What’s your favourite movie trailer?

January 15, 2012

I’ve annoyed friends over the years by dragging them early to the cinema moaning the whole way about not wanting to miss the trailers. For me they are an art form in their own right – a delicious taster of films which could be good or bad, but which often look fabulous in two minute format.

So here’s a challenge for all five people reading this blog – what’s your favourite trailer of all time?

Here are some to vote on, but I’d love other submissions:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

- Mum still blames me for recommending this film, but I think the trailer at least is a masterpiece. But, sorry mum, you are wrong and the movie is a masterpiece too.

Watchmen 

- Another trailer marked out by an outstanding soundtrack. This time it is arguable that the film does not live up to the hype.

Sin City

- Keeping with graphic novels we have the film which was the predecessor of both Watchmen and 300, Sin City. Brilliant use of colour in both the trailer and film. Pulp Fiction for the noughties.

Trainspotting

- This is a teaser, not a trailer, but I remember watching it in the cinema and just longing to see the film. I still think it perfectly captures the spirit of Trainspotting despite telling us nothing about the plot.

Where the Wild Things Are

- You can imagine the scepticism - Spike Jonze directing a children’s film, was he selling out? In a word, no as this life affirming trailer shows.

The Breakfast Club

- The trailer perfectly tees up this brilliant study of adolescent angst. I watched the film again last year and it has really stood the test of time

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What caused the Clarkson bounce?

January 8, 2012

Last week American Idol, a show where talented nobodies compete to become a global pop superstar met the Republican presidential nomination race, where talented nobodies compete to become a global political superstar.

Image

The race for the Republican Presidential nomination has already been hugely entertaining, providing watchers with a sexual harassment scandal which did for dark horse Herman Cain (although his failure to remember Obama’s policy on Libya also contributed to a slump in support); a stuttering debate performance by one-time front-runner Rick Perry, and a recent surge in popularity by Newt Gingrich whose political aspirations seem harder to kill than Dracula.

There was a further strange twist this week when Kelly Clarkson, who won American Idol a few years ago came out in support of Ron Paul, a Libertarian and one of the fringe candidates in the Republican race. Her political tweet did not seem to help Ron Paul win more votes in the Iowa caucus, but there was a huge surge in popularity for her latest album, which rose from 38th on Amazon’s sales list into the top 10.

So what caused the Clarkson bounce? In his weekly column in the Financial Times, Gary Silverman speculated that Miss Clarkson was effectively making a guest appearance in a US reality TV show, because the boundaries between politics and entertainment have blurred so much.

My view though is that it may have more to do with brand loyalty.

Kelly Clarkson no doubt has some passionate fans, but with due respect to them they may not rush to endorse a political candidate on her say so (presumably also, because she is a pop singer, many of her fans might also be too young to vote).

On the other hand, fans of Ron Paul might well have been willing to try her music as an extension of their loyalty to his brand.

It is also arguable that Clarkson’s endorsement of Paul’s brand will take longer to show through in his results because it will be spread over several primaries; whereas Ron Paul’s supporters from across the US were able to make an immediate decision to buy her music leading to a reported 442% increase in album sales.

I don’t think that this was the latest example of political trivialisation. Rather I think Kelly Clarkson has shown again how social media can help ‘brands’ to connect and grow.

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Can cities affect the weather?

December 7, 2011

New York's planners regretted adding that extra building

I had two interesting discussions this morning.

First, at a breakfast event I was chatting to a lady from Connecticut about my forthcoming holiday in New York. She advised wearing warm clothes and I agreed, although said that it is around six degrees there right now, which is cold, but not brutal. She said that New York tends to amplify the cold because the buildings create a wind tunnel effect.

So anyway, I bought some gloves at lunchtime, but that’s not the point of this post.

Then on my way back from breakfast I was talking to a taxi driver about London’s winter (the classic, “Cold today”, “But not as cold as yesterday” conversation one has with strangers). His theory is that the City of London is a couple of degrees warmer than its outskirts, a feat he attributes to all the building and the electricity.

