Wadds' tech pr blog
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Pod crass
I’ve always liked the idea of podcasting - the immediacy of it, the intimacy it provides with the audience, and the way users could be listening to opinions and news whilst getting on with other tasks. But having listened to a few PR industry broadcasts it’s became apparent that, in general, they are just not very good.
With poor production values and a lack of any real focus, it makes you wonder newbie podcasters realise how to make the most of such a potentially far reaching medium.
PR podcasters seem to lack the one thing that is podcasting’s real big advantage over text, namely personality. With pitch, tone, accent and vernacular all easily conveyed in a podcast, the audience can build up a real relationship with the podcaster, more so than any page of text could ever hope to do.
Perhaps I haven’t looked far enough. Has anyone any recommendations? Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 5:11 PM
I’ve always liked the idea of podcasting - the immediacy of it, the intimacy it provides with the audience, and the way users could be listening to opinions and news whilst getting on with other tasks. But having listened to a few PR industry broadcasts it’s became apparent that, in general, they are just not very good.
With poor production values and a lack of any real focus, it makes you wonder newbie podcasters realise how to make the most of such a potentially far reaching medium.
PR podcasters seem to lack the one thing that is podcasting’s real big advantage over text, namely personality. With pitch, tone, accent and vernacular all easily conveyed in a podcast, the audience can build up a real relationship with the podcaster, more so than any page of text could ever hope to do.
Perhaps I haven’t looked far enough. Has anyone any recommendations? Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 5:11 PM
Monday, June 26, 2006
Tech AIM
Floatations on AIM are at an all time high according to number crunchers Grant Thornton. £32 billion has been raised since AIM launched in 1995 with almost £4.9billion in the last six months.
Overseas companies seeking exposure to international investors and speciality finance and property companies have driven growth since the start of the year.
The market is particularly favoured by US technology firms in the post Sarbanes Oxley, who appreciate its lighter regulatory environment compared with the US markets. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:46 AM
Floatations on AIM are at an all time high according to number crunchers Grant Thornton. £32 billion has been raised since AIM launched in 1995 with almost £4.9billion in the last six months.
Overseas companies seeking exposure to international investors and speciality finance and property companies have driven growth since the start of the year.
The market is particularly favoured by US technology firms in the post Sarbanes Oxley, who appreciate its lighter regulatory environment compared with the US markets. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:46 AM
Sunday, June 25, 2006
How does your garden grow?
It’s not PR and it’s only vaguely tech but it’s a worthy story nonetheless: hose pipe bans in the south of England have seen gardeners adopt an almost war-like mentality to reusing and saving water.
My missus, a professional plants woman, has started eyeing up the waste water pipework at the back of our house and downloading articles on grey water recycling systems. It’s only a mater of time before storage tanks are fitted into our loft space.
As an interim measure we’ve diverted water from the gutters to a couple of water butts. But the real innovation is an old boat bilge pump and length of hose pipe that we’ve deployed to pump water from the sink and bath onto the veg patch.
The radishes are extremely grateful. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:37 AM
It’s not PR and it’s only vaguely tech but it’s a worthy story nonetheless: hose pipe bans in the south of England have seen gardeners adopt an almost war-like mentality to reusing and saving water.
My missus, a professional plants woman, has started eyeing up the waste water pipework at the back of our house and downloading articles on grey water recycling systems. It’s only a mater of time before storage tanks are fitted into our loft space.
As an interim measure we’ve diverted water from the gutters to a couple of water butts. But the real innovation is an old boat bilge pump and length of hose pipe that we’ve deployed to pump water from the sink and bath onto the veg patch.
The radishes are extremely grateful. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:37 AM
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Google adwords model breaks down
Google has released a desktop editor for creating and managing adword campaigns. But the success of the Google advertising model for connecting Google searchers with advertisers is making the cost of developing campaigns prohibitive.
It now costs £11 per click through for the term "tech PR" only to be ranked alongside umpteen other competitive PR firms. If your campaign generates ten or more click throughs a day you could easily blow £3,000 in a month.
Google's response is that advertisers should use niche rather than broad adwords and be ruthless is setting the amount they are prepared to bid on a search term and a daily budget.
But as the profile and popularity of adwords rises the cost for advertisers is spiralling out of control and its ceases to represent value. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 1:11 PM
Google has released a desktop editor for creating and managing adword campaigns. But the success of the Google advertising model for connecting Google searchers with advertisers is making the cost of developing campaigns prohibitive.
It now costs £11 per click through for the term "tech PR" only to be ranked alongside umpteen other competitive PR firms. If your campaign generates ten or more click throughs a day you could easily blow £3,000 in a month.
Google's response is that advertisers should use niche rather than broad adwords and be ruthless is setting the amount they are prepared to bid on a search term and a daily budget.
But as the profile and popularity of adwords rises the cost for advertisers is spiralling out of control and its ceases to represent value. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 1:11 PM
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Lend me your ears
The Open Air Theatre has invited execs from businesses in central London to a preview performance of The New Shakespeare Company’s The Taming of the Shrew on 5 July.
Billed as a the Open Air Theatre’s Summer Party the gig is in effect a smart exercise in Word of Mouth marketing. It got my attention. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 4:55 PM
The Open Air Theatre has invited execs from businesses in central London to a preview performance of The New Shakespeare Company’s The Taming of the Shrew on 5 July.
Billed as a the Open Air Theatre’s Summer Party the gig is in effect a smart exercise in Word of Mouth marketing. It got my attention. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 4:55 PM
Militant consumers
A new breed of consumer is emerging. These are highly organised and disciplined individuals that always search for the best price online, demand a refund if service isn’t completely up to scratch, tart around for financial services and to whom brand loyalty is an entirely alien concept.
