That’s why global brands need more than a playbook. They need local partners who understand the nuance behind how communities think, talk, and react, and who can translate global strategies into credible, contextually smart actions on the ground.

At IPREX, our partners across more than 100 cities share one goal: helping organizations respond to crises with clarity, cultural intelligence, and credibility. Here’s what our colleagues in Mexico City, Mumbai, and Minneapolis have learned from guiding clients through high-stakes moments around the world.

Mexico City: Understand the Landscape Before You Act

For leaders of multinational companies with a direct or indirect presence in regions such as Latin America, it is important to have access to local expert advice that informs them about the political, economic, and social frameworks of the country and community where they face a critical or potentially critical situation.

The world is heterogeneous, and what may work in one country or city in a developed market is not necessarily useful, effective, or feasible elsewhere.

For example, corruption is a persistent issue in Latin America. Most countries in this region rank in the lower half of Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index, with the notable exceptions of Uruguay, Chile, and Costa Rica, which rank 13th, 32nd, and 42nd, respectively. For reference, Brazil and Mexico, the two largest economies in the region, rank 107th and 140th, respectively.

To avoid stepping on landmines, particularly if you are unfamiliar with the environment, it is critical to have a reliable communications and issues management partner with the necessary credentials to guide you through a crisis. Dextera Comunicación in Mexico City is an expert guide for companies seeking advice for communicating in the region.

Mumbai: Speed with Sensitivity — and the Power of Local Voices

In India’s complex and rapidly evolving media environment, two key lessons stand out when advising clients on crisis management. Bloomingdale PR in Mumbai is an expert partner to understand the nuances of communicating in India.

1. Speed with Sensitivity
   India’s 24/7 news cycle and hyperactive social media landscape demand rapid response that maintains cultural sensitivity. In a crisis, we advise clients to act within the first 2–3 hours with a holding statement, even if full facts aren’t available. This, however, must be backed by a deep understanding of regional sentiments, languages, and social dynamics. A tone-deaf or delayed response can escalate issues, especially in emotionally charged sectors like food, education, or healthcare.
2. Localize, Then Escalate.
   Many global brands underestimate the diversity within India. A one-size-fits-all national message rarely works. We recommend addressing crises first at the regional or city level, using local language media and influencers when relevant. This bottom-up approach helps contain narratives before they gain national traction and earn goodwill from local communities and journalists.
   
   In essence, effective crisis communication in India requires agility, emotional intelligence, and a decentralized approach — all while staying aligned with a brand’s global voice.

Minneapolis: Transparency and Trust Build the Long Game

In the United States, the biggest differentiator in crisis response is trust, not just speed. Public expectations for transparency are high, and any attempts to manage or minimize information often backfire in a digital environment where every stakeholder has a microphone.

At Tunheim in Minneapolis, we advise global clients to:

1. Acknowledge quickly and honestly. Silence creates space for speculation.
2. Stay aligned across borders. U.S. audiences watch how global leadership behaves; inconsistency between regions erodes credibility.
3. Think beyond today’s headlines. The best crisis communications plan isn’t just about surviving the week — it’s about rebuilding trust for the next quarter, the next year, and the next market.

The IPREX Advantage: Global Insight, Local Execution

Crises don’t respect borders. But effective crisis communication depends on understanding them — cultural, linguistic, political, and emotional.

That’s the value of IPREX: a trusted network of local experts who collaborate seamlessly across continents to help clients prepare, respond, and recover. Our collective experience proves that the most successful global brands act locally, listen carefully, and lead with integrity everywhere they operate.

The post Crisis Communications for Global Brands: Lessons from 3 Continents appeared first on Tunheim.

Most likely, the person who asked you doesn’t actually know what GEO is. Let’s say it’s a senior board member, so we’re all visualizing the same person, hearing the same intonation. They heard about it at an event, or maybe they saw people squabbling about it on the LinkedIn echo chamber, so now they know just enough to know it’s important, but not enough to speak to it with any level of confidence.

Which puts you in an interesting spot. Because maybe you don’t know either. Maybe you’ve told yourself you’ll dig into it when you have time.

Well, now you’re here. And I’ll guide you through it. After you read this, you’re going to sound super duper smart the next time you’re asked about GEO.

What is GEO?

Definitionally, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of optimizing your content and digital presence so that AI-powered search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews) surface, cite and synthesize your brand when generating responses to user queries.

In human speak, GEO is SEO for AI tools.

It’s possible you’ve heard the term AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimization), which is the same thing as GEO. Neither are creatively named, but the consensus seems to be that GEO is what we’re going with. As you see in the Google Trends report below, GEO (shown in red) has won the title.

Whereas SEO earns you a position in a ranked list of links, GEO earns you a mention inside the actual answer a person reads within their AI tool of choice.

Instead of a blue underline or a click of a link, your brand is woven into the response as a credible source, or not woven in at all. A growing number of organizations are in the second category and haven’t figured that out yet.

Where Did GEO Come From?

GEO didn’t emerge from a clever agency rebrand or a LinkedIn thought leader in need of content. It emerged from a real and disorienting gap that SEO practitioners began to notice as AI search tools matured and spread.

As ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s generative features began handling a serious volume of informational queries, marketers and SEOs found themselves confronting an uncomfortable reality: strong organic rankings weren’t translating into visibility in AI-generated responses.

A brand could hold a dominant position on page one of Google for a competitive keyword and still be completely absent from the AI answer a prospective customer received about that same category. The usual playbook wasn’t covering the new field.

Researchers at Princeton, Georgia Tech, and IIT Delhi were among the first to formalize what practitioners were already sensing in the field, publishing rigorous academic work that coined the term and began mapping the specific content signals that influence AI citation behavior. The terminology stuck, outlasting the aforementioned AIO, and the practitioner community organized around it, and GEO has been developing as a distinct discipline ever since.

GEO vs. SEO: What’s the Difference?

SEO and GEO share enough surface-level vocabulary that it’s easy to assume they’re the same mannequin, simply sporting different fits. While they’re related disciplines, they possess meaningfully different mechanics, objectives, and success metrics.

SEO optimizes for ranking algorithms that evaluate pages and return an ordered list of results. The user sees that list and decides where to click. GEO optimizes for generative AI systems that read across many sources, synthesize a response, and hand the user an answer. The user reads that answer, often without visiting any website at all. In SEO, winning means a position. In GEO, winning means inclusion in the output.

The practical takeaway is that strategic SEO remains a worthwhile investment and builds real infrastructure that GEO strategy can extend. But organizations treating these disciplines as interchangeable are optimizing for a version of search that handles a shrinking share of the queries that matter most.

Getting back to my hypothetical in the introduction, whoever asked you about GEO is right. You need to have a plan, and that plan cannot be a carbon copy of your SEO strategy.

How Generative Engines Work

Generative AI search tools are trained on vast heaps of text scraped from across the internet. Through that training, they develop a dense web of associations between concepts, entities, claims, and sources. When a user submits a query, the model draws on those learned associations and, increasingly, on live retrieval from current web sources, to synthesize a coherent and authoritative-sounding response. This is why, instead of a list, a user gets an answer.

Take a look at the image above. The same search, one on Google. The other on ChatGPT.

Now here comes the somewhat frustrating part. What determines whose content gets pulled into that answer? We don’t know for certain.

AI tools are less forthcoming with their, for lack of a better phrase, ranking factors than search engines like Google and Yahoo are.

We do know that a combination of impact, answer structure, authority, and citation density is preferred by the tools. However, that knowledge has been gleaned largely by researchers, and not from the engineers of the tools themselves.

This is a marked difference from SEO where Google engineers would regularly provide guidance to SEO practitioners.

Why GEO Matters Right Now

ChatGPT crossed 100 million users faster than any consumer product in recorded history, reaching that milestone in two months. Instagram needed two and a half years. It took Gmail over 5 years. The growth curve of AI search adoption is truly unprecedented. It is, at once, tremendously exciting and horrifying.

A large and growing share of informational queries, the kind that move prospective customers through awareness and into consideration, are now being answered directly by AI tools. Users get a synthesized response and often go no further.

That means a company can maintain a strong, carefully tended organic search presence and still be invisible to a meaningful portion of the audience that matters most to them, simply because their content isn’t being surfaced in AI-generated answers. Scary!

AI tools develop persistent associations between brands and categories over time, as citations reinforce familiarity, which in turn drives further citations. Getting into those patterns early, before a category’s default sources are calcified, is a genuinely time-sensitive advantage – much in the same way that organizations that adopted SEO early still dominate rankings today. 

How to Optimize for GEO

Now you know what GEO is. You have a basic understanding of how it works and how it differs from SEO. You know why it’s important. Now lets get into actionable steps you can take.

1. Start by auditing your existing content for citability

Pull up your highest-value pages and read them with a specific question in mind: does this page make a clear, quotable claim, and is that claim findable within the first two paragraphs? Pages that bury their value proposition under extended setup are the first candidates for revision.

2. Map your content to the questions your audience is actually asking AI tools.

AnswerThePublic, Reddit threads in relevant communities, and direct customer research are all useful here. The goal is to understand the specific, conversational questions your audience is typing into ChatGPT and Perplexity, then build content that answers those questions with genuine depth and specificity.

Another tool is Trakkr, which provides you with some insight into how you’re currently showing up in AI tools. 

3. Establish named, credentialed authorship across your content.

Every substantive piece should carry a named author whose expertise is verifiable and documented externally, on LinkedIn, in published bylines, in speaking appearances, and in press coverage. AI systems factor author authority into citation decisions, and anonymous or generic corporate content loses that signal entirely.

Actively build your off-site footprint. Pitch bylines to credible trade publications and legacy media. Pursue earned media coverage that mentions your organization and your people by name. Seek out podcast appearances, speaking engagements, and partnership content that generate third-party references to your brand. The goal is a diverse, credible web of external mentions that corroborates your own content.

Build an AI presence monitoring practice. Run your most important queries in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews on a regular schedule. Track when your brand is cited, when it isn’t, and which competitors are appearing in your place. Without this feedback loop, you have no way to know whether your investments are working.

