As we shift into the summer season, things begin to slow. At least it feels like it. Traffic gets lighter; schedules become wonky due to camps and trips; people kick off early on Friday; open-toed shoes are okay in the office (or are they?). However, what doesn’t stop is news, and as communications professionals, we’re season agnostic.

To recap the summer of 2025, for example, the Epstein files controversy exploded, rippling through cultural and political cores; President Trump’s trade and tariff negotiations with allies hit headlines; there was escalating tension between Israel and Iran on the international front; the tragic flooding in Texas claimed lives and sustained national attention; the AI conversation consumed stories about media and journalism, and on the business side, Nvidia became the first company to reach $4 trillion valuation; and Diddy’s trial absorbed the courtroom drama space. In short, a “summer slowdown” for us is a myth. In Washington, lawmakers and reporters may leave town, the social whirl may grind to a halt, but reality has a way of intervening.

Taking advantage of these summer months is always smart, and that’s how we look at it. We’re on call for crises, we’re cultivating pitches, we’re creating fulsome plans for the fall, we’re looking at the calendar for events and opportunities, and we’re combing the data collected by our AI tools to drill down on what people are saying about politics, policy, culture, people, and who- and what- are the next potential headlines. Reputations can still change in an afternoon, and a social post, leaked memo, earnings miss, or breaking news alert can instantly become the only thing anyone is talking about. The organizations that navigate the best are not the ones who are scrambling to react. They’re the ones that have used the quieter weeks to prepare. The next big story is just as likely to break in June as it is in January. And when it does, no one will care that it was supposed to be a slow news day.

-Kate Bennett

How Do You Run Crisis Plays in Real-Time for the Enhanced Games?

Lessons in crisis communications from one of the most scrutinized live-event environments in modern sports.

Launching a live event on its own is difficult under any circumstances.

Launching a premier global sporting event, under live broadcast conditions, intense public scrutiny, and zero operational precedent, is a whole other ballgame.

Last weekend, an inaugural and wildly disruptive sporting event brought together elite athletes in swimming, track, and weightlifting for a globally streamed, daylong competition that immediately became one of this year’s most watched and debated events in sports. It was, pardon the pun, a Super Bowl of possibilities for the Invariant crisis and risk team.

The Enhanced Games took a sporting norm and turned it on its head. Athletes were permitted to compete under medically supervised performance-enhancement protocols centered on transparency, scientific oversight, and athlete choice, an approach that generated enormous media attention, scrutiny, and debate well before opening day. And while the concept was incredibly innovative, a disruptive startup attempting to challenge an entrenched industry, such as sports, presents a zero-margin-for-error situation on the day-of.

Globally broadcast, highly anticipated, fueled by a controversial model, and being watched, the event was high stakes. The founders knew their model was controversial, but rather than simply hoping for the best (which, by the way, is not a strategy), they took an incredibly smart approach: they prepared for the absolute worst.

Working closely with the company’s leadership, Invariant developed an exhaustive, crisis communications and operational resilience playbook detailing exactly how to handle the what-if scenarios that could have popped up along the way: venue security threats, severe medical emergencies, and weather contingency plans, to name a few. We also operationalized those communications protocols live, managing real-time crisis communications risk throughout the event itself. Ultimately, everything went off without a hitch. The crises we planned for never materialized.

Was it a good use of resources when nothing we planned for actually happened? Absolutely. Running the crisis communications for this event reinforced a core philosophy of our practice: preparing for a disaster is exactly what prevents one. The operational rigor required to build a crisis playbook actively engineers a successful baseline.

Here is what we implemented and how other event startups can use this approach to help drive a successful launch.

1. Building Muscle Memory with the “First 60-Minute” Rule: When developing the playbook, we mandated a strict “First 60-Minute Discipline” for any incident. We established a rigid, non-negotiable checklist: confirm safety first, verify facts from a single operational source, pause all scheduled social media, and deploy pre-approved holding language. No executive would be allowed to speak until we cleared these steps.

   By training the client’s team to operate with surgical precision during a hypothetical disaster, we gave them the muscle memory to operate flawlessly during the normal broadcast. Because the staff knew exactly how our team would verify facts before communicating, we eliminated the possibility of internal chaos, rumors, and miscommunications that normally plague first-year events.

