Spin flint We know the Labour Government is lousy at keeping secrets, but Housing Minister Caroline Flint dropped a clanger today, unwittingly allowing paps to get a shot of her Cabinet notes which acknowledged the state of the housing marketing in the UK.

Although I think blogger Guy Fawkes is over the top in calling for Flint to be charged under the Official Secrets Act, I do agree that Flint’s closing statement is classic New Labour bollocks: “... it is vital that we show that at this time of uncertainty we show that we are on people's side,” she writes.

What’s required is firm action, not a few clumsily-spun words.

Labels: media, PR

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:42 PM

  Faceblood Last Friday, two of our boys became extras in the latest Charlie Brooker project – a TV horror series.

Labels: after work, media

  Permalink | 2 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 12:39 PM

  PR and social media – an alternative view Tim Hoang has just had a quick lunch with the Justin Kirby, founder of the International Viral & Buzz Marketing Association (VBMA). The meeting came as a result of an email exchange in Tim’s role at New Media Knowledge where, to put it mildly, Justin was rather negative about the way the PR industry has so far tackled social media.

One of his main criticisms was that “the PR industry gravitates around certain individuals – much in the same way that people consume media that reinforces their ideology” and therefore we all believe we are correct and pat each other on the back, congratulating ourselves on our own greatness. After all, there is no one to tell us differently.

To some extent I would agree – look at the social media-type events whether it is through NMK, Chinwag or the like – there’s very little variation in the people who turn up. Okay, some would argue that it is an open invite and therefore it is not our fault if others do not want to come. However, I think it is ours’ and the organisers’ responsibility to make sure we have as wide a breadth of individuals at these events as possible.

Ironically, our current situation contradicts the social media favourite ‘Wisdom of Crowds’ theory – the digital environment encompasses a huge range of disciplines and there should be more than the regular throng of PR’s and Will McInnes - cheerleader for the digital design community in Brighton.

The term social media also came into question. I know both Wolfstar’s Beth Jones and Steve Rubel have commented on this topic in the past. However, Kirby’s take on it is that it should not merely be labelled ‘media’ but ‘place’. A forum, a blog, a social network is a ‘place’ where people meet and the people are the ‘media’, the channel to communicate through, which he believed we (those of us purporting to operate in the social media) don’t understand properly.

His overall message was that PR practitioners and marketers were talking a good game but how many were actually doing it? Does the insular nature of our inner social circle mean that criticism of ourselves is avoided but is instead directed at those not in ‘the game’? Social media is valid as a label but its importance is overstated – and marketers need to really up their game if they are to really ‘exploit’ this medium, according to Kirby.

Although this post is expecting a whole range of abuse - whatever your thoughts are on Kirby’s comments, the meeting did highlight to me how small and self-congratulatory the social media crowd can sometimes be. Hopefully we’ll see people like Justin at more events soon.

The full interview will be on the NMK site once Tim gets his arse in gear.

Labels: media, PR, social media

  Permalink | 6 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 4:20 PM

  Digital coverage takes precedence over print - report We’ve just conducted a study of 300 senior in-house PR professionals and, among other interesting stats, it has uncovered a tipping point in media focus.

New media channels are set to overtake traditional print and broadcast as the priority targets for PR professionals. It was surprising to find that less than half (49 per cent) of respondents cited traditional print media as their main target for PR, and for one third (32 per cent) it was the last choice. Blogs and social networks have taken precedence for these PROs. This was especially true for people-based businesses such as consultants and system integrators, as well as the computer networking sector.

Also, the PR industry’s commercial importance continues to grow but under-resourcing of in-house teams and relatively static corporate salaries threaten its achievements.

Download a copy of the full Rainier PR Tech PR 2008 report (1MB PDF) and let us know what you think of the findings.

Labels: media, PR, social media

  Permalink | 8 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 9:55 AM

  Humph scores with Samantha Jazz musician and comedy genius Humphrey Lyttleton passed away on Friday night. I’ll miss him on Radio 4’s I’m sorry, I haven’t a clue where two million people each week tuned in to listen to his mastery of innuendo and plain old silliness.

Here’s a tribute from Antony Mayfield. My personal response is a collection of gags inspired by Humph’s fictional scorer Samantha, culled from Collective-Zine, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Times. Anyone got any others?

"Samantha tells us she’s off to a gourmet evening where her favourite French chef has prepared a nine course dinner. Looking at the menu, she says she’s not so keen on some of his traditional dishes, but she spotted something tempting between the frogs legs."

