No 10 Embraces Digital PR May 5, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : PR in the UK, PRandom , add a commentBritish Prime Minister Gordon Brown took a hammering in the UK local elections last Thursday. Not only was it the Labour Party’s worst performance in over 40 years, the eccentric Conservative Party candidate and former editor of The Spectator, Boris Johnston, was victorious in his campaign to be elected as London Mayor.
‘The multitudes have spoken,’ proclaimed the former Etonian in his victory speech. And from within Brown’s inner-circle, a Labour cabinet member said: ‘We have been given an almighty yellow card with bright red lights flashing at the edges.’ A bit of a strange quotable-quote that one. Perhaps the cabinet member (on the tail-end of an election all-nighter) was supposed to say that Brown better sort the mess out before the UK electorate reaches for the red card.
But even if Labour does get the red card in the next general election, one cannot say it’s because Downing Street hasn’t been playing its PR card effectively. (more…)
Putting The PR Into F1 March 20, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : PRandom, Sport PR , add a commentAs some of you know, I have been a big F1 fan since I was young lad. So when my article, “Putting The PR Into F1″, was published this week in the features section of leading F1 news portal, PlanetF1, you can imagine I was pretty happy.
To read the story, click below. Cheers.
Thaksin: A Football Crazy PR Pro March 14, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : PR in the UK, PRandom , add a comment* This post was originally written for ‘Off The Record’ - AC Capital Strategic Public Relations’ blog
Thaksin Shinawatra - the deposed Thai Prime Minister - is not someone I particularly like. Ask any fellow Manchester United aficionado if they agree and your answer will be a definitive yes; following the telecoms tycoon’s ousting in a 2006 military coup he decided to throw his Baht at Manchester United’s local rival, Manchester City. And then he recruited former England manager Sven Goran-Eriksson, who has done a fantastic job, as team manager.
The Thai and the Swede share a turn-around in fortunes. Where one has recently returned to Thailand (kissing the Bangkok tarmac on his arrival) with the blessing of the newly elected Prime Minister from the pro-Thaksin People’s Power Party, the other (also deposed from office) has undergone a transformation himself, at least on the football field.
But this is where the similarities end. ‘Slippery Sven’ made himself tabloid-fodder (and still is) during his tumultuous England reign for scoring off-the-field more than on it. Thaksin, on the other hand, has been described as a ‘PR genius’. I don’t like what Thaksin has achieved at Manchester City. But with my PR hat on, I agree that this guy is in the Champions League spot when it comes to public relations
His record, home and away, is outstanding. Effectively harnessing the media to build his power base amongst the villages and factories, Thaksin’s successful populist campaign propelled him to victory in the 2002 Thai elections. Known to have a hat-trick of quotable quotes up his sleeve, in 2007 the ousted Thai PM famously told CNN: “I don’t believe that this can happen again in the 21st century”. In the British media almost all his photos show a goal-post-wide smiling Thaksin proudly wearing the famous sky-blue Manchester City scarf.
And now back in Thailand, he is using Manchester City as an effective tool to prop up his own image in a country which shows live Premier League games in its cinemas. On his return home a few weeks ago, not only did Thaksin kiss the tarmac in front of the assembled press, flanking him were two Manchester City players here ‘to coach Thai children’. This is PR PHD stuff.
But Thaksin does have his PR critics and has been accused of failing PR 101: to communicate effectively with all your key audiences whilst being consistent to your brand i.e. don’t lie and make promises you can’t keep. But the guy isn’t a John Rendon, Thaksin is a politician and politicians don’t always care about passing their PR mid-terms.
Now back in Thailand and ostensibly claiming that he is done with politics, Thaksin faces corruption charges; but it’s a formality that he will be cleared. Critics fear that his return is a calculated step towards regaining power. From a PR perspective, this certainly seems the case; he knows more than most that perception management is a key facet in his political rehabilitation.
As for the somewhat rehabilitated ‘Slippery Sven’, he will be hoping some more of Thaksin’s billions of Baht will be coming Manchester City’s way. I however will be hoping that Thaksin takes his eye off the football for a while, and be spared the laughable ‘Blues can dominate the world’ headlines that have become ubiquitous in local Manchester media over the last year. Come on You Reds.
Scouts: We’re PRepared January 14, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : PR in the UK, PRandom , 2commentsThis week my “Public Relations” Google alert set alight in a way Baden Powell could have never foreseen when he decided that making fire with kindling best prepares a boy for a man’s life.
From the broadsheets (UK’s Daily Telegraph) to the red-tops (UK’s Mirror Newspaper), and doing the rounds on the blogs, the Scout Association has scored some substantial media coverage through announcing a new “PR Badge”. The new PR award is one of 42 unveiled in a major update of the Association’s merit badges.
The Scout’s New Chief Spokesboy
The Telegraph calls them “Woggle-wearing spin-doctors”; the Mirror sees it as “only fair to warn you not to panic when you first see one {a Boy Scout} wearing a PR Badge - a profession well-known for spinning the truth.”
But I am sure the Scout Association will settle for bit of tongue-in-cheek from the media when its key messages came through so clearly (and with the images of the new badges). We now know that – amongst 200 badges - Scout’s will also be able to earn badges in skateboarding, BMXing and rollerblading. We were reminded that the movement last year celebrated its centenary when 40,000 scouts from around the world joined a massive jamboree in the
UK. And we were informed that “Scouting is more relevant today than it ever has been over the last 100 years because it gives young people the opportunity to experience things they otherwise would not have the opportunity to do.”