Who Needs to Care About GEO

Is GEO relevant to your organization? Most agencies will tell you YES! But in reality, it’s not as important to some organizations as it is to others. It all depends on your buyers’ activity.

The single most useful question to ask is: Does my buyer use search, or something that behaves like search, to research before they make a decision? If the answer is yes, GEO deserves serious attention. If the answer is no or sometimes, it should sit lower on the priority list than the people trying to sell you GEO retainers would prefer.

Organizations that should prioritize GEO now:

Professional services firms, B2B software, and SaaS companies must have a GEO plan. Their prospective buyers shop for their solutions in a comparative manner. Being cited as a credible voice in your category before a buyer ever hits your website is a real and meaningful advantage.

Consumer brands in considered-purchase categories (home improvement, financial products, health and wellness, insurance, higher education) also have strong GEO incentives. These are purchases where buyers spend real time gathering information, and AI tools are increasingly where that process starts.

Content-driven media organizations and publishers have an obvious stake. Being cited is, in many ways, the new being read.

Organizations where GEO is a lower priority:

Local service businesses with hyperlocal demand (plumbers, dentists, dry cleaners) operate in a world where Google Maps and direct referrals still dominate discovery. GEO is unlikely to move the needle for them in the near term.

Businesses driven almost entirely by word-of-mouth and relationship sales, certain enterprise deals, niche professional networks, and family-owned distributors have buyer journeys that don’t run through search of any kind. No amount of AI citation optimization changes that.

Commodity e-commerce competing on price and speed is also a weak fit. When the decision is “who has this item cheapest and fastest,” the buyer isn’t consulting an AI for a synthesized answer about brand authority. They’re checking price and shipping timeline.

The underlying logic is consistent: GEO is valuable in direct proportion to how much your buyer’s decision-making process involves open-ended research. The more research-dependent the journey, the higher the return on getting in front of it.

Go Sound Smart

You now know what GEO is, where it came from, how it works, and what to do about it. That is more than most people in your building can say.

When the board member asks again, you won’t be nodding along, hoping the conversation ends. You’ll have something real to say.

Tunheim works with organizations just like yours. If you want to talk through what a GEO strategy looks like for your brand, let’s get into it.

The post What is GEO? Here is Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Tunheim.

A doozie I’ve noticed lately is a persistent feeling of busyness. Everyone feels swamped! Yet many of them report that lead generation has declined. 

If your growth team feels busier than ever but your sales results are sliding, you are not imagining things. You’re probably stuck on the content treadmill. And for many teams, it’s quietly draining time, energy, and focus without delivering meaningful returns.

The Content Treadmill Is Real

Fueled by AI (more on that later), growth teams are producing more content than at any point in recent memory. Blogs. Social posts. Videos. Thought leadership. Newsletters. Sales decks. The calendar is chock-full, and the workload is burdensome. And yet, the impact often feels empty.

The expectation for publishing content is simple: more! The logic is simple: more content creates more opportunities to be seen. 

And with AI propelling your generation, you have no excuse for not pumping out a high-volume of content. But in practice, the treadmill keeps moving regardless of the content’s performance.

How to solve it:
Pause volume-driven publishing and audit what actually gets used by sales or referenced by buyers. If content is not influencing conversations or decisions, it does not need to exist

Why Publishing More Stopped Working

Despite what self-absorbed “leaders” lusting after engagement on LinkedIn may suggest, content itself is not dead. The problem is not that content no longer matters. 

It’s that the formula for organic performance has become increasingly muddled, shaped by shifting algorithms, fragmented distribution, AI-driven discoverability, and a volume of content that makes it harder for any single message to stand out in a meaningful way.

The signals that once helped teams understand what was working are no longer as dependable as they once were. Algorithms change frequently, platforms reward different behaviors, and what performs well in a feed does not always align with what actually influences a buying decision. As a result, visibility has become less predictable, and consistency alone is no longer a reliable indicator of relevance.

At the same time, the sheer volume of content competing for attention has grown dramatically, even as attention spans have declined. 

Nearly every competitor is publishing at a similar pace, often addressing the same topics with similar language and framing – especially if they’re all generating content using these same repetitive tools. In that environment, producing more content does not necessarily create differentiation. In many cases, it simply increases the likelihood of blending in.

How to solve it:
Shift your content strategy from distribution-first to decision-first. Build fewer assets that map directly to buyer questions, objections, and moments of hesitation rather than chasing algorithmic performance.

The Quiet Erosion of Vanity Metrics

For years, metrics such as impressions, engagement, and page views served as proxies for progress. They were easy to track and presented beautifully on reports. Up and to the right!

In 2026, those metrics have lost much of their meaning.

Leaders no longer perk up when they hear about an increase in website traffic. They want to know about leads and net-new growth. 

The problem with vanity metrics is that they measure activity rather than impact. 

The result is a dangerous illusion of momentum. Teams feel productive, but sales conversations do not get easier. Buyers do not move faster, and decisions still stall. As you chase the vanity metrics, you’re just running in place on the content treadmill.

How to solve it:
Redefine success around the outcomes sales can feel. Measure content by usage, influence, and deal acceleration, not by how often it is viewed or liked.

