Two Four Seven

Apple

Britain is a country with little focus on customer care.  In fact for many UK businesses rewarding customers for their spend and loyalty appears to be an after thought.  Rarely do companies invest in their customers so to get them to do the ‘word-of-mouth’ sale on their behalf, which as we know is the best endorsement and way to get new customers in.

Just look at UK mobile phone operator O2, which yesterday released details of it’s pricing policy for the Apple’s much anticipated iPhone 3GS, over which it has exclusive UK rights.  The sting wasn’t the 18-month fee of between £96 and £274 depending on your tariff, but the cost for current customers who signed up for the minimum term this time last year.  Existing customers were told that they would have to pay for the remaining terms of their existing iPhone 3G contracts, which could be anything over £150.  All very different to when O2 offered a free upgrade from the first iPhone to the current hand-set.

You would have thought that pricing policy for such a desirable product would have been developed whereby existing customers aren’t made to feel hostage.  In fact, the sweets have been offered to new customers while existing ones are being ignored.  A big mistake given that many O2 iPhone users have turned against the company, complaining not just about its pricing policy but it’s lamentable 3G nationwide coverage, to name but a few points.

You wonder why the company didn’t think of empowering its customers with new models so to reward them and encourage them to further promote the company and brand to others.  Blogs though are being written picking on all of O2s issues, working to dissuade customers from switching to a company that cares little for their users.

The #O2fail hashtag and Twitition on Twitter have over 2100 people signed-up.  And the blogosphere is certainly working hard to knock O2 where it hurts.  The media is also running stories, with The Daily Telegraph and Sky News highlighting the concerns from loyal customers.

As it stands and having set a populist precedent with the free upgrade between the first and second generation iPhone O2 have a lot to do to stop the steady stream of complains.  It takes a lot to build a reputation and it looks like they’ve forgotten the golden rule of ‘looking after our customers’ first.

However you want to describe it, online and social media is playing an important part in shaping the reputation of brands around the world.  It’s been doing so for some time now, certainly a few years. The issue at hand though, the one that New Media Knowledge (NMK) raised at their ‘What happens to online PR?’ event last week was if the Public Relations industry was best suited to lead clients through the ever-changing digital media landscape.

Led by New Media Age Editor-in-Chief Mike Nutley the NMK team brought together MD and founder of Wolfstar Stuart Bruce, Head of Social Media at iCrossing Anthony Mayfield, Global Head of Digital at Weber Shandwick James Warren and Founder and MD of Content and Motion Roger Warner. A great panel, though apart from Mike, sadly lacking journalists or independent bloggers that make their living from building or knocking down the brands that PRs work so hard on.

On one side we had the argument that PR is and should be just about press and media relations, which is what we were told clients expect from their PR teams or agencies – an outdated thought.  Some of those present even claimed that PR agencies find it difficult to re-invent themselves, which is why online PR should be left to niche digital agencies, which “better understood this channel.”

Fifteen years ago this might have been the case when it was all about the technology and not the PR or the message.  It was about something new that only a few people understood yet everybody wanted a piece of the action.  Not any more though.

On the other side you had those who believe that it’s PRs that should continue guiding clients through the digital world.  PRs that have experience in reputation building and management, people who know how integrated communications campaigns work.  Who know have experience in developing influence and creating relationships.

The interesting point that came through from the evening was that digital media is still seen as niche and not a communications channel that would be part of any overall campaign planning.  Some even complained that within certain agencies, they were seen as an ‘add-on’.  They weren’t integrated, mainly because clients had the ‘get me in the FT’ attitude to their work, even though their reputation was more at risk from bloggers and social networkers.  Something that is true given that staff in newsrooms around the world are experiencing a bloody cull.  But, educating clients and employers takes time.

There was broad agreement on the fact that online and social media is all about credibility.  There is a difference between a pastime and a service.  Comms teams need to have social media people within, they need to be able to use their knowledge to develop campaigns.

Clients and employers know and are used to buying press relations services, but they need to understand about social and online media.  This new channel needs to be quantified and measurement tools need to be refined so that they can understand the importance and influence that it has on audiences that they want to communicate with.

