The inviting set, complete with cushy furniture and a pleasant background, presents to the nation just one frame of what is otherwise a chaotic studio.

The wire cobwebs of tech equipment are almost always out of camera shot on live TV. A mess of tangled cords would look out of place on a ‘perfect set’ – besides it would ruin the magical illusion that is television.

Recently, I had the experience of watching TV One’s Breakfast from a front row position inside the TVNZ studios. A conversation with the presenter of the weekly gadget segment, led to one of our clients, Asnet Technologies, debuting their clever new VGo ‘telepresence’ robot on national television.

While the VGo robot was on-screen for less than five minutes, it took a lot of planning to get it there. Here are some key learnings.

1. Make it as easy as possible for your client/product/story to be covered.
Producers are inundated with PR pitches every day and therefore have numerous choices when deciding what to cover. Once they decide to cover whatever it is you are pitching, it is vital to be prompt, efficient and helpful in your communication. Be sure to give them all the information they require in a timely manner. TV works to tight deadlines and at a quick pace – if you cannot get them what they need quickly enough, they will ask somebody who can, which could mean your client misses out.

2. Accept it might not all go to plan.
Just as boy scouts are ‘always prepared’, a PR pro should always have a back up plan. In our case, the expectation of a ‘live’ product demonstration was, for various reasons, not an option on the day. Luckily we already had some great footage of the VGo robot in action and were still able to show off everything viewers would have seen in a live demo. Sometimes you’ll find that nothing goes to plan, so be ready to think fast and find solutions.

3. Be flexible.
You need to be aware of the requirements and constraints of television. Don’t be too difficult or demanding. Producers understand that your job is to put forth your client in the best light, but it is important that you are also sympathetic to their obligation to make television engaging. Listen to the suggestions made to you by the producer – they know what does and does not work on-screen. Pitch your ideas and angles by all means, but understand that you cannot control exactly what happens on air. Focus your energy on preparing your client, if they will be appearing on camera.

4. Build relationships.
As in all areas of PR, cementing good relationships with those who have influence or control over the program content is a very effective way to gain future media coverage. Just by talking to the producer in the studio, I was able to find out about upcoming features, which may be suitable for our clients. It also gave me the chance to tell the producer more about the clients we work with.

Check out the VGo Robot’s debut on TV One’s Breakfast here.

See ‘The Gadget Guy’ blog where John Buckley talks about VGo here.

2011 saw social media in New Zealand move from being part of most marketers agendas to central to almost every marketing conversation. Here is our best and worst of the year.

McDonald’s embraced check-in rewards at store level, which was a great initiative and showed they now take social media seriously. They also had great success with the ‘Flick Rugby’ game, which was an app that sat on the Facebook page and let people to flick a coin across a counter full of McDonald’s food to win points. It wasn’t ground-breaking, but it was a nice tie-in with the Rugby World Cup. It was also simple, very addictive and had strong engagement numbers.

The Pedigree adoption campaign ‘Doggelganger’ was a real social media success. Doggelganger allowed people to find which dog they should adopt by uploading a pic of themselves to see which canine they looked most similar to. The idea was fun, very sharable and had a good truth (people often buy dogs that look like themselves).

Westpac’s ‘Gen W’ – a Facebook page specifically for the next generation of customers where they could win cash and a financial mentor – is a favourite of ours. Again, it taps into a core human emotion, in this case that everyone loves sharing their baby photos. Plus, it gets potential customers at an underused customer lifecycle point.

I also love the NZ Airforce ‘Step Up’ interactive YouTube channel. This is a cool way of connecting people with as real an experience as is possible. I like the fact it’s taking online video to a different place than just playing engaging content.

In terms of the worst, nothing comes close to sending a gamer to Iraq for the launch of a new computer game. Turtle Beach’s idea for a ‘real’ gaming experience was awful as it didn’t represent why people should buy the product and just felt wrong and insensitive to the families of those who died in battle. And I wasn’t the only one who didn’t like it as they pulled the content after lots of criticism:

Finally, Pump’s ‘Make like water’ campaign. I really like the overarching idea and the tagline, but think the eventual social media execution is weak because the idea stops at the line and the online videos aren’t funny or interesting enough to be sharable.

