Dockin' around the Christmas tree...

As over a million iPads and Kindles are unwrapped this Christmas, newspapers are publishing their first Christmas day editions since 1912. While excited new digital media owners scour the Internet for the favourite publications, Christmas is now a landmark in the media calendar as newspapers publish their very best work to lure digital subscribers. While newspapers as news generators will continue to flourish, whether it will be on paper or not is another matter. This means news will look different: it will be faster, more interactive, with video and click throughs for more information. This means PR will be different too. Read this Guardian article for more.

Lobbying in the spotlight

A parliamentary investigation into the activities of lobbying firms with links to UK ministers is announced today. This comes at the end of a week that has seen lobbying in the spotlight with a sting operation involving the PR firm Bell Pottinger. See this film as journalists pose as representatives of the government of Uzbekistan, speaking to the MD of the firm, and exposing links to government officials, their role in editing Wikipedia and the manipulation of Google rankings to drown out stories about child labour.

Tim Collins, MD of the firm, claimed "I've been working with people like Steve Hilton, David Cameron, George Osborne for 20 years-plus. There is not a problem getting the messages through". One example was David Cameron raising issues of copyright infringement on behalf of Dyson, with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. Tim Collins said "He (the Prime Minister) was doing it because we asked him to do it." Meanwhile Downing Street insist: "Bell Pottinger nor any other lobbying firm has any say or influence over government policy" and called accusations "outrageous".

The investigation is supported least strongly by conservative MPs who tend to be more heavily implicated in engaging with lobbyists, and senior executives of Bell Pottinger have been invited as witnesses. For an overview of the issue see this opinion piece in the Independent

It's not just naked women

In the tutorials we often talk about how much naked women are used to sell stuff to men - here's a fun example of an, almost, naked man in a great PR stunt aimed at young women in continental Europe. All the ingredients are there: sex, staying fit, a night out... Great video on youTube - this is the kind of thing that gets forwarded and it shows the brand, a slimming drink from France.

Heinz catch up with ketchup

Heinz have launched their first ever limited edition product, a balsamic vinegar ketchup - and the launch has been largely via social media. 57 bottles went out to food bloggers and 'VIPs' at a food breakfast, and their facebook fans will be the first of the public to be able to buy the new product - with the first 3000 to 'like' it being first in the queue.

AdAge report that Neil Kleiner, head of social media at Havas' Media Contacts (the PR firm) said, "This is a great PR stunt. It's unexpected for Heinz - which is not the first brand you think of in terms of social media - so it has created a lot of buzz. People go to Facebook to engage with friends; they are only interested in brands if there's something in it for them, like discounting, vouchers or exclusives."

The campaign has added another 9000 fans to their Facebook page (which already had 45,000), appeared on food and other blogs such as the Huffington Post, and Heinz are also launching an augmented reality app with recipes - and yes, it's also been in the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, and even the new York Times...

News? What news?

From Tom Chivers' (Telegraph journalist) twitter feed: "PR email: 'Opportunity to film and photograph model and eco champion Donna Air, modelling a dress made entirely of sheep’s wool insulation'. You don't get that sort of opportunity everyday". Hardly newsworthy, eh? But look out for it over the next week or so...

Can you see the future?

Yes, you can do better than looking at an IKEA light rigged up to look like a crystal ball, like this lass here, when looking into the future... As a PR professional, your ability to predict the next trend, the next smash hit, the next big news, is key to your success for 2 reasons:
1) people won't read old news - you have to be cutting edge,
2) new ideas spark creativity - a new idea with your tired old product may create something extraordinary.
Here are some useful sources for trend spotting: trendwatching.com, TrendHunter magazine, YouTube trends blog, Mintel (including this consumer trends article), Euromonitor, Office for National Statistics (UK government) e.g. this report on household spend, and watch the newspapers and magazines too - here's a repeat of a Trendwatching.com article in the Independent...

Blackberry in a PR jam

As Blackberry users continue to experience email and internet outages, leaving them with 'essentially, a phone attached to a tiny typewriter' (thanks, Tom Chivers of the Daily Telegraph) we have a great example of crisis management, or not, as in this case. Chivers has also penned this excellent blog entry about the failure of Blackberry's PR in the face of crisis, comparing the company's response to that of Apple: "it's hard to imagine a crisis like this enveloping Apple, but if it did, you'd expect round-the-clock crisis management, constant, helpfully communication and swift resolution". Interestingly - Apple's handling of the iPhone 4 antenna gate story was neither helpful nor swift. How we forget...

