Posted by jameswdcrawford on March 2, 2010 under PR | 
Green and Gold Manchester United - Red Knights
PUBLIC RELATIONS – The proposed Red Knight takeover at United is an interesting story.
United fans are hungry to depose the Glazer family and have organised a high profile ‘green and gold’ campaign to make their views known.
As a United fan the idea of ensuring United are placed on a strong financial footing is appealing to me, as is the concept of the fans owning the club. However, from a PR perspective the communication to date puts forward an interesting public relations question.
Is the proposed deal from Red Knights a tangible fan led operation, or does the Red Knight group mean another debt backed acquisition, similar to the last one?
The following paragraph from The Times both worry and excite me. Surely a takeover of this nature means more debt and more fees paid out of the club to deal makers, or does it mean a Barcelona style fan owned scheme?
“Their plan is to use their contacts across the world to find a number of “super-investors” who could raise the money — estimated at a minimum of £1 billion — needed to make a bid to buy the club from the Glazers.” (does this mean more debt?, which currently stands at £700m)
Or…
“They hope that some of that money would come from supporters’ groups, who would in turn be offered a “golden share” and the prospect of some representation in any new regime.” (does this mean a fan owned club?)
From a PR perspective these two paragraphs show the importance of communications and PR. Both markets and fans like stability and clear and concise communications.
Over the coming days and months the details of the Red Knights’ deal will come to the fore. However, in the mean time ambiguity will surround the story, while the fans will no doubt get be roused by the scent of revolution and thoughts of deposing the Glazers.
It’s a brilliant story from both a footballing and PR perspective. If you want to join the Green and Gold movement you can do here.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 19, 2010 under PR |
This post is the first in an occasional series, profiling movers and shakers within the PR industry – i.e. people I met along the way who I thought were talented people.
Helen Moore is an all round good egg, who I have worked with on and off for years. Now she is Managing Director of www.markettiers4dc.com. I’d like to claim her rise to fame had something to do with me, but alas this would be a lie. To celebrate the fact that she has officially “made it”, here is a brief profile on her.
• Name
Helen Moore
• Where do you work?
Specialist broadcast consultancy markettiers4dc
• What do you do?
I’m Managing Director of our editorial business so ultimately oversee all our client business / media output; provide direction for the business; keep the people in the agency happy and inspired (this thankfully tends to be reciprocal); provide guidance and broadcast consultancy for our clients. Have been known to make tea and encourage responsible drinking.
• What is the most exciting project that you have undertaken recently?
Our work across the Kellogg’s corporate and consumer account has been very interesting and varied.
We were also recently asked by McLaren to produce the live, online broadcast of the car launch from Vodafone HQ. We led the integrated production and introduced the latest digital satellite technology to make it happen. As a result, the tens of thousands of viewers who tuned in to watch the live broadcast enjoyed a first class experience. And we produced the first Meerchat with the charming Aleksander Orlov – interviewing Mr David Hasselhoff – for comparethemarket.com – much fun.
• What is the future for PR?
Well I’d suggest brands making better use of broadcast channels obviously. Creating their own brand funded content direct to consumers. This will also involve improving levels of engagement – shifting the focus from pure message delivery to eliciting a real response, with brand and public truly interacting.
• Tell me something funny
“So I was getting into my car, and this bloke says to me “Can you give me a lift?” I said “Sure, you look great, the world’s your oyster, go for it.’”
• Tell me something I don’t know
Tom Cruise ate his child’s placenta in a meat loaf. Nothing to do with broadcast but thought you might be interested.
Contact Helen at www.markettiers4dc.com
020 7253 8888
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 13, 2010 under Links |
My public relations links and tips of the week are below.
30 Twitter Hacks and Plugins to Spice Up Your WordPress Blog
I’ve not put any of these Twitter hacks to the test on WordPress. I shall do soon. Some good ones.
Facebook Largest News Reader?
Facebook, the biggest source of news on the internet. Well I never…
Lifehacker – Twitter Google Chrome extension
Again, bloody useful. Oh, isn’t the internet a wonderful thing?
Daily Perfect is a stunning new news curation tool
I’m addicted to this already. Could be a lot better, but give them time….
Foursquare will never catch on
I wrote this post for Citypress, the public relations consultancy which I work for.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 10, 2010 under Public Relations |
Toyota is using Google adverts to channel communication about their product recall. This screen shot was taken from www.popurls.com
What is different from other product recall advertisements is that this example is promoting Toyota’s news page on their site which is giving out the latest updates on the crisis. It could be an attempt to both provide information to customers and reduce negative press coverage.
From a PR perspective, Toyota are handling their product recall really well.
An interesting aside to the Toyota recall story has been the slight xenophobic way the American automotive industry has responded. The Americans have been very aggressively attacking Toyota, trying to defend their dying automotive industry. Some of their criticism has verged towards racism.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 6, 2010 under Media |
Slideshare launches its branded Youtube channel
Good old Slideshare! It has always been a great resource and now with its branded Youtube channel it has become an even more important service which I can offer to clients. Check out their news here
Friday Guest Blog: Are blogs the beating heart of a social media strategy?
This was an interesting post on blogging from Paul Fabretti which appeared on the Manchester Chamber of Commerce website.
The comments were the most fascinating part for me; Nigel Sarbutts’ comments in particular. Are blogs less trust worthy than direct mail???!!! Forrester is a reputable source, but for me it doesn’t really stack up. Yes, you might trust a direct mailer or an offer you receive through the post, perhaps because of the legislation around DM. You know that direct marketing professionals have to play by a certain set of rules.
The thing the data ignores is that direct mail is a simple channel of communication, lacking nuance.
