[Music] well hello everyone and Welcome to our

on the offense podcast I am your co-host John clendenning and I am joined by I'm

Jeff bomb your other co-host well we come to you on uh

January 9th is the date and as we speak um and and by the way I say January 9th

by the time you see this it'll be the following week so you'll be watching this the week of the 13th but we are

recording on the 9th and as we speak uh two things are happening one here in

Dallas where we sit it is snowing um it has been snowing since

what Jeff about 7 AM 7 AM that's right it's coming down hard I have I am triple

layered even inside uh and uh we don't get many of these here but when we do we

enjoy it um so happy Snow Day to all here in Dall more important than that

the other side of the spectrum from a weather perspective is what's happening in Los Angeles right now so I am

completely unscripted here I don't know what I'm going to say and I might get emotional because my hometown is

burning um and uh it is very upsetting to me um to millions of others um and I

pray all I can say is I I I pray for my hometown um for all of you out there um

that have lost homes um whose families have lost homes

who've lost power who are still waiting to see if you're going to lose your home

um I am thinking about you um and Angelino from afar uh we're all thinking

about you the whole world supports you everyone here in Dallas is talking about it um my condolences for every

everything that's been lost and please just know that I and many many others are thinking of you Jeff you wanted to

add something as well well I certainly Echo that I I'm not from LA but I've got a lot of friends out there been all the

areas that are being affected and um it's just it's tragic tragic so I'm

thinking about that as well and I'm I'm also thinking about some of the other things that have happened so far this

year that we ought to always keep in mind um sometimes the start to a year can be tough particularly for the people

in New Orleans who are affected by that mass casualty event which um is just

horrific and uh of course the explosion out in Las Vegas um there's just too

much happening right now and uh and we ought to keep that in mind as we go forward hopefully 2025 will prove to be

a much better year and uh and we're we're looking forward to um you know bright things ahead so but to everyone

who's affected my my my thoughts go out to you yeah I mean I I know people whose

homes have burned down I know people whose childhood homes have burned down I know people whose the church in which

they got married burned down uh whose elementary school burned down whose uh

mother's home has burned down it is just Beyond horrific it's just unbelievable

and it's really hard to be watching it from afar you feel like you want to help somehow right and you just feel so

helpless being that far away so to your point Jeff hopefully 2025 is better you

know we're having a bad first inning but hopefully you know there there areh eight more Innings to go right so

hopefully things get better now having said all of that today as I said January 9th is officially a day of morning in

the United States of America and that's because former President Jimmy Carter passed away recently at the age Believe

It or Not of 100 what a life this man had um and uh this morning actually was

his State funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington uh his body is now on its way to his home state of

Georgia where he will be buried um but speaking of Georgia um it was probably

about five to 10 years ago I was in Atlanta on a business trip I had time to visit the Carter Center his presidential

Center just off of downtown Atlanta and uh I went to buy his autobiography and

they had a little sign that said if you buy his autobiography President Carter will sign

the book for you so how often do you get a chance to get an autograph from a

president of the United States and so here it is I don't know if you can read it with the lighting doesn't look like

you can it's a little bright I have a bright light in my face all it says is best wishes to Jeff bomb no

that's you um best wish can I have it oh wait I got the wrong book oh sry best

wishes to John clendenning Jay Carter um so hey this is one of those

things where I don't care what party you were in or or or with if you were the Pres if you're in that club um you're

cool to me right I'll take aut all day long and it's really I've been thinking

a lot about him since he passed away what a great man um I can't imagine ever

imagine another presidency being more consequential after the person left the

White House um and so rest in peace President Carter thank you for your

service um so with that um we are going

to dive into the topic for the podcast which is our and when I say our I mean

uh clients first our agency our predictions for marketing and

Communications for 2025 um we actually uh uh put out um

this list on LinkedIn and Facebook last week so if you haven't had a chance to

see it it's already posted uh on those social channels but now you have an

opportunity to see us go through the list In Living Color ingested with our

personalities right Jeff so it's going to be mean that's gonna overwhelm you it's gonna overwhelm you yeah you're

gonna be so overwhelmed with personality that you're not even gonna know which prediction to follow the closest so it

is that time of year again to talk about where our industry is going to go for the year we have lots to say here um

we're going to start with Mr bomb with number 10 yeah yeah so um ai's influence is going

to continue to WAN I'm sorry what is that joke of course what's that acronym

again um artificial intelligence oh I've never heard of that before ah there you

go of course that's a joke Ai and generative AI are everything right now

it's incredible it's going to affect every aspect of our lives and it's already affecting our industry I mean I

