News & Opinion

Congratulations to our VP of Client Services, Beth Braen on being honored with the Woman of Valor Award from Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles.   The award recognizes Beth’s many contributions to the Temple, where she is a Past President of the board and is still active on many committees. As a long-time volunteer she continues to offer her expertise, support, time and good humor to the Temple community.   Throughout her many years as an active member of the congregation, Beth has followed the mission of Temple Isaiah as being at the intersection of tradition and innovation.   At Bob Gold & Associates, Beth helps develop relationships with new and prospective clients and is an integral part of our legacy of championing clients. To her co-workers, she is a great source of wisdom, support and business acumen.  

Here at Bob Gold & Associates, we believe that data and analytics are the keys to unlocking media strategies that resonate. Since 1997, we’ve continued to grow because we provide personalized media relations campaigns that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Replicable and Timely). Along the way we’ve become a multi-award-winning team because of our clients’ brilliant success and appreciation for our work.   It’s because of their incredible support, we’ve gained recognition during the latest Clutch Leaders Awards! Today, Bob Gold & Associates proudly celebrates four amazing awards — our team was officially hailed as an industry leader for event planning, online reputation management, public affairs, and crisis communications.   Clutch is a Washington DC-based review and market research platform that guides browsers through the technology, marketing, and business services spaces. Every year, the site collects data-driven information and evaluates the best of the best from their respective categories. Following their extensive research, Bob Gold & Associates was given an esteemed spot on Clutch’s Leaders Matrix.   We are grateful to our remarkable clients! It’s a massive honor for us to be your trusted partners. We look forward to achieving more milestones with all of you in 2022 and beyond!   Going forward, we want to assure everyone that we will continue to strive for excellence and consistency. Your best interest will always be our top priority.   Looking for the best team to help you with your PR and media strategy needs? Bob Gold & Associates is here! Send us a message and let’s talk!

There are many reasons why public relations is very crucial to a company or a business. Having a trusted and reliable PR partner is often one of the best ways you can improve your business reputation and overall image. If you don’t know where to start, the experts here at Bob Gold & Associates can help! We’ve been providing PR strategies that work for more than two decades so you can trust us to have the expertise and experience you need for your business.   As a matter of fact, our team has been recognized with awards multiple times in the past for our impeccable services. Today, we are pleased to announce we’ve added another honor -- our Clutch award for this year. Our team is proud to be named as one of the top 1000 companies on Clutch’s platform and to stand alongside industry leaders from all over the world.   To be a Clutch leader is such a huge honor for us! For those that don’t know, Clutch is an established platform in the heart of Washington, DC, committed to helping small, mid-market, and enterprise businesses identify and connect with the service providers they need to achieve their goals.   This award wouldn’t be possible without the help of our amazing team. They’ve been passionate about helping our clients reach their goals and it is evident in the amazing feedback and accolades we continue to receive from our clients and from the industry.   Our company is also listed as one of the best PR companies on Visual Object’s website. VO offers a directory of agencies and companies that are on top of their game. Feel free to visit our profile.   Let’s talk! We want to get to know you and how we can support your communications goals in 2022.

Leading US-based designer and manufacturer of telecommunications, fiber optic, video and data delivery technologies Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc. recently introduced the updated Aircaster AQT8 series of transmodulators – including the Aircaster AQT8-QAM/IP and Aircaster AQT8-IP – a comprehensive and flexible toolset to create custom IP and QAM channel lineups from any ATSC 1.0 off-air or QAM content source.   Featuring an internal active splitter, the Aircaster AQT8 enables users to create a full lineup of up to 64 channels and distribute them to thousands of different locations across a facility, eliminating the need for countless digital converters, external splitters, and legacy one-to-one solutions.   “The Aircaster AQT8 reimagines what off-air rebroadcasting equipment can do in a single compact unit, enabling custom lineups of up to 64 channels, accessible to thousands of residential homes in the case of service operators, or hundreds of rooms and TV sets for hospitality, institutional and SMB use cases. It effortlessly creates and multiplexes a complete digital media service, while eliminating unnecessary fees and equipment.” Said Ted Grauch, President and CEO of Blonder Tongue Laboratories.   This recent product release adds to Blonder Tongue’s growing portfolio of new solutions and innovations, including the NXG Platform and Clearview Transcoder Series, that are specifically designed to augment and streamline IPTV and OTT video distribution.   Read the TV Tech article here.   For more information, please visit: https://www.blondertongue.com/.

