....the world's leading....

2007-08-13T08:26:00.000+01:00

Change of address...

We've moved. This is where you need to be now:

http://www.theworldsleading.net/

We'd outgrown the old place and, well, we wanted to be near some decent schools.

Come on over and have a look. Excuse the mess. You know what it's like when you've just moved in.

2007-08-10T10:04:00.000+01:00

Where everybody knows your name….

Way back when, TWL happily chuntered away, moaning about general fuck-wittery in the tech PR industry. Over time some like minded old codgers and a few bright young sparks joined the ramblings, and we all hung out together in the lower rungs of humour such as sarcasm, irony and innuendo.

Doubtless some pedant will argue the toss, but it was more of a community than a blog and everything felt very special.

The stat counter crept steadily upwards and, suddenly, TWL hit a tipping point. In bell-end curve terms, the early adopters were joined by the early majority. Or, if you’d prefer, the clock struck 11:00pm on a Saturday night and the nice people sat chatting in a decent curry house were suddenly joined by a bunch of gobby pissheads desperate to be heard but with nothing of any value to say.

We think it started with the RSS feed. Think about RSS. Doesn’t it seem a bit Jabba the Hut? Some fat lazy bastard who simply sets up their PC to suck information into their consume-everything lifestyle. Forget a meander down to the local pub for a chat with some old friends. Give me drip-feed Slug & Lettuce, All Bar One, Rat & Parrot, O’Neill’s and carte blanche to argue. Why have 4% bitter when you can have 6% super lager? Why have a conversation when you can have automated opportunities to spout opinion? Why use subtlety when you can shout?

All too often, in a very English way, we simply find a different local. But this is our pub and we’re going to make a stand.

So don’t be surprised if the RSS feed goes. It seems to have the same effect as bouncers; repelling intelligent people while attracting sink estate vermin donning black slip-on shoes and gelled hair. We’re thinking fuck RSS, fuck Technorati and fuck all those two-bob ‘influence surveys.’ We'd lose points for not having RSS, but perhaps we’ll lose the undesirables too?

To date TWL has only rejected a handful of comments. From now on, in an effort to rid TWL of the Sovereign ring brigade, future comments will be moderated not only for anything approaching libel, but for stupidity and any clear lack of humour. TWL takes up enough time as it is, without having to point out to idiots that they just aren't getting it. It's quicker to hit the 'reject comment' button.

We may end up with a smaller audience, but, it’ll be one with which we're happy to have a conversation...

2007-08-08T13:40:00.000+01:00

This could be handy...

...if it gets populated.

Journoparties...like a calendar. Of press parties. And other events.

You'll be able to avoid clashes or, even better, see what everyone one else is up to.

2007-08-08T11:25:00.000+01:00

Global...in a most American way...

So weve all seen the feisty comment from Rachel Bremer in PRWeak, right? She's the head of San Francisco tech agency Spark PR's new office in London. Appears that she's less than impressed with the quality of tech PR over here:

"It seems like there is a need for good PR firms with really solid tech experience in London"

Not that Spark PR's ambitions stop at London. Oh no. Despite the fact that Bremer is currently the company's only employee outside San Francisco, the London office marks the establishment of "European operations".

No, wait. That's not all. Bremer's one-way San Fran to London business class ticket actually represents global expansion. Or so the press release tells me. And Spark PR's home page.

Spark Public Relations...announced it is expanding its global footprint by establishing European operations in London....the new office will be closely linked with the agency’s headquarters in San Francisco and provide clients with highly integrated global public relations services.

“With our European office now in place, we are able to provide superior global service and have a front row seat to the technical innovation coming out of Europe,” said Rachel Bremer.

Thing is, there's already a company in London doing PR for tech clients that calls itself Spark...the lovely people at Spark Communications who kindly helped out with the logistics for our Christmas drinks last year (by 'logistics' I mean getting to the bar early and bagging a load of seats...)

Surely some scope for confusion? I asked Lauren Richards, md at Spark Communications:

"We may get calls from journalists about their clients and we are a bit concerned about them trading on our reputation, but to be fair to them they have considered this and are calling themselves SPR Europe. We just hope this continues and they don’t start calling themselves Spark as this would cause confusion.

"It is generally tough for the smaller US-led PR firms to start up in the UK as the market is quite different, which is why they generally acquire. For example, the Neva Group (which got bought by Weber Shandwick) never managed to grow above two people in the UK and that was when the technology market was booming in the late 90s. However, we’re sure SPR have researched the market thoroughly, and obviously many US firms have succeeded in Europe."

Yes, it is true that Spark PR in Europe is calling itself SPR Europe...that should help.

I hadn't heard about the Neva Group before. Mind you, with a name like that it couldn't have been a huge surprise things didn't work out. Strapline: "Neva say Neva" perhaps..?

Anyway, TWL welcomes Spark PR to London...whatever it's called...and we're looking forward to seeing how this tech PR lark should really be done.

2007-08-07T20:47:00.001+01:00

Sturgeon, fuckwit...updated...

Will Sturgeon...hack turned Lewis flack...now blogging. Here.

(NB: the 'fuckwit' in the headline does not refer to Will, it refers to my picture editor. As in, "I said Sturgeon, fuckwit, not surgeon..." Still, grabs the attention, doesn't it?)

2007-08-07T18:08:00.000+01:00

Not much use in the tech media...

...perhaps.

I noticed 'THHB' pop up in our comments earlier. "Who's that?" I thought.

Ladies and gents, I give you, The Hot Hack Blog!

The comment wasn't, oddly, in relation to our post about the ZDNet team. It was on the one about Nick Booth.

I'm saying nothing.

2007-08-07T13:04:00.000+01:00

Just stick the PowerPoint on the SatNav...

Lovely idea from Nick Booth hidden in a Response Source request for ComputerWeekly.com:

"Does anyone want to give me a car briefing? That's where you pick me up at 8am from my house, and give me a briefing as we drive from Kingston to Sutton. The return journey is also available. It's mobile working in its truest sense. And there may be a story in it. Terms and conditions apply."

Let us know if you take him up on his, um, kind offer...

2007-08-07T07:21:00.000+01:00

Community help….

Whilst racking their brains on new ways of making cash, ZDNet has decided to push its ZDNet Community. A forum for IT people where they can debate things with their peers is a cracking idea and, doubtless, a good money-spinner if they get it right.

Which is doubtful, given the flyer we’ve just seen.

As anyone that has tried to get a time-pressed IT director to do a case study will know, these guys don’t really like or trust ‘the press.’ So using a forum attached to a big publishing house is a big ask, especially one that’s notorious for hysterical click-friendly headlines.

Expecting these IT guys to happily chat with journos about their issues is an even bigger assumption. Inviting them to turn up at ZDNet’s online pub, the White Hart, to join Rupert Goodwins, Tom Espiner, Peter Judge and Charles McLellan for a virtual drink is the height of optimism.

We’re not sure of the conversation in the picture, but it looks to us as if Goodwins is making a bold claim about his appendage. The look on Judge’s face suggests he might be wondering if that’s really the table leg he’s wrapped his foot round. Meanwhile Barry from EastEnders is intent on flogging an old Cortina to McLellan.

We're also not sure if anyone other than white males are invited to the White Hart. What we do know is that the four of them are eeking out the last dregs of their drinks waiting for a PR to turn up.

The back of the flyer is no better.

Give it three weeks before you see:

billynomates: bueller?
billynomates: bueller?
billynomates: bueller?

2007-08-06T08:46:00.000+01:00

Cash for questions...cash for answers...

...cash for simply turning up.

Apparently, in China, it's normal practive for hacks to receive cash payments - known as 'transport money' - from PR companies for attending press events.

I read that the practice has been criticised as it "skews coverage in an increasingly competitive news market". It also seems, however, to enjoy official endorsement as the payments - also know as 'hongbao' by hacks (or 'red envelopes') - are based on rates agreed with China's Public Relations Association.

I think it's a great idea. Hacks get to supplement their pitiful incomes, PRs can guarantee a nice piece of coverage. There's no downside.

There is..? Editorial intewhat? Don't know what you're talking about.

2007-08-02T12:39:00.001+01:00

When two and two makes 3...

I've just seen the PRWeak story about Guy Middleton - managing editor of Mobile magazine - being appointed as head of corporate communications at 3. As the story succinctly puts it:

"He has worked in tech and business journalism for ten years, but has no PR or comms experience."

I've got more than a decade's technology PR experience...what do you reckon the chances are of my being appointed managing editor of, say, Computing?

Slim, I reckon.

Does that devalue the job of PR? Or should we be proud that the industry has attracted a senior journalist to its ranks?

2007-07-31T13:46:00.001+01:00

No cake? No comment...

If you're a tech PR and you didn't get one of these today you might as well pack up your devices and find another profession. It's a first birthday cake, courtesy of ITPro.

It's a generous gift too. Given the weight of the delicious jam sponge, our scales tell us that each would have cost £1.45 to send.

Picture Chris Green in the postroom last night. "One for a tech PR, one for me. One for a tech PR, one for me. One for a tech PR..."

Happy birthday ITPro..!

2007-07-31T12:34:00.001+01:00

A day in whose life..?

A while a go we published a post about a typical day in the life of a tech PR exec. It obviously banged the bell of truth for many people...comments flooded in, other blogs pointed to it gleefully. Hell, there was even a call to add TWL to the reading list of PR degree courses...

Well, there's another Day in the Life in town. Compare and contrast...

2007-07-31T08:54:00.000+01:00

Brace yourself Figgis…

...because this post is about Edelman.

And to ensure we don’t fall foul of the self-righteous transparency brigade, let me state the bleedin’ obvious – this post is part of Edelman’s ‘editorial sponsorship’ to drive awareness of its ‘PR brain of Britain’ competition.

Doubtless this is another ‘unpleasant surprise’ for some readers. If you don’t like it, look away now. Or imagine you’re watching telly and the adverts come on. Pop out to the kitchen and make a cuppa. Or pretend it’s Sunday evening and Heartbeat has just started. Go upstairs, log on, and start delegating Monday’s To-Do list.

And if you’re worried that Edelman may take your most insightful 600 words and ‘resell’ them in some VAR type way to the highest paying client, either don’t participate or just be thankful that, finally, someone listened - albeit while mugging you in broad daylight.

With the caveats out of the way, here’s the update. Remember the overly-complex sliding scale of reward associated with the competition? Well it turns out that the top end prizes are seats at Edelman’s 2.0 Weekend Summit in Berlin.

Some of Edelman’s biggest hitters will be there, and a host of special guests that in a Glastonbury type way are yet to be announced (persuaded/bribed/blackmailed). Although it could be a jolly clever drip-feed PR strategy. But probably not.

There’s a case study on Wal-Mart, which should be fun for 2.0 fans, a ‘hands-on' session that involves 'execution' and some crisis simulation which presumably involves overturned chairs and broken tables. Or maybe that’s the Wal-Mart case study. Oh, who knows? Suffice to say, it should be a pretty useful weekend for anyone wanting to bamboozle their colleagues and clients with a whole load of new buzzwords.

The weekend will doubtless be eased along with copious amounts of alcohol during which surely everyone will wonder whether they should joke with Corneila Kunze about her unfortunate surname.

If you need a refresher on the perfectly opaque entry criteria, click here. For those that enter but don’t get selected to attend, delegates are staying at the Intercontinental in Berlin. In true World Cup fashion, feel free to turn up outside the hotel in the middle of the night with the loudest oompah band money can buy…

2007-07-29T14:26:00.000+01:00

Great 2.0 bores of our time….

“It’s such a brilliant time to be in PR…..I mean, the whole social networking thing is completely revolutionising the way people interact….it’s rewriting the rules of engagement……and PR is at the forefront of it…..just look at the success of MySpace, although of course it’s Facebook that’s really hot at the moment….he’s only 23 you know….a friend of mine knows him….the social media dynamic is seeing small groups of people that have a similar interest coming together…..it’s really quite earnest…..and for companies to engage effectively they must be really transparent…..there’s a two-way dialogue that advertisers really don’t understand…..they are stuck in broadcast mode, not engagement….PR really is overtaking advertising…….have you seen my Facebook profile….need to apply the Long Tail principle…..how lots of people still buy David Bowie’s back catalogue…..there is a lot of money to be made by selling just two or three copies of something every month….you must really keep your own blog before advising others on running one….but of course it’s more than just blogs…..RSS……Flickr, Facebook and….um….mobile applications….yes it’s more than just kids using IM….it’s about citizen journalism….when you watch the news now, have you noticed how even the BBC will use video content shot by witnesses…just normal members of the public…everyone is a potential journalist….and comment, of course, that’s what the blogosphere excels in…it’s the democratisation of opinion…..it’s such a great moment to be in PR….”

2007-07-26T07:32:00.000+01:00

At least they're not colour blind...

Did you see Chris Green's little rant yesterday?

He thinks that some people should be banned from using technology. These include people that shout at their mobile phones on the train, colleagues who print their emails to read, his sister who breaks everything she touches and, of course, Text 100:

"In this job, I never cease to be amazed at how badly some people, who have no excuse, use technology.

"For example, I’ve just received a press release from an agency called Text 100, that addressed me as “Dear Green” – thus ensuring that said press release will be deleted without ever being read, let alone turned into a news story.

"Clearly that PR agency could do with sending some of its staff on a basic course on how to do a mail merge properly."

2007-07-25T10:02:00.001+01:00

Big agency big hitter in big action...

It's not often that we get the opportunity to show you one of the UK's top tech PR pros in action...but today we can. Here's Mark Jackson - most recent of our Q&A subjects - doing what the top men and women in agency do best...spouting off in front of PowerPoint.

Jackson's presenting the findings of Hill & Knowlton's research into what influences IT decision-makers. Watch it and learn. Or perhaps don't.

Or, like me, simply wonder whether there's actually anyone in the room with him. I mean, there's no applause at the end or anything...

2007-07-24T08:54:00.000+01:00

There is no try...

I see that Bruce has started a new PR agency. Just look at his little face at the champagne launch!

I can't imagine where the inspiration for the name and logo came from...

Good luck Bruce...and may the Force be with you.

2007-07-23T16:53:00.001+01:00

New blog, new blog..!

Even more bloody reading to do.

I've just spotted a new blog. It's called Under Strict Embargo and is written by Daljit who's just left Hotwire to "take some time out, re-familiarise himself with Jeremy Kyle and start his own blog..."

Seems quite drastic.

Take a look, post a comment.

2007-07-23T10:43:00.000+01:00

Anyone fancy a beer...?

For those that missed the original post or aren't friends of ours on Facebook (and why not?) and therefore didn't receive an event invitation or, frankly, have just forgotten, we're off out for a beer this Thursday evening...and the first one (which for me at least will be the size of the one in this picture) is on Matthew Ravden, PR man, author, blah, blah, blah...

We'll be upstairs in the Crown and Two Chairman pub on Dean Street, Soho, from about 7.00pm. In the event that the upstairs is closed, or there's a private party on (I haven't checked, obviously) we'll be downstairs.

Look out for this man....

(It's Ravden, not some dodgy bloke who frequents the Crown and Two...)

2007-07-20T10:10:00.000+01:00

You wait all day for a bus…

…and then two come along at once.

It’s a cliché, and an old one at that (but then I suppose they all are). It’s not one of my favourites. It’s usually delivered by some old curmudgeon and almost always headlined with the pessimist’s favourite one-word sentence: “Typical” (fragment, consider revising…please).

I hate “typical” more than I hate the cliché, truth be told. “Typical” is the word used by those old (or old before their time) who believe that the world is full of shit and that most of it falls on them. “Typical” means that something else has come along to reinforce their view that nothing good will ever come of it (“it” being everything). I wish some old crooner would release a cover version of Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” but replace every “ironic” with a “typical”.

“A free ride when you’ve already paid?”

“Typical”

The thing about clichés, however, is that every now and then they turn out to be accurate. Though (and I realise now that I’m digressing from my original digression, which is new ground even for me) the PR team for Transport for London might actually tell you that they’ve done some research to disprove the cliché and that, in reality, you wait 16.8 minutes for a bus and then an average of 1.34 turn up at once.

Anyway, you’d no doubt been waiting months for one of the outstanding TWL Q&As with a power-broker from the UK PR industry and, guess what? Two have come along at once. Well, within a week or so of each other.

Yes, that’s right. After our “chat” with the boys from GolinHarris, we’ve had another one with big-wig Mark Jackson, head of Hill and Knowlton’s tech practice in the UK. We say big-wig but, of course, if you read Jackson’s new blog that we pointed out the other week, you’ll know that he’s a man in no need of any sort of toupée. In fact, it sounds like he's got more hair than he wants...