As a former Scout – and now working in PR – it would be nice to roll back the years and earn my PR badge. But that’s not say I didn’t appreciate learning how to chop wood and tie a sheepshank. I was happy to read yet another key message come through in the media: “Purists have not been forgotten with new badges for Map Reading, Hiking and Emergency Aid.”
Let’s hope this jamboree of press coverage helps fuel the on-going resurgence in Scouting. We might also see a few more men working in the industry in the years that come.
Brown got Carter, I got to learn about FPR January 11, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : Career Focus, Media Focus, PR in the UK, PRandom , add a commentYou know what it was like when you learnt to drive. Fellow learners were suddenly everywhere, often to your annoyance in flashier, faster cars than the aptly named 0-60 in 60 seconds Nissan Micra you somehow got lumbered with. At least that’s what happened with me. And it’s the same with PR – you begin working with a new client, and then, out of the blue, there is the client’s logo, the client’s product, as you go about your life outside the office. It’s relentless and is only replaced when you start, as I like to say, ‘entering the zone’, with the next client.
Over a festive dinner with my twin sister and her fiancée the seeds were planted for a similar experience. They told me their friend works in Brunswick’s New York office and would be interested in hearing about my life in Beijing. I had never heard of Brunswick. At that point I was dying to get onto Google and begin delving into a corner of the PR world I had yet to enter: Financial PR.
So I did. But not before I came back to Beijing last week – adhering to a rule I set for my own ‘12 days of Christmas’ back in the UK: No ‘electronic’ information. For 12 days I was all about the British newspapers – in print. And it felt great, washing the ink off the tips of my fingers after my early morning read, and walk with the dog to the local newsagent, was, weirdly, a joy.
Being back in Beijing means I am more likely to have sore eyes rather than darkened finger tips; my eyes are already glued to blogs, vlogs, wikis and of course the on-line editions of the same British newspapers I read during my 12 days of Christmas back in the UK.
Before I even had the chance to Google Brunswick, the name was already appearing thanks to Gordon Brown appointing Brunswick’s now former Chief Executive, Stephen Carter, as his new ‘Chief advisor chief of strategy and principal adviser to the Prime Minister’, i.e. Spinbuster. And I have since learnt that Brunswick’s founder, Alan Parker - described as the ‘great conduit’ between Whitehall and the City - played a pivotal role in developing the financial PR industry into what we see today.
Brown watched Get Carter on Boxing Day
I hope in 2008 I will continue to learn more about PR through being inquisitive and curious about the PR world outside of my client work. Though I am not that sad, being able to return home on a wintry Beijing evening without seeing a client’s advertisement pasted in my apartment building’s elevator, as is the case now, would be nice…
Capello to see red from the tabloids December 19, 2007
Posted by paulprdixon in : Media Focus, PR in the UK, PRandom , add a commentOn the pitch, the imperious Fabio Capello will have to get England dribbling its way back to the dizzying heights last seen in ‘66. Off the pitch, the 61 year old Roman general will have to contend with a British tabloid press that has its own way of unleashing hell.
The British broadsheets are somewhat more forgiving and tend not to plaster their front pages with turnip heads (The Sun, Graham Taylor), or with “Wally in the brolly” headlines like the one found more recently in the dying moments of the last England manager’s tumultuous reign (Daily Mail, Steve McClaren). Instead, the broadsheets all decided this week to discuss the wounds Capello is likely to suffer in the merciless hands of the red-tops – and his best line of defense against them (nothing to do with four at the back of course).
Capello’s key message to the tabloids in 2010? 
First blood has been drawn. The Sun is already lambasting the latest
England manager’s command of the English language – mocking him for saying “honou-ra-ra-ble” - in what was his first English sentence during this week’s press conference at the Royal Lancaster Hotel. (more…)
Cyber-squatter December 2, 2007
Posted by paulprdixon in : PRandom , 1 comment so farAs some of you will have noticed, I have moved my blog to blogvis.com – a foreign blog server that currently works in China. Wordpress.com blogs are now blocked here making posting impossible even when using the latest software that hides my IP address. So, this is my third on-line home in a year, almost identical to my last and the one before that. I do sometimes feel like a cyber-squatter waiting to be moved on by the Chinese Internet police.
Nothing works better than the truth November 30, 2007
Posted by paulprdixon in : CSR, Career Focus, PRandom , add a comment
Originally posted 22 November 2007
One of our founding fathers of the public relations industry once said, “Perception is reality”. Harold Burson was of course referring to one cornerstone all communications professionals should embody: manage the perception of your client to its stakeholders.
Another founding father of our industry and former Burson-Marsteller man, Robert Leaf, also has shared his insight into perception, reality and PR: “Public relations is about perception management. You might run a great company, your product or service might genuinely provide great benefits. But if the customer does not perceive it that way it remains on the shelves.” It’s Public Relations 101 stuff; a cornerstone of the industry that we all have to be reminded of time to time – even the founding fathers.
But the picture on the other side of the coin is a blurry one. We cannot assume that all companies’ products, services and business practices can justifiably be described using one of the countless superlatives the English language affords us. All is well when the cool scoop of perceived reality, with hundreds-and-thousands sprinkled on top, and dished out by the spin-doctors, reflects the truth – even with the hundreds-and-thousands.
However, when the perceived reality, with promises of the hundreds-and-thousands in abundance, doesn’t even have the ice cream sitting below, things aren’t so sweet. Think Enron – the perceived reality, which their PR guys undoubtedly played a role in developing, was that Enron shares were a safe and lucrative bet. We now all know that Enron was heading for the biggest fall from grace in US corporate history; its stakeholders suffering big time.