Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

Last week while sitting at my computer my interest perked when I read the following news headline - “Fire fighters bid to contain Cork quay fire” (The story has been updated since.) The reason why it caught my interest though was because I remember a popular Irish blogger posting about a fire in Cork [...]

Just read a fantastic post on Eric Kintz’s blog about the dynamics of viral marketing. He highlights the “key insights that all marketers should use as they develop word of mouth campaigns”:
#1 - Viral marketing does not spread well. In epidemics, high connectors are very critical nodes of the network and allow the virus [...]

After almost two years, I’ve finally taken my first steps back into the gym. A light jog on the treadmill had me looking around at the different television screens in order to stave off the boredom. A caption on Sky News caught my attention as one of the guests was promptly referred to [...]

One of the most valuable skills anyone can have in Public Relations is good task management, especially if you work in an agency. It’s one of the reasons why I’d maintain that you should always look out for people with retail experience when filling junior roles.
Looking specifically at the agency scenario, you’re going to [...]

Pat Phelan recounts a conversation with Keith Bohanna about the possibility of a new career emerging - a blog technologist. I’d have to side with Pat about it, a blog technologist sounds a bit like a Y2K consultant (remember those!) As my first year Computer Science lecture told us, Y2K consultant is a [...]

I was watching Sky News at the weekend and one segment caught my attention when they were interviewing one of the Vatican’s spokespeople about the controversy over the Pope’s recent comments.
He pointed out that much of the controversy has stemmed from how the media are reporting it, specifically pointing out a headline from one of [...]

TCAL.net draws to my attention that TG4, the native Irish language television station, is now almost ten years old. Quite a feat when you consider that few people would have thought it would have lasted this long.
Anyhow, TCAL.net points out that it has a poll for the best shows over the past few years. [...]

My viral viewing is normally restricted to YouTube these days, but David Cochrane pointed me in the way of this great campaign that his agency have developed to promote the new Scissor Sisters single, “I don’t feel like dancin’”
Who doesn’t want to see the Irish taoiseach have one last dance with the former leader of [...]

Just reading one of the latest Change This manifestos, Tribal Knowledge - Business wisdom brewed from the grounds of Starbucks corporate culture by John Moore. A couple of things really jumped off the page for me which I wish other companies would take note of, especially when you consider how successful Starbucks is:
But as [...]

Feargal McKay has raised the downside of sports sponsorship in the comments section of this website on a number of occasions, highlighting the case of Floyd Landis, the disgraced Tour de France winner, and his sponsor, Phonak, a Swiss hearing aid maker.
Agenda Inc reports the opportunity “could have translated into a remarkable promotional campaign for [...]

I mentioned before how Microsoft are enabling people to make their own games for the Xbox 360. Unsurprisingly gamers are not the only people excited by the news. Joystiq reports part of the promotion for the new Toyota Yaris includes developing “a Yaris driving game for the Xbox Live Arcade.” This reflects [...]

Ended up on Today FM this evening off the back of a story in the Daily Telegraph about a new Rent-aGeek service. No not to offer my services, but to talk about how gadgets are getting too complicated and how little is done to help consumers understand to use the technology (Something I touched [...]

There’s a lot of talk about the use of SMS messaging as a communications tool recently. Textually.org has some interesting commentary on the matter. Here’s a good snippet:
“Instant communications technology has completely changed the role of word of mouth,” says Nancy Utley, chief operating officer for ‘Little Miss Sunshine‘
Movie studios once felt confident [...]

I find mobile phones effect on society fascinating. If you want a really simple acid test to see how widespread this is, just ask people the time. Look at how many people reach into their pocket rather than pull back their sleeve. Not only is the mobile phone killing the landline market, [...]

Interesting comment by a work colleague during one of our ongoing weekly meetings about the irish media landscape. We were discussing the huge coverage garnered by Roy Keane’s appointment as the Sunderland manager despite his previous feud with the club’s chairman when they were players.
We were debating why it made the front pages despite [...]

I’ve had a couple of discussions recently about activating sponsorships. The perception exists that sponsors invariably want to slap their logo everywhere and the sponsored organisations think sthat they can take the cheque, add a company name to their intellectual property and somehow that’ll pay back the sponsor in spades.
Companies often struggle to find [...]