Vox Optima

01/13/2026

Headline: Does Your Executive Brand Inspire Real Trust?

Ever wonder why some leaders seem to win over teams and stakeholders with ease, while others struggle to connect? Building a strong executive brand isn’t just about looking polished—it’s about showing up with authenticity, clarity, and consistency every time. Our latest blog shares practical ways to communicate your values, reinforce your credibility, and create the kind of trust that lasts.

What’s the biggest challenge you face when it comes to executive branding? Let’s talk about what’s worked (or hasn’t) for you in the comments!

Learn how to shape your executive presence and reputation. Explore proven strategies for executive branding that foster stakeholder trust and confidence.

01/12/2026

Risk of errors

While AI can quickly generate PR drafts for various companies, for example, those selling clean cosmetics. These drafts often require human editing and data verification to ensure accuracy, tone, and brand voice. Additionally, PR often involves input from multiple stakeholders across a company, from marketing to legal.

Therefore, revisions can be complex and may require multiple file formats. After approving a draft, a writer might need a tool to edit the PDF text and make final adjustments to your document before distribution. (This can be helpful if you’ve already converted your Google Doc into a PDF document) ~ Kelly Moser via Bulldog Reporter

Press releases have always been the backbone of brand communication, but now brands are drafting them in unexpected ways. For example, 75% of PR professionals now use generative AI in their workflows, a dramatic jump from

01/12/2026

Anyone can create content. Few can create strategy.

Vox Optima crafts integrated messaging that aligns your brand, leadership, workforce, and mission—so every touchpoint speaks with one strong voice.

Unified storytelling doesn’t just look good—it drives action.
Start elevating your message: https://www.voxoptima.com

01/12/2026

AI targeting systems perform best when given multiple creative options to test against different audience segments. Meta Advantage+ dynamically tests ad creative combinations per user, automatically optimizing headlines, images, and placements to lift performance.

But the algorithm can only optimize what you provide. Marketing teams should prepare at least five headline variations, three to five image or video options, and multiple call-to-action phrases for each campaign. The key is providing genuine variation, not superficial tweaks. ~ 5WPR

01/09/2026

The language of crisis too often defaults to a defensive stance. Stakeholders respond far more constructively to responsibility than perpetual rebuttal. Responsibility doesn’t mean conceding fault beyond fact.

It means acknowledging impact, demonstrating seriousness and committing to change. This shift from defense to leadership interrupts escalation. It deprives conflict of oxygen and reorients attention toward resolution.

Crisis management isn’t a PR exercise. It’s a leadership test. It reveals whether leaders can resist short-term skirmishes in favor of long-term trust. The art lies in protecting one’s reputation and maintaining relationships with stakeholders, who determine whether an organization can move forward. ~ Gil Bashe via O'Dwyer's Public Relations News - odwyerpr.com

Reputation isn’t a byproduct of crisis management. It must guide strategy.

01/09/2026

The media landscape is undergoing one of its most dramatic shifts in decades, and brands that want to stay relevant will need to expand their strategies beyond traditional newsrooms and broadcast channels.

As legacy outlets like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal face continued volatility, shrinking staff, and constant reshuffling, nontraditional media channels are stepping into a powerful new role into 2026.

These emerging platforms, podcasts, Substacks, niche newsletters, micro-communities, creators-turned-reporters, and even Reddit threads, are no longer secondary. They are where audiences live, where news often breaks first, and where trust is being rebuilt from the ground up. ~ Dana Eble via Airfoil Group

The media landscape is undergoing one of its most dramatic shifts in decades, and brands that want to stay relevant will need to expand their strategies beyond traditional newsrooms and broadcast channels.

01/08/2026

It creates connection and fosters brand loyalty

Just like characters in our favorite books and TV shows, the continuous narrative arcs in a social series foster emotional investment and connection. We need to know what happens next, how the story ends.

These emotional ties extend beyond the stars of the series, with bonds forming between fellow fans, too. By posting and interacting in the comments sections, we become a part of something. Like when Brita dropped their viral song “At least I’m hydrated” on Spotify, and nearly 105,000 people streamed it and thousands shared their love for the single on TikTok.

