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Just joking, happy April Fools’ day!

Tomorrow is April Fools day, a day which should be Christmas for PR agencies (as opposed to that Santa-cursing, work-fest, we enjoyed a few months ago). April Fools’ day offers PR pros the opportunity to demonstrate what unrestrained creativity can achieve.

For one day a year, your client can do almost anything to gain attention. It doesn’t have to be true, just entertaining and believable enough to gain the attention of journalists and the public.

If it’s done right, April Fools’ day is a great opportunity to showcase the human side of your clients. Most importantly, if you have a choice between funny or believable, go for funny. The idea shouldn’t be to fool your public, but to use April Fools’ Day as an opportunity to entertain them.

If you are short on inspiration read up on the top 100 April Fools’ day hoaxes of all time.

I'm 22!

Also, the 1st April marks my 22nd year of existence. Not a particularly big milestone compared to 16, 18 or 21, but big enough nonetheless. Send your expensive gifts to apt's office and I'll pick them up from there.

Update: See Google's effort. Ah, and Neville Hobson has spotted some good ones.

Press Release vs. Feature Pitches

I want to address the topic of writing feature pitches –vs- press releases, since I use both quite extensively at apt marketing & pr.

What’s the difference?

This shouldn’t really need any explaining, but I guess the feature pitch is open to debate.

The difference between the two should be quite apparent. A press release is an item of news which a company would like to announce. A press release is usually written by the agency, approved to the client and then fired off across newswires and distribution lists. Matthew Stibbe has great ideas about writing human press releases.

A feature pitch is the idea of pitching an issue-led idea (which involves your client in some manner) to the media. B.L. Ochman wrote some great tips on feature pitches a few years back. A pitch is written, the angle green lighted by the client, and then sent to relevant press contacts or pitched by phone.

Pros and cons

Press releases are the standard way of a company communicating information. Companies, for the best part, know how to write one and the media know how to use them.

There are several cons of using press releases.. The volume of press releases has, from many different accounts, risen considerably with the increasing use of e-mail Therefore it is becoming harder and harder to get your press release read. Press releases also have a bad reputation this is due to both the amount filled with clichéd inhumane corp-speak and lacking in news/substance. Standard writing errors don’t help matters.

From feedback from press contacts at my job (and I by no mean claim this is the same for the whole industry) feature pitches are used far less often. As a result it is easier (providing they are kept short) for the journalist to skim-read and decide if it is write for this publication. If they like this idea usually someone will be assigned to write it, or it is send back with a note asking for ‘800 words’.

Obviously there are cons with this approach too. This requires much more work from the journalist side. Instead of being provided with a news story complete with facts, details and contacts, they have to undertake plenty of investigation. There is also less idea over the message or the positive/negative angle the journalist might be taking.

Which should be used?

Personally, I favour feature pitches. I had a freelance writing background before my placement and loved the creativity of writing a concise pitch. In fact, my all my proudest hits at apt marketing & pr (GMTV, ITV News, Sun, Mirror, Daily Mail etc.) came from feature pitches rather than press releases.

However, clients on the whole were more keen (or I would argue, more familiar) about press releases than feature pitches. Quite often, a press releases just make more sense, event announcements for example. The important thing to note is that there are always more options. I don’t think the potential of using podcasts or vodcasts/vidcasts (what is the correct term for video casting these days?) has even begun to be tapped.

In the summer time...

You never realise the importance of adjusting British Summer Time as when you stay up most of the night working on a University assignment and stroll into University the next day to hand it in with just under an hour until the assignment room closes.

Only to find it closed three minutes earlier.

Bugger!

Quick thought to type

I bet most of us can all type without looking (touch-type) these days. If you're not sure, try it. Close your eyes now and begin typing. You might be quite surprised to find out you can do it very well.

If you get bored take the speed-typing test. My speed varies from 88 - 106 words per minute.

When two agencies try to write one press release

One of the tougher things I’ve had to in PR is to work with another agency to produce a joint press release. In theory this should be easy, agencies are (hopefully) experts on producing quality press releases. Unfortunately, collaborative press releases can be a nightmare for both agencies and the client.

Common problems include:

1) A press release should always be written by one person and then amended/approved. When different people are writing different chunks of the release it quickly loses its style and focus. Sadly all agencies have different ideas of what does/doesn’t work.

2) Both agencies have the duty to get their own client/side as much coverage as possible. Expect constant tweaks, amends and debates.

3) Some agencies will make amends simply to avoid admitting they cannot do it any better. In a scenario where the client is being cc’ed in on the drafts, it can become quite hostile.

4) Contact details. Who should the press contact for more information?

5) Pictures. What pictures do you send with the press release and why?

6) Distribution. Who is responsible for sending out this press release? Who is going to be making the media calls and securing the coverage?

