Trevor Young | PR Warrior blog | Where PR meets social media meets content marketing

Short-sighted PBL Media Axes PR Department

In yet another example of how clueless big corporations can be when it comes to the art of communication and the vital importance it plays within a large organisation, PBL Media has axed its entire public relations department and handed PR duties to its senior executives.

PBL is one of Australia's largest media companies, with investments in the Nine Network, ACP Magazines and ninemsn.

According to The Australian, the revelation came as part of an announcement that ACP Magazines' last remaining public relations representative, Hannah Devereux, had departed the company yesterday (November 28).

The Australian reports that, In a memo to staff, PBL Media revealed that in future "all PR" on corporate matters "relating to PBL Media and ACP Magazines" would be handled by CEO Ian Law.

The company also said all corporate PR "on matters relating to Nine" would now be handled by the network's CEO, David Gyngell. All PR for magazine content and related stories would be handled by individual magazine editors, the memo said, while ACP group specialist publishers Pat Ingram and Phil Scott would handle some general issues.

This decision is breath-taking in its shortsightedness and reveals a few things about PBL Media:

One - PBL does not respect the PR function. To hand over PR responsibilities to people untrained in the discipline is interesting to say the least for a company of that size.

Two - PBL does not understand the importance communications plays in a large organisation. Without a PR department, there is no-one to devise and drive the company's internal or external communications effort. For an organisation the size of PBL, that's unforgivable.

Three - You get the feeling PBL's 'brains trust' believes public relations is simply about dealing with the media and fielding calls from journalists. Well, if they think that, perhaps they should shell out a few bucks to buy a PR manual.

I'd like to ask Ian Law a few questions (if he's not too busy dealing with the media), seeing he's PBL's new-found PR guru:

• What's your PR strategy moving forward?
• What specifically are you doing in a proactive sense to communicate and engage with your stakeholders i.e. consumers, advertisers/media buyers, commercial partners, employees, government and the media (note that the media is only one of your stakeholders)?
• Who are the people most important to your business, what is your message to them, how do they like to receive their information?
• Given PBL has some major digital assets, what is the company doing in terms of social media? Here is a major trend that's rapidly working its way across the globe and Australia is an early adopter. Given consumers are increasingly turning off traditional media and instead generating content for themselves as well as communicating with each other via social networks, what is PBL doing to reach out and connect with these people? 
• Who are the 'influentials' that can provide PBL with major impact across its magazine titles and TV stations? What steps have you in place to build and cultivate communities of fans who are passionate about PBL's various brands and offerings?  

The silly part about all this is that PBL has so-o-o-o much good content - so many good stories to tell - so many fantastic opportunities to engage consumers - and yet there's no-one charged with the responsibility of going out and proactively engaging with the public (let alone all the other stakeholders involved) and having a conversation with them.

As they say, an opportunity lost for one is an opportunity gained for someone else. PBL's competitors, if they seize the moment now while times are tough and act decisively in using PR as a strategic weapon, will reap the benefits in the longer term, especially when the economy picks up.

FILE UNDER: It Doesn't Make Sense!

I dunno about you, but does this make sense?

Today my 12-year-old daughter was having fun on Roi World (a dress-up games for girls website) - not that I was checking up, but I caught something out of the corner of my eye.

An advertisement for Macquarie Bank.

WTF?

What the hell is going on with the world of advertising when Macquarie Bank is advertising its term deposits on a website designed for pre-teen girls.

Doesn't make sense.

Is Santa Claus the World's Most 'Social Brand'?

I've been reading a lot lately about the need for brands to shift more from a mindset of 'control' to one that's a little more relaxed and open and engaging from a consumer perspective.

In other words, the smart companies are ceding a degree of control of their brands to consumers and in doing so are building communities of loyal fans, the whys and what-fors of such a strategy is the subject of (many) more blog posts!

Anyway, back to Santa.

I was in the kitchen at home this week and noticed two letters waiting to be posted (below); they were letters to Santa Claus written by my young daughters.

This got me thinking...good old Santa Claus. 

Now, here is a 'brand' that no-one actually owns (i.e. a company) and yet everyone owns (i.e. the public)...a brand that has been around forever and a day, is not 'controlled' by a marketing department, and yet is probably more engaging than ever.

The Santa brand continues to stay true to its attributes and seemingly gets stronger with each generation; because people are so entrenched with the brand, they keep the story going and continue to build upon it with their kids (or nephews/nieces, or friends' children). 

People buy the merchandise and put it on display every year; they dress up in Santa costumes and they take their children along to see the big man in red.

Santa's a pretty big unit but no-one ever has a crack at him for being too fat (go on WHO Weekly or NW, I dare you!). That's because he's immune from gossip and innuendo because of the strength of 'the brand'! 

Santa spends not a cent on marketing (everyone else does that for him - all those 'stakeholders' i.e. retailers, all of whom are pretty respectful of the brand also).

So in terms of positive word-of-mouth, you'd have to say Santa's got it made!

