Eat, drink and tweet positive
‘Tis the season to be jolly, tra la la la la, la la la la… so why is the top trending tweet of the day currently #endoftheworld?
Carol singing brings out the best in us and I thoroughly enjoyed the spontaneous outburst of joy and laughter as we sang ever so slightly out of key at our recent office party. What we lacked in choral competence, we more than made up for in enthusiasm. A good time was had by all.
It’s also the season of goodwill to all men (and women), so there’s plenty to be cheerful about and lots to be thankful for. The best time to have such optimistic, rose-tinted thoughts is when we’re stood in a mile-long queue at the tills, worrying if we’ve done enough, collectively, to save the high street, and whether all our online purchases will arrive in time for Christmas.
Soothsayers have been predicting the end of the world since the dawn of civilisation, but we’ve always found solutions to the problems. And even on a cold, dark and gloomy winter’s night, despite all the world’s problems, we can all find a way to look on the bright side of life and reflect back on 2011 as a year we all battled through.
Though we will bring baggage into 2012 from the current economic turmoil, European crisis and UK domestic issues, we must also find the strength to face up to fresh challenges.
Whatever happens, we’re a long way from the end of the world and, as countless Olympic gold medallists will tell us come the summer, it’s the hard work and determination to succeed you put in week after week that get you through – not by jumping on the bandwagon of 140-character doom-mongering.
Andy Rea
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TEAM GRAVITASH
This is what you get from 30 days moustachery in aid of Movember – the men’s health charity. Our three dedicated moustachiers have raised £750 for the charity Movember which promotes awareness etc. of prostate cancer. Finally, happily, the razors are coming out of the bathroom cabinets. We have had styles like the spiv, the Greenwich village intellectual and the adult film lead male, but all have amused. Twitter and Facebook have promoted the cause. Our £750 is small beer given to the global total of £62 million, but we’re proud, and rather interested in how this social-media based campaign has been so successful at a time when everyone is feeling the pinch.
The daily photo updates will amuse you in an idle hour – go here – http://mobro.co/gravitash where donations are still being taken!
Communications for care
The Equality and Human Rights Commission today published a damning report on the treatment received by the elderly in care homes.
It follows a spate of negative publicity plaguing the care industry of late, with stories of neglect, abuse, or poor living conditions.
Surely the care home sector can’t really be that bad? Well, no, as a matter of fact it isn’t, though that’s the impression the average reader is bound to take away.
The truth is that the vast majority of residential and nursing homes – whether privately or local authority run – provide efficient, professional and humane treatment for those in their charge and are as horrified as the rest of us by the bad apples in their midst.
In the welter of negative publicity, however, that easily gets lost – the sector clearly needs to be shown how to present its nicer, kinder face. It also needs to know how to deal with problems in the unfortunate event they arise.
So, by way of some helpful advice…
• In preparation for a crisis, designate a senior spokesperson and ensure all staff know who that person is. Prepare a statement for the media which is open and honest. Finally, never say “no comment” when asked a question by a journalist – it implies guilt.
• Tell the media what’s good about what you do… Organise events involving the community, and invite local celebrities and the media to show yourself in the best possible light.
The media will come knocking if the story is negative, but to get positive coverage you must be proactive.
If ever a sector needed some tender, loving care, it’s the care sector.
King of the Swingers Urban Swingers VIP
“Don’t look down” is a good tip to give someone about to do their first abseil, particularly when it is down the side of Europe’s tallest fixed abseil structure. The National Abseil Centre, visible from miles around, is a scary place. I’m glad I did it – scaring yourself silly puts routine stresses into context – and we helped raise £18,000 for Children in Need. But I spent the four hours beforehand fishing for tips on how to cope. I busied myself thinking of a “descent-song”. I badgered my fellow jumpers from AAH, Annette, Niki, Samantha and Steven, and John from Thornton Ross, for ideas, and Steve nominated Mission Impossible, but he had the muscles to match that song. When my ever resourceful husband suggested the King Louie song from The Jungle Book it had the feel good factor I needed. So, while I did Louis Prima no favours with my tuneless take on “I’m the King of the Swingers”, it helped me get down. As the macho men nudging me off the tower agreed, it was better than cussing. They even joined in and commended the choice. I’m now composing a ‘nerve-settling desert-islands list’ of song tones for testing times. Email us your ideas and we will share them.
See the real proof on film here http://tinyurl.com/7u4aamd
Kay Williamson
Facing the heat this winter
A great journalist will not pull punches in pursuit of a story, so when our clients are in the eye of a media storm a robust reaction is required.
What clients rate most is our ability to take the heat out of a situation, media training for their spokespeople and achieving fair and balanced coverage or keeping things from the public eye completely.
We have recently helped a number of NHS Trusts, GPs and clients in the pharmaceutical and medical instrument worlds to face up to crisis PR.
As trained journalists we know our media law and can quickly convey we will not tolerate any deviation from the ‘rules of the game’ by reporters.
‘Keep calm and carry on’ is a clever slogan when talking to the media, and this is a great piece of advice: always be honest.
Andy Rea
Measurement, evaluation and a few words in Greek
Increasingly we’re finding ourselves working with people bringing new products or services to the market – which means we meet our clients at a peculiar crossroad.
When a business finishes the product development process, it stops asking the “will it work?” question about the product, and starts asking the same question about PR and marketing. The burden of proof is on us to convert the PR skeptic to a believer –just as we are going up the learning curve about our business, they are going up the learning curve about ours.