"Samantha nipped out to the gramophone library earlier, and as the eager assistants down there suspected she might be a country music lover, they got out every Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson record available. Well, in my experience, she’s certainly always been a big fan of Willie’s, and now she’s got to work her way through a complete boxed set of Johnny’s."

"In her spare time, Samantha likes nothing more than to peruse old record shops. She particularly enjoys a rewarding poke in the country section."

"Samantha is looking forward to going out for an ice cream with her Italian gentleman friend. She says she’s looking forward to licking the nuts off a large Neapolitan."

"Samantha spent many hours in conversation with the BBC gramophone library research staff for this round, deliberating over the fine old 7-inchers they presented for inspection. She says before deciding which she was going to spin she had to think about each one long and hard."

"Samantha has to nip out again to see an elderly lord who regularly complains to Radio 4 about their parliamentary coverage. She says she thinks he’s even going to start getting a little hard on Today in Parliament."

"Samantha has got to go off early to meet an entomologist friend who’s been showing her his collection of winged insects. They’ve already covered his bees and wasps and tonight she’s hoping to go through his flies."

"Samantha spent hours in the gramophone archive selecting the discs. You know, she gets fed up with comments about the way she ‘checks the seven inchers’ or ‘twists my knob’. She says she tries to take no notice of the critics, but it isn’t easy to ignore her knockers."

"Samantha’s just started keeping bees and already has three dozen or so. She says she’s got an expert handler coming round to give a demonstration. He’ll carefully take out her 38 bees and soon have them flying round his head."

"Samantha has to nip off to the National Opera, where she’s been giving private tuition to the singers. Having seen what she did to the baritone, the director is keen to see what she might do for a tenor."

"Samantha has to nip off to a Welsh Conservative Association dinner for their most senior MP, whose name is said to be almost impossible to pronounce. She’s certainly found the longest standing Welsh member a bit of a mouthful."

"After tasting the meat pies, Samantha said she liked Mr Dewhurst’s beef in ale; although she preferred his tongue in cider."

"Samantha does a few chores for an elderly gentleman who lives nearby. She shows him how to use the washing machine and then prunes his fruit trees. Later he’ll hang out his pyjamas as he watches her beaver away up the ladder."

Labels: media

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:05 AM

  Lively Westminister debate finds PR not guilty of threatening press integrity On Wednesday night, a couple of the team from Rainier PR attended a University of Westminster debate on whether ‘The growth of PR is threatening the integrity of the press’. And before we get complaints of bias, we would like to point out that of the two of us that attended the debate, one is currently moonlighting as a hack and the other is a former IT Week journo - so we can see from both sides of the fence.

There was an impressive line up of speakers at the event: Nick Davies, author of Flat Earth News and Roy Greenslade, former editor of the Daily Mirror and Professor of Journalism at City University, argued for the motion that the growth of PR is threatening the integrity of the press. Lord Tim Bell, Chairman of Chime Communications, and Phil Hall of Phil Hall Associates and former editor News of the World were both against the motion.

Both Davies and Greenslade didn’t pull any punches and heavily criticised the PR industry for taking advantage of the vulnerability of the press. Journalists do not have the time to research stories properly due to time constraints and decreasing budgets. Apparently a Fleet Street journalist now writes three times more copy than a decade ago.

Davies claimed that journalists had become “a passive process for other outlets”. The PR industry feeds false stories to the press and the Iraq war was cited as a perfect example of how the trust between PR and journalists has become abused, alleged Davies. Greenslade continued the criticisms of the PR industry describing those that work in it as “people who earn money by being between us [journalists] and the truth”.

Lord Tim Bell argued that it was questionable whether journalists had integrity in the first place – the reporting of the McCann’s was highlighted – and admitted freely that his work had his clients’ interests front of mind. Both Lord Bell and Hall believed that it was not the responsibility of the PR if the integrity of journalist was undermined – most of the problems of the press could be blamed on low prices and the pithy investment by those that own the press. Their clients are also entitled to be protected from the press and information withheld, said Lord Bell – why should they have to air their dirty laundry just because the media thinks it would make a good story?

The debate was very lively and all speakers came off well, particularly the stoical Phil Hall. The one thing both sides agreed on was that the media was broken, but disagreed on whose fault or responsibility it was.

When the votes were counted 59 were for the motion compared to 164 against. Is the growth of PR threatening the integrity of the press? It was quite clear that those who attended the event didn’t think so.

