There are three things we are told never to speak about at the dinner table: religion, politics, and the consistency of Grandma Jean’s meatloaf. Last night, during Super Bowl LI, at least one of those commandments was broken when brands took the field to get political on America’s biggest stage. It’s Monday afternoon; you’re already familiar with the commercials by now. You watched the spot Airbnb bought on Thursday (!) and just “threw together.” The one that showed people from different backgrounds (all Airbnb employees, BTW), of different shades, spreading a…

The calendar tells me that it’s been almost three months since I joined Team Overit as Chief Operating Officer. After a career spent helping businesses create smarter, faster, leaner systems, the transition to Overit has been a natural one. Overit and I share many of the same passions, interests and beliefs about what not only what makes a leading creative agency, but how to evolve the mid-size agency model to provide greater value to our clients and employees. As we head into 2017, our team has spent a lot of…

I recently did a presentation on managing your brand in the midst of a crisis. Access my slide deck here:  (Find additional free crisis management resources here.) With social media platforms giving everyone a voice to easily speak their minds to a large audience, brands can’t simply ignore crises as they unfold. No company is immune to problems, mistakes, and critiques, and though larger brands tend to get the most attention for their missteps, all companies need to be prepared to address critics and crises. This makes having an airtight crisis communications strategy more important than…