June, 2009
PR as Diplomacy Part One
Of Ramadan, beer and belly dancers
In 1991 there was a war. Not just any war, this was the first big one involving our lot since the Falklands. I was working at National Museums Liverpool at the time and my planned “jolly” to accompany six journalists on an all expenses trip to see the ancient sites of Jordan was put on hold.
So the propaganda was peddled by the western media, the most important weapon in the armoury. This was a Just War. And hey you know what? They can send a missile through an arms factory without hurting anyone, rather like your dad’s remote controlled model plane smoothes its way through Birkenhead Park. And we wanted to believe it. But slowly the reality sunk in that weapons are as indiscriminate to age, gender and political persuasion.
So when the Jordanian Minister of Tourism invited us over after the last Scud missile had gone haywire over Saudi, there was a moment of trepidation. For geographical purposes, Jordan had to put itself up as an ally of Saddam in the eyes of the world. How would we be welcomed by the locals?
My role was to assemble six of the finest journos this side of the Crusader trail and chaperone them through the desert castles courtesy of Ministry staff.
I took artistic licence with this one as I decided to offer one of my places to artist and poet, Adrian Henri. He had contributed articles to The Guardian and much PR could be gleaned from his ability to diarise the visit with his pencil. Phil Key and Lew Baxter formed the Liverpool rearguard. Both ex Fleet Street hacks, these boys knew one end of a bottle from the other. But for fear of legal redress, I had better say that both were tremendous writers too!
Making up the team was Derek who wrote for a high circulation car mag, Caroline from Company magazine and Gerald who was archaeological correspondent of the FT.
I scored a PR own goal by not including Joe Riley from the Liverpool Echo but I figured that we needed a decent spread of national coverage via freelancers who had already placed their wares. On reflection, Joe should have been there as there was no way, we could make an impact on national coverage for our hosts. Regional impact would have been fine. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though.
We met our colleagues in London and I immediately felt as if there was a north south divide going on. Gerald and co. might well have believed some of the ridiculous coverage by the southern media that we Liverpudlians are not averse to leaving our neighbours’ cars on bricks while we sold the tyres the local scrap dealer. Silence and polite nods ensued until Lew and Phil entered the hospitality lounge, setting a pattern then for my lesson in cross cultural diplomacy.
It was whispered to me that on arrival in Jordan, Ramadan was being observed. Shit. So let me get this straight in my head, I thought to myself. Fasting and abstinence vs Fleet Street hack culture. How was this going to work? Of all the weeks in the year, I picked this one. When one loudly questioned the point of “shouting the odds in some high tower” (referring to the call to prayer) I wanted the plush bathroom to take me. Things were looking PRetty grim
Part Two soon
Fame at Last
Revolver Rocks Radio
From Marseille to Moreton the Express steams on.
Former Great Easton Express presenter Kev McDempster is hoping to recreate the spirit of an institution for classic rock fans across the region on 7 Waves radio.
Tragically its founding presenter Phil Easton of Radio City died in February, but his former co-presenter Kev McDempster wanted to carry on the traditions of playing the tried and trusted classics as well as new acts coming on stream.
7 Waves provided a solution by offering three hours of non-stop rock. Assisted by Revolver’s sponsorship of the programme, other sponsors such as The Swinging Arm have also come forward with enthusiasm.
Kev explained: “I believe that much of radio has become corporate. We are all being fed playlists of songs by companies that are no longer situated in this country, so when we chatted to 7 Waves who were not tied to any particular corporation’s view of music it was a no brainer, and now I can’t wait to get back on air.”
Many in the industry can’t quite understand why the Great Easton Express it was ever taken off air. Events such as Download and sold out performances by artist like Roger Waters at the Liverpool Echo Arena show that there is a high demand for all shades of the genre.
