Marketing and PR in 2010

2009 was a funny old year. This year definitely saw a seismic shift in the way that PR and marketing is executed.

It had to happen, but the internet and the digital revolution has taken over PR. Fact. In 2009 clients were no longer after the inches in newspapers and magazines. They wanted a bigger bang for their buck. And this meant embracing the digital age.

Although digital 2.0, PR 2.0, social media PR or whatever you want to call it was already on the scene, last year the egg fertilised.

And today building a marketing campaign has to involve web PR. Clients expect a digital presence. Facebook and Twitter campaigns are a must for the marketing managers.

Last year many PR agencies hastily rearranged their service offering by including digital into the marketing mix for their clients - to good effect. The reason PR, and digital PR in particular, did so well last year in a recession was the acknowledgement by businesses that PR actually provides good value for money. In a nutshell it costs less and brings credibility to your business.

One of the unsolved mysteries, and will remain so for a while, is how you measure online PR during evaluation type. Traditonal media was easy. Get a ruler, measure the inches and multiply with the ad cost. Then, depending on what PR agency you are, multiply it by 3,5 or 7 times to get the equivalent ad value (eav). In the digital world, things are not quite so easy. There are so many factors that need to be taken into account that it is a real task to get the eav.

Twitter - definitely the website for marketeers in 2009. Whether it remains so is anyone's guess. The funny thing about digital is that the more connections you make via social media, the more alone you get. Sure, digital campaigns give you the big hits and quick growth but are you actually engaging with the end consumer? Are you? Indeed, we reach a critical mass very quickly, but do we really know the people who become followers or friends. It seems via the digital revolution, and in particular social media, we seem to have traded quality for quantity.

If reaching a certain number on the friends list is seen to be a measure of success for marketeers, we have real problems. We know the names of the people on the friend list, and we know their friends of their friends, but do we really know who they are? The intimacy of your end-user seems to be lost in the tech waves. The more people we reach, the less we know about them and from a consumer and branding perspective this defeats the object of marketing.

Twitter and Facebook are a great way to grow the numbers, but for a consumer it really is a soulless experience. And when you lose the soul, you forget what makes the consumer tick. Sure, they will click on the link for your great new viral, but their affinity to your business ends when the video finishes.

Expect more of the same in 2010. The digital revolution will continue to grow. PR will continue on the road of creating even crazier stunts for clients to get column inches (see earlier posts for some stunts of 2009 or click here or here). Flashmobbing will become more popular. Another Meerkat-inspired character will front the campaign for something-saving website.

In my opinion Twitter will carry on growing, but somewhere along the way we will have to start paying for its use. It's not making money so it has to claw back money somehow. Staying on the prediction vibe, we will see more and more newspapers charging for content use. So, those media websites we visit everyday for free will become monthly subscription service.

We can't leave the blog without mentioning what 79PR will be up to. One of the major things we are doing is a guest blog for various publications to help those targeting certain markets. The editor of the publication will speak, in no uncertain terms, about how they would like PR's to work with them and what works and what doesn't. If there are any publications, especially ethnic outlets, you require more information for, then please contact us on info@seventyninepr.co.uk and we will help you. After plenty of work towards the back end of last year in event consultation we are looking to set up 79Events sometime in the next few weeks. And finally, we want to make a change for the positive. As such, we are in the embryonic stages of a major campaign to help youngsters understand media with a series of courses and seminars with industry leaders.

No doubt, we will keep you posted.

Best.
The 79PR team.

http://seventyninepr.blogspot.com/

Memo to Tiger Woods - Come clean!

An interesting thing happened this week. Really interesting.

It is an uphill struggle at the best of times to explain what PR is, what it does and the benefits it brings.

Funnily enough, even most of my friends and family don't know what I do for a living. The worst thing is that in my former workplace, even the other departments didn't what the PR team did despite the fact that we were one of the most successful facets of the entire business and group.
I feel like Chandler from Friends sometimes - those who follow Friends will understand that comment.

Explaining PR is a difficult one. Many reckon that it is advertising. It isn't. Whereas others associate it immediately with Max Clifford. Trust me, its not that glamorous.
There definitely needs to be more education around what PR does - but that is a question for another day.

