Whatever...

There’s life in the old dog yet

By Jonathan Mathias

 

This day last week, for the first time in as long as I care to remember, I was completely transfixed by the unfolding events of a TV news story – the untimely death of Michael Jackson.  What really struck me, in retrospect, was that I didn’t immediately search Google in order to find out more.  No, at this time, all that would do for me was old media – and I wasn’t the only one.  All my friends and family were glued to BBC News 24, and I’d hazard that an awful lot more people than usual picked up a newspaper last Friday.  

 

The story broke on the relatively small celebrity gossip website TMZ, and it was from there that other news agencies and services got their tip off.  But it seems that people just wouldn’t accept MJ’s death as fact until other, more established outlets, such as the LA Times, BBC and CNN, confirmed the reports. 

 

The below graph, made on alexa.com, shows traffic to various news sites at the time.  You can see that TMZ had a marked peak on the 25^th, when the story broke, while the other more mainstream sites peaked or experienced sustained traffic the following day (including Twitter, as the public conversation continued to flow).

 

 

 

Although this event demonstrates more than ever how online and social media has changed the way news spreads, it’s also clear that the traditional media is a long, long way from being written off.  People continue to revert back to more established news sources to confirm big stories, perhaps you could even argue that stories carried by these outlets are much more trusted, valued and remembered.

NLA to charge for web content – a step too far?

By Flora Haslam

 

The NLA’s plan to extend its licensing remit to cover newspaper websites has, unsurprisingly, been met with widespread condemnation from the PR community. 

 

It’s all very well for the NLA to want to ‘protect the rights of publishers’ – let’s be honest, they could do with all the help they can get in the current climate, but I thought the rationale for the NLA was to compensate publishers for loss of sales?  I really don’t see how charging for clippings of online news stories (which are freely available) can possibly be justified?

 

The debate on monetising internet content could rage forever, but while some – notably the FT – have gone down the subscription route, and other publishers have toyed with pay per page view, the fact remains that the vast majority of UK online news is available free of charge.

 

I still struggle to understand the basic argument that the NLA fee compensates lost revenue.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve always found that when a client gets in the Telegraph or the Guardian, they’re usually very keen to go and buy themselves a copy – sometimes more than one!  So you could argue the PR industry is actually responsible for driving newspaper sales (and that’s before we even get started on the arguments that some copy is actually created by PRs and their clients anyway).

 

Extending the charges to cover web content just seems like a step too far.  The NLA’s own research shows that 23% of newspapers’ online content never appears in print which, by my reckoning, means we’ll all be paying twice for 77% of coverage... nice work if you can get it.

Nothing is certain but death and taxes (even on the internet)

By Juliana Wimmer

 

It seems that Benjamin Franklin’s old saying hasn’t lost any relevance in the internet age, but just who could have predicted the potential of the online market for undertaker services? 

 

Since May 2001, Austrian website begraebnis.at has been offering live webcasts of funerals. The advantages of this cannot be dismissed! Relatives and guests can save on travel costs and don’t even have to take a day off work in order to pay their respects.  Maybe the preacher could even embellish his sermon with PowerPoint slides? 

   

But the industry hasn’t stopped there: death notices and obituaries can now be published on the web and there are virtual cemeteries that list the names of the deceased.  B2B sites offer wholesale coffins, urns and tombstones, ‘tactfully’ helping undertakers set themselves apart from the competition and gain new customers. Competition between online funeral firms is so rife, we’re even seeing a price war.

 

Other IT industries could surely get a piece of the action. After all, cemeteries have been ‘IT free’ for long enough and you must concede that DSL connections at most graveyards leave a lot to be desired.  So how about integrating a CAD tool (Grave3D?), so that tombstones and flower decorations can be planned and ordered online as well?  Or a webcam allowing the bereaved to watch their flowers fade or ensure robbers don’t steal the headstone?  With barcode technology, RFID and GPS, a modern funeral parlour could even go in for some “Corpse Tracking”.

 

This blog was inspired by a series called “Dr. T.’s consultancy”, so many thanks to Dr. Thomas Hafen of Channelpartner.

PR gaffes don’t come any better than this

By Mike King

It’s not very often that I read a story that stops me in my tracks but it happened this morning.  In what must be one of the biggest PR gaffes in British history, the body responsible for setting MPs’ pay is angling for a hefty salary increase for UK politicians.

