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Once upon a time, a famous gin brand launched a London-only marketing campaign. It was so successful that they reached half the population of the entire world.

Sound too good to be true? 

Of course it was. 

But did the reach and impression numbers support that claim? Via a campaign that focused only on a city of 9 million people?

Of course they did.

Which is why vanity metrics are such a dangerous thing. 

So, how do you distinguish between vanity and sanity?

Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in The P World’s Measurement and Evaluation Bootcamp, where I shared with delegates some of my experiences building out measurement and evaluation capabilities, and taking clients on a journey towards better understanding the effectiveness of their communication efforts and investments. I received a lot of feedback on my session, so I took the time  to summarize the key points here for those  who were unable to attend:

PR people suck (at this)

The PR profession has, historically, done a really poor job at proving its worth.

Prior to joining Clarity, I worked in the audio world for a podcasting company and have always loved audio as a medium for communication. Even during this pandemic, when there is zero commuting for me, I am still listening to podcasts upwards of 2 hours a day.

Audio is an incredibly intimate and authentic medium, creating a feeling of accessibility between listener and talker that is hard to find elsewhere . It’s great for going deep into a topic and it’s really portable!

My completely unscientific research tells me that the most talked-about Super Bowl ad this year was for Jeep, featuring an extremely rare commercial appearance by Bruce Springsteen. In it, there is no mention of Jeep’s features and benefits, and barely any shots of the vehicle at all. Instead, we hear The Boss pleading for Americans to meet ‘in The Middle’, in what is effectively a reworking of the campaign ad he made for Joe Biden. It’s an ad not for a product or a brand, but for a set of values. 

In June of 2020, following the social and political upheaval surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement, Clarity committed to taking meaningful action to put Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the center of our organization and to raise the bar within our industry on standards for diversity and inclusion policies and practices. As part of that commitment, we pledged to communicate our progress and plans transparently, giving visibility to our ongoing efforts and ensuring our own accountability in this area. Today, as we enter months that celebrate first Black History followed by Women’s History, Clarity founder and CEO Sami McCabe shared the steps we have taken towards achieving our goal.

As with so many industries, PR and communications businesses and professionals had to quickly adapt and innovate in 2020 in the face of the sea changes that last year brought to our world, our culture and the way we all do business. Going forward into 2021, these changes in norms remain with us and continue to shape how PR agencies do business, and support their clients. I recently sat down with Marketing Report Forum to discuss how we can expect PR to develop in 2021.

In some ways, January 2021 has been no different than any other January in technology.

At the start of the new year, we read about new technologies and innovations that will shape the year ahead, which often come from the world’s investors and technologists. 

In other ways, the gains in innovation seen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have vastly accelerated the “digitization” and/or “glocalization” of the world’s economies, and has changed many aspects of what we call “work” in a traditional sense, resulting in a list of trends and technology predictions for 2021 that few would have predicted six months ago. 

Halloween is, hands down, the best holiday of the year (feel free to argue with me – I’m confident I will convince you that you were horribly mistaken).

This year, our client Mirriad, whose AI-based technology seamlessly inserts brands into entertainment content, decided to use their technology to celebrate the holiday and, at the same time, showcase how it can be used to enhance any content – no matter how long it’s been dead and buried.
 
Mirriad resurrected a true horror classic – George Romero’s The Night of the Living Dead – as well as some brands that may (or may not) have left us too soon.

The Clarity team is delighted to announce that we have won PR Week’s UK Specialist of the Year award for our tech expertise. 

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the team has worked tirelessly to support our clients as they adapt to the “new normal” as well as continuing to pitch for and win exciting new additions to our tech portfolio. 

Clarity CEO & Founder, Sami McCabe, said “This award is richly-deserved recognition for the herculean efforts of our outstanding UK team, the exceptional work we’ve delivered for our awesome clients, and for Rachel’s fearless leadership of the London office.

I’m thrilled to announce that this week, Clarity acquired Amsterdam-based Yellow Communications. 

Yellow is the leading independent technology communications agency in Benelux, working with clients including Citrix, ENGIE, Roche Diabetes Care and Boomi. 

I can’t wait to start working with Yellow’s inspirational founder Karin van Geelen and her exceptionally talented team, to grow Clarity’s presence in what is an increasingly important market. 

This is a huge milestone for Clarity and a strategically crucial step in our growth journey. The acquisition of Yellow is the first of many planned initiatives to grow Clarity across Europe.

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