Stuff that PR consultants just do
25th April 2023
Starbucks CEO called me to apologise
Imagine my surprise when the CEO of Starbucks for the UK called me just 40 minutes after I emailed him to complain about a problem I’d had at one of its outlets.
I’ll admit it, I was a like a rabbit in the headlights as it was the last thing I expected when Kris Engskov called, introduced […]
TripAdvisor cheat trips up on fake hotel reviews
Glowing reviews on TripAdvisor about your hotel, B&B or restaurant can do wonders for business.
But, as we’ve so often seen time and time again, if those reviews have been manufactured with the self-serving purpose of misleading potential customers then it could spell PR disaster for virtually any establishment that gets caught red-handed.
We always advise clients […]
Five simple steps to kick-start your PR career
A career in public relations is both an exciting and rewarding one. And, going by the number of times we get asked about how we first managed to get our feet through the door, it still remains a profession that many people yearn for.
So, with many of this year’s graduates still looking for meaningful full-time […]
Farcical fresco restoration a PR masterpiece
When a hilarious news story about a Spanish pensioner’s botched repair to a 19th century church fresco made international headlines, virtually everyone in the public relations community knew exactly what to expect in the following few days.
Last week, TV and newspaper correspondents from around the world descended on the small town of Borja in the […]
Twitter worth more than Olympic gold
Following Team GB’s astounding success at London 2012, you’d no doubt expect a long line of sponsors queuing up to sign lucrative contracts with our Olympic medal winners.
And you’d be right.
But if you thought that scale of success at the games was a measure of each Olympic athlete’s earning potential then you’d most definitely be […]
Phoney Facebook Likes undermine PR potential
With a long list of successful Facebook and Twitter campaigns already behind us, social media activity has firmly established itself as part of the service that we offer many of our clients.
But, although we remain keen advocates of Facebook as a public relations tool, one aspect of the social networking site has recently given us […]
If you’re gonna book it, don’t Thomas Cook it
To many people outside our profession, practising PR is just a simple routine process of writing press releases, issuing company statements and making a few phone calls.
If only it were that simple.
Take, for example, the case of troubled holiday business Thomas Cook, which is currently in the throes of another major PR crisis after hundreds […]
The misconceptions many people still have about PR
Although we’ve been plying our trade for more than 15 years now, it never ceases to amaze us just how many people have misconceptions about PR and how many clients still have misguided expectations of what we can and cannot do as a public relations agency.
Perhaps the most common misunderstanding that we find is that […]
Five simple mistakes to avoid on Twitter
Whenever a prospective client approaches us about our services, we always ask them whether they would like us to manage their Twitter account as part of a wider online PR campaign.
Yet you wouldn’t believe just how many times a new client will tell us that, having already tried the microblogging platform, they think that Twitter […]
Subbuteo scores PR winner against Glasgow Rangers
As the maker of a table-top football game from a bygone age, Subbuteo could hardly be described as a brand at the centre of media attention in recent years.
But when the opportunity finally came to get its name in the headlines once again, the once-popular children’s toy can only be congratulated by taking advantage of […]
Facebook tiger tug challenge a roaring PR success
If you’re a regular visitor to this blog then you’ll no doubt have noticed just how much we love talking about social media and just how much it has changed the way we practise PR.
But when you consider the stunning results that a well-executed social media campaign can achieve then it’s not particularly hard to […]
Why we said no to BBC’s Newsnight
What would you do if you got a phone call from a client saying that they’d had a call from a reporter on BBC 2’s Newsnight (the heavyweight news programme requested an interview for a film package ahead of a studio discussion on that night’s programme)?
When Dan Marshall from Absolute Recruitment in Crewe called me […]
Twitter hashtag trial highlights PR potential
Following much of the recent debate about the future of Facebook as a viable long-term business model, many of us in the PR fraternity have been openly speculating as to where Twitter is planning to take its own rival social networking service.
However, now that the microblogging site has successfully completed the trial of its first […]
What Facebook advertising failures mean for PR
With barely hours to go before the much-hyped flotation of Facebook shares on the US stock market, yet another leading company has announced plans to stop advertising on the platform, reigniting the debate about what the future holds for the social network as an ongoing business concern.
US car manufacturing giant General Motors is the latest […]