why journalists ignore press releases, brands that got it right & wrong in 2015 & teamwork on bullying

Why journalists ignore press releases

Written by a UK journalist, this features 7 reasons why journalists might be ignoring your emails.  And it’s always worth repeating!  Some of the reasons include – that the email is basically a sales pitch, that the journalist has to look too hard to find the most interesting i.e. newsworthy piece (they won’t, they don’t have time), that the email/press release is too long and more – take a look…...

http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2016/jan/11/why-journalists-are-ignoring-your-press-releases

Brands that got it right – and wrong – in 2015

In this article from Gerard Tannam of Islandbridge Brand Development, he looks at brands that got it right and wrong last year.  The brands Gerard covers include Virgin Media, eir, Supervalu, FIFA, Irish Water, Brand Ireland, Panti Bliss, The Abbey Theatre, Donald Trump and Volkswagen.  Gerard also presents “Kickstart Your Business” with George Hook every Thursday evening on Newstalk.  (Disclosure, Ger is a client of mine – but don’t hold that against him!).

http://openheartbranding.blogspot.ie/2016/01/brandwidth-2015-year-in-review.html

Teamwork on anti-bullying

It’s great to read about creative teamwork that produces a solution to a social problem and to work on something which must be so satisfying.  In this instance, it’s bullying.  Ad agency Boys and Girls were approached by the Solas Project charity to work with schoolkids on a problem experienced in their daily lives.  The purpose of the project was to instil confidence in the kids and how to interact with people – something that would serve them well in their future lives as well.  So between them all, they eventually decided on an anti-bullying wristband, a prototype of which is currently being trialled.  Have a read…

http://www.independent.ie/business/small-business/when-the-ad-man-got-mad-at-bullying-34349097.html

www.diypr.ie

(Image: Wikipedia)

Interested in delish Fish Starters this Xmas?

Wouldn’t a Seafood Centre Piece like this be an impressive start to the most anticipated meal of the year?!  George Stephens - the recently crowned BIM Young Fishmonger of the Year 2016 - certainly thinks so!  George (left) is pictured with Bruno Gauvain, a man who knows all there is to know about producing platters which look as good as they taste!

George is a qualified seafood chef and fishmonger and owns The Fish Market, which has branches in Blanchardstown, Dublin, Maynooth, Co. Kildare and Mullingar, Co. Westmeath.

Before opening his first shop in Mullingar in 2008, he worked with Derry Clarke of L’Ecrivain, Terry McCoy of The Red Bank and at Sheen Falls Lodge.

Fish Starters

Other exciting starter recommendations from George include Spicy Asian Prawns, Stuffed Avocado with Prawns & Salsa or Salmon Roulade.  Of course, these can also be served as the main course to any guest who prefers not to eat meat. George’s recipes can be found here - 

Delicious Christmas Fish Starters

BIM.ie 

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Rain-triggered Ad, Lidl V M&S & ads from last century

Rain-triggered Ad

ActionAid has developed a very innovative new ad which launches this week in advance of the London People’s Climate March which takes place on Sunday. Their rain-triggered ad aims to highlight the impact of climate change.  According to Marketing Week, “Using real-time data, the system registers rainfall in the local area and consequently triggers a reaction in the software, which sees the existing ad schedule at Piccadilly Circus disrupted to reveal a tailored message depending on level of precipitation – drizzle, light rain or heavy rain.”  This format would work particularly well in Ireland, one would think?!!

http://www.marketingweek.com/2015/11/24/actionaid-launches-first-ever-rain-triggered-ad-to-stop-people-in-their-tracks/

Lidl v M&S

It’s always interesting when devout supporters of a brand swap and try a competing brand – but if you’re expecting any Lidl or M&S bashing here, there is very little – in fact both shoppers were pleasantly surprised by the other retailer!  The M&S shopper was struck by the Lidl own De Luxe brand – but even more so by the ski-wear – while the Lidl shopper was shocked to find food that’s cheaper in M&S than it is elsewhere!  This Irish Times feature doesn’t do either retailer any harm at all!  For the record, I’m fans of both!  I also shop at SuperValu, Tesco, Aldi and occasionally Dunnes!  Often it’s the need for the moggy’s cat food that decides for me – Tesco always have it, not so the others!

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/swap-shop-a-lidl-shopper-and-an-m-s-fan-switch-stores-for-a-week-1.2437997

Racism, Sexism & more from Ad Men

This is a book I want to read – “Beyond Belief” from Charles Saatchi which highlights ads from the last century which were racist, sexist, in very poor taste or made dubious health claims.  For example, “Lucky Strike” cigarettes ran a campaign saying, “20,679 physicians say Luckies are less irritating….” because, wait for it, “It’s toasted. Your throat protection against irritation against cough.”  Talk about stretching it!

http://www.theguardian.com/media/gallery/2015/nov/18/racist-sexist-rude-crude-worst-20th-century-advertising-in-pictures

www.grainnebyrnePR.ie

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

www.grainnebyrnePR.ie

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

www.grainnebyrnePR.ie

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!

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

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

www.grainnebyrnePR.ie

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

www.grainnebyrnePR.ie