901, 2012

You’re only ever one tweet away from disaster

By |9th January 2012|Crisis PR, Social media, Twitter|Comments Off on You’re only ever one tweet away from disaster

As Diane Abbott and Ed Miliband have proved, people in the public eye are only ever one tweet away from, at best, embarrassment or, in a worst case scenario, a full media storm.

That tweet by the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP in the wake of the verdicts in the murder trial of Stephen Lawrence […]

601, 2012

Racy racecourse tweet works a PR treat

By |6th January 2012|Crisis PR, Twitter|Comments Off on Racy racecourse tweet works a PR treat

If there’s one thing we stress above all else to anyone engaged in a Twitter social media campaign then it is always ‘think before you tweet’.

So imagine our surprise when a maladministered tweet on behalf of Plumpton Racecourse ended up giving the sporting venue invaluable positive publicity and a significant boost to the number of […]

2912, 2011

Provocative Playboy chair makes positive PR impression

By |29th December 2011|PR|Comments Off on Provocative Playboy chair makes positive PR impression

One of the most valuable skills that any public relations practitioner can have is the ability to spot the positive PR potential in virtually any unfavourable situation.

So you can imagine how impressed we were by a Sussex printing business, which has just turned a police complaint about a pair of £95 vintage chairs on display […]

1912, 2011

Will KLM’s in-flight social media take off?

By |19th December 2011|Facebook, Social media, Twitter|Comments Off on Will KLM’s in-flight social media take off?

Plain daft idea or not, you have to take your hat off to Dutch air carrier KLM for getting 5-star publicity following the announcement of a new system that will allows passengers to share each others’ social media profiles.

The airline is calling the service Meet & Seat, which will give customers the option to choose […]

1312, 2011

The PR penalty of mistaken identity

By |13th December 2011|Twitter|Comments Off on The PR penalty of mistaken identity

As PR peeps, we work extremely hard to raise the profile of our clients in any way we can. But for some people, such as Olympic gold-winning cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, becoming centre of media attention seems to come entirely by accident.

The 35-year old Scot has just become one of the leading topics of conversation amongst […]

912, 2011

Following in the footsteps of Saatchi & Saatchi

By |9th December 2011|PR|Comments Off on Following in the footsteps of Saatchi & Saatchi

I’d love to take full credit for adopting tactics favoured by PR and marketing legends Saatchi & Saatchi in getting one of my clients some fantastic coverage this year.

However, it’s as much to do with my client’s eleventh hour approach to approving press releases which has inadvertently resulted in such prominent coverage.

Let me explain.

Saatchi & […]

712, 2011

Ozzie goldfish PR stunt dead in the water

By |7th December 2011|PR stunts|Comments Off on Ozzie goldfish PR stunt dead in the water

Few in the PR fraternity would dispute that a well-conceived publicity stunt is one of the best ways of getting widespread media exposure.

But as an Australian regional development agency discovered at its peril, if you’re going to put yourself in the media spotlight then at least make sure that it is for the right reason.

Advantage […]

112, 2011

‘Tis the season for festive PR

By |1st December 2011|PR|Comments Off on ‘Tis the season for festive PR

In virtually any form of marketing, one of the most effective ways to capture consumers’ attention is to tie your campaign into prominent calendar, seasonal and news events, such as a royal wedding, Halloween or the summer holidays.

So it is good to see that many companies are currently taking advantage of the opportunity during this […]

2511, 2011

Lego is top of the tree for PR stunts

By |25th November 2011|PR stunts|0 Comments

If you’re a regular reader of this blog you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of Lego…well it’s PR to be more precise.

I doff my cap to the bright sparks who never cease to amaze me with their brilliance in using the toy bricks to come up with clever stunts that get brilliant media coverage.

There […]

2311, 2011

The bad PR TripAdvisor blackmail trick

By |23rd November 2011|Crisis PR|0 Comments

Just last July we talked about how hotels at home and abroad were offering guests sweeteners, such as free meals and room upgrades, in exchange for positive reviews on online travel consumer resource TripAdvisor.

But according to several recent newspaper reports, it seems that many guests are also adopting similar unscrupulous PR tactics by using threats […]

1711, 2011

Self-service beer pump makes mouth-watering pub-licity

By |17th November 2011|PR|0 Comments

It is often highly frustrating as a PR practitioner to see so many product innovations come to nothing, simply because the people behind them fail to recognise the importance of effectively marketing their business idea.

But had they followed the example of PR-savvy Yorkshire publican Dave Barron they could’ve instead been spreading the word about their […]

811, 2011

Ignore Google+ at your PR peril

By |8th November 2011|Google+|0 Comments

If you haven’t yet heard of Google+, the search giant’s fledgling social network based on a similar model to Facebook, then you’re very much not alone.

However, few people will have failed to notice one of the platform’s key features, the +1 button, which has been increasingly popping up in Google’s results pages recently and works […]

411, 2011

The power of PR in SEO

By |4th November 2011|PR, SEO|0 Comments

We in the public relations industry have long been aware of the importance of using PR methods to increase a website’s search engine ranking.

But now, it seems, Google has taken the concept one step further by introducing new functionality that takes comments posted to websites via social sites, such as Facebook and Disqus, into account […]

2710, 2011

Protesters do Shakespeare fraud film a PR favour

By |27th October 2011|PR|0 Comments

Why do so many people fall for the same-old PR trap of giving someone or something publicity just because they say or do something that flies in the face of convention?

But if you have anything to do with Colombia Pictures, the company behind a new film portraying William Shakespeare as a fraud, it’s unlikely that […]