Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

As it turns out the Smart Telecom TV Now Awards were on last night, so Dublin was awash with soap stars and z-list celebrities. I was fairly perplexed while leaving Reynards nightclub last night to find three paparazzi outside. Out of morbid curiosity I asked who it was they were waiting for. […]

So the Boston Globe says that blogging is essential for a good career and Tom Raftery is running an interesting experiment to see if he can get a job from his blog. Can blogging actually get you a good job though?
One of my friends likes to point out to me that the time I […]

Surprisingly enough there wasn’t much of a fuss made last week when the Irish Minister for Justice, Michael MacDowell said that he wants our police force to carry cameras to take photographs of suspects (subscription required), especially in light of other discussions centering around peoples images been taken and used without their permission online. (Here, […]

Imagine getting the opportunity to be tutored by Donald Trump, Tony O’Reilly or Steve Jobs. People would jump at the catch to be their apprentice and hundreds of people attend events to tap the knowledge of people successful in their field.
You don’t really hear people talking about online career development though. People are […]

I’ve watched with interest over the past couple of weeks how a couple of Irish companies have started to get press coverage off the back of what was written on their blogs. For example, Karlin Lillington wrote a piece on Hosting 365’s free blogs offer in the Irish Times, Ireland’s leading broadsheet, because of […]

A company could spend a couple of thousand on a photocall which may never land in a newspaper. Yet for the same amount of cash, a company could launch an online initiative like Nike’s RunLondon which can directly engage with a specific audience over a long period of time. It may only end […]

I don’t know what it is about exclusivity, but having to be invited to use a service does wonders for building buzz around it. For example, I was delighted with myself when I got my invite for Gmail and felt even better being able to give five more people the chance to join. […]

There are plenty of ways to communicate with an audience. For example:

You could issue a press release in order to get information published in a newspaper that the audience might read.
You could start a blog in order to interact directly with a particular segment of society.
You could give a speech to local residents in […]

Just want to thank Tomasz Kozlowski for creating a new template for my blog. The downside for regular readers is that you have to see my ugly mug on every page…the upside is my ever encroaching baldness makes me look a little like a white Mr. T minus the beard.
The photo on the website […]

The Herald AM has undergone a bit of a redesign. I’m not impressed, the new design looks exceptional bland and comes across as more of a website design.
Here’s the new cover.

Here’s the old cover design.

And here’s an inside page featuring the new layout. Look at the top of the page to see what […]

Richard Moyles has set up a new website which is an interesting spin-off of the Million Dollar Homepage. The site, entitled SpendYourStash.com, is targeting advertisers who are trying to get a slice of the SSIA windfall which is going to enter the Irish economy soon.
For those unfamiliar with the SSIA scheme, it’s a savings […]

I flicked through my headlines last week only to be confronted with this story from the BBC that people downloading podcasts are in a minority…well duh!
The Beeb reports that a Forrester Research report uncovered that “tech savvy, young males are most likely to listen to take away audio“. The only thing I find startling […]

Launches are always high-tempo and tense affairs to work on. They eat up a lot of your time which is difficult from an agency perspective as you always have other clients to cater for also. The launch itself can be quite stressful because no matter how much preparation that goes in, something always […]

I’ve been keeping an eye on the feedback about the Chevy Tahoe online campaign, where consumers were given the opportunity to create their own ad by combining clips that were made available. The campaign was the cause of controversy because some consumers choose to create protest clips against SUVs instead of creating favourable ads. […]

I’ve been booking a few regional photographers recently and thought I’d post a helpful tip on how to find one easily.
The majority of Ireland’s PR photographers are based in Dublin so when you’re running a local event somewhere like Waterford, it’s awkward enough trying to find someone that is reliable and know to the local […]

I read on Brian Greene’s website that a podcast has been launched for Leviathan. Leviathan is a monthly political cabaret which is hosted by David McWilliams, a prominent Irish broadcaster/journalist/author.
I think it’s a great use of podcasting because I’ve always thought about attending one of the shows, but wasn’t quite sure about its format […]

Timing is one of the most crucial aspects of Public Relations. We often refer to journalists’ deadlines when discussing the importance of timing, but the timing of an announcement is vital to the success of managing scenarios.
A simple example of this is announcing job cuts to the workforce, rather than letting staff find out […]

Another week and another launch, last week it was for Channel 6, Ireland’s new TV station.
Channel 6 - personally I don’t get it. The selling point is that it doesn’t do the news and weather, just entertainment. I understand the concept, but since I’m able to get the majority their content on other […]

A lot of the discussion about building buzz around products these days seems to revolve around social media tools like blogs and podcasts. However, looking at the impending launch of Sony’s PS3 later this year, the current buildup shows that a good strategy is crucial to promoting word-of-mouth about your product.
In the buildup to […]

Ranking high on Google is the holy grail of the Internet. I work in Public Relations in Ireland and I’ve lost count of how many consultancies there are in Ireland at the minute. Each of these comapnies is spending €5k+ on a fancy website, yet I outrank them on Google and this […]

A recent post on the Hosting365 blog perked my interest. Ed Byrne, their new marketing director, pointed out that they are the only Irish hosting company with their own data centre and lists the benefits of this. He also threw out an invite to all readers to come in and check out their […]

I had an interesting discussion with Ed Byrne on our way down to the Galway geek dinner. I brought up the fact that a few people referred to this website as a business blog. I’m not quite sure that I would call it that, given that I don’t run my own business, […]