Labels: after work, journalist, media, PR

  Permalink | 2 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 9:29 AM

  Hottest ebook of 2008 published There was a document published on the web yesterday that is surely set to become one of the hottest pieces of content of 2008. It’s free and was written by a UK public servant. But it’s not a blog. It’s the approved judgment from the High Court of Justice Family Division of case no: FD06D03721 (via The Telegraph). The Mucca versus Macca judgment penned by The Honourable Mr Justice Bennett is superbly written and every one of the 58-pages contains incredible financial and personal insights into the case. Who needs Grazia?

Labels: media

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 6:24 AM

  Tech PROs should drop the drivel and stand up to their clients Banish ‘corporate bollocks’ for ‘common sense and plain English’ in UK press releases, advises Rainier PR's Chris Lee in a byliner in today's PR Week (sub required).

Does this sound familiar? ‘Unheard-of Company X [NASDAQ: UCOMPX08] today announced the availability of market-leading fault-tolerant 24x7 enterprise solution UNHEARD-OF COMPANY X INNOVATOR to optimize system integration…’

This drivel continues for a 70-word opening paragraph by which time you find yourself lying on the office floor blue-faced with asphyxia.

How can a tech PR professional ‘sell in’ a press release when the US HQ forbids you to anglicise it beyond swapping the odd ‘z’ for ‘s’?

I am an angry ex-journalist who gets driven up the wall by corporate bollocks. Even worse, there are too many UK firms here that appear to want to follow suit.It is the responsibility of the PR industry to educate in-house marketing people that press releases should be designed with the audience at the core, not the egos of C-level executives or channel partners.

Unless you are happy with coverage on www.postyourownturgidreleasehere.com and nowhere else, of course. Any respectable journalist will tell you the same thing.But if the demand is for quality editorial coverage in the UK then PR people must train clients that style and content has to be suited to our media style.

What does a journalist want? A story of interest to the magazine’s readers. Who are the readers? Predominantly tech buyers and professionals. What do they want to know? -Something relevant to their market about how a product or service is going to save them money, improve efficiency and make them look good internally. What don’t they want? Corporate drivel, backslapping and internal promotions.

It is not just about the style, it is about the vocabulary, too. Overuse of certain words, such as ‘solution’, has led to Private Eye dedicating space to firms who offer, say ‘complete glazing solutions’, when ‘window cleaner’ will suffice.

All that is required is common sense and plain English. This is PR, not advertising. We need to tailor comms and stand up to clients, regardless of their home market’s style. Clients can no longer expect us to send out the same old hackneyed, self-serving rubbish and then fall over themselves wondering why little or no coverage appeared. We’re consultants; we’re paid to consult. It’s about time we all did our jobs.

Labels: media, PR

  Permalink | 4 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:31 PM

  Flat Earth debate disappoints It had the potential to be a fantastic debate: a panel discussion with media and PR heavyweights organised by the Press Gazette at the London College of Communications to debate Nick Davies' latest book Flat Earth News.

But in the end it was lightweight. A Flat Earth story in fact. Panelists and questioners largely pursued their own agendas and did little to move the debate forward with no one accepting responsibility for the state of the UK media. Everyone took themselves far too seriously.

Davies set up his premise. “Journalists don’t have time to do their business properly relying instead on recycling stories, wire copy and PR agency fodder,” he said.

To support this thesis Davies commissioned research by a team from Cardiff University’s School of Journalism into the origin of stories in the national media.

Like Observer media columnist Peter Preston I take issue with the Cardiff stats. The conclusion is spot on, but the claim exaggerated. “The four lead stories on the Guardian web site this evening are PR-led based on the Cardiff definition, including the Clinton story,” said Preston.

But Davies’ argument stacks up nonetheless. The PR industry exists to influence the media and attempts to secure coverage for clients.

Anyone equipped with Google can demonstrate the direct connection between press releases and press coverage – often word for word. The PR industry thrives on it; at Rainier PR we celebrate it.

“This is not dishonest. Viewer and readers are not being misled. PRs are enablers of stories. The industry isn’t characterised by stunts and political spin,” said Sally Costerton, UK CEO, Hill & Knowlton and cheerleader for the PR industry.

No one in the PR industry can deny benefiting from churnalism, although Francis Ingham, Director General of the PRCA flatly refused to acknowledge it. But to suggest that PR agencies influence news room agendas is simply bollocks.

The fact is that editorial news rooms are too stretched. Since Murdoch kicked down the print unions in the mid-eighties newspapers have been driven by profit. Boardroom executives seeking commercial return have replaced press barons motivated by ego, who were happy to fund breakeven or loss making operations.

