Author: Lindsey Davies

Tears from laughing or a crying shame?

Posted on October 25, 2012 by

I made the mistake of watching Work Experience, the new reality sitcom, on E4 last night. I was really looking forward to the programme after noticing the adverts and was eager to see what it was all about – expecting, wrongly, that it would be a laugh a minute and something to discuss with friends over a few drinks at the weekend.

I usually enjoy these types of programmes – you know the ones – where people are ‘set up’ Jeremy Beadle sty-lee, in a situation which could be real yet isn’t, and there are hilarious consequences as a result. The first problem with this programme was that it wasn’t funny.

The scene was set at a fashion PR agency in London. The agency named, Grade PR, has the usual stereotypical boss; bitch in high heels, hoping to fall pregnant and being generally rude and abusive to everyone she meets, particularly her PA. Her side kick, who she had naturally slept with, was equally condescending, while also being a complete sleaze.

This cast, which includes a few others who are ridiculously over the top and not worth a more descriptive mention, are supposed to be providing two genuine placement students with work experience – and this is where I get really angry. The students are made to run around like idiots, tanning people, casting models and being shouted at – dealing with the tantrums and traumas of a ‘professional PR agency’ in a bid to win the real prize, which is… you’ve guessed it, an intern at a real agency.

What annoys me most about this programme is that it is a huge insult to the PR industry and I’m appalled that in both cases the placement students clearly expected some level of deva-esque behaviour. There were moments where I was so outraged I was literally shouting at the TV.

As a PR professional I find it insulting that a programme like this should be considered comedy and not because I can’t laugh at the industry I work in, after all I’ve come across my fair share of air kissing, Prada wearing luvvies in my time, but because we feel it’s appropriate to allow this perception to continue and to be fuelled. In my opinion it’s gone beyond comedy and is now a genuine expectation.

Many PR professionals will agree that to do the job you need to be qualified, experienced and able not only to write copy and secure coverage but to manage the most precious asset a business owns – its reputation. So why then do we all sit back and allow these stereotypes to continue, which only seek to ruin the one thing we maintain to know how to manage, the reputation of our industry.

I dread to think what will happen in next week’s episode but I think I’ve had my fill. I will continue to hold my own opinions about the industry and will promote PR as the professional specialism it is, after all if I’m not prepared to try to change these perceptions all I am really agreeing to do is to conform to them, and that simply is not going to happen.

As for placement students, please, please don’t think that even during difficult times you should be treated like this, irrelevant of the industry you are working in – it’s not funny and it’s not right.

 

The benefits of being office based

Posted on October 24, 2012 by

At Open Communications we always talk about understanding our clients business so that we are able to make realistic and appropriate recommendations to support their PR, social media and corporate communications briefs.

As an agency we always think it is important to take the chance, where possible, to work from our clients offices in order to get a real idea of how they work and what ‘a day in the life of’ that business would really be like.

I had the pleasure of spending such a day with Gent Visick recently. We were asked to look at some copywriting for them and suggested that it would be more efficient in terms of time and effective in relation to approval if I worked from their offices – rather than calling and emailing every few minutes.

The day was a real success and it was certainly a huge help from my side. It can be difficult to write copy when you don’t truly understand a business – but when you are literally surrounded by it and listening to what is going on you get more of an insight and better still a sense of the personality of that company.

This Friday I will once again be working with a client in their offices and will be looking forward to ‘Fat Friday’, which I have been warned is the name given to the only day of the working week when all diets are banned.

It is this insight that you don’t get when you maintain a ‘them’ and ‘us’ relationship with your clients. This is why when we started Open Comms, many moons ago now, we decided to work WITH our clients rather than FOR them.

Not only does this make building relationships easier but it means that we are able to work as a genuine extension of their teams and also that they are able to share even the most confidential of information with us knowing that it will remain just that – confidential.

I wouldn’t change our approach to the way we work with our clients as I believe it is of mutual benefit. What I don’t understand is agencies who clock watch and prefer to give exactly what their clients pay for and nothing else. This might be commercially beneficial in the short term but longer term I still think we’ve got it right. But then I would.

 

Why it’s important for people to do new things (on TV)

Posted on October 16, 2012 by

We have a new member of the team this week Ciaran, so although this blog says that it was written by me it wasn’t – this is all Ciaran’s work and his thoughts and comments, enjoy.

Unless you have been living under a rock recently you should all be aware of Austrian Daredevil Felix Baumgartner jumping out of a balloon at the edge of space, and very impressive it was to. However, more and more people have been asking why he did it at all. Why would anyone in their right mind put their life in such peril?

There’s no argument that the actual jump made for very addictive viewing. If you were like me then you will have been watching with your heart in your mouth thinking about how nervous  Felix must have been. So, why were there so many people watching, so many in fact that it broke Youtube’s record for the number of live viewers?

