Eloqui "Voicebox"

David Edwards, Chief Executive of the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board writes about how more skills are crucial to keeping the lights on in the UK.

“The challenge of improving the UK’s infrastructure is immense. All of the UK’s main coal and nuclear power stations will need to be replaced in the next 20 years. In other areas, such as the rail network upgrade and the building of new renewable power capacity, the goal is to put the UK ahead and demonstrate we are a strong player in new technologies.

However whilst policy makers, politicians and the business community agree that significant investment is required, for me, the most immediate challenge is ensuring the UK has the skilled workforce it needs to deliver these essential projects.

It is estimated that that 50% of the country’s skilled engineering construction population will be retiring before just half of the UK’s much needed new power stations are built, and to deliver the infrastructure projects required more than 45,000 extra people need to be recruited over the next 10 years.

At the ECITB we are trying to address this issue. We work closely with schools, colleges, universities and regional organisations to attract young people into the industry and we work with a national network of over 200 training providers to ensure the highest standards are maintained throughout the industry.

To further close the skills gap we have recently unveiled plans to invest over £100 million in support of engineering construction training over the next five years. But new and imaginative thinking is required to accelerate the behaviour change needed in our skills culture. A potential solution is the creation of collective skills training funds, contributed to by both employers and government, but with initial match funding from government to promote more engagement and training.

There has been much debate about the need to rebalance the UK economy with more jobs in industry and manufacturing. However without the infrastructure, this can’t happen, and that infrastructure won’t get built without the skills.”
An abridged version of a recent article in the New Statesman

At Eloqui we arrange a lot of events for clients. With the festive season upon us Sara Cruz highlights some of our 2009 venue favourites:
The Dali Collection, http://www.blogger.com/www.thedaliuniverse.com - Home to a fascinating collection of paintings and sculptures by the famous Spanish artist, this offers a distinctive and flexible venue for evening events. A buzzing gallery open to the public by day, at night it provides a blank canvas to be tailored to your individual requirements. We particularly liked the Dali B Gallery as, due to a wide selection of moveable sculptures, you need not worry about the room being too empty or too full. Staff are friendly and helpful and catering is to a high standard.
The British Museum, http://www.blogger.com/www.britishmuseum.org - This offers a suite of contemporary conference facilities, designed by Lord Foster, nestling in the basement of the museum. Perfect for corporate functions this is equipped with 2 lecture theatres as well as a number of break out rooms. Ideal for a day long event you can also take advantage of the wider museum facilities and even incorporate an exclusive guided tour of the exhibits.
Tate Modern, http://www.blogger.com/www.tate.org.uk- perfect for larger events, this offers a stylish setting in an iconic building with outstanding views of the London skyline and river.
Zetter Hotel, http://www.blogger.com/www.thezetter.com - Conveniently located between the City and West End this is a funky venue offering award winning food and décor which is 'effortlessly cool'.
The Foundling Museum, http://www.blogger.com/www.foundlingmuseum.co.uk - Britain's original home for abandoned children founded by Thomas Coram, the artist William Hogarth and the composer George Frideric Handel is also London's first every public art gallery. As an evening venue it offers a remarkable location combining a mix of historic and contemporary spaces with modern catering facilities making it suitable for all types of event.

With the Copenhagen Summit opening today it seems unlikely that the environment is going to disappear from the headlines anytime soon. The "green" story has travelled a long way in the last two decades. Eloqui partner Joanne Milroy observes current trends...

Green is mainstream - green topics are no longer in the ghetto but covered by mainstream commentators such as food writers (food miles) or travel specialists (eco-holidays), home and leisure (green homes and wildlife gardening) or transport (green travel policies) etc etc. Environmental reporters are not quite an endangered species but are evolving in a Darwinian way into new roles such as specialist analysts (e.g.the BBC's Roger Harrabin), or more challenging green commentators (e.g. The Guardian's George Monbiot).

The informed consumer - a few years ago most people didn't know what a carbon footprint was while now stand up comedians make zeitgeist jokes on the theme. A more informed general public means businesses need to continually develop their messages to reflect this new moving target.

