Must Have PR
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We were fascinated to read The Drum’s insider story on the secrets behind MailOnline’s huge 100 million readership in January. The relevance to US audiences and that sidebar; that much we knew. It was the approach to SEO techniques that is really interesting.
Having worked with Yahoo! to launch omg! in the UK, we know all about using search trends in conjunction with online celeb news, and the latest Comscore figures showed omg! to be the second biggest celebrity news site in the UK, only behind the Mail. But the extent to which MailOnline keep on top of trends is intriguing, looking at traffic on an almost hourly basis and actually making publishing decisions based on what they see in the up to the minute search trends.
I’ve made my opinions on SEO and journalism fairly clear, but this takes it to another level. Of course you could argue that it makes complete sense, Paul Dacre’s mantra is always ‘we give the readers what they want’ and what better way of serving what your audience exactly what they want than publishing what you can see they’re searching for?
It also begs the question, should we be pitching stories on subjects we can see for ourselves are on the rise in order to increase the likelihood of publication? Next time we’ve got a celebrity interview to offer the MailOnline, we may just wait until we can see their search stats climbing.
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I would like to say a thank you to H&M for cheering me up on this most baltic of mornings with a fine display of eye candy in the form of golden balls himself adorning the entire frontage of their Oxford Circus store in his smalls.
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Opening at the beginning of December, BoxPark in the heart of Shoreditch has captured the attention of the media, retailers and architects alike.
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French designer paid homeage to the late, great Amy Winehouse with a couture show inspired by her, featuring models with her famous beehive, beauty spot and some even smoking.
The collection has got all the fashion pack talking some positive some negative but tongues are certainly wagging.
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It has not been a great couple of weeks for brands on Twitter.
McDonald’s in particular seems to have come in for a bashing. Last week’s golden arch themed outrage was over an article by Alex James in The Sun where he suggested the fast food chain was ‘in some ways, like a Michelin starred restaurant’ (the comparison wasn’t actually inaccurate, by the way). Now the McDonald’s vitriol has latched onto a hashtag - #McDStories - which the company used on their official Twitter account. Now reported as a Twitter campaign backfiring (I’m not sure I would call it a ‘campaign’, it was a couple of tweets asking for stories) by UK and US national media, what it consisted of was Twitter users posting negative stories about McDonalds using the hashtag they themselves had started.
The odd thing I find about media reporting on a story like this is it is almost self-fulfilling prophecy, what starts as a few predictable negative tweets generally only reaches critical mass after an article or blog post stokes the flames. The reporting of a ‘social media crisis’ is often what creates the crisis.
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So, the third Monday of January is upon us - the day that has been branded the most depressing of the year, earning itself the title ‘Blue Monday’. Sky Travel ‘calculated’ the most gloomy day of the year as part of a publicity campaign, incorporating factors such as weather conditions, debt level, time since Christmas, time since failing our new year’s resolutions and low motivational levels.
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The grammar police have been up in arms this week about Waterstone’s (Or should I say Waterstones’) removal of the apostrophe from their name as part of their re-branding. The announcement has made national news headlines and was hotly debated on this morning’s BBC Breakfast, offering some much needed publicity for the troubled retailer lagging behind the online giants and suffering in the age of the kindle where e-book downloads are eclipsing printed book sales. So, was this a clever publicity stunt or an intended shuffle towards integrating into the digital world as MD James Daunt claims: “the amendment was a more versatile and practical spelling of the name for the digital world.” – but will it really make that much difference to web filtering? Sounds like a weak excuse to me.
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I have never been one for designer label clothes. I have been resistant to Instagram as its retro filters offend my ‘real photographer’ purist sensibilities – it makes good photography too easy.
Yet I love this tie up between Levis and the hyper trendy photo sharing app du jour. Partly because Levis is one of the only clothing brands I can see the appeal of, a heritage of achingly cool ads are probably the cause. And partly as I’ve really warmed to Instagram lately as, well, it makes good photography easy (on a recent trip to NYC I found my Instagram snaps were often better than the serious DSLR ones).
Levi’s using Instagram to recruit their new ad campaign stars, prospective models just upload their pictures and tag them #IAMLEVIS. It just seems the perfect tie up between brand and platform – both have the cool with more than a hint of retro. I have no doubt that the resultant advert will be cooler than Steve McQueen on an iceberg.
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Asda last week announced record third quarter profits, thanks, they said, to a rise in sales of their low price own-label products in the ‘Chosen By You’ range. The supermarket is now growing at a quicker rate than Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s, trailing Morrison’s alone. Own brand labels are nothing new, but the key ingredient with ‘Chosen by You’ would appear to be a combination of consumer empowerment and engagement – the range has been subjected to customer taste tests; and the perception of improved quality through a complete package design overhaul, helping to position the products in the ‘mid tier’ category between its ‘Extra Special’ range and basics. Customers are demanding affordable luxury – they want to treat themselves in these gloomy times without breaking the bank.
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At MHP Brand this week, a campaign that’s really caught our attention is the 2011 execution of the Pedigree Adoption Drive.
Firstly, from a creative perspective, it’s a very innovative yet simple idea; take a dog for a virtual walk and Pedigree will donate money to a worthy cause. If you like dogs, you can’t help but engage and take the gorgeous Ripley for a walk. And if you have a dog, Pedigree is what you should be feeding it right? Perfectly targeted.
