Writing on trust, reputation and where marketing is heading.

The room has changed: Something is assessing your worth right now

We were in standard nine, which in South Africa at the time, was the penultimate year of school. We were called in to vo…

Why brand recognition matters less than your online reputation

I asked three AI language models to recommend pet insurance for our 8-year-old dog (recovering from cyst surgery) and ou…

Your reputation is now your search ranking

If you are thinking, 'Oh no, not more AI-related content’, think again, because there is no burying your head in th…

The apple, the shortcut, the lesson

When I was a baby, I am told, my mother was trying to get me to crawl. She put a blanket on the carpet, as you do for ba…

It was a hill I was prepared to die on

Marketing is an endurance sport Growing up, my nephew – who is slightly older than me – was always the fit one, the spor…

The marketing machine that runs and runs and goes nowhere

When I was a child, my oldest brother used to put us to work in the garden. He was already an adult, with a son older th…

When something smells fishy, customers turn to 'gut' instinct

A few years ago, I went fishing on a Saturday and returned home with a healthy catch. Unfortunately, I also had to fille…

AI search is rewriting the rules of B2B discovery

For years, Google search results have been the starting point for B2B buyers and search engine optimisation (SEO) meant …

Blood on the carpet

In Apartheid South Africa, there were so-called homelands, with Transkei (Nelson Mandela was born in Mvezo, a village in…

The chocolate chilli principle of persuasion

When I was young, so much younger than today, I would chase my nephew (who is six months younger than me) around the hou…

From army platoons to brands, tribes work best

It was beneath a blistering sun – and later a cold moon – noisy with cicadas (when even the snakes were hunting shade be…

Words that changed the world: What they mean for you

It's not Adwords, or social media or radio that make your marketing communications campaign successful – it's what you s…

Us Kiwis, we need to talk...

I am a writer. A journalist. A wordsmith. A public relations and communications practitioner for more than 30 years. I b…

How many times do brands make this Subway mistake?

Jared Fogle—once the face of fast-food chain Subway because he lost weight by only eating Subway sandwiches—was ultimate…

Lessons from loss: Overcoming avoidance in business

Thoughts on how to achieve personal change in 2025 I was in my mid-20s when my dad became very ill with tuberculosis and…

The bus, the broomstick and the keys

Lessons in communication and narrative persuasion When I was a child, I got into a fight with my nephew over some imagin…

Increase your leads and retention with a professional newsletter

Are you looking to elevate your marketing with a professional, engaging newsletter but don't have the time or resources …

Reputation Roulette:When Bad is Good for Business

It was energetic, rebellious, catchy; a raw punk rock anthem and I couldn't get enough of it. I was in my early teens in…

How to recession-proof your business

When I was young, I desperately wanted a horse. But to own a horse, in my mind, I needed to live on a farm. Otherwise, w…

If you're stressed about the slow-down, here's how to turn things around

If business is slow—or you are worried that a slow-down is coming—make yourself more visible because the more visible yo…

How to make your messaging interesting and persuasive

Are you telling your target market how to suck eggs? Worse, are you communicating the messages as your competitors? For …

Quality over quantity - why organic marketing is worth its salt

At first glance, table salt is table salt - right? Not really. Regular table salt is 'processed' and has added anticoagu…

How you can dominate your market by 'taking a stand'

If you want your business or brand to stand out, stand for something – so long as it is congruent with your business and…

To be without a reputation is to be irrelevant

In a polarised world, reputation can be made, or destroyed, in moments... the thought of which sends most sensibly minde…

What good is public relations if you can't sell?

AUCKLAND: New Zealand - It is not unusual for Iron Road public relations clients to want to amend press releases to incl…

Get better PR when you stand for something

AUCKLAND, New Zealand: When an organisation (or individual) stands for something, they demonstrate a unique purpose that…

If you want media coverage (PR), don't advertise

PUBLIC RELATIONS, Auckland, New Zealand: When issuing a press release, the temptation is to talk about yourself, your pr…

ChatGPT vs. human copywriters: Who wins in the end?

