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.