O2 Cocoon
Posted Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 9:41pm in Blogging, PR General, Technology | 7 Comments
Like quite a few others, I’ve been given a new O2 Cocoon, a cool looking mobile phone built by network operator, O2. I was given it from Amelia Torode who writes the excellently named (and exellently written) blog, Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it. Beuller … Beuller … Beuller (anyone?) Amelia is head of digital strategy at VCCP and I had the pleasure of meeting her when I was in London a couple of weeks ago. O2 is a client of VCCP if you haven’t already guessed.
I haven’t had a chance to give it a proper review yet (probably at the weekend) but my first impressions are I like it. A lot. I mentioned to Amelia that I probably won’t be delving into the technical aspects of the handset but will probably focus more on the coolness, ease of use and design/aesthetics side of things. The geek gene isn’t strong in this one unfortunately.
I reckon the Cocoon is going to be a consumer hit given its cool looks (reminds me of the iPhone a bit), ease of use and added goodies (internet, 2GB internal memory etc). Camera’s not so great though. The only thing that might lose the handset its edge is when you see everyone in the highstreet with one. But, hey, that’s the measure of success.
Anyway, more on that later.
From a PR point of view it’s very interesting to see how O2 and VCCP are going about this. As Amelia says: “We decided to launch the phone in the Blogosphere before any advertising started. The fact that you’re reading this blog probably means that you understand the power of digital advocacy…” Cool.
Again from a PR point of view , what’s equally interesting is that an online tactic (blogger outreach) that’s been claimed by the PR industry is being used by an advertising agency. And being done very well by the looks of things.
It’s got me thinking. It’s got me slightly worried too. Maybe that’s for another post.
Check out the O2 Cocoon blog and here’s a video of the phone I found on YouTube made by T3 Online.
technorati tags: o2, o2+cocoon, amelia+torode, blogger+outreach, blogger+relations, vccp
e-consultancy online PR roundtable
Posted Monday, September 10, 2007 at 7:56pm in PR General | 2 Comments
The good people at e-consultancy have recently published a new online PR roundtable briefing - a free 11 page document discussing the latest trends, tactics and statisitics in online PR. Companies in attendance were BA Holidays, Barracuda Digital, Clicktools, Headstream PR, IPC, Lawton Communications, Lexis PR, Nixon McInnes, RBI and RBS.
Topics include:
* Market trends
* Identifying online influencers
* How and when brands should participate online
* Measurement of online PR benefits and success
* Who owns online PR and pays for it?
The briefing also points out new statistics, resources and whitepapers. So what are you waiting for? Go get it! It’s free. Quick!
The Jam - Going Underground
Interview: Keith Childs, GM Europe
Posted at 11:00am in Blogging, PR General | 3 Comments
If you’re a regular reader of Neville Hobson’s blog or indeed listen to the bi-weekly podcast, For Immediate Release, he and Shel Holtz co-host, you may be aware of the new social media newsroom recently launched by General Motors Europe. Neville blogged about it on Tuesday and it was covered in FIR on Thursday (as I was given a gentle reminder by being a member of the FIR Facebook group) and it’s also been covered on subsequent blogs since. UPDATE: Drew’s just written about it too.
I was lucky enough to be granted an email interview with Keith Childs, the guy behind General Motors’ social media newsroom, and here’s what he had to say (my questions in bold):
Thanks for taking the time for this interview Keith. First off, can you give a little background about yourself and what you do at GM Europe?
I worked in marketing communications and then joined GM Europe in corporate communications working on ad campaigns. The digital revolution arrived. I guess I saw it as my role to champion web-based communication inside my sphere of influence. I’m responsible for all our media sites in Europe, our corporate website and now some steps into the brave new world of social media.
Can you give me some background on the GM Europe social media newsroom? How long as this project been in the works and how long did it take to develop?
Not that long actually. The idea was born around the time of the Geneva motor show at the beginning of March. We were creating web videos and not very happy about the channels we had to spread these to a wider audience. We saw how car enthusiasts were grabbing them and putting them on YouTube and on their blogs. I’m sure some felt a little nervous about this- whether the corporate lawyers were going to come after them claiming copyright infringement. Our view was these folk are enthusiastic, passionate and engaged. So it’s something we need to encourage and not put obstacles in their way.
Our first attempt was really beta - as an extension of an existing website using conventional html and while we were excited about it and felt it was a big step forward we really weren’t ready to talk about. So it was there and in the background but we kept a low profile while we planned how we would take it from beta into something we were happy with.
It was obvious we needed software that was blogger friendly and we looked at different packages and finally settled on Serendipity. But there are several others we could have used. Each has pros and cons. All the basics are there- manage comments, plug-ins for spam filters, easy RSS management, tag clouds and so on. From evaluation of software to ready-to-launch was probably six weeks.
Each of the social media news releases in the newsroom allows comments and given the fact that GM has adapted to social media much more than companies of similar size, was this (allowing comments) a challenge to convince managerial staff?
Our communications management didn’t really need convincing. In the US, the FastLane blog has clearly shown that feedback is not something to be worried about. Sometimes the feedback is hard to take, but it’s direct, delivered with passion and management do listen. If people are not commenting here they will comment somewhere else. It’s easier to engage in the conversation in your own space than maybe some other spaces.
What has been the feedback you’ve received so far from the social media newsroom? Do you think it will take time for GM’s customers, enthusiasts and relevant journalists to become used to the concept?
We launched at the end of August. We’ve had some very positive feedback from people in the social media area and some encouraging first reaction from online auto media. The main news for the auto industry is the Frankfurt motorshow, so I expect it will take a while for people to fully check out our social media newsroom.
Did you face any obstacles in building the newsroom from a technical viewpoint?
