Creativity is Contagious | Brands & Culture for the Common Good

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Amanda wants to help African communities build strong economies using solar panels. Samantha hopes to invent, manufacture and market a product that will broaden access to purified water in India. Kim plans to study the bacteria and viruses living in and on humans so she can spread a message of unity – we are all the same, down to microbes. She wants to campaign on her humanitarian message during a U.S. presidential run.

These South Florida high school seniors represent the global zeitgeist – a ubiquitous belief that innovation should help all stakeholders in society, not an elite few.

website design, brand merchandise, multimedia video and written content, social media, and reporter outreach generating positive media coverage.

The teenagers’ dreams are the perfect way to illustrate the message in “Creativity Is Contagious: Brands and Culture for the Common Good,” my second multimedia, video-infused publication. My first magazine, Creativity Is Risky: Free Speech in a Charlie Hebdo World, explores threats to free speech and the media in the wake of the 2015 murders of 11 French journalists by two members of Al Queda.

On behalf of my team, I hope you will enjoy this interactive experience and share your thoughts.

Just as journalists and professors in “Creativity Is Risky” discussed fundamental human rights, dozens of communications pros and concerned citizens come together on these pages to discuss the role of business in a society wrought with complex problems. Does your company have an informed point of view on a social issue? Do you create products and services that tangibly improve people’s lives? Are you sincere and authentic in all you say and do?

Albert Einstein

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If not, it’s time for a reset, argue Harvard and University of Virginia scholars. On the other hand, if the common good is inherent in your DNA, then the world wants to hear about it.

Sally-Ann O’Dowd “Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.”

Creativity Is Contagious: Brands and Culture for the Common Good Written, edited and published by Sally-Ann O’Dowd, founder/CEO of Sally On Media Digital and print design by Izzy Palheta, Zinman Interactive © Sally-Ann O’Dowd, January 2018

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You might ask: Why is Sally-Ann doing this? As with Creativity Is Risky, I believe it’s the right thing to do. Moreover, people are hungry for stories that heal, not divide. From a commercial standpoint, “Creativity Is Contagious, Brands and Culture for the Common Good” marks the relaunch of my consultancy, Sally On Media. My partners and I are eager to promote innovative, socially conscious companies through advertising,

Cover: GARDANI Marilyn Love (2016) Mixed media hand finished with oil and acrylic on canvas. 40 x 60 inches (101.6 x 152.4 cm) The Rosenbaum Contemporary gallery at the St. Regis Bal Harbour, Miami Beach, Florida


table of Contents March for Our Lives: South Florida Speaks Out....................................................................................... 4 Public and Profit: Business Innovation in a Hyper-Aware World................................................................. 6 Value for All: Harvard’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter........................................................................................ 9 Corporate Social Responsibility: Responsible for What? By Domna Dali....................................................11 Brands and Culture - Sign of the Times.................................................................................................15 I Ching - Ancient Philosophy Steers Royal Caribbean..............................................................................18 The Netflix Effect - Inspirery Interviews Sally-Ann O’Dowd About The Love Index.......................................21 Massive Work of Storytelling: A Conversation About The Vietnam War.......................................................23 Your Creative Best Self........................................................................................................................30 The Connection Between Creativity and Activity By D. Scott Carruthers....................................................33 Who made this?.................................................................................................................................34

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March for Our Lives South Florida Speaks Out Constance Dennis stood March 24 at the entrance to Hamptons Pines Park in North Lauderdale, Fla., expressing hope that the gun-control movement led by high school students in nearby Parkland will lead to change. “Today’s youth will be voters soon,” said Dennis, who had just finished North Lauderdale’s March for Our Lives, which had started that morning at North Lauderdale City Hall. A kindergarten and performing arts teacher at Rock Island Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale, she said, “A revolution can’t start until you have the strength of the young and the wisdom of the old.” Dennis is one of millions of people around the country and the world to join the anti-gun movement in the wake of the February 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 students and teachers were murdered, and another 17 injured. According to the Gun Violence Archive, 25 other school shootings have occurred so far this year in the U.S.

Eva Axel, a native New Yorker in her 80s who lives at Fort Lauderdale’s Shore Club, said she came to the march because she cares about the safety of her grandchildren and great grandchildren. “My wealthy neighbors give to the NRA and believe media is the problem,” she said. “The source of the problem is government and our very stupid president.” Mike Sargis, North Lauderdale’s assistant city manager, public information officer and director of the Parks and Recreation Department, organized the event. With Axel yelling “it’s bogus” in the background, he expressed mixed feelings about the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act signed into law March 9 by Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

“My job is to teach my students,” said Dennis, who vehemently opposes the arming of teachers. “I need paper, I need notebooks, I need technology. Guns are not on my list.”

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“My wealthy neighbors give to the NRA and believe media is the problem,”

Fort Lauderdale Teacher Constance Dennis


Mike Sargis, North Lauderdale Official on the State’s Gun Law

The law calls for more school resource officers, who would have the power to make arrests and carry weapons on school grounds. The language on funding SRO’s lacks detail: “A school safety officer’s salary may be paid jointly by the district school board and the law enforcement agency, as mutually agreed to.” Said Sargis: “If they fund the SRO’s…it’s a good thing…if they just say they want them in there and leave it up to the school board, it’s going to be something that in the end is not going to be very effective.” Noting that the law stipulates that arming teachers is also a local school board decision, said, “It becomes hard for a teacher to shoot a student. Teachers have a different mindset.” As adults talked about gun laws, Maia Vallejo, a 10-year-old student at Challenger Elementary School in Tamarac, talked about the March 15 lock down at Millennium Middle School next door, where authorities found an air rifle but not the owner. She didn’t want to go to school the next day. “It makes me scared,” she said. “When it happens, it’s hard to concentrate.” Maia is suffering from anxiety, said her mother, Frances Marrero, who is making serious life changes to keep her daughter safe. “I’m going to home-school her next year,” she said. “I’m a nurse and work at night. I can be at home during the day.”

“It becomes hard for a teacher to shoot a student. Teachers have a different mindset.”

