Celebrities stealing the thunder from hardworking PR's?

Unless you’ve been hiding out under a rock for the past few weeks, you won’t have failed to notice that the majority of the media has been filled to the brim with stories of celebrities. Or more specifically, celebrities and their cheating antics.

Tiger Woods set the ball rolling way back in November 2009 with that now infamous story of his ‘car crash’, but since then we’ve also had revelations from John Terry, Vernon Kay, Ashley Cole and even the saintly Mark Owen. It seems no-one is immune from the temptations that fame and fortune bring!

However, whilst these stories are all well and good for a few days, they leave behind a legacy of ‘follow up’ stories for the press. Yes, we know that Ashley Cole has indeed been a very naughty boy, but do we really need to have daily updates on what he is texting Cheryl, how Cheryl feels, whether she is going to take him back and so on? What about some real stories?! There are thousands of PR’s out there crying out with interesting stories for the press but we’re not getting any column inches because the share of voice is being hogged by celebrity affairs!

It’s not just the tabloids either. Even the consumer magazines are dedicating quality page space to the celebs because there is just so much scandal. Regular pages have been significantly reduced to make room for more pictures of these badly behaved celebs and their partners so the battle is really on for PR’s to continue to make our clients’ products shine. Not that we don’t love a challenge, but here is a plea for the celebs: Come on guys, behave yourselves so we can have our pages back!

Last night witnessed the biggest movie event of the year as the hottest celebrities arrived en mass, many of whom were hopeful of taking home a little ray of gold.

The 82nd annual academy awards were broadcast live from Hollywood's Kodak theatre, highlighting the year's biggest successes within the film industry. And if the prospect of winning an Oscar didn’t raise quite enough anxiety amongst the world's most famous movie stars, they first had to run the gauntlet; ambushed by flashing lights and a vast array of TV presenters, all of whom were waiting with baited breath to review the outfits which dominated the red carpet . The fashion stakes were at an all time high!

But whilst the Oscars may be the movie event of the year, showcasing both the best actors, and more often these days, the best 'dressers', we have to feel for the leading British actors who are sometimes overlooked amidst some of America's more publicised A-listers.

Specifically, my heart goes out to Colin Firth, Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan and even the cast of Harry Potter - all of whom displayed award winning performances over the last year, but who lost out in each of their categories.

Whilst it is without a doubt a great achievement to have even been nominated, it does pose the question as to whether the smaller British films are perhaps just considered too small for the whirlwind academy, resulting in them never really getting further than a nomination. After the wealth of awards won by Slumdog Millionaire last year, we Brits seem to have been cast by the wayside this year.

Don't get me wrong, each of these actors are most certainly rewarded come the Baftas, but isn’t it about time that the Oscars started to pay more attention to the efforts of smaller, yet equally impressive British films?

Always Tweet others as you wish to be Tweeted!

The internet has been awash with stories of big corporations suffering at the hands of Twitter recently, from inept employees embarrassing their companies to the news that neither the BBC or the Tory party trust their spokespeople enough to let them Tweet unsupervised. Today’s story of the day involves the film director Kevin Smith, who directed and starred in the Jay and Silent Bob series of films.

At the weekend, Smith was asked to leave a Southwest Airlines flight as his size allegedly made him a “safety risk.” He then used his Twitter account to post a number of complaints about the airline, most of which I am too much of a lady to repeat!

It took six hours for Southwest to respond to him, but they did then apologise and let him know that their customer relations vice-president would be in touch. However it did little to console Smith, and from a PR point of view the damage had already been done when his 1.6m Twitter followers saw the original complaints.

However, at this point it sounds like Southwest had done whatever they could to salvage the situation, and they posted a blog to explain what happened that managed to paint everyone involved in a pretty good light. So far so good… but apparently that wasn’t the whole story. Clearly Kevin Smith wasn’t going to let that lie (something Southwest should surely have been aware of by this point!) and he retaliated with his own version of events.

