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The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by the Walt Disney Company leaves the entertainment world with many questions.

PRESS RELEASE 3/29/19   

GAINESVILLE, Fla., March 29,2019 (swampstratcomm-sp19.tumblr.com) The week in the news included Facebook as per usual, Mcdonald’s debuting a new marketing plan and Disney setting up upfront sale plans after the acquisition of Fox that it made less than a week ago reported Jeanine Poggi yesterday. The Walt Disney’s company acquisition of Fox finished at $71.3 billion. And now that the mouse owns the Fox, Disney continues to be the largest network in the country.  

Not only is there a lot of concern internally with layoffs and the operational side of the acquisition which is highlighted in this video: Disney Fox Deal's Devastating Aftermath | Massive Layoffs but there is a lot of concern from the public and communication professionals. There is a growing whisper that Disney is slowly taking all of our entertainment media; as can be seen in the image above, they already own a large percentage of the networks. Disney’s account now in complete charge of ABC, FX Networks, National Geographic and much more.

And it begs the question, will Disney ever find a stop to acquiring the rest of the entertainment companies or does our future have mouse behind every screen? It’s unrealistic to think that the Walt Disney company is the only one that is looking to continue merging themselves with other large media and entertainment companies. But does that eventually leave us with a monopoly on entertainment? And What's The Trickle-Down Effect For Consumers?

AdAge is a global media brand that focuses on analyzing and reporting marketing data and industry news.  

Look, Learn, Listen and Feel

PRESS RELEASE UPDATED: March 26, 2019

GAINESVILLE, FL., March 26, 2019 (Entrepreneur.com) – Entrepreneurship is all around us – the cups we drink from, gas we pump and even in the air we breathe. The beauty of life is that if you are truly present, it’s easy to learn from everything around you. Chick-fil-a is a great example of prime entrepreneurship and ways to cultivate not only customers but also a fan base. Chick-fil-a makes more per-unit sales than any other fast food competitor and the key to their success is so simple, closing on Sundays. This is because is creates a craving, helps attract better employees and has a mindful approach to sales. Another example of entrepreneurship everywhere is in the 24 top-ranked businesses that are all around us, but we are oblivious to the fact they can be franchised out for less than $25,000. Anyone can become an entrepreneur, all it takes is being observant to the ever-changing world around you, going places people haven’t gone and taking risks.

The article I chose is titled “7 Characteristics of a Great Networker,” and holds significance because networking helps people build and cultivate mutually beneficial business relationships, but what makes a great networker is simply someone who is sincere in everything they do. With networking as a cornerstone of successful startups, it ultimately starts from within and one’s outlook on the world. In an article that dives into lessons every entrepreneur should learn, sincerity is a common theme amongst them all.  And the beauty of this is that it doesn’t require anything other than being present. It requires the ability to look, learn and listen to not only the world around us, but especially within ourselves. The quote that holds the most truth for everything one does is, “it’s all about sincerity. Faking it isn’t sustainable – and it doesn’t work.”

 The article served as a reminder that we have to be so much more than what we put on paper. We need to be present at all times to not let moments slip by because every moment is an opportunity. Being a good networker is being a good person, so this article proved to me that success is closely linked to one’s outlook with life and relationship with themselves.  

Entrepreneur.com serves as a platform for everything and anything an aspiring entrepreneur would need to know in order to merge successful in this cutthroat industry.

 Lauren Gutierrez

Press Release: March 29, 2019    11:59pm

Gainesville, FL – March 29, 2019. In the March 22, 2019 article on AdAge.com by Jessica Wohl, a food reporter at the Chicago bureau. In this piece Wohl is able to portray a historical moment for the Papa John’s franchise. After the removal of founder John Schnatter from the board of diretors the pizza chain made way for a giant partnership. For the first time in the pizza chain’s 35-year history they signed retired NBA star Shaquille O’Neal as a paid endorser, restaurant investor, and board member.