Not only does episodic content answer the consumer mandate for original, human-generated content, it also answers consumers’ call for community. For brands, this translates to audiences becoming loyal viewers, and often brand advocates with a higher customer lifetime value. Content series aren’t just about entertainment—they’re a full-funnel effort. ~ Aubree Schaefer via Sprout Social

Learn why launching a social media series helps build loyalty, boost engagement and win with quality storytelling over content volume.

01/08/2026

No. 3. Produce platform-specific versions

Tailor each post to fit where you share it. Each platform has its own rhythm. A clip that performs well on TikTok might flop on LinkedIn.

For Reels or TikTok, use vertical videos under 60 seconds and short captions. On LinkedIn, post a short insight with a landscape thumbnail. Or break down a few top takeaways from their story and comment on the URL under the post. On X (formerly Twitter), turn quotes into threads or audiograms.

Think of it like translating your message for different rooms. The story stays the same, but how you tell it changes.

This is how you’ll boost engagement metrics and reach your ideal buyer personas across different social media marketing channels. ~ Ioana Wilkinson via Bulldog Reporter

Your podcast can have amazing stories and guests. But without strategic podcast marketing strategies in place, it’s likely that few people will tune in. Many great shows stay hidden because hosts rely only on word-of-mouth marketing or

01/07/2026

The Future of Talent Spurs a Reinvention of Professional Development

Academia will struggle to keep pace with the demand for hybrid creative-technical talent, pushing businesses to develop their own AI-native learning ecosystems.

Forward-thinking companies will launch micro-degree programs blending AI fluency with creative strategy and analytics, rotational leadership tracks for high-capacity early-career talent, hands-on innovation labs, and change-leadership apprenticeships that remove friction and accelerate value creation.

For marketing leaders, this is not just a talent prediction — it’s a competitive mandate. Companies that invest in capability-building will out-innovate those competing for the same limited pool of AI-literate hires.

The strongest brands won’t just launch campaigns; they’ll build the teams that engineer the future. ~ Tessa Burg via Bulldog Reporter

For agencies, 2026 won’t be defined by who adopts AI first—but by who redesigns their model around what clients actually need next. As data signals fracture and automation reshapes every layer of marketing, agencies will

01/07/2026

Disney will pay a $10m settlement over allegations that it violated kids’ privacy rights, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said this week.

The agreement, first proposed in September 2025, resolves a dispute over Disney’s labeling of child-targeted content on YouTube. The thousands of YouTube videos it targets at kids makes it subject to a US law called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Enacted in 1998, COPPA is designed to protect children under the age of 13 from having their data collected and used online.

That protection matters because children are far less able to understand data collection, advertising, or profiling, and cannot understandingfully consent to it.

When COPPA safeguards fail, children may be tracked across videos, served targeted ads, or profiled based on viewing habits, all without parental knowledge or approval. ~ Danny Bradbury via Malwarebytes

The FTC is seeking a $10 million settlement over allegations that children’s privacy laws were violated through the mislabeling of kid-focused YouTube videos.

01/06/2026

Myth 3: AI Will Solve Bad Strategy

AI optimizes ex*****on. But it cannot fix fuzzy positioning or off-base business goals. Speed amplifies direction, including the wrong direction.

We see this play out all the time. Teams use AI to publish more, faster… and the metrics that matter don’t budge. Traffic goes up, but conversions stall. The content ranks for keywords, but it doesn’t speak to real buyer pain. Without clear positioning or a path to conversion, all that new visibility simply evaporates before it reaches pipeline.

What works: Get crisp on messaging and conversion paths before you scale production. Then let AI help you execute a strategy that’s already pointed in the right direction. ~ Uba Alintah via Contently

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01/06/2026

What ethical issues have you seen around AI?

Right now, I don’t think people understand. They don’t quite understand what guardrails exist.

Are there any guardrails in our instance? Because it’s like Wild West and it’s funny because clients I work with, whether it’s the executive team or the board, they’re getting directives – you must use AI in your business.

They don’t always know what they’re going to use AI for or how to use AI, but they know at the end of the year they have to give an executive presentation that shows either we’ve implemented this, or we’re in the process of implementing these tools that will, eventually, cut costs, reduce labor, and increase efficiency.

They know what they’re supposed to be doing with AI, but they’re not quite sure what tools to use or how to best effectively implement these tools. So, they’re just trying everything.

I’ve counseled the client. I said, “Is this private? Do you even know if what you’re putting into the system is private? Is customer data getting in there?” ~ Mark W. McClennan, Kristin Amico

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