Earlin' Abuse: Steve Earl's IT PR Agency Blog

While it's tempting to write 'I'm on Speed', this is to let you know my blog has moved

2009-03-19T08:27:00.002Z

I’m moved my blog and content to the Speed web site. Please point your browser or RSS feed to http://www.speedcommunications.com/blogs/earl/. See you over there for more shrewdness and rudeness. Thanks.

Adieu, Rainier

2009-03-19T08:09:00.003Z

We started Rainier PR on 1 September, 1998. The day before I'd put up the shelves, wheeled in the wonky fridges and put up the desks.

How times change. Rainier grew to be an agency with a strong reputation in the technology sector (and a perennial iritant to some of its rivals).

Today we're launching Speed, a new consultancy that will have Rainier as its technology team. Speed extends our reach into broader types of PR though, with corporate, business and consumer teams. And enables us to maintain our focus on technology while being part of a larger business with more clout and more ideas.

Speed is six months in the planning and hopes to make an impact at a time many PR firms are running for cover. I could wax lyrical on here about how we've instilled a modern approach, smarter methodologies and better measurement models. But that'd be blatant self-promotion.

My new blog launches on the new site today. Expect your usual dose of frank and relentless insight.

Crystallised thought shower output flown from flagpole - fight this from the beaches

2009-03-18T15:46:00.005Z

All hail the Local Government Association. Finally, someone had had the balls to really take on the scourge of business bullshitspeke and attempt to choke the life out of it. And advocated a Churchillian approach to communciation - simple and clear = powerful and memorable.

In a list of 200 "banned" examples of awful jargon, the LGA blasts (if that, indeed, is not overstating the reaction and therefore appropriate terminology) such sins as:
- Benchmarking
- Seedbed
- Slippage
- Value-added
- Holistic
- Contestability
- Synergies
- Tranche
- Subsidiarity
- Potentialities

That's right, 'potentialities'. What a pile of toss.

What's more, the LGA even got a good recession angle into the story, stating that the economic shambles makes clear communication even more important.

Brilliant job.

Weathering the storm

2009-03-17T10:36:00.003Z

Amazing what a bit of blue sky can do for the mood at work isn't it?

It is a real battle for PR businesses at the moment. Not just the economy, but the transition (and to a degree, those are linked) to a more commercially-astute and tangible service model. And one devoid of fluff.

But after arriving at a new office yesterday and seeing blue skies through the windows today, perhaps things are looking up. Rather than dwelling on the long road to recovery and the weekly check on finances, perhaps a bit of sunshine will bring some positive perspective.

At least the cranes next to my new desk mean I'm having to look up.

Moving on up (2)

2009-03-16T08:41:00.002Z

We're in. Several hundred empty crates and many bottles of flimsy wine later, and the company is now in its new home: The Communications Building, Leicester Square.

It's amazing what a positive effect moving to a better office can have, particularly in the middle of a recession. I came in this morning to colleagues even brighter and more chipper than usual. What's more, most were in early.

We should move more often.

Out for the count: why lists can fall short

2009-03-12T13:36:00.003Z

Lists are great on blogs. And for PR actually.

So forgive my shock when the Institute of Directors (I left a few years ago) emailed me with eight reasons why I should rejoin. The IOD is a very useful organisation, but eight reasons? Surely rounding up the list to 10 isn't too much of a stretch? Here's the email. My suggested extra two reasons:

- While not inexpensive, the biscuits provided with tea in the main meeting room at 116 Pall Mall are mighty fine
- Director magazine is actually pretty damn good and deserves to be highlighted more

====================================================================
Dear Sir/Madam,

I would like to personally invite you to re-join the IoD, the UK’s largest professional network for business leaders.

There are critical reasons to re-join in the year ahead. IoD membership is one of the most cost-effective methods for maintaining your competitive edge in the challenging business climate of 2009.

Re-join today for the following free business support:

Access to exclusive IoD meeting premises across the UK
Specialist business tax and legal advice is only a call away
Easy and quick access to business information
One-to-one business advice on an extensive range of topics
Exclusive online networking with the IoD Group on LinkedIn
Advertise your business to 60,000 decision makers on our business directory
Access to our award-winning specialist business research team for prompt support
Insightful commentary and reviews on current business topics in our IoD publications

Morgan, Marmite, money and modernism

2009-03-10T13:01:00.002Z

Piers Morgan’s interview in Media Guardian yesterday was as incisive as ever.

