3am festivities

I couldn't sleep last night, an incredibly frustrating experience. Especially since I did 4 laps jogging that evening specifically so I could sleep.

Fortunately i'm well prepared for such matters. I have several different boxes of cereal to mix and match, I have my wireless internet working perfectly 24/7 and I have a notable number of films and books. I even have plenty of sorting/tidying jobs that can only be done between 2am and 4am in the morning. Counting change? Has to be done!

Now anyone that says anything to the effect "Account Executives aren't supposed to sleep, you're just meant to work your ass off for a few years" is going to get hurt, or at least referred to Ed and the article in PR Business this week about staff churn/burn out.

So, long story short, I got to sleep at about 4am and woke up again at 7am. I was at work by 7.30am and had finished going through my early morning 'routine' (reading blogs/google alerts/scanning news feeds/response source queries) by 8.15am, it's going to be a long day.

In other news, Richard Bailey has discussed If I should change to a PR degree. So feel free to add your $0.02. My thoughts at the moment, from speaking to colleagues here (one that has just got a new PR job and one that has been the industry for over a decade), is that a PR degree is not essential, but could be useful. I wont be able to rely solely upon my year's placement in PR, as most PR degrees tend to ask students to take a year in the industry now, but if I get the most out of this year, I should be well prepared for a promising career.

China's PR offensive backfires

Reading the Independent's China in PR offensive to win access to space station (probably subscription only after today).

China is beginning to work the global PR mojo by allowing foreign journalists into their "Aerospace City" control room in Beijing. They also let the the first Chinese astronaught, Col Yang Liwei, speak to Western reporters.

However, perhaps they should have briefed him first...

...he told reporters the Great Wall was not visible from space, putting paid to one long-standing urban myth about China's national symbol.

I doubt the Chinese Foreign office were thrilled about Col Yang Liwei destroying in one sentence, several hundred years of the nation's PR work.

Agency Life

Ok so perhaps the description above, which begins “day to day to day to day pr discussion”, is a little misleading. In my defence, it’s been a busy week. Still, I will endeavour to set aside a time most mornings when I can squeeze in an update, even if it’s only a brief one.

Operating at a regional level, a lot of what is discussed on the blogosphere is of far less value than if I worked at a London agency. Yet still, this is very much a learning experience, and I consume as much of the (often staggering) information as I can. Not all of it applies to regional pr, but there is no guarantee I will be working with regional pr all of my life.

I was discussing these differences with, Claire, a colleague of mine the other morning. This is rare enough in itself as Claire is a contender for the planet’s busiest person. We were discussing the pros/cons between working in London and Cheltenham and the value a London agency would place on experience gained at a regional level. Something Claire mentioned was the number of people who she had seen do work experience both here and at previous companies, and wasted the opportunity.

Now I have to admit to feeling slightly guilty. I never considered a career in PR, but rather came across it accidentally through a bizarre degree mix-up. Yet browsing the blogosphere, knowing the number of CV’s/job applications my boss receives to her inbox every week, there are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of really passionate people that would love the opportunity I have now. A paid position for a year at a PR agency where you really are in the thick of all things. I’m aware of people at entry-level work-experience positions spending all their time doing press cuttings or sending out envelopes. So unlike several University friends of mine, some with assistance of a calendar, I am not counting down the days waiting until I can go out on *horror* weekdays, I am instead very much dedicated to learning as much as I can in this year.

So what have I been up to this week? I’ve been doing PR for the American Museum in Britain’s Independence day celebrations, pitching a local business news story to regional press, writing about the local football team, discussing the finer points of grease pollution, watching a cheesy early 90s marketing video about tyres and planning an open day for a construction skills training company.

PR agency life is a varied one.

The unholy editorial sin

I feel like I’m in my year 9 chemistry class again. Everyone else’s test tube has gone a light grey and mind lingers prominently at the front of the class in a murky dark-red colour. This time, fortunately, I’m confident that Tony Oram did not pour some of his ‘Um-Bongo’ juice drink into my test tube whilst I went to collect my homework from Mrs Stewart.

I’m talking (of course) about the recent discussion on paying for editorial as an unholy sin that reflects poorly upon all the hard working PR folk. Having recently drafted a 700-word paid *gasp* editorial I felt the need to add my $0.02.

No-one has mentioned that there is a huge divide between BMW offering to pay Robert Reich for favourable comments and the 700-word paid editorial I recently drafted. Am I evil? Possibly. Is paying for editorial always wrong? No.

Now skipping over the fact this is a PR survey and many writers think PR surveys are bogus, there are some important issues to deal with.

