Rants & Raves from the Tangerine PR team...

LIONS AND TIGERS AND CARS, OH MY!

2012-01-30T10:47:00.002Z

By Becky Roberts, junior account manager at Tangerine PR, Manchester

Last week I had the privilege of attending the launch of the Peugeot 3008 HYbrid4 – the world’s first diesel electric hybrid.

The event started at the Malmaison in Birmingham where a room full of journalists received a briefing on Peugeot and the plans for the next six months, as well as an informative overview of the spec of the new 3008 Hybrid4.

We were then directed to a car and sent on a mystery tour to the West Midlands Safari Park in Bewdley. The route as planned by the Peugeot team, allowed the drivers to utilise all of the modes within the car including: auto, sport, 4x4 and ZEV (Zero Emissions Vehicle aka electric).

When we arrived at the park, we were directed onto an off road trail which allowed us to really test out the car’s 4x4 capabilities. We then had an amazing opportunity to drive the car through the animal enclosures where we came face to face with rhinos, tigers and most notably a Hybrid White Lion!

I was travelling with Tangerine PR group managing director Sandy Lindsay and consumer team account director Jo Dudley – two major petrol heads. As an automatic car driver virgin I decided to step aside and let them share the driving (I decided it probably wasn’t the best setting in the world for my automatic debut!).

With plenty of space in the back and comfy leather interior it was the perfect setting for me to sit back and relax and enjoy the scenery. The rear windows were tinted but also had the advantage of a retractable guard which is a great added extra. The panoramic roof also added to my ‘back-seat experience’, providing spectacular views which were particularly invaluable when visiting the safari park.

When looking in the front of the vehicle my eyes widened due to the gadget packed front console. The car contains all of the features you would expect from a technologically advanced model, Bluetooth and a sat nav system as well as a floating speedometer directly within the driver’s eye line. The most innovative aspect of the dashboard is the information screen which allows the driver to see at any one time, which mode is being utilised, the charge being delivered to the battery and the points at which the electric engine kicks in to ensure the car is driving in its most fuel efficient mode.

As mentioned earlier, I didn’t actually drive the car as part of the launch, so throughout the event I watched Sandy and Jo drive and I reviewed the car to see how it would fit my individual driving needs.

As a mum I need a family car that can fit a pram, child seat and everything else my almost two year old could possibly need at any given time. However, I have to admit I do like to put my foot down and have a good run out in the car every so often (obviously when my son isn’t with me). When I purchased my last car, I was particularly impressed with the impact of the eco benefits ie the reduced car tax and fuel efficiency so the eco aspect of the Hybrid4 is a great attraction. The four wheel drive offers a fun aspect, which will be perfect for the more adventurous family activities like camping/hiking which will require us driving out into some off-road territory. So putting all this together I think the 3008 Hybrid4 would be a great car for me. All I have to do now is actually drive an automatic and then I can give the Hybrid4 an official driving review.

Miliband in Manchester

2012-01-30T10:42:00.000Z

By: Gary Quinn, Head of Media, Tangerine PR, Manchester

I met the future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom the other night. Of course I’m no Mystic Meg but I feel pretty confident that Mr Miliband will one day take up residence in number 10 Downing Street.

That of course is David Miliband I am referring to and not his younger brother Ed, who is currently struggling in his role as leader of the Opposition. Personally I can’t see Miliband the junior leading Labour anywhere, never mind back into power.

So it was with interest I sat down at The Mechanics Institute to hear what the former Foreign Secretary, and failed Labour leadership contender, had to say for himself in front of a large gathering of (mainly) local Labour party brothers and sisters.

Miliband was interviewed by local DJ-ing legend Dave Haslam, which I thought was an interesting choice of inquisitor. As it turned out Haslam, with his laid back yet informed style, set the tone for the evening rather well.

He’s no Jeremy Paxman, and I’m sure neither would he want to be, but he did put it up to Miliband regarding the lack of an alternative economic strategy forthcoming from Labour. And it was actually refreshing to see a politician interviewed without it turning into an ego battle between two men trying to get one over on the other.

Instead this was a considered interview, with some excellent insight from Miliband who said Labour’s gravest mistake was that they mistook good times for a good system.

He regrets the fact that while they were in power they were unable to insulate against a severe economic downturn such as we are currently experiencing. However, he was quick to point out that the recession started in Wall Street not Downing Street.

There was also an interesting exchange when Miliband accused Haslam of using Daily Mail language in relation to tax credits. I don’t know Dave personally but he strikes me as somebody who couldn’t be less Daily Mail-like, but the comment added a little frisson to the air and was good value.

Miliband, as one would expect, is an accomplished speaker and he seems to have accepted his position with good grace. He has used the time since the leadership defeat to his younger brother to reflect and re-energise and he clearly is a man with a lot more to give.

In the Q&A session that followed he refused to rule out running for the party leadership in the future by answering that he just did not know at this stage. He could have lied and said such thoughts never entered his head as he concentrated on his grassroots campaign to make the Labour party more open, Movement for Change. But he didn’t.

He knew the time was right to stand down from the Shadow Cabinet to avoid the soap opera that surely would have followed and I believe he will also know when the time is right to put himself forward for the leadership election once again.

And from there I believe he can take Labour back to power. Just remember, you read it here first…

A Little Bit of Good News Goes a Long Way...

2012-01-30T09:37:00.001Z

By Claire Gamble, junior account manager, Tangerine PR

What a year it’s been already! The UK Government’s debt has risen to a record £1 trillion; gyms are ripping off poor families, some film that doesn’t even have any speaking in it has been nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards (AND it’s not even in colour, what do they think it is – the olden days??); Katy Perry has stopped following Russell Brand on Twitter and to top it all off, 2012 is going to be the end of the world. Happy bloomin’ new year.

Pah – well, I think you’re all humbugs.

Yes, it’s January and we’re all still getting over the merriment and expense of Christmas (it could be worse, at least you’re not in £1 trillion of debt...), yes it’s a bit rainy and miserable out there (in Manchester, at least), and yes there is the worst economic crisis EVER going on (well, we could all do with saving a bit of dosh anyway), but stop right there – it’s not all bad news y’know, and at Tangerine PR we’re trying hard to share some of the good.

In the B2B team, we started working with Stockport-based building and maintenance company, FT Finley, in September 2011 and the account has been quickly going from strength to strength. It can sometimes take a couple of months to get the ball rolling with new clients as you start introducing them to the media – however, local newspapers, regional business titles and national trade publications have been immediately receptive to FT Finley and the news that we have been generating for them. From new appointments to contract wins, from company profiles to employee interviews, the press can’t get enough of FT Finley.

So what is the appeal of this Stockport-based company? Well, in my opinion it’s because the company is brimming with good news. The construction industry has been one of the worst affected by the economic crash and just this week there were reports that 10,000 construction jobs in the North West could be at risk over the next 12 months.

The media and public are crying out for some good news! And the, er, good news is.... that there is good news out there! FT Finley’s new appointments and contract wins are not only fantastic news for the region, but for the UK construction industry as a whole. These stories tell us that it’s not all doom and gloom – there are companies doing well, there are jobs to be had and there are businesses investing in the local economy. And by counting up all of the pieces of coverage we’ve achieved over the last few months – it just goes to show how a bit of good news goes a long way indeed.

The good, the bad, and the ugly – the modern approach to customer service

2012-01-27T16:04:00.003Z

by Jo Hart, B2B Senior Account Manager at Tangerine PR.

If there’s one thing that really gets my goat, it’s bad customer service. In a time when a large number of consumer-facing businesses are struggling, you’d think that creating positive, loyal advocates would be top of a company’s priority list, but as recent events on Twitter this week have shown, it’s not always the case.

LA Fitness is one such organisation that’s had a hard time on the microblogging site this week and while I won’t go into my view on how they responded to a customer issue, its case shows how when not handled in the right way, one complaint can go a long way.

On Tuesday evening, the story was trending across Twitter worldwide, and after a tirade of comments and negativity from incensed tweeters, the company was forced to reverse its original decision.

This week however, social media has also played host to another example of customer service in action, with the story of Lily and the Tiger Bread. Undoubtedly most of you have already seen the story across Twitter and Facebook, but for those of you that haven’t, Lily’s letter and Sainsbury’s response is here and below:

While the letter has been doing the rounds for a while, this week saw it explode across social media, with the piece getting almost 145,000 likes on Facebook at last count. And while there’s some criticism that Chris’ response was a little contrived, responding in this way has undoubtedly been a PR coup for the supermarket.

The difference between Sainsbury’s and LA Fitness’ reaction to customer enquiries largely boils down to adopting a personal approach, and taking the time to make an individual response to each complaint or request for information. In fact, in many of the instances when I’ve experienced bad customer service, the root of the problem has largely been the company’s stock, and often stubborn response, and that’s what really gets me annoyed.

BEWARE: TECHNOLOGY CAN CAUSE PREMATURE AGEING

2012-01-20T10:09:00.002Z

By Nikki Girvan
Junior Account Manager,Tangerine PR

Working at Tangerine PR especially alongside our social media team, Juice Digital technology is a part of my everyday life. There is no escaping it, but I have a concern – I reckon technology is ageing me prematurely, and I’m not talking about electromagnetic waves from my mobile phone here.

Let me explain.

Last week, while talking to a younger relative, I happened to mention that, as a teenager, if I wanted to watch a particular TV programme I would have to be at home, on a set day, at a set time - all of which was dictated by that the channel the show was on.

She wasn’t just surprised, she was AGHAST.

Young’un: “So you would have to be there, then, or you’d miss it? What about Sky Plus or watch again?”

Me: “It didn’t exist… you could record it on VHS, but Dad was usually videoing something…”

Young’un “What’s VHS?”

Cue me, at just a few months shy of the big 3-0, feeling ANCIENT.

This wasn’t my first experience of technologically-induced premature aging. Over Christmas, while speaking to a friend’s younger cousin, I regaled a story about when, as a rookie journalist and relatively new driver, I was told to take myself to Birmingham to cover a breaking news story.

I dutifully jumped in my car and got myself on the M6, driving for over an hour before I realised I was heading in the wrong direction, towards Blackpool.

Young’un (jaw gaping): “Was your sat nav broken?”

No, it wasn’t – I didn’t have one. At that time, sav nav was a relatively new and super expensive luxury. The most sophisticated navigation system I had at my disposal at the time was a tattered road map of the UK.

I know I can’t be the only one feeling this – I reckon that anyone born B.M.I, (Before Mainstream Internet - circa 1995) – those of us who are digital immigrants, not natives, will have had similar moments talking to younger cousins, siblings or even colleagues!

The funny thing is, though, that technology also has a way of reviving things. As social media exploded and online TV appeared, the prediction was that broadcast audiences would rapidly move away from their televisions and choose to consume broadcast media via their iPads and laptops, and TV as ‘oldies’ like me remember, would fade away and die.

But the rise of social media and the phenomenon of the ‘second screen’ (watching television while also commenting on/watching responses to shows on a smartphone or laptop, simultaneously) has breathed new life into broadcast media.

To cite Mashable CEO, Pete Cashmore, it has brought about the dawn of ‘must-Tweet TV’ – TV that gets the masses online tweeting, sharing and blogging, creating an almighty buzz and lifting ratings. No longer bound by the constraints of TV scheduling, where the programmes broadcast at peak times to a captive audience (teatimes, Saturday evenings) were the ones that won the ratings race, ‘must-tweet TV’ gives the underdogs a chance too.

As well as the obvious ‘must tweet’ programmes – the X Factor, TOWIE and of course Question Time – more niche and offbeat shows are also reaping the benefits, such as quirky comedy Him & Her, Golden Globe winner, Luther, and Masterchef.

So although I’m not best pleased with this technology-induced ageing process, the speed of change does have its benefits and, when it comes to TV, it proves that there’s life in the old girl yet.

Let’s hope the same can be said about me!

SOPA, PIPA and the Internet Blackout

2012-01-20T09:53:00.000Z

By Anna Wilson, Digital Strategist at Juice Digital

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) are hot on the news agenda at the moment after a global strike took place.

The big sites in the digital/tech world went ‘dark’ for 24 hours to protest the so called ‘Internet Blacklist bill’…Google even blacked out its logo!

Why? It’s because Senator Ron Wyden plans to take these acts to Congress where they will vote on internet censorship on 25th Jan.

Since the mid-90s, the internet has had a huge effect on the world, opening up new channels for commerce, facilitating communication and leading to the birth of the world’s first (and only) truly free press!

If passed, this new bill will:

• Give the Attorney General of the US to take action against foreign sites infringing on copyright

• If the AG chooses to take action, then:

o Internet service providers will be required to block access to the site

o Search engines (eg Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) will be forced to remove all references to the offending sites

o Ad providers (eg Google AdSense) will be required to stop providing ad service to the site

o Payment providers (eg PayPal, Visa, etc) will be required to terminate service to the site

Basically, this will give the Attorney General the power to censor sites that the US government does not have jurisdiction to take down directly. (Cough WiliLeaks!)

The real juicy stuff (pardon the pun) though is this:

“An ‘Internet site is dedicated to theft of U.S. property’ if [a portion of the site is US-directed] and is used by users within the United States and is primarily designed or operated for the purpose of offering services in a manner that enables or facilitates [copyright violation or circumvention of copyright protection measures]. “

Basically, this means that any site that allows users to post content is infringing copyright law– uh oh!

Sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia, Gmail and millions of others would be technically in breach of copyright and subject to censorship by the US.

What’s more, the US sets a precedent for internet law around the globe which means that this could become the new GLOBAL standard.

Goodbye free-press and hello propaganda!

Usain Bolt in Virgin territory

2012-01-20T09:43:00.000Z

By: Gary Quinn, Head of Media, Tangerine PR, Manchester

Have you seen the new Virgin Media ad? Yes the one where Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt dons a blonde goatee beard and pretends to be Richard Branson?

I only ask because it really tickled me and I thought it worth doing a quick (no pun intended) little blog about.

Bolt, the world’s fastest man, was snapped-up by Branson to front a multi-million pound campaign to promote Virgin Media’s new superfast broadband service. The company is investing £110m to double the broadband speed for its 4.1m internet customers over the next 18 months (of which I am one!).

The TV ad, to be supported by ads in other media including national press and billboards, shows Bolt in a tongue-in-cheek attempt to impersonate Branson by taking over his office and donning his trademark blonde goatee.

The ad campaign, which has been created by agency DDB London, introduces the strapline "Keep Up" that Virgin Media will use in future marketing activity.

And I have to say it really hit the mark on a number of fronts. First off the team has very simply and effectively got across the speed message by using the fastest man in the world to front the campaign.

Of course this sounds obvious now but in an initial brainstorm to discuss how to promote doubling the speed of customers broadband would you have thought of Usain Bolt? Would you, really?

But by taking a step back from the product and looking at the bigger picture of what it is all about I imagine the whole campaign came down to one word – speed. It’s all about speed. And who better to personify speed than the fastest man in the world – especially in the year of the London Olympics.

However this is only half the tale; what happened next is even better. The creative team avoided all the obvious sportsman endorsement clichés and injected humour into the campaign that helped set it apart.

Of course a big cheque from Richard Branson will, no doubt, have helped persuade Bolt to don the hideous goatee beard and “pretend” to be the Virgin boss.

But let’s not forget, ideas are free and these ideas are brilliant.

Plus credit must go to the boss man himself, who is as always unafraid to send himself up. Humour – done well – is a great way to make your campaign really stand out.

I just wish that more firms would realise this and see that taking your brand and yourself seriously all the time isn’t necessarily the right way forward; taking risks and being different can work too.

Branson didn’t make a fortune by staying safe, nor by doing things by the book. And Usain Bolt has always been his own man. Together they make great bedfellows and a truly inspired marketing campaign.

MUHAMMAD ALI: BOXER, LEGEND… AND INCREDIBLE PR?

2012-01-17T17:12:00.000Z

By Nikki Girvan, Junior Account Manager at Tangerine PR

This morning, while listening to a news report about Muhammad Ali reaching his 70th birthday on my way to work at Tangerine PR, I realised that, for someone who isn’t into boxing, I know a heck of a lot about him - but nothing at all about his sporting career.

Convert to Islam, conscientious objector, social activist and an excellent wordsmith – everything I know about Ali has little to do with his success as a professional boxer, and everything to do with his incredible skill as a self-publicist.

From the outset, Ali seemed to know exactly what to say to excite, engage and at times anger the media – ensuring column inches every step of the way. From his first interview with his local paper, the Louisville Courier, at the age of 12, where he made a cocky pre-fight prediction: “This guy is done. I’ll stop him in one” to his immortal pre-fight rally that he would “Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” – he knew the value of a well-crafted sound bite.

As his fame grew , so too did his media ambitions, dreaming up elaborate PR stunts, such as the iconic photos taken of him shadow-boxing at the bottom of a swimming pool, which he used to support the proclamation: “Do you know why I’m the fastest heavyweight in the world? I’m the only heavyweight that trains under water.”

He didn’t, of course, but the public and the media alike ate the story right up – just as he had planned.

The beauty of Ali’s PR skills lay in the fact, at that time, it just wasn’t the business it is now. Of course there were publicists and press releases, but not companies like Tangerine PR and our peers, where teams of professionals work hard to create stunts and campaigns for our clients.

He was just one man, set on the goal of being “The Greatest” and knowing exactly how to achieve that, both in and out of ring.

Happy Birthday Mohammad Ali – from a PR professional to a great PR – I salute you!

Journalism: The case for the defence…

2012-01-16T10:07:00.000Z

By: Gary Quinn, Head of Media, Tangerine PR, Manchester

The editors of the Sun, Express, Telegraph, Financial Times and Star all went on trial last week – or at least that’s how it felt.

The Leveson inquiry, as I have said rather vocally before, is trial of journalism as opposed to trial by journalism. And this week saw some of its biggest hitters hauled before the redoubtable Robert Jay QC, the lead counsel for the inquiry.

I have been dipping in and out of the live stream since the hearing began last month, and even managed to catch my old boss, Chris Johnson of Mercury Press, as the warm-up act for Piers Morgan.

For a media geek and former newspaper man like myself of course it is interesting to see so many leading industry figures speak about modern day newspapers, and what it is that makes them tick as editors or as section heads.

But I couldn’t help but wonder if the whole Leveson Inquiry isn’t simply a very public act of self-flagellation foisted upon the media by the vengeful political class in response to the MPs expenses debacle.

What member of the public, with absolutely no connection to the media, cares how the Sun’s Bizarre Editor, Gordon Smart, runs his department or wrestles with issues of privacy on a day-to-day basis? Never mind what a dinosaur like Kelvin MacKenzie has to say about ethics and the press – lest we forget it is twenty years since he last edited a national newspaper.

So why was he there? What can somebody like MacKenzie really add to an inquiry about modern media ethics and practices? Naff all, that’s what. But he always provides good copy and he’ll play to the gallery, just like that other over-sized five-year-old Jeremy Clarkson. Two men cut from the same emotionally stunted cloth.

So Leveson called MacKenzie just to add a splash of colour to proceedings, and he duly obliged, boasting about how he never thought about ethics and simply “lobbed” stories into the paper if they “sounded right”.

Utter tosh from a bygone era. And that’s where he belongs.

My point is that I don’t see how much Leveson is really going to learn about modern day journalism via this sterile inquiry set-up, far better if he and his team were to spend six months embedded in the newsrooms of the nationals.

That way they would learn everything they would need to know about how modern day newspapers are run. His team would see the reality of life at the coal face of British journalism, how stories are written, pages designed and editions put to bed.

Of course I know nobody in the industry would like to be watched in this manner but increased regulation of the media is set to be the ultimate outcome of this inquiry, so isn’t it best that they get it right, rather than some dodgy updated version dreamt up in the sterile environment of the inquiry room.

Leveson and his team are clearly able people but I believe you cannot possible legislate for an industry without getting under its skin. And forcing a succession of editors into the witness box will certainly never achieve this.

Seeing them in action, however, will give you an entirely different perspective. The perspective that doesn’t involve phone hacking or blagging or any of the other “dark arts” we now hear so much about.

Let’s take just a few of the biggest stories to be published when I worked at the Daily Mirror and examine how they came to light. The first was the exposure of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott as an adulterer who had an affair with his secretary.

Did the Mirror hack his phone or perhaps his email? Nope.

And just for the record, I never came across either practice in my four years there on the features desk. But back to Prescott and his secretary. Did the story come from a leak deep inside Downing Street that wanted to discredit the Deputy PM? Not that either.

Instead the source was a lorry driver lover who simply rang up to say he had evidence that his girlfriend was having an affair with John Prescott. The call was taken by a graduate trainee who had enough journalistic nous to keep the guy talking and quickly build up and rapport.

It turns out he’d called the Sun beforehand but they’d put the phone down thinking he was a bit of a nutter, spouting nonsense about John Prescott.

But the Mirror trainee wasn’t letting it go and within hours he was sitting in the caller’s front room with all the evidence needed – including some very memorable images - to extract a full and frank confession from the Deputy PM.

Then there was the startling ‘Cocaine Kate’ story that exposed model Kate Moss as a cocaine user alongside her then partner, singer Peter Doherty. Again this had nothing to do with phone hacking or blagging but came about because of concerns within her inner circle about the direction her life was taking.

The contact formed an excellent relationship with the Mirror reporter and over time agreed to help facilitate the exposure that they believed would help Moss curtail the lifestyle they feared could lead to her demise as one of the world’s top models.

The resulting story caused ripples around the world, and remains an iconic Mirror front page.

Both world exclusives shared one thing in common, namely that they were possible mostly thanks to good old fashioned and dogged nurturing of contacts by journalists. In the case of John Prescott the trainee bonded with the spurned lover over their support for Man Utd, while the Moss exposé was cultivated over many months.

But of course the general public have no access to this type of information and my point is that they won’t discover it during the Leveson Inquiry. And neither, of course, will Lord Leveson.

Putting journalism on trial is not the answer, understanding how it practices and the challenges it faces, is far more likely to lead to legislation or regulation that will enhance, rather than hinder, our press.

And this is why I believe embedding Lord Leveson and his team in newsrooms is the answer; only within those hollowed places can they ever truly understand newspapers and accurately make recommendations for their future.

And if we must have a public inquiry why not haul the bloody bankers who took us to the edge of financial ruin into the witness box? Isn’t it time they faced the public – who bailed them out – to answer questions about their actions that have had such catastrophic affects?

Self-flagellating bankers? Now who could resist that…?

Google+ and the objectivity of search

2012-01-13T11:36:00.000Z

For a while I've been wondering how Google would keep from allowing their personal interest in entering the social networking arena from affecting their objectivity in the business of "Search". Well, the results are in! Coincidentally just a day after speaking about just this subject with my colleague Steve Downes (@stevejuice), Mashable published this story about the search results and rankings of Twitter pages vs. Google+ when conducting a Google search ( http://mashable.com/2012/01/12/google-twitter-social-search-at-symbol/).

