Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Here is a little experiment for you. Take a scroll through your Linked In contacts and see if you can count how many of them are employed (as opposed to self employed) female and with young / school age children. I have no wish to harp on about glass ceilings and the lack of flexible working practices but even knowing what I do about the PR industry I was shocked. Of my 242 contacts, less than 20 fitted this description.

When I was an account executive, nine out ten people at my level in the company were female. At senior account executive and account manager the ratio was similar. When I got to AD things started to change and by the time I got to director the pendulum had definitely swung the other way.

What is particularly sad about this is that it represents a flow of talent from the industry which, by the time you reach senior management, has turned into flood.

In years gone by most of these women would have just turned their back on PR but times are changing and some of these agencies are going to have to watch their backs. A quick Linked In count up revealed as many self employed mothers as employed. Better connectivity and networks like Linked In are also bringing these women together in virtual teams who, when coming together to hunt down new business, pose a considerable risk to more established agencies. They can deliver experience, flexibility and senior consultancy without having to worry too much about profit margins or hourly billing rates. Organisations like the PR Network, which specialise in helping senior freelancers (majority of whom are mothers) to find work are actually going out with virtual teams to pitch against agencies for new business.

So now it’s not just about brain drain. Perhaps the thought of losing business to these virtual teams will be enough to finally make agencies think about what they can do to hang on to their female talent. After all nothing quite sharpens the focus like a hit to the bottom line.

Thanks to an early-morning TfL fail, I unfortunately missed the first ten minutes of the Gorkana breakfast briefing with Andrew Clark, Business Editor and Heather Stewart, Economics Editor at The Observer.  The parts I did catch however were extremely useful and I’ve included some of the key points below:

Links between The Guardian and The Observer:

- Apart from specific editors like Andrew and Heather, many of the journalists at Guardian Media Group are seven-day operatives specialising in key subject areas.  Their main areas of focus are breaking news throughout the week and working on Sunday news and features

- When pitching, you will need to specify which paper you think your story would be suited for

- Links from the Observer Business section to the rest of the paper – many of the stories are consumer-focused and easily accessible and so depending on the angle of the article the story can be moved into the main section of the paper

- Online: If a story is urgent the team will publish early online, however they do plan stories with a Sunday publication date in mind

Working week:

- Work from Tuesday – Saturday

- Tues/Weds – Conduct majority of briefings with PRs, finding story leads

- Thurs – Star to plan for weekend edition

- Fri – Planning for lead news and features

- Deadline: Saturday around 12:00 p.m.

- In terms of submission planning meeting for features take place Thurs/Friday, breaking news jus goes straight to the relevant journalist

What makes a good Observer story:

- Fits in with the broader news agenda

- Features with spokespeople who are willing to think outside the box (Roger Carr, CBI)

- Stories around current topical issues (e.g. Lord Davies Women in Boardrooms report)

- Political/green/CSR issues always of interest

PR-able sections:

- Punditry throughout the section – spokespeople who are willing to be controversial and have a strong opinion

- Case studies are always welcomed

- Success stories/company results  - don’t have to be a listed company, can be a company that is doing things differently etc.

- Don’t tend to run bylines/features although if you think your company/spokesperson is prolific enough then feel free to pitch!

- Observer podcasts –pitches can be sent to Paul Maynard

- Engaging with the team – like to speak to CEO level, but any credible players within the business world will be considered.  Happy to meet with PRs first to build a rapport

Specific pitching - The UK Budget:

- The team envisage that there will not be many shocks in the upcoming budget, will me more focused around key themes such as unemployment and the action the government plan to take to alleviate the situation

- Do not bombard the team with 5+ comment emails during the day.  They prefer more though-out, opinionated comment the day after the event

Laura and I attended a great networking event last night, organised by law firm Irwin Mitchell. Entitled ‘persuasive presentations’, the event featured Daphne Clifton and her colleague Fiona Handle from Make Life Easy.  Throughout the hour-long presentation Daphne outlined her 10 ten tips for persuasive presentations so we thought (being the nice people we are) that we would share our learnings with you!

Top 10 Tips:

Prepare, prepare, prepare

Context is crucial, and Daphne emphasised the importance of ensuring you conduct research about your audience to make sure your pitch is very specific.