Morgan compares himself to Marmite. A lot of people would say that even that’s being kind to him, but who can argue with the man’s self-assurance and drive?

One thing that jumped out for me was his contention that hacks who ask him when he’s going to go back to journalism are daft because he’s now earning far better money and doing a far nicer job.

Morgan did the same journalism course as me – he at Harlow, me at Cardiff. He started on a newspaper three years before I did. While his career rocketed in the red tops, I got sick of papers far earlier and made the switch to PR. But we both seem to have realised the same thing - newspapers typically pay many of their editorial staff poorly and offer pretty barbaric working conditions. So life on the outside can be a lot more appealing.

My aim here is not to slag off the publishers - far from it, many are good businesses. But if they have not taken a revolutionary look at what they do and how they charge for it, now is the time to do so. The established media hierarchy has to realise that unless it modernises and creates a commercial model that makes better pay and conditions feasible, it will lose its best assets: people.

Once on the other side, for example, I was amazed that PR agencies had dedicated people who looked after things like HR. In newspapers, people management tended to amount to a nurse who did the cough test on day one and a newsdesk who told you to just shut up and file the copy if you complained.

Of course, grizzled hacks don’t need nannying, just a little ego stroking. But most are skilled, intelligent, shrewd people, which means if their employers don’t look after them they’ll doubtless find other careers more attractive in time. I know of countless reporters who have left the profession in the last decade simply because they realised their talents could be put to more profitable use elsewhere. But given the choice, they’d rather still be journalists.

Journalism is, in my humble opinion, one of the very best jobs in the world for those who thrive on it. It’s also one of the best jobs for preparing people for other jobs. But unless the media can grasp and address the sweeping changes that are forcing many regional newspapers to their knees, it will continue to offer an increasingly less attractive career path.

Moving on up

2009-03-10T12:54:00.000Z

Our company is doing a brave thing on Friday.

We’re moving offices, having committed to a new lease in the heart of London’s West End and made investments in back-office, sales and facilities.

While not truly palatial, the new place is several steps up from the office I’ve been working in for eight years. And we’ve done it at a time when most PR firms are living fairly hand-to-mouth and wouldn’t contemplate this degree of risk.

Crazy? No. It’s a good time to do property deals. But more importantly, it’s a good time to invest shrewdly in success beyond the recession. The new office will be a fresh start for the team, a step up for clients and offer better facilities for media briefings, meetings and the all-important banterous teasing of colleagues.

A bold move, but I’m looking forward to looking back in a few years time to recall how we had the guts to go for it in the depths of a recession.

The great PR Week Twitter debate and a dose of commercial realism

2009-03-05T12:06:00.003Z

I've stayed out of the PR Week Twitter debate. It's not that I'm shy, nor that I am shocked that PR Week has started a debate. It's just that I'm working on a big project and it has been keeping me occupied.

Equally, there's little to add that other PR bloggers, commentators and general gobshites haven't already said. Or Twittered. And agencies moaning about being poorly ranked should smarten up and modernise rather than acting like a bunch of teenagers.

So let me try to bring in another perspective: size doesn't matter.

By that I mean it doesn't matter how Twittery your staff are, it's what you do with it that counts. I'm not going to make a big deal out of our firm having lots of people on Twitter any more than I'd boast about how many phones people have on their desks or in their pockets. It's just another communications medium.

But a damn good one. So the question for me is, which agencies are really using Twitter to boost reputation - and ultimately impact sales - for the clients? Few, probably. But those that do are onto a good thing, and good on them. Perhaps PR Week should do a listing of the least digital, least accountable and most luddite PR agencies in the UK.

I suspect if you asked PR agency staffers to do timesheet entries for everything they Twitter (unrealistic, yes), they'd struggle to recharge large chunks of that time to clients. That said, Twittering (like the phone) with journalists does involve asking them about the curry they had last night or whether Newcastle are (correct grammar, see appropriate media style guides) going to be in the Championship next year (doubtful).

