
Tuesday, 27 December 2011
Dockin' around the Christmas tree...

Friday, 9 December 2011
Lobbying in the spotlight

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
Monday, 7 November 2011
It's not just naked women
Monday, 31 October 2011
Heinz catch up with ketchup

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...
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
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...
Monday, 17 October 2011
Can you see the future?

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...
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Blackberry in a PR jam

Friday, 7 October 2011
'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)

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)
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Milking the media...

In-cider the Jacques Townhouse

Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Who is dumber: Internet Explorer users or the media?

Tuesday, 12 July 2011
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.
Monday, 13 June 2011
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.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
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!).
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
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.
Monday, 4 April 2011

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
Thursday, 24 February 2011
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.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
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.
Friday, 4 February 2011
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...
Monday, 31 January 2011
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.
Friday, 28 January 2011
Quora - the new Twitter?

Wednesday, 26 January 2011
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...
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