At a time when the EU referendum has divided the UK, there has been a powerful, innovative, guerrilla marketing campaign that has succeeded in uniting the country to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.
Beautiful, moving, humbling, We’re Here Because We’re Here was a piece of living theatre that saw 1,400 volunteers dress in historically accurate WW1 military uniforms and appear unexpectedly in public locations across the UK on 1st July. (more…)
Right on the back of being invited to judge the fantastic Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Excellence Awards, I have now been asked to also become a judge for the CIPR PRide Awards 2016.
These regional awards recognise excellence in PR and communications, celebrating the most outstanding work delivered by consultancies and organisations across the UK.
This week brought a lovely surprise – I have been invited to be a judge for the fantastic Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Excellence Awards 2016.
The annual Awards are public relations’ most established celebration of creativity and professionalism and are designed to recognise the most outstanding PR talent across the UK. (more…)
I had a meeting recently with a charity set up for a specific disability, in the case of this charity’s members it was about providing support for a physical disability. OK, there was no mistaking the fact that the people in room were physically different to me but it was unimportant because I was focusing so much on the person within. (more…)
Occasionally, just very occasionally, a campaign comes along that makes your spine tingle…in a big way.
As a PR consultant I recommend activity to my clients that will fulfil specific objectives and implement these over the course of the year. Simples. But often this activity can be quite challenging to deliver and ambitious in its nature, and even….a world first!
Like many people, I’ve been watching the run up to the General Election with great interest, not just through the eyes of a voter, but more with the scrutiny of a marketing professional.
There was a time when election campaigning was all about knocking on doors, kissing babies, and outdoor advertising. The focus was on communicating the manifesto with speed, putting over the ‘party line’ as succinctly as possible and hoping that wry smiles would win over the electorate.
There was a time when a big part of festive season was about which single was going to be the Christmas number one and win the coveted air-time on Top of The Pops’ Christmas Special.
Sadly, those days are long gone but a new battle has emerged – one that is equally as potent and compelling….and just as lucrative – the Christmas TV commercial.
Of course, the all important social media sharing is now the gauge of success long before the cash-registers have added up the effect on the bottom line and many consumers have voluntarily chosen to do the marketing work for the agencies by greedily taking up this role. (more…)
It has been a year of crises. Professionally speaking you understand, although life does have a bit of a habit of throwing in a curved ball occassionally.
Now, being involved in crisis management isn’t that unusual for a PR practitioner – after all, it is the role of PR to protect the brand during a crisis. But what has been a little different, for me, has been the number of times the subject has arisen in different guises over recent months. (more…)
I saw a post on Facebook recently by a friend who had met the motorcycle champion-come-rock star, James Toseland, one of the celebrities I’d had the pleasure of working with last year. She was over the moon at meeting him at one of his gigs and having the opportunity to post a picture of her with him on her social works, as you can imagine.
It reminded me now lucky I am to move in professional circles that often bring me into contact with celebrities, like James, regularly and how easy it is to take it all for granted. Sure, the people I meet are not all wonderful…they are just human beings like you and I…but to those who are not lucky enough to meet the rich and famous regularly then it can be somewhat of a novelty and, maybe even, a lifetime’s ambition fulfilled. (more…)
They say that a day is a long time in politics. In the music industry, a decade seems like a lifetime.
In a short space of only a few years, the way we consume music has changed unrecognisably, metamorphosing from the fantastic plastic through to pint-sized compact discs and settling on the current darling of choice…the digital download.
Whatever next? Cranial implants? You may smile, but that ‘fantasy’ may not be confined to the realms of science fiction with recent developments in China already pushing the boundaries of android technology. (more…)
There was a time when social media was simply about being social. Nothing wrong with that, but many business sectors have been ‘laggards’ in the adoption of it as a powerful communications channel.
There was a lovely campaign that I wrote about in Saving Social Media, where twitter was used to recount a real-time 24-hour reconstruction of the D-Day landings. An imaginative example of how social media can be used to powerful and emotive effect.
I read a story recently about a little ginger seal pup who was being shunned by its fellow colony members. Nature can be cruel…and so can the human race.
It reminded me about an old Scottish saying about “being the talk of the steamie” – a reference to the gossiping ladies who used to frequent the Glasgow public wash-houses in the ’40s discussing the antics of the local community. (more…)
Since the rise in popularity of digital recordings, vinyl has been considered by many to be just a quaint relic from the past, a remnant of a by-gone era when the music industry was vibrant and record sales were in their millions.
Yes, there may have been some who clutched their PVC memories to their chests in a gesture of shear defiance but no-one can deny that the golden age of the 12″, 10″, and 7″ vinyl as the preferred method of recording music is now just a distant memory.
Vinyl enthusiasts, however, have ensured that this well-loved medium has not been totally relegated to the history books with the UK and US even seeing a vinyl revival in the last seven years or so and a new generation of music buyers now enjoying the unique audible experience.
I don’t think I’m the only PR professional who is more than a little uncomfortable with promoting themselves….we’re a bit like the construction industry worker who fails to find time to fix up their own house.
But just recently I’ve been re-evaluating the balance of my public ‘shouting’ about my clients success compared with promoting my role in their communications. So I’ve re-tuned my radar into WII.FM to consider “what’s in it for me”, and repositioned my website slightly to maximise this frequency. (more…)
CAT ~ Communications by Allison Thomas 