I'd like to see the debate tackle the commercial realities behind how PR agencies use Twitter. If there was ever a time to prove the financial value of PR in its adoption of a new technique, it's now.

To pee or not to pee

2009-02-27T13:22:00.004Z

Ryanair, the guardian of the cheap skies and purveyor of a mixed batch of PR sins and successes, may have even trumped itself.

Apparently the budget airline is considering charging passengers to use its in-flight loos.

I actually really admire Michael O'Leary's frank approach to the press - it typically comes down to 'we're cheap, you may not like us, but you'll still fly with us because we're cheap'. And fair enough.

But surely this is a step too far, and likely to cause PR turbulence?

Perhaps I should have a few beers in the departure 'lounge' next time I'm going Ryanair and then see whether the cabin crew will lend me a quid when I profess to have no cash on me.

Matthew Freud I do wish you'd put some pants on

2009-02-25T13:33:00.005Z

Fantastic profile in the latest Management Today on PR 'guru' Matthew Freud.

Five pertinent points about PR today that I took out of it:

1. The UK media has changed more in the past decade than in the previous 200 years
2. Media relations is just one element of a far bigger picture, which typically starts with corporate strategy and ends with research-driven evaluation. This is obvious, yet still rarely understood
3. Actually, when we tell clients exactly what we think - even if it is the brutal truth - that's probably what they want
4. Journalists are hardly in a position to fear you taping the interview given they do so themselves
5. Print media still has a key part to play (see the naked portait)

PR, freebies and a world of missed opportunities

2009-02-24T17:11:00.003Z

Freebies have long been a part of the PR machine. Far less so now than in the past I reckon. And I have rarely taken full advantage in my career, much to my loss.

But a conversation today brought a tear to me eye. I was offered a free seat at Old Trafford for the probable title decider on 14 March. Manchester United versus Liverpool. The probable third leg of the mighty quintuple.

Problem? My wife is due to give birth two days before, and is usually a couple of days late. I did think about it, but did the right thing.

Thanks at least to our chairman Mark Adams for this pic.

Sniff.

What's so damn funny? !!!!!!!!!!

2009-02-20T10:49:00.004Z

Exclamation marks.

Perhaps it's a generational thing, but I see them being used more and more, creating (typically) greater ambiguity - and incredulous snorts from me given that the remark they follow is typically not in the slightest bit funny.

Twitter springs to mind. Every day my in-box is stuffed full of emails like 'Doris Day is now following you on Twitter!'

(Actually that would be quite funny).

But why is the fact that someone has chosen to follow me on Twitter supposed to be amusing or in some way sensational? Or is it supposed to convey the abject horror I will doubtless feel when someone who I'd forgotten exists comes out of the woodwork?

Snap judgement

2009-02-19T09:14:00.003Z

Yes, the picture of me on my blog is ridiculous.

Yet increasingly the pictures I see others have chosen for their blogs and microblogs fall into two categories: regular and boring, or off-the-wall bordering on bizarre.

I tripped across Jack Schofield's new (I assume it's new) Guardian picture and have to applaud his approach - he unashamedly sports a gentleman's pipe and a crafty grin.

So, question: given the increasing power of social media tools and the extent to which they use their personalities to tout themselves and their wares, shouldn't we be thinking harder about what pictures to use? After all, first impressons count, and save for the geeky events now doing the rounds many people never actually meet.

Perhaps I should do a top 10 rogues gallery of the best and worst social media pictures.

Earnalism should be the new journalism

2009-02-12T12:39:00.003Z

"It really is a lovely, lovely job." So said my news journalism lecturer, in his lovely south Welsh lilt, some 18 years ago about the profession I was about to enter.

But if you buy what Time editor Walter Isaacson penned in unprecedented fashion last week, journalism is lying on the ground, wounded, dying. It's a difficult topic to get to grips with given the British media penchant for sensationalism, but they're right: journalism is in crisis.

I have mates and former colleagues and peers 'gracing' the columns and newsdesks of the Mail on Sunday, The Times, the Financial Times, ITV and lots of regional papers. Every one says the same thing: our line of work is in big trouble. Because we have no real idea how to charge fairly for what we do in a changing world.