PIC: Lettersfromsantaclaus.com

UPDATE:

Well, I'll be...regular PR Warrior reader Elana Bowman has uncovered the truth about dear old Santa - and wouldn't you know it, he was given a helping hand by marketers.

Elana says in her comments to this post that Santa "was just dreamed up by the big Coca-Cola guys and actually it is brilliant marketing. Everyone in the world adopted Coca-Cola's Santa."

According to this piece uncovered by Elana, Coca-Cola advertising helped shape the modern day Santa.

Check it out - it's an interesting read.

Thanks Elana for the tip-off :-)

Armchair Guide to Online Social Networking & Business Collaboration World

I didn't get along to the Online Social Networking and Business Collaboration World in Sydney earlier this week, but fear not - given the nature of the speakers and content involved, there has been no shortage of blog and Twitter posts about the conference!

It's worth checking out the Twitterverse in action when it comes to an event such as the OSNBC World.

What does the audience tweet about?  Everything basically, ranging from their opinions of the speakers and their presentations through to casual observations of people in the audience and other event minutiae. Tweets feature hashtags (in this case #osnbc) which enable Twitter followers to track (and join in) the conversation.

This is real-time conversation at its purest - a genuinely interesting experience when you're sitting at a desk away from the action (I was in Melbourne at the time) yet gaining insights and information from audience members literally as it happens. It's raw, it's opinionated - and similar conversations are happening around the world all the time.

Blog posts covering the event started appearing soon after conference had ended (or in the case of the ever-efficient Ross Dawson, during the conference).

Here are some post-conference blog wrap-ups:

• Netregistry Brainstorm (Day 1)
• Netregistry Brainstorm (Day 2)
• Rae Buerckner 
• Chieftech  
• Trends in the Living Networks 

In a previous post I talk about blogging being the 'enthusiasm medium' - you can add Twitter to that as well!

Social Media Smackdown as PR Defends Itself from Marauding Bloggers

Debate continues to rage as to whether the massive growth of social media is killing off the public relations industry. 

The contrary view, of course, is that social media is a fillip for the industry. Let's face it, with so many media channels now available, companies and brands need more help than ever with their communications and one could argue quite persuasively that PR is the most suitable discipline to provide the most effective guidance and counsel.

American PR company Horn Group recently hosted a forum to discuss this very issue under the handle Is Social Media Killing PR? (see video below by Kara Swisher from Allthingsd.com).

The forum was partly in response to a series of posts by several heavyweight US bloggers who, let's just say, are not massive fans of the PR industry.

Check out Horn Group's blog for further reaction to the night.

Prominent industry analyst Jeremiah Owyang also weighed into the argument.

According to the Horn Group: "We originally conceived it as a sort of smackdown in which we get at the tensions between PR, media and bloggers, but we knew that'd be over-simplistic and limited."

Does social media make PR irrelevant? the agency asked.

In what is a pretty sad indictment for Australia, this issue barely makes any ripples (let alone waves) within local PR circles, but overseas it continues to simmer as the blogosphere and public relations industry trade (written) blows.

It's interesting to watch these exchanges unfold from across the other side of the pond. My thoughts for what they're worth:

Firstly, the high profile trio of blogger antagonists - Robert Scoble, Michael Arrington and Jason Calacanis - focus on the (somewhat inward-looking) technology industry, so their comments certainly need to be put into some context.

Secondly, it appears commentary surrounding this issue tends to concentrate pretty much on media relations and not PR in a broader sense. In other words, PR people pitching journalists and bloggers, and how many of them dislike/loathe it. Now, while media relations is an important part of the PR discipline, it is still just that - a part. 

Many public relations professionals provide strategic communications counsel and utilise a broad array of tactics to get their message out in to the marketplace and drum up word of mouth. To think that public relations people spend all their time pitching journos (and now, it seems, bloggers) is a little out-dated. That said, I acknowledge some PR agencies do have a strong bias towards media relations, and today this would potentially include the blogosphere.

Scoble, Arrington, Calacanis and their anti-PR brethren are undoubtedly correct when they claim many PR people waste the time of bloggers and journalists because they continue to spew out ill-directed and unappealing press releases ad nauseam...that they don't understand what makes news...that they are more hindrance than value-add...that they simply DO-NOT-LISTEN.

This is an old argument and it's not going to go away...unfortunately. Like any profession, PR has got more than its fair share of 'bad eggs', but to tar the entire global industry with the same brush, well, me thinks that's a tad naive.

Back to the issue of social media and PR - I for one would love more debate about it in Australia.

My view is social media is an absolute bonus for marketing and corporate communicators.

Will social media kill the industry? 

Nah! Companies will always need to get their message out into the marketplace and PR is well placed to help them do that.

Will social media put PR agencies out of business? 

I haven't got a cut-and-dried answer to that question, other than "I doubt it". My view is the agencies (and in-house departments) that wholeheartedly embrace social media will emerge all the stronger for it. If they're already on the way to understanding that social media is having a profound effect on the future of PR and communications, this would certainly put them ahead of the game. The challenge is to stay there!