Action not words - for many businesses and organisations the priority in recent years has been to get their environmental messages "out there". But campaigns will be increasingly judged not by the size of headlines but on their ability to change behaviours and achieve tangible results.

New campaigns - back in the 80s and 90s environmental stories focused on the swashbuckling deeds of Greenpeace on the high seas, oil spills and whaling controversies. Environmental reporting these days often feels a lot less dramatic but there is a new theme every week – water scarcity and land usage are two topics of emerging importance.

The doubters – with the UEA e mail debate swirling round climate change doubters have received a new lease of life. With media never happier than when there is conflict in the air – the story is only likely to run and run.

Recent environmental communication projects for Eloqui have included stakeholder audits, strategy development, on-line campaigns, media relations, promoting new environmental technologies and public information campaigns

Gruel glorious gruel

With Christmas approaching it seems you can’t switch the television on at the moment without seeing Delia dealing with a turkey. Food of a more austere nature was on offer recently at the London Foundling Museum at a ‘Gruel Event’ which Eloqui helped create for the Museum. Celebrity chefs such as Allegra McEvedy and Tom Aikens created new gruel recipes for the evening designed to introduce journalists and events professionals to this fabulous venue. We’re not sure if gruel will catch on for Christmas but the Foundling guests, including TV foodie Giles Coren, seen in picture, seemed to enjoy their unusual supper.

If you do want to try gruel here’s Tom Aikens recipe

White chicken stock, 8 Kilo chicken wings, 2 bunch thyme, 3 x split bulbs garlic, 10-litre water, 10g black peppercorns, 40g Sea Salt, 2 heads of celery broken into sticks, 12 leeks cut in half, 1 bunch of Parsley, 14 chicken legs
Place the wings into the pot then add the water and bring to the simmer, skim off all the scum then add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a simmer then cook for 3 hours skimming now and again, at the last hour add the chicken legs to poach and cook. After an hour take the legs out and flake the meat off finely and remove any cartilage, gristle, sinew and then pass through a fine sieve and chill.

Westminster goes gardening

While waiting in the security queue to get into the Houses of Parliament last night (Joanne Milroy writes), I heard two men behind me discussing the state of the Westminster lawn - I was on my way to the All Party Horticulture Group annual cocktail party. Eloqui works with a number of clients in the horticulture sector and this is always an eclectic event – everyone from Alan Titchmarsh to the Secretary of State for the Environment. The speech from the current Secretary of State Hilary Benn was entertaining but also included an interesting reminder that ‘focus’ is probably the most vital feature of any lobbying campaign. He recalled that a delegation from the horticultural industry had visited him four or five weeks ago to outline the importance of the sector to the UK in terms of creating jobs, helping combat climate change, providing green spaces, promoting health and well being. The All Party Horticulture Group are a canny lot and each speaker last night reiterated exactly the same messaging. This did not escape the Minister’s notice and he commented on the Group’s ‘formidable and effective organisation’. Presumably when you hail from a formidable political and campaigning dynasty yourself you notice these things. He also offered up his own eco-dream to convert people in the UK to the idea of a ‘carbon eating machine on your street’ …..better known to you and I as ‘a tree’.

The horticulturalists – the original tree-huggers – applauded him soundly.

Art or Noise?

Usually the only point upon which everyone agrees when it comes to art, is that everyone’s opinions are different, and all are of equal importance.

Last night, Eloqui went to the launch of the new contemporary art strand at the Foundling Museum in Russell Square; a great little museum telling the story of the Foundling Hospital, London's first home for abandoned children. This current work by Terry Smith features a film, projected onto a blank wall in the basement, accompanied by eerie noise which penetrates the entire building, a strange yet almost (but not quite) angelic warble, varying in volume from quiet and reserved, to loud and thundering.

Standing in the dark, underground gallery with lots of arty-types, the installation immediately captured our attention. But, not quite as much as the man in the flowery dress. After some debate amongst ourselves, we realised this was Grayson Perry, the Turner Prize-winning artist.

Being the suckers for celebrity as we are, and the fact that it’s not every day you get the chance to meet a winner of the Turner Prize – let’s face it, this is no reality TV reject – we had our photo taken!

