Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Navigating comms and PR | Lulu Cheng Meservey (Substack, Activision Blizzard)

Mar 23, 2023

In this engaging discussion, Lulu Cheng Meservey, the Chief Communications Officer at Activision Blizzard and former head of comms at Substack, shares her insights on effective communication strategies. She emphasizes the importance of taking risks and targeting very specific audiences for successful messaging. Lulu introduces several intriguing frameworks, including concentric circles for audience identification and a unique physics-based approach to comms. Through anecdotes and strategies, she highlights how brand storytelling and authenticity can build lasting connections.

01:03:27

Creator website

Episode guests

Lulu Cheng Meservey

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

How to Win Hearts and Minds in a Disruptive World

01:50

How to come up with a catchy phrase that will spread

01:24

A Math Formula for Effective Communication Strategy

02:16

How to Build a Successful Communication Strategy for Your Company

01:17

Intro

4min

Effective Communication Strategies for Spreading Ideas

2min

Crafting Memorable Communication

5min

Embracing Risks in Communication Strategies

18min

Targeted Communications Framework

4min

Strategic Audience Targeting in Communication

4min

Building Authentic Audience Connections

22min

Lightning Insights: Favorites and Strategies

4min

Brought to you by AssemblyAI—Powerful AI models to transcribe and understand speech | Public—Invest in stocks, treasuries, crypto, and more | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security.

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Lulu Cheng Meservey was formerly head of comms at Substack (where I host my newsletter and podcast) and is currently the Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer at Activision Blizzard. She also writes one of my favorite newsletters, “Flack,” where she shares tactical advice for company comms, PR, and messaging. In today’s episode, we dive deep into the world of PR and comms. We discuss why taking risks is crucial, how to gain attention as an underdog, and why it’s important to have a super-specific audience. Lulu outlines several frameworks I’d never heard of before, including a concentric circles framework for identifying your audience, the cultural erogenous zones, and even a physics-based framework for comms.

Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/navigating-comms-and-pr-lulu-cheng

Where to find Lulu Cheng Meservey:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lulumeservey

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lulu-cheng-meservey/

• Newsletter: https://www.getflack.com/

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

Referenced:

• “Binders full of women”: Mitt Romney’s four words that alienated women voters: https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2012/oct/17/binders-full-of-women-romneys-four-words

• Bill Bishop’s newsletter on Substack: https://www.sinocism.com/