Next  AI Chat Fri 27 Feb 2026  1pm-1.30pm (UK time). Add it to your diary.
Join us.  Topics will be announced by Thurs  26 Feb 2026
Message me on LinkedIn if you want me to send you the agenda and unique link to each Friday’s event (and send me your email address.)

20 Feb 2026  

[] Soribel Feliz‘s Free Course (on Linkedin):
Managing AI Risks: 8 Common Mistakes to Avoid at Work

⊕ Watch 20 Feb video – the complete conversation about AI Risk.
[] Undiscovered band: Tim Hain ‘Somebody turn on a light’
[] Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner  and Soribel Feliz 

13 Feb 2026
[] Open AI Shuts Down GPTo Today
[] LA Law Suits Social Media
[] Should Your Business Still Be on Twitter/X?
[] Foreign Influence, AI, & Escalation of Hate
[] That Cute ChatGPT Cartoon Trend? Let’s Talk About What You’re Actually Sharing
[] Algorithms are Personal and AI  Governance is not abstract.
–  [] Free AI Governance Course – reminder
[] How Does AI See Your Brand
[] Why are Gen Z Less Cognitively Ready than Others? 
⊕ Watch 13 Feb video covering  all of the above topics being discussed.
Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner 
Undiscovered Band/Track:  Rich Evro Reid or just Google Rich Evro Reid!

6 Feb 2026

[] AI Safety Update
– [] Spain Banning u16s Access to Social Media
– []   Nicky Petrossi report from LA Law Suit 
[] How Disinformation Works
[] 8 Risks to Avoid in AI   (AI Governance)
[] Caution When Tracking AI Visibility
[] Ads in AI Bot Conversations
[]   12 Year Old Girl Creates solar blanket for Homeless
[] Kindness is the most powerful medicine
[] Free AI Governance Course – reminder

⊕ Watch 6 Feb video covering  all of the above topics being discussed.
Thanks to Reggie Johnson  
Undiscovered Band/Track: Cry Baby Purple:  Sometimes People hate Me

30 Jan 2026

sostac.org 
[] Update: EU v Grok Nudity App
[] More Data Collection – TikTok Just Authorised This  
[] Deleting Data Collected on WattsApp     
[] Biased Data Feed – ChatGPT Uses Grokipedia 
[] GPT Hallucination: 6 Nations Rugby  
[] Clawdot AI Warning    +  + Maltbot Warning
[] A Warning About Technology – The 99^th Day   
[] AI Suicide – Poss Most Beautiful Video Ever

⊕ Watch Fri 30 Jan video covering  all of the above topics being discussed.
Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner 
Undiscovered Band/Track: ‘Jordan’ by LIA

23 Jan 2026

[1] Microsoft Nervous Re AI Bubble?
– [] LLMs don’t work Conor Grennon
[] Cognitive Decline
[] Shorter Attention Spans – Netflix’s Solution
[] New META whistleblower reveals META’s Shock Research
–  [] Sara Wynne Williams Careless People Apri 2025
[] Snap settles huge addiction lawsuit. But…
[]  3 Skills in AI Era  that Young Pro’s should Focus On 
⊕ Watch Fri 23 Jan video of  all of the above topics being discussed.
Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner 
Undiscovered Band/Track –  Tim Hain  ‘The Children of Ukraine’

16 Jan 2026

[] Google Invites 13 Year Olds to Delete Parental Control
[] Google Using Your Emails to Train its AI?
[] Instagram Data Leak – Scammers Now Emailing Instagrammers  
[] Starmer V Musk Round 1
–   []Last week:  Grok Apology re Kids’ Sex Images = No Responsibility?
[] 3 Decisions Before Using an AI Agent
[] Rekindling Classic Apple Ads 
[] Free SOSTAC® Plans Executive Summary  (how to write the perfect plan – incl AI Advans & Disadvans) – in return for a 3 mins AI Survey
[] Undiscovered band –  Vienna by  The Phoenix River Band
Thanks to Reggie Johnson  & Amir Elion  
⊕ Watch  Fri 16 Jan 2026 video  of all the above topics being discussed. 

9 Jan 2026
[] When Robots Outnumber Us
[] Is AI Artificial Ignorance?
[] AI Misinformation Campaign Success
[] Southpark Takes Trump’s Websit & Attacks
AI & ChildSafety
[] Grok Apology re Kids’ Sex Images = No Responsibility?
[] Kids Groomed by Porn Industry + Big Tech?
[] Roblox Predators Groom Kids
[] AI Engagement = Dopamine Addiction
[] Angola’s Innovative Protective AI Law
[] AI For Good:   Helping Africa Reclaim & Grow – Just Diggit

[] AI Survey    https://form.jotform.com/253452787680064   survey
[] BBC Radio London Great Sportsmanship Moments   – sportsmanship.ie
[] Undiscovered band –  Vienna by  The Phoenix River Band
Thanks to Reggie Johnson 
⊕ Watch  Fri 9 Jan 2026 video of all the above topics being discussed.

19 Dec 2025 

[ ] Free Exec Summary SOSTAC® Plans  (+ survey)
[] Switzerland Reject Palantir 
[] META UK Sextortion Lawsuit 
[] Big Tech Killing Social Trust?  (more next year)
[] Gemini Grooms Kids to Cheat?
[] SnapChat Settings – Parental Warning
[] AI for Good – recovering damaged land  (more – next year)
[] AI Boost Critical Thinking?
[] Thinking of buying kids tech for xmas?
[] Generosity is not weakness
[] ChatGPT’s 6 New Free Training Courses
Music: Tim Hain  ‘The Children of Ukraine’
⊕ Watch Fri 19 Dec video of  all of the above topics being discussed.
Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner 
[]  Next Chat: Dates  Fri 9 Jan 2026

12 Dec 2025

[] Trump Stopping State AI regs
[] AI, Humanity & Human Rights –  Stuart Russell Reith Lectures     Human Rights Day
–  [] Christmas AI Bots Warning for Kids – Ad – Tim Mason et al 
[] How to Implement AI Governance: 5 Actions for This Week
[] WattsApp AI integrator – lead management
[] Focussed AI workflows work best  
[] Free SOSTAC® Plans Executive Summary
[] Xmas Show 19 Dec (last chat until Fri 9 Jan 2026)
[] Undiscovered band –  Vienna by  The Phoenix River Band
Thanks to Reggie Johnson  
⊕ Watch   Fri 12 Dec 2025  video of  all of the above topics being discussed.

