American Exceptionalism: 2020 Didn’t Have to Be This Way
Helio Fred Garcia
The first American case of COVID-19 was diagnosed on January 20, 2020.
Exactly one year later Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.
What happened in the United States in between is different from what happened in other developed countries.
Twenty million Americans contracted COVID-19 between the first case and the end of the year.
2020 was the single deadliest year in American history. The first U.S. COVID-19 fatality was on February 6. By year end another 351 thousand Americans had died from the virus. For context, that is more than all the U.S. combat fatalities in World War II and Vietnam combined, but in a single eleven-month period rather than in the 24 years of those wars. For several weeks in December we were seeing the equivalent of a 9/11 casualty rate every day, with total 2020 COVID-19 fatalities equal to 118 separate 9/11 attacks.
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Review of the Top 2021 Internal Communication Trends
2020 has squeezed us all through the wringer in multitudes of ways.
It’s been a year shaped and contorted by a deadly virus, social distancing, pain and protests. We’ve all sacrificed and struggled to adjust while juggling work and home responsibilities. The chaos has been nonstop. And yet the prospect of a new year—even with a frightening pandemic still very much in high gear—offers a bit of hope for communicators around the world.
Who knows what surprises 2021 will hold? Surely things will improve?
If 2020 taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected and to be ready to “pivot” at a moment’s notice. (With all due respect to “pandemic” or “unprecedented,” “pivot” should be the word of the year, right?)
Here’s what comms leaders and luminaries foresee for the year ahead:
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Honoring Howard J. Rubenstein
The world – and the PR profession – lost a great when Howard J. Rubenstein passed. His firm was the place I got my start at (thanks for taking a chance on 21-year-old me!) and I had the pleasure of spending eight-plus years there. I not only learned about excellence in PR from Howard, but also took away valuable business and life lessons that I carry with me today as I run my own agency.
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Finding Reasons to Be Cheerful
At this time, we need to find, as the 1979 Ian Dury and the Blockheads song goes, “Reasons to Be Cheerful.” (If you’ve never come across the song – I encourage you to take a listen. It’s an earworm.)
Dury provided many reasons for cheer… In homage to the song, here are three of the moment:
We are turning a page
Although there’s always the potential for further black swan events, there is light at the end of the pandemic tunnel that bodes well for the future. Vaccines have been developed and are being rolled out in record time. There’s new-found recognition for frontline healthcare workers and all essential workers who provide the services and support we all need for the economy to function and food to get to our tables.
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It’s Never Too Late: Do What You Want. Be Who You Want to Be
Last year crystalized my vision to help others discover their true potential by looking back. I’ve been doing this all throughout my life. Now, I have the tools to help you.
Your Background
Think about what you loved as a child. I’ll get you started by highlighting what was most important to me: playing with Barbie Dolls, catching butterflies, taking swimming and acting lessons (among others), becoming a lifeguard, and a camp counselor.
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Food and Drink Marketing for 2021: Growth Hacking Your Food and Beverage Brand
Ronn Torossian, CEO, 5WPR
This year, the food and beverage industry managed to grow to nearly $80bn in revenue, and in just a few years, it’s expected to grow to over $100 billion. The growth rate and the volume of consumption in this market mean that brands are becoming more competitive. For every brand to get its own share of consumers, these companies have to find very efficient ways to reach out to their target audiences and convert these people.
For brands in this niche to truly grow, they have to create fully integrated digital marketing and food and beverage PR campaigns that will increase brand awareness, distribution, sales, and engage with target audiences everywhere.
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OP-ED: Remembrance Of Things Current: The Disgraceful Legacy Of President Donald John Trump, A Would-Be Dictator
Arthur Solomon
As Donald Trump is nearing the end of his disastrous presidency, there are many actions that he will be remembered for on the national and international scenes.
Below is a sampler that should be accepted by all non-partisan Americans, as they certainly will be by non-revisionist presidential historians.
A Few Major Disgraceful National Actions
- He will be remembered for his bungling of the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in the deaths of more than 318,000 Americans as of this writing on December 21.
- He will be remembered for being the most divisive and racist president in U.S. history, making Andrew Johnson look like a boy scout.
- He will be remembered as a president who has probably lied more than all the other presidents’ lies combined in our history.
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Will 2021 See the Return of the Evergreen Story Pitch?
Sometime during the endless hours of news coverage I consumed in the days following the presidential election, I caught a comment from a podcast producer who was providing political analysis. I don’t remember where I saw or heard him (though CNN was on in the background a lot that week) or what podcast was his, but he said something that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind since—and something that could represent another shift in how media relations professionals do our work.
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Money Making: The History and the Future of Cryptocurrency
Mary Ann Callahan, Marketing Manager, CEX.IO
Cryptocurrency has only been around for just over a decade, but lots of people have made a ton of money with it. Trading, investing, ICOs, startups, countless blogs, YouTube channels, and conferences have turned cryptocurrency into an industry in its own right.
There’s no doubt that bitcoin trading has been extremely profitable and most likely things will be the same in the future. Let’s look at the history of how people have been making money in cryptocurrency and some predictions of how they may continue to do so in the future.
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