Lynnel Fletcher and her mother, Beverly, participated in Parkland’s march. Beverly walked because she believes people as young as 18 should not be able to buy guns, nor should teachers be armed with them. “I want to participate in things that matter,” she said. Lynnel is marching for her nieces and nephews and her unborn children. Thank you, Lynnel, for these images! 5


Business Innovation in a Hyper-Aware World Many companies are lagging three decades behind a society driven by social media and the hyper-aware people to whom they sell their products and services, according to researchers developing new business models. “What has not changed in this new landscape is the need to be profitable,” write University of Virginia’s James Rubin and Barie Carmichael in their book Reset: Business and Society in the New Social Landscape,” published in January 2018, by Columbia Business School Publishing. “What has changed is public vigilance for how that profit is made.”

Public and Profit

Whereas companies in the 20th century had gatekeepers that could dictate corporate narratives, firm boundaries could take down a company today. “The web-enabled activist public is auditing corporate behavior and holding companies accountable to address the social impacts of their business strategies,” Carmichael said in an interview for Creativity Is Contagious. “Corporations need to anticipate and address their stakeholder footprint in an era of rising concerns including obesity, privacy, dwindling vital resources like water, and global warming. They have a clear self interest in ensuring a stable society and protecting institutions that predictably work.”


Many companies still have a 1990s mindset. Rubin, a faculty member at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business for more than two decades, died in 2016, shortly after he submitted his first manuscript for the book. Carmichael, a Batten Fellow at the school who worked with Rubin for more than a decade developing the “inherent negative” innovation business model, stepped in to ensure the manuscript became a published book, adding timely content and becoming a co-author. Recent headlines tell the story of how corporate and societal interests are merging, or should, Carmichael said. Indeed, many corporations – from Avis and Hertz to Metlife and United Airlines – have ended their discount programs with the NRA in the wake of the Parkland, Fla. school shooting. “The politicization of the public sphere is compelling nonpartisan companies to take one partisan stand after another,” according to The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson in a February 26, 2018, article. Says Thompson: “But the fact that companies, rather than Congress or the courts, are shifting in response to political activism in the United States says something profound— about American tribalism, the demise of political cooperation, and the rise of a sort of liberal corporatocracy.” Barie Carmichael speaking at The Holmes Report’s Global PR Summit. October 2017, Miami

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UPS and Waste Management Turning Negatives into Positives Corporate executives looking to reorient their companies toward societal demands would do well to explore inherent negatives, a major theme in the book. Carmichael provided some examples. “The more successful UPS is, the more deliveries it makes, the higher their carbon footprint,” she said. The company addressed the problem through several measures including investments in advanced technology vehicles and ORION (On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation), reducing the company’s carbon dioxide emissions by about 100,000 metric tons. Waste Management is another company making a strategic pivot. No longer does it make money exclusively from hauling waste, a business model that was based on an increasing waste stream adversely affecting the environment. As a solution, the company developed consulting services to help clients reduce their waste. During a five-year period ending in November 2016, Waste Management’s stock price doubled. U.S. research conducted by communications consultancy APCO Worldwide – which reflects the views of 1,000 “informed, judgmental and influential” Republicans and Democrats – supports the authors’ arguments. Of those interviewed for the 2018 study Corporate Advocacy in Five Acts: n n

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90% expect brands to be involved in taking on society’s most pressing concerns 90% say companies should be somewhat or very involved in addressing social issues such as homelessness and food insecurity 92% believe the best companies serve society as a whole, not just their customers 92% say it is acceptable for companies to take a stand on a political or social issue, even it’s controversial 93% believe the best companies do good for their shareholders while also doing good for society

However, significantly more Democrats than Republicans believe it is “always OK” for CEO’s to speak out on: access to education, discrimination in all forms, hunger, climate change, immigration to the U.S. and protection of human rights abroad, and gun control. 8

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Value for All Paris and Miami Share the Stage As this decade started, I had the good fortune to work in Paris, launching and editing the Critical Conversations blog, trend reports and e-zines for MSLGROUP, then Publicis Groupe’s 22-country communications network (now part of Publicis Communications). At the height of the financial crisis, as people lost homes and jobs, and bankers walked away unscathed, we heard the voice of consumers around the world: It was time that corporations replace greed with humanity. It was our responsibility as communications counselors to bring this issue to the attention of our clients, and coach them on how to develop a “value for all” business approach. For a two-part blog series, we reported on the book Supercorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth and Social Good by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ph.D., the Ernest L. Arbuckle professor of business at Harvard Business School and director of the university’s Advanced Leadership Initiative.

“Vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to something more.” --Harvard’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter.

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Complementing Kanter’s arguments, we posited questions to help our readers evaluate their business models for what we called the Conversation Age powered by social media. These questions are even more relevant to business in 2018, as you’ll see throughout Creativity Is Contagious. 1. An enterprise has to be defined in terms of how it serves society; it must integrate all employees and stakeholders around this purpose. Does your company have a clear “value for all” purpose? Are conversations about this proposition taking place at the highest level of your organization? n n

2. Innovation is both the way you make money and how you serve society. The more you innovate to solve social problems, the more profitable and sustainable you will be. This is your innovation advantage. Does your company have a clear vision of what the “next needs” might be? What solutions will you create? Are you listening to conversations on social networks to gather ideas for new products and services? n n n

3. The ecosystem around a company is key to its success. This is what Kanter calls the partnership advantage. No company can succeed without being part of a network of other companies and organizations. n n n

Does your company know the players in its ecosystem? Do you need to partner more closely with them? What conversations can you have with partners on social networks?

Massive divisions along class, gender, racial and geographic lines have replaced the financial crisis, or partially evolved from it, to become the source of today’s dysfunction. In this complex ecosystem, questions for business remain hard to answer. 10


Corporate Social Responsibility Responsible for What? by Domna Dali Millennials increasingly believe that businesses play an immense role in solving some of our country’s greatest problems. Many believe that it is up to businesses to implement environmentally and socially sustainable practices, and that they must be considerate of the social, economic, and environmental repercussions of their actions. We’re lucky; we live in a digital age where infinite information is at our fingertips. With this knowledge comes responsibility. While businesses’ first and foremost focus is profit, the key to success is taking into account the welfare of the planet, employees and customers. Many large corporations are renowned for their reprehensible business strategies. These companies manufacture your household items--the coffee you drink, the water bottles you purchase, the shoes you wear. We are contributing to social and environmental injustice by simply going to the grocery store. Should businesses be responsible for solving the world’s problems? Should they be responsible for ending the war in Syria or helping the refugees find a new home? For cleaning the polluted waters of India? For eradicating poverty and inequality? I don’t believe they can solve these problems. Most of them are so deeply rooted, it will take generations to find a fix. Instead, businesses should focus on preventative strategies parallel to their everyday choices.