At this juncture, it seems the whole thing has turned into a bit of a PR crisis. The story is all over the press, so far more than the original 1.6m people who saw it unfolding on Twitter are now aware of it. Southwest Airlines started the communication well, but it seems that they seriously underestimated Smith’s influence. Since both parties are providing very different versions of the story, it’s difficult to tell who’s in the right (if anyone) but it might have been a good idea for Southwest to just give Smith what he wanted (a full public explanation) to avoid the situation escalating further.

Let this be a lesson to you, PR people! Social media is immediate, unregulated and here to stay. You may not be able to prevent a negative story appearing, but it’s how you respond to it that matters. Anyone who doesn’t think social media is important to them is missing a trick, because if it’s important to your stakeholders, it will end up affecting you, for better or worse.

I’d love to hear your opinions on this – do you think Southwest Airlines handled the situation well, or could they have done more?

Is Google Buzz Over-Hyped?

Following the Chrome browser, Nexus One mobile device, Wave and Chat, Google this week launched the latest in a line of new tools that are rapidly turning it from search engine specialist to all-encompassing communications behemoth. Google Buzz was launched amid much hype as a ‘Twitter Killer’ and a major competitor to Facebook. But is all the buzz justified?

Buzz combines a number of different social media tools into one platform. It has a friends function, commenting and media (photos, videos) like Facebook, it has simple, public status updates like Twitter, and it has geo-location based updates like FourSquare. And perhaps more importantly, it has a ready-made 175 million strong social network of people who have a Gmail account, which is the standard login process. Everyone one of these account holders is being given an invitation to sign up this week.

At first glance, Buzz would appear to be a social media dream. The equivalent of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr all in one place and combined with your email account? Genius! Except that you have to have a Gmail account to use the service, and can you really see people porting all of their contacts into Buzz? This could be a threat as much as an opportunity for Google. Furthermore, there are some pretty big privacy concerns over Buzz, as voiced in this excellent blog post.

But what of Buzz from a marketing and PR perspective? As it’s hardly out of it’s packaging, it’s a little too soon to see quite will work out for marketers – it is, after all, designed very much as a personal tool rather than something companies can use. But it’s only a matter of time before it opens up – Google won’t miss a trick like that! There’s a ‘follower’ function like Twitter, so it may be that Buzz evolves into more of a business tool for companies. But what it does do that other services don’t is attempt to filter content from your contacts so that the cream rises to the top (in theory). That lends itself to being creative with updates, images and videos, and that’s where marketing may come in due to the holy grail viral affect

In short, watch this space…

The Need for a Holistic Approach to Social Media in PR

There’s one PR debate out there that refuses to go away – the role of social media in communications plans. This was highlighted by PR Week recently, when they wrote about recruitment consultants’ struggle to fill digital roles. According to the article, around a third of employers are looking for candidates with social media expertise – but only 6% of CVs submitted over the last two years referenced social media.

In my opinion, this is down to one of two equally worrying points; either PRs aren’t using social media, or they don’t think it’s important to their role. I’m inclined to believe that the real reason is a combination of the two. PR companies are beginning to wake up to the value of social media, but they are not implementing a holistic approach to it. Rather than encouraging all their staff to get involved, they are relying on a small team of experts to drive the programme, and the skills involved aren’t being passed around the agency.

The key to learning about social media is, as with everything, to get involved. At Cirkle, we’ve all been on training courses and we’re encouraging our clients to use digital media to drive their campaigns. For example, the Energizer team ran a very successful forum on Mumsnet just before Christmas, generating plenty of conversation around batteries and offering advice on how to get the most out of them over the key Christmas period. We’re all big Facebook users (who isn’t?!) and we’ve also embraced Twitter as a way to converse with other media professionals, and, increasingly, the press (you can follow me on Twitter: @RebeccaatCirkle).

