grainne byrne PR: 2015

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

How to - use CHAOS for content & influencers to expand reach - & Heinken & Urban Consumers

Heineken & Urban Consumers

This is a fascinating account of work done for Heineken Ireland by planning agency MCCP. Writing about a presentation at the recent Esomar conference in Dublin, Michael Cullen explains that the Heineken work covered a 5 Stage Programme to discover what motivates urban consumers. This included checking out all cultural happenings and trends in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Belfast and getting urbanites to post experiences in real time to show how they related to their city. The findings delivered insights into the personality, truths and tensions in each city.

http://www.independent.ie/business/media/marketers-on-prowl-in-the-urban-jungles-34170873.html (Image from Rothco)

Use CHAOS for your content strategy

How to use CHAOS to improve your content marketing – or indeed to handle any business problem, according to this article from PR Daily. C = Communicate, H = Help, A = Attract, O = Observer/Outfox while S = Share! Once you’ve applied all these, they advised that the next steps are to monitor your Web traffic and conversions, and make necessary adjustments and improvements.

http://bit.ly/1PNUeMa

How to use Influencers

This is a very comprehensive article from Cision on how to use influencers to expand reach and impact. When looking for influencer - think Relevance, Reach and Resonance. It also gives 8 tips to help you reach out to influencers in the right way and 8 tips for relationship management. This White Paper can be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/1KUfF7M

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Real winners in RWC2015? Types of online shoppers & how big brands use Instagram

The real winners in RWC2015?

This very comprehensive article from Jamie Macken of Livewire (part of Core Media) in last Sunday’s Independent is well worth a read. It looks at the success of RWC2015 from a number of perspective - media viewership, widening appeal of rugby, online trends and sponsor impact. It’s particularly interesting to see how brands like Three – who were prohibited from associating with RWC due to tournament rights restrictions – got around that.

Few highlights – RWC2015 was a huge success for TV3 - over 60% of the available TV audience tuned in to watch each of Ireland’s matches and this excludes catch up watching on the TV3 Player. Viewing peaking at 1.4m watching Ireland beat France. The article also tells us that Facebook now far exceeds YouTube as a platform for video content – facilitated by the former’s introduction of video auto play.

From a sponsor point of view - 83% of people associated Heineken as a sponsor of RWC – good news seeing as it’s estimated they spent €27m to become a sponsor and then invested heavily in supporting the sponsorship locally. 39% of people acknowledge Aer Lingus as having a positive impact on the tournament – the most of any IRFU sponsor.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/running-the-rule-over-the-rugby-world-cup-34158713.html (photo courtesy of irishrugby.ie)

Online Shopping Behaviour

AOL recently revealed a segmentation of online shopping behaviour – thanks to Colm Carey of The Research Centre for this info:

Deal browsing - where the person’s aim is to find the best price for an item they know they want;

Problem and solution browsing - as in looking to replace a dead laptop;

Boredom browsing - just passing time because someone is bored at work or trying to avoid tackling an assignment;

Dopamine browsing - looking at things that the person would love to have;

Me browsing - when it’s just about fun and entertainment;

Rabbit hole browsing - when a person ends up on a site but can’t remember how or why they got there!

Expertise browsing - where the aim is to find things that will make the person look like an expert when sharing with friends.

Boredom, Dopamine and Me Time browsing are driven purely by emotional needs and represent about half of all online browsing to shop moments. AOL emphasise that marketers should be aware that much of online browsing is emotion based.

How big brands succeed on Instagram

This article from PR Daily shares 5 tips gleaned from a study of Interbrand’s Top 100 Brands and their activity on Instagram. Those tips are: Be Active – Nike with its 7m+ followers posts at least once a day; Keep it Short – no longer than a tweet; Share e.g. tag another Instagram user; Use # but don’t overuse and Tag your Location!

http://bit.ly/1SlQMba

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/the-007-effect-james-bond-the-spy-who-loved-brands-1.2407236