5 Dec 2025

Do GPT Images damage Authenticity?

[] CEO Cuts $1.1m Salary to $70k – What Happened Next?
[] 5 Years Later $70k min wage –What Happened Next
[] Super Rich Plan to Save Themselves
[] AI Companies CEO’s Dystopian Visions
[] Overdrive v Open AI Shock   incl Child Safety
[] Our Children Are Bleeding
[] Auzzie Kids Are Safe  
[] Brazil Bans META Bots for Kids
[] Digital identity is most fragile
[] AI Xmas Ads Underestimate Authenticity & Authorship  – Coke’s Xmas ad
⊕ Watch Fri 5 Dec  video of  all of the above topics being discussed.
Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner 
Undiscovered Band/Track – ‘The Dark’ by Cry Baby Purple 

28 Nov 2025

An Attractive Bot – watch her engaging eye movement
[] IS AI SHAPING A FUTURE WE DIDN’T ASK FOR? 
–   How tech’s richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse
[] META Aware of Damage but refuse to tell Congress
[] Sneaky USA Ban on AI Regs  
[] Irresistable ,Friendly and Caring & Beautiful – your AI Friend  
[] Creating AI Versions of Anyone     
[] AI Using Your Email for Training
[] Vertical AI                                                      
[] Decadence & Corruption of Today’s Elites       The Rheith Lectures 25 Nov
[] Undiscovered band –  Vienna by  The Phoenix River Band
Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner 
⊕ Watch  Fri 28 Nov  video of  all of the above topics being discussed.

21 Nov 2025

Marrying a digital persona

[] The 3^rd AI Device Has Landed
[] What Kind Of People Will AI Turn Us Into?
[] In a Less Dangerous AI Dystopia?
[] But Could You Find God in the App Store?
[] Or Marry a Digital Persona  (see above)
[] 7 Types of AI Adopters    
Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner 
⊕ Watch the video  of  all of the above topics being discussed.

14 Nov 2025

[] Pushing all-things AI = Thinking Problem?
[] Ever-Present 3^rd AI Device?– do you really want it
[] How To v How Not to get staff to adopt AI    + How To Do It Correctly:
–   Singapore Trains 150,000 Government Officers in Mandatory AI   
    –   Estee Lauder AI Accelerates Insights & NPD
[] Nvidia Expose $57B AI Error
[] How To Become Algorithmically Attractive  
[] AI for Good – recovering damaged land   (more info in the weeks to come)
[] AI for Good: Loneliness Ad – brilliant ad – all AI produced * (*see above screen grab)
[] Undiscovered band –  Vienna by  The Phoenix River Band
⊕ Watch the video of all of the above topics being discussed.
Thanks to Reggie Johnson 

7 Nov 2025

[] 6 AI Shifts Marketers Must Master
[] 5 Physical AI Robotic Trends 2026
+  Adding Ads to your Dreams   
[] 4 AI Marketing Horror Stories:  4 x $1B AI Errors  
+ Taco Bell ‘s AI -man orders 19,000 waters
[] META AI Exploits You?
[] Our Kids Drowning in an AI Tsunami    
[] AI Isn’t the threat – we are – Mo Gawdat
[] AI & Magical Musical Mushrooms  
[] NEW New York Mayor Comes Out As A Gooner  (see above)   
[] Undiscovered band –  Vienna by  The Phoenix River Band
⊕ Watch the video of all of the above topics being discussed.
Thanks to Reggie Johnson 

31 Oct 2025

[] Obscene Grokbot 
[] LinkedIn New Terms – Opt Out?
[] ChatGPT Atlas = Dominance?
[] ChatGPT Atlas: Why I’m Hitting Pause (For Now)
[] Always Ask 2 Questions – re Any Research
[] BOT Influencer Breaking Regs
[] Our Power as a Collective    
[] AI for Peace, Justice & Human Dignity 
[] Thank God for Immigrants – Freddy Mercury Ad
[] Safe Unsound – Crowd Funded Immigrant Docu Movie
Music: Tim Hain  ‘The Children of Ukraine’
Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner  and Daniel James Baldwin
⊕ Watch the video  of  all of the above topics being discussed.

 24 Oct 2025

[] AWS Crash – AI Coding Problem? 
[] Calls for ASI Ban
– Altman Predicts Bad AI Stuff
– California  Stops Bots
[] Sycophantic AI
– Sycophantic AI Makes Former PM Love AI
–  Sychophantic AI – south park
    – Sycophantic Adornation Fools Us All?
[] ‘If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies’ 
[] Safe Unsound –  World Premiere   a crowd-funded docu film about about the milk of human kindness & migrants’ struggles
[]  Quote of the Week:  ‘Everyone you meet has something to teach you’ Lauren Murrel
Music: Tim Hain  ‘The Children of Ukraine’
Thanks to Reggie Johnson
Thanks also to Northover Manor Hotel
⊕ Watch the video  of  all of the above topics being discussed.