7) Clippings. Who’s going to pull these in? Who’s responsible if the release doesn’t gain any coverage?

In short, it can be an unpleasant task.

Greenpeace promotes BA's new flight route

I've noticed this story from the Press Association.

Greenpeace offered 34 passengers on BA's new route from Gatwick to Newquay (far South-West of the country) free train tickes. They also offered free tickets to the 17 passengers queuing at Newquay for the flight to Gatwick.

Nice PR idea, only nobody took up the offer. Why would they? Going by plane takes 1 hour, by train takes 5 hours. Offering free train tickets to people after they've booked their flights is foolish. Every passenger knows that whether they took the train or not, the flight would still go ahead. Thus the CO2 still emitted.

The idea was wrong from the start. Did Greenpeace really plan to tell BA passengers that, rather than flying, they can take a five-hour train journey? This train journey has been the main option for decades. BA passengers booked this flight to AVOID spending five hours on a train.

What Greenpeace have inadvertantly succeeded in doing is to raise awareness of British Airway's new flight route. A route which provides an alternative to the traditional five hour train journey. Pick your battles Greenpeace.

Girls, Boys and Public Relations

Scott MacDonald of Fuzzy Gloves, has started a debate on the Forward-Moving blog about the issue of gender within public relations. There are some interesting comments, so head on over and weigh in with your opinion. Here's a snippet:

"Recent statistics show that 70% of PR practitioners are female. This is up from 50.1% in 1980 and 41% in 1979. Based on those numbers, the trend is obvious. One could argue that this increase has occurred in many sectors over the past forty years and is not restricted to public relations. Still, 70% is quite high.
[...]Some of the most common beliefs:

Women are better communicators than men.

Public relations pays better than other female dominated fields.

The school system tends to push girls towards reading/writing and boys towards math.

In other words, girls learn the core skill set needed for public relations at a younger age than boys.

Women find public relations to be more welcoming than other business disciplines."

I'm taking a PR module at the moment with about 20 girls and 5 boys. What i've learnt is that, generally, the female perception of the PR industry is further from reality than the male perception of PR.

My own opinion is that it is bad for most industries to be dominated by just one sex.

Turn off the lights before you go green

If there is one thing we're learning quite quickly, it's that people don't want to hear what you say, they want to see what you do. For PR, this means it's important to be green internally before attempting external initiatives.

Last week David Cameron (leader of the opposition) tried to pull ahead of Gordon Brown in the 'green' race by announcing several green schemes. Yesterday the Sunday Mirror front page had the fantastic headline "Cam's Bin Rumbled. This was a front page story about David Cameron's home recycling. Yes, they raided his bin to find out what he did or didn't recycle. The results didn't reflect well upon David Cameron. Gutter journalism? Certainly. Interesting story? Yes.

Earlier this month Al Gore won the best documentary Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth. This document highlighted the damage of global warming and the importance of changing our ways now. Two days later it emerged that Al Gore's 20-room mansion in Nashville consumes more electricity in a month than the average American household in a whole year.

The Guardian's environmental writer Lucy Siegle put it quite cleverly a few months ago:

"I am merely conforming to a new, fun trend: picking holes in an A-lister's green aspirations by pointing out the glaringly obvious problem that they spend their lives jetting around the world, thus spewing out more CO2 than all the trainer factories in China put together."

In January Prince Charles won an award for his efforts in highlighting the environmental cause. Sadly he didn't see the hypocrisy in flying to the USA to collect his award. Could there have been a better opportunity to promote alternatives to meetings?

These are just three of numerous examples. As Lucy claims this is a new and fun trend for the media. Anyone that announces themselves to be green is going to need to do more than make an announcement and leave the rest to their publicists.

How will this apply to companies? Quite simply it means that before you announce your green schemes to the world, you had better have your ducks in a row. Check how employees are getting to work, check that the lights are switched off at night, check that your bins aren't full of recyclable goods. Today's public is bombarded with green initiatives, and they will look at what the company is doing will become far more important than what the company is saying.

Student placement opportunity

I'm a big believer that placement students will benefit more from working at a small PR agency than a big one. In fact I would love to hear the thoughts of Richard Bailey (who visits many PR placement students) on this.

Sean Fleming of Clarity PR has contacted me with what seems like a nice opportunity to work at a small PR agency. From personal experience, it's hard work from the go. But it's fun. I asked Sean a few questions that a prospective placement student might like to know. Sean replied very quickly with some off-the-cuff responses:

What sort of work will any placement student be doing?
Everything from answering the phone, through to having a crack at writing, attending client meetings, researching new business leads, liaising with journalists, along with all the mundane admin stuff like cuttings, reports and so on.

What makes Clarity PR a great place to work?

