The changing ways people get their news is a topic that this blog has touched on before
I’m particularly interested in staying abreast of these trends because it’s very common for companies to be unaware of the Irish public’s consumption patterns of both print and broadcast media. As a result they sometimes make the wrong calls on the value of different pieces of coverage. A classic example is when I have to tell people that, in fact, very significant amounts of Irish people do watch RTE One’s Lunchtime news or that the Irish Daily Star is consistently among Ireland’s top three newspapers in terms of daily readership.
Again Carat has produced some thought provoking figures on Irish people’s media consumption trends in the shape of their Carat Pulse News – 2011 in Review booklet. It covers online news readership, sponsorship and smart phone habits.
The figures that caught my eye were a comparison of where Irish people got news of the Budget from. Admittedly, the figures compare Budget 2010 and Budget 2011, so could be more up-to-date. Even so, they provide a very interesting snapshot of the changing habits of Irish media consumers. The Budget is after all, particularly in recent years, one of the biggest media events each year and is a good marker for wider national habits.
So, what do the figures tell us? Well, at a macro level, newspapers and radio lost out to TV and online media in all aspects of consumption, newspapers down 9% over the year and radio down 12%. TV held its own and online jumped significantly by 21%.
TV still rules the roost when it comes to watching the budget as it’s announced, pipping both radio and online media to the post. 34% of us watched Brian Lenihan deliver his speech on TV. While radio (30%) and the web (31%) weren’t far behind, the latter had increased notably from 24% the previous year. It’s almost certain that this trend continued in 2012.
When it comes to people getting details on the budget and the way it will affect them personally, the overwhelming winner is online. This strong lead was cemented in 2011 and came directly from people who used to rely on newspapers and the radio for this more detailed information.
It would be very valuable to see what the breakdown of online hits is between the news websites for the TV/radio (eg: rte.ie, newstalk.ie) and print media (eg: irishtimes.com, independent.ie).
Photocalls are a daily feature of our life as PR professionals and as a communications tool they are invaluable. Just as a press release communicates a message, a picture can tell ‘a thousand words’.
On any given day picture editors receive hundreds of images from event launches, openings, media briefings to mention a few. So what is the secret? What makes picture editors look at a particular image and choose it out of the hundreds of images they receive in any given day? At MKC we work with a number of excellent photographers including Fennell Photography, Marc O’Sullivan, John Ohle and Conor Healy.
To give you a real insight into the world of PR photography we put a few questions to photographer Conor Healy.
What constitutes a good PR photo ?
Conor - A good PR photo is the one that lands in the papers, as this is the ultimate aim . It must also be able to stop the reader and make them interested in what is essentially a soft sell approach.
The image sells the message without it being noticed by the reader and the best way to do that is to have an image that is strong visually and compositionally.
In my experience, you cannot force a good PR image - ’something’ has to happen that makes the image quirky and this ’something’ is not usually known prior to the shoot. For that ’something’ to happen, you need good people, great props and a photographer who knows how to capture the decisive moment.
How many people is too many for a photo?
Conor - It depends on the photo and it depends on the caption. A corporate image should have no more than 3 - 4 people in it. More than that and the image becomes a ‘group’ photo for the office and not it’s primary purpose, which is to get into the papers.
One representative from each organisation involved is sufficient from a press point of view. Images like these have to be captioned – the person, their role, etc. Most captions should only be two or three lines long. However, If the caption can read “students from DCU met up with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden”, then you can have as many students in the photo as you can fit!
What locations work / don’t work for photocalls?
Conor - Rather than think of a location, think of the background and think shade!
St. Stephen’s Green has a lovely lake, but it is rare you see it in a photocall image and the reason is because PR photographers are interested only in what is in the background of the image and that tends to be at shoulder height.
Most backgrounds are nondescript; there are no buses, cars, exit signs, constructions notices etc., because you don’t want anything to distract the eye from the centerpiece and the message.
What works best in the background is strong colours. I mention shade because most PR photographers hate the sun! Too much strong sunlight creates contrast in a PR photograph and while there are exceptions to this, most photographers like to have the comfort of a nearby tree or hedge that can allow soft light on their subjects (and let the strong light stay in the background).
What kind of props do you feel work best in photos?
Conor - Last week we photographed a “Star Wars storm trooper”, a few weeks before it was a massive Red Chair. The best props are unusual, relate to the photocall, look real and are not cheesy!
Pop - up stands are out! They are the prop of last resort. This country is filled with incredibly talented and creative individuals and groups, from Macnas to fire eaters to ballet dancers, and all can be used to create a colorful, visually strong image that gets your message across. So use them.
