Both Barrels Communications Ltd.

BBC kowtows to the cult of celebrity

2009-05-06T17:51:00.002+01:00

On the front page of the BBC News website there are always three main stories. Right now, one of those is a sad story about the non-suspicious death of a young man in his thirties. The item goes on to describe the procedures followed in the event of such an unfortunate incident: person identified, relatives informed, etc, etc.

It's indubitably sad that this should have happened. Sadly, I suspect it happens a hundred times a day, many thousands of times per year - but the rest of them won't get a prime spot of the BBC News website.

This unfortunate young man's only claim to fame - and it's certainly not a claim to newsworthiness - was that he was Max Mosley's son. That's it. He wasn't even a celebrity himself, only the son of one. And his death gets him on the front page of the website of the country's national broadcaster.

I have generally been undecided on whether I should have to pay for the upkeep of the BBC just because I own a television. Now, I'm quite certain that I should not.

'Conversations': social media networking event tonight

2009-03-26T11:24:00.004Z

I'm off to 'Conversations' tonight at One Aldwych, London. It's a "unique social media networking event for marketing professionals"; the format is "a series of conversations with experts in various aspects of the Web 2.0 marketing mix interspersed with chat, drinks and nibbles".

It was pitched to me as being for those with a particular interest in web and social media focused marketing, so that's a tick. Expert speakers tonight include Jeremy Brown from Sense Worldwide, Mark Adams from the Conversation Group, Steve Loynes from Chameleon PR and Paul McKeever from FRONT.

I'm hoping to learn some new things; I really hope that it stays pragmatic, realistic and 'real' (rather than too theoretical and high-brow) and that there will be ideas or techniques I can take away to use tomorrow for our clients.

"Last chance to sponsor..."

2009-03-20T11:55:00.004Z

These are the first four words of the Subject line of an email I have just received from a usually well-respected analyst firm, which has just spammed me about some conference or other that is completely nothing to do with me or any of my clients.

As Biff says to George McFly in 'Back to the Future': "Hello? Hello? Anybody home?". Do the people who wrote this, signed it off and then sent this dross know that there's a recession on? Because, guys, if the best line you can come up with to sell sponsorship is that it's your 'last chance' then you are doomed. (The conference starts in 12 days, by the way. People have obviously been tripping over themselves to sponsor it so far.)

It doesn't get any better in the body of the message. "Don't miss out on your opportunity to position yourself as a vendor of choice to this powerful community of executives" it reads. Now I may be wrong, but sponsoring a trade show doesn't position you as a vendor of choice. It positions you as a vendor. Then they either choose you or they don't. (Then again, if they think you're going to charge them enough in this day and age that you've got enough cash to blow on a sponsorship, maybe they won't.)

Off the top of my head, first draft, no time spent trying to come up with an alternative, wouldn't a Subject line that read: "Recession-busting sponsorship opportunity: get in front of X Supply Chain executives for..." be better? As long as you weren't being sent something completely irrelevant (i.e. spammed) you'd surely be more likely to at least open the message to find out what the sums involved were?

PS. Don't get used to these movie analogies. Two in two posts is just a coincidence.

Did you know?

2009-03-16T11:30:00.003Z

I received this link from a friend on Friday. She says it's a presentation that Sony gave to its executives last year, although I haven't checked whether that's accurate. At any rate, some 2.7 million people have already watched this so I'm clearly no leader where this video is concerned. But some of the facts and figures are astonishing.

I don't have a favourite statistic and I'm not sure quite what it means for PR professionals, but I'm pretty sure that, if nothing else, we need to be alert to the scale of things these days. A tiny percentage of a very big number is still a very big number.

I'm sort of reminded of the scene in the film Cocktail, in which Michael Caine explains to Tom Cruise that there's a guy somewhere making an untold fortune simply from selling the little plastic washer that holds open a cocktail umbrella, because he's making tens of millions of them at a tiny fraction of one cent each...

Putting the public back into public relations

2009-03-14T12:39:00.003Z

I've just been sitting in the toilet reading a book.

