Clarion Communications

Holidays are Coming

Pippa Brindley, senior account executive, Clarion Communications

It’s nearly July and there’s a definite sense that summer is here, more or less. The nights are lighter, the temperature’s rising and we’re starting to spend our weekends out and about in the sunshine or relaxing in beer gardens with a BBQ and a glass of Pimms. Our summer wardrobes are finally making an appearance and as people start to prepare for their long awaited summer trips away, the holiday season is definitely upon us. Sound familiar?

PR Events: Are They Worth the Money?

Kathryn Webster, account manager, Clarion Communications

It’s fair to say there’s nothing quite as stressful as an event, especially in the world of PR. From organising logistics to inviting journalists, it’s a never ending battle - and even once it’s over, we still need to secure coverage post-event to make a return on investment and please our clients.

Do You Have Time to Think?

Amanda Meyrick, managing director, Clarion Communications

When was the last time that you stared out of the window and let your mind wander?

Sean Miles, director of prototyping, Designworks

We get our share of unusual briefs here at Designworks, but we recently had one from Clarion that stood out...

Cat Cambridge, senior account executive, Clarion Communications

I started my PR career at a small agency in Reading four years ago and when I say small, I mean fairly tiny - I was one of only five. I loved my time there for many reasons: it felt like a little family, everyone always knew what everyone else was doing and best of all I gained a lot of experience very quickly.

Jonathan Smith, associate director, Clarion Communications

Foreign Secretary William Hague recently declared there is only one solution to Britain's economic problems: hard work. While the same week I attended a training session in which we were told to stop rushing and think more. And that got me thinking…

Sophie Dee-Shapland, intern, Clarion Communications

“Gherkin? Banana?”
“Gorkana”
“Ohh, G-o-r-k-a-n-a. Er, what’s that…?”

Words that are commonplace to PR professionals are foreign territory for newcomers. And nearing the end of my work placement at Clarion, I realise that I’ve learnt a lot in a relatively short space of time. The past few weeks have been my first experience of PR and so initially I didn’t know what to expect.Reminiscent of the childhood experience of starting ‘big school’, the first day was a learning curve. In fact being shown around a new office is a bit like learning the dynamics of a high school, minus the Mean Girls vibe. I tentatively awaited my initiation but thankfully - apart from learning to use industry-standard media database Gorkana - there wasn’t one.

Louisa Jarvis, account director, Clarion Communications

We take PR very seriously. You might even say religiously. So we’ve applied the famous biblical principles of good human behaviour to the life of a PR professional - to help PRs like us stay on the right side of He Who Must Be Obeyed*.

Niall Hughes, senior account manager, Clarion Communications

With the world’s biggest sporting event taking place on our doorstep shortly, most PRs will have worked on at least one activity tying their clients to ‘the games’ - but is there room for everyone, and as PRs should we be advising clients to stay away from the branding bloodbath?

Laura Jones, associate director, Clarion Communication

PR is more than a job - in fact it’s often more than a career, and can sometimes become all consuming. To work in PR you have to live it, and you have to love it - but this can sometimes leave us burning a little too much midnight oil.

Maddalena Pinto, account manager, Clarion Communications

More and more brands are developing strategies involving charity link-ups as well as celebrity endorsements - and one wonders if this is because corporate altruism has hit an all time high, OR if finally we’ve reached a point where supporting a charity guarantees better media coverage. From tailors linking to support male cancer to a giant egg hunt around London to save elephants in Africa, it seems no brand is exempt.

Katy Jameson, Senior Account Executive, Clarion Communications

WSET is the Wine and Spirits Education Trust - renowned throughout the Drinks trade as the school for anyone whose enjoyment or association with all things alcoholic goes beyond just drinking it.