I go to AI all the time to check on facts of course I have to check those facts afterwards but the promise and

also the um the danger from AI G to mock um is is

incredible so this is just going to continue to develop as the as the year goes on and as the coming years go on

but we'll get to that later but um AI is a huge influence on everything we do our

jobs our Industries and um we'll see where it goes from here John number nine no question and yes we

will return to AI somewhere on this list I suspect yeah um all right number nine

Dei and and the prediction that we had on social last week said

CSR deg will stand the test of time but

we're we're really focusing more on Dei here because Dei is the one of those

three that is really under attack I mean you really you see headlines all the

time about this company or that company pulling back on its Dei program I

understand why this is not we're not passing judgment here it is a political Hot Potato I get it we get it however we

have a different view from those who are pulling back which is that it will stand the test of time and here's why because

it's just good for business now the cobbler has no shoes as they say um and

you know I I choose to believe that sometimes the storytellers Among Us Jeff

not us of course others right um sometimes don't don't do the best

storytelling and and I I I don't believe that the story of Dei has been told

adequately enough because I don't think it's clear enough to people that it is good for business

it's not just if you will nice to have stuff it is that but it's also good for

business right um there is an organization called the Arthur W page

Society um the most I think it's fair to say Jeff probably the most esteemed peer

group for senior Communications leaders globally um that's true it actually just

goes as Paige now or the paig society Jeff and I are both former members uh having both former uh

ccos um they put out a study uh in the last month or two with quantifiable data

showing not just that it's good for business but why it's good for business what are the things it does for business

all of which are positive so if you tell the story if you're a company out there and you're wondering boy we have this

Dei program we're not sure to what extent even if you believe in it we're

not sure to what extent we should tell the story publicly about it we're not sure how to position our program

publicly um our belief is that if you focus on the fact that the program is

good for business it's much harder for people to take swipes at you um many of

which are going against the programs due to the current political climate right and so anyway we believe there are

enough companies out there that do believe that that it will stand the test of time a great example the news this week Costco uh Costco is putting its

money where its mouth is it's sticking with its guns and it is sticking with its Dei program I haven't seen the

details of why I'm going to assume assume that at least part of it one would hope right is that they believe

it's good for business any comments on that Jeff I I'd just go a step further

you know if you're a public company even if you're a private company you want to drive profitability and uh it turns out

McKenzie which is of course the think tank of think tanks has put out almost

annual studies with regard to the impact of Dei but Dei on the bottom line and

companies that invest and have a culture with the values diversity they they have

better Returns on Equity um their stocks perform better and they are more

sustainable as companies they have more Creative Solutions so that's all you

need to know um these these numbers are double digigit improvements over companies that don't

have that level of diversity so no matter how you look at it it's it's

reality it's the bottom line and I mean in our minds it's it's it's a good

thing 100% well well said number eight over to

you number eight and sorry I have to look to see what number eight is okay so

the the here to4 generally speaking quiet job of being a CMO or a CCO for a

university will continue to let's say um

Veer toward no longer being a quiet job and I I I think that's pretty

self-explanatory um you know as things be become more controversial as our society becomes more divided um and the

diversity of opinion is Extreme and extreme with very little in the middle you know universities have always been

the prime place where people debate and they protest and they you know they have

their new Independence as adults and um so being a a CCO or CMO at a university

is no longer going to be a quiet job um there are things that are going to happen on campus um Dei is a prime

example um when the Supreme Court made its decision last summer um there was

criticism of some of the ivy league um university presidents of not speaking out more about it and in the end at

least two of them were removed um that makes for an interesting Dei environment

um I mean I'm sorry not Dei environment but a um an environment with regard to

freedom of speech on campus um and then also if you look way back for those of

us who are are gray and grizzled um think about the yeah not you John me look at me I'm I'm

just like a skeleton with hair um if if you look back to the Vietnam War in that

whole period of time um you and the hippies and all the things that were

back in Our Generation Um which in my mind is the greatest Generation right John we're the greatest Generation all

these other people are posers um of course yes yes but you know there were

major um riots on campus there was the Kent State incident uh where um you know

people were killed um so unfortunately I think we're going to see more of a

return to that and so if you're going to be working um you know for the chancellor of a university you got to be

ready and you got to be a qualified crisis Communicator so anyway

that's that's my perspective John yeah I mean the only thing I'd add to that is here we are in January 9th

right graduations in four months not not sure how that happened and it's hard to think about that when it's snowing

outside but graduation is in four months so um do you have a CR if you a if you

are a university uh lead if you are a CMO and or a CCO which at many universities is

the same role right a do you have a crisis plan let's let's assume you do if

you got that job you've got a crisis plan um when's the last time it was

updated um I've seen far too many crisis plans become shelfware um even those

created with the best intentions and with all of this actionable stuff in it you better be

ready better be ready now because it's going to happen again in the next three to four

months uh okay should I go on with number seven you should go on with number seven lucky lucky number seven

um earned media will become more valuable than ever so

uh this this is not unlike the the our position on Dei which again we believe

will stand the test of time there's a lot of talk out there that media is dead everyone the the the

the term is everyone is Media there's a lot of Truth to that there's also a lot of Truth to the

pain the pain and suffering that Legacy Media is now enduring right in large

part because everyone is Media right um with the political uh World in which we

live being so divided um you know media is just under attack right

um that doesn't mean in our view that uh

that eared media will not retain its place as as the most valuable type of

media of all right there's paid media code for advertising owned media code for Thought leadership web content

