Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

I tuned into RTE’s Today With Pat Kenny Show earlier this week for an interesting discussion about citizen journalism. Ger Colleran, editor of the Irish Daily Star, was quick to point out that citizen journalism has always been around in one form or another, but that technology has brought the public closer to the media. This has been particularly brought to the fore by the events in Iran.

Some people seem to miss out on the point of journalism when discussing technology and the news. The fact that something newsworthycan be published instantly on Twitter doesn’t mean that traditional media is on its deathbed. As Ger Colleran pointed out, traditional media’s role has always been to filter citizen journalism and bring newsworthy content to a wider audience. The difficulty for most media organisations is their relative slowness in mining emerging sources of content for news.

The role of the media to filter citizen journalism sounds somewhat parasitic, but in fact it’s quite the opposite. We need organisations or individuals that we can trust. Noam Cohen had an interesting piece in the New York Times about the strengths and weaknesses of Twitter in relation to the events in Iran. In it he points out:

Nothing on Twitter has been verified. While users can learn from experience to trust a certain Twitter account, it is still a matter of trust. And just as Twitter has helped get out first-hand reports from Tehran, it has also spread inaccurate information, perhaps even disinformation. An article published by the Web site True/Slant highlighted some of the biggest errors on Twitter that were quickly repeated and amplified by bloggers: that three million protested in Tehran last weekend (more like a few hundred thousand); that the opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi was under house arrest (he was being watched); that the president of the election monitoring committee declared the election invalid last Saturday (not so).

As I’ve mentioned before, some people seem to think that because news breaks on a certain medium first, then that medium is inherently the best news source. That is a dangerous assumption as there are editorial standards to consider. Following its coverage of the Beslan tragedy, the BBC introduced a time delay as part of the its editorial guidelines in order to underline the point that accuracy and quality should come before speed.

When traditional media has been shown up of late, it is because the structural flaws of short staffed newsrooms have been highlighted. A hoax quote posted to Wikipedia after the death of Maurice Jarre was used by a number of media organisations. The journalists involved took the easy option and turned to Google. What sets journalists and bloggers apart is that journalists are meant to have the time to research their stories thoroughly.

A lot is being made of the current events in the US Newspaper industry. A recent article in the Observer sums it up, with Philadelphia looking the the first US city to lose all of its print newspapers. Obviously as a result there is a lot of speculation about newspapers in other parts of the globe. However, a key factor that is often overlooked in these comparisons is that a lot of US newspapers were bought and run into the ground by people that didn’t know anything about journalism. The real vicious cycle that emerged was each newspaper in difficulty could never service the level of debt generated by the purchase and the measures take to address costs such as newsroom cutbacks only harmed the quality of the product.

By not having people on the ground, traditional media are fundamentally undermining themselves. David Simon, the creator of The Wire, made a comment that you don’t see many bloggers in a courtroom. Unfortunately, you have to worry how much longer we wil see journalists there either. For example, Jamie Symth had an interesting piece in the Irish Times the other week on the effect of cutbacks on the coverage of EU affairs. In the article Smyth outlines the measures which a number of publications have taken recently. The net result of which is that the public will be less informed about the EU, all in the same year as Smyth points out that will be “punctuated by the European elections, a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and the appointment of new team of commissioners in Brussels.“

In terms of international comparison and the effects of the cutbacks in terms of Irish media output, Smyth goes on to write:

Statistics show Ireland is very poorly represented in Brussels, with just six journalists registered to cover the commission from The Irish Times, Examiner , RTÉ and Irish Daily Mail. In comparison, states with a similar population such as Denmark, Austria and Finland all have 13 or 14 correspondents based in Brussels, while Switzerland, which isn’t even an EU member, has 19 registered reporters and Norway has nine journalists.

Research conducted after the first Lisbon referendum demonstrated that public knowledge of EU affairs is low in Ireland. The commission has also noted a growing euroscepticism among the Irish media, which is being driven by increasing sales of the Irish editions of British tabloid papers.

Given all that is going on in the world at present, it is more important than ever that the public is kept informed on a range of key issues. The appetite for news is there, as recent current affairs viewing figures have demonstrated.

If traditional media is to adapt and thrive in the new media ecosystem, the people in charge need to listen to the likes of Jeff Jarvis more. He hits the nail on the head in a recent blog post:

The greatest value a news organization can add to this new news ecosystem is to identify, curate, vet, and train people…The larger the network of people a news organization can organize, the better shape it will be in when news breaks, the better it can filter the reports that come - whether from people in that network or in the larger network of people those people know. The more people in the network, the more who can go to the scene of news or research closer to it - the more you can ask for help.

As for the future of journalism, I’m inclined to agree with a piece in the Economist that John Naughton recently highlighted:

Nico Pitney of the Huffington Post, Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic and Robert Mackey of the New York Times waded into a morass of information and pulled out the most useful bits. Their websites turned into a mish-mash of tweets, psephological studies, videos and links to newspaper and television reports. It was not pretty, and some of it turned out to be inaccurate. But it was by far the most comprehensive coverage available in English. The winner of the Iranian protests was neither old media nor new media, but a hybrid of the two.

An interesting story about a High Court case ahead of the recent European elections caught my attention the other week. The Evening Herald reported that Fiachra Ó’Luain, who ran for a seat in the North-West constituency in the European elections, accused RTE’s election coverage of being unbalanced as Declan Ganley received as much airtime as sitting MEPs and representatives from the major political parties despite being, in Ó’Luain words, an “unelected businessman.” RTE of course denied the accusation and ultimately Ó’Luain’s actions proved to be unsuccessful, although Ó’Luain states the judge acknowledged that he had substantive grounds but could not grant the injunction because the Primetime Special was due out that evening.

