The Value of a Public Relations Stunt
Back in 1903, the philosophy for any given newspaper was that it is not good enough to simply report the news, but to also help create the news being reported. With this in mind, Geo Lefevre, a journalist for L’Auto magazine in France, came up with the idea that a race around France on bikes would generate some interest in his publication as well as stir up some headline grabbing stories. Thus, Tour de France was born—a PR stunt that not only put L’Auto’s competitors out of business, but is also a tradition still very much alive today.
The PR Stunt—a way to drum up media and public interest in a strange or sensational way and create recognition for the brand or product with which the stunt is associated. Sometimes risky, as reaction (whether positive or negative) can never be guaranteed, but in these hard-going economic times, a public relations stunt may be exactly the kind of light-hearted campaign people will engage with.
In 2009, Tourism Queensland took an advert to recruit an “island caretaker” willing to spend six months exploring the land and waters around the Great Barrier Reef for £70,000. The post, billed as “the best job in the world” would involve the successful applicant moving to a rent-free three-bedroom villa, complete with pool, on Hamilton Island. This stunt was hailed as one of the most effective in recent PR history as it had the whole world talking about Queensland.
Of course not all clients are as glamorous as Queensland and not all stunts will result in the consumer winning “the best job in the world”. What this campaign does demonstrate though, as did the Tour de France over 100 years earlier, is that people like interaction. A product or brand becomes a whole lot more exciting when a sensation is attached to it; be that a holiday, a sporting event, or even just a man submerged in a glass tank filled with two million skittles.
Social Media Changing Communication Of The Beautiful Game – Football Forced To Update, Update, Update!
Getting close to the action
There was much concern at the start of last weekend for football fans. It wasn’t only the London Riots that caused many to doubt if games would be affected at the weekend, but also men in suits who were arguing about how the game was being reported (and how quickly) on social networks. This argument has threatened my love of reading the sports pages (in print and online) as the minutes turned into hours of talks and hearsay, and of course – bad PR for the Football Association. After frantic meetings and agreements on Saturday morning, the way the game is reported has changed…and it’s worked out better for the digital lifestyles we all lead.
As reported by The Guardian on Monday morning, representatives from the Premier League and Football League along with media organisations (national papers, news and picture wires etc) were busy thrashing out an agreement hours before kickoff on Saturday to tackle the issue of social media and reporting. To set the context, the last agreement in place was decided before the 2003/2004 season – two years before Twitter was even born. Ever since its inception, the media has been using Twitter and other social media as platforms to get information rapidly out to their audiences. Reporters want to be the first to comment on the action, while fans crave the knowledge first.
Like many of you, Twitter is often my first source of information on the latest scores and dramas during a game if I cannot watch it. It’s quick and easy on the eye – a bit like watching Barcelona play if you like. Many other sports have already embraced the power of social media so it was about time that football did too. After what I’m guessing was a lot of huffing and puffing about time-delays, officials not wanting to give too much away, and journalists boycotting games and press conferences in outrage of being banned from using social media to report, what we have now is likely to be the blueprint to future football social media coverage. Well, until the next development in reporting is established anyway.
The real question is why it took them so long to catch up with the times? In other sectors, such as entertainment and lifestyle, we’ve seen social media implemented and governed – advertising being a case in point. Football coverage will benefit from the freedom and speed social media allows, while real time feedback and engagement is what media organisations want from their audiences. Content engagement is an important issue. Now it’s been given the all-clear, it’s just another reason why this season is shaping up to be a cracker.
The London Riots and the ensuing blame game
2011 is proving to be the year of extreme news events that explode either without or seemingly without warning in rapid succession. Think of how the New Zealand earthquake was followed by the Arab Spring and then Japanese tsunami and nuclear leak. Most recently we’ve experienced Hackgate followed by the Riots.
One interesting common feature of all these stories has been how the media – and sometimes the PR industry – has become fixated on putting the biggest tech brands at the heart of the story. So we have seen Twitter and other social media praised for helping coordinate the Arab Spring uprisings, but criticised for helping the country’s looters play cat and mouse with the police. And opportunities to redeem the same social media have arisen as Twitter, Facebook et al are praised for helping to coordinate community clean-ups by the Riot Wombles. But then might those same Riot Wombles turn into tomorrow’s Twitter vigilantes? And so the news and PR agenda swings the other way.