Not something I'd ordinarily admit, to be sure, even on a Saturday - but this is not an ordinary book. As for the toilet - well, I don't know about everyone else, but there is a very small number of places in my home where I can get five minutes' peace and quiet from one four year old and one three year old.

The non-ordinary book is Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge. Amazon delivered it this morning; I pre-ordered it a few weeks ago so I guess it's now formally published. There's probably some Harry Potter-esque competition going on now: who can finish it first. Unless I can fix the lock on that toilet door, it won't be me.

However, finish it I will. My first Social Media News Release - based on the now-famous Shift Communications template - was 'way' back in June 2007. I'm hoping - nay, expecting - that this book will give me some new ideas for me and the team to take out to our clients.

Ryanair's social media strategy

2009-03-03T11:01:00.002Z

Saw this just now, at the Guardian.

LMAO. Although I have an idea that Ryanair's senior management won't know what that means.

"I want to hold a press conference..."

2009-02-04T12:31:00.004Z

Trust me, these may well be the words that a tech PR person most dreads hearing from his/her client's lips.

Why? Well, largely because they're unpredictable - and that means we're effectively being asked to gamble with clients' money. OK, it's the client who is asking you, "Red or black?", but that's not going to make you feel much better if you choose wrongly. And, of course, if it doesn't work, we look bad even though it may not be our fault.

Fortunately - in my view - the tech company press conference is a rarity these days. Journalists are, more than ever, spread all over the place geographically, enabled by technology to work remotely. They don't want to travel, nor do they need to: that same technology, or variants of it, means that they can get the bulk of the story by email, or Twitter, or RSS, or wire, within moments anyway. Pictures? Probably downloadable from the company's press office. So the press conference is redundant, unless you're Microsoft- or Nokia-size, that is?

Not quite - there are occasions when it'll work, even for a smaller tech company. But the preconditions are harsh.

First, choose a time/date/location when/where the journalist you're interested in are going to be there anyway - at a show or exhibition, for example. Journalists go to these in search of stories, and by holding a press conference you're suggesting you've got a significant story for them. Box ticked.

Second, be sure you have something really worth saying; if your client has a perceived history of 'bigging up' announcements only for them to fall short of expectations then your journalists are going to think twice before pitching up to this one (or to the next one, if you disappoint this time).

Third, I might add that the content of your press conference-worthy announcement should probably be more than can reasonably described in a 400 word news release. Of course, 400 words is more than enough to convey any story - but the press conference does afford the opportunity to go into details (provided they're pertinent, relevant, important, etc) that you couldn't hope to cover in a news release.

So, why this post, today? Because client Truphone is holding a press conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 17th. With 2,999 other companies vying for media attention that's a daunting prospect. But we're meeting those preconditions for success, and we're looking good so far.

Who wouldn't I want to be?

2008-11-19T21:44:00.001Z

Every time I think about this post I'm aware it could turn into an essay. Not because there are hundreds of people I wouldn't want to be, but because of the temptation to wander off-topic. But here goes.

I find it slightly unnerving that anyone under the age of about 32 hasn't really got much clue as to what a recession might bring. Having graduated in 1990 into the beginning of one, I'm under no illusions, myself. And, to cut a long train of thought short, I find myself looking around at people who might be affected most badly. I see, for example:

personal trainers. The ones in my gym seem, at best, underemployed. I wonder how many people might still have £45-£55 per hour to drop on them if things actually get tough? And, if you're not a personal trainer, what are you qualified to do? What are your 'transferable skills'?
estate agents. For many years anyone could have sold houses with their eyes shut from their villa in Marbella, bought on the commission from all the others they sold. Now, estate agents might actually need some selling skills. I don't think I've actually met one yet. What will they do?
the guy that offered to trim the hedge in front of my house - a two-hour job at worst - for £300. He could be in real trouble, too. In a recession, people will trim their own hedges.
the consumer electronics business I'm trying to buy a TV from. 10-14 days until delivery, they said. So I phoned a couple of days ago (12 days) to get an ETA - reasonable enough. I'll call you back, he said. I'm still waiting. On the basis that sweating the details makes all the difference, a percentage of customers will tell him to stick it and will go to another retailer, one that does call back. You can see where that's going - I'll stop there.