17 Oct  2025 
Below are the links to each topic we discussed .
Plus here is the link to today’s recorded chat 17 Oct 2025.
[] ‘Epidemic of Ignorance’
[] AI Will Not Replace You – Mo Gawdat 
[] Romantic AI X: 1 in 5 highschool students (or friends) –
[] Mourning Women Say OpenAI Killed Their AI Boyfriends
[] Altman Adds More Erotica to ChatGPT
[] Child Cries As Toy Bot Says Goodbye
[] Grokipedia  
– [] Petition to make Grok safer-  Sign the Petition!
[]  ‘If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies’  
[] Happiness is…..
Thanks to Reggie Johnson, Wayne Denner and Alex Gibson
Music: Vienna by The Phoenix River Band   including Robert Craven

Fri 10 Oct 2025
[] Open Ai Lists Work Tasks to be Eliminated     
[] DELOITTE  AI Mega Error – Refund
[] The Religion of AI
[] AI Person-Hood – Beware
[] Suicidal Bots & Gaza
[] Petition to Stop AI Taking Over the World
[] ROI = Return On Immersion 
[] Jane Goodall’s, famous last words. –  Your are here for a reason.
[] SAFE UNSOUND documentary is Here
Thanks to  Alex Gibson, TUD.
Music: ‘Jordan’ by LIA 
Meanwhile, watch the video recording  (see end of list below) + here is the link for  each topic discussed:

Fri 3 Oct 2025 
[] AI Chatbots Create a Privacy Nightmare
[] Deep Fake Surge – Film Stars Threatened 
[] Churches Resurrect Charlie Kirk from Heavan via AI
[] Safeguarding AI – Critical Child Protection
[] Positive: Implementation problems are about mindset NOT tech
Watch the video  of  all of these items being discussed
Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner 
Music: ‘Jordan’ by LIA

Fri 26 Sep 2025
[] Denmark Grants Citizens Copyright of their own Like  
[] Singapore Trains 150,000 Government Officers in Mandatory AI   
[] Kids Warning – Google’s ChatBOT Goes Rogue ie Unsafe for Kids
[] Kids & Adult Warning – Avoid Intimate Relationships with Bots
[] AI and the Future of Education
[] How to Get AI to Recommend You  (part 2 steps 3& 4)  
Watch the video  of  all of these items being discussed
Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner 
Music: ‘Jordan’ by LIA

Fri 19 Sep 2025 
[] 95% Generative AI Projects Fail
[] AI Goes Rogue + Shadow AI
[] AI Assistants Deliver Inaccurate News  (BBC)
–  Trump v Truth   Channel 4
– Angry Algorithms
[]  AI and the Future of Education
[] Got your Meta Skills?
[] Ryder Cup VR Abuse Preparation
Thanks to: Reggie Johnson 
Tim Hain  ‘The Children of Ukraine’
Video Recording of today’s chat

Fri 12 Sep 2025
[] A Difficult but Important Kids Conversation
[] Anthropic let us down
[] Protect Your GPT Privacy
[] Protect Your Photos Privacy from Meta
[] Wise Cherokee AI Governance
[] Positive Spiritual Intelligence
[] Negative Character-AI Targets Youths with Dopamine
[] Future of Work – Critical Skills Required
[] Fully Open Swiss AI Model is Here
[] An Irish Rugby Hallucination 
Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner
Music: Faraz (Orcaboy) Ahmed ‘Can I be free like you?’
Video Recording of today’s chat

[] Biggest AI Problem is…….

29 AUG 2025
[] UN Makes AI History
[] X AI’s Kids Chatbot Designed to Be Explicit  

• Protect Us Video 17’ – by We Protect Global Alliance  – is essential viewing
• Protect Us Toolkit – from We Protect Global Alliance
• Nicki Reisberg’s Snapchat video

[] META STRIKES AGAIN. When will we strike back?
[] What are the social consequences of believing AI is sentient?
[] How to Get AI to Recommend You  (part 2 steps 3& 4)
[] 5 Key Take-Aways from Cannes Linkedin Creator Workshops
[] Our Wonderful AI-Aided World
[] It Just Might Be Your Last Chance to Drive
Watch the video  of  all of these items being discussed
Music: ‘Jordan’ by LIA
Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner

Friday 22 Aug 2025
[] META’ Truly Shocking Stance re What Its Bots Say To Children 
[] META Ethics Leak – Horrible    
[] META Caught 14 Times (in last 5 years) Doing Awful Things    
[] People v Profit AI – Dear Anthropic Team
[] How to Get AI to Recommend You
[] Critical Success Factors & SOSTAC® Plans  (Part 1)
[] Music: The Monks Kitchen ‘Snake Charmer’
[] Thanks to Reggie Johnson

Friday 15 Aug 2025
[] GPT5  Turns Advanced Reasoning Into Competitive Advantage?
[] GPT5 “I officially hate GPT-5”
[] GPT5  a Thinking Partner  v a Search Engine
[] ChatGPT 4.0 Missed Delusion + Emotional Dependency 
[] GPT Psychosis/Delusion
[] Transparency – at last
[]  AI that Stops Attention-Deficit
[] How to Get AI to Recommend You
[] Critical Success Factors & SOSTAC® Plans

8 Aug 2025
Listen to / Watch this week’s chat Fri 8 Aug 2025 30 minute video recording.
Plus here are the individual original source links for each topic discussed:
[] Musk V Bowie
[] Tech Billionaires = Corporate Dictatorship
[] Social Media Film: Can’t Look Away
[] X AI’s Kids Chatbot Designed to Be Explicit  
[] More Grok Kids Stuff
[] Grok Creates Deepfakes Of Anyone
[] AI Results Optimization (AIRO)
[] Tourism Bots NY v Dublin  

Friday 1 Aug 2025

Listen to / Watch this week’s chat Fri 1 Aug 2025.
Here’s the links to the full articles/posts/videos for each topic.