'OMG. Someone dissed the Bloggess. The fallout? Spec-tac-u-lar'

The Bloggess is a blogger extraordinaire who frequently comments on PR 'professionals' and their profligate use of bribes, pointless press releases and offers of coupons to encourage her to promote their wares. So although her reply to a grammatically and aesthetically disturbing email about the "Kardashian's (sic)' and 'pantyhose' was both witty and biting, she didn't expect to be copied in on an unwisely 'reply-all'ed email calling her a 'fucking bitch' (sorry for the language but that's a direct quote from a vice-president of a PR firm).
Cue uproar across the blogosphere and amongst the twitterati: not only had Erica (presumably an account exec) threatened not to send any more 'advertising opportunities' through to the Bloggess (who routinely rejects such opportunities anyway) but the unfortunate PR VP (Jose) accused her of being snarky, rude and unprofessional. Exactly the best PR approach with an influential blogger followed by many other bloggers, who all tweet too and are more than happy to tear PR professionals apart - the very PR professionals who seem to believe bloggers are at their beck and call. Beware PR people: the bloggers are way more powerful than you... (N.B. the above title is from BushBabeofOz on Twitter)

Milking the media...

This summer the story of breast milk icecream ran and ran and ran. Whether it was the revelation that The Icecreamists of Covent Garden were selling icecream made with donated breast milk, or the saga of the local council taking samples and halting sales, or Lady Gaga suing to change the icecream's name (Baby Gaga...) - this story was in almost every UK national paper, most London newspapers, on the BBC, on blogs and news outlets aropund the globe. And it was all PR. The Icecreamists created a product they knew would outrage, stoke debates, engage celebrities and tick all the boxes of newsworthiness for publicity, helped by Taylor Herring PR. Inspired.

In-cider the Jacques Townhouse

This summer, cider brand Jacques opened a pop-up hotel for just nine days on the streets on London, inviting celebrities in film, music and fashion to attend and bring the name of Jacques to magazines and newspapers across the country. Here are some of the press articles the event prompted: Jaime Winstone in Glamour, Sophie-Ellis Bextor in the Observer , Hello magazine, Harpers Bazaar, Meanwhile, the blogosphere picked up on it too, passing on word of the townhouse and the cider e.g. StylePA, GirlalaMode.

Who is dumber: Internet Explorer users or the media?

As we start the new term it seems a good time to review some PR happenings of the summer... This first one is a hoax: a press release claiming that Internet Explorer users have a lower IQ than other browser users was picked up and reported in by the BBC, CNN, Forbes, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and many other prominent media outlets. Only when BBC readers found that the company behind the 'research' had only been trading for a month, had staff photos lifted from a French company and refused to answer calls did they begin to question whether these media should have checked their sources a little better. With the competition to fill paper and web pages as quickly as possible, standards slip, leading us to question the credibility of modern media with implications for the credibilty of PR. See teh blog 'A PR Guy's Musings' by Stuart Bruce for more.

Lessons from the demise of the News of the World

Front pages this week are dominated by the demise of the News of the World, the biggest selling Sunday paper until its final edition last weekend, when forced to close in the face of the phone hacking scandal. What is less reported is the role of consumers in bringing the paper down, using activism tactics to express their dismay at their lack of ethics. Public relations practitioners have a lot to learn from this: that consumers have more power than ever; that they know how to use it; and that they won't stand for immoral practices in modern business. The Huffpost Business blog reviews this in depth, providing excellent insight into modern PR issues.

Good idea + good idea = great idea

Many of this year's students found it challenging to come up with completely new ideas for PR, but be assured - there is NO SUCH THING as a completely new idea (well, 99.99% of the time anyway). For instance: take T-Shirt War(!!) the YouTube phenomenon made for minimal budget by Rhett and Link, with over 7 million hits. To this add the oogachaka dancing baby, one of the first internet viral phenomena back in 1996, later immortalised in the TV show Ally McBeal. And what do you get? The new Evian dancing baby T-shirt TV ad, which is brilliant all its own right.