Jackson’s been part of the UK tech PR scene for years, having had stints of varying lengths at a selection of tech outfits before landing at monster Hill & Knowlton. As usual, we emailed him a bunch of questions and he answered them. Here’s the chat. It's quite long but, hell, it's a Friday...

TWL: Just how big a penis do you need to run the UK corporate technologies practice at H&K?
MJ: Apparently it’s not just about size; it seems experience is quite important too. Which is where I think I can add some value given I’ve been doing technology PR for coming up 16 years. That makes me a reasonably old hand and also means that there’s not much I haven’t seen, from the boom years of the dotcom bubble to the trauma that followed.

TWL: And just how much does the UK corporate technologies practice have to practice? Surely you’ve mastered it by now?
MJ: The global technology practice is the largest single practice in H&K. It represents a huge part of our business so, to some extent, we must have done something right. However, as readers of your esteemed pages will acknowledge, we have to continue to learn or risk being stuck in the time warp that disciplines such as direct mail (or even, arguably, advertising) face. One such area is social media. I don’t mind admitting that I’ve been a cynic of using blogs in a business to business context because until recently I hadn’t seen any evidence to suggest they had the slightest impact on clients’ businesses. However, we recently carried out a study of what really influences technology purchasers and it shows that 38% of those we surveyed in the US, 40% in Canada, 48% in China and 22% in the UK think that blogs are a credible source of information about which products or services to buy. While the UK is the lowest by a long way, I was still surprised at the extent to which business people are relying on blogs.

TWL: Who are you team’s major clients?
MJ: The list currently includes HP, Sony, Verizon, Samsung, HCL, NASSCOM, GN, GSMA, Yahoo!, Business Objects, Fox Mobile, TomTom Work, Mamut, Factiva and a couple we’re not allowed to mention.

TWL: Which client causes the most needless stress?
MJ: It would be indelicate to name names but there is little doubt that clients whose expectations are vastly in excess of what is achievable or in excess of the available resources (it’s not just about budgets) cause untold stress. They are the clients who never say thank you; never acknowledge progress; do not stop to consider the impact their actions and words have on the team; and who move their accounts continually as they burn out one team after another in the UK IT PR industry.

TWL: Your intro page on the website says “A fresh and optimistic tech sector is finding its feet after the turmoil of the dot.com and telecoms crashes.” Yet we’re expecting another significant tech slowdown in the next 12 months. Are we wrong or does your website need an update?
MJ: There is little doubt that we’re in the middle of another boom period for our industry but the part of me that witnessed the carnage of the dotcom implosion is a half empty glass, rather than half full. For example, news from the US last week on its sub-prime housing market shows that the economy is slowing rapidly. If that spills over into high-street spending, then it will not take long before retailers (which are some of the largest firms in the US) start to limit strategic spending on items such as technology. That has a direct impact on our clients and then we start to face the challenges we experienced in 2001.

But yes, you’re right. The website does need updating and you should see something by the turn of the year. Assuming the market hasn’t crashed!

TWL: You do Satyam and Nasscom – cosy. Which came first, and did the second come because of it?
MJ: NASSCOM has been a client for many years. As a consequence of our work with the organisation – including a good deal of success – some of its members wanted to draw on our experience, knowledge and skills.

TWL: Given that the PR Weak league tables are of only marginal more use than a fireguard crafted from Swiss chocolate, where do you feel H&K corporate technologies comes (in revenue terms) in the true rankings of UK tech PR outfits?
MJ: To be honest, we pay as much attention to them as TWL. That’s partly because we can’t enter because of SOX restrictions but also because I’ve witnessed a lot of massaging in the past to ensure numbers appeared higher than they might otherwise have been.

All in all, I don’t think they’re a good indicator of the health of a business but do seem to pander to the egos of CEOs who frame the tables and place them garishly around their receptions.

TWL: And is that higher or lower than when you joined?
MJ: Of course I’d say higher but in reality I’m not sure where we would have come two years ago so it’s difficult to say that with any accuracy. I can say we’ve got more clients from a broader range of sectors so something seems to have gone reasonably well over the last two years. And frankly, that seems a more accurate measure of how a business is doing than a league table.

TWL: I always get you and Mark Hampton mixed up. Which one are you?
MJ: I’m not surprised. We’re both called Mark, work in IT PR and been known to like a pie or two. The main difference is that I have a London accent while Mark’s is more akin to Lloyd Grossman, he having spent some time in San Francisco.

TWL: Blogs are wank. Discuss.
MJ: When it comes to business blogs, I would have been the first to agree. After all, who on earth is going to believe what the CEO of ‘HardAsNails, the world’s leading server security provider for the knitting industry’ writes in a blog?

Personal blogs are a slightly different issue. If you want to tell the world about your personal foibles then feel free. After all, who in their right mind would want to write about body hair, for example?

TWL: What’s your advice to a new graduate moving into tech PR in the UK?
MJ: I got into PR almost by chance in 1991. However, it’s been the best thing that happened to me because, almost without fail, I look forward to going to work everyday and I can’t really imagine doing anything else. Sad? Probably. But it does mean that when people ask, I always say that it’s a good career. The one piece of advice I’d give, though, is that people should feel happy learning about technology. You really do need at least a working knowledge or else you’ll struggle to convince clients you know what you’re talking about or journalists that they should write about your clients’ products or services.

You don’t have to have a technical background but a propensity and desire to understand how things work is really important.

TWL: Who are your work-related heroes and villains?
MJ: Villains: Journalists that slag off PR and then use the stories anyway; journalists that spend their entire careers slagging off PR people and then take jobs in agencies; ‘publicists’ who claim to be PR people but only bring shame and disrepute on our industry; PR people who only got into PR because they didn’t make it as a journalist

Heroes: PR people prepared to stand up and be proud of what they do; people who have successful careers in PR and manage to have happy families

TWL: What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in your career?
MJ: Forgetting about timezones and sending out an earnings release at 8.00am GMT instead of 8.00am EST. It’s the kind of thing you only do once and it wasn’t pretty…

TWL: And what’s been your biggest success?
MJ: Managing to stay sane in an industry which chews people up and spits then out with alarming regularity. I guess that’s partly because I really do love my job but it’s also helped by having a bit of a balance in life (learned because of the previous question). I try never to work at the weekends now and have built up an unhealthy obsession for rugby which takes up a lot of time these days.

2007-07-19T17:44:00.000+01:00

Jonny, give Steve a couple of extra points...

...'cause he always buys the doughnuts when he comes into the office.

Surely someone's got to take the piss, at least a little bit?

Oh, that'll be us then...

Yesterday afternoon I noticed a Facebook status update from David Brain at Edleman which said, "David Brain is writing a blog post that will get him flamed..."

Interesting, I thought (well, a bit).

Then I saw the blog post itself...and there was a story in PRWeak about it today too. It was about Edelman's Social Media Index, essentially a league table of the Top 30 most influential bloggers, but factoring in their broader use of social media than simply their blog (so things like Facebook and Twatter).

Guess what? Steve Rubel...who happens to work for Edelman...came out at number 1! How extraordinary.

OK, OK...so in his blog post, Brain did say that Rubel topping the table was "vaguely embarrassing" and he did try to counter the fact by stating that "I think he needs to do some client work some time" (ho, ho) but really..?

What I found particularly amusing about Brain's post was that, in time-honoured O-level exam style, Edelman showed its working out...and rather brilliantly...in the first league table (the one without Edelman's fancy homebrew weighting) Rubel only came in at number five!

Quite right Brain. Throw that one back in Bentwood's face and send him back to his desk until he's got it right...

2007-07-18T23:05:00.000+01:00

Peter’s got a nice gaff….

As if Chris Green hadn’t already served a warning, Peter Judge alerted burglars all over London to his “lovely house,” where his lodger’s room is “really big.”

A 'lovely house' full of 'really big hi-tech kit' no doubt. To give the burglars a helping hand, London Lite (prize to anyone that can find the article online) even published a picture of Peter’s house on Brixton Hill.

Peter has had to take a lodger in “as there has been a bit of a downturn in technology journalism,” which is a bit odd given his regular gig with Techworld, owned by IDG, which just launched Computerworld, which is vying with recently launched IT Pro, which is battling with freshly purchased Computing and revamped IT Week, which are competing with a refreshed Computer Weekly, a redesigned CBR, a stalwart Info Age, and a suite of CNET publications that have just moved to plush new offices, and The Register at its new place in trendy ‘Noho’. Tough times indeed.

Sounding just a little bit like the beginning of a new Hollyoaks storyline Peter says he “registered with two websites and spent half an hour every day scanning pictures of women looking for rooms to rent.” Freaky.

Anyway, next time you see Peter, get him to buy you a drink – he’s up £400 a month these days. The only real downer is that there’s a bit of a queue for the bathroom in the morning. No surprise given his Germanic lodger’s penchant for “playing period instruments” might mean some of Peter’s extra tax-free cash being spent replacing the bathroom rug….

2007-07-17T13:06:00.000+01:00

The power of the press release headline...

When scanning your eye down the headlines of press releases on Sourcewire, which of these two are you more likely to click on?

New white paper on leachate pump selection and operation

or:

World's first nude, figurative and erotic art boutique opens online

Something to think about when you're next sticking a release on Sourcewire, eh?

Having said that, I reckon the pictures attached to each could probably work for either...

"Help, my house is flooded..."

"Don't worry sweetheart, I'll have you dry in a jiffy..."

2007-07-17T10:22:00.000+01:00

UK PR bloggers giving up the ghost..?

I've had a funny gut feeling recently. To be honest, I should probably stop with the cabbage, broccoli and mixed bean baps.

No, no...a proper gut feeling. And it's one that is shared by Collister and some bloke called Rob. It's the feeling that, in recent months, the number of blog posts being produced by UK PR bloggers has been falling steadily.

Happy as I usually am to rely on gut feelings, this time I thought I'd do a bit of analysis to see if my intuition holds true. And I'm happy to say that...confirming my confidence in my inherent top-class perceptive skills...it does!

I counted up the number of posts made by nine of the higher profile UK blogs over the last 12 months (took me bloody ages, to be honest...). These were the blogs from Benvie, Pullin, Bruce, Waddington, Collister, Davies, Smith, Dyson and Lewis 360. OK, so Dyson isn't a UK blogger, but I figure that quite a few UK-based PRs read his thoughts. Links for all these blogs can be found on our blogroll, apoart from Lewis 360.

Here's a graph (I know you love a graph) with all the blog posts added up, month by month:

See what I mean? Sure, it looks like a decent March weekend in Val d'Isere, but the trend is obvious.

Now, I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Over the past year, any number of new UK PR blogs have popped up and with their posts and even with a declining number of posts from established bloggers, there's still plenty of rubbish to read. But do you think it might end in a heap at the bottom?

I've got another graph for you too. It's a bit messy...though I quite like it...and shows the number of posts from each of the blogs I looked at (and I've thrown TWL into this one as well, because we come out looking quite good...). You can see that some bloggers (e.g. Wadds, Lewis, us) have maintained a relatively steady level over the past year, others have been in decline (e.g. Bruce, Benvie, Smith) and a couple (Collister, Davies) appear to have lifted their game in recent months.

However, the big question, of course, is: "Have I got too much time on my hands..?"

And I think we all know the answer to that one.

2007-07-16T08:07:00.000+01:00

Interesting headline...

"LewisPR killed Second Life"

Let's hope so, eh..?

2007-07-15T20:29:00.000+01:00

Dreaming of Adland…

I don’t know about you, but often when I get hold of a client brief, the first creative ideas that pop into my head take the form of advertisements. It happened to me again last week, and I was musing on why that might be.

I think it’s because - in the world of advertising - you control the message entirely (as long as you’re not making any entirely outlandish claims); there’s no editorial filter. The only filters, in fact, are the agency’s account lead and the client. And judging by the number of atrocious ads around, it isn’t much of one. It’s also why people don’t believe advertisements.

But when you’re thinking in advertisement form, you can basically present the client’s message as blatantly as you like…which is what often happens when you start thinking about a client’s PR brief. Then, of course, you need to put what the client would like to say in the context of something that’s believable, so that it’s got half a chance of finding its way through the editorial filter.

It’s because of this that, while many people would point to the advertising industry as being the more creative, it’s actually PR where you need to apply your creative energies more to what the client wants to say.

I’ll admit it though. Before I landed my first job, I’d have probably taken a job in advertising over PR and I reckon many of my peers would have too (given that many of us simply fell into PR as a career). I think that’s changed significantly in the last decade or so, with more entrants into the industry making a conscious choice to pursue a PR career (though with many of these seeming to leave in a worryingly short space of time).

Advertising still has something of a glamorous image though, doesn’t it? The size of the budgets helps (though much of the tens of million pounds in advertising contracts you hear about is, of course, spent on simply buying media). But there’s still the attractiveness of pretty much being able to do what you like, as long as you can sell it to the client.

One recent(ish) TV ad that I liked was the Sony Bravia one…you know, the one where the tower block spurted loads of colourful paint everywhere. Lovely…but quite what it told me about Sony I’m not so sure, other than it makes colour tellies and impressive ads. I guess it’s just a brand thing.

If you were doing PR for the Sony Bravia, however, you’d have to do something that would appeal to the media. You’d probably do some research. Eight out of 10 northern blokes think that the Sony Bravia’s colours are better than the real life ones they see every day in their dreary, rain-soaked home towns…70% of women in Wales are more likely to have sex on a first date with a bloke with a Sony Bravia in his front room…that sort of thing. You wouldn’t simply pour a load of Dulux off a condemned building and expect someone to write about it. In positive terms, at least.

It’s a fine line between a great ad and a rubbish one though, isn’t it? While the Sony ad is a creative concept that really appeals to me, I can’t stand that Vodafone ad on the telly at the moment with all the bits of watches raining down on people’s heads. For a start it looks painful…for a finish I hate the idea that having email on the go is positioned as being as much fun as kicking your way through autumn leaves or freshly fallen snow.

And I reckon that the Vodafone PR people are gutted, as they have probably recently spent thousands on the same “mobile email saves you bags of time” survey that Blackberry launched the other week.

But imagine if these advertisements happened in real life? Sharp little pieces of metal falling randomly from the sky…all because of Vodafone? It’d be a PR disaster. Just as well they work in Adland, rather than the real world.

But I'd still rather buy a Sony than switch to Vodafone...

2007-07-10T15:53:00.000+01:00

Jump for their love...it's GolinHarris...

Right, chums, here's the latest in our sporadic series of Q&As with the bigwigs of the tech PR world. There's been Dyson of Next Fifteen, Mellor and Walker from Firefly and Syltevik at Hotwire.

As ever our caveat is that the Q&A takes place over email...we send a bunch of questions, the subjects then take a lifetime to ruminate over their answers before sending them back. Then we print them verbatim. We don't have a chance to interrogate...but it's always interesting to see how 'PR' people get with their responses.

GolinHarris is part of Interpublic Group (as is Weber Shandwick and any number of other marketing services companies). For the last few years GH in the UK has been run by a double-act: Jonathan Hughes and Matt Neale. Before the boys took over, rumours were that the UK operation was on its last legs and wasn't far off being wound up. Seems to be in a much healthier position these days (if its company offsites are anything to go by).

Over to the lads...

TWL: I can’t remember how long ago it was that you two took on GH. I’ve heard various stories about why you were handed the reins…from it being a tactic to stop you both leaving to GH being perceived to be going down the pan and you two being given it as a shit or bust move. What’s the truth?

JH/MN: Actually when the job was advertised internally, we asked the CEO if we could take it on together, we’d worked together at Weber Shandwick and liked the idea of being partners but within a global networked company.

TWL: I wouldn’t say that you’re the highest profile agency in the UK . Is that by design or accident?

JH/MN: That’s why this is such an amazing job. GH was quite low profile a couple of years ago and we were given the freedom to do what we wanted. Internationally GH has virtually won every award there is in 2007 culminating in Agency of the Year. It’s our job to do this now in the UK.

TWL: You’ve obviously got big brother Weber Shandwick sitting close by – in the same building no less – what do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of that?

JH/MN: For a start we get fancier digs. We also pool all our training which means that with the two agencies combined – we have the best training in the UK . We basically we have the best of both worlds – it feels like a hot shop but within the environment of a global leader. No crappy office in a Camden terrace.

TWL: I guess some people might perceive that you’re an agency that lives off Weber’s leftovers…or business it can’t take on. I guess you’d refute that..?