2. Centralizing Command to Eliminate Rogue Messaging: A common failure point for event startups is the “leaky venue,” where venue contractors, junior staff, and stressed executives give conflicting explanations to the press. To prevent this, we were in a physical Command Center and created a digital “Incident Communications Response” team (ICR). The ICR was designated as the absolute single source of truth. Our protocol dictated exactly who was authorized to speak to the media, who spoke to the talent, and who spoke to investors. Centralized command doesn’t just stop bad news from leaking; it makes good news more powerful.

3. Pre-Wiring Broadcast Integration: For events with a live broadcast component, the highest narrative risk is what the commentators say when things go wrong on camera. We prepared specific “Off-Air Producer Guidance” and “On-Air” scripts for the broadcast partners to ensure commentators wouldn’t speculate during an emergency.

   We built the communications plumbing with the broadcast partners before the event began. Because we had direct lines open to instantly kill a bad narrative during an emergency, we were perfectly positioned to feed the producers the right narrative and data during moments of triumph.

4. Pre-Resolving Legal and PR Friction: In most organizations, capitalizing on a live event is delayed because public relations has to chase down legal for approvals. By the time a statement is cleared, the social media conversation has moved on. We mapped out a precise chain of command within the playbook, clearly defining where the Chief Legal Officer and our communications team intersected to clear external messaging. Holding statements for various scenarios were pre-written and pre-approved by legal weeks in advance. By pre-clearing the workflow, we established the boundaries of what could and could not be said. This gave our team the ability to move at the actual speed of the live event without exposing the company to risk.

5. Turning Crisis Communications Preparedness into a Business Asset: Startups rely on the trust of investors, top-tier sponsors, and high-profile talent. These stakeholders are hyper-sensitive to reputational risk.

   What this client understood better than most is that a robust crisis playbook is not just an insurance policy; it is a vital business development asset. When pitching a wary sponsor or a cautious investor, a startup that can demonstrate a comprehensive incident response protocol completely changes the dynamic of the room. It proves the startup is a mature, enterprise-grade organization that treats safety, regulatory compliance, and brand reputation with absolute discipline. For ambitious event startups, you don’t build a crisis communications and resilience plan just to survive a bad day. You build it to guarantee that your best days are executed as perfectly as possible.

-Debra DeShong

Message Matters

Analog + Print = Reaching Gen Z?

Have you noticed more 20-somethings wearing wired headphones recently? There’s a reason. Global sales of wired headphones rose 20 percent in the first six weeks of this year, according to The Times, with searches for wired headphones trending upwards on Google even in the last couple of months. What does that tell us? Gen Z is pushing back on always-online culture. Online conversations around Gen Z’s interest in analog technology, offline experiences, and authenticity-driven lifestyles generated nearly 1.5 million mentions over the past year, with discussion volume peaking in early 2026 at nearly 140k mentions. The sustained growth suggests these behaviors are evolving beyond niche preferences into a broader cultural and consumer shift. But it’s not just aesthetic; it’s economic.

So if everything “out” is “in” again for Gen Z, then messaging becomes more important. For example, vinyl sales in the United States topped $1 billion for the first time since 1983, driven largely by younger consumers embracing physical and collectible media. Dust off Mom and Dad’s records. At the same time, Gen Z’s growing support for local businesses, independent creators, and handmade goods is helping fuel a global handicrafts market valued at over $700 billion+. For brands, this is more than a nostalgia cycle. It’s a signal.

Research from McKinsey shows Gen Z consumers place a premium on authenticity, identity, and alignment with their values when deciding which brands to support. In a media environment saturated with optimized content, younger audiences increasingly reward brands that feel tangible, community-driven, and human. That presents a growing challenge for communicators. Gen Z is still highly digital, but their attention is increasingly fragmented across niche platforms and smaller communities, making it harder for traditional social-first strategies to cut through.

The brands best positioned to win over the next several years may be the ones willing to rethink what engagement looks like:

• IRL activations and community events,

• creator partnerships rooted in subcultures,

• tactile or collectible brand experiences,

• direct mail and print campaigns,

• and messaging that prioritizes personality over polish.

The takeaway isn’t that Gen Z is abandoning technology. It’s that “digital native” no longer means “digital only.” As younger consumers gain more purchasing power, brands that feel less algorithmic and more authentic may have the advantage.

