Here at Berkeley PR, we’re big fans of anything that involves pastry. Whether it’s a sausage roll, doughnut or wild mushroom vol-au-vent, we all harbour a secret passion for anything pastry-related. So it came as no surprise to find that half the office avidly followed the Great British Bake-Off on television.

This event, which took place during January, saw twelve homebakers take part in a ‘bake off’ for Sport Relief 2012. The show tested every aspect of their baking skills as they battled it out to be crowned the Great British Bake-Off’s Best Amateur Baker.

Much to her amazement, radio presenter Anita Rani secured victory after producing a particularly tasty and stunning three-tiered chocolate and orange cake with chocolate ganache, and a sugar-paste teapot inspired by the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.

In honour of Anita’s creation, we at Berkeley PR have launched our own version of the competition – the Great Berkeley Bake-Off. It’s taking place on Monday 30 January and will be just as competitive as the real thing, if not more so…

Although we won’t be in a tent or having to bake while wearing a blindfold, each contestent will need to prepare a cake of their choice before 13h00.  All cakes will be on sale in our office and in those of neighbouring companies, with slices going for £2 each (and all proceeds going to Sports Relief 2012.) 

If you’re in the Reading area, feel free to pop in!  The entries will be judged by CEO Chris Hewitt, and the winner will be announced next Monday at 15h00, so make sure you tune in for an update on how delicious (or horrid!) the cakes turn out.

Sports Relief 2012 runs between Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th March.

Denis 

Yesterday Wikipedia took its English-language site offline as part of protests against proposed anti-piracy laws in the US. I wonder how many people were incovenienced by this…..not that I rely solely on Wikipedia for facts and background info you must understand, but it is the first source that most people turn to. Actually, 400m people a month all over the world use the site as ‘go-to’ source of info…so I am not the only one!

The site carried a banner stating ‘Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge’.  Once I had got over the unnecessary use of capital letters for every word, I did actually start to think about a world without easy access to everyday information. I mean, I use the internet for everything, from finding out what my friends are doing on Twitter or to how to bake a cake (in the run-up to the Berkeley PR bake-off), to understanding the latest technology trends.  Without it I would be stuck.

But it is the reason behind Wikipedia’s decision to shut down for 24 hours that intrigues me. The U.S. Congress is considering legislation that in Wikipedia’s view would ‘fatally damage the free and open Internet’. But the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) protects against online piracy…so surely that is a good thing?!

I understand that the Internet should be an open platform for free speech but surely during these tough economic times the threat of 2.2 million jobs being at risk if the legislation is not imposed might make someone think twice about aggressively opposing it.  

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the subject…I would be interested to hear.

Melanie Johnson

As I’m sure many of you are aware, this Monday (16^th January) was ‘Blue Monday’ – so-called because it is apparently the most depressing day of the year. The label was invented in 2005 by psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall and takes into accounts things like debt, the weather and motivation. Over the last few years the media has given this day (always the third Monday in January) a lot of attention so it represents a great opportunity for PR companies to help their clients get in on the action.

There are many other days, or sometimes even whole weeks or months, in the year that are dedicated to a specific cause or action: ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous: World Paper-Free Day, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, UK Bike to Work Week, National Hugging Day (coming up on 21^st January!) and, of course, National Talk Like a Pirate Day (19^th September in case anyone is interested!), but the point is that if it captures the media’s attention then there is a PR opportunity.

An important event that I am working on for our client Kaspersky Lab is Safer Internet Day (7^th February), designed to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and young people across the world.

The theme of this year’s event is ‘Connecting generations and educating each other’.  We are working on ideas that support this message in the hope that we can help to raise awareness of this important issue, while securing some valuable coverage for our client.  More information can be found here.

Last Thursday, I spent an afternoon at The Outdoors Show at London’s Excel centre on behalf our client Go Ape! Forest Adventure.  With an abundance of outdoor, leisure and sport-related exhibitors all showcasing their exciting offerings, I was looking forward to checking out Go Ape’s stand, meeting the team and getting down to some hard graft.

Go Ape had set up its Zip500, the world’s longest indoor zip-wire at an impressive 500 feet, designed to give adventurers a taste of what Go Ape has to offer at its 27 Go Ape sites nationwide.  If zip-wires weren’t their cup of tea, people also had the option to monkey around on the Go Ape! Forest Segways, or speak with the @GoApeTribe to find out what 2012 has in store for the adventure brand.

The event was a huge PR success for Go Ape, with a total of 1,432 people braving the Zip500 and a wealth of journalists and producers visiting the stand, representing, among others, Channel 5, the Financial Times, London Metro, The Sunday Times, Bella and Top Sante.