The simple answer is that we all thought he was going to die and like the morbid creatures we are, we want to watch. The deeper answer however, is that we are at are most awed and amazed, when watching something happen, that has never happened before.

All the greatest (and the worst) achievements of the 21st century have been broadcast. They were watched by millions live and will be watched by billions when they are replayed, and for good reason. They are our greatest achievements and deserve the air time.

Mr Baumgartner’s jump is a great achievement and we all should’ve watched it. However, after the jump comes the fall.

Ever since he touched down people have been undermining the point of his jump. Asking why he really did it, how much money will he get and what reward beyond financial he will gain. I think that they are completely missing the point.

He is a man of firsts.  He broke the sound barrier, the first skydiver ever to do that. He jumped from the highest anyone has ever jumped. It’s an amazing achievement and one I’m sure my children will read about when they go to school.  So whatever personal reasons he had for the jump, whatever monetary incentive.  He jumped, Simple as that.

Not only is it exceptional that he did it, survived and that it was broadcast, now it means that high altitude pilots can eject and not die instantly. It has increased the knowledge and understanding of what the human body can endure, the speed it can travel at, improve the development of space travel through space suits to name but a few.

The list is vast, and it definitely makes any concerns over his safety worth it. After all he has probably saved scores of lives in the future.

The world should be glad that Felix jumped out from the edge of space and fell from higher and faster than anyone else has before, because now it means we can all do it- and better still we know that we will live. We now know that humans can go that far up, jump out, break the speed barrier and survive. We didn’t know that before. Now we do.

Is how I like communicate like really important like?

Posted on October 12, 2012 by

Each morning I try to catch up on the news before setting off for work and today was no exception.  There is always one story or another which catches my eye and today it was for all the wrong reasons.

Before I start this rant, I will try and set the scene: There was a young girl (16 / 17 years old) being interviewed, she was smartly dressed, well presented and informed, there was no doubt she was intelligent and educated but she was making a huge and repetitive mistake throughout the piece – every other word was ‘like’.

Part of her argument for being on the programme was to express the maturity of young people and so I found it baffling that she would use sentences littered with ‘like’. Despite her points being well structured the ultimate presentation of her answers to questions was terrible. As a result all I heard was ‘like’ this and ‘like’ that, rather than concentrating on what she wanted me to hear.

All I could think was that due to the way she was unable to articulate herself in an appropriate manner for her audience, she had disproved her point that people of her age should be considered as adults.

As the Step-Mum of a 15 year old, I know how difficult it can be to get more than ‘fine’, ‘ok’, or a dismissive shrug out of a teenager and I have to admit that when it comes to basic communication I worry about the way that young people interact but I also know that the rules in our house mean that my Step-Son can hold an adult conversation without using adolescent words or phrases when needed.

When I was growing up we were told time and time again that you communicate with your friends in one way and with adults another.  We may not have liked it but using slang simply wasn’t tolerated when we were in adult company and looking back I can absolutely understand why my parents made such a point of enforcing this rule.

And that is why the problem isn’t exclusive to young people – I think it’s important that individuals, brands and businesses use the same approach and tailor the way they communicate to their audience. Without this thought and consideration the message – ultimately what you want people to understand – is lost.

I’m not suggesting that people start to speak in the Queen’s English, I for one would struggle, but it is about being eloquent.  In the same way that I find it hugely offensive when people swear on twitter, I also find it rude when people use slag or jargon when trying to engage me in conversation about a topic they think I will find interesting.

I don’t believe that the problem is technology, despite many people believing that an increase in text and email, rather than face-to-face conversation, causes poor use of language, I actually believe that much of it is habit and the rest simple laziness.

The reality is that this isn’t something to dismiss, it’s not a situation I am ranting about because I work in communication, it is a serious problem that could lead an individual to be misinterpreted and in some cases for them to lose out on things which matter such as university places, an employment opportunity or a customer.

It’s time that we all recognised that bad use of language is not about one person’s interpretation of your intellect but a reflection of attitude and ability to behave and communicate as a professional adult whatever your age.

So, is how I like communicate really like important like? Well, yes, actually – it really like is.

Wakefield really does work!

Posted on October 9, 2012 by

I recently posted a blog about Open Communications agreeing to get involved with a local initiative, Wakefield Works. The concept was thought up by Andy Turner from First Choice Recruitment and Marcello Moccia from Room: 97, in partnership with the Wakefield Express.

Rather than sitting around and complaining about the lack of jobs for young people within the Wakefield District, these two entrepreneurs encouraged more than 35 local companies to agree to open their doors to prospective employees for a day. The only real commitment from the businesses who chose to get involved was to give some time and also a minimum of two weeks work experience to any relevant candidate that was interviewed.

As an example of businesses being pro-active and supporting the potential of the district I think this was a shining example of working together and making a difference.

