News & Opinion

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting the female members of the Bob Gold & Associates team. We posed a number of questions to each and asked them to tell us about themselves and their journeys. We’ll be sharing one per week throughout March 2021.   VP Beth Braen is an accomplished, passionate and creative leader with more than 25 years of experience helping companies and teams transform. During this challenging pandemic year she has done her best to find joy, treat folks with kindness, practice mindfulness meditation and when all else fails have a glass of wine (or two!). Q&A What words of wisdom can you share with an aspiring female PR professional?   Be fearless, curious and believe in yourself and your abilities. Don’t be afraid to give your insights and opinions, just be sure you have the knowledge to back it up! Who are your favorite cultural heroines? What appeals to you about them?   Some of my favorite cultural heroines are known for their fierce individualism, long careers, ability to pivot and all-around badass attitude.   - Patti Smith, singer-songwriter, musician, author, and poet who rose to fame as an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement and is often called the "punk poet laureate."   - Gloria Steinem, journalist and social political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokesperson for the American feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steinem was a columnist for New York magazine, and a co-founder of Ms. magazine.   - Eleanor Roosevelt, longest-serving First Lady, diplomat and activist. An inspiring, controversial, and outspoken leader, she fought for social justice around the world throughout her life. One of my favorite quotes by her is, “A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.” What in your life has given you the greatest satisfaction or sense of fulfilment?   I have gained fulfillment from the jobs I’ve had in marketing and communications including the opportunity to work with a diverse and eclectic group of clients at BG&A. Beyond that there are two experiences that bring me great joy. For more than 15 years, I’ve been in various leadership roles at Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles. It’s been a pleasure to utilize what I’ve learned in my professional life to help my community thrive. However, being mom to my daughter Mollie is by far the most gratifying experience in my life. It has brought me the most insight into who I am, challenged my beliefs and taught me patience and empathy. When it comes right to the point for me, it’s all about family, and friends that have become family. I am grateful that they are the mirror  to help me see myself clearly and the telescope so I can see far beyond myself. 

"Pain is the fuel for progress," says Bob Gold, Principal, Bob Gold & Associates.   On Televisionation's Friday Fireside, Bob Gold, Founder and President of Bob Gold & Associates, shares his story of surviving Covid-19 which, as Rick Howe observes, “scared the s*#t out of Bob's friends!” Speaking with his customary humanity and humor, Bob gives a first-hand perspective on what it means these days to simply be alive.     [embed]https://vimeo.com/516942148[/embed]     Televisionation: Friday Fireside features Rick Howe, The iTV Doctor, in conversation with prominent figures from the advanced-TV/video industry.

Lorenzo Esparza, of Manhattan West Asset Management, never banks on conventional beliefs or engages in groupthink. While many economists are predicting 5% growth in the economy in 2021, Lorenzo is sticking with his prediction of 2-3% this year.     Lorenzo Esparza is the Chief Executive Officer and Founding Principal at Manhattan West where he leveraged his legal, corporate, and financial experience to form the modern version of an investment firm. Based in Los Angeles, the independent financial solutions company offers a variety of customized financial services for Private Wealth Clients throughout the U.S. including business management, insurance, and tax in addition to in house investment management.  As an asset management firm, the company offers proprietary alternative investments across multiple asset classes including Venture Capital, Private Equity, Real Estate, Private Debt and traditional equity and fixed income portfolios.    Listen to Esparza and news anchor, John Liddle, of 1080 KRLD discuss the outlook for the economy post-coronavirus with the radio clip below.  

