PR expert Panel and Networking event

Canapé Craig Fergusson pulled off a great evening on Thursday and I would like to thank him for all the effort he put in to ensuring the night was a huge success!

The purpose of this blog is to talk about Craig McGill’s presentation on Digital Media and Brand Development. Craig delivered his presentation from a Scottish perspective which I found quite refreshing as most of our course text book examples focus on the role of social media from a broader U.K or American scope.

Loads of the stuff Craig covered is very relevant to our up-coming report for PREP 67...here’s a link to the slide show for those who missed it

The presentation delivered some astounding statistics that really drove home the fact that Scotland is lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to being digitally ‘savvy.’ For example did you know that out of the 13 newspapers in Scotland only 4 have dedicated online staff? AND none of Scotland’s six radio stations have any online staff!

This news is quite frightening when Mashable-the world’s most visited social media news site was actually created in Scotland! As the next generation of PR professionals we can play a part in shaping the digital future of the industry...

As Craig quite rightly said ‘You can’t think Scottish because you serve the globe’. The internet is most peoples first point of call when they want to find out about something new, when searching for your brand/company they don’t want to find ‘we can’t ship there’ or ‘we don’t do online’ as they will simply go elsewhere. Today companies are more than bricks and mortar and a decent corporate site should represent an investment similar to the impact on reputation that a good headquarters has.

I think Craig’s company, Contently Managed has a great website and some of the stuff on their could definitely be of benefit come report-writing time! Check it out and let me know what you think...

I’m keen to get some more feedback about Thursday''s event, who was your favourite speaker? How did you enjoy the networking event? Was there enough wine....? :)

The Social Network Fever

My PREP67 class mates have had the mid-semester break to reflect on group A’s presentation about ‘The use of Social Network Sites in PR Campaigns’. What did the audience think? Despite our technical difficulties I reckon we did pretty well!

Talking for an hour did seem like a daunting task, however once myself, Gigha, Kathyrn and Kirsten got into it we soon discovered that we could talk for ages about the topic.

It is clear from our presentation that social media is being used as an effective communicative tool in PR campaigns. My fifteen minute slot in the presentation looked at how a boutique PR agency in London has successfully integrated social media into a campaign...

The name Fever PR may not mean anything to you, but you’ll definitely heard of their clients (Warner Brother, Mercedes Benz, Swatch Watches and Toshiba) to name a few.

In 2009 Fever were given the task of launching the Friends 15th anniversary DVD box set. Although the team knew that everyone loved Friends they realised that many people thought it had nothing new to offer since the show’s last episode was aired in 2004 and since then there’s been endless repeats (and a terrible spin off show with Matt Le Blanc!) Fever came up with the idea of the central perk pop-up which would see the shows iconic cafe return to London’s cosmopolitan area of Soho for two weeks.

Fever created Facebook fan pages for the pop-up cafe, which generated a huge amount of interest and led to queues outside the cafe each day. Facebook was instrumental in the campaign as it was effectively used as a platform to create a buzz about the cafe. This word-of-mouth coverage was achieved at a relatively low cost and highlights how influential social media sites can be.

Fever also hired Gunther from Friends to serve coffees which went down well with customers. The central perk pop-up concept received a great deal of national press coverage including an article in The Guardian, and T.V coverage on the BBC and Sky News. The pop-up cafe was also one of the top ten tweeted about topics in the opening week of business as it was mentioned by more than 13,000 users.

Many of the guests who pulled up a pew on the iconic cafe sofas bought the DVD box set which was one of the biggest selling titles at Christmas.

The recurring theme throughout our presentation was the use of social media to publicise campaign events. Social media are an ideal platform for this due to the number of people who use sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. What’s more is that this publicity can be generated cheaply through the successful adoption of social media as part of an integrated PR campaign.

Has anyone spotted another PR campaign that used social media well? Or maybe one that hasn’t? I bet there are a few good examples of companies that have ‘dived in’ and used social media because it seems like the fashionable thing to do...

Is Tiger out of the Woods?

Last week Tiger Woods made his return to golf at the US Masters, five months after sordid allegations surrounding his personal life rocked the sporting and celebrity gossip world.

The rumour mill was in full swing (pun fully intended) about the extent of Tiger’s numerous extra-marital affairs, allegations that Swedish super model wife, Elin Nordegren attacked the world’s number one golfer with a club after finding out the extent of his cheating forced Tiger to take a self imposed hiatus from the game and sparked some hilarious re-constructive videos about how the supposed attack played out.

The media came up with the name ‘Cheetah Woods’ and generally had a field day spilling the beans on the string of affairs he had with numerous women over the last five years. Tiger admitted himself to a sex-addiction rehab clinic to address what he described as ‘inappropriate transgressions’.

Tiger’s clean-cut, family man image was shot to pieces and many of his biggest sponsors like Gatorade and AT&T cut their multi-million dollar ties with the fourteen time major winner. This public move by some of his endorsers dealt a big blow to Tiger 'the brand', however his biggest sponsor, Nike stood by their man and released a controversial advert on the eve of the Masters featuring the voice of Wood’s deceased father, Earl.

The professional golf world was split in their support for their colleague. European tour veteran Jasper Parnevik publically condemned Tiger’s behaviour while American John Daly backed Wood’s after he faced such criticisms.

During his break from the game Tiger made two announcements, the first was a public apology in front of a select number of journalists and the second was to reveal his intentions to play at Augusta. At the first conference no questions were allowed from the media and he avoided any questions about his private life at the second. Tiger did mention that he would appreciate some cheers from the Augusta galleries during the tournament, and the golfing world waited with baited breath to see and hear what reaction he got...

Tiger walked onto the first tee at Augusta on Thursday to a rapturous applaud from the crowd, as they seemed to have granted the man who built golf as a global brand a second chance. He showed flashes of brilliance throughout the four day tournament as well as some wild hooked drives and too many missed putts. He finished in fourth position (much to my annoyance because I had £20 on him to finish in the top three at 6/1) which was not enough to secure a fairy-tale win upon his return to the game.

The Tiger Woods story is a fascinating one in that he has been exposed as one of the biggest serial celebrity cheaters in recent times, yet upon his return golfers fans seem to be, on the whole, united in their support for him. I accept that this has not been an easy ride for Tiger (again pun fully intended) however he seems to have emerged from this fiasco safely on the other side. The media storm that brewed has turned into more of a slight-breeze, and although only yesterday an article appeared in the Scottish Sun about ANOTHER affair, it seems that golfing fans are willing to forgive and forget...