Drew B's take on tech PR

Brandgate boosts our bank balance

Looking at the single biggest media story develop in the press this week, I couldn't help wonder how such a non-story became the nation's biggest issue. And the effect it has had on business.

Up until the booting out, this has to be one of the biggest non stories in the media this year. I'm not suggesting this is not an issue (breaking Ofcom rules is no doubt a big issue for the BBC) but I would say this is a non story that for a various reasons has snowballed this week.

And today the FTSE finishes 8 per cent up, that's up over 300 points. On the day the media talks only about showbusiness. No coincidence there I'm sure.

So what exactly seems to have happened with this media coverage over the last three days as the story of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross insulting Andrew Sachs and family ballooned and made it to the front pages of every paper and justified a response from the Prime Minister, Ofcom and the Metropolitain Police?

On the front line of PR, we're hearing from a lot of the media that they are looking for stories that aren't about the credit crunch. The nation's not enjoying it strangely. Is this distraction of Brandgate and the coverage it warranted something to do with us wanting to take a step away from endless reports of the panic of our houses / businesses / savings disappearing along with western capitalism? It's either that or the entirety of mainstream media has ganged up on what are currently BBC Broadcasting's two top talents to take them down a peg or two.

Whatever reason, I hadn't seen many people looking into what made this issue a story, and why the story became so important to the nation. And what as a result the media agenda did to our economy.

Kerry Katona video - a spokesperson's worst PR nightmare

Today's sad / bizarre PR story was of Kerry Katona, who went on yesterday's This Morning on ITV, all slurry, acting a wee bit drunk, and as a result became the topic of conversation in all of the newspapers, radio and TV news. Here's the video of her appearance in case you'd like to see it. It's one of the most cringeworthy things you'll ever see.

What's interesting too, is that Max Clifford, Kerry's publicist, didn't defend her. He seemed to in fact criticise MTV who placed her on this morning, and said she was not fit to be interviewed. I'm wondering what she's feeling about Max now, not just Phil & Fern. And if it's MTV's fault in some way, I'm wondering what was going through the PR person's head who was staffing that interview!!

An interesting blog pitch

I received one of the most interesting blog pitches from a PR firm yesterday. It caught my attention because it came from someone at 5WPR (anyone remember why that name rings a bell? ). It also caught my attention because of the content...

Let me know your thoughts on how this works as a pitch to a blogger. I've purposely left in the copy & paste esque font changes, I've taken off the name of the person who sent it to me, and I've left in every mention of the word 'aggresive' and the a teeny bit over-the-top bigging up of the blog. The absence of personalisation is just as it was from the email to me as well.

Here goes:

I am writing to put the blog “PR Thoughts from Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5WPR” (http://ronntorossian.com/) on your radar. This is an amazing resource for anyone who works in public relations, who is interested in learning more about developments in this field, or who wants to benefit from the entrepreneurial and aggressive spirit of Ronn and 5WPR.  For someone like yourself who maintains a blog about the public relations industry and communications and media trends, Ronn’s blog would offer your readers an insider’s perspective that they undoubtedly would appreciate.

Ronn Torossian, the Founder, President and CEO of New York City based 5W Public Relations, is a nationally recognized expert in PR who has led 5W Public Relations to achieve a spot on the INC. 500 list in 2007 and the title of “fastest-growing agency” three years in a row.  Additionally, Torossian was named to Advertising Age’s 2006 “40 Under 40” list and PR Week’s 2007 “40 Under 40” list.  Referred to by the NY Post as a “publicity guru”, by Fox News as a “high-powered PR CEO”, by CNN as “a leading PR expert”, and by The New York Times as “The consummate hard-driving, scrappy NY publicist”, Torossian is a highly sought after speaker by CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, The New York Times, and others.  The same insights into PR that Torossian provides to these news outlets would be of considerable value to anyone with an interest in public relations.

 

The rapid growth of 5W Public Relations (including its expansion from New York City to Los   Angeles) was made possible by Ronn Torossian’s aggressive, results focused orientation and his close relationships with members of the media, key influencers, decision makers, politicians and celebrities.  Under Ronn’s leadership, 5W Public Relations has used its aggressive and committed talent to represent clients including Evian, Coca-Cola, Anheuser Busch, IHOP, McDonald’s, Microsoft, LA Gear, EDS, VeriSign, Seagram’s, The Loews Regency, Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment, Marriott Hotels, Russ Berrie & Company, NICE Systems, Vail Resorts, Pamela Anderson, Snoop Dogg, the Government of Israel, Avenue Stores, and Trinity Broadcasting Network.  These client experiences, combined with 5W PR’s status as a full-service public relation firm maintaining practice areas in consumer, technology, health and wellness, entertainment, lifestyle, fashion and corporate communications, make Ronn Torossian’s blog an excellent resource.

Gmail - the perfect email for bloggers (and journomalists)

Gmail has just launched a new feature - Canned Responses. It seems like it could be an awesome productivity tool for heavy-emailers who work on projects.

Canned Responses is a feature that lets you associate a canned reply to incoming mail based on what's in the email that arrives. So that, for example, if you are expecting a lot of emails to be coming in with the same subject line, such as "Blogging article pitch", you can set up an auto response just for that feature. Like "Ta muchly, I'm spending a week working on this feature and will get back to you next Thursday as I'm expecting like 1,000 emails. You can call my mobile if you want, because this is important to me, even though I don't normally give my number out willy nilly.".It made me think that this would be a great feature for people that need to collect large amounts of information on mini-projects - such as bloggers or journalists researching stories.

I'll be giving it a go to see if it's any good. Email me on drew.benvie @ gmail.com with the subject line Where you at Drew? And I'll tell you. With a canned robot response. Just to see if it works.

PR and social media round-up

Doesn't time fly. Since I last posted on this blog I've been on a holiday and our newest recruit at Hotwire, Phil, has joined. And whilst I'm looking into ways of overcoming a bit of jetlag that I didn't think I was going to get, I've been posting things mainly to my Twitter streat instead of here. So here's a round-up of PR and social media news that has caught my eye over the last few weeks:

• Who's on the short list for CTO of America / BusinessWeek
• Research on how Generation Y uses technology for social media / Wikinomics
• Facebook hits a 'really cool milestone' of 10 billion photos / FB Blog
• The 50 biggest moments in the internet's history / CNet
• Team moves: Simon Collister moves to Weber Shandwick, and WS' Colin Byrne is appointed European CEO

Welcoming our newest team member

It's all getting very exciting here at number 33 as there's some news that I'm now able to talk about. We have a new recruit starting at Hotwire soon and he'll begin working in Hotwire's digital media team.

 

Drum roll. Phil Sheard comes from Plusnet where he is Emarketing Manager and where he has spent the last seven years honing his digital wizardry. He's joining the Hotwire team in London as digital programme director.

 

I'm particularly happy to be welcoming Phil because I have worked with him before. Phil's pedigree is second to none and his ability to master PR campaigns is first class. He's also got all those lovely digital marketing skills we'll learn so much from that you tend to pick up when you've spent such a long time working in a place that's as well-respected as Plusnet is. Well respected for doing some very brilliant work.

 

Phil will be joining us very soon. Until then, just look him up online. As you'd expect from a future Hotwire digital master, he's all over it.