Friday, October 30, 2015

brands & Hallowe'en, brands & Spectre & Piggy Sue

What some brands have done for Hallowe’en

Hallowe’en just keeps on getting bigger and this article from PR Week shows what kind of interesting stuff brands have done around it. I love the Airbnb promotion where you can win a ‘sleep beside a million skeletons in the Paris catacombs’ – beat that! I also like the more sedate but also very relevant initiative from Volvo who designed a spray paint for trick or treaters which shows up in car headlights. It’s non-toxic and washes off. On the other hand, Burger King has produced a black burger……!!

http://bit.ly/1M5P8tq

007 Brands & Spectre

The brand partnerships in “Spectre” seem to be all about quality not quantity. Apparently “Die another Day” had 21 sponsors but by the time it got to Daniel Craig’s debut in “Casino Royale”, it was down to 7. This timely article in the Irish Times helpfully tells us how much it would cost us to buy some of the products placed in “Spectre” – the Omega watch (which for the first time is being issued as a limited edition) will set you back $6,000. And if you fancy either of the two cars, the Aston Martin DB10 is worth about $500,000 – but isn’t available to the public – while the Jag will set you back a cool $1.2m!

Piggy Sue

I just love, love, love this ad – and it’s a really excellent one as well. Often if we like ads, it can be difficult to remember what product it is advertising? But you can’t miss that this story about an adorable lost little piglet is being used to promote 4G from Vodafone as the guy drives over and back through the Sally Gap using his phone, uploading photos online etc. I’m not sure if this is a co-production by some Vodafone ad agencies as Vodafone in New Zealand came out with this storyline in an ad in May of this year? But it doesn’t matter, it’s a heart-warming ad that I just can’t get enough of!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2b_2-8GYyQ

http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2015/oct/20/simple-steps-sustainable-workplace-experts

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Content & Brand Strategy, Confidence on Camera & how SMEs can be more sustainable

How to leverage content to enhance brand strategy

Two people from the agency, Vizeum spoke on this topic at the October Marketing Institute breakfast yesterday and I really liked and agreed with their approach. Some of the nuggets they shared: consumers don’t care about or want deep meaningful relationships with brands – brands are a promise and people just want that promise to be delivered. Consumers are not experts in brand positioning – so don’t hand over control of your brand to them. If you want evidence of what would happen if you did – look at how participants in BBC’s The Apprentice market various things – mostly a disaster! Also if you asked One Directioners a couple of years ago what they wanted next, they’d say another 1 Direction – but look at the rise and rise of Ed Sheeran!

Vizeum advised that we take responsibility for our brands, have clear objectives, stick to brand strategy and create a value exchange. As a good example of who does content well, they cited AirBnB with their “Belong Anywhere” theme.

www.Vizeum.ie & www.Mii.ie

7 steps to being Flawsome on camera!

With the growth of video as a promotional tool, it’s vital that business people come across well on camera. This evening, former actor and TV presenter, Lottie Hearn (pictured) launches her new book and online community, “Confidence on Camera” in which she gives 7 steps to being ‘flawsome’ on any size screen and to putting the ‘act’ into ‘impact’.

It’s all about letting the real you shine through and stop worrying about what other people think. It’s about learning how to play again and putting a smile into your voice. The book is interactive with 7 stages within each of the 7 steps. Lottie helps people discover their 3Cs (Confidence, Credibility, Charisma), 3Vs (Visual, Vocal,Verbal), 3Ps (Pace, Pause, Performance) and M³ (Mind, Muscle, Memory).

Disclaimer: I’m working with Lottie to promote her book – but don’t hold that against her! Check out www.ConfidenceOn.camera

How SMEs can create a more sustainable workplace

It is believed that larger companies and multinationals are more committed to sustainability than smaller businesses – often dedicating personnel and resources specifically to it. So how can the SME workplace become more sustainable? This article covers Energy Saving, Staff Wellbeing and Local People & the Community. For Energy Saving, it recommends gathering data about employees’ use of resources as a starting point. On the subject of staff, they recommend that the policy around dealing with workaholics be consistent with the reality i.e. don’t promote the person who’s first in in the morning and last out in the evening, focus on staff wellbeing and ensure the physical environment and encourage engagement with local people and the community through things like volunteering etc.

http://www.independent.ie/business/media/brand-memories-stick-at-the-picnic-31533150.html

