Guesting on the CAT Business Show in this episode is internationally renowned rock art photographer, Nick Elliott.
Nick is an award-winning photographer who had a very successful career in the advertising industry before specialising in music and celebrity and worked on major above-the-line campaigns for top London agencies like Saatchi and Saatchi, TBWA, and Publicis.
This is The Business of Visual Content… (more…)
I’m so excited! Today I am launching the new CAT Business Show on the on-demand radio channel Deep Red Radio and syndicated around the world on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Deezer and audioBoom.
Set your RSS and visit regularly so that you can tune in to the fabulous episodes that will be coming soon when I talk to business leaders about all things communications, marketing, promotion, and business. (more…)
Well, after thirty years of publishing, the Independent and the Independent on Sunday have ended their print editions in late March and, although they’ll continue online, it is a sad indictment of the changing face of the media.
At its peak in the late 80s, the Independent was selling more than 400,000 copies a day but its final paid circulation had fallen drastically to around 56,000. Internet publishing wasn’t even possible then, let alone a priority. The big strategic question then was whether the newspaper should be reformatted, from broadsheet to tabloid, to bolster sales against the already-tabloid Times, which seems almost laughable by today’s standards. (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…)
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…)
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 found myself in a North Norfolk pub a couple of weeks ago.
I confess that there is nothing strange about that, in itself, but what followed filled me with surprise and bewilderment.
I was participating in a photoshoot with rock photographer Nick Elliott and Scottish hit makers The Marmalade when poor weather stopped play and forced us to take refuge in the rural drinking establishment.
It is very rare that a marketing or PR campaign stops you in your tracks and makes you think.
Last month, however, a wonderfully creative online campaign really excited me as a communications professional, but more importantly, as an individual living in the UK post 1945.
On the 69th anniversary of D-Day, Channel 4 portrayed a real-time 24-hour reconstruction of events using seven twitter accounts of real-life survivors of the 1944 invasion – D-Day: As It Happens. (more…)
Earlier this year I delivered a Digital Media module to post-graduates for Cambridge Marketing College and compared social media to the modern equivalent of chatting over the garden fence.
It may be because I’ve just completed a ‘dry January’ or maybe because I’ve been at a social media crossroads for some time, but a curious analogy occurred to me one morning as I slowly gained consciousness…social media is like a virtual pub. (more…)
I find myself at a crossroads. I’ve been here for some time, in need of a compass to guide me in the right direction.
Fortunately, I have not been alone. Over the last three months, the universe has been speaking to me, constantly whispering in my ear and revealing glimpses of the best way to go.
The latest message came in the form of a magnificent owl that appeared in its full glory on a quiet country road as I travelled to cover a music gig one evening. (more…)
When it comes to working on the web few of us have the skill or experience demonstrated by Spiderman. So, when it comes to creating an online presence, the critical thing to consider before even one finger comes into contact with the keyboard is:
“To be myself or not be myself, that is the question?” (more…)
My post Walking A Mile In Another’s Shoes, explained how I was interviewed recently by King’s Lynn Online. Here’s how it went…
Local PR Consultant Allison Thomas is another ‘woman of many hats’ – As well as her consultancy work she also teaches, and works as a photo-journalist in the world of music.
I shared a cold drink with her on a lovely sunny afternoon in the grounds of the Globe Hotel in King’s Lynn …
CAT ~ Communications by Allison Thomas 