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The Blagger’s Blog 19th April 2013

Friday, April 19th, 2013

A weekly roundup of talking points, sans effort

 

Thought for the week

“The best way for us to react is to push ahead with the (London) marathon on Sunday, to get people on the streets and to celebrate it as we always do in London — and to send a very clear message that we won’t be cowered by this sort of behavior. I think this is one of those incidents where the best way to show solidarity with Boston is to continue and send a very clear message to those responsible.“ British Sports Minister Hugh Robertson, discussing this weekend’s London Marathon in the wake of Monday’s bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Weekly high

Video games have come a long way since the Amiga. But, despite the advent of Grand Theft Auto and interactive, immersive 3D environments, many people still carry a torch for the old school legends. Pac-Man being one of the most popular. Don’t  believe us? Take a look at this building in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which was transformed into a giant version of several retro titles to encourage people to play via their iPads.

 

Weekly low

We’ve definitely been here before. Which is a huge shame, and an indictment on marketing and PR morality. Following the tragic bombings at the Boston Marathon this week food website Epicurious decided to suggest recipes in honour of the horrific event. Needless to say, it’s not exactly in good taste, with the decision coming under fire amid accusations of exploiting the devastation. An apology was quickly issued.

Things that might happen in the next week…

The London Marathon will go ahead as planned on Sunday, with an increased police presence following the terrorist attacks in Boston, Russian President Vladimir Putin will engage in a live Q&A with the public on Thursday, and the European Court will begin a ‘clarification’ process after the UK Supreme Court ruled browsing articles online should not put the user at risk of breaching copyright law.

Just in case you missed it…

The Mail On Sunday’s new culture supplement, Event, launched last weekend. Doubling the newspaper’s capacity for arts and entertainment content, it’s a rare new start in an increasingly sedentary print world. Take a look at our review of the magazine pull-out here.

 

If there is a success story, blunder, or news event you’d like to see included email helloATsmokinggun.co.uk or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!

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Reviewing reviews: Mail On Sunday Event magazine

Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

Divisive, but overwhelmingly popular in several formats, one of Britain’s best-selling and longest running titles unveiled a brand new supplement to accompany its end-of-week edition on Sunday. Effectively doubling its capacity for culture and celebrity coverage, needless to say everyone at this particular Manchester PR agency was interested to see the final print run.

The Mail On Sunday’s Event magazine launched on April 14th. If you bought it, then inside you’ll know it contains no less than 80 pages of glossy paper, featuring writing on film, music, art, books, cars, and cuisine, amongst other lifestyle areas. As The Observer correctly pointed out on the same day, this marks the first major change enacted by the newspaper’s new-ish editor, Geordie Greig. And he’s not doing things by half, with some seriously prominent faces sitting next to the bylines.

Then again, the Daily Mail’s Sunday sibling has plenty of pulling power. Apparently, of every £1 Britain spends on print during the day of rest, 25p goes to the Mail On Sunday. A market-leading share, let’s not forget this is on top of the associated website, Mail Online, which is sitting pretty as one of the most popular online news source in the English speaking world. Unsurprisingly then, the likes of Chris Evans (the UK’s favourite radio DJ), were only too happy to get involved, and he can now be found handling Motoring.

Arguably more logical is the appointment of acclaimed literature boffin Craig Brown as the man in charge of Books. Tom Parker Bowles, who has made it over from the Mail’s last cultural pull-out (Review), remains in place on Food, whilst other notable staff members include Piers Morgan, who will no doubt attract large numbers of readers by way of his Gossip column. An A-list editorial team, if nothing else it’s indicative of the magazine’s desire to be taken very seriously indeed so far as this type of dispatch goes.

After all, nobody funds a concept on this scale if they don’t really mean it. Hence the £3million spent on pre-launch promotion to make sure everyone knew about this addition to the Associated Newspapers stable. In light of the decline in major publications with real influence serving the likes of music, books, and (mainstream) art, this new arrival can only really be seen as a good thing, too, and it’s not exactly bad news for firms in any of the other industries it focuses on either.