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

6 ways to tell if story is a hoax, Bloggers Beware & sponsors at EP

6 ways to tell if a viral story is a hoax

This is a really useful article from the UK Independent offering suggestions on how to check if a viral story is a hoax. It includes ‘Reverse Image Search’ which debunked the recent “ISIS posing as Syrian refugees attack police in Germany” story – that photo turned out to be 3 years old. It also features “Jeffrey’s ExifViewer” which tells you what camera was used and the date, time and location that the photo was created – but warns that this data is removed by Facebook, Instagram and Twitter when photos are uploaded on to their platforms. Definitely worth checking these out.

http://ind.pn/1LIqsD0

Bloggers beware of ad network contracts

My initial reaction to this Guardian story about a UK ‘mommy blogger’ having to quit her blog because of the pressure put on her by corporate sponsors was - surely she could just have refused? After all, she’s been writing the blog for 13 years apparently and thus would have a powerful negotiating position? But it’s only in the comments I see a reference to an ‘ad network’ with whom she signed a contract and she couldn’t get out it – so she had to quit. They wanted her to include her children in posts and sponsored events – controversial and harsh – but was this in the initial contract or was it constructed in such a clever way as to give them all the power? A very good warning to any bloggers thinking of signing similar contracts.

http://bit.ly/1G3LSIL

Electric Ireland prove to be very current at EP

Terrible pun I know! Electric Ireland must have been delighted with the results of this survey which was carried out by a former employer of mine PSG Sponsorship – then Slattery PR! They interviewed 230 of the 50,000 attendees at the festival to see which brand made the most impact. With brands investing hugely in EP, the results have no doubt been carefully examined by the various sponsors. Unprompted, Electric Ireland scored an impressive 62% for their #90sPowerParty, Heineken were second at 54%, Three at 35% and Bacardi at 34%. Prompted recall saw Heinken take the top spot.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Brilliant English rugby team ad, Offensive ad or a send-up & 15 hidden social media features

Offensive or send-up?

I have to say when I started reading this UK Independent article about a backlash against an Australian company’s TV commercial, my first thought was, “oh here we go again, the PC brigade on the march – it’s getting to the stage that ads will have to be completely bland just to ensure no-one is offended.” The reason people took offense is that a larger woman was used to play the part of her other self - i.e. how a woman feels when she has her period. And she was shown as highly emotional. But the fact is – that is how many women do feel at that time of the month – bloated and moody! However, one of the twitterati made a good point – the same woman could have been used and presumably made look less attractive and wearing baggy clothes. Only then did I actually watch the ad – it’s totally OTT – I’d take offence from that and the fact that it’s way too long and that the product they’re promoting won’t change a mood and won’t make someone feel less bloated!

http://ind.pn/1LePb5W

“Make them Giants” – a top ad

I love this regular feature in The Guardian – it’s their Top 5 ads which this time features a brilliant piece of work “Make them Giants” from O2 about the English rugby world cup team (naturally hoping they will shrink if they play us at some stage during the tournament!) and a lovely heart-warming tear-jerker “I will survive” for the Blue Cross. The excellent Gareth Thomas ad from Guinness is also ranked here – it’s a brave ad in every sense of the word – for the brand as well as for the man. However, the Trainline ad didn’t do it for me at all and the Nike ad just left me cold. See what you think….

http://bit.ly/1M9i0zp

15 hidden features of social media

This is a really useful infographic from Salesforce on PR News detailing 15 things you might not know you can do on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In or Google+. These include ‘muting’ someone on Twitter rather than unfollowing them, finding out who has unfollowed you, explaining what the ‘other’ inbox on Facebook is and messaging someone on LinkedIn that you’re not connected with.

http://bit.ly/1UT3gXI

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/what-does-it-taketo-sell-to-america-10490609.html

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

What does it take to break into US? Top 5 Ads & A great PR initiative (not mine!)

What does it take to break into the US?