But the consistent point is that, in a recession, people and company with real skills, attention to detail, understanding of customer needs, and who offer value for money... will be ok. On that basis, Both Barrels is optimistic for the future!

Booth on a budget at The Smartphone Show

2008-10-22T09:52:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I was at the Smartphone Show with Kerry Ritz, CEO of client Palringo. We were there solely to meet with journalists to show them and tell them about Palringo Local, which sees the addition of live location information to Palringo's all-singing, all-dancing IM service.

It was good to catch up in person with some old faces, people I've been seeing at shows for - in some cases - upwards of 10 years, and to meet some new ones. James Body from client Truphone came over for a chat too, and liked what he saw.

Kerry and I pitched up early and parked ourselves at a corner table in the Oxygen Bar (don't ask...), which we then didn't vacate all day - bringing a whole new meaning to the term 'booth on a budget'. We did spend nearly £10 on coffees, teas and water though.

Who needs words?

2008-10-21T16:48:00.002+01:00

Following on from yesterday's post, I am reminded that words aren't everything.

I hear from another parent that, at one of the local infant schools, 'the kids must read by Christmas' and that 'not reading by then isn't an option'. Ouch. My daughter is at a different infant school and, frankly, at four and a half years old I don't really want her pushed that hard yet. (Having said that, I cannot wait for her school to help her lose the "was you/we/they" and "wasn't you/we/they" constructions so carelessly instilled in her speech at the pre-school nursery she attended.)

At any rate, she doesn't need words yet: she can get me to do exactly what she wants with a look or a smile or just a stern, rising "Daddy...". As can my little boy - and he barely has spoken words at all yet. Today's learning: don't underestimate the personal relationship!

A love of words

2008-10-20T11:36:00.004+01:00

"I love words." Ten years ago I hired a brand new account exec to my team, who'd put that exact, brief sentence in the covering letter that came with his CV. I interviewed him, too, and he didn't disappoint. Sadly, his love of words meant that, about three years later, he left to fulfil his ambition - to be a scriptwriter!

I still think a love of words is an important credential for anyone who wants to be in PR - more so than the old favourite of "I love working with people". My Mum enjoyed working with people, but I don't think she'd be able to write a news release or other text that would inspire its reader to react or think in a specific, desired way.

Of course, ten years ago there was more face-to-face and phone contact than there is today - so much of our interaction today is by email, and therefore written. A love of words - and an ability to use them - has never been more important.

2008-08-20T12:08:00.004+01:00

At the beginning of last week I hosted a German TV crew at client Truphone's office, filming for the evening current affairs programme Plus-Minus. Here’s CEO James Tagg, during filming.

The programme they made aired in Germany last night; watch it for yourself here. People across the world are enjoying Truphone’s low, low internet calling rates, which the programme was quick to identify and show its viewers.

What was most interesting was the graphs I saw this morning showing the quite enormous step up in sign-ups that the programme generated for Truphone. The jump was virtually instantaneous, beginning the moment the programme finished airing. Don't doubt the power of broadcast coverage.

Stop press: elephant concealed by news release... or, thankfully, not

2008-08-06T10:56:00.003+01:00

One unfortunate result from yesterday's announcement by SIM4travel was the posting of a horribly incorrect news item by TheTelecom.co.uk to the effect that SIM4travel was looking to buy lastminute.com. Cue early-doors phone call to the editor to have the post corrected, followed by a frantic re-reading of the news release to make sure no elephants had inadvertently slipped into the room during the news release approval process. Of course, there were no elephants and it was a bona fide journalistic mistake.

In proper news release style, we told the story in the first line, too - and this was a reminder that it should always be so.

RMS - the new SMS/MMS

2008-07-29T14:18:00.003+01:00

I just realised that I never did let on what it was that we came up with. It's Rich Messaging Service, or RMS. Why is this cool? Because the world is familiar with SMS on mobiles (text), then MMS on mobiles (pictures) and now Palringo makes it possible to enjoy both of those plus vocal instant messages (vocal IM) - on mobiles. All three together - that's a rich messaging experience, on a mobile phones. And it's a natural evolution of the 'xMS' acronym series that we think people will come to understand.