Malcolm Starbrook editor of the East London Advertiser said that the result is reduced staff, casual labour and older staff replaced by lower paid employees all stretched to research, fact check and file copy for an increasing number of media channels. No where is this more apparent than in the regional media.

Perhaps the reason there weren’t any answers forthcoming from the panel or the audience is because there aren’t any. Media groups are shareholder driven organisations that need to turn a profit like any other business.

If the media industry is to find a solution it isn’t going to come from the NUJ. It came in for a lot of stick for its failure to campaign on ethics and clamp down on bad practice.

Andrew Gilligan said the solution lies with individual journalists. He called for them to be braver and opinion led in their reporting. “There’s a lot of he said she said reporting, with both sides of an argument getting an equal voice. Instead we need to dig into stories and uncover who is actually telling the truth”.

Update: H&K's Niall Cook was also disappointed.

Labels: after work, media, PR

  Permalink | 2 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 9:52 AM

  Academia, PR measurement and social media measurement Tim Hoang and I had an interesting meeting with Katya Trubilova on Friday. She’s in her final year of a Public Relations degree at Leeds Metropolitan University and is currently writing a dissertation on evaluating the effectiveness of business blogs.

PR theory teaches that in order to measure the success of a campaign you need qualitatively measure the attitude of your audience before and after a campaign. This model is borrowed from the ad industry and is well proven. The degree to which the audience’s attitude has changed before and after the campaign gives a measure of return on investment.

Measurement in this rawest form is incredibly expensive as it necessitates one-on-one interviews with a broad cross-section of your audience. Measurement budgets can very quickly escalate out of kilter with the investment in programmes.

But the PR industry is still keen to prove its value. The solution has been to pick an arbitrary point between the PR campaign and the audience and use quantitative metrics.

Where a campaign has a sales dimension, sophisticated clients are able capture sales data. But this is the exception rather than the norm, so instead we pick off arbitrary variables such as the number of press clippings resulting from a campaign, advertising equivalent value or web hits.

The PR industry has now moved this model over to social media domain. We can’t measure the impact of a blog posting directly on the audience as like efforts to measure the success of a PR campaign, it would be ridiculously expensive, but we can measure RSS subscribers, blog hits, Technocrati ranking, track backs and comments. But to what end?

I’ve always used Google search rankings as a raw measure of the success of this blog. Stick pr blog, tech pr, tech pr agency and tech pr blog into Google. We’re doing okay – this week.

But these metrics are still arbitrary. The only absolute measure of the success of a business-to-business blog is whether it delivers brand value and sales. The good news is that people in the industry want to talk to us because of the blog and the P&L is showing benefit.

Job done?

Labels: media, PR, social media

  Permalink | 3 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:39 AM

  When Harry met Tally (headline courtesy of the Daily Star) Much as I love Channel 4 News and miss its professionalism when I’m overseas and confronted with inferior investigation and impartiality, anchorman Jon Snow drives me up the wall.

If you read his blog on the whole Harry in Afghanistan story you can see that Jon Snow’s main concern regarding the apparent media blackout over the Prince’s presence there was not the safety of Harry and the other troops, but whether journalism has been betrayed.

“One wonders whether viewers, readers and listeners will ever want to trust media bosses again,” he spits, and vitriol covers the studio floors. Jon – when did any viewer, reader or listener ever fully trust media bosses? Rupert Murdoch, Robert Maxwell, Lord Black…need I go on?

Labels: media

  Permalink | 2 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 1:32 PM

  Taking issue with tech PR stories drive national coverage Almost every tech new business prospect that walks through our door wants to hit the national media in order to drive brand profile or support a sales effort. Who wouldn’t? But there is frequently a chasm between a client’s belief in a story that will make the national media and the stark reality.

Opportunities to get a profile in the nationals are limited and typically require a creative pitch and months of relationship building to persuade the journalist that a story is worthwhile.

The challenge for tech PR firms is that journos on the nationals don’t typically want to write about business or consumer tech firms unless it’s a hot start-up or a familiar brand name that has a significant consumer angle to hit the home pages or a financial angle for the business pages.

So PRs need to work hard to educate clients about what it requires to get ink in a national newspaper – it requires creativity aligned with the current news agenda, with a fast turnaround best achieved through the use of pre-packaged comment. PRs need to scrutinise the media constantly, hit the phones and make sure spokespeople are available for follow-up. We call this tactic ‘newsjacking’.

The need for speed often places this tactic at odds with corporate PR team. There’s no room for multiple layers of corporate sign-off. Educating a client on the process and preparing material are critical to success. But when it works the results can be spectacular. Rainier PR and its sister agencies Lighthouse PR and Custard PR use this approach to get coverage for clients in the nationals on most days.