In contrast, I attended the First Friday event last week and was disappointed to hear some people focusing on the negative and referencing the number of candidates who registered yet didn’t take the time to get turn up for the respective appointments.

I don’t think that when providing feedback about an event that this should have been the focus. I think it would have made more sense to give those who arranged the initiative the credit that they deserve for taking their time to do so and then for those involved to provide examples of how well the activity had worked.

We had two candidates turn up to Open Comms on the day and I am pleased to announce that we have agreed to provide a two week work placement for one of them. The candidate that we chose has relevant experience and has the chance to prove themselves to be a real asset to our team.

This is the kind of feedback that we should be focusing on, not the negative. Perhaps by showing how many work placements were agreed as a result of this activity those who didn’t bother to turn up to their appointments will recognise the mistake that they have made and the opportunity that they missed out on.

I would personally like to say a huge thank you to Andy, Marcello, the Wakefield Express and Wakefield Job Centre Plus for their support in making this initiative a success. Without their time and effort it would never have happened and we would be another city just sitting around waiting for someone else to turn the employment statistics around.

I’m hoping that businesses who did get involved in Wakefield Works will agree that it was worth the time and effort and that it should become a regular event in the Wakefield business calendar. Let’s get Wakefield working, focus on the positives and benefit from what we can achieve as a collective.

Don’t reinvent your business

Posted on October 5, 2012 by

Since we launched Open Communications in 2008, we have learnt a lot – not least the difference between a P9, P11 and P45!  We have also done a great deal of networking and now have a number of suppliers who we regularly rely on to provide us with the products and services we need.

What has always worried me is that there are lots of people we meet who say that in order to ‘stay ahead of the game’ you have to constantly reinvent your business. I don’t agree with this at all. I often come across people who claim to do this and then that and then the other and the harsh reality is that they don’t do any one thing well.

We are a PR agency and we also provide clients with marketing communications – in simple terms we are all about the words. If you want to communicate with someone and you want to bring a campaign to life then we will support you to do it.

We work with businesses of all sizes and there have been times when I have to admit that I can understand why some agencies profess to be ‘full service’ when the truth is that they just outsource to freelancers.

There are two things that are wrong with this approach; you are not being honest with clients and it’s likely to come back and bit you on the backside and any company managing an account in this way is going to take on the hassle of justifying someone else’s work when / if it goes wrong, even worse the client will believe it’s down to you!

Rather than reinventing your business, why not add products or services which complement your current offering. As an example we launched Open for New Business, which allows us to work with smaller companies who cannot afford a retained agency.

The benefits are that a smaller business gets access to our knowledge and time, while we extend our offering to a wider customer base.  Since launching this service in 2010 we have had some excellent feedback and as we have been open and honest with clients about why we are doing this and what exactly we offer it works.

Open for New Business doesn’t mean that we can’t work with bigger business, it just means that we can also work with smaller companies who are in the position of wanting to know more without having the budgets to invest in a month on month service.

If we started to offer design, web development, sampling and event management then that would be a different thing entirely and I’m sure our clients first question would be to see examples of previous campaign and proven results – oops, we don’t have any doesn’t sound too good!

So next time you hear someone suggesting that you reinvent your business, think twice. What will your customers think if you suddenly start offering a host of new services – and be honest, would you have the time to do all of these things to the standards that your customers expect? If the answer is no, then it’s worth going back to the one thing you’re good at and building a reputation for doing it really well.

The glamour of PR

Posted on October 4, 2012 by

PR is all about Prada, free champagne, air kissing and high profile events…

And if you believe that you’ll believe anything, it’s all just one big pretence

 

The reality is quite different you see, like spinning plates the whole day through

You have to keep them all in the air, if they drop the blames on you

 

It takes hard work, commitment, dedication and thought no less

You have to use your brain to bring the creative thoughts to life from inside your head

 

There are early starts and no lunch breaks – as for an early finish, forget that

But the excitement of getting the headlines you want keeps us smiling and our clients coming back

 

No two days are ever the same in a world that is driven by news

With traditional media, in print and broadcast plus bloggers and their many views

 

There’s events to plan and sponsorship to secure

Copy to draft and website to procure

 

Design to outsource and print to negotiate

All in a day’s work as part of the going rate

 

We have great fun, some laughs and giggles but glamour it just can’t be

When you’re dressed as a giant bear on your weekend off as part of your allocated fee

 

But when all is said and done and the office door is firmly closed

We know we are already looking forward to what adventures and campaigns will unfold.

A changing legal landscape

Posted on October 2, 2012 by

Reviewing the media this morning I noticed an increasing number of announcements about the merger of legal firms within the Yorkshire region.  No fewer than three mergers hit the headlines today with stories released from Ware & Kay and P J Lawrence, Switalskis Solicitors and Parker Bird Gardner and Petherbridge Bassra and Brimble & Co.