social content whatever earned media is if you're a communicator out there and

you somehow um um somehow drive an

article you know you work with a reporter the article gets written even if the article isn't exactly the way you

want it to be which is normal um it's still earned media it still brings the

credibility that the so-called third party endorsement of a news article brings and let's face it with um with

the way the media landscape is now um we

think a really good solid piece of earned media is going to stand out even more than it did before let's assuming

this is an objective real piece of journalism right not the

craap uh that that uh wastes half our time on the internet I'm talking about

real content if you can generate that type of real content on behalf of your

company or on behalf of your client it's going to be more valuable than ever if

it's credible and that's what we're talking about credible information right now so this whole notion that journalism

is dead am I allowed to cuss on our podcasts do it do it director Caroline

what's your what's your um yeah oh she says great we have a we have a director in the background who we call Melman

from the regist and Kathy Le Melman

Melman oh Gelman Gman yes I I believe the answer is yes I will bleep you if

not it's funny I like it hi everyone

bye Gelman says it's okay to say okay so people who say

journalism is dead um the fourth estate will die when one

and only one thing happens and that is when people no longer have a thirst for

news or information right it's just that simple I just don't buy this notion that

journalism is dead Jeff anything to add well yeah I think social social networks

social media drive a lot of this oh fact is you know you can be anyone and put your opinion up on social media no one

knows who you are no one knows what your expertise is and so is it true well some

people say oh of course it's true some people say it isn't true the other the

other danger Point here I think is AI you know AI can generate pretty much

anything they can change my face into John's face they can replicate his voice

um so you don't know if you're what you're seeing is true so that's a huge thing itself um also there are certain

people uh go ahead John I'm sorry I'm sorry just keep going and then I'll make

my point okay um there there are certain people have

opinions with regard to you know media being fake media uh media being biased

and and certainly you know every media outlet has some sort of bias some sort

of opinion um but we got to be we got to be um diligent in making sure we

understand what the real news is and I think that's harder and harder to do so

uh John you know what you just said the the magic word what is the what is real news and what is not real news whenever

my people in my family rate oh did you see this article my first question is always and it's annoying to that but is

always what's the source what's the source so again our Point here on number

whatever this is number seven is real credible media if you are able to

generate news in real credible uh news outlets we think it's

going to be even more important than ever going forward with that on to

number six okay number six the pressure from on high to return to the office five days a

week will raise attrition rates and um certainly as a result of covid everyone

got used to remote work and for a lot of people it's much more favorable than

schlepping into the office than spending two hours in your car each day um to get

to the office to have a cup of coffee you know to to chat with your your

buddies and everything else where if you're at home you know you can be working that's productivity you can be

working at 10 o'clock at night and take a nap during the day all it matters is

you're putting out what the company needs and with the Advent of having video calls like this we can look at

each other um we we know we know we're producing something of value um now you

be the judge of how much value it is but you know there's going to be a lot of pressure there and and some companies

are saying you need to return and if you listen to the people that uh uh

president to be Trump is uh putting in charge of government efficiency you

listen to Elon Musk he wants people back in the office and that's going to cause

attrition it's going to cause a dip in job satisfaction and I also say probably

will cause a dip in productivity and quality and all those good things so I I

think the best solution may be a hybrid approach where someone goes in the

office maybe one or two days a week but spends their other time at home um remote work has a lot of value and I

think with technology and everything else we have at our our fingertips right now that's proven to be the case

John 100% the thing I would add is that regardless of whatever formula that your

company chooses and you know I I I tend to think that most companies are going

to go the way of some sort of blend right even if it's four days in the

office one day not whatever it is right even if it's mostly in the office

whatever formula you choose we think we think there's that two things are going to happen relative to marketing and

Communications one is it's going to be more important than ever for you as a company to gauge your level of Employee

Engagement to understand how engaged are your employees um because the the less engage

I mean you know this isn't rocket science you're in HR you know what I'm about to say the less engaged the

employees are the less um uh productive they are meaning they are less

successful in general and guess what they're also more prone to bail to quit

and what happens when a company B when a when an employee quits uh the company now has to spend a boatload of time and

a boatload of money to replace them it's hard on companies when they lose a lot

of people so that's why we're saying hey regardless whatever formula you choose be prepared the more you force people to

go back to the office the more attrition you're probably going to face especially from younger people um and that's just

going to cost a lot of time and money and that what that does is it also creates angst among the employees in

general so you have to understand your employee engagement there are a lot of uh Communications tools that you can

deploy uh to help with that to help increase the level of engagement right

to deepen the relationship that your employee feels with you as your employer

um the other thing that we think will acrw from this is the Art and Science of

recruitment marketing so there are a lot I don't care if you're IBM or General

Motors or you know clients first marketing and Communications some

startup right I mean you have to recruit talent you have to retain talent and uh

in order so so you have to be you have to put information out in the market

specifically designed to recruit people to come to your company I would argue that that's most important if you are a

company that's based in I don't want to say the middle of nowhere but a small town or something like that where it

might be harder to recruit people there because there's just not as much going on and in situations like that I have

