Friday 18 July 2008
Svlendid!
I have to say that Derek Williams' audacious PR stunt to continue his career as a Sven-Goran Eriksson lookalike is fantastic. How funny? Relatively harmless, but risky enough to earn him front-page coverage on the papers this morning. When done well, PR stunts can really pay off and I have no doubt that Mr Williams' lookalike career will now continue to flourish even though the former England football manager is no longer working in the UK. And for what cost? A flight to Mexico, a couple of nights in a hotel and probably a small fee for the two glamorous ladies dangling off each arm to complete the look. You can't buy front-page advertising for that kind of investment!
Bizarre Viral
This has to be one of the more bizarre viral videos I have seen in a little while, but allegedly the 'Will it blend?' series has become quite a hit! This video alone has had almost 850,000 views on YouTube at the time of creating this blog post and it's only been out there for a few days. All brand awareness for the iPhone I guess, not that they really need it at the moment! A nice bit a fun for a Friday blog post:
Thursday 17 July 2008
What an addictive corporate gift!
I've been clearing out my office a little today and have been sorting through a box of my other half's belongings that came from his old office before he moved job. In amongst this box was one of the best corporate giveaways I have ever seen. It's a little block broken down into a number of blocks that you can fold out and reshape - a little like a clever stress toy. On the different faces of the blocks are images representing the company, their logo and web address. I am going to steal this from my other half as I think it's very addictive and he won't miss it! Here's a little (rather ropey quality, I admit) video of the block in action:
Useful overview to social media
I know I bang on probably far too much about Twitter on this blog, but it is such a great source of useful info and links to resources. Here is another one that was flagged up recently by one of the very interesting people that I follow, Drew B from Hotwire (hope I got that right!). It is a slide show produced by one of their clients giving an overview and some useful stats about social media. I like the simplicity of this:
Thursday 10 July 2008
Animoto
Thanks to Paul Bradshaw (twitter.com/paulbradshaw) who I follow on Twitter, I learned this morning about a new slideshow service called Animoto. This is amazing. It's a wonderful substitute for anyone that wants a video on their website but can't afford the thousands of pounds that a video will cost.
Basically all you do is upload a selection of still images to the site, select a music track (they have a library of licence-free tracks for you to choose from) and the site does the work for you. I had a little play around using my rabbit photos (why not?) and here is what it created. This took about 20 mins to upload the photos and about 10 mins for the video to be created. I hadn't edited the photos or anything, so this is a real rough-and-ready attempt. Imagine what you can do with a little more effort.
I was then very easily able to put it on facebook (just the click of a button takes you straight through) and get the html code for embedding it in this blog post.
I will certainly be buying the commercial licence for using this site to create a little promo real for Pickle Jar Communications, and perhaps even offering this as a service to our clients. It is just wonderful!
Basically all you do is upload a selection of still images to the site, select a music track (they have a library of licence-free tracks for you to choose from) and the site does the work for you. I had a little play around using my rabbit photos (why not?) and here is what it created. This took about 20 mins to upload the photos and about 10 mins for the video to be created. I hadn't edited the photos or anything, so this is a real rough-and-ready attempt. Imagine what you can do with a little more effort.
I was then very easily able to put it on facebook (just the click of a button takes you straight through) and get the html code for embedding it in this blog post.
I will certainly be buying the commercial licence for using this site to create a little promo real for Pickle Jar Communications, and perhaps even offering this as a service to our clients. It is just wonderful!
Tuesday 8 July 2008
A PR Beast of a Feast
As I sat with my other half yesterday evening watching Channel 4 news I couldn't help but comment on how inappropriate it seemed that the news item reporting on G8 leaders discussing food shortages should be accompanied by cutaway shots of said G8 leaders sitting down to dinner. It was therefore no surprise when The Guardian dropped on my doorstep this morning to see as front page news the incongruous G8 feasting and the leading subject of conversation of the day being hailed as hypocrisy on the part of the G8 summit.
As ever when I see items on the news or making the front pages, I always think about the PR people working for the various organisations behind the stories or battling with them. Sometimes I inwardly congratulate and even envy them at times for pulling off such great publicity. Sometimes I pity them. Sometimes I get angry at them. This time, however, I just can't see how they could possibly win! If I were asked to organise an event to which 8 of the guests were going to be the leaders of some of the most powerful countries in the world, you can bet your bottom dollar that I would be recruiting top chefs to provide a sumptuous feast for them! However, if knowing that on that same day they would be discussing a global food crisis you would see a certain irony on putting on such a feast. So how do you win? There's a cultural difference at stake here too - the difference between what we might consider to be a feast in the UK and what the Japanese consider to be a feast. Is eight courses really that uncommon in Japan? I served five courses to guests in my little two-bedroom Coventry terrace house on Saturday evening.
I therefore pity the PR person who might have had any say in this. On the one hand the annual gathering of eight of the most powerful people in the world is something to celebrate and ought to be celebrated in style, on the other hand if they're discussing food shortages then only the most modest of dinners (or better still perhaps no food at all) was really going to keep people happy. I think perhaps with a budget of over £200m, perhaps there are some other extravagances of the G8 summit that ought to be looked at instead of the food, but no PR person is going to draw attention to any of those now, are they?
As ever when I see items on the news or making the front pages, I always think about the PR people working for the various organisations behind the stories or battling with them. Sometimes I inwardly congratulate and even envy them at times for pulling off such great publicity. Sometimes I pity them. Sometimes I get angry at them. This time, however, I just can't see how they could possibly win! If I were asked to organise an event to which 8 of the guests were going to be the leaders of some of the most powerful countries in the world, you can bet your bottom dollar that I would be recruiting top chefs to provide a sumptuous feast for them! However, if knowing that on that same day they would be discussing a global food crisis you would see a certain irony on putting on such a feast. So how do you win? There's a cultural difference at stake here too - the difference between what we might consider to be a feast in the UK and what the Japanese consider to be a feast. Is eight courses really that uncommon in Japan? I served five courses to guests in my little two-bedroom Coventry terrace house on Saturday evening.