Instead of focusing on solving problems, businesses should focus on not causing any.

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If executives at a company are conscious that the outsourcing of some of their products are done by child slaves, they have a moral responsibility to perform otherwise. It seems simple. Pay your workers a living wage so that they can comfortably take care of their family. Don’t ruin the planet with lazy or cost-effective disposal techniques. Hire people from all socioeconomic backgrounds if they are equally qualified. Maintain safe working environments for your employees. Despite the rationality behind these notions, businesses are continuing to disregard their moral responsibilities. Can we expect any different? The CEO’s of many companies are so detached from societal ills that changing what seems an adequate operation is far from their primary concern. Many CEO’s tend to be older and obstinate. Many are also greedy, knowing that it is financially advantageous to carry out business in a way that isn’t ideal for everyone or everything. A value for all, utilitarian business approach is far from many large corporate missions. And let’s face it--change is uncomfortable, so why do so if it’s not “necessary?” It is important to mention that while all businesses have moral responsibilities, so do consumers. It is easy to turn a blind eye. It is easy to be detached from the foods we consume, the clothes we wear, our garbage. But behind closed doors, our trash is piling up in oceans, our food is causing immense environmental harm, and our clothes are being sewn by people treated like slaves.

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So while I can’t change the world, I can change what I do in this world. For example, the reason I don’t eat meat is because I don’t want to engage in factory farming. I am aware of the environmental consequences and the inhumane treatment of the animals being “farmed.” Because I am conscious, I must make different choices. I would like to say that I don’t engage with businesses whose morals I don’t align with, but it isn’t always practical. Sometimes the most convenient coffee shop isn’t fair trade, I’m on the go and thirsty, or I just really love a pair of shoes. Maybe I should be able to resist temptation. But isn’t it all about moderation? It’s hard to make entirely sustainable choices, but balance is key. I also would love to say that I wouldn’t work for a business whose morals I don’t align with, but as a recent college graduate, I can say that there isn’t much room to be picky. Getting a full-time job is difficult, no matter the degree or experience. We live in an increasingly competitive world. “It’s all about who you know,” they say.

Domna Dali recently graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder where she double majored in journalism and English and minored in Technology, Arts, and Media. While in college, she took many classes regarding fair trade and business ethics, and wrote for several publications. She is currently a content editor in New York City.

With all this being said, the morality we accept is the morality we learn from others. Be a good example. Whether you are a business owner or an everyday consumer, make conscious choices. Do the best you can with the knowledge you have. We all live on this planet together. We must take accountability.

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b The Change Here to update Kanter’s concepts is The Holmes Report. At the PR trade’s 2017 Global PR Summit, myriad professionals discussed the role of business in a fractured society. During its Global PR Summit, The Holmes Report gathered several communications professionals to speak on public benefit corporations, which allow for public benefit to be a charter purpose in addition to the traditional corporate goal of maximizing profit for shareholders. Thirty-three states have passed legislation enabling the formation of such companies, and six are working on it. Maryland, on October 1, 2010, became the first such state to do so. Representing public benefit corporations were: Brandi Thomas, senior PR manager, Seventh Generation, which Unilever acquired in October 2016; Michael J. Neuwirth, senior director, external communications, DanoneWave North America, the largest such corporation; and Logan Durant, senior manager, environmental responsibility, Patagonia. Patagonia and Seventh Generation are also certified B Corps as outlined by the non-profit B Lab, which measures businesses on their ability “to not only generate returns, but also to create value for customers, employees, community, and the environment,” according to B Lab’s website. These designations “help corporations to define what you stand for as a business, so people know what is built in with sincerity,” said Patagonia’s Durant, whose CEO, Rose Marcario, chairs DanoneWave’s advisory board.

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B the Change

“If someone said, “Stick to laundry detergent, then they don’t need to be on the journey with us,” says Brandi Thomas, PR manager at Seventh Generation, which supports the women’s marches against the Trump Administration.

At Seventh Generation, “We want radical transparency,” Thomas said, referring to B Lab’s B Impact Assessment. “We learned we had a gender pay gap and we shared that information internally. We addressed it head on.” On a scale of 1-200, Seventh Generation scored 120.1 in 2016, down five points from its 2014 score, a fact the company published at www.seventhgeneration.com

“We’re about more than laundry detergent; we’re about how we leave the planet,” said Seventh Generation’s Brandi Thomas. “If someone said, ‘Stick to laundry determent,’ then they don’t need to be on the journey with us,” Thomas said.

While noting that Seventh Generation wants “green to become mainstream,” Thomas said her company believes in supporting other social causes reflecting corporate values.

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Brands and Cultures SIGN OF The Times Two thousand years ago a glassmaker used his selfconfidence and access to new technology to become what is possibly the world’s first brand. Ennion used the blowpipe, developed around 50 B.C., to turn hot glass into new shapes using molds. With bright colors and intricate designs, he turned everyday jugs, flasks, cups, bowls and beakers into exquisite pieces of artwork, decorating kitchens and dinner tables throughout the Roman Empire. “You can’t think about brands without thinking about culture,” said Weber Shandwick President Gail Heimann, projecting a photo of a blue bowl onto a screen in a St. Regis conference room during The Holmes Report’s Global PR Summit.

Echoing curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which held an exhibit about Ennion in 2015, she noted his pieces were branded with a Greek phrase translated as, “Ennion made me.” Heimann used this fascinating tale from antiquity to set up a conversation with two clients representing modern-day brands as ubiquitous as Ennion in his day — Excedrin and Royal Caribbean. Judy Berei, global brand lead for Excedrin, and Tracy Quan, associate VP, global grand communications at Royal Caribbean joined Heimann to explore brand marketing’s most existential question: Is culture a security blanket for brands or are brands a security blanket for people?