personal experience in developing content for companies that have done

this in partnership with the city the municipality in which the company is

based because it also helps the city recruit people to that company it's a

win-win right and so there are lots of things you can do but there are also lots of things you should do as a

company whether you're in a small town or in the middle of Midtown Manhattan you have to retain people and that's

where the engagement comes in so hey bring people back to the office all you want maybe it will increase your

productivity but we're here to tell you there's another side of that coin um I'll add just one last thing to

that John which is yeah you know for companies that have closed facilities and Consolidated facilities that's a

money saver you know it costs a lot to heat a building to air conditioned building to

run a cafeteria all those different things that if you go to a primarily remote

Workforce that falls off the table so there are some companies that have taken that approach that okay it's working out

you know our financial performance is good we're going to close this place or we're going to downsize it and that has

economic retir economic value no no question so we are now down we're

halfway done it is now halftime of the client's first 2025 prediction Bowl um

so what we're going to do and we decided this in advance is we're going to take a break at halftime and this coming

weekend is NFL Wildcard Weekend and we are nothing if not sports fans here at

clients first right Jeff um so I have in front of me the list of

the NFL wild card games that are due to be played this weekend and we're gonna

do a quick ratatatat here between Jeff and I we're gonna predict who's gonna win each game we invite you to the

extent we're wrong or one of us is wrong when you see this to shove it back in

our face um with comments and make fun of us for uh having missed the boat on

that prediction so let's start I don't know if we're going if I'm going in order of when the games are going to be

played although I will end with the one I know is on Monday night first up Green

Bay Philadelphia I I believe that game is in Philly so it's cold either way

what do you got Eagles pack I think there's no question it's gonna be the Eagles that wins that game the Eagles

are going to win that game plus plus the Packers have an injured quarterback

who's very who's very valuable to what's his name love yes Jordan love

he's hurt he's hurt hurt his hand did not know that not is it his throwing

hand um I believe so I believe so now he came back in the game and he

was but uh that's that would be a huge loss okay also have alumni of a place

that went to school named saquan Barkley who's yes I had a feeling you were gonna

bring I had a feeling you were going to bring him up um as you should I concur completely I think he's the best player

in the NFL Barkley um and I didn't know about the

quarterback but even if he's in the game I gotta go with the Eagles so Eagles at

home over the Packers all right now we move to

um no no all right we're going to go to the AFC Denver Buffalo Broncos bills what do

you think ah I think it's no question Buffalo I think the bills have too much

talent they're at home as well yeah I I think it's no question Buffalo they've

got a great back they've got a great overall mix of players I another MVP

candidate in the quarterback Josh Allen uh yeah they're at home as well I think I think they're honestly I think they're

going to kill him I I don't think that I I think Green Bay Philadelphia will be

competitive but yes the Eagles will win I think the bills will wipe the Broncos

out not that the Broncos can't handle playing in cold weather they're playing in Buffalo but I just don't think

they're quite there yet it's to me it's a huge feat for the Broncos to have reemerged as just a playoff oh I think

it's they've already won this season I think yeah let's keep moving this one is close

to your heart Jeff the Y not the your Pittsburgh

Steelers heading to Baltimore to play the hated Baltimore

Ravens yes you may not know my background but I'm from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania diard Steelers fan I was a

diard pirates fan even a DI hard Penguins fan so um I guess they're all

P's right um Penguins oh Steelers not a p of course anyway okay this one's tough

for me um you I've always been a Steelers fan yeah um although I've seen

the Ravens and the Ravens are really really good but sometimes you got to go

with your heart and not your mind so what I would say to this

[Laughter] this is where my and I'm going with the

Steelers regardless of the talent levels and I think Russell Wilson has a great

game coming up you know I have been the prop King on these podcasts for the most

part until that moment you've now taken over that was outstanding I did not know you were gonna do that I I I'm gonna go

the other way and I'm sorry I apologize I'm going to think with my head but I'm not here's why I'm going

with the raven I actually think they're G to go to the Super Bowl like I think they're for real they

very much could and every Cowboy fan in this snowy town is mad at Jerry Jones

for not signing uh what's his name

Henry Derrik Henry Derk Henry who is now plowing through defenses in Baltimore I

think they're going to the Super Bowl all right I hope I having said that I

hope the Steelers win no doubt about it but I we'll see we'll see what happens

all right we've got two three more um this is a really weird playoff game to

me the Washington commanders traveling to Tampa to play the Bucks it's a weird

playoff game that is a weird playoff game um and

I'm I'm really I really have mixed emotions on that because I lived in DC for a long time and actually became

somewhat of a Redskins fan when I lived there um now it's strange because I'm in

Dallas where Cowboys and Redskins have ha or now commanders have always hated

each other so that's interesting too um but I'm also a fan of like Baker

Mayfield I like a scrappy guy who um has overcome all kinds of adversity and it's

fun to watch play football so I'm going to go with the with the Buccaneers I'm

going to go with the Bucks in Tampa really hope that it's a good game and you've got a a great mix of players

there you know what I'm gonna go with you on that and the only reason I'm GNA do it is the buckser at home I'm gonna

