Nahidur's Blog

iPhone 5 hits 5 million sales in 5, no three days - more than 33x Samsung Galaxy S3 sales

2012-09-25T09:57:00.000+01:00

Apple has just announced that it has sold over five million iPhone 5 devices in just three days after its launch. Making the iPhone 5 the fastest selling smartphone since the iPhone 4S, no seriously.

TechRadar says that, “The phenomenal sales of the iPhone 5 have underlined that the public were desperate to get their hands on the latest handset, with Apple looking to address the now widespread shortages of the device."

However, The Telegraph reports that the record-breaking launch disappointed Wall Street as analysts predicted up to 10 million sales. This resulted in Apple stock to fall more than two per cent in pre-market trading. Not brilliant, not brilliant at all!

Apple also announced that more than 100 million iOS devices have been updated with iOS 6, “the world’s most advanced mobile operating system” – that figure is great, but unfortunately not many tech journalists agree with that latter statement. Particularly around the #iOS6Maps failure - Charles Arthur from the Guardian called it “one of its [Apple’s] worst PR disasters”. Even Transport for London had a dig; staff at Hackney Wick station near the Olympic Park had this to say:

Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting too niche. #HackneyWick twitter.com/binny_uk/statu…
— Ben Mathis (@binny_uk) September 20, 2012

So the past week or so has been pretty turbulent for Apple, but to fair the iPhone 5 hasn’t done too badly, 5 million device sales is pretty good (33xSamsung Galaxy S3 sales), and despite the widespread criticism of the Maps,100 million iOS 6 downloads is pretty respectable. However, if you’re going to ask whether I’d be buying an iPhone 5 any time soon, I’d say I’m not convinced.

If you really want to know why, you can ask me via Twitter.

Cheerio!

@nahidur

[This article was originally posted on MobileFiller]

Shocking: Only four girls take A-level Computing in Northern Ireland

2012-08-17T15:05:00.000+01:00

PC Pro reports that the number of students taking A-level computing has fallen to such low levels that only four girls took the subject in the whole of Northern Ireland this year. To add to this, only 52 students took the course.

These figures are not only alarming for a nation that has a million 16-25 year olds out of work, but is the continuation of a trend that has seen the number of British computing graduates decline by two-thirds over the past decade.

Looking at the whole of the UK, only 0.4% of the students sat A-level’s in computing. A mere 3,809 students took up the course in contrast to 4,002 last year. Out of which only 297 were girls.

The IT skills and gender gap issues have been in the news for far too long now, and with the decline in A-level computing students, businesses need to work with the Government, colleges and universities to educate and support each other to resolve this issue. It’s time for all to act now otherwise we’ll become a nation that not only imports goods, but imports talent too.

@nahidur

Olympics inspire 150 million conversations on Twitter-verse

2012-08-13T14:57:00.000+01:00

Twitter revealed that last night’s Olympic closing ceremony saw more Tweets per minute (TPM) than Usain Bolt’s 200m final win – which received over 80,000 TPM. However, the Spice Girls stole the show, inspiring more than 116,000 TPM during their performance last night.

Word associated with the ‘Olympics’ during Games on Twitter via @sysomos

Over the past 16 day period, Twitter saw 150+ million Tweets about the Olympics. Here are the biggest moments of competition:

Usain Bolt (@UsainBolt) of Jamaica wins gold in the 200m sprint: 80,000+ TPM
Bolt wins gold in the 100m sprint: 74,000+ TPM
Andy Murray (@andy_murray) of Great Britain wins gold in the men’s tennis singles: 57,000+ TPM
Jamaica wins gold and sets the world record in the men’s 4×100 relay: 52,000+ TPM
Team USA beats Spain to win gold in men’s basketball: 41,000+ TPM

The most-discussed British athlete throughout the Games was diver Tom Daley, who went on to claim bronze in the 10 metre final. Here is a list of the other most discussed athletes during the games:

Usain Bolt (@UsainBolt)
Michael Phelps (@MichaelPhelps)
Tom Daley (@TomDaley1994)
Ryan Lochte (@ryanlochte)
Gabby Douglas (@gabrielledoug)
Andy Murray (@andy_murray)
Kobe Bryant (#GetKobeOnTwitter)
Yohan Blake (@YohanBlake)
Lee Chong Wei (@Lee_C_Wei)
LeBron James (@KingJames)

The Olympic Games have been incredible, especially for someone like me who lives a stone’s throw away from the Olympic park; I’m already feeling the post-Olympics blues. Twitter definitely played an important role in keeping people up-to-date, engaged and entertained. But with the Paralympics starting in a fortnight, it will be interesting to see if it receives the same rapturous reception as the Olympics, or even reach similar peaks in TPM’s on Twitter-verse.

Regardless, I’m looking forward to it – Let the games commence!

