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A golden ticket to the Olympic Stadium – and passing the baton on…

By Jacqueline Booker

As I’m sure all the faithful readers of our blog will now know – Johnson King is currently raising money for the NSPCC as part of the Olympic Gold Challenge. Due to the superb fundraising efforts of the team here so far (who have already raised more than £2,000 so thanks to everyone who has donated!), we secured a place in one of the hundred metre heats at the Gold Challenge Event – one of the first competitive events to be held at the London 2012 Olympic Stadium.

Feeling inspired by a recent read of ‘Yes Man’ I decided, alongside my colleagues Ben and Claire, to put my name forward for the opportunity.  And you’ve guessed it, I was selected.  Now for those of you who know me, you will know that I am probably one of the least sporty people alive.  Running to me is something that you do as a very last resort, or at its very best, something you do to get to the shops a little quicker. It is definitely not an activity of pleasure. That said, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and one that I was incredibly excited, if a little nervous, about taking up.

Training for the event started with a few sprints down my street.  My mother, visiting for the weekend (who incidentally also has no running experience to speak of) advised me that my running style left a lot to be desired, “You’re not running on the balls of your feet, dear.  If you want to have any hope of winning in this thing, you need to run on the balls of your feet.” Well, that told me. The sprints, if I can call them that, were swiftly followed by a 15km bike ride round Richmond Park with fellow JK Gold Challengers Lindsey and Flora.  As I’m sure they both will testify, it’s definitely a good thing that the big race itself was not going to be any such distance.  It would not have been pretty.

So I was ready, I was trained (well, I’d tried) and I had my lycra neon outfit prepared, so all systems go, right? Alas, this budding athlete was struck down in her prime by the flu.  And the day before the big event, decided to pull out and hand the baton over to Ben who, let’s face it, definitely knows how to run the proper way (even my discerning mother would have thought so), and may actually have a hope of not coming last.

Check back tomorrow for Ben’s thoughts on the day

Johnson King turns 20!

by Mike King

Wow, I can’t believe that this year marks the 20^th anniversary of Johnson King.  One minute I was in a small, two roomed office behind an Indian restaurant in Blackheath with lots of hair and a dodgy quiff and the next I’m sitting here wondering where it all went (the time as well as the hair). 

When Sarah and I started the agency back in 1992 the tech industry was very different from today, nothing like as mainstream or accessible as it is now, and PR campaigns were much more straightforward with the focus usually on technical details and product features rather than topical issues, developing stories and building brands.

There was no public internet to speak of back then, all media outlets were print based and, amusing as it may now seem, weekly tech news was seen as fast moving and current.  Technology was seen as a niche area to the extent that the mainstream newspapers just weren’t interested in covering technology stories.  I can remember phoning a journalist on The Times to pitch a big tech story and being told, “Technology’s not our bag old boy.” 

Roll the clock forward and not only has the tech industry exploded and changed dramatically but so too, of course, has the media, the way we work and what we deliver to our clients.  The well known Heraclitus quote “the only constant is change” sums up the past 20 years perfectly for me and it is the way that we’ve evolved and grown as an agency over the years that gives me the most satisfaction. 

We’ve been through boom times (during the tech boom of the late 90s there were so many well funded tech firms looking for PR support that clients were almost pitching to us to persuade us to take them on) as well as several recessions (the worst being the tech crash in the early 2000s that saw our revenues halve over a three year period) and we’ve reinvented ourselves numerous times to ensure we deliver dynamic and innovative campaigns and, in doing so, we’ve picked up many industry awards over the years.   

The one thing that hasn’t changed is our dedication to providing the best service we possibly can to our clients.  We’ve never been the biggest tech PR firm but we’ve always strived to provide the highest quality service and employ the best people.  Our dedication to recruitment, training and staff development is well known and, in turn, we’ve been rewarded with amazing levels of hard work, commitment and enthusiasm from our staff.  A big thank you goes to our incredibly talented team for their genuine brilliance.