The findings are not shocking, and yet still, I find myself quite annoyed. The article points out the fact that Google has not, in the 8+ years of Twitter, decided to index the "@" symbol for its search algorithm. As covered in the article, this means that searching for a brand or person's Twitter page there is no search priority for the results of "@mktgba" or "mktgba". What this means is that a brand's Twitter page will show up in order of relevance at the same position regardless of adding the @ symbol to your search query. However, Google has indexed its own "+" sign; thus prioritising its Google+ page results to the top in any search including this symbol.

As an additional benefit to Google+ users, Google search crawlers will pull content from Google+ pages, while not pulling from brands Facebook or Twitter pages (admittedly because they are "private") thus meaning that Google+ pages will have a larger effect on SEO.

What does all this mean? It means that Google is clearly allowing its interest in succeeding in the social networking arena to effect its objectivity in search. While social networking has had a huge boom over the past 3 years, search (as an industry) is still widely considered the most important facet of a business's online priorities. By controlling the world's most dominant search engine, Google is able to greatly affect the positive value of having a Google+ page. However, is this really fair? And even if Twitter or Facebook get an injunction against such self-serving practices will it be too late? Will Google+ be able to utilise this competitive advantage for long enough to reach a critical mass? Google+ is growing at an extraordinary rate at the moment and while usage (once a member) still remains low, it could be a threat in the near future.

I don't believe that Google+ will challenge Facebook or Twitter, anytime soon, for consumer engagement (consumers already have invested too much time and data in those two sites) however the precedent of bias algorithms for search is a serious issue. What obligation does Google have to ignore competitive pressures and just provide the BEST results? Don't they owe us a certain level of trust and impartiality?

Manchester calling to the faraway towns

2012-01-09T09:18:00.003Z

By Steve Downes, managing director, Juice Digital

“Manchester is the place where people do things. There, you don’t talk about what you are going to do, you do it.' That is the Manchester habit. And in the past through the manifestation of this quality the word Manchester became a synonym for energy and freedom and the right to do and to think without shackles."
One of the Oasis boys maybe? Ian Brown? Bit older maybe? What about Anthony Burgess?

Nope. It’s a hundred-year old quote from a book published in 1912 called “What the Judge Saw: Being Twenty-Five Years in Manchester by One Who Has Done It” by a chap called Edward Abbott Parry.

The place has kicked on a bit since then – it’s got better and better. But it’s stayed true to that attitude. Here’s a thing. Walk through cities like New York, London, Barcelona etc and who is wearing all the I NY T-shirts? Tourists. Walk around Manchester and you’ll see them being worn by thousands of Mancs who are simply in love with their own city. Now I’m not even pretending to be un-biased, but for me it’s the greatest city on earth to work, live and simply fall in love with life.

Let’s just leave Manchester there for a moment and talk about some work stuff.

You chose a career in PR or Social Media. Why? Think back.

Was it to work on some of the biggest brands going? Was it to work in teams that come up with brilliant ideas that capture national headlines? Or did you always fancy picking up bucketfuls of awards at those glamorous award ceremonies?

Are you getting all those things?

Or maybe you’re one of those people who simply expect the best. “I’m going to work at the best PR agency in the UK: Full Stop”

You’re going to have to be in London to do that, right? Wrong. Guess where?

OK, now here comes the call to action. If you’re somebody who wants all those things and downright deserves them – we want you. We need quality people in all areas. Consumer and B2B. PR and Social media. And at all levels, from Director to account executive.

So you need to do a bit of research. First of all check out these websites: http://www.tangerinepr.com/; http://www.juicedigital.co.uk/
You might want to read what the CIPR judges said when they named us Outstanding PR Consultancy of the Year 2011:

“Tangerine does everything well! It is clearly an inspiring consultancy – for client and employees alike – with strong values and a consistent record of success, based on clever ideas, hard work and – in the judges' view – an exceptionally sincere relationship with its clients. The judges felt that Tangerine represented an outstanding showcase for UK PR at its very best!”
Finally. What’s with the beach?

Well, some time ago a certain Ian Brown of the Stone Roses said “Manchester has everything, except a beach”. It has now Ian. That’s Castlefield beach. It arrives every summer. And see that building behind on the left? That’s us!

Where else would you want to be?

Now the easy part. Want to chat? We make a good brew in Manchester too! Send your CV to: sue.pyatt@tangerinepr.com and we’ll do the rest!

TIRELESS CAMPAIGN FOR A MURDERED SON – THE STEPHEN LAWRENCE STORY

2012-01-05T16:00:00.002Z

By Kate Greville, senior account manager, Tangerine PR agency, Manchester

I’ve been following the Stephen Lawrence case for a while now, so on Tuesday I sat transfixed to BBC News, waiting to hear a verdict that had taken 18 years to come, and when the ‘guilty’ ruling came, a huge sense of relief come over me. “At last”, I thought.

The case is a fascinating one; one which will go down in history, with Stephen’s legacy never to be forgotten.

Personally I won’t forget it for many reasons…for the numerous investigation blunders, for the fact that it forced a change in the Double Jeopardy Law, for the arrogant contempt of the suspects and the barefaced racism. However, for me, the single most striking part was the tireless justice and PR campaign that Stephen’s parents, Doreen and Neville Lawrence, undertook.

If it weren’t for them, this case would probably have closed years ago, forgotten and hidden in the inside pages of the national newspapers, because on the surface, this murder didn’t appear remarkable and the victim wasn’t white, blonde or female.

However, a mother’s and father’s incredible love and desperation to find justice for their hard-working, bright and ambitious son, who dreamed of becoming an architect, could not be underestimated.

Power of the press

Doreen and Neville were very conscious of the power of the press and key influencers it seems…

Following Stephen’s murder, photographs and interviews appeared with Doreen and Neville in the national news, then the Daily Express ran an ‘in-depth’ article on racism in London. A few days later and quite remarkably, Nelson Mandela was pictured meeting Doreen and Neville – a meeting that was (naturally) widely credited with having given extra impetus to the police investigation.

Then in 1997 there was a significant turning point, the Daily Mail published the headline "Murderers: The Mail accuses these men of killing" – after four years, the Lawrences finally had the full backing of the media. Years of courageous headlines and relentless campaigning followed and on 3rd January 2012, two of the five suspects were brought to justice. A momentous day, which will be remembered forever.

How PR played its part?

In the two decades after Stephen's murder, public relations turned a personal tragedy into a cause celebre, it also played a massive part in the way the public perceived the case and how its participants were, and are to this day, perceived. Working in the PR industry at an agency that covers consumer, trade and charity PR, as well as social media, I know how powerful PR is. Clever and proactive PR and campaigning, like that used in the Stephen Lawrence case, can make brands/individuals/causes famous, affect the bottom line and change reputations, perceptions and opinions.

So as I end this blog, the case continues, I know that whatever happens in the future, no one can deny the power of a parent’s love, or the media for that matter…

Walkers and Stella Cidre are top launches in 2011

2011-12-21T16:35:00.000Z

By Rachael Ireland, senior account executive, Tangerine PR, Manchester

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, there are many new products that hit the shelves that go unnoticed. A few however stand out and each year, market research company Nielsen compiles a list of the year’s most memorable new product launches.

According to Nielsen’s Top Products Survey 2011, which is published in The Grocer magazine, Walkers Crinkles, Stella Cidre and Innocent Fruit Juice Cartons were the most successful launches of 2011. As a serial crisp lover, I was delighted when Walkers’ introduced Crinkles to its range and with a campaign that included 18 weeks of TV support, radio and social media activity, it comes as no surprise that it was voted the top product launch of 2011.

Just six months after launching, consumers ate close to £30m worth of Walkers’ Crinkles and with staying in the new going out, much of these sales can be attributed to sharing a bag while watching Strictly or X-Factor on a Saturday night. Cider also flourished in 2011: our sweet toothed nation glugged its way through £27.6m of Stella Cidre while sales of lager and ale fell, due to the hike in VAT. Once considered a luxury, Innocent Drinks has put smoothies and juices back on the map, selling £22m to those ever-increasing health conscious consumers.

Earlier this year, Tangerine PR’s client Gratterpalm, the North’s leading advertising agency, designed a campaign for the launch of Asda’s in store ‘Student Shop,’ a premium seasonal in-store space dedicated to students. This year’s survey shows that this market is spending more money than ever before in supermarkets. Sales of Pot Noodles are up 21 per cent to £93.5m, while energy drinks, another fastest growing category in 2011, leapt 12.6 per cent (as a former university student I speak from experience that energy drinks really do aid the revision process).

More and more Brits are baking their own cakes, inspired by TV shows such as BBC Two’s The Great British Bake Off, which could have something to do with the fact that the volume of cake sales is down by 4.1 per cent. Despite this, another of Tangerine PR’s clients Soreen, the UK’s favourite malt loaf, still enjoyed sales of £12.5m, ranking them fifth out of the top 20 ranked cakes eaten in the UK this year.

On the other end of the scale, I was surprised to learn that milk price wars have cost brands a drop in sales of 5.7 per cent and consumers are buying fewer baked beans (I couldn’t believe it either) because of a price inflation caused by the hike in raw materials, which has affected the canned foods market.

Nielsen also ranked the best TV ads of the year using a simple checklist: do viewers remember an ad? Do they know which brand it was for and understand its message? Do they like the ad and are they likely to purchase a product as a result of seeing it?

I have to admit that I hadn’t seen or heard of the number one Aunt Bessie’s Frozen Potato advert, which features pensioners Margaret and Mabel spying on a family eating dinner. After watching the 30-second advert, it was easy to see why it had been voted into the number one spot.

Being a bit of a consumer geek I’m always eager to find out how products fared in the survey and it’s good to see that those brands which are making a difference in the world of retail are recognised. I wonder who the movers and shakers of 2012 will be?

Manchester's Creative Magnetism

2011-12-13T14:01:00.001Z

by Nahuel Berger-North, junior account executive at Tangerine PR

I love Manchester. I really do. In such a bustling, dynamic and friendly city there's so much to absorb, to enjoy and to experience. I love the sense of presence and personality. From the characteristic railway lines that cut through the city centre, to the red brick buildings of Manchester's industrial past, it’s a city that has made its stamp on the world.

My lovely colleagues at Tangerine often ask: “Why did you decide to leave Edinburgh and come to Manchester?” True, Edinburgh’s a beautiful city and one of the most spectacular in the world. But, after living in and around the Scottish capital for most of my life I was eager to try somewhere new - somewhere lively with a real creative buzz.

Manchester was my first port of call. And my reasons? Well, Manchester is arguably the fastest growing creative city in the country, which is why people like me are flocking here. What's more, the drive to develop and cultivate young talent in the city’s creative sectors is inspiring.

Take the Manchester Masters programme, which was originally conceived by our very own Sandy Lindsay, MD of Tangerine PR. The year-long programme offers graduates the chance to experience four marketing-based placements in agencies and businesses in Manchester. The various Manchester based work placements help graduates from around the country sample life in the city’s creative sector for a year, encouraging talent to stay in the city. The scheme provides valuable experience and a helping hand on the career ladder.

For me, joining the team at Tangerine PR and moving to Manchester is proving to be a perfect platform to kickstart my career in the creative sector. After just three months, I've already learned so much and have been busy writing press releases, case studies and features, selling-in stories, brainstorming ideas for clients, and discovering trending developments in the media. And that's just the tip of the iceberg! No day is ever the same and that’s really refreshing. To work in the fast-paced and energetic creative sector in an age where information travels at electric speed is truly exciting. And it's great to be part of such a bright, talented and award-winning team too. So don't stand on the sidelines. Come and join the Manchester creative revolution. Over to you!

B2C is now C2C

2011-12-09T14:25:00.000Z

By Steve Downes, Managing Director, Juice Digital

It seems forever we have been categorising consumer marketing as B2C, or business to consumer. But is that now the appropriate description?

The power of consumer advocacy, whether that’s word of mouth, social media sharing, peer to peer recommendation or customer reviews etc is now universally acknowledged.

Marketing through, not to consumers is now the most effective way of building or maintaining brand awareness and positive sentiment towards it.

So are you doing everything you should to encourage Consumer to Consumer (C2C) marketing?

Can you give positive answers to these questions?

• Why should my customers recommend us to their friends?

• Am I providing them with ‘content’ to share?

• Have I provided a place for my advocates to connect and share?

• Have I provided a place for people to review my brand?

• Do I ‘reward’ my advocates for positive recommendation?

• Do I regularly respond to comments – positive and negative – about my brand?

These are just the starting points for C2C marketing. If you want to succeed you don’t just need to do all these things, you need to do them better than your competitors.

Context is king: Jeremy Clarkson backs strikers!

2011-12-08T17:10:00.000Z

By: Gary Quinn, Head of Media, Tangerine PR, Manchester

So the Jeremy Clarkson saga rumbles on and complaints against the motormouth with the maturity levels of a gnat have reached over 30,000 following comments he made on The One Show last week.

Well, first off nobody can complain unless they’ve seen the comments in context. I know, I know, the old “I was quoted out of context” argument drives me mad too. But in some cases it is justified, simply because it gives you not just an idea of what was said in full but under what situation, be that duress or humour, or anything in between. I was ‘Mr Outraged’ before I actually saw the footage and then instantly changed my mind.

And secondly, let’s get one thing straight before I go any further, I am no fan of Clarkson but neither am I his biggest detractor. Simply because I know he makes a very lucrative living from having opinions.

And anybody who makes a living in this way is always in danger of straying into caricature territory. I fear dear old Jeremy has been stuck smack bang in the middle of that particular area for some time now.

I’ve worked closely with some of the country’s leading columnists and opinion formers in the past and in fact one of them was Clarkson’s sidekick Richard Hammond.

The Hamster was handed a column in the Daily Mirror while I was on the features desk, his star was rising and he was seen as the perfect mix of family man and bloke to appeal to readers in their Saturday paper.

But the problem was – and I’m sure Richard won’t mind me saying this – he simply did not have enough strong opinions to maintain a weekly national newspaper column. He struggled because he wanted to really believe in what he was writing. He couldn’t rant for the sake of it or feign interest in something that he wasn’t.

But his mate Clarkson is literally the opposite – give him a topic and he’ll have an instant opinion on it, based on his world view, whether he fully believes it or not. It’s all just one big game to him and he loves it.

And this brings us back to our question of context. On the day in question (Clarksongate, Strikergate or One Showgate anybody?) the guilty party was asked for his opinion on various topics, including the strikes of that very day.

The BBC press office was very quick to pounce on the context element and hastily sent out a full transcript of the section of the interview that discussed strikers.

And in fact at one stage Clarkson actually said this about the strikes: “I think they have been fantastic. Absolutely…It’s like being back in the 70s. It makes me feel at home somehow.”

He then proceeded to say: “But we have to balance this though, because this is the BBC. Frankly I’d have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families.”

So there you have it, Clarkson gave TWO views on the strikes, one tongue-in-cheek positive and one offensively negative. But the most important aspect of what he said was HOW he said it. There was literally a smirk on his face and it was clearly meant as a joke.

An ill-timed, crass, offensive joke - but a joke nonetheless. He wasn’t being serious, he was merely playing to the camera, like the big kid that he is.

Clarkson simply can’t help himself and when he is being egged on by the BBC he is going to put his foot in it, that’s his thing.

I don’t believe it was a calculated outburst in order to boost sales of his new DVD, as some have suggested. It was merely a stupid joke that was taken out of context and blown out of proportion.

And the result has not only been a boost in sales of his DVD but also, more significantly for Clarkson, it has moved the media story surrounding him on. By this I mean that for the last few months he has been engulfed in a series of stories surrounding the state of his marriage, following newspaper allegations of a sting of affairs, most notably with his ex-wife.

However this latest episode has moved on his personal story to the extent that reporters are now writing about his comments rather than his alleged indiscretions. If he was smart enough I would say this was the motivation behind his One Show remarks, but I fear that is giving the presenter and columnist too much credit.

But feel free to disagree it is, after all, only my opinion…

It’s the economy, stupid!

2011-12-01T11:57:00.001Z

By Steve Downes, MD, Juice Digital

A few weeks ago I wrote this blog about the state of our economy and the damaging legacy we are leaving for the next generations.

Even in that short time things have got worse and it’s quite obvious from the Chancellor’s Autumn update that what we’re doing at the moment simply isn’t working. The opposition parties seem to have lots to say about what the government is doing wrong, but nothing very credible about what they would do instead. No change there then.

But even more worrying is the beginnings of class divisions among the general public. Yesterday’s public sector strike caused deep divisions. Private v Public sector, Working Classes v The Bosses, etc.

The reality is we’re all in the mire. Frankly I don’t care who got us here. I don’t care if it was the government, bankers, global forces, switch in the balance of power or whatever. All that counts is sorting it out before our kids have to pay for our inactivity.

I also don’t give a fig where David Cameron went to school, whether Nick Clegg is posh or if Ed Milliband has any charisma. I think both George Osbourne and Ed Balls are probably decent blokes who would really like to solve this problem.

Although my own career has been firmly in the private sector, many of my friends and family work in the public sector and are all decent, hard-working people who have as much right to their public pensions as I have to my personal one. They’re both under threat and almost certain to decrease in value.

I’m from a traditional, northern, working class family. We have all voted Labour for ever. Of course we have, our parents and grandparents did. Tories are the well-off aren’t they? Labour’s for the workers, right?

Well I strongly suggest we need to put all our prejudices aside – Left or Right, Private or Public sectors. It’s not a bloody football match.

The dangers facing us are as economically dangerous as the Great Wars were. What did we do then? We united to protect our loved ones and future generations. That’s what we need now. I’m calling for a Government of National Unity with a pre-determined life-span and agenda. We need to put politics and prejudices aside until we’re out of the woods.

I’m waiting for my HMG e-petition to be approved and I’ll be asking you all to sign it when it is.

Love to hear your views.

Tangerine: All the juicy bits

2011-11-29T16:16:00.001Z

By Richard Roper, Manchester Masters Student, Tangerine PR.

I spent the last few weeks of university wandering around in a state of oblivious bliss. Should it have been a red flag that the rest of the students on campus were huddled wrecks, whispering in hushed, terrified, tones about “our future”? Absolutely. Should it not have been a worry that graduation was steadily approaching and I still didn’t have the faintest idea of what came next? Of course. But I still remained blithely unconcerned about my future career.

Eventually, the inevitable realisation that there was nothing coming in September sunk in. After spending yet another day of browsing recruitment websites, I saw an advertisement for the “Manchester Masters” programme. For those of you who don’t know, the programme is a fantastic opportunity for recent graduates living in the UK, giving them the chance to work across a variety of marketing and advertising related firms and companies while completing a fee-free Masters from Manchester Metropolitan University. It seemed like the perfect fit for me, giving me the chance to gain work experience in such creative industries, while continuing my further education.

After submitting my application in the form of a YouTube video (and the subsequent humiliation as my friends eventually discovered it online), I was invited to attend a rigorous assessment centre. The day was tough, but thankfully my hard work paid off and I was told my first placement would be at Tangerine.

I didn’t really know what to expect from working in a PR firm. My only experience of the world of PR came from friends working in the profession who would ironically say: “I know; I’ve sold my soul.” At first the office environment was daunting as Tangerine manages the Manchester Masters programme, so I was feeling a lot of pressure to do well, and make a good impression.

In my second week I was sat down by Sandy Lindsay, MD of Tangerine, so she could properly introduce me to her company. One of the things Sandy reiterated was that Tangerine was built on the twin pillars of decency and honesty. She explained how despite dedicating extreme time and energy to making Tangerine a success, it should never compromise personal and professional morals. You can see this reflected in the people that work here. Every single one of them is tirelessly dedicated to their jobs because they genuinely care about the high standards of work they produce.

Soon I found myself drafting press releases, case studies, features, and helping to research and come up with ideas for potential new clients. I even found myself corresponding with celebrities to ask them to write an introduction for a client’s cookery calendar. I realised that PR isn’t about manipulating people or the truth. Effective PR is about translating complex concepts into a transparent message, about helping people and companies express themselves as clearly as possible.

At the beginning, eleven weeks of full time work seemed a long time, so it’s almost with begrudging reluctance that I have to agree with all those people who told me ‘it’ll fly by!’ It genuinely has.

Breaking news: SMO takes over from SEO

2011-11-28T13:31:00.000Z

By: Gary Quinn, Head of Media, Tangerine PR, Manchester

I came across an excellent posting on the journalismnews.co.uk site and thought it was well worth sharing. It is all about creating news and content via twitter and Facebook and although it had ten top tips I’ve scaled it down to three, interspersed with my own thoughts too (for what they are worth).

Social Media Optimisation is the new SEO according to some experts and it seems to me to make perfect sense and the following tips will go a long way to improving how companies go about and improve their social media posting.

The guide includes lessons from experts in social media optimisation, who have all carried out research, analysing tweets and Facebook page updates.

1.Work out the best time to tweet using free tools

Leo Widrich, co-founder of Buffer, a platform that allows you to queue up tweets and post them at optimal times during the day, wrote an article for Mashable on five free tools to use to work out when to tweet.

He insists the best time to tweet is when most of your followers are tweeting too. Don’t be afraid of your post getting buried, this is the time to get the most exposure.

He said: "When the most traffic happens and when actually the most tweets go out is also the best time for you to tweet, which is sometimes counter-intuitive as people will think tweets will get buried and no one will see them. It's really during work hours when most tweets will happen that you will also get the most exposure."

Of course what he hasn’t touched upon here – but we will come onto later – is how to ensure your tweet stands out and doesn’t get buried.

2. Tweet often

Journalism.co.uk found that the five journalists with the greatest online influence tweet around 10-25 times a day. Other reports reveal that Twitter A-listers tweet an average of 22 times daily.

That research is based on individual journalists rather than news outlets, which generally auto-tweet as stories go live. But in order to encourage a growing audience, it is necessary to tweet often. This shows the level of commitment to tweeting that is necessary to compete with the major players. However this isn’t necessary from most companies as it could seem like overload, a steady stream of between three to six tweets a day should suffice.

Interestingly there is also a school of thought that says it can be beneficial to tweet a story more than once.

Leo Widrich said: "The idea, especially with Twitter, is that the frequency is nearly as important as the timing.”

He recommends tweeting news stories three to five times: one when the news story goes live, once a couple of hours later and then a third time the next day. I guess, depending on how important the story you are posting is, this can be scaled back or not but for big company news it would work really well and shows that perhaps many of us are not making our tweets work hard enough for us at present.

3. Ask questions and tease new stories to encourage people to comment and like

Tweets are content and we all know that content – whether online or offline – is king! There is still some way to go before many people fully understand the tricks and the methods to present your content in the most interesting way possible but here are just a few excellent suggestions.

When posting a link to a story write a tease in a way that tries to get people to comment or like. Don’t reveal all in your 140 characters because if you do then there is no incentive or necessity to click through and engage.

It is geared towards trying to get people to take actions that explicitly show the algorithm that they are interested in your content. Without a tease or a question there is no invitation for engagement.

It is linking and commenting that you should be seeking.

Some really interesting points I hope you’ll agree and if you want to see the full posting simply click here . For me what is so exciting about this area is that it is evolving before our very eyes and growing and developing daily. Now who wouldn’t want to be part of that?

THIS CHRISTMAS IS GOING TO BE ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!

