Does International PR Exist?
A debate which has been a hot topic throughout the PR world is the long fight between PR academics and practitioners, on whether international PR (or Global PR) exists.
Some say that PR only exists in countries where democracy, free market economy, freedom of press and civil liberty are present. If so, how can international PR exist when significant regions of the world fail to reach these conditions? Just because an organisation has many offices worldwide, it does not necessarily mean that their PR communications are effective within them.
All the above are plausible, however, having studied PR and worked within the industry, my opinion is YES! It does exist. Think of an international brand and type it into Google and you will see how ´far spread´ their communications efforts have been in raising brand awareness.
Not only that, but Globalisation and the 21st Century have shaken up the PR world allowing better international communications to form. The internet has not only changed traditional methods of communication but also the power which organisations hold. Two-way communication and transparency of social media means organisations now have more stakeholders to consider and engage with.
It is therefore extremely important that global PR agencies understand the challenges and trends international PR faces when executing business plans. In order to be truly international, you need to grasp a few things:
Different variations of PR – understanding how the media within different countries operate is crucial.
Cultural and sociological differences – It is important that International communicators have knowledge about the world at large, ideally being able to speak and write several languages.
Understand the importance of Social media PR – The digital world has allowed different cultures to interact, therefore creating a wider audience for you to engage with.
Ethical considerations – In order to have ethical PR within the new global economy, an organisation must take into consideration what its ethical obligations are to different cultures, social groups and identities that they are trying to interact with.
In a nutshell, sociological norms and the political power of different countries have great effects on the results and success of international PR campaigns. So therefore, to be effective, global PR must be localised to different cultures. Globalisation, has bought cultural boundaries closer and social media has made communications more accessible, the combination of the two has increased the viability of global PR and its potential success.
Linkbait, Samantha Brick and the Canny Mail Online Team
The recent news of Samantha Brick and her tale of beauty as a burden caught the imaginations and reactions of the nation through the power of social media. In less than a few hours Samantha’s story about the pain of being beautiful had been discussed, ridiculed, condemned but most crucially distributed and read by millions. ‘Samantha Brick’ trended on Twitter for two days in a row (to date) with further spin off stories designed to capture even further readers. So big was her news that it even eclipsed the story of James Murdock resigning from BSkyB.
As the dust settles and her story becomes tomorrow’s fish and chip paper, the question can be asked that maybe the Daily Mail and Mail Online team are a rather canny bunch. Already at the helm of the UK’s biggest newspaper website (91 million unique users per month), the Samantha Brick story is likely to see a sharp spike in that figure – as readers from other sites and papers all converged to the Mail Online site to read the story and vent their opinions.
However the technique used, Linkbait, is not a new one – but the Mail Online may have hit a sweet spot with this particular story. Link bait is any content or feature, within a website, designed specifically to gain attention or encourage others to link to the website. With this story the viral aspect was huge – circulating through Facebook, Twitter et al like digital wildfire. As the story snowballed, those in charge of the advertising revenue for the Mail Online site must have been smiling like Cheshire cats. Whether the story itself was a hoax or genuine isn’t the point – it’s a canny tactic to drive traffic, using provoking content to a news site that’s already huge. If there is a Press Award for ‘Best Use of Linkbait…’ the Mail Online has it in the bag.
Working out the Twitter Mafia
There has been a big realisation: Twitter as a micro blog site, is a great communication and Marketing tool where professionals and brands have discovered its power to connect with the world to network and to engage with potential employers and clients. The aim is to get followers and to follow people who you share common interests, you would like to network or do business with, or you simply like what they have to say.
Although at first sight, Twitter might have appeared to be a very clever way to waste copious amounts of your time: You could buy into the idea of fame and what it would feel like to rub shoulders with your idols and favourite celebrities in general by getting to know their innermost secrets and thoughts by becoming their follower ‘friend’. Also, you may have wrongly believed everyone cared about everything you had to say and your followers were your ‘fans’ – all because you became, all of a sudden an important person or a new all time celebrity.
The truth is that the Twitter revolution is growing rapidly, more and more brands are beginning to realise the benefits the micro-blog site can offer, however they are quick to realise that maintaining a presence online is not as simple as it looks. It is therefore important businesses have a strategy and plan in place to ensure regular tweets; updates are in order for you to successfully engage with the world.
