Doug Simon, President and CEO of D S Simon Productions, spoke with TJ Walker on his thoughts on the 2011 State of the Union Address after Doug and TJ completed a one hour live discussion on the topic hosted by CommPro.biz.
Some of TJ’s VlogViews:
“For technical aspects of his (President Obama) delivery, fantastic, I give him an A+. His ability to read a teleprompter, which is by the way not an easy thing, is without question. He is very, very strong, his delivery is good, he uses full range of his voice, there is the emotion, the hands are moving, the face is moving; huge, huge improvement over George Bush, Jimmy Carter, not being partisan here today. He (President Obama) is simply a much better speaker than most. He’s more in the league of Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton. So when people look at him in terms of Head of State, I think he really solidified his reputation as someone people can point to and say, ‘I’m proud of him as a leader of our country.’”
“He is trying to make himself more popular and advance support for his legislative initiative and his policies and his philosophy. It’s important for people to realize all presidents feel that they are constantly attacked by the media and vilified and caricatured. This administration is no different.”
“There were very few magical phrases. One area where I would fault him is he and his staff don’t quite have that ear for the magical phrase that really resonates and stays with you, the way Ronald Reagan often did. He certainly had no clunkers; you didn’t hear things where you think, ‘I can’t believe he said that’ so it was consistent good level but not great level.”
Doug Simon, President and CEO of D S Simon Productions, spoke with Bob Notenmeier, Clinical Professor of Public Relations and Corporate Communications at NYU, after their live online discussion on the 2011 State of the Union Address hosted by CommPro.biz. Bob shares his main takeaways from the President’s speech.
Some of Bob’s VlogViews:
“From a speech writing standpoint there wasn’t really any memorable phrase, there wasn’t any memorable language. That may have been deliberate. He (President Obama) didn’t really want to antagonize everybody, especially during this era of the bipartisanship that we’ve just come through; the shooting in Tucson, the repeal of the healthcare bill. He’s setting the stage for a positive attitude and a positive atmosphere so let’s go forward from here and let’s cut out some of the distress that’s been going on. That said, I think it would have been more effective if he has some kind of memorable language there.”
“Many people really felt it was too long, it was boring and they actually did turn it off. I think that tells us something from a speech writing standpoint. Even though he had the Congress in mind as the audience, and the American people, somewhere along the line, at least anecdotally in New York, he apparently disconnected with the American people or at least the New York audience from what I can tell.”
Doug Simon, President and CEO of D S Simon Productions, shares his 2011 predictions for the economy, politics, entertainment, sports, and the PR industry. This is his third year doing so and even we have to admit, he’s been pretty spot on. To view Doug’s 2010 predictions, go to http://bit.ly/dExdZz. To view his 2009 predictions, go to http://bit.ly/gGWWhH.
Doug’s Predictions:
“Let’s get started on the economy: I think we’re going to see a continued slow improvement in the economy during the course of 2011. Unemployment is also going to be dropping but at a slower level than would be hoped for given the state of the recession that we just experienced. One little bump in the road, gas prices are going to increase. I think the stock market, after correctly predicting it’s rise two consecutive years, is going to stay relatively flat, probably up a little bit but still remain in the 11,000’s. I think toward the end of the year, we’re going to see corporate profits, which had an awesome 2010, take a slight hit as they begin to have to expand their employee to meet with the increasing demand.”
“Here are my predictions for U.S. politics in 2011. President Obama will maintain a stronger approval rating then he had last year before the election, in part because he’ll now have the Republican led House of Representatives to use as a counterpoint. I think because of that, no major Democratic liberal candidate will oppose him in the Democratic primary. Healthcare will continue to be talked about and focused on resolutions, potential legislation, etc. but not a lot is going to change to the law that was passed last year, in 2010. Now I have two predictions that are related to Sarah Palin. One is that a second office holder who is on Sarah Palin’s “hit list” on her website will be targeted for assassination this year. Second, and I think this is because Sarah Palin is a lot smarter than a lot of people think she is, is that she’ll decide not to run for the Presidency in 2012 despite the fact that she could easily win the Republican nomination. She’s going to hold off for 2016 when her chances will be better.”