-Ji Reichle, Anne Patterson, and Morgan Baker

Our Insights: PRWeek’s Agency Business Report

PRWeek recently released its annual “Agency Business Report,” with Invariant proud to rank among the top 35 firms in the United States. And while we are thrilled to once again be in the upper echelons in the report this year, the data reflected a broader ongoing evolution throughout the communications industry – the increasing integration of public affairs and corporate communications. What was once viewed as separate functions with intermittent overlap are now not only interconnected but core to how companies manage reputation, navigate risk and uncertainty, and advance business priorities.

Political polarization, regulatory scrutiny, geopolitical instability, rapid technological change, and heightened stakeholder expectations are converging in ways that directly impact companies across sectors. Policy developments quickly become reputational challenges, while corporate decisions just as easily trigger political or regulatory attention. Successful organizations approach communications, government affairs, and stakeholder engagement holistically.

Effective counsel today requires the ability to align strategic communications, public affairs, crisis management, advocacy, and executive positioning into a unified approach. Firms that operate at the intersection of policy and reputation are better positioned to help clients anticipate challenges, shape narratives, and respond with speed and consistency.

The implications are significant. It means operating in an “always on” environment. Leadership teams should ensure public affairs, communications, legal, and business units are aligned not just early for strategic issues or coordinating only during moments of crisis – but deeply integrated operationally on a daily basis. Organizations should also incorporate political scenario planning into broader enterprise risk management efforts, recognizing that external pressures now move faster and carry wider consequences than in previous cycles. Ongoing, proactive engagement with policymakers, employees, investors, media, and community stakeholders is necessary to both build and maintain trust and credibility.

As organizations face more interconnected challenges, the ability to integrate policy insights with a sophisticated communications strategy is no longer a separate endeavor, but rather a uniform approach essential to protecting reputation, influencing outcomes, and sustaining long-term success.

-Matt Gallagher

Communicating with AI

Using AI is quickly becoming a standard part of communications work. Used well, it can make us faster, sharper, and better informed. Used poorly, it can make our writing flatter, our thinking softer, and our work harder to trust. As these tools evolve, so will the way we use them. Going forward, we’ll share simple, practical prompts and lessons we’re learning at Invariant to help make AI more useful in day-to-day work.

1. Can you remove all language that reads like it was written by AI and revise, so it sounds like I wrote it? An LLM may not be great at initially avoiding their own tropes: the overused phrases, tidy-but-empty transitions, and sentence structures that show up in every AI-generated draft. However, a correct prompt from you can fix that. Your LLM will learn your tone over time, especially if you provide examples of your writing or share examples of your final deliverables, so it gets used to how you edit. The more specific you are about what sounds like you, the better the output gets.

2. What is the main argument, and what is getting in the way? As communications professionals, we need to make it easy for our audience to understand the point and why it matters. AI-generated drafts can include too much context, too many caveats, or too many polished but unnecessary sentences that distract from the message. This prompt helps identify where the draft drifts and refocus it around what the audience needs to know.

3. Can you cut 30% of this without losing meaning? LLMs do not naturally prize brevity. They are built to be comprehensive, which often means they give you more words than you need and more explanation than your audience wants. Asking directly for a shorter version forces the tool to prioritize the actual argument rather than dance around it.

-Shira Golub

Invariant‘s Communications Team IRL

Another successful trip to Simi Valley, CA, for the 2nd-annual Reagan National Economic Forum.

Our team on the ground with Vulcan Elements, showing that we can wear many different hats!

Invariant sponsored an event for clients and key stakeholders at the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.

The Thing You Should Know But Probably Don’t

Where we share the latest buzz phrases hitting the Gen Z cultural vernacular.

Gen Z isn’t as scared as their slang suggests, so don’t fear the “I fear.”

“I fear” is Gen Z’s way of soft-launching bad news or a confession. Not to be confused with actual fear, the phrase is a slightly dramatic, usually humorous way of admitting something may be true, embarrassing, unfortunate, or undeniable. It’s less panic, more reluctant honesty.

Example: “I fear this meeting could have been an email.”

Or: “The Senate is headed toward a Vote-a-Rama, I fear.” (A real text I received from a Hill staffer friend.)

-Lucy Karlin and Sally Blodgett

Thanks for reading The Variable: Invariant’s Strategic Communications Newsletter! If you liked this, subscribe to get our other Invariant newsletters.

That’s why we’re launching The Variable, a newsletter from Invariant’s strategic communications team. In an environment shaped by policy, markets, and risk, communications is often the factor that can change the outcome.

We’ll track the narratives, moments, and signals shaping that environment—and what they mean for the people responsible for navigating it.