Actually, the role of mobile technology and social media in recent events is less interesting than we realise. I liked what a London Evening Standard columnist said recently about how blaming mobile phones and Twitter for the London 2011 riots is as ridiculous as blaming the Brixton 1980s riots on the push button telephone. Similarly, social media supported the Arab uprisings but the reasons for its’ momentum and success have very little to do with Twitter or Facebook when you consider the importance of protesters’ personal bravery or the unwillingness of some state organisations to hold back from doing their governments’ dirty work.
Quite obviously such technology is useful for criminality and rioting – as is it for more usual law abiding uses – but it does not give us much insight into why these events occurred. It is lazy politics and journalism to heap much significance on how restricting social media will stop riots recurring.
Google+ vs. Facebook: The battle of the two contenders
The launch of Google+ was the biggest social media story recently grabbing the headlines for good and bad reasons. Just a few weeks after its launch, the website is boosting 20 million users and rapidly gaining market share in the social networking space. However, last month Google+ asked businesses not to create Google+ profiles and caused a furore with the scandal around cancelling accounts using nicknames.
In the meantime Facebook has focused a lot of efforts into improving its relationship with businesses and does not seem likely to relinquish its supremacy as the number one site in the social media world. Last week it quietly launched Facebook for Business, a new service which offers help and advice for businesses looking to boost brand awareness and engage in a two-way conversation with the Facebook community. With more that 750 million subscribers, Facebook remains a valuable marketing and PR tool, and a great way of engagement with difficult to reach audiences.
In addition to creating a Facebook page or using Facebook Ads and Sponsored Stories, business users can choose among plenty of free business applications to boost their marketing efforts. Applications such as RatePoint and Hudle for example enable businesses to create professional communities on Facebook by sharing reviews and testimonials or creating secure workspaces for colleagues and business partners. Furthermore businesses might soon be able to use conference video calling after Facebook recently introduced video calling to boost its service portfolio.
However, as Google+ is gaining momentum, Facebook is likely to face severe competition for the attention of business customers. Last week Google+ announced that it was planning to bring business profiles and analytic tools to its social networking platform later this year. The service will allow businesses to link their profiles to products like AdWords, enabling businesses to tap into Google’s substantial online advertising platform. Furthermore Google will be able to benefit from its strong enterprise customer base to drive business customers to its new social networking offering.
As Google and Facebook continue to diversify their services, there will be much more to witness in the coming months. The business offerings of the two internet giants will create great PR and marketing opportunities for companies looking to engage with online communities and make their brands visible in the social media space. However, we are yet to see how the battle between the two contenders for the social networking crown will unfold. I would only say that it is too early to make any predictions as the social media world is full of surprises and you never know what will be the next ‘hype of the day’.
What’s the influence of social media on PR and journalist relationships?
A recent survey analysing the rise of social media within journalism caught my eye. Over 900 journalists were surveyed by Darly Willcox Publishing and the results have been analysed in a white paper by FT journalist Martin Stabe.
According to the survey, 75% of journalists claim social media is important for their work with 90% using it more than they did a year ago.
But what got me most interested was what the survey has to say about the effect of social media on how PR professionals and journalists interact.
A finding of the report is that ‘communicating with PR professionals currently has a relatively insignificant role in journalists’ use of social media. What’s more 44% of journalists believe PR professionals aren’t making the most of the medium.
Reasons cited included some PR professionals failing to understand the need to build genuine relationships using social media, and lack of resources to respond quickly to journalists.
Working in PR, the value social media is immeasurable. We take pride in developing and maintaining relationships with journalists but traditional methods of contact remain essential. That’s what PRs said in the same survey with use of email and phone significantly exceeding contact by social media. Of the social media PRs use most to communicate with the media.
Social media is paramount in keeping engaged with journalists yet unless combined with traditional communications, from picking up the phone, to face to face drinks, no amount of Tweeting someone would be effective. It is all about maintaining the right balance of new and traditional ways of engaging the press.