New financing from Insight Partners will fuel Plume's accelerating growth   Plume®, the company behind the smart home service offerings of more than 170 Communications Service Providers (CSPs) served to more than 22 million households across the globe, today announced that it has closed a $270 million minority investment from global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners. This Series E round at a $1.35 billion valuation brings Plume’s total equity funding to $397 million.    Plume was founded on the premise that a device will only ever be as smart as the network it’s connected to, and that the existing smart home services were sorely lacking. Instead of attempting to improve only  wireless coverage through distributed hardware, Plume’s approach is entirely different – a comprehensive suite of cloud-controlled front-end services delivered over a smart, software-defined network. Plume’s HomePass™ front-end services suite consists of adaptive and self-optimizing whole-home WiFi, AI driven cybersecurity and IoT device protection, sophisticated parental supervision, secure access controls, and motion awareness. HomePass is complemented by a powerful, data-driven back-end operations platform offering real-time and predictive customer support tools, network control center applications, deep analytics, comprehensive dashboards, consumer behavior and satisfaction insights, churn prediction, and retention marketing services for CSPs through Plume’s Haystack™ and Harvest™ suites.    Plume will use the funding to further increase investment in research & development and lean more aggressively into sales, marketing, and partnerships. The company will seek to continue its rapid product, revenue, customer, channel, and geographic expansion and plans to add employees in all of its offices across North America, Europe, and Asia.    “Growth in the smart home category is exploding, but the quality of consumer experience has fallen short,” said Insight Partners Managing Director Ryan Hinkle, who has been appointed as a director on Plume’s board. “We are convinced that Plume, with its scalable cloud data platform approach, highly efficient go-to-market strategy, strong momentum, top-quartile financial performance across all SaaS KPIs – including revenue, growth rates, gross margin, efficiency and retention metrics – and world class team is transforming this category. We’re delighted to join and support this exciting journey.”    Customers benefit from Plume’s constantly expanding platform through OpenSync™, the most widely supported open-source, silicon-to-cloud framework for smart spaces. With OpenSync, CSPs can decouple their service offerings from hardware and rapidly curate and deliver new services over a multi-vendor, open-platform architecture. Managed by a massively scalable cloud control plane, new services can often be delivered without requiring new equipment, reducing CAPEX spend and extending the useful life of existing infrastructure. Since its creation in 2018, OpenSync has grown to power more than 26 million access points and switches across a broad range of silicon SDK and CPE platforms, and has attracted many third-party developers and contributors.    “We could not be more enthusiastic about welcoming Ryan to our board, and our partnership with the entire Insight team,” said Fahri Diner, Co-founder and CEO of Plume. “By leveraging machine learning and AI, cloud data, open-source, deep ecosystem partnerships, and a scalable platform, we uniquely address the disconnect between the expectations of smart spaces and the service provider’s ability to deliver flawless experiences to them – while building a leading, high-growth SaaS business in a large, under-served market. An even stronger balance sheet through this cash infusion, coupled with our high operating leverage, sets the stage for Plume to continue to invest confidently in our future.”    Jefferies acted as financial advisor to Plume on the transaction. 

Discussing impact across Mobility, Cable, Smart Cities and IoT   5G and Wi-Fi 6 are poised to be two of the biggest tech disruptors of the century. In a hyperconnected world, data will flow freely between more people, more places and more devices at speeds and volumes we’ve not seen before. With a wider, safer, faster network the possibilities are endless, giving way to a more inclusive future where everyone has the opportunity to stay connected to people and information, regardless of geography.   In an exclusive virtual roundtable Cisco brought together senior industry execs, media and analysts to discuss the impact of these technologies across industries. Experts from multiple industries looked holistically across networks and platforms and dove into the realities of where we are today, challenges overcome, and how soon we can reap the benefits. It's a conversation that should not be missed. Click below to watch:   [caption id="attachment_12559" align="aligncenter" width="300"]  [/caption] View here:  https://events-cisco.webex.com/events-cisco/lsr.php?RCID=f5399e6915fad433f96f37fb3634e9f7   Host/Moderator: Peggy Smedley, industry influencer, host ‘The Peggy Smedley Show’, author of “Sustainable in a Circular World: Design and Restore Natural Ecosystem Through Innovation”     Panelists:  Mo Katibeh, Chief Product and Platform Officer, AT&T Business, AT&T  John Chapman, CTO Broadband Technologies and Cisco Fellow, Cisco  David Graham, CIO, Office of Innovation + Economic Development, City of Carlsbad  Israel Madiedo, Innovation and Technology Director, izzi (Televisa Group)    Please share your comments around 5G and Wi-Fi 6 or contact us below if you have any questions.  We hope you enjoy this insightful discussion!

Identifies when spots air to trigger search   Published in Broadcasting & Cable February 3, 2021 Advocado, a St Louis-based data and analytics company said it can not only measure the impact of TV advertising, but increase it by launching short-burst cross-platform campaigns as commercials air.   The name Advocado is a play on the notion that it can find that exact moment when an advertising opportunity is perfectly ripe, like the agonizingly brief interval between when an avocado is too hard and when it turns mushy.   Advocado said it has upgraded its platform, enabling new capabilities including analytics, attribution and advanced applications.   Advocado’s technology starts with the VEIL watermarking system used to identify when and where a client’s TV commercials actually run.   “Our primary idea was how do we use television signal data through the watermark to drive Google search campaigns,” said CEO Brian Handrigan.    Handrigan said he thinks it funny that spent most of his career in digital adverting and that now “may life is helping to make linear TV a lot more relevant.”   The relevance gets a boost because Advocado uses the watermarks on its clients’ TV commercials as a trigger to start buying relevant Google keywords after the ad runs. For complete article, visit Broadcasting & Cable.

