Business as we knew it changed completely in March 2020. We quickly saw there was no time to wait to see how things were going to play out. Instead, we needed to proactively jump into crisis communications planning for our clients. Our clients depend on us as their marketing partner and resource. We have been able to stay flexible and responsive by finding unique ways of helping them support their business and the local community. Below are a few examples of how we pivoted strategy for our clients amidst this unprecedented time. Read More

Communication is one of the most important aspects of being an effective event planner. Without the communication aspect, your event plan will likely fall apart into a crumbled mess. Communicating is just one piece of the puzzle in terms of running a successful event. There’s scheduling and ordering food with the caterer, locking in the time and day of the venue, ordering decorations, securing tables and chairs, the list goes on. Worrying about your event email communication is likely the last thing you want to think about in the final hours leading up to your event.

In this article, I’ll… Read More

When people think of digital advertising, a lot can come to mind, but something almost everyone would say is that “performance” is the bottom line. However, those of us in the industry know there is so much more to digital media buying and analytics today, and brand safety is one of the many ongoing obstacles we face.

At Zion & Zion, we take brand safety very seriously. Brand safety in digital marketing can be defined as “the strategy put into place to help ensure that online advertisements or associations do not appear on or in websites, videos, or articles… Read More

The role of the CMO has and will continue to change substantially. As McKinsey put it in their Quarterly newsletter entitled, The Evolving Role of the CMO: “As the forces of marketing proliferation gather strength, what’s actually required is a broadening of the CMO’s role. This expansion will encompass both a redefinition of the way the marketing function performs its critical tasks and the CMO’s assumption of a larger role as the ‘voice of the customer’ across the company as it responds to significant changes in the marketplace.” Read More

With the sudden onset of COVID-19 and many states dealing with shelter-in-place orders, advertising agencies have had to adapt their processes to work in a more virtual world. While every role within an agency has been impacted, account managers face the difficult task of not only quarterbacking all client work but maintaining client relationships. As account managers, we have evolved and learned a thing or two about what works with clients in addition putting some thought into client interaction post crisis. So, how do you maintain client relationships in a world of social distancing? Read More

We are being bombarded with constant news updates, misinformation, and drastic changes to our daily lives. Just as individuals are facing enormous amounts of stress during this time, businesses of all shapes and sizes are tackling vast issues, and no industry is immune—food and beverage, beauty services, hotels and casinos, grocery and retail, and the list goes on. No matter what type of business you’re in, communication is key. How you communicate with both internal and external stakeholders will determine how you come out of this crisis. Don’t know where to begin? Read on for your guide to communicating in a crisis, like the one we are currently facing. Read More

I really appreciate analogies, as they can draw a visual image in conveying an idea much easier than a long written or verbal explanation which may be open to various interpretations. So, here’s one to start off with in framing our discussion.

Ask someone what they need, and in most cases, they will tell you about something that exists today. Something they want (or desire) vs. an unmet need. If you watch someone’s behavior, you may get clear insight into those unmet needs—i.e. what they ‘need,’ which they can’t necessarily put into words. For example, nobody asked for the… Read More

In early March, I attended VueConf in Austin, Texas. This is a two-day conference about all things Vue-related. Speakers covered an assortment of topics from general topics like SEO and performance along with covering additional libraries and frameworks you can add to a Vue project like Nuxt.js and TypeScript. While there was a breath of topics, there was a collective string between all of them and that was the upcoming version, Vue 3. Most talks centered around this topic by showcasing the new and exciting features building hype amongst the conference goers. Read More