At the end of the day, PRs are here to serve clients, to put on the table solutions to issues they face.  Communications is becoming much more integrated, with PR moving more to the centre of decision making, shaping the strategy not just for consumer campaigns, but advertising ones.

Social and online media is a new channel and needs to receive the attention that it deserves.

Bookmakers Better Bet have signed former Arsenal player Paul Merson as their new Brand Ambassador.  An interesting choice given that Merse claimed some time ago to have lost £7 million on gambling, which led to him being declared bankrupt in 2007.

So why appoint a self-confessed [former] gambling addict as the face of a bookies?  Surely appointing Merson is like appointing La Winehouse as the brand ambassador for the Colombian Tourist Board.

Since those dark days of his, Merson has been a regular on Sky Sports News as a pundit on the Gillette Soccer Saturday show.  So I guess that must have been the clincher for Better Bet; sign-up a pundit that regulars down the pub can recognise and your in the money.  Because I am sure that many people would want to place a bet after seeing Merse, after all, what could go wrong with one little wager, eh?

Brand Ambassadors after all are by nature people that can help promote and advertise a product, company or brand.  They have an element of celebrity that can help the company promote itself and its products in a controlled manner.  They become the human face of the organisation, a person that clients and importantly potential clients can associate themselves with and can help drive sales.  Ambassadors have to be asprational characters that can help get the clients messages through.

Just look at how David Beckham helped Gillette increase sales even with all the gossip that was surrounding him at the time.  Sales of Gillette products in the Far East, where there’s still an obsession with all things Beckham, broke records.  The deal was put together by Hill & Knowlton’s London office and while it was claimed to be one the biggest sponsorship deals the client was pleased with the results of their association with a person that even today is making headlines wherever his career takes him.

Meanwhile, in a statement Better Bet said: “The customers love Paul and can relate to him.”  Before adding: “I don’t know about his gambling problem in the past. He doesn’t hold an account with us or bet with us.”  It’s a kind of bearing your head in the sand after the horse has bolted (at the 3.15 at Lingfield no doubt.  Ed.) comment.

When researching candidates for the position of Brand Ambassador the first thing an in-house PR team or agency must do is analyse how candidates will affect the brand and reputation of their client or employer.  It appears that this hasn’t been done.

Sports sponsorship is an import tool in the PR armoury, especially in the US.  Get it wrong and you damage your brand.  Get it right and everybody wants a piece of the stardust that your ambassador brings to the company.

This is one to watch!

And if you want an alternative view on the deal then read ‘Celebrity Sell Out’s Altenative View of the Merson Campaign.’

***UPDATE***

Today, 26 March 2009, Betting firm Better have annouced that they have dropped their brand ambassador Paul Merson from the advertising campaign due to the large number of complaints they’ve received.  I wonder what they’ll be saying to their PRs?  A serious and harsh word if I were them.

More here: “Betting firm drops Merson from ad campaign.“

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The Government recently unveiled an advertising and communications campaign to promote the export opportunities that exist to British industry.  Some might consider the timing to be odd given that the nation is in the middle of the worst recession in living memory.  But a recent UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) conference in London at the beginning of the month proved otherwise.

At UKTI’s ‘Digital Business: India and China’ two day conference which I worked on (Reuters TV news above) small and medium sized technology and communications companies came together to share knowledge on the opportunities that lay in two countries that are bucking the downward global economic trend.

Companies from Britain’s digital, technology, mobile and gaming sectors agreed that while growth in the UK was hard, business opportunities in these two countries gave them hope for the future.

During the second day, which was devoted to China, representatives from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology gave an insight into the help that was available to UK companies thinking of investing in China, a country that is looking to move its economy towards value-adding products and services.

Welcoming The World To Britain

We’ve seen UKTI’s ‘Take It To The World’ campaign message on billboards at stations up and down the country.  And companies like Playfish.com are an example of how Britain can take gaming to the world.

But what has this got to do with PR and communications?  Well, it was wisely pointed out at the conference that China was not just looking to bring expertise to its home country.  Businesses in China are looking to enter the British and European marketplace, thus increasing the need for services such as PR, advertising and the like for them.

And let’s be honest, Britain has usually been concerned about China and it’s new financial muscle.  But with the UK PR industry suffering in the current recession the opportunities that might exist from Chinese companies wishing to expand into Europe might help.