At Bob Gold & Associates, we’re the Gold Standard for data-driven Public Relations and Brand Management.   We recently received reviews on Clutch that demonstrate our excellence. Clutch is a B2B listing resource and reviews platform that evaluates companies based on their quality of work, industry experience, and client reviews. Clutch has become the go-to resource in the B2B space for connecting small, mid-market, and enterprise businesses with the perfect service provider.   Our creative, tech-savvy and award-winning team is highly connected & insightful. We provide uniquely tailored strategies for today’s digital-first world. We are transparent in our work, focusing on data and analysis through a proprietary method we call BG&A Insight™. This approach allows us to meet every client's unique needs and starts by implementing a thorough onboarding process to help create a proactive and personalized media relations campaign that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Replicable and Timely.   Bob Gold & Associates Got Another Review on Commit USA One of our latest reviews came from a global tech services firm, Commit USA. We helped their team launch in the North American market, particularly in the US. We provided traditional PR activities to build awareness such as news announcements, story placements, media briefings, and executive bylines. We also assisted their team’s entry onto the Clutch platform, by helping them with their case studies and client reviews. Additionally, we supported their LinkedIn activities including posts.   Our efforts resulted in the client’s successful entry into the US market. They have been able to establish their credibility via Clutch, and we were able to increase their media exposure through targeted story placements and relevant thought leadership in a variety of publications. They praised our team’s professionalism and project management. Commit USA Global Chief Revenue Officer Max Nirenberg said, “We’re impressed by the quality of their work, communication, and delivery. They make it very clear what’s going to happen and when the time comes, they will deliver what they said they would.”   We’re happy and grateful that, with such a glowing review, Max gave us perfect five-star ratings across all metrics!   Reviews on The Royalty Network: We also received a review from music publishing company, The Royalty Network after supporting the company’s efforts in launching a Black Lives Matter empowerment initiative. We had multiple meetings with the client to hash out messaging, and we created strategies and approaches from those discussions. Our efforts led to the successful launch of this inspiring campaign. The client praised our effective workflow, organized project management, and seamless communication. Ultimately, it was our agency’s forward-thinking strategies that left a big impression on the client. With the success of this campaign, we received an overall rating of 4.5-stars!   We thank Commit USA and The Royalty Network for their detailed and honest review of our work. Their positive feedback validates our team’s hard work and affirms our commitment to our clients.   We’re also pleased to announce that Clutch’s sister website the Manifest named us a Top Public Affairs Firm for 2021! The Manifest is a business news and how-to platform that analyzes and compiles industry data. They allow entrepreneurs, SMB owners, and industry managers to find leading agencies within their platform. As such, we’re honored to be recognized by the Manifest as the leading provider in our industry!   Do you need help with PR and marketing? Contact us today, and let’s discuss how we can work together to grow your brand and reach success.   See our Clutch Profile here

Clutch.co’s has listed Bob Gold & Associates among the Top 3 PR Agencies in Los Angeles, ranking  it #1 in Crisis Communications for the area. As more companies ramp up their operations in a challenging economy and social setting, many of them are looking to elevate their brand stories. We are the Gold standard for data-driven Public Relations and Brand Management. The BG&A team of experts provides uniquely tailored strategies for today’s digital-first world. Our goal is to tell a great story about you, share your expertise and insights, demonstrate your unique value and connect with target audiences across the globe.   To see our PR and marketing results, read our case studies for Cisco (Telecommunications), Viamedia (AdTech), and Plume (Consumer Electronics) as well as our collection of case studies on crisis management.   “Their work ethic and results were impressive. They also have good media relationships and industry contacts.”   Mark Goodburn, Director of Product Marketing, Plume   For more amazing reviews of the BG&A team, please visit our Clutch.co profile here.        