People buy people

When people buy into an idea or proposal, the main reason for them doing so is often down to the person presenting.  So be yourself – learn from others but make sure your pitch represents your personality

Listen
When speaking to somebody directly, make sure you engage with them. Listen to what they have to say, pay attention and ask questions to encourage people to share more with you

W.I.I.F.M (what’s in it for me?)
In new business meetings and networking events it is important to realise that everyone has a motive for being there – it’s not just for the free drinks and canapés – so make sure you identify your objectives before attending.  Try to get hold of a delegate list, highlight people you want to speak to and if you don’t know them ask the event coordinators to introduce you

Learn to K.I.S.S (keep it simple and straight forward)
Don’t baffle people with jargon or embellish the truth: be honest and be open – it will be this that gets you remembered

Whats the ONE THING (that you want out of the meeting?)
Again, another good reason to identify your objectives before the meeting but also the objectives of your counterparts – why are they there, what is on their mind, do they understand you.  Be sure to meet these requirements

Point of difference…and can you prove it?
What make you/your company stand out?  Practice your one minute elevator pitch before big meetings and events and be confident in talking about your skills

Practice makes perfect

As silly as it sounds, practice your presentation and pitch at home, either alone or in front of others and get feedback.  And be prepared for questions!

Don’t be a S.L.O.B

o Sense of humour failure – how do you respond when nervous?  Be aware of this and avoid letting your ticks come across!

o Loss of memory – nerves can wipe your memory so make sure you have notes, but again practice is key

o Odd behaviour – things such as tripping over stairs, spilling drinks etc. can happen in high-pressure situations.  Make sure you arrive to your meeting early to give yourself time to relax

o Breathing – Deep, calm breaths are crucial.  If you feel your breathing slip, stand up – not only does this give you authority, it will help you breathe more easily

Use your comfort zone wisely

Review your pitch regularly and add anything you think sells yourself and remember to make the most of your colleagues and life coach to help work on the points that you’re still sticking on

Any other useful tips people want to share?

Flick and I attended another jam-packed Gorkana briefing this week at the DLA Piper building. Sharing their wisdom with us this time were the team from Financial News, who included Phillipa Leighton-Jones (Online Editor), Ben Wright (Deputy Editor) and William Wright (Editor-in-Chief).

The team answered questions for around an hour on a whole variety of topics so I thought I would share some of the most useful hints and tips below:

General about:

• The Financial News team consists of around 40 ppl
• They aim to write about 15-18 stories a day – plus aggregating stories from Dow Jones and WSJE
• The publication targets 4 main classes – asset management, investment banking, private equity and trading and technology – but also consultants who work with these industries i.e. lawyers
• The most popular content on the site is always the photo galleries
• After these the most viewed stories are those on bonuses, jobs, pay, recruitment and anything on the ‘inside track’

Working week:

• The paper comes out on a Friday so you need to work backwards from that day in terms of pitching
• The journalists start thinking of stories in a 2/3 week cycle
• Deadlines = Tuesday night and Wednesday night
• Edits = Wednesday and Thursday
• Thursday = working on news for website and for front 7 pages of print publication

Working week online specific:

• 8-9am = very intense time so don’t call
• Online stories are filed by 11.30am so try and approach the journalist before 6pm the night before
• They now break more stories online rather than holding for the print edition

PR-able sections:

• Talking points – pensions and investors sections
• Run comments elsewhere in the paper
• NB Financial News does do quote checks but only to check accuracy -  they will NEVER run whole article past you

Final point:
What Financial News really values is ACCESS, ACCESS, ACCESS

Tempted by nuggets of wisdom from the panel (and those really good muesli yoghurts), it was standing room only for the Gorkana breakfast briefing with ITN  on Friday morning. With a cup of coffee in one hand and a mini pain au chocolat in the other, here is what I learnt from the line up below:

Toby Castle, Head of Home News, ITV News
Ed Fraser, Online Editor, Channel 4 News
Julie Hulme, Home Editor, Channel 4 News

Overview
ITV
• ITV is the largest commercial channel in the UK – news bulletins go out at 1.30pm, 6.30om and 10pm
• The bulletins are carefully tailored to the core audiences at each time (e.g. elderly/mums at 1.30pm), reaching 8 million people a day (who are predominantly aged 16-34)

