Skeletons in the Closet - An Olympic Issue

A row which has broken out over sponsorship of the 2012 London Olympics highlights an interesting issue.

It’s been 27 years since gas leaked out of a Union Carbide pesticide plant in India, killing around 15,000 people and injuring half a million more – an incident which the Indian Government claims is responsible for ongoing health problems today.

And it just so happens that Dow Chemicals – a major sponsor for next year’s games – are the present owners of Union Carbide – a link which hasn’t gone down well in some parts to say the least.

There have been calls for the Olympic Committee to drop Dow, with protestors reportedly burning effigies of top ranking Olympic officials.

But, as Associated Press has pointed out Dow didn’t own or operate the Union Carbide plant at the time of the incident. In fact they only became a major shareholder 17 years after the tragedy.

Nevertheless it seems they can not escape the legacy of the tragedy. The question is, at what point is a company allowed to move on? Could public opinion curtail the activities of Dow indefinitely, regardless of their current status and reputation?

If PR is about reputation management this is one hell of a challenge for the people of Dow.

And it’s a stark reminder that skeletons have a habit of popping out of the closet….

Cupcake Calamity

Did you read about the cake baker whose profit for the year has been wiped out – thanks to the popularity of a marketing initiative?

When Rachel Brown – a cake maker of 25 years – signed up to offer a Groupon deal, she probably imagined it would raise her profile and possibly win her some new customers. Well it’s certainly raised her profile – she’s all over the Daily Mail – but it’s nearly ruined her to boot.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2064208/Cupcake-calamity-Website-discount-deal-leaves-baker-swamped-orders-102-000-cakes-wipes-profits.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

From a PR perspective the coverage she’s achieved is a dream - and had she been running a different, less labour intensive, style of business then the Groupon deal could’ve been a massive marketing success.

My sympathy goes out to her it really does. Businesses are constantly being ‘sold to’ and it’s a challenge for anyone to figure out what’s worth pursing and what’s not.

I regularly review opportunities presented to clients and my advice is to take your time and make sure you know exactly what you’ll get for your money...

All credit to Mrs Brown, she took on extra staff and worked around the clock to fulfil as many orders as possible, determined to keep her reputation intact.  Let's hope some of those customers come back for more.  

Your Brand on TV - Guaranteed!

Of course you want to see your brand on TV – and now that product placement regulations have been relaxed new opportunities exist.

Nescafe was one of the first brands to strike up a deal – with its Dolce Gusto coffee machine on This Morning. And later this month Nationwide is set to make its debut in long-running soap Coronation Street with a cash machine in the corner shop - the first product placement in a UK primetime show.

The sums involved mean that product placement is likely to remain out of reach for all but major brands - which must surely add extra weight to the value of broadcast coverage achieved through PR.

It’s a fact that you don’t necessarily need big budgets to secure airtime – sometimes a little bit of creativity and PR magic is all it takes!

All Publicity is Good Publicity - Right?

Generally I’d agree, but sometimes you have to wonder how a business thinks it will benefit from certain types of coverage.

Take the trade press for instance. I have clients who could achieve coverage in a range of specialist titles very regularly. But they don’t want to. Why? Well, they’d rather concentrate on targeting media read by potential customers - rather than by their contemporaries and competitors.

It’s certainly more challenging getting these businesses into the local papers regularly, but the coverage achieved is worth a great deal. It helps to them to raise their profile, build their reputation and highlights their values – important marketing objectives.

Quality rather than quantity is what counts. A bulging cuttings book is worth little unless it’s been driven by clear thinking about key messages and key audiences.

As my former boss used to say ‘”f it was easy they’d do it themselves”.

If you can do it yourself then fantastic, but if you’re too busy with your day job to get around to some strategically-driven PR then time to call in the experts! Or leave it until you find the time…..

The Emperor's New Clothes

Now, I’m sure you know it’s all about your USP – the bit that makes you stand out from the rest. Which is all fine and dandy if you truly do have a USP. But in some sectors it’s not easy to get across what really makes you different (accountancy, for instance).  PR and marketing can be quite tricky too, because everyone claims to be the best.

So it was interesting to read what born-again Norwich marketing agency The Line had to say this week:

“Too many agencies claim to have a unique approach; claim to be ‘different’ or use industry speak like Big Ideas or On Time, On Brief and On Budget – as if it’s a unique feature of what they do, as opposed to a fundamental aspect of doing their job properly. The irony is, they’re all the same as the other agencies saying virtually the same thing…..”