By Robert Brownlie, Associate Account Executive, Bob Gold & Associates   As of 2020, there are approximately 3.78 billion social media users, a number that is expected to reach 4.41 billion by 2025. This includes the 90+% of businesses that also employ some form of a social media strategy. What does this massive volume mean to PR professionals? It is both harder and more rewarding for those who can cut through the noise and be noticed.   As opposed to simply writing content and posting it, social media marketing has become a much more intensive process involving analysis of web statistics and targeted strategies. As anyone who has ever tried to meet the character limit of a Tweet knows, it can seem like your performing laser eye surgery with every word!   But underneath all the different traffic stats and complex tactics, the fundamentals of a campaign will ultimately determine if it is a success or not. Luckily, these essential elements can be boiled down to these basics - monitoring, managing, measuring and monetizing.   Once marketers have mastered a clear action plan incorporating these four principles, social media campaigns can be accomplished successfully. Monitor the social landscape Whether you’re developing a full-fledged campaign or are simply looking for the right hashtags or topic for your CEO’s next op-ed, understanding the trending topics of target personas as well as what competitors are doing on social media is an essential preliminary step. Monitoring conversations also has an added benefit – it enables you to discover new topics that your brand can provide unique insight into.   Manually searching for keywords and scouring different platforms can be a time trap. Instead, once goals are defined, it is useful to adopt a software platform that can track and analyze conversations and provide rapid insights. When using a platform, make sure you understand how to best utilize its search strings and tools to optimize efforts. Manage to achieve defined goals Actions should be guided by (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely) SMART goals. After launching a campaign, deft management is essential to achieving these clearly defined goals. It is vital to refine campaigns by tracking what works and does not and reacting to feedback to improve performance. Additionally, social-media managers should not be rushing to post everything manually. Instead, posts and tweets should be scheduled and tracked in a calendar.   It is also important to respond to comments, or a lack of them. This helps stimulate conversations and flush out leads. While software, analytics and strategy are important, ensuring execution is well managed is the key to success in the long run. Measure continuously Social media is spread across many platforms, making it a challenge to track and analyze. Yet, this is an essential element, especially if you are reporting to a chief marketing officer, another executive or even board members.   To make reporting easier, it is good to decide on how you will measure success before a campaign begins, provide a central location for all parties involved to track metrics regularly, and make sure the data tracked tells a compelling story that demonstrates how social media marketing is moving the business forward.   For instance, as there are over 1 billion websites competing for engagement, a main goal when measuring social media will likely be linked to website traffic generation. For this, you should track metrics like post click-through rates in conjunction with methods to monitor how a website is engaging viewers and converting leads. By measuring such traits consistently, you can show higher-ups how sales are being impacted while also learning which strategies are working and not working. Aim to monetize With your measurements helping forge a path forward, you will ultimately want to show how social media marketing is driving revenue growth. If marketers can directly link social media marketing efforts to sales, the value of a campaign becomes immediately noticeable.   To link reporting metrics with bottom line growth, you will want to measure the impact of earned, owned and paid media in relation to overall goals that demonstrate value, like customer retention and service, lead generation, or social presence. Then there are key metrics you should monitor, such as followers, click-throughs, email sign-ups, SEO scores, number of comments, etc.   While there are many metrics to track for social media success, those in charge will likely be chiefly concerned with lead conversion, customer retention and anything that directly ties marketing to revenue growth. Conclusion – pursue success diligently Remember and try to help others realize that social media and much of marketing is not about instant gratification. This is especially true if you’re trying to keep customers engaged and develop a relationship with them.   Instead, those who achieve success follow these four fundamentals diligently and track a variety of different measurements to ensure their efforts are constantly improving and when possible significantly contributing to a brand’s bottom line. Taking such action now will enable a business to better compete in years to come as the billions of already engaged users grow alongside the social media strategies of virtually every business.