And of course pitches developed for the national media can be reused for trade media. In today’s media climate tech web sites follow new agendas as aggressively as any national.

Labels: media, PR

  Permalink | 3 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:01 PM

  Made to measure? A couple of our guys went to the Chinwag event last night.

Labels: after work, media, PR, social media

  Permalink | 5 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:21 PM

  'Dodgy' travel blog or Skins promo? Is this new blog by north Londoner Max Gogarty a promo for Skins (Richard Millington thinks so) or is it really the not-so secret blog of a 19-year bloke that is about to set off treking around Thailand (see obligatory beach photo)? Responses in the comments (and a link in Holy Moly) speculate that Max is related to a Guardian hack (Paul Gogarty is a travel writer). Guardian readers are not impressed. I think we should we told.

Labels: media

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 6:30 AM

  Internet eroding quality of journalism, says man in white suit Veteran journalist-turned-MP-turned-activist Martin Bell believes that the web has eroded journalism's edge, meaning more time spent at desks and less time out in the field.

Speaking at Loewy Group’s monthly speaker club, Mandrake, last night, Bell called the internet “a wonderful servant but a lousy master” for journalists. Bell’s upcoming book sounds like an interesting read, spilling the beans on his observations of 'possible' corruption within Westminster.

In all, the former war correspondent’s still got his edge…and his white suit.

Bell's main point about the internet in journalism is that it has made reporters less aware of what they're actually reporting on, because so much of the job is now done in front of a screen rather than out in the real world.

Equally, the ability to deliver news in an instant has created a frantic scrabble for differentiation, and many journalists seek that differentiation through online research rather than going out there and talking to people. Mind you, it does mean a good deal less shrapnel becoming lodged in hacks' backsides.

So has the internet made journalism a boring place to be?

Labels: after work, media

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 9:20 AM

  Tabloid headliners Two personal nominations follow for tabloid headline of year 2008 from the front pages of two of this weekend’s newspapers.

Rumpy Stumpy! in the News of the World
Heather Mills allegedly cheated on ex-hubby Sir Paul McCartney.

Bash the Bishop in The Sun
Tabloid launched a campaign criticising the Archbishop of Canterbury over his comments on Sharia law.

The Urban Dictionary offers an alternative explanation of the latter headline for anyone that isn’t familiar with the lexicon of the UK tabloid media.

Comments in the form of headline puns only please.

Labels: media, PR

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 10:06 PM

  PR industry stands up to 'churnalism' attack PR Week carries an article by Clare O’Connor and David Quainton on the PR industry’s response to Flat Earth News including some of my comments from Monday (sub required). Ian Monk and Danny Rogers both follow up with leader comment. Fair play to Nick Davies; as Rogers says like all good PR driven stories he’s touched a raw nerve and got the industry’s attention and has started a debate. I’ve ordered my copy.

Labels: media, PR

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 10:22 AM

  No evidence here for cut and paste ‘churnalism’ Claims in a new book by Guardian hack Nick Davies that 80 per cent of national newspapers’ home news pages consist of recycled wire and PR copy are way off the mark. So-called ‘churnalism’ cited by Davies was uncovered in a study by Cardiff University’s journalism department.

Wire copy produced by regional and national new agencies has always been a staple of national media. So what? Agencies exist to fill gaps in reporting that editorial teams can’t cover. But it's never been any different.

The PR community for its part is insatiable in pitching stories to national news desks. The genesis of many stories may lie in a pitch from a PR agency (maybe even as high as 80 per cent) but hacks on the nationals don’t cut and paste copy from press releases onto their news pages.

Rainier PR’s clients appear in the national newspapers most days of the week. In more than 75 per cent of instances it is because we’ve offered comment from clients in response to an off diary news story. To suggest that PR agencies drive newsroom agendas is wrong.

In fact in the current news climate driving a story onto the national news agenda is bloody tough.

Tim Dyson, CEO of Next Fifteen observed last week that given the number of big news stories at the moment it would seem almost impossible for any company to get on the front pages or be a lead story.

Technology PR is a niche of course but I don’t think any other agency in any other sector has it much different. Mr Davies and the research team at Cardiff are welcome to visit our office to at anytime to find out for themselves.

It could of course just be a cute PR-led story to promote Mr Davies new book.

Update: more churnalism blog postings from Colin Byrne and Mark Borkowski following Nick Davies’ leader in The Guardian yesterday.

