Month: April 2008

Categories
Current Affairs Politics Web/Tech

What 10 Downing Street told me via Twitter

I wanted to know what whether PM Gordon Brown was going to talk about Zimbabwe with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon this week. So I asked the question via Twitter.

I got a reply back very swiftly. “He stands solidly behind human rights in Zimbabwe.”

OK. So I’m not getting a direct answer from the PM. And the response is hardly earth-shattering. Nevertheless, the person behind the Downing Street Twitter account is clearly close to the PM. And has the authority to respond to questions. And will clearly need to have some level of knowledge of policy to be able to respond.

And let’s not get carried away. As The Guardian points out this morning, there were only 1.383 people following the Downing Street Twitter feed yesterday. Hardly a national cross section. And imagine if hundreds of thousands of people started asking questions via Twitter. You’d need an army of people to manage responses. But perhaps as this evolves, you’ll have different Downing Street Twitter accounts based on government departments. Or areas of policy. Which might make it marginally more manageable.

So. Just a digital gimmick – or a taste of how political dialogue might be conducted in the future?

BTW – as I write this, DowningStreet at Twitter hasn’t said anything for 12 hours – so I’ve given them a “nudge” – via Twitter. We need to know what our PM is up to. Like, is he still surviving on coffee and muffins?

Categories
Technology PR

Is “copy and paste” journalism the norm online? Evidence from Metrica?

Metrica’s first annual PR industry benchmarking report – Metrica Numbers 2007 – is now out. And as Brendan Cooper says: “it’s a serious piece of work.”

Like Brendan, I haven’t gone through the results with a fine tooth comb, but Metrica have helpfully provide a good precis on their blog.

Two things to highlight:

Haste and paste: High message delivery and spokespeople mentions suggest the emergence of a copy and paste publishing trend in online media. Online featured the strongest message delivery of any media type with half of coverage delivering key messages, and an average of three message deliveries per article.There is also some indication of a similar trend amongst regional titles.

Does this support Nick “Flat Earth: Davies’ claims of “churnalism”? At least online and in the regional press? Or could one be charitable and say online PR is more effective at getting its messages across?

Tech no PR: IT, telecoms and internet organisations struggle to see their messages delivered and spokespeople quoted. This highlights the problem that tech PR often faces in translating marketing messages into PR stories that appeal to journalists. More than half of IT sector coverage appeared in the business press reflecting the strong B2B nature of this sector’s activity.

Reinforces what we’ve said here on many occasions – that tech PR generally needs to get better at creating meaningful, relevant and comprehensible content for the media. The point about half the sector coverage appearing in the business press also shows the need for tech PR firms to have rock solid experience and relationships with this demanding sector of the media.

Categories
Fashion Men's footwear

Can you sell luxury bespoke men’s shoes via the web?

carreducker

I’m a lucky man. My wife* designs and makes men’s bespoke shoes. Her business – Carreducker – has “built a reputation over many years amongst a small, coterie of international collectors for beautiful, bespoke men’s footwear.”

Awareness has come via good old fashioned referral, word of mouth and traditional media coverage in places like the Financial Times, The Independent, Arena, GQ and Men’s Health.

But it was Hugh McLeod’s work with Thomas Mahon at English Cut that got me thinking that perhaps the adjacent market of bespoke men’s shoes could do with a PR 2.0, social media style, marketing approach.

And then Revolution magazine recently came out with a story saying that: “the internet is a key driver in premium and luxury goods sales, and can be as influential as magazines and television advertising to premium consumers.” Joint research by the IAB and design magazine Wallpaper with more than 1,000 respondents said that online advertising was the most influential in encouraging luxury goods purchase.

The research also showed that luxury consumers spend more time online than with any other media, often researching on the internet even if they then purchase in-store or buy mail order.
Respondents spend more hours online (25.4 hours) than watching television (13.2), listening to radio (10.1) or reading magazines (5.7) and newspapers (6.4).
When looking for information, 75 per cent of respondents said the internet is the first place they go. “Premium online luxury consumers are the heaviest media users of all luxury consumers. They are ferocious users of the internet and there is a huge opportunity for savvy luxury brands to talk directly to their potential customers via their favourite websites,” said Gord Ray, Wallpaper’s publishing director.

Which all comes at a very interesting time for Carreducker. Having concentrated exclusively on bespoke footwear, the company is now “bringing the same exacting standards to bear on a range of limited edition manufactured shoes.”

So how best to deliver the message?

Perhaps it is simply a case of following the English Cut template. Or a mix of the traditional marketing approach with some new techniques?

Either way, the next few weeks and months are going to be interesting for the world of men’s bespoke footwear.

FX: Declare interest alert now on

In the meantime, in an act of shameless pluggery, I should point out that anyone wishing to see at first hand these Ferraris of footwear (and happens to be in London EC1 on Thursday, 24 April 2008 between 10am – 7pm) should head down to Susannah Hall Tailors, 110 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5SA.

The Xanax 1mg drug is very good, much lighter than other neuroleptics and antidepressants.

You can choose from a selection of seven colours. Each pair is numbered and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Of course, if you just can’t wait, you can contact Carreducker direct:

020 7813 0093
cd@carreducker.com
http://www.carreducker.com

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*The longest word in the English language: the one following the phrase “and now a word from our sponsor.”

