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October 24th, 2011 by Marie Efthymiou

How to host a hassle free event (with the Hoff) . . .

So, what could be better than spending a day with The Hoff talking to an enviable stream of journalists about the launch of Clintons new Celebrity Fastcard – video greetings cards for mobiles and MMS – and hosting a showbiz event at No5 Cavendish Square that’s resulted in great coverage.  Quite frankly, nothing.

Having dealt with multiple stakeholders, celebrity brand ambassadors and the cream of the UK celebrity and showbiz press, here are our top five tips for throwing a top party:

1. Never lose sight of why the event is taking place! Whilst it’s important to get the styling, canapé and cocktail selections right, it’s so much more important to keep the bigger picture in sight: What will the press want to get out of it? What will get people talking – before, during and after the event? What opportunities exist for creating as much content around the event as possible?  Will it deliver the right brand and commercial value for our client?

2. Always consider how to get longevity from your event. Whilst the event itself may be over in a few hours, video content, interviews, photography – and more – captured at the event, will give you a reason to talk about your cause for longer. Likewise, consider how else you might get further leverage from the event by involving consumers via competitions to attend, hosting live twitter feeds and debates, installing webcams etc.

3. Never scrimp on quality when capturing content at events, which are often noisy and badly lit for photography and film; this isn’t a job for a flipcam! You only have one chance to get the content that you need, so ensure that it’s professionally handled.

4. Organisation and communication are key – in equal measures. Every team member should have clear responsibilities but it’s equally important that daily updates amongst the whole team take place, as each detail will affect another. A comprehensive running order with even the smallest details listed should be accessible to everyone involved and kept updated.

5. Consider a ‘B plan’ for every detail so that you’re prepared when more photographers than anticipated turn up, when VIP guests arrive early – or late or when the champagne runs out earlier than expected! However, the most important element to a successful party and creating a big impression in a small amount of time, is being quick to adapt and react to the unexpected; some things you just can’t plan for!

For a sneak peek of the party and The Hoff in action click here to see what went on.

One week on and to date the launch event has generated over 45 items of coverage including broadcast, online and national print including the Daily Star, Daily Express & Metro plus over 2,700 new Facebook fans engaging with the brand on the Clintons Facebook page.

Celebrity Fastcard went on sale today exclusively at Clintons stores nationwide and on their website.

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February 17th, 2010 by Clare English

John Brown's quote of the day

“After yesterday’s fantastic news that Speed was voted Best UK Consultancy To Work For, in the Holmes Report, today we find out that our clients aren’t half bad either!”

Read the full post, here:  Speed works with three of the most valuable global brands | Speed Communications Blog, Feb 2010

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January 15th, 2010 by Louise Mackintosh

Jesus in my pint

Anyone who has ever worked with me will now groan (or cheer) with recognition of my pet subject, but I personally cannot believe I have only ever made passing reference to this in previous blogs:

The faces of famous people appearing in inanimate objects.

I am quite obsessed.

Really. Ask me’colleagues – old and new – and they will tell you how I brief them to hunt examples down for my ever-growing collection of what I consider to be coverage nirvana.  This week, to give you a recent example, an old colleague of mine tweeted me about the appearance of Jesus in a naan bread in Monday’s Express. I was actually off sick that day but made damn sure I hunted the paper out in our office the following day. And low, it was well worth the effort:

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/150952/Jesus-of-Naan-zareth/

Just genius.

Why such stories delight me so much I am unsure, but suffice to say that I would retire on the spot if ever a client were to let me produce one for PR purposes.  I have had a couple of very near misses. In my first job I was privy to a colleague suggesting ‘Jesus in my pint’ to the Guinness client and later I very nearly swung ‘David Beckham in my ready meal’… but both were a case of close, but no cigar.

Gutted.