Channel 4
• The audience is mainly ABC1, with a large ethnic minority audience also
• Focus on analysis – aimed at people who want to know why

Channel 4 online
• Channel 4 online describes itself as a ‘beating heart of original journalism’ - breaking exclusive stories
• Almost all correspondents are on Twitter and tweet a lot
• 850,000 unique users/month

Extra Information – planning and spokespeople
ITV
• Has two planners who are responsible for planning the next day’s news
• These planners are open to ideas - their sources include press releases, PA, their specialist correspondents
• 3.15 – meeting to run through next day
• The Head of Planning deals with longer term planning – often under pressure – short window of opportunity
• Planners suggest a running order of approximately 7 stories (to fill 26 minutes of air time) to the Head of Home News
• It is easier to get on the lunchtime news than the 10pm bulletin…
• Availability of spokespeople to get to offices is key:

o Grays Inn Road (HQ)
o 4, Millbank
o Regional offices as alternative

• Midnight embargoes don’t work for them – 5-7pm is better (else by 10pm news slot the story has already been covered many times over – MUST be a new angle/approach at this stage)
• Foreign News – There is one foreign news planner. Content tends to be more ‘breaking news’ than features

Channel 4
• Head of Home News and deputy are responsible for planning bigger features and films
• Contact the programme Editor planner for shorter lead time ideas (the day before)
• Pitch to the specialist correspondents – they then pitch to the editor on your behalf (if they consider the news to be a genuine development/news item in their field)
• In unsure, email the Producer directly – rigorous with filing and will keep contacts (suggested spokespeople etc)
• Have two ‘guest bookers’ – don’t want to speak to the same people all the time. Proposed spokesperson must be available on the phone for an involved conversation beforehand

o Approach the relevant specialist team
o On the day – email the ‘guest booker’
o The correspondents are happy to meet and greet spokespeople

• Runs lots of foreign news. There are three foreign news correspondents based in London – you should let them know if you have someone/a client on the ground who may have access to somewhere that they do not – will be much appreciated!

Channel 4 online
• Focus on depth and analysis – adding value and an angle that can’t be found elsewhere
• Agenda determined by listening to Radio 4, then Radio 5, reading press releases, looking at what’s trending on Twitter/most read online stories
• Cover 30-35 stories – 8-10 in depth
• Don’t like B-roll footage – they have a quality threshold and would rather film it themselves

Question
What does the future look like? With constant online news updates, will there still be a need for the regular fixed bulletins?
- There is likely to be a convergence, but currently the figures do not support a move away from bulletins
- All news outlets are thinking about the future –not wanting to be left behind
- ITV recently tried a web chat during a programme – 32,000 people engaging and writing messages during the programme – not that many considering the total number of people viewing, but nonetheless a substantial figure
- The constant news will enhance brand loyalty – will force news outlets to keep raising the bar – must offer something that 24hour online news does not
- This brand will increasingly depend on key individuals, who have become a brand in themselves – people will want to hear their opinions/analysis

Top Tips for PRs

• Pick up the phone! Come with everything – research, available spokesperson, and a strong human case study and you will “walk onto the lunchtime news”

• Many Channel 4 News correspondents are on Twitter - @fraserec4 – “message me and I will engage”

• Remember it’s NEWS – think about whether your story is genuinely newsworthy and not just fluff

• Remember that all news channels are competitive – they are all trying to make a distinctive news programme and will want exclusive content

As you will have seen from Flick’s blog post a couple of weeks ago, To InFINNity and beyond, a few of the elite ‘athletes’ at Ruder Finn will be taking part in the NSPCC Step Change 2011on 6th March, a race to the top of one of London’s most iconic buildings, the Gherkin.

‘Tower running’ turns the idea of a race literally on its head. Instead of running on a typical route, we will be climbing the 1037 stairs up the Gherkin in a race to the 38th floor. Pretty difficult I’m sure you will agree.  So we need some motivation, something to get the blood pumping, the adrenaline running and basically to keep us moving.