AUCKLAND, New Zealand—As a writer (copywriting, public relations and fiction), I am excited by the advent of AI as a too…

How content marketing can help you 'clear' your reputation on Google

Let's call him John. For more than a decade, John had cultivated a successful profile and business as a sales educator. …

Why your out-of-date blogs are bad for business

There's a song by 80's popstar Shakin' Stevens called 'This Old House', and it goes, "Ain't got time to fix the shingles…

Why many CFOs and CEO are right to cut marketing in tough times

By Colin Kennedy AUCKLAND, New Zealand – CONTENT MARKETING: Accountants take a lot of heat, particularly your CFOs and C…

How to get noticed in a noisy market

Once upon a time, in a forest, there lived a pack of wolves. One day, a strange wolf named Blaze appeared, with bright o…

A lesson from Plutarch on how to make your blogs more interesting

"The first messenger, that gave notice of Lucullus' coming was so far from pleasing Tigranes that he had his head cut of…

Is ChatGPT the beginning of the end for copywriters

I asked the AI if ChatGPT spell the end for copywriters. This was it's reply: As an AI language model, I cannot predict …

Reputation Management, AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND:

Living in an age where even the historical writings of children's author Roald Dahl are deemed offensive, you have to wo…

How content marketing can help your business

Introduction Content marketing is an essential tool for businesses to use in order to attract new customers and promote …

Create social media content that differentiates

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland: Effective social media content creation is telling a story that automatically positions and diffe…

Are you making this marketing mistake?

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland: In battle, soldiers in the Vietnam war tended to take a spray and pray approach to battle. It was…

How to build your brand through LinkedIn

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland: LinkedIn is an online platform that is home to 630 million professionals and counting. It's a spa…

Your good news is boring

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: Content Marketing: The media is full of bad news because we are drawn to conflict and carnage, bu…

Is your content marketing barking up the wrong tree?

Research suggests that more than 70% of created content dies a lonely death. Could you be making this common audience st…

How your worldview can make you more interesting

The rise of alternative media – for example, Joe Rogan and Rebel News – to name a couple, has important lessons for mark…

Think before your speak, pause before you post

PUBLIC RELATIONS, AUCKLAND: Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack came tumbling down and broke h…

Of landlords and tenants, victims and villains

Recent media coverage of the 1 July healthy homes standards adopts a classic storytelling approach with 'victims', 'culp…

Facemasks make a useful propaganda tool

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – PUBLIC RELATIONS: Have you considered the use of props to help make your communications more per…

What matters to customers matters to your reputation

My 12-year-old daughter, clearly upset, brought a just used bottle of shampoo to my wife last night. "They test it on an…

'Nosy neighbour syndrome' a Godsend for B2B marketers?

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - CONTENT MARKETING: Farmers would stroll over to the farm gate, operations managers would dust of…

In the war for attention, what does Covid teach us?

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - CONTENT MARKETING: Are you tired of hearing about Covid? But… it still gets your attention, righ…

For your reputation to flourish, your ego must die

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, REPUTATION – Bruce Springsteen reportedly once said that there would always be rock stars so long as…

How safe is your online reputation in 2021?

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – A a client of ours, and his company, were mentioned in an online forum. In the same forum, total…

Why your online reputation is more important than ever before

Is sales a future crime?

Customer service staff in New Zealand's banks by and large hate the sales pressure they come under. So much so, one repo…

Vaccination presents a compelling case for winning hearts and minds

Triggering an emotional response is often presented as the holy grail of successful communications – stories are a short…

We recently asked more than 1,000 New Zealand marketers how they generate business leads. The results were... surprising

Overall, New Zealand marketers who responded to our informal survey employ a total of 23 lead generation tactics, and th…

Thought Leadership begins when you put the public interest ahead of your own

A New Zealand power company said that they needed content to help them with their winter bill shock problem. Essentially…

Want your content marketing to stand out? Stand for something

By standing for something, conventional media (newspapers, magazines, radio and TV) niche their message and differentiat…

Content marketing sells better by putting the customer first

Journalists have been creating content that people want to read for a very long time (advertising piggybacks off great c…

The erosion of trust in tertiary education and what to do about it

Where once tertiary education institutions competed with each other for enrolments – for the hard working as well as the…

Audio is booming

The lyrics from British new wave band The Buggles, Video Killed the Radio Star... "If I was young it didn't stop you com…

Apple MacOS High Sierra turns its guns on auto-play and remarketing

Will Ads re-discover the art of silent moviemaking? I installed MacOS High-Sierra this week and found myself sucked into…

How to turn public relation's media impressions into flesh-and-blood customers

New Zealand is yet to feel the tremors of dissatisfaction with digital advertising running through London and New York, …

Is provocative content worth it?

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: A headline in the recent 'sponsored' section of a New Zealand daily newspaper read, "Religion in …

How to create a powerful call to action

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: A powerful CTA or "Call to Action" – essential to Content Marketing and Inbound – is a button on …

How to set up a sales funnel for your content marketing

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: I was in my early teens when one day I was walking down a road in our neighbourhood. A front gate…

Fight for my inbox: Hardy's vs Countdown

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: I'm on the move, I open my mobile and check my emails. There's 18 unopened emails waiting for me …

The 7 essentials of a killer content marketing strategy

Part 1: The heart of your content I went to high school with identical twins, and I was always puzzled when other people…

How to squeeze more juice from your content marketing

AUCKLAND, New Zealand: In this age of content marketing, how do you get more mileage from the content you create when yo…

Best pop up ever or what?