The AI Flood and the Trust Problem

If you haven’t noticed from the four previous mentions, AI is a major contributor to content treadmill exhaustion. Artificial intelligence has dramatically increased the volume of content in the market while simultaneously decreasing content quality. 

AI-generated content is fine and polished and fast but is it good? 

No. It all reads the same. Down to over-indulgence of em dashes.

Buyers are getting better at recognizing generic language and surface-level insights. Content that feels automated, abstract, or interchangeable is easier than ever to ignore. The problem is not accuracy. It is credibility.

The consensus amongst many of my marketing peers is that AI has lowered the bar for content. But I disagree. AI slop has raised the bar. In a sea of AI-generated content, trust and authenticity are becoming precious commodities. 

And they have always been what actually influences buying decisions.

How to solve it:
Use AI to accelerate production, not to replace perspective. Anchor content in real experiences, real examples, and real points of view that only your team can provide.

Why Authenticity Is, and Always Has Been, a Competitive Advantage

An adage I’ve heard literally hundreds of times throughout my career in marketing, is that ‘content is king’. But that’s not true. Authentic content is king.  

Buyers trust specificity. They respond to real experience and anecdotes, not theoretical best practices. They don’t want to know what you’ve done; they want to know how you’ve done it and what the measurable impact was. 

Content rooted in actual sales conversations, real objections, and lived expertise carries weight in ways generic thought leadership does not.

The most effective content in 2026 will not try to sound impressive. It will aim to be useful. It will reflect how sales teams actually talk. It will address the real trade-offs buyers are wrestling with.

How to solve it:
Build content alongside sales, not in isolation. Let real conversations, objections, and deal dynamics shape what you publish and how you say it.

We’ll Help You Off the Treadmill

The answer to content exhaustion is not to stop creating. It is to stop creating content that exists only to satisfy a cadence.

Getting off the treadmill starts with a shift in your intent. Away from publishing for visibility and toward creating for usefulness for your buyers. Away from content designed to perform in feeds and toward content designed to support real buying moments. Away from measuring success by how much is produced and toward measuring whether the work actually helps someone make a decision.

That often means fewer assets, built with more care, grounded in real conversations, and aligned tightly with how sales teams engage buyers day to day. It means choosing clarity over volume and confidence over reach.

In a market saturated with noise, the teams that win will not be the ones who publish the most. They will be the ones who say something real, say it consistently, and say it in a way that actually helps.

And for exhausted teams feeling stuck on the content treadmill, that shift can feel less like doing more and more like finally getting their footing back. 

Need support? Get in touch with us to schedule a time to discuss your current growth approach, and we can talk through how my team can help.

The post Why the Content Treadmill Is Exhausting Your Team and Limiting Lead Generation appeared first on Tunheim.

AI Discoverability: A New Way to Control What AIs Say About You

In the new era of conversational computing, your stakeholders’ first touchpoint is no longer a search engine, it’s an AI. When your investors, customers, policymakers, or future employees ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot a question about you, what do they hear?

The AI’s best guess… or your verifiable truth?

AI Discoverability Isn’t Just Marketing. It’s Enterprise-Wide Strategy.

Because our methodology is integrated across our entire agency, it delivers value far beyond the marketing department.

• For Crisis: You don’t want an AI “guessing” your side of the story. Our framework ensures your verified truth is the foundational data set.
• For Public Affairs: When a policymaker asks an AI to summarize a complex issue, your nuanced position is what it finds.
• For Management Consulting: The “Conversational Journey” audit reveals what your market truly thinks, providing invaluable data for your next business strategy.

This is why AI Discoverability matters now across your C-suite.

Don’t React to AI. Teach it.

Right now, your brand, reputation, and core value proposition are being defined for you by a black box. It’s time to take control.

The “Platform-First” Trap: Why GEO and AIO Aren’t Enough

Other agencies are now selling “Generative Engine Optimization” (GEO) or “AI Optimization” (AIO). These are tactical, “platform-first” approaches.

They start by auditing what an AI gets wrong and then react to it, scrambling to fix errors with a flurry of PR hits or basic schema recommendations. This is a reactive game of ‘whack-a-mole’ you will never win, because you are always one step behind the algorithm.

Reacting to the bot is a losing strategy. Teaching the bot is the only way to win.

The Tunheim Solution: A Stakeholder-First Approach

We’ve built a different, more powerful methodology. We don’t start with the platform; we start with your stakeholders.

We believe you cannot influence a machine until you deeply understand the human who is using it.

Our AI Discoverability service is a strategic, C-suite process that architects your company’s foundational truth. We’ve mastered this approach by developing a unique, proprietary process: The “Stakeholder-to-Syntax” Pipeline.

