Is PowerPoint dead yet?

You don’t have to be in the world of marketing long before you hear someone take a shot at PowerPoint, branding it as an antiquated tool whose days are numbered. But this sentiment is tempered by the reality that more than 500 million people still use PowerPoint and no clear successor or alternative has presented [...]

Good news for liberal arts majors

An interesting book review in today’s WSJ caught my eye – not so much for its position against the world of consulting, but for the profound compliment it pays to those of us who were brave enough (or naïve enough) to spend our university years pursuing knowledge instead of marketability. Matthew Stewart, author of Bogus [...]

Sheffield Institute trailer

The Sheffield Institute helps students and young professionals break into the media and marketing industries through capstone projects with non-profits and academic institutions.

Inside Message Mapping and Fluency

Media 101 – 5 quick tips to getting a great story

Know the reporter and the story angle – it’s critical to know who the reporter is and the exact subject of the interview. Go online to read any recent stories the reporter has written, find a bio and don’t be afraid to ask the nature of the story.
Prepare your messages – write down your key messages [...]

Rance Crain editorial – May 12th issue of Crain’s

There’s an interesting piece published in the May 12th issue of Crain’s Chicago Business (“Now more than ever, know what audience wants”) written by the president of Crain Communications about two small controversies related to marketing and media. One is a speech given by the editor of Folio magazine and the other is an article [...]

Grasping changes in media consumption

Many marketers and communications experts won’t be able to keep pace with the rapid and dramatic technology changes that affect how people distribute and consume media.

Video traffic projected to cause Web standstill by 2010

An AT&T executive projects that the rapid growth of online video, particularly the use of high definition (HD) content, will cause the Internet to reach full capacity by 2010. AT&T’s Jim Ciccioni warned that “the surge in online content is at the center of the most dramatic changes affecting the Internet today. In three years’ [...]

Social media: traditional agencies just “don’t get it”

According to a recent survey, traditional agencies don’t understand social media and are ill equipped to help their clients navigate the changing landscape. There’s a lack of competence of the needed skills in social network and video sharing – as well as a traditional compensation model – that prevent them from adjusting.
According to analyst Jim [...]

Must reading for marketers: Wired

If you consider yourself a savvy marketer and do not read Wired cover to cover every month, you need to have your head checked. It is superbly written and covers what other magazines just don’t get. That’s all.