Labels: media

  Permalink | 2 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 10:55 AM

  Nohoo! Twitter beat the BBC, The FT and Reuters to the biggest news story of the year. But not for long. The Microsoft bid for Yahoo! at more than a 60 per cent premium on yesterday's closing share price is being carried as a lead business story on news sites worldwide. But not on Microsoft, MSN, Yahoo!. Someone needs to sort out their web strategy.

Labels: media

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:50 PM

  Social media is not social Seven suicides in Bridgend over the last 12 months. Police are investigating a social networking pact. Is this real life moving into a digital sphere, or something more sinister?

Will this see the start of the backlash against social media? I’m starting to think that social networking sites aren’t a bit social. They’re elitist, where the metrics of success are your number of friends, happy go lucky photos, Funwall postings, backlinks and blog comments.

Paul Tero at Nixon McInnes believes that it is only social if people use social networking sites to meet people and get out and socialise. He’s got a point.

I’ve discussed this at length over much curry and many beers with psychologist Simon Proudlock, a pal from university, reckons that individuals only ever create positive online personas and rarely share bad news online. Do you?

You just don’t do it do you? Social networking sites are no go when I’m anything but on top form. And in that senses they aren’t really all that social.

Labels: media, social media

  Permalink | 6 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 1:41 PM

  More on the economy I've been vanity surfing on Technorati. Michael Blowers has picked up on my quote in last week’s PR Week.

While a slow down in consumer spending may impact the business-to-consumer market, I maintain that the business-to-business sector will remain strong through 2008.

Here’s why: the business-to-business sector and in particular the tech sector cut back so far after the dot com and telco crash that there isn’t much in the way of flab that could be trimmed to create further efficiencies.

A pal who’s a serial entrepreneur (he’s onto his fifth start-up) used to drive from Surrey into the West End and park in an NCP. Since 2001 he’s caught the train and uses the tube to get around the City and the West End.

Steve Earl, Rainier PR’s co-MD is the same. He has to either be with a client, or it has to be absolutely pissing down with rain before he’ll get a cab.

The scars from the dot com bust run deep and businesses continue to be run very leanly. It’s a healthy regime, constantly questioning costs and managing budgets on a quarter by quarter basis. If sales miss target one quarter then spending is trimmed back in the following quarter.

For the record I use a motorbike to get around London. Colleagues, clients and journos are always welcome to a backie. Few take up the offer.

Labels: agency life, media

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 1:35 PM

  News in brief for 17-1-07 An x-ray vision device has been developed to enable officials to ‘see’ through layers. It works on the same principles as lobsters’ eyes. In Britain, I hope we’ll buy it in bulk to reveal knives under the hooded tops of teenage yobs.

CCTV doesn’t stop crime but it does enable us to catch offenders. A case maybe of political will needing to catch-up with technology?

You have to laugh. Its official: clowns are bad for kids. According to the University of Sheffield very few children like clowns. They are unfamiliar and come from a different era.

Labels: media

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 1:19 PM

  Google page skank Google’s slogan – ‘Don’t be evil’ took another bashing today as rumours surfaced about how the search engine giant has been fiddling with its search results in order to please advertisers.

The rumours began following Google’s apparent revised algorithm which penalised sites associated with buying and selling links. While those sites’ toolbar scores dropped, it did not affect its actual search ranking.

This has lead some commentators to suggest that Google “are manipulating public and advertiser opinion”. Google has hardly done its brand any favours in recent times and this looks like another company struggling to balance ethics with profit.

Labels: media, social media, technology

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 6:15 PM

  Artists work with music people, not finance guys You need to be careful when meddling with the stars. First the Writers’ Strike in Hollywood, now comes the boycott by EMI-contracted artists after a recent venture capitalist takeover.

To fund the multi-billion pound cost the new owner, Guy Hands, expects to have to lay off up to 2,000 staff. The digital era has led to tighter and tighter margins with the recording industry shedding half its staff since 2000, but are moneymen, not creatives, the right people to save the industry?

It’s not just about saving money, it’s about making sure you have appealing artists making music that people what to buy that will save EMI. The Sex Pistols saw this coming in the 70s: “And blind acceptance is a sign, of stupid fools who stand in line – Like EMI, EMI, EMI.”

I wish EMI the very best. Kylie’s on their books, after all…

Labels: media, personal

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:17 PM

  Marriage of current affairs pubs Press Gazette is reporting that Dennis Publishing has acquired The First Post bringing it into the same stable as The Week. The two current affairs pubs, one online, one print, complement each other superbly. Guess what happens next?