“Media and Entertainment: We’ll continue to see the trend where an increased number of folks get their news information online compared to TV stations as that gap will be closed even further. However, most of that information online will be coming from traditional news sources. We’ll also see what I call the media bias gap, and an example after the recent assassination attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords, the New York Times said many cite extremism on both sides for the uptick in violence. It would be like saying that it was the right that was responsible for the anti-government violence in the 60’s, not true, it was the left. Right now, it’s the right that’s generating this violence not the left, period. In the entertainment world, I think The Social Network is going to win the Oscar for Best Picture and Natalie Portman’s going to take it for Best Actress (for Black Swan). This prediction comes from my two teenage sons who say that Idol’s (American Idol) going to see a drop in ratings and relevance and that this will be it’s second to last year.”
“In the world of sports, the big story is going to be labor problems in both the NBA and the NFL. I think they’re going to play out a bit differently. I think for the NBA there is going to be a lockout and the big reason for that is many of the players have enough money not to take a hit if they sit out, even for an entire season. The NFL, with far more money at stake and more players who don’t make huge salaries and have shorter careers, I think that’s going to get settled more quickly. It will be moving eventually to an 18 game season but not necessarily next year. I also, unfortunately as a Knicks fan, do think that the Heat is going to win the NBA championship. The Mets I’m not holding out any hopes for buying playoff tickets this year.”
“I’m going to wrap up my predictions for 2011 with a look at the Public Relations and communications industry. Here I see five things that I’m pretty confident will be happening. One is a move of senior executives from the Advertising world to the Public Relations world as authentic content has become more important, you can’t just buy your way on anymore. It’s got to be relevant to consumers. That’s something that PR has excelled at and that’s where there is going to be the action. News for agencies will be okay, they’ll continue to grow but increasingly corporate communicators are going to be looking to hire people for project assignments and those assignments increasingly are going to be about creating content and also distributing them via social media. Two services that will grow in popularity in the broadcast PR industry are Internet Media Tours as well as Internet Interview Tours. Finally, for D S Simon Productions specifically, I predict that we’ll be celebrating our 25th anniversary this year and to do that we’re going to be moving to larger headquarter offices as well.”
Douglas Simon, President and CEO of D S Simon Productions, spoke with Dallas Lawrence Managing Director of Burson Marsteller about strategic use of social media in a crisis as well as its value as a research tool for crisis preparation and prevention. He also offered an interesting take on President Obama’s strategy for the midterm elections. The interview took place at the PR News Digital PR Next Practices Summit, where Dallas was a keynote speaker.
Some of Dallas’s Vlog Views:
“Obviously we tell our clients to use your peace time wisely. Now if you are in business today you are in the business of crisis, it’s going to happen it’s just a matter of when. But if you haven’t, one of the key take-aways is you don’t have to have a twitter account necessarily to be able to engage and correct what’s happening in the online space.”
“Every single industry has a key set of blogs that they need to be following and be a part of. When your crisis hits if you know who those folks are you want to reach out and in real time engage those people.”
“Republicans in Congress are far more active on Twitter than their Democratic counterparts by a factor of 72% to 50%. They’re much more engaged, they have more followers. I happen to think it has a lot less to do with partisanship and more the party in power. The party out of power usually has a much more organized and much hungrier base.”
“I’m a political guy and I will tell you that probably the best thing that can happen to President Obama is to have a Republican Speaker of the House.”
Doug Simon Makes His Predictions for 2011
To Link To Post: http://bit.ly/dWgJZP
Doug Simon, President and CEO of D S Simon Productions, shares his 2011 predictions for the economy, politics, entertainment, sports, and the PR industry. This is his third year doing so and even we have to admit, he’s been pretty spot on. To view Doug’s 2010 predictions, go to http://bit.ly/dExdZz. To view his 2009 predictions, go to http://bit.ly/gGWWhH.