In Ganley’s defence, he was polling well and his party also played a key role in the defeat of the Lisbon Treaty in last year’s referendum. However, the question of balance is an interesting point to raise given that a second referendum will take place in the autumn. As discussed previously, I attended a recent Cleraun media forum where representatives from RTE and the Irish Times were at strains to highlight that their Lisbon Treaty coverage was 50:50 balanced, but some other publications were anti Lisbon. The Independent Broadcasters of Ireland (IBI) also complained about the challenges broadcasters faced having to give both sides equal airtime. IBI chairman Willie O’Reilly was quoted in the Irish Times as saying, “By giving equal time to both sides we gave the No case more credibility and less scrutiny than it deserved,” and added that the rules for 50:50 balance in a referendum “make a megaphone for any argument regardless of its own merit and or the credibility of its proponents.”

You can see why Ó’Luain would have cause for complaint given that a couple of months ago, representatives from groups with no electoral mandate and with little scrutiny were given ample airtime. It’s an issue that is likely to be discussed ahead of the next referendum. With Ganley reportedly resigning from political life folowing Libertas’ poor showing at the polls and Mary Lou McDonald’s failure to regain her european seat, will we see the microphone swing back to Joe Higgins and the alliance of the left, who could genuinely now claim to be the voice of the no vote.

Business cards are one of the most overlooked customer touchpoints. Think about it. You tend to give them out at networking events or after meeting someone for the first time, so they are an important factor for potential new business as they help with recall and offer an avenue for potential customers to contact you. So why are most business cards boring, leaving recipients struggling to remember who gave them which card?

By and large there are valid reasons for organisations to have rather bland business cards. Business cards should reflect the organisation’s brand and its values. That said, however, there are a number of elements that can be factored into a card to make them stand out. For example, the business card owner could have their photo on their card which helps recall if the recipient has picked up fifteen other cards at the same event. For examples of innovative business cards have a read this article, 51 Creative Business Cards That Will Make You Look Twice.

One creative example I came across is PrintDelicious.ie’s chocolate business cards. I was recently speaking at a Small Firms Association event and was given a sample by the owner, Sandie Stanley. Here’s a video of some samples Sandie sent into Ireland AM on TV3. While they might not be appropriate for many organisations, let’s just say that people would be sure to remember anyone giving out these business cards. In fact, if you’re a bit shy I’d almost encourage you to think about using them as the person giving them out at the SFA event was literally inundated with people looking for a sample once someone else at the event had shown them what they had received.

Robin Blandford recently officially launched Decisions For Heroes, a new rescue team management tool which enables users to make better decisions by being enabled to analyse information to make more informed choices. In a sector where the wrong choice could potentially be a life or death decision, there’s no surprise that Blandford’s creation is meeting such an enthusiastic response.

I’ve met Robin a few times over the years and been impressed by his obvious intellect, but have always been surprised by his marketing skills. I happened to be flicking through some notes over the weekend and came across Guy Kawasaki’s amazing book ‘Art of the Start’, which is a must read for all entrepreneurs.

Decisions for Heroes is an excellent brand. It’s name alone sums up what the company is about, but Blandford goes further and follows one of Kawasaki’s rules - make a mantra for your company. The example quoted in ‘Art of the Start’ is the mantra of Wendy’s should be healthy fast food.

Decisions for Heroes’ mantra can be found at the bottom of the homepage - better decisions save lives. It’s clear and concise, explaining to potential customers exactly what it does on the tin.

I attended the 3rd Annual Science, Engineering, Communications & Outreach Conference at Engineers Ireland two weeks ago. It was a very interesting event with a range of international speakers commenting on a variety of topics. The full webcast of the event is available to view on the Engineers Ireland website.

There were some interesting insights shared at the event such as the Rose Report’s recommendation that primary school students graduate with a knowledge of IT (which will be a huge challenge in Ireland given the lacking of technology funding in our education system) and the changing role of teachers from simply being a distributor of information to that of a moderator or facilitator for the ideas that students bounce back at them.

What really got me thinking though was the presentation on the Dutch approach to promoting science and technology to secondary school student. The presenters pointed out that they had identified that students could be grouped into different subsets ranging from young people who were passionate to subjects like maths and chemistry to those who will never show any interest and opt for other careers. One of the comments made highlighted why our approach to science education is wrong and why we need to completely change the way we teach it. There are also clear similarities with communications strategies and why breaking down the audience into different groups with similar behaviour is so important.

One of the presenters pointed out that scientists or technologists rarely are politicians, as a result important policies governing these sectors are made by people with little understanding of the subjects, often resulting in poor decisions. The fact that the education system takes a one-size fits all approach to students within the system is detrimental in some ways. It simply does not recognise that some people will never be interested in science or technology subjects and effectively puts them off them for life. You will then often hear scientists complain about how important achievements in different fields are rarely recognised by the general public, whether it’s in the media or in government.

The shift that needs to occur is a rebalancing of the system so people’s varying aptitudes are recognised. For example, rather than simply focusing on mathematical theorems or definitions, the subject would also incorporate aspects of other fields which students would be better suited to. For example, students (primarily in earlier stages of the education system) would learn about scientists and the important cultural role they played in a similar fashion to their history subjects. In later stages once students have an opt-out of the subject, more focus could then be put on the practical elements. This would result in less negative reinforcement about the perceptions of science and technology as it would become more accessible as this balanced approach would mean students could play to their strengths.