Gary Freemantle, CEO, Clarion Communications

I could just leave it at that I suppose, and there'd be a few nods of general agreement. But what I'm referring to is the ‘London bubble’: walk down any central London street of an early evening and you'll find people spilling out of pubs, even on a Monday (and don't even attempt to buy a pint on a Friday). Try to book a fancy restaurant for a celebration and they can probably squeeze you in at 6pm on a Tuesday in November if you vacate the table by 6.30 AND leave a 90% deposit. Because of course London is a country within a country, an international mega-city still increasing in global popularity, fuelled by the City and by massive investment from prosperous countries around the world.

James Watts, senior account director, Clarion Communications

When you're creating a prequel to a film which is over 35 years old, how do you ensure the modern generation of cinema-goers can get excited about it?

Oli Bowen, account executive, Clarion Communications

Ah, tea. The nation’s favourite (behind water, that is). Our nation’s go-to in an emergency, if we have a hangover and, well, for all those awkward silent moments where no-one has anything to say. Other than ’tea anyone?’

Laura Nye, account manager, Clarion Communications

The internet has made the world smaller and more accessible in a relatively short period of time - when I was growing up if we wanted to speak with relatives in Australia or America it was either by phone (expensive) or by letter. And the time it took to get a response could be weeks or even months. Now, with the use of Skype and social media, the world has become an incredibly small and more accessible place - with communication from the UK to both Australia and the US taking seconds, not weeks.

Sue Roberts, board director, Clarion Communications

I sometimes envy teachers and doctors, not because I’d particularly like to work in either profession - although a teacher’s holiday allowance would be nice - but purely to avoid the awkward conversation that follows the inevitable dinner party question, “what exactly do you do?”. Once the general guffaw about daily quaffing of champagne has passed, how do you explain in a nutshell the colourful and varied life of a PRO?

Rebecca Binks, senior account manager, Clarion Communications

I read an article in the Daily Mail recently about how Asda inappropriately complained to suppliers using the Union flag on their packaging amid fears it might offend customers in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Er, hang on - aren’t both countries represented by the flag? Like many of the manufacturers who received the crazy email, I was a little confused.

Katy Jameson, senior account executive, Clarion Communications

News is on a constant cycle - and in our fast-paced world, where we have access to both real-time updates online, as well as daily newspapers and both weekly and monthly magazines, I think it's almost irrefutable that every PR story has been done before.

Kathryn Webster, account manager, Clarion Communications

When I began researching a career in PR there was one part that really excited me: the big PR stunt. It’s the crazy idea that comes up in the brainstorm to which people don’t know whether to applaud or hang their head in shame. We all remember the classics - the polar bear on the Thames, Gail Porter on the side of Big Ben and most recently the Pimms giant deck chair on Bournemouth beach. Yes, ultimately some PR stunts do work in securing high profile national coverage but what about the rest of them that are long forgotten by the media and which brands have invested huge sums of money into producing?

Kathryn Platt, account executive, Clarion Communications
The good old brainstorm - or ‘thought shower’ as it should now be called if you’re being politically correct - is an essential technique used by PRs to generate creative ideas. But is the brainstorm still effective within busy agency life?

Matt Stokoe, associate director, Clarion Communications

A suit and tie. The expected attire for any man attending a wedding, christening or funeral - but what role does it have in today’s world for creative industries like PR and marketing?

James Regal, senior account manager, Clarion Communications

Permission forms. Risk assessments. Method statements. Council permits. Hardly words that inspire one to push boundaries with daring PR ideas. That’s because cutting-edge consumer PR is sexy and dangerous, right? Guerrilla stunts, giant outdoor installations and messing about with the general public are some of the mainstays of the best PR campaigns of the past decade.

James Fick, account executive, Clarion Communications

Most of my colleagues and clients view me - I think - as a confident, outgoing guy. But when we proposed the idea of taking a group of eight ft-tall costumed characters on a commuter train route to be photographed, little did I know that both my colleagues and client would ask me to not just oversee the photos but take part in it as well (see above – I’m on far left studying the newspaper).