I couldn’t agree more – and I’m proud to say I share The Line’s approach to business:

“Our job is to bring objectivity, wisdom, honesty and commitment to our clients’ businesses, working with them to think creatively about the best ways to market them and build connections that will make their business more successful.”

You see, added value is difficult to quantify – but it can make all the difference, especially in these challenging times.

Pumping the PR - When Breast is Best

When an ice cream company opted for a PR-led opening for their new parlour in Covent Garden, creativity was called for.

And baby did they get it!

By producing the world’s first breast milk ice cream, ‘Baby Gaga’ sold out within two hours of going on sale, with sales over the first two weeks 500% above expectations.

Needless to say the stunt generated huge media interest – including eight TV pieces, 23 radio interviews, 22 print articles and over 1,000 online pieces.

Regardless of your views on the stunt – what this clearly shows that it pays to be brave – especially if you’re relying on PR alone to launch your new outlet.

Only in London!

Man Bites Dog

Managing client expectations is an integral part of the job for most PR professionals. The harsh reality is that most stories don’t end up on national TV news. (Remember it’s often bad news that makes national headlines, so be careful what you wish for).

Anyway, I’ve just read an article by Gordon Platt, a former US ABC News producer, who’s penned his ten commandments for media relations. And I thought a couple were particularly worth sharing:

Thou shall tell a story. Reporters don’t write announcements; they write stories.

Thou shall make news. Is your announcement really news? And is it new or does it simply rehash old information? Imagine yourself taking a look at the day’s headlines as an average news consumer. Would this story interest you? Remember it’s a reporter’s job to sell stories—first to his or her editor and then to you, the public. If you wouldn’t read it, it’s not a story.

Thou shall recognise the forest and the trees. It’s all about context. If it’s your company each and every announcement may be of crucial importance and interest to you, and that’s the way it should be. However, it may not be of monumental importance to the world or even your industry. What’s news to a trade publication may not be news to The Wall Street Journal. Take a deep breath; be as objective as you possibly can, and gauge your outreach—and your expectations—accordingly.

Thou shall know what’s happening in the world. In the media, as in life, timing is everything. What might make the papers on a slow August day will not make the cut on an August day when the stock market is crashing. If there's major national or international news and your story can wait, hold it. If not, well, that’s sometimes the breaks.

Twitter Power

With public sector bodies under increasing pressure to demonstrate their worth, it seems some have been turning to Twitter.

Tameside Borough Council recently held a 24-hour twitter-thon to shout about its everyday activities – from blowing up balloons to cutting bowling greens. Not exactly earth shattering stuff but a low cost way of highlighting what gets done in an average day.

Sometimes PR gets too creative for its own good – and Tameside's twitter-thon was an engaging, straighforward and effective way of saying “we’re doing a great job”.

So before you get too carried away, remember what it is you’re trying to say – and don’t make things more complicated than you have to! The simplest ideas are often the best.

Want to hit the headlines?

Do it first!

Pizza Express is basking in the glow of the media spotlight today, following news of their new ‘pay now’ i-phone app.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2004167/Pizza-Express-diners-use-iPhones-pay-walk-out.html


Contactless technology is of course big news and for Pizza Express customers the new app means no more waiting to pay at the end of their meal.

Regardless of how successful the trial is, it’s a great bit of marketing by Pizza Express.

Be creative – take a look at what you do, give it a topical twist and see what you can come up with. It might just lead to some great PR!

Get On TV!

The Dragons are hungry - and on the lookout for invesment opportunities.  If you've got the nerve then why not apply for the next series?

Regardless of what happens in the den it'll be great experience and could help you get your name out to millions of TV viewers. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/apply/

Story of the Week: The Record Breaker

Get Me To The Church On Time!

What a great story – a Yorkshire vicar who has just set a Guinness world record with the fastest motorcycle hearse.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1385793/Like-bat-heaven-Vicar-claims-world-record-fastest-motorcycle-hearse.html

Nicely timed ahead of Dying Matters Awareness Week it’s fantastic PR for the entire funeral industry.

As well as profiling the availability of alternative forms of funeral transport (and believe me there are quite a few), and raising the profile of ‘heaven’s angel’ Rev. Biddiss and his Triumph Rocket, the story also makes the point that funeral professionals enjoy life just as much as the rest of us.

(The hearse even has it’s own facebook page). http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rocket-Motorcycle-Hearse/186681858017304

And of course the story is a sub-editor’s dream….’the faster pastor’, ‘bat out of heaven’, ‘god speed’, ‘meet the ‘rev’ vicar’, ‘the quicker vicar’….


