Monarchy PR 2.0

HM The Queen features in a Google doodle for the first time today. As royal watchers (of which I am not one, admittedly) have observed, she's getting very tech-savvy of late, with podcasts, a YouTube channel and alleged iPod ownership.

But the modern, media-shrewd Monarchy is not just to be praised for embracing web services and gadgets. Its PR has been teaching industry a thing or two, albeit with vastly differing tactics.

Take the Dancing Queen incident, and my favourite, the brilliant Scouse of Windsor claim.


The Palace is even doing its SEO well. Google her and she has an iron grip on the rankings, and is even encroaching on the late Freddie Mercury et al with 'Queen' searches.

What's next? Media training and crisis management consultancy for the FTSE 100?

Chip and PaIN

Chip and PIN has been with us since 2004. So why is it I feel no more secure than I did before? And keep having wierd point-of-sale incidents?

I've been having this chat with several people recently: whereas when C&P came in waiters would casually glance away while you punched in the digits, these days many of them brazenly watch your every move.

Then on holiday last week I had the ultimate mockery of the added security that the technology is supposed to provide. In a Swedish supermarket, the cashier wanted to see personal ID, as the PIN alone wasn't enough for a foreign cardholder. The manager came over, glanced at my driving licence and asked "Is your date of birth DATE MAY YEAR?"

"Yes, because I am agreeing with what you are reading off my card," I said while the groceries were bagged.

Chip and PIN can clearly be far more secure than scrawled signatures on bits of paper. But it is a sticking plaster until better technology is applied to securing transactions.

Until then, I'll keep hunching my shoulders and holding the machine at strange angles.

It's not who you know, it's who you p*ss off

I have lost count of how many people I've worked with in PR. Most of them great, some a bit rough around the edges, some of them downright odd (all the current Rainier PR team fit squarely into the first category of course).

In the past few weeks I've had several blasts from the past with people just saying hi or letting me know via Linked In or just by email what they're up to. Even if I only met them in a revolving door moment like Becky McMichael it's always nice to hear from people, shows that tech PR does have a human side somewhere, and that this is a small sector so there's no point p*ssing people off. Thanks Becky.

It's also the polar opposite to some agencies who slag off their staff publicly when they leave, when they should be wishing them the best. I know of one firm that slagged off a leaver to a ridiculous degree, then called them when they had their feet under the desk in their in-house job to ask to pitch for the account. Short chat, that.

The point is this - parting on happy terms is the best way for all concerned when they leave an agency. There might be a need to grit the teeth a little, but in the long run everyone wins. I've never understood people who leave an agency, befriend former colleagues who they never really got on with anyway (and who used to slag them off) and then form a witches' coven, meeting for a drink every once in a while to bitch about the old firm. Sad that they have little else in their lives to keep them occupied really (bit like bloggers eh?).

Thankfully we don't have that sort of thing in this agency. Most of my colleagues spend most of the working day just bitching about me to my face.