DM is not really an authoritative source is it? You don’t care what they have to say, or wait for a new direct mailer to read do you? Blogs are interesting because they are often opinion based. It is up to the reader to decide if they trust the source. The data from Nigel is important though. As obviously many still have reservations about the credibility of blogs. Top debate there from the Manchester PR circuit!
And finally – I loved this PR disaster
Very funny. What not to do when your boss is on TV behind you. Follow the link here
Posted by jameswdcrawford on January 30, 2010 under PR |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxvrRggOQjo
(gratuitous opportunity to show Moscow penalty miss)
The John Terry super injunction story is more proof that celebrities or organisations should turn to PR professionals and not lawyers when dealing with a media crisis. Only public relations professionals have the tools to ensure that a story such as this one can be kept under control.
A super injunction can work, sure. However there is no plan B.
Once the injunction is made public, what was a negative story is amplified tenfold. The whole affair seems more sordid. He is now on the front of five national newspapers. This is a massive fail, nearly on the same proportions of his penalty miss in Moscow (Viva John Terry – bit of Man Utd gloating there…).
Of course PR isn’t 100 per cent fool proof, far from it, but media relations would have been a better strategy, rather than litigation. John’s PR consultant could have negotiated and traded other content, tried to kill the story and prove it to be incorrect, or managed the story, so the coverage was minimised.
Most people wouldn’t be that surprised about John Terry behaving this way, so really taken on its own the story of a footballer trying to impregnate someone is fish and chip paper. We’ve already seen him urinating in bars, fighting and taking cash in hand payments from journalists for tours of the Chelsea training ground. So really this story is not that newsworthy. John has made it newsworthy, thanks to his legal advice.
Tags: Crisis Communications, Crisis PR, John Terry, Lawyer, Legal, Manchester, Manchester United, Media Relations, MUFC, PR, Public Relations, super injunction
Posted by jameswdcrawford on January 28, 2010 under Social Media |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYf5iSA6t6g&feature=player_embedded
I have been banging on about the importance of having a Google Profile for some time now, as it means that your blogs, images and other content can be profiled in your contacts’ Google Search results.
For the past few months I’ve been asking colleagues and friends if they’d noticed their contacts’ social content (e.g. blog posts or Flickr images) appearing in Google searches. No one had noticed anything.
Yes, people had seen Twitter results appearing in Google, but no one had seen personalised content from their own networks.
I had read about Google Social Search and thought that it was a great idea, but there was little evidence of it working and Google’s plans for when and where to roll it out were sketchy to say the least.
There were very few blogs on the subject. That was, until yesterday, when Mashable posted on the subject.
Google Social Search is brilliant as it is validation for any marketer who is encouraging their company or clients to use social media, as it means that once any given person connects with someone else, that their content will appear in their contacts’ search results. In other words, Google Social Search provides you with another incentive to connect with people because as long as you are linked, your blogs, tweets and other content will be front of mind, all thanks to search.
Here is a link to my Google Profile .
Posted by jameswdcrawford on January 25, 2010 under Media |
Fifteen years ago this month, Manchester United’s Eric Cantona was sent off at Selhurst Park and proceeded to kung fu kick a Wimbledon fan who abused him.
Arguably this is one of the biggest sporting news stories of the 1990s.
This story was huge! I can’t believe that it happened and equally I can’t comprehend that it took place fifteen years ago! It seems like yesterday.
Oh to have been a Press Officer for Manchester United. I’d love to get their take on the story.
Photography Taken by Phan Duy An
Posted via email from jamescrawford’s posterous
Posted by jameswdcrawford on January 24, 2010 under Media |
The demonstration yesterday in Trafalgar Square, London, against the ill-conceived anti-terrorism laws has resulted – ironically – in some really great images.
The law aims gives police powers to ban photographers from taking pictures in public, as they could supposedly present a terrorism threat.
Public relations and especially media relations are brought to life with great photography. I’ve already posted on this event and here is more excellent imagery, which will change over time depending on what is uploaded to Flickr.
I would add that although there are some excellent examples of photography here, the resulting press coverage wasn’t that impressive, especially as the media has a vested interest in stopping this law. Maybe these photographers should have enlisted a few public relations professionals to help out?
Posted by jameswdcrawford on January 23, 2010 under Links |
Here are some interesting links which I came across this week that will be coming to a public relations campaign near you soon!
Seesmic Live Event – Seesmic
I must find time to play with Seesmic again. The latest developments look of great use for PR people.
Top Tools For Tracking Topics on the Web
I’ll be testing all these tools out soon. I’d be interested to see if anybody has a particular favourite, especially from a media relations / blogger engagement perspective.
41 resources for Facebook Connect
Wow!
60+ Tools To Enhance Your Flickr Experience | Tools
Flickriver is my personal favourite. If anyone out there is a Flickr expert let me know as I want some clever toad to link the API of Twitter to the tag cloud of Flickr to make a visual representation of trending news (!)
Spell with Flickr
Amusing little creative tool.
4chan
A bizarre little forum with all sorts of odd content on it (some of it rude!). What I like is how you don’t need to sign in to use it. It creates a unique user experience.
I stumbled across this some time ago, but subsequently forgot what it was called. Now I have found it again and saved it for prosperity.
Hi. I am James Crawford, a PR man. Media relations is my specialism, but public relations is changing and the internet is at the heart of it.
I'm a Manchester dweller and lover of the media. I have too much music, support Manchester United and adore all things French.
I currently work for a Citypress, Manchester's biggest and best PR consultancy, but all the thoughts on here are my own and nothing to do with my employers.