Image credit to Racheal King.

Recently, Bullet PR was asked to organise an ‘Old Hollywood’ themed cocktail and dinner event for multi-national telecommunications giant, Huawei, for their Asia-Pacific CTO Forum at Auckland Museum’s Event Centre.

The purpose of this occasion was to provide Huawei’s 150 international guests with a sophisticated welcoming taste of our local Kiwi culture, along with a few other treats. Because this event was such a success, we thought we would share some of our Event Management secrets:

1. Decide on a theme: Choosing a clear theme always makes your job easier. In this instance, we recommended Old Hollywood because it was elegant, glamorous, and easily understood by different cultures. When choosing the theme for your event, you should never feel limited to picking something like ‘Old Hollywood’. A theme could be anything from an era in time, to a chosen colour scheme. Both of which can be just as effective if done well.

2. Set the scene: To create an Old Hollywood feel, guests were welcomed into the cocktail area along a red carpet and were greeted by old-school paparazzi as well as Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn lookalikes. Guest photos with the Old Hollywood stars were extremely popular and framed photos were presented to guests on their departure.

3. Entertainment: Dinner entertainment must add to the atmosphere rather than dominate the entire evening. For this evening, we incorporated three very different performances. As this was an international event, our client felt it was important to reflect an element of local culture. So we organised the Museum’s world-class Maori culture group to welcome everyone and introduce them to New Zealand. The audience was delighted by Tim Beveridge’s sophisticated live act, featuring show time band and retro showgirl dancers. Candy Lane topped off the evening with her Chicago themed burlesque act.

4. Make sure it all fits together: This event was extremely successful because it combined entertaining pieces, wonderful food in an elegant and fun ambience. Key to the success, is maintaining an uninterrupted flow. This requires detailed planning to achieve.

5. You can never be too prepared: When planning an event on this scale, anything can go wrong. This is why it is vital to take everything into account during the planning stages. As Event Manager, you need to consider how something is going to get there, who is going to set it up, how it will be managed, and who is going to pack it away.

6. Create Lists: As a highly organised Event Manager, lists are your BFF. Make a list for each step of the planning process. Keep them up-to-date, and make sure to highlight when something is urgent or has been completed. A ‘Supplier’ list is essential, yet often overlooked. Make sure to list down all of your suppliers, what they are supplying, their contact details, and any other key points to remember (e.g. how they are getting the item to and from the venue). Then, keep a hard copy with you at all times – you never know when it will come in handy!

7. Manage your client’s expectations: It is always important to remember, a happy client is a prepared client. You want to keep the client in the loop as much as possible, especially if changes to the original plan need to be made.

8. Visual aids: In this instance, our point of contact from Huawei was based in Malaysia. So it was vital to the success of this event, that we created a clear visual aid in PowerPoint so that they could successfully envisage the atmosphere and flow of the event.

9. On the day of the event: My biggest tip for Event Managers is to make sure that on the actual day of the event, you delegate all tasks to your helpers rather than taking them on yourself. This way, you can oversee everything that is going on rather than being caught up doing one thing. Also, if anything does begin to turn pear-shaped, you are there to sort it out and ensure that everything, and everyone, performs.

10. Avoid post-event bill shock: No one likes bill shock. So to avoid this happening, make sure you are very open with your client whenever a cost changes. If something does change, re-edit the budget and send it on to the client for sign-off. This way, they are always aware of the amount they are spending.

The recent Nielsen Real Estate Market Report, based on a survey sponsored by our client Realestate.co.nz, has revealed how New Zealanders search for property online. It’s also highlighted a trend in the real estate market that holds a lesson for the PR industry.

The survey report found nearly a third of New Zealanders with Internet-enabled mobile devices who research property online have accessed property information websites from their device. It also discovered that real estate researchers online were much more likely than the national population to own an Internet-enabled phone or device, with 48 percent compared to 34 percent of the overall population.

The Report confirms the huge growth in smartphone usage and indicates the way consumers look for all sorts of information, not just property. But, more importantly for us, it shows how integral mobile apps have become to the PR industry. 