@nahidur

Pee Controlled Game and Advertiser

2011-11-28T15:00:00.001+00:00

What are your thoughts on this worlds first pee-controlled game which doubles up as an advertiser?

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This puts Lord Sugar's Amscreen to shame!

My year of events!

2011-11-04T14:09:00.000+00:00

Throughout the past few months I’ve attended so many events. I’ve been meaning to blog about each of them but haven’t had a chance to write it all up. So I thought I’d do an events all-in-one blog post and update it regularly.

Taylor Bennett Foundation meet-up

The first event of the year for me was the Taylor Bennett Foundation meet-up. The Taylor Bennett Foundation is an award-winning PR training and internship programme exists to encourage BAME graduates to pursue a career in PR. As an alumnus of the foundation, I go along to meet with interns old and new and get a chance to network with partnered companies and media. These meet-ups happen every 2-3 months and is a brilliant opportunity to share experiences in the PR world and network.

CIPR Social media conference

I also had the privilege of attending CIPR’s social media conference in April. At the event, several speakers from the PR and related industries like journalism came together to share their thoughts on social media’s prowess and its increasing influence on people.

The day as whole was really interesting and was good to hear best practices and examples of companies using social media effectively. However, there was one issue that every attendee was looking for an answer to – how do you measure actual sentiment? Unfortunately the question remained unanswered.

Nonetheless, CIPR’s social media conference highlighted that it’s not only people that need to adopt social media but businesses in order to remain open and competitive in their field.

IPv6: What’s all the fuss about?

On Monday (24^th October 2011) my colleague Austin and I went to an interesting event on basically the future of the Internet. The event was titled “IPv6 What’s all the fuss about?” and was organised by the Chartered Institute of IT. The orchestrator of the key note speech was Nigel Titley, Chairman of the Executive Board, RIPE NCC.

The event was really interesting and it highlighted the importance of IPv6 adoption and how it would impact us on a day-to-day. Nigel covered most of the key issues around IPv6 adoption, and even went back to the basics of how the issue came about.

If you want know more about IPv6, then do check out the IPv6 Act Now website or follow the event hashtag.

Post initially posted on CommsTalk Blog...

London 2012 Won’t Follow Beijing’s Lead on Net Addresses

2011-09-26T17:13:00.000+01:00

In 2008 the Chinese government boasted proudly of the way it was using IPv6 for its network infrastructure. It was the biggest test and showcase for the technology that provides an almost limitless number of Internet addresses. Addresses using the older IPv4 are fast running out.
Campaigners had hoped London 2012 would follow Beijing’s lead, but a spokesperson for the organizers said:

“Such is the scale of technology required for Olympic Games, it tends to be tried and tested. We work closely with our technology partners to ensure that we have operational certainty across the project. As such we will be using IPv4 for London 2012.”

NYF 5 NYL 6 by Tazud Miah, January 15, 2005

2011-09-26T17:08:00.001+01:00

Just thought I'd share an article from 2005 where I score 4 goals! Originally posted here...

In every season, there is a character building game for every team. Such a game helps to bond players together and teaches them lessons that hours and hours of training would not be able to do, NYF vs NYL was such a game.

Faced with frustrating decisions, little luck and team infighting, NYL showed their mettle by struggling all the way to the end. This game, which must surely be considered among the games of the season, would teach NYL the importance of keeping cool heads when faced with adversity.

It started very badly. NYL took centre, and Shurayh, NYLs attacking midfielder, made a routine pass back to centre back Abdullah. Due to a momentary lapse of concentration, a NYF player stole the ball and ran into the area completely unchallenged. The NYL goal keeper dived at the feet of the oncoming player. The NYF striker calmly went around him and placed the ball into the goal. 1-0. 15 seconds, such a fast goal will probably not be seen again this season. The NYF team celebrated as they could not believe how easily they had just breached NYLs defence.

The NYL players were in shock as they hadn’t expected to concede so early. Alim, the man of the match from last weeks game, rallied his team, “come on boys, we’ve got plenty of time, lets go”. NYL took the center again, this time Abdullah managed to keep the ball and sent a pass out to the right.

NYL were playing their favoured 4-5-1 formation. With the arrival of an old team mate, Musa, Nahidur was moved to the left of midfield. That would prove to be a stroke of genius. NYL began to get into the game but were finding stiff opposition from NYF’s midfielders. “Show some hunger, the’re winning everything!” Abdullah shouted as he sought to lead his team into taking control of the game.

NYL managed to get a ball into NYF’s 18 yard box, one of the NYL players shot and the ball hit a defender, and not for the first time in this game, Nahidur struck a loose ball which found its way into the net. NYL felt relief as they went level. 1-1.

The game restarted and NYF again bossed the midfield. At the halfway line, Nahidur tackled one of the players and started a drive towards the goal, with 2 NYF players flanking him. He found himself in the NYF area and shot, it went into the bottom right of the goal. An exhilarating run from midfield and doggedness to keep on going had resulted in another goal. 2-1 to NYL.

