In many ways the Occupy Movement was also the communication story of 2011, but as we start a New Year I have to confess I’m still confused by the aim of the protests – was it a campaign for a fairer society, a protest against corporate greed, a way to highlight unemployment, or all of the above?

The Occupy Bristol group for example has confirmed it will leave its protest camp on College Green, following a court ruling. The protesters have been camped on College Green since the 15 October, a full three months, and I wonder how many people actually know what they were standing against, or what their key message was?

In those three months I also have to question what Occupy Bristol and its wider movement has really achieved – what will be the lasting impact on politics and culture?

From a PR perspective I do believe Occupy will have an impact on communication in 2012. The Occupy Movement took their message to the streets and forced the news agenda to take notice through rapid mobilisation and use of social media and live feeds to create a structured communications approach. It has shown the industry that we must be willing to follow by taking more risks, thinking creatively and becoming aggressive in order to get our clients message across.

PR’s may also take note from the failings of the Occupy Movement. There is little point making a splash if your client’s message is confused, lacks a unified aim and is not repeated often enough – it may grab attention, but won’t leave a lasting impact.

Well, not one that a little re-seeding won’t fix anyway.

Mark

To start the year, we’re helping the NSPCC organise a networking breakfast in Bristol. If you are in the region on January 31st, its a great opportunity to develop your network contacts with both large and small businesses in the region, hear how local businesses have raised funds and learn about the exciting developments for the NSPCC in Bristol during 2012. Email me for further details or register your attendance at http://nspccbristolbusinessclub.eventbrite.co.uk/

As part of our commitment to the NSPCC, we have also agreed to take part in a tandem skydive in May!!  Watch this space for more information…

Sara

I cannot begin to explain the gravity and diversity of the emotions I have experienced: utter exhaustion (managing to fall asleep in a bar was not my greatest hour); believing I was going to die when driving the infamous Nairobi – Mombasa highway in the dark; catching up with a rally car along an unmade road as it hadn’t seen us and needed a service and of course the emotion of seeing team eCar completing the final competitive stage of the rally.

What has made this rally for me is the people I’ve met along the way.  From rally champions that have been driving this and other courses for forty years, to the press officers, photographers, branding experts and management team.  But most of all, the friendships made with the management and service crews; Toby, Charles and Peter in our vehicle; Titch and Mark supporting Al and Flash; Rajil, Phil and PJ, with Riz and Adam supporting Aziz; Ian Freestone and Phil running between us all.

I cannot thank you all enough for your support, this has been the most unique experience in my life.

Travelling with the service crews, we leave the designated hotel an hour before the rally cars set off, hurtling towards the end of the first stage to meet the team as they arrive from the time-controlled section.  Then in a frantic half an hour, the team services the car, making repairs, (which include replacing steering racks, duck-taping broken windscreens, replacing tyres, doing the tracking and of course, refuelling) and getting them back on the road again for the next stint.  This happens two to three times a day – between which we then gallop to the next stage.

Apart from taking photos and making notes for the blog, I am now a fully fledged service assistant; my role involves navigating (I now know all about tulip diagrams), making sure Arron and Tim are fed and watered, helping set out the area to be serviced, getting tools from the car while the vehicle is being serviced and any other errands that are asked of me!

The service team are a miracle in action.  I’m travelling with three lovely chaps; Toby, chief driver, mechanic and all round marvel; cheeky Charlie, who’s a whizz under the bonnet and Peter, who always seems calm, cool and collected – and in this race, that’s a skill in itself.  Charles and Peter are Kenyan and built the car from scratch, so know it inside out.  And just as well, I’ve never seen as much work done on a car in such a short space of time.  I just about know what a head gasket looks like (thanks dad), but these men seem know each part of the car upside and inside out and are able to make the car work beautifully with just a couple of gaskets and duck tap

The journey’s between the stops, takes in the most awesome views of Kenya and Tanzania, places that you wouldn’t stop on a commercial safari or would take you days to get to on public transport.  To see so much of a beautiful country in such a short space of time is a privilege.  Stopping in the middle of the Rift Valley, being able to talk to women from a Masai village (with the help of my wonderful translators) will be a unique memory for me.

