A blogger who featured on the New Statesman used this opportunity to open up a discussion regarding the role of the media in publishing the findings of ‘marketing-led data’, questioning why it should be taken seriously.

Sadly the post didn’t end up, as was intended, much of a discussion point. Only 2 people bothered to comment.

But in an age of transparency, we felt we should take the time out to address some of his concerns, particularly as OnePoll (our sister company and the UK’s leading provider of PR surveys) was used as a prime example of how “commercial interest and crippling methodological flaws often render the (survey) results worthless.”

OnePoll have been supplying the UK national press with lifestyle based survey stories since PR polling began.

What started 11 years ago as a quick way of generating branded news copy is now a credible and reputable research solution, providing quantitative and qualitative online studies to a far broader client-base than the PR industry. We work with the insight and marketing departments of some of the UK’s largest consumer organisations.

Over the years, OnePoll has continued to improve and evolve its panel management in line with industry standards. This includes:

• Checking the time respondents spend on a survey

• Looking out for unusual survey answering patterns, such as ‘flatliners’ and ‘zigzaggers’

• Tracking IP addresses

• Using captcha logs

• Running regular ‘trick’ surveys to find inconsistent answers

• Analysing the quality of open field responses

Beyond the elements listed above, we are continually on the look-out for new ways to improve the quality of our panel and sample. We have both panel and community management teams that listen to and monitor panellists on a daily basis. Further panel developments are on the horizon following a recent acquisition of scripting and panel specialists Response Fusion.

Apart from the technical aspects of ensuring quality, the OnePoll research team run checks on all surveys to make sure that they are bulletproof. This means ensuring that all surveys include full scope for a respondent to answer themselves fully and that, where applicable, a ‘none of the above’ option is present. It also means ensuring that surveys are sense checked and don’t confuse a respondent. This is all documented in the MRS code of conduct, a document the guys at OnePoll take very seriously.

PR surveys, although a fantastic marketing opportunity for large brands, are not what some may consider a quick and dirty solution. They require a great deal of thought, planning and project management.

We are fully aware of our responsibilities in terms of providing reliable and representative samples – however we are in the business of providing PR clients with newsworthy stats which will (hopefully) create a media buzz. We do not position our PR research as peer reviewed studies.

But should only peer reviewed studies be allowed to feature in the press? Isn’t one of the roles of the media to inform and entertain – something which these polls do incredibly well.

By designing and fielding a survey around a topic, you create a sketch of public opinion. As long as the research provider has all the relevant quality controls in place then the sketch is a reliable one that is worthy of being reported in the national media and shared over social networks.

There will always be scepticism around PR studies purely because by their very nature they are a form of marketing. But does that render them invalid and “worthless” – even if the sample is representative and even if every step has been taken to ensure the study is fair and in-keeping with the MRS code of conduct?

Sponsoring studies is a non-intrusive way of marketing. It is a way of entering into a dialogue with customers by providing them something that makes them think. It encourages discussion. It is a type of marketing that is in-keeping with the ethos of the social media age.

Whilst it might be easy to paint a picture of PR surveys as using the media to manipulate people into buying products, the truth is far from this. We are concerned with talking points, topics that get people engaging with each other.

The first stage of any PR research project is qualitative research – we hold open discussions between ourselves and via social media. Whatever we find ourselves discussing in the office is a potential survey topic.

Are we comfortable being naked in front of our partners? How many of us do all the cooking in the household? Who watches TV in the evening whilst tweeting and texting?

This is the kind of stuff my old news editor used to refer to as “Hey Doris” tales – the things we would talk to Doris about over the garden fence whilst hanging our washing! Although these days we’re having these debates and discussions via Twitter or the comments section of MailOnline.

But whatever platforms we are using for our discussions, we are still talking and with the rise in blogs and forums, we are becoming hungrier for subjects to talk about.

Perhaps there are things that need to change. Any agency that commissions a survey with us should feel confident enough of the quality to publish the data set. We live in an age of openness and transparency, not adhering to these principles is a mistake.

But as for PR surveys, long may they live – and in an age in which the media are crying out for cheap and cheerful page fillers, I’m pretty sure they will.

We will continue to listen to our panel and peers to produce interesting, quirky and entertaining stats. It is what we do and it isn’t harming anyone, unless those stats are taken out of context or used for something other than what they are intended for – to inform, entertain and provide a talking point.

