BLOGS AND MORE

SCG Blogs inform, advise, enlighten, and are sometimes amusing. Topics range from the latest trends and what’s influencing the marketplace to advertising, recruitment, and public relations news and updates. We get personal, too; we share life hacks, fun adventures, and stories about our pets. Take a look. You’ll like what you read.

Top 100 NJ High Schools 2022

U.S. News and World Report – Top 100 High Schools In New Jersey 2022

And The Winner Is… U.S News and World Report recently released the 2022 edition of their annual top 100 high school rankings for the country. As with previous years, New Jersey scored well, being home to a handful of those top schools. In addition to public high schools, they also ranked the best charter schools, magnet schools, and STEM schools in the country. The criteria to rank these schools was the same it's always been for previous years, being college readiness, college curriculum breadth, readin ...

A Poet on National Poetry Month

Since way back in 1987, I’ve earned a living as a public relations professional. I was a reporter before then, and wrote upward of a thousand newspaper articles. I’ve been an absolute Facebook addict for the past 13 years, and I’ve penned a few freelance magazine pieces. I’ve dabbled in writing fiction, with an emphasis on novels and screenplays, I’ve been known to occasionally slap acrylics on a canvas, and I’m an inveterate consumer of podcasts. In essence, I’m a communicator. I’m naturally inclined ...

National Reading Month

National Reading Month

Little known fact: March is National Reading Month. In honor of Dr. Seuss, who was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904, National Read Across America Day was first held on March 2, 1998 – and now that 24-hour celebration of reading extends for the full month of March. Designed to encourage people of all ages to dive into a good book, National Reading Month tries to remind us all of the magic worlds waiting to be discovered, no further away than your bookshelf.   I come from a ...

Celebrating Irish Heritage Month

                  My husband is Irish. His grandparents were both born and raised in Ireland; his father born in Ireland before immigrating to America at a very young age.  So, of course, he has always been interested in his Irish roots. To celebrate our wedding anniversary, we planned a 2-week trip to Ireland to dig deeper into my husband's ancestry.  We finally decided on a bus coach tour to see all the sites starting in Dubl ...

Energize your Recruitment Efforts

As a woman of a certain age, I’m actively working to slow aging and stay physically fit, looking forward to an active retirement.A good friend convinced me to join Orangetheory Fitness (OTF). OTF works for me because I get bored easily and no two workouts are quite the same. Our coaches push us through a mix of treadmill, rower and weight floor activities that build strength and endurance.  I often sing, dance and joke through a workout. Today wasn’t one of those days. We ran hills (treadmill elevation) a ...

THE RAMS WON THE SUPER BOWL. WHO WON THE ADVERTISING BOWL?

Well, another Super Bowl has come and gone, and while I might offer my opinion on the game itself, I’m more qualified to comment on the commercials that support the broadcast.   Some quick background: I’ve been in advertising for fifty-two years, a creative director for the last forty, and I worship at the feet of Bill Bernbach. For those who don’t know who Bernbach is, Google him. If you’re in the advertising business and don’t know him, you really should discover everything about him. And fas ...

What do your stakeholders value … and can it predict their behavior?

Image courtesy of the European Commission, Joint Research Centre   Given the rise in polarization and misinformation across society, a refined understanding of values is more meaningful than ever before. There’s minimal confusion about the fact that how we interact with the world is driven by what we value and identify with. But, it’s important to realize that because values also trigger appreciation of certain behaviors and distaste for others, an awareness of them can be an effective tool in ...

the great resignation

“I Quit!” Are we in the period of The Great Resignation?

It’s spreading through companies faster than the omicron variant. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were a record 4.5 million workers who quit their jobs in November 2021. This represents a whopping 3% of the total workforce and a remarkable 37% increase over November 2020. This number (the BLS calls it “quits”) gives credence to those who now say we are in the period of The Great Resignation.   As dangerous as that seems to the health of businesses everywhere, we ...

Panic Rules (1600 x 800 px) (1)

DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION HAVE PANIC RULES?

11 Rules for Making Better Decisions and Alleviating Panic in the Ranks We live in fast-paced, uncertain, complex, polarized times … which frequently require decision-making under challenging circumstances. Regardless of the situation at hand – and whether it’s mundane, or truly life-or-death – how one responds is under that individual’s control.   As a public relations firm with more than 60 years of experience dealing with crisis and conflict in a wide variety of industries and sectors, we a ...

SCG Survey

Poll: Employees consider company’s reputation, alignment with their own views more important than higher salary

Views on vaccine also impactful, says nationwide, online survey of 1,500 adults WHIPPANY, NJ (Oct. 20, 2021) – A nationwide survey of 1,500 adults indicates that 84.03% of respondents are willing to accept lower financial compensation to work for a company with a stellar reputation. A similar number – 79.59% – say it’s important to have an employer who shares their views. These results – from an SCG Advertising + Public Relations survey – seem to indicate that businesses and other employers ignore empl ...