2011-11-23T15:17:00.000Z

By Marie Carter

Account Director, Tangerine PR

I love Christmas, but this year I am even more excited than ever – why? Because Absolutely Fabulous is going to be back on the TV for a three part special.

Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley will be reprising their roles as Edina and Patsy in this classic sitcom about the world of fashion and PR and I can’t wait...working in Consumer PR myself, this programme has always held a special place in my heart.

Christmas TV is an essential part of the festive season - especially a good comedy – it’s what brings the family together when you have eaten too much and the Queen’s speech has finished. Only Fools and Horses, The Vicar of Dibley and The Royle Family have all had us in stitches in the past and provided real laugh out loud moments. These shows bring an element of nostalgia and now it is Ab Fab’s turn – even though the cast don’t appear to be any older!

We tease our bosses, Sandy and Sarah that on occasion they have a Patsy and Eddy moment! However, the show couldn’t be further from the truth of PR, but that is what comedy is all about - what I love is that while we do work really hard at Tangerine, we don’t take ourselves too seriously either – and I think this is why we are all fans of the show.

Ab Fab is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year – the first episode was shown back in 2002 (the same year Tangerine was born!) and joining Patsy and Eddy are Eddy’s daughter Saffy, her mother (played by June Whitfield) and fashionista and PA, Bubbles. The two key characters spend their time drinking champagne, chasing bizarre fads in a desperate attempt to stay young and hip and the writing is pure genius. Eddy was apparently loosely based on PR guru, Lynne Franks, who set up her own PR company from her kitchen table and founded one of the UK’s best known consultancies in the 1970s. However, according to a recent interview in the Telegraph , it is only now that Lynne sees the show as flattering.

I know it is going to be popular TV – it still has a following - the Absolutely Fabulous Facebook group has 136,105 fans at the time of writing this blog and on twitter @abfabquotes, which shares some classic lines from the show, has 9,268 followers. So well done to BBC 1 and all I can say is thank you Jennifer for writing the three part Christmas special, especially at a personally difficult time in her life – you have certainly made my Christmas and I hope the rumours about a film are true – I think that would definitely be worth a Tangerine PR night out – with lots of champagne, sweetie darling!

Trial of journalism, not trail by journalism

2011-11-17T12:09:00.000Z

By Gary Quinn, Head of Media, Tangerine PR

Five years ago this month the former royal reporter at the News of the World, Clive Goodman, admitted conspiracy to intercept St James's Palace phone calls "without lawful authority". His cohort, the now infamous Glenn Mulcaire, also pleaded guilty to the same offence and to further charges of intercepting phone calls. The News of the World editor at the time, one Andy Coulson, said: "I have put in place measures to ensure this will not be repeated."

It was rightly seen as the darkest of days for British journalism, compounded six weeks later when both Goodman and Mulcaire where jailed and Coulson resigned as editor of what was once the largest selling English language newspaper in the world.

But this was merely the beginning, the tip of a seething mass of criminality and dehumanised behaviour, including stomach churning revelations about the hacking of the phone belonging to murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, as she lay dead in a woodland ditch.

We all know what happened next, the once mighty and feared News of the World was shut down. David Cameron ordered a public enquiry into media ethics and practices, to be headed by Lord Leveson.

There was Rupert Murdoch’s most humbling day ever as he gave (sketchy) evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee and, lest we forget, was attacked by a ‘foam flinger’ for his trouble.

His son James has been back before MPs only last week, where he delivered another stern defence of News International procedures and sought to assure one and all that he had no knowledge in 2007 that phone hacking was widespread.

And now the Leveson Inquiry has opened, a sort of trial of journalism as opposed to trial by journalism, if you will. Victims of phone hacking will take the stand and give evidence, as will many from within the industry, including editors, associate editors and proprietors.

But as the negative headlines continue to rain down I can’t help but wonder the affect all this is having on the regular working hack; those who help churn out newspapers and magazines under intense pressure day after day.

It feels like, certainly for the last year anyway, that rarely a day has gone by without some form of a phone hacking story in one newspaper or another, but mainly in the Guardian which has pursued this story relentlessly.

I asked some of my former colleagues, who now work on a range of titles including the Daily Mirror, The Sun, Daily Mail and The Times, if and how they have been affected by the constant stream of negative stories about their beloved trade.

Overall there was more than a touch of the Blitz spirit and if the truth be known, most are far more worried about securing their next big story than what the next big phone hacking revelation is.

You see all this time, as the trade of journalism has been torn to shreds, hacks have continued to produce some of the best newspapers and magazines in the world. Of course they are aware of what’s going on around them, they are trained observers for goodness’ sake, but they have a job to do.

Just as they had a job to do when the 7/7 bombs hit London, or during the riots that blighted our cities this summer.

Yes some members of the press lost their way and indulged in despicable acts in the name of chasing a story but let’s not tar all hacks with the same brush. The industry itself is fighting a decline, and is facing the toughest challenge yet to its survival.

I believe the announcement of the death of newspapers is much too premature but there is no doubt that in the next five years there will be more casualties.

And this, I believe, will make British society poorer. A strong and vibrant press helps maintain a strong and vibrant democracy. Proper journalism is about keeping the powerful in check and every society needs a powerful press. However with power comes responsibility and for some, just some, in the press, they were happy with the power but forgot about the responsibility.

Let us all hope that events over the last five years have helped redress this balance…

No spoonful of sugar available…

2011-11-15T16:09:00.001Z

by Steve Downes, managing director of Juice Digital

Something different this week. No social media or digital marketing. Just a view on the current world economic situation.

Not from me, I don’t claim to be an expert. No, this was a note from a mate of mine (who doesn’t want to be credited) which has made me think. Here it is:

“For many years the developed world’s politicians have been driven by short termism driven by the desire to gain re-election. This has resulted in very expensive short term fixes to longer term problems and more damagingly they have consistently shown a lack of political will to address unpalatable truths about the nation’s finances.

Issues have been ‘kicked down the road’ time and time again and of course each time this is done the size of the problem gets bigger and therefore more difficult to eventually deal with.

We have now reached the moment of truth for many economies, starting with what is referred to as Peripheral Europe and now including Italy. These nations like many others, including the UK and the USA, run deficits virtually each and every year. That is to say that they spend more money than they take in. This way of life is now being questioned by their lenders, i.e. the people that provide the money to meet this shortfall. They are now questioning whether they will ever get their money back. And of course it is now not just a question of raising the money to pay for this years’ deficits that has to be financed it is also a matter of persuading these lenders to ‘roll over’ previous years loans as the borrowers are simply not in a position to repay any of the outstanding capital.

For many years these maturities have been automatically rolled over into fresh Government Debt without pre-conditions. But no more. Lenders are demanding higher interest rates on new and re-financed debt to reflect the perceived increased risks and further they are demanding action with the national economies to try, at the very least, to balance the books and halt the inexorable rise in the totals of the borrowing nations debt pile.

This drive to meet the conditions imposed by lenders has triggered the deficit reduction programmes in many economies. Notwithstanding that the initial measures being implemented are often inadequate the populations of these countries do not like the taste of the medicine prescribed, but they will have to get used to it as there will be more to follow.

Once again the weak willed politicians look to be more interested in points scoring and posturing rather than looking for an acceptable, robust resolution to the problems. They are clearly frightful of explaining the true extent and depth of the several problems and the inevitable consequences of a resolution. This fear is of course occasioned by the fact that it was them or their ilk that led us to the situation in which we now find ourselves.

If you take Greece as a (poor) example, you have an economy that has run a budget deficit in every year since the end of WW2. That is now 65 years of spending more than you earn. Latterly, since joining the EEC, the size of the deficits have been growing exponentially and have allowed the country to implement ‘social policies’ that would be the envy of 99% of the nations of the world. How the politicians of the time envisaged maintaining these policies in the future defies belief and one seriously has to wonder to as to how these politicians were able to sleep at night knowing that they were mortgaging the nations children’s and grandchildren’s futures for unjustifiable benefits to today’s generation will forever be a mystery.

In my view a further failing of the politicians has been to avoid or play down the seriousness of the situation. As the UK has not been embroiled in the current Euro crisis the impression exists that we have escaped relatively unscathed. This is definitely not the case. If nations begin to default on their obligations it will mean that future lenders will demand more interest on future debt to reflect the increased risk thus adding to the government’s costs of servicing our existing debt thus making our current deficit worse and thus necessitating further cost cutting measures.

I believe the population will only start to really “get it” when they see some of the current sacred cows being slaughtered (a possible cut in NHS spending would be the most telling example).

To try to give you something of the scale of the issues I would like you to imagine your household budget. Your income, your expenditure, your indebtedness and how you manage the situation to hopefully get to a future point when the bills are covered and the debt is all gone. Now if we take the world’s most successful economy, the USA, what do the numbers look like? (To get this to work I have removed eight zeros from the numbers. Yes, eight!:

Annual Income $21,700
Annual Expenditure $38,200
Net NEW debt to be financed $16,500
Total debt now outstanding $142,710
Recent budget cuts agreed $385

You probably do not need me to comment on the unsustainability of this model.”

So, what do you think about that? My, layman’s view is that we’re going to have to take our medicine. If we don’t it will be an incredibly selfish act, because it will simply mean we’ll be making our kids and grandkids take it for us. And they aren’t the ones who got us in this mess.

We need to earn less, retire later, pay more taxes and not expect improvements in our public services. Work harder for less money. Ouch. But, not only that, we need to do it with a smile on our face. Because confidence is crucial to recovery. So, while you’ve got less you need to keep spending.

None of that is very palatable. But if we don’t we’ll be, purposefully, decimating the living standards of the next generation so we can cling on to ours by our fingernails for a few more years.

#ReclaimChildhood

2011-11-15T09:30:00.002Z

By Megan Wieczorek, Junior Office Administrator at Tangerine PR

Last week, when I was babysitting my 2 year old niece, the time came for her to choose something she wanted to watch before her bedtime. We were flicking through, having a gander at what she’d like to watch when she stopped me at Nicki Minaj’s Superbass video. Surprising choice, but I put it on for her.

I’d never seen the video before and I was absolutely appalled by the fact that it was on before the watershed, and therefore deemed appropriate for family viewing. With it having so much radio-play, my niece was happily bopping away to it. She was oblivious to the sexual imagery that Minaj displays so overtly in her video, but I was not and because this was a song that she knew and loved I feared it would turn Minaj into somewhat of an idol for her and other girls of her age, and that really didn’t sit comfortably with me.

It is not only Minaj that, I feel, is influencing children in the wrong way. Another artist I would allow to come under the same fire would be Rihanna. Being one of the best selling artists of all time, it’s not surprising that young girls, like my niece, also find her image, music and brand instantly recognisable. The music industry is constantly evolving and is so much different from when I was younger. The band I looked up to when I was a little girl was the Spice Girls. The only thing in the videos that might’ve made a prude wince would be them wearing a few ‘trendy’ crop tops, and in comparison to the present day this is the reason I feel like this generation of pop stars may have crossed the line. Even if they don’t want to be role models, young people will look up to them regardless because of the amount of exposure they get.

I think that celebrities in the public eye have a responsibility when they become high-profile to ensure that their image is clean. It is inevitable that when a star becomes hugely popular, children will look up to them. These artists are entitled to their own life and their own style but I just think they can go too far sometimes, and it’s unfair when children are subjected to their revealing clothing, grotesque girating and vulgar lyrics. Children will see the videos, see the way these women are acting and just accept it as the way women are and this will undoubtedly impair their judgment. Children are inarguably growing up a lot faster and find things targeted at an older audience more interesting than ‘playing’.

Tangerine PR’s client, Notalie, is a life-size doll whose strapline is ‘I’m very tall with a funny face and knotty knees and elbows. I’m lovin’ looking different, ‘coz it makes me special.’ – I think that is a wonderful message to pass on to children, and especially in a world in which young people are often encouraged to grow up too quickly. Notalie’s motto ‘let girls be girls for as long as they want’ resonates with me, especially following my recent experiences. I definitely know what I’m getting my niece for Christmas!...

Have we all turned into Twichés?

2011-11-14T12:28:00.000Z

by Laura Thomas, account executive at Juice Digital

My mother said something to me this weekend that really struck a chord, she called me a Twiché. (This is a Twitter/cliché mash-up!)

I was doing a bit of work for Juice and I was chuckling to myself as I read what I was writing out loud, as I do, when she looked up at me over the top of her newspaper and sighed, “Oh darling, you’re such a Twiché.” The next morning, I promptly relayed this assessment of my hugely original and inventive tweeting to my public relations and social media loving colleagues at Tangerine who chuckled at my mother’s razor sharp wit.

This was a flippant comment made by my socially backwards mother, but it really provoked me to think about the ways social media is turning us into Twichés. So this is a bit of a run-down of a couple of my favourite Twiché cliques, and an insight into how to stand out from the crowd, and make the most of the best content on the web!

• To begin, we all follow these public relations/marketing/social media professionals on Twitter who just tweet Mashable links, because they think that they’re useful – and yes, you’re right, they are useful, but the chances are that everyone who’d be likely to click on your Ow.ly link has already seen it – making this kind of tweeting one of the ultimate social faux pas. An example tweet from this group would be, “Google+ Users Are Still Mostly Male http://ow.ly/7oRQC via @Mashable”

• Then there’s the fashionista social mediarati – journos, PAs, PRs – who tweet about brands, people and places that most people could only dream of, the subtext of all their tweets being along the lines of, “don’t you wish you were me…” An example tweet from this group would be, “Off to meet Mary Portas for lunch at @HarveyNichols – a glass of wine is in order!”

• There’s also the only too prevalent group that I like to call the ‘micro-life-blogging elite’. These delightful chaps are those who feel the need to document absolutely everything that’s happening, or might happen, or has happened, or could happen if something else happens. (This is mirrored in Facebook, but Fachés would take a whole new blog post!) These tweeters are usually un-unfollowable due to their attention to detail. Oh, and they have the help of an automated app that will send you a friendly tweet letting you know that you’ve unfollowed them. Brilliant. An example tweet from them would be along the lines of, “About to have a bath, don’t know whether I should take my phone because I might drop it. I’ll risk it.”

• Whilst conducting my minimal market research, this next group was one of the most complained about - the wannabe foodies. People who tweet about what they’re eating, or photos of their Nigella-esque triumphs and flops – accompanied by pictures of their beans on toast. They tweet about where they’re eating, what they’re eating and who they’re eating with. Yawn. An example of this would be, “Loving #Nigella tonight! That last meal looked absolutely #TDF!”

• Personally, one of my loathed groups is the ‘men-about-town’. They have a stake in a company but don’t really work, they like to tweet links to sites that are paid-for just to feel exclusive, they talk about beer and the gym, they check in to places on Foursquare just because they’re walking past... You know the type. But you have to follow them, because despite pretending they don’t care about Twitter, they’ll notice if you unfollow, and they’re the type to hold a grudge. Example tweet – “Work. Gym. Beer. Bosh.”

There are too many to mention, but in conclusion, aren’t we all in danger of becoming social media Twichés?

To help us avoid this, I’ve put together a list of my top tips for not becoming a Twiché –

• Before tweeting, ask yourself, what do you want to get out of this? Replies or retweets?

• Will your followers have already seen this content in their morning scan of their favourite websites?

• What would you think on reading this tweet? How would you react?

• Vary your content sources, there are literally millions of websites – Mashable isn’t it!

• Are you adding value? If not – don’t post!

• If something’s trending, pass comment – but don’t pass someone else’s! You’ll swiftly be found out…

• Believe in what you’re tweeting, be passionate!

I know I’m guilty of a few of the sins I condemn, but I’m no man-about-town! To me, it seems that Twitter is awash with people saying what other people are thinking – if you’re different, drop me a tweet @_eltee – I’d literally be delighted to hear from you!

PRODUCT PLACEMENT COMES TO CORRIE’S COBBLES

2011-11-10T17:24:00.000Z

By Victoria Wray, Senior Account Executive, Tangerine PR, Manchester

Coronation Street made history recently when the relaxation of TV product placement rules meant that viewers thought they would see regulars at the Rovers Return potentially swapping their fictional Newton and Ridley ale for a pint of Manchester’s Boddingtons.

The reality is a Nationwide building society cash machine replacing a previously unbranded ATM in Dev’s corner shop from next Monday (14th November), for an initial period of four months in a six figure deal, marking the first product placement in a UK primetime show.

Although it’s not quite the same as us seeing Rita with Diet Coke can rollers in her hair or Rosie piling on her Mac lip gloss, as per some American music videos, the move is still an interesting one for brands. The deal is the first of its kind and it will be intriguing to see how the brand has fared after its four month stint.

Product placement rules were relaxed by the media regulator, Ofcom, in February this year, but saw only about half a dozen product placement deals made in the first six months, apparently due to broadcasters being unfamiliar with the new rules and not wanting to breach regulations. Tobacco and alcohol are actually among the products banned by UK legislation, meaning the fictitious Newton and Ridley is here to stay.

Viewers will be alerted to the fact that a product is in the scene by a small letter ‘p’ shown on screen and the placement must be ‘editorially justified’, and shouldn’t be overly prominent.

Forecasts originally estimated that the UK product placement market could grow to be worth up to £100m annually, based on what has been seen in the US market, where brands have featured in TV shows for several years. But Ofcom suggests it is more likely to be worth £25m-£30m within a few years.

Working on clients such as Dulux Decorator Centres, Soreen and Netcars.com, it’s an amazing feeling to see them featured in a national newspaper or magazine, and to see Kevin visiting a Dulux Decorator Centre to buy wallpaper or Emily chomping on a slice of Soreen Malt Loaf would be fantastic.

With deals being brokered for six figure sums, it’s a different kettle of fish to editorial product placement, but it will be interesting to see how this first placement in a primetime show will affect the Nationwide brand and how others will follow. So watch your favourite TV shows carefully, you could be seeing your favourite brands when you least expect it.

ROAD SAFETY HITS THE HEADLINES

2011-11-10T16:07:00.000Z

By Becky Roberts
Junior account manager at Tangerine PR

Last weekend a tragic pile-up on the M5 motorway occurred, as 30 cars and six articulated lorries collided, leaving seven people dead and 51 injured. The accident has been described as Britain’s worst motorway crash for 20 years, and the tragedy has reignited the debate surrounding the recently proposed increase in road speed from 70mph to 80mph on Britain’s motorways.

The tragic accident unfolded in front of our eyes on Friday 4th November and ever since, scenes have been flashed before us on programmes like This Morning, Loose Women and obviously across every news bulletin.

Earlier this year, Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond announced plans to raise the speed limit to 80mph from 70mph at the Conservative Party conference saying: “Increasing the motorway speed limit to 80mph would generate economic benefits of hundreds of millions of pounds through shorter journey times. So we will consult later this year on raising the limit to get Britain moving.”

The Guardian reports that the existing 70mph limit was set in 1965 and that the government argues that cars are significantly safer since then, with a fall of 75% in the numbers of people killed every year on British roads since then.

Brake, together with road safety organisations such as the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, is strongly opposed to raising the speed limit on any stretch of motorway for a number of reasons. Research suggests that an increase in the speed limit from 70mph to 80mph would result in a 10% rise in casualties on those roads . In the USA, a report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that when interstate limits were raised in a number of states from 65mph to 70mph, the death rates on those roads rose by 35%. In states that raised the limit from 65mph to 75mph, the death rates rose by 38% . Germany, which is famous for its lack of speed limits, has a motorway death rate that is 75% higher than in the UK . These statistics demonstrate that higher speed limits could increase the risk on people’s lives, particularly on British roads which are often plagued by rain, fog, sleet, gloomy days and congestion.

Due to my experience of working on road safety campaigns with DriveSafe, Greater Manchester’s Casualty Reduction Partnership, and Merseyside Road Safety Partnership, during my time at Tangerine PR, I will be monitoring the discussions and debates around this topic with great interest. No matter what the outcome is, it’s important to remember the tragic loss of lives following this recent accident and we should all strive to take extra care when on the road.

What about the economic heroes?

2011-11-01T14:43:00.001Z

by Sam Gregory, MD of B2B, Tangerine PR

What a refreshing change to see the BBC reporting on a good news business story this morning about UK manufacture being on the up. Undoubtedly it was in anticipation of the announcement from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that the UK economy has grown in the third quarter of 2011.

And indeed it has. The ONS this morning confirmed that GDP has increased by 0.5% in the July-to-September period. At last, some positive news? Perhaps.

Following the announcement, the BBC reported on its website that the rise is on the back of a 0.1% GDP expansion in the previous quarter, which would have been higher, perhaps even 0.6%, had it not been for the dampening effect of the Japanese tsunami and the extra Bank Holiday.

So, is this really the bounce-back that it first appears to be? Not according to some experts, who commented that this 0.5% growth figure ‘suggests the underlying picture remains weak’ and ‘should be seen as a backwards indicator’.

‘Backwards’?! But hang on a minute, what about the burgeoning businesses that the roving reporter on BBC Breakfast was talking to? According to them, UK manufacture is booming! Are they so unique?

In my experience, many manufacturers and companies in the B2B sector are experiencing significant growth. In the past couple of days alone I have spoken to a plastics manufacturer that has experienced year-on-year growth for the past three years and an industrial equipment manufacturer that has gone from making a £10m loss to £3m profit in the past five years.

What’s their secret? A strong brand, an innovative product, market diversification? Whatever it is, there are numerous examples of UK businesses that are not just getting by, but flourishing, despite the economic conditions, which is good news for everyone.

So while we can’t sugar coat the harsh realities of these challenging times, we can balance them with the positive stories of these economic heroes. They can only provide a source of much needed inspiration and motivation to businesses across the country amidst the perennial tales of financial doom and gloom.

Are you a business ‘hero’? Have you got a good news story to tell? Contact sam.gregory@tangerinepr.com

Attack of the Trip Advisors. The wisdom or the madness of crowds?

2011-11-01T14:24:00.002Z

By Nigel Hughes, creative director, Tangerine PR, Manchester

I spent half of last night’s Attack of the Trip Advisors Channel 4 show in absolute hysterics and the other half at war with my own conscience.

From a voyeuristic point of view, the choice of hotels and reviewers was perfect. It was hard to believe that some of the hotel owners featured actually worked in the service industry, but the Trip Advisor members whose thirst for power manifests itself in mischievous and sometimes spitefully over-the-top reviews were equally absurd.

If you didn’t watch it, try and catch up on 4OD. It was a fascinating hour of television.

The story was about people really, not Trip Advisor itself. The hotel owners were brilliant subjects because they couldn’t accept any criticism. Some of them reacted angrily, which was most entertaining, but others looked as if they had been stabbed in the heart when they read a bad review, which was less easy to laugh at.

The fact that the negative reviews were obviously coming from a handful of socially challenged individuals didn’t seem to matter. Public criticism of these hotels was akin to stealing food from the mouths of children, in the eyes of some of the owners who couldn’t come to terms with the points that were made

But I must admit, at times I started to sympathise with them. The hoteliers had clearly put everything they had into their businesses, either emotionally or financially, and when a reviewer with questionable motives seems to slag them off for no good reason, they’re bound to take it to heart.