They have certainly done so this week.

By Harriet Scott & Oliver Conner

It seems the growth of the sites and the ensuing population of younger, more web savvy employees in the shape of web editors and online journalists is opening what is a very important door for PR companies, some of whom admit they are finding it harder to secure coverage on a daily basis.

The subtle inclusion of links to clients who have sponsored the content is one which, initially, newspapers, news desks and online operations would have turned their noses up at.

Five years ago, during my newspaper career, I was asked to include a hyperlink to a website by a client, and was told in no uncertain terms by the then web editor that it was ‘something we would never do’ – but the situation is changing and the proliferation of younger staff who’ve grown up amid the Internet boom are, it seems, slightly more accommodating.

I can hear the older generation of hacks sighing in disbelief.

“It’s an advert, a blatant plug,” they would scream.

But is it? Or is it the politeness and accreditation for which the web has become the fulcrum?

It is frowned upon to retweet a link without name-checking the source. This in an etiquette which we have all embraced.

Links are to me an appreciation of good content provided by a bona-fide source, for which the supplier should be rewarded…

…okay, ‘rewarded’ may be too strong a word – perhaps ‘credited’ is a better one. But the change is a welcome one for the PR industry amid constant pressure from clients to deliver ROI.

How to secure hyperlinks

1. Build relationships – it’s what PRs are best at. Identify people who have the final say on matters such as hyperlinks, and schmooze them to the max.

2. Insert a bullet pointed plea along the lines of ‘please include hyperlink on online platforms where possible’. Make sure it’s at the bottom of your copy – not at the top as it looks like a begging letter. What’s the worst that can happen? After all you’re asking nicely, if a little cheekily.

3. Don’t include massively long hyperlinks. Do your best to keep them short. www.thejohnsebastiansmithplumbingandheatingcompany.uk.com is enough to infuriate any sub editor, online or print.

4. Insert the hyperlink after the fifth paragraph. By this point, if your story is good enough, you will have hooked the Newsdesk, and they are more likely to give your brand or client five minutes in the sunshine via the link.

5. If you can, use ONLY the hyperlink as the namecheck, rather than including the client’s name early in the copy followed by the hyperlink lower down. News copy is subbed from the bottom upwards, not from the top down, so there is a chance your link may be chopped out. Leaving just the hyperlink as the namecheck means that if the sub editor wants to be difficult and take out the link, he will have to Google the company name to find it – and he doesn’t want to do that, trust me.

6. Use the link to direct readers to a campaign. Even hard-nosed subs will struggle with the concept of ditching the name check or link from a worthy tale plugging a serious campaign, because readers will often call up in their droves and ask the Newsdesk for details of how to sign up. That’s the last thing they want during their hectic morning compiling the news list.

By Doug Shields and Ben Harrow

At every turn lies either global success – or earth shattering failure.

It’s often an exhausting tug of war trying to convince end users what you’re talking about. And the pressure of coming up with fresh ideas to satisfy those clients is something very few people have the creativity or the news sense to deliver.

But that’s what, in our opinion, the British PR industry does – and we do it better than any of our foreign counterparts.

We operate in a massively competitive market, where in the midst of a relatively light-hearted PR campaign, one horrible twist of fate can bring that brand crashing to its knees amid an avalanche of bad publicity.

And while the brand’s faceless top brass hide away safely in their glass towers, guess who is in pole position to take that eye-watering blow full in the slats?

So to soften that blow, today is the day we doff our hats to you, the people at the sharp end who we consider to be PR heroes

These are the people we feel excel on a daily basis in making our lives easier, by helping us come up with great ideas, by understanding exactly how news works – and who we thoroughly enjoy working with.

If your name is not on the list, don’t worry, there is always next time. AND it doesn’t mean you don’t do a good job, because you do.

In reality, all the people we work with are PR heroes in their own right, the names on this list are merely the chosen ones this time around – and they are not in any order.

That, and the fact that your story is sent out alongside some utter, utter trash, so it’s obvious that no-one would trust it as a news source, journalist or otherwise.

However, I briefly mentioned some of the more promising features – namely a boost to SEO and search engine ranking – that come as a result of the major Yahoo-style hits that can appear as a result of using newswires like Businesswire and PR Newswire.

The entity that is SEO

So I can’t lie – various sources state that there is SEO value in your copy appearing on various websites direct from PR newswires.