The short answer is no. If we had tried to run this using our existing systems and software it would be a different answer.
GM’s obviously a huge company with substantial amounts of money to spare so would a project like this be viable for smaller organisations?
From the software and technical side this is one of the most inexpensive web projects I have implemented. I love it. I wish I could find other uses for it. The commercial versions of blogging software are really not expensive. Like a blog, setting one up can be quick and low cost- or even free- but it’s the maintenance that takes time. Content needs to be posted, comments need to reviewed and in some cases answered. You need to check trackbacks to make sure they are not going to a thinly disguised sex site and so on. Yes, all that takes time and there is a cost involved.
In hindsight, is there anything you would change?
We should have done this earlier. (Stephen says: Nice answer)
The newsroom strapline is great Product news and downloads for the online Reporter. How important is engaging with and accommodating bloggers to GM Europe?
The convenient label of “blogger” is becoming more and more blurred. A journalist blogs. Is he a blogger or a journalist? Somebody who does not work for a media organisation reports. Is she a reporter? The online world is becoming a big mash-up where labels and definitions are increasingly irrelevant. What about groups in networks like Facebook who post, comment, link- are they bloggers? Are they social networkers? Whatever label we use, social media is clearly important to us. The lines between news producer and news consumer are blurring. One thing is very clear; our news is republished, commented on, shared, tagged and so on. We need to be a part of that. You can’t just click the send the button and forget about it. For many companies this is still a big mindset change.
I assume this is the first stage of GM Europe’s social media newsroom and, if it is, are there any plans for further development which you’d be able to share with us?
It’s definitely the first stage. We are about to introduce web-video downloads in addition to the page we have on YouTube (if it’s not already live, then you read about it here). Other languages would be the next natural big step. Maybe our press releases will head more in the direction of the social media press release. (Stephen says: You should check out the webitpr SMNR video 
) We’ll be listening to feedback from our audience who write about us - the online reporters and that will certainly shape our decisions.
Keith, thanks very much.
technorati tags: gm, gm+europe, social+media+newsroom, social+media+press+release, social+media+news+release
Missing the opportunity
Posted Tuesday, September 4, 2007 at 7:03pm in Blogging, Business, PR General | 3 Comments
Anyone who reads Ewan MacLeod and the gang over at SMS Text News know that they blog like troopers. Every day I’ll find roughly five (sometimes more) unread blog posts in my feed reader. They’re the one stop shop for news relating to mobile phones and the blog’s generally written in lively and humorous tone. Lately Ewan’s been blogging quite frequently about mobile operator 3UK and one of his most recent blog posts is an interview scoop with 3UK’s director of sales. Great for any blog to have a large operator take it seriously and rightly so.
However, one of the SMS Text News blog’s regular commenters suggests that Ewan is being paid by 3UK to blog about their products, service and (in this case) their staff. Ewan’s wrote a follow up post and this is what he said:
“I’ve recognised that the coverage we’ve been giving to 3UK has been pretty continual recently. There’s a simple answer why, though: Nobody else talks to me — and I think 3UK are, generally speaking, doing a good job. I haven’t been afraid to hop up and down in annoyance at, for example, their N95 delays and the market opportunities I believe they lost as a result.
“However, when I’ve talked to other operators — in the UK and beyond — they don’t reply. I have written emails and, on occasion, made phone calls to PR departments. Generally speaking, they don’t want to know, or don’t know how to handle interaction with a blogger.”
He continues.
“3UK do pick up the phone to me. Their PR (external and internal) are very responsive. They called last week and asked if I’d like to talk to Marc. They called three weeks ago and asked if I’d like to talk to Fergal, their Director of Handsets. They phoned up a while ago and asked if I’d like an N73 device to review — I explained I already had one, but then recognised it wasn’t factory-fitted with X-Series, so borrowed the device and handed it to Ben Smith who wrote a brilliant summary.
“So, 3UK coverage here on SMS Text News will definitely continue — more so if they continue to react and communicate with me as they have been doing. I’m always excited to meet industry executives, irrespective of the brand they work with.”
So, there you have it. I don’t have any stats on the SMS Text News blog but I know it’s popular in mobile circles and am willing to bet that those involved in the mobile space will read it, either frequently or infrequently. I don’t know a great deal about Ewan and the rest of the SMS Text News team either but, from reading the blog, I know that they’re passionate about all things mobile.
The other operators are missing an opportunity in my opinion.
technorati tags: sms+text+news, ewan+macleod, three+mobile, blogger+outreach
Blu-ray all the way
Posted Monday, September 3, 2007 at 8:55pm in Blogging, Off topic | Leave a Comment
The chaps over at RMM are working on the digital campaign (I believe) for the Blu-ray Campaign for Sony. RMM were also involved in the Sony Bravia balls advert btw. Anyway, below is the video the Blu-ray viral ad created on a bespoke Flash player. The video and Flash player are both awesome. Both the picture and sound quality of the custom Flash player is much better than your typical YouTube video. I guess it has to be given that it’s promoting Blu-ray.
There’s also much more functionality in the video itself too. You can download images, screensavers and wallpapers as well as watch different videos within the player’s interface. And, of course, if you want go viral it’s got to be embeddable. And it is.
I’ve watched Blu-ray on a PS3 and the quality difference to DVD is very noticeable. More so on certain films though. “What about Blu-ray’s rival HD DVD?” I hear you ask. Well, Matt Brett thinks the battle’s been won and I’m inclined to agree. Blu-ray all the way.
Only thing about the player than annoys me a little is it plays automatically when you land on the page. Great that it’s embeddable etc but you don’t want it to get on people’s nerves.
More info on the RMM blog (which is also their company website).
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