JH/MN: We pitch against each other all the time so we are friendly rivals – we send them leads if we’re competed out. GH’s competitive win rate is around 85% and in the last year we’ve won brands like Expedia, Kraft, Samsung , BMC Software and Dow. We’ve beaten the biggest global agencies and specialist shops so I don’t think anyone defines us by our larger brother. Apologies for banging the drum!

TWL: Ages ago (in fact when TWL was a mere three days old) we highlighted the rather odd situation whereby Oracle’s global PR is handled by Weber Shandwick, yet Weber does a fair bit of Microsoft work in the UK…and then one of the Oracle press contacts is listed as Mark Sparrow, but he’s one of your boys, isn’t he? It’s all very confusing…can you clarify? I mean, do you help Weber created a few Chinese walls by loaning then some of your resource now and again?

JH/MN: Oracle uses different agencies in different regions, there is no global agency. For its EMEA work it uses CMG. CMG is a group within Interpublic Group (IPG) that specialises in the areas of public relations, public affairs, sports and entertainment marketing etc. The Oracle team is drawn up from a range of people depending on the skillset needed at the time and this is continually changing.

TWL: Which other PR agencies do you admire, and why?

MN: I really respect what Mike Morgan’s done with Red, David Brain’s reign at Edelman and the way Colin Byrne has turned WS London into such a strong domestic brand.

JH: To those I'd add Inferno, they're extremely solid, the creativity of the Frank team has to be admired and the way Giles and Sarah have built up Brands2Life.

TWL: We all watched the YouTube video of your company offsite to Rome (and the previous year’s one to Palma). It generated quite an astonishing number of comments and received a mixed reaction. Now, we like a bit of that old-school PR excess, but then some people think we’re dinosaurs…people seemed to question a number of things, such as (a) is that sort of thing still needed/relevant and (b) why the hell would you stick the video on YouTube? Your thoughts..?

JH/MN: How many agencies fly the entire company abroad each year for training and to let their hair down? Beats renting a room in Soho House. When the company is doing so well it’s nice to have a bit of fun. One of our guys was a dancer in a former life and it was her idea to create the video, she put it on YouTube.

TWL: Where’s next year’s trip to? And can we come..?

JH/MN: Somewhere sunny again, south of France is in the running. You could blog from the beach…

Sounds fantastic...and we've got it in writing.

NB: If you would like to appear in a TWL Q&A, an offer of foreign travel or £500 in used notes usually does the trick.

2007-07-09T20:32:00.000+01:00

More faces than Mike Yarwood…

‘Singing from the same hymn sheet’ is a cliché that some PRs managed to forge an entire career from, yet it is even more relevant in this crazy multi-channel world.

Interactive TV, digital radio, website presence, blog, Facebook page…keeping a consistent message has never been more of a challenge (how we love the stories of PRs recoiling in horror as their jolly personal Facebook profile gets invited to a client’s rather more sensible page).

Consistent messaging across a range of media is a challenge because of the subtle differences in the way audiences engage with each medium. It’s the type of thing that really allows the PR industry to lead the way with insightful consulting, as getting it right relies on a degree of human judgement and experience. It’s certainly a lot more complicated than, say, a straight forward thing such as consistent pricing.

Back in the old days - when it was just shops, phones and websites – we used to laugh when companies made such stupid cock-ups.

Argos was perhaps the most lampooned when in 1999 it began selling TVs for just £3.00 from its website, after a couple of Saturday assistants got a bit confused with all that Hypertext Transfer Protocol stuff. “Ah, bless those morons,” we used to say. “They just don’t get it.”

Eight years on, it seems PR’s industry bible still doesn’t “get it.”

Trying to track down an article in PRWeak the other day, TWL discovered the dog had eaten the A4 piece of paper by the computer that has all the passwords written on it.

With much frustration TWL stared at PRWeak’s stout verbiage to ward off trespassers:

To access this article and other content from the PRWeek.com archive, you must be a paid subscriber to PRWeek magazine. As a subscriber you also gain free access to all PRWeek's international titles and online services.

Goodness, scary.

The search function on the PRWeak website works without logging in, so you can get the headline of any article you want. But as soon as you want to read the whole thing, you hit the subscribers only brick wall.

Wonder if I can get it for free through a Google News search, TWL mused? No, you just get redirected to the PRWeak website. Damn it, they're just too good for TWL.

Then TWL had a cunning idea. What about putting the headline into the search engine of the marketing/comms portal thing, mad.co.uk?

Shag it, that doesn’t work either. Oh, hold on, that’s Centaur. What’s the Haymarket one?

Um, er, um…..cup of tea, bowl of muesli, couple of calls into a few mates…. Brand Republic! Yes, what happens if I cut and paste the headline into Brand Republic. Will that work?

No, bugger, they are good. All bases covered it would seem.

Mind you, that would be stupid wouldn't it? Having a story only available to subscribers on one website but available to all and sundry on another. I mean, that would be like that ridiculous thing that Argos did with those TVs, selling things at different prices through different media. Only more stupid because it would be two different prices on the same medium.

Yes, what was I thinking, too stupid for words.

I wonder what happens if I put the headline in quote marks, like when using Google?

Hello!

Subscription only PRWeak articles available for free on Brand Republic.

Gosh, that is stupid….

*NB: Mike Yarwood was a popular impressionist in the 1970s, when the alternative to watching TV was counting the amount of dead people in the streets that hadn’t been buried because everyone was on strike.

The headline was chosen as it suggests that by not presenting a consistent face to the public a company would have ‘more faces’ than an impressionist. It is ironic because, of course, Mike Yarwood only had one impression; a poor imitation of Prince Charles.

2007-07-09T17:52:00.001+01:00

Another new UK PR blog...

I notice that Paul Wooding of Weber Shandwick has set up a blog. It's called "note to editors..." (a phrase that often, of course, comes just a few words before...the world's leading... We'll take that as a compliment). There's just the one introductory post at the mo' but it's nicely written.

I've met Paul and he's a funny bloke (as a "wannabe stand up comedian" should be, really).

One to keep an eye on...

2007-07-09T13:37:00.000+01:00

Surveywatch..with me, Nick Ross...

Now he's delivered his last "don't have nightmares" to millions of petrified pensioners up and down the country, I was thinking that Nick Ross might be interested in a new gig here at TWL. It's called Surveywatch...and it's an effort to stop crimes against intelligence.

We've been having a dig recently at various pieces of spurious research delivered by creatively-challenged PR types. There was the Weber Shandwick thing of course (and which still rumbles on in the comments), that Carphone Warehouse survey telling us that people like almost anything else you can think of more than they like their mobile phone, and there was that ultimate piggyback piece which explained how virtually everyone (or nobody) was likely (or not) to consider (or reject) the possible idea of one day buying (or stealing) an iPhone (or other mobile device).

Today I've alighted upon a press release on PR Newswire which describes the findings of a "new survey" (because, presumably, the findings of the old one weren't very interesting). It's not technology-related, but I'm sure you'll excuse me that, particularly when you find out that the aim of the survey was to establish who we'd all like to have as our neighbour. It'd certainly been playing on my mind.

The answer, you might be surprised to find, is the Queen. Or maybe it isn't a surprise, given that having the Queen as a neighbour would mean that you were living in a highly desirable part of London. Or Windsor. Or some godforsaken part of Scotland (perhaps the bit that Edelman has just vacated?) Damn, I've just mentioned them again, haven't I? Old Figgis will be along in a minute to have a moan...

The release includes almost every possible survey cliché. There's the battle of the sexes...94% of the people who wanted 'eye candy' Sean Connery next door were women (Connery can't still be eye candy, shurely? "Just let me hang up the coloshtomy bag, my schweet, and I'll be with you...") while men preferred a 'good converser' like David Attenborough.

I can see it now: "What do you think I should do with these bloody moles, David..?"

"Watch them closely, see how they interact with each other...study how the family unit bonds through barely audible grunts and..."

"Bugger that. I was thinking a gallon of unleaded and a match."

And of course there's the "great North/South divide," with "43% of patriotic Southerners opting for the Queen, whilst a quarter of chatty Northerners most wanted to live next door to TV legend Michael Parkinson."

A spokesman said: "The results show that people are more concerned about the quality of their neighbours, hence why the Queen beat Joanna Lumley."

Poor old Joanna. You don't have to be posh to be patronised.

The company behind the survey is developer Prestigious Retirement Villages. Which means, sadly, that whoever you'd like as your neighbour, you're probably going to get a moany old bastard who smells of piss.

2007-07-08T20:27:00.000+01:00

Brainy? In PR? We’ll be the judge of that…

We are delighted to announce a competition here at TWL for the brightest talent in the UK PR industry…The PR Brain of Britain…brought to you in association with Edelman Public Relations.

Did you get that? The competition is being sponsored by Edelman Public Relations. That’s right; Edelman is paying us money to have its name attached to the competition (and one or two other associated benefits, as will become obvious). Hopefully we've made that completely clear (transparent, even).

Competition entry requirements could not be simpler. We’re after essays of up to 600 words on the future of the UK PR industry and, specifically, the role that PR will play in the world of social networks, user-generated content and all things online.

Take as wide or as narrow a view as you’d like; sector-specific or general; conservative or entirely outlandish; serious or, umm, not so. There are two categories: one for those of you aged 27 or under and one for everyone else. The only other rule is that you must be working in PR (agency, in-house or freelance) or a student of PR. That’s it.

Well, almost. The deadline for your entries is August 31st 2007. The judging panel will consist of a number of Edelman’s own directors, TWL and other assorted PR gurus. Who knows, Richard himself might even take a look...

There will be prizes for the 10 best entries based on some sort of overly-complex sliding scale. We’re not at liberty just yet to give full prize details, but start thinking foreign travel, plush hotel, all the food and drink you can consume…right down to a piece of coal and a stick for 10th place (no, no, really…even the 10th best one will get something decent).

The small print: competition entrants must be happy that their name and email address will be passed on to Edelman (who might well, at some stage, drop you a note) and we will also reserve the right to publish any startling insights from the essays here on TWL.

Get scribbling and send your entries and any questions to theworldsleading@yahoo.co.uk

Best of luck..!

2007-07-06T11:21:00.000+01:00

PR Commandment No.6...

Thou shalt absolutely covet your neighbour's account executives.

News reaches us from Surrey that a small billboard has appeared outside Surbiton railway station ("one of those pyramidal things you see outside pubs advertising the day's specials," our source tells us...)

Nothing unusual in that, you might think. Except that this billboard is advertising employment opportunities at tech PR shop Livewire Public Relations. Seems like a rather narrow piece of targeted advertising, don't you think?

Indeed, until you realise that tech PR executive footfall through Surbiton might well be increased by employees of Livewire's near neighbour, tech PR shop Wildfire Public Relations...

A poaching exercise? Our source isn't so sure:

"They're very different tribes. If you've got Wildfire and Livewire bunnies in the pub, at the same time, you know there's going to be trouble. So the police try to contain the violence, by marshalling them into different turfs."

2007-07-06T10:30:00.000+01:00

Book signing, beer buying...it's a date...

Avid readers of the comments here at The World's Leading... (and let's face it, who isn't? That's where the action happens...) will know that following our recent plug of senior PR man and published novelist Matthew Ravden's book, BlokeMiles, he said this:

"Aw, TWL what can I say? I will do a book signing in a pub of your choice...and buy the first pint for all."

Well, we've taken him up on his kind offer. On the evening of July 26th from about 7.00pm, you'll find Matthew upstairs in The Crown and Two Chairman, 31 Dean Street, Soho, pen in one hand, wallet in the other. We'll be there too.

Obviously, if you want a book signing you'll have to buy one and Matthew has asked us (virtually begged, to be honest) to say that if you do, could you please buy it in a proper bookshop rather than one of those new-fangled online ones?

If you don't want a book signing then that's OK...we'll be in a pub! You can just come along for a beer, and we can all have a good old gossip.

2007-07-04T14:43:00.000+01:00

Are they called omnibus surveys...

...because you only have to survey as many people as can get on a bus? Single-decker as well.

We've mentioned in the past that TWL is a blog more than happy to get pitched to. We can't promise to post about every one (so sorry to the fella from Mister Wong), but we've just received an email that is worth printing in full. It came from the email address webershandwick@hotmail.co.uk, which I can only assume is genuine...

Hello TWL

How are you?

I thought I'd drop you a quick note about the incredible piece of research from Weber Shandwick on advocacy. I am sure you'll agree that an online survey of 583 adults across 9 countries makes this a most robust piece of work into this important area for the industry. And we have certainly made this look like an important study with our lovely insert in last week's PR Week. I do tend to think the design might have cost a little bit more than the study though...and that's without the production or buying the insert space...

Anyway, with as many as 65 people interviewed in each country we are in a great position to roll out this piece of global research. We shall of course be advising our client base from now on that for a global piece of research across 9 countries, you only need 600-odd people to get something that is extremely robust for both media and prospects alike.

I'm sure you'll agree from this all our findings really stand up to being used in charts and graphs. In fact we are especially proud we managed to get odd number percentages with this amount of people.

Thanks for looking at this robust piece of work TWL.

Love,

Mr Webby Shandy

Think global, act local? You can read more about Weber Shandwick's survey here. Not much more we can add.

2007-07-03T16:58:00.000+01:00

She's picked her ring...

...I just hope she's washed her hands.

Latest in our very infrequent Hitched, Engaged, Arrived and Deceased series is one Abi Lovell...currently in-house PR at Symantec, previously of Weber Shandwick, Fleishman-Hillard and Noiseworks.

See girls? Abi moved jobs four times before she found a husband. A bit of persistence and application and you could get hitched too.

All we know is that she's getting married this weekend to "some guy called Billy" (we're not quoting Abi there, by the way...).

Yeah, that's right...Billy's got a mate now hasn't he?

2007-07-03T09:17:00.000+01:00

"PR is truly the mongrel of the professions..."

Not my words: Mike Willard's. Ever heard of him? Neither had I until this morning. And guess what? He runs a PR company!

I found out about him through reading the online version of The Ukrainian Observer ("A knowledge based magazine"...umm, as opposed to..?)

I know, I know...bit of an odd choice of reading material. But I'd noticed a headline which touched a subject close to my heart: "Billing by the hour is dumb" which topped a story written by Willard.

Still doesn't really make sense though, does it? A story about how PR companies bill clients in a magazine about Ukraine?

Well, it turns out that in addition to running PR companies in Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, Willard's company - The Willard Group - publishes The Ukrainian Observer. Which I guess gives him carte blanche to write about whatever he likes.

Willard's article discusses the old chestnut related to traditional hourly billing versus billing based on the value of results. He uses a couple of nice examples so if you're new to the argument it's worth a read.

Willard's "PR is truly the mongrel of the professions" actually features in a different article in the Observer (like I said, carte blanche...) under the headline of "Public Relations and common sense."

Willard's argument is thet PR is largely the "strategic application of common sense" - something I'd largely agree with - but that this simple definition has become clouded through spin and the control and shaping of image. "Image making," Willard contests, "is to say that a glistening new coat of paint is all that is needed for the termite-infested fence."

He also shares some of our views regarding formal PR qualifications:

"We also should not smother the profession in academia. A certain foundation, perhaps, can be established through a public relations education, but I believe those basics can be taught in a few months in a classroom or, alternatively, a fortnight in the real world....I have never suggested a higher degree in public relations, though a master's in common sense might not be out of the question. The crux of the matter is that PR is a way of thinking - and this is generally experience taught rather than classroom osmosis."

Again, it's worth a read.

2007-07-03T09:06:00.000+01:00

Here's the news...there is no news...

I've got a sure fire way to generate some coverage...do nothing.

Such is the hysteria surrounding Apple's iPhone, that even not launching creates stories in the media. Yesterday, technology news site Tech.co.uk carried a story under the stunning headline...

"No UK iPhone launch today"

...with the sub-heading "Apple spokesman denies all knowledge."

A further 230 words were then used to discuss the non-launch..."Apple's UK PR company Bite Communications said it had no knowledge of an iPhone launch today - and seemed to regard the subject with some amusement."

The best thing is, of course, is that Apple isn't launching the iPhone again today, so roll the presses..!

2007-07-03T08:45:00.000+01:00

New blog...hirsute...

Mark Jackson runs Hill & Knowlton's technology practice in the UK. He's started a blog...but it's not about PR (good for him). It's Jackson's thoughts as he counts down to turning 40. Mostly, so far, it seems to be about hair.

358 more days of that could be tough going...

2007-06-29T08:47:00.000+01:00

Suspicious? I should coco...

Just seen this on the BBC website.

London's Haymarket is completely closed this morning after police carried out a controlled explosion in the early hours of this morning after reports of a "suspicious vehicle."

