Whatever...

Nothing is certain but death and taxes (even on the internet)

By Juliana Wimmer

 

It seems that Benjamin Franklin’s old saying hasn’t lost any relevance in the internet age, but just who could have predicted the potential of the online market for undertaker services? 

 

Since May 2001, Austrian website begraebnis.at has been offering live webcasts of funerals. The advantages of this cannot be dismissed! Relatives and guests can save on travel costs and don’t even have to take a day off work in order to pay their respects.  Maybe the preacher could even embellish his sermon with PowerPoint slides? 

   

But the industry hasn’t stopped there: death notices and obituaries can now be published on the web and there are virtual cemeteries that list the names of the deceased.  B2B sites offer wholesale coffins, urns and tombstones, ‘tactfully’ helping undertakers set themselves apart from the competition and gain new customers. Competition between online funeral firms is so rife, we’re even seeing a price war.

 

Other IT industries could surely get a piece of the action. After all, cemeteries have been ‘IT free’ for long enough and you must concede that DSL connections at most graveyards leave a lot to be desired.  So how about integrating a CAD tool (Grave3D?), so that tombstones and flower decorations can be planned and ordered online as well?  Or a webcam allowing the bereaved to watch their flowers fade or ensure robbers don’t steal the headstone?  With barcode technology, RFID and GPS, a modern funeral parlour could even go in for some “Corpse Tracking”.

 

This blog was inspired by a series called “Dr. T.’s consultancy”, so many thanks to Dr. Thomas Hafen of Channelpartner.

PR gaffes don’t come any better than this

By Mike King

It’s not very often that I read a story that stops me in my tracks but it happened this morning.  In what must be one of the biggest PR gaffes in British history, the body responsible for setting MPs’ pay is angling for a hefty salary increase for UK politicians.

  

Timing is everything, and you’d have to look long and hard to find a worse example of timing.  I know they’re an easy target, but MPs really don’t make things any easier for themselves. 

 

It has been widely reported that Bill Cockburn, head of the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB), said yesterday that he believed parliamentarians were underpaid by "10 per cent to 15 per cent”.  Or for a more balanced take, look at this.

 

Strange, given that only a few months ago the same Bill Cockburn announced that MPs would receive an increase of 2.33% this year – itself a generous increase given that the RPI at the time stood at 0%.  Now, it seems, they are grossly underpaid.

 

Even if the current lack of public confidence in MPs on the back of the expenses scandal isn’t enough, the state of the economy and rising levels of unemployment make the timing unbelievable.

 

Surely, even our out of touch politicians can’t have failed to notice the public mood?  As if the expenses scandal isn’t enough of a clue, then the high level of public indignation towards the recent tube strike, not just because of the inconvenience it caused, but because a 5% pay increase was widely seen as unreasonable, can’t have gone unnoticed.  

 

As if we needed any further reminders, politicians are completely detached from those they represent.   But really, to now be talking about MPs deserving a large pay increase leaves me open mouthed.   Someone somewhere needs some decent PR advice.  Though, clearly, for this lot it’s too late.

Remote working in France: a question of trust?

By Carol Pender

 

Already endorsed by the National Assembly and now about to go before the Senate, a new bill is currently being voted on in France that should make it easier to work from home.

 

Remote working has had difficulty establishing itself in France, where only 7% of employees currently work from home, compared to 13% in other European countries. With so many advantages associated with flexible working – be it a better life-work balance, lower capital expenditure or a reduced carbon footprint – this raises the question: why haven’t the French embraced working from home?

 

Aside from the technical and security issues companies must address in order to facilitate remote workers, maybe the answer lies in a simple lack of mutual trust and also a lack of ambition.

 

In France, it’s not unusual for people to stay in the office later than necessary just so they appear to be working late and create the right impression. They could, of course, be chatting online or surfing the net, but who’s to know? 

 

The prevalence of open plan offices (or ‘open spaces’ as they’re known here in France) has only made matters worse.  Last year, two ex-open spacers published a book called ‘L’Open Space m’a tuer’ – literally, ‘Open Space killed me’.  Alongside discussing the jargon used by this new generation of workers, the book talks about the growing need to nurture your visibility within a company i.e. to be seen as a good little soldier beavering away. Not quite so easy if you’re working from home...

 

And from an employer’s point of view, remote working means that he or she can’t keep a close eye on you, instead they simply have to trust you’ll do a good job.

 

Then again, shouldn’t trust be the basis of any productive, healthy relationship to begin with?  And surely, as long as the work gets done and deadlines are met, it shouldn’t really matter where your desk is located.

 

If this bill is finally adopted by the French government, it will be interesting to see if it has a real impact on working methods. After all, just because you can, doesn’t mean you will…sometimes changing a person’s mindset is the hardest part.

Susan Boyle – another lesson in PR, people power and social media

By Richard Scarlett

Whether it’s Ashton Kutcher versus CNN, breaking news of international disasters or Stephen Fry stuck in a lift – every now and again, we get glimpses of the relentless and persuasive force of social media.

 

Of course, the most recent example was ITV unwittingly hitting the PR jackpot with dreary Susan Boyle – or SuBo as she is more affectionately known these days.  From the moment she first stepped onto that Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) stage back in April, I’m sure she had already been reserved a place on the blooper reel and condemned to a year of patronising ITV2 spin-off shows. 

 

However, the ensuing – and somewhat surprising – hysteria and SuBo-mania must have had ITV’s marketing department hi-fiving.  They sent her out to the wolves and then just sat back to watch the viewing figures stack up (before cruelly spitting her out to The Priory once she was no longer lucrative).

 

Now, as someone who has never watched an episode of BGT, I was in the rare position of seeing this viral masterpiece unfold from a total outsider’s perspective.  I’d never heard of this woman, nor heard her sing, but all of a sudden she’d become an overnight sensation with millions of YouTube hits and I just couldn’t get away from her – I even found myself confronted with a show about her during a recent trip to Florida.

 

Annoying as it all was, it did get me thinking about how quickly Boyle went from being a humble talent show contestant to one of Simon Cowell’s most successful global PR tools.

 

In the business world, so much time is spent predicting and speculating as to what the next ‘big thing’ will be in social networking, that I sometimes worry we’re in danger of missing out on the opportunities already out there. 

 

YouTube had only just found its feet before MySpace took over, but that was thwarted when Facebook was hailed as marketing’s new sweetheart – but that didn’t last either, because before long, everyone wanted to be Linked In.  Nevertheless, that’s all old hat because everybody who is anybody is now Tweeting.  Unless, of course, you live in China – in which case this all becomes irrelevant.

 

I guess my point is that, while it’s good to embrace new technologies, and while the rate of innovation is increasing, we shouldn’t forget the enormous impact that simple, ‘old school’ favourites such as YouTube can still have on marketing and publicity efforts.  How did Ashton beat CNN in the Twitter race, why did Susan Boyle become the phenomenon that she did?  Because both Ashton and Simon Cowell have a good understanding of social media and know how to effectively manipulate various mediums to create a buzz among savvy bloggers.

 

I’m not saying that every video that you upload or Facebook group you create will have the SuBo effect, but there could be value in stopping to consider how best to get the most out of social networking sites, rather than frantically trying to just ‘stay ahead of the curve’.