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

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. — Brought to you by AssemblyAI—Production-ready AI models to transcribe and understand speech | Public—Invest in stocks, treasuries, crypto, and more | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security. 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/ • Hamish McKenzie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hamishmckenzie • The Network State: How to Start a New Country: https://www.amazon.com/Network-State-How-Start-Country-ebook/dp/B09VPKZR3G • How to increase virality: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/increasing-virality • Ryan Petersen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/typesfast • Brian Armstrong on Twitter: https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong • Palmer Luckey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey • Pirate Wires: https://www.piratewires.com/ • NYX: https://www.nyxcosmetics.com/ • Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae: https://www.amazon.com/Gates-Fire-Novel-Battle-Thermopylae/dp/055338368X • The Last of Us on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-last-of-us • Notion: https://www.notion.so/ • Lex: https://lex.page/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Lulu’s background (04:36) What helps an idea spread (06:17) Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” (07:19) Advice for coming up with contagious phrasing (08:36) Lulu’s esoteric reference that left her Twitter followers confused (11:08) The importance of taking risks, and Lulu’s thread on standing for free speech (12:53)…