But as the B2B PR blog explains, the value is minimal – an appearance on Google News is the main target, and this can be achieved in far cheaper ways via cheaper newswires (or preferably by some appropriately aimed pitches).

These lands are, in fact, almost guaranteed to be identical copy to the original release and featured on a poor ranking website (and if not, in a poor section of a good ranking website – we’ll discuss this later).

Basically, it’s like if your least attractive, least fashionable friend told you your new jeans make you look hot.

You don’t trust their judgement, so the influence is minimal.

And there’s no joy in numbers either – the first hit is the best it’s going to get. Second, third, fourth and fifth identical hits will mean even less than the first hit.

Basically, it’s like if all twenty of your least attractive, least fashionable friends told you your new jeans make you look hot, one after the other.

You’ve heard it all before, and it quickly grows tiresome, providing little to no value.

God Google, you shallow, fickle creature.

Smoke and mirrors

But what about the Yahoo hits? Can’t argue with coverage on one of the biggest network of sites in existence?

Well, this is where things get sneaky. The likes of Yahoo and MSN, across their varying network of categories, seem to be ‘in bed’ with specific newswires, in return for publishing anything on a specific section of their site.

So, apologies, but don’t take it as a comment on the awesome newsworthiness of your press release.

Take Yahoo Finance, for example – quite the impressive hit (and a totally brilliant and reputable site – don’t take this as a comment on their properly produced and sourced editorial).

Take a look at the (brilliantly annotated) screenshot below.

This is a cut of http://finance.yahoo.com/news. Alongside trusted news platforms like Mashable and Forbes, the likes of Business Wire and PR Newswire appear as a few of around 50 ‘providers’ (as well as the ironically named ‘paidcontent.org’).

*This* is how you gather a Yahoo hit via a PR newswire – an auto-posted, identical version of your copy is simply dumped onto a section of the site that can only be found via hyper-specific Google searches or a user clicking specifically on that newswire to look for news. Which won’t happen. Because they feature stories about cruise companies buying a new web domain.

That, and at the time of writing, there have been 50 stories, sent just via Business Wire just to Yahoo Finance, in 48 minutes.

And there are 50 providers.

Do the math.

Clearing the smoke and assessing ‘visibility’

Admittedly, that was just one of hundreds of examples. All sections of Yahoo feature these ‘phantom’ hits, alongside MSN and countless other sites.

But, if you do land via a newswire, head to the homepage and see if you can navigate to your article without searching for specific words in the search box. It’s a challenge.

B2B PR Blog tried, and they really struggled with the major newswire favourites.

So, in short, editors and writers won’t take a look at your content, and the public won’t be reading it. Or finding it.

However, I did say that certain newswires have their certain strengths. Businesswire is good for major acquisitions and financial content (although you should probably hit up AP writers, Reuters, and the like direct instead).

Niche newswires with specific genres, of varying sizes, can also do great work for clients in their area. I’ll admit, I’m still playing with a number to see if there is value, and to see if there could be return on investment.

Plus, the SEO benefit does exist; but it’s very weak and should only be used sporadically to provide any benefit at all (and via the cheapest newswires and packages available).

In fact, I’d love to hear of any success stories with PR newswires to counter my argument and make a new blog post. Feel free to let me know.

But, in the meantime, I should point something out, since my experience counts for something.

Water into (PR) wine…

Doesn’t exist.

To draw results, you have to mash the shit out of the grapes, perfect the flavour and do a whole heap of selling to get the wine on people’s shelves and down their faces.

That’s what matters – if your news isn’t tasty and well presented, why would a newspaper, online news platform or blogger want to drink it?

The classic pitch is the classic pitch because it’s the only pitch that really works. E-mail, ring and natter away to your contacts until they trust that the content you present is worthwhile.

And if you get to the point where you think, ‘fuck it, no-one’s listening, shall we use a newswire?’

It probably isn’t newsworthy. And it definitely won’t make.

In other words:

“If it (your story) truly is so important that it warrants spending thousands of pounds to get the word out there via a worldwide network of newswires, your story is probably strong enough to sell itself and therefore pitching it shouldn’t be difficult”

Whether it be straight PR, national news surveys, infographics or corporate material, hunt down the people that want to know your news and give them a goddamn call.

By Ben Harrow
Digital Editor

Compelling stories and screaming headlines that jump off the page and dare us not to read.

