry Udelson, isn’t one to rest on any laurels. As a result, the popular pediatric practice (and Inside Edge PR client […]

Making a Big Difference, Shaping the Story at Heart of PR for Entrepreneurs

It was the first week of November 1981, and the price of a first-class U.S. stamp had just jumped to 20 cents, a 5-cent bump from only eight months earlier. That’s the week when I planted my entrepreneurial roots–as well as my passion for helping start-ups gain marketing and public relations exposure. What got it […]

When Publicity Isn’t the Answer, Chart a Course for Private Relations

It isn’t quite the opposite of public relations—that would be private estrangement—but there are some instances where an individual or organization needs what I call “private relations.” Now, before you misconstrue that term with some scandalous undertones, let’s elaborate on private relations, at least in this context: it’s the ability to connect more effectively on […]

Biography Writing: The Art of Letting Others Toot Your Horn

I’m always amused when I see someone with hardly any credentials at all drone on about their illustrious lives with platitudes and white noise, while globally renowned figures like John Grisham keep their bios to 20 words. Having written scads of bios over the past 20-plus years, and seen others’ work both stellar and abysmal, […]

George Hood’s Peak-to-Peak Guinness Effort Illustrates Goal-Setting Power

When is the last time you broke down a daunting marketing or public relations goal into smaller pieces? Marathon runners do it all the time until their ultimate goal, finishing the race, is simply another smaller objective on the heels of a stream of other, manageable goals. On April 20, those who witnessed George Hood […]