Labels: media

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 5:45 PM

  Jobs for the boys (and a few girls) If you’ve read the Financial Times at all this week you’d have been greeted intermittently by a wall of suited faces or a bland list of names, reminiscent of a village green war memorial.

The reason: corporate backslapping by the world’s financial houses. Yesterday, Barclays Capital took out a full-page ad to introduce its ‘new managing directors’ and today Lehman Brothers and CTI ‘congratulate’ their newly elected MDs.

I know this ego stoking has always gone on, but at around £30k a page the Robin Hood in me thinks the money could be better spent elsewhere. There’s a few Kenyans could do with a few quid just now.

Labels: media

  Permalink | 3 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 10:24 AM

  Kids as new media predictors Fred Wilson, a tech VC in New York (via Alan Patrick at Broadstuff) published a chart from a Goldman Sachs research report comparing EBITDA multiples versus EBITA growth rates for various media categories and mapped this against his teenage children’s use of media.

The basic premise is that computer games and the internet are hot; newspapers and radio are not. My older kids are 7 and 9 (both girls seen in photo left taking a break last week from media consumption), but you can already see that they both have potential as Goldman analysts.

Internet
They never use URLs. All sites are accessed via Google. Always. IM is fun, but multi player online games and web conferencing are even better. Club Penguin is the social network or community of choice.

Newspapers
No interest here, but tremendous loyalty to comics. Has the Beano the potential to develop into an online community? It’s making its bid.

Video games
They play computer games whenever they get a chance but have no loyalty to any particular platform.

TV
Rarely watch live TV preferring DVDs and anything they’ve pre-recorded on the PVR. That said one of my 18 month olds' first words was "beebies".

Entertainment
Like Alan's older kids, the iPod is reserved for travel and the only time they listen to the radio is on short car journeys. For longer journeys the DVD (movies) is the in-car entertainment medium of choice.

They seem to enjoy movies at the cinema and live music as much as any previous generation.

Media naysayers that believe that the only people who consume their media any differently are geeky bloggers should look at how children consume media.

Although the majority of us get our news from the printed press and shun the online media, future generations already consume their media completely different fragment way, and it’s a trend that only going to continue.

Labels: media, personal

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 5:07 PM

  Meme: my week in media Ged tagged me for a week in media meme. He makes the point that it’s no longer possible to carve up media by online, print, radio and TV as delivery channels collide. It’s not been a typical week, but nonetheless here’s my contribution:

What I’ve read: I've spent the last two weeks in rural Northumberland where the Northumberland Gazette is the bible for local news It's a traditional newspaper with hacks that attend council and parish meetings digging for news. No room for PR fodder here. The Beano and The Week are both long term subscription staples.

What I’ve listened to: most of news content reaches the Waddington household in the kitchen either by word-of-mouth when someone drops in, telephone, or the radio which is permanently locked on Radio 4.

What I’ve watched: Four Weddings and a Funeral (DVD present for my missus). All of the Christmas Strictly Come Dancing spins offs. The last episode of Spooks on BBC iPlayer.

What I’ve surfed: An internet PC in the kitchen is a recent innovation but has proved a boom for family life as you no longer need to run off to the study to go online and it delivers radio and iTunes to the stereo.

Update: James Gordon-Macintosh, Ged Carroll, Stephen Davies and Stuart Bruce have already completed this meme. I tag Simon Wakeman, Will McInness, Brendan Cooper and Mark Pinsett.

Labels: after work, media

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:28 AM

  A year in tech PR The end of 2007 is nigh - and inevitably time to reflect on 2007. We’ve put our heads together and come up with the tech PR highs and lows of the year.

(1) Most important development in social media
Facebook appeals to everyone, but is the next best thing around the corner? After all no one saw it coming.

(2) Biggest disappointment
Twitter – don’t care what anyone says it’s bollocks. Live life, don’t spend it broadcasting updates to you mates.

(3) High
Borkowski’s Wispa campaign. Real genius and proof that social media can deliver a return on investment. Also a slap in the face for agencies that didn’t have the balls to get stuck in and experiment earlier (us included).

(4) Low
TWL dies a death - favourite stories include the Richard Millington campaign (whatever your views on it, it was bloody funny); the day in the life of ITPR and the Flackenhack awards. Fingers crossed for a summer part in 2008.

(5) Biggest cock up
Facebook’s handling of Beacon, but not Beacon itself which actually might work in fulfilling the huge revenue potential of a social network. Is the traditional media running scared of the new kid on the block and looking to make an example of it?