I don’t know if either theory stands up to scientific rigour. I’d be interested to hear though whether anyone knows whether town or city planning can actually affect the environment enjoyed by its citizens.

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A practical guide to killing zombie stories

November 23, 2011

Photo care of http://zombie-popcorn.com/?p=9351

The TV show ‘the Walking Dead’ and film Zombieland are just one part of a current cultural renaissance for the zombie (just check out this film site).

Now it seems that newspaper readers are getting into the act and resurrecting stories from the dead.

Adding to my recent post about the need for more social newspapers, I saw this piece about the success of seamless sharing in the Financial Times: http://blogs.ft.com/fttechhub/2011/11/unexpected-impact-facebook-newspaper-sites/#axzz1eTx2LOTI

The story highlights that both The Guardian and Independent have increased online traffic by enabling seamless sharing of newspaper stories on Facebook using its Open Graph tool (which puts a story into the user’s Facebook timeline if they recommend it).

The unintended consequence here is that stories, sometimes years old, are being discovered again and are going viral through this new form of content sharing.

These ‘zombie stories’ create an interesting challenge for public relations practitioners, since they are an example of the challenges of reputation management now that stories stay online pretty much forever.

Has a Guardian exclusive on your CEOs previous misdemeanour’s risen from the grave? Here’s my guide to killing a zombie story.

1.Hide from them – a few people reading an old story creates an issue to monitor, not a crisis. If the story is limited to a few hits it may not be a significant problem for your brand – it’s a matter of record after all.

2. Run away from them – Zombies are slow. You may be able to get ahead of the story by issuing some positive news which takes attention away from the negative one.

3. Destroy the brain – just like with real zombies, the most effective way to kill a zombie story is to address the route of the problem if you can. Don’t duck the issue, face it head on and change the story. In the example used, maybe you can convince your CEO to do an interview where he talks about the past issue and how he, and the company, have moved on. In summary, keep control, change the story, DESTROY THE BRAIN.

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Posted in Media, PR | 1 Comment »

The limits of representative democracy

November 18, 2011

(l-r) Senator Sir Philip Balhache and Chief Minister Gorst

Former Bailiff, now Senator Sir Philip Bailhache campaigned on the issue of constitutional reform. Now that Jersey’s Government has been formed he must be ever more resolute in his ambition to modernise, and democratise, the States.

Despite topping the island-wide poll with a total number of votes not seen since the time of the late Vernon Tomes, Senator Bailhache subsequently lost the election for Chief Minister to Ian Gorst, the man who had finished in second place in the recent election.

Let me be clear on one thing – I wish the new Chief Minister the absolute best of luck and think he is an excellent choice for the job. But for perhaps the first time I can see that my old schoolfriend Deputy Montfort Tadier may have a point about the democratic deficit in Jersey.

True, in a representative democracy we delegate our vote to a representative (in the British tradition) and thus there is nothing strictly awry here. However, there does seem something at least note-worthy about the second-placed Senator becoming Chief Minister ahead of the man who more islanders voted for.

I am sure some readers will quickly point out that the election that Sir Philip won was not for Chief Minister. That is true, however, it is counter to the Westminster model (and indeed that of many other parliaments) which seem to have more faith in the public to choose their leader.

It will be interesting to see how the new assembly tackle constitutional reform and whether the issue of the democratic deficit is addressed.

 

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments »

#creatingmoresocialnewspapers

November 15, 2011

The Times iPad app is great in some ways – rich with features unavailable in the print edition and, most importantly, instantly available when I get home in the evening or on Sunday mornings.

However, it isn’t very social and exemplifies how I think newspapers are still missing an opportunity afforded by new consumer behaviour.

Firstly, you cannot share stories, and with social media now so popular I think the ‘share’ button is a must have for any digital edition and should work as a route to new readers.