Anyway, a few days ago I find myself explaining PR to a bunch of my family and friends during a dinner. Among those in the audience, listening avidly was a 10-year-old. A very bright 10-year-old.

While others were digesting my explanation of what I do, this little cookie stared at me intently, before posing a question which many adults in that room could never have mustered. And what a cracking question it was.

"So," he began, "if you look after the image of businesses, what would you do if you were the PR man behind Tiger Woods?".

This kid will go far, I thought immediately. Not only had he grasped what PR was from my feeble explanation, but he also showed that he kept abreast of current affairs. There is still hope for the youth of this generation.

Now I'm no celebrity PR expert but the lessons to be learned from the debacle surrounding Tiger Woods can be applied to PR for businesses as well. (Those of you who have somehow miraculously missed this story should click on this link here) Although I don't represent celebs I did have a chance to do some work with an up and coming sports star a little while ago. Since then, this guy has become a household name with dreams of cracking America next (any ideas anyone who I'm talking about??)

Clearly for a darling of the sport such as Tiger Woods these revelations have come as a great surprise. But what has been a bigger surprise is the way his publicity and management team have handled the whole affair. While Tiger has applied the mute button, others have not. One thing that a celebrity, and a business as well, must learn is that if you stay quiet, the newspapers wont. They love a scandal involving a celebrity and once they see that no information is forthcoming from the celebrity camp, they start digging. And when they dig, they usually find something.

The lack of words from Tiger has cost him. Sponsors are dropping him, others will follow I'm sure. Perhaps a silver lining is that Gillette will drop him and we won't get to see those awful ads with him and Mssrs Henry and Federer. (Although I would like to ask the person who put these three together in the first place a very serious question - WHY????)

So, in response to the 10-year-old - the answer lies in the truth. Let's think like Max Clifford for a moment. The best thing that any celebrity can do in a situation like this is to come clean. Quickly. Get yourself in front of TV cameras. Be honest. Be upfront. Say sorry, lots of times and be genuine. By doing this you endear yourself to the public even more. And, you also cut the supply of possible dirt being dredged on you by the red tops. If you've already come clean - damage limitation is in full effect.

Never stay silent like Tiger has. People assume guilt and it will take a little while to recover. There are possibly a few mistaken reasons as to why Tiger has taken a vow of silence. He either thinks he a) it will blow over b) he is too embarrassed to say sorry c) or he is too arrogant to apologise. Who knows?

On the flip side I know whose camp I'd like to respresent right now - his wife. The media love a woman who is a victim - especially a celeb one - and with correct management by her PR team she could be birdying her way all the way to the bank.

The 79PR team

http://seventyninepr.blogspot.com/

Only one life after journalism???

Life, Journalism and then PR?

Maybe a few of my ex-journalist colleagues may wince at that comment, but this sequence is a fact of life - even moreso today.

For a hack, the most obvious career after journalism is to get into PR. Fact. But do ex-journalists make the best PR professionals? Yes and no but there is a learning curve.

When I trod the path of hack to PR I must admit I entered with a little naivety and arrogance. I remember sitting in the newsroom reading awful press release after press release while being bombarded with irrelevant calls by PR bods and thinking
“I can knock out better releases than this and I can create better angles. Journalism doesn't pay me what I'm worth, I'm doing ridiculous hours and I'm forever slagging everyone off. I’m going to move into PR, show them how to write a press release, earn millions before driving into the sunset in a sports car.” Easy.

Not quite. And the above comment illustrates a common ignorance among journalists about PR.

Sure, many PRs have never stepped inside a newsroom or even know what "nib" means, but to dismiss them on that basis is slightly disrespectful.

PR isn’t just about good writing and getting as much exposure for your client as possible. It helps, but there is so much more involved.

Having spent over two years working for one of the biggest PR agencies in the UK I now know different. PR is all about managing the reputation of your client, brand recognition and ultimately creating demand. Punchy news headlines and well-written releases are just a start. Being an ex-journalist I instantly gained respect for my writing skills, I knew what made a story, I had the contacts, I knew how a newspaper works, how a journalist thinks and how to write press releases etc but there was so much more I needed to learn. My arrogance quickly disappeared when I realised that to be a good PR person you need to embrace the profession and learn new skills.