If the archaic property sector is increasingly drawing consumers to information delivered via mobile apps, what about more traditionally ‘progressive’ businesses? 

It’s no longer a point of difference for a brand to have a mobile app. It’s a fiercely competitive market and we all need to be asking how we can include mobile app recommendations to our clients. But beyond that, we need to ask what the app is for. Is it simply repatriating information? Is it a game that hides a brand-building exercise?

Whatever the strategy, every PR consultant needs to be aware of how mobile apps have become a key part of the modern communications toolkit.

As this blog post attests, Steve Jobs has come up with some great quotes in his time. This one particularly stands out for me:

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.”

Why is this compelling? It highlights what all marketers should be doing – connecting the public consciousness with their brand in a memorable way. Sometimes you are able to come up with something new that people didn’t know they wanted until you showed it to them (iPad, anyone?), but mainly it’s about tapping into something that has already started. And you can’t muck about; if you do, someone will beat you to the punch or the moment will have passed.

To give an example, Bullet PR held a press conference for Rebel Sport at which the CEO announced a price-drop on All Black replica jerseys. Not that groundbreaking as a PR idea, that is until you connect it with the fact that it coincided with a time when
a mass of public resentment was building at the inflated cost of the item. The result? Rebel Sport is the hero of the Kiwi everyman because they captured a moment in time and owned it in the right way.

Image courtesy of dunechaser.

The PR ideas that get the most award-winning attention tend to be experiential/ambient/stunt related. There is, of course, plenty of great PR work that intentionally flies under the radar, but that’s for another discussion.

How do we grab attention quickly in our digital everything world? The best way is to develop a strategy that fits in seamlessly with people’s lives, giving them content they will want to share. But ow do we get people to connect with content offline and share it online in a way that resonates for the brand? It’s easier if we find something fun and then integrate the brand in a way that’s upfront, but doesn’t get in the way of the engagement.

I friend of mine recently shared a link on Facebook for a website that encourages girls to surreptitiously take photos of hot guys on the underground train in London (and New York) and post them online. It’s called ‘Tube Crush’ if you want to check it out. You can buy merchandise and they are running a couple of ads for the likes of GroupOn, but it doesn’t appear to be hosted by a brand.

I wonder how this sort of idea could be translated elsewhere (both in terms of other countries and other contexts)? I quite like the idea of playful voyeurism and it could be a great PR opportunity for the right company.

Cheers to Cati Kaoe for the image.

Now that we are spoilt with a dizzying array of communications channels, it’s easy to get confused as to what the objective is. Perhaps we should forget the channels and simply put our ideas into one of two categories: entertainment and assistance. If you can do both, then that’s great, but one should be the lead and the other a bonus.

Take the recent ‘break up’ campaign for NAB bank in Australia. In a category renowned for being to difficult to differentiate, they have created an irreverent and entertaining discourse with the public. Does it provide us with startling information as to why its interest rates are preferential? No. But it does show they have some character and personality we can relate to.

Nike+ on the other hand would be one of the greatest recent examples of a brand making itself incredibly useful to its customers, without selling anything directly.

In an age where it’s difficult to come up with an unfettered idea due to what we may call ‘channel distraction’ (so many options that we jump to delivery before idea), considering whether we are primarily entertaining or being useful could be a wise starting point.

Props to caro-tography for the image.

According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, there will be some interesting shifts in internet usage come 2015:

- Global internet traffic will quadruple by 2015
- Asia Pacific will be the region doing the most file sharing, dwarfing North America and Western Europe
- North America and Western Europe will lead the way in business IP traffic
- Western Europe will be the dominant VoIP market, driven by services like Skype
- Asia Pacific will be the number region for internet gaming, followed by North America
- North America will watch significantly more internet TV than other regions

If we put to one side the fact that technology (e.g. broadband) is more advanced in certain regions, what does this tell us about Asia Pacific in terms of sharing and consuming content? And what does this mean for local PR?

First things first, it shows us that North America, and to a lesser extent Western Europe, is a region led by a strong relationship with TV-style content. Asia Pacific is, on the other hand, a region led by internet content. The model of TV/print/billboard advertising may have been heavily affected by the web, but North American brands talking to the consumer in a traditional voice still tend to resonate. And Asia Pacific content creation perhaps looks at the web as the original point of inspiration for content creation.

