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/