Of course, we wouldn’t have an agency without our clients and we’ve had the opportunity to work with a huge variety of tech firms including some of the biggest, fastest growing and most innovative.  In this our 20^th year, I’d also like to thank all our clients past and present for their support.    

As for the future, we’ve got big plans and, given the rate of change in both technology and the media, I’m sure the years ahead are going to be even more of a whirlwind with plenty of surprises to keep us all on our toes.  It’s going to be fun.

Beam me up Broadway

By Bex Surtees

Anyone who’s spent five minutes with me will know that I’m a complete theatre geek.  This should give you a good indication as to my levels of excitement when I discovered – nearly too late, mind you – that a special performance of Stephen Sondheim’s legendary Company* would be beamed into select cinemas across the country last week.

Thanks to the clever folks at More2Screen, who deal in bringing live arts and culture events to the masses via the big screen, the US recording was transmitted simultaneously at 7pm nationwide and followed by a live Q&A from London.  With an all-star cast from stage and screen, and backed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, it was literally a once in a lifetime watch. 

Slightly disappointing then that my local Cineworld’s vast Sky Superscreen entertained a total of just 15 people.  That’s right, 15 out of a possible 770 seats in Europe’s biggest non-imax screen.  Admittedly, I can’t account for other venues that night, but what a travesty it was to see such a timeless piece of theatre projected to such a small number of people. 

So, as I tucked into my popcorn and put my musical theatre bias aside, I pondered the PR support around these kinds of events.  In an age of digital media, where organisations have social media channels coming out of their ears, where was the promotion, the buzz, the pizzazz?

“It’s a niche event,” I hear you cry.  Well, let’s not forget the theatre-going community weighed in at approximately 13 million people in 2011 – and that was with a ten percent drop over the last two year period.  That’s still a pretty sizable audience in my books. 

And with the interest ‘live theatre’ has created in recent years, I guess I’d expected to see healthier audience numbers – especially when there’s the opportunity to see this calibre of show in the comfort of your local cinema, at a fraction of the (pricier than ever) theatre ticket. 

What is working here is the simple application of technology to the theatre genre.  After what I would assume were lengthy production rights and funding discussions, the result has essentially brought us a whole new way to enjoy the arts – be it male swans, Shakespeare or jazz hands.

And to that I say, encore!

*In case you were wondering: the musical comedy opened on Broadway in 1970 to rave reviews, and the original production was nominated for a record-setting fourteen Tony Awards, winning six.  

Is social media the cause of slacktivism?

by Ginnia Cheng

As a PR, utilising the power of social media to my clients’ advantage is all part and parcel of my job role.  I regularly witness first-hand the rewards that can be reaped both for organisations and their customers when a social media campaign is well executed.  Out of work, I’m also a social media fanatic – ok, by fanatic I really mean addict – and I imagine you wouldn’t often run into someone who’s a bigger advocate of social media than I am.

So I don’t criticise social media lightly.  It’s just that recently, I’ve been more hesitant to associate as heavily with the ‘social media culture’ that has taken hold of our society.  My main gripe is how social media has bred a spectacular escalation in slacktivism – the support of an issue or social cause which one has little or no understanding of, and “that has little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction”.  This phenomenon’s rise can be single-handedly attributed to the proliferation of social networks, where people can simply click a ‘Like’ or a ‘Share’ button, change their profile picture, or post a status to show they are ‘supporting a cause’.

A perfect case in point is the recent ‘KONY 2012’ video that went viral – so viral, in fact, that it has already been deemed “the most successful viral video of all time” with 100 million views in 10 days.  The video, put out by an American charity, aims to raise awareness of Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony’s horrific crimes, and ultimately to encourage policy-makers to make greater efforts to "stop" Kony.  Within hours of its release, I’d already seen it posted on pretty much every social media platform I frequent.  Very quickly, more and more people on my friend and follower feeds started sharing the video and posting statuses about getting behind the cause – then suddenly, KONY 2012 was trending on Twitter – then celebrities on Twitter started linking to the video – and we all know that once celebs are involved, there’s no turning back.  It was like everyone on social networks had been gripped by a frenzy to bring down this evil warlord through ‘Like’ing and ‘Share’ing alone.