A lot of people spend an awful lot of money on PR and can only dream of achieving this sort of coverage. It’s worth remembering that sometimes the simplest ideas are the most effective. Could you attempt to smash or set a record to raise your profile?

When the unthinkable happens...

The morning after a Bank Holiday weekend and news of at least two theme park tragedies are making headlines.

Of course it has to be a visitor attraction’s worst possible nightmare. There’s no going back and nothing they can do to turn back the clock. The best they can hope for is that they had a plan in place to cope.

We hear a lot about business contingency planning – how you’ll manage if your IT system blows up etc – but PR is often overlooked. But what would you do if you suddenly found yourself the centre of unwanted media attention?

Shrug it off and say all PR’s good PR or take it seriously and work hard to come out with your reputation intact?

Regardless of whether you are a manufacturer or service provider you need a crisis management plan - much the same as you need insurance.  Sadly things do go wrong – so prepare for the worst and expect the best.

Free Advertising in the Daily Mail

Blooming Cheek!

Hats off to Essex businessman Robert Blyth, whose daffodil display has led to some great PR and press coverage.


When local Town Hall officials caught sight of his 13,000 daffodil display - commissioned to promote his car boot fair business – they saw red. Even though the flowers were on his own land, Robert was accused of illegal advertising and ordered to dig up his display or face an escalating fine.

But days before the deadline the council backed down and Robert’s roadside daffodil display was granted a stay of execution.

So, while it might have looked as thought the stunt had backfired – the council helped Robert make it into the nationals – ensuring that millions of people now know about his car boot fairs.

I’d call that a great PR result!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1375663/Blooming-cheek-Businessman-ordered-dig-13-000-daffodils-arranged-companys-deemed-illegal-advertising.html

April Fools!

This coming Friday is a great opportunity to have some fun – and get some great PR!

 

The British press has a long tradition of teasing readers with April Fools’ stories – and savvy brands can get in on the act.

 

The trick is for your story to be as believable, fun - and photogenic - as possible. Last year’s gems included stories about:

 

• Virgin Media using ferrets to help lay broadband cables
• AA patrolmen testing ‘rapid response’ James Bond-style rocket powered jetpacks
• The Queen opting to travel by Easy Jet to save money
• The Sun’s new edible newsprint (warning: May contain nuts)
• Development of a new body odour absorbing shirt (Gillette)
• A new Google feature to translate animal ‘speech’
• Colour coded bonnet badges for BMW’s – aligned to your political allegiance
• Launch of a left handed sandwich
• A new WD 40 aftershave

 So get your thinking cap on – and have some fun this Friday!

 

PR for Dummies!

Random acts of kindness…
...are one of the key ways brands will thrive in a connected economy, according to leading trend watchers.

Yes, it seems that virtual living is all well and good – but what customers really want is to feel that someone cares.

Generation G consumers (G for generosity not greed) are apparently disgusted with big, arrogant, sloppy, out-of-touch institutions. They want interactions with brands to be genuine and enjoyable (financial institutions, utility companies etc take note).

So if you’re on the lookout for some low-cost PR, consider how you can incorporate some random acts of kindness into your daily dealings with customers.

Go on - make someone’s day!

No Such Thing as Bad PR!

I don’t suppose acclaimed journalist AA Gill will be hurrying back to Norfolk anytime soon, judging by his rant this week’s Sunday Times.

Food writers are often criticised for their apparent unwillingness to travel outside of central London – and AA Gill clearly wants to make the point that, well, it just isn’t worth the trouble.

Not content with reviewing his meal, he turned the piece into an all-out, no-holds-barred attack on Norfolk:

…Norfolk lives up to its stereotype with wall-eyed, tongue-tied, spittle-flecked indignation. As you cross the border from Cambridgeshire, there’s a proud sign saying, “Norfolk, twinned with Narnia… This has always been a place apart. The hernia on the end of England. A flat, fertile, damp, dank land out of which has grown all manner of revelation and dour certainty. It’s a place of witches and heretics, of revisionists and canting contrarians…

Given the hot water the BBC Top Gear team found themselves in following their remarks about the Mexicans, AA Gill had better watch out.

There are whole armies of marketing and PR folks here in Norfolk who dedicate themselves to promoting the wonders of the county – and articles such as this certainly do not help.

The tourism and hospitality industries are tough places to make a living and an awful lot of people in Norfolk are doing the very best they can.

From a PR point of view I hope the .….does hit the fan and that Norfolk gets its chance to fight back and laugh in his face. After all - there’s no such thing as bad PR!