1. Stakeholder Intelligence: We begin with the deep, human-centric research that defines our agency. We build robust personas and map the entire conversational journey of your key stakeholders, from buyers and investors to policymakers and potential hires.
2. Concept Optimization: We use that intelligence to build the foundational “Knowledge Graph” for your brand. This is your conceptual truth, your expertise, your executive voices, and your position in the market. It becomes the official “answer key” for the AI.
3. Technical Execution: We translate this strategic blueprint into the native, machine-readable language of AI (Schema.org / JSON-LD) and deploy it directly onto your owned properties. We don’t just “recommend” schema; we architect it.
4. Ecosystem Validation: Finally, we use our full-service media, digital, and public affairs expertise to validate this truth across the entire digital ecosystem—from the high-authority earned media that AIs trust to the critical databases like Wikidata that form their training data.

This Isn’t Our First Algorithm

For 30 years, Tunheim has guided the world’s leading organizations through the algorithms that control information flow.

• We mastered email spam filters to get your message delivered.
• We mastered Google’s search rankings to get your brand seen.
• We mastered social media feeds to get your story told.

Generative AI is just the next, most complex, evolution. We provide Algorithmic Resilience based on a pattern of adaptation we’ve proven for three decades.

Stop chasing the algorithm. It’s time to teach it.
Architect your AI Discoverability framework.

The post Don’t React to AI. Teach It. appeared first on Tunheim.

The first thing we see is the window. It advertises the shop as Frankies Farm-to-Cup in hand-lettered script. It’s a little smudged in a cute way. Feels earnest. Small batch, local, maybe the barista owns chickens. So far, so good.

We step inside and glance the menu, which is posted on a large sign at the beginning of the line. Proudly Serving Corporate Fuel. Wait, what? Different vibe. Definitely no chickens.

We push down our misgivings and proceed through the line and approach the register. There is a vapid sign inviting customers to sign up for a loyalty punch card. The loyalty club is called Beans With Benefits – suggestive, playful, but at odds with the rest.

We take a breath. We feel the conflict. And we back out before the espresso’s even pulled — opting instead for the corporate chain down the street, where at least the story makes sense.

This is What Fractured Branding Feels Like. 

It’s not that your message is wrong. It’s that it’s three different messages wearing the same shirt. Your ads say you’re clever, your site says you’re tired, and your sales deck says you couldn’t agree on what to say, so you had AI say everything.

And your customers? They feel that. 

How Fractured Branding Begins

Fractured branding is most common with organizations that are scaling or growing through acquisition. Growth triggers change.

This usually leads to one team updating the sales collateral. Another team is taking on the task of updating the homepage. And a third team tackles the landing pages. None of the teams is talking to each other. They’re siloed. 

Now, your company sounds like a bunch of bad musicians who’ve never rehearsed together. Everyone is riffing in different keys, not in a fun jazz way.

And Then the Leaks Begin to Show

• Ad performance dips.
  
• Search traffic wanes.
  
• Social engagement shrinks.
  
• Sales slow not because the product changed, but because the story lost its edge.
  

No one can quite say what you do anymore. Or why you matter.

And you start hearing the most expensive phrase in branding:

“Maybe we need a new logo.”

Here’s the Thing

A new logo won’t fix this. It’s not a cosmetic problem. It’s a foundational problem.

You’ve got a gap between what you think you’re saying and what people actually hear. That gap grows quietly. Then it gets loud.

If you’re nodding right now, you probably already know. You’ve felt the drag — in morale, in meetings, in metrics. You’ve seen your story land with a thud.

This isn’t about ego. It’s about making sure your people aren’t ad-libbing your value prop in every room they enter. It’s about cleaning up the narrative so your next buyer doesn’t need a decoder ring.

A Brand Refresh Isn’t Vanity

A brand refresh is not new wallpaper. It’s new wiring.

• When the brand is sharp, the pitch deck works harder.
• When the pitch deck works harder, the deal closes faster.
• When the deal closes faster, nobody has to pretend they “love the old logo.”

So, Ask Yourself:

• Can every exec describe what you do in one sentence?
• Does the website match the sales deck?
• Did the brand guide retire when skinny jeans did?
• Do your interns know your font? (Do you?)
  

If not, it might be time to update the story before someone else writes it for you.

Because here’s the truth: fractured brands don’t just confuse, they slow organizations down and erode from the inside. And they give competition the only thing they need: an opening.

Need an Outside Eye?

Book a fifteen-minute brand clarity chat. No jargon, no lectures, no mystical archetypes. Just a quick check to see if your story still makes sense.

Or don’t. But if your pitch deck apologizes for your homepage again this quarter, maybe let’s talk over a real cup of coffee.

The post Why Nobody Knows What You Do Anymore: A Story About Fractured Branding appeared first on Tunheim.

It’s not that you don’t have a story worth telling. It’s that building and sustaining visibility takes more than good intentions. It takes a plan and a team to build it.

The difference a team makes

When you bring in a PR team to design and drive your plan, it is about more than just media coverage. You get focus, rhythm, and momentum. A good team knows how to craft your story to meet your objectives, align it with the audiences who matter most — customers, partners, employees, and even skeptics — and deliver it where they already are.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

1. A stronger foundation
   A team brings objectivity and process to defining your narrative. They help you get clear about what makes your organization relevant and credible, and how to communicate that consistently across every channel. Instead of chasing one-off opportunities, you’re building a framework that connects every story back to your business goals.
2. Real traction – not just activity
   PR success isn’t about sending more press releases; it’s about building trust and familiarity over time. A team has the relationships and instincts to position you so you’re seen, heard, and taken seriously. That means finding the right reporters and influential voices, identifying storylines that stand out, and making every interaction count.
3. The ability to sustain momentum
   When visibility becomes part of your operating rhythm, your brand stops having to start over. A PR team ensures your story doesn’t fade after one announcement or quarter. They help you stay present in the conversation, evolve your message, expand your reach, and measure what’s working so you can do more of it.