I am not a fan of pop-ups. Most times I kill them as soon as look at them. Not so much because they're intrusive, but be…

How an anthropologist can help build your buyer personas

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: One of the presenters at a recent New Zealand Content Marketing Conference, Professor Hamish Gow …

How to market something so new nobody knows they need it

Content Marketing, Auckland - NEW ZEALAND: How do you raise awareness and create a market for a completely new, unique p…

How to make your content relevant

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: In our rush to drive traffic to our websites, promote our brands and build market awareness we of…

Fact: Long articles get the most shares

Content Marketing, New Zealand: A Hubspot seminar in Auckland last week revealed that 2000 word articles, or longer, get…

What is sponsored content?

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: Sponsored content, or native ads as some call them (I believe there is a distinction), essentiall…

The rush to relevance in the face of mob conscience

Brands that wish to be trusted now and in the future must make the move from value positioning to relevance positioning …

The corruption of content marketing

In many ways the rise of 'content marketing' was a reaction to the decline of advertising, but 'content marketing' is no…

The anatomy of a content sales programme

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: You've heard about content marketing, but very often that's a 'long game' strategy. When you need…

Is your business like the party bore?

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: Have you ever been to a party, a business networking function or social gathering where you encou…

The real reason why nobody ever wants the good news first

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: "We feel it's a bit negative. We prefer to put this in a positive light." This was the response w…

How to come up with content story ideas

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: If you want an endless supply of content marketing story ideas, begin by identifying trends befor…

Content marketing pain: does your audience have a short attention span?

A major challenge currently confronting content marketing efforts by many brands is how to capture and hold the attentio…

Need sales fast? Try this simple but quick online prospecting process

Auckland, New Zealand: Content Marketing: Need to boost your sales leads quickly because you've been so busy, you've neg…

Hiring a journalist does not constitute content marketing

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: The philosophies and objectives of advertising are not redundant or dead or declining, but our si…

Is the Red Queen moving against you?

How can content marketing help you defeat the Red Queen? 'Of course it is' said the Queen...now here you see, it takes a…

Common content mistakes: your expertise is not the customers problem

A common content marketing mistake – and I have been guilty of this myself, often – is writing about what you do. For ex…

Do you need a technical writer or just a damned good editor?

Organisations that sell and support complex, technical products and services in New Zealand increasingly understand the …

How to tell a powerful story

Everybody loves a good story – to hear one, and to tell one – which is why a good story, well told, is engaging, memorab…

Overview: An approach to content marketing in New Zealand

The nature of a good content marketing strategy is to target buyer personas with good quality content that adds value to…

The best time to engage customers

We read a lot about engaging customers, cutting through the clutter, getting our message across… the truth is that we on…

Simple guide to SEO in New Zealand

Here's why content marketing is so critical to SEO... In pursuit of 'cleaning up the web', Google introduced two major u…

A copywriters value is defined by how well they sell not spell

If you want a copywriter because you don't have the time to do the copy yourself, or spell terribly or have a limited vo…

Is your company social media page a whinge magnet?

Is there really any corporate value in Facebook? Or is it a double edged sword that's more likely to wound your reputati…

Content that connects: the proper use of buyer personas

"She was a bold-looking girl of about twenty-seven, with thick dark hair, a freckled face, and swift, athletic movements…

The simple art of content marketing

The company CEO sighed and looked up at the blank white ceiling. I half expected to see a metal ceiling fan there, ponde…

The content tussle between PR & digital - who will win?

The rising of content marketing as a viable promotional strategy may be just the lifeline that the struggling media indu…

Synthetic highs: a trope for corrupt content marketing?

I bought my 5-year-old daughter a pink piggybank because I wanted her to learn how to save. Then she discovered it made …

The importance of having something to say

It's not how we say it, but what we say… This is a blog about something to say, about truth, and about how it feels when…

What hair and hockey taught me about conversions

I told this story recently at the New Zealand Content Marketing Conference #2014CMC, and it was well received – probably…

Consider using key messages in your content marketing

A key message is public relations tool defined as: "A short, concise and memorable sentence used to convey an important …

Are journalists the new marketers?

Could journalists be the new marketing consultants of tomorrow? It's already happening and the discipline even has a nam…

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is not article marketing – it's not writing a bunch of articles, sometimes of dubious quality, and loa…