[] AI Out Of Control (Part 4)
[] Trump Weaponises AI?
[] X AI’s Kids Chatbot Designed to Be Explicit  
[] META Sued – Porn Theft & Porn Training?
[] Agentic AI Increases Prices
[] Agentic AI Risks
[] Agentic AI Blocked by Amazon
[] The Future of AI
[] Music:  Tim Hain ‘Somebody turn on a light’
[] Thanks to Reggie Johnson

Friday  25 July 2025

Here’s the link to the video recording. Plus here’s the links to more info on each item discussed.
[] AI Out of Control (Part 3)
+ Trumps AI Report
[] Grok Turns Nazi
[] Risky AI chatbots – the new ‘go to’ for kids 
[] Russia Grooms LLMs for Russian Propaganda
[] X AI’s Kids Chatbot Designed to Be Explicit  
[] Race for Dead Brand Ambassadors
[] Music: ‘Jordan’ by LIA
Sign the Petition! calling on Grok to remove “Not Safe For Work” features from this product.
+ Contact Apple!
[] Music: ‘Jordan’ by LIA
[] Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner

Friday  18 July 2025
Join us.  Here’s the link to the video. Plus here’s the links to more info on each item discussed.
[] AI Godfather & Nobel Prize Winner’s Spooky AI Warning
[] 2028 Election AI Prediction       – Professor Gary Marcus
[] AI Companies Will Lose Control  – Open AI Whistleblower, Steven Adler
[] Swiss Create Ethical LLM for Public Good  
[] Music: ‘Jordan’ by LIA

11 July 2025
[]  Bezos Floats Into His Own Oblivion 
[] Hidden AI Prompts Get Fake Positive ‘Academic’ Review
[]  Content Creators – Is It Worth It – As AI Grows?
[]  AI Agents Change Everything
[] AI Companies Will Lose Control 
[] How AI Can Make You Work Better
[] Music: ‘Jordan’ by LIA 
[] Thanks to Reggie Johnson

4 JULY 2025
[]  AI Labels Trigger Fear     
[]  US Senate Stops AI Regs Moratorium
[]  Barbie Chatbot Toy Warning 
[]  AI Chooses Self Survival, Blackmailing & Death
[] Zuckeberg’s Tech Sees What You See & Hears What You Hear
[]  From Dalai To Donald
[]  24 Hours Before Holly Died – She Said This
[] Music: ‘Jordan’ by LIA 
[] Thanks to Reggie Johnson and Wayne Denner

27 June 2025
[] X Rewrite The Corpus of Knowledge
[] Broligarchs Get Military Status 
[] Are Palantir War Mongerers?
[] Social Media Victims Remembrance Day (June 23)
[] NHS Anti Waste
[] Agentic AI’s Big Barrier – security (Meredith Whittaker, Signal President) Wired 28/8/ 2024
[] Blind Can See Again (Neurolink)
[] Critical Thinking Course       *
[] Agentic AI Course
[] The purpose of life?   (a 90 second video worth watching)
* Critical Thinking paper Microsoft, Cambridge UK, Carnegie Mellon Uni (Simon Au-Yong)
[] Music: ‘Jordan’ by LIA (Julia Gawlik)  
[] Thanks to Reggie Johnson andTim Bennett

20 June 2025
[] Add AI Layers to your Brain 
[] Using AI = Cognitive Debt?
[] Waiting to have kids until Neuralink is ready
[] Language & Emotion Wars
[] Euro Strategy Reduces Reliance on US Tech Giants
[] How to Perform Well in Google’s AI Search
[] Meta Says No to External Links
[] Google Veo3 Makes – History Inviting?
[] Invent Machines to Save Time but…
[] Critical Thinking free Linkedin course
[] Music: Scream When You Cry, by Parts and Spares
[] AI Summer Beach Party 23 June 2025 , London City Beach, near Waterloo Station.
[] Thanks to Reggie Johnson 

13 June 2025
[]  Ethical AI Bomb – Blows Up Big Tech’s Biggest Lie
[]  Petition:  Make Not Labelling AI Generated Media & Comms a Criminal Offence
[] Selling to Robots
[] OpenAI Whistle Blower – Found Dead  Mother calls for Investigation of Sam Altman
[] How to Perform Well in Google’s AI Search
[] ChatGPT Summarises the Big Beautiful Bill
[] Using AI To Improve Critical Thinking
[] Kindness is the new power   – an excellent animated cartoon – share it far and wide!
[] Music: The Monks Kitchen ‘Snake Charmer’
[] Thanks to Reggie Johnson 

6 June 2025
[] Ads Arrive in Googles AI Ads 
[] Future of Search    (Google)
[] Amazon AI Agents Released
[] Are You ‘Nudged’ into Behavioural Change?
[] Trump Citizen Database Sparks Surveillance Fears
[] Meet Peter Thiel 
[] Will AI Make Us Think Less

Other posts mentioned during the chat:
[] How Trump Won (a SOSTAC Analysis) – Part 1 (2017)  by PR Smith
[] Marketing Gone Wrong  – Carol Cadwalladr Famous TED Talk (2017)  Brexit Manipulated Voters – by PR Smith
[] ‘How To Stop the Broligarchs Controlling Your Life’ by PR Smith
JOIN THE PETITION:  Make a criminal offence not to label AI generated media & communication as such
[] Thanks to Reggie Johnson 
[] Music: Faraz (Orcaboy) Ahmed ‘Can I be free like you?’

The post AI , Innovation & Ethics 2026 Topics and Links appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

Enjoy this best-selling updated 8^th edition – packed with new material, keeping abreast with AI, AR, VR, MR, MA and other innovative approaches to marketing communications. All integrated with the world’s most popular SOSTAC® Planning methodology that delivers a reassuring sense of order in a chaotic digital world and also that delivers success from better, MarComms’ ‘information-based’ decisions.

In Part 2 – all ten marcomms tactical tools (incl ads, PR, sponsorship, Owned, Earned and Paid Media etc.)  has a sample SOSTAC® Plan at the end of chapter.

Ze Zook and I are so pleased with it.  So much new material including AI integrating with MarComms.  We’ve tried to keep the edutainment angle so readers actually enjoy discovering some cutting-edge examples, tips and tools throughout the book. Thanks to the team at @Kogan Page including: Alison, Donna, Bruna and  Jack, Jeylan, Susie and of course, Helen Kogan.

What New Marketing and What Classic Marketing is in the 8th ed.?

What’s new and what’s old in Marketing Communications 8th ed.?

20% author’s discount can be used legitimately by following these instructions.

