Use celebrity endorsement at your peril

Posted Wednesday, June 21, 2006 at 8:10pm in Off topic, PR General | 20 Comments

For those who have been living under a rock (or in the US :)) for the last couple of weeks, you may be unaware that the world’s most representative team sport event, the World Cup, is currently taking place in Germany. The World Cup event is huge and winning it means so much to so many people in the competing countries. Football fans are probably the most passionate fans in the world. Some have no limits to how far they will go to support their team.

Needless to say, advertisers have a field day in the build up to the event and through the event itself. And, to be fair, PR isn’t doing too bad from it either. You can’t watch TV without Beckham, Rooney, Ronaldinho, Lampard and the rest in your face trying to sell you something. Even the old England lions are taking a bite of the pie.

But an element of risk will always be part of working with high profile individuals. That’s the chance you take I’m afraid and often the use of celebrities in PR, marketing and advertising campaigns does backfire. Take for example, England striker, Michael Owen. Anyone who watched the England v Sweden match last night will have seen Owen crawling off the pitch no less than two minutes into the game with a knee injury.

Shame too. Owen plays for my team of choice, Newcastle United, in his regular day job. Coincidentally, Newcastle United is sponsored by building society, Northern Rock, who have also been running an advertising campaign featuring Owen wrapped in the England flag with slogans saying “One of ours over there” and “Can we have him back in one piece please”.

These ads were meant to be run for as long as England were in the World Cup and there’s even one with Owen alongside England rugby World Cup winner, Jonny Wilkinson, and Ashes winning cricketer, Steve Harmison, saying “No pressure Michael.”

Well, it’s no surprise Northern Rock have cancelled the ads and now Newcastle United is left to “pick up the pieces”. I can’t begin to imagine how much this campaign would have cost but I’m thinking ridiculous amounts. Oh well, use celebrity endorsement at your own peril I guess.

Via Media Guardian

Wanna hear the best England song of all time? Watch the YouTube vid below.

“Three lions on a shirt, jewels we made still gleaming, 40 years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming … It’s coming home. Football’s coming home.”

Goosepimples everytime.

PR bloggers: Can you Digg em?

Posted Monday, June 19, 2006 at 7:53pm in Blogging | 8 Comments

Yes you can! Thanks to all round good guy, Constantin Basturea, who has created a Digg-like site specifically for PR bloggers. Spawned from an idea by Antony Mayfield, Constantin has created a New PR form of non-hierarchical, democratic editorial control … or as I’m calling it, a PR version of Digg. Pretty handy huh? Well I think so.

For anyone unfamiliar with the hugely popular, Digg, it allows members to submit articles of interest where other members can vote and leave a comment on that particular article. The more votes (diggs) an article receives by Digg members, the higher it places in the rankings. Constantin’s version works pretty much the same as the original.

I think it has a lot of potential. Already I’ve found a number of interesting posts and a couple of new blogs to subscribe to, which probably wouldn’t have been found otherwise. It may also give the less well-known bloggers the opportunity to get their content read and their blogs syndicated.

But, like Digg, its success is determined by the users, participation is the key. So hopefully enough people will begin to contribute and vote to make it grow. My article, submitted by Constantin, has received quite a few referrals according to my stats and I know once the ball gets rolling, it (the PR Digg) will become a good haven for discussion.

There’s still one or two creases to iron out regarding rules, including if users are allowed to submit their own content. My opinion is, they should be. Why? Because the wisdom of the crowd will decide if it’s worthy of the front page or not.

Technorati tags:
pr+digg, digg+pr, new+pr, constantin+basturea, antony+mayfield, stephen+davies

12 steps to a successful PR campaign

Posted Wednesday, June 14, 2006 at 8:32pm in PR General | 52 Comments

Campaigns are a significant part of the public relations profession and should be carried out with meticulous planning and thorough management. Specific step-by-step measures should be taken when planning any PR campaign to ensure it meets the objectives set or, in other words, achieves what needs to be achieved.

Thorough planning processes in PR campaigns demonstrate that whatever results occur are deliberate or, indeed, have be taken into consideration. Here I’ll list the 12 stages of planning a successful PR campaign.

RESEARCH

No matter what kind of PR activity you’re involved in, research will be at the core of it. Depending on what you’re doing, different research methods can be used at various times. For example, if you’re working on a campaign to influence teachers that a school drug testing programme will help eradicate drug abuse among pupils, you might want to find out their current opinion by carrying out a nationwide questionnaire among teachers. Or maybe you’re embarking on an internal communications audit and want to speak more in depth with employees. Initiating a focus group might be a good means to do this.

Research methods are categorised into two groups:

Primary
This is finding out the information you want first hand: Questionnaires, one-to-one interviews, telephone interviews, focus groups, blogs etc.

