Photography, Technology

Samsung. Imagelogging: Reimagined.

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

(Note: All images shot with Samsung Galaxy Note 8)

 

 

Recently, Samsung announced its newest flagship phone, the Samsung Galaxy s9 and s9+. For all of its laurels, people might be surprised to find out there is a phone function on the device. The s9 has been well-received by reviewers, especially for its latest camera upgrades. And if you look at Samsung’s S9 advertising campaign, the focus is on these upgrades. Which is great because people are using smartphone cameras at an ever increasing rate.

It also raises a question about Samsung reviving a previous digital marketing campaign. Let’s take the wayback machine back a few years, when Samsung was still making high-end cameras.

(What?? Samsung made high-end cameras?)

Yes they did, and from all reports they were solid contenders with other high-end mirrorless cameras, and other DSLRs from Canon, Nikon, and Pentax. But, alas, the market didn’t pick up on that until it was too late.

However, it looks like Samsung applied some of that camera research to their recent smartphone releases. Looking at reviews from the previous few Samsung phones, the tech world was blowing up with praise for them… (see what I did there, Samsung Note 7)

Before I go on, I’d like to point out that I switched to a Galaxy Note 8 from an iPhone 6s+ back in November, and by January I had decided to use it as my primary content creation tool for a while, putting aside my Fuji and Sony cameras. Continue reading →

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Creativity, Featured, social media

Yes, Stefan, They ARE Storytellers

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

“My philosophy has always been that I believe that art is not an elitist gift for a few select people. Art is for everyone.” — Richard Attenborough

Recently, Juxtapoz featured a video by Stefan Sagmeister in which he proudly proclaimed, “No fuckhead, you are not a storyteller” to, well essentially anyone who isn’t a novel writer or a feature film director.

(The tl:dr version of this post? “Yes, Stefan. People are storytellers. And despite making some good points, you’re an idiot.”)

Stefan (can I call you Stefan? I mean, after watching your video and tearing it apart so many times, I feel there’s a certain kinship here) makes some interesting points, some of which even make sense. I understand the need to say outrageous things. After all, if you don’t then how will you convince people to show up to your next TED talk, or get picked up by Juxtapoz?

Continue reading →

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CEO Chat, Featured, Leadership

Why Do You Need a “Chief of Staff?”

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

“I’ve gotta keep the knucklehead stuff off of his desk, and this is worse. This is actual hot-button knucklehead. This could be a thing.”
John Spencer as Leo McGarry
“The West Wing”

Sometimes starting out at a new leadership position can feel like this!
(Image courtesy U.S. Government archives)

Congratulations! You’re now a CEO. The leader of an organization. (Large or small, nonprofit or for profit. It doesn’t matter)

But your time seems to be taken up with decisions that aren’t worth your time. Your calendar is full of meeting with department heads, other executives, maybe the media, and community leaders, but by 9:30 or 10 a.m. it’s been blown to hell with “crises” and problems that other C-Suite or director level positions can’t handle, or people who demand to speak to you “right now.”  It’s the classic argument of what’s “important” to you as a leader, and what’s “urgent,” jumping up and down demanding attention.
Continue reading →

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Uncategorized

Some Unexpected Maintenance…

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

Sorry for the abrupt site design change, and for the lack of blogging for a while. My former site host accidentally deleted my site (and removed me from Google’s cache), so we’ll be hanging out here at the backup site while I get everything up and running again. In the meantime, since I need to “rebuild my personal brand,” according to some recent events, expect all sorts of new and exciting stuff here shortly! (Offer of “new” and “exciting” subject to change. Offer not valid in all 50 states)

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Crisis Management, public relations

When “Rallying Your Support” Goes So, So Wrong

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

“I love it when a plan comes together.” – John “Hannibal” Smith (George Peppard), The A-Team

“I love it more when it falls apart.” – Yours Truly.

The poor Washington NFL Team. Yesterday, someone at the Washington NFL team’s public relations office apparently decided that rallying the team’s fans against Senator Harry Reid and the U.S. Senate was a good idea. For those of you who aren’t aware, many people consider the Washington NFL team’s nickname to be a tad… racially insensitive.

They decided to send out this little gem.

This was destined to go wrong as soon as they hit “Tweet.”

Continue reading →

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Creativity, social media

When “The Best Camera” You Have Needs to be Better

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

(With a huge tip of the hat to Geoff Livingston’s kick ass post from about a month ago looking at the same topic, it was a huge inspiration for me to finally finish and hit publish on this post. I don’t want to take anything away from Geoff, you should read his post first then come back. I’ll wait.)

A few years back, award-winning photographer/videographer/creative genius Chase Jarvis created a project called “The Best Camera is the One You Have With You.” It wasn’t just a project, it became a movement. In addition to the creative photography Jarvis showcased, it spawned a book and an iPhone app encouraging people to discover their own love of photography, and not be limited by the gear they did (or did not) have.

Continue reading →

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Tech

Quick Thoughts on the Mobile Android Life

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

We’re taking a break from our usual public relations and social media talk to look at one of my other passions in the world- Technology! In this case, it’s the ever-growing tablet market, and if it’s ready for prime time, at least for what I need in a business computing device. It started a couple of months back, when my laptop started going out and starting my work here more and more I needed something more reliable.

Continue reading →

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Crisis Management, public relations, Reputation Management

Filling the “Perception Hole”

Posted on by Benson Hendrix
The Black Hole at the Center of the Universe (public domain photo courtesy of the Smithsonian)
The Black Hole at the Center of the Universe (public domain photo courtesy of the Smithsonian)

The “Perception Hole” or “Perception Gap” occurs when your organization begins developing a negative reputation about an issue and refusing to take the time to respond to the incoming attacks. This is a situation that many organizations, large and small, will have to deal with in the future if they haven’t already. Especially in an online world where anyone with a Chromebook and a Smartphone can logically argue that they are a part of “The Media.”

Continue reading →

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CEO Chat, Community Relations, Featured, public relations, Strategy

Making Your Community Relations Play

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

Community relations needs to be a large part of any overall communication campaign, whether you’re working in politics, corporate PR, nonprofit or association communications.

If you’re going to be serious about community relations, you have to be involved in your community (online or offline) long before you actually need them. You’re working to build up community capital that you can cash in later when you need your community to back your proposal. If you’re a local civic leader, you can even beat back the threat of being fired with enough community support.

But like anything worth doing it takes time and hard work.

Community relations isn’t like a spigot – you can’t just turn it on and have goodwill come flooding out. It takes time – venturing out to meet with members of your community, and not just your immediate community, but across a geographical and demographic layer beyond your comfort zone. You have to go to their local summer BBQ’s, shaking hands and kissing babies, much like the best politicians.

You have to be involved in local governmental affairs. You can’t imagine the importance of good relations with local officials when you are trying to work on your university’s master plan, or building support for a Bond Campaign.

If you work at a school, college or university, your job is supposed to be easier. You should have departments dedicated to building bridges to communities. Parent Associations. Alumni Departments. PTAs for K-12. School Spirit Organizations. They are out there. You have to give them reasons to support you. Involving yourself with them matters.

How do you do this?

Continue reading →

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Creativity, Tech

Telling the Future, Back in “The Day”

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

Just stumbled across this on YouTube. It was one of my favorite ad campaigns back in the mid-90s. It’s from AT&T and it looks at what “You Will” be able to do for business, pleasure and the merging of the two in the future. It appealed to the cyberpunk in me, looking at how business was expected to change. And most of it has come true, but not quite in the way shown in the commercials. (It WAS the 90’s after all) I particularly like the idea of consulting from the beach…

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