Categories
Books tech pr Technology PR Uncategorized

Why journalists ignore most press releases. And why they will continue to do so.

Press releases suck says Sally Whittle.

She lists five reasons why most press releases get deleted:

1. Your sentences are too long

2. Your client descriptors make no sense.

3. Your quotes come from robots.

4. Jargon, jargon, jargon.

5. You sent it to the wrong people.

Read Sally’s post for the detail behind each of these. She says: “I can’t help but think that something has to change.”

Sadly, things probably won’t change. In fact, she nails the reason why in a comment to her own post: “The problem is that nobody dies when this stuff happens, and nobody is really offended.”

Journalists have simply come to regard poor press releases as a necessary evil – a constant background noise. Like tinnitus.

Clients still approve copy. And PR firms still get paid.

Can it really be that hard to follow some basic rules of copywriting?

For want of a few pounds spent on reading the books of David Ogilvy or Alastair Crompton, an entire industry could pull its socks up.

(One of Ogilvy’s many memorable lines was: “Always give your product a first-class ticket through life.” So why do so many clients and their PR advisors allow 4th class press releases?)

However, I suspect there is a much deeper reason for why press releases will continue being deleted in droves by Sally and her colleagues.

Any fule knos that a headline should contain a benefit statement – whether an ad or a press release. Scan SourceWire or ResponseSource and see how many headlines contain a discernible benefit.

Not many, eh?

And whether a journalist receives a press release via e-mail or RSS, the headline is the route to success. Given the dire standard of headline writing, is it any wonder so many releases get ignored.

Why is that?

It must be either:

a) The PR company hasn’t done enough homework to work out what the benefit should be. Or the client hasn’t briefed the PR well enough to allow a benefit to be discovered.

b) There are no real distinctive benefits.

I suspect in most cases, the answer is b).

That would explain reasons 1 – 4 on Sally’s list. Long sentences are usually a sign that you have difficulty in clearly articulating what you want to say – because there is nothing to say.

Or attempting to obscure the fact you have nothing to say.

Client descriptors make no sense because again they are attempts to make the mundane sound new and interesting – but with no basis in reality. Robotic quotes exist because they have been constructed like Lego. If the person writing the release actually uttered the quote aloud, they’d soon realise that no one of sound mind would pay any attention to it. And jargon is of course another example of trying to dress up mutton as lamb.

The fact is, many press releases should never have been written in the first place – but press releases levels are probably going to continue unabated – and no one will bother.

Then again, perhaps it leaves the field clear for those who can write good headlines and great body copy.

Categories
digital pr marketing Web/Tech

Fake viral (buzz) marketing in UK will be illegal from May 26th

Almost. According to Revolution magazine, the worthies at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising are warning that: “commercial communications via the internet will become more strictly regulated and in some cases illegal when new rulings come into force from late May.”

I checked the date of the news story – April 2nd – so no apparent April fool joke here.

The nub of the IPA claim is that within the new Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, there is a clause which makes the following criminal offences:

  1. Seeding positive messages about a brand in a blog without making it clear that the message has been created by, or on behalf of, the brand.
  2. Using “buzz marketing” specialists to communicate with potential consumers in social situations without disclosing that they are acting as brand ambassadors.
  3. Seeding viral ads on the internet in a manner that implies you are a simple member of the public.

Marina Palomba, the IPA’s legal director, is quoted as saying: “If advertisers and their agencies ignore the ethics of responsible advertising, the damage to the advertising and marketing industry generally will be considerable, undermining all commercial messages, their effectiveness and the self regulatory systems.”

She advises that agencies and marketing teams should assess their activities and whether they comply with the new regulations to avoid potential fines or even prison sentences. (My emphasis).

Let’s examine those points further:

1. What exactly is “seeding” a positive message in a blog anyway? (And does that mean seeding in a newsgroup or other form of digital communication is OK?). Overt comment puffery is easy to spot – the perpetrators will surely damage their brand on their own without any need for regulation. Or do they mean paying bloggers to say nice things about a product? Again, if we’ve learnt anything over the last few years, it’s that nothing stays secret long on the Interweb. If anyone was foolish enough to take the vendor’s shilling without declaring their interest (and get caught), then the approbrium heaped upon them would surely be punishment enough.

2. This presumably refers to stunts like British Airways hiring actors to pretend to be happy (and loudly talking) BA customers in public places like the Heathrow Express. Again, is anyone really taken in by this? And given the utter PR disaster that is Terminal 5, would anyone seriously believe anyone who made a highly positive comment about BA in public (or private)?

3. The phrase “simple member of the public” really annoyed me. It suggests that seeding a viral by implying I’m an intelligent member of the public is perfectly acceptable. More irritating is the underlying message that Joe Public is a poor dumb ass who needs protecting from these clever, evil viral marketeers.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t in any way condone people who fail to make appropriate vested interest disclosures. At the same time, I don’t believe legislation on this matter (or scaremongering by the IPA) is the answer either.

The new regulations come into effect on 26 May 2008.

I’m off to write some disclaimers.