Is one day more popular than others for photocalls?
Conor - Tuesdays and Thursdays have always been the most popular days but agencies are looking more at shooting on a Sunday for Monday. Friday and Saturday are seen as the worst days for a photocall but it might be better to think of your question in terms of months rather than days. October is the busiest month of the year. I can cover four times as many photocalls then compared with, say, January or even December! I even get calls in January from Social Magazines looking for images that don’t have Christmas baubles in them!
So the next time a picture in a newspaper or magazine catches your eye, think of the creativity and the propping that went into making it hit its target!
Conor Healy is a professional PR photographer who works with some of the biggest PR agencies in Dublin as well as some of the smallest. The results, however, are always first class! For more information, check out www.chphotography.ie or email Conor@chphotography.ie to find out how he can help you achieve better results.
The tragic demise of the Costa Concordia has dominated headlines in Italy and further afield for the past ten days. If it wasn’t such a catastrophe, the multiple strands that have emerged on a daily basis would make a compelling plot for a daytime soap opera – a cowardly captain, a mystery blonde, a last ill-fated act of bravado, a heroic coast guard, a chaotic evacuation effort, all culminating in unnecessary loss of life.
Unfortunately it’s not a work of fiction, but an example of a crisis. A crisis is characterised by instability, by danger and by its untimely nature. It occurs when it is least expected and can have devastating effects, particularly if the company in question does not have a robust crisis plan in place. Read the rest of this entry »
This blog is about how Ireland needs Brad Pitt. Well, kind of.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Moneyball, the film starring Brad as baseball manager Billy Beane (if you haven’t seen it, check out the trailer here, then go see it, it’s great).
It’s based on a true story - and the Michael Lewis book of the same name – and tells the tale of Billy Beane’s attempt to assemble a winning team despite his club, the Oakland Athletics, operating on a shoestring budget. Other teams in the league spend three times as much as the Athletics and Beane realises that with such a massive discrepancy in finances, his club has little chance of winning using the traditional methods of player selection and hiring.
Without spoiling the film, Beane and his new assistant manager revolutionise baseball by sidelining the traditional measures of rating players in favour of implementing a new system based on a different type of statistical measurement. This was known as sabermetrics (as ever, Wikipedia has a decent and short breakdown of what it means). This, in essence, radically altered players’ values by assessing them under criteria that hadn’t been used before or were not considered important. As a result, previously ‘unfashionable’ players were assessed in ways they never had before and teams were put together that began to win games - a lot of games – using the players that were, for the want of a better word, cheap.
Given the bewildering pace of technological change, featuring torrents of mobile phones, e-readers, apps, social media platforms, and countless other devices, it’s difficult to single out the foremost architect of this lifestyle revolution. Many tech company visionaries and achievers come to mind, but it’s doubtful if any of them would begrudge pre-eminence being accorded to Steve Jobs, who died all-too-soon last October after a long, heroic battle with pancreatic cancer.
The founder of Apple, and the inspiration for its extraordinary lineage of lifestyle-changing devices, is now the subject of one of the best-selling books around. The author is American writer, Walter Isaacson, also the author of biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Einstein and Henry Kissinger. It’s a massive tome, close on 600 pages, but please do not let that deter your curiosity.
Here is a truly splendid book, one I found truly inspirational. Although it was written in collaboration with Jobs, who first contacted Isaacson to ask him to write such a book back in 2003, it is very much a warts-and-all depiction of this genius inventor/adaptor. Jobs was a notoriously prickly person, a total perfectionist, but a guy who could also be a total pain in the ass. At times he treated people appallingly, from family members to girlfriends, to pioneer collaborators, to employees. He seemed to take pleasure at times in being horrible to people. All this is graphically elaborated by Isaacson who conducted over 40 interviews with Jobs over the past couple of years, as well as exhaustive research with an array of relevant third parties. To Jobs credit, as Isaacson makes clear, he put no constraint whatsoever on the book’s contents and did not seek to read advance drafts.
Key influences on Jobs life included his adoptive father, his embracing of Buddhism, and (on his own admission) his indulgence in hard drugs in his college years and backpacking time in India. It’s ironic that this counter-culture, college drop-out of the seventies would become the pioneer of so much of today’s technologically-driven way of life for people right across the globe.
For a first-hand insight on Jobs business philosophy, combining his genius and simplicity, it’s worth watching his Stanford University Convocation address in 2005.