There’s obviously a lot more out there and it’s a steep learning curve, but ignoring social media isn’t going to get PRs anywhere. Online communities are here to stay, and I think that PR is going to increasingly centre on them. We have a duty to our profession to get involved, or we’ll start losing out to specialist agencies very soon.

Do you think it’s important for PR professionals to have a good understanding of social media?

Finding Mr Right: Should Women Settle for Mr Good Enough?

In PR, ‘good enough’ is never good enough. At Cirkle we strive for perfection or, at least, the best we can possibly deliver for our clients and the media. So if we apply this to our business lives, why should our personal lives be any different?

The American author Lori Gottlieb disagrees in her new book, ‘Marry Him: The Case for Settling For Mr Good Enough’. She argues that after the age of 30, women should stop looking for The One and simply settle for any of the “perfectly acceptable but uninspiring" men that women reject during their search for the perfect man.She says: “My advice is this: settle! That's right. Don't worry about passion or intense connection. Don't ditch a guy based on his annoying habit of yelling 'Bravo!' in movie theatres. Overlook his halitosis or abysmal sense of aesthetics. Because if you want to have the infrastructure in place to have a family, settling is the way to go.”

A hopeless romantic I may be, but I believe it is a sad world if women, or even men for that matter, can’t aspire to find true love and find that one person that they want to share the rest of their lives with. Yes, passion fades and the reality of life sets in, but what you are left with (hopefully) is a long lasting love, friendship and almost definitely the art of compromise.

Now my own past experiences make me abhor the idea of any woman simply ‘settling’ with the halitosis guy. I settled (although let me state for the record that he didn’t have halitosis) and regretted it. I have now found The One and plan to live happily ever after. This is my choice; I wanted and actively sought perfection.

But my question to you is: is that so wrong? We set ourselves such high standards in the world of business, why should we not have equally high standards in the world of love? After all, the bonuses are much better.

On The Up; The End of the UK Recession

The big news today is that the UK is finally out of recession! Clearly this is fabulous news for pretty much everyone, but I won’t be cracking open the champagne just yet, as the ascent from recession has hardly been dizzying: figures show that the economy has grown by just 0.1% in the last three months of 2009.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s great news that things are (slightly) on the up. However, I really hope that that the powers that be have learnt from this experience, because we just can’t afford to go back to how things were before. We’ve learnt some important lessons over the last two years, and not just how to cook with food that’s past its sell by date.

We should have at least learnt something about jobs, housing, shopping, wastage and bonuses, and maybe even a bit about where our own priorities lie. I’m not holding out much hope though, having heard the news about Goldman Sachs employees’ massive bonuses! It would be nice to think, though, that the recession could have had a positive impact on a whole generation who had perhaps started to take things for granted.

What do you think? Will anything good to come out of the recession or will the authorities continue to act like a bunch of bankers?!

Hair, Hair Everywhere!

Okay, so what is going on with some of our fave celebs and their P.D.H? Public Display of Hair.

First up, American actress Mo'Nique. She may very well have won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress at the glitzy awards do on Sunday but she certainly is not a winner in the beauty style stakes. As Mo’Nique strutted her stuff down the red carpet, for some unknown reason, she felt the need to reveal her pins which were somewhat scarily hairy. Whether she was trying to keep warm on a chilly night in L.A or trying to make a statement about going au natural, I don’t know – but I do know it’s a big no no!

Next up is The One Show’s Adrian Chiles. It’s reported that the Beeb has demanded he shave off his unruly whiskers in favour of a more clean shaven look. Now I personally do not have a problem with a guy with a bit of facial fuzz, in fact sometimes I prefer it, however, where Chiles has gone wrong is that he’s let his beard takeover with a mind of its own which has resulted in a trampy come grizzly bear-esque look. Not good. All he needs to do is invest some time in a little man-scaping by taming and grooming his beard.