I'm gonna go home fi Advantage by the way I'm going I'm looking at at my screen my screen right now I am on

espn.com when I say who's at home I'm just going by the seatings I'm assuming the higher seated team is the home team

right right so I'm going to go with Tampa based on HomeField we've got two more the Chargers I almost said San

Diego Chargers the Los Angeles Chargers and the Houston Texans also a bit of a

strange playoff game what do you think yeah that's a tough one that is a

tough one based on Talent levels I might have to go with the Tex

but based on Karma maybe I go with the Chargers and

we have good friends who are Avid Chargers fans live in the San Diego area

even though they're Chargers in La now I'm gonna go with the Chargers so they're still Chargers fans despite what

the Chargers did to them yes good for them you know what because of what you

just said I'm going with the Chargers I'm not a big Harbaugh fan no us person

is and we don't have time to get into that whole thing right but look what he did for his alma mater last year he

knows what he's he's a winner wherever he goes he's a winner he's a winner I say Harbaugh goes on the road because

this is in Houston and wins the game and then we'll end up and and if may I start

on this one please this is the final one and I know I say final because I know

this is the Monday night game this is so cool what they've done with wild card and they have two games

on I think there's six games two games Saturday three games Sunday and then a

Monday night game they've really kind of spread out this Wild Card Weekend I think it's brilliant the uh Minnesota

Vikings are traveling to Los Angeles to play the

Rams so this game as we record here again on January 9th there is a good

chance the NFL is going to move the game to Phoenix um because of the fires and and

even if the fires are under control by Monday night the I you know the air quality and all of the associated issues

they might move the the game to Phoenix which would really be unfortunate for the Rams because they'd lose their home

field advantage but other things are more important I choose to think that

whether the games in LA or in Phoenix the Rams are going to be entirely and

utterly inspired by the fires and by what that town is going through and they will win

the game now I could have assigned the same Dynamic to the Chargers I just can't I can't not think

of them as the San Diego Chargers I'm sorry I know it's hard it's hard it's entirely unfair the Rams are Los Angeles

they will be inspired by the fires and they will upset the Minnesota

Vikings um I honestly beg to differ on this one I I I think the Vikings are a

team of Destiny right now and I say that because of a a guy from Southern

California who's never gotten his fair Shake Sam fight on Sam Sam darnold has

been an amazing comeback story and I think just his emotion and his ability

to lift the team will be the difference I also think the head coach is an interesting guy he he's um he's creative

he thinks out of the box he's young all those things go in their favor and and I

do like the Rams but um in my mind I think the Vikings are gonna make a

pretty good run you know what I I can I can never go against Sam darnold right I

hate the fact even if there were no fires I hate the fact that Sam's going against the Rams I hate that

Sam's going against La I don't like that I guess that's what happens when you go into the pros and you get drafted by

random teams or in his case traded and moved around or whatever but all right

so we uh agree on some points we differ on others um I have no idea how that all

comes out in the wash if you see some stuff here that ends up uh looking bad

come Monday Tuesday let us know uh that's about the point at which this thing will be out in um

internet land and U I believe we will still have one more podcast to go before

the Super Bowl so we will be able to um we will be able to predict a Super Bowl

winner so with that let's go back to um our predictions for 2025 and I believe I'm up next with

number five number five a a true competitor to

Tik Tock will at least begin to emerge merge all right I am an Adjunct

professor on the side I give quizzes by profession I can't help it Mr bomb you

are on the hook here give it your best shot the monthly average user base for

Tik Tok how many people on average per month are using Tik Tock what a wild

guess uh wild guess 150 million people

1.6 billion with a B whoa 1.6 billion uh

monthly average it's unbelievable um Gelman our producer is one of them uh

she is a tick tocker if that's a term um you know it a lot I feel like there's a

theme Here Right the media is under attack uh earn ear you know Legacy Media

is under attack Dei under attack Tik tok's under attack as well and maybe

they deserve it I I don't know I I'm not getting in the middle of that I'm just saying they're under attack there is a

chance that they will no longer be allowed to do business in the United States Trump himself who has been among

the most if not the most vocal anti- Tik Tock person again not rendering judgment

on that has recently said that they may end up staying so who knows what's going

to happen but I I think regardless of that in other words even if they do

stay um because of the uh flak that they

take because of who owns them and because of who is about to uh re up at

the White House I think a competitor will emerge the obvious candidate is

meta um but I choose to think it's going to be someone other than that Jeff

comments no I think the market itself you know capitalism you go to

where the money's good and um you know Tik Tok even though it was originated in

a communist country um I just think that model is is really powerful and all

these influencers and the way folks use it and you even even the presidential

campaigns use Tik Tok as to do some of their uh their campaigning so I think

someone will emerge but if I had to put my money down I'm pretty pretty cheap as a person if you

know me um I would bet that Tik Tok is still around in one form or another at

the end of the year now maybe with a US owner maybe with some sort of strange

restrictions on it maybe with all us data being kept here um but I would I

would bet it's still around I think that's a good call I mean you know it's made its name on short form video and