  

Timing is everything, and you’d have to look long and hard to find a worse example of timing.  I know they’re an easy target, but MPs really don’t make things any easier for themselves. 

 

It has been widely reported that Bill Cockburn, head of the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB), said yesterday that he believed parliamentarians were underpaid by "10 per cent to 15 per cent”.  Or for a more balanced take, look at this.

 

Strange, given that only a few months ago the same Bill Cockburn announced that MPs would receive an increase of 2.33% this year – itself a generous increase given that the RPI at the time stood at 0%.  Now, it seems, they are grossly underpaid.

 

Even if the current lack of public confidence in MPs on the back of the expenses scandal isn’t enough, the state of the economy and rising levels of unemployment make the timing unbelievable.

 

Surely, even our out of touch politicians can’t have failed to notice the public mood?  As if the expenses scandal isn’t enough of a clue, then the high level of public indignation towards the recent tube strike, not just because of the inconvenience it caused, but because a 5% pay increase was widely seen as unreasonable, can’t have gone unnoticed.  

 

As if we needed any further reminders, politicians are completely detached from those they represent.   But really, to now be talking about MPs deserving a large pay increase leaves me open mouthed.   Someone somewhere needs some decent PR advice.  Though, clearly, for this lot it’s too late.

Remote working in France: a question of trust?

By Carol Pender

 

Already endorsed by the National Assembly and now about to go before the Senate, a new bill is currently being voted on in France that should make it easier to work from home.

 

Remote working has had difficulty establishing itself in France, where only 7% of employees currently work from home, compared to 13% in other European countries. With so many advantages associated with flexible working – be it a better life-work balance, lower capital expenditure or a reduced carbon footprint – this raises the question: why haven’t the French embraced working from home?

 

Aside from the technical and security issues companies must address in order to facilitate remote workers, maybe the answer lies in a simple lack of mutual trust and also a lack of ambition.

 

In France, it’s not unusual for people to stay in the office later than necessary just so they appear to be working late and create the right impression. They could, of course, be chatting online or surfing the net, but who’s to know? 

 

The prevalence of open plan offices (or ‘open spaces’ as they’re known here in France) has only made matters worse.  Last year, two ex-open spacers published a book called ‘L’Open Space m’a tuer’ – literally, ‘Open Space killed me’.  Alongside discussing the jargon used by this new generation of workers, the book talks about the growing need to nurture your visibility within a company i.e. to be seen as a good little soldier beavering away. Not quite so easy if you’re working from home...

 

And from an employer’s point of view, remote working means that he or she can’t keep a close eye on you, instead they simply have to trust you’ll do a good job.

 

Then again, shouldn’t trust be the basis of any productive, healthy relationship to begin with?  And surely, as long as the work gets done and deadlines are met, it shouldn’t really matter where your desk is located.

 

If this bill is finally adopted by the French government, it will be interesting to see if it has a real impact on working methods. After all, just because you can, doesn’t mean you will…sometimes changing a person’s mindset is the hardest part.

Susan Boyle – another lesson in PR, people power and social media

By Richard Scarlett

Whether it’s Ashton Kutcher versus CNN, breaking news of international disasters or Stephen Fry stuck in a lift – every now and again, we get glimpses of the relentless and persuasive force of social media.

 

Of course, the most recent example was ITV unwittingly hitting the PR jackpot with dreary Susan Boyle – or SuBo as she is more affectionately known these days.  From the moment she first stepped onto that Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) stage back in April, I’m sure she had already been reserved a place on the blooper reel and condemned to a year of patronising ITV2 spin-off shows. 

 

However, the ensuing – and somewhat surprising – hysteria and SuBo-mania must have had ITV’s marketing department hi-fiving.  They sent her out to the wolves and then just sat back to watch the viewing figures stack up (before cruelly spitting her out to The Priory once she was no longer lucrative).

 

Now, as someone who has never watched an episode of BGT, I was in the rare position of seeing this viral masterpiece unfold from a total outsider’s perspective.  I’d never heard of this woman, nor heard her sing, but all of a sudden she’d become an overnight sensation with millions of YouTube hits and I just couldn’t get away from her – I even found myself confronted with a show about her during a recent trip to Florida.

 

Annoying as it all was, it did get me thinking about how quickly Boyle went from being a humble talent show contestant to one of Simon Cowell’s most successful global PR tools.

