Buying PR: Nicola Green, O2

Source: Nicola Green O2

I have particularly enjoyed working on the Buying PR series of interviews recently as it has proved to be an insightful view into client side. This week I have interviewed Nicola Green, head of media and communications at O2.

I personally think that Nicola’s answers demonstrate her passion for the industry and as someone who works client side, how important attention to detail is. Her response to why she works with a PR agency is one I agree with. “A good agency should be the extra eyes and ears of the in-house PR team.”

Please note that Nicola isn’t a client of my PR agency Berkeley PR, so there is no bias in her responses.

Name and title: Nicola Green, Head of Media and Communications, O2
What it does:  Telecommunications Company
 
Paul Stallard: Have you ever worked at a PR agency?                    
Nicola Green: Yes – I’ve worked for several. I always knew I wanted to work in PR and that I would need to have as much experience as possible. I first worked for a PR agency when I was 16 as part of my school work experience. Back in the spray mounting days!

PS: How did you choose your current agency?
NG: We actually work with several agencies, all of whom were selected following a thorough pitch process. We invite each agency to respond to a brief outlining a business problem that needs to be addressed through PR.
 
Care, creativity and chemistry. I like to understand the thought process behind the response and also like to give each agency the chance to demonstrate creativity. Chemistry is important too – getting on as a true team is really important. An agency is only as good as the people that work for it.

Meet the media – Dan Oliver, .Net

Source: Dan Oliver

This weeks Meet the Media interview is with Dan Oliver, editor of web design magazine, .net. Dan also writes his own personal blog, www.willwriteforfood.co.uk, which he asked me to mention so that he would update it.

One of the tips Dan provides, is about not forgetting the junior members of a publication as they are the future editors of magazines. He also makes an interesting point that he doesn’t believe that the route of bad PR is the people on the end of the phone but in fact their bosses who have advised them badly.

Paul Stallard: Have you ever done any PR work and if yes what was the experience like?
Dan Oliver: I don’t really know how this happened, but there was a time when I considered a move into PR. I was offered a job at a place up in Manchester, but eventually decided to to turn it down. I’ve got a lot of respect for people that work in PR, because I know I would really struggle to write something creative about an inkjet printer.

PS: Do you think that most PR professionals read the titles you write for before contacting you?
DO: No.

PS: How has the increase of social media affected traditional journalism?
DO: When it comes to the definition of journalism, I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about blogging, and it’s very hard for me to talk about this subject without being accused of hubris. My honest opinion is that putting a blog on the net and writing some entertaining copy does not make you a journalist.

I trained as a journalist for three years at University, and did various work placements on newspapers for another two. In that time I learned about fact checking, staying on the right side of the law, ethics, story structure, interview technique, and many other skills that take time to learn.

London Marathon

Good luck to all those taking part in the London Marathon on Sunday, unfortunately this will be one of the first years for a while that I have been unable to go up and cheer everyone on. That said, a number of my colleagues will be there cheering the heros on.

One such hero is freelance journalist, Mark Dye who is running for Laureus and you can sponsor him on his Just Giving page.

In case you didn’t know, Laureus celebrates the universal power of sport to bring people together as a force for good, passionately embodying the very spirit of sport – the pursuit of excellence, overcoming challenges, celebrating achievement and excellence, and winning against the odds.

It uses the power of sport to help tackle pressing social challenges through a worldwide programme of sports related community development initiatives funded and supported by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation.

Laureus attracts groups of people who share a belief in the power of sport to break down barriers, to engage with others and to change the world for the better. It seeks to inspire hope and positive change for children around the world using sport as a unique social vehicle.

Good luck Mark, hope the blisters aren’t too bad.

Don’t forget to communicate

Source: Google images

Since I started writing this blog the one aspect of its creation which I have enjoyed has been the contact with others in the blogosphere. If you write a blog then receiving a comment on what you have written is a great feeling. Especially, if you have never met/spoken to that person before.

I have always felt very lucky that the PR industry has a number of both intelligent and brilliant bloggers, who are happy to share their views and thoughts. Through this blog I have been able to open a conversation with a number of them and now find my self flicking through the pages of PR Week looking for familiar names and faces.

That said, I have observed the dynamic change over the past few months. With the rise of Twitter I have steadily seen the decline in the amount of posts from bloggers I follow and certainly the level of commenting across the board. I have written a couple of times about, how on a Sunday I like to catch up on my blog reading. This gives me the opportunity to reach out to those in my community, try to engage in conversation and to open myself to new ideas which have been expressed by my peers. In truth it is one of my favourite times of the week.

Meet the media – Jon Gripton, SkyNews.com

Source: Jon Gripton

As part of my meet the media series this week I have interviewed Jon Gripton the news editor at SkyNews.com about his experiences of working with PR professionals and his tips for pitching to him successfully.

Name: Jon Gripton
Title: News Editor, SkyNews.com
 
Paul Stallard: What is your top tip for PR professionals?
Jon Gripton: Know your stuff – but know my audience, my needs and demands too.
Be creative, be clever, be flexible.

PS: What is the one thing that PR people forget that is essential for a pitch?
JG: Pictures!