As Walter points out, this is idiocy. More and more people are craving news content, and the old (I admit, fairly straight-jacketed) conventional approach to reporting has been taken in new directions by the possibilities of new media.

News, news analysis and features are some of the most important things most of us read in our lives. What's more, most of us are prone to reading it every day, often many times a day. Whether you're a busy board executive with FT alerts on your iPhone or a builder with The Sun poking out of your back pocket just below a startling piece of fleshy exposure, you want news. You want media content. And you are prepared to pay fairly for it.

I often bang on about the PR industry being commercially naive and too hung up on the 'craft' of PR rather than developing its value as a strategic business tool. Yet despite the move online, rich media and constant restructures, the world of journalism seems equally uncommercial at the moment.

How do you charge for content? You offer them content, and charge them for it.

Not in the clumsy way that publishers did in the mid-1990s. Not in a way that intrudes on the experience. The Economist has long charged for content and it offers the type of journalism that warrants it. The FT's recent online makeover continues its vein of offering a teaser, then the rest being on subscription, albeit I think it's extremely cheap at the price. Most regional papers though are now providing far more diverse content yet few charge for it properly, it at all.

When we can bring the wonder of news instantly to people across the world, have opened our eyes to more personalised and insightful analysis, and have the ability to make it dialogue with the reader than one way traffic, it is ridiculous that journalism has not yet cracked how to earn an honest crust in a changing world.

More on this soon. Perhaps not in a newspaper though.

Limp bosses should fxxk off (says entrepreneur)

2009-02-11T08:08:00.003Z

Tough talk from the entrepreneur and former chairman of our parent company Loewy, Luke Johnson, in today's FT.

He paints a picture of the bleak conversations being had in UK boardrooms and makes a case for weak bosses unable to handle the toughest of decisions to pack their bags now.

And he's right. Top company positions should only be held by those who can take the rough with the smooth. That sounds obvious, but it still amazes me how many senior people seem to have pretty lily-livered conversations about managing businesses in difficult times. If the ship is at risk of sinking you need to do something about it, or you'll all drown. If the bosses can't cope, boot them out.

Interestingly he also sticks the knife into Government bail-outs as a road to nowhere. Given the public outcry over top banking bonuses and the culture of excess, the question is whether the worm will turn over the approach to shroing up the banks. Perhaps it won't be long before newspapers write leader columns about the dangers of a country controlled by the whims of banks, rather like a world controlled by machines in Terminator.

Shame the Government couldn't have intervened better in the banking crisis last autumn by offering a financial package - in exchange for the right to boot out the poor bosses.

I love my job so much I just wet myself with excitement

2009-02-06T15:08:00.006Z

PR is about the management of reputation. About a common sense approach to how people will react to information.

So when a company, a PR company no less, posts a ditty on its web site from a newbie detailing why they love the firm so much, how they've become a great PR so quickly and why the sun shines out of their colleagues' arses, surely the alarm bells should ring?

Surely it's a tad incredulous? Surely people will think it's a put up job? Surely rivals will rip the piss out of it?

I'm tempted to name names. But I'm fair, and not seeking to score any points.

Mind you, if you do want to see the offensive prose, and my suggested edits to it, do let me know.

Test: can anyone spell grammer?

2009-02-05T09:52:00.004Z

Hats off to The Times for its children's spelling initiative. To quote editor James Harding, "English is the country's gift to the world and its home-grown headache".

But in the world of PR I find spelling, with some notable exceptions, is typically pretty good. People tend to think twice or check with a colleague when typing a word that is difficult to spell.

The errors and inconsistencies creep in when it comes to grammar. Sure, mass media has relaxed its approach to grammar - split infinitives are now commonplace. Yet too many PRs are still getting plural and singular confused, and committing cardinal sins with hyphens.

Perhaps PR Week needs to start a grammar competition for agency staff?

10 reasons why PR agencies may go on strike

2009-02-04T12:29:00.004Z

I've been loving, in a slightly warped way, these wildcat strikes at power plants. Just because strikes haven't been in the news (apart from the French ones, obviously) for so long. I remember being asked to join a union on my first day at work - I didn't get the same proposition when I joined the PR industry.