According to a Fractl report, most top-tier writers receive 100, 250, or even 500 pitches a week for an average of 5 story spots, so you have a few seconds – not minutes - before a journalist gets distracted if they’re not engaged from the get go. It’s also important to note that once you’ve issued a press release, the news becomes a less valuable commodity to your company and reporters alike. Therefore, it’s important to smartly write your announcement and deliver it at the best time. Here are some essential items that can make or break a press release: Choose the right topic: A B2B press release can address many topics, including original research, awards won, new c-level appointments, public appearances, philanthropy initiatives, a new product/service launch, and a new client or partnership. Whatever you’re announcing, be sure that the release is clear, punchy and to the point. Put the newsworthy angle first in a catchy headline: The goal is to break through the clutter and to be read alongside Apple and conglomerates in the same space. This requires a newsworthy hook and a concise description of the story. Include imagery: The right image can boost visibility. Stock art is not ideal. It’s better to get an action shot of your subject or an appropriate original image that is informative and interesting. Additionally, provide the highest resolution you can- high resolution is 300 dpi or above for anything in print. Consider video: A video can be more effective than images or text. If you’re creating it, try to keep the video under four minutes. To show you’re professional, make sure the quality of the video is high, at least HD, and not shaky. To get the attention of viewers, draft a compelling script and storyboard, and place a call to action at the end. You can host it on YouTube or Vimeo, so people are comfortable opening it. Place the most important summary information upfront: Readers may only look at your release for a few seconds, so writers should put the most important information first followed by more details down below. Use value-added quotes: Quotes must add value to content. Some ways to do this are connecting quotes to an industry’s larger issues, explaining why the news is important, summarizing a problem and how it’s being fixed, using a good analogy, or using emotion and humor to express a strong opinion. Look at examples of other quotes and try reading your release without your quote in it to gauge if it’s adding value. Ensure the boilerplate is well crafted: Journalists rely on boilerplates for basic company information. Avoid jargon and make sure to clearly describe key services and products, customers, size, location, accolades and mission. Additionally, you should add key words for SEO and a call to action linking to your website. Target the right audience: In a recent study, 500+ journalists voted that receiving an irrelevant pitch was the most offensive thing a PR agent could do. Therefore, research the beats of reporters you want to contact. Concisely tell interesting and positively angled news: Per a survey of over 500+ top-tier journalists, “most writers (58%) prefer to receive a pitch between 100 and 200 words.” Therefore, word count is limited, so communicate fully. Timing is everything: Scheduling a release at the right time helps avoid getting lost in clutter. Avoid Fridays or weekends because journalists may not read work emails then. Also consider scheduling just before or after the stock market opens. Also be weary of time zones. Ideal times may be different for different industries, so learn the important dates and times of your vertical.   Journalists’ inboxes are overfilled, so it’s critical to make sure every piece of the release is exceptionally well crafted. This could make the difference and make your news stand out.

World Wrestling Entertainment was my entire world as an adolescent. Little did I know then that I was learning invaluable lessons that would prepare me for my future career in PR.   Growing up attending a Catholic grade school, I was always told pro-wrestling is a sin and the staff urged parents not to let us watch. In fact, our teachers once thought they could eradicate our fascination with wrestling by informing us it wasn't real. Au contraire… we would incorporate the storylines during morning prayer. "My cousin Steve (Austin) was hit by a car recently, and I just want to ask that he have a speedy recovery." Pretty soon we all had a cousin “Steve.” Luckily the teachers never caught on – they just thought our families had horrible luck.   At the time, I didn’t think that watching wrestling would prepare me for the business world, but after working with our client, Anthem Sports & Entertainment, which owns Impact Wrestling, it’s clear to me that I’ve been applying lessons learned long ago.   Although the action-packed fights, larger-than-life personas and drama-filled storylines aren’t real, the lessons learned, however, are practical. Here are the top three lessons I learned from watching WWE that have helped me in my public relations career. Be prepared to accept failure (and grow from it) My first phone pitch was a failure. The reporter asked me a minor detail about the client I was pitching him and I stumbled…badly. The reporter smelled blood and told me if I can’t explain the value to his readers in 30 seconds or less, why was I wasting his time by pitching him. Instead of letting this experience bring me down, it drove me to come in well prepared for all future calls. Adapt or perish Like a wrestling match, working in PR requires you to react quickly and confidently, otherwise you’ll get knocked down. One of the first media interviews I set up for a client wasn’t going as well as planned – the reporter was going off topic, asking hard-hitting questions that the client clearly didn’t anticipate, and I had to react quickly to pivot the conversation, highlighting recent wins in order to keep the conversation positive. It takes teamwork to make the dream work Working in a collaborative workspace is very similar to tag-team wrestling because no matter what kind of beating work hands you, there’s always someone in your corner to have your back. For example, I was recently tasked with compiling a dense report on a very quick turnaround.  Although the task was daunting and somewhat overwhelming on my own, my colleague had my back and not only assisted with the report, but also gave me tips to speed up the process while improving the quality.   These three life lessons have shaped me into the professional that I am today. Professional wrestling is more than just oiled up actors wearing speedos in a reality-tv drama fake-fighting in a ring. It's a way of life and taught me very “IMPACT-ful” lessons along the way.