The NYL players jumped on Nahidur, they were estatic. NYF had been dominating the midfield but against the run of play, the had conceded another goal. It was time for them to go back to the drawing board.

After some good build up play, NYF found themselves with a throw in. They took it, one of their players got the ball and was fouled by Shurayh. The referee pointed to the penalty spot, Shurayh protested his innocence. Ziyad, NYLs right back, said “dont worry”. NYLs manager shouted “Make up for it” from the side lines. The NYF player stepped up and took an excellent shot to the right, the NYL goalkeeper remained rooted to his feet. 2-2.

NYF celebrated deliriously, game on! The NYL players began to show frustration. NYF chased every ball and hankered after all of the NYL players. In another attacking move, an NYF player received a ball in the goal area and was fouled by an NYL player. Another penalty, the NYL players were furious and began to argue with one another.

Up stepped the NYF player and scored in the same manner that he had done before. It was now 3-2 to NYF. Their supporters leaped joyously, blissfully unaware that there were more twists and turns yet to come. NYL retook the centre and tried to build something out of the game. They had had high hopes of winning this game but now they would be made to work for it.

Lacking rhythm, NYL couldn’t string a set of passes together and the players started to shout and swear at each other. Frustration can cause some irrevocable damage especially if you are already losing by a goal down. NYF entered, it seemed, at will into NYLs area. Another beautiful pass into the box was finished with aplomb and caused even more despair for a team that seemed to be coming off the rails. 4-2 to NYF.

Zaeem, NYLs talented right midfielder was getting very frustrated with his team. He began shouting at his players and got into an argument with Ziyad. He hated losing and just couldnt understand why his team were not able to play football today. The referee warned him about his conduct, his manager warned him about his conduct but it just did not quench the anger he felt.

Half time came and the NYF players walked off feeling very happy with themselves. They were leading by two goals against one of the better teams in the league. They had chased every ball, disrupted the flowing game that NYL enjoyed playing and seemingly scored at will.

NYL came off with some of the players still continuing their arguments, “Calm down!” the manager shouted, “Calm down and keep your heads!” The team gathered around for the team talk, Zaeem found his own space and tried to calm down. “Dont get frustrated otherwise you will lose the game, keep your heads and the results will come.” The Manager sought to prevent his team from completely self destructing.

After a few minutes the players returned to the pitch for the second half, Zaeem was left out of the start because the manager felt that in his frustrated state He would be cause more problems for his team then the opposition. Abdul Rahman started in his place, Zaeem went for a walk.

The game continued with NYL becoming more assertive, “The’re winning everything!” shouted one of the NYF players as they struggled in the first few moments of the second half. Shurayh received the ball and managed to evade his marker and sent in an excellent cross that evaded everyone and was headed by NYL striker, Alim who hit the cross bar. It bounced out and Nahidur poached the third goal for his hatrick.

NYL’s renewed vigour for the game had led to their third goal, it was now 4-3 to NYF. NYL hoped that his would be the start of a great comeback. Their hopes were dashed as again NYF scored again to make it 5-3. This time NYL’s response was to remain calm and play their way back into the game. Zaeem returned from his extended break and went into midfield.

NYF played the ball around and found their way into the NYL box. Their striker was shepherded by an NYL player who made an ill timed tackle for a third penalty. NYL were not quite sure what to do, up stepped the NYF player amidst screams of “Get your hatrick!” from the side line. He shot as he had done twice before… this time he placed the ball on the wrong side of the upright.

You could feel the collective sigh of relief from NYL, at last something was going their way. About 15 minutes into second half, Shariful, NYLs other attacking midfielder, was sin-binned for a late tackle on an NYF player. They had been warned by their manager to no avail. 2 goals down and the last thing that they needed was to go a player down.

The 10 minutes passed and Shariful came back on again. However, it was not long before Zaeem was sin-binned for a push on a player. Time was in short supply and NYL seemed unable to keep their focus. With 7 minutes to go Zaeem came back and proceeded to play a major part in a remarkable end to the game.

With NYL having nothing to lose, they kept pushing forward. One such move resulted in a goal mouth skirmish that saw Zaeem get his first goal of the game. 5-4. A few moments later, a hopeful shot from NYLs midfield came into the NYF box, Zaeem hit the ball with his heel. Incredulously it ended up in the NYF goal.

All of a sudden from being 2 goals down, NYL were level with a few minutes to go. 5-5 seemed cruel to NYF who had dominated for the whole match, unfortunately for them they could do very little against the last goal, which surely must be a contender for goal of the season.