In terms of local PR, there are great indicators that we need to get better at amplifying trends already happening online. Or, even better, we need to create a sub-trend that hasn’t even happened yet, like the winner of the V 48 hour film festival. New Zealand PR needs to look at how Asia Pacific is a region of prolific sharers. We then need to be able to be part of aiming to create or tap into moments pop culture from the online trends happening around us.

Image courtesy of Cisco Visual Networking Index.

I recently spoke to the Dominion Post for an article about social media for retailers. The full article is here, but my expanded comments are below.

In New Zealand, social media has enabled retailers ranging from House of Travel to Hell Pizza to local coffee shops to demonstrate a point of difference and stand out from the crowd. Do retailers have to be on social media? Well, they’d be missing a trick if they didn’t. But, in addition to being properly resourced, it has to be relevant to the target audience. If you’re looking to talk to the business community, it might be wise to set up a blog where the senior management can lay out its strategic point of view about the industry it operates in – like national retail chain dtr has done with talkingshop.dtr.co.nz. If you’re simply wanting to stay in the minds of your customers then Facebook activity and competitions like those of House of Travel are good options. Like any marketing, getting it wrong happens sometimes; just make sure you learn from it and never lie as this has a way of magnifying itself online.

To put it in a wider context, the recent announcement of Google Wallet could be the game-changer that finally brings more tangible, measurable social media benefits for retailers. ‘Google Wallet’ (currently being trialled in New York and San Francisco and exclusive to handsets on the android platform) is a new application that allows you to pay for products with your phone. Connected to your credit card account, it uses ‘near field communication’ (NFC) so that you simply tap the phone on any enabled terminal checkout to pay for your shopping. ‘Google Offers’ has also been released, with consumers being able to redeem offers and receive loyalty rewards in the same way as they pay for items using Google Wallet.

What this boils down to for retailers is that their promotions are delivered to customers much closer to the point-of-sale, which dramatically increases the conversion rate for any connected social media activity. This same trend towards talking to customers closer to purchase has also been seen in the work of in-store marketing companies like Hypermedia. Moreover, social media is no longer just chatting to people, answer questions and occasionally firing off a special offer. Suddenly, retailers can link social media conversations to actually selling through being relevant and responding in a way that benefits customers day-to-day, not just when they ask for something.

UK-based Juniper Research estimates that in three years one-fifth of all smartphones will be NFC-enabled. Articulating how NFC payments connect with existing social media communities will be the key to long-term success; both for Google, in terms of incentivising retailers to sign-up and for the retailers in terms of getting people to use the service and spend more in stores.

I had the opportunity this week to travel to Napier to do a presentation to the Summerfruit NZ conference about social media. The question I was asked to address was whether their business could survive without it.

Questions of survival are particularly to the forefront of the minds of this industry, especially when you realise that they live with the potential of crop disease affecting their harvests every day. Consider the attention that the Kiwifruit vine-killing PSA bacteria has received in the media over the past year and you’ll understand the concern is justified.

In times of an ongoing crisis such as a crop disease outbreak, the immediacy and ‘viral’ nature of social media could – ironically – provide a platform for responding to the threat of real viruses and bacterial outbreaks. As Kiwifruit company Zespri has shown through their engagement with consumers on Facebook, social media can be a crucial tool for defending your brand online. It has enabled Zespri to be accessible and responsive to those who ultimately keep them in business – that is, the consumers who buy their products at the grocery store.

At the conference, I met summer-fruit orchardists and industry representatives who are passionate about what they do. It’s a level of passion that would translate well in the social media space. Many are already dipping their toe in the water, but technological issues still limit their potential for regular, daily social media engagement. Orchardists in the deep south of New Zealand still struggle with issues of broadband accessibility. Many are still on dial-up.

However, the fact that this industry is realising that it needs to be discussing social media opportunities at its annual conference shows they are twigging (pun intended) onto the fact that – like millions of businesses have already realised – the benefits of branching out into the social media space are going to reap great benefits for their brand, now and in the future.

It may just be the best business survival tool you can get.

(Image courtesy of Deineira Design)