When PR is simply not enough....

Breaking news: Britain’s top banks are poised to hire a PR agency to rehabilitate the industry’s reputation among small businesses.

Oh, and it’s believed that there’s about £200,000 in the pot for the first six months.

From where I’m sitting, it’ll take more than PR to reposition banks as business’ best friend!

Off-shore call centres, lack of access to ‘business managers’, incredibly slow processing times for loan applications, hefty bank charges (for paying money in as well as taking it out), miserly interest rates, blatant disregard for their own ‘service promises’…..

What’s amusing – and alarming – is that someone, somewhere clearly thought that all it would take to sort the banking crisis out was a bit of PR.

And it’s not even April 1st.

Making PR Count - On the Bottom Line

The fascinating thing about helping businesses with their PR is that you get to find out what makes them tick.

In these tough economic times marketing and PR are easy targets – something that’s nice to have when there’s plenty in the pot, but easy to cut overheads when things get tough. Why? Well unless your marketing and PR can really be seen to be adding value then of course they’ll be considered ‘non essentials’.

Which is why you have to start at the beginning. Before the talk moves onto headline grabbing stuff, any PR professional worth their salt will want to understand what your business is all about.

For a start what are your goals, challenges, strengths – and weaknesses? What’s the competition like? how do they market themselves? and so on. It’s only then that a PR programme can be devised that is genuinely in tune with your business – one that is totally geared towards business objectives. Importantly, one that really adds value.

So if you’re serious about PR then be prepared to share (what might be sensitive information) and to be challenged. Don’t be impatient at the beginning – proper planning will ensure your PR is built on solid foundations. After all, who wants to live in a house built on sand?

Making an Exhibition of Yourself

A day at Hospitality 2011 yesterday at the NEC provided me with some food for thought….


Most exhibitions don’t come cheap, yet it’s surprising just how many businesses fail to maximise their investment from a PR perspective:

Here are ten top tips:

1. Start early - remember deadlines may be months ahead of the actual event

2. Take time to read through the exhibitors’ manual, some are extremely informative and can save you lots of time

3. Find out which magazines are planning show/exhibition preview features and check editorial deadlines (remember ‘copy deadlines’ often refer to advertising deadlines, which will be a lot later than editorial deadlines)

4. Prepare your show preview press release highlighting what you will be exhibiting (ideally something new)

5. Distribute your release, along with a professional high res image

6. Spread the word – tell everyone you’ll be there. Don’t forget regional and social media!

7. Invite key journalists to visit your stand

8. Prepare a press pack for the show – a journalist’s first stop will be the exhibition press lounge, so make sure you have press packs available, summarising who you are and what you’re exhibiting

9. Unless you’ve got something really special to unveil/announce don’t waste your time hosting a press conference at the show – it’s usually better to work with the media one to one

10. Prepare a show follow up release – sing about your success!

Ice Road Truckers

Did you see last night’s Channel 5 Eddie Stobart documentary? http://www.five.tv/shows/eddie-stobart-trucks-trailers-and-tinsel/episodes/eddie-stobart-trucks-trailers-and-tinsel

What great PR! – an hour long special showcasing how the company’s truck drivers, gritting crews and logistics team battled against some of the worst snowfall in years to keep shops stocked with Christmas essentials.

It had it all – a chirpy, upbeat (and attractive) young woman trucker, the driver who kept his legs crossed to ensure his toy delivery was bang on time “well Father Christmas is never late”, and the lads who worked through the night to grit the depot by hand.

And while the PR bosses must’ve squirmed when one of the truckers insisted on cameras being turned off when he got his artic temporarily stuck up a snowy country lane, after missing the Tesco turning, it all came good in the end.

A great PR job guys – you made it look deceptively easy.

To be fair, it’s highly unlikely most businesses will find themselves the topic of a documentary, which is probably just as well. It’s not for the faint-hearted!

I worked closely with the film crew during the filming of a Delia Smith documentary a number of years ago and all I’ll say is that it’s a very delicate balancing act between what makes good TV and what you/the client wants to portray. You’ve only got to listen to The Real Housewives of Orange County bickering during a reunion show to get the gist…

So, unless you’re extremely media savvy then proceed at your peril when a documentary crew comes calling – you might not like what you see!

All I can say is well done Eddie Stobart.

http://www.stobartgroup.co.uk/NewsCentre/NewsArticle/Eddie-Stobart-Delivers-Christmas-In-Festive-TV-Special/