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?