We've gotten used to seeing the various "disciplines" within marketing converge, and the trend of placing advocacy into marketing and advertising, as noted by a former high-level executive with McDonald's Europe, would just be the latest example.

The folks from Gallup are out with the news that is probably not a surprise to anyone:  employee engagement is stalled around the world.  It is better in the US, but even here it is only 32%.

(No, this is not an article about Pixar).

In PR, one of our biggest challenges is helping laypeople understand complicated subjects.  Whether it is the science behind plant emissions, a complex financial issue or, really, any kind of communications related to change, helping people understand scientific, technical and mathematical concepts is among the toughest jobs we have.  Early on, a big hero was Edward Tufte, whose classic book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information created a cult following devoted to the importance of design, graphics, and integrity in creating understanding in these situations.

Anyone who works in the PR business or at a PR agency today knows that content is the hottest term in the business.  We used to talk about writing copy or making videos--now we "create content."

Twitter and Google struck a deal in February to put real-time tweets back into Google’s search index after going without them for a few years.