This video needs no introduction save to say that its not office friendly so turn the sound down or stick your headphones on. Its a cracking piece of work by Escherman’s Andy Smith.
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Greenbang.com sets out manifesto for PRs: news not nonsense
I caught up with Greenbang.com’s Dan Ilett this week for breakfast. He’s a journalist and entrepreneur that is building a great business.
But he’s pissed off with PR people asking for stuff for free. It seems that PRs are starting to confuse the line between blog and commercial media outlet.
Earlier in the month Ewan MacLeod wrote an article on the site about how PRs representing EDF and Shell had sought favours.
“Burston Marseteller (Shell’s PR company of choice) [emailed] asking if we’d be interested in a) providing feedback on [its] videos) and b) posting the videos here on Greenbang.”
This was followed in short order by a request from Lexus PR, the communications firm for energy giant EDF for Greebang to host PDFs on carbon management and energy buying.
I suggested to Dan that he follows the lead set by publications such as Techcrunch and sets out his rules of engagement with PR people in clear terms.
He’s since published a manifesto: embargos, freebies and paradigm shifting bollocks are out and valuable business news is the order of the day.
PRs be warned.
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Mainstream media audiences booming – unpicking the data
Accepted wisdom says that the audience for mainstream media is in decline in an inverse relationship to the growth in our appetite for social media. But it simplify isn’t the case. Mainstream media consumption is on the rise.
I’ve spent the last few weeks unpicking the latest audited audience statistics to find out what is really happening in mainstream media-land in the UK.
The most recent audience figures from BARB (broadcast TV), RAJAR (radio) and ABC (newspapers) show a decline in our appetite for print but year-on-year rises elsewhere. And while print audiences may be falling, ABCe figures report unprecedented audiences on the web.
Herein lies the issue and the opportunity for mainstream media publishers: audiences aren’t in decline but they are fragmenting across the web. Despite the rise of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube people remain firmly loyal to mainstream media brands.
This is a narrative about an industry undergoing a radical shift in its search for a new business model following the breakdown of the advertising and subscription funded models.
I haven’t got any answers but here are the actual numbers.
Table: Newspapers online (ABCe via MediaTel and Press Gazette – August 2009)
Table: Newspapers print (ABC via MediaTel and Press Gazette – August 2009)
Table: Television multi-channel viewing summary (BARB – 20 Sept to 28 Sept)
Table: Radio (RAJAR – Q2 2009)
#Trafigura trending is a spectacular example of the Streisand effect
The #Trafigura trending topic on Twitter this morning is an example of the Streisand effect, an Internet phenomenon where an attempt to censor a story backfires and generates widespread coverage across the internet.
The conversation around #Trafigura resulted from an attempt to stop The Guardian from reporting on a question about Trafigua in the UK Parliament.
The Streisand effect entered Internet parlance after Techdirt founder Mike Masnick used it to describe the widespread Internet coverage that resulted from Barbra Streisand’s attempts to suppress photos of her Californian home in 2003.
For more examples visit the web site dedicated to The Streisand Effect.
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Clients won’t pay for pitching – campaigning leadership required
The majority of clients (83 per cent) are in favour of payment for pitching according to a story filed by Peter Hay in PR Week this morning.
Confused.com is the exception that proves the rule. According to reports the client offered to purchase the ideas from agencies involved in its recent competitive pitch process after the pitch had taken place.
Clients might be in favour of payment for pitching when polled in a survey but the reality is very different. Why would a client pay when there are plenty of firms lining up to pitch for free?
The issue is the oversupply of PR agencies; for every agency that wants to charge there will always be an agency willing to pitch for free. As a result the cost of pitching is priced into an agency’s overhead. Many agencies probably haven’t even considered the financial impact.
The only way this could work would be if the industry switched wholesale to a payment for pitching model under the campaigning leadership of an organisation such as the PRCA or PR Week.