This week Primark (Penneys) opens its first US store – in Boston. It’s a massive move for the company and it must be hoping it avoids the fate of Tesco, Sainsbury and M&S who all failed to make it stateside. The choice of Boston is considered a good one because of its big student population and younger Americans are more open to buying international brands. Also opening just one store is considered smart as slow expansion is working for Ted Baker, Topshop and Boden in the US. Topshop sold a 25% stake in its business to a US private equity firm so it would have US expertise on board. A state by state or focus on key cities is recommended in this article for Primark.

Top 5 Ads

This is the Guardian’s current Top 5 and a couple have dubious starts but turn out to be good ‘uns! The 5 featured are Honda, Pot Noodle, Gatorade, Under Armour and McCoys crisps. Synchronicity seems to be in vogue with both the Honda and Under Armour ads using impressive displays of it but I still found both ads a bit cold. The Pot Noodle one is good – had me all riled up initially as was thinking of link between nutrition and sporting achievement – but it sends itself up very nicely. I really like the Gatorade commercial as it features comments from a very young Serena Williams (pictured) – I won’t give a spoiler re the ending but it’s great. The McCoys one is just simply funny! See for yourself……

http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2015/sep/08/serena-williams-steps-back-in-time-for-gatorade-advert

A Great PR initiative

Hats off to whoever came up with this angle to promote houses for sale in Delgany – I can imagine plenty of copycat attempts! The interior designer for these Wood Group homes, a woman called Eily Roe, imagines characters and their lifestyles living in her show homes and designs for them. So an Irish Times journalist was invited for a sleepover in one of the homes and this article was the result. Nice one!

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/try-it-on-for-size-could-you-live-the-showhouse-life-1.2328078

http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2015/aug/24/how-pick-colour-scheme-for-brand

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

why McDonald's ditched red, Airbnb for disabled people & is yours a Foodie Town?

Why McDonald’s ditched red

What do you need to consider when choosing a colour(s) for your brand? Apparently fast food companies traditionally chose yellow and red (speed & efficiency) combinations but McDonald’s found that red was associated with bad food – so it retained the golden arches but now uses more greens and natural colours as well. A bank born out of a merger between two US banks broke the mould with its brand colours – silver and gold (coinage) – whereas banks around the world traditionally use nationalistic colours, representing patriotism and security. And yellow apparently resonates with the logical side of the brain. So go figure – with the help of a list of colours at the foot of the article and what each represents!

Is yours a ‘Foodie Town’?

This is the second year of a really nice initiative from the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) – Ireland’s ‘Foodie Town’ in 2014 was Dingle. They’re looking for towns/destinations that actively promote themselves through things like food festivals, gourmet trails or farmers’ markets, as well as great dining experiences for locals and visitors. They need to also have established a local producer/supplier network that is utilised and promoted by local businesses. Plans for future growth, education, training, development and employment will also be taken into consideration. Closing date for entries is 7^th September.

http://www.businessandleadership.com/marketing/item/51523-search-for-irelands-top/

“Airbnb for disabled people”

Like all the best ideas, Accomable came about as a result of trying to solve a problem based on every day experience. Srin Madipalli and Martyn Sibley have spinal muscular atrophy and use motorised wheelchairs – something they’re well used to – but they often found travel a challenge. Madipalli said, “The information for assisted travel is terrible and not connected to booking accommodations and services.” So last year, they set up Accomable which they describe as “Airbnb for disabled people and anyone with mobility difficulties.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/accomable-lessons-from-an-inspiring-start-up-1.2323013

Image source: boutiquemc.co.uk

www.diyPR.ie

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/irish-times-daily-readership-up-10-to-427-000-1.2316476

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Richard Branson - "Be Fearless", London's not burning with Tan Organic - and more!

“Be fearless” – Richard Branson

When Virgin Atlantic pilot, Bernice Moran wanted to start her own confectionary business, her boss, Richard Branson gave the following advice - “Build your brand based on your passions and beliefs and your vision. Create your brand identity and the doors will open . . . people buy you and your brand. Be fearless going against global brand players in the confectionary business.” Bernice and her sister Linda set up “Be Sweet” and now have 30 different products which are sold on British Airways flights as well as in Ireland, the Middle East, Asia and the US. Her biggest mistake she says was jumping in with both feet without having done her homework and making herself aware of various cultural issues to take on board (sorry!) first! A good read.

http://bit.ly/1MCrwhd

London’s burning?