Abdullah cleared the ball out from his half, Shariful backheeled it to Shurayh who backheeled it to Zaeem. Zaeem, who had not used his skills for much of the game, made an audacious chip that would not have been out of place in a Brazil game. The ball floated through the air and landed in front of Nahidur who somehow was still running at full speed at this stage of the game. The team held its breath as Nahidur ran towards goal, He then unleashed a powerful shot which was slightly deflected and ended up in the back of the NYF goal. 6-5 to NYL with little more then 90 seconds remaining.

Nahidur scored the winning goal, His fourth of the game. His team mates jumped on him with adulation. No one could mind losing to such a goal, 4 exquisite touches and a deft finish by the man of the match. If anyone else had been awarded that, the NYL players probably would have rioted! The celebration following the goal saw Abdullah get sin binned and NYL played out the last few moments before exploding in celebration when the referee blew his whistle.

NYF walked off dejected and perhaps felt a little hard done by, they had worked their socks off but it had
not been enough. They had led for most of the game but had lost to a magical moment of play from NYL. They could try to seek their revenge in the cup game the following week.

The first goal was scored after 15 seconds, 11 goals were scored in total. The lead changed 4 times, 3 penalties were awarded and 3 players were sin-binned. To cap it all, the game was won with a magnificent goal in the last few moments of the game. Its a pity that there were no cameras present as NYF and NYL participated in a game that will surely be become part of the leagues folklore.

How do you reach out to your media contacts when sending out a release?

2011-05-23T15:38:00.000+01:00

Quick poll on media outreach methods to see what form of communications we as PR's use.

Please feel free to take part!

QR Code to my about.me Dashboard

2011-05-03T16:33:00.000+01:00

Does your firm need its own mobile app?

2011-04-08T09:17:00.000+01:00

10 tips for a successful app

Start with business need - don't jump on the bandwagon
Look at how mobile enhances communications already in place
Don't just replicate what you have online
Consider how to deliver on the expectation of instant interaction
What happens when a two-way dialogue with consumers has been established?
Decide what is most useful to the customer and base the app on that
Utility apps last longer than those based on entertainment
Find a specialist app developer - they provide technical expertise and offer valuable relationships with the wider industry
Just because it seems everyone has a smartphone, don't assume your target audience does
Mobile websites or messaging (SMS or MMS) have far greater reach

Source: Mobile Marketing Association

Brunswick Pre-Internship Blog From August 2010

2011-04-06T17:08:00.000+01:00

Graduating in 2010, at a time where unemployment is at its highest, I realised employment prospects weren’t going to be great. I started applying for jobs at the turn of the year and was adamant I would try and make myself as employable as possible.

I didn’t want to be one of the unlucky graduates with no employment after spending so much time and money on higher education. Though, despite studying Marketing, I still wasn’t entirely sure what career I wanted to pursue. All I knew was that I wanted to be successful in whatever sector I chose. I now hope the Brunswick Internship will be the first step towards that successful career.

I remember hearing about the programme last year, and made a mental note to look out for it again when I was in my final year. Then the email came round from the UEL employability team offering an “opportunity for a fantastic paid internship in communications”.

The email asked: “Are you a great communicator with good writing skills?” and “Are you interested in the media and looking to work with successful businesses?” I found myself saying ‘yes’ to both questions, and decided this opportunity was totally for me.

After replying to the email, I joined about forty other students at a presentation at UEL where we found out what PR and communciations involved, and were told what the internship entailed. Again, I found myself intrigued about this opportunity.

I then attended another more formal information session at the UEL Knowledge Dock where we were told more about PR, communications, Brunswick, Taylor Bennet, Unicorn Jobs and the process of applying and attending the assessment centre. The session also allowed us to meet and talk to current Brunswick employees who were abundantly helpful with hints and tips.

Having heard all of this, I realised that this opportunity suited me very well, and then the realisation of how badly I wanted it hit. I went away to research the industry so that I was informed enough to fill out the application.

Having got through the application process, I got to attend the ‘dreaded’ assessment centre at the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford. The day didn’t start very well for me, because I was involved in a car accident on the way to the Centre. Needless to say, that didn’t help with my nerves. Nonetheless, I managed to get through the intense day, full of tests, tasks, presentations and interviews, and topped off with a delightful lunch.

The long day had drained me out. I headed home knowing I had given it my all and hoped for the best. A couple of hours later I got a call from Laura and I was delighted to hear her say the words, “congratulations you have made it through…” I was ecstatic. I felt privileged, considering so many people had applied. But also pleased with myself, because all the hard work had finally paid dividend.

Full 10 week blog available here

Any press is good press?

2011-03-24T16:44:00.001+00:00

They say any publicity is good publicity, right?

Rebecca Black with her song Friday has become the latest YouTube sensation with over 65,877,519 views in 3 weeks.

She is now being compared to Justin Bieber. Although several people are loving the song, others are slamming her saying it's a parody. The video's got so much buzz that within days YouTube piled up with tons of response videos. Rebecca has since had numerous television and newspaper interviews as well as praise from artists all over the globe, even though her masterpiece is being dubbed the "worst song ever."