1. Go to koganpage.com/MC8
2. Click ‘Add to Cart’
3. Click ‘Checkout’ on the top right corner of the screen.
4. Complete your Billing & Delivery Information
5. Click ‘Continue to Review & Pay’
6. Scroll down to ‘Review Items’
7. In this section, click the ‘Add an offer code’ button – bottom right
8. Enter your code AMK20 in the box provided
9. Scroll down to input your payment information
10. Click the ‘Buy Now’ button at the bottom of the screen.

Enjoy Your Book

The post Marketing Communications 8th ed Released! appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

—

Continuing from How Trump Won – part 1 – SOSTAC ® Analysis, where we looked at the first three stages of the plan: Situation Analysis (where was Trump?); Objectives (where did he want to go?) & Strategy (how was he going to get there?), now let’s explore Tactics (the details of strategy); Action (how to ensure excellent execution) and Control (how do we know we are getting there?). In particular, we’ll explore how he used, what I call, the Magic Marketing Formula to win.

PR Smith’s SOSTAC® Planning Framework www.SOSTAC.org

Tactics

Tactics include the marketing mix and this includes the communications mix. So whether it is a facebook ad, a social media post or tweet, a conference speech or any tactical tool, the key (apart from targeting) is to ensure the right message is shared (or ‘reflected to the audience’). This is, what I call, the Magic Marketing Formula.

The Magic Marketing Formula – IRD

The Magic Marketing Formula: IRD

Here it is: Identify (needs); Reflect (those needs with solutions or sometimes just slogans) back to your audience; Deliver (a reasonable product or service).

Make America Great Again = Magic Marketing Formula

Let’s start with the general message (the slogan that was used everywhere). This was shared (or reflected back to all audiences).  We will look at other, more specific messages, including ‘dark posts’, sent exclusively to very specific audiences (that others could not see easily as they targeted discrete audiences after they had profiled the personality of every adult in the USA – 220 million profiles). More on this in Part 3. But, first, let’s look at Trump’s slogan.

“Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ was designed to make white working-class men remember when things were better for them or, at least, they thought they could remember.” Stephen Greyser, professor of marketing at Harvard Business School    Fottrell (2016).

‘Make America Great Again’ has a certain ‘darkness at the edge of that slogan as there is (also) a darkness at the edge of ‘Take Back Our Country’ (the Brexit Leave Campaign) & yet there’s also a glimmer of a legitimate & important aspiration in both of those slogans. … …. the legitimate aspiration underlying those slogans has to do with a sense of national community’ (Harvard’s Professor Sandel 2017). Trump addressed the people’s anger. Perhaps Clinton assumed the anger was against immigration and trade, and at the heart of that, is jobs. ‘But it’s also about even bigger things., about the loss of community, disempowerment, & social esteem (a sense that the work that ordinary people do is no longer honoured & recognised (& rewarded).’ Sandel (2017). So the need for community (national community), amongst other needs is reflected back through the consistent use of the slogan. Therefore appealing to hidden needs, needs that perhaps, many voters weren’t even conscious of during their voting. 

Professor Michael Sandel, speaking at Davos 2017

Professor Sandel continues: ‘The language of patriotism has been appropriated by the right for the most part. There’s no reason why centre-left parties can’t reclaim and articulate their own conception of national purpose, national community and shared identity & patriotism. What the elite missed was the sources of the anger & resentment that has lead to the populist upheavals in the US & Britain & many other parts of the world.

Pavlovian Conditioning?

Although Trump is part of a different establishment (business establishment) swing voters seemed to accept his carefully controlled positioning as a non-establishment politician (see part 1: Positioning) . Perhaps a Pavlovian conditioning – repeating the same message again and again and after a while his audience believed this, despite seeing Trump flying around the country in his “Trump” branded 757 plane. Perhaps because by doing so he showcased an aspirational lifestyle that appealed to white, working-class Americans (NB the magic marketing formula: identify needs/aspirations – reflect them back, ironically, via your own mobile media/your own private jet).

Is it possible that Donald Trump conditioned voters just like Russian physiologist, Dr. Ivan Pavlov, conditioned dogs back in 1902? www.PRSmith.org/SOSTAC

Tactics: Proposition: ‘Change’

The promise of ‘change’ worked for Obama previously & this time it worked for Trump too. Interestingly, both Trump and Obama (in previous Obama campaigns) identified that many people still want change.  Obama promised it in a positive light ‘whilst Trump used anger to get it across’ (Kanski 2016). However, this time, Trump went after the disenchanted relentlessly and rammed home his message of ‘angry change’.

“In the end it was a clear-cut message: If you’re happy with the status quo, vote for her; if you want change, vote for me,” said Dan Scandling, senior director of public affairs at APCO Worldwide. “That was what resonated.”
“She (Clinton) never effectively communicated how she was going to make people’s lives better beyond hanging her hat on the last eight years,” says Aaron Gordon, partner at Schwartz Media. (Kanski 2016).

Clinton’s more rational (and longer) economic and social arguments might have missed the attention span of those swing voters, as did the ‘Remain’ campaign in the UK’s now notorious Brexit referendum. Lord Heseltine (former UK Deputy Prime Minister under John Major and Secretary of State under Margaret Thatcher ) summed up short attention spans, lack of facts and policies, when referring to the UK’s Brexit, he pointed the finger at one of its ‘Leave Campaign’ leaders who has since become the UK’s foreign minister, Boris Johnson, and said:

“How convenient to substitute a slogan in place of arguments you have not got.”  (Rogers 2016)

As our attention spans have shrunk from 42 seconds in 1960 (see How Trump Won part 1) to 5 seconds in 2008 and now 4 seconds, the words of John C. Maxwell (‘leadership’ author) resonate more profoundly:

John C Maxwell (leadership author)

Proposing What Audiences LikeTo Hear (IRD)

‘What that translates into is a constant iterative process whereby he (Trump) experiments with pushing the conversation this way or that, and he sees how the crowd responds. If they like it, he goes there. If they don’t respond, he never goes there again, because he doesn’t want to be boring. If they respond by getting agitated, that’s a lot better than being bored. That’s how he learns….. In that sense, he’s perfectly objective, as in morally neutral. He just follows the numbers. He could be replaced by a robot that acts on a machine learning algorithm’ (O’Neil 2016).