Sadly for them, my only advice would be that they need to get used to it. Trip Advisor is astonishingly influential and it isn’t going away any time soon but, scarily for the leisure industry, it’s just one reference point. The internet is peppered with forums, blogs and review sites where potential customers can find out what others think about different products and services. It isn’t overflowing yet either. There’s plenty of room for more.

So these hard-done-to hotels are doomed then, yes? Good businesses sacrificed in the name of citizen journalism?

Well, not quite. I’m probably risking the wrath of some hotelier whose breakfast kippers once upset an oversensitive guest, but I suspect that some of the reviewers might have a few fair points in among their bitchy asides. It’s just that the truth hurts sometimes.

I’m told that the average Trip Advisor rating is four out of five. That’s hardly the average of a group of reviewers (currently 40 million a month) who are out to savage any hotel or restaurant that dares open up for business. The thoughts of individual reviewers have limited impact, particularly if the reviewer is quite obviously from a different planet than the rest of us. One negative review can be easily ignored when set against hundreds of positive ones – and vice versa of course.

Personally, I believe the wisdom of crowds usually triumphs. If there is something positive to say, there are usually enough people who will say it and, by that same measure, if your hotel has had hundreds of reviews and you’re still only rated one star out of five, there’s probably a reason.

The reality is that human input means that all media, whether it’s a web 2.0 collaborative effort or a traditional newspaper dominated by a single despotic owner, is unfairly subjective to a greater or lesser extent, but the more people who are involved in managing its output, the more democratic its opinions are likely to be. That’s why the internet is so liberating – and if underperforming hoteliers or restaurant owners can’t stand the heat it creates….

How Halloween Can Be a Scream for PRs

2011-11-01T12:33:00.001Z

Nikki Girvan , Junior Account Manager
Tangerine PR

In the aftermath of a particularly outlandish Halloween party, my brother posted the following status update on Facebook today: Halloween is one of my favourite days of the year - I think that when I have kids, they'll celebrate Halloween more than Christmas.

Now, coming from my twenty-something sibling, who loves all things spooky and gory, this wasn’t a surprise. However, after seeing the shelves and shelves of Halloween themed costumes, snacks and decorations being plundered by frantic parents while out shopping this weekend, and noticing the column inches of both the weekend and yesterday’s papers dedicated to the event it seems that he is not alone – in fact it appears that the UK as a whole just can’t get enough of this horrifying holiday.

According to a poll published in the Daily Mail yesterday, Halloween is now the UK’s second most popular family occasion behind Christmas, with parents forking out more than £100 on parties for their children, while The Times stated that the UK’s Halloween spending has increased tenfold in the last decade to £314 million - a result of both the Americanisation of British culture and “an eagerness to inject seasonal theatre into high street shops”.

While for parents this may represent another expensive seasonal headache, for PR practitioners it represents nothing but opportunity - particularly those working with retail, food & drink and lifestyle clients.

For the team at Tangerine PR, this spooky celebration provides myriad opportunities for coverage for our clients – from seasonal serving suggestions and party snacks for Dalepak and Ross, to Halloween themed activities to draw the crowds at Wilkinsons’ store openings.

When it comes to seasonal opportunities, PRs have long focused on the ‘big two’ – Christmas and Easter – but now, it seems there is a new holiday that they can ignore at their peril…

Stunts: It’s PR not ER…

2011-10-31T17:40:00.001Z

By Gary Quinn, Media Consultant, Tangerine PR

PR stunts, where do you stand? Or to be more precise about it, do you think creating fake stories to promote a client is acceptable?

I am of course referring to the now infamous Monster Slippers story that recently appeared in the Daily Mail , Mirror , Telegraph, Times and Metro along with a host of online sites and discussed on radio too.

Make no mistake the coverage was fantastic, however what is a lot less fantastic is what happened next and the implications it has for ongoing relationships between PRs and journalists.

The Guardian smelt a rat from the off and decided to do some digging and they believe the whole story was a fabrication, and according to them there was no order ‘lost in translation’, no customer left with a huge slipper that he could fit his whole body into, never mind just his mismatched feet (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2011/oct/20/monster-slipper-stunt).

It also turned out the ‘customer’ named as Tom Boddington, has an uncanny resemblance to Monster Slippers Web Manager, a guy called Joe Jennings. Interestingly as the Guardian started to dig, Joe’s Twitter profile was suddenly taken down. Get that for a coincidence eh?

Neither the slipper company nor the PR firm involved have ever admitted the stunt was all made up but the evidence is pretty damning. And at the risk of sounding like a killjoy, if this was all one big lie, I think it is a disgrace.

Stunts are one thing and there have been plenty of good ones over the years. However lying to the media and making up stories to get coverage is another thing all together.

Many journalists already have a low enough opinion of PRs; incidents such as this simply make our day-to-day job even harder. Of course questions should be raised about those papers that ran the ‘story’, there were so many holes in it that any self-respecting journalist should have picked it apart within minutes, but we’ll leave that for another day…

For now I’d like to hear your thoughts on this topic, will you admit to lying for a client, do you see no harm in it? Do you believe in the old mantra – it’s PR not ER, nobody died?

Or, like me (and the rest of us at Tangerine), do you consider stunts that involve falsehoods and fantasy to be extremely damaging for the industry as a whole?

I know from first-hand experience how challenging it is to get stories in the national media but really, is making them up the way forward? Is telling lies in order to dupe journalists the best way of harbouring good relations between both sectors?

I think we all know the truthful answer to that…

WE ARE JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH

2011-10-28T15:43:00.001+01:00

by Steve Downes, MD of Juice Digital

Here at Juice Digital we think we’re pretty good at what we do. What we do is social media marketing. We’ve been doing it since early 2008, got some great and happy clients and won numerous awards for the results we’ve achieved for them.

But, do you know what? We’re not good enough. And if you’re a social media advisor, client-side or agency, neither are you.

We get paid for what we do and that, generally, is to deliver whatever objectives were set for the social media activity. But there are important tools and techniques that are crucial to what we do that, currently, just aren’t fit for purpose. Here are a couple of the important ones:

1. Influence

The accurate measure of social media influence is crucial for a successful social media marketing campaign. But what techniques are available to measure it? Services like Klout and Peer Index are meaningless outside the blinkered world of the social mediarati. They are pretty much useless as tools to identify influencers – individuals, groups, bloggers, media channels etc – on behalf of brands.

Then we have the services like Technorati, Alexa and the like. Which are fine if you are a slave to the numbers. ‘Your blogs gets a lot clicks so you must be influential’. Really?

There are scores more tools ranging from free and simple to expensive and sophisticated and most have some use. But none come close to ‘nailing’ the issue. At least none that I’ve ever seen.

So what do we do at Juice? Always be on the search for the current best of breed of course.

2. Monitoring and Evaluation

A favourite subject of mine. Listen. Evaluate. Measure ROI. That’s our mantra. There are lots of tools, free and paid for, to help us do this. We’ve used many of them. They have their strengths and weaknesses. No one tool can give you everything you need, so we create dashboards to integrate different tools and measures to monitor the effectiveness of our campaigns.

Taken together these can be useful. But useful isn’t enough is it? This is so crucial to the development of social media marketing that we need a ‘gold standard’. So far, it doesn’t exist.

I’m a ‘certain age’. As such I had one of the first mobile phones. The brick that you could just about get in your briefcase (remember them?). I had mates who had the original ones with the separate battery units. I reckon that our current techniques for measuring influence and ROI in social media are about as far away from what we really need as these phones were to the iPhone.

It’s a huge issue and one where clients, agencies and developers on the supplier side must work closely together to speed up the progression.

So, here’s the challenge. I invite anyone as passionate as we are about these issues, whether you’re a ‘competitor’, client, supplier, whoever, to get in touch and let’s see if, together, we can help move things along.

IT ALL STARTED FROM A TWEET...

2011-10-27T16:43:00.000+01:00

by Kirsty Ullah, B2B Junior Account Executive, Tangerine PR

Back at the very end of July, Juice Digital (@Juice_digital) tweeted: Anyone want a few days work at Juice? Need to be good on the phone and with a database. Start 9am tomorrow! Please RT. Not being a keen tweeter it was a complete coincidence that I happened to be logged on and spotted the message. I sent a tweet back, and the rest, as they say, is history.

A quick call to Steve (@Stevejuice) at 6ish and I found myself in the Tangerine offices the next day at 9am sharp. After 3 days of calling contacts for up-to-date info and filling in the database, Steve suggested I talk to Sam (@SP_Gregory) who was recruiting for the B2B team. After what was quite an informal chat, it was decided I should come in for a writing test and meet a few of the B2B team. A couple of interviews later (and apparently succeeding in the writing test) I was offered a Junior Account Exec position.

I can safely say I never thought I’d get a job from a tweet – so take note weary job hunters, anything is possible!

I’ve been at Tangerine for 6 weeks now, and I’ve already learnt a lot. Not coming from a PR background I’ve had to start from the ground up – from finding out the numerous ways in which PR value can be calculated to attending some interesting lunchtime learning sessions on social media and consumer PR.

So far, I’ve written press releases, case studies, features and photo captions – and decided that teachers should really stop using red pens in schools, because it just seems much less harsh when your work is scribbled over in pencil. I’ve learnt about everything from the new Localism Bill, to green roofing, to hard working coffee, and I’m enjoying the challenge of writing for different audiences - it’s a world away from the media planning department I’ve come from. I’ve not stopped and the weeks are absolutely flying by!

Aside from the day-to-day work, I’ve joined the other new starters in having a professional take my photo for the website, joined in the fun of Friday night drinks and been on a team night out on one of Manchester’s rainiest evenings for quite a while!

I think I’m going to like it here.

Whitstable Mum in Custard Shortage…And Other World Exclusives From Britain’s Finest Local Newspapers

2011-10-25T12:40:00.000+01:00

By Nigel Hughes, creative director, Tangerine PR

Do you remember the Framley Examiner? If you don’t I plead with you to take a look at the website. I also challenge you not to laugh out loud when you start reading some of the stories and ads that feature on the pages of the greatest newspaper ever invented.

The Framley Examiner, if you don’t know, was a spoof local newspaper, complete with deliberate typos (‘Home cocked food’ anyone?), hilarious non-stories (‘Carol concert enters fourth week’), superbly named reporters (‘Taunton Mishap’ was a favourite of mine), great reader competitions (‘Win two months in bed’) and some of the best news stories that have ever been made up (‘Giant charity cheque crushes scouts’ is up there with anything the Sunday Sport had on the front pages in its heyday).

Every single person, whether in PR or journalism, who I have introduced to the Framley Examiner has ended up crying with laughter. Even if the in-jokes about editorial gaffs don’t tickle you, just read the classifieds (‘TURN YOUR MEMORIES INTO CRISPS. Favourite photographs printed onto crisps. £6 a bag. Available in smoky bacon or plain’). Genius.

Sadly, the last Framley Examiner was published back in 2010 and I didn’t think I would laugh so much at a newspaper headline ever again.

So you can imagine how delighted I was to stumble across a newly released book that has compiled some of the ‘greatest’ stories that have ever featured on the pages of Britain’s local newspapers.

Whitstable Mum in Custard Shortage stretches across the entire local news spectrum including crime stories (‘Man stole tortoise to pay for booze’), domestic matters (‘Towel catches fire’), young people’s issues (‘Youth found in phone box with fork’) and local celebrities (‘Tributes to popular Lichfield cat’). I was particularly taken with the absolutely brilliant non-news stories like ‘Church window nearly smashed’. Disaster avoided! Brilliant!

At times it’s as funny as The Framley Examiner ever was, but the difference is this time all of the headlines are real.

A couple of weeks ago I heard the author of the book being interviewed on the radio by Nicky Campbell. They discussed how great headlines and stories like these arose from the unique role local newspapers have in the media mix. Their emphasis is always local and sometimes not a lot happens in some small towns, but there are still pages to fill, hence ‘Mattress falls off truck into Kidderminster road’.

This is nothing new of course. Some of the account handlers at Tangerine worked in local newspapers before starting their careers in PR and I asked them to tell me a few of the best tales they could remember. Their answers have been entertaining me all morning. ‘Hungry man stole apple’, ‘Smelly problem at Post Office’ and ‘Massive pike caught in lake’ all sound like they were great stories to work on – although not as good as my favourite so far. ‘Woman finds hat in tree’ has left me begging to find out more.

Blackberry Blackout

2011-10-25T09:36:00.000+01:00

By Caroline Gibson
Senior Account Executive

The world stood still last week as Blackberry owners weren’t able to access BBM, Facebook or Twitter on their phones.

This is may be a slight exaggeration of the truth, but the Blackberry blackout certainly had a real effect on people’s lives.

According to news reports a faulty switch at a data centre was to blame, but to Blackberry addicts it seemed that the end was nigh. Can you imagine three whole days without constant knowledge of what your friends, colleagues and, most of the time complete strangers, were doing, eating, reading, planning?

If the answer is no, then think back to about 10 years ago when poking your friends was a form of bullying and tweeting was something that birds did in a dawn chorus. This was a time when only 44% of the UK population owned a mobile phone compared to 89% of today. But these weren’t smart phones, oh no, these were silly phones which only allowed you to text and phone, and if you were really lucky, play snake!

Now that nearly a quarter of all adults own a smartphone , it seems that constant access to social media has taken over our lives, not that this is a bad thing of course. How else would we know when our friend’s birthdays are without Facebook or know what Kylie was saying about the X Factor live shows? But despite all of the benefits of social media and smart phones, people seem to forget that we have managed perfectly well without them and we can do it again. For a maximum of three days at least.

As communication professionals it is amazing to see how the world is changing and how many more channels there are out there to reach our target audience, but sometimes it is nice to log off Facebook, put down the mobile and actually talk face to face, or maybe take it back to the old school and send that special someone a card rather than poke them.

A LESSON IN MARKETING

2011-10-21T15:03:00.000+01:00

by Jo Hart, B2B Account Manager, Tangerine PR

In September, Tangerine PR’s B2B team started work on a very exciting new project. While I can’t say too much about it at this stage (sorry!), as part of it, I've been completing a grand tour of several UK universities.

During my travels, there's been one thing that's struck me at each and every university I’ve visited - the increasing need to be marketing savvy.

With tuition fee increases kicking in from next year, more than ever, universities are feeling the need to up their marketing activity in order to attract students. As such, some institutions are, for the first time, exploring proactive PR, print and in some cases, even TV advertising. While previously, such activities were executed by a minority of unis, it's now the majority. From working extensively within the public sector during my time in PR, it's a real step change to see such organisations adopting proactive and assertive strategies.

But the universities aren't the only ones who've had to up their game in order to achieve cut through in a busy marketplace. Likewise, students and graduates are increasingly adopting marketing and PR strategies and tactics in order to make themselves stand out from the crowd. So whether that's 'stalking' the chief exec of a business on Twitter, or using attention grabbing subject lines on a job application, graduates are too realising that a passive approach just doesn’t cut it.

So take heed, my travels around the UK have highlighted a stark reality: these days it’s not enough just to be good at what you do. Whether an organisation or an individual, you’ve got to wise up and get marketing savvy.

WHEN MARKETING ISN'T VERY CHARITABLE

2011-10-21T11:13:00.001+01:00

by Steve Downes, MD, Juice Digital

I was driving a friend’s son back from a meeting the other day when his mobile rang. He’s 21, just graduated and looking for his first job.

The phone call lasted half an hour. Overhearing his side of the conversation it was obvious he was trying to get off the phone from a pushy sales person. “No, I really can’t afford to increase my subscription”, “But I’ve not got a job yet and got a big student loan to pay off”, “Really, I would if I could, I just can’t”. On and on it went. I was getting increasingly frustrated at how polite he was being, making throat-cutting symbols etc. Eventually the lad finally managed to get off the phone, apologising to the caller and promising he would increase his payment as soon as he was able.

“Who the hell was that?” I asked, expecting some dodgy loan provider or money lender. “Oh it was [insert name of large international charity]. I give by direct debit and they were asking me to increase it because people are suffering terribly. I feel awful, but I just can’t. They call every so often”.

This just didn’t seem right to me. And it made me think. I won’t talk about my own charitable giving, that’s just naff, but I do know some wonderful people and organisations in the sector. I admire them greatly. But let’s use my wife as an example.

She has given for many years to a few causes, mostly environmental and children’s charities. I often open the post. She is bombarded by either the charities she supports or others who seemed to have ‘acquired’ her details somehow. The mailings follow a similar pattern. Either, “thank you for your previous donation, but the situation in xxx is still terrible. Look at this awful/ appealing picture. Please give us more” or “here is a little gift for you. Feel free to keep it for yourself. You don’t need to send us any money if you can look yourself in the mirror, but otherwise please send money”.

Now I’m a marketer and have spent a fair amount of my career advising my clients on how to increase revenue from their customer base. I can’t ever remember advising them to call their most loyal clients and humiliate them for not spending more.

Charities need to grasp that in these social media-enabled days, it is not just the brand itself that has an awareness, positioning and personality, but the PEOPLE representing that brand. Most people have a positive sentiment towards the charity itself. Of course, or why would they support them. Similarly for the people ‘on the ground’ doing the work. But what about the managers, administrators, marketeers, customer service personnel? I’m not so sure.

I’ve either worked with, professionally or know personally many people in these functions. Every one of them is smart, dedicated, hard-working and selfless in their work for their cause. But, I’m sure like you, heard hundreds of comments like “I’m not sure how much of my donation actually goes to the people it’s for”, “They’d be better spending their money on what they’re supposed to do rather than pushing stuff through my door every day” etc.

So where’s the disconnect? Is it simply PR or is there something inherently wrong in the way some charities go about their marketing? I’m sure the marketing departments can supply ROI data on how these tactics work, but for how long? A leaking bucket can be only re-filled so often.

So how to get it right? I’m going to declare an interest right here. I’ve worked with these people professionally and support them personally, but I think they’ve got it right. Forever Manchester is also forever positive about the future of the communities they help. They give a steady stream of positive stories about what deprived communities in Manchester are achieving, with or without their support, In their marketing they have acknowledged that their donors of the future will be different to their donors of today and have developed their strategy to reflect that. They’ve embraced the new communications channels of social media, digital marketing and understand its power. But here’s the thing. There’s not only warmth towards the brand and its work but also the people who work for it. From Chief Executive Nick Massey down everyone acknowledges they’re simply nice people. As a supporter you can guarantee their communications will have something to say and quite often be fun! Of course they ask for your money, that’s their job, but it’s the way they ask. They ask like a friend, not a ‘sleeve-tugger’.

I fully appreciate there’s a huge difference between a large, international organisation and a local one, but I still think there are lessons they could learn.

And here’s their link again so you can donate!

Steve Downes

Juice Digital, Manchester

Link:

UK BANS OVERTY SEXY OUTDOOR ADS

2011-10-17T16:29:00.001+01:00

By Kate Greville, senior account manager, Tangerine PR agency, Manchester

So, sexy billboards in the UK like the Wonderbra image of Eva Herzigova next to the slogan "Hello Boys" and Sophie Dahl lying naked on a rug for Yves Saint Laurent, are to become a thing of the past.

To be honest, I can’t really say that I’m that surprised…it was only a matter of time.

Why will they be no more?

Well, according to the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, (ASA) they portray “inappropriate” messages and children shouldn’t be subjected to such images.

Following the latest ban of a sexy Beyoncé fragrance TV advert back in January and a YSL Opium ad, which had a perceived drug message, the ASA has now imposed a new set of rules for advertisers to consider before billboards can be placed outdoors, especially if they are near a place where there’s a high concentration of children.

What does this mean to the future of outdoor advertising?

It could see a number of brands, which rely heavily on promoting the illusion of a sexy, alluring and appealing product, targeted. The most revealing adverts will be banned altogether, while others within 100 yards of schools or nurseries will have to be toned down. Ironically, brand Beckham and its various underwear and fragrance adverts are just one example of a brand that will now be under the watchful eye of the ASA…

I can’t help selfishly thinking how sad it would be to never see Mr Beckham in his skimpy underpants again!

Anyway, moving on. The ASA's new code has been sent to advertisers and agencies, and is illustrated with sample images showing what is acceptable. Bikini shots are OK regardless of where they are located, but sexually suggestive poses face tougher tests.

Sex sells

Working in the creative industry at Manchester based PR agency, Tangerine PR, I know how powerful ‘sex’ is in helping to promote brands and sell products. I’ve worked with a number of different clients who depend on a sexy image, and during my time in the consumer team, some of the most successful news stories and surveys we’ve commissioned have been based on the very subject of sex - most recently a story we released for my client, Atkins, regarding research revealing how women think more about food and dieting than they do sex.

The UK is fascinated with sex (and food) and that was proven with the vast amounts of national (and international) coverage that was achieved for the story, such as Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, The Metro, Grazia and Marie Claire Australia.

What Next?

According to the Government, companies are now working together to change industry practices and create a more family friendly society. So what does this mean for the brands that don’t target families, which rely heavily on a powerful sexy image in order to achieve sales and generate buzz?

It looks like they are going to have to be a little more creative and think outside of the box in order to get past the ASA and still achieve the desired results – which, in my opinion, is a good thing. It may mean that in the future we’ll see less obvious campaigns emerge, which engage the public because they are clever, not just because there’s lots of naked flesh on show!

I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

WORD ON THE STREET: LANGUAGE IS A BIG DEAL

2011-10-07T15:51:00.000+01:00

By Rachael Ireland, Senior Account Executive, Tangerine PR

Glued to the sofa the other night, I stumbled upon Fry’s Planet Word (BBC2) and having just watched an hour’s easy X-Factor viewing, I decided to stimulate my brain cells and watch something semi-intellectual.

I’m a big fan of Stephen Fry and his five-part series that celebrates and explores language didn’t disappoint. Having studied French and German at A-Level, I suppose, sub-consciously, languages have always been something that have interested me, but this programme made me realise what an endlessly fascinating and mysterious subject language really is.

If you think about it, it’s not just Fry who is passionate about the spoken word. Most universities offer some form of linguistic or language related course and the fact that we still have games like ‘Scrabble’ and ‘Boggle’ proves that we still think language is a topic worth talking about.

Do you call a ‘bread roll’ a cob, bap, barm cake or scuffler? This episode was all about identity and what it is that defines us. It also reminded viewers that language, dialect and accents are more than just words, and that the way we speak is influenced by many factors – the roots of our elders, our social and educational background and our working environment.

Britain has a ridiculous number of different accents - in some areas people can even tell which village someone comes from by listening to them speak, as each village has its own distinct dialect.

At Tangerine HQ, we have quite a diverse range of accents including Mancunian, Liverpudlian, Irish, Brummie, Scottish, Southern and my very own mother tongue, Lancashire. You can only imagine what our staff parties sound like!

An accent is a form of identity and unless you are born and bred in an area, it can be quite difficult convincing someone otherwise. Take American actress Anne Hathaway, for example, who was heavily criticised for her Yorkshire accent in the film, ‘One Day.’

We know that there are significant distinctions between the way people speak in the north and south. Northerners generally pronounce words such as bath, grass and dance with a short vowel. Southerners use long vowels and I’ll always remember my English teacher comparing a southern accent to the sound you make when the doctor examines your throat.

