Articles published in May, 2009

1. A budget for feeding the chooks

   Published on Friday, May 29th, 2009
   Reading an NZPA report of the primary sector’s response to the $190 million growth partnership allocation on yesterday’s budget, it was difficult to escape the mental picture of the chooks being feed.

   Each industry segment – and a few who regard themselves as the industry – was enthusiastically grateful for the morsels from Bill’s bucket. And it was clear that each could singularly spend the $190 million itself…and would be bidding to so do.

   This was refreshing for two reasons. First, and all too few townies recognise it, the primary sector is the “sine qua non” of this country, which loosely translated means without it we’re all buggered. And second, so many groups take government handouts for granted, and the primary sector doesn’t.

   In the scheme of total spending, including the $50 million cycle way, $190 million is small beer. Nevertheless, it is consoling that in such tight fiscal times, the government is making some attempt to grow the sector that underpins our economy. As investments go this might be chicken feed, but has surely got to be one of the best.

   Posted in Politics, PR Matters

2. How to lose friends and alienate people in real-time

   Published on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
   Social media is the fastest growing place on the internet, and this fact hasn’t escaped the corporate gaze. Savvy, quick acting corporate players are getting their marketing and communication operatives out there on the net and engaging in the real business of customer relations and brand-reputation management.

   In New Zealand, few have been better or faster at the social media game than mobile operator Vodafone.

   Vodafone New Zealand has a great advocate in its quick and clever external Communications Manager, Paul Brislen.

   Having cottoned onto the power of internet communications and talking directly to customers, Twitter was was a natural area for Paul to expand into.

   Twitter is where he works and plays, but not exclusively because he is technically savvy enough to hold his own in any forum. In twitter-space he scored brownie points for his handy customer assistance, transparency and deft approach, all while having a bit of a laugh, or so it seemed.

   Vodafone via Paul won kudos from bloggers and key online influencers mainly because he hasn’t hoodwinked anyone and is genuinely helpful. In essence that’s what social media is about.

   The internet and particularly its social networks are reliant on one essential thing in order to have any meaning whatsoever – trust. You can‘t see who people are so you have to take their word for it, or in Twitter’s case 140 characters.

   Where Vodafone has come unstuck is in Paul giving up his @VodafoneNZ identity to a marketing operative called ‘The 3G Guy’, an import who was giving away clues for punters to win free netbooks.

   This so annoyed the people who had built a relationship, that when his identity was assumed by someone seen as a spamming sales-pitcher, it royally peeved off some influential twitterer’s who promptly “un-followed” @vodafonenz and encouraged others to do so as well.

   This afternoon Paul, to his credit, has said sorry, and chalked it up to learning new things in this very new space.

   What did he learn then? Even if it’s true that on the internet where no one knows you are a dog, if you say you’re someone in particular, you’d better stick to that. People are very targeted and focused in the way they use the internet, and will shun you if this is not respected.

   Posted in PR Matters

3. Mike King, Close Up and “bagging” the piper

   Published on Friday, May 22nd, 2009
   Mike King sits on Close Up and swears that he’d never heard of the issue of sow stalls in the pig industry.  And he was for seven years a front person for the pork industry.

   Mike’s flirt with the animal liberationists raises a couple of questions:  what was his “mate” saying to Mike when he was taking the Pork Board’s dollars for promoting their products and his profile; and, more importantly, what obligations do such front people have to do their own due diligence, and ask some “what ifs”?

   As sad as it is, celebrities do have credibility with consumers, and businesses and the celebs themselves trade on this.  We’ve seen it with finance companies in very stark relief, only for them to turn around and say: “we were let down as well”.

   Some events may be beyond the control of the person fronting for an industry or a product, but in my view not the matter of how pigs are raised in New Zealand.  “I didn’t know” just doesn’t wash either for Mike King or the Minister of Agriculture. Where have they been over many years when intensive farming issues have been examined and stunts like the one we saw on TV1 are pulled, time and time again?

   When endorsements are arranged, there must be clarity about “roles and responsibilities” on both sides. This should also include the period after which the paid contract ceases.  As we’ve seen, it is all too easy for these celebs to bag the piper once they have stopped paying for their tune.

   Posted in Media landscape, Politics, PR Matters, Social Media

4. Hide our awards-light under a bushel? Not bloody likely!

   Published on Friday, May 22nd, 2009
   Winning is nice. There’s no getting round that fact that to come out on top feels damn good, even if as New Zealanders we’re not very good at saying so. What’s better still is winning for the work that you enjoy doing everyday and it’s a double bonus when somebody notices.