The contrast of Perry’s alter-ego ‘Claire’ standing amongst the Foundling’s 18th century treasures was a sight to behold; a unique moment which was added to by the now familiar warble filtering in through the doors of the gallery – filling what usually (especially in a museum) would be a quiet and reflective space, with a noise that feels as if it shouldn’t really be there.

But, oddly, the collision of old and new art works, and in some ways, this very modern installation feels totally at home in the Baroque surroundings.

The whole point about art is that you don’t have to get it. Is there really a difference between a painting of a long-dead aristocrat and a black-and-white photocopied image of a door frame, and, ultimately, does it really matter?

Paul Childs

Can a newspaper win an election?

Not literally obviously. We don’t expect to be seeing Dominic Mohan and his staff stepping into 10 Downing Street as the elected government next summer, but can his paper really change the outcome of an election? Or is the nation’s favourite red-top going blue to reflect an already changing national mood?

Online and social media is changing the way we interact with the news and the influence newspapers have on us. Gone are the days when we read the printed word and either liked it or lumped it. These days almost every newspaper article appears in an online version where readers are invited to comment, and if there is no comment facility the wealth of blogs and online forums means that the common man gets to have his say anyway. The electorate is educated and opinionated and, more importantly, has a stronger voice than ever through the medium of social media.

It’s arguable that whilst they inevitably maintain some influence, the ability of newspapers to completely change voter behaviour is weaker than it has ever been. Newspapers are increasingly a barometer for public feeling, reacting to the mood of the 24/7 online community rather than creating it.

In which case the question has to be, how accurate is The Sun’s barometer?

Magdalen Bush

Darker nights

It’s that time of year again - the clocks go back, the nights draw in and everyone is talking about…light bulbs. Well, perhaps lightbulbs aren’t a normal topic of conversation for September, but with the ‘bulb ban’ coming into effect this year, they have generated enough column inches to give Max Clifford a run for his money.

The “great light bulb debate” may have divided the nation but the media coverage has been somewhat one sided. The newspapers that have devoted huge chunks of space to the subject are overwhelmingly against the phase out – either anti EU for implementing the bulb ban or anti CFL, the energy saving bulbs that will in the most part replace the old bulbs. What’s been missing is the other side of the debate, welcoming a technology which will move us a significant step closer to reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

To get a sense of the feeling of the nation you probably have to look beyond the Daily Mail and read people’s comments on online forums. We know that nearly 9 out of 10 people already have at least one CFL in their home so we can’t all be completely against CFL technology. It’s not exactly the science bit, but, from what we’ve seen online it’s quite an even debate. Yes there are those who don’t like the fact the ban has been ‘imposed by the EU’, but there are also those who can see the benefits of using a light bulb that lasts 10 times as long, uses approximately 80% less energy and will ultimately save them money.

The ‘bulb ban’ heralds probably the most significant change to the way we light our homes since the invention of the incandescent lightbulb over 120 years ago, and it is therefore bound to stir up strong feeling. It will be an ongoing battle to persuade certain media to see the light (sorry) when it comes to CFLs but it’s an interesting debate to be part of and we’re up for the challenge.

Magdalen Bush

Summer news from the Eloqui team

Visit http://eloquipr.blogspot.com/ for Eloqui news updates

Hip hop moments.....the Eloqui team working for our client 'Summer Uni, London' found themselves rubbing shoulders with Bashy, the popular London grime and hip hop artist at the launch of the charity's summer holidays programme. Summer Uni is running 40,000 free course places for 8-25 year olds over the summer in over 1,000 subjects including everything from media studies to manga art culture. In another education project 700 schools have signed up for 'The Big Light Project', which Eloqui is co-ordinating for lamp recycling scheme, Recolight.

Other summer projects.....include a corporate profile building programe for Beyond Analysis, a customer insight company which uses data management to help businesses make better decisions and a communications audit for a major European research trade association.