(6) Predictions for 2008
Facebook will work out a way to monetise its user base, or it will die. The rise in more niche social networks will also become more obvious. The launch of Saga Zone and success of Realbuzz.com reflects Long Tail theory.

(7) Next big thing?
We said Twitter was bollocks - but with increasing demands on free time, micro-blogging - and subsequently micro-content will become more prevalent.

(8) Most important tech development
Broadband availability in the UK is almost 100 per cent. Almost all the mainstream broadcasters now have a flavour of over the top TV which is surely a stepping stone to IPTV.

Who’s next? Drew, Stephen, Stuart, Ian, Ged, James, Will what do you think?

Labels: media, social media, technology

  Permalink | 4 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 1:54 PM

  Grit between the legs There’s very little in the way of interesting tech stories to blog about, so in order to get you into the festive mood I thought you might find this interesting.

A Scottish teenager has been put on probation for 12 months for simulating sex with a pavement. Steven Marshall, 18, apparently got into a ‘press-up’ position with his trousers down on his home street and simulated sexual intercourse.

While I’m not going to judge how weird this is, surely on the logistics side – it’s got to chafe hasn’t it?

Labels: media

  Permalink | 7 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:41 PM

  Look ma, I’m on Sky News! Last week our very own Tim Hoang took part in an interview with Sky News about Facebook’s apology for its Beacon application.

The key issues Yorkshire-boy covered about Facebook and Beacon were that:

1) Beacon was a PR disaster more than anything else

2) Facebook and the social media space are still young and inevitably are prone to cock-ups. We're all learning

3) The average Facebook user doesn't actually know about Beacon, and, anecdotally those that do actually like its targeted approach

Labels: blogger, media, PR, social media, technology

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 9:13 AM

  New police powers of search The escapades of the 'canoe two' that have seen the UK media having kittens these past few days surely prompt a daft but interesting question - why don't coppers try their luck with Google a bit more?

So with lots being invested in police computing and a more joined-up approach to crime-fighting, would giving the web a whirl prove a handy shortcut - and save the taxpayer a bob or two? Can SEO succeed where established policing can struggle?

I didn't have much luck with 'where is Lord Lucan?', but I do get a few namechecks with 'what has Wadds been up to?'.

Labels: media

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 6:05 PM

  Wadds' photo casebook 3

Labels: media, social media

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 5:45 PM

  Embrace PR2.0 or die The University of Westminster hosted an evening with Mark Borkowski on Monday night which three of our clan attended. As expected, Borkowski wasn’t afraid of addressing some of the issues that faces the PR industry in the world of web 2.0, warning how a “generation of PRs will die” if they do not embrace this new era.

With economic uncertainty ahead in 2008, the PR industry will likely have to take budget from other disciplines and merge with the marketing department – a trend that Will McInnes has previously highlighted.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for those of us still operating in ‘traditional’ PR. Borkowski was keen to point out that a good story will always be interesting. Referring to his excellent “bring back Wispa” social media campaign, he said, “a good story will always get picked up. It was something that was genuinely happening at the time and the product had already shifted before the media picked it up.”

I was disappointed that I didn’t actually get to speak to Borkowski at the after drinks and drill him on what made the Wispa campaign so successful (we’ve tinkered around with Facebook before but with very little success as I think has everyone else). As always, it’s interesting to see what other companies are doing in the social media sphere and I was particularly impressed with Shiny Red, which appears to be developing a solid business in this area, unlike some agencies who are talking about it but actually doing anything.

Labels: media, PR, social media

  Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 5:01 PM

  I blame the parents Rising obesity and crime: how much blame do computer games play in the growth of the two, especially the former? A new survey has found that parents are concerned about the length of time and the type of content found on some video games.

It’s a tricky one, but when it comes to content I would argue that incredible graphics have blurred the distance between reality and fantasy – it’s almost TV quality.

When I was growing up and happily being distracted by my own Atari 800XL and my friends’ ZX Spectrum 48s the graphics and character dexterity were so bad that we knew that a big yellow ball eating ghosts was removed from reality, but take one look at the latest Grand Theft Auto and you’ll see why some dumb creatures would try and replicate the screen on the street.

As for the time spent on gaming, well, forgive me if I’m wrong but isn’t that where parenting comes in?

Labels: after work, media

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 9:39 PM

  Sorry seems to be the hardest word The blogosphere is the new confessional, it appears.

The senior VP of Yahoo’s online channel division, Rich Riley, has been forced into an embarrassing mea culpa for a power outage that potentially cost e-traders millions of dollars – by apologising on his blog.

Labels: blogger, media

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