It’s becoming increasingly rare to offer the full gamut of cultural journalism (from interviews and long features to short critiques), and the number of titles with Event’s level of national reach are few and far between. From a PR perspective there are several opportunities this presents, whether that’s celeb stories or product tie-ins. And it doesn’t end with the aforementioned writers- albeit here at Smoking Gun PR automotive, and food and beverage public relations appear on a list of our expertise. With that in mind, best get back to work…

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March 2013 in the Smoking Gun study

Thursday, March 28th, 2013

 

So spring never really sprung. Instead we had snowdrifts and sub-zero temperatures. Still, with another two awards, a fantastic new client, more faces joining the team, and a major digital launch, we’ve had plenty to do indoors.

First up, we’re delighted to welcome onboard Beth Livesey, our new Account Executive, who brings with her impressive experience working for major consumer leisure brands. A perfect addition to help with the rather sizeable office workload following a string of successful pitches, it’s our pleasure to have her take up a desk and start beavering away on her Mac.

That’s not our only new signing, either. Smoking Gun PR is now handling PR duties for Manchester United Soccer Schools. Offering football training, unprecedented access to the world’s most illustrious league side, and English language lessons in conjunction with Oxford University Press, we’re happy to add another global brand to our burgeoning list of clients. Check out the global Facebook competition we’ve currently launched to find the School’s first ambassador.

Animal lovers are likely to be interested in two more of our recent client wins. Mysocialpetwork has now arrived in the UK after its German inception and does exactly what it says on the tin. From rats to cats, rabbits to horses, the new social network has already proved popular with pet owners and we’re predicting much more growth as the months go by. Meanwhile, a host of national media coverage and a slick video talent competition for Crufts evidenced how good a job we did with publicity for The Kennel Club’s legendary dog show.

All of which just about leaves enough space to mention that we picked up no less than two awards at the Golden Hedgehog ceremony in Manchester earlier this month. Our work for Nissan Shows It Cares picked up Best Consumer PR Campaign of the Year, meanwhile our celebrated staff took home Small Agency of the Year. More hard-earned success, it’s deserving of a pat on the back, albeit all hands are currently on deck representing the brands we love. Back to it then…

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The media, this month

Thursday, March 28th, 2013

Things you need to know

We were shocked… when the Government decided to draft up its own press regulation legislation following the Leveson inquiry, angering many investigative journalism outlets. Not least The Economist and New Statesman.

We were surprised… at The Telegraph’s announcement earlier this week that a subscription will now be charged in order to view more than 20 articles per month. We’ll see how that impacts on readership in the not-so-distant future.

We were impressed…. to hear The Mail On Sunday is increasing its entertainment content by replacing the Live supplement with Event. This new 80-page pull-out includes a sizeable 22-pages of critical reviews and articles. Look out for our review of it’s first edition mid-April.

We were depressed… when the Scotsman and Scotland On Sunday announced 30 job losses as circulation levels fell to half of what they were in 2007. We weren’t too surprised, though, given last month’s newsletter on the plight of regional press.

We laughed when… a UK MP took to Twitter and accused the BBC of speculating over the new Pope’s race after the broadcaster asked if smoke above the Vatican would turn white or black. Needless to say, so did millions of other people.

 

Things you need to see

‘We Didn’t Own An ipad’ is currently top of the UK viral chart according to The Guardian, with 1,636,087 views since March 8th. Not exactly original, nevertheless more than a few people are talking about it.

 

As referenced in this month’s story about Corporate Social Responsibility, we recently helped launch the Kumho Tyres Cash For Causes campaign. Our client’s infographic, below, proves the potential business benefits of such projects.

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The Blagger’s Blog 15th March 2013

Friday, March 15th, 2013

A weekly roundup of talking points, sans effort

 

 

Thought for the week

“He has not just walked away from the talks – he has walked away from his own commitments to the press victims.” Labour leader Ed Miliband discussing Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to curtail months of rhetoric on press regulation following the Leveson inquiry, and instead take his current reform proposals direct to a House of Commons vote next week.