Through data analysis (big data) Trump was able to send different messages to different groups of voters with different needs. ‘Cutting immigration’ or “draining the swamp” of corrupt or incompetent politicians and bureaucrats – messages were targeted only at those that connected with these messages. (I’m going to have to do a Part 3 to explain how this worked).

‘Once up and running at the end of the summer, it was soon sending out tailored messages to 100,000 targeted voters every day’ (Marr 2017).

See the BBC video in Part 1 that explains exactly how Cambridge Analytica analysed the adult voting population of America (without them knowing their data was being used in this way) and subsequently targeting precise ads to each personality type telling them just what they wanted to hear.

Proposition, Message Credibility & Messages

Trump reached many disenchanted blue collar male voters by reflecting his messages in their language e.g. by ‘talking about the world and globalism in terms of winners and losers,’ Eric Bovim (Kanski 2016). Not everyone can understand social economics, but everyone understands the concept of winners and losers. Short. Simple. And not weighed down by actual facts or policies.

Having said that, if a significant proportion of the voting population do not want to hear long-winded arguments, then Trump just applied the Magic Marketing Formula (IRD) again and again, by keeping it short, tapping into fears and emotions, reflecting keywords that connect, but avoiding detail at all costs.

Trump Is A ‘Meaningfully Different Brand’

‘Meaningfully different brands’ are much more likely to be selected, to command greater premiums and to grow in the future,” says Christopher Murphy, chief client officer at brand analysts, Millward Brown North America.

Q1 Does the candidate meaningfully connect – either functionally or emotionally?

Q2 Is the candidate seen as different or capable of driving positive change?”

Trump, Murphy concluded, did both (Fottrell 2016).

Tactical Tool –  twitter

Trump’s preferred vehicle to spread his message was largely his Twitter feed. He built his momentum on Twitter, spreading the #MakeAmericaGreatAgain or #MAGA hashtag widely.  12 million followers (9 Nov –  now 16.4m)
Clinton’s Twitter feed (11.4m) felt more traditional and political (Kanski  2016). Clinton’s slogan ‘Stronger Together’ did not generate nearly as much traction. It is possible to predict which tweets/messages will get the most retweets (see IBM twitter analysis). Though I could have forecasted ‘Stronger Together’ was limp and wouldn’t gain much traction.

Tactical Tool –  Targeting Facebook Ads: 1,000% Increase in Sales

Jared Kushner (Trump’s son in law) who set up the stage 2 Strategy (see Part 1), database decision making and highly targeted facebook ads (& other cable TV targeted ads), also quickly learned how to continually refine the targeting of facebook ads. See 200 variables available to target specific messages. In fact, he quickly increased the sales of Trump merchandising (e.g. baseball caps with ‘Make America Great Again’) from $8,000 to $80,000 per day – ‘simply by refining the target demographic’ (Marr 2017).

ACTION

Build A Campaign Team 

Soon, Jared Kushner, was assembling a speech and policy team, handling Trump’s schedule and managing the finances.

Build A Data Centre

As mentioned in Part 1, within three weeks, in a nondescript building outside San Antonio, Kushner built what would become a 100-person data hub designed to unify:

• fundraising
• messaging
• targeting

They also tapped into the ‘Republican National Committee’s data machine, and it hired targeting partners like Cambridge Analytica to map voter universes and identify which parts of the Trump platform mattered most: trade, immigration or change’ (Bertoni 2016) . Forbes reported: ‘Tools like Deep Root drove the scaled-back TV ad spending by identifying shows popular with specific voter blocks in specific regions–say, NCIS for anti-ObamaCare voters or The Walking Dead for people worried about immigration.

Kushner built a custom geo-location tool that plotted the location density of about 20 voter types over a live Google Maps interface.’

Kushner built a custom geo-location tool that plotted the location density of about 20 voter types over a live Google Maps interface

Very quickly data determined decisions, so just like Teddy Goff and previous Obama campaigns, data dictated almost every campaign decision including:

• travel
• fundraising
• advertising
• rally locations
• topics of the speeches

Big Data is everywhere

Build A Disruptive Start-Up Culture

Kushner was unschooled in traditional campaigning, he was, therefore, able to look at the business of politics in the same way that so many entrepreneurs analyse and attack other bloated industries.

Learn Rapidly

Kushner knew what he needed to know. He knew what he needed to learn and learn it quickly. So in Kushner’s own words: “I called some of my friends from Silicon Valley, some of the best digital marketers in the world, and asked how you scale this stuff? They gave me their subcontractors. I had them give me a tutorial on how to use Facebook micro-targeting.” Synched with Trump’s blunt, simple messaging, this would go on to work very well.

Constant Beta Testing 

Constant beta Testing = Constant Learning = Constant Improvement. Trump was selling $8,000 worth of hats and other items per day. Bit by bit Kushner learned how to improve this with better targeting via facebook ads.  Once they found something worked – they scaled it up. Result: sales grew from £8k to $80k per day thus:

• generating revenue
• expanding the number of human billboards

Constant Beta Testing requires a cultural shift which, in turn, requires constant monitoring and control (see ‘Control’ section). 

No Fear Of Failure 

The entrepreneurial spirit / disruptive start-up culture ensured that there was no fear of failure just a hunger for fast improvement & scalability.  “We weren’t afraid to make changes. We weren’t afraid to fail. We tried to do things very cheaply, very quickly. And if it wasn’t working, we would kill it quickly,” Kushner says. “It meant making quick decisions, fixing things that were broken and scaling things that worked.” (Bertoni 2016).