   That somebody who noticed was our peers and they noticed on Wednesday night at the 35th Annual PRINZ Awards. The team here at Network took out three prizes. Firstly, we were highly commended for the pro-bono work for the New Zealand Blood Service Celebrates World Blood Donor Day.

   Our second prize was for our campaign for Aspartame – facts and fiction in the special events/project category. We shared this with Sioux Campbell of Chameleon Public Relations Ltd for their Whales, dolphins and swimmers – oh my!

   Our fact and fiction campaign went on to receive the Supreme Award with judges pointing out that this campaign stood out above the rest in the competition for the way it dealt with a highly contentious issue with clearly defined objectives and impressive, measurable results.

   It was hard work to take on an anti-aspartame campaign driven by New Zealand lobby groups. Increasingly New Zealanders were falling for the myth that the commonly used sweetener may be bad for health. Our client, Coca Cola Oceania was seeing an increase in sales of “regular” soft drinks, coupled with decreased sales of diet soft drinks. We worked collaboratively with nutrition and health key opinion leaders, to develop and implement a rigorous scientifically based information programme which helped to restore confidence in aspartame.

   So, yes winning feels wonderful.

   Posted in PR Matters, Trends

5. Not my cup of mea culpa

   Published on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
   “I’m sorry,” said Auckland Mayor John Banks yesterday, “It was a mistake for me to suggest that up to 40 percent of the city’s staff could lose their jobs.”  Oh, he really didn’t mean it that 2700 council employees will be tossed out when the new Auckland super city is formed? It’s possible that the apology goes some way towards erasing this intentional or otherwise slip of tongue, but try as he might Mayor Banks can’t really take it back. This is because true or not the perception that mass redundancies will follow the seven council merger is now firmly on the agenda.

   It’s just not that easy to retract words spoken in the media, as Paul Holmes knows only too well. The veteran broadcaster will be haunted by that ‘cheeky darkie’ reference to the United Nations head Kofi Annan until the end of his days. Christine Rankin too is bearing the brunt of the over-disclosure of her personal affairs. The Prime Minister has effectively put her on notice to stick to the issues of families and child abuse – not her private life. “That’s what I want to hear her talking about and nothing else,” Mr Key said at his post-cabinet press conference yesterday. No grey-area there.

   Grey-areas further afield are causing the scandalous unravelling of the British parliament. The situation of MP’s spending has reached crisis point with Commons Speaker Michael Martin becoming the figurehead for the rancour. He has been described as the one “who has been dragging his feet on transparency and greater accountability in the way MP’s receive their expenses.”  There are calls for Michael Martin to resign over excessive claiming; even the Queen has expressed disquiet. Not since the 17th century has a Speaker of the House of Westminster been forced out. It appears that the institution and the way its MP’s behave inside it has not kept pace with the current demands of accountability.

   Our very own expenditure watchdog Rodney Hide would have a field day with the MP who claimed taxpayer’s coin to have the moat around his castle cleaned.

   There are lessons to be learnt here, although long-gone are days of ivory towers and of men-only clubs. Westminster it appears is stuck in a time-warp. It needs to wake up, open the books and allow the public the level of scrutiny it demands. Because simply saying sorry no longer cuts the mustard.

   Posted in Politics

6. Put your money where your mouth is

   Published on Thursday, May 14th, 2009
   As consumers, we are much accustomed to the use of a celebrity endorsement to sell us things.  In the early days it was athletes, war heroes pushing product, then with the advent of television in came a whole new host of celebrities paid to play as endorsers of everyday items.  It’s a simple trade really; the famous and beautiful lend their shiny allure or values to influence the purchaser to buy stuff.  The hook-up equals brand.

   Maybe it’s a recession-chic thing but increasingly ‘brand stories’ are being told by the people that work in the organisation themselves.  We’ve just seen Air New Zealand’s much-feted CEO Rob Fyfe putting his own butt on the line by getting undressed in the airline’s latest TVC.  But he was not alone, other Air New Zealand staff got naked for the cause as well.

   What about the ethical endorser?  Recently in the US, an ordinary, everyday CEO of a not-for-profit became the face of Doritos chips. Doritos are a Pepsi product and Kjerstin Erickson is the CEO of Forge, a US-based non-profit organisation that works with displaced communities in Africa. At first the marriage seems unlikely until ones thinks of the mutual benefit; the Doritos get a leg up in terms of ethical reputation and Forge gets all over the place.