Weekly high

On Wednesday the world’s largest message in a bottle was put to sea from Marina San Miguel, Tenerife. The stunt, which is to promote Norway’s Solo soda (spreading the ‘greatest drink on Earth’ across the planet), took months to prepare, featured in newspapers across the globe, and the oceanic odyssey can now be followed by logging onto Facebook (clue- change the language settings on the app to English first). Nice job.

 

Weekly low

Before the new Pope was chosen ignorance caused Twitter chaos. A British MP accused the BBC of racism after it asked whether smoke above the Vatican would be black or white- referencing the centuries old method of declaring a new church leader, rather than speculating over his race. Elsewhere, thousands of social media users- including self-proclaimed ‘gurus’ and journalists- followed @JMBergoglio, a fake account set up under the name of the man now in charge of Catholicism, despite the content being blatantly sarcastic. Evidently translating Spanish to English for accuracy is too much effort…

 

 

Things that might happen in the next week…

The House of Commons will vote on David Cameron’s own proposals for press regulation following the Leveson inquiry on Monday, Tuesday sees the inauguration ceremony for the new Catholic chief Pope Francis, meanwhile Vogue Editor and ‘most powerful woman in fashion’, British born Anna Wintour- the inspiration for The Devil Wears Prada, will prepare for her new post as Artistic Director of luxury publishing behemoth Conde Naste.

Just in case you missed it…

Twitter is abandoning many versions of its subsidiary application TweetDeck, bought for $40million just two years ago. Chrome, browser-based, Mac and Windows versions will continue to be developed. Read more on the story here.

 

If there is a success story, blunder, or news event you’d like to see included email helloATsmokinggun.co.uk or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!

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The Blagger’s Blog 8th March 2013

Friday, March 8th, 2013

A weekly roundup of talking points, sans effort

 

 

Thought for the week

Obtaining reliable information about drinking behaviour is difficult, and social surveys consistently record lower levels of consumption than would be expected from alcohol sales data. This is partly because people may consciously or unconsciously underestimate how much alcohol they consume.” The Office of National Statistics on Britain’s booze habit, which may be far better, or far worse, than experts believe (the jury appears to be out).

 

Weekly high

After coming up with the brand position ‘don’t cook, JUST EAT’, UK takeaway giant JUST EAT launched a week-long promotional campaign on Saturday with a 60 second TV clip showing the apparent kidnapping of celebrity chef Anthony Worrall Thompson. This was backed up by a microsite offering visitors the chance to get revenge on the culinary chap and ‘clean graffiti’ daubed on top London restaurants… The fate of the epicurean prisoner will be revealed during Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway tomorrow on ITV.

 

Weekly low

Amazon finds itself in hot water this week after a line of more than mildly offensive t-shirts wound up being sold by the online retailer. The manufacturer, Australia’s Solid Gold Bomb, claims a computer programme randomly picked nouns to fit in with the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ message, and so had nothing to do with the decision to advocate domestic and sexual violence. Believe that or not, the firm is out of business, the despicable items have been taken off sale, but the world is still waiting for the online retail giant to apologise.

 

Things that might happen in the next week…

Nightmare hacks Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson may be convicted of bribery after appearing in court in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal, at least 24 heads of state are expected to attend the funeral of deceased Venezuelan president, and Osama Bin Laden’s son will face the U.S. legal system following accusations he was involved in 9/11.

Just in case you missed it…

Facebook has made more changes to its news feed, with bigger logos to reference story sources, and a more complete lead intro. In addition to this, users can dip into topic based feeds, with Mark Zuckerberg declaring this move will turn his network into “the best personalised newspaper we can”. Read the full story here.

 

If there is a success story, blunder, or news event you’d like to see included email helloATsmokinggun.co.uk or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!