Over the years I have collected all manner of examples: Osama Bin Laden in my cloud, The Madonna and Child in my water stain, Mother Teresa in my bath bun, God in my cat fur… I could go on.  And do you know what – if ever a subject was guaranteed to appear in the paper, this is it. It’s not big and it’s not clever, but it is universally appealing… and fun. Maybe we could learn from this in terms of story development, particularly for the tabloids – keep it simple and make people smile. Not a bad rule to follow if you ask me.

As for my collection, I am planning to use it to create a montage for my downstairs loo… in case you were wondering.

January 7th, 2010 by Louise Mackintosh

Mr Motivator

…Who needs him? What with all the New Year reminders that fat is evil.

Take the hilarious story about a health club in Bristol which took it upon themselves to point out in an ad that
“WhGym Alien Warningen the aliens come, they will eat the fatties first”

Needless to say, the locals were far from impressed.

And earlier in the week, a story so bad that I am in two minds as to whether it was born from mind-blowing stupidity or mind-blowing genius:  dating site BeautifulPeople.com – which only allows new members to join if existing members deem them to be good looking enough – has axed 5,000 members for having posted photos of themselves showing weight gain.

And the official company quote?

As a business, we mourn the loss of any member, but the fact remains that our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld,” said site founder Robert Hintze. “Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded.”

Yes, you did read that right. “Letting fatties roam free”.  Somebody approved that.

I don’t know whether to be appalled or impressed, I really don’t.

 

December 10th, 2009 by Caroline Allen

Where has Father Christmas gone?

Everywhere I look this year, it seems Father Christmas is still at home in the North Pole and an imposter has taken his place – Santa!  There are Santa sacks to hang by the chimney, the Santa Express at Selfridges, and even children’s favourite Rod Campbell has a book called ‘Dear Santa’.  What’s happened to the great British tradition – we’re not American!  Blah humbug, in my house, it will be Father Christmas who comes down the chimney and Father Christmas who eats all the mince pies.

December 9th, 2009 by Louise Mackintosh

Missing a trick

A piece of research undertaken by New Media Age highlights just how many major brands are failing to embrace Twitter and use it to help manage their reputation:

The research analysed the Twitter activity of the 500 brands in the 2009/10 Superbrands list during the week of 19 November 2009. It revealed 74% had no presence at all on the micro-blogging site.

On Twitter, daily updates are considered a standard. But according to the survey, of the 130 Superbrands with a presence on Twitter, just 50 used the site daily. A further 54 had tweeted once a week. However, 29 were tweeting once an hour or more.

Those sites mentioned tweeting daily, even hourly, are clearly making the most of this very useful Direct To Public tool, but the others are kinda missing the point.

Brands, if you have a twitter account…

  • Watch how other brands do it, and do it well (ASOS would be a case in point)
  • Allocate time and resources to monitor and respond to tweets
  • Issue interesting daily updates to keep your followers interested
  • Remember that this is inherently a two-way street – don’t spam your follows with repetition or just send out blatantly commercial ad/sales messages
  • Respond to complaints and criticisms directly, being as personal as possible in the responding tweet

If you don’t…

  • Get one! But only if you are going to commit and run it properly. Otherwise best not to bother until you have the capacity and inclination to do so
  • …making sure in the process that no one else is running an account under your brand name (this happens)
  • Start by following everyone who follows a competitor or any other relevant twitter account – soon people will find and follow you back
  • If in doubt, get some experienced advice to help manage the content you distribute the right kind of message to the right people

And don’t go thinking that Twitter ‘just isn’t relevant’ for your audience. There are over 3 million people using Twitter at the last count and somewhere in that lot will be at least some representatives of your target audience. If you are a mass market brand, the vast majority of people on Twitter will be relevant as they are consumers like everyone else. So don’t fall into the trap of thinking that Twitter is still just the private chat space for media types.

Ultimately, Twitter is just one example of how PR has come full circle and is very much about PUBLIC relations once more, rather than just media relations. Those brands which aren’t willing to engage with the public direct, via Twitter or otherwise, will inevitably find themselves rapidly falling behind.