In an interview with the The Sun, Rebecca confirmed that she has started recording material for her debut album.

Now this brings us to the publicity this saga has generated. "They" say any publicity is good, right? Well yes, because in the case of Rebecca it has worked. The girl can barely sing even with all the auto-tuning - which hasn't improved anything, she has created a massive viral attached to her name, on the verge of gaining a professional recording contract, rumored to have made close to a $1million already through iTunes and on top of all that, she's thirteen and everyone knows her.

In business or PR Weeks 'old' measurement tool, advertising value equivalent (AVE) context, the brand Rebecca Black has done very well indeed!

My first post using Blogpress

2011-03-15T23:29:00.001+00:00

Having decided to try and blog more often than I do currently, I downloaded this, Blogpress application for the iPhone.

I realised the only solution for me would be to look for a tool that I could use on the go, on my iPhone. Hence, after reading to of reviews on App store and scouring through forums I decided to go for Blogpress.

So, this is my very first attempt at using this app. Hopefully everything comes out alright when viewing it through a web browser so I can write a nice update on how good this app was.

Update

This app works fantastically. Have a look for yourself.

My formatting on the blog is exactly the same, nothing has been altered, which is brilliant. It's as if I posted via blogspot online.

I'm very impressed with the Blogpress app. They shall be getting a 5 star review from me.

Hopefully this will be the start of regular blog post. Stay tuned!

Tips and Tools for a Junior in PR

2011-03-12T13:04:00.001+00:00

As a junior in PR a lot of time is spent on research and compiling information for clients. So I thought, as a junior myself, it would be useful to share some the tools that I use on daily basis to make my job easier.

Hope they help!

Set up alerts: Use various services to create tracking and alerts for keywords and any other information that is relevant to the research – A useful tool is Google alert.

Set up news and RSS feeds: useful for tracking news on clients, competition and the industry they operate in. I use Google Reader and share my news with my team via Delicious.

Be active through different new media and social media platforms. It helps on a personal note as well as being very affective when conducting research on behalf of clients. I am active via Facebook, Twitter, Four Square, Blogger, LinkedIn, Skype and others that I can’t think ok!

Use a dashboard: Create your own social media monitoring dashboard in order to keep all of your research in one place – I use Tweetdeck.

Utilise PR specialist databases: don’t make your job harder than it already is; use tools that you have present at your place of work. We use Gorkana and Features Exec.

Buy a diary: help manage your time effectively and organise yourself. A day in a PR role involves doing tons of tasks so being organised is a MUST. I use Microsoft Outlook calendar as I can share and view my colleague’s calendars.

Other tools that maybe useful while conducting social media research.

Written by me on CommsTalk - http://commstalk.ning.com/profiles/blogs/tips-and-tools-for-a-junior-in

The Sun - Essential reading or guilty secret?

2011-02-08T17:18:00.002+00:00

As a regular reader of The Sun, online and press, I would definitely say it is an essential daily read. With average daily circulation figures of over 2.7 million and readership figures of over 7.6 million it can be said to be the most influential mediums of communication in print, within the country. The Sun speaks to a varied demographic, on topics from fashion, gossip, news and sport to personal finance and the world of business. The Sun’s presence online and tabloid press form have proved to be a successful formula extending their reach even further. These facts speak for themselves and prove how important The Sun is to people.

I read The Sun most days in the morning on print, mainly to read the current affairs and sports news; however, I can’t help but not read the celebrity news, gossip and even The Sun City section. I do this again about three more times during the day online to catch up with the days events. Even though I probably read the paper as a ‘guilty secret’, I now realise how influential it is to me and other people like me.

Moreover, newspapers in general are important to a lot us; even more so for businesses who communicate to the public through advertisements and PR. Newspapers like The Sun remain as one the sources to gather credible, reliable and enjoyable journalistic news. Even though the emergence of fragmented and targeted media like news sources online, papers like The Sun still play a huge part to us and businesses.

Few bits and bobs I've written in the past...

2011-02-08T17:07:00.003+00:00

The recent acquisition of Cadburys, a British brand we all grew up with, by Kraft, an American cheese-maker, did not go down well with the British public and the employees of Cadburys.

The British public did not know about Kraft and their sudden emergence only to takeover Cadburys hit the public's emotional nerve. Kraft also made false promises to employees about factories being kept open which they did not fulfil.

These two flaws should have been better planned prior to making their takeover intentions public. Now they suffer a tarnished reputation for both brands Kraft and the ‘American’ owned Cadburys.

