Cutting Back the Hedges on the Fraud Landscape
Not only did COVID push businesses to increase digital transformation but it also ripened the fraud landscape, which has quickly evolved far beyond ransom attacks and BYOD security risks. Now smishing, phishing, friendly fraud and social engineering attacks are running rampant in our digital environment plaguing businesses and consumers alike.
The bad news is that businesses are only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to bad actors and threats. Because more interactions are occurring online, the possibility for attacks has only increased.
What we do know:
- Technology, security, accessibility and privacy all impact consumer confidence in a business.
- Getting these core elements right can help a business flourish and drive revenue growth regardless of industry sector.
Businesses are realizing that online trust (the confidence users have in the ability of people, technology and processes to create a secure digital world) is foundational to success. Without it, they stand to lose billions of dollars in revenue, a crucial arm of their marketing/sales channel and potentially irreparable brand damage.
In order to push change forward, businesses must demand financial institutions take responsibility for their role in protecting customers from fraud and attacks. The second step is to require the government to enforce and create mandates around digital trust – just as they would put laws in place to ensure societal trust, more regulations and sanctions must be created in the online world. These two components will ensure consumers are safe online, which will increase their overall trust in interacting with businesses.
From Summer Intern to Rockstar Account Coordinator, Meet Kelsey Nass
Kelsey Nass, Account Coordinator at SourceCode Communications
Upon graduation in May 2021, I knew exactly where I wanted to be as I entered my newfound post-grad life. After interning at SouceCode Communications back in 2020, I knew this was a place I would be proud to see myself as I entered my next chapter and my first full-time job. Transitioning from the bubble of my internship to the responsibility of a full-time job came with some growing pains and lessons to be learned, but what remained consistent was the support of the SourceCode team.
Throughout my internship, I was exposed to the various assets of SourceCode. I dipped my toes in both consumer and B2B accounts, giving me the full scope of what the agency does and where I could fit into the mix. The purpose of an internship is to uncover areas of the industry you like and, sometimes most importantly, what areas you don’t. Being exposed to both sides of the agency gave me a well-rounded perspective of where I could see myself excelling in the future.
After the summer, I realized that, for me, it didn’t solely matter about the clientele or the industries I was working in; it was about who I was working with. I realized that I was enjoying all of my tasks and clients because I was on such welcoming and supportive teams. What really stuck with me about knowing SourceCode could be my future home was I never felt like the intern. I was treated as an equal, and I was given tasks that were impactful to my teams, way past your typical coffee run.
Here are some takeaways to make the most of your internship and how to leverage that experience into landing your next role:
- Be curious. Questions show intellect not confusion
- Give your perspective. Interns and new full-time hires are important because they bring fresh opinions and ideas to the table
- Embrace feedback. I was like you, intimidated by people not liking my work. It is important to re-frame, they do like your work but they are teaching you how it could be better
- Don’t be afraid. You are going to make mistakes, but remember so did your boss! Everyone has been in your shoes
I have been working at SourceCode as an Account Coordinator for almost two months and these tips have helped me grow as a professional as I continue to get my footing. While you can learn most things on the job, a positive attitude, curiosity, and confidence in your views are what you need to succeed.
Breaking through the news cycle part four: Consumer Tech
Allie Novak, Senior Media Strategist at SourceCode Communications
This week we round up the final part of our breaking through the news cycle series with part four. In part one, we discussed the importance of newsjacking within our insights and engagement practice. In part two, we talked about how to use holidays and other national days to our advantage within our consumer lifestyle practice. Lastly, in part three, we discussed how to elevate our executives through executive profiling within our enterprise practice.
This week, we go into further depth on how to utilize larger timely storytelling within our Consumer Tech practice:
Larger Timely Storytelling
We work with Handshake, the leading career community for early talent, and because of their unique position working with students, employers, and universities, they have a great amount of data on hiring practices – including numbers around diversity. Handshake crunched their data to help employers better understand how their hiring practices could be more effective and inclusive, which we found to be incredibly timely. We took the piece to Quartz, and worked with the editor to run an op-ed by Handshake’s VP of Employer Marketing, Kamal Thakarky for Quartz at Work titled 3 mistakes to avoid if you’re hoping to hire Black college graduates.
This was successful because Handshake had resources that they could use to offer tangible steps for companies looking to diversify their workforce during a time that doing so was (and of course continues to be) top of mind for employers across the country.
I want to close this series with one thing: I truly think being successful in breaking through the current news cycle comes down to perseverance. You might not hear back from a reporter for weeks, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll never place the commentary or byline. Reporters are so swamped and sometimes, it takes them getting through a heavy assignment to come back to you about your idea. With that, it’s important to cultivate relationships with reporters that show to them you can be trusted to deliver unique, compelling executive insights and ideas for profiles and spotlights – and that they can come back to you if they have a story they would like your help on.
We maintain that being authentic is necessary to build these relationships, and it’s exciting to be at an agency that lets us as team members be unapologetically ourselves, always. I believe that’s what helps us create solid, genuine relationships with media, our clients, and other people we engage with along this journey!
To learn more about SourceCode Communications, please drop us a line at hello@sourcecodecomms.com.