Fame, second time around?

2008-04-19T14:53:00.003+01:00

A few years ago, my then-business partner and I came up with the term 'audicons' to describe the aural equivalent of emoticons: sounds designed to convey a certain meaning. This was for an application that was, in essence, audio email: a text-to-speech engine spoke your email to you, enabling you easily to pick your email up on your mobile (this pre-dated Blackberrys and nice screens on mobiles, needless to say). Anyway, cool as it was, it never quite worked out, so saying "we invented audicons" carries zero cachet!

However, yesterday I was part of a small, creative meeting that came up with a piece of techno terminology (and its essential accompanying acronym) that could easily become part of the common vernacular. I'm not going to reveal what it is (yet) but we're not going to be shy about telling the world when the time comes.

Congratulations, you're in the round filing cabinet

2007-11-17T08:54:00.000Z

To all direct marketers: if I ever receive a piece of unsolicited direct mail that begins:

"Dear Mr Donnelly Smith,

Congratulations! You have..."

it goes straight in the bin. Always. Without exception. Every time. Without fail.

It must be the laziest, most amateur opening I can think of. I never bothered to keep track of how many emails I received telling of huge sums of money I've apparently won in various lotteries around Europe and the rest of the world without even entering ("Congratulations! You have...") - and how many of them do you think were legitimate? Exactly.

Facebook thoughts, more

2007-08-06T12:10:00.000+01:00

On the Truphone Facebook Group, some members are posting their questions and comments on the Wall, which is great. And we're posting the answers to those questions up there too - the most appropriate person can give a reply quickly and easily. If it's a legitimate question, it deserves a proper answer, after all.

What this actually means is that the Truphone Wall is destined to become a sort of 'dynamic FAQ' - in time, it's likely to become a useful resource. It also means that answers will need to be sensibly phrased, in order to give the reader going back through posts a sense of when any given response has passed its 'sell by' date.

Facebook as a PR tool

2007-07-19T11:54:00.000+01:00

With client Truphone, we are experimenting with Facebook as a means of communicating with our audiences. The Truphone group already stands at around 170 members and growing, and comprises users, well-known bloggers from Truphone's sector and regular journalists. That's quite a diverse group and we haven't investigated at all yet the practicalities of segmenting it. It looks difficult at first sight, since anyone can join the group.

The good news is that joiners must proactively opt to join, of course, and expect to receive group-related communications as a result. And it's self-managing: don't want the communications? Then leave the group. We've all been through hell before trying to get someone else to take us off a mailing list, but this puts removal in the hands of the individual.

At any rate, it's an interesting experiment. It means users being sent links to news releases, which wouldn't be the normal style of communications to them, and it may mean journalists receiving information in a format intended for customers. Styling aside, I don't see any major contradiction in this at this stage, since we shouldn't be saying anything inconsistent to any audience type.

We've already made one announcement via Facebook first (albeit by only a few minutes). No adverse reaction and warm responses. Watch this space for updates.

From Hunter to Hunted in 24 hours

2007-07-19T11:50:00.000+01:00

Disastrous damage to the Beeb’s reputation yesterday with the revelations about the dodgy phone-ins. Years ago I read – I think it was in PR Week, actually – that the two British brands most respected abroad were British Airways and the BBC - for its perceived integrity, as I recall. This affair has done untold damage to the BBC’s reputation, I would suggest – far more so than the David Kelly affair.

I hope ITV doesn’t get too smug: some months ago I reported to ICSTIS that the SMS method of entering Who Wants To Be A Millionaire appeared to be, um, flawed. I texted to enter, as requested, and a question came back by text which I answered correctly (with 100% certainty) within 30 seconds – well within the 60 second limit. Sorry, came the reply, you answered too slowly. This happened twice. So I’m unlikely to be the only one.

Can you pre-book your ‘news’ on BBC’s Ten O’Clock News?

2007-07-17T22:47:00.000+01:00

Tonight the BBC led with the ‘news’ that Sir Tom Hunter is to give a billion pounds to charity. Well, first, good on him; I certainly admire his action. But was it just me that thought it somewhat bizarre that this should be the lead item – notably, ahead of the story that Russia had threatened the UK with ‘serious consequences’ after throwing out four diplomats?