TMZ Goes to Washington

The lines between capital J ‘Journalism’ and a blogger holding up a phone to record a moment, are blurring by the second. In a relatively short decade, they’ve gone from clear, to dotted, to occasionally SNL-level bizarre. That said, TMZ’s new DC bureau should not come as a surprise.

Sure, politics and pop culture have always been awkward dance partners, but the actual, “official” arrival of TV’s original paparazzi-slash-interview show in our nation’s capital signals something greater is happening. As legacy media outlets shrink in size and reputation—from budget restrictions, new ownership, evolving times, divided politics, and any number of other very real and disruptive reasons—three young guys with iPhones have gotten more interviews in the last two weeks for TMZ’s social channels than a seasoned Capitol Hill reporter. (They’ve also gotten more news about them making news than a lot of their competition.) We used to think a conversation with a Member of Congress was deemed important only by the number of cameras and angles, the lights, and the trinkets of Americana strategically placed in the background. Now, news is breaking whenever it feels like doing so on the sidewalks of the streets that define the Hill. Members, loathe to be caught after a vote by a reporter with a camera crew, are starstruck that Hollywood’s own Harvey Levin *cares* what they have to say, and most have quickly ignored the discomfort of their communications staff and happily jumped on the trend.

This week, I was struck by the candid description Congressman Rich McCormick (R-CA) provided about what it’s like to be a career politician in today’s DC. “My life will instantly be better the day I leave Congress,” said McCormick, a backpack slung over his shoulder as he chatted to one of the TMZ reporters. “Before I got into politics, everybody loved me... but as soon as you put a letter next to your name, instantly people hate you.” In 2 minutes and 47 seconds, TMZ got the kind of authentic moment-in-time answer most communications professionals hope for when they let a principal or a client sit for an interview with a journalist. McCormick explained all the reasons he missed his civilian life – his old salary, the lack of judgment by others, the freedom of schedule, the laudatory compliments bestowed by being former Marine – and then he said something that I think everyone is struggling to understand right now: “[However,] this is history. And we’re trying to do some very good things.”

Sure, TMZ DC should probably be less surprised that we residents keep nice yards and that our native bagel sandwiches are pretty awesome, but what they’ve already done to equal parts humanize politicians and keep them on their toes has run circles around traditional media. For that, welcome to the swamp.

-Kate Bennett

Invariant’s Debra DeShong Talks Bigger Concerns at Crisis Comms Conference

Somewhere, at this very moment, a narrative is being built around a company that doesn’t know it yet. Not in a newsroom. Not on a blog. Not by a disgruntled employee.

The story being crafted is coming from a foreign operation designed to look like all three.

That was the reality at the center of a critical discussion led by Invariant’s Head of Communications, Crisis and Risk, Debra DeShong, who moderated Today’s Battlefield: When Nation-State Resources Target the Corporation Using Malicious Information at PRWeek’s Crisis Comms Conference last week in Washington. Her guests: former CIA intelligence officer Jennifer Crook and AI risk strategist Greg Young.

Last week’s room reflected the stakes. Fortune 500 communications leaders filled the seats alongside practitioners who have managed crises firsthand—including the former head of HR at Astronomer, whose own experience with instant, global scrutiny made the panel’s warnings feel anything but theoretical.

The panel’s core argument: foreign actors have added a new weapon. Alongside network attacks, they’re now targeting corporate narratives directly, running coordinated campaigns engineered to look organic and timed to land when organizations are most vulnerable. By the time something feels off, it’s often already working.

The challenge is that a state-backed information operation and a genuine social media crisis can look identical on the surface. One follows a playbook. The other is the playbook, and you’re not the one who wrote it.

Most organizations only realize which one they’re dealing with after they’ve already responded in ways that amplify the attack rather than neutralize it. As Crook noted, companies often become targets when they intersect with issues governments treat as “red lines”—from Taiwan to human rights to democracy.

Young put plainly: if you don’t understand who’s on the other side of the chessboard, you’re not really playing the game.

The conclusion was unambiguous: if intelligence and crisis comms aren’t operating as one, you’re already behind.

Top Takeaways

1. Know when you’re a target: Companies become exposed when they intersect with geopolitical flashpoints.

2. Think like an adversary: They’re anticipating your response before you even identify the threat.

3. It’s not just a comms problem: Narrative attacks often coincide with cyber, legal, or supply chain pressure – by design.