Online reputation management

Today's 'The Times' has a good article on page 9, about the manipulation of online reputation particularly through reviews posted on TripAdvisor or Amazon. This is either about organisations enhancing their own reputation, using tactics such as posting fake positive reviews, hiding genuine negative reviews, building links from other sites, and amassing fake followers and 'likes' on Facebook and Twitter - all of which boost search engine rankings or build reputation. Or, more insidiously, competitors can post fake but damaging reviews, or find other ways to scupper search engine rankings. This is leading to online war, where rankings are skewed by professional online reputation management companies promoting their clients, and demoting the opposition. This practice is outsourced to countries such as India and Thailand, where low-paid workers create fake accounts and post numerous blogs and reviews for or against the targeted companies. I would provide a link to 'The Times' but as that involves paying for online access - here's a similar Daily Mail article from today (both emanating from the same press release!).

Fifa sponsors fear football image tainted

As Fifa continue with presidential elections despite accusations of bribery and corruption, their key sponsors Emirates Airlines, Coca-Cola and Adidas - as Coca-Cola spokesman Petro Kacur said "The current allegations being raised are distressing and bad for the sport". The issue here is image transfer potential (see Consumer PR lecture) - if football looks bad, so do its sponsors. See this Sky News article for more info.

Ah, April Fools day - a PR bonanza. But I like this one because I kind of hope it would be true. The Playmobil Apple store, courtesy of the website Think Geek who are now having their name forwarded and reforwarded around the interweb. Check out where you iPhone 4 can fit in to be the real screen at Steve Jobs presentation, check out the mini iPads, check out the the mini MacBooks... See their website for more

Churnalism exposed

'Churnalism' - the practice of churning out news articles cut and pasted from press releases with little if any fact checking and corroboration - is exposed in a new website launched this month, churnalism.com. The site is related to the charity the Media Standards Trust. The founders of the site announced its launch by releasing fake stories and observing how the press reported them - read today's Guardian article for more information with a great podcast explaining the idea.

Corporations tackle activism from the inside

Today, the Guardian accuses 'Big business [of] spying on green activists' as large energy corporations are revealed to be paying agents to infiltrate UK activist groups and feed back valuable information. This 'alternative' approach to issues management will anger activists further. Take a look at the comments at the end for a debate on whether companies that have 'green' credentials are perceived as green as they'd like to be.

Creativity podcast

For those of you struggling with developing truly new, original ideas for coursework and tutorials, here's a podcast from PR Week that's specific to PR. There's also an accompanying article where a few different techniques are tested by some genuine PR types. I'm glad to say most of it mirrors what I've been saying in tutorials!! i.e. get out there, watch out for PR you like, use other sources such as museum exhibitions, cinema, interesting webpages...and put it all together with your brand to create some new ideas. Also note their reference to 'black hatting' other people's ideas - they're talking about the 6 hats technique.

Looking for a job? Beware...

Last Tuesday a BBC expose focused on Modus Publicity, fashion PR agency, and their policy of employing up to 20 interns at a time - and paying them nothing. In an industry where work experience is vital and competition for jobs is tough, beware PR firms who seek mainly to take advantage of graduates desperate for jobs. See this PR Week article for more...

Starbucks mucks up?

Starsbuck coffee chain are having a bad time on the PR front. Despite the huge success of their CSR initiative to sell fairtrade coffee, making them the largest purchaser of fairtrade coffee in the world, elsewhere there is backlash. First they announced that they are withdrawing the chunky white coffee mugs in the UK - leading to revolt from consumers according to PR Week. Now they announce the launch of a drinks cup that is so large it could technically overfill many stomachs. This latter story has caught the imagination of the blogosphere...see here for more information. This story is now out of control, with a graphic that says a thousand words.

Quora - the new Twitter?

Quora, a new way to ask and answer questions online, set up by two founders of Facebook, is rumoured to be the next big thing in social media. With recommendations on Quora driving sales, or criticisms likely to damage brands, PR Week advise PR professionals to get to know the new site. Maybe you should too.

Toyota Product recall

Have Toyota learned a lesson after their disastrous handling of the product recalls due to faulty accelerators and brakes last year? As they now recall 1.7 million cars with potentially faulty fuel systems, commentators argue that this risk is tiny, but that Toyota have learned that complete transparency is the only way forward in this internet age.

2011 Edelman Trust Barometer

The 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer is out this week. The Barometer, from PR agency Edelman, is a PR exercise in their own right as thought leaders in PR. It shows that trust in CEOs is on the up for the second year in a row - an important issue for corporate PR as CEOs are key spokespeople for their companies. Meanwhile, trust in 'a person like me' dropped 3 places: the idea that we want friends to recommend brands etc underpins much of the use of social marketing in PR. Check their website out to also see how worldwide trust in th US (and therefore US brands and companies) is dropping and other useful insights. See PR Week's views for more information...