There are clear benefits to this approach which can be applied to communications strategies, particularly for public information campaigns. By recognising that subsets with different behaviour exist, you can tailor tactics to engage individual groups making the overarching strategy much more robust than the one size fits all approach.

Earlier this year, Adrian Weckler from the Sunday Business Post posted a guide to PR photography for companies looking to get more space in newspapers. Rather than rehash his advice, I thought I’d offer some additional tips.

Costs - One of the main things that a lot of companies overlook is the usage rights of photography. Most people assume that when they commission a photographer they own the photos - wrong. By and large if you commission a photographer, you will end up paying for their time, the contact sheets which will include a thumbnail of each image and the cost of distributing a selection of pictures to newspapers. However If you want a copy to use on a regular basis, i.e. a headshot of an executive that is often quoted in the press, then you need to pay for usage of that image. So before commissioning a photographer establish what the exact costs will be. Ensure you explain to them exactly what you will be using the pictures for.

Neil Danton was onto me with feedback on my original post and offer some extra advice:

A professional photographer worth their salt should actually be quoting a client along the following lines:

To produce & provide (Qty) images of (Subject) at (Location) on (Date).
For (exclusive/non-exclusive) use by Client to use these images for:
(Definition - could be PR release National & Local newspapers, or brochure, or web-site, or a combination)) Period of use: (One year/Two years) etc.
Territory: xyz (Ireland & UK/Europe/Worldwide).
Licence fee based on the above: €Eur xx

That’s it. It’s irrelevant what the photographer’s costs are. It’s irrelevant how long the photographer is actually standing in front of the client on location. The fee depends on the Licence. The Licence depends on the usage.

This isn’t too say that you should go with the cheapest photographer, all I am saying is that you should be clear on costs and usage rights as it can cause headaches. For more advice on pricing, check out Neil’s post here.

You Get What You Pay For - Some people are obsessed with price and will simply commission the cheapest photographer. When it comes to photography, you get what you pay for and the cheapest is not always the best. The reason why people use established photo agencies or individual photographers is that their images land in the newspapers on a regular basis. While images are never guaranteed to appear in a paper, no matter how good the picture, you should always pay for quality. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t shop around, but take the time to flick through the papers every now and again to see who is credited in pictures in the press. This is a good way of identifying a good photo agency, particularly if you don’t employ a PR agency.

Timing Is Essential - One of the simple ways that organisations miss out on potential coverage is through bad timing. If you are commissioning photography for the next day’s papers; ideally you should aim to have the photo session complete by 1pm in order for the photographer to have the images issued to the picture desk for consideration. Recently, I bumped into a photographer on his way down to a job outside Dublin at 3pm with an Irish sports personality for a charity. Ordinarily this type of picture have a good chance of landing, but even he said the client was mad for refusing to be more flexible on the timing as there was little chance they would appear.

You should also take the day of the week into consideration. I personally think that unless the photography is for an event or something genuinely newsworthy, you should always try to issue images for a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday as it’s generally to busy later in the week to have a good chance of landing. One should also consider when supplements appear in national newspapers and try to coordinate photography with them if relevant. For example, Monday is a good day of the week for health related photocalls as the Irish Times health supplement is published on a Tuesday.

From an even more basic perspective, it’s always better to issue images to appear midweek as there are less papers at the weekend, hence less of a chance of appearing.

Give Them What They Want - It’s always worth flicking through the papers on a regular basis to get an idea of the type of pictures individual papers use on a regular basis. By doing this you will observe things like the Irish Times being extremely unlikely to use images with models or that the Irish Daily Mail rarely uses pictures from photocalls.

Look At The Composition Of The Image - The makeup of the image is extremely important. Always consult the photographer you have commissioned with your thoughts and take his feedback on board. Some basic tips include ensuring that the image isn’t crowded (have a maximum of three people in any image), leave your ego at the door (if it’s a product shot, leave the marketing manager out of the image unless it’s for a trade shot) and try to make the image as tight as possible (a full length shot of a lorry means that the people in the picture will generally end up as specs in the mage)

Use Of Models And Personalities - Despite all the mocking of Irish models, they are commissioned for photocalls on a regular basis because the resulting images are often featured in newspapers. Models and other personalities are great for product launches because the public are naturally interested in them, so they become an avenue for putting your product in front of consumers when they are pictured with it. By enlisting the help of a personality like a celebrity or a sports star, you can also get more editorial space. For example, sports stars are quite effective if they have an upcoming match as you can arrange interviews along with the photocall.

PFSK reports on the Nokia Technopolis Innovation Mill (link to pdf), a fantastic initiative which has been developed in tandem by Nokia, Technopolis, one of Europe’s largest science and technology park chains, Tekes, a Finnish agency for funding technology and innovation and several Finnish cities hoping to add jobs to their economies. PFSK reports, “given the fact that each year companies like Nokia come up with hundreds or even thousands of concepts and only a fraction ever see further development, the move makes sense on many levels. Beyond giving possible groundbreaking ideas a new lease on life, the project points to a new kind of openness around intellectual property that has the potential to benefit society as a whole.“

HowStuffWorks has a good article on how Nine Inch Nails are leading the charge when it comes to the future of the music industry. The band are demonstrating ways to make money from free music, something a number of other industries should take note of.