 

In the business world, so much time is spent predicting and speculating as to what the next ‘big thing’ will be in social networking, that I sometimes worry we’re in danger of missing out on the opportunities already out there. 

 

YouTube had only just found its feet before MySpace took over, but that was thwarted when Facebook was hailed as marketing’s new sweetheart – but that didn’t last either, because before long, everyone wanted to be Linked In.  Nevertheless, that’s all old hat because everybody who is anybody is now Tweeting.  Unless, of course, you live in China – in which case this all becomes irrelevant.

 

I guess my point is that, while it’s good to embrace new technologies, and while the rate of innovation is increasing, we shouldn’t forget the enormous impact that simple, ‘old school’ favourites such as YouTube can still have on marketing and publicity efforts.  How did Ashton beat CNN in the Twitter race, why did Susan Boyle become the phenomenon that she did?  Because both Ashton and Simon Cowell have a good understanding of social media and know how to effectively manipulate various mediums to create a buzz among savvy bloggers.

 

I’m not saying that every video that you upload or Facebook group you create will have the SuBo effect, but there could be value in stopping to consider how best to get the most out of social networking sites, rather than frantically trying to just ‘stay ahead of the curve’.

Web can deliver postal service salvation

By Tom Kirkham

 

Today I received an email from my 87 year-old grandma in which she penned several eloquent paragraphs lamenting the death of the written letter.  Ironic stuff indeed! 

 

Since my grandma attended a free computer course three years back, the regularity of her emails has increased significantly, while the average daily tally of letters and parcels in the UK has fallen by nine million during the same period.  I’m not suggesting that my grandma used to send nine million letters per day, but it doesn’t bode well for the Post Office if people that have spent their entire lives reliant on its services are now turning their back on them.

 

Royal Mail has recently come in for criticism due to its perceived lack of speed in modernising, and it’s easy to see why.  We live in the internet age, where speed and convenience are the major influences on consumer behaviour.  Yet our Post Office continues to present us with gigantic queues, branch closures, and the inevitable card through the letter box telling us that we were out when they tried to deliver our parcel (there are approximately 30 million UK citizens currently in some form of employment – just a thought, but maybe Royal Mail should revise its delivery times to reflect this fact?!)

 

It’s slow, inconvenient, frustrating, and the antithesis of a 21st Century service, so it’s no wonder that wherever possible, the UK public now seems to be attempting to bypass the need for physical transportation altogether.  While standard postage services are overpriced and courier services are aimed squarely at the business rather than consumer realm, you can send and receive messages, music, pictures, video, and all manner of virtual gifts on social networking sites for free. 

 

Personally, I can’t think of anything more meaningless and more indicative of a society that has lost the plot than sending someone a virtual birthday cake.  It’s a hollow, apathetic substitute for the real thing, yet sadly people seem to feel that sending the real thing has become far more trouble than it’s worth. 

 

If we want to avoid retreating permanently into this insubstantial virtual reality, we need greater competition, innovation and above all flexibility in our postal services, using the internet to improve their efficiency rather than usurp them – for example, providing location-based services to tell you where your postal worker is and when you’re likely to expect them.  Not only would this help reduce the widespread discontent currently levelled at the Post Office, but as an added bonus, giving households an advance warning would surely help reduce incidents such as this, and more peculiarly, this.

 

Technology failing the public but not the Government’s pocket

By Ryan Whelan

 

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that public facing technology, particularly where the London transport system is concerned, constantly fails us?  Yesterday, figures were revealed highlighting that one in five pedestrian crossings at junctions in London do not give people enough time to cross the road.  I mean, how pathetic is that?

 

Ever travelled on the London Tube? Ever wondered why you have just watched five minutes pass on the platform display clock, but the countdown timer (right above it) has continued to maintain that the tube is due in one minute?  Maybe I am looking at this in the wrong way, but I am sure a countdown timer is supposed to do just that – count down! 

 

I visited Barcelona in February for the Mobile World Congress and found its transport system a doddle.  Much cleaner and far more efficient than ours.  Its countdown timer (now make sure you are sitting down for this Londoners?) actually counts down by the second, as it uses a real time system unlike our own, which is based upon travelling time from the last destination.  In fact each tube/train usually arrived 30 seconds ahead of schedule.  Impressive, huh?