So what would a strike look like in PR? Are we the industry least likely to strike, or would we be really bad at it? Stupid questions to ask really. But it did get me thinking - under what circumstances would PR agency staff ever go on strike?

How about (my comments/responses in brackets):

1. Account managers with overinflated egos no longer happy with doing press work (So you're a PR who doesn't like dealing with the press?)

2. Threat of new compeition from SEO agencies is unfair under, erm, EU rules (Grow up - modernise. PR's key asset is we know how to handle content. Work with that).

3. Our pay and rewards are not reflective of our status as professional communicators (Tell that to a nurse, or a policeman who has had to pull corpses out of a wreckage).

4. We are not respected as a profession and that's unfair (Grow up, that's always been the case, look to change it by doing our own PR better).

5. Clients keep changing their minds last minute so impact our ability to deliver (Yes, you're a consultant, so consult them).

6. Price pressure is unfair - piddly little agencies beyond the M25 keep winning clients over us because they undercut (Welcome to a free market. Concentrate on winning the price/quality argument, or trim the fat from your business model. And location is irrelevant).

7. Digital tools and media fragmentation are impacting my ability to make a living because they reduce my ability to get results (See answer to 2., and shut up).

8. We are being asked to work unpaid overtime to keep our clients happy and our business stable (Lucky you).

9. Journalists are unreliable and can make my life miserable (What's new? Find alternative employment, although probably not as a journalist).

10. Exchange rates and cost of production have caused champagne prices to increase (Fair point. Prepare placards now and ready some flying pickets. We shall not be moved).

Flakey/no grit

2009-02-03T08:59:00.005Z

Isn't it a tad ironic that while no London buses ran yesterday, it was noted by the media that that didn't even happen in The Blitz?

Because in The Blitz, we wouldn't have stood for it. I spent yesterday (a planned day off) driving back to London from a hilltop village near Sheffield. I allowed an extra couple of hours for the journey, spent the first half hour guiding an estate car sideways down steep streets, then sat at slow speeds on the motorways all the way back. And got back early.

Yet there are estimates that UK firms will lose more than a billion pounds because of yesterday's disruption. London mayor Boris Johnson has a clear perspective - snow should not be an excuse for skiving.

The travel network being caught with its pants down is pathetic, but equally our country does not have enough snow to justify keeping snowploughs on every corner. Rather than standing whingeing in bus queues, find a shovel and keep yourself warm by clearing paths.

At least our firm capitalised on yesterday's predicament with some newsjacking for clients. Companies, like ours, that have invested in their people being able to work from anywhere were doubtless feeling fairly smug yesterday (and warmer).

I am utterly sick of it all

2009-01-29T09:50:00.003Z

I understand a lot about how the press works. I understand the rationale for the slants the papers take. But I have finally lost my rag - UK media coverage of the recession has turned the corner from frank yet fear-mongering to panic-strewn and unreasonable. Even ridiculous.

I'm fairly pragmatic and, while no economist, could see a shitty crash coming 18 months ago when the credit card binge stories were doing the rounds in the tabloids. Loans need to be paid up at some stage, dummy.

But today's national front pages about Britain on its knees and us getting hit worst - and the gloom that will beset us for much of our working days - is plain ridiculous. Yes we're in a very bad slump, yes it feels like a great depression and will doubtless have a not dissimilar lasting impact. But life goes on, albeit more prudently and with life changes that come with such workforce shifts. It is a horrible situation. Industry needs to figure how how best to deal with it and deal with the future. In short, take a leaf out of the American book of optimism.

We know the realities now. Even daft people who've been in denial for months get it. No-one can predict the type of path we'll take out of it, not even the pessimists at the IMF who helpfully pointed out that growth has become a sharp halt (well done, Sherlock). Only the BBC seems to have gone easy on the gloom today, while the FT has at least been straight up. So stop bombarding us with sensationalist news stories about it and treating the populace like a bunch of naive idiots.

I'm wearing a good suit today. And a smile. It's a recession - grit your teeth, work your bollocks off and stop pissing on your feet with a damp stream of gloom.

Cabbies (and whether we're getting paid the right fare)

2009-01-21T14:26:00.004Z

Everyone has a "I got stuck with this cabbie" story.