Not if Irish self-tanning company, Tan Organic has its way! I love companies and brands that think big! Last week they brought a team of Irish models (pictured) and a 20 foot inflatable self-tan bottle for a major awareness and sampling promotion in London. They appeared at popular spots including Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square and more and gave away 5,000 free samples. A professional flash mob appeared throughout the day for added fun. But it wasn’t all frivolous - their serious message about dangers of sun tanning was supported by the UK cancer community and the promo team was led by blogger and cancer survivor Eimear Coghlan. Well done to whoever thought of this idea – love it!

Who’s reading what?

Are Irish people still reading newspapers and if so, how? 4 out of 5 Irish adults are. Last week, the Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS) came out – this covers readership of Irish newspapers between July 2014 and June 2015. 720,000 people now read Irish newspapers online – up 27% on last year. Laura Slattery reports, “Readership of The Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Irish Daily Star and Irish Daily Mirror increased over the past year, while readership of the Irish Independent was flat. The readership of the Herald, Irish Daily Mail and Irish Sun fell, researchers found. All Sunday titles lost readers, with the exception of the Sunday Business Post.”

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

21 ways to make content viral, how 5 brands tackle climate change & which social media sites work

21 ways to make your content more viral

Longer content is more likely to be shared than short – this is one of the surprising (to me) tips in this very helpful infographic in PR Daily depicting 21 ways to get your content shared. Other tips include using plenty of images as this makes your content more credible, use odd number and [brackets] in your headline and only feature short URLs. Targeted CTAs (Calls to Action) work much better than generic e.g. “share these weight loss tips” rather than “share this post.”

http://bit.ly/1WfHn8f

How 5 big brands are tackling climate change

Communicating about their support for climate change in an engaging way can be challenging for brands – this article talks about how 5 big brands (4 of them familiar names to Irish audiences) are doing so. Focusing on one – Adidas – I really like what they are doing. They’re a founder member of an organisation called “Parley for the Oceans”, an organisation where creators, thinkers and leaders come together to raise awareness of the oceans and collaborate on projects that protect it. Adidas apparently specifically supports its educational and communications activities. Recently Adidas launched the first shoe made from recycled ocean plastic. Other brands covered include Ben & Jerry, Coca Cola, Unilever and Staples.

http://bit.ly/1NnT1YF

Business guide as to which social media sites are working

An “eye opener” is how the Indo’s Adrian Weckler describes recent quarterly results from the big players on the social media scene. He talks about which social media to watch from a marketing point of view. Facebook is still the biggie while Twitter is struggling to make ads work on its platform. 72% of Facebook members check into the site or app every single day. Also worth noting is that 76% of its advertising revenue now comes from mobile devices. Instagram with its 300m users worldwide has enabled advertising APIs – automated software that lets advertisers place ads without having to call someone. 63% of Snapchat’s Irish users use the app every single day and M&Ms have used it here to promote competitions but no advertising as yet, unlike the States where big brands have been using it for some time. Excitement about Snapchat’s future is because of the ongoing development of its media channels, “Discover” and “Live”.

http://bit.ly/1JapDre

www.diypr.ie

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/aug/04/brands-purpose-profits-cause-marketing

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Brands should focus on higher purpose, Not so Barking Mad & JNLRs

Focus on a higher purpose not just on profits

So says the Global Head of Social & Digital Marketing at Philips but he warns that you have to be sincere, be consistent and be prepared to stand your ground. In this interesting article on CSR (corporate social responsibility) Blake Cahill states that employee engagement can be challenging and that some consumers can see the activity as exploitative. He mentions a couple of global CSR campaigns such as Kenco’s “Coffee V Gangs” and Toms footwear who, for every pair of shoes sold, give a pair to a needy child as well as talking about smaller scale ones from Oasis (‘spring a smile’) and UPS (‘your wishes delivered). “The cause should be rooted in the brand, it should make sense to customers and it should have a practical, shareable outcome.”

Not so Barking Mad!