A day or two later, critics of the video began to surface, and the charity was accused of having suspicious financial records, oversimplifying social and political issues and using emotional manipulation in the clip.  Even the people the video was purporting to save did not react kindly upon viewing it.  These criticisms started circulating through social media, and again, suddenly everyone was gripped by a frenzy to attack the charity – many of which, on my feeds anyway, were the very same people who a day ago had declared their undying support to the KONY 2012 campaign.  To me, the KONY 2012 video did not just reveal the horrific crimes of a Ugandan warlord, but proved how many people mindlessly ‘get behind’ a cause without putting any thought into – because all they is have to do is click a button or two.

This isn’t the first time that slacktivism has been brought to the limelight.  We’ve blogged before about how the Breast Cancer Facebook status campaigns – while not relating to breast cancer in any way – were undeniable in creating buzz and awareness around the disease.  However, I can’t help but wonder whether making a status on a social cause allows people feel like they’ve ‘done their part’ and no longer have to make a donation.

Social media has even made it possible for other ‘social networking’ sites to ‘go viral’, and another recent viral phenomenon is social network come ‘online pin board’ Pinterest.  It is now the fastest stand-alone site to reach ten million visitors in a month, and the entire site is based on social photo-sharing (most of photos which are not taken by the submitter).  While admittedly, I do like going on the site once in a while, this great article by Brian Donovan on Thought Catalog summarises my thoughts on Pinterest – in short, “it’s literally the least amount of information that can be put in front of you and still make you feel like you’re looking at something”.

I truly think that Pinterest illustrates how to make something so popular so quickly in the context of our modern-day time-starved lives – “there’s nothing to understand [on Pinterest]. You just log on and let the pictures wash over as they fly through the air.  It’s brilliant in both its simplicity and wildly low estimation of our intellectual demands”.  Perhaps other not-so-successful social networks such as the long-forgotten Quora disappeared from the public eye because it required actual thought processes.

All in all, while I’m growing wary of the ‘power of social media’, I’m not going to be checking out of any social networks any time soon.  However, I truly hope that as our reliance on social media continues to grow, people start to think before they click, and if they do click, then it doesn’t stop them from actively doing something in support of what they’re clicking.  

52km down, 1,960km to go

By Mike King

I was up early on Sunday morning for a 6.30am start to my ride. Fortunately, I hadn’'t had too much to drink on Saturday night so I was feeling OK, if a little sleepy.  The light traffic and early morning sunshine were some compensation for getting up at the crack of dawn and made all the difference to what was a really enjoyable first ride in my contribution to Johnson King's 2012 Gold Challenge. 

My route was a loop that took me from Greenwich out into Kent and then back to Greenwich, a total of just over 50km.   As I set off, my first challenge was to cycle up Maze Hill, a steep incline that starts less than 100 yards from my house.  Maze Hill isn’t very long but with a 10% gradient it was a bit of a shock to the system at that time in the morning, particularly when there had been no time to warm up.  Still, by the time I reached the top I had woken up and was ready for the rest of the ride.

From Maze Hill, it was good varied run out through Sidcup to Farningham then Wilmington, Bexley Village and back to Greenwich.   A total distance of 52km covered.

My next ride is in a couple of weeks, by which time I’ll have a new bike.  Sarah's bought me a carbon framed racer for my birthday and hopefully it'll make Maze Hill a little less challenging. 

 

 

Johnson King’s 2012km charity challenge – help us raise £5,000 for the NSPCC

In 2012 the team at Johnson King wants to raise £5,000 for the NSPCC, a charity that’s tirelessly campaigning against child cruelty in the UK. 

To help meet this target (and to mark the Olympics coming to town) a group of us are taking part in the 2012 Gold Challenge which will see us chance our arm at several Olympic sports and, between us, we aim to cover at least 2012km.  We’ve got a whole host of events planned – from kayaking down the River Thames, to cycling the Olympic road race route, to a Boris Bike relay across London.  You can check out how many kilometres we’ve covered on the Gold Challenge website, plus we’ll also be posting regular status updates and photos here on our blog and on Twitter.