As it’s the rest day today, I’m off for a swim and a beer; to reflect on my time so far and look forward to the next stage of this epic adventure….

The Brightside Group Plc and eInsurance Group is sending its CEO, Aaron Banks to participate in the East African Safari Classic car rally.  As part of the rally, the team has been tasked with raising £100,000 for Alive and Kicking, a social enterprise that manufactures sports balls to provide balls for children, create jobs for adults and promote health education through sport.

To help raise awareness of the company and the charity, I’ll be part of the support team, writing about the race, its drivers, the highs and lows, challenges and successes.  You can follow the progress on the eCar Alive and Kicking blog.

As well as covering the rally, I’ll be writing up the experience from a personal perspective.   So watch this space in the coming days…..

Sara

I believe that the most pressing concern that has arisen from the advent of text is a hindrance to basic spelling and grammar skills.

The continual use of abbreviations (for example: wud instead of would) can be argued to lead to laziness, which in turn can result in a lack of knowledge of the traditional English language. Text speak isn’t solely confined to the younger generation either; I have received a text from my 60-year old mother asking if I’ll be around ‘l8er’.

Here at Ascent PR we are firm advocates of the writings of Lyne Truss, in her book ‘Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation’. After all, when writing for the media we must ensure that all copy is of the same linguistic and grammatical standard as used in the publications we target.

But in the wider society does it really matter? With so many means of communication available, is simply being able to effectively communicate a message what matters most?

Perhaps, but I firmly believe that we must ensure the younger generation has a sound grasp on English language, spelling and grammar. Thirteen year olds might think it’s ok to use text language right now, but in ten years’ time, if they want a career in business, then basic language skills will be essential.

Whilst it is only natural that the English dictionary evolves (otherwise we would all still be talking in Shakespearean), to allow the standard of spelling and grammar to disintegrate would truly be the greatest crime to our language.

Having written a blog on language and grammar, I risk being picked up on a misplaced comma, or a forgotten exclamation mark. But, solong as the msg is undastud mayb it will b all rite.

Lindsay

Previous winners of this award, organised by PR Week, include Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and actress / campaigner Joanna Lumley.

So which individual stood out this year as a beacon of communication? Stephen Fry? Lord Alan Sugar? Both use Twitter impressively to communicate with their fans.

Not so.

This year’s award went to a football manager – Blackpool manager Ian Holloway.

This is the first time the award has been presented to a football manager. Holloway was picked for his straight-talking and entertaining sound bites and interviews.

As a huge fan of Holloway and a fellow Bristolian, I’m delighted he has picked up this award.  But from a communication professional’s perspective, I do question the Blackpool manager’s validity as an outstanding example of ‘good communication’.

His colourful and oddly bizarre analogies have left just as many people confused as they have enlightened (even his own fans!) and a number of his outlandish statements have even landed him in hot water with the FA.

Danny Rogers, editor in chief of PRWeek, commented about Holloway, ‘His authenticity and passion are a godsend in an age of cautious and overly media-trained mundanity.’