Guerilla Innovation highlights a clever art project in New York called anycoloryoulike, which aims to add a little colour to the trashbags that like the streets of NYC. It’s a great solution to one of the city’s eyesores.

I’ve been following the MKC Communications blog with great interest. MKC Communications is a Dublin based PR agency and a number of their team are contributing to the blog on a variety of topics such as the recent Irish elections, the swine flu epidemic and the future of the newspaper industry. The blog is only two months old, but it’s an essential read for anyone with an interest in PR in Ireland.

Two other blogs I’ve also started following recently are those of Dave Molloy, editor of a Trinity College Dublin student newspaper, and Mark Coughlan, a journalism student. One great post on Molloy’s site is ‘Technique over Technology‘ which highlights while it’s good to keep up with the latest technology trends, don’t forget the basics like interview and shorthand skills.

Samsung are making a string of great viral videos at the moment, here’s my favourite one for the Samsung Ultratouch.

I stumbled upon this excellent interview with Larry Light, McDonalds’ Former Chief Marketing Officer, thanks to Kim Brater. I find McDonalds an extremely fascinating company and have written about their Ten Commandments in the past. The Ten Commandments are at the core of the company turnaround in 2002.

Reading the interview with Light, I couldn’t help but think about how some of the lessons McDonalds learnt back in 2002 matter more than ever during a recession. Here are two key quotes which I think are particularly relevant in the current economic climate.

During the years preceding 2002, McDonald’s focused on cost reduction, rather than customer experience improvement. The result was the incremental degradation of product and service quality.

Managing costs is a major focus at present. Companies are right to look at cost savings when it comes to improving efficiencies, but unfortunately many organisations are cutting off their hand at their wrist in order to save on trimming their fingernails. The majority of companies need to shift their focus from customer acquisition to customer retention. If company’s want to improve their customer offering, the best way to do it is by focussing on customer experience improvement. Robin Blandford has an interesting blog post on this topic about how organisations can turn customer complaints to their advantage.

Effective marketing is essential for enduring profitable growth. It is not enough to renovate and innovate. Customers must be kept aware and reminded of the brand promise. And, the brand image needs to be kept up to date. Beginning in 2003, the McDonald’s brand reputation experienced a major rehabilitation and revitalization.

One topic consistently brought up by advertisers is the old chestnut that the companies that profited during the last recession were those that maintained or increased their advertising spend. I think this is over the top, what companies need to focus on though like McDonalds is reminding customers about their brand promise. McDonalds took a step back and looked at what was really important to their customers. People go to McDonalds because they want to get something to eat quickly in a clean and friendly environment, so they invested in fulfilling this experience for their customers through clever investments like hostesses to cater for parents with small children.

Competing simply on price is a short term strategy, it only buys you some time before your competitors eventual respond. If you want to build brand loyalty then you have to develop an experience which isn’t easily replicable by your competition.

For these insights alone, I will definitely be picking up a copy of Light’s new book ‘Six Rules for Brand Revitlization‘ For those unfamiliar with McDonalds’ ten commandments, here they are again:

1. The customer is the most important person in our business

2. The customer is not dependent on us - we are dependent on him

3. The customer is not an interruption of our work - he is the purpose of it

4. The customer does us an honour when he calls - we are not doing him a favour by serving him

5. The customer is part of our business, not an outsider - he is our guest

6. The customer is not a cold statistic - he is flesh and blood - a human with feelings like our own

7. The customer is not someone to argue with or match wits with

8. The customer is the one who brings us his wants - it is our job to fill them

9. The customer is deserving of the most courteous and attentive treatment we can give him

10. The customer has the right to expect an employee to present a neat, clean appearance. The employee should have trim, clean
fingernails, be clean shaven and keep his hair cut

The latest batch of MA students from DIT are about to finish up for the year and are looking for experience. You can browse through the CVs of 60 students from DIT’s postgraduate public relations and public affairs programmes on www.prstudent.com If you would like to follow up your interest with any of them and call them for interview, each profile contains a CV and contact information.

Edelman Dublin is seeking an experienced Account Executive to join its Corporate PR team.  Ideally we are looking for a self-starter, who isn’t afraid of working off his own initiative.  The successful applicant should have at least one year’s agency experience, will require strong knowledge of the Irish business media landscape, and excellent writing skills.  If you’re interested in the position please email me at piaras.kelly@edelman.com 

Helge Tennø shared a video about status updates on his blog recently, which I’ve embedded below. Simply put - heard about Twitter but can’t figure out why all the hype? This video explains why status update is a big deal.

Status updates explained from quub.com on Vimeo.

As we all become more connected, traditional forms of electronic communication such as email or instant messaging, do not cater for many-to-many communication. Electronic communication has evolved to include status updates which make it easier to communicate with large groups, without directly engaging them. Status updates are more passive than email. What we will see over the coming years are more layered forms of communication. People will have numerous means of communication at their fingertips such as SMS, email, IM, Twitter, forums, etc and will choose a different tool depending on the audience they want to interact with.

Charlie Brooker’s NewsWipe is now available to view on YouTube (thanks to Cian Ginty for the headsup.) The first episode is embedded below as three parts. It’s a very interesting series which looks at how the media operates, the public’s general lack of knowledge about the news agenda, and the state of news journalism.

Part one.

Part two.

Part three.

The next Cleraun Media Forum will discuss the topic ‘Investigative journalism – some ethical issues.’ The event takes place on Thursday 30 April 2009, between 7.30 - 9.30pm in Ely University Centre, 9 Hume Street, off St Stephen’s Green. Speakers on the night include, David Kerr and Colm Kenna. Attendance is free, but please RSVP to Paul Harman before the event if you plan attending as there are limited spaces.