I've just checked and, funnily enough, the closure means that nobody at Edelman can get into work today.

Anything for a long weekend, eh..?

2007-06-28T19:00:00.001+01:00

Moonlighting 3….

First we spotted Firefly at it, launching a range of healthy drinks.

Then Weber, with barbeques.

Now it’s Rainier, and its own variety of cherries….

2007-06-28T18:42:00.000+01:00

87% of our online readers are somewhat likely not to be readers by before the end of the second paragraph….

'Piss poor news release of the day' award goes to Harris Interactive for this utterly tedious load of old crap about who may or may not buy an iPhone.

The whole thing is reproduced below as, despite trying, we couldn’t distinguish the worst bits from the rest of it.

There are 57 words in the second sentence – and that’s only the third longest, way behind the whopping 73 words afforded to the longest one.

The entire release has 2,472 words. TWL is giving away a prize to the first person to tell us how much it would cost to send this across PR Newswire’s European Hi-Tech wire….

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fifteen Percent of Online Americans Ages 13 To 64 Say They Are At Least Somewhat Likely To Buy iPhone

Ninety-Six Percent of Those At Least Somewhat Likely to Buy Will Wait Before Buying

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – June 27, 2007 – The iPhone™ from Apple® launches this week with a level of anticipation rarely witnessed in the consumer electronics industry. While fifteen percent of online Americans between the ages of 13 and 64 say they are at least somewhat likely to buy the iPhone and one percent are absolutely certain they will, only four percent of those at least somewhat likely to buy the iPhone say they plan on getting it as soon as it becomes available. More than half (55%) of those who are somewhat likely to buy say they will wait for a price drop and 49 percent say they will wait to find out how good it really is.

These are some of the results of research conducted online by Harris Interactive® among 10,410 online consumers ages 13 to 64 between May 8 and 23, 2007.

At the time of this survey, 38 percent of online 13 to 64 year olds said that they were at least somewhat interested in getting the iPhone. After being presented with a full description of the iPhone that included the price tag on the respective 4GB and 8GB models and mention of iPhone’s exclusive relationship with AT&T as its carrier, 15 percent of respondents overall indicated that they are at least somewhat likely to buy iPhone, with one percent saying they are absolutely certain to get it. Fifty-five percent of those at least somewhat likely to buy the iPhone say they will wait for the price to drop before buying, 49 percent say they will wait to see how good the iPhone is, and 20 percent will wait until their current cell phone contract runs out.

“This kind of drop-off between ‘interest in getting the iPhone’ to ‘likelihood of buying one’ is not all that unusual for products like this in this price range,” says Aongus Burke, Senior Research Manager of Harris Interactive’s Media and Entertainment Practice. “Similarly, the fact that most people who might buy the iPhone won’t do so right away shouldn’t be seen as surprising or troubling for Apple given the amount of interest Apple has generated for this product – a lot of people are going to be paying attention to how it performs while keeping an eye out for those price drops – as well as being mindful of the expiration date on their current cell contracts.”

So, Just Who Is Going To Buy the iPhone?
For those accustomed to research on early adopters of new technology, some of the findings on who will buy the iPhone will not come as a surprise. Seventeen percent of online males say they are at least somewhat likely to buy the iPhone, compared to 13 percent of online females. Twenty percent of online adults 18-64 with annual household incomes of $200K or higher say they are at least somewhat likely to buy the iPhone, compared to 15 percent of those with lower household incomes. One finding that may surprise some, however, is how many teenagers intend to buy the iPhone. More than one-quarter (27%) of online males ages 13 to 17 years and one-fifth (20%) of online females ages 13 to 17 years say they are at least somewhat likely to buy the iPhone, compared to 14 percent of all online 18 to 64 year olds.

Beyond demographics, those most likely to buy the iPhone are significantly more likely to own many other portable devices, including the BlackBerry® and Apple’s own video iPod®. Of those very likely or absolutely certain to buy the iPhone, eight percent already own a BlackBerry, compared to two percent of all study respondents; 22 percent already own a video iPod, compared to seven percent of all respondents. Burke adds, “Enthusiasm for new technology is such a powerful force for some people; they always just have to have their hands on the latest device.”

What Features Are Buyers After?
Among those online who are at least somewhat likely to buy the iPhone:

· Many say they would use it to make calls (71%), to play music (66%), for emailing and texting (56%), to take pictures (55%), to browse the Internet (49%) and to play videos (43%).
· More than half (54%) say they will get the device to have one device that does what they currently use several devices to do.

Among those online who are very likely or absolutely certain to get the iPhone, more than half (58%) say web browsing is a feature they are looking for. This compares with 48 percent of those likely or somewhat likely to buy the iPhone citing this feature as a reason they will get it.

Burke commented, “Web browsing is an area where virtually portable devices could do better in consumers’ minds, but iPhone ads certainly sell this feature in a breathtaking way. Whether the iPhone can really deliver on this attribute, one which so many others have not remains to be seen.”

The Reasons for Not Purchasing iPhone
Among those online who are not at all likely to get the iPhone (85%), almost half (49%) say the device is too expensive. Another 42 percent say they do not want or need another device, while 40 percent say they do not need all the extra capabilities iPhone has. Additionally, 40 percent of them say they are happy with their current cell phones.

“Obviously this device is not going to be suited for everyone’s needs,” says Burke. “At the same time, just because 85 percent of people in Mid-May said they weren’t going to buy the iPhone doesn’t mean some of them won’t change their minds at some point. For all the excitement there is right now about how many people will buy the iPhone when it launches, it’s what happens next that will matter most, as those first buyers experience what iPhone really has to offer and start letting everyone around them know about it.”

TABLE 1
WHO HAS HEARD OF iPHONE?
“Apple iPhone is an iTunes-compatible handheld device that combines a cellular phone, a music and video player, a digital camera and an Internet communications device into one product. Had you heard of iPhone before taking this survey?”

Base: All Online Americans Ages 13 to 64

Total %
Yes 56
No 44

TABLE 2
INTEREST IN iPHONE
“How interested are you in getting the iPhone?”

Base: All Online Americans Ages 13 to 64

Total%
Not at all interested 62
At least somewhat interested (NET) 38
Somewhat interested 23
Interested 8
Very interested 4
Extremely interested 3

TABLE 3A
PURCHASE OF iPHONE WITH AT&T AS CARRIER
“iPhone will be available sometime around June 2007. A model with a storage capacity of 4GB will sell for $499. Another model with a storage capacity of 8GB will sell for $599. iPhone will be exclusively available through Cingular/AT&T – you would have to use or switch to that service to use the iPhone. Knowing this, how likely are you to buy either model of the iPhone?”

Base: All Online Americans Ages 13 to 64

[TWL deleted the table - formatting issues]

TABLE 3B
PURCHASE OF iPHONE WITH AT&T AS CARRIER—BY GENDER AND AGE
“iPhone will be available sometime around June 2007. A model with a storage capacity of 4GB will sell for $499. Another model with a storage capacity of 8GB will sell for $599. iPhone will be exclusively available through Cingular/AT&T – you would have to use or switch to that service to use the iPhone. Knowing this, how likely are you to buy either model of the iPhone?”

Base: All Online Americans Ages 13 to 64

[TWL deleted the table - formatting issues]

TABLE 4
TIMING OF PURCHASE
“When will you get the iPhone? You may select more than one option.”

Base: Those at least somewhat likely to buy

[TWL deleted the table - formatting issues]

TABLE 5
REASONS FOR PURCHASE
For which of the following reasons will you get the iPhone? Please select all that apply.”

Base: Those at least somewhat likely to buy

[TWL deleted the table - formatting issues]

TABLE 6
PORTABLE DEVICES USED
“Which of the following portable devices do you personally use? Please select all that apply.”

Base: All Online Americans Ages 13 to 64

[TWL deleted the table - formatting issues]

TABLE 7
UNLIKELY TO GET iPHONE
“Why are you unlikely to get iPhone? Please select all that apply”

Base: Those not at all interested or not at all likely to buy iPhone

[TWL deleted the table - formatting issues]

Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States between May 8 and 23, 2007 among 10,410 individuals between the ages of 13 and 64 years who are online. Results were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the online population on key variables including age by sex, race, region, Internet connection type, and Internet usage. Those ages 18 to 64 were additionally weighted on education, household income, and online shopping behavior. Those ages 13 to 17 were additionally weighted on parents' education and school location.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words “margin of error” as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the total U.S. online population of those ages 13 to 64 as stated above. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is the 12th largest and fastest-growing market research firm in the world. The company provides innovative research, insights and strategic advice to help its clients make more confident decisions which lead to measurable and enduring improvements in performance. Harris Interactive is widely known for The Harris Poll, one of the longest running, independent opinion polls and for pioneering online market research methods. The company has built what it believes to be the world’s largest panel of survey respondents, the Harris Poll Online. Harris Interactive serves clients worldwide through its United States , Europe and Asia offices, its wholly-owned subsidiaries Novatris in France and MediaTransfer AG in Germany , and through a global network of independent market research firms. More information about Harris Interactive may be obtained at www.harrisinteractive.com. To become a member of the Harris Poll Online and be invited to participate in online surveys, register at www.harrispollonline.com.

Press Contact:
Tracey McNerney
Harris Interactive
585-214-7756
Harris Interactive Inc. 06/07

2007-06-28T10:12:00.000+01:00

It must be true...

...'twas in the paper.

Oh dear. It seems the chaps at Johnson King have been believing what they read in the newspapers again...and more than that, believing what they read in The People.

After high-quality tabloid The People ran a story last weekend about how a laptop containing jug-eared royal Prince Charles's bank account details had been stolen from a Moorepay accountant's car, Johnson King couldn't wait to jump all over it on behalf of data security client PGP.

According to Mike Simons at ComputerworldUK, Johnson King's press release re-hashed the story, stating that...

“A laptop containing the Prince's private bank details - including account number, sort code and national insurance number - was earlier this month stolen from the car of an employee of Mooreplay, the payroll company that handles wages for the Prince's Duchy of Cornwall estate.”

Problem being, of course, that the Johnson King team had missed those tell-tale phrases in The People's story, such as, "it was feared last night" and "believed to have been" and "apparent security blunder" all of which point to a potential economy with the truth.

And so it proved to be, when Moorepay quickly issued a statement saying that Prince Charles was not a client of the company and therefore his bank account details were presumably safely tucked up somewhere else...but not before, Simons claims: "At least one IT publication ran the story before hastily pulling it down."

There's no sign of the offending press release on the PGP website now...so perhaps it was just a bad dream..? A nightmare indeed.

2007-06-27T23:17:00.000+01:00

WARNING: Promotional post...kind of...

I can't quite believe I'm doing this...but I'm afraid that if I don't the guy will never leave me alone.

It's Matthew Ravden. The name might ring a bell as we've mentioned him a couple of times...the most recent being when he played keyboard for a band made up of ageing PR pros. Ravden was in the Text 100 team in the early 90s and one of the founding team of Bite. He's still involved in the Next Fifteen group somehow...we're not sure what he does exactly.

Whatever it is, it's given him enough time to write a book. He's banging on about it at the moment because the paperback version will be on the shelves of your local discount bookshop by September, given it'll be available in proper bookshops on the 5th of July.

It's called BlokeMiles. Westcott blogged about it recently so have a look at his post for a brief outline of the plot, or the Amazon description for a fuller synopsis. It's a work of fiction...though anyone who knows Ravden (and his other half) will claim that it's actually autobiographical. A fact which makes the blow job passage rather uncomfortable reading...

It's available for £6.99 (or £5.59 on Amazon) and Ravden would love you all to buy a copy. We're not sure why though...according to its last annual report, Ravden owns 3,839,294 shares in the Next Fifteen group (OK, so his wife owns 116,126 of those). At today's closing price of 85.250 pence that represents a handy little nest egg of £3,272,998.

Well we'd all have time to write a fucking book with three million quid's worth of shares hanging around, wouldn't we..?

So if you're off for a bit of summer sun and need an easy read for the beach then it might be worth picking up. But only as the third one in a 3 for 2.

Richard and Judy, eat your hearts out...

2007-06-27T16:16:00.000+01:00

We’re very green, as in, naïve….

Imagine. You’re an IT company pushing the green benefits of your new super-duper carbon footprint friendly data centres. You have a particularly cool example, in Nice.

As you’ve run out of strategically shaved monkeys, you bring in H&K to work out how to ‘leverage’ this amazing opportunity.

The PR alchemy process concludes:

Target environmentally conscious IT journalists
Invite them to view the data centre first hand
And offer a face-to-face interview with a senior (US based) HP executive

That’s a lot of plane trips to celebrate something that’s billed as eco-friendly. An irony that more than one journo picked up on.

Would love to be a fly on the wall during the "how do we build awareness around HP video conferencing technology" brainstorm….

2007-06-27T13:15:00.000+01:00

A little bit of Sheffield in Hammersmith….

News reaches us that Text 100’s London office is flooded and employees have been sent home.

Seeing how a tech PR agency copes with enforced ‘flexible working’ and ‘disaster recovery’ should prove to be an interesting “cobblers’ kids” case study.

Must have been a bloody big flood. Surely most PR agencies have more than enough hot air to evaporate a few gallons of water….

2007-06-26T20:22:00.000+01:00

Client agency relationship....

Very much enjoyed this cartoon from today's Times.

Strangely, it also worked for me as an illustration of the client/agency relationship (a strange quirk of timing, given the previous post).

I've held umbrellas over clients while I get wet. I've queued for coffee, while my client has been sat down all comfortable.

I've taken clients out for a bloody expensive meal with lashings of top quality wine, to not even be offered a cup of coffee when visiting their office the next day.

I've flown with clients, with me in economy and them - on the same plane - in business class. And arrived to find they are in a five star hotel on the seafront, while I'm in a hostel without hot water.

And I've had some lovely clients too. Ones that have sent birthday presents. Ones that have sent members of the agency team notes of congratulation when they've been promoted. Ones that have suggested I fly out on a Friday for a Monday meeting, so I can enjoy some sightseeing.

I work harder for those clients. I care more about the results. I'd suggest doing a 'Sunday for Monday' for those clients; I use up personal favours with journos for them. The same goes for the rest of the agency team.

To the anonymous comment in the previous post, yes, it is a business transaction and you do get a pay cheque. That is what counter-balances the crap clients.

The good clients - the ones that demand great results, but also listen to advice, the ones that are fair, the ones that are nice, civil human beings - they get better service.

In just about any knowledge-based job there is a need for positive working relationships. Good agencies thrive as a result of good leadership. Likewise, an agency-side team will always perform better with the client taking on a positive leadership role.

Agencies are very into 360 feedback. It wouldn't hurt if in-house PRs were appraised the same way....

2007-06-26T09:29:00.000+01:00

Who's important in the beauty parade..?

I met a bloke the other day from a company pitching its PR account (as a fair few are right now). Having been through the pitch process...and as a man who's worked with PR agencies previously...he was musing about the member of the pitch team upon which you should focus most attention.

Oddly, it's not the one with the biggest knockers. And he certainly didn't think it should be the cocky board director arriving hot-foot it from the last pitch...nor the associate director given the job of talking through the strategic approach. He didn't even think it was the account director. He reckoned that the best bet was to test the mettle of the account manager. If the account manager was decent, the client would be able to whip the executives along and pick and choose the more senior resource he needed, if any.

I don't think it's quite that simplistic. I do agree that in a pitch situation you can generally ignore the input of a board director (likely to be fairly generic in any case) and, if there's one in the room, the associate director too. The likelihood of seeing either after the pitch is slim and, if you do, they'll be that expensive that you won't want to see them again...

For me, the key thing to test is the tightness of the AD/AM/AE team, rather than any one individual within it. Do they have a good dynamic..? Do they seem to like each other...is there some chemistry? Is it obvious that they've worked together for a while and complement each other..?

In my experience, a team with these attributes is much more likely to work for each other...and working for each other comes before working for the client. If the client then does its job...being inclusive, tough but fair, celebrating success, saying 'thanks' once in a while...then it'll find itself a team that will give it all the attention it wants and which is also likely to stay together as a unit longer than the average. Controversial as it might be to say (but it's human nature...) agency teams work harder for clients that they like.

Remember people, there's no 'i' in team. But there is a 'me'...and 'tea' and 'meat'.

I think we can all learn something from that.

2007-06-25T08:20:00.000+01:00

Surely, they cannot be serious..?

Wimbledon starts today. I see Andrew Murray's done the sensible thing and ruled himself out before it even kicks off.

No doubt they'll be shipping in all the strawberries and cream and gallons of bubbly to keep all those corporate hospitality guests full to bursting. Have any of you got clients taking people along? A few hacks maybe?