Secondly, you cannot comment on stories (although this feature is commonplace on newspaper web sites). Many sites I read allow people to create an identity in order to comment. This runs counter to sites like Facebook and G+ which require individuals to use their own identity. When you comment on those sites you take responsibility for any reaction that elicits. Some newspaper comment can be knee jerk and offensive in contrast. Nonetheless, I think there is a wider commercial opportunity being missed here – by linking to SM site profiles newspaper marketing departments could track back comments to profiles and develop a far more textured understanding of their readership.

Finally, I have not yet come across any newspapers where you can ‘follow’ a story in the same way you can with a discussion on Facebook or Linked In (or indeed with a Google Alert). I’d welcome email alerts from a newspaper when they publish a new article relating to an ongoing story I am interested in.

There seems a lot that newspapers can, and should, learn from the shift to a social media society.

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The creator-consumer balance

November 15, 2011

Spencer from Made in Chelsea

The iPad made a lot more sense to me when I read that it is designed for consuming content, not creating it.

Using my iPad and PC for their proper roles, the tablet has become my favourite gadget, a constant companion when at home  - far easier than a PC to keep in touch with emails and Facebook, to browse the internet and to play scrabble (nearly all whilst doing other things such as cooking or watching TV!).

The extent to which my PC use has dwindled though has led me to think about my creator-consumer balance.

A friend once asked me if I was a writer or someone who talked a lot about wanting to write. It was a cutting truth. Whilst my life always seems pretty busy I do spend a lot of ‘free’ time consuming media rather than making some sort of creative contribution (no matter how bad).

So, I’m resolving to give up Made in Chelsea (after the final episode next week…) and instead focus on making things in Bloomsbury. Next year already looks busy, so its time to use this window to do something productive instead of just talking about it.

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The 2,500 authors you meet in heaven

October 30, 2011

The Gormenghast trilogy; anything by the Bronte sisters; the complete works of Charles Dickens; something by PG Wodehouse; a Kafka or two; Crime and Punishment; Midnight’s Children; all those biographies of those governing in the Blair years – these books and more I have never read. Time is running out.

There are 16,000 books in one room in Blackwell's, Oxford

My girlfriend has calculated that she’ll read 2,500 books before she dies. she reads a lot and has far more right to call herself bookish than me since the calculation is based on her reading 50 books a year. I don’t read 50 books a year. I read around 12. I’m 34 so if that rate is kept up until I’m 75 my meager total would be a further 492.

I love books though. I love browsing bookshops and reading back covers. I read book reviews in the Sundays and add new novels to my mental shopping list (I mean the shopping list in my head, not that the list itself is full of mad choices). I follow the soap opera in the Westminster village and want to be able to discuss at dinner parties how key events were remembered differently by different biographers. One day I’d like to have a library in my house.

Yet even some of the books I have already bought lay unread on my shelf. For others I suffer buyer’s remorse – no, make that reader’s remorse. In the finite number of books i will read in my lifetime did I really need to include two Lee Child stories and one by Clive Cussler? They entertained sure, but maybe Dostoevsky would have done more to develop my personal philosophy (although the counter argument would be that Lee Child taught me how to identify a suicide bomber on the tube, so there are pros and cons I guess).

Having done the math I resolve to be more discerning about my bedtime reading. Next time I am in an airport, I plan to eschew buying an airport novel, choosing instead something classic. And I will never again allow myself to be stuck with nothing to read in a place where the only place to buy books was a chemist.

Whilst I may now say goodbye to Jack Reacher, reading still has to be fun. So I’m still looking forward to reading about the adventures of Sam Vines in Terry Prachett’s next book, Snuff.

Posted in General | 3 Comments »

Friendly Fire

October 5, 2011

I was surprised to read the comments by Jane Wilson and Frances Ingham in PR Week as a war of words develops over the Public Relations Consultants Association’s (PRCA) decision to offer individual membership.

Ms Wilson, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) (of which I’m a member) has accused the PRCA of copying its structures. Frances Ingham, Chief Executive of the PRCA, hit back in the article saying he wants to provide the industry with the “leadership it is crying out for”.