There was a serious PR objective behind all the fun. Not only was Go Ape keen to encourage more people to live life adventurously, it also wanted to raise awareness of the fact that the Go Ape brand is growing and diversifying and now includes Go Ape! Tree Top Junior, Go Ape! Forest Segway and  Go Ape! Forest Biking as well as the well-established Go Ape! Tree Top Adventure.

Check out the video including footage of the show and a gorilla on the loose! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M90gRILY-3Y&feature=youtu.be

This week has seen two parallel stories running in the media: the glittering technology extravaganza that is the annual, international Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and the plans announced by the Government for an overhaul of IT education in the UK.

The first – CES 2012 –  saw the launch of 20,000 new products, ranging from the amazing and inspirational to the downright strange. They included advanced in-car technology, kitchen tablet computers (complete with recipes),  the latest smartphones and, of course, apps for everything.

Observers have identified the Big Trends (and competitive battle grounds) for 2012 as ultrabooks – incredibly light, slim, powerful laptops; smart, internet-enabled TV – do everything on your TV that you can do on your computer or tablet or smartphone and vice versa; next generation gaming; and the growing use of voice and gesture recognition in TVs and computers (raising the vision of an episode of Downton Abbey being interrupted at a crucial moment by a little person on the sofa waving their arms and shouting ‘Octonauts!’)

20,000 product launches, each created and developed with passion, commitment and, more often than not, some serious technology and software skills.

Yet the second story shows that our education system currently focuses on teaching young people how to fill in a spreadsheet. 

Computer science still exists, but every year fewer people take it, and even fewer go on to study computing-related degrees at university.  If this is allowed to continue – and the hopeful signs are that it won’t be – where will tomorrow’s technology entrepreneurs and innovators come from?

This is not to denigrate the importance of skills in the use of IT.  In today’s digitally-enabled world basic IT user skills are increasingly essential.  It is just a terrible waste of potential. 

This year saw a 20 per cent increase in the number of UK firms exhibiting at CES.  We won’t keep this up if we don’t transform the way we teach young people about IT.  This means developing the fundamental skills and expertise required  - and yes,  computing can be a challenging and demanding subject, just like maths and physics – but also ensuring that the curriculum reflects the excitement and magic  of computing applications to better engage the hearts and minds of young people.

January. The month of resolutions.  A friend of mine has dispensed with the diet, fitness, detox approach and is instead resolving to be always ‘on time’, in every area of her life – from getting out of bed on dark January mornings, to the school run, gym classes and work meetings.   She is one of life’s ‘just in time’ people and is determined to take this up to the level of ‘with plenty of time to spare.’

This set me thinking about my own timekeeping.  I’m the complete opposite to my friend, or so I thought.  My ‘on time’ is five minutes early, if not more. Just as I was congratulating myself on this fact I heard myself telling a colleague that the regular weekly internal catch up meeting we had planned would need to be in twenty minutes ‘or so’ – rather than on the hour as scheduled.  I didn’t articulate why, redefine the time effectively or even apologise.  

Now I wouldn’t dream of casually informing a client, journalist or prospect  I would be ‘twenty minutes or so’ late. Why this internal meeting should be any less important than an external appointment, is a question I couldn’t answer, but it made me realise that I that  I  rank my timekeeping according to the perceived importance of the meeting. 

Turning up on time is a sign of good manners, respect and an indication of conscientiousness that sets a precedent.  In some organisations the door is locked at the start time of meetings  and if you’re late, you’re out.  A little extreme perhaps, but I think I understand the point.  If you don’t keep to an agreed time you are assuming the party you are meeting can afford the time to wait for you. 

I am resolving here and now to change.  An appointment time should be kept unless circumstances beyond my control mean it can’t.  Anyone else up for the challenge?

Just before the Festive break our client, Beyond Analysis, experts in all things customer loyalty, asked us to  launch a new online game, designed to showcase the power of its analytical technology and drive traffic to its website.

Achieving a business goal using entertainment can be tricky, but we were instantly bowled over by this one! Twitter Analyzer 3000 uses sophisticated technology to tell you what your Twitter handle says about you.

After you type in your twitter handle and hit enter, you’re presented with an infographic unveiling the true personality behind your chosen name/messages. The technology works by mining and analysing your last twenty or so tweets, and, based on the information within your timeline, generates a (scarily accurate!) profile.

With just two days to launch the game, the Berkeley PR office came together as only PR offices can. We analysed the Twitter profiles of hundreds of celebrities, actors, politicians, sportsmen and Z-list celebs from around the world. We were looking for anything that would be newsworthy or interesting. And we found it.

The tool concluded that London Mayor, Boris Johnson, was ’100% party animal’ ! By contrast, the artist formerly known as Jordan – AKA Kate Price – is apparently ’100% workaholic’. We had our (slightly tongue-in-cheek) story: ‘LONDON MAYOR OUT-PARTIES GLAMOUR MODEL KATIE PRICE.’