We've heard that IBM traditionally has a gathering at the All England Club...hosting a smattering of hand-picked luminaries from the world of tech media. Well, it would, wouldn't it, as sponsor of the official website?

Not this year though. Well, not for all of the press at least.

One hack tells us that...whether it's budget cutbacks, the crap weather we're having or simply that tennis is very, very dull these days...Big Blue has decided that an event in its "hideous grey bunker on South Bank" would be a better idea than one in SW19.

It's not a complete loss though. There will, our contact thinks, be a "Wimbledon theme" along with a presentation by some fella from IBM.

Game, set and match then.

2007-06-22T11:27:00.000+01:00

Meaningless tripe...

I was reading the Economist last night. I don't normally give the advertisements more than a cursory glance, but one for Unisys caught my eye. It was very orange. It didn't contain a lot of copy so I'm going to reproduce it all for you here:

UPGRADE YOUR BEST-CASE SCENARIO.
UNLEARN OUTSOURCING.

Even outsourcing's benefits have benefits. The best way to realize them is to unlearn your misconceptions about outsourcing. Unisys Outsourcing Solutions offer the proven processes, unique methodologies, and the innovation you need to manage risk, adapt to change and accelerate the benefits of your best-case transformation scenario. Our Solutions for Secure Business Operations can optimize your business performance and your competitive advantage. For maximizing your full business potential, outsourcing is a win-win scenario. Unlearning is just the beginning.

What?! It's like they put all the tech industry bullshit in a bag, threw it on the table and copied it verbatim.

"Upgrade your best-case scenario, processes, methodologies, innovation, manage risk, adapt to change, transformation, win-win" ...and surely having to "unlearn your misconceptions" is some sort of double negative?

What I'd love is for a copywriter to come over here - maybe The Friendly Ghost or Matthew Stibbe - and explain where there's any merit in that piece of copy whatsoever.

2007-06-21T16:00:00.001+01:00

"Mobiles not very important"...says Carphone Warehouse...

...sort of.

I've just been reading this story on The Reg...the headline of "Teenagers prefer mobiles to sex" attracted my attention.

It's about the Carphone Warehouse's Mobile Life survey, announced today. The full press release can be seen here.

If I'm reading it right, while The Reg's headline is kind of accurate - in that in the 16-24 year old age group (so not entirely made up of teenagers), the majority of respondents stated that they'd least like to give up their mobiles over sex, chocolate, alcohol or tea and coffee - it doesn't quite tell the whole story.

In fact, much to the disappointment of the Carphone Warehouse, I'm sure, in every other age group surveyed (up to the age of 64, 'cause people older than that can't use mobiles of course...) respondents said they would rather give up their mobile phone than any other the other items! Well, that's not strictly true, as 25-34 year olds said that they'd sooner give up alcohol than their mobile...by 1%. Everything else was more important though.

So, for the vast majority of the UK population, tea, coffee, alcohol, sex and chocolate are more important than their mobile phones.

Nice job, Carphone Warehouse! I wonder how much that cost..?

2007-06-21T11:20:00.000+01:00

A Eureka moment….

Having studied various academic tomes, it is a pleasure to at last reveal the difficulties faced by a typical PR person.

The red circle represents ‘time available,’ or what is otherwise known by senior management as ‘fee.’

The blue box represents ‘work to be done,’ or what is otherwise known by the client as ‘stuff that I’m paying for to get done.’

The image below represents how these two values relate to each other.

In this diagram, the blue area also represents what the typical PR person used to know as ‘evenings and weekends....’

2007-06-21T09:00:00.000+01:00

Tits or face(book)..?

Sorry about the headline here, it's just I've been reading "Inside Little Britain" (very interesting, by the way, even if you're not a big fan of the show itself).

There's a brilliant passage towards the end when Matt Lucas and David Walliams are laughing about the fact that they've just heard that David's sister had to explain the concept of a pearl necklace to David's mum (it having been mentioned in their live show and David's mum not understanding the reference).

The two of them are trying to imagine the conversation that took place...

"Well, Mum," says Matt, embarking upon an impersonation of a slightly proper, middle-class woman in an attempt to sound roughly like David's sister, "you know when...er..."

"...when Dad spunks up..." says David, picking up the impression and running with it, "and says "face or tits" and he sort of misses both...well, it ends up on your neck, doesn't it?"

"And you sort of slightly enjoy that sense of humiliation and degredation confirming your role as the woman and his as the man..." says Matt. "Well...That. Is. A. Pearl. Necklace!" Matt is guffawing now, almost uncontrollably. And David is laughing with him.

And you wonder where these two get their characters from?

Crikey, this is a roundabout way of telling you all that we're on Facebook. Slightly behind the curve, granted, but we've never been the types to leap over the chasm. You can see our profile here and become our friend. If you want.

2007-06-20T16:27:00.000+01:00

The Flackenhack Awards 2007...brand unveiled...

You'll be interested to hear that the Flackenhack Awards 2007 now benefits from a stylish logo. Here it is.

I think you'll agree that it reflects a desire to establish a forward-looking vision for the future of all PR - indeed all business - awards programmes moving forwards from today. It strikes a delicate - though robust - balance between a genuine respect for the history and integrity of our industry, while signposting the bright, though winding, road that lies ahead of us all in the future from tomorrow.

Either that or it looks a bit like a knob. You decide.

And don't forget to get those entries in! We've had some crackers so far...but need more if we're going to give our esteemed (and soon to be announced) judging panel some difficult decisions to make. Categories are here...it ain't a lot of work.

2007-06-19T11:42:00.000+01:00

Lewis meltdown...updated...

So you'll have all read in last week's PRWeak that Lewis is having a bit of a meltdown at the moment, with four 'senior' staff leaving (OK, three senior and one account director from Octane which they threw in there to beef things up a bit).

You'll have also noticed this little line at the bottom of the story...

"At the same time Lewis is on the verge of hiring two associate directors (one leading sector journalist and a corporate specialist from a rival agency)."

We understand that the hack in question is Will Sturgeon, editor-at-large of silicon.com.

Can anyone confirm?

UPDATE: Indeed they can...Will himself has posted a comment giving the details.

2007-06-19T08:31:00.000+01:00

Look at this pair of cobbler's shoes...rubbish, aren't they..?

I've just seen my favourite press release of the month so far...and the beauty is that it's a release about a PR agency.

It caught my eye as the subject is Judy Wilks, one of the founding team of Bite and, for the past few years, a member of Bite's senior management team in the US. She's joining Atomic Public Relations as senior president of vice (or something).

Check out the headline:

Atomic Public Relations Announces Strategic Decision to Do More of What It Has Been Doing

The first line of the release reiterates the point:

"Atomic Public Relations, an alternative PR energy source for technology-related companies, today announced plans to carry on doing exactly what it has been doing – only more of it."

Oh my good Lord. It continues...

"As part of its ongoing commitment, Atomic will continue to apply science to the communications process in order to sharpen strategy, enhance creative thinking and deliver better results. It will also continue to push the boundaries of PR and challenge accepted wisdom."

There's really nothing to say here, is there?

According to David Allen Ibsen, "founder and principal of marketing consultancy 5 Meetings Before Lunch, and Webby Award-winning marketing blogger," Wilks will be:

“a great horizontal addition to Atomic’s senior executive team."

"Horizontal"? Sounds a bit dodgy to us. Judy herself says:

"There’s a fair bit of mystique around Atomic Public Relations...I was immediately attracted by the agency’s mix of strategic-ness, clever creative instincts and real IT smarts, not to mention its uncompromising pursuit of ‘better.’”

"Strategic-ness"? "Uncompromising pursuit of 'better'"?

Andy Getsey, co-founder and managing director of Atomic Public Relations, sums it up for us:

“Atomic is an agency unusually devoted to change, but only change for the better. Judy’s a kindred spirit [and will help] maintain our own particular cultural mojo."

Far out.

2007-06-14T18:33:00.000+01:00

Join me….

Aren’t social networks popular? Decide on something that you have in common with people, start a group and wait for them to join.

In a moment of rose-tinted nostalgia, Charles Welsh created a social network for all those folk that fondly remember their days at Novell.

See how many ex-Novell people you know….

http://www.novellalumni.org/

2007-06-13T14:42:00.000+01:00

A year's a long time in telecoms...

2006 at the World Communication Awards:

"BT was delighted to win 2006 Best New Service award for BT Fusion. BT Fusion is the world's first truly converged service that offers customers a host of new benefits and great value calls. But what's even more important is that consumers and the industry are also starting to realise the benefits fixed mobile convergence can bring," said Steve Andrews, Chief of Mobility and Convergence, BT Group

2007 in The Times:

BT conceded yesterday that it had made mistakes with a flagship mobile service, as it emerged that the product has amassed just 40,000 customers in two years.

BT Fusion – a combined fixed and mobile phone – was supposed to reinvigorate BT’s mobile offering and contribute to BT’s growth. However, just 40,000 people have signed up.

Steve Andrews, head of BT Mobility, admitted that take-up of the product, which uses wi-fi technology, had been set back by the timing of the launch.

“There was a lack of wi-fi devices as early as we would have liked them,” he said.

The advertising for the product could also have been clearer, Mr Andews added. Overall, Mr Andrews insisted that he was “happy” with the 40,000 take-up.

Analysts said that the figure was weak. James Barford, of Enders Analysis, said: “This is clearly not a large number in the context of a UK mobile market which has around 70 million mobile subscribers.”

From gong, to going, going, gone...

2007-06-13T09:18:00.000+01:00

Where’s the challenge in Burberry..?

If anyone thinks that Leslie Dance faces a challenge in turning around the perception of Burberry in Wales, it is child’s play compared with what Donna Black has to do.

Donna is the PR person for Visit Scotland. For the three days a year when it’s sunny, Scotland can be quite a nice place to go for a long weekend (the rural bits, obviously, not the towns).

Other than that, Scotland only really finds itself in the news when there are rankings of some kind. Invariably, it seems, Scotland is at the bottom.

A couple of days ago Scotland won the not-at-all coveted title of ‘worst small country.’ It’s all the funnier that the research was commissioned by the Scottish arm of the Federation of Small Business. Surely the PR person’s counsel should have been “burn it” as opposed to “send it to the BBC”?

And before TWL is accused of simplistic Jock-bashing, pop ‘Scotland’ and ‘worst’ into Google and see the results. Here are some of our favourites:

Worst for life expectancy
Worst for asthma
Worst for sexual health
Worst for attacks on police
Worst teeth
Worst for post office closures

Crikey, the country even produced a fella called William Topaz McGonagall, revered as 'The World's Worst Poet...'

Find out why Scotland is so horribly bad, by downloading the official report…

PS - In the interests of balance, we did put 'England' and 'worst' into Google...inevitably the top result was a book about England's worst footballers. I say 'book'...rather more a sixteen volume encyclopedia, I suspect...

2007-06-12T14:27:00.000+01:00

Anonymous bloggers...tsk...

Couple of new(ish) blogs have come to my attention of late - both anonymous...naughty people - and they look quite promising.

Well, I say that. The Friendly Ghost was looking good until he published an entirely flawed league table of PR blogs that only sees TWL languishing down in 39th position..!

Have a look at your stats, my spooky buddy, and tell me that TWL's only the 39th best blog in the PR world. Go on, go on.

That load of old tosh aside, I'm quite liking the blog.

The other one is called The Spud Gun (with the lovely strapline..."It's a gun that fires spuds")and I'm liking it 'cause it's mentioned us a few times. Nice work.

Given this mention...

"…The World’s Leading… has provided a fine service to all of us in tech PR in the UK over the years - in fact TWL has been there all the while that I’ve been in UK PR - and looks set to move up a gear or two in the not too distant…"

...it's obviously written by someone new to the industry. Equally obviously, they've got a decent brain in that pretty little head of theirs (I'm making an assumption).

Welcome one and all. Don't fuck up.

2007-06-11T21:30:00.000+01:00

Come on, it’s only 200 miles from Britain…

Is it just me, or is the comms team down at Burberry failing to spot the 900lb football hooligan in the room?

The fashion house has hired Leslie Dance, formerly of Motorola, to counteract the negative publicity the company is receiving following its decision to close down a factory in Wales (and the associated job losses).

Sure, in an ideal world, I wouldn’t want Burberry to close down its Welsh factory…more Taffs on the streets with time on their hands is bad news for everyone…but I understand the pressures placed on business these days. In an ever more competitive global market, the drive to reduce production costs to the minimum is inexorable. Inevitably, Burberry plans to move its production to China, where it’ll cost, like, 95% less than it does in Wales (probably).

The factory closure, while clearly tough for those involved, is unlikely (in my view) to have huge consequences in terms of lost sales. Far more significant, surely, is that Burberry as a brand has become synonymous with football thugs and chavs? I’m no more likely than you (I’m assuming) to buy something that features the hugely distinctive beige check.

But maybe I’m missing the point? I’m sure that in pure commercial terms, Burberry has done very well out of its products becoming popular amongst a much wider public, sales must be far greater today than a decade ago. So perhaps it doesn’t care that I’m no longer part of the target market? It’s a bit like Bentley. OK, so in going a bit downmarket, it might have lost a few old school(tie) Bentley customers…and let’s face it, they’d have been dead soon anyway…but it’s more than made up for them with any number of footballers and their wives.

To be honest though, I reckon a bunch of chavs are going to be even less bothered (sorry, "bovvered") about some Welsh people losing their jobs than I am.

To quote Ali G once again, “when you hear the world Wales, you probably think about the fish with the biggest dick in the ocean. But it is also the name of a country that is only about 200 miles from Britain.”

2007-06-11T16:27:00.001+01:00

Doppelganger...

Here's a picture of the actor Michael French alongside one of PRWeak editor Danny Rogers.

Can you tell the difference?

Here's a clue...one has played a central role in a long-running but largely depressing London-based soap opera.

The other one was David Wicks in Eastenders.

2007-06-11T08:45:00.001+01:00

Make mine a large stiff one...

Seen the new Heineken television ad yet? No, neither have I. I don't think it's out...at least I've been searching on YouTube and it hasn't appeared, so I'm assuming that it's not yet on the telly. I'm interested though, as the Media Guardian tells me that it features a woman, in the bath, using a lobster "inappropriately".

Now, it strikes me that unless you've turned your tub into an aquarium, any use of a lobster in it could be deemed inappropriate. She might be using it to scrape a load of matted hair and gunk out of the plughole.

However, given the strapline for the ad is, "get the head right and the rest will follow..." I think we all know the sort of inappropriate crustacean use to which Heineken is alluding.

Such is the beauty of advertising. Can you imagine pitching up to your client and proposing a PR campaign based around suggestions of masturbation with marine animals? Or suggestions of masturbation full stop?

Perhaps there is an associated PR campaign. I have images in my mind of earnest AEs selling "Top Ten wanking widgets" boxouts into the lifestyles...celebs being approached to discuss their favourite self-love stories...websites carrying surveys..."if you were to use a sea-based creature for a touch of self-gratification, which one would it be?" (dolphin for me, in case you're interested. Or you're a dolphin).

I imagine they'd also need to do something around drinking responsibly. Perhaps your designated driver could be encouraged to ask for a Heineken hand shandy from the busty barmaid at the Dog & Duck?

No doubt the advertising agency is furiously thinking about the next ad in the series (or, as I suspect, lining up another 20 minute brainstorm in the local boozer).

I have an idea...maybe the next ad should be one for the ladies? It could feature a hunky chap in his local supermarket getting over-friendly with a watermelon that he's drawn a girl's face on with a marker pen and cut a suitably sized hold in...

He could even pick up a six-pack on his way out.

2007-06-07T22:33:00.000+01:00

The job satisfaction imbalance…

Long one this, I’m afraid…a bit serious too. Sorry about that. But hey, it's Friday morning...what else are you going to do?

It’s also rather London-centric, so apologies in advance to those of you in the regions (though you’ll be on in a minute to tell us all how fresh the air is, I imagine).

It seems that recruitment issues have been at the top of the agenda this week. The blog post from Wadds highlighting Grant Currie’s efforts to entice some of the Rainier crew over to Inferno, and Currie’s decent response on his agency’s new blog (and well done Warren for digging out the URL) were neat examples of an increasingly severe problem that I’m hearing from agency heads, in-house PR directors and recruiters right now: good people are almost impossible to find.

David Brain produced a short but spot-on post regarding the news that Stephen “PR Blogger” Davies is once again packing up his laptop and moving on. It’s a largely financially-driven decision…as Davies himself puts it: “As much as I enjoy working in London, I simply can’t afford to stay here at this moment in my life.”