Of course, we’d really appreciate it if you can sponsor us and help us raise money for the NSPCC. The quickest way to do that is via Virgin Money Giving.

Many thanks for your support!

On the wrong track

By Ingrid Daschner

The politicians here in Germany seem to have assumed that no one would be too bothered about ACTA. After all, who could possibly get worked up about ACTA – the proposed international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, aimed at combating product piracy? A handful of activists, maybe, but other than that?

The elected representatives of the people, old-hands at the game of politics, really should have known better. In 2011, the Pirate Party, which was only founded in 2006, took 8.9 percent of the vote in the not exactly inconsequential Berlin State Parliamentary elections. To put that in perspective, the FDP (Free Democratic Party), a member of the ruling German coalition, polled just 1.8 percent, representing a support base so slight they could almost have shaken each of their voters personally by the hand. As for the Pirates – the information society is what they’re all about.

Now ACTA is out for consultation and tens of thousands of people are taking to the streets. Tens of thousands of people who, to the established political parties, are as incomprehensible as a table dancer is to a monk. The generation which makes up the bulk of the representatives of the people can barely conceive of the idea that the internet is a core aspect of the lives of many people under the age of 30 (and indeed many over 30s). And they’re not going to let it be regimented, have laws imposed upon it or be hemmed in by regulations. Period. Should we, perhaps, have started to take these children of the digital age seriously a little sooner? Should we, perhaps, not have delegated the issue of digital media to a sub-committee?

ACTA is currently on ice, awaiting examination by the European Court of Justice, so there’s still time for the honourable ladies and gents in Berlin to get hold of a copy of The Internet for Dummies. So why not trot down to your nearest bookshop. Alternatively you could even risk ordering one from amazon.de, but that really would be going out on a limb.

 

My days at CeBIT 2012

by Oliver Fischer

This week, the world’s largest IT expo CeBIT, attracted visitors from all over the world.  For the second time now, I got the chance to go to Hanover, supporting our clients Equinix and protected-networks.com.  There is a lot to say about my experience at CeBIT this year, but to keep it nice and simple I just wanted to give you my – personal and very subjective – lowlights and highlights of the event.

Lowlights

1. Giveaway hunters: It can get really annoying when you stand in front of a booth, waiting for a journalist to arrive and approximately every 20 seconds, someone comes up to you, asking if you have any freebies.  Seriously, do I look like Santa Claus?  (Although perhaps I’m just jealous because I didn’t get one of those footballs everybody else was carrying around…)

2. Musical warfare: I don’t want to sound like my grandfather, but I can’t see the point in having a DJ (or in one case a band) at booths at a business IT event.  So many stands had loud pop music playing while at their competitor’s booth some metres away, people were trying to listen to a really interesting lecture.  This isn’t exactly going to endear those people to come visit their stand later on.

3. Bad bus karma: Somehow, I managed to just miss the shuttle every single time I had to get to the other side of the show.  I’m not quite sure what I did to deserve that.

Highlights

1. The organisation: The organisers had to fight some serious challenges this year but they did it great!  The best examples are probably how they moved 400 exhibitors from hall 9 to hall 26 on very short notice and how – together with the city of Hanover – they faced a public transport strike on Thursday. (But the WiFi fee is still ridiculous…)

2. The lectures: Perhaps I’ve just been lucky, but the lectures and speeches I heard ranged from good and informative, to plain awesome.  It really helps if the person giving the presentation has at least some charisma, and the ability to interact with the audience.  Special mention goes here to James Lyne from Sophos whose live demonstration of malware threats was so interesting and funny that I went there twice!

3. The Hot Dog stand in hall 5: Seriously, those were some pretty good hot dogs…

Want to share your experience? Feel free to comment or contact me on Twitter: @Oliver_Fischer

Nike makes PR count by getting people talking

By Dana Hashem

You can tell that a PR campaign is a good one when it infiltrates your daily grind.  That’s exactly what happened to me this week, when I was persuaded to take a friend’s place on a Nike Training Club session...in a pod on the London Eye.