The research is based on a survey of 186 PR agencies by Furlong PR.
Related posts:
- Sorrell: Free pitching – fixture of the marketing industry (8 October 2009)
- Could the D&AD be a model for payment-for-pitching in the PR industry? (23 September 2009)
- Pitch lessons from other marketing services sectors (23 September 2009)
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Jackenhacks plan busted
Speed has joined up with Axicom Cohn & Wolfe, Daryl Willcox Publishing, Kaizo and Realwire to sponsor the Flackenhacks this year (renamed Jackenhacks in memory of the King of Pop), the satirical PR industry award scheme, run by Full Run and The World’s Leading.
Now in its third year, Steve and I will be presenting the awards at the Dust Bar, Clerkenwell Road, London, on Wednesday evening (tickets available here). It’s a defensive move partly to avoid being ridiculed in this years’ round of nominations. It hasn’t worked.
Bryne’s recessionary lessons for the PR industry
Weber Shandwick’s European CEO Colin Byrne was on cracking form as he addressed the PRCA and CorpComms Conference yesterday. He said that he didn’t think that we were out of recession but countered that it probably wasn’t a bad thing as it has forced the industry to get in shape and focus on client service.
“PR has an undeniably important role in business. The recession has forced us to focus on the value that we deliver for clients. Forget talk of reputation, we need to help clients be successful. We need to deliver tangible results and sales,” he said.
Byrne hung his presentation around a series of themes, littered with personal anecdotes, that he believed would set the agenda for the PR industry as growth returned.
- Older generation – Byrne said that the marketing industry got hung up on youth marketing. He said that we should look at audiences beyond debt-ridden graduates towards more affluent elders
- East – like WPP’s Sorrell earlier in the day Bryne said that we needed to look East to find the growing markets were our service are increasingly valued by business
- Multicultural – Byrne said that our businesses need to reflect their customers’ customers. And in the UK they don’t
- Planning – advertising agencies have always planned better than the PR industry. We need to catch-up. “Coming from a political background were a policy cannot be made without being tested by a focus group I find the PR industry’s lack of planning shocking,” said Byrne
- Social media – digital is important but it’s overhyped. Unveiling research by his firm Byrne said that while 31 per cent of consumers are interested in interacting with brands online 43 per cent don’t believe what’s read online and will check mainstream media
- Media – the mainstream media remains important. PRs should immerse themselves in the media. “I fire people that don’t read the papers,” said Bryne. And I don’t think he was completely joking
- Environment – green isn’t a fad. PR needs to help its clients address and communicate around environmental issues
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Strong outlook for PR, say PRCA speakers
PR used to be the first marketing discipline to be cut in a recession. But no longer.
According to Sir Martin Sorrell speaking at the PRCA and CorpComms Conference in London today, the PR industry is being driven by the opportunities presented by digital media.
PR has also benefited from the political focus on polling and insight he said.
Sorrell pointed to successful campaigns in the US such as the Clinton and Obama campaigns which focused heavily on a strong communication strategy.
Harriet Green, CEO of electronics distributor Premier Farnell and one of the FT’s Top 50 Women in Business said that this should be a “golden age for PR”.
“Digital leaves a footprint that can be measured,” she said.
Green shared the example of Element 14, Premier Farnell’s community of engineers that launched in June and connects the business to 17,000 customers, delivering insight to the business.
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Sorrell: Free pitching – fixture of the marketing industry
WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell speaking at the PRCA and CorpComms Conference in London today spotlighted the issue that all marketing agencies face: pitching for free.
“The RFP process is still a long process and it’s all for free. WPP has participated in a pitch for a piece of work recently invoicing four major groups all for [no cost to the prospect] and in one global pitch recently we delivered a 36,000 page document,” he said.
But Sorrell said the situation is unlikely to ever change due to over capacity in agency land.
“There will always be competitors that are prepared to [pitch] for free,” he said.