David Kerr is a reporter with BBC Scotland’s flagship TV news programme “Reporting Scotland”. He was previously assistant editor of BBC “Newsnight”; editor of BBC “Newsnight Scotland”; and a Visiting Press Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge. Colm Keena is Public Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times, and author of The Ansbacher Conspiracy (Gill & Macmillan, 2003) and Haughey’s Millions: Charlie’s Money Trail (Gill & Macmillan, 2001).

Over the coming weeks, I hope to start posting a series presentations about how to do your own PR. In the meantime, I’ve been looking at some tools aimed at people who want to do their own PR such as MediaContact, Irish Press Releases, PR Zone and PRAngle.

MediaContact

MediaContact started off as the home for the Irish Media Contacts Directory, a book which lists all Irish media outlets and provides details such as a contact telephone number, their address and a generic news email address. They have revamped their website though and expanded upon the information that was available in the book to also list journalists within each organisation. As a result, subscribers can choose from lists in the database and distribute their release through the website. For example, a technology company could issue their release to business and technology media with a couple of clicks.

The service is aimed at PR agencies and regular companies alike. The service costs just under 1000 per individual per year, so it’s ideal for a company that wants to do their own PR or that cannot afford to keep an agency on retainer. The added advantage is that MediaContact regularly updates the database so if a journalist moves publications or an email address changes, you can benefit from their knowledge.

Irish Press Releases

Irish Press Releases differs from MediaContact in that users upload their press release and it is viewable on the website, and as a result on Google, by anyone who logs on or searches for the something in relation to the press release. It doesn’t have any media details though. While some companies wouldn’t want to publish all of their press releases in such a public forum, the advantage of the service is that as the site is effectively built on a WordPress platform it ranks highly on Google, so it’s well worth distributing press releases through if you hope to get some attention through Google.

PR Zone

PR Zone is a new service I have recently heard about. It is another press release distribution service, similar to irish press Releases, but they charge for distribution. The company claims that it will distribute press releases using their platform, RSS, Twitter and private email distribution lists, and immediately notify major search engines. It suffers from the same problem as Irish Press Releases in that there is no guarantee that journalists will ever actually see your release, given that you have not emailed it to them. However, the company does claim to have private email distribution lists. What extent and scope those distribution lists go to is anyone’s guess as I’ve never used the service. Not to knock it, but I doubt if it has a fraction of the contacts available on MediaContact.

Get2Press

Same as PR Zone, but Get2Press is an international site that claims to also have Irish contacts. They actually list which publications they send their releases to, but again without having seen the system in action i would be loath to recommend them, particularly when they are missing national titles like the Sunday Business Post from their distribution list.

PRAngle

Another alternative is PRAngle which was set up by Douglas Dalby, an ex journalist. Dalby correctly spotted that journalists get hundreds of emails everyday from PR agencies and companies doing their own media relations. His site is different to the other services in that PR agencies have to register and post their releases in forums, which journalists have access to. It does solve the spam problem, however the only issue with the service is whether it guarantees that your press release will actually end up in front of the journalist you want it to.

Other Information

Eoin Kennedy has also recently posted on the same topic, read what he has to say here.

For those interested in doing their own PR, Adrian Weckler, technology correspondent with the Sunday Business Post, has written a series of interesting posts offering advice to companies on how to get coverage:

• How to get (more) space in a newspaper
• How to write a competent press release
• How to approach a newspaper interview

It was interesting to watch the panelists on Questions & Answers discuss the cull of five Junior Ministers last week. While most of the panelists agreed that it’s a move in the right direction, it also showed up how out of touch most politicians are with the public.

Politics is not a career, despite what most politicians say. Unfortunately most TDs treat it as a career, which means that they will eventually compromise their principles in order to gain the votes to put them back into office. If public service was seen as temporary (which could be achieved with term limits) then we would see more elected representatives act in the country’s best interest, rather than simply resort to pork barrel politics.

From a basic management perspective, leaders must communicate the hard choices that they have to make and demonstrate that they understand the gravitas of the situation by showing consolidarity with the public. This was a theme examined in the Edelman Trust Barometer; in our report it was pointed out that:

CEOs must demonstrate that they too feel the burden of the recession. At a time when workers are losing jobs and investors are seeing stock values plummet, voluntary executive pay cuts and forfeiting of bonuses send a powerful message that leaders are in tune with the realities facing employees. Leaders also must communicate with employees about the problems confronting the company and welcome their voices. This type of transparency and collaborative spirit will help engage employees in finding and embracing solutions.

The last couple of weeks have been fascinating from a reputation management perspective with bankers and politicians both faltering in the eyes of the public. Bonuses, pensions and ill advised expenses have whipped people into a frenzy. Trust is the currency of politics and financial markets. As a result, the current lack of confidence in capitalism and Government is worrying as it will prolong the recession and could lead to a dangerous sort of politics not seen for 70 years.

In terms of transparency and collaborative spirit, the fact that our Taoiseach earns more than the President of the United States does not send out the message that Brian Cowen is in tune with the realities faced by the public. Now that is a bit of a harsh statement, in that Cowen is a fine and able politician, but he fails to inspire the public. But what would you expect from our politicians, given that only 14 TDs opted for the 10% pay cut put forward by the Minister for Finance. As Warren Bennis once said, “Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.”