One of the biggest role of a PR professional is understanding the client’s needs, making them understand how the media works, what angles and stories will work and why what you are doing is for the good of their business.

One of the biggest tasks in PR is keeping the client happy, as they are the ones who pay the bills. Journalists are naturally autonomous and independent. They don't care who you are, if there is a story to be had, no matter how controversial, it will be written. So, to go from this to bowing to the whim of your client is no easy task. It requires skill and art. You could say that it is similar to how journalists handle good contacts.

I now have my own business (http://www.79pr.co.uk/) fusing everything I've learnt as a journalist and in PR to help my clients. What I've learnt is that journalists can become the best PR people in the world. But that can only happen when they learn the skills needed in PR. Journalism skills combined with PR skills makes a very powerful combination.

There are other careers outside of PR for the hack looking to lock away his shorthand notepad for good. But PR is the closest thing you will ever get to being a hack.

Sure, it will never beat the buzz of a newsroom on a good day, or unearthing a gem of a story or getting a front page lead. But, the reality is that nothing ever will. But, creating a good campaign or securing column inches for your client on a national or a regional publication comes close.


So, a hack and a PR person. Much closer than you think.

http://seventyninepr.blogspot.com/

A fantastic digital viral

Hello,

Back by popular demand! It's a personal favourite of the 79PR team and it continually makes into presentations we do on digital. It was on our old blog and disappeared following our website and blog redesign. So, after numerous requests, here it is again.

For those looking at it for the first time, have a look at how digital can transform your marketing - even for something as selling beds! However, a word of caution. The trick to making campaigns like this successful is how you virally market it. It's not as simple as just making the video and posting it onto video sharing websites. If in doubt, please contact 79PR team and we will explain this comment.

For background - The stunt was started by US university students, and was then taken up by staff at a furniture warehouse for Bensons for Beds in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, who made their attempt to set a Guinness world record for "mattress dominoes".

Forty-one employees at Bensons for Beds in Tewkesbury stood in a front of a mattress to start the sequence. The video of the attempt has gone since viral on the internet in what has become a big marketing coup for the company.

It goes to show how your business, with a bit of imagination (and a video camera) can come up with an effective ad without paying big sums to advertising pros.

An excellent way to create brand awareness through a clever marketing stunt.

Enjoy!

The 79PR team

Is social media a fad?

Still not convinced about the benefits if social media and what it can do for you?
Have a look at this.



http://www.seventyninepr.co.uk//digitalpr/#

Contact us if you need more information on the role of Digital PR in your marketing plans.
The 79 team

NEW WEBSITE

Hello,

SeventyNine PR has updated its website. http://www.79pr.co.uk
We wanted to showcase the work we are doing on the marketing and PR side with a new site to signify some important strategic moves for the company.

Digital PR is one of the main strands of the work we are doing for our clients and the website has been designed to reflect this. The main aim of this website is to allow more interaction and the various features on the site have been designed with this in mind. Anybody visiting the site can now bookmark it and share with others including links to this blog and our Twitter page.

To coincide with the the updated version of the website we have created this new blog with more features.

Keep visiting this page regularly to be updated with the latest news in Marketing and Communications.

It will help to inform you of the latest happenings within the world of media with the emphasis of helping you in your ongoing marketing and communcation strategies.

Anything that is relevant to the world of marketing will be posted here regularly.

In addition, we are also creating and launching a newsletter to be released soon.

To subscribe to the newsletter follow the link below:
http://www.seventyninepr.co.uk/subscribe/#


We hope you find it useful. Any feedback is always appreciated. Contact us on info@seventyninepr.co.uk

Thank you.
The 79 PR team

http://www.seventyninepr.co.uk/

http://www.79pr.co.uk


e-mail: info@seventyninepr.co.uk
http://twitter.com/seventyninepr/

Burger King PR stunt

A great PR stunt to create demand.