Archive for January, 2009

I honestly don’t understand what the minority of Parliamentarians are thinking.

In Britain, there is an air of utter frustration with politicians. The public sees MPs and Peers as generally elitist and smug, sitting in a powerful position, above reproach and beyond  punishment for any wrongdoings that they may commit.

Personally, I thoroughly disagree. I know that the vast-majority of Parliamentarians, certainly the ones we work with, are proactive, engaged and generally determined to make their constituencies and Britain a better place. You don’t have to necessarily agree with their ideologies, but you can be sure they are trying to do what they think is right. I even feel that, all-in -all they are (don’t yell at me) underpaid, considering the hours they put in at Westminster and their constituencies. Most take time off during summer and Christmas, but don’t we all?

But the acts of a few are ruining it for everyone else. 2009 has already been littered with stories about Parliamentarians caught with their fingers in the biscuit tin and being cleared of wrongdoings.

We’ve had the Peter Hain decision concerning his deputy leadership campaign funding; the MP Freedom of Information furore; the Lords cash claims scandal and today, Derek Conway has been  forced to pay back only £3,757.83 to the House authorities after the debacle of his son Henry working in his office. Although, to be fair, he did have to pay £13,161 in 2008 for his other son’s research work. But why did he go and do it anyway?

I’m not sure what can be done, other than a complete revision of the rules or an Obamaesque figure brining in a new era to Westminster, although let’s not forget something similar happened in Britain in 1997.

But if Britain’s Politicians want the respect of the voting public and indeed want a reliable mandate at election time, the few who do bring the Parliament into disrepute should be given more than a slap on the wrist.

Is Bebo the Pascal Chimbonda of social networking?

Writing as a fan of the once-mighty Tottenham Hotspur, I am delighted to see that there seems to be an organisation with a more confused and misguided buying/selling policy. After acquiring Bebo for a hefty $840m last year, it would appear that AOL is ready to sell it already, according to the ever reliable TechCrunch.

If this is indeed true, does it mean that the bottom has fallen out of the social networking market already, or that AOL paid way over the odds for Bebo at the time? I’d say a little of both. AOL were probably swept along by Facebook-inspired desperation to get their hands on a social networking site and Bebo simply hasn’t delivered the ROI that AOL was expecting. It is still hugely popular with the kidz (so I am told) but advertisers just aren’t seeing the return, so in tough economic times, are looking elsewhere.

Its embarrassing being a Spurs fan right now, so can’t help but feel a cheeky lolz at this news :)

David Cameron has announced a mid-term reshuffle that seems likely to take the Conservative Party into the next General Election.

How important will the reshuffle be to the fortunes of the Conservative Party and what is the point of them?

Reshuffles are seen by many Prime Ministers as a necessary evil and by the public as a total irrelevance.

Although this is a big issue for Westminster and the party involved, it will have little impact on a public whose knowledge of the members of the Shadow Cabinet and their positions is next to nothing and whose interest is even less.

If pressed, most people will be able to name two maybe three members of the Shadow Cabinet but beyond that they would struggle. The enlightened age, the age of online Parliament, of 24 hour news channels, of immediate news and information gathering appears to do little to improve political recognition.

Polls have shown (and let’s be kind and listen to them this one time) that reshuffles are unlikely to change the public’s views of a political party whether they are in power or not. Not really surprising when the public have little or no interest in the changes.

If the public have problems, reshuffles can cause untold damage to the parties themselves.

History is rife with resentment from those who have been dropped or those who have been overlooked and the media is always quick to rub the Prime Ministerial nose in it when yet another disaffected ex-Minister votes against the Government on a key issue.

In 1962, towards the end of his ministry Harold MacMillan felt challenged enough by the Porfumo affair to cull seven Cabinet Ministers in an attempt to freshen up his Government, in what was dubbed the night of the long knives.

Whether this would have made any difference to the result of the general election if MacMillan had stayed in charge it’s impossible to say but Prime Ministers in this situation run the risk of being accused of making the mistake of appointing the wrong people to the Cabinet in the first place.

Jeremy Thorpe, the Liberal leader said of MacMillan:

“Greater love hath no man than this, that he should lay down his friends for his life”

So, Cameron brings Ken Clarke back into front line politics.

At least the public will remember him but what effect will he have on Tory fortunes?

Clarke is 68 years old and in his own words, is “still ambitious” and that is the real test for the Conservatives - where does Clarke’s ambition place him and the party?

Clarke is certainly a heavyweight politician and a very effective performer but how much is this simply a response to the return of another political heavyweight in Peter Mandelson?

Some may see this as a panic measure - even the present economy is not bringing Gordon Brown down and how will his appointment affect Cameron’s position on Europe?