Some of the big agencies, such as Burson-Marsteller already serve and support Chinese companies, such as  online business-to-business trading company Alibaba.com, which last week announced a 39 per cent increase in revenue to over £300 million.

Agencies are getting ready for business from merging markets.  Maybe Brazil will be next.  Not a bad place for a business trip me thinks!

Never doubt how Social Media can help develop and drive a brand.  To give you an example of its power you need look no further than Spotify, a company that’s taken the online community by storm since it was founded in 2006 and launched in the UK in October 2008.  Six months on and at a OpenMusicMedia event in London last week Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek confirmed that the company had just days before secured its millionth subscriber, with tens of thousands more joining by the day.

To a certain extent Spotify has been challenging Twitter for UK tech media coverage in the last month.  And you can see way, with a business model that is based on quality and simplicity: streaming music with almost no buffering delay to users.  In fact Daniel was proud of the fact that it takes 200th of a millisecond for somebody to access content.

Founded in Sweden in 2006 from a concept first talked about in 2002 Spotify offers free access to a huge catalogue of music from major and a growing list of indie labels.  And it has to be said that until very recently the majors would have been very much against opening up their catalogues to such a service, even though piracy affects their margins.  Daniel and his team though had a business model that they were confident in and which would help claw back some of the 15-20% drop in revenues from CD sales alone that they have been experiencing.

The Spotify model is not about ownership, but generating income through access.  And if somebody still wants ownership then they can be directed to an appropriate online retailer.

Daniel believed that the music industry could either let things stay as they are with people accessing pirated content online or give them access to a high-quality service that will generate the labels money through advertising.  Oh, and Spotify streams at 160 kbit/s Ogg Orbis, higher quality than Britain’s derised 128 kbit/s Digital Audio Signal, which many people compain about.

Spotify has two business models, a free service that makes money from advertising which is heard every 30 or so minutes on a stream and the second model based on a subscription, which removes the ads and offers other exclusive content to subscribers.  Daniel outlined how this paid service will work by brining artists closer to the users with interviews, demos, pre-releases, artwork and, the next big thing, portability on mobiles.

With a non-music industry background Daniel has certainly brought in new thinking to this game.  He firmly believes that the future of music is about access and portability.

But how did he deal with the recent hack to the Spotify servers? Well, with just two PRs working for Spotify it took a fortnight to repair the damage.  But he takes the reputation of the company seriously, he likes to meet users, like at this event, and sell them the service face-to-face.  In effect making users into advocates for Spotify.  And he follows comments on the company on Twitter.  He was emphatic that Twitter chat helps the company stay focused on the quality of the service they offer.

As for the future, well, they are working on an iPhone app and will be making API’s available to developers and are looking at benefiting from other companies ‘issues’.  I wonder if this could mean the offering of music videos to complement the streaming music service?

One thing is for sure, by going out and meeting people that spread the word of Spotify large and indie labels are taking notice of his offering and are signing up to a service that will only get better.

More from the BBC.

Style Spotter

It’s been a busy time for Fashion PRs.  With London Fashion Week coming to an end tomorrow we have been entertained with the latest designs from established and up and coming fashion-makers.

There might be only two shows a year in London, the current autumn/winter collection and the spring/summer shows, but fashion PRs are busy building and spreading the thoughts from designers.  Six months in between shows gives little time to change what people are wearing, but that’s how long it takes.

Speaking to a number of PRs at London Fashion Show you notice how London is better at getting the public to take the thoughts of their clients and adapt them.  Fashion in London, I am told, is open.  With the help of the media and entertainment industries – showbiz, music, film – PRs are able to spread the styles to the masses.

Take the Oscars ceremony yesterday with Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel proudly and openly telling us that he is wearing a very British Burberry suit.  Labels like these are of course aspirational, they, like their shows shape our wants.  The New Generation designers are the ones that shape what we wear – this year there was a lot of colour, with a lot of contrast.  The best of the 80s some might say.

Individual look

Fashion PRs are busy, getting their designs out there, accepted.

Tomorrow, we have the menswear collection, something I am personally looking forward to.

