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Thanks to the crew at blueprint.tv for producing this video summary from the Control in the Age of Anarchy event that Speed ran last week. Grab a cup of tea, sit back and hear from Alastair Campbell, Will Whitehorn, Darcy Willson-Rymer, Steve Earl and myself, on the future of media, corporate reputation and public relations.... more
Social media is cited as a communication challenge by a mere seven per cent of communication directors, and less than 15 per cent seek social media skills in candidates. These were two of the findings from the Business Leaders in Communications Study 2012 study published this week by VMA Group. The study reported that fewer... more
In 2012 if a company creates a social channel as a marketing vehicle it is inevitable that customers will use it as a mechanism for customer service and sales. It’s no secret that the fastest way to resolve a customer service issue is to complain noisily via Twitter. If you haven’t seen this consumer behaviour... more
The era of command and control media relations is well and truly over. That was the view of Alastair Campbell speaking at our sales gig on Tuesday night. It also happens to be Speed’s view. Command and control was the defining communication strategy of Campbell’s time in Downing Street. A splash in a couple of national... more
One of the people that Steve and I interviewed when we were researching Brand Anarchy (due out 1 March) was Alastair Campbell Tonight Alastair will talk at a Speed sales event about the end of the age of spin and the need for a more authentic style of communication in the future. The fragmentation of... more
Today two teams from Speed locked horns in a challenge to see what they could learn about producing strong videos to bolster PR programmes. Before lunch. Like many of our training initiatives, the #speedvideo challenge was speedlearning – some instructions, some theory, and then put it into practice, with a prize for the winning team. The three-minute... more
I’ve long been a fan of Lucy Kellaway’s column but today’s piece on whether male executives should get hair transplants to extend their careers certainly bring matters to a head. It’s a great article and made me chuckle enormously. Anything in the FT that mentions Wayne Rooney has comic potential. And it’s fair of me to do so -... more
It’s strange. There is so much talk in PR circles these days about the value of videos for developing reputation, yet only a relatively small number of PRs know how to make them well and make them part of their ongoing work for clients. Videos have had valuable since their infancy, but in the past... more
The latest Edelman Trust Barometer (which is itself, no doubt, utterly trustworthy) has been doing the rounds this week. Amongst its highlights is the statistic that the UK public’s trust in politicians is pretty much at rock bottom – and trust in business leaders fares little better. There were other points about us not trusting... more
We’re not just PR people, we’re communicators. No longer just ‘the press people’. That’s something which has been drilled into everyone in this line of work for years now. Yet being a communicator is a pretty broad remit isn’t it? Anyone with a mouth and a pair of ears has the potential. Which might be why... more
I’ve always been a massive fan of Innocent – not only does its smoothies taste like pure heaven and help me give the finger effortlessly to the 5 A Day Nazis, but also its so bloody clever about its brand. Like many, I had my doubts after the firm sold part of its soul (stake)... more
This week a group of us at Speed undertook a task to make a video in two and a half hours (including editing!). So they’re not going to win any Oscars, but we’re pretty pleased with our video tips in ‘Video PR: How To’ and search engine optimisation tips in ‘Speed’s SEO kitchen’. Our task... more
Yesterday the Advertising Standards Authority cracked down on TripAdvisor for its marketing claims and forced a re-write. This came on the same day as they condemned a L’Oreal advert starring Rachel Weisz for mis-leading consumers. Is this a nanny state gone mad or are there interesting points things to learn for PRs and marketers? There’s... more
The PR world is changing rapidly and we, at Speed, want to keep on top of it! Therefore the majority, if not all, of Speed have been heavily involved in training in some way or another over the last couple of months. This week it’s all about video. Do PR agencies know enough about video?... more
Last week, the IT industry braced itself for one of the most important events of this year. As I arrived, there was a clear buzz on the event floor and as the show went on, it was evident that cloud computing had proven last year’s critics wrong and was more than simply ‘marketing hype’. As... more
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