PR In A Jar

Cameron in Manchester Last Night ... and Not a Hoodie in Sight

Gemma and I were Smith & Smith's representatives at the David Cameron event last night at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, organized by the Greater Manchester Chamber. The last time I heard Cameron speak was at the Guildhall in London when he'd only been Conservative leader for a few weeks and he was truly awful - he didn't appear to know the audience he was addressing, for a start. But last night he was in much better form, despite what must have been a pretty rushed trip up from Pre-Budget report work in London. He seemed relaxed and he did an OK job of answering questions from the floor too, which ranged from the congestion charge to school uniforms. BUT the all-time best political speech I've ever heard in the UK still goes to Gordon Brown and his very genuine address, while still Chancellor, at the always excellent Muslim News Awards. It was inspiring, engaging and largely off-piste. I suspect Cameron's speechwriters have now got the hang of his personality and what suits him, what comes across as believable from him, and so on. For me the likeability factor still needs bringing out more, but on the whole he seems to be doing OK based on last night, and it did feel like being in a room with a lot of people who did actually like him.

Innovation takes guts - by Alison Dwyer

Todd Defren (PR Squared) your words have fallen on fertile ground! At Smith & Smith we’ve tried our hardest to stay ahead of the curve in this industry and as such have embraced social media gladly.  We’ve been blogging since early 2006 and have tried to ensure that everyone on our team is fully briefed and conversant in this new wave of PR. But you have to brave in this game, brave enough not just to talk the talk but to stride out there, and if necessary, make mistakes. Be it finding your blogging voice, becoming a tweeter rather than a twit and seeking out online conversations without achieving stalker status,  engaging in PR 2.0 is about doing rather than theorising.  And it takes guts. Some of our courage we’ve gained from Todd.  He is an all-round good nagger.  His encouragement, persistence and his guidance have helped us to recognise and embrace the opportunity to go live with our first social media newsroom.  We’re also very fortunate that we have a client that is amazingly innovative, and being so progressive, see a social media newsroom as an intrinsic part of their strategy. For this we thank you and as such invite everyone to visit the De Bono Foundation UK newsroom.

When Clients Are Media Friendly by Charlotte Cornwell

Isn’t it great when clients are media friendly? So much so that it helps turn their story into a national hit!

This happened only last week when the Independent on Sunday was interested in our client, A Stitch in Time - a retro knitting patterns book, on the back of the current knitting craze.

What could have been just a couple of paragraphs, turned into a three page colour feature in the Independent on Sunday magazine. In large part, I believe this was due to the author, Susan Crawford’s, fantastic interview ability and enthusiasm about her product, plus Arbour House Publishing’s incredible high quality images.

Of course I’m not going as far as to say this could have been achieved without PR involvement - our skills, knowledge, general reliability and strength at hitting and managing deadlines stand us in good stead with our journalist friends. However, a client who has passion, enthusiasm and the ability to portray all this during media contact definitely contributes to the success of a client’s story reaching its optimum.

A Stitch in Time will be launched on 13^th November at the Liverpool Philharmonic and is available to buy online from www.knitonthenet.com. 

Innovation + Determination = Listings Success by Alison Dwyer

I love South African food products. This is me being biased, I admit it (I grew up in SA and lived there most of my life). I love Ceres fruit juices the most.  But it would seem that the big five retailers here in the UK don't. Having loitered around the Ceres stand at Sial long enough for them to get rid of me by bribing me with product, I discovered that if I wanted to purchase Ceres in the UK, I could only do so at Costco.  Now, I’ve nothing against Costco, in fact they go up in my estimation as they, and they alone, recognise what a quality product Ceres is.  But not everyone has access to this wholesaler, so they only offer a limited route to market for this world-class juice range.

I really don't know enough about the policies and criteria that retailers use to select new products to comment on them. But I would suggest that these are not set in stone and those food and beverage manufacturers that have the audacity to ignore barriers and shout loudly enough, have dogged persistence or an innovative approach would attract retailer’s attention.  And I imagine that these same retailers would be grateful for the disruption, particularly as it tends to be the disruptive ones that have the quality products to persist with.  I would also hazard a guess however, that this attitude of I’m-not-going-away-until-you-listen-to-me and innovative determination is more characteristic of the young companies, the new start-ups rather than the more corporately inclined. This is no more apparent when you look at the likes of Helen Colley founder of Farmhouse Fare, Levi Root of Reggae Reggae Sauces fame or Innocent Drinks founded by Adam Balon, Jon Wright and Richard Reed. Legend has it that all three bucked the retail buying system in style, Helen reputedly asking Sir Terry Leahy directly why he refused to list her puddings.

So perhaps I should not be directing my irritation at the big five retailers for not stocking my brand of juice and suggest to Ceres that they need to remember what makes them passionate about their product.  That way they can get invigorated to embark on some relentless badgering and eventually Tesco or Sainsbury’s will see the light about this fantastic product.