The Science Gallery is running a new festival entitled INFECTIOUS. Some of the events will look at viral marketing and how ideas spread. The highlights include:

GO VIRAL - Ze Frank and Jonah Peretti (Free event, pre-booking is essential)
17 Apr 2009 (Time: 19:00 - 20:00)

On the web, creating something that “goes viral” is the holy grail. In this talk, two viral media pioneers, Ze Frank and Jonah Peretti will explain how to create infectious ideas that spread to millions of people. Find out how to use social network theory, viral marketing, online activism, social media, and crowd sourcing to spread your ideas and spark online participation. If you’re an artist, activist, marketer, entrepreneur or anyone who wants to spread their ideas online, this is the talk for you.

GO VIRAL WORKSHOP (PART 1 AND PART 2)
18 Apr 2009 - 19 Apr 2009 (Time: 13:00 - 17:00)

Ticket Info: €5.00 (Pre-booking essential. Contact the Science Gallery by email.)

Join Ze Frank and Jonah Peretti for a two-day master class on viral media. We will brainstorm projects, launch them, and track them as they spread on the web. The goal of the workshop is to launch projects that spread virally and attract over a million views. Can we do it? Bring your creative ideas and your web skills and we will give it a try.

INFECTIOUS IDEAS - Lawrence Weschler MC joined by Luke O’ Neill, Vittoria Colizza, Patrick Honohan and Jonah Peretti (Free event, pre-booking is essential)
18 Apr 2009 (Time: 18:00)

Can the notions of epidemic and contagion be meaningfully applied to other areas of culture? MC’d by Lawrence Weschler a Pulitzer prize finalist, New Yorker columnist and Director of the New York Institute of Humanities our INFECTIOUS ideas panel will explore whether ideas of financial panic, ideas and marketing are truly infectious. Join Luke O Neill (Prof of Immunology), Vittoria Colizza (epidemic modeling researcher), Patrick Honohan (Prof of International Financial Economics and Development) and Jonah Peretti (Founder of BuzzFeed and Viral marketing expert)

CONVERGENT CONTAGIONS with Professor Lawrence Weschler (Free event, pre-booking is essential)
20 Apr 2009 (Time: 18:00)
Lawrence Weschler, Director of the New York Institute of the Humanities at New York University, will consider the profligate and often quite startling ways that ideas and images leapfrog and propagate across disciplines and generations in the wider history of culture. The way images spawn, or perhaps more accurately provide a seedbed for the reception of subsequent images: Whether it be the way that televised moon landing imagery may have helped to ground the later work of the artist Mark Rothko; or the way Che Guevera’s posthumous T-shirt glory may trace its roots, by way of Rembrandt, back to Mantegna; or, more generally, the way so many contemporary paparazzi vantages have their roots in Christological sources.

Dosh Dosh pointed me in the way of an interesting article a couple of weeks ago about why setting goals can backfire. In short, setting goals may hamper an organisation if it fails to take market trends into account and undermines its long term objectives by taking shortcuts. By and large this happens because people think of a goal as a destination, rather than a journey. With any project, there is a number of tasks that must be completed in order for it to be successfully completed.

A good example of a goal that was destined for failure was America’s ‘War on Terror’. The White House recently wrote the infamous ‘War on Terror’ phrase out of their handbook. The Guardian has an interesting article on the change of terminology. The paper writes that “The war on terror, George Bush once declared, ‘will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated’…Experts came to agree that the phrase was unhelpful. A war on terror was too broad ever to be won, they argued, while defining not a group or ideology but a type of violence as the enemy was incoherent.“

All goals should be SMART:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time-sensitive

If the goal you have set does not tick these boxes, then you haven’t laid the foundation for achieving success. Put simply, how can you tell if you’ve scored if you don’t know where the goalposts are?

Damian O’Broin has a really interesting presentation ‘Direct Marketing Tips for Fundraisers‘

Sinead Cochrane has posted her research about Irish bloggers online.

Check out Brendan Brady’s blog CensusPro. He’s Ireland’s first accountancy blogger and knows what he’s talking about, as I can attest given that he’s helped me out with the taxman in the past.

Keira Knightley stars in a highly impactful short film for Women’s Aid - the UK’s domestic abuse charity.

Spotted this amazing video thanks to Damien Mulley - Failure: The Secret To Success

It’s funny, I’ve been enamoured with digital media for about five years now. However over the course of that period, my enthusiasm has been tempered by the practicalities associated with blogging, Twitter et al to the point that in the majority of cases I feel that digital should be part of an integrated communications campaign, particularly from an Irish perspective. Not everyone reads the papers, but not everyone has a Twitter account either. Different horses for different courses as a wiser man once said.

I have to take deep breathes so as I read heaps of commentary that has declared the world of traditional media dead and lavishes praise on campaigns that dipped their toe into the online world. It’s all very romantic and certainly gets its share of media attention, but it overlooks one key aspect - saturation.

Let’s just draw a line in the sand now. Traditional advertising isn’t ineffective because of the common complaints hurled at it. It is simply losing its influence because consumers are now bombarded with thousands of messages per day. But good, creative advertising still works. Just ask Lynx or Cadburys. Stand out from the crowd and companies will sell whatever it is that they pitching.

What really makes digital media attractive from a marketing perspective is that it is still relatively untapped. Now that it continues to capture media attention, companies want to be in that space. They might not be sure why they should be there, but it’s a case of the emperor’s new clothes. Everyone is talking about it so it must be fashionable.