   This is clever, because using a super-famous celebrity endorser can sometimes be overpowering. As lessons learned from the recent ‘Great-Free-Chicken Fiasco’ will bare witness.  Oprah Winfrey kindly treated ‘the entire internet’ to two pieces of KFC by suggesting people get on ine and download a coupon. It was mayhem. Fervent with the idea of free stuff, servers were crashed, participating stores were slammed and the end result was a near riot, as KFC was not able to deliver on the mass demand. A generous concept became a PR *fail* because the offer way outstripped the ability of the Fried Chicken seller to deliver.  Back to our stripping CEO Rob Fyfe; the trick here is to keep it simple, if the front-end makes a promise, do ensure the back-end can make good on it. Delivering on a promise has got to be the best brand story ever.

   Posted in Social Media

7. Bad news in thinner media ranks

   Published on Friday, May 8th, 2009
   Another week and another group of journalists made redundant.  I would caution against any business leader greeting this news with a shrug of resignation. These redundancies are not something to shrug about – truly.

   More redundancies create more pressure on those remaining, and inevitably copy quota will be filled with wire stories from overseas.  What’s so bad about that, I hear you ask, there are some high quality reporters in distant part.

   Aside from the fact journalists in overseas media are losing their positions even more quickly than those in New Zealand, Two recent stories highlight the risks of imported stories.

   Case 1:  The regulatory body in the UK recently took a precautionary position on topical oral pain relief gels. No one had died, and in fact no one who’d followed the instructions on the packaging had shown signs of illness.

   This was interpreted by the Sydney Morning Herald as “Fear ulcer drug could be fatal for children”.  Within hours the Stuff website, a close relative of the SMH, was carrying the same story.

   No checking to see whether the products in New Zealand were the same or different as those in the UK. It was easier and cheaper to run the overseas version. Not one media outlet in NZ commented on the fact that the Irish regulatory authority took the position: bugger off, this product is safe.

   It appears the media are no longer prepared to make simple checks on the status of a local products. There are exceptions, and in this case, TV3 did its homework well.

   Imported stories do not recognise that products (even of the same name) and regulatory requirements are not the same the world over.

   Case 2:  Just this week, again it was the UK media who reported on some so-called research by the Children’s Food Campaign, which among other things led to headlines like “baby food worse than junk food”.

   This story was picked up and commented on here, again without anyone bothering to check whether the products highlighted are sold in New Zealand. As for the fat content compared to a hamburger; technically this is correct but no one is going to give the child a box of the product at one sitting, which is what would be required to make the headline true.  No one goes around saying breast milk has more fat than a hamburger, because it is totally irrelevant.

   However as the ranks of journalists thin, I fear we will become even greater hostages to imported sensationalism, and there is a good chance that someone will spin a story about the level of fat in breast milk.

   For those thinking that dealing with fewer journalists might be easier, I suggest a re-think.

   Posted in Media landscape, PR Matters

8. The new art of conversation

   Published on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
   By now you should all know that social media is the new art of conversation.  Billions of people around the globe are using social media tools to converse, collaborate and share information every day.

   So Network PR’s team of consultants gathered on a cool autumn evening at the Gow Langsford Gallery for The Social Network to do our own conversing, collaborating and information sharing with key influencers shaping this new conversation landscape.

   Surrounded by the ethereal art of Tim Maguire, a mix of the traditional and new media, bloggers, reporters, TV personalities, producers and tech-geeks from across the realms of NZ media got together to mingle and talk Twitter.

   Social media strategist Stephen Collins shared his thoughts around the power of social media – “half the planet is connected to social media – it’s an important and powerful space to understand and be a part of“.  He highlighted that social networking tools such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter did not exist five years ago which begs the question, what’s next?

   Evolving Newsroom blogger and former Telegraph journalist Julie Starr talked about where journalism fits in to the new information era saying that “social media offers a new way of thinking for information; its about timing, accurate and relevant information about the world around us”.

   It was an enjoyable evening highlighting that traditional means of building relationships and communicating with each other remain vitally important; however we need to learn to embrace the new.

   For me personally, I like the way that social media lets me re-connect with friends I haven’t seen for eight years who live on the other side of the world.  I like the way that it provides me with different, new and exciting information every day.

   So Kiwi businesses, if you want to be heard, whether it’s a story, a new product or an idea why not get on board the social media express and master the new art of conversation.

   In the meantime, you can check out our fabulous event video here:

   www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKlh76IRW0&feature=channel_page

   Posted in PR Matters, Social Media