Howard Bowden, head of news, Clarion Communications

Remember at school when you’d be the first to get into a band before anyone else? And how rubbish it was when a bit later said band started having hits, and suddenly everyone else in your class was a huge fan? So you’d look down your adolescent nose, and tell everyone how their earlier stuff was so much better…

Alison Crowley, senior account executive, Clarion Communications

How PR campaigns are evaluated is changing as quickly as new social media groups are being dubbed ‘the Next Facebook’. With the arrival of the likes of Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest, traditional models for evaluating the success of an entire PR campaign are proving insufficient in dealing with the wide variety of digital coverage with which modern PR campaigns are generating i.e. ‘Likes’, ‘Retweets’, ‘Followers’ and ‘Repins’.

Rachel McCartan, senior account executive, Clarion Communications

It’s a big year for Britain - and with the onslaught of the Olympics and the Jubilee, PRs everywhere are limbering up to get the ball rolling on their biggest news hooks of 2012.

Debbie Jackson, head of new business, Clarion Communications

Have my shopping habits as a mother changed over the past 12 months? I can say a resounding 'yes'. In fact I am responsible for most of the purchasing decisions in my household (with the recent exception of car tyres) - so what does that mean for brands trying to reach me and my family?

Nicola Carroll, account executive, Clarion Communications

Recently I have been helping out with new Clarion client, The Healing Foundation - a UK charity that supports research into all aspects of disfigurement, scarring and reconstructive surgery, so a really worthwhile cause.

Maddalena Pinto, account manager, Clarion Communications

The world of PR is ever evolving with both journalists and PRs constantly changing their ways of workings, best practices and preferences. So is face-to-face time with journalists still the most effective way to achieve results for clients - or do the telephone and email work just as well, while being more cost-effective?

Laura Jones, associate director, Clarion Communications

With all budgets under the microscope these days it’s essential that any marketing discipline can prove return on investment to survive. But while Media Buyers have ‘opportunities to see', and Digital Marketers have clicks, likes and retweets, showing the true value of PR over and above advertising value equivalent (AVE) and number of cuts can be difficult.

Alexandra Gerolami, senior account manager, Clarion Communications

I started my first internship in PR at 14 - and preparing a catwalk show was at the time the most exciting thing I had ever done, even though the experience was far from glamorous. I spent most of my time in an archive room organising dusty press books and franking mail (and there are a lot of envelopes to mail out when preparing a catwalk show) but the excitement and the non-stop buzz - and the fact that I was backstage at the show - got me hooked straight away.

Isobel Postins, senior account director, Clarion Communications

We all know this PR dream: check the papers first thing to find blanket coverage for a picture-led story dreamt up in a brainstorm months ago. Everyone’s happy, especially the client.

Gary Freemantle, CEO, Clarion Communications

So since mid-April, BBC Breakfast has been broadcasting from MediaCityUK in Salford. BBC Children’s, Sport and Radio 5 Live are also - or soon will be - at the shiny new offices, which along with other departments will bring numbers of BBC staff at the site to a massive 2,300.

Philippa Wynn-Green, board director, Clarion Communications

Announcing his resignation in a letter to The New York Times recently, an employee of Goldman Sachs accused the bank of acting only in its own interests - and referring to clients as ‘muppets’. The media, lapping up another negative banking story, gave this masses of space - and Goldman Sachs, usually accustomed to positive stories about its success, felt the full force of negative public opinion and saw its value drop by billions.

Niall Hughes, senior account manager, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP group

The sun is shining and the metaphorical mercury is rising, which can only mean the onset of the summer silly season. Every year PRs plot wackier and zanier picture stunts and surveys to coincide with this most bizarre of seasons - but what are they up against?

Barbara Normile, account director, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP group

Despite the huge advances in the way we’ve communicated throughout history - from speech to writing and carrier pigeons to telephones, Morse code and the internet - the disparity of communication standards and the accessibility of modern methods in the world still astounds me.

Cat Cambridge, senior account executive, Clarion Communication, part of the WPP group

Compared with TV ads, viral videos are more likely to be recalled not just generally but by brand and message too. So when it works, viral marketing is definitely worth investing in for any campaign. But it’s certainly a challenge, for with every successful viral video, a hundred more go unseen.