I’m surprised but happy to see Holloway rewarded in this way and I can’t wait to see his acceptance speech…

P.S. I can’t write a blog on Ian Holloway without including a few of his most entertaining quotes. Enjoy:

• “To put it in gentleman’s terms if you’ve been out for a night and you’re looking for a young lady and you pull one, some weeks they’re good looking and some weeks they’re not the best. Our performance today would have been not the best looking bird but at least we got her in the taxi.”
• “Apparently it’s my fault that the Titanic sank.”
• “I love Blackpool. We’re very similar. We both look better in the dark.”
• “If you’re a burglar, it’s no good poncing about outside somebody’s house, looking good with your swag bag ready. Just get in there, burgle them and come out. I don’t advocate that obviously, it’s just an analogy”.
• “Why haven’t they got cameras? The officials can speak to each other easily enough now. Why aren’t we using laptops that are linked up and can give a decision in five seconds? A chimpanzee could do it – with not much training. We might as well go back to being cavemen, grab our girl by the hair, drag her into the cave whether she wants to come in or not because we may as well live in that age. We’ve come forward, haven’t we?”
• Reporter: “Ian, have you got any injury worries?” Holloway: No, I’m fully fit, thank you.”
• “When my wife’s shopping, we need some milk and bread on a regular basis. We can’t buy it all at the start and then wait until January because it would have all gone off.”
• “So well done to West Brom. Not only did they get up, they ran off and took our female cockerels away from us, didn’t they? So you get what I’m saying?”
• “Sir David Beckham? You’re having a laugh. He’s just a good footballer with a famous bird. Can you imagine if Posh was called Lady Beckham? We’d never hear the end of it!”
• “I am a football manager. I can’t see into the future. Last year I thought I was going to Cornwall on my holidays but I ended up going to Lyme Regis.”

Mark

As most PR professionals’ would agree, pitching to national journalists can be a daunting prospect. Gregg pulled the curtain back on the newsroom, so to speak, and gave us some advice on how to better pitch to nationals.

A few things really stood out for me:

• Reporters don’t care about you or your client. All they are interested in is the story. Pitch them the story not your client.
• Understand your target and who you are pitching too and always refer to journalists as reporters. They may get peeved otherwise.
• Understand what drives journalists and use this to your advantage. Drivers may include; fear of not enough stories, or missing the big one, competition, ego and deadlines.
• Reporters are open to ideas – don’t be afraid to pitch them an idea which could be open to development.
• Piggyback on topical issues – The phone hacking scandal provided a great platform for security providers to gain coverage.
• Never be afraid of reporters, they are just people. Just be prepared – never intimidated.
  
• When pitching a national journalist great headlines and pictures can prove crucial to securing the coverage.
• A story concerns people not things. Everything you pitch to a national journalist must have some human interest to it.
• A national newspaper is a balanced menu between serious and light-hearted stories Examine how your story fits into this ebb and flow and pitch accordingly.
• Build your stories around your client messages and make it impossible for the journalist to use it without the message included.
• Wednesday to Friday is the best times to pitch nationals as the size of the paper may be bigger due to increased adverting spend.

Time to get on the phone I think….

Mark

As a public relations consultancy, Ascent PR always has the generation of sales leads in mind when delivering its services. We drive awareness of our clients by raising their profile in the media, which in turn leads to interest of their products and services, provides prospects more information about the business and conveys reassurance that they are worth buying from. This, in many cases is the objective of other tactical marketing activities a business uses.

So why do businesses go to the effort and investment of creating a stand, but ignore the vital step of generating interest at the show. This is a prime opportunity to meet prospective customers and get to know them a little better. Demonstrate that they are experts in their field and leave them with a positive brand experience. The company may not be one that is immediately a ‘gold’ list prospect, but they maybe one day…

The buying process starts with awareness and those touch points with customers are cruical in the journey of a sale. Please don’t stand behind your stand, get out from behind the table and into the isle, say hi to those people passing and engage. You’ll never know who your next customer will be.

Sara

Sitting on the board alongside Ascent is local entrepreneur Katie Moore, representatives from In Your Face Media, and Paul Keith, Director of the South West Investment Group, all of whom are providing their own particular line of specialist advice and fundraising support.   We are particularly pleased to have been invited to join this board as it is a great opportunity to provider support both a local and national level to a charity which works to protect children across the UK.

We are looking forward to the challenges and rewards of being part of this very worthy organisation, and will keep you posted with developments.