Swing and a Miss

This week in communications learnings, we have a sleepy-ish giant doing something interesting; the easiest-to-predict post-IPO story ever; a player in a crowded market carving space; and a fan's dream shattered, literally.

Also this week, experimenting with turning Behind The Buzz into a LinkedIn newsletter. Not sure if this will expand the reach or not, but please, if you like it, feel free to subscribe and share.

Lastly, when it warrants, I'll do a call-back to things in previous newsletters. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how Disney was doing good comms work in its battle with Nelson Peltz/Trian's attempt to shake up the BoD. Then this happened on Wednesday: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/04/disney-upends-activist-investor-nelson-peltz-now-its-real-work-time-.html

On to the week...

Winner: Artifact & Yahoo. It's probably been a minute since you thought about Yahoo. But, relatively quietly, it's been making moves in this recently stable era for the company. And this week, it announced it had acquired Artifact, a pretty cool news aggregator started by Kevin Systrom, among others. I'm not weighing in on whether the purchase will pan out -- post-merger integration is tough. But on the M&A announcement, both companies come out looking smart in this unusually detailed story in The Verge. Normally, acquisition comms, particularly tech-only acquisitions, are a muted affair; the buying company often doesn't want the acquired founders to speak, and doesn't want to get too far out over their skis on what they plan on doing with their new toy. They went another way, and this story communicates two messages -- 1) Systrom and founders built something really cool, and 2) Yahoo News is going hard into AI, and trying to innovate for their 185 million (!) monthly users. https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/2/24118436/yahoo-news-artifact-acquisition

Learning: Sometimes its OK to take a big swing with comms around M&A. Plant a stake in the ground. Especially if you need a little kick start in the innovation reputation department.

Loser: Trump Media & Technology Group post-IPO. Color me shocked -- the stock price is tumbling, Trump is suing two of the Truth Social co-founders (https://apnews.com/article/trump-lawsuit-truth-social-cofounders-d14ee7b187cdb1d7504903504874b1d1), and DJT may be the first stock in history to go public as a meme. Which is how you end up with these stories: https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/trump-and-dump-speculators-bet-truth-social-meme-stock-2024-04-02/. Not a single positive supporter of the stock anywhere to be found here.

Learning: Where do I begin? Make sure your business is a real business, with revenue and everything. Try to find one supportive investor. Don't sue your partners right out of the gate. And the best learning of all? Don't go into business with Donald Trump.

Winner: Thumbtack's biggest product revamp ever. There's no shortage of home repair and handyman apps out there -- Angi, Taskrabbit, Frontdoor, AllBetter, and so on. It's hard to stand out, especially in a sector where the switching costs are minimal. Thumbtack took advantage of the fact that the housing market has ground to a halt and people are staying in their homes instead of moving, and aligned their product features and UX with that their storytelling. They leveraged this product-focused milestone to re-introduce their entire brand, and in doing so, bought themselves some separation. https://www.wired.com/story/thumbtack-app-for-homeowners/

Learning: When doing product PR, there's always a debate about bundling vs. a steady stream of announcements. There is no one right answer, but in Thumbtack's case, combining all of these product announcements and orienting them around a secular market need and very hot topic right now was well executed.

Loser: San Francisco Giants (winner: Giants fans). Last Friday, some friends and I gathered to watch the two March Madness regional finals. My buddy Mike Bacher (a great technical talent recruiter, FYI) arrived, looking peeved. He said he had just received an email from his beloved San Francisco Giants telling him that his memorial brick at the ballpark was unceremoniously removed, along with all the thousands of others, to be replaced by a "digital kiosk". His wife bought it for him before they were married, when the ball park opened. Turns out, he wasn't the only pissed off Giants fan, and within days, the team had to backtrack on their plans. Unfortunately, the original bricks were destroyed. But presumably there will be replacements to visit. Horrible communication by an organization that seems to be making a habit of it.

Learning: When you are contemplating taking something away from a loyal customer, be it a feature or anything else, be ready and do your legwork, which means having your comms lead at the table when those decisions are made, not afterward. Talk to your customers. Try to put yourself in their shoes and offer something of equal value. Don't presume to know how they will react. And don't be surprised when, even after doing everything right, they still kick you in the ass for a while.

I'm Hani Durzy, president and founder of Red Dog Strategies, a senior level communications consultancy. We fulfill fractional comms lead needs; handle distinct and specific projects around crisis comms, corporate narrative development, M&A/financial communications, change management, and building editorial content capabilities to augment storytelling; and execute "full body scan" assessments of existing comms programs to unlock the power of the function. If you want to talk, please reach out.