PR Opinions

The much maligned baby and bathwater analogy….     Earlier this week I lamented that many PR people seem slow to embrace and experiment with new technology.  Online PR still remains a specialist niche for most practitioners and few have begun to really evaluate how applications such as Weblogs impact their audience.   While I think [...]

Giving Public Relations counsel away for free….  The Boston Business Journal has a feature on how PR agencies are providing freebies to potential clients.  The payback being when the clients get budget it passes back to the agencies for ongoing retainer work. RELATED LINKS: Clarke & Company,  Sentrepity Associates,  Topaz Partners <=FLASH ALERT!, Sterling Hager 

The gin and tonic brigade are fading… in UK tech media anyway…. A welcome boost to our profession’s credibility has come from an unexpected source. The Inquirer has a story today entitled “PR bunnies not posh any more” which mourns the passing of posh, expense account “PR” people called Tarquinn who have been replaced by professionals. [...]

When the founder bites back…  Capitalism demands that some entrepreneurs will fail, some will succeed and some will muddle along. That’s the free market for you. When a “start-up” (for the sake of a better term) is bought, and in particular start-ups whose image is inherently connected to the founder(s), it creates some interesting challenges for [...]

For Public Relations, read Telesales… In a surprising piece of news, Burson Marsteller have announced a new service called: “Prospect Lead Generation Support Program”. As the name suggests, it’s about delivering relevant leads for small and mid-sized B2B companies using a seven-step methodology.  This is the latest in a trend of the big PR firms [...]

Internet media bites back… As Salon’s precarious financial position sadly worsens, there was a very interesting piece by Paul Carr, editor of UK ‘zine The Friday Thing on the growing maturity (and credibility) of online publishing.

The tough PR environment continues…. WPP one of the world’s largest “communications” groups (i.e. PR and Advertising) and the parent of Burson-Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton and Ogilvy PR has reported weaker results. While overall revenue is down 3% (to UK�3.9 billion) PR specific revenue is down 8%. A story in the Guardian speculates at consolidation among WPP’s PR [...]

Clear Public Relations objectives…. While many of us can sometimes be accused of not planning with clear objectives in mind, the US military is always clear on the objective. James Wilkinson, spokesman for Central Command in Tampa, Florida is quoted in today’s International Herald Tribune: “The goal of information warfare is to win without ever [...]

Is PR closing in on the weblog?…. I was catching up on some blog reading at the weekend, and in particular PR blogs.  Phil Gomes has a passionate and thoughtful piece on PR and Blogs (well it’s actually about the Google acquistion of Blogger) and how our industry is addressing blogs. He believes that as [...]

PR Promotion….  Ketchum have created a fantastic promotion around their work at CeBit 2003.  The German-based exhibition is the world’s largest technology exhibition – bar none. Credit where it’s due Ketchum have done an excellent job.  Have a look at their CeBit site.