Jeff Koo

Really enjoyed this “lightning round” podcast with my friend Jane Randel. We covered a lot of ground in 10 minutes about how to succeed in comms: whether as a full-time or fractional practitioner, and in an AI-enabled world where clients are faced with countless reputational hurdles. With a couple of personal bits thrown in for good measure (ha). What would I do with 10 extra minutes? Hint: it involves touching grass! Thank you Jane for the terrific conversation, as ever. Burson

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Dear CMOs: Here's the script for getting your C-suite to invest in the two insurance policies that actually matter. I just helped a CMO get $2M approved for communications infrastructure. Not because her CEO suddenly loved comms. Because we changed the conversation. This wasn't a client -- it was an inbound call where we had a real heart to heart about the level of frustration around the weaknesses she was seeing and the risks. Stop talking about "brand building" and "employee engagement." Start talking about what keeps CEOs up at night: **Insurance Policy #1: Crisis Communications Planning** When Delta's systems crashed, it cost them $500 million in five days. Not because of the technology failure—because they had no crisis infrastructure. We build these plans. Run full-team workshops. Test scenarios before they're real. Your ask: "What's our plan when our top customer tweets about a product failure at 11 PM on a Friday?" If the room goes quiet, you've made your point. **Insurance Policy #2: Internal Communications as Retention Strategy** Employee disengagement cost the global economy $438 billion last year. Your competitors are spending 40% more on marketing to acquire talent you're about to lose. Strategic internal comms isn't about newsletters. It's about keeping your best people from updating their LinkedIn profiles. Your ask: "What's cheaper—investing in internal communications or replacing 20% of our workforce?" The math is simple. And it's on your side. Here's what that CMO told her CEO: "We spend $50K monthly on cyber insurance we've never used. We have D&O insurance, E&O insurance, property insurance. But when a crisis hits—and it will—we have no communications insurance. That's what will actually protect our valuation." She got approval in one meeting. In my Forbes article, I break down the full framework for building vs. buying this infrastructure. But you don't need the article to start the conversation. You need to stop asking for "communications investment" and start asking for "crisis insurance" and "retention infrastructure." Because that's what it actually is. Your CFO insures everything else that could tank the company. Why not the two things that definitely will? https://lnkd.in/gEE68m7r

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AI-generated content is all over social media. My esteemed colleague, Katelyn Chedraoui, just wrapped up CNET's latest survey that dives into what US adults really think about AI content and how well they can spot it. Here's the big deal: Most US adults who use social media (94%) come across AI content, but only 44% can confidently distinguish between what's real and what's fake. US adults take different measures to verify what they see online, but over 1 in 5 believe AI content shouldn't be online at all. Take a look at the findings and Katelyn's advice to try to limit the AI content you see online. https://lnkd.in/efrnXPya

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