clearly people like that right so they do it's going to stick around in some form or somebody else will try to try to

take part of the pie I agree with you on that all right let's keep it moving number four number four and I guess I

guess I'm number four aren't I you are number four let me get let me get back to my little cheat sheet here you are

number you are number one in our hearts but you're number four on the list oh I'm number one in my own

heart okay um paid media will make its biggest impact via empathy driven

stories um I I I kind of believe this I think that it makes sense um you know we

live in such a mean aggressive world right now particularly the political world everyone's either right or they're

wrong or but no one's H you know you're somewhat right I'd do this or whatever

else there's nothing everything's black white No Gray we need gray and one of

the ways to drive that is to you know inject some emotion into paid media and

this is media that your company's producing your you're producing this could be blogs this could be anything

but I think you need to make an emotional connection and um and it's all

based on basic morality I I I don't think that the way we're seeing people

portrayed in the media or politically is

I don't know I I I I get very frustrated with it and I remember I used to work on Capitol Hill a long long time ago long

time ago um and the atmosphere there was so different you were talking you know

the mid to late 1980s and Democrats and Republicans they'd hang out together you know they

would compromise on legislation um you could be a friend of someone in the

other party today that's really no longer the case it's not not as if um

you know tip O'Neal at the end of the week is going to shle on down to the White House to have a toast and some

Irish whiskey with Ronald Reagan but that was the case they became after hours buddies and we really don't see

that and I think the best way to get there again is to humanize everybody and

I think empathy where you could actually uh you know relate to someone's situation or show some sympathy but but

share those feelings that's that's not there today and I think it needs to be John I mean I could not possibly

agree more with that you know my my first editor some of you know I started my

career as a journalist my first editor told me one of the very first things he ever told me I never forgot it people

like to read about other people and he was counseling me because I was about to

go cover a school board meeting which sounds about as inhumane as POS I mean

how boring can you get right how do you write a news story about a school board

meeting or you know you could extrapolate it about a city council meeting or whatever and make it about

people because they voted on this budget or that budget or whatever but his point was find a way to tell people how these

votes impact them right pull out human interest stories people like to read

about other people I would argue that that's true with earn media people want to see stories about other people they

want to learn more about other people and yeah you're right it's paid media but it's also owned media it's a great

opportunity um to do profiles for the

public on your on on the most interesting employees you have I know a lot of companies already do that as part

of their internal Communications program why not be doing it for your external Communications program as well people

like to read about other people and we're just flat out emotionally exhausted from the past several years we

really are um and here we are off to a horrible start in the first inning of 2025 people are are exhausted so yes

empathy driven stories completely agree um I'll take number three and then I

believe you're you're gonna you're gonna bring it home with both two and one number three on our list is the

democratization of thought leadership will advance so no one disputes the correlation between the reputation of a

company's CEO and that of the company as a whole

um you have to guard I mean when I was a CMO and a CCO I guarded the reputation

of the CEO like I would that of my own family it was very personal to me um everything

that person did I cared about everything um having said and and so it it it

follows that there's no better person uh to lean on when you build the reputation

of your company thought leadership and other things you put out there on that person's behalf um but I think the point

of number three here is it doesn't have to stop with that research study show I've actually read about this recently

that thought leadership in the name of people a step below the CEO and even a

step or two below that can sometime can sometimes get higher levels of

Engagement than um do the thought leadership pieces in the name of the CEO

and why is that it's because people don't just care about the CEO they care about other people as well but it also

comes down to the content itself it comes down to the subject matter do you care about the subject matter that this

person has written about um H are you reading about about that subject matter

on a channel that you trust so part of it is the content part of it is where

you get it placed uh where you post it etc etc the point is don't just stop

with the CEO there's so much more there comments on that yeah no um back in our

EDS days where John and I met um we had a uh we had a futurist who was

on our team yeah and uh our clients love to hear him um he he was incredibly

insightful usually pretty accurate about where the world was going and when you

work for a technology services company they expect you to have somebody on your team who can predict the future and

future Technologies and we had that and we got a lot of use out of him in the

media and in public forums and you know if you have that pump it up pump it up

there are people in your company or in your organization who may have a field of expertise that no one has even

thought of so hey well I agree yeah you know what we had a guy like that at

unisus he was unbelievable he was an absolute subject matter expert asme um

he was a good writer and he was just game to play the game if you will he was

willing and able he was willing to spend the time on giving up us cont giving us ideas

that we could turn into content for him Andor sometimes developing his own content and it was just a real

partnership between the Communications Group and him he was in one of the business units um and as a result we

were constantly cranking out content with his name attached to it and the engagement levels were high he would do

podcasts he would do blogs he would do anything he wasn't spending all his time on it don't get me wrong he these people

have other things to do but I guess the point is you're Communicator out there a marketer

looking for somebody to focus on find somebody who's game who's willing to spend the time because what happens too

often is you get Executives on the phone and they're kind of like oh yeah yeah of course oh great idea we'll do that and

then maybe you get one done and then it becomes two three weeks before you get

an approval you're off track and then the whole thing goes away right so you got to have an executive who is willing

to spend the time that's on the executive it's also on the marketing and

Communications people up front to set the expectation these people need to know if

you're going to say yes we're going to be hounding you you've got to post once a month or people will stop paying

attention etc etc all right on to Mr bomb who's gonna do both number two and

number one and then we have a surprise additional set of predictions yes yes so

okay well we won't spoil the surprise yet got to spoil the surprise number two meet the newest Olympic power crisis

