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Some thoughts and opinions on the Public Relations profession and industry
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7/30/2002
No negative vibes man..... Interesting post from Phil Gomes on a story by Douglas Rushkoff in the Guardian about how his editors at the New York Times refused to publish his negative analysis on the AOL-Time Warner merger at the time because he clearly didn't know what he was talking about! He who laughs last... 7/26/2002
Now I am going to kick you one more time...Apple Redux Further to the post on how Apple is alienating its own (should that be eating?) by coming down hard on rumor sites etc., their copyright attorney's have been busy again this time in France. Sony: Money can't buy you .... good staff There are times when you read something and your brain informs you that your eyes are misleading you. So you read it again and still your brain rejects it. These incidents are usually provoked by moments of such stupidity that it's really hard to fathom what is going on and what the perpetrators were thinking. What am I talking about? Two words: Sony Electronics. The New York Times as you may have read has refused to accept ads from Sony that attempt to blue the line between advertising and editorial content. Effectively Sony has put together the age-old Advetorial rubbish and tried to place them in editorial pages with little or no identification that they are in fact ads. OK let's take a little breather here. Does this strike anyone as innovative? breaking new ground? opening up the frontiers of marketing? No, I didn't think so. This is a cheap marketing activity that has happily filled the un-read pages of newspapers and magazines around the world since mass circulation started. It's space filling and magazine ad reps have happily took people's money from it for years. From an advertisers perspective it's admitting that 'editorial' coverage has value. None of what I have written is rocket science to any of you. I would never recommend advetorial for a client or employer because it's only a space filler and to be honest I don't personally believe it has much value. But, let us hear what Sony's Consumer 'Marketing' Officer, T. Scott Edwards, has to say: "We're breaking paradigms here. We consider ourselves a content provider -- we are buying the space." What? Excuse me. What is this guy on? Buying 'Advetorials' and 'Commercial Features' is (ahem) "breaking paradigms"? Who talks like that? Oh I know marketing management at large companies who have lost their tenuous grasp on reality. Is 'T' really trying to tell us that paying for advetorial and trying to sneak it into editorial content is the brave new frontier? Of course it doesn't stop with 'T', oh no, his ad agency is right behind him. Let's listen to what they, Universal McCann, have to say for a moment: "We're trying to blur the line between the adveritising and editorial boundary." Oh my lord (I am trying to reduce my use of expletives). Well I'd would like to publicly praise the New York Times for their standards, and show these Sony 'marketing' people that they need to stop drinking the 'Kool Aid'. To end, not everyone of course agrees with the NYT's stand, there are, as there always are, people only too happy to get their hands on some filthy lucre to help make their quarter, and hang the consequences. Jack Haire, sales muppet executive extrordinaire is quoted as rallying his executives at Time and AOL for a plan to distribute Sony's content. Well done Jack, never let standards get in the way of a dollar. [Comments] 7/25/2002
The Fall of Advertising....Yeah Right A new book from self-styled marketing guru Al Ries is titled "The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR". In the book, he states that PR is going to replace advertising as the primary 'branding' tool and that advertising will be relegated to defending existing brands. [Ad Age have a great article on the book here] NOTE: I had, based on reading two reviews of this book, published some opinions on what I believed was wrong with the premise of the book. However I have removed those opinions pending a first-hand opportunity to read the book in full when it's published next month! 7/24/2002
Flash Hall of Shame #14....Cane Communications [Special Award Winner] So I am trying out Mozilla the open source Internet browser. It's clean and fast but I haven't yet allowed the Flash virus to install its Mozilla plug-in. Anyhow I go to Cane Communication's (a UK PR company) website and it tells me that I MUST install the Flash 6 plug-in to get into their site. Now this is a PR company, probably looking for clients, trying to impress journalists and you can't get into the site without Flash. Now obviously this is the same for any completely Flash-built sute, but to add further insult to injury on the 'no flash detected' page, there's no contact details, no alternative HTML information. Excellent strategy. Excellent communicators. Some interesting online reading.... Catching up on some PR reading since my break I came across a very interesting article in O'Dwyers PR Daily by New York Post columnist John Crudele. The piece details how Pre-Paid Legal Services reacted to a negative piece he wrote about the company. I'd take John to task on his fifth point but it's a very interesting read. If you're interested in some personal thoughts and insights into the world of technology and technology related PR and marketing, you could do worse than stop by SIPR and have a browse through Shel Israel's It Seems to Me (ISM) columns. Finally, CornerBarPR's Brenda Clevenger has published the first part of a two-part piece on on-line PR. If the whole 'on-line PR' thing is still a little foreign it's not a bad introduction. 7/23/2002