Brain is “very worried on this score” (so worried, in fact, that he threw an extra “r” into “worried”) and rightly so.

Understandably, a commenter on Brain’s blog highlights how more severe the same issue is for the likes of nurses, but we’ve still got to take note of the trend and its potential consequences for the PR industry.

Bear with me here, as I’m off on a ramble…but it’ll sort itself out at the end.

I’ve often thought of job satisfaction being rather like a graphic equaliser. Most of you from Generation i(Pod) probably won’t know what a graphic equaliser is…so there’s a picture of one above. It used to form part of your stereo system...and you’d tweak each little lever until you found the best sound quality.

There are lots of little levers that can be tweaked to increase (or decrease) job satisfaction. There’s salary, obviously, but there’s also colleagues, clients, office location, quality of coffee, culture, eye candy, flexi-working…and a hundred other factors that line up to make a job enjoyable or not. You might be as happy as a pig in shite…and then your best mate leaves and things aren’t quite as rosy. Or the company decides that it can’t afford a Christmas party…or free drinks…or your client changes…or the company moves offices. Any of these will have an effect on your job satisfaction (sometimes up, sometimes down).

The issue that Davies and Brain highlight is, I think, having some serious consequences on job satisfaction. London’s becoming more and more expensive and, therefore, people need to locate themselves further away from its centre (or wave goodbye to a greater proportion of their disposable income in rent or mortgage repayments). A long commute makes the working day less enjoyable in itself, but it also has an effect on the culture of organsiations.

When I started out in PR, my working life and my social life were almost one and the same – at least they both featured the same group of people, generally speaking. Work and play did blur, and it was easier because most people lived a reasonably short distance from the office. It also meant that it was feasible to get together (and get together, if you receive my meaning) over weekends. This had a hugely positive effect on the company’s culture.

I had a beer (or three) last night with the MD of a UK PR agency, and he confirmed that this had also been true for him when he started out, “I used to work my arse off…I’d get in at 7.00am and leave at 10.00pm…but I also used to spend a lot of my working day pissing around and having a laugh. It was great fun, and I didn’t resent the hours because it didn’t feel like it was just my workplace. I spend quite a lot of my time these days encouraging a bit of pissing around in my agency, but it feels forced; like we’ve got to somehow timetable playtime…”

Now, some might say that our industry has grown up; that we’ve needed to and have become more serious. Problem is, with London’s success as a global financial centre, the cost of living in or near the city has outstripped the PR industry’s ability to increase the salaries of its people. And even where salary inflation has grown, it has resulted in agencies having to demand that their people work harder (to maintain margins), leaving less time for fun and, understandably, a desire to get out of the office and away from work as soon as is realistic every day (compounded by the longer commute).

I’m with Brain…economic factors are having a serious effect on ability of the PR industry to offer people a rewarding, fun career. Which brings me onto my next point (I did say this was a long one…)

There’s a shortage of good people. I hear it all the time. Yet we’re also told that PR is consistently one of the top career choices for people entering the workplace, and the growing number of PR degrees (often oversubscribed) would point to more and more people entering the industry. So where do they all go? Or is it that even with this growth, there still aren’t enough?

I suspect that we lose a lot of people early in their PR careers. Perhaps PR graduates – having spent three years dissecting the grand PR strategies of the world’s biggest brands – find the reality of life on the bottom rung of the PR career ladder disillusioning? Added to the fact that they’re saddled with student debt and then find that it’s impossible to sustain a job in London and live within their means…well, it’s not a great surprise that many reconsider.

I’m not sure what the answers are. Brain calls for more affordable housing. I think that would be great, but clearly the likes of public-service workers such as nurses will (and should) get first dibs.

Maybe more agencies (like Edelman) should consider establishing satellite offices outside London…where people could live more affordably and come into town as and when necessary?

What I do know for sure is that things are less fun than they used to be. And - for me at least – the “fun” lever on the PR job satisfaction graphic equaliser was always one of the most important.

2007-06-07T09:31:00.000+01:00

Collective hara-kiri..?

Or shall we do it individually?

When a national journalist and blogger starts a headline to a post with "Die, PR, die..." then it's probably one we should all take a look at.

Indefensible stuff.

2007-06-07T08:53:00.000+01:00

Back to earth with a bump...

Friends, family and Edelman colleagues are, I'm sure, delighted that Justin Westcott has returned safely from his risky trip up the little slopy bits right at the bottom of Mount Everest. No, no...I'm being unfair. He went quite high up. But he's back now and that's great.

Or is it?

I remain concerned. You see, Westcott's been blogging for a while but I have to say that I've always found his blog quite a taxing read. He doesn't seem to have...how shall I put this?...the greatest eye for detail with regard to grammar and spelling. And, as you know, we're a bit of a stickler for that.

When Justin landed over east, however, he told us all that blogging directly was nigh on impossible and, as a result, he would have to send his musings to his colleague Jonny Bentwood who would stick them on Westcott's blog.

What a transformation! Bentwood's clearly a fella after our own heart...his sub-editing resulted in nicely written, compelling pieces of prose...it was lovely stuff.

Now Westcott's back and he's doing his own writing again. Indeed, his first blog post upon his return to a decent internet connection started with this: "So i’m back in Nepal"

What's up? No shift key on the keyboard?

Justin, I implore you...retain Bentwood's sub-editing services, whatever the cost...

2007-06-07T06:56:00.001+01:00

PR Weak: The world's leading weekly PR publication....

Kid you not; the esteemed organ claims it here.

Why the 'weekly' caveat?

Answers in a cellophane wrapper with a flyer for a training course....

2007-06-06T21:18:00.000+01:00

Fight, fight, fight, fight….

If TWL has been a bit light of late, it’s Sally Whittle’s fault.

In a post that had a faint whiff of mountains being made from molehills for the sake of new content, Sally accused the TWL and Fullrun of playground bullying with the Flackenhacks.

The original roasting left TWL feeling as though it had been savaged by a deep sheep (which, incidentally, is preferable to being ravaged by one).

The post is worth a read, but it’s the vicious string of comments that provides the fun. First up is:

“I agree. Shameless and cowardly bullying. It would be like someone using her blog to attack people and make snide and petty comments but not having the guts to name the people shes [sic] sniping at.”

From there on in, Sally does battle with all-comers in a manner that wouldn’t be out of place in Pirates of the Caribbean.

There are some impressive highlights including a hack who has posted his photo and profile on a swinger's website, TWL being called not just “petty, personal and vindictive,” but also “despicable, shallow and pathetic,” and a troll called PJ who reckons Sally suffers from “flip-flopism” (which is neither a shoe fetish or brewer’s droop). And it all ends up with a funny joke about Santa. Magic….

2007-06-04T13:26:00.000+01:00

Ex-Moto blog fest...

It appears that the first thing you have to do when leaving Motorola's PR operation...as many seem to be doing...is set up a blog.

Most recent leaver Mark Durrant regales us with any number of humourous insights and witty anecdotes about his forthcoming move to Helsinki (where he's soon to start a new job for Nokia) in his blog Finn Mark...but his former colleague Chris Bignell is currently positioning himself as leader in the ex-Moto-PR-team-king-of-content-in-new-blogs niche.

Bignell sets expectations with his month-old blog, AWEEKISALONGTIME (yes, all one word and all upper case, please) as he only posts once a week and, so far, has managed to keep to his word (unlike some). And boy, does he make the most of that one post each week..? Oh yes.

Here are some of the highlights:

"I decided to clean out the barbecue with the garden vacuum…"

"Does anyone know how to stop a cat from “poo-ing” in the garden?"

"I can hear you saying “life is too short” but it is always the little things huh?"

"I was going to blog about allergies and the benefits of a wheat and dairy free diet but that will have to wait till next week"

"Redbush tea...I cannot get enough of this stuff at the moment. There must be something very soothing in it because it is really doing it for me."

"Co-codamol: Ok I found these yesterday, left over from when I was really ill after having my wisdom teeth out but I have never known a pain killer like these – 10 minutes after using them I was feeling good."

"I have a bucket outside my back door that had weeds in it from last weekend when we spent some time sorting out the garden. On Saturday it had weeds and nothing else in it. As I write this on Monday evening, it now has six inches of rain in it too. This was a very visual reminder to me of exactly how much it had persistently rained in the UK over this Bank Holiday weekend."

I don't know Bignell, but I'm building a picture of a man who works himself into a frenzy of barbecue cleaning and cat worrying...brings himself down with some herbal team and powerful painkillers...only to slip into a vegetative state of gazing at weed-filled buckets.

Still, his new business should give him something to focus on. It's a PR company called XL Comunications. It's not terribly easy to find online as there's already an XL Communications...oh, and another...and another.

Best of luck with that, Chris. And those pesky cats.

2007-06-04T08:47:00.000+01:00

The Flackenhack Awards 2007...categories announced..!

Get yourself over here to see the 12 categories in this year's inaugural tech PR and media Flackenhack Awards.

Entry couldn't be easier or, indeed, cheaper.

Go on...it'll be fun.

2007-06-03T20:23:00.000+01:00

How very, very modern...

You remember a while back I started that new TWL feature HEAD..?

You know...it's our version of marriages, birth and deaths and stands for Hitched, Engaged, Arrived and Departed.

Well this is the sort of thing we're after...

2007-06-01T08:37:00.000+01:00

They're a forgiving bunch...

...but ring them on deadline and they crucify you.

From The Scotsman:

"PR SPINMEISTERS at Weber Shandwick Scotland are celebrating a remarkable coup: managing to "sell in" a story to the Pope. Vatican Radio was one of the takers for the company's promotion of NetIDme, an online service aimed at improving internet chat security for children. Less spiritual outlets such as ITN, ABC radio..."

You'll need a subscription to ead the rest..."from as little as £29.95 a year."

Like a Jock's going to stump up for that..!

2007-05-31T14:18:00.000+01:00

From la-de-dah to ho-de-ho; we’re all working class now....

Skinny profit margins and tightly managed expense accounts mean that PRs have to be towards the top end of middle management before they find themselves travelling business class.

On European flights, the actual bit in the air is pretty much the same as economy, give or take an inch of leg room, so the value-add is the airline lounge.

“No more queuing in Pret with tattooed Northerners for you Mr Middle Management, come sit in our lounge and have a free-at-the-point-of-consumption fruit salad, a nice cup of coffee and a selection of newspapers.”

While it’s a privilege to be able to sit somewhere away from the madding crowd, the business lounge atmosphere is an odd one. Everyone there is obviously doing reasonably well in their career, and all are conscious they might bump into an important colleague or contact. As a result the majority of people are overtly polite. Even those that normally flounce around the office being all self-important tend to tone it down to merely a façade of ‘pensively busy.’ Whilst not actually friendly, they are certainly more courteous than normal.

A bit like in the workplace, no-one wants to admit they don’t know what they’re doing which leads to undignified bumbling at the coffee machines, and many nonchalant strolls before people actually find the toilet (frequented for Molton Brown hand wash, as much as nature’s requirements).

The over-bearing stench of business chic does rather give the game away that, for most of the people there, this is all actually a little bit fun. Heck, there’s even a spa in most of these places.

Enjoying the surroundings perhaps a tad too much, TWL had sufficient time to browse the opinion pieces in the Financial Times. A whimsy rarely afforded to one’s self in the office.

An indulgent folly from Jonathan Guthrie caught the eye, discussing the revival of Butlin’s. It’s a sound investment apparently, along with caravan parks and other domestic holiday haunts for the increasingly affluent working class. And here’s where it starts to go horribly wrong as Guthrie turns to, presumably, the only ‘working class’ person he knows for a view from the coal face.

“She stayed at the Minehead resort ‘with her Mark’ last year, she said. ‘There were dust bunnies under the beds,’ she clucked. And it narked them that premium rate guests sat in a better restaurant. This year they’re going to Egypt.”

The pomposity slapped TWL in the face. Why the Dick van Dyke ‘with her Mark’ colloquialism? Why does she ‘cluck’ rather than ‘say?’ Why use a word like ‘narked?’ Because she’s working class? Because she’s a bit of a thicko? Because Guthrie knows she won’t be reading the FT, as she’s a bit common?

An FT columnist is a prime business lounge candidate. Business lounge folk are, by and large, reasonably senior people working for an organisation they don’t own (bar a few shares perhaps).

Robert Madge, when he very much owned Madge Networks, for example, tended to opt for EasyJet in that very nice practical approach that entreprenuers often adopt (self-made millionaires don’t need the ego-rub of business lounges, thank you very much). The flash and/or super successful, meanwhile, will be first class or private jet. In short, the business lounge is for the career-orientated chattering classes as opposed to the Times Rich List.

But Guthrie and, at a guess, the average frequenter of a business lounge would never consider themselves working class. They are above van drivers, plumbers and nannies. They are travelling business class…..working for someone else, as part of a company they don’t own. Humm, see you in the business lounge Guthrie. And see you at Butlin’s….

2007-05-31T13:30:00.000+01:00

Remember, Davey-boy, tits win votes...

So, Andy Coulson, ex-editor of the News of the Screws, is to be the Tory Party's new director of communications.

When you read through his career highlights and lowlights, it's certainly difficult to argue with his credentials...seems the obvious choice, doesn't he? After all, I imagine he's buried as many sex scandals as he's printed.

2007-05-30T19:55:00.000+01:00

Stupid is as stupid does...

A couple of pieces of piss-poor PR performance landed in our inbox this afternoon.

First up, some numpty at Grant Butler Coomber managed to send out a press release and include the wrong client name...only to several hours later try and gloss over it with this:

"I am extremely sorry, however there was a typo in the below e-mail. The company that should be mentioned as the survey sponsors is PacketExchange not Websense. Please do let me know if this presents any problems."

Problems? Not for us pal...maybe for you.

Then, an equally challenged individual from Bite decided to attach Toshiba's entire press list (that'll be just the 458 names then...) to an email to an undisclosed list of recipients...though it'd be a fair guess, we reckon, that it went to all the people in the attached spreadsheet.

Still, the hack community has hardly been covering itself in glory either. Check out this Response Source enquiry from yesterday:

PUBLICATION: Nuts
JOURNALIST: Andrew Dickens (staff)
DEADLINE: 30-June-2007 17:00
QUERY: Myself and the Deputy News Editor are going to Le Mans from 15-18 June. We are looking for loans off the following if anyone out there is feeling very kind: a car and camping equipment (from tin pots to tents), OR a motor-home. I have to make it clear that there is no guarantee of coverage.

Surely that's abusing the system?

The Flackenhack Awards are going to have categories for this kind of rubbish you know...

2007-05-30T14:18:00.000+01:00

Just one more big puff...

What has everybody got?

Feet, right?

What does everybody want their feet to become?

Comfy.

Well, check this. I is going to use the intranet, and I is going to do it on wwf.slippers.com.

Not my concept, granted. It's Ali G's.

But though said in jest, for those of us that have been in this buisness since late last century; for those for whom this logo sends us into cold sweats, it was something (or similar) we heard all too often from the barely fully-toothed mouths of the arrogant arses that thought they could attract millions of pounds of venture capital funding by slipping a simple ".com" after any consumer product and establish a company worth, well, even more millions. And the really stupid thing was, they could!

For a while at least. Until it all went to shite.

Odd thing is though, I haven't just dusted that First Tuesday logo down from a long-forgotten hard drive. Oh no, it arrived in my email inbox yesterday. Along with these words:

"Remember us? We certainly remember you. Please don't tell anyone we sent you this email...

"Are you in? . . . as a former highly valued patron we would like to invite you to our secret launching event in London after the summer but first we would like to ask you to please reply a blank email to this address to confirm that you are still interested in hearing from us. If you prefer us to send information to another email address, just write that in your reply."

Christ, it's back. Which means the bubble's close to bursting.

Though that "Please don't tell anyone we sent you this email..." seems a little too keen to me, don't you think? Like they'd really like you to tell someone that they sent you this email...like they want to create a little buzz.

Happy to help. The sooner we get this over with, the better.

2007-05-29T12:47:00.000+01:00

Drinking opportunity, tomorrow night...

This just in from Will Sturgeon, editor at large (where, exactly?) of silicon.com:

"As many people are no doubt aware, Jo Best worked her last day for silicon.com on Friday. However, she’s currently living large on some well-earned holiday pay before she joins ZDNet in Australia and she remains a CNET employee. As such we don’t feel at all bad about making her come back in one more time for some leaving drinks this Wednesday.

"I know the award-winning Ms Best has enjoyed working alongside many excellent PR-types over the past four years and I’d hope many would love to come along and help say goodbye to somebody who has been a fantastic addition to both our editorial team and the UK tech industry.