Why it matters now

In today’s crowded and changing media landscape, attention is the hardest currency to earn. Algorithms shift, audiences fragment, and credibility is easily lost. Many mid-sized businesses find themselves in a tough spot: too big to fly under the radar, but not big enough to maintain an in-house communications department that keeps pace.

That’s where the right PR partnership changes everything. It gives you a team that’s thinking about your visibility every day, spotting opportunities, shaping narratives, and helping you show up with confidence and clarity.

The payoff

When your communications are planned and purposeful, everything starts to work harder:

• Media outreach amplifies brand credibility.
• Thought leadership attracts new partnerships.
• Internal alignment strengthens employee engagement.
• Reputation becomes a strategic advantage.

That’s the power of having a team build your PR plan: you don’t just get coverage, you get traction, the kind that builds over time and moves your business forward.

Ready to make 2026 your most visible year yet?

Now is the right time to build your PR plan for next year. If your organization is ready for traction that matches your ambition, let’s start that conversation.

The post Why You Need a Team to Build Your PR Plan (and What Happens When You Don’t) appeared first on Tunheim.

In these moments, when it feels like the winds are shifting daily, leadership requires more than agility. It requires anchoring.

At Tunheim, we’ve seen that the most effective leaders don’t simply react to what’s happening around them, they respond from a place of knowing who they are and what they stand for.

That sense of identity is more than a mission statement. It’s a framework for decision-making and communication. In a time when every action can be amplified or misinterpreted, core values become the compass for how, when, and where an organization chooses to show up or speak out. They inform how leaders engage employees, reassure stakeholders, and maintain credibility through change.

As fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan once wrote, “May you have a strong foundation when the winds of change shift.” That foundation isn’t just about weathering the storm; it’s about making the right choices in the midst of it. When leaders are grounded in a clear identity and values, they’re better equipped to make decisions that align with their organization’s long-term vision and communicate those choices with confidence, even when the pressure to react quickly is high.

Looking ahead to 2026, one thing is certain: the pressure on leaders to communicate with transparency, consistency, and conviction will only grow. Employees want to believe in the organizations they’re part of. Customers want to know what brands stand for. Stakeholders want evidence of accountability.

At Tunheim, we help leaders meet that moment. Our consulting and communications work centers on helping organizations clarify who they are, define what they stand for, and communicate those truths effectively to the audiences who matter most to their success. Whether through positioning, messaging, internal alignment, or external engagement, we help leadership teams translate values into clear, credible action.

There are no perfect playbooks for this era. But there are guiding principles. And it starts with asking the right questions:

• Who are we?
• What do we stand for?
• How do those answers show up in how we lead and communicate?

For those willing to do that work, even in the most uncertain moments, they can stand firm—and be understood—even as they navigate the most challenging circumstances.

What’s one message your most important stakeholders need to hear from you right now? Are they hearing it? If you’re not sure, let’s talk.

The post Navigating the Winds of Change: Leadership Rooted in Values appeared first on Tunheim.

It’s the one thing nobody wants to think about: Recession.

In October 2025, Moody’s Analytics reported that 22 U.S. states are either in or near recession. Consumer pessimism is climbing. Inflation is lingering. Major sectors are cutting jobs. The federal shutdown continues. And yet, many companies are budgeting for business-as-usual.

That’s a mistake.

Recessions are disruptive, but they’re also clarifying. The most successful companies in history didn’t just survive downturns; they redefined themselves through them. As JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon put it: “A recession isn’t inherently a bad thing… It’s bad for America, it’s bad for people who are unemployed, but it’s usually an opportunity for JPMorgan.”

But action alone isn’t enough. It’s how companies communicate those actions—internally, externally, and strategically—that determines whether they succeed.

What the Best-Performing Businesses Do in a Downturn

Decades of research from Harvard Business Review, McKinsey, Richards College of Business, and others reveal seven traits shared by the companies that outperformed their peers during economic contractions. Every one of these traits is amplified or undermined by a communication strategy.

Here’s how thriving companies lead during recessions and how communication plays a make-or-break role in each.

1. Frame Innovation as Progress, Not Panic
   Recessions accelerate change. They force companies to reimagine offerings, modernize systems, and digitize customer experiences. A 2023 McKinsey study found that companies investing in innovation during downturns grew 10–15% faster than their peers post-recovery.
   
   Communication Strategy: Frame innovation as a purposeful evolution, not a desperate pivot. When leaders use confident, forward-looking language, they rally employees, reassure partners, and attract investor confidence.
   