What's the story?....Eloqui Partner Joanne Milroy writes on the Eloqui blog and website about the development of Eloqui's new storytelling initiative, which uses traditional story telling techniques to harvest more and better stories out of organisations. The Eloqui team has developed a storytelling workshop and a series of creative techniques to find that elusive headline grabbing tale. http://eloquipr.co.uk/upload/Storytellinginadigitalage.pdf

Eloqui triumphs in Samworth Charity Challenge.... the exhausted 'Piping Hot PR' Eloqui team made it over the finish line in the recent Samworth Charity Challenge. The team completed a 15km walk, 30km cycle ride with abseil (that bit wasn't with the bike) and 11km of canoeing in under 12 hours in tough mountain conditions in the Lake District to raise more than £2,000 for Prostate Cancer and Water Aid. When interviewed afterwards team members cited highlights of the day as; "lunch", "the downhill bit on the cycle ride", and "when I got out of that b..... canoe". The event over two weekends raised an incredible £340,000.

Storytelling in the digital age

In recent weeks and months I have been exploring storytelling theory and how communications professionals can use it in a more methodical way to identify stories from within their organisations.

I have been on an interesting journey dipping into topics such as the history and philosophy of storytelling, principles of screen writing, ideas on classical story telling techniques and up-to-the minute thinking on topics such as non-linear storytelling.

Often the problem in PR story mining is that stories collected by talking to the CEO or Sales Director or Head of R & D are not stories in the true sense of the word. They may have aspects of interest or surprise but they are not real stories in terms of structure and appeal.

The end result of my research is that we, at Eloqui, have now developed a series of creative techniques which use established storytelling formats and theories to help mine stories. We have also developed a half day creative workshop to help organisations find stories and content from within.

You may not think that your organisation has much in common with Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Homer’s Odyssey, or Beowulf and Jaws (much the same story, just thousands of years apart), or modern day tale such as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. However understanding how and why these enduring stories are so compelling to audiences can help to inspire and unlock stories from any source.

Read my full article on this topic at
http://eloquipr.co.uk/upload/Storytellinginadigitalage.pdf
For further information about our workshops contact me at jmilroy@eloquipr.co.uk

Joanne Milroy

It's the early bird...

“The Guardian’s daily ‘agenda’ setting meeting now takes place at 9am”, declared The Guardian’s head of business Dan Roberts at an event Eloqui attended last week. “In the past for papers that moment was at 5pm, and until six months ago it was at lunchtime”, he continued, also saying that company communications strategy on big days was not always reflecting this change. There is no doubt there has been a relentless march backwards of news deadlines. The big stories of the day, and many of the smaller ones, are now all usually established by 9am in the morning, latest. Roberts says one problem with this condensed timetable is that journalists have less time to form a considered opinion on complex stories. Here at Eloqui we think another increasing issue for media will be achieving constant and meaningful refreshment of that news agenda throughout the day. (Roberts also highlighted this conundrum.)Media outlets are busy proclaiming how they are providing more news over more channels, when very often it feels like constantly repeating news, even if delivered earlier in the day.

Joanne Milroy

The Eloqui team was with Bashy, London’s grime and hip hop artist and Dan Davies, the UK 110m Hurdles Junior Champion, yesterday to launch the start of registration for this year’s Summer Uni London. Eloqui client Summer Uni London is an annual programme of 40,000 free course places for young people across Greater London, running over the summer. The courses cover over 1,000 subjects, including music, business and media studies, scuba diving, Manga art culture, Rocket Ball, Football, Belly Dancing, Japanese and rowing. There are extra places available this year for young people with special needs as well as male and female only courses. The courses range from one hour to six weeks and are being held in all 32 London boroughs. They are available for young people between the ages of 8 and 25.

"Our research shows that over 70 per cent of young people worry about feeling bored and having nothing to do over the summer holidays, so our free courses are a great way to meet new friends, learn new skills and have fun,” said Summer Uni Executive Director, Sarah Davies. To enrol for free Summer Uni courses, young people and parents should visit the website: http://www.summerunilondon.org/. or contact their local London Borough.

The tender trap

When healthcare firm Benenden recently invited over 20 agencies to pitch for its business, it attracted much criticism within the PR profession for holding a beauty parade with so many contestants. With agencies being given just 15 minutes to present, it must have been a bewildering experience for the client, and a questionable use of time for the consultancies, apart, of course, from the winning firm.