“Ennion made me,” reads the inscription by the 1st-century craftsman who started off in Lebanon and may have moved to northern Italy as demand for his products grew. Experience • Watch • Share www.sallyodowd.com #CreativityIsContagious #CommonGood

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Debate Winner Berei told the audience she took Excedrin’s 2012 recall as an opportunity for reinvention. Indeed, the advertising and PR teams have amped up the 50-yearold brand in recent years. With a mix encompassing the time-tested PR strategy of using third-party influencers to an unprecedented use of technology, the creative thinking led to two stand-out campaigns: #DebateHeadache and The Migraine Experience. The Weber-Excedrin team used social listening and proprietary research to inform their 2016 #DebateHeadache campaign consisting of a Twitter promoted trend. Their study revealed that 70% of Americans thought last year’s election caused more headaches than any other election – with nearly a third citing debates as the most headache-inducing part. Using this insight they used #DebateHeadache to offer pain relief caused by the third and final debate two weeks before election day.

“Getting into the political realm can be a little treacherous,” says Judy Berei of Excedrin, which ran a #debateheadache campaign during the 2016 presidential race.

“Getting into the political realm can be a little treacherous,” said Berei, noting that marketers serve as culture counselors to the C-Suite when evaluating risk and reward. “You can assert yourself into the conversation but it has to feel right.” Leading up to the debate, Excedrin delivered custom “head pain relief kits” to lifestyle, health and political journalists, teasing that a big headache was coming and that Excedrin would be there to provide relief. On debate day, Excedrin began its tweets with: “The possibility of a #DebateHeadache is high. Be prepared with Excedrin.” Soon, the Twitterverse was joining in as Excedrin kept the chuckles coming. As pundits disputed which candidate won the night, CNN and AdWeek declared Excedrin the winner. The campaign went on to win a Bronze Lion for PR in the Health and Wellness/OTC Medicines category at the 2017 Cannes Lions Health festival.

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The Migraine Experience

The Excedrin® Works TV Commercial – EMT

The Excedrin team in April 2016 also launched “The Migraine Experience,” the world’s first augmented reality migraine simulator, to unlock a new level of understanding around migraines and the impact they have on the daily lives of the 36 million sufferers in the U.S. The video aspects of the campaign featured family and friends of migraine sufferers who used the simulator to experience what their loved ones were feeling. New York Times best-selling author Andy Cohen and psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Seng amplified the emotional pain caused by social stigmas. How many times have you heard people say, “How can it be so bad?” “We used content generation and technology to tell that story,” Berei said. “It helped people connect. In an era of short-attention spans, the campaign broke through for sure.”

Trying out Excedrin’s “Migraine Experience”

The Excedrin and Weber Shandwick teams also demonstrate how a brilliant idea, supported by pristine execution, resonates with top-tier news organizations. Given that journalists receive countless pitches a week, getting a reporter to walk down a hall with an augmented reality mask is a huge feat.

Touching people’s lives puts brands on the path to longevity. “Our goal at Excedrin is to create an enduring brand, not just one that lives in the moment,” Berei said.

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Ancient Principles Steer Royal Caribbean While glass maker Ennion may have created the first brand during the Roman Empire, the I Ching (Book of Changes), written about 3,000 years ago, may be the world’s oldest book. Confucious said those who study this foundational work can attain creative awareness in every situation.

She went on to say: “It took everyone from the culinary staff who created eclipse-themed menus to our activities staff who created science-enrichment lectures and trivia games that were related to the eclipse, and we even had our resident meteorologist onboard the ship to collaborate with the captain to ensure we had the best experience possible.”

“Culture is the traditions, habits and values of a community” said Tracy Quan, assistant VP, global brand communications at Royal Caribbean, referring to the ancient text, whose 64 hexagrams continue to influence everyday life and decision making in China (and coincidentally, informed a recent discussion at Nova Southeastern University’s Art Museum Fort Lauderdale about the I Ching-inspired Frank Stella. Stella’s Experiments and Change exhibit runs through July 8, 2018). Named one of the Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales and Marketing by the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International, Quan walked Global PR Summit attendees through one of the year’s most memorable PR campaigns. “Last year it struck us that the great American eclipse was happening and…people thought of all the options on land where they could see this phenomenon,” she said. “We realized the path of totality crossed into the Atlantic Ocean, which is exactly where all of our ships are. We thought, ‘How do we extend this two-minute and 40-second experience and make it a far bigger celebration than it is, and do it in the middle of the ocean? Wouldn’t it be an epic moment to have Bonnie Tyler at sea during the total eclipse itself?’”

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The I Ching is an ancient Chinese text with 64 hexagrams. Confucius said those who read it can attain creative awareness.

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Royal Caribbean Eclipses the Eclipse The announcement of Tyler’s appearance hit culture watchers like an asteroid filled with rocky road ice cream. Consider the following reactions from three prominent journalists: “Perfect marriage of pop and science.” — Rolling Stone’s Ryan Reed

“A universal pop song and the universe are about to align.” — Time’s Raisa Bruner “I can only express my feelings through GIFS, because holy shit. — Esquire’s Tyler Coates Miami Herald’s Chabeli Herrara had this to say: “It was an idea almost too good to be true: Bonnie Tyler singing ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ during the first total solar eclipse to cross the U.S. in 99 years — on a cruise ship. But somehow, Royal Caribbean International pulled it off, largely because they thought of it first. The Miami-based cruise line reached out to Tyler last September, just before calls started coming in to book the singer at other eclipse-themed functions.” Said Quan: “Once the news broke that Bonnie Tyler was on board, we trended for three days in social media. We were in a lot of media channels that we typically wouldn’t be in, that were outside the travel space. It was a great opportunity to tap into a pop culture phenomenon.” The promotion also helped Royal Caribbean to achieve the business goal of attracting younger customers, she said, noting that millennials do not think cruising is cool. For the Total Eclipse Cruise, the median age was 40 whereas it’s usually 45. The cruise was sold out, with premium cabins going for as much as $15,000.

Tracy Quan, associate VP of global brand communications at Royal Caribbean, discusses the cruise line’s Total Eclipse Cruise during which Bonnie Tyler performed Total Eclipse of the Heart.

