A CEO can be vague about a lot of things, but there’s one clear sign he is frustrated by a lagging stock price – a big newspaper ad. Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, is the latest to write a check to proclaim the virtues of his company’s shares. Will it work?
Organizations today must be more imaginative about strategies for engaging their audiences. Long gone are the days when a press release or a print advertisement alone would get results. New digital tools abound, but it’s easy to get lost in the buzzwords. We speak to one of our partner firms to make sense of a shifting […]
A reader of the Financial Times this week might have felt momentarily transported back to the heady days before the financial crisis. For on its pages was a full-page ad in vivid color listing recent transactions completed by the busy bankers at Barclays. Such chest-thumping displays are rare among investment banks these days. Why would […]
Poor Bank of America. Six years ago it scooped up mortgage-battered Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch at bargain prices. It’s been paying ever since. Including last week’s deal with the U.S. Justice Department, the cost to BofA shareholders from regulatory settlements tops $50 billion. That figure doesn’t count the damage to the BofA brand, which […]
Argentina is raising its game in the PR battle with a group of investors over its disputed debt. The Ministry of Finance was quick to respond to an op-ed in the Financial Times by NML Capital, one of the hedge funds that has led a decade-long legal challenge to Argentina’s debt restructuring.
The war of words between Argentina and a group of hedge funds is getting more interesting. Today, it was the hedge funds’ turn to take a full-page newspaper ad to make its case, answering recent claims by Argentina – and demonstrating that the dispute is reaching a critical stage.
When you see a full-page ad in small print in the New York Times, it’s a sure sign of a communication strategy in disarray. Argentina offered the latest example yesterday, writing about its long-running dispute with investors over a debt restructuring. Argentina might have a good argument, but you won’t find it in its advertising.
It wasn’t exactly a surprise to see the merger between Omncom and Publicics collapse. We had our doubts when the deal was announced last year. Still, there are some clear winners and losers. Here’s our list.
Have you ever seen a really effective, memorable ad for a law firm? Didn’t think so. The ads usually reinforce the most negative impressions about lawyers – long-winded, self-absorbed, aloof. Good advertising should do the opposite. Will law firms ever get it right?
The market seems to like the merger of marketing giants Omnicom and Publicis. Shares of both companies are trading higher this morning. Shareholders have good reason to be pleased, but for clients and staff the deal looks less appealing.