Los Angeles-Based Financial Services Firm Taps Nationally Recognized PR Firm to Elevate Comprehensive Investment Solutions Manhattan West Asset Management, an innovative and fully integrated modern independent financial solutions company based in Los Angeles, has selected Bob Gold & Associates, a nationally recognized technology, entertainment and corporate public relations agency, to manage its corporate communications. The agency will promote Manhattan West’s distinct approach to investing and deep commitment to a diverse group of private clients and institutional investors, as well as support the firm’s alternative investments practice.   “Our firm relies on a collaborative and results driven model for our clients. Implementing a communications strategy with Bob Gold & Associates is a fit with our strategy to help elevate our brand,” said Lorenzo Esparza, Manhattan West Chief Executive Officer and Founding Principal. “This will further enable us to communicate effectively with our clients, stakeholders and partners, and to inform the marketplace of our investment philosophy and discipline.”   “Manhattan West’s sophisticated and integrated approach to financial services offers their clients the strategies and solutions they need to achieve their financial goals. It’s clear that their pragmatic and rigorous perspective is distinctly different and much needed in a rapidly shifting time,” said Bob Gold, President of Bob Gold & Associates. “As we navigate the current economic environment, we look forward to helping share Manhattan West’s unparalleled commitment to its clients and investors.”   Manhattan West, now celebrating its fifth year, has grown its service platform to go beyond the traditional financial offerings therefore providing a more comprehensive suite of services for clients with the goal of instituting a one stop solution. In addition to providing traditional Business Management and Tax Services to its clients, Manhattan West has launched an Alternatives platform and has begun to assemble proprietary offerings for clients seeking more transparency, access and rigor. Today, the Firm offers unique opportunities for alternative investments in real estate, venture capital, private equity and private debt where they serve a diverse set of private clients in addition to institutional investors.   Learn more about Manhattan West Asset Management.

Bring Together 60 Years of Expertise to Deliver Customers and Partners an Expanded Choice of Solutions and Enhanced Capabilities   Loftware, Inc., the global leader in Enterprise Labeling & Artwork Management Solutions and NiceLabel, a leading developer of label management systems today announced that they are combining under the Loftware corporate umbrella. This union gives customers and partners an expanded choice of solutions, while providing enhanced labeling capabilities and the benefits of greater investment in cloud-based solutions and technologies. It also brings together 60 years of combined expertise in solving labeling challenges for companies of all sizes throughout a wide range of industries across the globe.   “Our customers, channel and technology partners and the overall market will benefit from our strategic vision to provide broader and deeper labeling solutions in addition to expanded scale, world-class services and global support. It also unites the best talent in the industry to drive new levels of innovation,” commented Loftware President and CEO, Robert O’Connor, Jr. “Loftware and NiceLabel have both seen sustained growth and expansion over the past several years, especially in 2020 when labeling solutions have become so critical to supply chain continuity. This move brings together two thriving organizations, providing momentum for significant expansion over the next decade and beyond,” he added.   NiceLabel’s extensive global partner network includes resellers, ISVs, OEMs and print technology partners that deliver NiceLabel labeling solutions and technology. In a complementary fashion, Loftware brings deep experience in selling, servicing and supporting Enterprise Labeling and Artwork Management solutions to large global organizations. The combined organization will continue to offer both Loftware and NiceLabel products, providing the broadest range of cloud-based labeling solutions for direct and channel partner customers across the globe. Together they will further enable supply chain agility, support evolving regulations and optimize business operations for companies across a wide range of industries including life sciences, manufacturing, food & beverage, retail, automotive, consumer products, apparel and more.   “We are delighted to combine with Loftware and look forward to expanding opportunities for our channel partners and end customers by providing new solutions and innovations to help them grow their business,” stated NiceLabel CEO, Chris Walsh. "The two companies offer truly complementary solutions that are more vital than ever. This combination represents a terrific opportunity to further accelerate growth especially as organizations look to address evolving customer and regulatory requirements and standardize labeling across worldwide operations,” he commented.   Loftware is hosting a webinar on Thursday, January 14th at 10am EST featuring Loftware President and CEO, Robert O’Connor, Jr. who will discuss how the combination of Loftware and NiceLabel will fundamentally transform the labeling market.

January 4, 2021   Digital.com, a leading independent review website for small business online tools, products, and services, has announced the best reputation management companies of 2021. The top firms were evaluated based on multiple service lines, agency size, and industry focus.   Digital.com’s research team conducted a 40-hour assessment of over 85 agencies. To access the complete list of best reputation management companies, please visit digital.com.   Bob Gold & Associates, led by Principal, Bob Gold, specializes in online reputation management, crisis communications, and bankruptcy communications. Learn more here.   The news release in it's entirety can be viewed on PR Web.