“We weren’t afraid to fail.” Kushner

Scale Up What Works  –  Tailor Targeted Ads

Scale What Works & Stop What Doesn’t – quickly.  Ineffective ads were killed in minutes, while successful ones were scaled up. Trump’s team ended up sending more than 100,000 uniquely tweaked ads to targeted voters each day.

Use Machine Learning 

Machine learning helped to boost their fundraising efforts. Kushner installed digital marketing companies on a trading floor to make them compete for business. If anyone has more information on how Donald Trump’s team used machine learning, please do let me know, as I will be doing a Part 3 about Big Data helped Trump to win. 

Control

Sales Revenues & Donations 

The Trump team monitored revenues every day. The campaign raised more than $250 million in four months–mostly from small donors. They kept monitoring and learning what worked best and then scaled up.

Constant Real-Time Analysis 

Constant up-to-the-minute voter data, provided both ample cash and the insight on where to spend it. ‘When the campaign registered the fact that momentum in Michigan and Pennsylvania was turning Trump’s way, Kushner unleashed tailored TV ads, last-minute rallies and thousands of volunteers to knock on doors and make phone calls’ (Bertoni). See Part 3 (‘How Big Data helped Trump’.

Ask Great Questions

Kushner asked this seemingly basic question which really focussed the campaign team’s minds: “How can we get Trump’s message to that consumer for the least amount of cost?” FEC filings through mid-October indicate the Trump campaign spent roughly half as much as the Clinton campaign did (Bertoni 2016).

Monitor Bangs For Your Buck

Kushner even spent $160,000 to promote a series of low-tech Trump policy videos which generated more than 74 million views which equated $2 CPT (Cost Per Thousand people reached). In addition to getting more cost effective, Kushner was learning which video messages worked best.

Constant Beta Testing

“We played Moneyball, asking ourselves which states will get the best ROI for the electoral vote,… Kushner

Monitor Twitter Streams 

Using 3,000 tweets from Trump and 3,000 from Clinton, here is Trump’s most frequently used words visualised in a word-cloud:

Trump’s Word Cloud identifying his most frequently used words

Here is Clinton’s most frequently used words:

Clinton’s Word Cloud identifying her most popular words

Trump’s most common words used in his tweets were positive (i.e., great, will, thank, as well as the hashtag #MAKEAMERICAGREATAGAIN). These all have positive meanings. Clinton’s most frequently used word on Twitter was trump (NB lower case disrespect!). What does this tell you?

Incidentally, it is possible to predict how successful* a tweet will be (or predict the performance of a selection of tweets and thus select the best one to send). * One success criteria is the number of retweets forecasted (within a certain level of confidence) Cortana 2016. If you enjoy data mining, you might enjoy this from Microsoft’s machine learning people. Everything generates feedback and learning, which is fed back into the system to update the situation analysis, refine objectives, inform strategy and tactics as you can see in the diagram below.  part 3 will explore how door-door canvassers fed back data regarding which message worked best for each household.

Control monitors and collects feedback which is constantly used to update all other sections of a SOSTAC® plan.

In the end….

crystal clear positioning and targeting driven by clever use of data layered on top of the Magic Marketing Formula combined with a ‘disruptive start-up’ attitude’ always ready to learn and constantly improve every hour – delivered Trump, the outsider, the most unexpected of wins (despite winning less than 2 million votes than Clinton). As Forbe’s Bertoni reports:

‘If the campaign’s overarching sentiment was fear and anger, the deciding factor at the end was data and entrepreneurship.’

‘Trump looked at the US and correctly saw an anxious populace that was ripe for facile answers, scapegoats and a narrative of unjust victimisation. So he pounced.’ Frank Bruni, New York Times, 14 Dec 2018

—

See How Trump Won part 1 – Situation Analysis, Objectives and the critical Strategic choices (the BBC video explaining how Cambridge Analytica analysed a nation of voters).

You might also enjoy How Obama Became America’s First Black President

You might not enjoy, but perhaps need to read:  The Dark Arts Of Marketing – Breaking Down Society to Create a New Culture – Using Data & IRD

How SOSTAC® Works – a 4 minute video by PR Smith

How SOSTAC® Works – a 4 minute video by PR Smith

Become a SOSTAC® Certified Planner  visit www.SOSTAC.org

The SOSTAC® Guide to your Perfect Digital Marketing Plan

The new SOSTAC(r) Guide for Digital Marketers

Sources:

Bertoni, S. (2016)   How Jared Kushner Won Trump The White House , Forbes December 20

Cortana Intelligence & Machine Learning (2016) Data Mining the 2016 Presidential Campaign Finance Data, Cortana Intelligence and Machine Learning Blog, 10 Oct

Economist (2016) The post-truth world: Yes, I’d lie to you, 10 Sep

Flood, A. (2016) ‘Post-truth’ named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries, The Guardian, 15 Nov.

Fottrell (2016) How TV reality star Donald Trump won the election with his ‘disruptive’ brand, MarketWatch.com 11 Nov.

Grassegger, H. & Krogerus, M. (2017), The Data That Turned the World Upside Down, Motherboard, 28 Jan

IBM (2016) Trump and Clinton may have used some Machine Learning, DataScience.ibm.com , 21 Dec  http://datascience.ibm.com/blog/election-2016-data-analysis/

Kanski, A. (2016) Change and authenticity: The messages that won over American voters, PR Week 09 Nov.

Marr, B. (2017) Why Big Data Wasn’t Trump’s Achilles Heel After All, Forbes 9 Feb

O’Neil, C. (2016) Donald Trump is like a biased machine learning algorithm, Mathbabe.org 11 Aug

Rogers, D. (2016) The Politics of Fear, in an interview with Lord Heseltein, PR Week, April 2016.

Sandel, M. (2017) ‘ Why The Democrats are so out of touch with the People‘, World Economic Forum, Davos 2017 – (a very interesting video).

The post How Trump Won (Part 2) – using the Magic Marketing Formula – a SOSTAC Planning Analysis appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

—

Shell VP Media Relations recently gave an interview to one the UK’s major PR magazines, PR Week, presumably to boost credibility or to raise its profile, but instead, this main feature interview effectively ended with these words from the interviewer:

‘So Shell finds itself incapable of doing anything other than selling a product that is destroying the planet.’  