 

It still amazes me that TfL recently shelved plans to trial mobile phone use on London's tube network due to high costs, apparently none of the three proposals that were received were "commercially credible". This is despite Richard Parry, London Underground's strategy and service development director, being quoted as saying: "We recognise that there is now growing demand for mobile coverage to be extended to deep-level sections of the Tube."  I thought London was supposed to be an innovative city, but we fall behind almost every other European city in these stakes, even Glasgow.

 

Other public technology failings include the famous Oyster Card meltdown and the report that claimed the lack of a digital radio network hampered the efforts of emergency service rescue teams during the 7th July 2005 London bombings.  This list goes on...

However, I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised that initiatives which are used to generate an exceptional amount of Government revenue are fully operational and advancing at an impressive rate.

 

Take for instance the mass of speed cameras that will be deployed to monitor drivers’ average speeds on hundreds of our roads later this year, making it impossible to elude detection as the digital cameras will cover every entry and exit point.  How about the ‘Gatso 2’ scheme that intends to detect all untaxed, uninsured or stolen cars on our roads?  I’m not advocating breaking the law, but isn’t it a bit fishy that these revenue generating initiatives never seem to have any negative technology issues or prohibitive costs associated with them?  The same applies to the raft of technology behind the Congestion Charge.

 

 

Has blogging had its day?

By Steffi Nowak

 

Rumour has it, here in Germany at least, that the days of blogging might be over.  Indeed, quite a few important blogs have recently been sold or shut down. ‘Basic Thinking’ and Rivva.com are just a couple of examples. 

 

This is quite surprising – I always thought that blogging was to the web what salt is to a soup.  On the other hand I am kind of glad; sometimes when I think about contributing to ‘Whatever…’, I can feel a little bit helpless, thoughtless, blogless…

 

Blogs are interesting because, in keeping with the old traditions of Greek democracy, they promote free speech.  And while in ancient Greece all the free citizens were afforded this basic civil right, not all countries in the modern world follow this example. For the people of China, Russia and Afghanistan (to name just a few), free speech cannot be exercised without fear of being punished by the legal authorities.

 

Despite the constant threats from their state authorities, there are many brave citizens who try to make the world aware of what is going on in their countries. For these people, blogs are a convenient way to get their message out there – no other way of communicating is more efficient.

 

And while a few sites may have fallen by the wayside, let’s hope the time of blogs is not yet over!  

Google Street View – the Marmite of online maps

By Dana Hashem

The mounting controversy over Google’s latest ‘Street View’ venture has had us all wondering whether the search engine giant had finally bitten off more than it could chew.

 

The technology, which adds 360 degree views of locations to maps, sparked an avalanche of complaints that it was in breach of the Data Protection Act, leaving the comms team at Google staving off attacks from all quarters as concerned citizens literally took to the streets in protest.

 

The locals of Broughton were quick to get their pitchforks out and accosted a Google Street View car when it was spotted trundling towards their village.  But one human barricade and a few reams of media coverage later, the official verdict from the UK’s Information Commissioner this week was that Google's Street View should not be stopped - ironically, it seems that the only thing the protestors achieved was to put their village on the map, so to speak.

 

Amidst the rise of CCTV cameras and the current rush towards ID cards, super-databases and police databanks, getting incensed about Google Street View seems rather like complaining about a paper cut while marching towards the guillotine.  If I really wanted to be pedantic, I could drive to Broughton this weekend, take a few snaps and post them in a blog – there would be no legislation to stop me.  With Google making a big noise about its willingness to remove any images from the map on request, those people who were always going to have a problem with an online mapping system are being made to look somewhat unreasonable.  Not only is this a wise PR move for Google, but the number of images that are being removed is insignificant in the grand scheme of things and doesn’t affect the functionality of Street View.

 

A quick romp through the Twittersphere shows the debate is also alive and well within the technologically-savvy online community.  While apparently happy to give details of their location, social life and day-to-day decisions between a frappuccino and a latte, it seems that some Twits are somewhat disgruntled at the thought of popping up on an online map.  Others, however, champion the benefits of Street View, heralding it as an unrivalled tool for promoting tourism, finding meeting points and checking out property locations. 

 

Add to this that fact that Street View will provide a potentially invaluable source of social information for future generations, and I think we have a winner.   I for one am a fan – although I realise I’ve landed on the ‘love’ side of this particular Marmite fence.  I’m sure the man who was caught cheating on his wife thanks to Street View is now in riled opposition of the project...