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Confucius said that humanity is “love of people,” that one should love “the masses extensively.” He also said, “If you want to make a stand, help others make a stand,” which helps us link Chinese philosophy once again to Royal Caribbean’s global influence. While a meteorologist was aboard the Oasis of the Seas to maximize enjoyment of the eclipse, meteorologists were predicting total annihilation of the Caribbean a few weeks later. “When the hurricanes hit, we cancelled cruises and helped with relief efforts. We evacuated people from devastated areas and gave our evacuees the full guest experience,” Quan said, noting that some of those on board said they knew they’d be taken to safety but not in such a relaxing way. As the panel discussion gave way to question time, a Puerto Rican woman stood up to say she was familiar with Royal Caribbean’s life-saving measures. On behalf of the island, she expressed her gratitude. So what is a brand’s role in culture? As melodic as a song. As graceful as water for the thirsty.

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The Netflix Effect Inspirery Interviews Sally-Ann O’Dowd About the Most-Loved Brands “Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” –Albert Einstein

Believing in the power of creativity to move business and society forward, Sally-Ann O’Dowd follows Einstein’s lead in work and in life. A corporate communications executive, multimedia content producer and publicist with 17 years of experience, she is also the publisher of the Creativity Is Contagious blog on business innovation, media and the arts; the multimedia poetry series Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Other Tales of Love and Loss; and interactive e-zine Creativity Is Risky: Free Speech in a Charlie Hebdo World, a tribute to the universal right to creative expression, a free press and multicultural tolerance. Sally-Ann’s personal passions, curiosities and professional endeavors complement each other and have helped her find true meaning in life: to inspire audiences of all kinds through storytelling. Inspirery sat down with her to discuss a recent multimedia project for Accenture Interactive and Fjord, its design and innovation company in New York.

How is the communications profession evolving given the rapid fire of technology? Try to imagine what life was like in the era of Mad Men…Publicists would write a press release and mail it to reporters in hopes a story would run in a week or two. Think about it! Today, a company must produce multimedia content for its website, social media, media relations and other channels to garner market legitimacy – in what I call a beautiful and seamless expression of a point of view. Can you provide us an example of how branded content leads to media coverage and social buzz? Yes indeed — I love talking about The Love Index, a major piece of research on brand affinity published by Accenture Interactive and design unit Fjord. Our researchers set out to answer three key questions: What are the most-loved brands in the U.S., U.K., and Brazil? Why do people love these brands? How can your company create and sustain brand love? n

Sally-Ann, tell us about creativity in business. I believe that everyone, and every company, is creative with a unique story to tell. Creativity means to think and do something new, and it is the cornerstone of business innovation, social progress, the arts, and the inspiration we find all around us. Creativity also drives the most effective and visionary communications. Fresh perspectives – accompanied by beautiful content – unite employees, heighten perceived value in the marketplace, spark the media’s interest, and attract customers.

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What was your role on The Love Index? My job was to launch The Love Index to the world. As deputy global director of content production and PR, I functioned as editor-in-chief – and with a global team working to meet multiple deadlines, I was traffic cop, too. As with all my projects, I set out to creative a seamless and beautiful expression of the researchers’ findings.

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Most Loved Brands What skills did your multi-functional team bring to the project? Accenture Interactive and Fjord’s content marketing and PR team stretched from New York to Austin, from Sao Paulo to Johannesburg. Together, we simplified thousands of data points gathered from nearly two years of research in the U.S., U.K., and Brazil. Our incredibly creative team members brought myriad skills to the project: writing, market analysis, video and motion graphic production, web, infographic and PowerPoint design, sales and client service, social media, media relations, event planning, and internal communications. We all used our unique gifts to tell stories. What are the most loved brands? Ah! Research would be nothing without headlines. We ran with The Netflix Effect because Netflix is the mostloved brand among consumers in the three markets we studied. People so love the Netflix experience that the company now sets the pace for every other brand experience, regardless of vertical. From retailers to banks, brands have a high bar to reach because of Netflix.

How much media coverage did you generate with these findings? The Love Index is a perfect example of how multimedia branded content and proprietary research can lead to massive amounts of media coverage –The PR team generated 53 media placements. For example, our main researcher was featured on Fox Business with Maria Bartiromo and on the digital TV channel Cheddar TV, which broadcasts from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Our media coverage went global from The Drum and Campaign to The Times of London. And Microsoft, a treasured Accenture client, celebrated consumers’ brand love with a blog post. The Drum (US) Campaign (UK) Fox Business Cheddar TV Microsoft blog n n n n n

By country, the most-loved brands were: US: Apple, Microsoft, Netflix UK: Netflix, Google, Apple Brazil: Netflix, YouTube, Google n n n

Where can we find the content you produce? Accenture website: http://bit.ly/mostlovedbrands LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/TheLoveIndex n n

Any parting words for executives wanting to build brand awareness for their companies? Here again, the definition of creativity is to think and do something new – that’s why we watch and read the news. As such, it’s important for company leaders and their employees to dig deeply into their souls, to identify a unique point of view – and hire a multimedia content producers and publicists to help them share it with the world.

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The Vietnam War Massive Work of Storytelling: A Conversation on pbs About The Vietnam War My first memory of The Vietnam War is from 1976, three years after the Paris Peace Accords that led to the withdrawal of U.S. troops. I remember feeling worried about my oldest brother, Tom, as I walked into Mr. Talarico’s third-grade class at St. Jude Elementary School in Fort Wayne, Ind. The evening before, my parents must have been talking about the war, which had raged on between the Vietnamese factions until 1975. Tom had a draft number in the 300s but the U.S. government ended the draft his senior year of high school. If the draft had continued, his relatively high number would likely have kept him from going to war. Nevertheless, the country was still suffering from a gaping wound; my parents – Ruthie and Jerry, a highly decorated Naval officer in the Pacific Theatre during World War II – must have been expressing “what if” concerns that night. Not fully understanding as an eight-year-old, I took a vague sadness into the classroom the next morning.