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The Blagger’s Blog 1st March 2013

Friday, March 1st, 2013

A weekly roundup of talking points, sans effort

 

 

Thought for the week

“The idea that you can measure the success of a programme by a series of integers, it feels as if you are being treated like a child.” A BBC spokesperson responding to the suggestion DJs on Radio 2 should be rated with marks out of ten.

Worth the paper it’s printed on?


This week’s light news success stories include…

…Cara Delevingne’s presence at London Fashion Week, as reported in 37 articles, in contrast Britain’s top maths students have now fallen behind their Asian peers and only made it into 11…

….Frank Ocean walking away with a Brit Award for International Male Solo Artist, and appearing in 17 stories, whereas the Syrian opposition boycotted talks as a protest against perceived ‘shameful international silence’ and only 2 headlines ran…

…and, finally, Lincoln’s 12 Oscar nominations, which inspired 6 articles, beating the Scottish Government education agency SQA’s controversial contract with Bahrain despite accusations of the latter country’s human rights abuses, as featured in 2 pieces.

(Source: Journalisted)

Weekly high


We all know the job market is a tough cookie to crack right now. With this in mind, a U.S. marketing type decided to approach applying for positions in a truly unique way, by sending this chocolate bar to would be employers, with the wrapper acting as an alternative resume.

 

Weekly low

Environmental activists can be a pain for big businesses, particularly firms that pollute. As such it’s no surprise EDF Energy isn’t seeing eye to eye with protestors that scaled a power station chimney and occupied it for three days. However, suing them for £5million isn’t really going to help matters, not least when nearly 50,000 people sign a petition to say ‘don’t do it’- nearly five times more than EDF’s total Twitter follower.

 

Things that might happen in the next week…

Tensions will mount in Iceland between policy makers and free speech advocates following proposals to ban pornography from the country, Mission Mars will begin scouring the globe for a willing middle-aged couple to travel 500 days in a ‘tin can’ to visit the Red Planet, and half of Britain’s population is expected to stream David Bowie’s 24th album, The Next Day, via i-Tunes ahead of its official released on March 11th.

Just in case you missed it…

Satellite broadcaster BSkyB is now the UK’s second biggest broadband provider after signing a deal to buy the British Internet arm of Telefonica, knocking virgin media off the number two spot by almost 300,000 subscribers. 

 

If there is a success story, blunder, or news event you’d like to see included email helloATsmokinggun.co.uk or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!

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Our local media is dead. Long live our local media.

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

Publications nationwide now run on skeleton staff, and unprofessional websites fail to plug the gap because many editors also work another job 9-5. We all know the UK’s provincial press is in dire straits, but how long before it completely collapses?

242 local press outlets, 20% of the total number in the UK, closed during the seven years to 2012, leaving countless towns without so much as a weekly paper to call their own. But then research by Deloittes shows 40% of Britons read a local title once a week, minimum, with 62% paying more attention to print advertising when compared with online.

So there is still revenue potential in publishing, not least locally. According to the Newspaper Society, 80% of the UK population spend 90% of their lifetime earnings within a five to ten mile radius of home. But then I don’t need to highlight the importance of ‘local’, after December’s Smoking Gun newsletter focused on SoLoMo, and how crucial neighbourhood knowledge will soon be to all businesses.

Sir Ray Tindle, owner of the country’s fifth largest newspaper group, Tindle Newspapers, evidences the need for this kind of content. Building an empire of 220 publications over 50 years, many of his titles were considered doomed, but after inward investment from profit (rather than borrowed funds), the organisation now sees year on year growth, and has no debts. Unlike regional giant Johnston Press, which speculatively spent nearly £1billion on local media titles from 2005 to 2007, only to see them devalued to £40million two years later. The difference, according to respected media man Chris Oakley CBE, being strategy and foresight.