As John Naughton points out in his column in the Observer this weekend:

Twitter’s been around for ages, but it’s now gone “mainstream” - ie, been taken up by the brain-dead media, possibly because they’ve discovered that celebs have Twitter accounts. Jonathan Ross (@wossy in Twitterspeak) used it to send dispatches to his admirers during his banishment from the airwaves. I’ve just checked and he has 156,092 followers. But this horde is dwarfed by Stephen Fry’s (@stephenfry) 321,578.

This gives Mr Fry a certain amount of clout. A few months ago he pronounced on the BlackBerry Storm, a new phone being touted by Vodafone. “Shockingly bad,” he tweeted. “I mean embarrassingly awful. Such a disappointment. Rushed out unfinished. What a pity.” Given that many Twitterers are, like Mr Fry, gadget freaks, his tweets effectively shut down that corner of the market.

Suddenly companies are beginning to think that having a lot of Twitter followers might be a good idea.

What happens over the next two years will be amusing to watch. Countless brands will take to Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere and flood the digital world until we reach a saturation point. If a company’s pitch isn’t credible, then consumers will simply ignore it, no matter how much the brand is praised for engaging with their customers.

An insightful PR practitioner pointed out to me the other day, digital media is a bit like having a baby. Once you decide to enter the online world, you have to commit to looking after your presence and cleaning up after your mess. Like any communications campaign, it’s far more responsible to take a step back and think through your objectives, whether using digital media tactics will assist in achieving them and setting aside the correct resources to manage your presence.

RTE’s presenters have gained a degree of notoriety of late due to the speculation about some of their hefty pay packages, despite the state broadcaster facing a massive shortfall due to the fall in advertising revenues. Most presenters eventually accepted a paycut, but at that stage the damage in terms of public perception was done. Gerry Ryan didn’t do himself any favours when he explained his decision to take a paycut to his listeners. All that this has done is set the scene for a show down between RTE and presenters like Ryan, Kenny and Tubridy.

I foresee a moment in the next two years similar to the standoff between Channel 4 and Carol Vorderman, when Vorderman left the quiz show Countdown after being faced with a 90% paycut. According to reports at the time, Vorderman was told that the show would survive without her. The same accusation has been leveled at RTE stars, although Vincent Browne commented midweek that Ryan’s departure would weaken 2FM. Last year, the likes of Duffy or Ryan may possibly have been tempted by the likes of NewsTalk, but where would they go now? No media organisation is going to offer them anything like the money they are on now. Today FM has a strong lineup and it’s unlikely they would give any of their current rooster the chop for any RTE castoffs. Give the current economic climate, it is also highly unlikely that NewsTalk or 4FM would even have the financial clot to afford them.

One thing is for sure, interesting times are ahead and the papers will plenty to write about as this saga drags on.

I recently attended the launch of a series of videos produced by the IIEA on different aspects of EU policy. The series covers the Lisbon Treaty; Justice & Home Affairs policy; Climate Change policy; EU Enlargement policy; European Security & Defense Policy; and Business & Markets. Simple and easy to understand, I’d recommend viewing them given that in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty referendum it was established that the majority of the country did not understand what was being put before them and implicitly what the EU’s role is. (Another piece of recommended reading is The Spoofer’s Guide To The Lisbon Treaty)

The Lisbon Treaty Explained

Climate Change and the EU

Justice and Home Affairs

Business and Markets

The European Union In The World

European Union Enlargement

PFSK links to a video interview with Henry Jenkins by the Guardian at SXSW 09 discussing what we can learn from gaming. The interview is viewable below, but the few sentences that stand out for me are:

Most education is about the person who can learn by themselves and know everything. Most forms of collaboration in the classroom are cheating, whereas in the real world we collaborate all the time…And that’s the world we have to prepare students for.

I saw the RTE version of Dragon’s Den for the first time last week. Obviously it’s entertainment, but I was taken aback by some of the reactions of the Dragons when Colm Stundon and Pat O’Shaughnessy came on the show to pitch their Cosy Curtain idea. I found it highly disrespectful that one of the panel would immediately start laughing, despite not having heard the pitch or done a Q&A.

The blurb behind the product is as follows:

Cosy Curtain is a product that is fitted in 5 minutes to the wall beside the window on top of the window board. It is not visible when not in use and simply folds vertical and is hidden behind the curtain. A magnet holds it in this position. When in use it is simply folded down and the curtain is folded and placed up on top of it. The heat from the radiator below the window is then transferred to the room and not out through the window.

While it sounds clever enough, the actual physical product is a little awkward. However, my interest in it perked when Colm explained to the Dragons that he is a building energy rater and regularly comes across households with mould growing on curtains and windowsills due to condensation. To solve the problem, he devised the cosy curtain.

Now that set off a bell in my mind because he has spotted a potential market and devised a cheap solution. At 20 euro, despite looking silly it is obvious consumers will use it, as he has must have already put the product in place in a few homes he has assessed as part of his day job.

So what has ethnographic research got to do with any of this? Well it’s simple, a lot of business people put a lot of emphasis on market research when it comes to new products or services. What is the potential market value? How many consumers for the product or service exist? What are the market trends? Who are the competitors? All valuable information, but none of it really answers the question whether people will actually buy the product or service.