Heart-warming, heroic, horrific. The events that challenge or reinforce our ways of seeing the world are brought to our breakfast tables, train rides and lunch breaks whenever, wherever they occur.

But if we’re plunging ourselves into the unique, the scary and the unbelievable ‘real news’ each day, is there still room for more?

Is there still a place for survey-news?

The answer is, absolutely.

Why? Because we’ll always want to know what the ‘average’ is.

As we try to negotiate our way through this sometimes confusing, sometimes scary and sometimes pretty darn brilliant world each one of us, even the cool ones, asks ourselves us these questions:

Am I doing well? Am I making the right decisions? Am I normal? Where do I fit in?

Just as we’ll read a news story and place ourselves at the heart of it, empathise with the victim, loathe and question the villain, we’re naturally programmed to bring things into our own little worlds in order to process them, step into the story and ask ourselves what we’d do if that happened to us. How would we handle it?

Surveys evoke the same response but with further power to relate to the average news reader. They are interactive, begging you to put yourself against the findings and see how you compare.

Today on page five of The Telegraph, you’ll see five study-based stories dominating the page. A clear sign that survey-led news is as evocative as ever.

One in ten of us own a onesie apparently, it emerged today.

Whether you love snuggling up in an all-in-one ball of fluff or in fact question the sanity of a grown adult choosing to spend their time wrapped in giant baby clothes, chances are you will have an opinion and you will want to voice it.

You engage with the piece, natter with the colleagues around it. Talk value. And in a world where the real-life horrors and tragedies are brought to us now in full HD, don’t underestimate the survey’s power to give light relief.

Blokes who stick to the ‘manlier chores’ get more sex a study released today announces.

How many women will have read this and had something to add? How many couples might mention this tonight when deciding who tackles the mountainous ironing pile?

The excuses men use to avoid sex are also detailed –when we’ve tired of page after page of economic crisis, war and government corruption, is this not going to peak the attention of even the hardiest of serious news readers?

And the more serious issues are brought to life well too – home workers spend 33 extra days working over their office-based colleagues research finds today. No matter what side you’re on or how hard you work, read that and try not to compare it to your own situation. You can’t.

The rise of the Mail Online says a lot here. They know the reader, give them the balance of hard-hitting stories, sensational images and quirky tales. In a culture where everyone has an opinion a status or a tweet they want to be heard, they give that platform to engage and comment on each story.

And what can this do for a brand?

How many adverts did you read properly in today’s paper, can you recall any?

Backing a story that gives the reader an experience, something to debate or judge themselves by and proves a brand knows its target audience, empathises and can generate relevant conversations is more powerful than reeling off a price list.

By Rick Maughan
Account Manager, 72Point

As Digital Editor at 72Point, the majority of my time is spent selling in editorial and infographics, gathering as many relevant, quality hits on relevant, quality online platforms as is humanly possible.

As part and parcel, I’ve regularly come across the paid-for alternatives to having me buzzing around the office – PR newswires.

The Big Sell

They scream “we push your news to thousands of major news sites, journalists and blogs!”

They bellow “and search engines, don’t forget search engines! We’ll rattle your search ranking up Google and generate hundreds of sales leads”.

Hold on there a minute. You’re saying for a nominal fee, we can distribute any and all our editorial via your newswires, get it in front of journalists and bloggers internationally and drum up leads for our clients?

SIGN ME UP.

But I’ll get my coat – you won’t need a digi-guy pinging off e-mails all around the internet, because Magical Newswire Co. will do it all for us!

*Ben Harrow is out of office, returning never. Redirect all important e-mails to suit-guy@magicalnewswire.co.*

Get in touch ladies

Now, before I go any further, a disclaimer…

OK, so I’m not saying outright that there is no value in a service like PA (Press Association Newswire) or PR Newswire – they have their strengths, and they have certain kinds of content that they work wonders for in certain situations, but I’ll talk about that later.

I should also note that there is a big difference between a newswire like SWNS or Reuters and the likes of Businesswire or Realwire – the latter is the focus here.

What I’m saying is that I’ve seen a lot of bad practice, and a lot of smoke and mirrors, especially with our style of content, in digital and online PR. And that isn’t right.

Cold, hard, cash.

So, what’s the damage for this kind of service?

Trying to unveil the prices without some contact with the respective sales teams is near impossible, but the brilliant B2B PR Blog has done it for us.

