Whatever...

What the tweet?

By Jacqui Depares

Unless you’ve been stuck underground for the past year or so, I’m sure you’ll have heard of a little social phenomenon known as Twitter.  The current darling of the social media space, twitter classes celebrities such as Stephen Fry and John Cleese amongst its key championers – providing their followers with regular updates on their day to day adventures, no matter how seemingly strange or apparently newsworthy.

 

That said, it’s not all rock and roll and celebrity glamour.  That’s right people – there is a dangerous side to twitter (cue dramatic music)...

 

In one particular and very public incident (as detailed below), a technology reporter for the National Post, one David George-Cosh, tweeted just a little too much in response to a post from a marketing consultant who had failed to provide him with comment for his story.  NB – for the sensitive eyes amongst you, I’ve replaced any potentially offensive words with the word tweet.

 

sirdavid: @aprildunford what the tweet. I called you for comment two days ago. What did you expect when you called me back? Don’t post that tweet online

sirdavid: @aprildunford furthermore, I called you several times in the afternoon. Don’t be condescending to me when I actually wanted to talk to you

sirdavid: @aprildunford how about you stop blasting personal conversations on twitter and call me back. what the hell is wrong with you.

aprildunford: @sirdavid All I did was return your call. I didn’t expect you to do anything. Wow. Like, seriously, calm down. 

sirdavid: @aprildunford & then repost everything? & then hang up on me & don’t call back? I’ve recorded everything. U don’t look as nice as u put on

aprildunford: @sirdavid Dude - I never said who you were. Twitter meet David. David is having a bad day. David, meet Twitter.

sirdavid: @aprildunford hey april – tweet you. seriously. tweet you.

sirdavid: @aprildunford if u can’t handle any heat from what u post and immediate hang up, tweet u. u know my number. u call if you want to settle. 

aprildunford: @sirdavid Re-read what you have just Twittered. Then re-read what I Twittered. Deep breaths David. Calm.

 

So what’s the lesson here kids? Don’t go on twitter when you’re seriously twittered off J

Why work life balance makes business sense

By Mike King

Of course, any agency’s greatest asset is its people.  That goes without saying.  Pretty much any agency head will tell you that, but the reality is that most agencies don’t operate that way.  Staff in many PR consultancies are overworked, poorly trained and given little support.  And in tough times, where staff retention becomes less of an issue it tends to get even worse. 

I’ve seen PR agencies openly describe themselves as ‘PR sweatshops’, seemingly proud of the fact that they overwork and exploit their staff, claiming that this is what clients want to see.  I beg to differ.  Clients want to work with the best people and the best people work where they are happiest.

That’s why, at Johnson King, we place so much emphasis on not only trying to recruit the best people, but also on providing them with ongoing training and support and a clear progression path.  And on the whole our approach works – we’ve got a great staff retention rate (and not just during a recession). 

Ever since we started, we’ve always put a huge amount of effort into providing ongoing training and support to help people develop the skills they need to excel and progress.  Good training alone isn’t enough, not unless you want to exist as a training ground for the rest of the PR industry.  Which, frankly we don’t.  So it is very important that we are able to provide clear career progression paths and ongoing feedback so that people know how they are doing and what they need to do in order to progress to the next level. 

The flip side of operating an open meritocracy, with ongoing assessment and feedback, is that you also have to accept that not everyone comes up to the required standard.  When an agency’s greatest asset is its people, individuals that don’t come up to scratch have to go.  Not pleasant for anyone but essential if standards are to be maintained.

A critical factor that is often overlooked in the PR consultancy world is the importance of a friendly, professional environment with a decent work life balance.  

All of which is why I feel particularly pleased that Johnson King has just been awarded “Best international specialist consultancy to work for” by The Holmes Report.  Most significantly, this is an award that is based on the individual responses of agency staff.  Each and every member of Johnson King responded to an online survey, and we won the award based entirely on their input.  We must be doing something right. 

Why PR campaigns must never go musical

By Tom Kirkham

 

While many industry speculators continue to obsess over the impact of recession on the tech sector, I’m currently more preoccupied by the fact that there are 144 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, including a musical episode.  At the risk of angering Buffy fans worldwide, I’d argue that the ‘Once More, with Feeling’ musical diversion is sufficient proof that the series outstayed its welcome by one episode at the very least.  And at the most?  I’d sooner not say. 

