Stuff that PR consultants just do
25th April 2023
Tis the season… to be worried about your firm’s reputation
We’ve all seen those “the dos and don’ts of the office Christmas party” articles that appear in the media each year – and I must confess I’ve written a few of them in my time, as it’s a great PR tactic.
You know the ones:
– don’t photocopy your arse
– don’t slap your bald boss’s head
– don’t […]
A lesson in results-driven PR
I constantly strive to demonstrate the return on investment that PR can generate and I’ve just had a great example that’s very close to home.
Since my partner became head teacher of a primary school over in Leicestershire, I’ve become her PR lackey. It’s an unpaid role but, hey, the boss is great!
Anyone in the education […]
Journalist’s #prgripe tweets are a PR masterclass
I’m not sure that one vexed journalist has twigged that his irked tweets are proving to be an inadvertent PR masterclass.
Over the last few weeks, Derby Telegraph’s business reporter, Oliver Astley, has been taking to Twitter to bemoan examples of bad PR practice.
It’s clear that some companies and their PR people have hacked him off […]
So you want to be a marketeer?
This is a guest blog by Elizabeth Wallace, who attended a seminar I gave to undergraduates last week at Keele University about getting into marketing.
As a marketing virgin with aspirations of making it big in the world of PR and posters, I attended Paul Kirby’s talk on “Three Things You Need To Know To Get […]
Sky Bet’s wedding woe is PR gold
Sometimes, the only thing you can do is marvel at a brilliant piece of PR.
Step forward the PR team at Sky Bet, who pulled something very special out of the bag after turning one football fan’s woe into unadulterated bliss.
In the run up to last weekend’s Sky Bet League One game between my team Wolverhampton […]
Victim of a press hatchet job?
An organisation I’ve started working with wants to publicise a big industry accreditation it has won – but it’s worried about another hatchet job by the local press.
Why? Well, the last time it publicized a similar award, the coverage that appeared in local media wasn’t the triumphal article it was hoping for. In fact, it […]
How many press releases does a journalist receive each day?
It always fascinated me to know how many press releases a journalist receives each day and, from that, how many actually get published.
So I asked that question when I had a coffee with the managing and associate editors of an online news website in Lincoln that has become hugely influential in the city.
In a little […]
Lego cops great PC PR
I’m a massive fan of Lego’s PR and it’s done it again with its latest stunt that’s hit the headlines.
Previously, the Danish toy maker has built a lifesize Volvo car, done it’s own version of famous album covers and even built a 10m tall Christmas tree in London’s Kings Cross St Pancras railway station.
This time […]
Saving client from a celebrity magazine rip-off
I hate bursting other people’s balloons – but when it saves someone £4,000 I can live with it.
The balloon in question was an ‘offer of a lifetime’ double-page spread advertising deal in a celebrity magazine that one of my clients had signed up for after being contacted directly by the advertising team from the publishing […]
Krispy Kreme jam chaos is textbook PR
Well done Krispy Kreme for a creative take on one of the oldest PR tricks in the book to launch its first store in Scotland.
A crowd draws a crowd and the fact that there were traffic jams around Edinburgh’s Hermiston Gait Retail Park as people descended en masse with the lure of free doughnuts turned […]
Monopoly lets cat out of bag with game-changing PR
One of the first was the revival of Cadbury’s Whisper. Then we had the Walkers Crisps Do us a flavour challenge a year later. And now board game manufacturer Hasbro is the latest brand to reap the PR rewards of an internet campaign giving fans the chance to say what goes into their product offering.
Hasbro […]
Facebook a mobile company? Is it heckers ‘Like’?
So Mark Zuckerberg reckons Facebook’s a mobile company does he?
Well, just in case you haven’t heard, the social network has just released its latest financial figures accompanied by a statement in which Zuckerberg claimed that 2012 was the year that Facebook became a mobile company.
To sum up briefly what’s been going on, the company has […]
5 PR pitching goofs that every practitioner should avoid
So you’ve got a great story, you’ve done your media research, written your press release and are ready to issue it to your target publications and editors.
But your work doesn’t stop there if you want reporters to pick out your story from the hundreds, or sometimes thousands, they receive from PR agencies every single week.
Yet […]
Nearly all of us need more social media expertise
Do you feel you’re struggling to get a grip on social media while others are somehow racing ahead and reaping all the rewards? If so, then you may be interested to learn that you’re not alone.
It seems that, contrary to common perception, only a relatively small minority of social media users actually consider themselves as […]