Keith Thompson who will also contribute to the programme said: “The Express was an essential ingredient of my life as a rock fan and it’s a privilege to be involved in Kev’s version now. Although Kev will be playing the Whitesnakes and the usual suspects, we emphasise that this is not just a blast from the past.
Marseille featuring Art Attack’s Neil Buchanan, who plays Revolver the following Saturday 11 July, will be talking about their new album on the first programme.”
Kev said:”The record companies are champing at the bit to send us new material, as they are finding it just as frustrating to place new material on the stagnant airwaves.”
The show goes on air on Sunday 5 July 7-10 on 92.1 FM and online at www.7waves.co.uk with feature interviews also syndicated to other websites such as getreadytorock.com and Total Rock. Items for the ‘what’s on,’ sponsored by the Swinging Arm, should be sent to keith@effective-media.co.uk
Integrated Social Media
Online to Survival
Here’s the news from the front. Video News Releases and Online promos are the next big thing. This is a presentation I used to illustrate how new media can be used to enhance the marketing mix of any small business during my time at Wirral TV.
Marketing and PR for Small Business 2 97
Any PR pro who doesn’t embrace the new technologies has about five years left in the business. I am not saying newspapers will disappear. It’s clear that their branding is strong enough to provide a viable advertising medium. So yes we’ll still be putting out news releases until the cows come home. But there’s no doubt that the landscape will continue changing as budgets are placed with CPC (Cost Per Click) and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
Here is a simple example of how a small business could benefit: An online promo could be produced which is placed on the home page of their website. This is becomes the pivot. The video is then tagged to reflect the business it is there to promote. So if it’s “widgets for dogs,” the tags in the HTML should reflect variation of the same. Next to the video should be a newsletter where people can subscribe. Converting viewers to potential customers is a long shot but it just might work!
This is all very well but how do you stimulate more customers to the website? There are various ways and not necessarily expensive:-
Social Media
I am coming out. I tried to avoid Facebook and co. like the plague for as long as I had to avoid answering messages such as “RU ok. Gud to see ya xxxx” or discuss my relationship status to all and sundry. But it’s here to stay. The branding of these sites might change over the years but the principle of networking stays the same. The internet defined is simply people saying “hello.” In history they’d say “hello” in a field and then a telephone box, a home phone, a mobile and now online. Nothing has changed! Some of the facilities on Facebook allow you to invite people to events, share ideas and hey even sell products!
Cost Per Click
What’s a PR guy bleating on about Cost Per Click for? Well this PR guy was actually on the launch for Microsoft Ad Center UK. Having had access to private accounts, I was knocked out by the potential for serious money to be made on the internet. Choose the correct keywords for your niche, fine tune your demographics and you have THE most precise marketing method known to this species. This will drive traffic to your online promo.
Media Relations
Obviously articles in the local paper, radio and TV help, but let’s think outside the box here. If you have a video news release or online promo you should send it to the digital editors of the websites owned by the newspaper groups. It can’t be assumed that the editorial policy for one follows the other. When I was promoting a concert in Liverpool, I asked if our promo could be placed in the editorial section of Liverpool.com. Sometimes they will run the footage for up to to three weeks. Despite the ongoing training of journalists to use camera and sound equipment, these website are still short of quality footage. If they can link it back to your site, the effort is worthwhile. Do be aware though that editors might ask for a shorter version than the one you have.
Look out for future posts about integrated online marketing and PR when I will be exploring in greater detail some of the “how to” and prevalent issues.
Review of Glenn Hughes: Wolverhampton 6/7 June 2009
Glenn Hughes descended on his home town for his only UK dates until 2010 with a double whammy of Deep Purple plus solo on Saturday and a tribute to his alma mater Trapeze on the Sunday.
The axe was in the very dynamic hands of Jeff Kollman who adds oodles of posturing stage presence and provides a foil to the sedate jazzy tinkering of ex Peter Gabriel man, Anders Olinder. Another City of Angels resident, Steve Stevens ably completed the funkmeister’s compact unit.
