The End Of The Road For Free PR Creative?

Sarah Kent, deputy managing director at Haslimann Taylor, writes:

Confused.com has been making news in the world of PR again recently. Following on from its decision to invite agencies to pitch for its account via Twitter (a Twitch no less!), the company has now been making headlines by offering to pay unsuccessful agencies for their creative ideas.

In most areas of business ‘company pays agency for creative work’ is hardly front page news and the fact that is has got so many people talking highlights a fundamental issue faced by agencies in the weird and wonderful world of the PR pitch.

Once past the credentials stage, agencies are expected to respond, in detail, to a live brief. Agencies often get their best brains together to create a slick presentation that includes research, insights, strategic consultancy and a boat load of campaign ideas for good measure. Some of the most valuable tools of our trade are literally given away – a practice you’d be hard pushed to find in other professional service industries.

And what happens when you don’t get the business? In some cases, agencies can only sit back and watch as someone else is appointed and then implements a campaign that looks suspiciously familiar. Or worse still, it turns out to be a ‘ghost pitch’ where the client in question doesn’t end up appointing anyone at all, and everyone involved is left feeling like they have just provided an elaborate and free brainstorming service.

The PR industry has long debated the issue of whether we should charge for pitches, but unless there is buy-in from every single PR outfit in the country, the idea is unworkable.

So this recent move from confused.com is encouraging. At best it may encourage other companies to follow suit; at worst it at least highlights the fact that ideas presented in pitches have value in their own right. But the practice does pose two fundamental questions. Will agencies want to sell their concepts to be implemented by someone else and, if they do, how will the value of those concepts be calculated? It will be interesting to see how confused.com and the agencies involved reach an agreement on the value of a campaign, before the success of that campaign is known.

Bumble Gives Me A Genuine Buzz

Bron Eames, managing director at Haslimann Taylor, writes:

The sporting world is overly rife with scandals and PR issues at the moment – diving, stamping, deliberate F1 crashes, bloodgate, ridiculous protests from people who should know better (Mark Hughes says there was ‘no malice intended’ by Adebayor when he stamped on Van Persie’s face!) etc, but as a counter to all this, isn’t David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd a legend?

David Lloyd was not only a top class professional with all the technical credentials to talk about cricket, but he is an absolutely first class communicator. All the more so because he is so genuine and so honest.

Many a CEO and company spokesperson could learn from Bumble. If the England cricketers play rubbish cricket, he says so. He is not rude. Just truthful! He is self effacing, he is interesting, he knows his stuff. Unlike many ex-footballers turned pundits, Bumble has informed opinions and is not afraid to criticise the play of professional colleagues, but he does it in an inoffensive manner. (As a coach, he maybe caused slight offence with a few inappropriate comments, but he did apologise!).

Few corporate spokespeople probably have David Lloyd’s reserve of quirky phrases - ‘Start the car!’ and ‘Swinging like a rusty gate!’ being two of my favourites – but how refreshing to have someone on our screens who we believe, respect and enjoy to such an extent, and he clearly has such fun! He is happy to dress up and play the clown, but he even pulls that off with dignity. He may not have Jose Mourinho’s sex appeal, but he is no less of a special one.

As this Summer’s cricket comes to an end, we will be seeing and hearing less of David Lloyd for a while but I for one am already looking forward to the South Africa tour when he will be back, showing us all that genuine, good communicators can achieve so much more than contrived, ill informed, boring wafflers.

Haslimann Taylor Is Shortlisted For Prestigious Awards

Haslimann Taylor has been shortlisted for five Midlands PRide Awards, which celebrate excellence and reward achievement in public relations and communications.

Haslimann Taylor is competing in the corporate and business communications category with its ‘Better Ingredients, Better Pizza, Better Business’ campaign for Papa John’s. The agency is celebrating two nominations in the best campaign for £10k and under category with its Snoring Boot Camp for Help Stop Snoring and the launch of a new development in Wincanton for Taylor Wimpey.

Account director Anna Jester has been shortlisted for the title of young communicator of the year and the final nomination is for Arriva’s ‘We are Derby!’ network review.

Bron Eames, managing director for Haslimann Taylor, said: “Being shortlisted in the CIPR PRide Awards is a tremendous achievement and we’re really proud that our work has been judged to be amongst the best in the Midlands. It’s very rewarding for our efforts over the last year to be recognised and it’s also a great opportunity for our clients to see their campaigns showcased at such a prestigious event.”

The Midlands winners of the PRide Awards 2009 will be announced at the ICC in Birmingham on the 20th November.

Why Sometimes Your Face Doesn’t Fit

Dan Clifford, director at Haslimann Taylor, writes:

Hurry up, there’s a bandwagon rolling and we all need to be on it – it’s the corporate craze of setting up Facebook pages and it is clearly too good an opportunity to miss.

Don’t worry too much if your brand doesn’t have much (if any) of an audience on the platform, and there is no need to bother yourself with trifling matters such as what content will populate your page, what interest it will hold for potential ‘friends’ and how you will keep it fresh and interesting.

I am, of course, joking. But have a scout round Facebook and you will find any number of awkward corporate looking pages posing as social networking enthusiasts in a cunning ruse to recruit new customers and become a communicative brand.

It highlights one of the bizarre knee jerk reactions that has come out of the immense success of online marketing – that as soon as something new is declared a success everyone must leap in with both feet or regret it forever.

And it’s bizarre because it wouldn’t happen with any other kind of media. You wouldn’t find an upmarket chain of hotels scrambling to get themselves into a lads mag or a top end car company putting pressure on their marketing team to secure them space in a teen title – but being wide of the mark on a social networking site can appear just as awkward as these examples.

Of course, there are many brands that offer a great fit for sites like Facebook, they have things that they can regularly update their Facebook Fans on, they need, appreciate and use the feedback they receive – and most importantly all parties get something useful from the page.

So the message is this – just because it’s social networking doesn’t mean you don’t need to look before you leap. If your brand has a big potential audience on the platform, you have enough interesting/fun/insightful things to share without having to manufacture them, you can give people something they wouldn’t get anywhere else and they can genuinely interact with you then it sounds good – if not then don’t just board the bandwagon.

Bryant Homes Hooks Purchasers

There was no need for Bryant Homes to fish for compliments recently as visitors to its ‘Expert Angling Event’ at Hopping Mill Meadow in Derby were hooked as soon as they saw the beautiful new homes.

Martin Jacques, a veteran angler with 24 year’s experience and match secretary for the Belper and District Angling Club, spent the day at the development teaching beginners how to angle. For visitor James Spencer, 7, the event was even more special as he won a £100 voucher to buy fishing equipment from Belper Tackle Shop in a fantastic prize draw.

Anne Wallace, regional sales and marketing director for Bryant Homes, said: “We were thrilled to welcome so many visitors to Hopping Mill Meadow and enjoyed a lovely day learning a new skill by the River Derwent.

“Our homes here really are a great catch, as proved by our fantastic sales figures. As our purchasers have found, being able to relax and unwind with a stroll along a picturesque riverbank at the end of a long day at work is very appealing. We’re sure that once visitors see our beautiful properties they’ll be hooked!”

Martin added: “You can’t beat spending the day beside a peaceful river with the sun warming your back. I very much enjoyed the chance to teach visitors to Hopping Mill Meadow how to angle and hope that I may have inspired a few people to continue. Those living at the development, or close to it, are lucky to have one of the best angling spots the area has to offer.”

Martin Jacques teaching visitors to Hopping Mill Meadow how to fish