Communications of course that's a bit tongue and cheek because crisis Communications has always been one of

the core needs in a public relations organization any company um and you know

if you're a company you've got to be first a good company a good investment

you got to be a good employer and you got to be a good neighbor and when you

have a crisis all those things come into question um so smart companies always

have a crisis plan in hand um always have a crisis team on the ready and can

always put that into place but you know what the days go on things get away from

you and the last thing you're thinking of is a crisis until it happens so John

and and I have been through our fair share of crises I used to work in the pharmaceutical and consumer products

industry way back uh we had people um uh die um with regard to you know a new

product we introduced that wasn't caused by the product itself but we needed to

pull it from the market um you know clearly some of the tests didn't show things that were actually there um we

had a flu vaccine that lost its uh Effectiveness after a certain amount of

time that became a full-blown crisis with senior citizens um and you know during the time of 911 and after that um

we we've had what people thought was Anthrax um sent to our office yeah so

you know there's always a crisis around the corner you know look at what's happened in in food industry and you

know with McDonalds and the slic onions and um borsh head and the um and also

like organic carrots um the next Crisis is right around the corner so if you don't have a

crisis plan you ought to get one soon John well and to to a point I think that

was raised earlier you have to have make sure it's constantly updated maybe constantly but at least what

quarterly you can't let the time go by I'll I'll add one other thing which

is it um I many of the crises I've been involved in have been in either IT

services or or software uh and in cases where cyber

security was involved um yeah and you know what that

means that means that somebody's like it's one thing for a crisis to occur a

natural disaster uh you know a product situation that wasn't foreseen uh what have you

but in the case of cyber security you're being attacked or your client is being

attacked in other W you have adversaries we just talked about NFL Playoff games you've got somebody on the other side of

the field trying to harm you right right and so like to Jeff's point the days

goes on the the plan the plan is over here but guess what the people on the other side of the field are trying to

score a touchdown on you and you don't know it until they're already in the end zone and if you don't have an updated

plan I'm going to cuss again you're screwed I'm not I was going to say something else but I didn't yeah no

that's okay I I think I know the word you know what I mean I mean so you got bad people after you you have to take

this seriously and we can pound the table all day long here and but too many

companies check the box in my opinion they check the box they got a plan okay

fine in a pinch where is it where's it posted right when's the last time it was

updated is it clear steps one two three who does what right who declares a

crisis right all of this stuff right so yeah yeah um all right drum roll please

we are down to number got number one one the number one prediction for marketing

and Communications for 2025 now what did we say about

AI something I can't remember what it was well you know what it's

so there's an old saying I heard people don't fear change they fear the unknown

and AI is largely unknown you know if machines start to think for themselves

they can do amazing things they can get you any information that's ever been generated in the span of I I just did

some research it was like 10 15 seconds um imagine the power of that but at the

same time you know there's stuff that can be generated out there that's untrue

it has really no way of of knowing whether these factoids it finds in its

research that's done through machine learning or whatever else is true or not

um and that can have an impact on you it can have an impact on your Workforce

what positions can you replace with AI um so it's a huge thing and you know we

can we tell whether that's actually um a movie starring Tom Cruz or is it a deep

fake can we tell that that's not a a new song being sung by the late Elvis

Presley no it could be a deep fake so there's nothing outside the realm of

what can be impacted by artificial intelligence and if you go back to the old movie was it what 2001 is that do I

have the right one Space Odyssey Space Odyssey yeah yeah you go back to that and you know how the comp computer um

outsmarted the humans and said well you know what we we can't have the right

change and everything else with humans in the picture and uh you know that's the fear that's the fear which is

probably unfounded but who knows who knows so hey I think it's great I love

it but at the same time I can also see why people fear it no no question about it I'd say two

things one is I don't I can't think of any function within marketing and Communications that AI does not affect

or cannot or should not affect so really it's up to you as a marketing or

Communications organization to decide how much or how well you're going to

leverage it uh and in too many cases and and when I say how much or how well

you're going to leverage it I'm assuming you're going to do it for positive reasons right um to help your business

but also to be honest and true with Society at the same time time right um

and part of the one of the main things I've seen even in companies where you do

have the stomach to pursue it I've seen too many situations where

not enough people are on board not enough people understand how to use it

and so you have a few early adopters you have a few people pushing it but you don't have any sort of institutional

understanding understanding or awareness of how to use it right and so you know then you get into well are we going to

uh Force certification of it you know mandatory stuff I would argue that

companies should consider that why would you not you're leaving money on the table right and so I guess our our