And finally, mums' heart throb and Relocation star, Phil Spencer. Seen here sporting a rather dodgy chest rug. Again, I’d like to point out here that I’m not adverse to a bit of hair on a man’s chest but how could Phil get it sooo wrong? Bless him, you can see where he’s made an attempt to de-fuzz around his neck line so no unsightly hairs are seen poking out the top of his shirt when showing couples around prospective new homes but, he seems to have forgotten this when he’s stripped off. For me it’s all or nothing. Phil should either go the whole hog and take it all off or leave it in its full glory but, like Adrian, take a little time to keep his unkempt chest hair well trimmed and groomed.

Needless to say, all of these hairy stars could really benefit from splashing a bit of cash on some products from our lovely client Remington!

BD Recruitment: How Not to Manage Your Online Reputation

I recently wrote an article for the PRCA website (Public Relations Consultants Association) that talks about the rapidly increasing requirement for PR consultants to actively manage online reputations. It’s an area that any PR agency worth its salt is taking very seriously, but isn’t limited to those of us working in public relations. With the advent of the real-time web, Google reporting tweets in SERPS and Sidewiki, every company, large or small, has to start treating online brand monitoring as a critical function.

This isn’t simply opinion, however, it’s fact. And if you need convincing of this, in the last few days I’ve stumbled across a fantastic example of a company that is, apparently, completely ignorant of the power of digital media and the hammering it is receiving in this channel.

The business in question is a recruitment agency called BD Recruitment, based in Manchester. About this time last year, the company annoyed a prospective client so much that, after complaining privately and getting nowhere, he chose to write this post on his blog. In it, he slates BD Recruitment’s spam-led approach and goes on to recommend a competitive company. What’s interesting, however, is not the post itself, or the fact that it gained 30-odd comments from people largely agreeing with him and calling BD Recruitment, among other things, “a bunch of jokers” and “bean-eating morons”. What’s interesting is that if you run a Google search for the term BD Recruitment, the blog post comes up 3rd in the SERPS, directly below the company’s own website. Furthermore, with his knowledge of SEO, the blogger has entitled his post (and thus, what Google displays): “BD Recruitment Ltd of Manchester I Will Never Use Your Services”.

It’s now nearly a year since the blog post was written, and yet the post is still placing higher than everything other than the company’s own website in the search rankings. Indeed, a separate blogger has now added his own post, entitled “BD Recruitment Send Email CCing Every SEO in the North West”, which now appears at position 4. And incredibly, just last week in an update on the original post, the blogger says that BD Recruitment is still spamming companies. The blogger tweeted this, which is where I and many others would have come to see the post.

If there’s one thing that this mini-case study demonstrates, it’s that reputations can and will be won and lost online as we move into the new decade. BD Recruitment seems to have no idea what damage is being done to its brand on the web, and has made no attempt to contact the blogger, apologise, discuss the issues and ask for the post to be removed. (UPDATE 26/1/10: see comments below.) Or maybe it simply doesn’t care.

What are your thoughts?

ASDA: Leading The Fash Pack?

Asda is fast becoming known as a fashion innovator, rather than a purveyor of frozen peas, and their latest products look set to drive that image. Capitalising on our slightly thicker post-Christmas waistlines, George at Asda has launched a 50s-inspired dress and skirt with ‘corsetry’ built in, costing just £25 and £16 respectively. The clothes are made out of the same poly elastane material found in Bridget Jones’ big pants, and are designed to smooth curves and creating a waspish waist with no diet required.

It’s not the first time Asda have used this kind of innovation to hit the headlines – do you remember the £7 ‘moob tube’? It was a body-sculpting vest for men which sold out in just four minutes on their website, making it their fastest selling product ever.

Supermarket fashion has become a lot more popular recently – ten years ago no-one would have dreamt of picking up a cute little cardie with their carrots. Asda are really leading the march with smart, sassy pieces that haven’t been seen anywhere else, and fabulously inexpensive versions of designer pieces, and they are constantly attaining national press coverage with these creations.

It’s a genius idea, and I don’t know why we didn’t think of it before!

Will you be rushing out to buy a bit of supermarket couture?