Towards the end of April one of my clients came to me with news that they had just completed Europe's largest 'Fibre-thatch' roofing at the Tsavo Cafe in Chester Zoo and wanted to promote their 'fibre-thatch' product and service using this example in architecture press, zoo press, construction press etc...So i wrote up a news release and began sending it out to relevant media trying to raise some awareness and interest. What was the response? I got hit back with dozens of responses from these specialist press and trade journals asking me to pay between £90 - £250 to have my release included within their publication. That cost mind, also included an image - yet they would not run the news without the image. This is how this press works, how they stay in business, how they make money, it's a fundamental aspect of doing business to such an extent that they have people and procedures specifically in place for this very reason.

So I would like to note that it is very possible, depending upon the manner in which the survey was conducted, that the results could be very much eschew. apt marketing & pr would have to one of those companies admitting to paying for editorial. Yet we would never OFFER to pay for editorial as an influencing factor for opinion makers. However if we would like to reach a particular publication that only accepted paid editorial in such a manner and has the readership we need to reach then we will agree to pay the editorial fee from time to time. We receive an invoice for paying this fee and the client gives it the approval.

In conclusion there is a huge divide between offering to pay for editorial and paying an ‘editorial fee’. It is a divide that could have had a significant impact upon the results of this survey which subsequent casts a dark cloud over the whole PR industry.

Perhaps, like most surveys, people need to give some thought over its intention. Why would Manning, Selvage and Lee
have conducted the survey in the first place? It wouldn’t have been to get into the top PR publication regardless of how it reflected upon the industry would it?

Ethics in PR

I doubt any of you have heard of John Robinson, at least not the John Robinson I am talking about. John died on the 14th April 2006 leaving behind a widow, three children and six grandchildren.

Roughly two months working in PR I was confronted by what I perceived to be an ethical dilemma. One of my clients is involved with the scaffolding industry, the client trains people (mainly mature career changers, ex army etc) to become scaffolders. On Tuesday 8th April there was a major scaffolding collapse of 14 storeys which made both national and regional news.

Google is an increasingly powerful tool for PR types to master. Like many, I have alerts set up for buzz words in the news. I heard about the “Scaffolding collapse – cause unknown” within thirty minutes of the event taking place and, with some four hours of the day remaining, had plenty of time to get something out there for the dailies. I took lunch straight away and began thinking about the news release. There was fantastic potential here. I began formulating a news release in my head. I could pitch my client as an expert comment to regional press. “These people should have had the proper training to prevent such accidents”. There were possible editorial opportunities and a time to stress the need for “professionals”. Radio pitches, construction newsletters, construction bloggers and plenty more to reach.

It could also be a good time to highlight the need for more people in the scaffolding industry. There is a severe crisis right now in the construction industry, 2012 Olympic work beginning and great career opportunities. I was eating a salad at home, following the coverage at home, waiting for more angles I could use. At the time, John was still alive, and along with two others, in “serious condition”. Could their injuries had been prevented if they had had training, similar to the type that my client provides?

Half way through the salad it did dwell on me that three men was critically injured and could die. Was I seriously about to use this accident to my (or my client’s) benefit? Yet, if I didn’t would other PR agencies act on similar morality?

It blurred line between right and wrong. Yes if they had trained with my client (i had no evidence to suggest it would or wouldn’t) then perhaps this would not have happened? Surely I should wait for the result of the investigation, but by then it might be too late?

How do PR veterans handle this? Do they take it on a case by case basis with a certain degree of moral finesse? Where’s the right or wrong here?

One of the biggest ironies of the PR industry, given its very nature, is how it is portrayed in the media. Looking at films or TV shows you see Wag the Dog, Phone Booth and Absolute Power stereotyping us as an army of budding Max Clifford’s, eager to lie rather than come clean.

So what did I decide to do? It doesn’t matter. The more important thing is what would you do?

Am i wrong, or are you boring?

I’m worried that I’m doing something terribly wrong. My press (news) releases don’t sound anywhere near as boring as almost all the releases I came across on PR Newswire today. Now I know these releases are for a specific audience but at least try to make them interesting. These are press releases from established and known agencies, people with far more than my 4 months of experience and people that have (or are) studying for a PR degree.

Is this a result of people that have been so rigidly constructed by education and so restricted by their law department that all they can churn out is equally miserable rubbish? Are these people going through the motions without trying to be better or more creative? Do these people wear suits to work everyday?

For example: Tokyo Electron Introduces SenSages 3.5J to Accelerate J-SOX and Privacy Regulatory Compliance. Who does that story appeal to? It can’t be many. Why pay to send it out over PR Newswire?