WPP’s Sorrell shares industry financial outlook at PRCA conference
- Image via Wikipedia
Sir Martin Sorrell was first to take the platform today and share his experience of the current climate for marketing services at the PRCA and CorpComms Conference at Mill Bank Tower, London.
“I don’t see a recovery. I’ll declare victory when year-to-year revenues are better, not less worse. Confidence needs to transfer into cheque signing,” said Sorrell.
“PR will be down like-for-like in 2009,” he said.
PRCA chairman and Ketchum boss David Gallagher was more upbeat.
“Although there is still a quarter to go, member agencies are reporting anecdotally that 2009 will either be flat or slightly up,” he said.
“It feels better and we may be more confident but we’re not yet out [of the recession]. There is no lift in the top line. Like other agencies we are controlling our costs effectively,” said Sorrell.
As global economies emerge from recession Sorrell urged agency leaders to head East.
“There are no growth prospects in Western Europe and the US. Asia and India are the markets that offer the greatest potential for growth,” he said.
In addition to developing its geographic reach WPP under Sorrell’s leadership is focussed on increasing its digital reach from 25 per cent to a third of the business – and build its consumer insight expertise.
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Working late? Order restaurant quality food online for delivery
Next time you have to work late in London I recommend that you check out Deliverance. It’s a web based restaurant-quality delivery service with five kitchens and 120 bikers based around the city.
I’ve just received a copy of the beautifully produced Deliverance catalogue which describes its America, Chinese, Indian, Italian, kids, pudding, Salad, Sushi, Thai and World menus. The food isn’t necessarily the cheapest but it is cooked fresh and delivered to your door, normally within 45 minutes of ordering.
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Google doodle barcode decoded: Googleg
Today’s Google homepage doodle celebrates the 57th anniversary of the Barcode patent. The barcode contains the tag Googleg, the name of Google’s incoming mail servers. (Via Den of Geek).
X Factor and England World Cup qualifier signpost future of TV
Two events from the last 48 hours signpost the future of television in a multi-channel, multi-platform world.
The first is the conversations on Twitter during the broadcast of X Factor on ITV1. We’ve got use to Twitter providing a backchannel to conferences but on Saturday and Sunday evening it was the choices made by the X Factor judges that generated conversation among Twitter users. There is potential here for incredibly potent TV and additional revenue – just as soon as broadcasters find a mechanism to harness Twitter conversations within the production process.
The second is news that England’s World Cup qualifying match versus Ukraine on Saturday. This game was to be broadcast by failed sports channel Setanta. Instead digital sports specialists Perform will broadcast it over the web for a pay-per-view cost of £4.99. Perform streams more than 15,000 live matches over the internet every year and works with many Premier League and Football League clubs. It’s a fantastic model and it will be interesting to see what size of audience the game attracts and if the UK’s broadband infrastructure hold up.
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Economist correspondent on changing media habits
Economist US West Coast Correspondent Andreas Kluth observes how his media habits have changed during the last three years in a post on his Hanibal blog. He wrote the post as an evaluation of an Economist special report on the Future of the Media that he wrote in 2006.
Kluth identifies three “layers” of media that he consumes:
- Professional media
The Altantic and New York Times on a Kindle for “global headlines and mass market news.” Various “publications and blogs including sources not traditionally considered news” via an RSS reader
- Social curation
Online and offline friends have become media editors pointing out interesting content via email, blog comments and Facebook
- Intimate media
Content produced by family and intimate friends that by its nature is intended for a tiny audience
It’s a neat summary of how our appetite for media is increasing and how technology is providing the means to edit and filter. In his post Kluth concludes that there is no crisis in media – and that as “one media era of media ends, another [is] starting.”
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Full moon
There’s an incredible full moon tonight.
I took this shot at 8pm using a Canon EOS 450D with a 70 – 300mm lens. Check out the Flickr meta page for the technical data.
Inconstant Moon is a great site for moon data and information.
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