Paul Holmes in his introduction saluted the film as a massive work of storytelling, the zeitgeist term driving today’s brand marketers aiming to get the attention of stimulus-saturated consumers. Moreover, Holmes celebrated Novick’s role because he specifically wanted our audience to know more about the woman behind the 10-episode series that was 10 years in the making. By choosing Baer as the interviewer, Holmes and his production team guaranteed our audience a privileged and intimate understanding of the creative process that transformed thousands of pieces of archival material and fresh content into a historically accurate yet gut-wrenching tale of horror. Journalists, who cover history as it happens, had unfettered access unlike those covering WWII. “Reporters just had to agree to military guidelines so as to not compromise military operations,” says narrator Peter Coyote in Episode Three. “More than 200 journalists would die covering the conflict in Southeast Asia.”

A nuanced story of our common humanity and common inhumanity I carried that memory into a keynote session at the Global PR Summit hosted recently by PR trade The Holmes Report. One could hear a pin drop as Don Baer, worldwide chairman and CEO of communications firm Burson Marsteller, interviewed Lynn Novick, who co-directed PBS’s The Vietnam War documentary with Ken Burns, known as America’s foremost documentarian since directing the 1990 documentary The Civil War. Experience • Watch • Share www.sallyodowd.com #CreativityIsContagious #CommonGood

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Rewind The Tape Lessons for PR “What is going on there?” asked Baer, launching the interview with a clip from Episode One, where protesters and police wrestle in reverse and missiles fly up into the air. “We debated the intro for a year, and thought that a soliloquy of people was a snooze,” Novick said. “We wanted the beginning to put people off their equilibrium. People who lived in the era know the footage; backwards motion would give everyone a new perspective. It was our way of saying, ‘We’re going to explain it from the beginning.’”

“You’ve told the story of Vietnam like a work of fiction,” Baer said, referencing The Sorrow of War, a 1990 novel by Vietnamese writer Bào Ninh, which tells the story of a soldier who begins to think about his past while collecting dead bodies after a battle. “How do you arrive at a compelling narrative in a documentary where everything is fact-based?” “Every good story has characters,” she said. “We conducted about 100 interviews for an 18-hour documentary. For every one interview you see, we interviewed 10 people. It’s a nuanced story of our common humanity and our common inhumanity.”

“There’s nothing more interesting than a true story well told.” Lynn Novick

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Prepping people to relive painful experiences on camera is the opposite of corporate media training during which spokespeople rehearse key messages and practice bridging techniques to get back on point should conversation veer off course. But one tenet of good storytelling is authenticity – whether it’s a war film, an interview with a lifestyle journalist or a piece of branded content. The point of view must ring true. “As preparation, we dance around our subjects’ experiences in a peripheral way,” Novick said. “We ask them, ‘Will you be able to talk about this?’”

Baer, as one of the most influential people in the industry, offered a teaching moment, referencing the power of multimedia to bring forth a fresh point of view. “Words matter in communications but there’s so much more to storytelling. In the documentary’s case, we see the orchestration, the bringing together of different pieces, the footage, the music.” Indeed, the soundtrack consists of a two-CD compilation of songs from the war era and an original score written by Oscar winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, whose eerie sounds darken the emotions of the people on camera. Baer and Novick showed clips from various episodes as illustration.

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Episode 7 features Tim O’Brien, who was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970. He is the author of several Vietnam-themed works including The Things They Carried about foot soldiers during and after the war. “I was in Fort Lewis Washington, and Canada was 90 miles away,” he says in the film. “I asked my mom and dad for money; I asked for my passport, which they sent no questions asked. I kept all of this stashed in civilian clothing in my footlocker thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll do it.’ There was this maybe thing all through training as Vietnam got closer and closer and closer.

“This was the United States of America and I couldn’t say no to them.” Author Tim O’Brien “What prevented me from doing it, I think, was pretty clear and stupid. It was a fear of embarrassment, a fear of ridicule and humiliation, what my girlfriend would have thought of me…the Kiwanis boys and the country club boys in a small town and the things they’d say about me – ‘What a coward, what a sissy for going to Canada’ – and I would imagine my mom and dad overhearing something like that.” As protest footage rolls in the background, he continues, “The nightmare of Vietnam for me is not the bombs and the bullets,” he says, the scene nearing and end. The camera zooming in, he contorts his face, scratches his left cheek, begins to cry and looks down. “It’s that failure of nerve that I so regret.” Hal Kushner, a medic who was held in captivity for five years by the Viet Cong, recounts going crazy. “The fall of 1968 was probably the toughest time we had,” says Kushner, dressed in a jacket and bowtie for the filming. “Our daily life was a continuing struggle for survival… We were sick. We were very sick.” Peter Coyote jumps in with his narration: “13 Americans would die during Captain Kushner’s time in jungle prison camps in South Vietnam. He was a doctor but had no medications, no antibiotics, no saline solution with which to treat his comrades. All he could do was bury each in a bamboo coffin and make sure the spot was marked with a heap of stones dabbed with Mercurochrome.”

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Cat POW “We had nothing to eat.” It’s Kushner talking again. Footage of a camp, dark at midnight, rolls slowly. Reznor and Ross’s music plays quietly in the background: Killing is foreshadowed. “I thought I was just going insane. So we were sitting around this little fire and I saw the camp commander’s cat… someone suggested, ‘Let’s eat the cat.’ So we killed the cat and cut the head off and we cut the paws off. We had this little carcass of about two pounds. And one of the guards came down and we told him it was a weasel and we threw a rock and killed it. And then he looked around and someone had neglected to hide one of the paws. And he knew instantly it was the camp commander’s cat. And things got very serious. “They lined us up and said, ‘Who did this?’ Nobody said anything. I thought they were going to kill us, just execute us. “One of the people who was the ringleader said he did it, I said I did it as well, then we all said we did…The guard kicked [the ringleader] to the ground and beat him unmercifully. They hit me in the face and tied me with commo wire [Vietnam War slang for skin-cutting communications wire] to a hooch [hut] with the carcass of the cat draped around my neck. I was so crazy I thought, ‘Maybe they are going to let me eat the cat.’ But they made me bury it, and the man they beat very badly died two weeks later but to me the tragedy was we didn’t get the cat.”