For this, we need your help.  The Step Change team has set up a collaborative playlist on Spotify and you can suggest the songs that we run to. It’s really simple and won’t take a minute:

- Click on the link here to access the Ruder Finn StepChange Spotify playlist

- Once you’ve opened the playlist in Spotify, just search for the song you want us to run to, add drag and drop into the playlist

- Only rules are that the songs are upbeat, and preferably related to steps, climbing, mountains, heights… *gulp* - oh and no swearing please, we’re a nice bunch

Alternatively, if you don’t have access to Spotify you can leave your suggestions in the comments box below and we will add the song to the playlist on your behalf.

Thanks to everybody for their support so far – we’ve just smashed the £500 barrier and are well on our way to reaching our target.  But we’re not there yet, so please give generously via our fund-raising page.

Losing track of all the different applications Google offers? I was reading through this month’s Revolution earlier today and came across an interesting link in its ‘Hotlinks’ section. Google has developed its very own periodic table, where instead of chemical elements it shows the different APIs and developer products available. Liking the format and the way the table is colour-coded according to application area but who knew there were this many?!

Does anyone out there have any particular favourites? How many do you use?

Ever get REALLY out of puff walking up the steps from the tube station at Covent Garden? Us too. Which is why an elite team of ‘athletes’ from Ruder Finn can’t quite believe that on 6th March (just three weeks and three days from now) we will be taking part in the NSPCC Step Challenge.

And a challenge it will be. ‘Tower running’ turns the idea of a race literally on its head…instead of running on a typical route, a team of eight Ruder Finners will be climbing the 1037 stairs up the Gherkin in a race to the 38th floor. That’s right – 1037 stairs. 38th floor. Why the Covent Garden reference? That number of stairs is equivalent to walking up the steps at Covent Garden tube eleven and a bit times.

Training so far amounts to a few fifteen minute sessions on the step machine at the gym for a few of our keener racers. For the others… a total of…no extra exercise whatsoever. Apart from occasionally making the effort to walk up escalators. With the event sneaking up, I think we’re starting to feel the fear…will we make it to the top? Who will drop first?

However, we will not be alone. On 6th March, the Ruder Finn team will be part of hundreds of runners who will be racing to the top of London’s most iconic building for the Child’s Voice Appeal. This appeal was launched in 2008 to raise £50 million to sustain and grow two NSPCC helpline services – ChildLine and the NSPCC Helpline. Childline is the NSPCC’s free and confidential, 24-hour helpline for children in distress or danger. Trained volunteer counsellors comfort, advise, support and protect children and young people who may feel they have nowhere else to turn. The NSPCC helpline provides a voice for children who cannot speak for themselves – babies and young children, disabled children and children who are too afraid to call themselves need an adult to speak up for them.

Our fundraising page can be found here. This is a fantastic cause, so please take a moment or two to dig deep and give generously to help us support the NSPCC.

Last night I went to my first Mashup event – Digital Trends in 2011. I wasn’t sure what to expect and was pleasantly surprised by the format, which was two short five minute presentations, before a launch into an interactive and engaging discussion, involving panel members and audience alike. Sat in a room of ‘early adopters’ and self-titled ‘unrestrained geeks’, it was fascinating to hear people’s predictions for digital development in 2011. Some of the key trends we touched upon are well worth sharing…

Privacy will Matter
• Although the majority of online forums are free, we are paying with our presence. The highly valuable personal data we give away is monetised – many large companies won’t admit how much data they store and ‘mine’ but be assured it is happening
• Are people too lazy to care enough about privacy settings? Very few people change their default privacy settings/read SLAs – not because they don’t care but because they have no idea how much they are giving away – “the technology industry hides from the consumer”
• How long until consumers can see exactly how much of their personal information is in the public domain?
• Privacy can be seen in two ways
1. The absence of info
2. Controlled information – the consumer decides how it is used
• The ability of consumers to give and retract information may emerge, causing a backlash against companies who refuse to ‘give personal information back’

Geo-targeted Advertising
• This will increase as the trend for location-based services continues
• Almost all phones now have GPS, allowing data on where we are and where we have been to be harvested and used for advertising purposes

Location is a key feature, not a business
• Discussion of the gap between location features reaching a ‘critical mass’ and being a ‘social norm’

