Toyota

Reading a recent blog on E- Consultancy.com it was interesting to find that after all the gloomy press coverage Toyota has received recently, its attempts to improve its brand reputation using real-time web channels has taken some criticism.

Toyota has set up a TweetMeme channel called Toyota Conversations to monitor and display news stories tweeted about the brand. However, there have been accusations suggesting that Toyota is filtering negative tweets to try and speed up the process of getting its reputation back on track. Twitter applications such as Tweetfeel reflect that actual news tweets are far more negative than Toyota are making out.

It’s definitely a positive move that Toyota is using social media networks to monitor the buzz of what people are saying about its brand. Online engagement means that Toyota can join the conversation to analyse the reputation of its brand and form strategies from what is said, which is especially important in crisis situations.

The TweetMeme is a good way to get all positive conversations on Toyota presented in one place. However, the timing of when Toyota has decided to gather tweets is a little odd as most of its news is still negative. Toyota should be proactively using as many channels as possible to spread the word of its positive work, such as paying for loaned vehicles, rental fees and taxi expenses for customers who are affected. This can improve the positive trend of mentions, meaning there is little need to filter comments written about the brand.

Liam Sherry

Delia and Heston

So it was revealed today that for the first time in Waitrose history it will be using celebrities to promote the supermarket chain. And who are these iconic celebrities, I hear you cry. Well it is none other than Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal.

Now, if I worked in the PR team for Waitrose I would be slightly nervous. It was only last year that Heston was all over the national and broadcast press for allegedly poisoning over 500 diners at The Fat Duck. Then there is Mrs Smith who, at Christmas 2008, recommended that people store their turkey in the garden shed or the boot of their car – not the greatest suggestion if you don’t fancy getting food poisoning.

Perhaps I am over zealous because of my work on the Check Safety First account. But if I did the PR for Waitrose, these would have been massive concerns.  Poor food hygiene and food promotion shouldn’t go hand-in-hand.

I understand that a celebrity endorsement can be a great way to get a brand noticed by the media and its customers, but it is also important to think carefully before deciding which celebrity you want to endorse your company.

For Waitrose sake, I hope the press and the general public have shorter memories than me.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

On Sunday night, I couldn’t help but rise from my armchair and punching the air as Canada sealed Olympic gold with an overtime goal in the men’s Ice Hockey final. Over the last two weeks I have been surprised at the amount of time I have spent watching the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Sports I would never have given consideration to previously, such as the Snowboarding and Curling have had me engrossed – Last Friday I even stayed up to watch Amy Williams’ gold medal winning performance in the women’s skeleton – an event I barely knew existed until recently.

Looking at the Winter Olympics from a PR perspective, the communications team for Vancouver have had a number of obstacles to hurdle to maintain a positive message. The death of Georgian lugist Nodar Kumaritashvili in the warm up to the games, the lack of snow and ticket cancellations are just some of the problems which have led to the Winter Olympics’ crisis management machine being pushed into overdrive. It’s clear that Vancouver has pushed heavily on the human interest angle, promoting the Olympic spirit, and trying to change what people will remember the games for in years to come. 

In two years time the Olympic Games will be heading to London and the negative press has already been circulating with the London 2012 logo and rising costs of the games going ahead. There are always glitches ahead of major global sporting events, but I wonder what plans the British organising committee have put in place to ensure the smooth running of the event in the face of any unforeseen circumstances? Surely after the events in Canada, this proves that any event organiser (or business) should be prepared for the worst case scenario or at least know who they should contact if a difficult/disastrous situation arise.

Liam Sherry

Grabbing attention

Yesterday,  I attended this year’s Data Centre World show at London’s Barbican as one of our clients was exhibiting.  Although it may sound biased, they had one of the busiest stands in the show, helped no doubt by the free coffee and excellent stand design.  Speaking with some exhibitors and journalists, it was clear that this year’s DCW was much busier than last year, with the show almost twice the size.  The mood from everyone I spoke to was very upbeat, with a lot of confidence in the state of the market and its potential for growth.

As well as facilitating interviews with some of the leading data centre journalists (including Phil Alsop, editor of Data Centre Solutions, and John Hatcher, editor of Data Centre Management), I also had the opportunity to have a look around some of the other stands, and was interested to see the variety of approaches used to attract people to the stands.  Some of the better ones included being entered into a prize draw if you watched a five minute seminar, to an on-stand Space Invaders competition.  It was clear which stands hadn’t decided to do any of this - they were often empty, and many hadn’t even brought a product demonstration with them.  A word of advice to any business exhibiting at a show this year - offer attendees something, even just a cup of coffee, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly word of mouth spreads, and how many people will pay your stand a visit.

Source: Reputation online

Any business looking for a PR agency may want to consider how good the agency in question is at publicising itself.  Lots of agencies may be able to promise great results, but whether they can deliver the same for themselves will sort the wheat from the chaff.

Luckily then at Berkeley PR we have put our money where our mouth is and gained coverage in some of the agency’s key titles, including PR Week and The Times.  This also shows that as an agency, we’re prepared to do what we encourage our clients to do, from rapid response letters to getting in front of a video camera!

We’ve approached the Berkeley PR account like our other clients to make sure that we don’t take anything for granted just because it’s an industry we work in.  We’ve put together a list of key titles, discussed with our client the publications they want to be in, and the audience they want to reach.  We’ve taken briefings from our director Jo Jamieson, monitored for coverage and presented it to the Berkeley PR team.

As with our other clients, all of this hard work pays off, and you can see some of the fruits of our labour below!

• Video interview from Jo Jamieson for Reputation Online

• A day in the life of Paul Stallard on PR Moment

• Paul Stallard discussing the launch of the iPad on PR Week

I was very excited to learn that my Snoopy Tennis and Donkey Kong handheld games could be worth a few pounds, as 80’s electronic gadgets become collectable, according to a feature in the Sunday Mirror. Other gizmos which could see you rake in the cash include the first generation Walkman and Discman (think I’ve also got one of those in the attic too) and the Stylophone.

On the flip side, I couldn’t believe the prices of some of the first mobile phones - the Nokia 101 cost £2,000 back in 1992 but is now only worth about £40.  The Betamax home video, which lost the format war with VHS, is now also virtually worthless.

This got me thinking about the legacy and collectable nature of today’s gadgets. First generation iPods/iPhones, and the Nintendo Wii will certainly go down as design classics, but the HD DVD - much like the Betamax player - will  sadly no doubt gather dust following its defeat to Sony’s Blu-ray option.

Any other thoughts on what might make the list of collectables (or not)  in another 10 years time?