 

The truth is the vast majority of television programmes – however fabulous – jump the shark sooner or later, shedding their audience figures and ending up on the scrapheap.  Sadly, a great many PR accounts befall the same fate.

 

A lot of PR business is won on the back of a ‘big idea’ that exceeds the prospective client’s expectations and blows away the competition.  The best campaigns are often driven by an initial spark or concept – a launch, event or announcement that is capitalised upon and exploited to its full potential.  Similarly, some of the most popular TV programmes have worked in this way… “Who killed Laura Palmer?”, “Who is going to kill David Palmer?”, “Why did Mary Alice Young kill herself?” and various other hit shows involving characters that may or may not have died.

 

Depending upon the strength of the ‘big idea’, impetus can be sustained for quite some time without diversifying or changing course.  Indeed, if the idea is particularly fabulous, you can really milk it!  But at some stage the spark will fade, and the onus is then on the PR agency or scriptwriters to come up with something new before they lose momentum.  Some succeed; a great many fail.  Buffy’s ratings dropped continually from year three onwards, while Twin Peaks didn’t even make it beyond a second season; in contrast, 24 and Desperate Housewives have proven far more robust and been able to sustain their viewing figures over several years. 

 

In PR, the industry average client retention rate of approximately 18 months says it all – too many campaigns fail to deliver on their initial promise or never get off the ground in the first place.  Obviously it would give the industry a better reputation if there were more successful long-term client/agency relationships, but frankly, if agencies can’t deliver beyond their initial pitch, then it’s absolutely right for clients to consider wielding the axe.

 

PRs can’t rest on their laurels and rely on good-will from journalists the way that TV shows can sometimes rely on a faithful viewing public, who’ll continue to tune in irrespective of how poor a programme is becoming.  Once a company is dismissed as a has-been, a dinosaur, or just very very boring, it can be a real challenge to win the media over again, demonstrating the importance of continued campaign regeneration and the ability to keep things fresh.  In essence, we PRs must avoid the path of the musical episode, and strive instead to become Desperate Housewives.

 

N.B. In case you’re wondering, I’ve used US rather than British television examples due to the differing season lengths.  US shows can run for as long as 22 episodes at a time, so almost half a year, providing a more direct comparison with a typical PR campaign.  I also wanted an excuse to criticise the musical episode of Buffy, which is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.

The weather’s snow joke for PRs: a tribute to Jacqui and Rich

By Juliana Wimmer

 

In PR, hardly anything is left to chance.  Particularly when organising bigger events like press tours or roundtables, every step follows a certain timeline and organisational structure.  Who, however, would have thought that all this planning could be thwarted by an elemental yet simple force – the weather.

 

Johnson King’s three European offices have taken a battering so far this month.  First, with the heaviest snow falls for 18 years, London was lost in chaos at the beginning of February: schools and airports were closed, mail was not delivered, buses were suspended and what was still running faced heavy delays and cancellations.

 

A few days later Paris was hit by extremely high winds. Airports were shut completely for the first time since 30 years and some 400,000 homes left without electricity.

 

Germany was not spared either. Due to heavy snow falls and icy roads, flights were cancelled and some highways were closed completely, leaving drivers nothing to do but sleep in their cars.

 

Just try organising a pan-European press event with all this going on.

 

PR in times of bad weather is by no means simple, but it is just about possible.  Just ask Jacqui and Rich (left).  Even when a storm prevented journalists AND their spokesperson from turning up to face-to-face meetings, it didn’t compromise media coverage.   

 

 

All's fair in the battle for column inches

By Flora Haslam

The tech PR industry can be a fiercely competitive place – we’re all looking to get better results than our counterparts, so it was with only slight surprise that we made the shocking discovery this week that a ‘psychology student’ who’d asked for help with some research on cybercrime was in fact an ‘International superstar trapped in the body of tech PR Manager’ (with thanks to Twitter!).  Turns out it wasn’t an innocent academic request, but rather an information gathering exercise in an attempt to discredit one of our clients’ news stories.

The reason?  Apparently one of our clients has been “pulling out all the stops to raise awareness of the latest threats and make themselves stand out from the crowd”.  Ahh, I see the problem.  But can anyone else see the irony in sending out a press release to berate a security vendor for using “publicity seeking gimmicks to capture computer owners’ attention”?

If I was a cynic, I’d suggest that this vendor might just be so desperate that they’ve resorted to sending out releases about other, more media-friendly companies, in order to secure some coverage...