Fry talked about ‘linguicide’ - the destruction of minority languages by ‘dominant’ languages, due to globalisation. According to the British linguist David Crystal, an indigenous language currently disappears every two weeks. By the end of the century, it is projected, 5,500 of the current 6,000 languages now spoken will join Latin and Greek as ‘dead languages.’

Fry travelled to West Ireland where the Irish language is thriving in schools, however the pupils admitted they switched to English to talk on Facebook or for text messages. In France he met an academic who said that the French language was becoming endangered, as more people adapted global-English words such as ‘cheeseburger’ and ‘internet.’
Without getting too deep here, although language is constantly evolving and changing and the death of some languages is imminent, I don’t want to think about a world without dialects and accents, as they represent where we’re from and who we are. We should celebrate and be proud of our accent, as each one tells a story.

Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T09:11:00.002+01:00

by Steve Downes, Managing Director of Juice Digital

I woke up this morning and heard the sad news of Steve Jobs' death. I thought a lot about him through my routine morning commute to the office. As a blogger, I confess that my knee-jerk reaction was “what should I write about him?”

And the more I thought about it, the answer was nothing useful really. What the hell can I add to the acres of newsprint and gigabytes of bandwidth extolling his life and achievements?

So, other than offering condolences to his family and close friends I simply suggest that you watch this. It’s all you need to know about the man. If you’ve not much time look at the section from 11:42 to 13:02 on his views on life and death.

Goodbye Steve and thanks.

Supermarkets vs Independent Farmers – Which Gets Your Vote?

2011-10-04T14:08:00.001+01:00

By Rebecca Dickinson

Senior account executive at Tangerine PR

As a child

Growing up in a leafy village in Kent, with acres of grassland around, chickens laying fresh eggs and a fantastic twice weekly farmer’s market, boasting locally sourced produce - fresh meat and veggies a plenty - I never realised what a luxury this was. In fact, as a child, I was pretty bored with all the organic ‘rubbish’ my mum used to dish up and too frequently longed for pizza or chips, “Please Mum, just this once?” My, my how times have changed. How different could I be now?

Supermarkets vs Farmers

So when Tesco launched its price war recently, to challenge competitors and force other outlets to reduce its margins and costs to consumers, it got me thinking about the days back in Kent, when my parents bought direct from the farmer, knowing full well that the meat was locally reared and the vegetables transported from less than five miles away. Don’t get me wrong, they still purchased many staples from the supermarkets, I mean it’s not like anyone brews their own local wine. Oh no hold up, yes they do! – but there were still other bits to get.

The great thing is, though, the farmers’ market is still very much an active part of the community and thriving, as locals have stuck by them through thick and thin, to ensure that quality food is never far away – it now means I can coo over the wonderful sights and delectable delights when I return home, ensuring that a carefully arranged packed lunch is whipped up and taken back with me to Manchester – yes I know, I am still very much a child.

British Beef

Working as part of Tangerine PR’s consumer team, one of our clients is Ross Burgers. Interestingly, the products are sold via supermarket outlets, but the company’s board members are made up of Irish farmers who are instrumental in the manufacturing and production of the products. Using 100% British beef, Ross Burgers uses only the best cuts and is in fact the only company that owns its own abattoir. The company understands that it isn’t always possible to rely on the local community to support them financially but is also conscious of the need to provide excellent products, even to the mass market, and by teaming up with supermarkets which are trusted – those that work in the best interest of the farmers – they have proven that it is possible to distribute far and wide.

In today’s society, I understand that it is not always possible to avoid the supermarkets and support local independents, not only for the obvious price reasons but also for the convenience, with many fresh markets operating during normal working hours and therefore those with jobs, missing the opportunity to pay the local stall a visit. It does, however, seem as though some chains, most notably the Manchester food giant, Co-op, with its ‘Good with Food’ slogan offering fair trade products aplenty, are making a more conscious effort to engage farmers far and wide as consumers push for better quality, convenient food, which clearly states its provenance.

One thing is for sure, it is the consumer that needs to be kept happy and it’s the consumer who drives change. And with purse strings tightening and the subject of responsibly sourced products being thrown into the mix, customers want top quality, locally sourced produce, at reasonable prices. Just as Jamie Oliver has done with the likes of Sainsbury’s, creating well priced, easy, mouth watering meals for all the family, other brands are following suit.

Thanks Mum

So Mum, you have always said that one day I will turn into you and in many ways, I feel as if I already have. I now know that when I eventually have children - don’t worry man friend, I am not ready yet, but when I am - and they look at me in distain, refusing to eat the juicy, plump vegetables and succulent pieces of meat that I put in front of them, I can at least rest assured that I am doing the right thing. I mean after all, I turned out alright .......... Didn’t I?

What Your Tweets Say About You

2011-10-04T13:50:00.000+01:00

by Nigel Hughes, creative director, Tangerine PR, Manchester

I know this sounds like a PR cliché, but I love using twitter.

If you’ve got any interest in football (specifically Tranmere Rovers), music (specifically indie pop-type stuff that went out of fashion more than 20 years ago), Newton-le-willows (specifically some of the strange people who live there) and being a dad (specifically being a dad who is also the coach of his kid’s under 8s football team), then feel free to follow me.

But be warned. Sometimes I use swearwords. Sometimes I tweet things that are a bit close to the bone. Sometimes I’m really irritating. Sometimes I don’t even make sense.

Or to put it another way, I’m me! On twitter or in real life, I’m just me.

So, what’s the etiquette about this then? Do I risk my own professional reputation every time I say something slightly weird or use strong language on twitter? Maybe, but I reserve the right to do so. My twitterstream is my own and I’m entitled to use it as I like and, to be fair, since I started to use the platform in 2008 I’ve never had a whisper of complaint from either my bosses or my clients.

It’s interesting stuff though, twitter etiquette. Some social media specialists recommend that companies have social media policies, to which employees have to agree, but other social media purists argue that corporate sanitisation goes completely against the spirit of the new web. Social media is about transparency they say – controlling what employees do or don’t tweet hardly lives up to that ideal, does it?

I’ve got some sympathy with that view. So long as I’m clear that ‘these views are mine and not necessarily shared by my employers’ I think people can understand the difference.

But that’s not to say I don’t have a twitter etiquette of my own. Believe me, I do. Overfriendliness is my first no-no. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve seen asking someone else they hardly know (if at all) “How is little Jimmy’s chicken pox then? Ah bless him....etc” What? If someone I’d never met before showed that much interest in my kids I’d be freaked out!

And, as for the people who arrange business meetings, in public, over twitter – do they know how desperate to be popular they sound?. “Hi Bill, fancy a coffee?”, “Yes, it would be great to see you and to discuss project X”, “Great, your place or mine?”. What on earth? Get a room!

Disclaimer: these random gripes are entirely my own and not necessarily shared by anyone else at Tangerine PR ;-)

The future of media engagement just got personal

2011-10-04T09:10:00.000+01:00

By: Gary Quinn, Media Consultant, Tangerine PR

An impressive line up of big hitters across TV, radio, newspapers and advertising, rolled into Manchester for the first How Do ‘Future of Media Engagement’ conference yesterday (Thursday). So did they deliver, was I engaged?

Overall, yes. But in my humble opinion there is room for improvement, more of which later. The pick of the speakers was undoubtedly the smooth talking Nick Milligan, MD, Sky Media, the enlightening Tess Alps, chief executive, Thinkbox and the nostalgic Russ Lidstone, CEO, Euro RSCG.

The three are at the very top of their individual games and they delivered informative and entertaining presentations that made even an old cynic like me feel positively excited about what is happening right now in our industry and even more about the amazing plans for the future.

Sky chief Milligan began by saying how the challenge for the broadcaster at this point was actually keeping up with the level of technological change. As somebody who has been in the business of TV for over 20 years he told the audience the last six have seen an unprecedented level of technological development and there was more to come.

This was a theme that ran throughout the day – change is happening daily and the industry is embracing it like never before. The optimism was in stark contrast to daily economic reports of doom and gloom. Many of the speakers said there had never been a more exciting time to be involved in media – and who am I to argue?

I personally had never heard of Sky AdSmart, a service currently in the development stage that will ultimately lead to tailored advertising that will mean you can receive different adverts than your neighbour.

Speaking to the 200 delegates at the conference Sky Media MD, Nick Milligan, insisted segmented advertising was achievable by 2013 and Sky AdSmart had been already in development for three years. As he candidly put it: “We need to get it right.”

And if they do – there is reason to doubt they will as the broadcaster has a fantastic track record when it comes to technological innovation – then it will revolutionise how consumers engage with advertising and vice versa.

The way it works is this, if Ford advertises with Sky then because I have a family I will see an ad for an S-Max, while my childless next door neighbour will be shown one for a Ford Fiesta.

In the words of another famous advert – the possibilities are endless.

The necessary information to tailor adverts to suit individuals will come from that which has already been provided by Sky customers when they signed up, plus a combination of data provided by other companies who have your permission to share information about you.

It could mean that one day a dog owner will see adverts for dog food, while the cat lover will be streamed ads for cat food. It does raise obvious concerns around the nature of our growing Big Brother society and the extent of data capture but that’s for another day.

Sky is clearly very excited at the prospect of Sky AdSmart, while advertisers will be salivating at the mouth. It is a total game changer, turning advertising truly personal, and it doesn’t get much better than that.

Tess Alps, chief executive of Thinkbox, rattled through an insightful presentation and she argued that proper engagement was all about creating an emotional response from consumers.

But I felt she needed longer to properly explore her extremely interesting themes and this would be my major criticism of the day’s proceedings, if anything there were too many speakers and too much choice.

When you have people of the calibre of Tess Alps, Nick Milligan and Russ Lidstone they deserve longer than a 20 minute slot. And they each could have benefited with individual Q&A sessions directly after their talks. For me, the Q&A at the end of the day just didn’t work, and I feel it would’ve been much better all round to put questions to the various individuals.

There was also one or two who misinterpreted the brief and seemed slightly more concerned with pushing their own wares. I often find at such events there can be a fine line between presentation and sales pitch. However, saying this, most did strike the right balance I’m pleased to say.

I look forward to this becoming an annual How Do event, and with the rate of change the industry is undergoing at the moment who knows what we can expect from next year’s conference.

I, for one, will certainly be there to find out. Well done to all concerned.

Have Your Cake and Eat It

2011-10-03T16:28:00.001+01:00

By Claire Gamble, account manager, Tangerine PR

Victoria sponge, banana loaf, lemon and raisin muffins, coffee and walnut cake, scones, pastries, bakewell tart, swiss roll… I’ve had one thing on my mind this week, and one thing only – cake.

On Wednesday afternoon, I travelled up to sunny Blackpool for the Great British Bake Off final. No, not that one on BBC2 with Mel and Sue… Pah – the contestants on that are amateurs compared to the ones I met this week. No, this was the Harvest Housing Great British Bake Off.

For those of you who don’t know, the Harvest Housing Group is one of the B2B team’s clients and it provides affordable, high quality homes and sheltered accommodation across the North West, and many of the sites we deal with cater for the over 55s. But we don’t spend our days writing and talking about bricks and mortar, oh no, we spend our days talking about singing contests, tea parties – and this week baking.

After four tough heats, which saw dozens of Harvest Housing residents put their calorific treats to the test, the judges had whittled the competition down to seven finalists. The atmosphere at the final was tense, to say the least. As the cakes, loafs and muffins were lined up for the blind taste test, the nervous qualifiers eyed up the competition and there were whispers of “I knew I should have made my ice fingers instead…”, “Phew, that cake is tiny compared to mine…”, “I’m hungry, give me cake…” (OK, that last one was me talking).

Going around and talking to the finalists, I worked out that between them they had 250 years of baking experience between them. TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS!!! No wonder the quality was so high. Some of them had been baking since they were 12, others baked special treats for their great grandchildren and others conjure up culinary delights to sell at charity events.

They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So we ate. And then ate some more. And a little bit more. Then we hoovered up the crumbs. After a lot of collaboration, the judges finally decided on a winner…Mary Wallace for her extremely delicious hummingbird cake, which I have been assured, was not made from real hummingbirds.

I have been positively inspired by all of this baking and have invested considerable sums in kitchen scales, cake tins, grease proof paper, spoons, mixing bowls, blenders, recipe books, muffin cases, flour, sugar, eggs, sprinkles…now to actually bake something. What’s your favourite fail safe recipe for a novice baker?

Keeping it in the family

2011-09-30T15:39:00.000+01:00

Isn’t it strange how your work and home life can sometimes collide in the weirdest ways? Last week I was left feeling like I’d just been on an episode of ‘Who do you think you are?’ following a visit to the fantastic and world famous AGA Cast Iron Foundry based in the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution – Coalbrookdale, Shropshire.

I always knew my great grandparents were from the area and I remember my mum mentioning something to do with her grandfather and Aga but had never taken much notice.

However, when we were fortunate enough to get the PR account for the amazing AGA Cookshop last month, it suddenly started to have more resonance.

Quizzing my mum the night before said Foundry tour, I discovered my great grandfather had actually been MD of the Foundry for a number of years and his great claim to fame was inheriting the one and only Abraham Darby’s chair in his office! (For those who didn’t listen in history, Abraham Darby founded the iron works in 1709, following his experiments to smelt iron ores using coke as a fuel instead of charcoal which was a major milestone in the Industrial Revolution.)

So, feeling rather impressed by the standing of my great grandfather, me and some of the other lovely Tangerine consumer team, set off on a beautiful Autumn morning to sunny Shropshire.

What an amazing experience! Firstly, Coalbrookdale itself which is absolutely fascinating and very pretty with the iconic Ironbridge standing proud since 1779 in the centre to mark the town’s place in our industrial history. It was strange to look across the same valley as my grandmother and her parents, seemingly little changed since they were there in the 1930s.

Then there was the foundry itself. Still standing since 1709. At that time of course, it wasn’t making iconic cookers - although it did make some cooking pots even way back then! The cast iron was mainly used for pipes, bridges and steam engines – even bombs! In fact the AGA cookers we know and love today, weren’t produced at the Foundry until 82 years ago (weirdly the same time my great grandfather was MD!). Watching the generations of men (as is still the case now) smelting the iron – in much the same way as it was done back in the 1700s (although with rather more attention to health & safety today!) was fascinating and very entertaining as they had great banter between them and were obviously extremely proud of the job they do.

What was really strange was seeing my great grandfather’s name on the plaque at the entrance to the Foundry, listing all the MDs since Abraham Darby himself. There he was - Charles W Edwards MD 1932-7. Under his name was listed ‘Continuous extension of the foundry and the dressing shops’. His name also appeared under the next MD Thomas Offley Lander 1937-41 so I’m guessing he remained involved as perhaps aide to the new MD following his tenure.

My mum had also mentioned that, as MD, Charles and his family were provided with a house – at the time called Woodbury (she thinks it is now flats). I couldn’t find any trace of it but at the time, two cast iron dogs adorned the entrance gates. When he retired and left the property there was some controversy over the pair. Either Charles or his wife wanted to keep them and the other felt they belonged to the Foundry. My mum wasn’t sure what the outcome had been so I am now on a mission to find out and I am planning a return visit to tour the museums and walk more of the streets my grandma did when she was a girl. I imagine she had quite a standing in the town as the daughter of the Foundry MD, such was – and still is – the influence of such an impressive and important site.

It was a great day and every time I’m now chatting to colleagues and journalists about the fantastic cookware, I do it with even more pride that my family in some way was involved in its existence.

Our World Famous Lift Sign!

2011-09-28T15:14:00.000+01:00

by Steve Downes, MD of Juice Digital

Manchester – The new home of sport

2011-09-26T11:51:00.001+01:00

With all eyes on London ahead of the Olympics next year, our nation’s sporting darlings are busy preparing for the biggest competition of their lives.

Being one of many resident ‘sports geeks’ at leading PR agency, Tangerine PR, sport has always been a huge part of my life and living in Manchester, I have always been very proud of our sporting credentials, and recently I have become even more so.

Two of the city’s top football clubs, Manchester United and Manchester City are currently dominating in the Premier League, which is great to see.

After all the years of MUFC claiming the bragging rights in the city, the blue side of Manchester has stepped up its game, with many high profile signings, who are really making a difference on the pitch. With only six games gone it is a really promising start so I am hoping the trophy will be staying in the North West for another year (fingers crossed on the red side!)

After another hugely successful year hosting the Bupa Great Manchester Run and the Powerade Great CityGames with some of the world’s top athletes, including Tyson Gay and Jessica Ennis, it was great news to hear that after a 10 year absence the Great Manchester Marathon will be returning to the city on the 29th April 2012.

I have never seen a marathon live so you can be sure I will be lining the streets, hopefully watching Paula Radcliffe hitting the streets and after her really strong performance in the Berlin marathon yesterday, she can continue get back into her best.

With so much going on within the region’s sport scene, I think it is fantastic that the prestigious Sports Personality of the Year 2011 Awards will be held at MediaCity Salford, the new home of BBC Sport. Every year I am glued to the sofa to watch these awards that recognise the exceptional sporting talent within the country – so bring on the 22nd December – my money is already on Mo Farah!

Charity Cricket Event

2011-09-26T11:45:00.000+01:00

At Tangerine PR, we are actively encouraged to take part in charity activities outside of the workplace so not only did I recently attend a charity ‘England legends’ celebrity cricket event at Grappenhall Cricket Club but I also got to host the VIP marquee! I thought I would fill you in with the background and show off my celeb pic!

Earlier in the year, I was over the moon to discover that Grappenhall Cricket Club’s chairman Dave Nicholson and Grappenhall and ex-England player, Neil Fairbrother had decided to arrange a game between a team of England Legends and ‘Select’ Grappenhall XI.

Thanks to Neil’s contacts, an impressive line up of players, headed up by Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff agreed to take part in the game at the Broad Lane ground (Grappenhall, Warrington), to help raise much needed funds for the cricket club, Candice Roberts Memorial Fund, and Freddie Flintoff’s charity, the AF Foundation.

On the day, more than 2,500 people attended, including a selection of people from Tangerine PR’s client Dulux Decorator Centres, and they were treated to a great line up players including Michael Atherton, David Lloyd, Michael Vaughan, Dean Headley, John Crawley, Graeme Hick, Warren Hegg, Philip DeFreitas and Gladstone Small. Sadly the legends defeated the home side’s team but I’m pretty sure that the players were happy enough to lose to some of their sporting heroes.

My role at the event was to act as joint host for the VIP tent, ably supporting chief organiser, Gaynor Mills. More than 500 people had paid for corporate hospitality so had the pleasure of a three course sit down meal in the comfort of a luxury marquee as well as sharing the same space as the ‘legends’. My responsibilities included showing everyone to their seat, running through the order of the day and making sure that if they had any needs – they were catered for. With a workforce of more than 100 people, there were a lot of people to oversee while making sure none of the guests were sat wanting for anything. While managing the general flow of the day, I had the great honour of meeting the legends and introducing them to their ‘table hosts’ and making sure they felt comfortable.

The event raised a huge amount of money and not only did everyone seem to enjoy themselves but the crowds were genuinely impressed that such a small club had managed to pull together the huge event. The event generated some great publicity in national and local press including a feature on Sky Sports showing David Lloyd smashing a car window with a magnificent six and reviews in the Daily Telegraph and Warrington Guardian.

So here’s my chance to show off. Although cricket isn’t the number one sport of choice for the team at Tangerine, consumer account director, Marie Carter, loves a good celebrity picture and consumer account manager, Vicki Lamb, is a general fan of all things sport and Freddie Flintoff so I was ready to impress them after I spent the day mingling with the VIPs and I even managed to get my picture taken with Freddie.

It was a cracking day and even though I was on my feet for 16 hours – I loved every minute especially after chatting to Freddie and getting my picture taken with him!

Brilliant!

The Last Days of Political Spin?

2011-09-23T16:39:00.000+01:00

By Barry Maginn, Account Executive, Tangerine PR

Last week wasn’t a good one for George Osborne. He started it by comparing politicians with GQ readers - in that they are both a rude word rhyming with ‘bankers’. A couple of days later he was accused, by a dominatrix, of helping Andy Coulson get his No 10 comms job as some kind of repayment for not publishing, while ed at NOTW, a story about Osborne’s wild drug-taking younger days.

In between he managed to very publically fail to win support for ridding the country of that bothersome 50 per cent tax rate that has been causing so many sleepless nights for many core Conservative supporters (ie fundraisers).

In media relations terms, he clearly had a week to forget, with critics seizing the opportunity to label him too immature, too inexperienced, and too shrouded in controversy to be at the helm of the country’s economy through these turbulent times.

Osborne's series of banana skin moments does makes you think. Political parties put a great deal of effort into controlling external communications and news flow – yet their best laid plans can sometimes fail spectacularly.

The reality is that politicians often prove to be their own undoing. They have few qualms about fitting the evidence around the policy, rather than the other way around. Indeed, for years politicians have profited from propagating their ideologies by using sensationalist statistics and exaggerated scare stories.

We often see ‘selective’ evidence used to justify controversial decisions across Government. For an example look no further than Health Secretary Andrew Lansley inventing support from influential bodies for his reforms, or fudging the UK’s international health standings.

If still not convinced, witness Education Secretary Michael Gove quoting education improvements in countries with academy-esque schools (Sweden), without mentioning similar improvements in neighbouring countries that have no academy-style schools at all (Norway). The list goes on - in fact Osborne has just been slapped on the wrist for his dubious use of official economic statistics.

The problem for politicians is that these days it really doesn’t matter how good they are at controlling the flow of information. The internet has become a flagrant source of information for those determined to call them and their politics to account, with many sites providing ample ammunition to fill even the most tightly spun yarn full of holes.

Wikileaks is an obvious example (although one that is becoming harder to justify as a suitable illustration), but websites such as fullfact.org and theyworkforyou.com are making information that was previously hard to find easy to access and even easier to understand.

As these websites increasingly grow in popularity and are picked up by mainstream commentators, questioning the sources behind Governmental quotes and press releases will become less of a niche past-time for wannabe policy wonks and more of a mainstream hobby for disgruntled constituents and armchair pundits.

These days, Osborne and his ilk shouldn’t just be worrying about the media fall-out from off-script speeches that they make when slightly intoxicated. They need to make doubly sure information releases are meticulously controlled and that the policy rational behind their rhetoric is absolutely watertight, otherwise they are concocting a recipe for a public relations disaster.

Event: The Power of Engagement…

2011-09-22T14:30:00.001+01:00

Join us for a morning workshop to discuss real world customer engagement tips and techniques for the retail sector. We’ll be talking multi-channel, creating virtual communities and tapping into your customers’ social circles to maximise engagement, awareness and ultimately revenue.
Winning the hearts, minds and wallets of your customer has never been more challenging, but get it right and you have the silver bullet to success and profit. Our team of experts will help you to achieve this Holy Grail of customer engagement.

The workshop will discuss how you could:
• Become a customer centric retailer
• Communicate to maximise revenue
• Offer choice and a complete customer experience
• Get personal
• Identify profitable behaviour
• Have a successful CRM & loyalty programme
• Collect the right data and then use it effectively

Your customers are your most precious assets… looking after them and giving them choice means keeping them for longer.