After a series of incidents that painted the chain as racist and insensitive to the tense relationship between African-Americans and police, Papa John’s needed to rebrand itself.   Due to its recently tarnished image, the pizza giant was looking for redemption and they hope they have cashed in in a big way, to the tune of a 7’1” giant black man. Shaquille O’Neal is set to be the franchise’s savior. It’s big, unmistakably and equally unintimidating black savior. Shaquille appeals to sports fans. He is not in the NFL, so those upset with taking a knee don’t have think about that when looking at Shaq. O’Neal also has a long affiliation with law enforcement dating back to 2005 and is currently a sworn deputy sheriff in Clayton County, GA.

The partnership of O’Neal with Papa Johns allows conservative customers to feel comfortable with black athletes again while hoping black patrons will give Papa Johns a second chance as their go-to pizza. All of the ingredients seem right and the recipe for success sounds simple. The problem is that the target market may see through this tactic and cause a backlash against the pizza chain with its core supporters and cause the black community to regard O’Neal as selling-out for corporate dollars. Only time will tell if adding Shaq to Papa Johns list of fresh ideas will cook up something that consumers can stomach.

AdAge is a daily must-read for an influential audience of decision makers and disruptors across the marketing and media landscape.

Article:

https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/papa-shaq-shaquille-o-neal-joins-papa-johns/317089/?CSAuthResp=1553869292888:0:4452671:0:24:success:C62DB3E7B26082A86244894210AF4C5D

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“This is the year of mobile,” People always say, “So is next year.”

Press Release 03/29/19

GAINESVILLE, Fla., March 29, 2019 (swampstratcomm-sp19.tumblr.com) – Nowadays, who doesn’t have a mobile phone in his or her hand? Walking on the street, everyone is holding a small, rectangle device and calling, texting or listening. Those devices have already completed a successful invasion of people’s life. Contributors on MediaInsider started a discussion about the relationship between mobile device and the life last week. They mentioned several Apps that are strongly connected to the daily time, disclosed their development and analyzed people’s reaction. As the carrier of Apps, mobile’s tomorrow must be bright and promising. But it does not mean that people are facing the same future as it is.

“My So-Called Mobile Life” is an article written by Cory Treffiletti, which talking about his own understanding of his life with mobile phone. The phone today is powerful and important because of Apps. With those softwares, people have access to tons of things such as the lights, music player, files and any electronic contents. In other words, mobiles can control all of them including people themselves, because people are attracted to keep using them. Cory realizes this point and gives a reversed idea — “Anyone has access to you just as often”. Spams, robocalls and ceaseless pop-up notifications, they are distracting the users’ attention, wasting the time and forcing themselves to be more meaningless in people’s mind. Moreover, security is an ambivalent factor that all users have to deal with. Passwords are utilized to protect information, meanwhile, they let people make extra effort to remember them. “Sometimes I choose not to use an app simply because I can’t get into it,” told by Cory. But fortunately, the rise of biotechnology is solving such problems. Cory believes that in the near future, facial ID and fingerprint scanning may be able to replace the traditional password entirely, and the mobile will create more miracles for human beings.

Mobile phone now is as crucial as personal identity. It and its content can represent a person’s background, personality and relationship. It allows people to touch the world anywhere at any time. Unquestionably, its progress will never stop. Its future seems to be predictable, but in fact it is not. It is hard to say whether people will be controlled more intensely by technology as time passes. At least we are human beings, not artificial machines.