I was very worried about being a PR executive entering the industry with no education or experience, now I think it’s an advantage. I read recently that only 1 in 4 press release from top agencies gets used? Are they serious? I feel I let my client down if any of my news releases don’t get at least one hit. Is there a strand of the PR industry completely isolated from the rest of ‘us’ who write this crap?

So, here are a few of my press releases, feel free to read them and let me know if there is something I’m doing which is fundamentally wrong or right that these PR Newswire authors are getting wrong. Because I honestly believe I need some advice here, I can’t understand why people are so boring with their news. I’m more than willing to list a few of my own releases for people to pick apart.

Local company tackles Olympic Crisis

Careers Advisors failing young historians

Native Americans prepare for local father’s day pow-wow

Recent newswire releases

Tokyo Electron Introduces SenSages 3.5J to Accelerate J-SOX and Privacy Regulatory Compliance

Downey Financial Corp. Announces Thirteen Month Selected Financial Data …Are you serious? “selected” financial data?

150 Feet 0.59% Copper Recovered At The New York Canyon Project Extending And Confirming Historic Copper Mineralization

Now I enter an industry with a lot of pros screaming from the rooftops “press releases are dead, press releases are dead” – well looking at some of these, were they ever alive? Seriously, were they?

But perhaps I’m wrong. I’m not going to pretend I know everything, I’m young, passionate, and could be way off the mark. Do press want the information this way? I figured they wanted stories laid out for them that they could pick up and run with? Perhaps this is just a difference between the press I work with and the press that these PR people work with?

Or are they, as I suspect, terribly boring?

Museum Motivation

An accepted fact of working from PR is that quite often you wont get the credit for your work. Clients will be weary of dishing out praise for fear of future contract negotiations and, quite frequently, press will treat you as the anti-Christ of journalism – largely due to the immoral actions of a minority of PR peers (cue Quite Great and Sandi Thorn). The answer phone of a lovely chap at the Financial Times is always amusing. “Hello, this is (name), sorry I cannot get to the phone right now, please leave a message after the tone. Unless you work in PR, in which case hang up now.”

So there we were, Angie, Gill and myself in a meeting with the American Museum’s deputy director Julian as he was about to tell us whether or not the visitor numbers were up. For Angie (apt’s MD) and Gill this would be a decisive moment of our relationship with the museum. For me, it was a great opportunity to eat the last brownie without anyone noticing.

Julian began - “Our visitor numbers are 5% down.”

Shit.

“Let me explain…”

Julian then began a very long and drawn out process of detailing various facts and figures. For example, the museum’s basement being closed and thus significantly reducing the number of school visits, also the fact that the museum’s members are not visiting as frequently as they did last year, a result of the museum’s poor internal marketing. Then came the statistic we had been waiting for.

“Our new paying visitor numbers are up 18.6% on last year”

Ignoring Gill’s later discovery that Julian had neglected to mention that people paying full adult prices are up some 44% on last year, this was the key figure. This 18.6% statistic is what matters to the American Museum’s decision makers. Julian, to his credit, has a very good concept of what PR does, but he has people to answer to. These people wont understand the relationships and contacts we have made with the regional press, national press or specialist press. They wont know how much time we spend negotiating colour separation requests, discussing advert specifications or researching ideas we eventually decide against.

When it comes to the American Museum, I have a lot to live up to. I take over the account from two people who were very well respected by both the press and the client, both had fantastic success. My success wont be judged until after I’ve left apt next year, so for now my gratification comes from Julian grudgingly accepted that a 1200 word piece with 6 pictures in the local press might be beneficial or Laura, the museum’s events and education co-ordinator telling me if an event I have done the PR for was well attended, or Simon (the museum’s head-gardener) telling me that the recent Vintage Garden Machine Rally was “as much fun as a 43 year old can have in a boiler suit.”

So, final thought, to work in PR it is important to be self-motivated and recognise success that possibly only you will recognise at the time. Simply, if you’re not willing to spend hours writing a 1500 word magazine copy on grease and stick your client’s name on it, then PR isn’t for you.

Automatic, systematic, hydromatic

I’m quite passionate about writing. I have been since I was 13 and received a D for an English story I wrote about drug use in my school. I recall the ever-stoic Mr. Club explaining to me – “your story was ridiculous and far-fetched!” Understandably I was slightly bemused, the story was based on the police drug raid on my school the previous week. Still not all my class suffered, Nicolai’s story (called “Time travelling with Vikings”) received a B+.

A year later I was leading the double life of quiet pupil by day, world-conqueror by night. From 5pm – 11pm billions of pixels and homework deadlines fell mercilessly before my game-addicted wrath. On the rare occasions when I was able to set aside some time for schoolwork, I took up writing about games for websites. More specifically the fast-emerging ‘online-gaming’ world.