It is extremely disappointing to see civil war breaking out in the PR industry at a time when we are faced with some major external challenges:

  • There is no measurement system accepted by the industry and, more importantly, our stakeholders
  • Public Relations still has a poor public profile with more work needed to demystify and promote its positive aspects
  • There is a need for the industry to define its place in social media and the differences between online communication and online marketing campaigns
  • There should be a debate about whether professional status for the industry would help achieve higher fees, salaries and career advancement for PROs
  • The industry also faces challenges to traditional business models caused by seismic changes in the media industry

I’m sure there are many more challenges which I have failed to list (comments welcome). But in this context, does it matter if the PRCA is offering individual memberships? There will always be a battle for members as long as both associations exist. To an extent, competition should benefit members of the industry by encouraging both associations to continually improve standards and innovate. My argument then is that the associations need to let go of minor niggles and focus instead on strengthening their relationships in order to jointly address the big strategic issues.

In the war which our industry is in, both associations need to be more careful not to shoot at our own side.

For the full PR Week article, click here: http://www.prweek.com/news/bulletin/UKDaily/article/1097012/?DCMP=EMC-CONUKDaily

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Death of the press trip?

August 17, 2011

Ah, the press trip, the jolly, the junket. It’s been a staple of the public relations industry’s past, but are big changes ahead for this institution?

I’ve always worked in relatively isolated places (the Channel Islands) or with relatively isolated places (nowadays a mix of developed and developing markets), so press trips have been a useful tool in getting to meet key journalists and letting them experience the location they are writing about.

For the travel writers we used to entertain at Jersey War Tunnels (usually set up by the excellent team at Jersey Tourism) it was really important of course that they saw the island and walked through the tunnels hewn out of granite by slave workers during the German Occupation.

We also organised press trips for financial journalists. Arguably, they could have interviewed the CEO of a major bank by telephone (and sometimes did), but to understand ‘offshore’ culture it really did help to visit the island and meet in situ the people working in different departments.

There's a bank around here somewhere...

Defenders of press trips will often trot out examples like those above. For us it is a serious relationship-building exercise which is an important way to build trust and understanding with an important group of stakeholders. More cynical  voices will argue that many press trips are simply about wining, dining and seeking more favourable coverage in return (note, I’m not saying they are wrong).

Many editors seem convinced that the press trip falls predominantly in the latter category. Which is an increasing problem. Earlier this year the UK Bribery Act was introduced. It includes strong provisions to dissuade people from accepting entertainment from a supplier which could influence commercial decisions.

But the Bribery Act is not the only brake on journalists accepting trips. The media industry’s economics have changed too and fewer full time editorial staff means that absences are harder to justify. As one journalist suggested to me, editors have a real quandary. Send a journalist away for four days and they may well file several stories on one company which the editor feels they have to use because it is the only output from the staffer during that period. But if the editor does use all the copy then it’s possible that the company organising the trip will get much more publicity than they would have done over the same period under normal circumstances. Unless it is a major brand like Google, Apple or HSBC, that’s hard to justify too.

A number of national media now have explicit rules banning journalists from attending press trips under normal circumstances. A few do allow their staff to go, but only if the trip is taken as leave. Editors are also likely to refuse copy from freelancers if drawn from a press trip, lest that also be seen as a breach of the rules.

That is not to say that the press trip is finished. If a trip is justified i.e. there is a good reason that the story cannot be done by phone – then journalists are still going to attend (possibly paid for by their employer, reinforcing the need for there to be a really good news hook).

A journalist sent me a great list of things to consider when organising a successful modern press trip, which I wanted to share here:

  • Try hosting an event at, or adjacent to, an existing industry conference
  • Partner with the government, or an inward investment agency, getting them to sponsor the trip
  • Host journalists at an analyst event
  • Host journalists at an event open to the public, like a user conference
  • Give a single journalist exclusivity (and a chance to meet your CEO)
  • Partner with other businesses to offer journalists the broadest possible menu for the visit

So, it may well be goodbye to the junket, but, to be honest, good riddance. As both journalism and PR seek higher ethical standards it is absolutely right that their interactions are brought under greater scrutiny. A good story will always attract interest. We’ll just have to get drunk together in our own time.

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