Using Video to Bring a City Together During COVID-19
At Lexicon Strategies, we're all about creative solutions and supporting local communities.
City of Doraville Mayor Joseph Geierman knew he couldn’t give a traditional State of the City address because of COVID-19, so he reached out to Lexicon's Lori Geary to help him produce a virtual video tour of Doraville's successes and plans for the future. Take a look!
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Best Practices for Quality Survey Results
Surveys and evaluations have become part of our everyday work life. But do we think critically enough about them?
Academic researchers rely on surveys and are constantly refining the science of surveying. It's worth taking a moment to read some of the academic literature as a check for best practices.
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It's Time to Let Georgians Bet on Sports
Sports wagering is rising dramatically throughout the country, bringing much needed revenue to states.
By 2024 it is estimated that 40 states will legalize sports wagering. It's time for Georgia to be the next.
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Lights… Camera… Zoom!
Here we are in the middle of a pandemic and many of us are trying to navigate the world of virtual everything.
One of my favorite clients called one day with an idea. She wanted to continue her “live” panel discussions but she didn’t want her subjects to be inside one of 500 boxes on the screen. Was it possible to do a panel professionally produced via Zoom — good audio, good lighting, camera switching, etc.?
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Why All the Polls in the World Are Wrong
We are about to get down to the wire in this election season and polls are going to come in almost daily. There will be bar charts and pie charts and histograms and infographics. Commentators will share these visual works of art and draw pointed, definitive, passionate conclusions about us, and you and me and our country, our county, our zip code. In America in 2020, we have the data science DOWN and we can DEFINITELY make an infographic.
The thing is, many politicians, brands and marketers often confuse surveys and polls with actually listening to constituents and customers and understanding them. In fact, I believe that data can actually CONFUSE the understanding of a particular concept because we uncouple data from human language and human emotion.
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Nonprofits Can Emerge Stronger After This Pandemic
To say it’s not an easy time for nonprofit organizations would be an understatement. Many have had to cancel in-person fundraising events including galas that can help to raise millions of dollars. Several have had to put a stop to serving out their missions that are based on in-person gatherings.
The mission of Lighthouse Family Retreats is to serve and help families living through childhood cancer. The main way they do that is by offering families a trip to the beach where they can put their worries aside for a few days and escape.
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How Long Did it Take Your Organization to Respond to #BlackLivesMatter? Try an OLR Audit.
Organizations still spend too much time thinking only about outbound marketing and communications strategy. WHAT we are going to say, WHO are we targeting, and WHEN are we gonna launch it all? They furiously toil to proactively define their brands and products and often stop there, like that’s the whole game. It also makes them very unprepared to react quickly when it’s important.
In some ways, it’s like that person at the party who spends all the time thinking about what to say next, instead of listening to what people are actually talking about, or responding to what people actually ask.
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John Lewis: The Conscience of Our Nation and an American Saint
This is a beautiful and inspiring 14-minute documentary of Congressman John Lewis written and directed by my friend and mentor Raymond Strother.
Since I first moved to Atlanta 20 years ago, I have told everyone who will listen that John Lewis was my congressman. This glimpse into the life of this great man shows how he was the conscience of our nation and an American Saint.
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Nonprofits: Tell Your Story and Attract More Donors
I come from a broadcast news background. Storytelling is just a part of my DNA. I love meeting people and interviewing them because everyone has a story. So does every organization.
As nonprofits struggle to find new donors and hang on to loyal ones during COVID-19, they must be able to demonstrate how donors’ money will be used.
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Communicating When the World is Fighting a Disease
It’s important in today’s environment of pandemics, quarantines and disruptive (but of course meaningful, overdue, important and hopefully transformative) social unrest, to think about what’s really going on for your audience.
There’s a very good chance they are in a totally unreceptive state to your message.
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Inclusive Advertising Can Yield Shocking Results
I’ve been marketing media and advertiser brands all over the world for over 20 years, including launching Logo, the first-ever 24/7/365 LGBT media brand. From 30-second commercials in the golden, pre-digital days (looking back I call those “the easy days”), to today, leading social media and VR projects, scrapping it out for microscopic millennial attention spans.
Nothing prepared me or my team, however, for what happened on a recent campaign for online travel company, Orbitz. After launching the social media video campaign, we watched as thousands of Facebook comments started in a rapid-fire chain.
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