Benady (2015)

Media interviews are one of PR (Public Relations) much sought after tools. However PR is different to other communications tools like advertising, since PR has a low cost, yet high credibility but with very low control (over the message). Credibility of the message is deemed a lot higher via PR generated editorial coverage (as readers assume it’s a journalist who writes it when often it is simply a well written news release) than messages delivered via advertising. The negative quote about Shell demonstrates the uncontrollable nature of PR (compared to advertising where you can control the message).

Live By The Sword, Die By The Sword

I once was bitten by some negative editorial exposure when, ironically, I launched an award winning,  training video about PR, called ‘Actions Speak Louder Than Words’ with Emma Freud presenting amidst 3 screens packing in 90 mins of action into a 30 min video broken into 6 sections with onscreen questions at the beginning of each section.

It was before the internet and went on to win awards and sell very well. As our primary target market was PR people, journalists, media and marketing people, we gave a limited edition Parker Pen made from smelted nuclear missiles (SS16 and Persian Missiles) complete with a certificate of authenticity and donation to a children’s war charity. The pens were the same as those used by Gorbachov and Reagan when the signed the nuclear peace treaty. The news release went out and next day we were on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Later that week we gota two page spread in a key magazine, Training Today, with the following words whcih I will never forget:

Any Publicity Is NOT Good Publicity

‘Award of the year for gratuitous bad taste goes to PR Smith and his PR Training Video company, PRTV.’ Ouch! Live by the sword – die by the sword (since journalists believe the pen is mightier than the sword!). Absolutely no control over the message but very low cost (just a couple of hundred quid). I guess despite the negative press coverage, it did spread the message but not in an ideal format. You can read the full case in  Marketing Communications 6th ed. by Smith and Zook (2016).

Don’t ever believe ‘any publicity is good publicity – where is Gerald Ratner now?’ Where is Gerald Ratner and his international jewelery chains now? . After he told the press that his jewellery was ‘crap’, his business went downhill.

Develop Credibility Before Raising Visibility

The old adage: ‘Develop Credibility Before raising Visibility‘ makes a lot of sense in business. The corollary makes a lot of sense: ‘Having Developed Credibility, Don’t Destroy It With Stupid High Visibility Comments’ as in the case of Gerald Ratner.

So the risk you take with low cost, high credibility tools like PR is clearly seen in this PR Week interview with Shell’s VP Media Relations, Andy Norman. Had Andy known that the interviewer, Alex Benady, was going to finish the interview with a paragraph shown below, would he have done the interview in the first place? Andy, if you are out there, please let me know or, perhaps share your advice for others regarding the risk return trade-off between lack of message control, low cost and high credibility of message.

‘So Shell finds itself incapable of doing anything other than selling a product that is destroying the planet. Faced with shareholders who will not compromise  on their returns and consumers who refuse refuse to compromise on their consumption, it will take all Norman’s powers of engagement to square that particular circle.’ Bernady 2015

Perhaps some of Shell’s legacy is biasing journalists? Shell’s underground (allegedly) ‘raw’ gas pipe in Co. Mayo, Ireland split the community, imprisoned teachers and provoked a documentary movie called ‘The Pipe’.

Another documentary, called ‘Pipe Down’ explored the issue and challenged Shell’s actions (60 minute documentary).

Regardless of who wins the case, does this controversial project, or any other controversial events (Shell in Nigeria, Smith 2016)  generate a lingering negative feeling towards a brand like Shell? Perhaps it generates negative attitudes amongst journalists and influencers, long after the controversial project has ‘calmed down’? is it possible that this project or other stories influenced the journalist writing the piece?

Would It Work On Blab.im?

I just wonder how this interview would have worked if it was done on Blab.im (ie via a mobile with a live video feed and video recording capturing, for posterity, the reactions from the interview and a finishing comment like that).

Blab.im screen grab: 3 of the 4 panel seats taken and 3 panelists in heated discussion while an external audience watches – all done on a mobile phone.

The Uncontrollable Nature of PR

So, regardless of what platform you use (whether Blab.TV, TV, Mainstream Media, News Distribution specialists,Social Media etc.), PR is simply not controllable. Editors and journalists can change the intended message.

The Power Of Creative PR 

Having said that, there are many news releases published  in the media, verbatim, carrying the exact intended message (with high credibility as it is deemed to be written by a journalist) to a carefully targeted audience.  There are also examples where a great image or video can generate massive coverage (as in the ‘swimming pool in the sky’ image (below), which incidentally wasn’t a photograph but rather, it was a graphic image created by a designer.

Ballymore Developers Graphic Image of a swimming pool suspended between two building in London generated a huge response

This image was created and distributed to the media (with a press release). It generated almost 1 billion impressions (valued at £10m), boosted awareness and helped to generate sales of £21m of the Embassy Gardens Apartment Blocks. See How To Integrate & Leverage A Great Image For Max Impact for the full story of this very creative news release. The image also prompted renowned award-winning,  Irish chef, Robin Gill to move in and set up his new Darby’s Restaurant in the Embassy Gardens.

In summary, PR, as a tactical tool, is highly credible, but uncontrollable yet very cost effective when you get it right.

PR =  Low Cost, High Credibility and almost No Control.

—end—

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy:

How To Integrate & Leverage A Great Image For Max Impact.

or

How Integrated Content Marketing Creates Competitive Advantage

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References:

Benady, A. (2015) The Energy To Change Our Minds – The Interview, with Andy Norman, PR Week, Sept.

Smith, PR & Zook, Z. (2016) Marketing Communications 6th ed offline & online integration, engagement and analytics, Kogan Page

White, Roisín (2020) – thanks for information re the top floor connecting pool image prompting award-winning chef to set up a restaurant in the block.

The post Low Cost, High Credibility But Uncontrollable – PR Horror Story appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

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