In the meantime London’s streets will be filled with spotters, looking and judging our dress sense.

I love London Fashion Week, but would like to take a peak behind the scenes.  I am sure that it would be more fun than a front row seat!

A fashion soap opera befit of catwalk kings and queens enters its next episode when London Fashion Week starts this Friday and takes over from where New York left.  But these days aren’t just about the catwalk shows, with celebrities’ guests, young talent and great after-party shows.  It’s about the exhibitions, the hype and the machines behind them that are working hard to keep London ahead in the fashion race, especially since New York decided to move the date of their Fall 2009 to nearly coincide with the start of London’s Autumn/Winter presentations.

While New York rakes in the money through media and sponsorship deals London will lead with its collection of cutting-edge British designers that lead by example.  New and established designers such as Meadham Kirchhoff, Chritopher Kane, House of Holland, Paul Smith and Vivienne Westwood will once again lay down the marker with unique shows and styles.  Some at private events, so to befit the economic climate and capture the mood of the people and the media.

While in New York it’s all about the catwalk show, non-conformist London will be free to express itself with minimal and less ostentatious shows.  Understated might be the word, bringing new designs closer to us so that we can adapt it and create our own style.  Who knows, maybe it’ll distract us from all the negative and oh so consuming news.

I’ll be at London Fashion Week bringing you updates on the exhibitions, the style and the PR.  These events are crafted and I’ll be bringing you updates on how London Fashion Week responds to New York.

Social Media - bringing people together

Social media appears to be growing up.  The Financial Times ran a special report on Digital Business this week with a lead headline that said it all, “Business starts to take Web 2.0 tools seriously”.  Jessica Twentyman’s article highlighted how, “far from being frivolous distractions, social networking tools can help streamline processes”.

Certainly social media has had an image problem since it was born.  Days didn’t go by without reports of people being caught out and embarrassed by what people posted on YouTube, Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.  Naturally this only tarnished and held back the potential of social media amongst business decision makers who had the power to harness this new form of communication.  Some employers went as far as banning staff from using social media tools in and out of office time.  Their concern was that what their employees got up to out of office hours could damage the reputation and image of their business. I know of one top law firm that has banned employees from using social sites.

But while some businesses were paranoid in the early days about the damage to their reputation by the out-of-office activities of their employees others were busy finding ways to use social media to further develop their brands.  These businesses were keen to enter into a dialogue with the public, working to make them customers.  And this is not an easy exercise as the general public is more cynical than ever before.

Rightly so, business wants to see how “Enterprise 2.0 could deliver real business benefits”.  Translating this corporate-speak into plain English, this means finding how social media can help increase sales.

But there is another cultural problem, currently too many companies in Britain and around the world still see the internet as an add-on to their business models.  Stubborn scepticism amongst businesses leaders, who do not understand the purpose or reason for entering into a dialogue with the public, prevents them for investing into this not so new communication tool and channel.

The equally sad truth is that too many large communications consultancies also see social media as an add-on to the communications plans that they develop for clients.  I have on too many occasions the “we’ll develop a Facebook page for you” only to see nothing new or engaging.  Equally, the blogs that have developed for clients lack real dialogue between the business and the consumer, let it be b2b or b2c.

At a recent P2PR meet in London a number of us agreed that there is a lack of upward education from communications consultancies to clients about the potential of social media.  Having Facebook, YouTube or MySpace pages just isn’t enough.  Even setting up a Twitter account doesn’t make the difference while these are add-ons to clients communication strategies and campaigns.

Social media is about listening to the public and entering into a dialogue with them.  And these dialogues have to be regular, refreshing and rewarding.  It is about making the client a friend of the consumer and working to helping them become a close friend, who celebrates with you the relationship that you have with them.  And how many of us hate it when we don’t hear from friends for some time.  The same applies to social media in business, dialogues have to be constant and creative, bringing in your customers into the business and making them feel part of the experience.  This is how you develop loyalty, or, saying it in corporate-speak ‘brand-loyalty’, which is what all businesses strive for.