We’re a small agency (very small – currently there are just two of us, but that’s likely to change. There were five people here just over a years ago – workload dictates headcount and at the moment we’re getting busier than we have been for two years). Small companies don’t suit everyone – there’s nowhere to hide if you’re lazy. But at the same time there’s not much danger that you’ll get left with all the drudge work; it’s a chance to get involved in everything that goes on.

Why are you looking for a placement student?

I’m a firm believer in trying to give people a leg-up, so to speak. Simple as that, really.

What are you hoping to find in a placement student?

The ability to listen. The ability to think independently, but within a set of parameters. Someone who can be trusted not to upset or offend anyone within minutes of opening their mouths. Someone who can behave in public (I kid you not, we had someone start here once who started taking her clothes off in the office one afternoon so she could try on some new clothes...)

How can students apply?

Email me with as much relevant information as possible.

Students should contact Sean directly to apply (0870 950 9670, sean.fleming@claritypr.co.uk, http://www.claritypr.co.uk).

Are all phone-in competitions fake?

I was preparing some spiel about the competition phone-in controversy (Richard & Judy, Blue Peter, ITV Play), when John Walker wrote a brilliant post on the issue.

I especially love the following Talk Sport story, but you really should read the whole thing.

When I worked at Talk Radio, we had a competition that was run at about 5am every morning. A short clip of a famous song was played, and callers would phone in with their guesses as to what it might be. Surprisingly at that hour, we’d get a lot of calls, and it was my job to fill the six lines with five wrong answers and one right one. That made good radio. The presenter would then work his way through the calls until he got to a right answer, and a prize would be awarded. Of course, in order to do this I had to find five wrong answers, and if the clip was too easy, this could often be hard work. So there I’d be, pretending to write down the phone numbers of correct callers, letting them know they might get called back if they’re selected, trying to find those who’d got it wrong.

Once I had five, I’d then take the next right answer to come in, and stick him up there. It was as arbitrary as any other system of course, but all ridiculous nonsense from start to finish. Clever callers caught on, mostly because the presenter was so idiotic as to always insist on five wrong answers every single night, which made it stand out rather. They’d phone in with a dummy wrong answer, I’d put them up on the board with the answer they were going to give, and then on air they’d produce the correct name. The presenter would then trip over himself in confusion, flap about as he tried to find the winner’s sound effect he’d not thought he’d need to press, and then go apoplectic as soon as we went to adverts. The point being, even the most obscure and ill-placed phone in compos are faked. All of them. Get used to it.

Why are journalists struggling to find PR agencies?

I'm signed up to several journalist forums and mailing lists. I would recommend most PRs sign up to at least one. It can be both a great way of getting contacts as well as providing some fascinating insights into the mind of a journalist (not just the bemoaning of PR).

What has amazed me on both the forums and mailing lists is the number queries for contacts. Not just freelance journalists wanting the commissioning editor at a magazine, but journalists wanting PR contacts of companies they wish to write about. It's amazing to believe that it can be so hard to track down who does the PR for any company.

A journalist a few months back was complaining that she had phoned a company twice for a PR contact but the lady at the front desk had no idea, nor did anyone around her. So then, PR folk, if a journalist wants to write about one of your clients, how can they track you down?

• Is there a media contact address?
  
• Do the people who answer the phones know who does the PR?
  
• Does the client website list the PR agency?
  
• Does your website list the client? Is this optimised [client/pr agency?]

Yes the role of PR is to work in the shadows somewhat, but don't be too arcane.

Should marketing degrees include an on-going marketing project?

I like this post by Seth Godin. Seth is giving advice to people wanting to get into marketing.

"So, start your own gig. Even if you're 12 years old, start a store on eBay. You'll learn just about everything you need to learn about digital marketing by building an electronic storefront, doing permission-based email campaigns, writing a blog, etc. Who knows more about marketing--Scoble or some mid-level marketing guy in Redmond?

You don't need a lot of time or a lot of money. You can start with six hours every weekend. Over time, if (and when) you get good at it, take on clients. Paying clients."

This presents a problem for degree students like myself then. Why bother doing a degree if starting our own store's on ebay is an easier, cheaper and more effective route to getting the skills we need?

It's an old debate, experience -vs- education. It's a debate which has forced many degree programes to include a mandatory work placement year, for the very reason of graduates being able to compete with those who have the experience.

Perhaps rather than a placement, the degree should require all students to start their own eBay stores. Students could spend, say, six hours a week on these stores and receive a grade on their success at the end of the three years. Students are time-wealthy, and as the examples of Facebook, YouTube, Napster prove, they can achieve great things if they put this spare time to good use. Having an on-going and potentially lucrative marketing project throughout their degree might make students more passionate about their marketing degree.

Ten signs that Facebook is important

You know Facebook is important when...

