Archive by Author

Charles Moore explains the difference between the news choices made by national and local papers

PR ideas

Here’s Charles Moore, former Editor of The Daily Telegraph, on good news:

It is striking how differently the local media approach this subject than do the national. Local papers and broadcasters are unashamedly on the side of the areas they serve. Of course they relish scandals, but they also delight in successes. At flower and dog shows, if local papers are to be believed, rain always “fails to dampen the spirits”. National papers only really get interested when every exhibit is swept away in a tidal wave or, as happened recently at a dog show in Kent, people start punching one another.

You can read the full piece here.

Why brands need to be subservient to what works

Blog, Direct marketing

I send out a lot of direct mail. And one of the things I regularly test is paper and envelope types for mailings.

I know that a DL-sized envelope gets a bigger response than C5 envelope. But what’s really significant is paper colour. A letter sent in a white envelope pulls significantly fewer responses than one sent in vellum wove.

I have kept testing this because I can see that white is more modern – indeed, more what people expect someone in the public relations industry to be using. My industry’s use of papers such as Advocate Xtreme White or Conqueror Diamond White is commonplace.

But every time I run a test, vellum wove brings in more trade.

The result is that vellum wove paper is part of my brand. It works. But why?

Well, it turns out that some people find the contrast between very bright white paper and black print difficult to follow. I don’t know how the research was conducted, but many organisations concerned with disabilities say don’t use white paper.

The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education says: “some people with dyslexic tendencies find the contrast of black print on white paper difficult to cope with. They may find text easier to read if it is presented on cream or off-white paper, or even a pale pastel colour. Glossy paper causes glare.”

Well, vellum is a rich cream, so dyslexia – which affects 10 per cent of the public to some extent, and 4 per cent – might be part of the reason why vellum wove does well.

In addition, I just think white paper – even if it’s thick and watermarked – can look banal and cheap.

Why has no one written ‘The PR Masterclass’ before?

Blog, PR books

You might have thought that how-to books on media relations from ex-journalists would be everywhere. Yet, as far as I can tell, The PR Masterclass, is the first one from a former staff journalist on national newspaper.

Yes, there are many good memoirs by ex-journalists discussing their time on Fleet Street. But I wanted to write a book that wasn’t about me (I am too young to write an autobiography). Instead, I wanted to produce a practical guide to getting coverage. It’s packed full of detailed advice to help people – perhaps like you – make your PR efforts work.

So why is this the first book of its type? Well, I can think of five reasons.

  1. Many ex-journalists who go into public relations take up highly paid in-house jobs in FTSE companies, where they are kept very busy. Anything they say may need to be cleared by their employers and they may even have a contract clause saying that they can’t undertake any commercial activity for anyone else. As such, they don’t have any incentive to write a book – and in their spare time, they’d rather spend it with their kids.
  2. Most journalists are used to writing hundreds of words, not 40,000. While some journalists are strong book writers, others just hate the idea of writing something that long.
  3. They have other interests they’d prefer to write about. Writing a business book doesn’t seem as prestigious as writing the ultimate biographical account of the life of a Gladstone.
  4. Some journalists spend their entire career working in one field. If they are, for example, writing about politics, they may never deal with PR people representing companies who want to get publicity for products and services. Thus, they never see many good and bad approaches and, indeed, never need to think about it. Starting out as a tech journalist, writing for newsstand magazines while at school, I’ve found myself writing almost every sort of article imaginable – from news, to features, to opinion, to reviews, to columns – and across magazines, newspapers and online. B2B, B2C and public affairs campaigns – I’ve experience of all of it. Not every journalist experiences that.
  5. Some people fear that putting their expertise into writing a book will reduce their ability to sell consulting. They worry that they are giving away their expertise. Actually, that’s not what tends to happen with business books. Most customers will indeed buy a book and implement the ideas directly. But plenty of bigger companies, who don’t have time to do it themselves, hire the author to do the implementation or to train their staff.

Fortunately, I didn’t get put off by any of those reasons – and so you can order The PR Masterclass here.

How to build a brand – and what a brand really is

Blog, Integrated marketing

When Virgin Mobile merged with cable operator NTL Telewest, Richard Branson ensured that something vital was done at NTL Telewest before the Virgin brand could be associated with it. The customer service was improved.

Gordon McCallum, chief executive officer of Virgin Management Limited, said at the time that: “Taking on the Virgin brand is about much more than a new name and logo above the door… Much has already been achieved and we’re confident that the company’s on track to deliver the Virgin promise when we re-brand next year.”

The same approach was taken by Southern Railway. When they took over the Connex SouthCentral railway line, they didn’t stick “Southern Railway” everywhere. Instead, they temporarily called the train company SouthCentral. Posters were placed at stations saying that the new train operator had ordered lots of trains, and as soon as Network Rail had upgraded the electricity supplies on the tracks, they’d be able to put them into use and the new Southern Railway would be born.

Both Virgin and Southern Railway know that their brands are not merely about a logo or a paint job. When Virgin lost its InterCity rail franchise last year, there public made clear its annoyance – and the government was forced into a u-turn. That was not merely because people liked the Virgin logo. Those fantastically comfortable and smart Pendolino trains Virgin acquired had a lot to do with it. The trains are always clean. And the staff on-board are friendly.

A brand is really a customer’s emotional reaction to the whole of the service provided. It’s not just the design of the adverts: it’s also helpfulness of call centre staff; the effectiveness of the product or service; and the way problems are handled. No one gets it all right. But a brand-building exercise which doesn’t consider the full customer experience is doomed to fail.

David Ogilvy on how pretty design ruins advertising

Advertising, Blog

“The average advertisement is read by only four per cent of people on their way through the publication it appears in. Most of the time, this is the fault of the so-called ‘art director’ who designs advertisements. If he is a aesthete at heart – and most of them are – he doesn’t care a damn whether anybody reads the words. He regards them as mere elements in his pretty design. In many cases he blows away half the readers by choosing the wrong type. But he doesn’t care. He should be boiled in oil.”

- David Ogilvy