Are Canadians Becoming Less Polite? Canada’s election season has kicked off, as the three major parties roll out their platforms and pitch their leaders as the nation’s next big hope. From bold promises to sharp jabs, the race is heating up fast.    We’ll be diving into the action—breaking down which messages are striking a chord with voters, which attacks are landing, and which policies are picking up steam. We want to know what’s resonating with voters—and whether a nastier

AI's idea of what a Canadian election looks like! With a federal election on the horizon, the three major political parties are ratcheting up their campaigns. With Carney now installed as the new Liberal leader, we wanted to see how the parties’ messaging strategies are battling it out in the social sphere. Each party will be working to position their leader as the most effective choice against an aggressive Trump presidency with a platform that can build a more resilient eco

Canadians defiant in the face of Trump tariffs The conversation around Canada potentially becoming the 51st state has been reignited by recent events. Trump's Congressional speech, Trudeau's response to tariffs, Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem's comments referring to Canada as the 51st state, and even Mike Myers' "elbows up" call on SNL have stirred strong reactions. Trump's March 3 announcement of 25% tariffs on Canadian products, prompting retaliatory measures and st

From Trolling Trump to National Pride, Canadians Speak Out on Being Called the 51st State In honour of Canada’s 4 Nations overtime win last week, we took a quick look at how the conversation played out online. Just before the Thursday game, both White House Press Secretary Leavitt and Trump himself on Truth Social took the time to troll Canada in the upcoming finals, again calling Canada the “51st state”. But, immediately after McDavid’s overtime goal, Canadians flipped the s

Learn how predictive reputation analysis and AI-powered insights help brands anticipate and manage risk in the 51st state conversation

There are a number of different definitions of reputation risk , but at its core, it rests on how the stakeholders you care about perceive you company. Do they think you are doing the right thing or not. Defining "the right thing" is where things get complicated in global reputation management because it will differ across stakeholders.  If you are working across different countries, it becomes even more difficult as values and culture will also influence their perspective. I

What is Reputation Risk Management? Reputation is how a company is perceived in the eyes of its different stakeholders.  Always recognized as important, corporate reputation is still seen as nebulous because its business impact is difficult to measure and accountability is often decentralized across the organization.   How to Manage Reputation Risk Companies who have a clear grasp of their reputation risk are assessing it in the context of the  business environment they are o

What is Reputation and why should all companies care about it. Global reputation management is how a company is perceived in the eyes of its different stakeholders across borders and markets.  Always recognized as important, corporate reputation is still seen as nebulous because its business impact is difficult to measure and accountability is often decentralized across the organization. Companies who have a clear grasp of their reputation risk are assessing it in the context

October 2024 Introduction Only a few years ago,  MNCs who were first to market with their net zero and climate announcements were met...

When employees become so disillusioned they turn into whistleblowers, their ability to cause reputational damage should not be underestimated.   Let's explore why employees are the forgotten stakeholder group when it comes to reputation risk, and why it is harder to manage and track reputation risk from within.   When accusations come from internal voices, they have a lot more credibility since employees are deemed to have inside knowledge on what the company is actually up t

996 Advisors Co-founders Laurel Ostfield and Emmanuel Caisse have been appointed Senior Research Fellows of The Conference Board's China...

PR performance is a hot topic with many of our clients trying to find ways to demonstrate value to their boss. I have spent about a decade on this journey and am sharing where I goofed up so you can learn from my mistakes.   Sharing too many performance metrics with the President.  My heart was sinking because I could tell I was losing him as I showed him slide after slide of PR performance data.   I was hoping it would be a great engagement tool to talk about how my departme

Here are 5 common blind spots that are causing companies to incur reputation damage.   Being swayed by trends to comment on topics that have little to no connection to the company's mission or value. ---> Leaves the company vulnerable to making a misstep because they don't have all the facts or knowledge, and sets an expectation the company will take action on the issue. If no action is forthcoming, then the reputational impact is worse.   2. Letting the opinion of the lo

Just a sample of many horror stories: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240222-air-canada-chatbot-misinformation-what-travellers-should-know https://www.businessinsider.com/parcel-delivery-firm-pr-nightmare-ai-chatbot-cusses-mocked-company-2024-1 https://futurism.com/catholics-defrock-ai-priest-hallucinations If you’re still going to risk it, make sure to have a media and #socialistening on alert, and a #crisisplan ready! Your crisis plan should have key actions pre-approv

Trump is coming back to the White House, and companies are preparing for a decidedly different tone that will lean away from DEI and globalization towards a more conservative and America First narrative. Already, major companies are examining their role in the public discourse, and it will be interesting to see if the same pressure we observed over the past four years for corporates to respond on social and geopolitical issues will continue to be as intense. Communicating a

Episode 1 - A disconnect from situational awareness and business objectives Media monitoring tools have been a staple for decades, widely integrated into communication departments' workflows. However, these tools mainly focus on measuring outputs, such as the number of generated stories and the quality of key messages reaching target audiences. While output measurement is straightforward, it offers limited insights into the impact of the work and informing communication strat

If the answer is no, there could be a reputation risk management gap in your business.   Quite often we see accountability for reputation risk is diffused across departments and lines of business because, "everyone is responsible for protecting the company's reputation".  This is true because the decisions that impact reputation are often decentralized to different business lines and market leaders. But it also begs the question of who is actively monitoring and managing repu

Ask an in-house communicator if they feel recognized for the scope and scale of work they deliver protecting and promoting their company's reputation and you'll probably get an eye roll. What we hear from clients is the value of the reputation advice provided is appreciated, but requests come last minute and once the issue or campaign is over, the work the communications team contributed is not formally reported, especially if the advice focuses on preventing a reputation ris

996 Advisors was hosted by  The Conference Board 's China Centre last year to talk about how MNCs can use data to better equip themselves to manage geopolitical reputation risk. Below are 5 key takeaways for businesses operating in a global context: 1) Building business resilience against geopolitical volatility has become increasingly important for MNCs. Besides contending with the impact of policies and regulations driven by national security concerns, and with rising risks