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.