   
2. Restructure Talent with Transparency
   Successful companies don’t default to mass layoffs. They reassess roles, retain high performers, and recruit talent from a newly competitive labor market. The focus is on strengthening, not shrinking, the team.
   
   Communication Strategy: Honest, empathetic internal communication preserves culture during change. When teams understand the “why” and “what’s next,” they stay engaged and aligned.
   
   
3. Stay Radically Customer-Centric
   Customer needs shift fast in a downturn. The best companies don’t just guess: they listen, adapt, and offer real solutions such as bundled services, flexible payment terms, and enhanced support.
   
   Communication Strategy: Your messages must reflect real understanding. Show customers that you hear their pain points—and that you’re acting to help them succeed.
   
   
4. Be the Brand That Stays Visible
   It’s tempting to cut marketing when cash gets tight. But history proves that brands that stay loud during recessions often emerge as market leaders. Ad space becomes cheaper. Competitor noise fades. Visibility multiplies.
   
   Communication Strategy: Keep telling your story. Use consistent, high-impact messaging to reinforce trust, stability, and value.
   
   
5. Communicate Financial Discipline Clearly
   Resilient companies manage cash, limit debt, and build reserves. But it’s not just about the numbers—it’s about the confidence others place in your financial leadership.
   
   Communication Strategy: Be transparent. Communicate your financial strategy with clarity to employees, investors, and customers. Confidence is contagious.
   
   
6. Lead Tech Adoption with a Clear Narrative
   Digital transformation is a recession accelerant. Whether it’s AI, automation, or operational redesign, companies that modernize thrive. But transformation only sticks when employees are on board.
   
   Communication Strategy: Don’t just announce a tool, tell a story. Link technology to purpose, customer outcomes, and your future vision.
   
   
7. Tell a Story of Strategic Flexibility
   Thriving companies don’t rely on one customer type, revenue stream, or supplier. They diversify to build resilience and seize new market opportunities.
   
   Communication Strategy: Share your adaptability. Communicate how you’re evolving to meet changing needs without losing sight of your core mission.

A Final Word: Don’t Just Act—Communicate

Recession doesn’t just test your business model; it tests your message. In moments of uncertainty, great communication becomes a company’s most strategic asset.

It builds trust. It aligns teams. It signals strength. So yes, build your recession plan. And build your communication strategy right alongside it.

At Tunheim, we help leaders turn moments of uncertainty into long-term advantage.

Let’s talk!

The post How to Thrive in Recession appeared first on Tunheim.

There’s a certain myth around the “breakthrough idea” — the kind of concept that reinvents a product, captures the imagination of a market, or creates something entirely new. We treat it like lightning: random, rare, and impossible to harness. But the truth is, real breakthroughs — the kind that move companies forward and shift customer expectations — don’t come from luck.

They come from process.

Why Breakthroughs Matter Now More Than Ever

The cost of sameness is getting higher. In every sector, from consumer retail to B2B services, audiences are bombarded by messages that blend together. Standing out isn’t just a marketing challenge — it’s an existential one.

Breakthrough ideas are how brands get unstuck. They capture attention, redefine categories, and invite people to see a future they hadn’t imagined. But they only work when they’re grounded in something more meaningful than a clever stunt.

Breakthrough Is a Brand Strategy, Not a Tactic

Here’s the first principle: breakthrough ideas aren’t standalone tactics — they’re manifestations of your brand’s mission, vision, and positioning.

They emerge from clarity. Clarity about what you stand for, the future you’re building toward, and how you’re different from everyone else in your category.

When we’ve helped companies in retail and B2B services unlock breakthrough ideas, it always starts with this internal alignment. If you don’t know your long idea — your unique and bold view of the future — you’re not ready to break through.

Tunheim’s Breakthrough Method: A Process that Works

Here’s the framework we use and adapt:

1. Define Breakthrough for You
   Breakthrough must align with your brand’s positioning — not just a new idea, but a bold expression of your core purpose. It should be recognizable as you even if it’s something you’ve never done before.
2. Share Your Particular Future
   Great brands don’t just respond to trends — they define them. Be willing to articulate the future you believe in, even if Wall Street isn’t ready to put it on a calendar. Whether it’s the future of sleep or the transformation of care delivery, that future becomes the foundation for ideas with impact.
3. Leverage Your Differentiators
   You likely already have the ingredients. Your tech. Your data. Your insights about customers or the market. These are your competitive advantages — but only if you use them to craft ideas no one else could credibly execute.
4. Address What Customers Really Care About
   Every sector has its burning issues — the problems your audience wakes up thinking about. Use your research and insights to address those head-on. That’s where breakthrough ideas resonate most deeply.
5. Use What You’ve Already Got
   Breakthroughs don’t need new budgets or blank slates. They need new thinking applied to existing platforms. One retail client built a high-impact activation campaign by reimagining how to use their store footprint during the holidays. A B2B firm developed an award concept that turned client partnerships into category leadership.
6. Find the Right Tone and Voice
   Even the best idea will fall flat if it sounds generic. The tone of your breakthrough should surprise, delight, or provoke — whatever matches the essence of your brand. But it must cut through.
7. Measure and Refine
   Not every idea hits. That’s okay. Breakthrough organizations treat innovation like a lab: test, measure, learn, and try again. Over time, this becomes a muscle — and a strategic advantage.