Five essential roles needed in content marketing 

Press Release March 28, 2019

GAINESVILLE,Fla., March 28, 2019 (swampstratcomm-sp19.tumblr.com)- In the past week PR Daily has published many articles emphasizing marketing and crisis communication techniques that are playing a large role for practitioners. The content marketing technique, especially, has been the topic of many of these articles. In the last few years, content marketing has become a coveted marketing technique for major companies. It has played a significant role in determining the success and growth of brands. It is defined as using storytelling, as opposed to advertising, to attract and keep customers. It comes in many different forms and social media platforms. PR Daily has published various articles explicating the growth of the technique, and how companies have adapted PR it under the social media and marketing tabs. In an article by John Miller, content marketing is further explained, and advice is given as to how companies should use this strategy to achieve maximum success is given. Miller has observed and researched that in the past many company leaders have “redefined the roles of their marketing team” after deciding to use the strategy instead of traditional campaigns. This is because those who have been creating traditional marketing campaigns have been known to lack the skills and initiatives needed to create successful content marketing campaigns. In order to achieve an organizations goals, Miller suggests the group “abandon the old muscle memory of selling first,” and create a team that is focused on meeting the needs of the audience. In this team, Miller emphasizes the importance of having a journalist, a community manager, a graphic designer, a video producer, and a data analyst. The journalist is needed because they are storytellers who write in a way that puts the audience first. Community managers are those focused on managing social media, and engaging with the audience through the distribution of content. The main focus of a graphic designer is using their designs to differentiate their brand from competitors and to turn simple content into a masterpiece. With Youtube as the second-largest search engine, video producers are essential to continue to create content that stands out from competitors. Finally, Miller says data-driven stories are compelling for the audience, especially if it is turned into an alluring and audience-focused narrative. Data analysts are also important in order to determine what is working when promoting the brand. According to Miller, having these five essential roles in a marketing team will create a well-rounded campaign that attracts and retains a growing audience. After researching successful content marketing campaigns, it is evident that the ones that achieve the most for their brands have teams that hire people in each of those essential roles. Companies who wish to invest in this particular strategy must reorient their employees to abandon the traditional marketing mindset, and instead, be open-minded and create content that is based on the needs of the audience. These five roles should be held by people who wish to advocate the audience and tell unique stories. PR Daily is a Public Relations trade journal that publishes articles with tips, strategies, achievements and expert advice for all the sub-levels of the career.  

Amazon and Ethiopia Face Tough Choices Ahead

Press Release 03/29/2019

Gainesville, Fl, Mar. 29th 2019 (Brookings Institute)

This week in economics has provided perfect examples of right and wrong ways to promote fiscal growth. Whitney Schneidman writes of Ethiopia’s fast growing economy and how its 42 year old leader Dr. Abiy Ahmed plans to make the country an African superpower. Ahmed’s main strategy is mass privatization of almost every sector except for finance. The continuation of state owned banking is expected to stunt the boom created by privatization. In the piece Schneidman writes; “continued poor services and an inability to transfer funds between banks will be a constraint on the government’s reform efforts” (Schneidman, source). Shifting the focus to a more (relatively) micro scale, Amazon has been receiving bids from counties around the US in hopes of becoming the host city for the massive firm’s second headquarters.

Nathan Jensen writes of the fiscal incentives cities are offering Amazon and how few of these deals are open to the public. Only 26 of the 238 bids are available for public view. The vast majority of these bids are being made by private entities behind closed doors with no local, state, or federal review. These entities are lobbying their city boards to create tax cuts and massive financial incentives for Amazon, which oftentimes cost more than the predicted growth in the area. New York City offered $3.5 billion dollars in subsidies to Amazon for a predicted 50,000 jobs created by the project. That would only employ 0.6% of New York’s active labor force for 4% of the city’s annual budget. These incentives are lopsided and cater to the interests of firms who stand to profit from the development instead of helping the local communities. Jensen ends the piece in saying; “The Amazon HQ2 process highlights what is both right and wrong with economic development in the United States” (Jensen, source). The “right” part he is referencing is the community involvement with the public bids. Cities like Boston and Richmond are listening to the voices of those who this project will affect. This tactic is effective as both cities have made it to the final round of consideration. These public bids offer comprehensive plans on neighborhood development instead of simply throwing Amazon billions of dollars.

Economic development cannot exist without the associated growing pains. The Ethiopian Prime Minister is doing his best for the African country. Despite his efforts the complicated web of state-run financial institutions might bottleneck any future development. Meanwhile the self-interest of large firms are turning the Amazon HQ2 decision into a ‘pissing contest’ between billionaires. Time will tell whether these plans end in a boom or a bust, at home and abroad.

Devin Downs

In order for an organization to be successful, employees need to be taken care of. 