This process is coupled with the “buyer-seller dance” where the potential client dangles the carrot, and the expectation is that we produce a creative response to this brief.
This is where things get interesting. The room usually divides into those that delight in the creative (or build on it) and those that analyse its workings and potential delivery. It’s a neat polarization of the arts or science viewpoint – an either / or split, or, as the Greeks would say it, a dichotomous view.
So let me put another nail in the Greek coffin, and set the record straight: we benchmark and evaluate our work, and we strive to ensure our measurement is concrete and relevant to your business objectives.
Our metrics include message density penetration compared to benchmarks, and perceptions audit before and after a campaign. We also measure subscriptions, requests for material, information or sales leads that can be tracked back to PR activity. For our web or social media campaigns we set up unique landing pages, measure visitor figures, hit / bounce rate, traffic arriving via unique landing pages, downloads and page viewings, and re-tweets or comments on blog postings.
So back to skepticism: rational skepticism about the creative in marketing puts you in good company. If you’re in any doubt about this, view Steve Jobs talking clarity and simplicity in brand marketing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmG9jzCHtSQ
Ruth Ashton
Inconsistent messages on climate change
The recent news that feed-in-tariff payments are to be slashed by mid-December was a blow to the solar industry. Although the scale of the cut was expected, the immediacy of its implementation was not.
Strangely, the news came on the same day as the Committee on Climate Change predicted ministers would stand firm amid calls from Britain’s biggest energy companies for carbon reduction targets to be lowered. Green goals are fiercely upheld, it seems, but incentives to meet them are being made harder to get at.
The Department for Energy and Climate Change cited the plummeting costs of solar panels as evidence for the financial viability of solar energy under the new pricing system, but it has not – unlike Germany – gradually reduced the tariff in line with those lower technology costs. For many – the cuts are too deep, too soon.
Solar companies that survive the short-term will have to deliver a clear message and rethink the way they make their product attractive to consumers, if they want to make it to the long-term.
This will mean re-educating the public as to what deal they are getting from solar energy. The more transparent the explanation the likelier it will lead to a sustained confidence in the benefits solar panels undoubtedly still bring.
Although the announcement has created many uncertainties for the industry, what is clear is that there will be a consolidation of the market as efficiencies are made through the buying power of the larger firms.
Here’s hoping the news hasn’t turned out the lights for Britain’s burgeoning solar industry.
Max Hammond
Crisis PR – Doorstepping utilities need real PR power to beat tabloids and old ladies
There is nothing the media love more than the story of an elderly lady complaining about pushy door-step sales tactics by the utilities giants.
Today’s Sun report on the topic has Consumer group Which? predicting a last-minute door-stepping sales-explosion from gas and electricity firms.
As a crisis PR team we’ve been here before. As our former utility client said to us at the time, their door-to-door sales tactics were legitimate but they could be seen as deviating from best practice, when seen through the eyes of the aged grand-mother whose angry daughter vented to the BBC2 watchdog team of investigative reporters.
What to do in this situation? The formula is simple enough but the devil is in the detail of the PR execution. The BBC gave our client a day’s notice to co-operate with the interview, and we advised full co-operation with meticulous support and planning.
We explained the company’s position to the BBC, scrutinised the interview mechanics and the possible lines of questioning with the BBC knowing that the programme tended towards a tabloid-style which could over-simplify things.
The client – who we’d already media trained – had a TV technique practice top-up session and was prepared to answer all questions – more than he was asked.
He conveyed his company’s genuinely ethical, responsible stance and how they would handle this going forward. The result was balanced coverage, and the brand was un-damaged. The reporter was “impressed”.
Kay Williamson
Dare-devil blood pressure publicity stunt
We usually aim for the sky here at the good ship Gravitas…
But come November 12 I’ll be heading strictly earthwards – abseiling 418 feet down one of the tallest buildings in Britain.
In this daredevil charity stunt I’ll drop from top to bottom of the National Lift Tower in Northampton to raise funds for Children in Need.
Also plunging to the ground are my client colleagues Annette Bray and Niki Ward as we take the opportunity to promote blood pressure checks in their nationwide All About Health programme.
One of their pharmacists will take our pressure at the top, and again when we hit the bottom.
My pressure is normally spot on, but it will probably go off the scale, as like most people I’m not keen on heights.
But it is for two good causes. For those inclined to sponsor the same good cause log onto http://tinyurl.com/5unahj7
Kay Williamson
Gravitas goes through the emotions
I think we already hold the PR consultancy world-record for using ‘people profiling’ tools.
Myers Briggs, Belbin, Transactional Analysis, DISC analysis – you name it, we’ve used it if it helps us to get the best out of our team and our client relationships. I first bit the bug working at Charles Barker where I first encountered TA.
But now, to make us even more fully-rounded, we’ve added Emotional Intelligence analysis to the list.
Every one of us, from newest account executive to myself and my long-suffering husband, has just undergone a searching focus on our emotional resilience.
It involved confidential questionnaires and a group training session, led by Stuart Thomas of the My Big Toe Company Ltd, to study how well we understand the feelings that drive our actions, so we are better able to shape those actions for the good of the team and our clients.
Overall results showed that where emotional intelligence is concerned we are very functional with a clear direction on what to do, what to stop doing, and what to get better at.
What especially pleased was the finding that we are sky-high at happiness levels, so we’re actually a naturally resilient bunch and bounce back after a bad day.
So I say, bring on the heat – we can take it!
Kay Williamson