Secondary
Often called desk research and involves gathering information from already published sources: Books, journals, papers, libraries, Internet etc.

SITUATION ANALYSIS

The research you’ve carried out should clearly define the current situation with regard to the campaign. Depending on what’s involved, this might include an organisation’s current situation in the market, how it’s perceived by customers or staff or how it’s fairing financially. Going back to the drug testing in schools example, it might include the current situation with regard to public opinion on the issue or how it’s been portrayed in the media. Whatever your campaign involves, you must be absolutely aware of everything both internally and externally.

From this you can carry out a situation SWOT analysis to examine Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the current situation, and a PEST analysis to examine the external environment Politically, Economically, Socially and Technologically.

OBJECTIVES

Once you’re aware of the problem(s) your organisation is facing, you can then define the objectives of the campaign. The objectives are what is hoped to be the end result of the PR activity. Each objective must be SMART.

Specific: Are they clearly defined and comprehensible?
Measurable: Can each objective be measured in the evaluation?
Achievable: Considering other factors (e.g. budget and timescale) are they achievable?
Realistic: Are you being realistic given the resources you have?
Time: When do you want to achieve the set objectives?

Depending on the situation, sometimes the objectives set can initially be before the research has been undertaken.

IDENTIFYING PUBLICS

Who do you want to talk to? The research carried out in the initial stages of the planning process should have identified each public relevant to the campaign. This is crucial to ensure your key messages are communicated efficiently as possible. The research also should have identified each public’s current attitude to the situation allowing you to tailor your key messages appropriately. Using the drug testing in schools example, publics can also be sub-categorised into:

Latent publics: Groups that face a problem but fail to recognise it - pupils
Aware publics: Groups that recognise a problem exists - teachers, media, parents
Active publics: Groups that are doing something about the problem - Drug organisations, the Government.

IDENTIFYING STAKEHOLDERS

Once the publics of this campaign have been categorised, it is then important to identify who the stakeholders are. A stakeholder analysis is not as specific as identifying publics as it looks at everyone that is involved in the campaign as opposed to only those who need to be communicated to. Publics can also be categorised as stakeholders also. A stakeholder analysis may involve:

* Employees
* Identified publics
* Suppliers
* Senior executives
* Investors
* Etc

KEY MESSAGES

Once you know the issue you’re facing, the current situation of the organisation (both internally and externally) and who you want to talk to, you then have to plan what you want to say. Every PR campaign needs to have a set of messages that forms the main thrust of the communication. These messages need to be clear, concise and readily understood. Key messages are important for two reasons. First of all, they are an essential part of the attitude forming process and second, they demonstrate the effectiveness of the communication. Key messages must not cross over or conflict.

STRATEGY

The strategy in a PR campaign is often confused with the tactics. However, the strategy is the foundation on which a tactical programme is built. It is the theory that will move you where the current situation is now to where you want it to be. The strategy is usually the overlying mechanism of a campaign from which the tactics are deployed to meet the objectives. A good example, albeit a rather gruesome one, of strategy and tactics is noted in Gregory’s Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns where she describes the US’s plans to move against Iraq following its invasion of Kuwait:

The objective: To get the Iraqis out of Kuwait
The strategy: According to General Colin Powell was to cut them and kill them
The tactics: Pincer movement of ground forces to cut the Iraqis off from Iraq, carpet bombing, divisionary tactics, cutting bridges and so on.

TACTICS

The PR profession has a number of tactics (or tools) in its armoury. The challenge is choosing the right tactics to meet the objectives. Again, depending on what type of campaign you’re involved you might use media relations, lobbying, events, interviews, blogger relations, presentations, consultations, newsletters, competitions, podcasts, stunts, websites, conferences, photography, video news releases, etc etc.

Remember, don’t use no new fangled tactic because it’s perceived to be cool, cutting edge or the in thing. Only use the tools that will best help you meet your objectives. Although, creativity is always paramount.

TIMESCALE

Now you know the overall strategy and which tactics you’re going to use, you’ve then got to allocate a time to do it. A timescale allows you co-ordinate your tactics appropriately and helps you be aware of certain deadlines. Not only that, if there are certain future events that relate to your campaign, you can tailor a tactic in your timescale to coincide.