Militant consumers are the enemy of the marketing community. They defy marketing categories and their actions cannot be predicted much beyond a desire to drive a bargain and save cash.
Journalist Martin Lewis author of The Money Diet and founder of the web site MoneySavingExpert is a poster child for this new group of individuals. He’s worth checking out; I got his new book in January and reckon he’s saved me £1,800 so far this year. You can sign up to his weekly email newsletter here. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:43 PM
A new breed of consumer is emerging. These are highly organised and disciplined individuals that always search for the best price online, demand a refund if service isn’t completely up to scratch, tart around for financial services and to whom brand loyalty is an entirely alien concept.
Militant consumers are the enemy of the marketing community. They defy marketing categories and their actions cannot be predicted much beyond a desire to drive a bargain and save cash.
Journalist Martin Lewis author of The Money Diet and founder of the web site MoneySavingExpert is a poster child for this new group of individuals. He’s worth checking out; I got his new book in January and reckon he’s saved me £1,800 so far this year. You can sign up to his weekly email newsletter here. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:43 PM
Radio 4 reviews 2.0
Thanks to Chris Lewis for pointing out the Radio 4 In Business programme on Web 2.0. No real revelations but a good summary nonetheless of the potential for social networks to create a discontinuity for traditional media and a discussion about blogging as a channel for dialogue between customers and business. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 12:23 PM
Thanks to Chris Lewis for pointing out the Radio 4 In Business programme on Web 2.0. No real revelations but a good summary nonetheless of the potential for social networks to create a discontinuity for traditional media and a discussion about blogging as a channel for dialogue between customers and business. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 12:23 PM
Hot under the collar
Smart Mobs bills it as air con in a shirt but the geeks amongst us will quickly spot that it is in fact a shirt with a fan sewn into the rear. Power is supplied by a USB connection or batteries. Its inventor, ex Sony technician Kouzi Ichigaya, reckons that it is just the ticket for the sweaty exec about town.
Seekers of alternative cool apparel would be wiser to head over to Shot in the Head. Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 12:18 PM
Smart Mobs bills it as air con in a shirt but the geeks amongst us will quickly spot that it is in fact a shirt with a fan sewn into the rear. Power is supplied by a USB connection or batteries. Its inventor, ex Sony technician Kouzi Ichigaya, reckons that it is just the ticket for the sweaty exec about town.
Seekers of alternative cool apparel would be wiser to head over to Shot in the Head. Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 12:18 PM
Monday, June 19, 2006
What the Skype?
There has been much debate as to why eBay scooped up Skype in September last year. I still haven’t worked it out.
By contrast eBay’s Paypal acquisition was very straightforward. It fitted neatly into the eBay supply chain enabling eBay sellers to accept credit card payments.
Now CEO Meg Whitman is on the interview circuit claiming Skype isn’t about extending the services of eBay but instead is a bid by the company to create the internet’s largest ecommerce eco-system.
But why? The simplicity and focus of the eBay business model is what makes it so appealing – and so successful. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 12:16 PM
There has been much debate as to why eBay scooped up Skype in September last year. I still haven’t worked it out.
By contrast eBay’s Paypal acquisition was very straightforward. It fitted neatly into the eBay supply chain enabling eBay sellers to accept credit card payments.
Now CEO Meg Whitman is on the interview circuit claiming Skype isn’t about extending the services of eBay but instead is a bid by the company to create the internet’s largest ecommerce eco-system.
But why? The simplicity and focus of the eBay business model is what makes it so appealing – and so successful. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 12:16 PM
Word-of-mouth marketing
Word of mouth is the way forward for consumer marketing as Internet searching and on demand television have blown apart traditional advertising models such as off the page and TV advertising. At least that’s the view of Proctor & Gamble.
According to today’s Financial Times it has used word-of-mouth for numerous campaigns offering customers incentives such as coupons or free music videos to encourage them to talk about a brand.
Of course there’s nothing like a consumer giant talking about a new marketing tactic for driving column inches in the Financial Times which in itself creates word-of-mouth discussions. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:00 AM
Word of mouth is the way forward for consumer marketing as Internet searching and on demand television have blown apart traditional advertising models such as off the page and TV advertising. At least that’s the view of Proctor & Gamble.
According to today’s Financial Times it has used word-of-mouth for numerous campaigns offering customers incentives such as coupons or free music videos to encourage them to talk about a brand.
Of course there’s nothing like a consumer giant talking about a new marketing tactic for driving column inches in the Financial Times which in itself creates word-of-mouth discussions. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:00 AM
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Laptop radio studio
Weber Shandwick has been getting some stick from The World’s Leading for the quarter page story about its podcasting studio in this week’s PR Week.
Let’s face it: it’s sour grapes because none of us thought of flogging the story to PR Week first. Or if we had thought about pitching it, we all assumed that the hacks at PR Week would have seen though it was immediately.
As others have been quick to point out, anyone with mic, a laptop and some basic editing software can create a podcast or indeed any sort of audio content.
Fair play to Weber Shandwick’s James Warren. He can sit proud in his 12 ft sq. “studio” and justifiably call himself director of web relations. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:50 PM
Weber Shandwick has been getting some stick from The World’s Leading for the quarter page story about its podcasting studio in this week’s PR Week.
Let’s face it: it’s sour grapes because none of us thought of flogging the story to PR Week first. Or if we had thought about pitching it, we all assumed that the hacks at PR Week would have seen though it was immediately.
As others have been quick to point out, anyone with mic, a laptop and some basic editing software can create a podcast or indeed any sort of audio content.
Fair play to Weber Shandwick’s James Warren. He can sit proud in his 12 ft sq. “studio” and justifiably call himself director of web relations. Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:50 PM