Council would be to if you're going to do it a you should do it B if you're

going to do it a do it right but find a way to ensure that more

people than not are going to actually be leveraging it instead of you know two or

three people in the department and they're the ones who talk about it all the time and everybody else kind of nods their head but kind of says I don't know

how the hell that stuff works right so anyway that is number one it started and

ended with AI which I suppose puts us on par with a lot of other people making

predictions but hopefully along the way you found or heard some stuff here that is compelling um and of course we are

willing and able to help you with any of it um now much more important and

entertaining than any of that is our next set of predictions we are almost done here we're ending with a bang on

purpose so very tough day for me and for countless others with what's happening

in Los Angeles um national day of morning with the um State funeral of

President Carter but despite all of that we we do have something happening tonight and

tomorrow night which are the college football playoff semifinals so tonight

is the Orange Bowl in Miami uh between Notre Dame and Penn State and then

tomorrow night here in snowy Dallas uh by the way the uh people who run the

cotton bow might be a little bit nervous with people not being able to get around tomorrow right I would think so I

they'll get those roads cleared though yeah hope hopefully we'll see but um but tomorrow night is a cotton bow here in

Dallas uh between Ohio State and Texas

A&M but you didn't catch that it's Texas not Texas I was joking

oh oh Texas yeah yeah the long Wars yeah not Ohio State and Texas so we're going

to start with that we're going to start with the cotton ball here tomorrow night Ohio State Texas Jeff what's your

call my Call is Ohio State being from a university where Ohio State regularly

Burns you um and I I just I just can't believe that they're going to take the

night off um when all things are equal they are a really really consistent

tough football program so as much as it hurts me I have to go with Ohio

State I I can't disagree I I mean you know you these are amazing teams with

amazing coaches Sark used to be our coach at SC he knows and both head coach

and and an assistant for many years and we we know what he can do um you got a

great team there and it's oh the other thing it's it's essentially a home game for UT if you think about it in Dallas

yeah lots of home games right um but I just think Ohio state has too much I

mean I I along with everybody else lost faith in them when they face Planet against Michigan but my goodness what

they've done since then is unbelievable what they did to Oregon 34 to nothing in

the second crazy crazy unbelievable so I I I it's just hard not to pick Ohio

State all right that is the Cotton Bowl Now we move for the kudagra the Orange Bowl in Miami Florida

where I assume it is much warmer than it is here um Notre Dame and Penn State I

am going to start here because Jeff is going to finish us off here um um I it

it it is you just said it hard for a Penn State guy to go for Ohio to predict for Ohio State it is very hard for an sc

guy to predict success uh for or to wish success for

Notre D um I'm not necessarily wishing success for them but I'm predicting

success success for them uh I I I just think Notre Dame is really good I don't

see any weaknesses um they uh we played a tough game against them at the in the last

regular season game I mean that was a tight game late in the fourth quarter

but I I just think they're really really solid across the board I love Marcus Freeman how do you not root for a guy

like that right um I agree on that so I as much as it pains me a little bit I am

all in on the Fighting Irish tomorrow night with that I think we're going to

end with Jeff and then just go oh no we do have to say one thing about hashtags after your close here but now we're

gonna go to Mr bomb for the highlight of the show who's going to win the Orange

Bowl tomorrow night yeah John I beg to differ with your prediction on that um

as a long-term Penn State fan as a Penn State graduate as a uh penate

fanatic um I've seen the highs and the lows we had some lows this year against

Oregon and Ohio State those were lows but I see a great team when it has

the right attitude they could beat anyone so John to take a uh a phrase out

of the league horo Playbook not so fast um and I when you

say that yeah with your one hand um I have

to reveal myself here you'll see this ladies and gentlemen he's undressing I'm undressing so you'll see that you'll see

this this will be more disturbing to God what the heck there we go oh oh oh thank

God you're putting it on as opposed to putting it on here we are look at that bad boy the

great Michael Robinson when it was our our quarterback way back that is sweet

finally finally don't say I'm not well outfitted here oh oh dear guy what is he

doing here we go now we're gonna see if this still fits I I doubt it would my my

head's gotten considerably larger it it it fit you very well when you were on the team playing for joea ah oh that

looks that looks that looks painful ow okay this is as close as I can get can

you breathe you get the idea we are pen State let me get this thing off my head

[Laughter] ah he oh oh look at the face okay wow

that you know what I changed my vote I am choosing Penn State I can't go

against that and who who wants to root for Notre Dam anyway right so I say we

are and you say head St he please please follow us uh on our

social channels um and uh again this should be live sometime the week of the 13th

sometime around midweek uh we'll have more football predictions in our next podcast in a couple of weeks um we hope

you've enjoyed our predictions we invite you to share your comments on our social channels um and if you do and if you

actually want to POS question questions we would be more than happy to address them on our next podcast so thank you

for listening and again my heart is in Los Angeles today um hang in there

everybody uh love to all of you from your fellow Angelino from Snowy Dallas

thanks everybody see you later have a have a great New Year

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