Whether Benenden got the best agency for the job from this process is difficult to ascertain, as the company used a public tender approach to put together its, very long, shortlist. An obvious flaw with a tender is that you can only hire an agency if it applies. The consultancy with the best experience and people for your needs may not see your tender advertisement, or may choose not to go in for a competition where so many agencies are competing and the odds of winning are low. Another downside is that clients have to read so many submissions, consuming considerable management time.

An alternative to the public tender is to research the consultancy market – look for the agencies behind campaigns you admire, or those winning awards and doing the type of work that you feel your organisation needs. Rather than rely totally on past experience – as is the tender way – it can be smart to set prospective consultancies a short creative challenge to see how they think and approach a brief. This way you are not reliant on past experience alone. After all, the team you are meeting may not be the ones responsible for the great work on the website.

Eloqui award nomination

Eloqui has been nominated for a European Sabre Award for its work to promote Visa’s sponsorship of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Eloqui was appointed after research undertaken by Visa indicated that the British public was not aware of Visa’s association with the Olympics and the Paralympics, London 2012, or the fact that it is a key contributor to BOA and BPA. To address this, Eloqui focused on two principal initiatives to place the media spotlight on Visa’s Olympic commitment: Team Visa, a mentoring scheme that supports young British Olympic athletes, and Visa’s headline sponsorship of the UK School Games.

In the case of Team Visa we developed a high profile launch event at Lord’s Cricket Grounds involving all 18 young athletes and their mentors: Sir Steve Redgrave and Dame Tanni Grey Thompson. Endorsement was sought from Olympics Minister Richard Caborn and Seb Coe and Eloqui brokered an exclusive deal with Getty Images for pictures of athletes and mentors, which were used with the media as well as in Visa’s advertising.

For the UK School Games we commissioned a piece of research among children aged 9-15 to understand attitudes to sport and the extent to which young people enjoy sport at school. Findings were released to the media to coincide with the UK School Games to ensure Visa received public recognition for its involvement.

Both events together achieved coverage worth in excess of £1,200,000 (AVE) for an investment of just £46,000 - an outstanding return on investment.

The Power of PR

Eloqui CEO Chris Genasi has been included for the third year running in PR Week’s Power Book for 2009.

The Power Book is a directory of 500 of the UK’s most influential people in PR, as selected by PR Week and a panel of senior journalists and commentators.

Entrants in Power Book are asked a series of questions ranging from their most admired politician to the PR campaigns they wished they had thought of.

Barack Obama dominates the most admired politician, best PR campaign and “brand to watch” categories, as chosen by those in the PR Week Power Book.

A new entry for this year is self appointed “Minister for the Recession” Vince Cable, who is the third most frequently cited politician that PR people admire, showing once again that Vince Cable is probably the only person in Britain who has done well from the economic downturn.

The corporate PR person held in most esteem by those at the top of the PR profession is Lucy Neville-Rolfe of Tesco and in the world of politics, the most admired PR operator is Andy Coulson, Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. As in previous years, Max Clifford continues to be everyone’s favourite and most admired celebrity PR practitioner.

As well Barack Obama’s election campaign, other PR campaigns most often cited as ones respondents wished they had thought of were Dove’s “Campaign for real beauty” and McDonald’s “Mcjobs campaign”

The PR Week Power Book certainly portrays a picture of the diverse and well respected profession that PR has become over the last decade. For those interested in the PR landscape, it provides an insight into those individuals who are managing reputations at the highest levels in politics, business, brands, charities and sport.