I therefore pity the PR person who might have had any say in this. On the one hand the annual gathering of eight of the most powerful people in the world is something to celebrate and ought to be celebrated in style, on the other hand if they're discussing food shortages then only the most modest of dinners (or better still perhaps no food at all) was really going to keep people happy. I think perhaps with a budget of over £200m, perhaps there are some other extravagances of the G8 summit that ought to be looked at instead of the food, but no PR person is going to draw attention to any of those now, are they?
Tuesday 1 July 2008
A great example of the power of new media
I'm working late tonight. Because I'm working late, I'm missing out on a trip to the Coventry Pizza Express with my fiance and a group of our friends. Sounds like a fairly run-of-the-mill Tuesday night, doesn't it? However, there is a story behind this trip to Pizza Express - one which - combined with tonight's activities (and bearing in mind that they are still probably sat in the restaurant as I write this blog post) really demonstrates the power and speed of new media communications.
The background, in a nutshell, is that between us we've all experienced some examples of pretty poor customer service from this restaurant lately, despite the food being great and it being one of only a few places in Coventry city centre that we like going to and that suits all of our tastes. So, my friend Ben wrote this blog post a few days ago as a bit of a whinge about their customer service.
The blog post did the rounds thanks to the power of google and twitter and ultimately resulted in Ben receiving a call from the manager of the restaurant yesterday assuring him of their committment to customer service. So, true to form, the gang have headed over there tonight while I sit here working away.
As I'm working, one of said-gang and an avid Twitterati has posted a message linking through to a video recorded on his phone as they arrived at the restaurant this evening. In less than an hour the video had already been viewed 22 times. In case you can't quite follow, the gist of this is that the operations manager said that we could request to sit upstairs anytime we wanted, but when they've tested this out tonight, they've yet again been denied using the space upstairs (a space which they rarely seem to use even when the restaurant is full, hence the earlier complaints about customer service).
And I've also just received another Tweet from my fiance this time telling me that they've been refused another drink (just to be clear - they won't be drunk or anything at this time - they're just a bunch a nice young professionals with money to spend wanting to have a quiet drink).
What a great example of the power of mobile, video, and social networking, hey? They haven't even left the restaurant and already probably upwards of 30 or 40 people (by time I have also tweeted about this blog post) will be aware of this.
Twitter update: 10 mins after posting this blog
Jake (our talented videographer) says that customer service from the girl that served them tonight has been good - I just thought I ought to add this update to keep it fair to the staff that do deliver good service!
The background, in a nutshell, is that between us we've all experienced some examples of pretty poor customer service from this restaurant lately, despite the food being great and it being one of only a few places in Coventry city centre that we like going to and that suits all of our tastes. So, my friend Ben wrote this blog post a few days ago as a bit of a whinge about their customer service.
The blog post did the rounds thanks to the power of google and twitter and ultimately resulted in Ben receiving a call from the manager of the restaurant yesterday assuring him of their committment to customer service. So, true to form, the gang have headed over there tonight while I sit here working away.
As I'm working, one of said-gang and an avid Twitterati has posted a message linking through to a video recorded on his phone as they arrived at the restaurant this evening. In less than an hour the video had already been viewed 22 times. In case you can't quite follow, the gist of this is that the operations manager said that we could request to sit upstairs anytime we wanted, but when they've tested this out tonight, they've yet again been denied using the space upstairs (a space which they rarely seem to use even when the restaurant is full, hence the earlier complaints about customer service).
And I've also just received another Tweet from my fiance this time telling me that they've been refused another drink (just to be clear - they won't be drunk or anything at this time - they're just a bunch a nice young professionals with money to spend wanting to have a quiet drink).
What a great example of the power of mobile, video, and social networking, hey? They haven't even left the restaurant and already probably upwards of 30 or 40 people (by time I have also tweeted about this blog post) will be aware of this.
Twitter update: 10 mins after posting this blog
Jake (our talented videographer) says that customer service from the girl that served them tonight has been good - I just thought I ought to add this update to keep it fair to the staff that do deliver good service!
"Green" "Sex" "Cancer" "Secret" "Fat"
Great article in the NYT yesterday flagged up thanks to a new contact I've added on Twitter.
Need Press? Repeat: ‘Green,’ ‘Sex,’ ‘Cancer,’ ‘Secret,’ ‘Fat’
I don't often blog about more traditional PR approaches, but this is such a great article (though it does confirm what most of us PR peeps know already).
Back in my days as Head of Research-TV we ran several stories to the press on cancer. I remember many of our contacts and clients saying that they wouldn't do these stories anymore because they were tired and overdone, but the message of course is that it isn't they who set the news agenda and if the press are still carrying stories about cancer and you have a good and credible one to tell, then you'd be foolish not to, right?
Need Press? Repeat: ‘Green,’ ‘Sex,’ ‘Cancer,’ ‘Secret,’ ‘Fat’
I don't often blog about more traditional PR approaches, but this is such a great article (though it does confirm what most of us PR peeps know already).
Back in my days as Head of Research-TV we ran several stories to the press on cancer. I remember many of our contacts and clients saying that they wouldn't do these stories anymore because they were tired and overdone, but the message of course is that it isn't they who set the news agenda and if the press are still carrying stories about cancer and you have a good and credible one to tell, then you'd be foolish not to, right?
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