Some businesses believe succeeding in Twitter it’s just a matter of the number of followers they have. Therefore companies providing online applications that are trying to capitalise on the Twitter swift rise. Some of them claim to gain you Twitter followers for you to appear more popular in exchange for money. My advice would be – Don’t Buy Twitter Followers
Buying followers, means you would go against Twitter’s rules and may have your account terminated. It’s also considered the worst way to promote yourself, as any followers sold to you are unlikely to be real or even interested in what you have to say. Some operators also use very unethical means to add them to your account (such as creating thousands of fake accounts with the only purpose to follow accounts in exchange of money). The key skill is to engage with followers and listen to what they have to say too.
There are other so far accepted, promotional methods to grow your Twitter presence, monitor your account, schedule and publish tweets. Some could be considered of dubious value.
Have you ever come across Twiends for instance? A promotional method to grow your Twitter presence, they propose seeds as the ideal way to grow your social network consistently each day. Those seeds can be employed to get more exposure and either be featured or encourage and reward accounts for following you. They then can use those seeds to pay for other accounts to follow them. The result here could be they may only follow you to collect seeds and not because they have anything in common with you and they are likely to un-follow you afterwards.
What happens when you are following too many people? Either by extreme enthusiasm or by using applications where you get rewarded the more people you follow. Then you can use I Unfollow to get rid of those accounts you didn’t want to follow to start with any way or the ones that have become inactive for years.
By this time, you might have become suspicious of how many of your followers were either expecting you to follow them back and you haven’t, or had only followed you to get their reward seeds. What to do now? – Despair not. Another tool can be used, such as Who Unfollowed Me to find out who has un-followed you. Also, it can be used to find out who is following you but you are not following back and those you are following but they are not following you back.
It is worth mentioning Timely, an analytics and optimisation tool that adds your tweets to a scheduler and publishes them when they are likely to have higher impact. When you run out of ideas they offer suggestions for tweets although they seem to always be the same ones. It can also be used to calculate the reach of your tweets.
Have you ever thought it may be interesting to see how many dead accounts you are following? Manage Flitter can do just that. It is a popular monitoring tool to manage twitter followers and non followers. It shows if they follow you or not, if they are talkative or quiet, or even if they are inactive.
Call me ‘the old fashioned of the new era’ but I feel strongly about not doing things organically or getting involved in dubious practise. Followers should come when you interact and engage, have an interesting bio, a non default ‘egg image’ on your profile, and you have exciting things to say regularly. I think it is important to enrich your followers’ day with something newsworthy, to reply to their tweets and appreciate their time is precious so – remember, don’t be a bore promoting your products nonstop and don’t bombard with same links to your blog or website.
Technologic evolution of fashion
Some may say clothes are practical items necessary to protect ourselves from the elements. Others see clothes as part of a multibillion industry where fashion is worth billions and it changes at least twice every year (Spring /Summer and Autumn/ Winter collections). The fashion industry influences in one way or the other how we present ourselves to the world.
Technology applications in fashion made possible the textile developments that took place around 1940 and 1950 with the improvements of fabrics with manmade fibres and blends, and automated garment construction techniques.
Now in the 21st century, where the Digital age is reaching unthinkable heights technology is one of the driving forces of the changes we have seen recently in the fashion industry.
Now technology applications in fashion not only mean the experimentation with new techniques or fabrics, but also to engage with the public, expand in communication and reach an audience only dreamed about before.
All regarded Fashion Houses must have not only a website but a Twitter account and a Facebook page that get updated regularly with relevant, interesting and engaging content where users can show the connection with the brand thorough becoming a follower or using the like button. The ones with a more avant-garde approach have Flicker, YouTube channel, phone applications, micro sites, blog, online competitions, LinkedIn, own targeted social network, interactive shows, live streamed activities, and video responses to simultaneous Question and Answers sessions.
Fashion brand Diesel, continues to pioneer its integrated social media strategies. Heavily focusing on Twitter, Diesel is using social communications to drive followers into brick and mortar stores for music events, sales, cocktails and socializing.
