Planning any PR or marketing activity requires an increasingly tricky balancing act between opportunity and budget. With so many new communication channels now available, it can be hard to decide which ones will deliver the best and most cost-effective solution. In my experience, this is a particular challenge for small businesses. So, recognising that a…

At a time when budgets are tight and PR and marketing campaign spend has to work harder than ever, I’ve been struck by the evidence that tokenistic PR is still alive and kicking. Like most experienced PR consultants I have been party to stunts, but ever tighter budgets and more robust measurement have presented a…

The rapid explosion of social media tools means that even the most widely used tools are commonly misunderstood. Take YouTube, for example. I was digging around the other day and found a series of videos posted by a public sector organisation I was researching. Great to see them using YouTube, I thought, but quite a…

Either Tony Hayward’s advisors have lost the plot or he is a poor listener. We have all watched with dismay as ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has tested BP’s CEO and his many advisors.  Open and honest communications in the early weeks seemed to work while the short term promise of a solution…

A tough market can make investors even harder to access but I wonder how many early stage entrepreneurs recognise the value of investment or business plan competitions for opening doors, expanding your network and refining your business proposition? If you are an entrepreneur raising funds for the first time, you would be well advised to…

PR spend took a hit like everything else in 2009 and 2010 is likely to present similar challenges but every cloud has a silver lining: tough trading conditions make us more focused.  Clients and agencies alike are nudged into ever more strategic thinking; joining up, piggy backing, cross-marketing – whatever you want to call it,…

OK, after an hour of frustration trying (in vain) to get quick answers to straight forward questions about a couple of insurance policies, I’ve had it up to here with call centres. My queries were not complicated but they didn’t fit any of the menu options.  All I needed was a bit of customer service. …

Welcome to our new blog where we will comment on issues and PR news or just put a question out into the ether to see what comes back.  As committed communicators of one kind or another, you’ll find, not surprisingly, that we tend to focus on  communications, PR and marketing – good, bad and ugly. …

Welcome to our new updates where we will occasionally post news about what we’re up to or comment on topical PR and marketing issues/news.