BP has had an overhaul in its’ reputation, from being one of the oil and gas market leaders to becoming a disgraceful ‘British’ company with a lose cannon of a Chief Executive – Mr Tony Hayward. After the deep water horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico BP was disowned the American half the world and became a British problem. The oil spill and lose mouthed Tony Hayward turned the reputation of BP upside down. Not only did this cause disarray amongst the public, the financial credibility tumbled in stock market as BP shares dropped record low. BPs’ reputation is yet to recover.

You should employ me because...

2011-02-03T23:14:00.005+00:00

...because I’m worth hiring!

I'm a recent graduate with a bit of experience in PR gained through an internship with Brunswick Group last summer and working as press office assistant at my old university, here and there. Although I haven't got much experience, I can reassure you I'm different. Let me emphasise this, I bring things to the table that others won’t even think of. I’m not talking about being hardworking, punctual or having the willingness to learn, no, because that should be a given. What I’m talking about are the following:

• I have a sense of humour.

• I am a brilliant communicator; I have the ability to converse with beings of all ages, backgrounds and intellect.

• I speak three languages – English, Bengali and Urdu.

• I am a firm believer of teamwork, not because people just say it, but because I have experienced it in life and through it, I have achieved a lot.

• I go out of my way to get things done! I stick to my words and don’t take the easy way out.

• I have written a 100 odd paged thesis on Online Customer Experience Management (CEM); the first ever research on online CEM and it’s due to be published soon, hopefully.

• I volunteer for the Metropolitan Police as a Special Police Constable twice a month which keeps me in touch with reality and provides me with a whole array of skills.

• I am an honest person, honestly! I don’t believe in lying at all. I am who I am and will not change for anyone, but I have the ability to adapt.

• I am social media crazy. I’m active online through Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Blogger and Linkedin.

• I don’t think conventional means always work, that’s why I’ve been blogging to PR myself.

• I’m quite technically savvy, I coded most of my blog and I can use most computer based publishing platforms fluently; all of which I have taught myself.

• I am always striving to learn and I appreciate criticism. I strive to become as good as I possibly can.

• Finally, I hope I’m a good enough writer and you've enjoyed reading my reasons on why someone should hire me!

Has digital changed the very essence of Sports Marketing or just given us a new set of tools to play with?

2011-01-30T13:31:00.001+00:00

Digital within Sports Marketing has seen an emergence within the industry. Digital tools such as blogs, social networks, video sharing, and others have created new communication mediums. It has also created an adaptable communications tool that has allowed fans and customers access and enable engagement with sport stars and campaigns.

Digital has allowed sports marketing campaigns to do more and engage with target audiences that even conventional mediums such as billboard advertisements can’t even yield. Innovations to technology have seen the industry gradually adapt to change.

Digital use within the industry has seen a cost effective method of ‘getting the message through’. The use of social media tools such a Facebook allows access to a wider community worldwide in comparison to newspaper campaigns. This method is cheaper, allows a larger presence and can me measured accurately unlike newspapers. This can be exemplified through Cadburys ‘Bring back Wispa’ campaign, which gained a huge buzz amongst the online community and Wispa eventually made a comeback.

Social media allows marketers to see who’s talking about brands, manage reputations and interact with the communities. It enables brands and athletes grow wider audience participation as well as creating deeper relationships with fans and customers. Platforms such as Twitter enable athletes to communicate directly with online audiences. This connection allows the fan to feel as if they have ‘behind the scene’ access to the athlete. The Twitter page of Brazilian football star Kaka, who has over 2.5 million followers, illustrates the power of digital and the potential it has.

The great thing about digital tools is that it is fairly easy to demonstrate the return on investment on campaigns. Tools like Google Analytics can help build affective measurement systems to see how many people found your website, purchased something, commented or shared your campaign. It also allows accurate measurement variables such as time, date, region and even assess peaks and troughs. With digital analyses tools you can even set up different URLs, landing pages and do split testing to see which variables have brought the best results.

In essence digital has not only provided us with a tool to help us with sports marketing but many varied to tools to go over and beyond with campaigns. Hence, marketers need to adapt to digital strategies to compete with the market.

Sponsorships... A brand that STANDS OUT

2011-01-30T13:27:00.000+00:00

Red Bull

As a keen follower of sport, it’s hard not to notice one brand, a brand that in reality has nothing really to do with sport but has created a paralleled image with nearly every sport; this stand out brand is known as Red Bull. They sponsor pretty much every sporting activity around the world ranging from extreme sports like BMX, mountain biking, cliff-diving, kayaking, motocross, windsurfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, wakeboarding, surfing, skating, freestyle and rally, to nationally recognised sports such as Formula 1 racing, football, hockey, American football, golf and individual athletes from various sports. They even sponsor shows, events, music and games all around the world.