PS: How has the increase of social media affected traditional journalism?
JG: I’m not sure it has ‘affected’ it, but it has helped it.
At Sky News we like to think we constantly innovate our ways to gather news. At the moment we’re having fun and success trying new things with Twitter, Flickr, CoverItLive and Mogulus.

Social media is helping us reach people far faster than in the past: we have found eyewitnesses ready to talk and share pictures on breaking news stories around the world thanks to Facebook and Twitter – something we’d really have struggled with a couple of years ago. Plus we can ask questions of our readers.
 

Dumb and Dumber

Source: www.dvdactive.com

I was up in town again this afternoon and while sitting on the train to London Paddington I sat behind two PRs practicing a pitch they were clearly on their way to present. The hapless duo had their PowerPoint on their laptop and were running through each slide together out loud.

My particular favourite was when they were discussing the vertical press they were going to target. “Fu*% it, we can bullsh!* that slide and blag them, they won’t know that we don’t have a clue if we blind them with babble!!!”

Can you believe that? I felt a little ashamed of our industry when I heard that but equally determined to show clinet side that not all PROs are charlatans/idiots. I have to admit that the saddest thing was that I wasn’t surprised to hear it.

I have never sat on the other side of a pitch but have spoken to people who have. I have also been shown slides presented at new business pitches by other agencies.

To make sure you aren’t taken for a ride clients need to do their homework and also ask the right questions. Please see one of my previous blogs for questions to ask a PR agency during a pitch to make sure they aren’t trying to blind you with babble.

How do the media use Twitter?

Source: www.pressgazette.co.uk

I met with Richard Abbott the deputy editor of Marketing last week for a lunch briefing with one of my clients. During the course of the conversation I brought up Twitter and in particular how the publication was using it.

To set the scene, the Marketing identity currently has over 5,500 followers and the individual journalists also manage their own individual profiles.

Richard explained that they have experimented to see how to get the best out of this medium and found that the greatest successes have come from simply asking questions. Rather than just putting links to headlines to drive traffic to the site, the magazine is using it as a journalistic tool.

According to Richard, for every question they post, the magazine currently gets over 100 responses. It get so much information from each question that the journalists have almost all the leads that they require to pull a story together. Not bad a bad return from just 140 characters.

Twitter is obviously a great source of traffic for sites, as Alan Burkitt-Gray said when I interviewed him, but it is also interesting to see a publication using it as a journalistic tool with such success.

Recession Blocker

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

I was mucking about on the web yesterday when I came accross Recession Blocker.

It is a site designed to combat the gloom and doom of the credit crunch by offering a lighthearted version of every news site. It basically blocks out any negative words on any website.

All you have to do is type in the site you want to look at and it will re-direct you to the site with all negative words blocked out. Check out its version of the Daily Mail above.

Meet the media – Christine Horton, Channel Pro

Source: Christine Horton

Dennis Publishing has recently added to its online portfolio with its latest launch – Channel Pro. Christine Horton has been charged with launching and steering this new title so I was keen to contact her and see if she would be interested in taking part in my Meet the Media series.

Thankfully Christine agreed and I think you will enjoy the results. Christine talks candidly about having to change her writing style with SEO in mind and how they look to use words in headlines that will attract visitors to the site.

Name: Christine Horton
Title I  work for: Channel Pro – a new website from Dennis Publishing focusing on the UK ICT channel. It is targeted at distributors, resellers and everyone involved in the channel. http://www.channelpro.co.uk/

Paul Stallard: What is your pet hate of PR?
Christine Horton: Phoning me to check that I received a press release! If you emailed it to me, then yes I’m sure I received it! And you included your contact details on it, so I will contact you if I need any more information… It’s just a bit of a distraction getting those types of calls, really.

PS: What is the best way to contact you?
CH: Email please. I am producing most of the content for Channel Pro at the moment, and I’m rather busy, so I would rather respond to my email when I get a chance!

Buying PR: JoAnne Hughes, Cisco

Source: JoAnne Hughes

I’m delighted to introduce the PR manager for European markets at Cisco, JoAnne Hughes, as the next of my Buying PR interviews. JoAnne makes some insightful points about what she expects from her PR agency, the skills that she sees as essential and most interestingly for anyone in our industry, how she justifies spend on PR to her boss. Oh, and like me she also hates time sheets.

Please note that Cisco is not a client of Berkeley PR so there is no bias in JoAnne’s answers.

Name and title: JoAnne Hughes, PR Manager for European Markets
Company and what it does: Cisco, technology provider of networking, communications, collaboration and virtualisation solutions
 
Paul Stallard: Have you ever worked at a PR agency?
JoAnne Hughes: Yes, that’s how I started in PR full time (as opposed to doing it as part of a marcomms role). I started at a very small tech agency which I respected. They set some high standards on what good PR should be which I still try to follow today. I was on the agency side for just over 6 years before going in-house.
 
PS: How did you choose your current agency?
JH: Through having worked with them previously and knowing they have high-calibre people. 
 
PS: What are the basic skills a PR agency should have?
JH: Understanding how to communicate a story well – which means you have to have good industry insight, know what the press are interested in and be able to organize all the information into a coherent story that is expressed in good, clear English.