Social media is changing.  It is growing up and it needs to be at the centre of communications planning, to develop the brand and protect the company.  This obviously has a cost, but the rewards are for the long-term. Businesses decision makers might think that they can only invest in social media if the metrics tell them that their interaction with clients leads to increase sales, the thinking that has driven adverting for decades.  Well, social media can be measured and communications consultancies can no longer get away with not offering this service to clients.

Wired

And as social media grows up, we should be aware that the technology is moving our communication thinking forward, ahead of the game.  While in Hong Kong in January this year I picked up a copy of Wired magazine, which lead with “Inside the GPS Revolution” an insight into how mobile smart phone technology is transforming how users “make connections and interact with the world.”  And these interactions are not just with friends but with businesses as well.  One of their reviews was for Shop-Savvy, a tool that will help you scan a barcode with a phonecam ad tells you how much the product not just costs online but in shops nearby.  It can also pull up reviews to make sure you are not skimping a little too much.

The technology is here.  It is driving business decision-making and driving pricing.  Shouldn’t we be bringing in social media into the centre of communications planning?  Is having a branded Facebook page enough?

Adidas

I’ll tell you something, I’m on Facebook and I am a fan of Adidas.  I signed up to their Facebook page some time ago, hoping to get updates from the company.  I didn’t get anything.  There was little dialogue from them, until I got a message telling me how they’d had a ‘secret party and I could see the ‘cool’ pictures of what looked like a celebrity bash somewhere.  Erm, I signed up online so that I could be one of the first.  That message they sent didn’t bring me in to the brand and it did not make me feel closer.  It was not the social media experience that consumers should be subjected to.  Adidas, in my mind, doesn’t get it right.  Will the rest of business understand it?

It is up to us PR and communications consultants to champion social media.  Communication helps and in these challenging times we have to be creative and use new tools for us and the benefit of our clients.

The Government yesterday released its interim Digital Britain report.  No surprises on the content of the Green Paper– broadband for all, improving how television content is distributed online and cracking down on illegal file sharing.

The disappointing aspect about the interim report is that for a fast changing industry its recommendations are already outdated, so working to get every household on a minimum 2Mbs line by 2012 will be like having a 56Kbs dial-up account today.

The report ignores the fact that bandwidth is already running out in Britain, especially as the BBC’s iPlayer continues to prove that people want to watch television (for live or recorded content) online.  Other broadcasters such as ITV and Channel 4 are readying themselves for the launch of their own content online, a partnership that also includes the BBC.

Recent figures, which I put in my last post on Digital Britain, confirm that shoppers are shunning the high-street for the improved prices that the net offers.

Lord Carter may say that while 2Mbs is the minimum speed that he wants everybody to have, speeds of up to 100Mbs will be available.  Good point, but high speeds will be there at a cost, a substantial cost, which will put consumers and businesses off from these packages.  Not just that, but he leaves the option open for an indirect tax on net users to counter online copyright piracy.

The Government said that it wanted to spend its way out of the current recession by investing in public sector development – new schools, hospitals, etc.  What it should have done through this interim report is commit itself to upgrading Britain’s bandwidth.  Doing this would send a clear signal to business that the internet can be used as a further channel through which it can do business.  It would also enhance the creativity that makes Britain a leader worldwide in the media, communications and creative industries.

I ask the question, now that we know where the Government wants Britain to be in 2012, where will Asia Pacific and the rest of Europe be?

This report wants a lot, but makes no recommendation on how these ‘wants’ should be met.  It offers no strategy and no solution.  It is a typical politcal report with no direction or ambition.  Exactly what you would expect.

In front of the camera once again

Morph will today be celebrating with Champagne after securing what we can only dream off, to appear on the cover of men’s magazine Esquire.

After years of living in a pencil box, the reclusive Morph agreed to Esquire’s request to tribute his artistic associate the late Tony Hart, who died earlier this month at the age of 83.

A style icon to naturists everywhere since he first appeared on our screens in 1977, the dapper looking Morph selected some of this season’s must haves for the shoot, including items by Hermes, Gucci and Prada.  Accessories by Paul Smith and Louis Vuitton were also on show.

Casting an eye over the accessories

It is not clear if Morph will be attending the up coming London Fashion Week, which takes place between 20 and 25 February, nor if he gave an interview to this leading men’s monthly title.

We’ll have to wait until 5 February to find out more.