“We were starving to death. Someone said, ‘let’s eat the cat.’” Captain Hal Kushner

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Creativity Is Risky I was spell-bound listening to Baer and Novick in conversation. As the publisher of a multimedia e-zine about another gruesome tale – the 2015 attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo – my collaborators and I told a story in words, images, video and music. “Creativity Is Risky: Free Speech in a Charlie Hebdo World” is a 38-page digital and print magazine exploring historical and current threats to free speech in the context of 11 journalists murdered by two members of Al Queda. When the floor was open for questions from the audience, I took the mic and said to Novick, “I know the late nights when you’re alone and thinking about your subject matter. Can you tell us about your cathartic pain?” “If you’re human, you’re going to feel it,” she said. “People give some of their weight to us. You can’t make sense of the murders of journalists but the story is part of the healing process. But for us, it’s never as hard as what the characters went through, such as Tim O’Brien.” Novick talked about a woman editing footage of Kent State, where four unarmed anti-war protesters were killed by the Ohio National Guard, and the My Lai Massacre, the mass killing of unarmed Vietnamese civilians by American forces. The U.S. estimates that 374 Vietnamese men, women, children and infants were murdered in My Lai, whereas the Vietnamese government estimates 504 deaths including people killed in My Khe. Some women were gang-raped, their bodies mutilated. “She was sobbing,” Novick said. “We told her to go home and be with her kids.”

Sally-Ann O’Dowd shares thoughts on the creative process with documentarian Lynn Novick at The Holmes Report’s Global PR Summit. October 2017, Miami.

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Your Creative Best Self The IdeaMensch Interview with Sally-Ann O’Dowd In a divisive world, we need to be grateful for the many platforms we can use to spread messages of love. Where did the idea for Sally On Media come from? The name of my consultancy, Sally On Media, is a play on words. The verb “sally” comes from the Latin salire, which means to move forward or take a leap. Motion and momentum are at the core of my personality – it seems to explain the prescience of my parents, who changed my name from Carrie Ellen to Sally Ann three days after I was born. Likewise, forward motion describes the industry that I love – media and entertainment. Communications platforms and technologies – all the things we use to communicate with each other and exchange information – are evolving on a daily basis. They are constantly sallying on. This is great news for brands, artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians – for anyone with a story to tell. How do you bring ideas to life? A creative with an analytical mind, I have a unique take on the axiom “from chaos comes order.” My journalism background also means I’m accustomed to daily deadlines and ensuring tangible results. I think fast, type fast, move fast. When I’m in the zone, I’m completely focused and ideas keep flowing. That said, even Type A people like me can move too fast. When I feel overwhelmed, I force myself to stop because I know that my productivity is going to decrease. A relaxed mind is a creative mind. Because I often work from home, this means I can rest. I will literally slow down my thoughts by lying down for an hour or so – sometimes dozing and letting my mind wander, sometimes napping. And when I get up, a solution to a problem usually pops into my mind. And I get going again. 30

A relaxed mind is a creative mind. What’s one trend that really excites you? I have to go back to the idea that media and communications technologies are sallying on. In a divisive world, we need to be grateful for the many platforms we can use to spread messages of love. What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur? I believe it’s the combination of intellectual curiosity, love of language, and creativity that seep from my pores, accompanied by the desire to listen to other people’s stories. What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it? I joined a start-up, and I did not listen to my instincts, which consistently told me to get out of the dysfunction. I got burned. I have since done an entire reset: if someone or some place makes me feel nervous, then I know it’s my mind telling me to retreat. Life requires boundaries and safe zones in every context. If you were to start again, what would you do differently? As per the previous answer, I will always be true to myself and avoid people who do not meet my high standards. I won’t settle for a paycheck. As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do? My mantra: “Inspire and be inspired.”

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What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? An extrovert, I thrive in social environments and make connections easily. I also believe in sustaining positive relationships. I’ve developed my client roster via wordof-mouth, networking events (one was a chocolate tasting), and people I’ve known more than 20 years.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why? I’ll give you two.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it? I had a client a couple years ago. We jumped into tactical execution before taking the time to get to know each other. The project didn’t go well, and we parted ways. I now budget a discovery phase for every project. What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers? I’m looking for business partners to manufacture metal and wood art installations. The size and shape of each piece will be based on an individual’s inputs that connect him or her to the planet. I am looking for artists, metal workers, e-commerce experts and operations people to build the business.

Quotable Wisdom: Steve Jobs, edited by Carol Kelly-Gangi.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? I moved last year from New York City to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a much-needed change of scenery. My cousin, Nancy, helped me move –with my two cats in tow. She stayed with me for two days to help me get organized. I could not have done this move without her, and certainly could not have assembled my outdoor furniture alone! I wrote her a check for $111 to reimburse her for the flight back home to Jacksonville. Her love, to echo the Mastercard ad campaign, is priceless.

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield.

“I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.” Steve Jobs

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What people have influenced your thinking and might be of interest to others? I read LinkedIn on a daily basis for inspiration, positive life lessons and business trends. I highly recommend following VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk, a four-times New York Times best-selling author. I had the honor of interviewing him at his company’s first conference, Agent2021, held earlier this year at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. Here is our unfiltered interview.

Gary Vee on Brands for the Common Good “I believe that 99 out of 100 businesses are straight full of shit. They’re doing it because it’s the current sentiment and a good check box and a certain segment will give a shit, but it’s not ingrained in their DNA. The end.”

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The Connection Between Creativity and Activity By D. Scott Carruthers With so many recent studies highlighting the strong relationship between physical activity and creative thinking, perhaps it should come as no small surprise that a look back at the habits of history’s most imaginative and thoughtful figures seems to support the ideas espoused by neuroscientists like Wendy Suzuki. As the author of a recent article discussing the neurological benefits of aerobic activity, Suzuki’s article describes how regular exercise combats stress, improves memory and the ability to focus, and, of course, enhances creative thinking and imagination. While teaching at the Lyceum beginning around 335 B.C.E., Aristotle preferred to lecture while walking along the covered walkways and colonnades found throughout the grounds of the school. This had long been the teacher’s preference when discussing matters of philosophy, perhaps indicating an innate understanding of the role physical activity plays in provoking creative thought. Of course, one does not need to look back many thousands of years to find anecdotal evidence supporting the relationship between aerobic exercise and creativity. Bob Marley, the iconic reggae musician and activist, deeply believed that playing soccer or engaging in some other form of physical activity -- a practice he refers to in the song, “Lively Up Yourself” -- was necessary to stoke his creativity and imagination prior to a performance or a writing and recording session.