1) You find out two days in advance there is a house party at your house. No-one in the house thought to mention it because it was "clearly listed on Facebook".

2) Facebook becomes a verb

3) A housemate decides not to goto the student Union Bar because they are too busy on Facebook

4) At the end of a night, you overhear a guy asking a girl he likes for her Facebook name rather than her phone number

5) People look worried when you confess to not having a Facebook account

6) A change in someone's Facebook relationship status is the top topic in the pub

7) Friends arrange holidays through Facebook

8) There is a Facebook group for your University, main social group, lectures and even your road (scary!)

9) Facebook rockets past Bebo and MySpace in popularity amongst UK students

10) Friends begin complaining Facebook is "becoming too commercial"

Offering discounts to customers on a case by case basis is a bad move

Virgin Media is offering discounts to customers (e.g. Me) that threaten to switch over to rivals Sky. Which isn't bad, only they're doing it on a case by case basis.

For those that haven't been following the UK broadcasting war, BSkyB has pulled its basic five channel package from Virgin Media customers.

Both companies have since launched a major PR offensive. Virgin is attempting to keep customers and promote it's video-on-demand content. BSkyB is attempting to get Virgin Media' customers. Analysts predict BSkyB needs to peel 100,000 Virgin Media customers to their own service to make up for the money lost from advertising/sponsorship. Which was done on an estimate of viewing figures.

Virgin Media is offering cash discounts to customers which threaten to switch to BSkyB on a case by case basis. News of this scheme was spreading through the University (nearly every student at Gloucestershire is with Virgin Media) long before it was picked up by the newspapers. The problem is that some have received discounts, others haven't. No-one is really sure what criteria is being used here. Is it time remaining on the contract? How angry you sound on the phone? Your location? Your loyalty to the company?

Almost every customer which now phones Virgin Media (if they get through) is either given a discount or a rejection. A rejection which almost certainly sends another customer to BSkyB. It's a bad PR move.

As I've previously stated, students don't care too much about the channels, but if they hear rumours that they can get up to £5 - £10 off their monthly bills simply by sounding angry on their phone, they're going to do it. I doubt this stops just at students either. I've already heard of claims which were first rejected and later accepted on the 3rd attempt.

Are these the top marketing moments of the last 75 years?

Brand Republic (now free to everyone upon registration)features an article from Marketing listing the top marketing moments of the last 75 years. Here are a couple:

1994 - Sunday Trading begins
1994 - Unilever launches and withdraws Persil Power after clothes damaged
1994 - First National Lottery draw
1995 - WH Smith becomes first online retailer
1995 - Tesco Clubcard launches
1995 - M&C Saatchi opens its doors
1996 - Pepsi goes blue
1996 - Hotmail launches

It does seem to be missing important recent stuff. Google/search engines should be on there, perhaps also YouTube and even blogging/social networking. What would you add?

Disappointed with my PR module

I'm disappointed with the press and publicity module I'm taking.

It is the first time I've studied public relations and this module is noticeably lacking in content. It's also the only module I'm taking which don't require me to buy a text book and/or undertake weekly reading/research.

The whole theory of the module is covered in five weeks under the topics of:

Week 1: Working in a press office
Week 2: Working with the media
Week 3: How to write a press release
Week 4: Information Design
Week 5: No Lecture
Week 6: In-House publications

The remaining 4 weeks are dedicated to guest speakers. Three of which wont be addressing topics covered in the assessments. Two final weeks are left over for tutorial sessions.

There are two assessments for this module.

The first assessment is to rewrite 4 page long briefs into 4 press releases. The second assessment is to devise a press pack. A big worry I have is that the assessment criteria is vague. So it's tough to know what the lecturers are looking for to get the really good marks. I really hope that gut feeling and instincts don't become part of it.

Clients should be getting more for their money

There is a big problem in client/agency relationships which prevents clients getting the most for their money

The problem is that clients treat agencies like input/output publicity machines. The client supplies the agency with information about what they're up to, then expects the agency to magic up some great press hits.

Would clients treat other consultants like that?

PR agencies, for the best part, are PR experts. They know what will and what wont generate publicity. Most importantly, they can give great advice on the most PR-able actions a client can take. Sure some agencies can be creative and get relatively dull news some press coverage, but this is a waste of hours which could be spent hitting bigger fry.

It's not a secret that PR isn't what it was. The hard line consultancy gig has been eroded by a twenty year wave of femininity. This is never more clearly reflected that in the gender ratio of PR courses. But PR still retains a hardcore consultant element to it.

PR representatives should be in the meetings where decisions are made. It's their advice which should be sought right along with the law, finance, senior management and other departments.

It's a Utopian thought. Few companies will put PR at the heart of what they do. But it would save those at the end of the line, yes you frustrated Account Executives, pitching dull events to bored editors.