It’s Not Just About One Idea, It’s About Building a Machine.

The goal isn’t to have a breakthrough. It’s to build an organization that can generate and sustain them. That means establishing a process, creating the conditions for creativity, and empowering teams to think beyond what’s easy or safe.

Done right, breakthrough becomes part of the culture — and the brand.

Breakthrough is Not Magic, It’s Method

And it starts by asking better questions — not “what’s a big idea?” but “what’s our big idea?” and “what does our future demand?”

When you can answer that, the breakthroughs begin.

Curious what a breakthrough process looks like for your organization? We would love to show you.

The post A Proven Framework for Brands That Need Breakthrough Ideas Now appeared first on Tunheim.

But before you shrug this off as yet another fad, think seriously about the implications for brands. This isn’t simply about quirky aesthetics or fleeting nostalgia. It’s a strategic recalibration for a generation of digital natives seeking boundaries.

It’s also a call to action for communicators and marketers who need to employ research and carefully select strategies and tools that allow us to meet Gen Zs where they are.

A Mental Health-Driven Move to Retro

The analog revival isn’t just a passing TikTok trend and retro “dumb” phones. It’s a coping mechanism for mental overload, a rebellion against algorithmic manipulation, and a reassertion of agency over attention. And while Gen Z is now in the spotlight as workers and consumers, this shift also applies to rising Gen Alpha – those born between 2010 and 2024.

In fact, data released in July 2025 by audience research company GWI showed the percentage of 12-to-15-year-old Gen A-ers who take breaks from smartphones, computers, and iPads has risen by 18% to 40% since 2022. A survey of 20,000 young people and their parents across 18 countries found that 40% of these young teens now take deliberate breaks from smartphones and social media, an 18% increase since 2022.

The Global Wellness Summit’s Future of Wellness 2025 has highlighted this movement as one of the year’s defining cultural trends that reflect both rebellion against screen fatigue and a rediscovery of the physical joy of non-screen tools. Businesses like Retrospekt, a company specializing in refurbished retro tech, are seeing significant growth, reporting annual sales of $8 million, primarily from customers aged 13 to 39. The Vinyl Alliance’s 2025 report showed 50% of Gen Z vinyl enthusiasts see the medium as a form of “digital detox,” while 61% aim to improve their well-being by shifting away from digital music consumption. It noted that in 2024, 40% of 18-to-24-year-olds bought vinyl. There’s also renewed interest in zines (self-published magazines), newsletters, and retro blogging platforms like Substack and Tumblr, as well as journaling and mailed cards and letters.

Digital fatigue is real. Nearly half of Gen Z reports feeling overwhelmed by screens. Over 44% intentionally reduced screen time in the past six months. Ofcom reports that 47% of 16-to-24-year-olds now silence notifications or enable Do Not Disturb to regain focus.

What this means for brands

At Tunheim, we see this as more than a trend. It’s a values-driven shift that reflects a craving for the authenticity, tangible experiences, and control that Gen Z  regains with analog. A 2025 study by Skeepers, an AI/user-driven content platform, revealed that Gen Z increasingly prefers unfiltered content and peer-led storytelling over brand-polished digital encounters.

Here are our four key takeaways:

1. Rethink message channels.

Gen Z consumes media across a fragmented landscape. A 100% digital strategy is incomplete. Smart campaigns might pair short-form video with a limited-run print magazine, a podcast hotline, or even an old-school mailer with QR code access to bonus content. Unexpected channels translate to deeper curiosity.

2. Build trust through tangible actions.

In a low-trust digital climate, doing things the “hard way” can be a brand builder. A fashion brand might mail out a zine on sustainability authored by young activists. A university might create a retro course catalog as a recruiting piece. Print can cut through the noise, especially if it reflects values.

3. Revisit your audience research.

It’s become clear that Gen Z doesn’t respond to broad personas. At Tunheim, we specialize in attitudinal segmentation and uncovering psychographic insights that go deeper than “18-to-24 digital native.” If your outreach relies on assumptions instead of insights, you’re likely missing this analog shift altogether.

4. Lead with authenticity, not just aesthetics.

In a recent case study, we found that publishing short-form video isn’t enough. For example, the Las Vegas Review-Journal outperforms by pairing format consistency with a strong brand voice. Aesthetic nods to retro culture only work when paired with substance, clarity, and intention.

In our view, this isn’t a fad; it’s a generational recalibration driven by creating balance. As Gen Z, with Gen Alpha on its heels, continues to prioritize privacy, mental wellness, and self-expression, expect them to fluctuate between digital efficiency and analog intimacy. Today’s flip phones and zines may evolve, but the underlying values like authenticity, simplicity, and autonomy will remain.

Gen Z is telling us what they want  – less noise, more meaning, more listening. The smartest phone in 2025 might be one that does…nothing. If you’re not listening to that signal, you’re not listening to your future audience.

Ask us how we can help you listen smarter.

The post When the Most Digital Generation Goes Analog, Brands Need Research appeared first on Tunheim.