As a profoundly un-sporty person, the notion that I’d be bench-pressing in an iconic British landmark on a Wednesday evening would have seemed ludicrous to me this time last week.  But somehow, I suddenly found myself getting involved – and what’s more, I was a convert to the cause. 

In essence, the idea behind Nike’s takeover of the Eye was to inspire women to make the most of the extra Leap Year day and take a positive step towards improving their fitness.  The stunt was part of Nike’s wider #makeitcount campaign (which, incidentally, had already crept into my life when my cousin relayed the tale of having his photo taken in a Nike store and then projected onto screens at Westfield Stratford) and echoed the call to set ambitious personal goals during 2012 – the year of the London Olympics.

Now, it was word of mouth – that holy grail of PR tools – that persuaded me to give the training session a go, but Nike’s mighty communications machine had certainly been whirring away in the background to get me to that point.  The event was heavily publicised through the Nike Training Club UK Facebook page, where competition for places was fierce and sharing of posts was rife.  Excitement was also building on Twitter, where references to the #makeitcount campaign were adding to the hype.

The impact of the stunt itself was impressive.  Bathed in vibrant green light toned to match Nike’s branding for the #makeitcount campaign, the Eye could be seen for miles around – and was a spectacle that even prompted comment from a passer-by as I headed down to the training session.  With a run-by from Nike’s running club and a game of basketball in play on the balcony of County Hall, it was plain to see that something was going on – and wherever I turned, people were talking about it.

Since making it back down from the top of the Eye in one piece, I’ve discovered that Nike’s #makeitcount campaign has been giving its rival and Olympic sponsor Adidas a run for its money.  Research carried out by BrandWatch shows that Nike is dominating conversations about the Olympics on the internet, with 7.7 percent of the conversations associated with the brand.  Adidas, meanwhile, is trailing behind with a paltry 0.49 percent of conversations – a painful statistic when you consider that the price it paid to be the official Olympic sponsor was reportedly £100m.  Just goes to show that the power of PR can outstrip that of advertising if you’ve got a great idea and the means to roll it out...

 

In the digital era, can you really disappear?

by Lindsey Challis

With Facebook’s new Timeline feature, and continuous news stories of incriminating tweets from way back when, it seems that deleting your past may be harder than you think.  Deleting your present, however, shouldn’t be so difficult – you just stop sharing, tweeting, and updating – right?

Well I’m not so sure. Take for example the tenant who just did a runner from a house my Dad is looking after.  They had no qualms walking out of a house full of furniture, plates and even a wedding dress (yes, a wedding dress), but they just couldn’t bear to leave Facebook.

Our digital identities, created through sites such as Facebook and Twitter, have become too valuable to give up.  And if we are to commit virtual suicide, it’s not just your digital self you give up, it's all of your friends’ digital personas too.  Social media has become a web of connections and information that, for some, is simply impossible to leave behind.

While digital and real personas are obviously intertwined, they are surprisingly different, and this is what many people forget when using social media.  A tweet or Facebook post is not the same as a postcard or a phone call – crucially it is public, it is searchable, and it can therefore be incriminating. 

This situation is really a testament to the value of Facebook and other social media channels.  As more and more information gets plugged into Facebook by its users, people feel as though they can’t erase it from their lives.  Doing so would impinge on their reality, be it less contact with friends or seeing fewer family photos.

But there are pitfalls to over sharing.  If too many people get burnt – either by allowing hackers to gain personal information, or by landlords finding out where defaulting tenants have ‘disappeared’ to – the bubble may burst, and people could stop trusting social media sites with their valuable information.  

I’m under no illusion that people will struggle to wean themselves off social media, but I do hope that the perception of such sites changes, and people do become more aware of how much their digital persona reveals about reality.  After all, if I can find out the location of an ex-tenant in hiding, hackers could likely find out much more.

It also begs the question – what is more important, your digital persona or your wedding dress?