Designer Norma Kamali is using the reverse social media model. Kamali has added QR codes to her store windows so that customers can shop from the street when the store is closed. When viewers scan the bar codes in the windows, they’re taken directly to the product page on NormalKamali.com where they can purchase the item via their mobile device.
Social Media has been seen transforming Fashion Week and making what traditionally was open to a lucky few hundred now reaching millions and at a much quicker speed with immediate coverage.
Fashion was a luxury enjoyed by the elite. The exclusivity of high fashion continued well into the 21st century until social media came into the picture.
Luxury brands seemed to have been reluctant to adopt the new trends of online sales and use of Social Media to start with, but since they embraced it some have taken it to an extreme and even have a reputation for innovation.
Thanks to the latest technology like online streaming Fashion shows can be seen by millions – 3G and 4G mobile phones, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks aide the propagation of images and videos in a matter of seconds, offering immediate global coverage.
In Feb 2010 Burberry had a 3D fashion show that was streamed lived simultaneously in different cities creating hype in the media in different countries.
In November 2010, Ralph Lauren’s fashion house decided to celebrate the launch of Ralph Lauren e-commerce in the U.K. and the 10th anniversary of ralphlauren.com in the U.S. It was a fusion of art, fashion & technology in a visual feast for the five senses with 3D projection, light and sound mapping with illusions of a blowing breeze, and even a light mist of the collection fragrances, creating the ultimate sensory 4D experience.
It resulted in the production of 700 million online impressions which made the brand to be regarded at the cutting edge of technology.
The latest t demonstration of technology took place in April 2011 where an installation of holographic projections of models mixed with real models walking to a powerful song by one of British most loved and world-renowned singers Adele, together with falling rain brought the British experience of Burberrys to Beijing.
Who would have thought a traditional brand that is over 150 years old can inject the latest technology and even get a reputation for innovation?
With all, we can see that Luxury brands are keeping up with the latest technology and reaching to the masses. Their aim is to have a more open communication and engage with the masses, making everyone feel valued and part of a community and ultimately make bigger sales. But can mainstream afford the luxury brands or only pretend to connect with them and keep up with their fictitious communities?
Never work with children, animals…and celebrities?
Celebrity endorsements are tried and tested ways of getting media traction for any brand. It’s a risky strategy because not only is it tricky to find that perfect someone that embodies your brand values, has media clout, can be managed to deliver your messaging, they also need to be within budget! As if that wasn’t enough, you also have to have faith that if (or when) they fall out of favour with the public, they won’t take your brand down with them.
Two PR campaigns linked to celebrities hit the headlines this week, both demonstrated how a name attached to a brand can secure column inches and drive social buzz, but neither managed to fully swerve the potential pitfalls.
Firstly, virtually unheard of dating site CougarLife.com claimed that it offered Caroline Flack (32-yr- old ex-girlfriend of 17-yr-old Harry Styles from boy band One Direction) £500,000 to be the face of the site. The PRs behind this deserve top marks because there is absolutely no chance that Flack would accept the offer, meaning they would never have to part with the cash. The fact that a start-up dating site is highly unlikely to have even have half a million to dedicate to PR, is besides the point. The coverage came thick and fast with Flack joining the conversation and jokingly tweeting, “Half a million to be the face of CougarLife.com?? YES! Finally I can afford my stannah sex swing!”
It may have grabbed the headlines, but the downside was that it was so clearly a PR stunt, the public saw through it. As a result a large proportion of the public attention and social media conversations highlighted questions about the brand’s ethics.
The second unsuccessful celebrity paring was the revelation that ‘Celebrity Mum of the Year’ nominee, Stacey Solomon was caught smoking during pregnancy. For a campaign hinged on celebrating inspirational motherhood, this could have been a serious PR fail. However, sponsors of the award, Foxy Bingo acted quickly, ousted her from the line-up, issued a statement and Solomon delivered an emotional apology on TV. The reputation of the awards have undoubtedly been jeopardised, as have Solomon’s commercial value. I’d like to think Foxy Bingo is now out of hot ewater and can look ahead to announcing the winner next week, but with the likes of Peaches Geldof, Natasha Giggs (who had an 8-year affair with her brother-in-law, Ryan Giggs) and TOWIE’s Chole Sims on the shortlist, you never quite know.