Eloqui spring newsletter
GREEN SHOOTS - it may be too early to ‘call’ the green shoots of recovery but ‘green’ continues to be a strong theme for Eloqui campaigns in 2009. As well as our ‘Big Light’ schools project, we are working with the Open University’s Sustainable Design course on a competition to get students to develop new designs for recycling systems.
TWITTERING BIRDS - or do they tweet? The jury is still out on Twitter – is it the next big thing or a passing fad? But the appetite for interesting digital campaigns continues to grow. Recent digital projects for Eloqui have included developing an online communications strategy for the electrical waste compliance scheme, Recolight.
SPRING SHOPPING - Eloqui provided PR support to ESOMAR, the world research organisation for its ‘Retail and Shopper 2009’ market research conference held in London earlier this month.
LIGHTER NIGHTS - mean valuable extra training time for the Eloqui ‘victims’ signed up for the Samworth Brothers Charity Challenge this June. Samworth Brothers – a long standing Eloqui client – is one of Britain’s largest food manufacturers. The challenge involves trekking 14km up a 1,000 metre mountain, plus 41km of canoeing and cycling. We need a team name – there is a delicious Samworth Brothers pork pie for the best (printable) suggestion.

That Shopping Feeling

60% of shoppers leave Lidl feeling positive – confident, eager or happy whereas only 20% leave Somerfield feeling positive while 60% leave feeling ripped off, bored or tired, according to new research presented at world research organisation ESOMAR’s Retail and Shopper conference earlier this month.
Conducted by Ipsos MORI, the research revealed the different emotions people feel after leaving different shops, and explored what lessons retailers can learn.
The research showed that 30% of shoppers leave Waitrose feeling special; a further 20% are inspired or curious. 30% of Boots shoppers leave feeling proud and 10% are amazed. However 20% leave the Co-Op feeling disappointed and another 22% feel ripped off or bored.
ESOMAR appointed Eloqui to raise awareness of ‘Retail and Shopper’ to the marketing and research community through the digital and print marketing and retail trade press.

Eloqui hired to promote ESOMAR international market research conference in London

Eloqui has been appointed by ESOMAR, the world research organisation, to promote its international market research conference being held in London next week from 2 to 4 March.

‘Retail and Shopper 2009’ will bring together leading retail research experts from around the world to explore what it means to put shoppers at the heart of retailing, and the effect this has on the retail and research industry in the face of a global recession.

Eloqui has been hired by ESOMAR in the UK to promote the vital importance of market research to enable retailers to retain the loyalty of shoppers and weather the global financial storms.

“During times of economic instability it is more important than ever for retailers to understand what motivates their shoppers,” says ESOMAR Director General, Veronique Jeannin; “Eloqui is working with us to increase understanding into how shopper behaviour is changing and how retailers need to be prepared and plan ahead.”

‘Retail and Shopper’ is being held at the Royal Garden Hotel, London, between 2-4 March 2009, and representatives from Coca Cola, Procter and Gamble, Philips and Ipsos MORI will be amongst the speakers sharing their insights into retail research.

Eloqui launches 'Big Light Project'

Eloqui PR has been appointed by existing client Recolight, the national recycling scheme for lighting manufacturers, to develop and launch a £260,000 schools education campaign to improve public understanding of the differences between Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) and traditional incandescent light bulbs.

The ‘Big Light Project’ aimed at children aged 8 to 13 will run initially as a pilot across 1000 primary and 800 secondary schools in London and the South East, with plans for a nationwide roll-out in future years. It will be designed to bring the topic of light alive to children in a fun, engaging and interactive way, while communicating serious messages about the environment and climate change.

In the green room...

I don’t have much sympathy for Carol Thatcher …Joanne Milroy writes….but ‘green rooms’ can be stressful places. Last Friday I found myself in one at Broadcasting House, munching Pret sandwiches and….worrying about my hair. I was with a client at a recording of the BBC’s The Bottom Line where one of the other guests was Toni Mascolo, the founder of the Toni and Guy hairdressing chain. It quickly became clear that my strategy for the morning should be to stand as far away as possible from his immaculately coiffered assistant.

The news from The Bottom Line is that it has become the BBC’s latest foray into multi-media programming. As well as the BBC Radio 4 version, it will now go out in three other formats – on radio, on the BBC World Service, and as a TV programme on BBC News and BBC World. The BBC reckon that the Saturday evening Radio 4 format has an average of 650,000 listeners, and the extensions into World Service radio and TV will make it a global programme. With the BBC’s current favourite son Evan Davis in the presenter chair, it seems destined for a higher profile. And my verdict on the green room – quite nice sandwiches, but the BBC tea is still terrible.