The news alert was accompanied by a delivery of handmade cookies to twenty journalists, each one iced with the recipient’s results. Journalists, including Caroline Donnelly, Stuart Sumner, Jo Best, Lucy Hedges and Luke Westaway, entered into the fun and tweeted both the link to the tool and their own results.

Over the next few days we watched the tide of messages grow as everyone tweeted the story and their own results. By the time the Berkeley PR office closed on Christmas Eve we had generated an 89% increase in visitors to the website.

As for my own results?  Well, it seems that I am 50% couch potato, 25% tech geek and 25% foodie. A lazy, overeating, gadget freak? To be honest, I think the game knows me better than I know myself.

Following our blog post of 7 December, which reported a story widely doing the rounds on Twitter regarding a promotional campaign involving the distribution of 55 goldfishes to media buyers in Australia, we have received an email from Advantage Adelaide asking us to set the record straight. 

We are happy to clarify that none of the goldfish distributed by hand (not mailed) died in transit and that each was given to a person who “had agreed to take custody of it”, well-supplied with food and a large glass bowl containing fresh water.

This story is a salutary reminder of how fast the fire of a story can take hold and spin away from factual accuracy. Social media is a particularly effective touch paper.

The Fact Sheet that Advantage Adelaide sent us says that “every single fish was happy and healthy when it arrived at its destination.”  Caring for a living, feeling being is quite a commitment.  It is one that should not be undertaken or imposed lightly.

We’re a bit partial to a sweepstake here at Berkeley PR, so you can imagine our excitement at this weekend’s Strictly Come Dancing final. With the loot currently standing at an impressive £14 (enough for a ‘vending machine lunch’ as pointed out by our Director, Paul) we’ll be watching with baited breath to see who takes home that glitter ball trophy.

But although Strictly is now a Saturday night-in stalwart – how many of us will be watching it in 3D? Last week presenters Tess and Brucey announced that the final will be one of the first BBC shows to be transmitted in 3D via Freeview HD.

3D television has been steadily streaming into Britain’s living rooms for a while now, but Strictly is one of the first family entertainment shows to be sprinkled with the 3D magic dust.  Avid cinema goers have been dabbling with 3D for a while now, and even football matches have been given that extra dimension.

Broadcasting live in 3D is still fairly experimental, so it’s a brave move from the BBC to invest in this new technology on one of its biggest viewing nights of the year. But to turn your home from living room to ballroom, you’ll need to invest in the right equipment. That not only means wearing the silly glasses, but also forking out for a telly with 3D capacity.

Many have been sceptical of investing in 3D while the technology is still in its infancy, but it seems to be a development which is in no danger of going away. In recent years, the quest of television manufacturers is to make the images on screen as real and lifelike as possible.

It started with HD, which is now pretty much standard, as are LCD screens. And now that 3D television is becoming less sci-fi and more day-to-day-life, it was really only a matter of time before Saturday night TV got in on the act.

If you have got a 3D television (and the glasses to match) make sure you watch Strictly on the right channel, as it will be being filmed in both 2D and 3D. As for our sweepstake, only Liam and Carolann (supporting Harry and Jason respectively) stand in between me and that £14 bounty.

Who knows, maybe I’ll put my winnings towards a 3D TV? Or, more realistically, just the glasses.

One of the best Christmas presents I ever received was a Mini Disc player. After a brief excited jig beside the Christmas Tree, I got to work downloading tunes and transferring my CD collection into miniature disc format. I had tasted the future (or so I thought). A  year later, my Mini Disc player was gathering dust at the bottom of my bedroom desk drawer. Like the Walkman before it, the technology had moved on. I longer had the neatest gadget in the playground.

Research published this week in the Daily Telegraph emphasised the point that technological advances are rapid and are constantly reshaping the way we live our lives. The research aimed to examine the impact of technology, looking for the top 50 things that have been killed off over the last 30 years. Number one in the list was ringing the cinema to check film times  – lost as a result of the internet and online booking. This was followed by going to the travel agents and recording things using VHS.

I’m sure there are several things in the PR industry that have been killed off as a result of technology. I remember @Paul_Stallard explaining that when he started out as a trainee exec, he had to fax press releases to publications – one thing I wouldn’t welcome back in a hurry!

However, having read the list I find that I do still maintain some of these things. I have bought the Radio Times this Christmas, rather than looking at the online TV guides and I often use the odd disposable camera on holiday. We are constantly being told about the new, up and coming, next big thing, but I believe it’s good to find a balance between tech and tradition. If I was to sweep the dust off my old Mini Disc player, I might just give it a play.

Liam Sherry