Take Realwire, for example, which is one of the cheaper options available – £125 for a basic release, and £240 to also be sent out on PA. No word limits though, unlike some other newswires.

However, at the higher end of the scale, PR Newswire charge £410 for a basic release (including PA), but their impressive global offering will set you back £3300.

But, to put it bluntly, do you get bang for your buck?

“85% of journos can’t be reached by (PR) newswires”

We’re in the business of surveys, so I won’t lie to you – 20 people isn’t many people. But when you call up 20 journos from the likes of The Guardian, The Metro and Techworld, it’s worth lending an ear to.

Basically, B2B PR Blog rang up a heap of journos and asked them if they pick up news from newswires. Only 25% said yes, and of those, two picked out journalistic wires like Reuters and Bloomberg.

So, only 15% would even consider news from a newswire, which is a daunting start.

There may be good reason for this, as is evidenced by more B2B PR Blog research (all the work they did, and are doing, on ‘The Value of Newswires‘ is fantastic, and utterly recommended).

Although a little hostile towards the PA newswire, this section is enlightening when it comes to the process by which PR newswires, like Businesswire and Realwire, “reach 100% of national and major regional newspapers, and every TV and radio station across the UK and Ireland”.

In short, it’s really complicated.

In a-little-less-short, journalists can filter out stories not authored by PA journalists. So, PR newswires that lump content onto PA (for an extra charge) will be put in a stream of content that can easily be removed from view.

As it’s put, again beautifully, by the B2B PR Blog:

“Putting myself in a journalist’s shoes (someone looking for interesting news content for my readers), I probably wouldn’t want to receive these media releases (all sent out via the PA Newswire recently) and would therefore probably filter out commercial content”.

Content which commonly includes the likes of:

“Complete Collection of Iconic iPhone 5 Cases Available from OtterBox”

“Another Record Breaking Domain Purchase for www.Cruise.co.uk”

And so on and so forth.

The story so far…

So, to summarise so far, it’s pretty expensive. That’s a fact. Tick.

And although results vary, the promises made of high visibility are, at best, extremely difficult to keep. Tick.

But, there are a number of different reasons for using PR newswires, and occasionally, the results do look reasonably good – some often guarantee hits on the likes of Yahoo! (310m daily readership), and there is plenty of discussion about the ‘SEO benefit’ garnered from these kind of lucratives hits and linkbacks (regardless of whether or not anyone actually *reads* the content).

But that, my learned friends, will be saved for the next post. Hey, I’ve got to save something for next time.

Ben Harrow
Digital Editor

We recently advertised a vacancy on LinkedIn, Hold The Front Page and a couple of local media job websites in the Bristol area. We were inundated with applicants from all over the world, including Estonia, Russia and three from the U.S.

In total I don’t think I would be exaggerating when I say around 50 to 60 people applied for the position. Among those were a civil engineer and someone who had a biology degree, obviously people who are being forced to apply for anything to return to, or begin their working life.

We whittled down the list of potentials to around eight or nine and invited seven in for an interview.

Two of them stood out, the rest were incredibly poor. While they had good degrees in subjects which are relevant to our organisation, their preparation, appearance and demeanour were a million miles away from the kind of person we were looking for.

On two occasions I was met by blank stares when I asked them to explain in a couple of sentences what it was exactly that we did. I asked another couple of interviewees if they had read the 72Point blog.

The response? An almost apologetic shaking of the head. I asked why they chose public relations as a career. Again the answer, when there was one, was quite obviously off the top of their heads.

The vast majority also declared their undying love for the Guardian newspaper, despite the fact a quick glance at our coverage page gives a definitive indication of the type of media outlets which cover the stories we generate, of which the Guardian, generally, is not one.

On determining the unsuitability of the applicant I did my best to cut short the interview and usher him / her out of the door. But the low quality of the majority of those who made it to the interview stage surprised me.

We are always coshed over the head with the importance of a degree, but my over-riding impression was that while a larger percentage of students than ever before are now entering the world of work with a degree under their belt, many still lack the personality, skills or determination to prepare effectively for an interview and then fully express themselves when given the chance.

Surely, at a time like this when millions of us who do have jobs are not feeling as secure as we perhaps once did, and when the number of graduates applying for a single position regularly hits the 15- 20 mark and beyond, a more detailed, thorough and polished approach is a must.