Red Bull adopts an aggressive sponsorship campaign by partnering with sports and events that associate with their target market. Their target market can only be devised through behavioural segmentation. This is because Red Bull is not just an energy drink, it is primarily a utility drink taken against mental or physical weariness or exhaustion. Hence, the target market can be derived as the athlete, who drinks for caffeine and sugar driven energy; the worker, who drinks for mental and physical stimulation and the clubber, who drinks it for energy and a useful yet tasty cocktail mix. This market is generally dominated by young males but females also fall into this segment and can be noticed through sponsorship of female athletes such as Alexis Thompson (Golfer).

Sponsoring supports Red Bulls image, visibility and credibility. This strategy contributes to the awareness of their target market and creates value to the brand, as their logo appears with every sponsor. This method of sponsoring allows Red Bull to stand out in the sponsorship world. It attracts people’s attention towards their brand and connects them even if they have never drunk Red Bull. By associating the drink’s image with this form of marketing activity, the company has created a very marketable ‘cool’ image which has created tremendous brand power within the market.

On the PR job hunt... AGAIN

2011-01-09T17:48:00.005+00:00

After months of job hunting I have finally got a job, but unfortunately it’s not PR, its field marketing (real name = SALES). I’ve actually been with the company for about 6 weeks and I have to honestly say I HATE it. So I have decided to go back on to the job hunt and pursue my dreams of getting my first proper job in PR.

If any of you guys have any suggestions, tips, job offers or even a chance to get some experience please feel free to contact me.

PR AGENCIES PLEASE HIRE ME :)

New Media Landscape… An outlook

2010-08-04T13:18:00.001+01:00

How will people consume their news and media?

The way people consume their news is changing, the move from reading news through print media to having the news on the go is visibly apparent. Thus traditional media platforms such as, The Times, are moving to online business models without losing the quality and credibility of daily newspaper edition.

The print media industry has already seen a decrease in circulation and readership figures when compared to four years ago, when new media was at its infancy. A recent study by Forbes Insights and Google determined that the “internet has become the chief source of business information” for key decision makers. The survey of 354 top executives found that during work hours 70 per cent of executives prefer to read “traditional” media online rather than in print (30 per cent), and 69 per cent prefer to access “traditional broadcast media” online rather than over the air. This again illustrates the prowess of new media against traditional platforms. Nonetheless the importance of print media has not declined with the circulation and readership figures. Research still outlines the influences that print media have on decisions (Brunswick Review, 2009).

Research into how people consume their media concluded that many people felt addicted to online media and without it felt alone and disconnected. It also uncovered that respondents from their study did not receive their news from branded traditional print media, but from email, texting, Facebook and Twitter (Cass, 2010).

Many admirers of new media praise the impact of social media. Initially the likes of Facebook and Twitter were seen as a platform for mundane individuals who find the need to share details about their lives; the view has now totally changed and many regard social media as the go-to source for breaking news, which allows readers to tap straight into the minds of news makers, writers, gatherers and thought leaders (De Rosa, 2010)

To the question of how people will consume their news and media; many researchers, bloggers and journalists have come to realise the importance of the new media landscape. News and media organisations will look to approach monetisation and content experimentation that is focused on looking at the web in a new way. News in the coming years will blur the lines between audience and creator more than ever in an era of social media. Below is a look at several trends in content distribution and presentation that is likely to occur.

1. Personalised news

News organisations will design stories that are more suited to the way readers consume online content. One early sign of this is the recent collaboration between Google, The New York Times, and The Washington Post on the Living Stories project, an experiment that presents coverage of a specific story or topic in one place, making it easy to navigate the topic and see the timeline of coverage on the story. It also allows one to get a summary of the story and track the conversations taking place. This format contextualises and personalises the news.

2. Real-time news streams

Real-time news is increasingly important and will become an integral part of traditional news sources. Jeff Jarvis, buzzmachine.com media critic predicts these streams will replace web sites. It is already visible with Twitter streams and other visualisations incorporated into news home pages with updated financial and market information from new sources like Google Finance.

3. Blogozines

Blogozines are another format of blogging but with a bit of design, in essence an online magazine, that is an engaging alternative to the traditional blog post. This format is great in keeping readers engaged in long-form stories. Though blogozines will not mark the end of simple blogging but act as an adaptation to the original form.

4. Social news

Last year the social news trend gained momentum with the explosion of Twitter. Organisations will further distribute their content across social platforms that allow its users to create a personalised and socialised news stream. Personalised search has emerged in 2009 which will see more sites integrating applications that allow users to create personalised news streams. News organisations are beginning to establish a presence across multiple platforms and social sites. It is not just the popular sites like Twitter and Facebook anymore, but with platforms like Tumblog, a platform that is good for magazine journalism.

Robert Quigley, social media editor at the Austin American-Statesman, believes news sites will continue to exist for a while, but “smart news sites will extend their tentacles into the spaces where people are communicating, and talking about news.”