Sensor convergence
• It won’t be long before our Oyster card chips are in our mobile phones
• The winners of the mobile payment industry are likely to be the incumbent giants

More contextual relevance and APIs
• An abundance of apps means that many people have over 100 on their phone, with only a few that they regularly use
• Instead, people will have 5 apps

Geo-fencing and auto-check in
• Fine grain determination of where you are (or more crucially, are not) will lead to “hyperlocal advertising”
• In the next 6-8 months, this feature is likely to be added to all mobile apps

Other Discussions

Advertising
• A move away from ‘shotgun’ advertising to more contextual advertising
• People may begin to shun broadcast TV in favour of iPlayer, 4OD etc – more targeted adverts
• The challenge will be to get more creative to hold people’s attention –trend towards the ‘game-ification’ of adverts
• Digital lisiaons between unrelated brands to reach the same/similar target audience

Data driven marketing
• Advertising fazes out to give way to merchandising
• Companies should look to Twitter and other social media to engage with customers who are complaining about rival brands

Venture Capitalists/start-ups
• VCs have mainly invested in hardware until a recently when the focus has shifted to software – enabling companies to expand their influence without a sales force (people are looking to create big companies with a lot less money)
• The UK/London has the potential to become renowned for two key areas over the next 10 years
1) Digital in the financial services industry
2) Digital/marketing agencies – encompassing a broader range of skills than ever before
• UK/EU is more risk averse than US – UK media coverage of start-ups is generally unfavourable
• Companies can no longer rely on a niche technology, they must have commercial viability

Social buying
• Leverage opportunity of getting people to recommend things to drive content, conversations and coverage – people will quickly tire of receiving endless ‘spam offers’
• Clever marketers will identify influential recipients who will evangelise the brand to their social graph

A final interesting pointer for PR/advertising agencies:

Don’t get entrenched in service delivery to clients but think about the bigger picture and how you can become a strategic part of their business rather than becoming a commodity

Check here to read Ged Carroll’s thoughts on where digital is going in 2011

Last night I went along to the RSA building to hear a talk from a lady called Rachel Botsman about collaborative consumption. I came out so enthused that I bought her book! Thought I would therefore share some of her thoughts with you:

The rise in collaborative consumption refers to the huge increase in sharing, bartering, swapping etc, basically any sort of peer-to-peer exchange through technology and online communities. Good examples of collaborative sharing are renting extra space, car sharing, swap-trading toys and books or joining land share sites. Collaborative consumption is evidence of a big shift in consumer behaviour as the priority becomes less about ownership and more about access. We don’t want more stuff, we just want that stuff would provide i.e. we don’t want to own a book, we want to read a story – so the new focus is on providing a service rather than the item itself.

In a world of Facebook and Twitter one of the key phrases that Rachel used was that we were all “globally connected but locally disconnected” as people much preferred to go online to connect socially while maintaining their real-life privacy.

According to Rachel, our interaction with the internet can be broken into four stages:

1. People connected to share information i.e. using Wikipedia

2. People connected to people i.e. Facebook, Friends Reunited

3. People connected to share thoughts and media i.e. Spotify

4. People are now connecting to share assets

This new asset-based sharing can then be split into three different systems:

1. Product service systems – finding some idle capacity and leveraging it  i.e. bike sharing

2. Redistribution markets i.e. selling on eBay, swapping or gifting unwanted belongings

3. Collaborative lifestyle i.e. co-working

Ironically while none of this collaboration would be possible without technology, the aim is not to create more virtual communities but is instead to use technology to get people off the internet and into real-life communities. The time is right to do so, with a global feeling of the renewed importance of community, a backlash against anonymous goods, the availability of social technology and the pressing unresolved environmental concerns, all combining to drive the trend.

So how do you get involved? If you want to make friends, declutter your life or even make some money everyone has something to contribute. Think about your idling capacity….do you have some spare space in your flat, some spare time on your hands, a skill you could share with others? Don’t just sit back while everyone else turns themselves into micro-entrepreneurs!

Want to see collaborative consumption in action for yourself? Have a look at some of these sites: Hey Neighbor, airbnb, sparedesk.com or why not watch the intro video Rachel uses at - http://vimeo.com/14408878