I’m sure that most people working within the legal sector will know that there are likely to be many more announcements before the market settles into a new shape – which will see fewer firms but larger overall practices offering their services.

Having worked within the sector I found the concept of ‘Tesco law’ very interesting, noting that due to a change in legislation any business could offer legal services, if they had the right people with the right qualifications to do so. This change was quickly termed Tesco law as it would mean that supermarkets could offer legal services if they felt it would be a lucrative market.

Needless to say a company like Tesco would also be likely to offer legal support at cut down prices, providing an appealing opportunity for consumers and businesses alike.  This in turn would create a crisis situation for most legal teams who would have to review their offering and potentially change the way they work to maintain market share and customer loyalty.

Although it is not surprising to see that in order to counter the Tesco law effect local firms are coming together to create larger and presumably stronger practices, as a PR professional I hope that these organisations have a strategy in place to manage internal and external communications during the changes and beyond.

Legal firms are notorious for believing that marketing and communications are fluffy and a ‘nice to have’ as opposed to an essential tool for supporting business practice and enhancing reputation, which in turn generates sales.

It will be interesting to see which firms have considered their messaging and tone of voice following a merger and which have a strategy in place to effectively manage the change. It is certainly a period of immense change both for the practices which are coming together and the market as a whole.

 

For flood sake!

Posted on September 26, 2012 by

Once again the weather is taking its toll on business and not only those who are struggling to get to and from work but of course those who provide the transport in the first place and then there are those who are self-employed and have to open their doors or take their products and services to their customers to earn a living.

The biggest problem with the weather impacting on business is that there is very little you can do about it. It is difficult to assume that a situation is going to be as bad as it is until it happens and as for predicting it – well, we all try to leave that to the weatherman!

Natural disasters come in all forms and flooding is just one of them. I was surprised to see that Catterick was one of the areas that was most badly affected this time around, with many of the roads resembling rivers.

More importantly I didn’t have to rely on the news to let me know the scale of the problem – my younger cousins, family and friends were posting regular Facebook updates to actually show me almost real time what was happening. I had access to photographs from my home village, videos from the local town and then update’s every minute from those stuck in traffic trying to get home.

Another great source of information was twitter, with local journalists posting regular tweets and pictures of what was happening, as it was happening.

Although we often put social media into a box labelled ‘business’ it would be much more appropriate to place it in a box labelled ‘communication’. If it hadn’t been for my friends and family updating me about the flooding at home and the fact that I follow local news reporters on twitter then I would have had to rely on regional news online – which is fine but not as frequently updated as I would have liked during a situation like this.

When people have stopped tweeting and adding pictures and videos to Facebook perhaps we can take some time to reflect on this disaster. The clean-up process will no doubt take some time with businesses, schools and of course those who have had their homes flooded needing to go through lengthy processes with their insurance but at least we know that there will be a normal again.

It’s at times like this that we need to remember that things could be worse. It’s not easy when you have a mop in your hand but perhaps we should all take the time to think and be thankful for what we do have, rather than what we don’t.

And finally…

Posted on September 25, 2012 by

The phrase ‘And finally…’ was often used by national and regional broadcast news channels to feature a positive story at the end of a programme. More often than not it was intended that this heart-warming feature would leave people with a smile, after the more serious updates from the day.

It would appear that this practice is less common than it used to be, possibly because there seems to be more bad news to report than good, leaving little chance for producers to include a light hearted piece to end on.

So why are we all so keen to hear bad news? Is it absolutely necessary that we surround ourselves with the disasters that face our daily lives? Is it not just as important to share in the good news and to keep our spirits up? And isn’t that what a balanced news agenda is all about – not necessarily just two sides of one story but some good and some bad?

Today there are some really positive stories hitting the headlines not least the announcement from Cancer Research UK reporting that deaths from certain cancers will fall by 17% by 2030. This is a great achievement and I’m pleased to note that it has ‘hit’ many national titles, as well as broadcast media.

Other good news today is the announcement of a new publication that has been launched called ‘The Positive’, which plans to only share good news. What a great idea – but the question remains, will it work?

I have to admit to being cynical about its chances of success because the simple fact of the matter is that people are more inclined to search for bad news than good. I remember a couple of years ago there was a paper which launched in Wakefield called the Wakefield Guardian and the idea was that it would share good news from the district.

Needless to say that the paper didn’t last and closed around 18 months after launching, which was a real shame.  I only hope that The Positive will have better fortune and that people will take the time to share good news. Sometimes I think we all need a good up lifting story to get us all going in the morning – and I intend to read The Positive and will tweet the best story from the day to share it with those who follow me.  In fact I might just add a hashtag #andfinally – who else is going to get behind the publication and join in?