Why Nikki Haley Joined Edelman

Welcome to Context Collapse on LinkedIn!

I've been publishing this newsletter since 2020 at https://nealungerleider.substack.com and am excited to share Context Collapse with a whole new audience here on LinkedIn.

Context Collapse is a newsletter for professional marketing, advertising, public relations and journalism practitioners. Our goal is to help you make sense of a weird and rapidly changing mass communications industry.

I'm glad you're here.

PS: Subscribe for free on Substack and receive articles a week earlier.

-Neal

Question: After Nikki Haley ran for president, what did she do?

Answer: She joined a PR firm.

Axios’ Eleanor Hawkins and Sophia Cai have the details on the former presidential candidate joining public relations firm Edelman :

Former Republican presidential candidate and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley will join public relations firm Edelman.

Obligatory note: I have worked for Edelman as a contractor on several projects. My work for Edelman primarily consisted of writing whitepapers with a larger team, working on survey and focus group strategy, and building brand strategy for their clients’ new product rollouts. It was fun!

Haley joining a PR firm has several benefits for both her and the company. Here are the three major ones:

1. Contacts, Contacts, Contacts

Haley is a former ambassador to the United Nations and current standard-bearer for the institutionalist wing of the Republican party.

Many, many former politicians have joined law firms or public relations firms—or started their own—after leaving public office.

Former politicians bring with them a powerful contact book of potential allies and clients which are very, very helpful for public relations firms like Edelman.

2. Sitting Out The Next Four Years

Haley is currently in a hard spot with her political career. She’s the de-facto leader of the Republican Party’s anti-Trump coalition, and Trump is 100% in charge of the Republican Party at press time.

If Kamala Harris wins the presidential election, the national Republican Party will be in disarray and realignment for at least the next two years. If Donald Trump wins the presidential election, Haley will be marginalized in her own political party for at least the next two years. It’s a no-win situation for Team Haley.

Which makes a temporary career change all the more appealing.

3. Stuff's Changing For PR Firms, Too!

Edelman is one of the largest public relations firms in the world. It works on everything from prestige research reports (The Edelman Trust Barometer) to lobbying-adjacent projects to crisis communications to pitching journalists on articles. I highly recommend reading Edelman’s Wikipedia article ; it’s a trip.

The media and influence landscape are in the middle of the largest generational shift since the rise of the internet right now. The rise of social media led to the growth of a massive ecosystem of influencers and creators who, in many cases, wield more influence than established media outlets like the New York Times or Fox News. This is a new reality for everyone, PR firms included.

This is even before we talk about generative AI-created content flooding the zone or the disruption to the US right wing by talk radio gradually ceding ground to podcasts + YouTube/TikTok. When things are weird, it’s sure useful to have an influential former politician on your team.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

About the author: Neal Ungerleider runs Ungerleider Works and specializes in strategy and creative consulting for the digital comms world. He has written dialogue and decision trees for holograms of famous scientists for corporate headquarters, brainstormed Cannes Lions applications for one of the world's largest tech companies, helped clients sell $15,000,000 software upgrades, and works on lots of other things.