Today I had one. He said he was now playing all passengers a song he had recorded, then proceeded to play it to me and offered me the CD for a few quid. Actually it was fairly good, not my personal cuppa but I can see the appeal. No I didn't buy it.

The problem was that I had told him I was in PR, and so then the conversation started: what ideas did I have for publicity, how could he make money from his sideline, how best to promote it, what was the music industry coming to these days what with downloads, copyright and artists getting nowt for their craft?

It took me back to what Feargal Sharkey had to say last week and I told the cabbie that. But it also got me thinking - in the PR industry, have we really made much progress with being fairly paid for our ideas and creativity, or are we facing similar challenges to the music industry as new technology changes the game?

Although many PR agencies are really getting their heads around media fragmentation and ROI when digial mediums increasingly create the most influence, the way we charge for our services hasn't fundamentally changed in decades.

Sure there are special rate projects like crisis management for real pickles, or having a senior-only team applied to certain challenges. But whereas advertising has long (alebit to its chagrin in some areas) worked out that creative ideas are valuable and has priced its IP accordingly, in PR we remain tied to standard hourly rates.

At the moment, most PR firms are happy to have the work they have, and fair enough. But as PR's value changes and proving value does become progressively easier, should we be thinking now about how to charge - fairly and openly - for services and ideas that really revolutionise a client's commercial fortunes versus those that are more routine?

No-one wants to barrack Obama

2009-01-20T08:49:00.003Z

No need to guess what today's big news story will be - Obama takes centre stage to much fanfare, waving of flags and the promise of the dawn of a new chapter in world history in which goodness, fairness and fortune are the central threads of a collective brighter future.

At least, that's what you'd think if you read the papers and watched/listened to the news. Obama's PR machine seems to have done a fautless job of paving the way for his presidency. The BBC is running poll stories about how the world is waiting in hope, and Europe is gung-ho about how US relations with the rest of the world will improve.

Mind you, it's tough to see how they could have slipped further.

So the presidential PR machine seems to be taking over where the election campaign PR machine left off. Let's hope that the successfully-seeded messages of hope come accompanied with the reality of action, as the poor bloke has more on his plate than global media manipulation.

Teenage clicks right through the night

2009-01-14T13:31:00.004Z

Good art these days is not so hard to find. So said (in a roundabout way) Feargal Sharkey, the CEO of British Music Rights, at Loewy's Mandrake talk club last night.

By that he meant that technology has made access to downloadable music - and sharing of music that infringes copyright protection - so simple and quick that the creative types who make the music are at increasing risk of never getting paid for it.

That's not a new debate, but he did bring some interesting new perspectives to it. Including the UK Government's stance on copying music stored digitally versus those of most other European governments. And he told how the majority of UK teens and 20-sometings think nothing of illegally exchanging hard drives packed full of enormous volumes of copyrighted music. And how like a "canary in a mine" the music industry was the guineapig (yes, mixed metaphor) for other sectors that rely on getting paid for intellectual property and need to constantly evolve their business models to adapt to new technology.

Yet it all became a peripheral conversation when Feargal made his great revelation - The Undertones' legendary Teenage Kicks, which he wrote and was inspired by his Ulster roots, was actually just a song about wanking.

He explained that the original lyrics went "I wanna hold it wanna hold it tight, get teenage kicks right through the night" but he changed them to "wanna hold her tight" to make it paletable for the-then sensitive ears of Radio 1 bosses.

No wonder the late John Peel said when he first heard Teenage Kicks he was so overcome he had to pull off the road.

You're Havana laugh

2009-01-12T12:34:00.003Z

Excuses excuses.

So often in PR, organisations opt to make an excuse to mitigate bad performance. Bad sales on the High Street? That'd be the inclement weather. Quality control issues? That'd be the product supplier/scapegoat.

Yet while I suspect the story wasn't Chelsea FC's doing, there is the mother of all excuses on the front of today's Sun. Having been thoroughly beaten by the Mightiest Reds 3-0 in yesterday's Premiership clash, we read that broken sleep caused by a hotel fire alarm going off at 7am affected the Chelsea team's preparation.

And that the alarm was caused by Diego Maradona, a guest at the same hotel, puffing on a cigar.

Wonderful stuff.