Examples of life outside the nationals don’t end there, either. Not so long ago Scottish magazine The Skinny announced a new edition for Manchester and Liverpool, reassuringly along with full-time job adverts. Meanwhile, down south, The Independent and Evening Standard- both owned by Evgeny Lebedev- will soon be working even closer together after winning a bid to run the capital’s new TV service, London Live.

One of the many local television stations set for Freeview that we blogged about recently, if nothing else all of the examples above betray a confidence that the public’s demand for regionalised media content will be sustained in some form. This means there’s no real reason these concepts of supply can’t work, providing the right people from the right professions are put into the right positions, from accounts to creatives- a universal business lesson, if ever I heard one.

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Infographic: Pinterest for marketing

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013

As with all social networks, since the image ‘pinning’ site Pinterest launched there has been speculation as to how it can work for brands. Well it seems the site is catching up with the likes of Twitter and Facebook in the marketing stakes. The site has just signed a deal with NBC’s popular show ‘The Biggest Loser’ to promote the programme and healthier lifestyle choices, piggy backing off the site’s popularity for ‘re-pinning’ motivational quotes and images.

This week’s infographic rounds up how users interact on Pinterest and features some interesting stats including the fact that visitors referred from Pinterest spend 70% more money then visitors referred from non-social channels.

So, what do you think? Is there potential with Pinterest when it comes to brands?

 

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The Blagger’s Blog 15th February 2013

Friday, February 15th, 2013

A weekly roundup of talking points, sans effort

 

 

Thought for the week

“The seventh district administrative court’s decision is a blatant attempt to deny people in Egypt their right to seek, receive and impart information on the basis that some people may – if they seek the video out – be offended.” Dr Agnes Callamard, executive director of pro-free speech organisation ARTICLE 19, commenting on Egypt’s proposals to block YouTube for one month after an amateur video was posted containing anti-Islamic sentiments.

Worth the paper it’s printed on?


This week’s light news success stories include…

…Ben Affleck taking home Best Film and Best Director for Argo at the BAFTAs, with 57 articles reporting on his success, in contrast Michael Gove’s abandoned plans to do away with GCSEs made it into 48…

….Anne Hathaway winning Best Supporting Actress for Les Miserables at the BAFTAs, whereas the woman who killed herself after being cross examined to deduce whether a choirmaster sexually assaulted her only featured in 22…

…and, finally, Daniel Day Lewis astounded nobody by claiming his BAFTA title of Best Actor for Lincoln, and ended up in 45 headlines, far more than the 14 that reported on how the Metropolitan Police ‘stole’ the identities of dead children to give undercover officers new names.

(Source: Journalisted)

Weekly high


With Valentine’s yesterday it’s safe to say we were spoilt for choice in terms of great campaigns focused on love and the like. IKEA Australia just about topped the bunch, though, with the generous offer of a free cot for every child born nine months from February 14th. Talk about incentives.

 

 

Weekly low

Tempted as we were by the seemingly never-ending Horse Meat Gate, Carnival Cruises beat any equine catastrophes this week. Passengers were stranded onboard a powerless vessel (without sanitation) in the latest maritime tourist misadventure, but to make matters worse the seafaring firm decided to send this tweet out, presumably in a misguided attempt to reassure. See you next year?

 

 Things that might happen next week…

Investigators are expected to extend the deadline for horse meat testing after traces of the proud animals were found in fresh beef and more potential infringements than expected appear to have taken place. The trial of South African paralympic hero Oscar Pistorius will get underway following the fatal shooting of his girlfriend. And, the BBC’s governing body will hold a discussion on the publication of transcripts from the Pollard Review, which looks at the way Newsnight handled the Jimmy Savile investigation.

Just in case you missed it…


…some are calling it a great idea, others a stupid gimmick. Either way, American Express is currently operating a purchase-by-tweet service in the U.S., whereby discounted products from Microsoft, Amazon, and Sony can be purchased by using a specific Twitter hashtag, which triggers the payment. Read a more complete story here.

 

If there is a success story, blunder, or news event you’d like to see included email helloATsmokinggun.co.uk or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!

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