Many people argue that it was his Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, who was the real tech genius that begat the company that pioneered the personal computer. But there is little doubt that without Jobs’s genius for new ideas , his constant striving for perfection, and his obsession for marrying creativity with technology, the stream of inventions that flowed from their development of the Apple II, the world’s first personal computer in 1977, would not have materialised as they did.
Isaacson credits Jobs with the home computer revolution that we now all take for granted as an essential of modern life. Then came the iPod and iTunes that revolutionised the music industry, and the way people access music. The iPhone followed, turning the mobile phone into a multi-platform camera, email, video and texting device (which has spawned many imitators), and then came the iPad which has further advanced the world of e-readers, and has turned the publishing world upside down.
It’s interesting to contrast the fortunes of, say, Sony with Apple. This was the company that should have invented the iPod/iTunes platform. It was a dominant player in the music business with Sony Music, had a stable of leading recording artistes, and had invented the Walkman. But the company was too silo-ed, with its various division incapable of collaboration. One of the great business credos of Jobs was that every part of the Apple organisation – hardware, software, content, etc. – had to be integrated, and all its creators had to work collaboratively. He carried this holistic concept to the ultimate (in the teeth of ferocious opposition from the board of Apple) by developing the Apple Stores to engage directly with the buyer of Apple products. Needless to say, they have been a roaring commercial success.
It was Jobs too that established the Pixar animation company (with a few other geniuses) after being kicked out of Apple in 1985. He brought all the same passion, perfectionism and irascibility to this career as a film industry player,and the rest is history in terms of the success of the likes of Toy Story and A Bug’s Life. The company was to so outshine the great Disney animation company that the latter ended up buying Pixar in 2006, making Jobs the single largest shareholder in Disney and a very, very rich man.
And although he was struggling with his deteriorating health, and underwent a liver transplant in March 2009, he never stopped working. In March last year, he surprised those close to him by being able to attend the launch of the iPad2 although it was clear to everyone he was seriously ill. And he continued his creative obsessing with new products and platforms, developing iCloud and designing a new global HQ for Apple in Palo Alto. One is left musing what other trails he might have blazed.
Isaacson’s book, which was originally scheduled for publication this March (but brought forward to November last following Jobs death) tells this incredible story, and much, much more in a riveting read. One of the other intriguing issues raised by the author is what became known to those who worked with Jobs as his “reality distortion field”. When I first came across this, I thought “ah, typical American psycho-babble”. But no, this was a prevailing feature of Jobs approach to business, and the book recites repeated instances where Jobs challenged prevailing orthodoxy and expert advice to insist that particular things could be done differently. You could call it refusing to take” no” for an answer, but it served Jobs (and ultimately all of us) very well as he cajoled, bullied and blasted his teams of inventors to achieve the apparently impossible.
How we could do with a bit of that “reality distortion field” capability to help tackle our own economic woes …………… and a genius to summon it up!
In America, there is a lovely tradition at Thanksgiving where everyone gathered around the table for thanksgiving dinner tell of one thing that they have to be thankful for during the past year. Here in Ireland, we don’t tend to sit around the turkey at Christmas espousing our reasons to be grateful, and we’d probably be embarrassed to voice an opinion if we were asked.
On the other hand, there is still the strong a tradition of people peppering their conversation with a ‘Thank God’, regardless of whether the person is religious or not. And I love the fact that every morning on the 46A people – both young and old - say ‘thanks’ to driver as they hop off the bus!
2011 was another tough year and there is no doubt that 2012 will bring more of the same. Which is why, given the unrelenting tide of negativity in our national and international news media, it is important that we remind ourselves that despite everything we still have much to be grateful for.
First and foremost we should be thankful for the indomitable spirit and generosity of the Irish people. Despite the economic horrors of the past three years, there is a renewal of community spirit which was perhaps weakened during the boom times. Most of us don’t have to look too far for examples of this generosity. Last Sunday, in my own parish of Kilmacud over €65,000 was donated to the annual St. Vincent de Paul collection. That was a phenomenal amount by any standard.
On a personal level, those of us in employment recognise how fortunate we are to have a job and are grateful for that. In my own case I am thankful that, after 25 years in PR, I still get a kick out of seeing a client photograph or press release land in the media. The day I lose that is the day I retire!
Here in MKC we had many happy occasions during 2011 including a birth (baby Cullen born to Petrina), two engagements (Fiona to Nico and Petrina to Mark) and a wedding (Michelle to Luke). Stephen O’Byrnes completed his umpteenth marathon while the Dubs amongst us had a very happy Sunday in September! Each of these occasions served to remind us that despite all the shenanigans on the world economic stage, at the end of the day we each continue to live our lives and have much to be grateful for.