Luckily, amid the arduous interview process I received an email from the girl who went on to become the successful applicant.  She had relevant experience from the age of 16, a relevant degree and had clearly done her homework on 72Point’s business model.

She came across as the kind of person who was a good fit for the highly-motivated creative team here in Bristol.

In the end the decision was an easy one, but I honestly fear for the long-term futures of many of those who came to see us.

* We also asked Jess Macdonald, the successful applicant, to give us her views on the application process and what it takes to land a job in the PR industry. This is her response:

The Successful Applicant:

I’m quite surprised to hear of some of the poor applicants who applied for the job of Account Assistant. I don’t want to sound like a know-it-all but my recent experience has proven that you can’t just “blag” your way through an interview anymore, especially when you’re a recent graduate or just starting a new career. I’m sure that many people would agree with me.

When I applied for the job at 72Point, I think I only used a few of the pointers given to me by my university lecturers, but I believe they were the most important.

They were to research the company and the job description, treat each job application individually and never stop reading or watching the news. As far as I’m concerned, if you want to work in journalism, PR or marketing you’d be silly not to do any of these.

From the moment I read the job description, I had a good feeling about the role and the people behind the advert. I suppose this gave me a lot more confidence when it came to writing the cover letter.

I was sick and tired of the whole job application process. I was writing letters containing words that I rarely use in normal daily life and in a tone that really isn’t “me”, only to get the “sorry you’ve been unsuccessful” reply the very next day.

When I read the 72Point advert I thought I’d have a go at writing my cover letter a little less formally and speak in a way that would show the prospective employers what I’m like as a person.

I didn’t just focus on my education and work experience either. How you fit in to a team is just as important as what you know or can do. For example, when listing off reasons why I should be given an interview I wrote:

“I’m ridiculously organised – sometimes people close to me like to make jokes and tease me. I make lists of lists and then re-write the lists to make them look nicer. (I do complete the tasks on the lists too!)”

Reading my cover letter back, I’m cringing at the amount of exclamation marks I used, but I was pretty chuffed when I got a really positive reply at 10:45pm the same evening.

To stop a long story from getting even longer, I just want to say that because I prepared, didn’t get ahead of myself and made sure the team had the chance to see the real me, I have now landed myself an amazing job with a fantastic team – go me!

It’s not just me that this has happened to though. I’ve got a friend at a large beauty organisation in London who landed her job in exactly the same way and another Graduate PR Account Manager who knew her industry inside out when she applied for the role.

I’d like to hope that recent or upcoming graduates will read this and take it on board before embarking in the world of job applications.

By Doug Shields and Jess Macdonald

December is by far and away the toughest month of the year to satisfy clients’ requirements. It’s a bit like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day Valentine’s Day and Easter all rolled into one. Hundreds of PR companies, working for thousands of clients, competing for space on an ever decreasing number of pages. As far as I could glean this year newspapers’ pagination was reduced, or perhaps it just seemed that way. Christmas stories were few and far between in the pages of the nationals.

The traditional festive tales of how much Christmas was going to set us back crept in but only in smallish pieces, but it made on four separate occasions for different clients, a clear sign sub editors still value the odd Xmas story as a filler towards the back of the paper and more importantly that there is little or no quality control among filler content.

Among those who did achieve coverage were Starfish Communications, who secured a nice piece in the middle market press for their client TomTom, with their story which looked at the time we spend wrapping presents, split by gender.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2246540/Why-men-hopeless-wrapping-Christmas-presents-They-spend-just-60-seconds-compared-womens-minutes.html

Another favourite of mine was Eulogy’s clever take on Christmas shopping.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2246820/Festive-fakers-A-million-British-workers-prepare-phone-sick-Christmas-shopping-done.html

This in-house M&S collaboration with Oxfam also worked brilliantly, with a link to the campaign at the bottom of the copy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2253751/Shwopping-M-S–Oxfam-encourage-Brits-donate-bad-presents-good-cause.html

I also liked the more serious TUC study on Brits working on Christmas Day. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2249750/Working-Christmas-Day-Youre-Number-people-work-big-day-jumps-78-years.html

And Red Consultancy’s touching dads Christmas story went down well too. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2253047/A-dad-tenth-popular-Christmas-present-children-survey-reveals.html

So well done to all involved in those campaigns. Top work.