Event Details:
The Imperial War Museum North
The Quays
Trafford Wharf
Manchester, GREATER MANCHESTER M17 1TZ
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 from 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM (GMT)
Price: Free to retailers

Book: http://thepowerofengagement.eventbrite.com/

Can you teach creativity in PR?

2011-09-21T14:31:00.000+01:00

By Nigel Hughes, creative director, Tangerine PR, Manchester

Scanning through the course list for this year’s CIPR training programme, I’ve noticed that the institute is running a few sessions on creativity in PR.

Some commentators will pull a face at this, believing that creativity can’t be taught. You’re either a creative sort or you’re not, they say – but I don’t agree. My view is that anyone can come up with good ideas.
They just need to believe that they can do it and be shown that, by adding some structure to their thinking, great ideas can be drawn out of hiding.

I am the creative director at Tangerine PR. Partially that means the onus is on me to come up with some ideas for clients. Partially that means I cajole others into sharing their own thoughts and then help model them into campaigns that are on message for those clients.

In neither instance is there a blank sheet of paper, a woolly brief and a magic wand. Planning and process are the only way to guarantee results and that’s how brainstorms and ideas sessions are run here. There’s no hiding place. Everyone in the group has to take part, although usually everyone in the group wants to take part anyway. That’s because, with a few prompts and exercises we have developed, every single person comes up with ideas and wants the rest of the world to hear them.

Funnily enough, the chap who first suggested to me that everyone has it in them to be creative is Andy Green, who just happens to be the person hosting the CIPR’s creativity in PR courses. I’ve got huge respect for Andy, which can be traced right back to my listening to a presentation from him when I was a young account executive. I had sat in on lots of brainstorms up to that point but he was the first person I heard who really stressed that creativity wasn’t a black art.

His presentation was like a ‘penny dropping’ moment for me and it probably shaped the way my career in PR went from that point on.
I’d be interested to hear what he has to say on the course, if only because it’s nearly 20 years since I last heard him speak. I’m sure my own thinking has evolved well away from his, but I’m sure there’s lots in common too.

My latest hobby horse is that most of the best ideas are just 10 per cent removed from something that’s been done before. It’s probably a blog post for another day, but I wonder what he thinks about that? Maybe I’ll ask him.

MACDONALD’S NUTRITIONAL LABELLING – FOOD FOR THOUGHT

2011-09-21T13:58:00.004+01:00

Writtern by Nikki Girvan
Junior Account Manager at Tangerine PR

When, earlier this month, MacDonald’s first announced that it would be revealing the nutritional information of all of its products in restaurants across the UK [http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/mcdonalds-puts-calories-on-the-menu-ndash-but-is-anyone-counting-2349792.html], I, like many others dived straight for the website, eager to satisfy my morbid curiosity about exactly how bad my meal of choice – a Quarter Pounder and Cheese - really was for me.

FOUR HUNRDED AND FIFTY CALORIES!! – and that didn’t even include the chips, full-fat coke and three BBQ sauces that completed my favourite Maccy D’s treat. A part of me cursed the MacDonald’s employees who decided to shatter my illusions that a burger and chips couldn’t be that bad, but I realised that it did offer something of an opportunity to Tangerine PR’s food and diet clients.

For many years now food products stocked in supermarkets, like items from Tangerine PR’s clients such as Ross Bugers, Dalepak, and Soreen, have sat on our shelves with their nutritional content – positive or negative – emblazoned on their packaging, while fast food restaurants have been able to ‘get away’ with serving calorific treats to customers munching away in blissful ignorance.

But now, with fat content, calories and lack of much nutritional value in plain sight, the more health conscious consumer and parents concerned about childhood obesity rates, have been given food for thought. Armed with this information, it may become clear that, although convenient, the healthier option might just be to go home, grill a Ross burger and serve it with tasty homemade chips and a salad.

Food clients will now be able to provide food and health media and consumers with direct comparisons to MacDonald’s meals, to highlight the healthier choices that their products offer, against those offered by the fast food giant.

Of course, the blissfully ignorant munching that has been going on isn’t wholly MacDonalds’ fault - anyone with any inclination could always have done a bit of digging to find out roughly how much fat was in their burger, but who wants to bother with that when all they want is a quick snack or a naughty treat?

MacDonald’s decision has, in the main, been an excellent move – a CSR effort to support health secretary, Andrew Lansley’s “responsibility deal” on public health, used cleverly as good PR for the brand. Of course people will not suddenly stop eating from the chain and indeed many people will simply ignore the information.

However, for those people concerned about their food choices, looking for healthier options or simply wanting to enjoy a treat responsibly – such as people following health regimes like the Atkins plan – they will now be able to access the information easily and clearly and turn to their supermarket shelves and find a healthier option.

The Future’s Bright...

2011-09-16T10:39:00.002+01:00

by Jo Hart, Account Manager, Tangerine PR B2B team

On Wednesday, The Telegraph published a story stating that more teenagers in the UK are out of work and without a college place than in most other developed nations. This, coupled with the furore around ‘the youth of today’ following last month’s riots, paints a sorry state of affairs for the younger generation.

However, this week, I for one am feeling a lot brighter in my view of the new, up and coming workforce after Manchester Masters (the graduate retention programme created by Tangerine PR group managing director, Sandy Lindsay) selected the next cohort of eager graduates for the scheme.

During the intensive assessment centre, I was chatting to many of the candidates, and despite the increasing difficulty faced by the grads in getting on the career ladder, there was definitely a sense of positivity and excitement for what the future holds. Yes, it’s hard to get a job and it’s more competitive than ever, but by putting in the effort, there are some amazing opportunities out there.

On the Tangerine PR B2B team, we’re responsible for the ‘business’ side of the Manchester Masters programme, helping to match the finalists with a series of top placements throughout their year. As you’d expect, during this process, we speak to a lot of companies throughout the region, and they are finding their workloads expanding rapidly, and are very keen to get fresh, enthusiastic graduates into their businesses to lend a hand.

So, in summary, what I’m trying to say is that it’s not all doom and gloom out there. The new workforce are as eager, committed and bright as ever (reading through the applicants’ CV and application forms is often a depressing experience – you’ve travelled the world, started your own business and speak three languages and you’re only 22!), and businesses seem to be (gradually) coming out of the economic downturn. So while, the stats aren’t the best, there are definitely green shoots and stories of success out there.

What Makes Twitter Twick?

2011-09-06T17:17:00.000+01:00

By Gary Quinn, Media Consultant, Tangerine PR, Manchester

Beyonce stormed to the top of the Twitter charts with her pregnancy announcement at the recent MTV Video Music Awards, as almost 9,000 tweets per second – yes, per second – were sent as soon as she revealed her good news.

So what does this tell us about Twitter and what makes it twick? (see what I did there?)

Personally I think it does the service of twitter a disservice and allow me to explain why. People who currently don’t use the micro blogging site – I know but apparently there are some poor souls still to be converted – can get the wrong impression that it is all about celebrity gossip and not much else.

A cursory glance at the top five most tweeted events of recent times shows that is not the case. Behind a blooming Beyonce, with the second most tweets of all time is Japan beating USA in the women’s world cup, with 7,196 tweets per second.

This is followed by Paraguay’s Copa America defeat of Brazil, with 7,166 tweets, fourth is New Year’s Day in Tokyo when 6,939 tweets were sent every second. And in fifth place is the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, which registered 5,530 tweets a second.

Osama Bin Laden’s death only comes 10th on the list but it did prompt the highest ever sustained tweet rate, with Twitter averaging 3,440 tweets per second between 03:45am and 05:30am on the night the news was announced.

Twitter was also highly instrumental in contributing to the “Arab Spring” revolutions and provided a window on parts of the world many had rarely or never seen before.

And this is the true power of Twitter, as a communication tool in the front line of history it is unrivalled. For anybody involved in the medium of communication, from PR to journalism and everything in between, Twitter is not just essential, it forms the very basis on how you can best do your job.

In the last 12 months Twitter has most certainly come of age, it is now five years old and has more than 200 million users, who send more than 140 million tweets a day, which is just under one billion every week. By contrast, it took more than three years and two months to reach its first one billion tweets.

And it is the gift that just keeps on giving. I now receive all the biggest news stories via Twitter, ironically Beyonce’s baby news was the one I actually heard about via traditional media channels.

But more importantly it is the voice of people, whatever sex, creed, age or race across the globe. It is people power that keeps it going from strength to strength and gives Twitter its unique quality.

And this is just the beginning - the revolution will not be televised but it will be on Twitter…

TEAM BONDING DAYS CAN BE PRODUCTIVE…AND GOOD FUN!

2011-09-05T17:25:00.001+01:00

Tom Cummings, Junior Account Manager, Tangerine PR, Manchester

Well despite a ticking off from the Mrs for waking her up at an ungodly hour on a school night, Tangerine PR’s company day was a resounding success.

There is always debate within business as to whether these team-bonding exercises are worth anything and I think the simple answer is yes.

As one of the newest recruits at Tangerine Towers, finding your place in the mix and getting to know everyone can be a daunting task. Working out characters, discovering people’s social activities, sense of humour, taste in music and most importantly which team they support (sadly no other Arsenal fans in the building), is not a quick job.

Luckily for me I’ve joined an agency where interaction comes naturally and is encouraged, which suits me just fine being a gobby guy!

This was certainly put to the test this week as our Social Team created an afternoon of cryptic clues, bars, shopping tasks, then bars, photography challenges etc etc…oh and more bars!

The tasks they had designed required interaction, teamwork, support, delegation, brainstorming and thinking outside of the box – all the things that make a successful agency and ensure each team’s members were talking to each other.

As team leader of the brilliantly titled (even if I do say so myself) ‘Space Cadets’, I had the pleasure of working with four lovely ladies who I don’t normally get much time with in a usual working day.

After four hours of running across Manchester, negotiating a crippling stitch at one point, taking photographs of landmarks, solving puzzles, creating a very questionable sandwich, buying a cactus and holding baby terrapins - that’s right baby terrapins – I felt like I’d found four new friends, four new people I can socialise with, four new people I can count on for support, four new people I can trust and four people I would go out of my way to help.

Even though we lost top spot on a tie breaker – I’m currently calling for a steward’s enquiry on this – I was immensely proud of the effort the team put in and can clearly see why they are employed by Tangerine PR.

It was brilliant to see characters come out to the fore – it certainly made me see people in a different light and intrigued me enough to want to find out more.

Team-bonding exercises should be an integral part of any business as a galvanized workforce is a productive and happy workforce. At the end of the day we spend a lot of time together so it’s important to experience each other’s company and integrate in different scenarios.

A big thanks to the Social Team for its time and effort in creating something none of us will forget for some time and bringing us all together.

Someone remind me not to involve Sambuca next time!

Bands, Brands and Big Puddles

2011-09-02T09:59:00.000+01:00

By Gemma Eccleston, Account Executive

As an avid festival-goer, I was lucky enough to get time off from Tangerine PR to head down to Leeds Festival with my boyfriend and a few mates for a weekend packed full of bands, booze and erm mud! Having signed up to the official Leeds Festival Twitter page, I was up to date with all the planned activities before the event had even started and it was clear this year wouldn’t fail to impress.

Before we even got to the campsite the rain had started, which was a sign of times to come. However, this year we made sure we were prepared. Armed with our wellies, rain macs, umbrellas and the obvious festival essential, alcohol, a bit of rain was not going to put us off and so off we headed to Bramham Park in Leeds - our home for the next four days.

After setting up our tents in the ‘Purple campsite’, we collected the legendary Leeds Festival wristband, a bright orange and blue number this year, and spent the rest of the day exploring the arena. Festival Republic, the event’s organisers, had really pulled out all the stops this year with a silent disco, funfair and numerous tents for brands, such as Jaegermeister and Atticus, to sell their merchandise.

It was good to see a number of charities at the festival too, including the Salvation Army and Oxfam. The Salvation Army tent sold very cheap cups of tea and coffee which was a godsend in the morning, while Oxfam used the event to launch its new campaign to fix the food system. To get everyone to support the cause, festival goers were asked to ‘get your hands dirty’ by wearing a green painted handprint and of course I couldn’t refuse sporting a bright green handprint on my face. It’s great that events like this can give charitable causes a platform to rouse up more support and this creative PR stunt certainly attracted a lot of attention because it was in keeping with the festival spirit.

On the Friday, we woke to the sound of rain, torrential rain to give a better description, and the cold drips of water leaking from the top of the tent. The dark skies did not give way all weekend and the bucketing rain, combined with the thousands of feet constantly walking on the ground, turned the grassy fields into a muddy mess.

Still the rain didn’t seem to put off some festival fashionistas who deemed it appropriate to don tiny hot pants and crop tops. Maybe I’m showing my (old?) age but my idea of festival fashion consisted of two pairs of tights, over the knee socks, a dress, a cardi, a parka jacket and, not forgetting, an ever-so-cool green rain poncho. It seemed the crowd this year was a far cry from the time Leeds was a diverse audience of emos, goths, aging rockers and indie types. Most of the crowd looked like they’d just come from the Topshop / Topman catwalk.

Anyway, the main reason we went to Leeds Festival was for the music. And boy it was a good line up this year. We battled the crowds to see Cage the Elephant who was amazing and totally rocked the crowd, New Found Glory, The Naked and Famous, Comeback Kid, dubstep and drum and bass legends Sub Focus and Nero, Friendly Fires and Interpol. We also managed to catch a glimpse of Ed Sheeran sing his latest smash hit, The A Team, despite the fact he had been placed in a tent too small to cope for his recent rise in popularity.

Despite the weather, we also managed to pluck up the courage to venture out to the exposed Main Stage. We waded through inches of sludgy mud to see headlining acts My Chemical Romance and Muse. Playing the 2001 Origin Of Symmetry album in its entirety, Muse stole the show with classic hits such as Time Is Running Out and Supermassive Black Hole. Not many bands could get away with playing a single album from start to finish in the headline slot, but it definitely worked a treat.

There were plenty of noteworthy bands to see on the final day too including Seasick Steve, Two Door Cinema Club, Jimmy Eat World and The Strokes. Vodafone customers were given the VIP treatment as they were invited to watch the performance in style from the Vodafone viewing platform - another great PR stunt.

Closing the show, front man Jarvis Cocker and Pulp performed a blinder, starting with Do You Remember The First Time? and finishing on the ultimate crowd pleaser, Common People.

So while the main reason people attend festivals is for the music, it seems that once there you get involved in all sorts of activities, many you don’t even realise are PR. Festivals are becoming the perfect platform for brands to showcase their goods and it’s great to see charitable causes getting involved too because it’s a large stage for them to engage with younger audiences who may not usually come across them. What’s more, as the audiences for these festivals continue to change and expand, I’m sure we will begin to see more and more brands jump on board the festival wagon.

Frankfurt Motor Show 2011

2011-09-02T09:42:00.003+01:00

By Jo Dudley, account director, Tangerine PR, Manchester

With only three weeks to go until the annual Frankfurt Motor Show kicks off, the motoring rumour mills are in full swing with talk of what to expect from this year’s highly anticipated event. Saab’s decision to pull out of the event due to ‘lack of resources’ has already sent tongues wagging in the motoring world.

As one of the resident motoring geeks here at Tangerine PR, I’ve obviously got my ears glued to the ground for all the latest news and previews and if the latest previews are anything to go by then more than a few headlines will be generated from the show.

Here’s just a few of the cars set to be launched:

Audi – Radical Urban Concept Car

Probably one of the quirkiest concept cars to be revealed so far in the run up to the event, Audi’s Urban Concept Car is designed to deal with the UK’s congested roads. According to Audi it ‘combines elements of a racing car, a roadster, a fun car and an urban car.’

Made from carbonfibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP), the car has 21 inch protruding wheels complete with LED lights and protective plates. A red strip also run across the car’s roof and sides, making it instantly recognisable.

Eterniti – Luxury SUV

A first from the UK’s newest luxury car brand, the ‘Hemera’ is a luxury SUV crossover, has a price tag of around £150,000 and is set to rival the Aston Martin Lagonda as well as Bentley’s upcoming SUV.

Little is known about the engine capabilities of the vehicle yet or any vehicles currently within the market which have inspired the design.

Kia – Dramatic New Saloon Concept Car (currently unnamed)

Kia is set to launch its rear-drive Saloon as a first in a series of new concepts the brand will use to explore new markets. The concepts will endeavour to show the car market that the manufacturer is capable of producing more style focused models in contrast to its existing range of saloons, hatchbacks and crossovers, under the guidance of the firm’s new design director and chief designer Peter Schreyer.

Renault – Frendzy Concept

The star of the manufacturer’s display at this year’s show, the all-electric model is described by Renault as 'a commercial business vehicle that can double-up as a comfortable family car'.

The car’s most interesting feature is it’s 37 inch widescreen external display, which can be used by business to show messages including advertsing slogans, company details or even just ‘back in five minutes’.

For families, the car incorporates a touch-sensitive pad that slides out from the back of the driver’s seat, on which passengers can play games and watch DVDs. Kids can even draw on the car as a result of a blackboard-style slate being integrated within the sliding door.

Toyota – Prius Plug-in

Set to go on sale Autumn 2013, the Prius Plug-in will make its debut at Frankfurt. Prices haven't been revealed yet but it's expected to cost just around £25,000, including the £5000 Government grant.

The car differs from the standard Prius because it uses lithium-ion batteries to power the electric motor, which can be plugged into the mains electronically. The current version hosts a nickel metal hydride battery pack. This means it has a longer electric power-only range and, according to Toyota's figures, emits just 49g/km of carbon dioxide while averaging 128.4mpg.

Vauxhall – World Debut Astra GTC

The streamline, three-door addition to the Astra family is set to make its World debut at this show. Due to go on sale later this year, the model comes in a range of petrol and diesel engines delivering between 120 and 180bhp.

The Vauxhall Zafira Sports Tourer will also be given its official launch at Frankfurt.

Vauxhall – ‘Experimental Vehicle’

Vauxhall has also teased journalists with the promise of a new ‘Expermental Vechicle’ set
to ‘wow the press and public’. No details have been launched as yet.

It’s great to see some that some exciting new concept cars will be launched at the show but I’m always a little apprehensive when a manufacturer makes statements that its new car will ‘wow the press and public’. It’s a bold statement for any manufacturer but particularly Vauxhall which aren’t historically known for show-stopping models. I really do hope the car lives up to its hype and Vauxhall creates something truly defining.

Being the Aston Martin lover that I am though, I am most excited about the appearance of the new Aston Martin V12 ‘Racing Machine’…aka Zagato. The road car version costs a measly £330,000, has a six-litre engine, encased in a body of aluminium and carbonfibre and produces 510bhp! It is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with.

The brand will also be showcasing the recently launched Virage and Vantage S as well as the One-77 supercar.

My only issue now is that the Zagato doesn’t go into production until mid-2012, well that and the small matter of, ahem, £330,000 but really I see that as a minor detail! Oh well a girl can dream.

Diary of a Work Experience Girl

2011-08-31T11:10:00.000+01:00

By Joanne Hill (@joclairehill)

When I first met with Kate and Cerys back in June to pencil my two-week placement in the diary, it was the morning after the office party where Tangerine had celebrated its mammoth win at the CIPR Excellence Awards. This instantly triggered two of those all-important first impressions in my head as I headed towards the lift. First of all, “Wow…Outstanding PR Consultancy, these people obviously know their stuff,” and secondly, “and they have a bit of fun too…fantastic!”

Now, after being here for two weeks, those first impressions have been solidly backed up with hard evidence.

I’ve spent the lion’s share of my time with the B2B team, where I’ve supported the team working on the Manchester Masters and Dulux Trade accounts. I’ve had a go at writing some copy, caught up with former Masters to see where they are now, called home interiors magazines about competitions and, perhaps most importantly, learnt the paint lingo. Now I know how to use the phrases ‘spreading rate’, ‘opacity’ and ‘Volatile Organic Compounds,’ in a way that makes me feel that I am becoming a decorating extraordinaire (in a theoretical sense, at least!) and I have really honed my writing skills.

I took opportunities to sit in on some brainstorms, for new and current clients, which got me excited to see how the creative juices get flowing here and how ideas for new campaigns develop. In addition, spending one of my days with the consumer team not only helped me to brush up on the rest of Tangerine’s clients and see what goes on across the agency, but also gave me the chance to mingle a bit more with the rest of the lovely people here.

Despite how hard everyone is working, and how busy they are winning new clients and hiring new people, there has still been time for a bit of fun with Friday afternoon drinks, firmly proving that my time at Tangerine has lived up to those fantastic first impressions.

Branson gives a masterclass in media relations

2011-08-26T17:31:00.000+01:00

By: Gary Quinn, Media Consultant, Tangerine PR, Manchester

Sir Richard Branson I salute you.

He is the grand master of the media stunt and not afraid to send himself up to promote a new product or service launch – who can forget him dressed in a wedding dress?

But this week he showed another side to his media relations skills, a far cry from the crazy stunts he has become synonymous for.

Just hours after his luxury Caribbean mansion was burnt to the ground during a tropical storm, he let the media in to view the devastating damage and to speak openly about what happened.

And not only was he willing to pose with the family pet tortoise who survived the blaze, he also arranged for his son, daughter, mum and celebrity pal Kate Winslet to agree to be interviewed and photographed too.

The resulting copy and pictures were fantastic.

But just why did he allow the media such access to himself and his family? I’m sure there were a million and one other things they could have been doing apart from talking to journalists.

Some may believe he spoke out to garner sympathy from the public but that is too simplistic. Of course the coverage will do him and his Virgin brand no harm at all but my guess is that this was not his motivating factor.

Rather I believe he allowed the media in simply because he totally understands how it works. Put simply - he gets it.

He knows that media relations – like all relations in life – are a two way process. You cannot court the media on one hand and turn it off with the other. (Reality TV ‘stars’ take note.)

Branson showed his class as he let Splash Media in to record the charred ruins on his private island in the British Virgin Islands. And in doing so he was able to own the story, the reports centred on the dramatic escape including how Hollywood A-lister Kate Winslet was a hero.

There was no wild speculation about injuries suffered or what had been lost in the fire. Instead the story was told on Branson’s terms, which is exactly where you want to be with the media.

Had he not agreed to speak who knows what might have been reported, such a vacuum is often filled with rumour and innuendo. He prevented that happening by giving the media exactly what they wanted.

And that’s another reason why he is such a great operator, he understands exactly what the media wants and is prepared to deliver.

Whether it’s driving a truck down Fifth Avenue to launch Virgin Cola in the States or dressing up as a bin man for an ad to promote his West Coast Main Line rail service, Branson goes above and beyond to make sure he gets great media coverage.

Others should study and learn; it’s not rocket science but so many individuals and companies get it so badly wrong.

And usually it is simply because they fail to – or don’t think they have to – understand how the media works.

Only when you truly understand the media can you begin to use it to your best advantage, just like Sir Richard Branson…

Has Britain Got The X Factor...again?