Breaking through the news cycle part three: Enterprise
Allie Novak, Senior Media Strategist at SourceCode Communications
And we’re back - continuing our breaking through the news cycle series this week with part three! In parts one and two we talked about opportunities to take timely topics and use them to our advantage. In part one, we discussed how to position our executives as credible subject matter experts through newsjacking. In part two, we shared opportunities to seize holidays - for example fun national ones like National Coffee Day - as an opportunity to get clients included in roundups alongside big players in their industries.
In part three of breaking through the news cycle, we share some recent success we have had in our Enterprise practice:
Executive profiling
Our client Clio is a legal technology company, and we’re always thinking about creative ways to elevate their story with top-tier media. Their CEO, Jack Newton, has some really impressive, unique viewpoints and we’ve been able to spotlight his executive platform and commentary with a wide-range of outlets. Most recently, we nurtured a great relationship with a legal reporter over at Business Insider, checking in on a regular basis around what the reporter was working on to see how Jack’s insights could fit into an article or feature.
With Clio’s Legal Trends Report being released this October, we knew that it was the perfect time to engage with the reporter around what Jack thinks tech has done to reshape the legal industry, and how the pandemic has ushered in tech as a necessary tool for law firms to survive. This relationship building and our conversations with the reporter around how Jack could offer some differentiated commentary based on the findings resulted in a feature by Business Insider titled 'This is adapt or die time': Tech-savvy law firms make nearly 40% more in revenue than old-school ones — here's how new tools are helping lawyers get ahead.
Not to mention, our outreach on this topic also resulted in a great interview for Jack with Axios around this conversation too. Love leveraging a good executive profile!
To learn more about SourceCode Communications, please drop us a line at hello@sourcecodecomms.com.
Breaking through the news cycle part two: Consumer Lifestyle
Allie Novak, Senior Media Strategist at SourceCode Communications
In part one of breaking through the newscycle, we mentioned Newsjacking as one way to build relationships with reporters and get the unique commentary from our executives out there, positioning them as credible sources on specific timely topics. We have found that this is just one option (albeit a great one!) for breaking into the news, especially at a time like right now when the news cycle is particularly crowded.
As we continue to think about successful storytelling as a means of staying clued into the news, and seizing the moment if it seems appropriate, we continue this breaking through the newscycle series with part two, where we have had some recent success within our Consumer Lifestyle practice:
Holiday outreach
We work with a really fun, new DTC coffee brand named Cloudburst Coffee that launched in early August. We had some luck in initial brand storytelling and reviews, but knew that it was a must to seize on National Coffee Day at the end of September. We started outreach well in advance, asking reporters if they were writing roundups or if they were interested in sampling the product. As a result we got a total of 22 pieces of coverage in target consumer lifestyle publications including CNET, Delish, Refinery29, Today, and Yahoo!. Cloudburst was mentioned alongside really well known and established brands, which was exciting for us to see this volume of great coverage for a newer brand. Never underestimate the power of a good holiday roundup to get your client’s name out there!
To learn more about SourceCode Communications, please drop us a line at hello@sourcecodecomms.com.
Breaking through the news cycle part one: Insights and Engagement
Allie Novak, Senior Media Strategist at SourceCode Communications
I surely don’t have to convince you that the time we’re currently living through is unlike any other we’ve seen previously. And in our industry, it’s more important than ever to not only tell relevant stories - but to do so in a landscape that is quickly changing and that requires extra attention to sensitivities around a pandemic, racial injustices, and a Presidential election - now that takes some skill.
Luckily, we pride ourselves on being storytellers. Personally, I’m scrolling through Twitter almost incessantly, which could just be the former news producer in me. Last election, I was on the ground covering the news as a segment producer, so you can imagine how obsessed I am with being in the know without news updates coming in from sources multiple times a day before they hit the wire, and thinking about how these moments can shape our media outreach around our clients.
Like me, all of my coworkers at SourceCode have unique backgrounds that bring differentiated viewpoints to the table, and as an agency, we can all collectively agree that there is power in being informed. That way, we can meaningfully tell the great stories our clients have to share - and sometimes that means not engaging in a cycle at all if there isn’t something significant to add to narrative.
We are proud to showcase a diverse portfolio of clients here at SourceCode, with our B2C and B2B portfolios growing with amazing clients. We believe the key to successful storytelling is staying clued into the news, and seizing the moment if it seems appropriate. And also realizing that sometimes, a story is still worth telling even if it’s not piggybacking on the stories of the day, it just may take longer to place. In the first part of this series, here is some success we have had within our Insights and Engagement practice:
Newsjacking
We just started working with Dataswift, a company that enables ethical, compliant, and privacy-preserving data usage. Their CEO, Irene Ng, is a leading data privacy expert being both a CEO and academic, so given recent news around antitrust hearings with the first one that happened in July and the second happening October 28, we knew there was an opportunity for Irene to get involved in the data privacy and big tech conversation. We went directly to reporters who had either covered the first hearing or who had covered big tech recently, positioning Irene as an additional source and a subject matter expert.
Through this, we secured an interview with MarketWatch where Irene discussed her thoughts on Big Tech ahead of the hearing, specifically on Google and the recent 449 page report presented by the House Judiciary Committee. Newsjacking can go a long way in building solid relationships and also credibility for your executives on hot, timely topics.
To learn more about SourceCode Communications, please drop us a line at hello@sourcecodecomms.com.