"So if you think Jo would be delighted to see you (...trust your instincts on this one) feel free to join us at about 6-ish at The Rose & Crown on Colombo Street; tucked among the backstreets of SE1. It’s a traditional little boozer, much like Jo herself, but it has a great big garden out back which we can all admire through the driving rain. It would be great to see some familiar faces there.

"For those who never had the great pleasure of working with Jo, I’m sure there will be loads of opportunities to catch up with the rest of the silicon.com team in the coming weeks but in the meantime tomorrow night’s event will be all about giving Jo a great send-off among friends and colleagues."

TWL will be there. Probably. Don't let that put you off.

2007-05-29T11:30:00.000+01:00

Yankee doodle hand shandy...

I've been away. But you knew that. I'm back now though.

I was in America. There's good news and there's bad news.

The good news is that we're still much, much better than they are. Particularly at this PR lark. Honestly. It sounds like a really flippant thing to say (flippant? Me?) but I swear it's true. For various reasons (that we've alluded to before) we have to work much, much harder to generate genuinely effective results. We're more creative anyway (as Amanda at Strumpette has also been pointing out) but a tougher environment pushes us even further.

It's a societal thing. When things are designed so that the minimum effort achieves an acceptable result, people get lazy. When they get lazy they get fat; when they get fat they find it harder to move so they get even lazier...they're trapped in a vicious circle.

When you're a PR who controls access to the senior execs in an NYSE or Nasdaq-listed corporation, it's very easy to get lazy. When you have to scrap tooth and nail for interest in a foreign company amongst an indifferent press (at best) it's essential that you get creative. And creativity fuels great PR.

I'll tell you what else I found out. The US is really struggling with social media. Which is tricky, because they're also obsessed by it. Digital this, digital that...blogs, mash-ups, provider pass along...they're full of buzzwords, that's for sure, but they're not doing it very well.

This is societal too. People often talk about the great service that you get in the States; the "have a nice day" philosophy. It's true. In every shop, bar, restaurant, taxi...crikey, even public convenience...that I walked into I was greeted enthusiastically by someone wanting to know how I was feeling or how they could help (by stepping the fuck away from me was the answer in the gents, in case you're wondering...).

The thing is, it's false. None of them were genuinely that interested in how I was feeling...they were interested in how much I might spend in their shop. You can see the lack of conviction in their eyes...these are just words used to start a dialogue that might lead to a transaction.

And this is the central problem that our American cousins are having with social media; they don't do genuine conversation. They just can't bring themselves to let go of the central message enough ("I'm here to sell you stuff") to come across as authentic. I tried it in a few places and you don't have to scratch much from the surface of a personal conversation with a member of staff to realise that there's absoutely no substance to it.

I've heard a few times recently about UK social media specialists working for US PR groups who are spending all their time flying back and forth across the Atlantic to help their Amercian colleagues "get" authentic social media. I'm not sure that they will (but I'm here and ready to help).

One of the presenters at the event, when espousing the need to get digital in everything we do, said that "community is an art." I'd agree (funnily enough, she was a Brit). But then, as we know, all the greatest artists are European.

Interesting stuff though.

What's that? The bad news?

Oh yes. The bad news is...they've still got all the money.

2007-05-29T09:20:00.000+01:00

50:50...a reference to their ages, presumably...

...the full name being 50:50:62:78

What the hell am I talking about? Well, those of you who saw this story in PRWeak's diary page last week might know. 50:50 is the name of the "rock" band formed by Hugh Birley, boss of Lexis PR, and "three chums" and which played a gig to a muted reception at a boozer in Herne Hill the other week. This is the band's flyer.

Mid-Life Crisis Management services, anyone..?

What Weak didn't spot, of course, was that one of Birley's "chums" was Matthew Ravden, long-time director and shareholder in the Next Fifteen Group of PR companies. He's the one on keyboards...like Chris Martin two decades from today. When he's started to forget stuff.

What Weak also didn't tell you was that you can see them perform here on YouTube...

2007-05-22T22:57:00.001+01:00

It’s PR innit….

There’s a nice article in the current Economist about Gordon Brown’s first steps at ‘campaigning’ to be a popular prime minister.

It starts by highlighting a couple of campaigning blunders...being filmed as a member of the public slammed a door in his face, his face being partially blocked by an autocue while making a speech, a struggle to release some balloons from a net...that sort of thing.

The article then discusses the perception of Brown in relation to Tony Blair and David Cameron and draws to a conclusion that Brown’s differentiator is that he’s seen as someone who gets things done without too much razzmatazz. It’s a position that leaves Blair and Cameron as showman that don’t deliver. The article closes by pondering whether those early campaigning blunders were not as careless as they looked.

It’s a similar line of thought that surrounded Masterfoods’ announcement – and subsequent backtrack – that it would introduce animal rennet into a number of its products (such as Mars, Snickers and Twix), making them unsuitable for vegetarians. Well, not all vegetarians...as Masterfoods' corporate affairs manager Paul Goalby told the BBC: "If the customer is an extremely strict vegetarian, then we are sorry the products are no longer suitable, but a less strict vegetarian should enjoy our chocolate". In the same way that a "less strict vegetarian" would probably enjoy a sausage sandwich. And I, as a "less strict" tee-totaler, like getting a bit drunk.

Paul Own-Goalby, more like...

But perhaps we're doing him a disservice? Maybe it was all a clever PR move to generate loads of publicity, a bit of controversy and then a positive feeling around the company’s reaction to ‘listen to its customers'?

Initially, TWL wrote this all off as silly nonsense, something that possible might occasionally happen in the consumer world but certainly not in sensible technology PR.

But then we started to think harder and began to wonder. Apple was deemed too stupid for words, only to come back a resurgent force and able to charge a fortunate for mediocre products because it was the cool underdog...and then Microsoft launched a rather rubbish product in Zune to make itself the underdog, so that when the much better (can't be much worse) Zune II launches, it'll look blinding by comparison. And speaking of Microsoft, it has clearly (probably) manoeuvred Google by deliberately stifling MSN search so that Google looks all monopolistic and nasty. Next year, who knows, Acorn might rise again and give Windows a damn good kicking as it benefits from retro O/S trend.

God, they’re clever these PR people...pretending they’re shite by delivering things late, being unprofitable and employing thickos.

Evil geniuses, the lot of them.

2007-05-22T01:59:00.000+01:00

Dear TWL….

Apologies for the delay in sending this review of our activity over the last 12 months.

The evaluation company was late in delivering it’s analysis and we had issues with our Server which meant we couldn’t send emails. Were disappointed it is late because their is so many grate successes too share.

In the last 12 months, Fawn PR has secured TWL 335 pieces of coverage by posting them onto the blogosphere. Many of the 2.0 digitari have referred to TWL, often including a link to the site, including Peter Kirwin, Anthony Mayfield, Andrew Smith, Drew Bee and Chris Green. Charles Arthur, who writes for a newspaper, also mentioned TWL in his online blog. An exact number of people writing about TWL in the blogosphere is not available as it’s all so new.

Fawn PR also secured coverage in Old World media including PR Weak and The Guardian. We did this by printing out individual blogs and sending them as a Letter through the post to carefully selected Old World journalists. Unfortunately we have not been able to collect all Old World coverage generated as TWL refused to subscribe to a press cuttings service.

Below is graphic that shows their has bean a consistent rise in the number of people reading the posts we have put on the blog we made. The two spikes in the amount of people reading the sight were a result of Fawn PR’s social networking campaigns when we proactively spread the word by visiting physical world locations that are popular with PR people. We talked loudly in these places saying how much we enjoyed TWL. Fawn PR proposes four more of these innovative campaigns during the next 12 months, which will be projects.

The one significant drop in people reading the posts was because it was Christmas and TWL failed to give Fawn PR any stories.

During the last 12 months, Fawn PR has limited TWL to only receiving two threats of legal action, one terse email from PR Weak and numerous attempts at being outed. Our crisis response team has provided full consultancy on each of these matters, except the one in March when he was on holiday.

Over the next year, Fawn PR recommends increasing the level of monthly activity 25 per cent with the aim of securing a quarter more coverage. We also think TWL should get a cuttings service as then we will be able to know how much coverage were getting. The 4 proactive social networking campaigns are key and will cost £5,000 each.

We look forward to the next 12 months and believe we can enjoy even more success.

2007-05-21T14:46:00.000+01:00

I'm living in letters...

Mornin' all.

I know, I know, it's afternoon for most of you lot, but it's morning for me, because I'm "away" at the moment, in a top secret overseas location. Had a long flight yesterday, made even longer by a ridiculous delay...a delay that I chose to drink through and then thought, well, sod it, I might as well continue on the plane and then, you know, I arrived at the hotel and it was only, like, six o'clock in the evening so I found my way to the bar here too.

So, this morning, I reckon I've got a DVT compunded by the DTs...the DVTDTs if you like.

Anyway, I'll be quick...just got a couple of things to mention.

Firstly, you know the awards we talked about? The one's we're doing with Peter Kirwan of Fullrun? Well, they've got a name and their very own blog. They're called The Flackenhack Awards 2007 ("The Flackenhacks" for short) and the blog can be found here.

Pay it a visit, though there's not very much on it at the moment. As and when news and information about the awards gets confirmed, that's where it'll appear. Rest assured though, things have been racing along behind the scenes...we've got sponsors, nearly booked a venue and confirmed a number of judges...all very exciting (I say "we" but Peter's been doing most of the arranging so far, bless his cottons...).

The only other thing I've got to say is, "Oi, where's our card, you bastards?"

Your favourite blog in the whole wide world was a year old yesterday (I mean TWL, you twit).

2007-05-18T16:19:00.000+01:00

Everyone's saying Goodbye, Moto...

Too easy that one, eh..?

I'm hearing whispers on the grapevine that Mark Durrant, Motorola's Director of Communications & Public Affairs, EMEA, has jumped ship...allegedly for a big fat juicy job at Nokia.

This after Chris Bignell left last month after only a year at Moto, and following the recent departures of other big-hitters in Motorola's marketing and comms department, Rachel Laird and Simon Thompson.

Anyone know any more details..?

2007-05-18T12:26:00.000+01:00

I'm a transexual satanist...

...with a penchant for beastiality. See what you can do.

I've got no qualms with wanting to understand your key journalists a bit better...it can only help build valuable relationships. But it should happen naturally, over time, over lunch, over beers...relationships should evolve...they're a voyage of discovery. If I tell you all about me today, what little golden nuggets of insight can I share tomorrow...what magic dust of data do I have to sprinkle over the relationship in the future?

Seems that some, however, want to shortcut the process. Like the guys at Skywrite, for example.

Who?

Well, that's kind of the point...not many people have heard of Skywrite, including many of the hacks they'd like to speak to, apparently, which is why the Skywrite team decided to email them to clear up any confusion.

Skywrite is, the email explains, "a spangly new sister agency to Hotwire. Originally code-named Fly PR, the agency is now called Skywrite Communications and very excitingly will provide emerging technology companies with not just PR but full-service marcoms support."

Very excitingly. After a bit of spiel about its current clients, the email gets down to the nitty-gritty:

"But enough about us! As one of our favourite journalists we would love to be able to look after our relationship with you better. This is totally optional so please don’t feel pressured to reply but we were wondering if you could send us the date of your birthday (so that we can send you a little gift) and a few of your interests (eg do you like football – if so what team do you support etc?) so that we can offer you some hospitality treats!"

Hospitality treats!

"As I said please don’t feel pressured to reply but if you would be happy with us having the details we promise not to pass them onto third parties and only to use them for hospitality treats!"

Hospitality treats!

Oh, I don't know...should I be taking the piss? It's just that...as is so often the case...the motivation's right, but the execution just feels very, very wrong.

Why not just invite them all out for a few beers in a central London boozer and get to know them face-to-face? Do that a few times, make sure you're delivering some decent, usable stories and you'll soon establish all the relationships you'll need...without having to drag yourself along to a wet Wednesday evening game at The Valley...or worse.

2007-05-18T09:01:00.001+01:00

He's an oil painting....

Just in case you missed it, 'anonymous' made an excellent comment on the Phil Muncaster post.

This is so accurate it's not a doppelganger of Silicon's Steve Ranger, but a portrait....

2007-05-17T14:49:00.000+01:00

Informer, you no say Daddy me Snow me I'll go blame…

…a licky Boom Boom Down.

So sang Canadian reggae artist Snow on his 1993 hit “Informer”.

But that isn't the “informer” that’s front of mind for all those in the world of tech media today. Oh no, that one’s spelt differently, but sounds the same…hence my ridiculous link.

Eagle-eyed amongst you will have seen that publishing and conference company Informa has snapped up Datamonitor for a shade over half a billion quid.

Half a billion?! Bit spenny? Perhaps, because as the Daily Telegraph points out: “Datamonitor's shares are trading at multi-year highs and media analysts believe that Informa shareholders could raise questions about the price it is willing to pay to capture its target.”

Still, you get some good stuff for your money…CBR, Ovum, ComputerWire…so it might be decent value. And there isn't much crossover between Informa's rather meagre selection of tech titles (which, as far as I can see, numbers one telco mag...) so it shouldn't have too many ramifications.

2007-05-17T08:58:00.000+01:00

Apologies in advance...

...but it's low hanging fruit at its very lowest. From PRWeak:

"Edelman bags Viagra brief"

The new CEO seems to have started well doesn't he...but can he keep it up?

From the PRWeak story itself...Edelman UK healthcare director Steven Spurr says:

"It wants to get its position back up to where it was a few years ago"...don't we all, Steve, don't we all...

"A sizeable portion of our work will now be aimed at women"...I'm not making this up, honest...

"Spurr also revealed that the brief could be extended"...extended briefs..?

What a beauty...

2007-05-16T15:14:00.000+01:00

Doppelganger...

This time, surely...?

Muncaster, Reporter, IT Week ------ Muncher, Carpet - K.D. Lang

2007-05-16T12:10:00.000+01:00

The joy of off-sites…

Back in the good old days, an off-site was simply a day off work and the chance to slag off your boss to his or her over-paid face. Sitting through three hours of dull presentations was the price you paid for loads of free booze and half a chance of a fumble with a new grad.

Doubtless a lot of this still goes on but, inspired by some misguided 2.0 thinking, they have also become recruitment adverts.

For example, Golin Harris (new website, I think) thought it would be just crazy to upload the highlights of its recent off-site (to Rome, no less!) to YouTube.

While doubtless it’s fun and entertaining internally, is it really a good idea to post this type of stuff publicly?

Yes, of course it is! Because then we get to see it.

On the other hand, does it not undermine much hard won gravitas? I mean, fancy a client of yours seeing you in your swimming cossie..? As one YouTube commenter puts it, "That's it Golin. Dignity's for the weak! Live the dream!"

Still, let’s not get too serious. The duet from joint MDs Jon Hughes and Matt Neale is beautifully toe-curling (0:53-1:00), as is the ‘you are the one’ section (1:58-2:04).

Actually, maybe it’s not a recruitment advert, but a tactic for driving new business. Lots of cavorting girls in skimpy clothes, boys with their man boobs on display…monthly meetings would be very entertaining. And Lord knows, the ‘for my love’ girl (2:12) would be welcome to my budget any day of the week…

2007-05-16T07:53:00.000+01:00

Credit where it's due...

...and discredit where it's not, too.

A few people have recently wondered why TWL hasn't done anything with the recent PRWeak (sorry, fellas, there's me misspelling the brand name again...) Top 150 League Tables.

Isn't it obvious? You just can't trust the bloody numbers. For us to comment on the league table would be akin to Michael Fish commenting on the weather forecasting skills of a wino sticking a wet finger in the air.

Before PRWeak itself did its "restating" (and more on that in a minute) you only needed to scan down the top 20 to start seeing some anomalies.

Look at The Red Consultancy for instance. Sitting at number 16 with a whopping 43% year on year growth in fee income. That's impressive...or is it? When you look at the actual numbers, 2006 fee income is stated as £9,177,279 while 2005 is listed at £8,890,10 (yes, there appears to be a number missing...looking back at last year's tables, there should be a "4" at the end). So this represents growth of about 3% for Red not 43%. But then percentages can be a bit tricky (I always struggled with simultaneous equations myself).

So, back to that "restating" of the numbers for some agencies. These were made, so PRWeak says, "following feedback from the industry". If what we've heard is close to the truth, the feedback was extremely direct and not at all positive. I'm understating that.