5. Mobile news

Already popular amongst smart phone users, mobile news will see a distinct transformation in the way people consume news as smart phones become ubiquitous. More and more news organisations will innovate by making mobile phone apps that will give the users the news they need as well as creating a revenue stream for news organisations. Bill Thompson, a commentator relays, ‘Innovation, not pay walls, the future for media companies, like thousands of people around the world I have just purchased The Guardian app for the iPhone.’

Mobile news also has great potential to increase the number of content consumers, if done in a way where consumers are able to subscribe to sections from different news organisations. Newspapers and publishers need to create a platform where consumers can purchase and manage their own digital subscriptions.

(By Nahidur - August 2010)

Too Big to Fail - Book Review

2010-08-04T13:15:00.003+01:00

Reviewed by Nahidur Rahman

Too Big to Fail - Inside the battle to save Wall Street, by Andrew Ross Sorkin, a New York Times chief mergers and acquisitions journalist, is a fascinating story about the collapse of the American and then the global financial markets in 2008. It is a reminder of just how close the worlds banking system came to a total meltdown, when Lehman Brothers crumbled and AIG crashed. The narrative is based on interviews the author conducted during and immediately after the financial crisis. These interviews took near enough 500 hours to conduct amongst 200 major players from the financial world. Along with the interviews, Sorkin managed to obtain documented tapes, notes, presentations, calendars, call logs, and more. The level of detail is nothing short of amazing with a moment-by-moment account of the calamity, which made the story prolonged; yet the author managed to keep things interesting.

Sorkin builds the story of how the financial collapse actually started. He initiates although most people are aware of the meltdown starting in and around September 2008; it actually started much earlier - in the March 2008 when the U.S. government helped Morgan Stanley with the acquisition of Bear Stearns. He manages to discuss the events leading from that time to the eventual collapse. Sorkin describes how Wall Street and Washington were intricately tied together in the collapse and details the level and depth of these ties. Before the story pans out, he enlists his cast of characters which include the likes from the management of Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as overseas organisations from countries like Korea and China. The characters also include a whole array of U.S. attorneys, financial and political figures from the U.K., as well as the American Congress, the Federal Reserve, the Department of the Treasury, and the White House to name a few.

A character that pops up quite a few times throughout the read is energetic Hank Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury, who ultimately becomes exhausted as he leaps from crisis to crisis, first trying to influence Dick Fuld to sell the doomed firm - Lehman, then plotting himself into a war with the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and finally, reeling from plan-to-plan to hold everything together but eventually underestimating the whole situation and letting Lehman relinquish itself from the face of the earth. Such is the detailed outlining of Hank Paulson; Sorkin manages to go into pretty much every detail of the key characters in the book. Interestingly, Sorkin even manages to reveal what the people at the top of the international financial institutions think of each other. Hank Paulson describes John Varley, CEO of Barclays, ‘a waffler’ and ‘a weak man’.

The book depicts the greed, the hunger for power, the money, and the lack of financial regulation that led to the financial collapse. Too big to fail clearly manages to convey the egos and decision-making styles of the key figures during the period of the meltdown. Such is an example of the way one of the top bankers use to lead his lifestyle, “Lehmann CEO Dick Fuld's long-time No. 2, Joe Gregory, would helicopter to work each day”.

Sorkins’ writing style is of a novel, which makes the whole financial catastrophe a thriller with page-turning cliff hangers. As a result, readers feel as though they are in the midst of the action. Sorkin recreates intimate conversations and high-level discussions. He manages to get into so much detail and describe pretty much everything in most scenes, much like a Hollywood movie - From what coffee individuals were drinking due a particular meeting to describing a character with the attributes of a ‘Sex and the City’ character.

From a communications perspective, Sorkin does not manage to outlay what PR people did during the whole meltdown. It would have been interesting to know what role communication agencies played during the biggest crisis of the 21st century. On the other hand, as city PR sits in the shadows of what businesses do, it is plausible to think Sorkin did this deliberately.

Despite its’ 600 pages, Too Big To Fail moves along at such a fast pace that even as the reader you feel hard-pressed to stop and think what if this happened or what if that did not happen. While no one can be happy with the way the financial markets tumbled with taxpayers paying hundreds of billions to prop up failed banks and bonus-driven bankers, the narrative at times makes one feel sorry for some the bankers involved and/or those that lost jobs due to the crisis.

Moreover, as a reader with a fair understanding of the financial industry, I do feel that the editing rushed and poorly done, as what was written in 600 pages could have been written in half as much. Another editorial issue with book was the way it was written, a person with no financial knowledge could not understand the story without referring to a financial jargon-buster. I also feel that Sorkin writes with a liberal bias as there were no villains, but a few heroes; even though the story illustrates how interconnected the financial institutions, governments and top banking officials are, despite being rivals. Nonetheless the book is a truly remarkable non-fictional achievement, concerned as it is with politics and international finance. At the end, the reader will be left feeling astonished, amazed and fairly well informed.