Throughout December the Daily Star were the only paper prepared to celebrate Christmas – and open the door for PR-led stories – via their festive right hand page in the middle of the news section. The rest of the national media appeared hell-bent on ignoring the looming festivities, save for the odd picture of Mr and Mrs Christmas’s outlandish exterior house decorations featuring the stereotypical flashing neon reindeer.

As usual there were the heart-breaking stories of children who may not have made it to December 25th. But overall I believe I read less Christmas stories this year than I have done in previous years.

Apparently many advertisers, apart from the big supermarket chains of course, start to ease off with their advertising in December, meaning less pages for PR led content, with the high street giants preferring instead to keep their powder dry to scream about their Xmas Sales, which broke all records this year.

Even the Mail, who are infamously anti-Christmas, have in previous years carried a fair spattering of Christmas PR-led stories, but this year was different. By contrast the Mail Online provided a welcome outlet for sponsored content, decorating many a survey-led tale with up to four or more images, meaning huge traffic and SEO benefits to those who were lucky enough to secure good results.

Again the window of opportunity between Christmas and New Year proved to be a solid time to deliver stories which either completely discard the Christmas theme or touch on the collective national hangover as our thoughts turned to the damp squib of New Year’s Eve and beyond.

The spell through the last five or six days of December is a horrible time to work on newspapers. Nothing happens. There are no courts, no parliament, no inquests or tribunals and very little hard news to fill the paper with. During my time on newsdesks we ended up quite literally stretching half stories to cover the page, quite often with tales which would never have seen the light of day on a busy news day.

So could an ambivalent approach to Christmas among the national media be the shape of things to come? Perhaps so. In that case the answer is to think outside the box, be different, use splits to strengthen and broaden the spine of your copy. Try and avoid obvious stories, or if your client insists on pushing the same old formats, manage their expectations and avoid the horror of explaining their story has failed to make front page coverage.

A good example of one project we worked on which delivered good results in the post-Christmas window was a look at how New Year’s Resolutions have changed. We felt a straight story on traditional resolutions felt tired and may fall by the wayside so we went for a different angle, with research providing us with a strong list which included ‘selling things on ebay’ and ‘reading a Sunday paper’ featuring prominently on the list. (See the coverage here)

Now January is upon us we are bracing ourselves for dieting and weight-loss stories. We’d expect nothing more and we thrive on the challenge. The papers continue to remain smallish during the early parts of the week due to a lack of advertising, but later in the week they grow significantly, so if you are selling-in aim for the latter end of the week.

Also, remember to keep an eye out for what the competition are up to by monitoring the papers and news sites daily. We always try and leave at least a fortnight if we have spotted something similar in the press pages, and up to a month if the tale is a carbon copy of yours.

Here’s to another successful and fruitful year for the PR industry.

By Doug Shields

What could be more enjoyable than watching people you sort of recognise off the telly being forced to dine out on Scrotum of Wombat? And they have to leave their goose down duvets and Egyptian cotton bed linen at home and sleep in a hammock for a month! And they have to talk to those irritating little Geordie men who used to be in Byker Grove!

It’s a really bloody brilliant show.

But the coverage surrounding the show doesn’t always sit well with me. In fact it’s starting to repeat on me like a greasy bacon sandwich bought from one of those filthy road side vans….made by a woman with dirty finger nails and a moustache.

Every tabloid paper and news site currently features some Pussy Twat Doll or soap opera actress in a stage of undress. Usually they are wearing really tiny bikinis under that waterfall they like to be snapped under in their really tiny bikinis.

Or sometimes they find pictures of them which don’t actually have anything to do with the show. Ones from old glamour shoots, you know, thumb pulling lacy black knickers down slightly, mouth a little bit open – gazing at you from the page, all smoky eyed like they’re trying to communicate a little private message to you…”I’m a Celebrity – fancy a blow job?”

This has become an annual ritual which starts with the build-up of the show and is yet another excuse for the media to shove highly sexualised and gratuitous images of barely dressed models and soap actresses down our throats. Because that is what sells and that is what everyone wants to see, at all times and everywhere, apparently.

But what do we (the females) get out of this? A few paltry snaps of David Haye in his birthday suit have been reluctantly flung in our direction by the men who largely edit these kind of publications and ultimately decide what pictures should be uploaded to the “news” sites.

