Burying the lede hides the good stuff

In newspaper parlance, burying the lede is an oft-used phrase describing stories that start with inconsequential and uninteresting stuff and then, well into the narrative, finally get around to the interesting bits. The home automation systems giant AMX is, a little surprisingly, in the digital signage business – having acquired a UK company a few [...]

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Don’t invent new terms (and make sense)

The PR news wires steadily pump out stuff that is inconsequential and sometimes nonsensical, but I can usually at least figure out what the company is going on and on about. Usually. I give you this headline: <Brand X> Xtream Series launched, bridging the gap of borderless digital signage solution globally What on Earth is borderless [...]

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Add user-friendly to the archive of now meaningless marketing phrases

I saw a release recently for a company that was changing its name and releasing a new version of its product. The big pitch was that the new version was “a game changer, as it is the most user-friendly DS application available at a price that is hard to beat.” With some notable exceptions, damn [...]

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The problem with big, round numbers

I was just reading a press release about a media network’s plans to increase its footprint by 1,000 locations, starting with 500 by the end of Q3. That may be entirely true, but as someone who has talked to hundreds of early stage network operators over the years, my BS Filter starts shaking and spitting [...]

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Remember the basics when writing releases

I noticed a piece recently on ReadWriteWeb about media relationships, a guest post by the marketing guy for an e-commerce startup  specializing in co-created custom dress shirts. Very different space, but what he has to say about getting media and general reader attention translates really well to justa bout any industry, and certainly an emerging [...]

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