The Colab Brief - 106: Feb Roundup - (Super Bowl Schemes, A Lyft Disaster, and the AI Tidal Wave)

It’s mid-February, and it’s safe to say this year is starting off anything but boring. Phew. If you thought the AI conversation was dying down, this week proved you very, very wrong. A moment of silence for the OpenAI PR team. 🙏 We salute you.

Read Time: 4 minutes. 

Super Bowl Mania  🏈

We’d be remiss to do a February update without discussing the Super Bowl. Still, the majority of the game-related PR campaigns were overshadowed by the powerhouse that is Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift. We were treated (or subjected?) to every angle of their romantic weekend escapades, yet the “PR relationship” narrative continues to permeate the interwebs. 

We conducted a little impromptu research this week on LinkedIn, and it turns out that it’s a pretty even split of people who think their relationship is the real deal and those who are convinced it’s a PR play. 

The Colab team is 100 percent on the side of true love 💕 (for reasons we’ll discuss shortly), but on LinkedIn, opinions were varied. 

And our personal favorite response.

Our take? In an insane world where Tree Paine actually attempts to conjure up a relationship for the world’s most famous person for publicity (which, why?), Travis Kelce probably would not have made the cut. There are a few too many cringeworthy reality TV moments and unscripted speeches (Vivaaaaa Las Vegas). He’s far more open than any of Taylor’s prior partners and doesn’t shy away from talking about her frequently on his podcast. Overall, it’s too drastic of a shift for Swift, who is notoriously private, to take on for some measly press. 

Lyft’s No Good, Very Bad Press Release 🚨

Straight out of our worst PR nightmare, the Lyft Comms team flubbed in a major way this week with an error in their earnings press release. You can read more about the mistake here, but an extra zero made its way into the margin expansion, noting an insane growth of 500 basis points, or 5%, versus the real number of 50 basis points, or 0.5%. The release sent Lyft’s stock soaring, only to crash later when the CFO mentioned it was a mistake.

This is truly an error of epic proportions and one that impacted the company’s bottom line in a very tangible way. In what we consider a savvy move, CEO David Rishner, took full responsibility for the typo. Discussing with CNBC how it occurred, he noted the team has checks and balances in place to prevent these types of mistakes from happening, but this one was missed, and it was his fault entirely. 

The entire interview was a Masterclass in owning the mistake and being transparent. Luckily, the company performance was positive quarter-over-quarter, so it appears Lyft will skate by without further issues (for now). 

AI Explosion 🤖

After a brief cooling period, AI talk in the press feels hotter than ever. OpenAI issued several announcements this week alone, including a new video product called Sora. And the analysis of how AI will impact the world continues to dominate the trades. We’ve noticed a few things from our recent AI outreach:

1. The barrier to entry is getting higher for AI and AI-adjacent companies. It’s no longer enough to say you “do AI” in an attempt to get a slice of the media action. Journalists are now asking for actual information about how you’re incorporating AI and becoming increasingly particular about the connection.
   

2. “AI” is the new “Uber for” from the 2010s. “We use AI to revolutionize XYZ” is a nearly perfect stand-in for the “We’re the Uber for XYZ!” sentiment that took over in the early startup boom. Check your messaging carefully and pitch with caution. Don’t waste time trying to capitalize on AI unless you have a valid way to back up your claims.

It was a booming February after a rather slow January news cycle. What will March bring? We can’t wait to see. 

Until next week,

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