2011-08-26T12:30:00.001+01:00

“It’s time… to face… the music!” Yes it’s that time of year again. The time when the entire nation loses its Saturday nights to watching a mixture of talented singers (and crazy individuals who can’t sing a note) try to become ‘The Next Big Thing’. A quick poll of the Tangerine PR 15-strong consumer PR team found that the majority of us are all huge fans of the X Factor, apart from one outnumbered non-fan!

It turns out that the Tangerine consumer team isn’t alone - last Saturday saw the launch of the new series and according to initial overnight figures from BBC News, a massive 10.5 million of us tuned in. However, the Daily Mirror says the audience hit a peak of a whopping 12.6 million, equalling last year’s highest ever ratings for an opening show.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past three months, you’ll know that the newly revamped eighth series is the first without Simon Cowell, and instead sees Gary Barlow, Kelly Rowland, Louis Walsh and N-Dubz’ Tulisa Contostavlos on the celebrity judging panel. It just goes to show that even without Simon and the nation’s sweetheart Cheryl Cole, the show can still pull in impressive audience figures.

On Saturday’s show, contestants hoping to win over the new panel of judges ranged from 16 year old Janet Devlin from Northern Ireland, who performed her own version of Elton John's Your Song to heaps of praise, to crazy Tai Chi instructor Goldie Cheung who managed to drape herself all over Gary Barlow during her performance, throw up on national television, and still get through to the next round!

A show never without controversy, the Daily Mail said: "The return of The X Factor is proving as controversial as ever after it was filled with sleaze before the 9pm watershed."

The paper went on to report that: "The more controversial acts came despite executives being warned by the TV watchdog Ofcom that overtly sexual or sleazy performances needed to be toned down, following a deluge of complaints from viewers last year."

The claws are also out for contestant Kitty Brucknell, after it was claimed she has already had recording contracts and has recently toured America with a professional stage show.

However, controversy aside, last year’s contestants, One Direction and Cher Lloyd are now unleashing their new singles on Britain, and both acts are being mobbed by fans wherever they go. I’ll be watching this series with interest to see how the new judging panel and format pans out, and whether or not it will continue to have the ‘X Factor’.

Why Loving Manchester’s so Easy to do.

2011-08-22T10:11:00.000+01:00

A blog by Kate Dixon, Deputy MD, B2B, at Tangerine PR

A new type of fever has hit our city, one which actually unites the Blues and the Reds (gasp!), and has created a buzz that will long outlive the scenes of violence broadcast around the world.

In case you have awoken from a very long, deep sleep or have just returned from a trek in deepest, darkest Botswana, I’m talking about the I Love Manchester campaign.

Originally created by Marketing Manchester, Manchester Arndale, and Manchester City Council, the campaign was designed not only to stick two proverbial fingers up at the rioters, but also, importantly, to realise tangible benefits for city centre shopkeepers – encouraging people to visit and spend, boosting the city’s economy and banishing images of boarded up windows and looting.
It’s a fantastic example of a truly joined up campaign, with the iconic logo visible on billboards, social media channels, t-shirts, post-it notes, mugs (yes I have my eye well and truly on that @SandyLindsay, as well as in national and regional media.

It has also gained support from City and United with both clubs proudly displaying the now household logo.

The success is easy to see, almost 7,500 people currently like the Facebook group, the #ILoveMCR hashtag trends frequently on twitter and now the visible support with twibbons has made this campaign a truly huge social media success. And that’s before you even consider the blogs.

Iconic Manchester organisations are also throwing their weight behind the campaign. One high profile example is that of Manchester Airport opting to post the I Love MCR logo above check-in desks and on screens in the terminals so that the tens of thousands of people who pass through there, many of whom are international visitors, get the message.

So it’s anyone’s guess where it goes from here. But one thing is clear, Manchester leads the field in turning something bad into something truly amazing. And for that alone we should be proud.

Small Networks Can Be Beautiful Networks

2011-08-18T16:16:00.000+01:00

By Steve Downes, Managing Director, Juice Digital

In 1992 a British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, suggested that there is a limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. He postulated that this was somewhere between 100 and 230, with the common value being 150. That became known as Dunbar’s number.

Further research by anthropologists has given the theory much credibility with community sizes of tribes in the Neolithic period, through villages in the Domesday Book and settlements in the 16th Century conforming remarkably consistently to the theory.

The number has been taken into military and business organisation planning as the maximum size for effective control of operating units. It even correlated to the average number of Christmas cards people sent and received!

Online social media networks are no different. Enormous amounts of time, energy and money are being expended to create huge networks with the aim of exploiting them for various objectives - personal, commercial and political. While lip-service is paid to measuring the influence of these communities, the eye keeps returning to the prize of the huge and growing network. Starbucks' 24 million Facebook fans and the viral video that got 10 million views is the Holy Grail.

But what does Dunbar’s number tell us about what these huge networks can be used for? They can be leveraged in lots of very useful and valuable ways – building or creating brand /product awareness (like our campaign for No Fear Extreme Energy for example), promotions, getting real-time customer feedback, CRM, idea-sourcing, market research, demographic analysis. All extremely valuable outcomes and well worth building a network for.

But are the numbers the important factor in influencing through engagement? Dunbar’s number implies not. To achieve a change in attitude or sentiment towards a brand you need a deep relationship. And it’s difficult to have that with millions of people.

Think about your own online networks. If you’ve got a significant number of followers/friends on your channels, how many of them do you actually engage with on anything like a regular-enough basis to influence their thinking? I’ll have a bet it’s not much more than 150.

So what does that mean for brands? If one of their objectives of using social media channels goes beyond awareness etc and requires real engagement how does that affect the value of social media marketing?

The answer is, of course, influence. If the reality is that only around 150 of your network is truly engaged, you’d better make sure they’re highly influential. And you should be spending your resources on them. If in turn their 150 truly engaged connections are equally influential the numbers start to work - 150², 150³ etc and you start to get back to those Starbucks' numbers.

So the lesson is to focus more on analysing the influence of your network and target your resources and efforts accordingly. Yes, grow your network and use it to your advantage, but find out who your potential 150 human marketing channels are and talk to them. A lot.

Right, I’m off to the pub with my 149 mates.

I LOVE Manchester – do you? CALL TO ARMS for all senior marketing & comms professionals / agency principals in Manchester

2011-08-18T16:10:00.000+01:00

By Sandy Lindsay (but that’s not the point!)

You’ll have all been as shaken up by the riots last week as I was – shocked and saddened that it happened in ‘our town’ and cross with the complete idiots who caused Manchester to be seen in such a bad light, for no reason other than to rob some trainers and t-shirts!

You’ll also have seen the impressive reaction from Marketing Manchester and Manchester Arndale in the launching of the ‘I Love Manchester’ campaign, including outdoor advertising, a groundswell of support online and in media and stalls selling t-shirts etc...

So what’s next?

Well that’s where they need our help.

Everyone I’ve spoken to has said that they’d like to help in some way – here’s your opportunity.

Rachel Combie, Marketing Director of Marketing Manchester would like to buy us a coffee and pick our brains for an hour (max) on what we can all do, individually and within our businesses, to help spread the word and make THIS what people worldwide remember about Manchester this summer; not the stupidity from last week. That’s NOT us!

Please come yourself or send a colleague:

Venue: Marketing Manchester’s office at Carver’s Warehouse on Dale Street
Time: 5.30 for 6pm

Date: 23rd August (yes we know that’s really soon but it’s got to be or it’ll be too late!)

RSVP (just so Rachel can buy enough bickies!): rsvp@marketingmanchester.com

Result! Media wins battle with football bosses

2011-08-18T09:52:00.000+01:00

By Gary Quinn, Media Consultant, Tangerine PR, Manchester

It’s October 2000 and Nick Barmby has just scored for Liverpool against city rivals Everton, the club he played for the previous season.

It’s his first goal for the Reds and the stadium feels like it is literally shaking as the Anfield crowd goes absolutely ballistic. I am at the epicentre of a Merseyside derby.

But I can’t enjoy it because my computer has frozen. I am in the press box reporting on the game for a number of clients, including the Belfast Telegraph, match.com, Shoot Magazine (my personal fave) and a new online venture that was so ridiculous I can’t even remember the name of it.

But very basically it resembled an electronic Subbuteo and was the brainchild of a guy called Tommy and his backers in Finland. They insisted it was set to revolutionise football reporting and I was at the forefront.

Well, I would be if I could get the damn thing to work. My computer froze the second Barmby headed in at the far post at the Annie Road end. And as a result I was unable to update our (dozens of?) online customers.

Panicking I picked up the phone and dialled through to Finland. Shouting to be heard over the ecstatic home fans I said: “I’m calling from Anfield can I speak to Tommy urgently please.”

“From where?” came the reply.

“Anfield…Liverpool, it’s the derby,” I insisted.

“The what?” said the voice on the other end.

By now I was losing patience.

“Forget it…can you just get Tommy,” I insisted.

“Oh Tommy, I’m afraid not. Tommy is in the sauna,” he said.

My colleague nearly fell of his chair laughing as he heard me say: “Tommy’s in the bloody sauna?”

For me this summed up the mentality towards the internet back then. This was the biggest game of the season and our help was thousands of miles away…in the sauna.

It was before the first dot.com bubble had bust and all bets were on – including ‘Sauna Tommy’ and his electronic Subbeteo. It was a time when ‘ideas + internet’ were supposed to be enough to earn you a fortune; business plans and hard graft were not top of the agenda in those heady days.

Of course that was then and this is now. The internet and online reporting – be it news or sport – is now such an intricate part of any media operation they have merged to become part of the same multimedia machine.

But back in 2003 an agreement was drawn up between those who run the game of football and those who report on it, which was deemed satisfactory to all at the time.

However this summer saw a stand off between those two adversaries because media organisations felt the agreement was now out of date. And considering the changes and developments online since 2003, it is very hard not to argue that they had a point.

But the main development which saw things come to a head before the big kick off this year has been the rampant rise of twitter by the mainstream media – and by football reporters in particular. This grouping really has embraced twitter more so than most journalists, second only to political reporters, I would say.

However the powers that be wanted to stop football correspondents tweeting live during games whenever they wanted.

It was clear this agreement – which predates twitter by two years – was in need of updating. But the authorities didn’t want to budge, no doubt afraid of losing more control of reporting of the beautiful game.

So the standoff ensued with both sides sticking to their guns. For a while it looked like some reporters and press agencies would be locked out of football grounds and unable to do their job.

Thankfully just hours before the Premier League season kicked off, a new agreement was reached, liberalising the way football matches are covered on the internet and using social media.

Under the old agreement, media organisations were only allowed a limited number of "windows" during matches for text and picture updates and had no real provision for online user comments and interaction with fans.

But with the new deal, which is thought to run for four years, journalists will be allowed to update online stories and engage with readers using social media whenever they want and there will be only a short time delay on live minute-by-minute coverage of matches.

This is a victory for online reporting and for football fans across the country. And more importantly, although they may have come along kicking and screaming, the football authorities have recognised the importance of twitter and other social media in reporting the game.

We have come a long way since the days of ‘Sauna Tommy’ and his electronic Subbuteo – thankfully – and who knows where online reporting will go. But whatever else does happen it seems that those who run football have at last fully acknowledged the role the internet and social media has to play in reporting and promoting the modern game.

A great result all round you might say…

The Social Media Lessons of the Past Seven Days

2011-08-15T16:52:00.001+01:00

Guest blog by Amanda Coleman, Head of Corporate Communications, Greater Manchester Police

The past seven days have been ones that have surprised the world, and particularly people in the UK. There have been many things that have been discussed or reviewed about recent events and this includes the role of social media in the modern society.

I am not going to venture into any controversial ground but instead want to reflect on the learning of the past seven days and how big organisations may have to now start to re-write their plans for communicating during major incidents.

When most plans were original developed and considered social media did not exist. For communication the focus was on delivering information to the media and directly through staff to communities, and these are still really important elements of any crisis. They are the ways to provide updates on developments including key information to tell people what they need to do as well as to reassure them about what is being done to manage the situation.

But in 2011 the engagement through social media is an additional and important element of any communication plan for an emergency. David Cameron may want to shut them down but that does not recognise all the positive elements that it can bring. People can give immediate feedback on what they are seeing, can provide footage or photographs of incidents to help find those individuals involved, and can join with others to be a force for good.

The critical element is to make sure you invest the time in putting information and messages out through social networks. Millions of people are using them on a daily and hourly basis and in during an emergency these people want to receive and give information through the networks.

You need to have a clear understanding of social networks and how they work, but also be starting to develop a community and engagement. Doing this in periods of calm will be an investment for the times when things get hard. If you ignore social networks now then you will be trying to learn and develop how to use them at a time when you want to move swiftly, and that will create delays. Delays mean a gap in providing information which is just not acceptable now.

There are many social networks in existence and all are slightly different. They have different positives and negatives about how they work. For any plan being developed it is essential that it focuses on having integrated social networks that are working together and working to support the overall communication plan. This is something that I have been passionate about for some time. Using Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook and others has more impact when they support each other and support the overall plan – providing information, supporting any investigation and reassuring people.

All this requires appropriate resources. Emergency plans need to include details on how to keep people informed through social networks, helping to stop rumour and speculation and for organisations to be able to provide the facts. Banishing opinion is important as in the initial stages people want accurate information from social networks as they do from the media. The resourcing is not just a 9 to 5 thing; it has to be considered 24 hours a day seven days a week.

You have to recognise that you will not always get things right. Even with the best of intentions there can be mistakes. It is important to recognise when you get things wrong, and apologise. Ask people for their feedback on what they want because no one person or team has all the answers. There are always things to learn and this week has been a steep learning curve for many, me included.

The one thing that is clear is that we still have a long way to go in understanding social networks and ensuring they are just part of our day-to-day business. No matter what the rhetoric they are not going to go away and it is essential we learn from the past seven days and build on social networks for the future.

See more of Amanda’s blogs

Big Brother is back!

2011-08-11T14:01:00.000+01:00

Lynn Mason, Consumer Team Office Administrator, Tangerine PR

The year 1999 was coming to a close and with the most amazing celebrations the country had ever witnessed on offer, Britain joined a global party in a spectacular array of festivities to welcome in the third millennium.

Heads turned as the £758 million Millennium Dome, in Greenwich, south London, was opened by her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth ll, who arrived by boat along the River Thames and joined 10,000 invited guests, including 6,000 members of the public, to bring in the New Year in style.

But what the people of Britain weren’t aware of was that a phenomenon, that would eventually sweep the world, had just broadcasted its final episode in the Netherlands the day before. Big Brother was about to become one of the biggest, most controversial, yet fascinating reality programme which would eventually be broadcasted worldwide.

Big Brother UK

Spring forward to the 14th July 2000, the height of the summer season was upon us and a new concept was about to be planted onto our TV sets that would grip the nation for 9 weeks, 24 hours a day. It was the first series of the UK version of Big Brother, based on the character in George Orwell's 1949 novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

10 ‘housemates’ entered the Big Brother house to live together, isolated from the outside world but continuously watched by television cameras which would broadcast their every move to the whole of the UK. This was the first time we had seen this concept and nobody knew what to expect. The show was an instant hit, going from 4.5 million viewers to 10 million on the final night. Viewers took a liking to their favourite contestants and also found themselves ringing up to vote to evict the ones they didn’t. 400,000 votes were cast in the first week alone. With the scheming and under hand actions from contestant nationally known as ‘Nasty Nick Bateman,’ the audience was left in suspense wondering what he would do next and whether his housemates would find out. Due to the help from Big Brother to ‘stir up’ the house, the contestants found out what this housemate was up to which instantly caused great viewing as his tactics were unravelled for the country to watch. Eventually he was told to leave after 36 days in the house.

Fast forward a few years to Series 3 and day 16 brought us the ‘rich and poor’ task, where the housemates on the ‘poor’ side lived off basic rations and only had the use of the outside toilet and shower, compared to the ‘rich’ side, where the housemates got a large shopping budget, the pool and inside toilet facilities. This created great TV viewing as the competiveness of the contestants unfolded and we saw who these people really were and what lengths they would go to, to win the show. On day 45 the divide was taken down and the house mate were reunited.

Big Brother’s success continued over the next 10 years with the ratings increasing each year, as well as the number of contestants and weeks spent in the house. Each series saw the tasks get better and more interesting. We saw relationships being formed, arguments taking place and even a secret ‘other’ house in series 5.

After 11 regular series, 7 celebrity series, 257 different housemates, and over 1000 episodes of Big Brother in the UK, Channel 4 stated that series 11 broadcasted in 2010 would be the last broadcast of Big Brother, but that wasn’t the end.

Media Interest

Big Brother is one of the most talked about reality TV series in the world, but it wouldn’t have got anywhere without the media attention it has received over the past 10 years.

It is highly publicised in the media with most tabloid newspapers and gossip magazines covering the show and also focusing on when the contestants when they leave. The show has also made headlines on television news channels, as well as radio stations.

After leaving the house housemates usually remain newsworthy for a short time depending on their reception in and also coming out of the house. Some have gone on to have their own reality TV shows, perfumes, DVDs, singles, columns and more. However fame does generally decline shortly after the series finale.

Although there are some ex-housemates who have remained in the public eye. Series 3 brought us the loveable and ditsy Jade Goody, a dental nurse from Bermondsey. Jade went on to have several reality TV shows, perfumes, books and inches of stories’ both good and bad written about her. She of course sadly passed in early 2009. Kate Lawler, who worked as a television presenter on Channel 4 programme RI:SE, and as of 2010 was a presenter for Kerrang Radio; Chanelle Hayes, who released her own single, launched her own perfume, had a part in another reality show and had 2008's third-best selling calendar ; Jon Tickle, who went on to present six series of the Sky 1 show, Brainiac: Science Abuse; and Alison Hammond, who as of 2010 was a presenter on ITV1's This Morning.

Not forgetting the camp, and loveable TV presenter Brian Dowling, who was crowned the winner of the second series of Big Brother in 2001. He also won Ultimate Big Brother in 2010, making him the ultimate Big Brother housemate.

Big Brother’s on the Move

With the departure of Big Brother from Channel 4 in late 2010, the nation thought the BB experience was over, until on 6 April 2011, Richard Desmond - owner of channel 5 - formally confirmed Channel 5 had signed a £200 million 2- year contract with Endemol – the world largest independent production company - to screen Big Brother from August 2011.

After weeks and weeks of speculation, Channel 5 finally confirmed that Celebrity Big Brother will return to our screens on 18th August at 9pm. Hosted by Ultimate BB winner, Brian Dowling - with spin-off show, Bit On The Side hosted by Emma Willis, for an hour after the main show and it promises not to disappoint.

With rumoured housemates including; boxing sensation Ricky Hatton; Bob Geldof’s daughter Peaches; TOWIE star, Amy Childs; tabloid favourite, Imagon Thomas; the blonde haired excitable twins, Jedward; the nation’s most ‘off the rails’ star, Kerry Katona; and Baywatch superstar, Pamela Anderson all in the mix. Or could it be the return of one of BB’s favourite couples Preston & Chantelle for a third time? With this lot in the running for Celebrity BB, the new show is sure to ruffle a few feathers.

Being part of the Consumer team here at Tangerine PR and with only a week until the doors of the Celebrity Big Brother house open, talk turns to the PR campaign in place that hopes to take the new format to a whole different level.

Social Media

Twitter – which celebrated its 5th birthday this year – kicked off its campaign to get Big Brother into the public eye with the launch of its Official Big Brother twitter page. With only a week to go the page currently stands at 8,148 followers to date, compared with the Original Channel 4 Twitter page for BB that had a total of 106,921 when the page closed on the 30th June 2011. The final tweet showed this was definitely the end for Channel 4 “OK last tweet.. although we're closing you can find Big Brother at www.channel5.com/bigbrother. Thank-you all for being excellent followers!” It is the same on Facebook, with this year’s BB having only 15,943 ‘likes’ compared with 75,435 ‘likes’. It appears more work needs to be done to engage the audience if it is to be the hit suggested.

The campaign continues onto our TV’s with the release of a 60 second promo, created by Channel 5’s in-house creative agency, C5 Creative. It is a celebration of the iconic show, featuring a host of former Big Brother housemates to remind viewers of some of the unforgettable characters that have passed through the house. Ex-housemates from both the celebrity version and public versions of the show took part, including ex-Sugababe Mutya Buena, Nikki Grahame, and horse-racing pundit, John McCririck. It shows the ex-housemates dancing and lip-syncing to ‘When Bruv Takes Over’, a fresh, Big Brother themed take on David Guetta and Kelly Rowland’s ‘When Love Takes Over’.

Fancy a look? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcPz-vBkCeU&feature=related

Twitter Users Clean Up After Riots

2011-08-11T13:26:00.000+01:00

By Cerys Wason, Account Manager at Tangerine PR

Social media has changed the way we consume information. Fact. It hasn’t replaced traditional media by any means, but it has upped our expectations of how fast we feel we should have access to breaking news.

Before you saying anything, I know, I know, I’m not making a revolutionary point with that statement (if that was my eureka moment, then that would be quite disappointing). But, I do think that this week has proved that point, even to the most cynical, non-digital believer.
As the riots spread throughout the UK, we have seen an as-it-happens stream of updates on social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. I think it would be fair to say that many people have been using it as their primary source of information – piecing together updates from both official and unofficial sources to draw their own conclusions.

Over the weekend, and into the start of the week, social media was getting a bit of a rough ride and taking the blame for providing the rioters with a platform to organise themselves; whether it was Twitter, Facebook or Blackberry Messenger (BBM). However, following that, there was a dramatic about turn with the rise of #riotcleanup, as users fought back against the violence and come together to support those affected by the events.

I think Alastair Dalton, a reporter for The Scotsman, summed the situation up perfectly in an article earlier this week which he aptly named ‘A Tale of Two Twitters: one good, one lawless'.

While watching the world get involved (whether people were directly affected by the riots or not) it struck me that there’s a real emotional difference to news when it’s delivered by social media. While it’s possible to remain reasonably detached from a news story or report (the ‘these things always happen to somebody else’ mentality), it’s difficult not to be affected by the eyewitness reports and overwhelming response from people all around the UK. No wonder, therefore, that there has been such a powerful reaction and a counterforce to the protestors has sprung up in retaliation to the destruction.

Let's Put The Great Back In Britain

2011-08-10T09:05:00.000+01:00

I live in a sad world today...

I'm 31 years old and in my lifetime have seen some pretty awful things- war - on more than one occasion, 9/11, and the tsunami to name a few, but never did I expect to see the riots that have taken place over the last few days and never thought it would be 200 metres from my door in Manchester city centre.

I moved to Manchester three years ago to work at Tangerine and also to live in Manchester- this great community of friendly and forward thinking people. But last evening, I spent the evening on my balcony watching the comings and goings on in the city centre. Listening to the sirens, seeing the smoke from Market Street and seeing groups of youths jeering as the police drive past to protect our city.

I applaud the emergency services - the sirens have been going all night and I have seen riot van after police car after fire engine after ambulance, fly up and down the road trying to bring order on our normally calm city.