Seeing the other point of view.... As PR practitioners we're all told to think about our work from the audience's point of view. I came across a book review on PR Watch that provides a really interesting take on activists' views of PR activity. It's a review of Denise Deegan's book 'Managing Activism". 7/22/2002
PR 101: Anything Apple can do, Oracle can do better.... You might remember that in August last year Oracle Corporation took the brave decision to take their PR back in-house after a very successful eight year relationship with Applied Commuications. Most high tech firms rely heavily on external PR agencies, so this move was certainly an interesting departure - particularly given the size of the PR brief. Last week PR Week ran a story entitled "Oracle Completes Global PR Revamp". A notable achievement in itself, but then I noticed towards the end of the story, James Finn, VP of worldwide corporate communications at Oracle was paraphrased as follows: "Finn said the company has been dismayed with some of the recent media coverage it has gotten, which he said is unfairly negative. He said Oracle would not be as keen to work with reporters who take a one-sided view of the company." Now I am sure this is a mistake, because if Oracle's VP of coporate communications actually believes that only briefing favorable media is the best way forward, Oracle could be heading into very choppy waters. Let's hope for his sake it's a mis-quote. What do you think? TDA Group...Muppets of the Week One of my more interesting spams this morning was from TDA Group, expounding the benefits of tightly targeted, personalised, e-mail based direct marketing. Fine except they did it by spamming me as part of a non-targeted, non-personalized spam. Jeez. You'd never expect a company of this intellectual calliber to have a Flash intro would you? Check it out... Please: Patronize me, I'm a client.... OK, I have worked both sides of the PR divide, I've been the consultant and I've been the in-house PR (and am presently). From a professional point of view there are significant pros and cons of both roles and I believe that if possible PR people should try both roles so they have an understanding of the different pressures and challenges. I came across an article today that has made my blood boil. The PR agency-client relationship, probably more than any other in the marketing discipline, relies on a close working partnership. The business world moves quickly and it's essential that both the agency and the in-house people are comfortable with each other and confident that each is doing their jobs. This 'article' (and I use that word in the loosest possible sense) is one of the most patronizing and ridiculous 'how to' articles I have ever read - and I've read a few. It throws out the 'partnership' ideal and instead propogates the theory that the in-house drone is an inferior being that should 'do as they are told'. To quote Mr. Paul J. Krupin: "If there's something you don't understand, ask about it. Do you want to know why they chose a certain news angle, page format, word limit, or media list? Ask. Politely." Maybe I am coming at this from the wrong angle, maybe I have overdosed on spam, your can read "Super Client! Getting the Most Out of Your Publicist" here. Let me know your thoughts, I think its absolute trash....but am open to contradiction! Back in the office... Back after a week's vacation and spam seems to be taking over the world. I think the fact we put our e-mail addresses at the end of press releases and on web-sites is leading us all to take on more than our fair share of spam. My poor spam filter is very tired.... 7/11/2002
7/10/2002
Flash Hall of Shame #12.... Liberty Communications..not only appalling Flash navigation but pop-up ads as well...jeez 7/08/2002
*Update* An open letter to the PR people at Apple: Think Different... If you're interested in reading more on Apple's latest PR disaster (including some very interesting insights into how NOT to handle media) have a look at AppleLinks, ThinkSecret, and for a limited time on the front page of GraphicPower (no permalink). Also industry analyst Amy Wohl's take on the continuing saga. 7/05/2002
An open letter to the PR people at Apple: Think Different... When it comes to scoring own goals, no company is more accomplished than Apple Computer. I have always had a soft spot for Apple and their brilliantly designed hardware and software and of course their carefully cultivated and managed 'wacky' image. I have in previous lives been an Apple user and still think their laptops are second to none - though I'm a Windows user by profession. So why is it that Apple continually chose to alienate the very people who have kept the company alive through the dark and miserable Scully, Spindler and Amelio years? Why do they upset the very people who have bought into their 'Think Different' theme? Whilst other companies spend huge amounts of time and money on building, nurturing and protecting their customer relationships, Apple seems happy to screw the very people who fight hardest on their behalf. Communications and PR seems to be at the root of a number of their problems. The company for some reason dislikes the Apple rumor sites on the Internet. I'm from the school that believes no (or very little) news is bad news. These passionate people create and