4. Break silos: Communications, intelligence, and operations need to operate as one coordinated team.

5. Rehearse for disruption: From deepfakes to infrastructure outages, preparation only works if it’s been practiced.

The throughline: this is no longer a hypothetical risk. As these tactics grow more sophisticated and more widespread, organizations that understand their exposure—and prepare across teams—will be far better positioned to respond when the narrative turns against them.

-Megan Phillips

The Invariant Index

Sometimes the story is not just about the words, it’s about the numbers.

What

$4.17 Billion. That’s the amount of money raised by 12 defense tech companies (all Invariant clients) over the last year alone. The pace and scale of that growth send an unmistakable signal: Defense tech has momentum whether it’s autonomous ships, satellite buses, or factories of the future, defense companies providing cutting-edge technology are booming. And telling a compelling story of that rise is increasingly crucial in a bustling marketplace.

Why

“A strong communications plan makes everything bigger – who you are, the success you’re having, the impact you can deliver, especially in the national security space.”- Claude Chafin, Chair of Invariant’s national security communications practice.

This moment is different. Scale and frequency of investment over the past year reflect broad shifts in the defense industry.

• Speed matters – and is possible -- in national security.

• A growing appetite for private capital to take risks and build ahead of government demand.

• Confidence that new entrants can compete, and in some cases, outperform legacy incumbents.

• A renewed belief in American manufacturing and tech innovation.

• LFG.

—Travis Tritten

Message Matters

Augusta Versus the Algorithm: The Age of Influencers or Tradition, Translated

Influencers are now fully integrated in disrupting cultural norms of America, reshaping who gets to define and interpret the moment, and whose eyes and ears will pay attention. Let’s take sports as just one example. The Masters, perhaps professional golf’s most storied tradition, has stood as untouchable for decades. In so many ways, the four-day tournament needed to do something to zhuzh it up—without shaking the core foundation of what the tradition means to millions of fans.

The famously inexpensive pimento cheese sandwiches at the Augusta National golf course, where The Masters is held, reinforce a kind of egalitarian nostalgia, and a strict no-phones policy creates a rare modern luxury: presence. Augusta National enforces its rules with a clear intention to preserve the mystique of The Masters.

This year revealed pressure points on the tradition, as Augusta made deliberate shifts to begin to accommodate the digital age and usher in a new generation of fans. The addition of Jason Kelce—the retired professional footballer turned podcaster—and other nontraditional personalities to the broadcast displayed a willingness to expand the voice of the tournament, bringing in figures who feel closer to internet culture than the country club. Select influencers and content creators—such as Meredith Hayden, a culinary influencer with more than 1.4 million followers on Instagram and the author of the New York Times best-selling Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook—were allowed to film content, offering the masses a curated glimpse into a place that has historically resisted being seen through any lens but its own.

The Masters is not just adapting its operations, it is testing how much of the influencer ecosystem it can absorb without diluting the aura of tradition. The fundamental formula of the tournament remains untouched: the menu is still famously affordable, access continues to feel rare and coveted, and the pomp and circumstance remains. But by selectively introducing new voices and allowing controlled access, Augusta is signaling it recognizes that cultural influence often runs through the online world of influencers and celebrities. In a media environment where access is often equated with authenticity, the question is how far it can bend toward the influencer ecosystem without weakening the mystique that makes The Masters distinctive in the first place. In that sense, Augusta is not abandoning tradition so much as stress-testing it, trying to prove it can participate in the attention economy without fully belonging to it.

Influencers are no longer just channels for reach; they are shaping perception itself. For brands, the takeaway is clear: control the environment, not the message. Partner with creators who can interpret your brand authentically, preserve what makes the experience distinct, and resist the urge to overexpose. In the influencer age, relevance is not built through access alone, but through who you trust to help tell your story.

—Anne Patterson

Invariant‘s Communications Team IRL

Supporting Hadrian’s factory opening in Cherokee, Alabama.

Celebrating Easter in the neighborhood!

The Thing You Should Know But Probably Don’t

Today’s word: Mogging (also “Mog” or “Mogged”)

A first cousin of maxxing, “mogging” is used to reflect the amplification of any looks or skills in a way that evokes a more superior perspective.

Example: She’s mogging me in that pic.

Other ways to use it include adding an adjacent noun: “Fashion mogging.” (clothes on point); “Gym mogging.” (more fit); “Filibuster mogging.” (You get it.)

—Lucy Karlin

Thanks for reading The Variable: Invariant’s Strategic Communications Newsletter! See you next time!