PRESS RELEASE UPDATED: MARCH 29, 2019

GAINESVILLE, Fla., March 29, 2019 (ana.net) -- This week in the ANA magazine something interesting happened in a Texas Petco. A man and woman decided to bring their leashed African Watusi steer, Oliver, into their local Petco to explore its “all leashed pets are welcome” policy. Shockingly, Petco’s employees seemed unphased and greeted Oliver with open arms -- it’s the “big-little” things in life. Moving on, this week’s topics focused on the happiness of employees. In the ANA Purposeful People Series, Leigh “Perk” Perkins talks about his changes in the Orvis company -- more specifically his goal to change the culture in the organization. After being handed the company from his father, Perkins noticed there needed to be a shift from old-school to a more enlightened and transparent management. He states, “I want to be remembered for changing the culture, where people feel more included and empowered and involved.” According to the article, “Six Ways to Ensure a Happy Workforce,” Robert Half identifies six factors that will influence employees happiness. Happy Employees equals happy workforce and happy customers.

According to Robert Half, marketing and creative professionals among several industries are the happiest employees -- on top of having the highest interest in their work. However, marketing organizations are constantly competing for employers for other industries that seem more “glamorous.” Half identifies six ways the marketing organizations can do to win talented employees and create the ideal work environment.

Organizations should make sure the new employees are the right fit for the job and the company.

Organizations should give their employees a real sense of empowerment.

Companies should let their employees know that their work matters and that it is always appreciated.

Bosses should give their teams interesting and meaningful work.

The work environment should develop a sense of fairness.

Organizations should foster workplace relationships.

Organizations should embrace the importance of taking care of their employees. For example, Leigh “Perk” Perkins continued his father’s company as well as increased its worth, and he believes the employees should feel empowered by their involvement in the company. Happy employees will be motivated to keep the company running, as long as they are taken care of and recognized. Not only it is beneficial to the employees, but to the company’s environment.

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Anthem Creates AI Engineering Team

 Press Release     March 29, 2019

 Gainesville, FL., March 29, 2019 (swampstratcomm-sp19.tumblr.com) -- Healthcare Global analyzes changes in healthcare that help to improve the industry. Many of the articles have focused on the changes in leadership across multiple companies. For example, Amazon appointed a cardiologist to work in their healthcare division. Pfizer also introduced a new CEO to the company. Another article, Anthem Appoints Former Google Executive to its AI Division, focuses on the ways Udi Manber plans to enhance customer satisfaction and lower healthcare costs using new technologies.

 The insurer, Anthem, appointed Udi Manber to help develop a new AI (artificial intelligence) engineering team. With his experience at companies such as Yahoo and Google, Manber is qualified to modify Anthem’s healthcare endeavors. Manber can use data science to help Anthem compete in the growing industry. Anthem is adjusting to a healthcare system that is moving toward greater use of technology in operations. Ari Gottlieb, principal of the A2 strategy corporation, stated, “It seems like both an offensive and defensive move. It suggests that they won’t want to lose customers to rival health plans, both start-ups and established players, which are also making investments in technology and customer experience.”

 Manber began working in the healthcare industry in 2015. Before taking the job at Anthem, he was employed at the National Institutes of Health and the University of California, San Francisco. During his time at the University of California, he was employed as technical advisor to UCSF’s Institute for Computational Health Sciences.

 Including appointing Manber, Anthem has been a focus of attention in the healthcare industry due to multiple other advancements within the company. For example, Anthem partnered with Walmart to help reduce healthcare costs and provide greater access to medications. Anthem also partnered with IBM to help further its digital transformation. Through the appointment of Manber and partnership with IBM, Anthem will provide 24/7 digital services to each of their customers.

 Enhancing the healthcare industry with new technology is crucial in making sure consumer’s information is safe and easily accessible. Companies will quickly lose customers if they cannot adapt to the fast changes in the industry. As technology continues to change companies across all industries will have to alter practices to enhance customer experience and keep costs down.

 Healthcare Global highlights innovation, new technology, and nontraditional ways of handling patient care to continually move healthcare forward.