maintain these sites 'cause they love Apple. Their readers read these sites because they want to find out more about Apple and ahead of time. Now maybe I'm missing the point, but from where I'm standing any company in the world would give their right arm for that kind of passionate following. But not Apple. Apple continues to try and strangle these sites - rather than maximize their appeal and reach - that's a major mistake. Let's cut to the chase, Apple is a very small player in the PC world. Any assistance, third party or otherwise should be embraced. There is a furore on at the moment over the purported Apple-sponsored move to revoke or refuse press passes to the authors of many 'amatuer' Mac-sites to MacWorld as reported in Wired. This is only the latest in a series of PR mishaps. Matthew Rothernberg has a very interesting piece on EWeek on this subject. Only last year Apple's PR firm was in the midst of a famous Weblog row which could have been resolved both quickly and easily but instead grew into a major firefight. It seems Apple's PR people aren't thinking differently at all. Rather than harness the goodwill and entusiasm of all these online users, they set out to frustrate them. Has no-one at Apple heard that good communications is essential with all your audiences? Have they missed the Internet, newsgroups and weblogs? Apple, accept some free PR counsel. Work with these people, harness the goodwill that's out there and make the Mac platform relevant once more. Kicking your own people has never worked for dictators in the past, learn from history, think different - or the switch you've been promoting recently might be quickening in the opposite direction. [Comment] 7/04/2002
Happy July 4th! The world's most phenomenal PR machine keeps rolling.... Yesterday I gave a small example of how blogging can be used as a PR tactic. Today I found a great example of how the world's best PR machine is already targeting and influencing blogs. If you had any misapprehensions about the role of blogging and PR then they should be evaporating as you read. Microsoft has one of the slickest PR teams/operations in the business. The company recognized PR early on as a key element for success in the IT business. Since its early days Microsoft has built, grown and refined its PR team and its results have been staggering. In response to a negative entry about Palladium on Dave Winer's weblog, the Microsoft PR machine were on to him in a flash. You may agree or disagree about the power of the blog, but while you're debating it, others are influencing and contributing to blogs all over the Internet. Get going... [Comments] 7/03/2002
Utilizing the power of the blog.... Phil Gomes recently recieved feedback on his ExpertPR article on blogging asking has he ever actually used blogging for clients. Well here's an example of successful PR blogging. A couple of months ago, Google released the APIs to their search engine as a Web Service. Obviously this was very interesting to our company as a Web Services vendor. Some guys in marketing came up with an application for the Google API using Web Services... they created Googlemail :-) Now you can send an e-mail to google@capeclear.com with your search terms in the subject line and it will send you back the top ten results from Google. Whilst not exactly changing the direction of the industry, it's a nice example of how easily you can create useful Web Services and it actually has some useful applications such as the ability to store searches, access searches from handhelds etc. We promoted Googlemail through relevant weblogs and have had over 30,000 different people using it. It's also generated quite a bit of ink. The fact that we contacted bloggers with an interest in this area, opened it to their readers and to other bloggers and quite quickly the word spread. It was an interesting and worthwhile exercise. Furthermore, some purists didn't appreciate it and this created some excellent educated debate on the whole area. Here's a recent story from UNIX Insider that appeared on Googlemail. So there' s no question that in the networked world within which we live you can use weblogs to promote a product or message, however be careful. Your message must be relevant, your product must be relevant, you should be upfront about your agenda and you should know and understand a blogger's interests BEFORE you get in touch. Do these guidelines sound familiar at all? Good PR practice is good PR practice regardless of the medium or the message. [Comments?] 7/02/2002
Brunswick Group get busy in TV land.... The WSJ also reports (guess who has been catching up on his reading!) that troubled celebrity Martha Stewart has turned to the Brunswick Group for assistance in her current stock scandal, and while that's keeping their New York office busy, their UK office is helping the BBC in a bidding war for the now defunct ITV digital station. PR and the national agenda... The Wall Street Journal reports that Estonia is preparing for its inclusion in the Europe Union by launching "a slick but confusing public relations campaign called Brand Estonia. Created with the aid of London-based PR firm Interbrand, Brand Estonia includes such selling points as...numerous natural marshes [and] morasses." The campaign also seeks to distance Estonia from the Soviets. Other key messages in the Estonia PR onslaght is "If you like your blondes abundant -- but you know that Scandinavians can just be so boring and clinical, come see what a healthy dose of quirkiness, irony and experimentation in Estonia will do for you." |