Alice Stanes, PR assistant, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP Group

With the first hazy summer days in sight, festival season is well and truly on the horizon - and what better way to kick off our festival countdown than to embrace social media and join the conversation.

Amanda Meyrick, managing director, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP group

How many meetings have you sat through that drone on and on and on? Speaking succinctly is an art - and the more concisely you speak, the more people will listen and remember what you say. The king of one-liners, Mark Twain, describes a sound bite as "a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense". Sound bites are small but powerful groups of words - and whether facts, anecdotes, one-liners or stories, they all make what you have to say memorable and therefore worth passing on. But how to create them as they don't always flow naturally? Here’s some borrowed advice from the experts:

Katy Jameson, senior account executive, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP group

News is on a constant cycle - and in our fast-paced world, where we have access to both real-time updates online, as well as daily newspapers, and weekly and monthly magazines, I think it's almost irrefutable that every PR story has been done before.

Sandra Tortajada, PR assistant, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP group

In this day and age where everything is at a click of a button, leaving your computer screen is becoming less necessary by the day. From contacting friends and family to giving the world a news update by sharing a photo in seconds, it’s no wonder that we are being tricked into feeling like we are being ever more sociable.

Jonathan Smith, associate director, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP group

Minimum pricing on booze, plain packs on fags, VAT on a Greggs pasty…the Government obviously thinks legislation rather than education is the way to go to alter the way society behaves.

However, changing attitudes and social engineering with a Big Brother approach is less likely to work - after all it's not in human nature to trust what is so overtly put upon us. The Government should also be wary that embarking on centralised legislative measures that have not been tried before are likely to have unintended consequences…

Maybe therefore the Government should consider adopting a more PR led approach to educate society. After all, by generating more trusted content and word of mouth, PR is much more likely to engineer social change.

Is PR Speak necessary?

Poppy Mason-Watts, senior account executive, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP group.

I recently spoke with some blogger friends and asked them what the most annoying thing about PRs is. Their first response made me laugh: PR speak.

Louisa Jarvis, account director, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP Group

Not since the advent of text messages, which encouraged the mass abandonment of punctuation and replacement of vowels with numbers (gr8!), has such a stir been caused around the near-sacrosanct topic of English Grammar. For Waterstone's - that high street hotbed of learning and literature - has given up on its humble apostrophe.

Habib Amir, head of digital, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP Group

Too often, brands pro-actively ask their audience to share a branded video with their friends in the hope it will go viral. And if this has to be requested by the brand, it usually means the video doesn’t have the potential to go viral. In fact, if a brand is sure about the quality of the video, it can even afford to ask its audience the opposite.

Shelley Wyatt, Board Director, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP Group

Browsing the papers today, one survey story caught my eye... ‘we’re at our happiest when we’re 33’. Reading on I saw the survey was commissioned to relaunch one of the UK’s first social networks - Friends Reunited. Hold. The. Page. Surely the bigger story here is: ‘Can Friends Reunited make a Comeback?’

Vikki Chowney, News Editor, Econsultancy.com

Following our discussion about the value of QR codes and acceptable levels of engagement, it seems that Condé Nast's Glamour magazine has found real success by placing them among its printed pages.

In fact, a trial within its 'social edition' from September produced 512,339 engagements among a circulation of 2m readers – just over 25%.

Google + Brands + Customers / 2012

Google+ will become the natural home for brands and their customers in 2012

Habib Amir, head of digital, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP group

Google+ is set to become the fastest growing online medium in 2012. In this think piece, I will make two predictions based on the trends observed in the past few years.

Products before brands
 Prediction 1: ‘Search’ will become more specific, more contextual, more social and therefore highly relevant to purchase journeys

By Poppy Mason-Watts, account executive, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP Group.

"Blogging about the minutiae of family life to offer a no-holds-barred account of life with children” (Lee & Curcic, 2010) - that’s an ideal description of a mummy blog, although they certainly aren’t restricted to child-related subjects and can include a wide array of topics.

So what is their importance in the PR world?