But David Haye in his under-crackers would never in a million years make page 1 of a Sunday newspaper because (ever so slightly) more men buy these newspapers than women and it is, in fact, an industry – and sex sells to men – yes, yes, I know. God forbid the gender which make up over 50 per cent of the population should be offered anything visually erotic on the front page of a mainstream newspaper.

During a debate on this subject today, one of my female colleagues suggested that women look at women more than they look at men and she actually backed this up with one of our own survey stories… http://www.72point.com/coverage/scouting-women-spend-longer-women.

The survey says that women like looking at other women so that we can “compare” our visual appearances. It says “Overall, half of the 2,000 women polled said they ‘enjoy’ comparing themselves to other women”.

Oh right!!! So we actually enjoy doing this???

Well, I can kind of understand how one may take enjoyment from comparing oneself to a normal person on the street. If the aim of this ridiculous game (I’m sorry but only women could invent a game so ludicrous) is that we win – then playing it when out on the town with some fat mates may secure a chance of victory – and I’m assuming a “win” is when we have bigger tits or whiter teeth or less back fat than another female?

But what kind of “enjoyment” do we take from looking at pictures of models and actresses in their underwear? Because if we are playing this game to win – then when browsing through the Mail Online – we are in dangerous “loserville” territory. Essentially are never going to have less back fat than some chick who spends more time at the gym than we spend at our desks.

So why do we continue to compare ourselves physically to these celebrities and aspire soooo much to look like women off the telly and in magazines that we go on ill-advised diets that never actually work and spend our whole lives losing out – to a digitally re-touched image!!!!

This is completely absurd, entirely futile and I would much rather look at pictures of David Haye in his under-crackers! You can find some on the Mail website but you have to scroll right down to the bottom…

By Harriet Scott

ARRGGHHHH!!

The team at 72Point are a festive bunch and we love brainstorming for Christmas ideas for our clients. It generally involves the team regaling the trials and tribulations of our own family Christmases and sharing hilarious anecdotes, which more often than not, do evolve into a newsworthy idea for the national press.

We say it time and time again but for a story to work, whatever time of the year, it has to feel real.  So we would urge clients to really consider if they genuinely know many families who tuck in to a nice bit of raw fish on Christmas Day or if they are planning to leave a granola snack out for Santa?  If the answer is no, chances are it is NOT a national news story…it’s a crap press release.

Here are some tips for some Christmas coverage…

1.  If you have a good story to tell – just tell it.  Don’t try to shoehorn in a Christmas element because you feel you ought to.

2.  Start sending your stories at the end of November, early December.  We know everyone is in the race to get their story out first before it gets gazumped by someone else but Christmas stories in October don’t work.

3.  Don’t be afraid to do something that has been done before.  We all know news is on a loop.  The day Brits start their Christmas shopping, how much we’re spending, how much we are eating, how many work mates we’re snogging blah blah blah, are all going to be done by someone, so you may as well be the first one to get out there.   If you have a new idea, even better, but don’t shy away from something because you saw a similar story two years ago.

4.  Don’t use nauseating language like ‘The festive period is upon us once again and whether you’re buying winter-warming gifts to wow friends and family, tasty treats to keep around the house, or just a well-deserved festive reward for yourself, look no further than Product X.’  It’s patronising and it will put hard-nosed hacks off using it.

5.  Don’t jump on the bandwagon. Yes, many brands like department stores, supermarkets, perfume manufacturers and toy makers are vying for column inches at this time of year, but don’t feel you have to join in.  It’s pretty obvious that the Mango Growers Association and verruca creams are not going to be the authority when talking about Christmas and just accept it.  It looks desperate.

6.  As with any story don’t put your messaging too high up in the copy.  Of course if you are doing a story on behalf of Product X they will want to include details about the product but you will put off people from running it with.  Make it subtle and relevant to the story.

7.  Reference your brand once or twice in a story.  Any more than this and it will look like a press release.

8.  Don’t include an image of Rudolph, Prancer and Dancer on your press release.  It adds nothing.

9.  Do include an engaging and informative infographic.

10.  Do target the papers between Christmas and New Year, it tends to be quieter and you may have a better chance of getting coverage.

January is the start of a whole new breed of stories…the day we leave our wife, the day we tell our boss to do one, when we start our New Year diet, when we jack-in the New Year diet…this is a whole other blog post.  Watch this space.

Oh one other thing…Happy Christmas!

by Libby Beswick
Deputy News Editor