On the other hand, ethnographic research helps marketers identify the clues consumers leave behind as part of their consumption habits and hints at new opportunities, which marketers can exploit by developing new products or services. A great book to read on ethnographic research is Hy Mariampolski’s ‘Ethnography for Marketers - A guide to consumer immersion‘. Here’s a short blurb from the book which sets out simply how observing consumers in their natural habit can create opportunities for people like Colm Stundon:

There is a common misunderstanding that pervades some corporate managers that consumers are eager to tell marketers all about their dissatisfactions with current offerings and needs for new products…Consumers do not spend a great deal of time conciously thinking about how to improve on products or what new products might help them. It is hard for them to think beyond what is already available at the store. Most shoppers lack the insight and ingenuity to imagine practical new product opportunities, and the innovations they imagine, when solicited, often have a hackneyed or unachievable quality. For example, their expressed needs may not proceed beyond lower prices and less disposable packaging.

Here are several examples of normative consumer behaviours that suggest new product opportunities:

Combining products and home remedies - If nothing satisfactory exists or if a current product faqils to meet all of the needs consumers bring to a task, they may combine products from different categories; or they may concoct home remedies. In an ethnographic study of home cleaning, for example, we saw consumers mixing liquid dish soap and laundry bleach to create a cleaner for light linoleum floors probing revealed that the benefits they sought included stain removal, thorough cleansing, and sanitizing…Observing these combinations helped the client company to improve on its existing lines of cleaning agents.

Work-arounds - If consumers are frustrated in achieving a goal, they often improvise and work around a barrier. If they are not aware of or do not understand all of the operations required to complete a task in a database program, for example, they may patch together unique ways of solving problems or, alternatively, perform some task based on their own limited knowledge of the program’s functionality.

Indifference: Putting up with merely adequate results - When products preform poorly, many consumers just accept mediocore results…For example, we observed users of bathroom cleaners accepting mediocore cleaning results; it just wasn’t important for them to get the tiles completely white, they argued, as long as a decent effort was made to get thing ‘mostly’ clean. Further observation and analysis revealed that consumers were reluctant to follow directions that they experienced as confusing. Instructions recommended that users give the product at least 15 minutes to penetrate the surface, but few had the patience to follow that procedure…These observations led to the development of effort-free bathroom cleaning products, which were structured to deliver enhanced results with minimal effort.

Avoidance - If the right product is not available, consumers may just avoid certain tasks or relegate them to the end of the agenda.In studying home cleaning practices, for example, we found that the backs of electrical appliances and computer equipment attract dense, sticky dust on account of static electricity…Although they did not express an explicit demand for such a product, the clear implication of the avoidance was the need for an agent that reduced static and cleaned the backs of home electronics with minimal effort.

Imaging perfection - When products do not perform as expected, consumers simply assume that the capabilities to meet those needs do not exist…An understanding of consumers’ ideas of perfection was able to drive the manufacturer into a number of alternative product-development directions.

Couple of dates for the calendar.

The Coca-Cola CIPR Press & Broadcast Awards Dinner will take place on Friday 20th March at the Europa Hotel in Belfast. The awards are the only local event to recognise Northern Ireland’s journalistic talent and 20 honours will be presented on the night. Tickets for the event are now on sale and can be purchased by contacting the organising team on (028) 9045 6451 or by e-mail.

The PRCA Awards are now accepting entries, with the deadline set for 12 noon on Tuesday 31 March 2009. Shortlisted entries will be announced on Friday 22 May 2009, with the awards ceremony taking place in Dublin on Thursday 25 June 2009.

I attended the Cleraun Media Forum on Monday night where Mark Hennessy, political correspondent with the Irish Times, and Peter Feeney, head of Public Affairs at RTE, gave an overview of each of their respective organsation’s reporting on the Lisbon Treaty and a general overview of how the referendum was covered.

What was of primary interest to me was the fact that both Mark and Peter singled out the woeful efforts of the Yes campaign’s communications strategy…or the lack of it! Looking forward to the second referendum, their insights were fascinating as we will have to see real leadership from politicians if it is to be passed this time.

One of the interesting aspects of having to give balanced media coverage is that column inches and airtime were given over to people who had no electorate mandate. However, as a number of audience members rightly pointed out, this should not matter. Looking at it from a PR perspective it was incredible to hear that Mary Lou McDonald appeared on RTE more times than any of her political counterparts. What this did was shown up politicians in favour of the treaty, as a number of them were inclined to use Lisbon for their own political agenda or waste valuable time by criticising the No campaign instead of building arguments.

When Lisbon II rolls around, the Yes Campaign are going to have to work together and sacrifice their egos by letting a handpicked group of spokespeople handle the majority of interviews. Given the low standing of politicians in the eyes of the public, I believe that individuals like Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary should be given prominence. How this would sit with the likes of opposition leaders and other lobby groups would be interesting to watch.

The issue of balanced coverage was a funny topic as RTE was compelled to give both sides equal footing and the Irish Times choose to do likewise. Despite this, some members of the audience felt that both orgnisations were biased in their coverage. On the other hand, you had the situation where the UK titles operating in Ireland effectively took an anti treaty stance, despite what some of their journalists say.

This represents a major challenge for those in favour of the Lisbon Treaty. Tabloids have been identified as an important segment of the media to communicate pro European messages through, but given that they are anti establishment in terms of editorial this will be difficult to overcome. Again, this highlights why tabloid friendly figures like O’Leary who has voiced his support for Lisbon should be given a bigger share of the communications platform.

What was humbling to see was both Hennessy and Feeney saying that they felt that their media organisations hadn’t put enough resources behind reporting on Europe prior to the referendum. Given the current economic climate and the fall in advertising revenues, one wonders whether media organisations will invest in niches.