Archive for the ‘Industry events’ Category
Have i got news for you? The insider perspective…
June 11th, 2008
Last week, I was lucky enough to be one of the chosen few (well around 500) who demonstrated Olympian-grade precision queuing in order to gain access to the filming of “Have I Got News For You” in
E-Consultancy roundtable: Who owns online PR?
May 23rd, 2008
Yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited to attend E-Consultancy’s quarterly roundtable event on the topic of Online PR.
I’m told it was the busiest it has ever been - clearly Online PR is a hot subject of discussion at the moment. The room was packed out with marketing and PR managers from a wide range of sectors including finance, technology, travel and publishing etc. In attendance on the agency side were myself, Simon Collister of Edelman, Drew Benvie of Hotwire, and Karl Havard of search agency Propellernet.
At the heart of the two-hour discussion was the burning question: “Who owns Online PR?”. Although we jumped around discussing related subjects such as research and measurement, budget and resouce allocation, to name but a few…the crux of the argument repeatedly came back to how we define Online PR, and ultimately who should own it.
One brand-side attendee summed up many people’s thoughts exactly: “Are you talking about sending out your views to your audiences who happen to be reading it in an online format rather than on paper, or are you talking about SEO? SEO is often treated as a different silo and managed by a different division, who are unaware of what the marketing department is doing. That is where the definition becomes a bit blurred.”
On the PR side, there thankfully seemed to be a conscenus of opinion that what we’re talking about here is PR- whether we’re defining it as offline or online. Online PR is no more than PR in the digital space.
From my perspective, social media is taking us back to the original cornerstone of PR - that being two-way conversation. There is a danger in continuing to segregate ‘Online PR’ as something separate, that should have separate ROI and budgets attached. This will continue to reinforce the problem of Online PR existing as an afterthought or bolt-on to wider marketing and PR efforts.
Surely it’s better than we focus on breaking down these silos, as has happened to a certain extent in the advertising industry, so that we can start to achieve a truly integrated campaign that shares the same objectives and strategy?
One search expert in attendance suggested online has outpaced the traditional PR agencies, with some trying to re-position themselves to grab this online concept, and make sure they portray that they know it. “When actually the digital agencies know the online mediums and don’t know PR, while the PR agencies know PR but don’t necessarily know the online mediums,” he argued.
At Liberate Media we’re taking a collaborative approach, forging partnerships with experts who offer complimentary services, e.g. SEO, but respect our strategic communications skills. By bringing essential new skills in-house, e.g. social media/technology expertise, we have also been able to evolve more quickly into a consultancy set-up to take ownership of online PR.
Second Life Spawns High Profile Prank?
May 20th, 2008
This has to be one of the craziest stories of the day.
Basically, back in 2006, a CNET interview was under way with virtual real-estate magnate Anshe Chung when it was interrupted by fifteen minutes of flying penises, courtesy of a group of radicals called Room 101.
View the video here:
Fast forward to last Saturday, when the great Russian Chess Grand Master Garry Kasparov was also disrupted by a flying penis. This time the prank happened at an event with over 700 people in a central Moscow location.Kasparov, who is now the leader of a political party opposing Vladamir Putin, had his speech interrupted when a large phallus-shaped helicopter started buzzing around the room.
View the video here:
‘Flying RC penis violates chess master’s airspace’
was another headline used to describe the story. Check out some of the close ups available of the RC helicopter.
So, the question is, was the Second Life prank a spark for the RC helicopter idea? It looks very similar. Either way, it’s still amusing!
February 14th, 2008
I’ve stayed off the subject for long enough. There have been a few times when I wanted to add my two penneth into the Yahoo! debate, and then thought better of it as there was always going to be so much more to come. But today is the day - you lucky, lucky people.
It’s been a busy week in the world of Yahoo!, and there’s bound to be more following the recent board meeting. Here’s a quick recap assuming everyone knows the Microsoft bid was rejected last week. Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief executive, has spoken of his feeling that Microsoft’s bid ’substantially’ undervalues the company. The News Corp share option, which has gained a load of coverage today but has been discussed for a few days, is looking more attractive if Yahoo! want to save face, or at least bump up the price. And all this after the Yahoo! workforce was trimmed by a 1000, undoubtedly in preparation for a sale. Oh and the purchase of Maven also went through to strengthen Yahoo!’s online advertising offering, focused specifically on video. And breathe…
So where does that leave the current state of play? Well on the sidelines we have Google and AOL, but they appear to be remaining quiet so for the moment it’s a straight shootout between Microsoft and News Corp. Who will the winner be? Well the one that wants it most. Sounds obvious, but Microsoft need Yahoo! in my opinion. It is already too far behind Google in delivering the web for consumers, so missing out on this purchase may be a step too far.
It also very much depends on whether Yahoo! want out or not, in which case News Corp is more attractive, but to be honest I don’t think this will ultimately be Yahoo!’s choice.
So when it’s all said and done, what will Yahoo! be? Unfortunately I think it will be a fond memory for some and part of a wider offering for the next generation.
Full details on the BBC, TechCrunch and NY Times
Chinwag: Fishing in the digital media recruitment pond
January 30th, 2008
Or should i say puddle…
Some of the Liberate Media team went down to Chinwag last night to get to grips with the digital media skills emergency and it seems the problem maybe worse than we had first suspected.
Sam Michel, Chinwag’s Founder and MD, kicked off the evening by sharing the results of the Chinwag skills survey, with some rather alarming stats such as ‘97% of digital media organisations find it difficult or impossible to attract digital people’…Ouch, and i’m afraid the outlook didn’t get much brighter.
There were many good points raised on the evening both from the panel and the floor as to why this is occuring, so i’ve summarised my top three below:
- The digital industry cannibalises itself, especially in our recruitment. We don’t look to other industries to recruit and we don’t think of transferable skills. This means an ever shrinking pool of talent is being sucked dry by an ever increasing roster of potential employers. Simple demand and supply.
- There is a lack of training and education for those wanting to get into the industry. Academic media courses are, in the main, run by those without specialist digital knowledge, so the graduates that are coming out simply aren’t up to the job. And even if the courses are up to scratch the industry changes so fast that within the three years taken to complete a course, the teachings are out of date.
- There is no body, force or will to face these issues head-on and promote the industry to other sectors, or - God forbid, make it seem an interesting and worthwhile place to aspire to be. Last night there were calls for a digital media recruitment body, calls for the IAB to step in and calls for help from just about everyone - even the recruitment agencies.
Add this to the issues of no time to recruit and according to Matt Alder, head of digital at Barkers, only 10% of digital jobs actually being advertised, and you can soon see why we’re in this mess.
For me, the problem is routed in the issue that the digital media industry doesn’t look, recruit or even engage outside of the industry, which is shocking - yet obvious when you think about it. We are insular beyond belief; other industries promote themselves and flutter their eye lashes at potential employees without a second thought, so why should we expect our industry to continue growing without some investment in people.
Why shouldn’t we look at transferable skills? Some already do and at Liberate we’ve already looked outside of the industry to recruit, and the results have been both eye-opening and rewarding. Having a new perspective on the industry is very powerful.
The time for procrastination and blame has passed. In times of crisis only action will turn the problem around, and we’re going to have to make some serious changes to open ourselves up to the type of candidates we want. In Liberate’s cases that’s - senior and experienced digital communicators, just in case you were wondering!
We’ve already got a plan in place and you’ll be seeing the fruits of our labour both on our site and reported via our blog. We are going to be embracing digital marketing to assist our recruitment targets and doing what we do best, which is communicating and driving results.
Watch this space.