We know that Clarke will not budge on a referendum on the Lisbon treaty and that he remains implacably opposed to it but with no position needed to be taken on this by any party until after the next general election, Cameron can afford to take that chance in the short term.

He states that there are no issues likely to arise between him and Cameron this side of the election.

Well, that’s all right then.

Or is it?

The thing is, many other issues on Europe are now likely to arise, not because the Government has any desire to debate them before the election but because they wish to drive division within the Tory ranks ahead of the election to reopen old wounds and demonstrate that a divided Tory party is unfit to govern.

Will the reshuffle work? Who knows, only time will tell if it is a masterstroke or doomed by its own ambition.

What makes a good viral? While I’m writing this on day one of a campaign based around Pfizer’s “Get Real, Get a Prescription” cinema advert, I’m still not sure whether we have one.

What I know we do have is an advert that is quite graphic in nature, in order to shock its audience into appreciating the risks of sourcing prescription-only medicines from inappropriate sources. That was part of the brief, and the finished advert excels at it.

Due to this shocking nature, the video also has a ‘water-cooler’ appeal - its certainly talked about around our office. In a digital age this means that people should want to share it, discuss it, and point to the campaign. With the options of our own site and YouTube, we can give people that chance.

And what better place to reach those people who take the risk of buying counterfeit medicines online than the internet itself?

So that’s the theory which we’re putting into practice from today.

It will take a lot of effort, as we work to engage with relevant bloggers, forum administrators and online journalists to excite them about what we’re doing - to encourage them to take the video, and the health message, to their communities.

It will take time, using online PR techniques combined with PPC and SEO activity to improve our site’s visibility on the search engines and in the right online communities.

It will also require us to be responsive to maintain the initial levels of engagement in the dynamic online environment.

So have I got a good viral? Maybe.

Written by: Guest Blogger, Andy Widger
Andy is one of Pfizer UK’s communications managers by day, and an Xbox gamer by night.

Thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are those of Andy Widger and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer.

No, I’m not talking about the latest series of celeb bb, although I am embarrassingly addicted. I know its not the done thing but like some ghastly freak show I can’t avert my eyes. Damn those d-listers!

No, I’m referring to the news that the Home Office has announced that details of every email in the UK has to be kept on record by Internet Service Providers. The ISPs have to record who sent the email, to whom and when, and the data can be accessed by more than 600 public bodies, including the police, should they request to do so.

Civil liberty groups are predictably up-in-arms about it all but I suspect most people wouldn’t be that fussed. My emails are really not that interesting, so if some PC wants to read my inane ramblings about Tottenham Hotspur, English cricket and music then they can be my guest. I’m a gmail user, so I am used to my emails being trawled through anyway.

I think that civil liberty groups can sometimes get all het about things that they feel we should be het up about, when the reality is in fact, meh. And with Twitter’s recent move to the mainstream many people offer up incredible amounts of personal data every day without thinking of the consequences, so it is hard to stress too much about someone trawling through your emails.

What do you reckon - anyone outraged by this?

A quick look through my feeds and it seems like everyone turns into Nostradamus this time of year… Rather than cobble together a post on what I think the business world will hold for us in ‘09 (as I have no idea to be honest) I thought I’d jot down my business (PR) resolutions instead.

We know it is going to be a tough year and this is how I plan on dealing with it.

1. Work flexibly — Be as productive as possible, limit travel to absolute necessity and get through the most work I can during working hours

2. Reduce evening working — Often just because I haven’t been as productive during the day as I could be but it leaves me feeling peed off if I work late all the time

3. Service, service and service — Clients HAVE to come first in our business but I intend to ask for a lot more input into how we are doing, where we could improve and continue to make sure our service is impeccable this year

4. Ramp up new business — Keep networking both on and offline, look at new services we can offer and continue to be competitively priced in 2009

5. Don’t look for the answer to “How’s business?” in spreadsheets — Continue as I always do to get out there and speak to clients, participate in campaigns, direct programmes and be a partner for clients.  The numbers only tell you so much….times like these mean you need to keep your head up and get out there

6. Keep hiring — New business was great for us at the end of last year so we are in a good place.  In the past, I have seen agencies try to squeeze FAR too much work out of people when the economy is bad, it is essential to keep hiring within your means, be fair to employees, reward loyalty and make sure people aren’t ground into the floor or you’ll lose all your good people the minute the economy picks up

7. Keep listening and learning — Whilst it might be tempting to offer the safe old campaigns and ideas in PR this year, that is not where the results will come from in many cases or where the budgets will be….need to keep improving, trying new stuff and measuring it as we go because nobody’s an expert unless they keep learning

8. Keep collaborating and helping out — Last year really was the year of community for me and I want to keep that spirit up this year

Cross posted at www.beckymcmichael.com