It's no surprise though when you see that, for instance, Burson Marstellar's apparent 13% fall in year on year revenue was converted to growth of 18% in the restated figures...equating to a piffling £4.9m of fee income. In fact, when you total up the difference between the original guesses PRWeak made regarding the fee incomes of the restated agencies (BM, Fleishman Hillard, Cohn & Wolfe, MS&L and Ogilvy...just the little guys then) the magazine managed to miss a shade under £18m of fee income.

OK, so agencies hiding behind Sarbanes Oxley hasn't made it any easier to pull the table together, but 18 million quid?! If only those agencies could hide it from the tax man so well...

I remember when the Top 150 was a really significant publication...chunky, with loads of ads from agencies proud to be featured. It's all rather thin these days...it's wasting away. Surely the kindest thing would be to put it out of its misery..?

I did mention credit where it's due though, didn't I?

Well, after our post last year regarding the dramatic slide of Portfolio Communications down the table, we're delighted to see that our old mate Mark Westaby has got the ship back under control, having posted a 7% growth in fee income in this year's tables! I'm assuming that Mark put these numbers together himself (or his bean counters did) and we can therefore trust their accuracy. The numbers have Portfolio holding steady in 44th position, but it's good to see that it's back on the up...(though the website still highlights the numbers from two years ago, so really needs updating...)...well done Mark!

Anyone who lists a corkscrew as their favourite gadget in the PRWeak Power Book can't be all bad...

2007-05-15T16:04:00.000+01:00

New feature...

...sort of.

What? It works for Hugh MacLeod. He's A-list, you know...

2007-05-15T13:06:00.000+01:00

Headlines I wish I'd written, no.36...

"Gloves come off in George Bush buttplug rumpus"

...from The Reg, who else..?

2007-05-15T11:11:00.000+01:00

Oh no, een France, you cannot do zis….

European PR, eh? It’s not like real PR. In fact, it’s generally done by those rubbish PRs that can’t handle the real world. The “I don’t talk to journalists brigade,” who always make sure their first call of the morning is “to the client.”

Splendid puppetmasters, too frightened of failure to do anything themselves. So they forward various emails, suggesting that other people do things. If it goes right, it’s great consultancy on their part. If it goes wrong, it’s a country-level problem that they will sort out by jumping of their white horse...and asking someone behind the scenes to sort out.

If they're so good at all things European, how come they hardly ever speak a second language?

Pah!

European charlatans aside, the UK is surely the toughest PR market in the world. Granted, American PR involves fewer holidays, earlier starts and less alcohol. But it also has much larger budgets, which easily support the excessive monitoring, analysis and reporting demands. Contrast that to the UK. Ridiculous expectations, clients so far away from HQ that they don’t actually know what’s going on, and a crazy belief that the reporting, analysis and general fannying around will be achieved within an absurdly small retainer.

The most notable difference, of course, is that while there are a huge number of publications in the US, the journalists there listen and the general tone – at least for the B2B sector – is earnest. Product news releases get covered in the US trades. And they like tame Q&As with senior execs.

Not the stuff El Reg, Inquirer and the like are interested in. Not even the more sober (figuratively...or not) – and advertising conscious – Computings and Computer Weeklies of the world will go for that. Indeed, the reason we suffer such a turgid supply of crap from our US clients is because their media doesn’t generally demand end-user examples, business cases and proof points.

And as for mainland Europe…have you seen the crap they get away with? Full page profiles of the newly appointed marketing director. Quarter page articles on the opening of a new office. Ever tried getting an answer from an Italian PR person after 2pm? Ever had a French PR say, “yeah, no problem, we can pretty much translate that and knock it out the door.”

Ever even spoken to a Spanish PR?

Underpaid, over-worked and shit weather. It’s the best PR education you’ll ever get but...like private school...you’ll get fucked up the arse while you're learning.

2007-05-15T11:08:00.000+01:00

The worst of times….

News reaches us that Silicon’s elfin tomboy, the very lovely Jo Best, is leaving our shores for Australia.

First the long hours, then the endless metrics and now this. It’s a dark day for all PRs.

On the bright side, there’s a senior reporter role at Silicon for anyone that knows a bit about mobile phones….

2007-05-14T16:57:00.000+01:00

I'm a preacher, not a practicer...

Given that I was recently trapped for hours between platforms at Green Park tube, caught in a sudden and terrifying avalanche of free newspapers, might this Response Source request be regarded as a little hypocrticial..?

PUBLICATION: Metro Newspaper
JOURNALIST: Vicki-Marie Cossar (staff)
DEADLINE: 14-May-2007 15:00
QUERY: Please consider the environment and stop sending Metro paper press releases through the post and just send e-mails to the addresses below with any information.

Any paper releases will not be looked at.

Thank you.

Of course, they might claim that Metro is printed in recycled paper...which it could be for all I know...in which case surely they'd be happy to accept the odd printed release on similar stock?

2007-05-14T08:32:00.000+01:00

In the words of Max Bygraves...

“I wanna tell you a story…”

It’s a bit of a long one but stick with it, there’s something decent at the end. Maybe grab a coffee first though.

Last year, in late October, I sat in the bar at The Dorchester sipping whisky sours and munching my way through the rather spectacular free nibbles. Of course “free” is a relative term in this context, as the whisky sours were costing me £11.64 each. Odd price that. Why not make it a round £12? Or drop down to a less round but possibly more acceptable £11.50? Sounds like a price devised on an accountant’s spreadsheet to me. Cost of material, plus cost of bartender’s time, plus cost of free nibbles…multiplied by five point three.

I digress.

The price of the drink didn’t matter, because not only is the bar at The Dorchester officially a Nice Place To Be, Nigel Havers was there and we actually acknowledged each other as I took my place at the bar. Soon afterwards, he left. Soon after that, a delightful couple from North America arrived and we got chatting. It turned out that they visited London for a week each year for shopping and dining. Were they staying at The Dorchester? Hell no! They kept an apartment in Chelsea. They just thought that the bar at The Dorchester was the best place to drink in London. I found myself in violent agreement.

I asked them what they'd been up to, and they told me that every time they visited London, they went to the latest “must eat at” restaurant that’d launched in the previous year. However, in 2006, there hadn’t been a standout and they decided to visit a classic: Gordon Ramsay’s place on Hospital Road.

My new buddy (I apologise for forgetting his name, but I was on my third whisky sour by this time…) told me that, “it was - by quite way - the most expensive meal I’ve ever paid for, and I’ve eaten in some of the best restaurants in the world.

“But you know what,” he continued, “I don’t regret a red cent of it…it was also – by a very long way – the best meal I’ve ever eaten.”

I was really pleased. It’s a place that I’ve always wanted to visit and it was nice to hear that it had lived up to its reputation.

Did he mind my asking, I ventured, how much it had cost?

He didn’t. Turns out that dinner for two plus a nice bottle of wine had come in at a shade under £500. Pricey, sure, but for the best meal you’ve ever eaten? Maybe decent value.

My new buddy’s lovely wife then asked me where I was off to, all dressed up as I was…

I should explain at this point that I was, indeed, all dressed up. Well, at a superficial level at least…I was wearing a decade-old dinner suit and no bow tie. Raffish, in a couldn’t be arsed sort of way.

I explained that I was killing an hour before wandering up Park Lane to perhaps London’s most passé venue, The Grosvenor, where I was about to gatecrash the PRWeak Awards ceremony.

Why was I gatecrashing?

Because, rather ironically I remember thinking, for the price of a ticket to the PRWeak Awards – and all the mass catering and dodgy disco that it entails - I could have enjoyed the best meal of my life (and wine) in Gordon Ramsay’s top restaurant. And I wasn’t prepared to pay it.

Ultimately, however, my ploy wasn’t as cost-effective as imagined. I arrived at The Grosvenor after dinner (as planned) and immediately spent more than £100 on two bottles of bubbly! Added to that, it wasn’t very much fun.

I don’t want to dismiss the PRWeak Awards out of hand, but Christ, they’re expensive to enter and attend. This year’s awards will cost you – at the very least – nearly £250 a head and, if you’re late in booking (who isn’t?) and want a decent table (who doesn’t?), it’ll be nearly £450 per person. To enter it’s £135 and, if you’re a week late entering (again, who isn’t?) it’ll cost you another £55. Per entry.

They’re one of the most profitable activities that PRWeak undertakes every year, which means that they’re more expensive than is absolutely necessary. But PRWeak can still fill the room, so it’s hardly going to cut prices, is it?

The worst part of the awards for me, however, is that they force agencies to make tough, unfair choices. We all know that a campaign shortlisted for a PRWeak Award will have taken the mental and physical energies of numerous people…so it’s almost impossible for anyone but the very largest and richest agencies to take all those involved along.

Which means that the Awards drive elitism within agencies, with agency heads and senior people feeling “obliged” to attend, even when their only interest in the client has been its impact on the P&L. How many hard-working AEs and AMs have sat disappointed as agency heads have wandered around the office in their glad rags prior to jumping in a taxi bound for the Great Room..? Or equally hard-working in-house teams watching the boss leave early to jump on the train up to town? I know I have.

So, this is an extremely round the houses way of telling you that this year, on October 23rd (uncoincidentally the day before the PRWeak Awards) there’ll be another awards ceremony in town…at least for the tech PR crowd (though everyone’s welcome, of course).

Yes, The World’s Leading…alongside top man Peter Kirwan of the excellent Fullrun…is chuffed to say that we’ll be holding our own little gathering this year; a chance for the unsung (or, indeed, sung) heroes of tech PR to celebrate some of the best (and possibly worst) work that’s taken place over the past year or so.

It’ll be a rather more down to earth event than the alternative; it won’t take place in a flash hotel, it won’t feature a sit-down meal and you won’t need to get yourself down to Moss Bros a couple of days before. But we can guarantee that there will be some grub, plenty of booze, entertainment and a bit of a laugh…and it won’t soak up a month’s disposable income. Think the Brats not the Brits…

Over the next few weeks we’ll be announcing the different awards categories and our esteemed panel of judges. We’ll also let you know where exactly it’ll be taking place (London somewhere) and how much a ticket will set you back (it’ll be about £50, with a chunk going to charity).

It’s likely to be a touch smaller than PRWeak’s effort…probably 300 rather than 1,500…so when we do announce the details, don’t hang about. In fact, if you want to guarantee yourself the chance to buy a ticket, send an email to theworldsleading@yahoo.co.uk

Christ, what else are you going to do on a rainy Tuesday night in October..?

2007-05-11T10:32:00.000+01:00

If the mountain won't come to Motorola...

You may have seen a couple of bloggers have covered Edelman tech PR man Justin Westcott's trip to Mount Everest as part of an attempt to break the world record for the highest mobile 'phone call. Westcott's not going up the hill himself, of course. He's just going to basecamp...which is akin to standing on tiptoe at the top of a ladder in your loft. He's leaving the hard bit to Rod Baber, a proper climber (the "hard bit" being, I suspect, trying to dial with frozen fingers...)

I've just seen the first bit of press coverage related to the attempt - this on the BBC's website. No mention of Motorola yet though...they must be delighted...(OK, OK, to be fair, there is a link to Motorola's website on the sidebar).

Without wishing to demean the difficulty of climbing Mount Everest, I'm a little underwhelmed by it all. It's been done a few times now and just because this fella's taking a little mobile with him doesn't, in my eyes, make it any more impressive. Now, if he was planning on performing Chas 'n' Dave's "Rabbit" on a pub piano that he'd dragged up there...

I can completely see how the idea came up in a brainstorm, though...and I imagine we can soon expect the world's fastest land-based mobile 'phone call involving Richard Noble and the world's deepest from some poor diamond miner in South Africa.

I'd just be happy to get a decent signal in my front room.

2007-05-11T08:40:00.000+01:00

It's not like they haven't got the time...

I have 39 feeds relating to the public relations industry coming into my reader (actually, it's Netvibes, which I simply adore...). OK, so some of these - as the leprechaun often rightly points out - aren't actually about PR itself. They're about blogging widgets and the like...it just so happens they they're written by people who work in the PR industry. But that's an axe to grind for another day.

It struck me this morning, however, that not a single one of these is penned by a PR professional working in-house...none of 'em. Nada. Zip.

Why is that? I mean, it's not like these guys aren't often senior PR people. Many of then will have spent years in agency before moving in-house...something that surely gives them an interesting perspective? They could comment on how agencies run campaigns, manage relationships...piss the client off. It'd be useful and interesting stuff. And if we accept the traditionally held beliefs that the in-house address is No.1 Easy Street, PRville, they should have the time to do it.

This traditionally held belief is, of course, utter bollocks. In fact, if more people in agency understood the in-house role, then I reckon numerous client-agency relationships would be transformed overnight.

I had a very frank conversation with a client's PR manager once. He felt that my team in the agency had something of an attitude problem; that they avoided his calls and evaded requests and felt that he was overly demanding and, frankly, something of a pain in the arse. And he was.

Thing is, he wasn't complaining about that perception per se, he was complaining that my team didn't understand his role - and the pressures he had to face - well enough to know why he was driven to behave like that.

"I think your team perceives that their work stops at me; that I'm my own boss and answer to nobody," he told me. "Here's an example. When we receive a less-than-glowing piece of coverage in a leading trade mag or a national, I guess your team is waiting for a call from me...that the phone will ring and I'll be on it demanding to know, in double-quick time, what the hell happened. And I will.

"The reason I'm behaving like that," he continued, "is because our CEO's office - yes, the man who pays all our bills - is only 25 metres from my desk. He quite often makes that short walk, newspaper in hand, to ask me, "what the fuck am I paying you for, and what the fuck are those poncy PR types in London up to?" That's a fairly direct pressure I have to deal with, so sometimes I pass a bit of that on."

We seem to invest heavily in agency in making our people understand the demands of the media...how hacks work, how they build stories, how these get sub-edited, deadlines...all of which is vital to doing a decent job. We don't seem to invest quite so much in helping our people understand the demands placed upon the in-house team...why, for instance, the deadline for the monthly report is so important, as it then feeds into a management report which helps justify the PR function, its budget, our fee and, hence, all our jobs. Stuff like that. Perhaps we should.

Anyway, does anyone know, though, of a good blog from an in-house PR pro? Anyone fancy starting one..?

2007-05-10T20:39:00.000+01:00

Doppelganger...

We came in for some entirely deserved criticism that our most recent doppelganger was, frankly, very weak indeed. What can we say? It was a quiet news day.

I think you'll agree, however, that we're right back on form with this one:

.............Crap TV cook..............New fella in charge at Edelman UK...

2007-05-10T18:20:00.000+01:00

Your out-of-the-box brainstorm idea for 10….

Life working on even the biggest IT brands can be a hell of a challenge. Take Intel - chips, semi-conductors, quad-core processors – all very good and important, but not something that naturally grabs people’s attention.

So, H&K to the rescue, with the fiendishly clever plan of a novelty quiz.

Take CNET’s brand spanking new video suite, a bunch of ZDNet journos, a motley crew of IT managers – mix in Arun Shenoy, Director of Digital Enterprise, Intel UK & Ireland in place of Bamber Gascoigne, Clever Posh Bloke, Eton College and Magdalene College – and hey presto you’ve got Intel University Challenge (intel-ligent, geddit?!).

Unable to resist, every now and again Arun Shenoy slips in the occasional work related question such as: “True or False? Agent presence checking and alerting can be performed wirelessly through level 3 VPN with Intel active management technology v2.5.” On such occasions, safe in the knowledge that the answer isn’t going to be ‘false’ as that would suggest Intel wasn’t jolly clever indeed, Goodwins can’t help but to be a smart arse. “Level 3 VPN,” he muses, before concluding: “True.”

Those crazy 2.0 cats at H&K have posted it on You Tube for us all to enjoy. Goodwins is clearly ZDNet’s Stephen Fry (3:12 into the clip), conferring with his colleagues as a CEO might pretend to listen to his employees’ opinions. It’s beautiful stuff.

ZDNet walloped the IT managers, 315 to 225, a trouncing not seen since Scumbag College’s appearance on University Challenge….

2007-05-09T15:51:00.000+01:00

Stinky Lord Bell...

Is it just me, or did the Good Relations walk-out story in PRWeak have the whiff of Billingsgate about it..?

A significant chunk of the staff - all but one, indeed, of the property and planning division - walk out the door, and Lord Bell claims that: "We have agreed to a management buyout."

Odd then that those that walked out have already established a new agency called Quatro with its own sparkling website...with no mention of the claimed MBO. Even stranger, given that he claims to have sold the business to the management, that Bell would also say that: "The existing business is being taken over by people from our public affairs planning division, TTA's planning staff and Bell Pottinger North's planning department."

So what, exactly, did the management buy? None of the clients, apparently, as that section of the Quatro website remains "under construction"...as does the whole of the Good Relations website...