At 15 - 16 I was working hard to avoid revision. Cramming every waking hour with organising online and offline gaming events/tournaments, negotiating prices and media coverage with regional papers and LAN gaming centre managers. My peers were impressed, most 15 – 16 year olds can avoid plenty, if not the majority, of their revision, but to avoid all of it entirely, quite an achievement. At this time something rather odd happened, these gaming websites and events began making money. An impressive amount of it too.

The websites began summoning my services to cover gaming events in South Korea, Sweden, Denmark, Las Vegas, Dallas and my own events summoned me to the UK tourist hotspots of Northampton and Hull. At this point someone looking and acting remarkably like me began anonymous name-dropping my name to several gaming magazines who were keen to leap upon the online-gaming (now called eSports) bandwagon.

At 17, a brief spell spent discovering the female form aside, I was the official freelance eSports correspondent for Bath – host of the only gaming magazines in the country. My job consisted of travelling the world, pitching and writing articles on eSports for these publications and convincing my parents it was in their best interests to write me sick-notes from school. Something that later caused the head of sixth form to shout at me for the following conversation with my form tutor “So why were you ill last week?” “Errrr, what does the note say?”

The general feeling was that everything was leading to something bigger, each commission from the magazine was bigger and better than the next, the money and job offers were, (without bragging) rolling in. Now some 4 years and plenty of money, sex and alcohol later, I have reached what I can only perceive to be the pinnacle of my professional career. 1500 words to write about:



As sarcastic as I intended that to be, there is actually something of a challenge in this that I relish. I like the diversity of writing about new things. From always writing about games through PR I’ve began expanding and diversifying my *ahem* journalism palette. Ghost writing aside, I frequently cover topics such as American history, scaffolding, education, travelling and errr…grease! In the past two days, and before sending out the press release, three publications have so far agreed to devote some editorial to the problems and solutions (ca-ching!) to grease.

Sex is alien to me

The trick to getting the media interested in sexual fantasy boxes is to find an aspect about them that readers can relate to, or be surprised by. What, in these boxes besides the vibrators and other instruments of “gratification”, is new, shocking or just good ole’ fashioned humorous?

Sex with aliens!

One of these sexual fantasy boxes is alien-themed. This means that men get a thrill out of their spouses dressing up as aliens. Thus I have found my angle for the story, men wanting sex with aliens. Then I find my target audience of risqué women’s interest consumer’s magazines. These are the type of magazines that list '10 ways to get your man into bed' or advice to improve the euphemised “bedroom experience”. Why target these magazines? Because their audience consists of purchasers, decision-makers or chief influencers in the process of acquiring Sheila’s Comforts Sexual Fantasy boxes.

Now how do I get this idea out there? Do I now write this as a press release? Do I phone up reporters and pitch the feature idea? Do I write a letter and mail it out to target publications? Which journalists do I approach? Who writes the sex pages for these publications? Am I really getting paid to suggest people should find aliens sexually desirable?

Welcome to PR – Clearly a dizzying world of high-power executive lunches, savage spin and feature-fit sexual fantasies. Thankfully, I’ve so far managed to avoid the free lunches and savage spin but don’t worry; I’ll keep this blog up to date with my progress. Actually I was treated to a free sandwich for lunch at the American Museum a week or so back.

The purpose of this blog is quite simple. It is to give clients, potential clients, journalists, potential staff and delightful chaps who searched for “alien sex” in Google an insight into what life is like at a PR agency. It will include my experiences, comments and observations as I pass through my year in PR.

The best part of working in PR is the freedom to be creative. On my desk might be a thick folder containing all the information a potential mastermind contestant would need for the “how to deal with catering fats, oils and greases, Christmas special. It is then a challenge of making this information palatable for relevant publications. Identify the key messages, wrap it up in a juicy angle and throw it to the journalistic lions.

The worst part of PR is much like the worst parts of any job. The back end work that keeps the store going. I’m referring to those essential fiddly jobs that often require a lot of pestering to get done. The database updating/recording, the time sheets, even the cleaning.

Intros aside, the past week was a good one. I scored some major hits with the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and secured plenty of mentions with upcoming listings combined with a splattering of mentions in articles with regional press. Sometimes a single hit, especially those with special interest magazines, require weeks, potentially months, of collaboration. The benefit is that it builds the relationship for future coverage. A colleague of mine recently had one of our clients mentioned in the Sunday Times Style insert after a lengthy period of collaboration between the two. Which was a great achievement.

This is what keeps the enthusiasm (and the payroll) going - getting hits. Getting a hit is the equivalent of scoring a goal, closing a deal or any other form of success that has resulted from a combined effort and plenty of work.