Leading consumer public relations campaigns is fun and rewarding because I get to explore my own consumer preferences at times and devise creative concepts that reach people just like me…or people totally different from me! Sometimes, the best inspiration is an experience as a consumer that sparks an idea for one of Clairemont’s clients.

I recently bought a new car. But not just any new car. I bought a #pinkbeetle. Yes, that is the actually name of Volkswagen’s special edition VW bug sold in October in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I loved the company’s marketing tactics so much that I was compelled to write a column for that appeared in Tactics called VW’s #pinkbeetle Signals Change in Communications. I hope you’ll read it, and let me know if you want to take a spin!

As a member of PRSA‘s Counselors Academy executive committee, I collaborated with Tactics editor John Elsasser for part of 2015 and all of 2016 as a liaison of sorts to secure contributors for the publication’s monthly column called “Changing Times.” The column was started by Michael Herman, APR, Fellow PRSA, friend and mentor to many. There was no one better than Mike to write about changes in the public relations industry, but his only published column appeared in January 2015, the same month he unexpectedly left this world. Since then, members of PRSA’s Counselors Academy have been contributing their thoughts on the evolution of our profession.

Want to know more about Counselors Academy and its members? Read our previous posts here.