I am proud of my country normally but what kind of people let their kids out to do this kind of thing? Why do they not know what their children are doing? And how can children/ teenagers do this? Businesses have been ruined and people's livelihoods' destroyed and for what? These groups of youths are determined to cause damage and destruction for no reason - and for that they are scum!

I know this is a small minority of people in the grand scheme of things - you only have to look at Twitter and Facebook to see the country unite and I know the rest of Manchester will come together to help clear up the city but tonight I’m sad and disappointed.

I hope if anybody knows anyone involved they will tell the police so we can restore calm and order to our great country.

Marie Carter, Consumer Account Director

Media plays the blame game

2011-08-09T18:21:00.003+01:00

By: Gary Quinn, Media Consultant, Tangerine PR, Manchester

‘Nail the twitter rioters,’ screamed the headline in the Sun.

‘Violence fanned by twitter,’ declared the Daily Mail.

In confusing and disturbing times it is the job of the media to explain what is going on. We currently find ourselves in such times, with the sudden and shocking outbreak of rioting and looting that began in Tottenham and spread from the capital to other major cities in the UK, including Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol and Nottingham.

For sections of the media the blame has been placed, not just at the door of the mindless thugs who are burning our streets and looting our shops, but at the feet of social media.

Yes, that’s right, social media. And at “twitter’s more sinister cousin Blackberry Messenger” (this is a genuine quote).

On the flagship BBC Radio 4 Today programme Mike Butcher, a technology journalist and digital adviser to Boris Johnson, said it was “unbelievable” that the BBM service has not been disabled. The Daily Mail reported his comments thus: Mayor’s aide calls for ban on riot ‘tool’.

BBM a riot tool? To use social media lingo – WTF?

The ugly scenes that have spread across the UK are nothing to do with social media and everything to do with our social society.

But as the media tries to make sense of what is happening – and because of its obsessions with labels – twitter and BBM have become unsuspecting victims too.

It doesn’t matter that twitter is primarily a middle class tool that the majority of rioters will have heard of but never used. Twits yes, tweets no.

It is true that BBM is popular with urban teenagers because it is free and untraceable, hence more underground.

But a tweet or a BBM message does not make somebody start or join a riot, there are much deeper issues that need to be discussed here – but I guess now is not the time. As is always the case with news, analysis comes later. However by then the good names of twitter and BBM will have been dragged through the mud.

Blackberry has been quick to release a statement offering all the help required to police, which was quick thinking on its behalf. But I fear it will be tarnished for some time to come and may have to eventually introduce different settings to distance itself from the stigma of being labelled a “riot tool”.

The reporting has been deeply unfair and inaccurate. The fact is we live in a 24/7 media society, with rolling news, online updates and social media to keep us constantly informed of what is going all. Most of the time it is filled with hot air but recent events are gold for rolling news.

But if people think that rioters are inspired by images and updates posted on social media sites, why would they not be similarly inspired by TV shots from the rolling news channels and the constantly updating pictures on various online news sites?

I’ve seen rioters are interviewed – which is exactly what journalists should be doing at this worrying time - but isn’t there a danger their words will inspire others?

So where does it stop, should we cut of the oxygen of publicity to these people and events?

This was a tactic favoured by the lady in power some thirty years ago, when similar riots happened across the country.

But it didn’t work for Thatcher then and it would never work now. We should cherish our free and independent media, whether that is old or new, online or off.

The media, especially social media because of its very nature, will play a much bigger role in any solution to these current issues than they have in any problem.

Right now #riotcleanup is the UK’s number one twitter trend as people start to come together and organise. Already more than 70,000 have joined social networking groups to help with the clear up, while the Met id also using the web to publish pictures of rioters and calling on people to identify the thugs.

This is the real face of social media and the positive role it can play in our society and not the caricature of a “riot tool” that some media would have us believe.

The Only Grey in the Village

2011-08-08T17:37:00.000+01:00

Guest blog by Allie Johns of leading brand, design, digital and marketing consultancy, That Is

If I hear or see the words ‘Silver Surfer’ in a marketing context one more time, I’m going to tear my lovely silver hair out. A cliché if ever there was one and actually a rather lazy way of lumping everyone over a certain age together to generate so-called targeted marketing campaigns.

If you’re not met with endless images of Hollywood-toothed, smiling, romantically entwined, linen-wearing, silver-haired couples (think holidays), then it’ll be someone surfing up to bed past the wood chip on a stair lift, or sitting on a loose-covered, floral sofa with a small dog looking up at them, or other such crimes of creativity.

So how can we as creatives, planners and marketers put an end to all of this? Well for starters we have to stop pigeonholing people. We might have been able to do this in the past but the next generations of older people are going to me and they’re going to be you!

Consider this…I’m still going to be me – i.e. wearing my trademark tailored shirts and jackets, loving my nights out with friends, into technology (and more than capable of using it thank you very much dear), driving a mini, tailor-making my own holidays and short-breaks, looking out for the next art and cultural experience…

In 20 or so years time, I won’t be interested in any campaign that greets me with a picture of ‘old me’ (or what you think is a good-looking version of old me). That would be instant dismissal. However, what I will be interested in is marketing that simply focuses on what’s on offer – e.g. if it’s a holiday then show me the product, evoke the atmosphere, email me a link to your app, tweet me. Whatever. But don’t talk down to me and don’t talk to me as if I’m an old person. Spare me that please.

In fact, I hate to think of the fashion mailers and emailers I’m likely to receive. Something along the lines of ‘Just Be You’, fronted by the latest, more mature female celebrity, head to toe in fabric that ‘invisibly lifts and tucks.’ No, no, no. Enough already.

Of course I won’t be tempted by that load of old cliché. I’ll be looking online at leading fashion retailers, commentators and stylists for inspiration (as I do now). And then, as long as my little legs will carry me, I’ll be popping to the High Street or an Independent Retailer to enhance my wardrobe. And if my little legs won’t carry me, I’ll be ordering online and not from websites specialising in ‘Fashion for the more mature woman.’

Yes, there are endless bits of research and data out there with regard to ‘elder marketing’ (yuck another awful bit of terminology) and of course that’s helpful to a certain extent. But it is rooted in older generations past and still focused on aggregating demographics and lifestyle.

What we need to do is to think forward. I’m not going to want to be ring-fenced as an ‘audience type’, neither will I necessarily want products and services to be packaged specifically for me as an ‘older person.’ I’ll just want to be me. And I’m not alone.

There are endless opportunities for brands in all sectors to build relationships with an older audience but not if we’re going to be thought of as old. Just keep us on your databases and keep talking to us as you do now. We’ll make up our minds when we’ve had enough and that’ll be the moment you switch to Hollywood gnashers and beige linen clad people believe me!

As you can see, there’s no way I intend to fade to grey. Far from it. I want to be the only grey in the village. By that I mean to just be me and to retain my individuality as a human being and consumer and not to morph into the ‘silver-surfing’ crowd.

So think forward creatives, planners and brand owners. Think you.

A love-hate relationship with MPs

2011-08-04T11:33:00.002+01:00

By Gemma Eccleston, Account Executive

It’s not unusual for MPs to get a hounding in the press, from scandals over expenses, which rocked the country in 2009, to unfavourable policies. However, it’s important to remember that it’s not all bad. Most MPs do a great job acting for the greater good and can make a real difference to issues affecting the local community.

I’ve had first hand experience of this recently as I’m working on a high-profile campaign for one of the UK’s leading trade paint brands, Glidden Trade. The UK pub industry has been hard hit by the recession and following the closure of hundreds of pubs across the country, we’ve been tasked with launching a national competition called ‘Paint and a Pint,’ which offers a helping hand to independent landlords by giving them a chance to win a £2,000 makeover for their establishment.

Pub closures are an emotive topic across the UK and have grabbed the headlines on many occasions because they form the heart of a local community. As it has become such an important local issue, we’ve approached several MPs in the constituencies that have been hardest hit with pub closures to ask them to put their name to the campaign and show their support for local landlords.

We’ve had an excellent response and more than 12 MPs have been eager to be part of the campaign, giving the sector a much needed boost and making a positive difference to the local community.

Thanks to the support of these committed politicians, we have been able to secure significant coverage in the local media for this important issue and ensure that as many publicans as possible can be in with a chance of winning a makeover that could transform their business and their community.

So credit where credit is due and for once let’s give our hardworking MPs their dues for throwing their support behind this important cause.

For more information on the Glidden Trade ‘Paint and a Pint’ Competition and for terms and conditions, please visit http://www.facebook.com/gliddentradepaint

‘Tis the season to be silly…

2011-08-03T17:18:00.002+01:00

By: Gary Quinn, Media Consultant, Tangerine PR, Manchester

So the 2011 silly season is officially up and running. For those uninitiated in such silliness let me explain….

The term ‘silly season’ refers to this time of year, when parliament goes into recess and ‘real’ news is notoriously scant on the ground, and staff levels in newspapers are depleted due to holidays. Every year this combination leads to some dubious, ok down right silly, editorial decisions.

It has of course been slightly delayed this year as parliament was extended to deal with the fast developing phone hacking scandal.

But just a cursory glance at today’s newspapers reveals that it has kicked off with a vengeance now.

First to the Sun, a perennial lover of all things silly season. And it doesn’t disappoint, with a bizarre story involving two 80s icons – magician Paul Daniels and puppet Sooty.

Daniels needed hospital treatment after he was pelted with a pizza by Sooty.

This made the front page of the biggest selling daily newspaper in the UK. It was also afforded almost a full page inside the Sun, including a tale of the tape graphic entitled Puppet v Muppet (which is funny).

Meanwhile over at the Daily Mirror they ran a picture story of a panda standing on an ice cube and claimed it was recreating the famous glacier mint pose to cool down

But it’s not just the red tops that indulge in such silliness at this time of year. The front page of the Daily Telegraph has a headline that reads: Married and 45, it’s when the kissing stops

This story – which comes from research conducted the British Heart Foundation – is nestled between a story on the left about new market mayhem over recession fears and on the right some coverage on the drought in East Africa.

And even the FT is getting in on the act. Would you believe that its front page gave prominence to a story about a series of twitter-based threats to the daughter of Dragon’s Den star Duncan Bannatyne?

Yes, this particular story got more coverage on the FT’s front page than the crisis in the Eurozone and the last minute deal that raises the US debt ceiling.

So we’ve established that the silly season is well under way and it’s not just the tabloids that make editorial decisions that are peculiar to this time of year.

And this is where we in PR land come in; we need to make hay while the sun shines. Now is the time to act on that funny/quirky/risky/whatever picture stunt idea you had – think pandas on ice!!

But in all seriousness, the next four to six weeks are fertile ground for PRs to gain even more of those lovely pieces of national coverage for clients.

And just because it is ‘silly season’ do not think that readers are any less engaged with their newspapers; in fact the vast majority of readers have no idea such a thing even exists. My point being that the influence of national newspapers is just as strong during the ‘silly season’ as at any other time of the year.

Take Big Brother as an example, it was launched in the summer of 2000 and went on to receive acres and acres and acres of newsprint before its eventual demise on Channel Four.

One of the main reasons it initially received so much coverage – from the tabloids especially – was because it helped to fill pages during this extra quiet time of year. So a page lead-type story would be bumped up to a double-page spread, because pages needed filling and readers were interested.

The subsequent media coverage helped drive audience figures and the rise in audience figures helped maintain and grow the paper’s insatiable appetite for Big Brother stories.

And so it continued, until the bubble burst. But without the reams of press coverage that had gone before, there is a strong argument that says Big Brother would have died many years ago.

Of course the programme is set to relaunch later this month on Channel Five, which is owned by Richard Desmond who also owns the Daily Star and Daily Express, so at least a certain amount of coverage is guaranteed. But it will be interesting to see how other papers cover (or not) the show this time around.

I guess it depends on just how silly things get…

Staycations – Do they really match up to going overseas?

2011-08-02T09:25:00.000+01:00

By Sarah Halton, Tangerine PR

As a fairly seasoned traveller abroad, my acquisition of firstly two dogs, quickly followed by a horse and then a baby (who I didn’t ‘acquire’ honest, it was all very natural!) required rather a change in my idea of a holiday.

Guilt over kennels and the thought of the ‘looks’ should my baby dare to cry on a plane, has meant for the past three years, all my holidays have been in the UK - and they have been some of the best in my life.

So while my staycations didn’t start off being completely by choice (or due to the recession as the media would have us believe) what they have taught me is that we have some of the best scenery, beaches, nature etc in the world! And we should appreciate it – not just because we’re trying to save money, or avoid ‘black looks’ but because it really is worth it.

OK so you don’t always get the weather – this is true – but by staying in the UK what you do get is a real appreciation of what’s on your doorstep and a deep sense of wonderment about our history and culture.

Through my staycations I’ve visited some amazing places which you’d be unlikely to ever see in a glossy magazine review as they are perhaps not ‘glamorous’ enough. But I defy anyone not to be overwhelmed by some of our treasures such as Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire; Clovelly village in Devon (which bizarrely has been privately owned by the same family since 1738 – yes the whole village!); the mysterious and magical waters of Loch Ness; the wild beauty of Exmoor National Park; the unashamedly touristy, yet fun and friendly Bowness-on-Windermere – and I really could go on except I’ll get a bit too Jane Austen-y and add the ‘wild, untamed beauty of the Peaks!’

So whether you’re tied because of furry friends/ babies or not, I really would urge people to at least set aside one of your precious holiday weeks to visit somewhere within the UK and marvel at what’s right here ready to be discovered – even if it is raining!

My Top Gear Adventure

2011-07-28T08:27:00.000+01:00

by Rachael Ireland, Senior Account Executive, Tangerine PR

When the tickets arrived and I opened the envelope, I imagined being presented with ‘The world’s best girlfriend’ award, for I had managed to get my hands on two tickets for myself and my boyfriend, to a live recording of Top Gear.

Being a part of Tangerine PR’s consumer team, I work on several of the agency’s automotive accounts which has certainly fuelled my interest in cars, but it was my Dad who introduced me to Top Gear and I remember watching it together when I was younger.

On Tuesday 19th July, we set off on our five hour journey to Ripley in Surrey, where we would spend the night, so we were in close proximity to the set. Although the tickets advised that you arrive no later than 1.30pm, Neil insisted on an 8.00am wake-up call, which I personally thought was a bit excessive. But hey-ho, you try arguing with Top Gear’s biggest fan.

As instructed, we wore comfortable footwear and clothing, as due to the nature of the studio, we would be on our feet for the majority of the day. It was only a short stretch from the hotel to Dunsfold Aerodrome in Cranleigh and as we were presented with a Top Gear wristband, I could hear the revving and screeching of cars in the distance, which gave me butterflies.

After parking, exploring the airfield and completing the ‘Top Gear’ trivia quiz we were given on arrival, we went for a coffee in Dakotas, the on-site diner, which transported you back to the 1950’s. Inside, there was a five foot long Corvette bumper hoisted on the wall, a car engine acting as a table base and food was collected from the front of a Mustang. Pretty cool I must admit.

Eventually, at 2.00pm after our security briefing, we were escorted down to the studio. As the warehouse doors slid open, you could hear the gasps of excitement from the crowd. It reminded me of the famous scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, when the visitors are so overwhelmed by the chocolate room that they don’t know what to do first.

Some people made a beeline towards the raised spherical stage, some posed for photos against ‘The Cool Wall’ while others gawped over the Lotus T125, clearly wishing they could live the F1 dream. After giving everyone enough time to get revved up, we were given a comical welcoming speech by the floor manager, which I bet he could recite in his sleep, he’d done it that many times.

Then, Jeremy Clarkson himself, one of the most outspoken and influential faces in the world of motoring journalism, pushed through the crowd. ‘Jezza’ will love me for saying this, but I actually thought he looked taller and slimmer in real life! After a bit of banter with the audience, Jeremy’s two co-presenters James May and Richard Hammond joined him on stage.

When the filming started, the crew had to remind the audience on several occasions on the second take, to laugh on cue at the same punch lines, which we all found very amusing. In between filming we got to watch the pre-recorded clips on the TV screens dotted around the studio which, as always, were very funny. My particular favourite was when the trio paid homage to a LS3 Jensen Interceptor, by starring in a spoof ‘Interceptor Tribute Show.’ In between the scantily clad ladies and the fast cars, it was easy to see why being a presenter on Top Gear is the dream job of nearly a third of British men.

Top Gear is broadcast in more than 100 countries and claims to have a global audience of 350 million, so naturally, I made it my mission to get in front of the camera. Sensing that the celebrity interview was up next, I fought through the 600 petrol heads and strategically placed myself as close as I could get to the interviewee’s chair. Sir Bob Geldof was ‘The star in a reasonably-priced car’ and a really great interview to watch, although it was slightly surreal seeing one of the world’s most famous personalities driving around an airfield in Surrey, in a Korean hatchback.

The final film was when Jeremy, James and Richard were tasked with demolishing a row of derelict houses, quicker than the demolition experts. They actually brought their weapon of destruction, an ARMTRAC 400, or as I would describe it, a gigantic white minesweeper, into the studio and “on that bombshell,” it was time to end the show.
Watching the programme on a Sunday evening is one thing, but if you want the full Top Gear experience, nothing will beat being part of the audience.

I didn’t buy the t-shirt, didn’t get to meet the Stig, but I did manage to get my five minutes of fame on BBC Two’s most popular programme and had a fantastic day out. I can also tell people that the rumours are true about Richard Hammond, he brushed passed me and even I was taller than him.

Amy Winehouse – The Legacy

2011-07-26T15:40:00.000+01:00

by Rebecca Dickinson, Senior Account Executive, Tangerine PR

Musical Legend
On the day of her funeral I thought I would take a look back at Amy Winehouse. Musical legend. Loving daughter. Addictive personality. So where did it all go so wrong?

From a young age she had it all mapped out and fame and stardom beckoned. Sylvia Young Theatre School, followed by Brit School, she was set for success and would pave the way for musical talent coming up the ranks behind her – Adele and Jessie J watching her in admiration.

Growing up in Southgate, she was the pretty daughter of a black cabbie with a big personality that screamed ‘I take no prisoners’. A love of performing, Camden was her calling and hanging out in the Hawley Arms and Dublin Castle, she joined the ‘Camden Caners’ who revelled in the music scene and knew how to have a good time, or so I’ve heard.

But much like many others, this is what I have been told about Amy. Her friends and family heralding Amy as a real family gal, who loved cooking and was happy when she was looking after everyone and entertaining in her home. But what would I know. It’s not like I ever actually ‘knew’ the girl.

The Media
What amazes me about Winehouse’s death though, is how quick people have been to make comment, to judge and to push their opinion. Working at Tangerine PR in the consumer team, sees me trawl the pages of the nationals and glossies for news stories and converse on Twitter to catch the latest journalist request, to ensure that I don’t miss out on an opportunity for our clients. But over the last few days, hundreds of tweets and scores of printed articles have appeared across all types of media all focusing on one subject – Amy Winehouse.

The tales have all apparently been from people claiming to really ‘know’ her. Twitter was full of remorse and offers of condolences as tears of sadness filled cyber space and the sultry undertones of her musical talent found their flight again. Every radio station has poured out her infamous soul which resulted in her acclaimed album, Back To Black, topping the iTunes chart in 17 countries yesterday, including the UK and the US.

Backlash
But not everyone was so gracious about the loss of the young British talent. Sick jokes and insensitive comments have come in their dozens, and retailers have been quick to push memorabilia and record sales to the thousands of fans eager to grab any last memory of Amy.

It got me thinking though, how would my family feel if that was me and the whole world was ready to jump on the band wagon and comment about my demise? Potentially, inaccurate accounts of my life and existence scrawled across the tabloids. Individuals offering up details of our ‘meetings’ for everyone to read. I would think they would find this pretty heart-wrenching and difficult to cope with, yet a certain lack of respect has been seen in the wake of her death in the recent days.

What we must not forget is she was someone’s daughter, sister, close friend, confident, partner and it is those closest to her that will never be able to hold her, tell her how much they love her and support her in any decisions she makes. She may not have been the ideal daughter-in law, and she may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but she was a real person, with real feelings, who had been grabbed by the evil arm of hard drugs and drink - the true villain in this story.

So as everyone looks back on the life of this North London musician, it is important to reflect on a life that has been lost, one in which beehives stood tall and strong vocals pulled at the heart strings, leaving a lasting impression on Camden.

So for now Amy we say goodbye, as you join the musical talent of the ’27 group’ - Hendrix, Jones, Joplin, Morrison and Cobain, we salute you.

SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER

2011-07-25T15:21:00.001+01:00

By Claire Gamble, Senior Account Executive, Tangerine PR

As schools, colleges and universities up and down the country break up for the summer (lucky things…), many will be looking ahead to the future and deciding what the next step on their career ladder will be. This is also the case for the ten students who were selected to take part in the second Manchester Masters programme.

Manchester Masters was a scheme set up by our very own Sandy Lindsay to retain graduate talent in the region and prevent the brain drain of all those bright young things flocking down to London. After a thorough assessment process, the ten selected candidates each undergo four work experience placements at various PR, advertising, marketing and digital departments, companies and agencies in Greater Manchester over the course of the year, while also studying for a Masters qualification from Manchester Metropolitan University. Placements in the past have included Max Spielman, Soreen, Manchester Confidential and also here at Tangerine PR.

Since I joined Tangerine PR a couple of months ago, I’ve got to know this year’s Manchester Masters students and it’s easy to see that they’re all going places. Intelligent, enthusiastic, witty and ambitious – all ten of them are extremely driven and talented. This year, they’ve really made the most of all of the opportunities that the Manchester Masters programme offers and the feedback from them – and their employers – has been first rate.

Now we’re looking ahead to the new academic year, and there are going to be some changes to the Manchester Master programme…

You’ve probably noticed that there has been an increasing buzz of excitement and chitter chatter surrounding the North West and the creative industry. Whether it’s Jeremy Clarkson offending Salford residents or the latest rumours about which BBC personalities are going to move up north, the arrival of MediaCity is big news – not only for the region – but for the UK’s entire creative industry.

Whether people are fresh out of university or looking for a new and exciting challenge, Greater Manchester is currently a bustling hub of opportunities. Many companies in the region are bucking the national trend and are in fact expanding their thriving teams – Tangerine PR, for example, is currently on the lookout for several new recruits.

And it’s because of all these opportunities Greater Manchester has to offer, which has led to an increase in enquiries for the third Manchester Masters programme from students outside the North West. It appears that young people wanting to make a break in the creative sector are sitting up, taking note of the changing face of Manchester’s media landscape and heading north.

In response to this interest, the Manchester Masters Board has now decided to extend the scheme to recent graduates from all UK universities – not just those from a Greater Manchester uni. This is great news, not only for the applicants, but also for businesses in the North West in general.

Graduates these days have stepped up their game. With competition for jobs more fierce than ever, they are looking for ways to make themselves stand out from the crowd – and they’re not afraid to get their hands dirty. By opening up the Manchester Masters scheme, we will be helping to attract the most enthusiastic, ambitious and creative talent to the region.

Applications have already started flooding in, and if you or someone you know want to find out how you could be in with a chance, then you should visit: www.manchestermasters.com.