As a Corkman said to me, the light at the end of the tunnel might just be a candle at the minute, but it is still a light, however weak!
And now, in good Oscar ceremony tradition, I would like to end the year with a sincere thank you to the following:
- My colleagues in MKC for their unremitting professionalism and determination to provide a 110% service to our clients and for agreeing that I am always right, even when I am clearly wrong!
- Our clients, some of whom have been working with us since 1995. We never take you for granted and we are grateful to you for your business and the support you give us throughout the year.
- To the many great companies we work with – photographers, designers, printers, prop makers, and so on. You help us to meet impossible deadlines and we thank you for your willingness to go the extra mile so we can deliver for our clients.
- To our colleagues in the media – sometimes we hate it when you ring us with impossible deadlines, but mostly we appreciate the professional relationship we enjoy with you and hope you forgive us when sometimes we are obliged to phone and ask ‘did you get the press release?’
To all of you, and to you the reader of this blog post, we wish you a very Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year.
It’s no surprise that 2011 has been a massive year for social media. The ubiquity of channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn has continued to grow exponentially, with each assuming a very significant part in the daily life of Irish business, political and the mainstream media itself. A look back over the 2011 social media calendar provides a great snapshot of some of this year’s key trends and stories.
As the year began, Ireland’s wholehearted adoption of Facebook and LinkedIn was visible, with the networks’ Irish memberships standing at 1,858,180 and 424,926 users respectively.
When the 2011 General Election arrived it proved impossible, unfortunately in most cases, to escape the tweets of aspiring candidates. Their enthusiasm for the medium proved to be a smart move though, as an interesting study published later in the year showed that candidates in February’s general election who had a Facebook and Twitter accounts had a much bigger chance of getting elected to the Dail than those without.
Fr. Kevin Reynolds, the priest who last week took a successful libel case against RTE, is unquestionably deserving of sympathy for the wrong done to him and credit for the dignified manner with which he has dealt with it.
I also have sympathy for the Prime Time team, all excellent journalists with a solid track record, who must be in a state of absolute horror, wondering how they got into this situation and what the impact on their careers will be. Certainly the atmosphere in the RTE Current Affairs section can’t be very pleasant at the moment.
Two reviews are to be undertaken, one for RTE by Professor John Horgan and the other, at the request of the Government, by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.
There are a number of questions which need to be answered in these reviews, but, for me, the fundamental question is this: who made the ultimate decision to proceed with the programme without allowing Fr. Reynolds to undertake the paternity test he offered to on two separate occasions.
Recent research carried out in the UK by Populus and Open Road found that senior business people and politicians do not take reputational issues seriously until they appear in print or broadcast media. 62% of respondents would respond immediately to a negative national TV or radio news story, while only 21% would take a social media story seriously.
The research also shows that almost half of the opinion makers questioned are not using social media at all.
I found these statistics quite shocking. I hold my hands up and admit I am an online junkie so my opinion on this issue might be a little different to the 232 senior business people, journalists, NGO executives and MP’s questioned for the survey, but there is no denying that social media has an enormous impact on public perception.
Question: What do you get if you put millionaires, billionaires, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, visionaries, tech gurus, fitness fanatics, rock stars and policy makers in the same place for two days?
If you replied The Ultimate Geekfest, you’d be half right. But you’d miss the point.
I spent last Thursday and Friday at f.ounders and the Dublin Web Summit, sister events organised by Paddy Cosgrave that were held simultaneously across the capital.
f.ounders was an invitation-only gathering of 200 of the most influential members of the global tech community (I should point out that I am not one of the 200 ‘most influential people in the world’- at least not yet - MKC was providing media relations support to the events). Attendees included the founders of YouTube, LinkedIn, Bebo, 4Chan, Angry Birds, Qunar and MeetUp.Com among others. It truly was a stellar cast that counted angel investors, philanthropists and tech gurus amongst its number. For three days, these ‘kings of the universe’ mingled together, not only discussing issues relating to technology but also more fundamental questions relating to the planet and all our futures.
Founder of the Dublin Web Summit Paddy Cosgrave with the Mikael Hed (Angry Birds), Erik Ly (LinkedIn), Fritz Demiopolus (Qunar) and Niklas Zennstrom (Skype).
At the same time, in the RDS, 1,500 people attended the Dublin Web Summit. This was the flagship event that featured over 100 speakers including many of the F.ounders attendees. Here, entrepreneurs, techies and investors gathered to take part in seminars, engage with investors and exchange ideas.