Given the strong anecdotal evidence as well as the wealth of research now so widely available, it seems that creative professionals are beginning to take steps to ensure they have ample opportunity to stimulate their creative mind through some form of physical activity. It’s no wonder, then, that when the opportunity arises, more and more creative professionals are relocating to places -- South Florida being an obvious example -- in which the climate is far more conducive to year-round physical activity. Sally-Ann O’Dowd, a marketing/PR consultant and the founder of Sally On Media, is one such example. After enduring the cold winters of New York City, Ms. O’Dowd recently relocated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she no longer has to wait for the warmth of summer to arrive to pursue her passion for open-water swimming. Instead of crowded lap pools during the winter and dense Hamptons traffic during the summer, Ms. O’Dowd is now just a brief jaunt from the yearround warmth of the Atlantic Ocean along Florida’s Southeastern coastline. Since Ms. O’Dowd needs “nothing more than a laptop and a WIFI connection to build a brand,” her newfound proximity to the ocean has not only improved her open-water swimming; it’s also had a profound impact on her creativity as a marketing and PR consultant. Like Aristotle, Marley, and other creative-minded individuals, Ms. O’Dowd had an innate sense that her productivity was improved following an open-water swim. Perhaps that is why when a neuroscientist like Suzuki publishes findings highlighting the potent relationship between creativity and physical activity, creative-minded individuals like O’Dowd knowingly nod their heads as they begin to develop a better understanding of what drew them to climates -- such as South Florida’s, of course -- in which year-round activity is so clearly encouraged. This article first appeared September 17, 2017, on Patch http://bit.ly/miamipatchodowd

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Who Made This? Sally-Ann O’Dowd, founder of Sally On Media, and Beth Zinman, founder of Zinman Interactive, are pleased to announce a strategic partnership to provide companies a complete array of branding, print and digital content, website builds, and PR services.

Sally-Ann O’Dowd founded Sally On Media, a content marketing and communications firm, on the belief that everyone, and every company, is creative with a unique story to tell. Her corporate philosophy follows what Einstein once said: “Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” She builds her clients’ brands using the skills she’s honed during a 20-year career in journalism, digital advertising and multimedia communications. She has held senior and global positions in corporate communications and editorial departments at companies including Paris-based Publicis Groupe, Standard & Poor’s, and Accenture Interactive. Her extensive multimedia experience includes production of websites, interactive e-zines, keynotes, videos, blogs and LinkedIn columns for corporate executives. Also a publicist, she has secured news coverage in publications including Chicago Tribune, Financial Times, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Sally-Ann is fluent in French and has a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She moved from Manhattan to Fort Lauderdale in August 2017 so she could swim more.

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Beth Zinman is regarded as a highly intuitive marketing professional with an undeniable knack for giving a clear voice to client’s visions. She owns Zinman Interactive, a digital and print collateral agency, and is responsible for all web development projects while overseeing all concept and strategy for other mediums. She sees herself as half creative, half business, and embraces all that comes with both sides of her. Beth likes to get to know her clients and their goals in order to provide them with services and products that are sustainable, cohesive and efficient. She draws upon her varied background in design, sales, operations and management to connect with her clients and their markets. Notable work has included projects for companies like DuPont and Dermalogica, as well as “mom & pop” brick and mortar businesses. Beth is the go-to person for numerous public relations and media professionals in need of websites, branded merchandise and other graphic projects. Zinman Interactive’s client roster includes international brands and personalities who have been featured on Bravo, TLC, QVC and other national & local media outlets.

Looking for a trusted partners to build your brand? Please contact us at: • Sally-Ann O’Dowd, sally@sallyonmedia.net +1 917.477.9566 • Beth Zinman, beth@zinmaninteractive.com +1 609.254.8075


The Buzz “Read this before you go to bed tonight” and other reviews about Creativity Is Risky: Free Speech in a Charlie Hebdo World

The first in a series of multimedia, interactive and print magazines by Sally-Ann O’Dowd “No one else is doing this.” -- James Ellison, graphic producer, Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain, CNN “She’s genuinely committed to human rights and social progress globally, and someone who is dedicated and able to turn her vision and values into action and impact through her work.” --Emmanuel Letouzé (Manu), French cartoonist and director of Data-Pop Alliance, the first think tank on big data and development founded by MIT Media Lab and Harvard’s Humanitarian Initiative “Creativity Is Risky was Sally’s baby from start to finish. She developed the concept and gathered an eclectic group of writers to contribute. I was honored to be one of them.” --James Ylisela Jr., author of Who Killed the Candy Lady?: Unwrapping the Unsolved Murder of Helen Brach; and president, Duff Media Partners, Chicago “Anyone curious about what is was like to be a Brit living in France at the time of the Charlie Hebdo attack, I think Sally-Ann O’Dowd has captured my thoughts perfectly.” --Trudi Harris Dubon, founding partner, Be.Known, Toulouse, France “I want a copy of it for my coffee table.” --Cathy Blunk, Ph.D., assistant professor of medieval French literature, Drury University, Springfield, MO “Huge congratulations on this passionate and comprehensive report and powerful message about such an essential human right.” --Andrea Cordero Fage, French-Spanish-English translator, New York “An interesting view on the status of free expression and the media today. I invite you to read and share.”* Caroline Mirkovic, communications strategist and entrepreneur, Paris “Beautiful illustration. Bravo!” --Tobi Elkin, journalist and filmmaker, New York “In a world where everybody believes the truth is what they see or hear about, you dare to explore other alternatives.” --Patricia Dorne Simillon, global business strategist/travel industry, Nice, France “I’ve partnered with many editors to create their visions but none like Sally. She comes with an abundance of ideas for creating a story through words, images, video and even music.” --Michelle Zapata, digital photo producer, New York “Read this before you go to bed tonight.”* --Hervé Kabla, founder of the Be Angels digital agency, Paris * Twitter comments translated from the French.

Connect: sally@sallyonmedia.net +1.917.477.9566 LinkedIn: @sallyannodowd Twitter: @sallyodowd Facebook: @sallyodowdnyc Marketing-Communications Portfolio: www.sallyonmedia.net Creativity Is Contagious/Creativity Is Risky: www.sallyodowd.com

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