The 'kicker' I guess is whether agencies simply jump on the social media bandwagon in a bid to make themselves look good (and maybe snag some extra business) - or are they truly passionate about blogs, podcasts, RSS, online video and social networking and the collective power and influence these tools can have for their clients.

Hat tip to Mitch Baldwin who was the starting point for this post. I'm tipping we haven't heard an end to the argument!

Extreme Thinking From a Veritable Brand

How do you make a mature board game sexy enough so the world's media will sit up and take notice?

Take it to the 'extreme'.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the Scrabble, the brand shot a series of amazing photos in which the game was played by fans under 'extreme' circumstances i.e. skydiving, in shark-infested waters, up a sheer cliff, within eating distance of an alligator.

Brilliant stuff!

Locally, the Herald-Sun newspaper ran not one but five photos (across two separate articles).

The story (and of course, pics) was also picked up internationally.

Lessons learned?

• If you want to get noticed, take a risk.
• Photos speak louder than words. 
• An anniversary provides companies with a host of PR opportunities (when is your brand turning 10 or 20 or 25 or 60? Are you doing about it from a marketing perspective?)

(I hope whoever came up with the extreme Scrabble idea was given a pay rise).

All photos Barcroft Pacific.

Zoo Weekly Scores Publicity Coup in Strip Offer for 'Sexy' MP Kate Ellis

Hat-tip to those devilish lads at Zoo Weekly who have made 'something' (i.e. media headlines) out 'nothing' (an offer of $30K for a female federal politician to get her kit off for the magazine).

The headlines said it all:

'Sexy' MP Kate Ellis Offered $30,000 to Strip for Lad's Mag

Kate Ellis Turns Down $30,000 Offered by Zoo Mag to Strip

The Zoo offer came hot on the heels of Kate Ellis being voted by her Parliamentary peers as being Australia's sexiest MP.

Ellis, who at 31 is the country's youngest Federal Minister, reportedly turned down Zoo Weekly's kind and generous offer...naturally! But that didn't stop Zoo from milking publicity from their exchange with the Sports Minister. 

Zoo Weekly editor Paul Merrill was quoted as saying:  "We're naturally sad that she's turned down a shoot and deprived her constituents of a much needed morale boost in this global recession."

Cheeky bugger! Full marks mate on a funny and very cost-effective guerrilla publicity stunt!

* a fully clothed Kate Ellis MP (Pic: AdelaideNow.com.au)

Twitter Gets Political

In a sign that Twitter in Australia is edging towards mainstream acceptance, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has opened an account with the growing micro-blogging platform and, in his (or someone else's) words - is "looking forward to communicating with you on Twitter".

Rudd's Twitter adventure comes hot on the heels of Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull who has been on Twitter for a month or so (at time of writing, Turnbull was 88 tweets in front of his opposite number; he has also reportedly been caught Twittering in Parliament - I mean, why wouldn't you?).

Lets hope the PM embraces the medium rather than using it merely as a calculated 'cool tool' (which I suspect is the reasoning behind it).

Other world leaders 'tweeting' include Barack Obama (who probably started the trend, and is at the forefront of political social media) and British PM Gordon Brown.

Obama Gives McCain the Flickr

Further to previous post - What Brands Can Learn From Barack Obama - I've just seen for the first time Obama's Flickr photostream where he allowed a photographer access while he and his family, friends and associates waited for the announcement of the US Presidential election result. 

The behind-the-scenes pictures feature Obama and wife Michelle watching the election results as they unfold on TV, and then the jubilation (relief?) as the decision is announced; it also follows them as they hit the stage where Obama gives his now-famous victory speech (as well as stacks of other shots of the President-elect in action).

The photos are another example of Barack Obama adding yet another layer of 'authenticity' to his persona - a human dimension to the carefully constructed media image - something that's not that easy when you spend half your time behind bullet-proof glass!

Importantly, the Flickr presence demonstrates the power of social media when integrated with other traditional mediums (let's face it, media relations, advertising and face-to-face appearances were also extremely effective in building the Obama brand).

SOURCE: All images Flickr/David Katz/Obama For America

Free Social Media Handbook Available for Download

This is worth a look if you're interested in social media - the IAB Social Media Handbook - produced by the UK Internet Advertising Bureau.

The handbook covers a broad sweep of social media and features articles from a range of UK industry people. It has a touch of the 'big end of town' about it (clients, agencies and social media platforms) but nonetheless it's a useful guide in terms of Web 2.0/101.

Download the Social Media Handbook here.

Hat-tip to Chris Applegate.

Here is the list of contents if you're interested:

 

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDBOOK

 

• Introduction
• What is social media?
• 10 rules
• Definition of social media
• The landscape
• ‘Doing it right’
• Online PR and blogging
• Online conversations

• BRAVIA Bunnies
• Branded utilities
• Creativity
• Search marketing effectiveness
• Integrating social media
• Planning and evaluating
• The future