Having worked in Mars (maker of Pedigree dog food amongst other brands), Paul Fortune saw a gap in the market for a quality dog food with a high meat content – so in 2008, he set up “Barking Heads.” He and his two business partners were inspired by Innocent and Ella’s Kitchen – two other high quality brands who do their marketing in a fun way. Barking Heads’ logo was researched in the primary school playground of Paul’s kids. The article below doesn’t give a lot of info on the brand so here’s the website - http://www.barkingheads.co.uk/ and I see they do ‘Miaowing Heads’ food also for us cat owners and their products are sold here in Ireland. I like their “Meet the Family” web page.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/small-business-person-of-the-week-paul-hunter--founder-barking-heads-10434080.html

Radio Listenership June 2014 – July 2015

RTE Radio 1 and Newstalk shows did well in July’s JNLRs (Joint National Listenership Radio) survey but Sean O’Rourke’s Radio 1 show was the only RTE programme to increase listener numbers (to 317,000) over the 12 months. Apparently younger listeners turned to Radio 1 during the marriage referendum so some shows had particularly good figures for the past quarter. Ryan Tubridy also had a very good year but now he moves to John Murray’s Radio 1 9am slot. Newstalk Breakfast (a personal favourite) grew its audience by a very impressive 26,000 to 173,000 over the past twelve months. Locally, Red FM overtook 96FM to become the number 1 local radio station in Cork.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/radio-1-recovers-lost-listeners-ratings-survey-shows-1.2302370

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/jul/20/apple-pay-businesses-uk-payment-systems

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Outlawed for 2016, is your business ready for Apple Pay & 5 'fringe' social media platforms

Trends in 2016

As we rebuild our world in 2016, it will be all about the “Emotional Web” according to Meabh Quoirin of The Future Foundation who gave an excellent talk at DIT on Tuesday. “The Warming Web” and channeling people’s moods was just one of the trends she identified.

“Injury Time Appeal” was another – an example of which is a customer in-store getting a brand message telling him/her that they have only 10 minutes to redeem a certain offer. The importance of “Peer to Peer” enterprises, social entrepreneurship and self-parody (showing that we’re not perfect, we’re human) were also highlighted. One excellent example was cited – Carsberg’s “Beer Body Ready” response to that “Beach Body Ready” ad campaign. The slide above shows absolute “no-no’s” for brands in 2016.

I’ve only skimmed over the excellent talk that Meabh gave at DIT who, along with The Marketing Institute, ran the seminar to promote their Masters in Digital Marketing & Analytics.

Is your business ready for Apple Pay?

Possibly launching here later this year as Apple apparently contacted Irish banks earlier in the year, is your business ready for Apple Pay? According to this article Apple Pay is definitely not just for the ‘big boys’ – any company that considers itself premium, tech-driven and user-friendly should be seriously considering enabling their customers to pay them this way. It cautions that before you invest, you should check who your customers bank with and if they’re interested in using contactless payment services like Apple Pay. It’s a trend that can only increase with 44.8% of all UK online payments last year made with a mobile device. If you do adopt it, you’re advised to train staff well on how it works and ensure you have an “Apple Pay Champion” on every shift.

Are the 5 ‘fringe’ social media platforms suited to your business?

Well, it all depends on where your target audiences spent time, of course. This article gives one tip to find out where your audience are – check to see where your website is coming from and which networks they’re on. They then give a brief description of Snapchat, Vine, Tumblr, Vimeo and Quora. 71% of Snapchat users are under 25, 57% of Vine (the 6 second video platform) users are women and this is ideal for Twitter users, Tumblr is for short blogs, Vimeo for professional video users and those who enjoy a quality experience while Quora boast 2.9m users on its Q&A platform.

http://bit.ly/1IeuCF8

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/every-second-counts-as-ads-try-to-hit-the-sweet-spot-1.2277809

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

40 days of fine weather on the way?

With the weather forecast looking good for today, Wednesday 15^th July – St. Swithin’s Day – spare a thought for Sean and Kieran Murphy (pictured) from Dingle as they face 40 days of fair weather - and thus no ‘stock’ for their Rainwater Sorbets!