I could be wrong, but I rather suspect this item was prepared some time in advance; the report itself concluded with the fact that Tom Hunter “is in Africa tonight”. Might the date have been ‘booked’ in advance, with ‘lead’ status guaranteed subject to acts of terrorism/major natural disaster?

Were that to be the case, was it really the ‘news’ that the BBC brought us tonight, or was it just a smart PR coup for Sir Tom and the BBC?

Beware the highly-efficient tabloid editorial system

2007-07-16T08:00:00.000+01:00

I read an article on actress Courtney Cox over the weekend. She describes how she was a bit shocked, during a visit to offices of The Sun, to be called over by an editor and shown pictures of her having dinner, getting out of her car and even entering the building just five minutes previously – taken by a snapper with his digital camera hitched up to a mobile, no doubt.

Perhaps more frightening is to think that you could be doing any of those things, or far worse, on the other side of the world, yet that picture would still be in the hands of the picture editor within the same five minutes. Nowhere is safe!

Court appearance

2007-07-13T10:11:00.000+01:00

I didn't really anticipate that on the occasion of my first-ever appearance in a courtroom I would be wearing jeans, a t-shirt and trainers. Unless, that is, it was a Sunday morning and I'd had a Big Night Out that had ended in a wholly unlikely manner. But thus it was that I found myself in Court 60 at the Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday afternoon following an unexpected "We're on, can you come in?" call from my client Truphone. At least I also had a pin-striped jacket, although that tended to complete the 'Big Night Out' look, rather than mitigate the casual dress. Thankfully there appear to be no dress rules for admittance to the public gallery.

Truphone is seeking an injunction against T-Mobile (UK) Limited. A judgment is expected on Monday.

What happens when the 'pressure cooker' method inverts

2007-07-05T23:11:00.000+01:00

I was reminded today of something that happened a few weeks ago. Charles Arthur at the Guardian declined a pretty good tech story offered on a Monday morning because it had been 'all over the blogosphere already'. This was true, as it had broken in the blogosphere in the USA on the Friday evening, UK time, for reasons outside our control - and it certainly had 'gone nuclear' over the weekend.

Despite offering Charles the first interview of any 'regular' journalist anywhere, he went cold on it. It's a good illustration of this lesson: if the story isn't great, letting the blogosphere work on it for a while may help it reach traditional media titles. But, if it's a good story, the blogosphere could actually cost you traditional media coverage.

If the first place the bloggers read about it is in the newspaper they'll still write about it. So if you get the chance (OK, so we didn't this time) make sure you know the value of your story before you start touting it around.

Bernard Matthews on "The F-word"

2007-07-04T10:58:00.000+01:00

I watched Gordon Ramsay's F-word last night. Two things came to mind.

First, I love watching Janet Street Porter get stuck into people on this show, but felt that while the rest of the show goes for the jugular - quite literally at the end of each series - she let the Bernard Matthew chief exec off the [meat] hook a bit easily. He made an extremely poor comment to the effect that Bernard Matthews turkeys were British even if they were born in Hungary because they came from eggs laid in Norfolk... desperate. But he also said that Bernard Matthews hadn't realised how important to people it was from where their food came, and that Bernard Matthews would be labelling it from September.

Aside from the fact that if he doesn't know that it's important to people he probably doesn't have any business running Bernard Matthews, surely the right advice from his PR people was to say: "You know what, Janet, you're right and it's a mistake that we're fixing. But what it's really important for people to know is that, whether their turkey is reared in Hungary or Norfolk, if it's from Bernard Matthews farms it's reared to the standards of animal husbandry that you'd expect in the UK." I thought he was lucky to get off as lightly as he did.

Second, I admire Gordon's drive to see many traditional foods and techniques sustained in the 21st century. It often involves him meeting quite elderly people, and he does it pretty well. But I can't help but wonder how they would react to him if, while he was meeting them, he used as many expletives as he does on the rest of the show. Which is the real Ramsay brand? I think we know.