We were promised some never performed songs from Burn and we got the AOR classic What’s Going on Here, an underrated jig often overshadowed by the usual suspects. Talking of which no Burn but, to be fair, Mr Hughes has been plugging that one for five years now, so it’s no bad thing to keep the audience intrigued. It worked for Blackmore!
A stray vocal mike picking up the bass bins on stage did make the first two songs sound Sabbathesque (no bad thing either) but the culprit was quickly discovered and balance restored in this acoustically sound venue.
Sail Away was a welcome addition to the set and long may it remain as a staple, Anders Olinder adapting the Jon Lord synth moments with aplomb. Mistreated never fails to disappoint with Kollman’s appropriate take on the Blackmore histrionics combined with the addition of Glenn’s voyage through the octaves.
Glenn’s voice is still in good shape and he cuts a very lean figure these days. His philosophy of eating the right foods and resting with intent is obviously paying dividends. I am witnessing Holy Man “the only one they let me sing on my own” off Stormbringer and thinking what could have been if he hadn’t listened to the man with man with the dodgy smarties back in the 70’s.
The George Harrison of Deep Purple perhaps?
Image conscious but not averse to self effacement, Hughes asked “Should I take this f***** off?” referring to the red silk scarf which was skilfully draped around his neck.
Solo highlights such as Crave from Music from the Divine and Love Communion off F.U.N.K and Don’t Let me Bleed from the modern classic, Soul Mover were well received by the sell out audience.
The second night was a tribute to the music of Trapeze for which I had the privilege of watching the rehearsal in the morning.
What was apparent from such classics as Medusa and Seafull was that Trapeze probably had the top 30 classic in the cooking pot around the time Hughes jumped ship to Purple. Having said that, the Sunday evening was a night of celebration of what was, not what could have been.
Glenn once again donned his old friend and mentor, the late Mel Galley’s black beauty Gibson for Seafull. Talking about a Glenn Hughes guitar solo sounds weird but there it is folks. Emotional, confident and well delivered, there were inevitable lumps in throats.
Trapeze were an eclectic mixture of bad ass funk arranged progressively. The music is timeless and let’s hope this recorded gig makes its way to the online shops.
Also published at www.getreadytorock.com
Horses for Courses
Regular visitors to the old Effective Media will have noted that I ran courses on media training and the like. Now that my full time tenure is with the rather excellent Liverpool John Moores University, I will of course be recommending the Business and PR degree, students and alumni for which often visit this site.
For anyone wanting to enter the profession, a PR degree is not the be all and end all. When I reckoned that three hour lunches and dinner with celebrities was a fab idea, I worked for a magazine called Go Daytrips. I got paid the princely sum of £200 expenses for editing around three issues. Hmm not so AbFab then! I’d had no professional writing experience before that but it did give me those skills. I wrote nice things about Merseyside Maritime Museum and they gave me a dream job.
In the CIPR tome PR Week, there was balanced article which debated whether or not PR degrees were worth doing. I can’t speak for other universities and colleges but what I can say is that JMU’s revolutionary World of Work initiative means that the skills needed for the job are monitored throughout the degree and a separate certificate offered. So it’s not just about placements, it’s the added value of integrating academia with work skills.
Obviously if you are running your own business, it’s not going to be possible to study for three years (or four with a placement) so there are a number of short courses which I would recommend. The CIPR is your best bet. I guess I am bound to say that but the again you only get what you pay for. The last one was on Social Networking and it opened my eyes that actually even the biggest industry ships were faltering in new waters. You can study for the CIPR diploma if you are serious about entering a career in the industry or a one or two day course
Overseas visitors should check out their own national professional body. It’s always a good starting point. There are any number of unqualified “mentors” always ready to slap 28 slides on a Powerpoint and call it good VFM training.
If you are looking for a course and not sure which way to go, comment here or email me at keith@effective-media.co.uk
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