The Irish-American brothers who established Murphy’s Ice Cream in Dingle fifteen years ago, decided earlier this year to use Irish rainwater to good effect and they now make sorbets with it! “We want Irish people and visitors alike to enjoy the Irish weather in a whole new way. So it’s just as well there was plenty of rain up until the end of May!”

The Rainwater Sorbets come in two flavours – Chocolate and Raspberry and both are dairy and gluten free.

Dark chocolate-lovers can indulge their passion for a rich, bitter and aromatic taste experience featuring ultra-premium Valrhona chocolate and cocoa combined with pure, distilled Dingle rainwater. While, the Raspberry sorbet provides a blast freshness and intense fruitiness to the tastebuds thanks to Dingle rainwater and at least 35% real fruit.

The Murphy brothers now have four stores – two in Dingle, one in Killarney and one in Wicklow Street, Dublin. For further information, see www.murphysicecream.ie

St. Swithin was the Bishop of Winchester from 852 to 862. At his request he was buried in the churchyard, where rain and the steps of passers-by might fall on his grave. According to legend, after his body was moved inside the cathedral on July 15, 971, a great storm ensued.*

- Ends –

*Encyclopaedia Britannica

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Man City builds global brand, how long should your videos be & advice from Brian Cody

Man City builds global brand

Manchester City FC is using technology to build a global brand according to this article in “Marketing Week.” They want to track performance “from boardroom to pitch” and support business opportunities, football performance and fan engagement. The club’s parent company is City Football Group (CFG) and it also has stakes in NYC FC, Melbourne City FC and Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan.

http://bit.ly/1JWomRv

How long should your videos be?

The most watched videos on YouTube are 3 minutes long while 15 second TV ads are growing in popularity – even though they may be edited down from the 30 second original version. Ads for video on demand should be no longer than 20 seconds for those viewing on a desktop and 10 seconds max for mobile advises this article from the Irish Times. Netflix preview ads for the next episode of a series are 15 seconds – the same length of time that Instagram video ad formats are. So the message seems to be – different ad lengths for different formats.

“If you lose, you’re not good enough to win”

So said Brian Cody, Kilkenny hurling manager when he spoke at a recent Smurfit UCD Smurfit Business School breakfast. Writing in the Irish Independent, Michael Cullen tells us that Cody’s tips included - never to ignore your gut instinct, know the people around you and their way of life and surround yourself with experts but don’t tell them how to do their job.

http://www.independent.ie/business/media/cody-outlines-a-winning-formula-31362136.html

http://www.razorsocial.com/profit-from-your-blog/?omhide=true

Friday, June 26, 2015

tie Twitter to your Comms strategy, Tell your Story & 7 ways to make money from your Blog

4 ways to tie Twitter to your Communications strategy

This article features 4 tips on Twitter from the social media consultant for the American Heart Association. While the article – from PR News - is aimed at people who work in PR, the 4 tips apply to anyone using Twitter for business. Tip 1: listen before you leap – this applies to any beginner of any social media – listen and observe before you jump in – and the great thing about Twitter is the ability to monitor conversations and topics easily (admission – I had to google API to see what it means - Application Programming Interfaces – allows programmes and websites to ‘talk’ to each other - but you, the reader, probably knew that!). See other tips here….

http://bit.ly/1TOqWyu

Tell your Story

It’s vital to let customers see your strength – so tell your story – this is the leading piece of advice from Nigel Gahan of Gahan Meats in the Business section of the Irish Independent. Nigel has worked in the family meat business in Dublin for 20 years. He says that so many companies have great stories but they keep it to themselves. His other recommendations include: Delegate; Focus; Recognise your Strengths & Weaknesses - and it is all about Customer Service…..

http://bit.ly/1LqGoxk

Make money from your Blog

7 tips on how to make money from your Blog from Ian Cleary of Razor Social – my favourite social media and online marketing guru as he really knows his stuff and speaks in plain English – not teccie speak! With each of the tips, Ian recommends some tools and websites you can use. The tips include: running webinars, promoting other content, doing product reviews and selling your own products. See here for details……

And finally……

Interesting info from Communicorp One – owner of Newstalk, Today FM and TXFM on the online behaviour of their listeners…….

http://www.communicorpone.ie/insights/online-behaviour/