Doug’s Predictions:
“Let’s get started on the economy: I think we’re going to see a continued slow improvement in the economy during the course of 2011. Unemployment is also going to be dropping but at a slower level than would be hoped for given the state of the recession that we just experienced. One little bump in the road, gas prices are going to increase. I think the stock market, after correctly predicting it’s rise two consecutive years, is going to stay relatively flat, probably up a little bit but still remain in the 11,000’s. I think toward the end of the year, we’re going to see corporate profits, which had an awesome 2010, take a slight hit as they begin to have to expand their employee to meet with the increasing demand.”
“Here are my predictions for U.S. politics in 2011. President Obama will maintain a stronger approval rating then he had last year before the election, in part because he’ll now have the Republican led House of Representatives to use as a counterpoint. I think because of that, no major Democratic liberal candidate will oppose him in the Democratic primary. Healthcare will continue to be talked about and focused on resolutions, potential legislation, etc. but not a lot is going to change to the law that was passed last year, in 2010. Now I have two predictions that are related to Sarah Palin. One is that a second office holder who is on Sarah Palin’s “hit list” on her website will be targeted for assassination this year. Second, and I think this is because Sarah Palin is a lot smarter than a lot of people think she is, is that she’ll decide not to run for the Presidency in 2012 despite the fact that she could easily win the Republican nomination. She’s going to hold off for 2016 when her chances will be better.”
“Media and Entertainment: We’ll continue to see the trend where an increased number of folks get their news information online compared to TV stations as that gap will be closed even further. However, most of that information online will be coming from traditional news sources. We’ll also see what I call the media bias gap, and an example after the recent assassination attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords, the New York Times said many cite extremism on both sides for the uptick in violence. It would be like saying that it was the right that was responsible for the anti-government violence in the 60’s, not true, it was the left. Right now, it’s the right that’s generating this violence not the left, period. In the entertainment world, I think The Social Network is going to win the Oscar for Best Picture and Natalie Portman’s going to take it for Best Actress (for Black Swan). This prediction comes from my two teenage sons who say that Idol’s (American Idol) going to see a drop in ratings and relevance and that this will be it’s second to last year.”
“In the world of sports, the big story is going to be labor problems in both the NBA and the NFL. I think they’re going to play out a bit differently. I think for the NBA there is going to be a lockout and the big reason for that is many of the players have enough money not to take a hit if they sit out, even for an entire season. The NFL, with far more money at stake and more players who don’t make huge salaries and have shorter careers, I think that’s going to get settled more quickly. It will be moving eventually to an 18 game season but not necessarily next year. I also, unfortunately as a Knicks fan, do think that the Heat is going to win the NBA championship. The Mets I’m not holding out any hopes for buying playoff tickets this year.”
“I’m going to wrap up my predictions for 2011 with a look at the Public Relations and communications industry. Here I see five things that I’m pretty confident will be happening. One is a move of senior executives from the Advertising world to the Public Relations world as authentic content has become more important, you can’t just buy your way on anymore. It’s got to be relevant to consumers. That’s something that PR has excelled at and that’s where there is going to be the action. News for agencies will be okay, they’ll continue to grow but increasingly corporate communicators are going to be looking to hire people for project assignments and those assignments increasingly are going to be about creating content and also distributing them via social media. Two services that will grow in popularity in the broadcast PR industry are Internet Media Tours as well as Internet Interview Tours. Finally, for D S Simon Productions specifically, I predict that we’ll be celebrating our 25th anniversary this year and to do that we’re going to be moving to larger headquarter offices as well.”
Links: New York Times Article on the Attempted Assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords
Tags: 25th Anniversary, D S Simon Productions, Democrats, Doug Simon, economy, Entertainment, Gabrielle Giffords, Healthcare, Miami Heat, Natalie Portman, NBA assassination, New York Mets, NFL, Obama, Oscars, Politics, PR Industry, Predictions 2011, Republicans, Sarah Palin, sports, The Social Network, vv
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