Take the drug testing in schools example I mentioned earlier. If you know that 10 July is National Drugs Awareness Week then you might want to mount a media relations campaign throughout that week. Or on the flip side, if there are more prodominant happenings in the news agenda you could hold off until things have died down. An example of an annual planner might look like this:

This campaign tends to drip in the beginning stages, burst through the middle and then drip toward the end

BUDGET

Allocating the budget is an essential part of a campaign so all costs should be taken into consideration. The primary reason for a budget lets you know what you can or can’t do, but it also allows you to allocate money to the specific areas of the campaign:

Operating costs
Distribution, administration, travel, production, seminars

Human
Overheads, expenses, salaries

Equipment
Telephones, furniture, computers

CRISIS ISSUES AND MANAGEMENT PLACE

Risk is an inevitable part of some PR campaigns, so being thoroughly prepared in case a problem does occur is paramount. For detailed information on devising a crisis communications plan (CCP) see this post I made earlier.

EVALUATION

The evaluation is an ongoing process particularly in a long-term PR campaign so it is critical to constantly review all specific elements. Evaluating a campaign should be done in two ways:

Ongoing
The ongoing review is what will be carried out throughout the campaign. It is not calculated at the end of all the campaign activity, but constantly throughout. If certain elements of the campaign are not working as effectively as thought in the planning stages, it can be re-focused or re-jigged to fit.

End
The end review will take place after all PR activity has finished and where the final results will be compared against the campaign objectives. To do this, the tactics for each objective will be analysed individually and critically.

The evaluation is vital to discover which parts of the campaign were successful and which were not. Not only that, it helps determine what the current situation is after the PR activity has ended.

The evaluation process is the ‘added value’ of PR and is something that should not be neglected.

Happy campaigning.

Technorati tags:
pr+campaign, pr+campaigns, planning, public+relations, pr, stephen+davies

Rubel is bigger than PR Week UK

Posted Monday, June 12, 2006 at 4:18pm in Blogging, PR General | 5 Comments

Since TypePad and FeedBurner have drummed up a partnership allowing users to analyse exactly how many subscribers a particular TypePad blog has, I’ve been waiting for a couple of high-profilers to publish their stats. Well, just today, while going though my Bloglines subscriptions I noticed Steve Rubel’s feed had the FeedBurner feed count chicklet displaying 17546 readers (see below). Very impressive indeed.

It then got me thinking about how Steve’s stats compare with a publication’s circulation. PR Week UK, for example. So being an inquisitive chap, off I went and found it in MediaAtlas. Quite surprisingly, or maybe not, PR Week UK has less of a circulation (16320) than Rubel has of subscribers.

So what does this tell us when a practitioner has a higher readership than that of an industry publication? Well, quite a lot really. For one, it shows that things are a changing. Second, it tells us that any person or organisation can become an media company in their own right. And finally, it demonstrates that a person or organisation (or industry publication ) that chooses to ignore and dismiss blogs will do so at their own peril.

Revisiting moblogging

Posted Friday, June 9, 2006 at 7:58pm in PR General | 2 Comments

PR Business is reporting on a great example of how The Times and Sony Ericsson are using moblogging to help raise awareness and generate interest of S/Erricsons range of cameraphones. PR Business says: “The mobile phone manufacturer is running the first ever Cameraphone News Photographer of the Year competition. The event was launched last Saturday with a collection of images in The Times, all of which have been captured on Sony Ericsson Cyber-Shot phones by a Times photographer.

“It offers members of the public a chance to get their cameraphone images in the pages of the newspaper.”

Entrants can send their cameraphone snaps via MMS to 07834 885058 and the best shots will be featured on The Times’ website. Every week for six months the winning photographer will receive a k800i cameraphone and a monthly winner will be chosen with with his/her entrant appearing in The Times newspaper.

But that is not all. After the competition has finished, the weekly winning photographs will be displayed in a top London gallery and a panel of judges will vote for the ‘Cameraphone News Photographer of the Year’.

In February I made a post on eight moblogging hacks (because I couldn’t think of ten) and listed a few examples of how using a moblog can work in PR. Well this, in my opinion, is a great example. We’re (supposedly) in the dawning of user generated content and I believe so far we haven’t latched onto the possibilities of moblogs in PR campaigns. Think about it - millions of people around the world armed and equipped with cameras. That’s got to have its use surely?

Personally, I’d have loved to see them in use around this year’s World Cup. Imagine the shots from fans from each country posting to their own individual country moblogs.

Sidenote:
Yes this blog has its own moblog and it hasn’t been used for a while. Simple answer: Phone’s knackered.

Sidenote two:
Have you noticed in PR Business that certain words are a different colour to the article’s text? I think it’s because when the website is (finally) up and running, those different coloured words will be hyperlinks. Much the same way Antony’s article is in correspondence with his blog.

I think (and this is just a hunch, I have been known to be wrong before) that PR Business’ website will be based on Web2.0. We could possibly see a comment section on articles and maybe even a podcast or two.

Let’s hope so.

Technorati tags:
moblog, moblogging, the+times, sony+ericcson, user+generated+content

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