Willoughby PR

A triumph for social media (in Glasgow!)

2012-02-20T05:59:00.000-08:00

For those who didn't get around to reading the Guardian's excellent article on Saturday about the phenomenal job done by the blog 'rangerstaxcase.com', I would urge you to make time to give it a read.Even if you are not a football supporter, there is much to ponder on from the perspective of the performance of traditional media sources and in terms of the impact of social media.It is a story with

Dave is throwing himself to the Lion!

2012-02-16T01:47:00.003-08:00

The Prime Minister just got slapped down on the BBC.It’s something I suspect we are going to have to get used to over the coming years.Gordon Brown made a lot of mistakes, but he also got a lot right, bailing out the banks in October 2008 and not allowing Blair to join the Euro immediately spring to mind, but there is also another trap which he had the wiles never to fall into. He never, ever

Trend Setting

2012-02-15T00:16:00.003-08:00

Until I attended Interiors UK last month at the NEC, I never really gave a lot of thought to who decides what trends will be trends and the importance of colour. I thought each magazine simple took inspiration from collection previews developed by interior design and homeware manufacturers and deciding what they liked best. And when it comes to deciding what colour is ‘in’ this season, I never

Capello: The Media Pack has got what it wants!

2012-02-09T01:04:00.001-08:00

The Capo has gone. His critics in the media have got what they've wanted all along. I woke up this morning to Dan Roan on the BBC telling me that his tenure as England manager will be judged a failure. Arch critic Henry Winter in the Telegraph can barely contain his excitement.Various reasons are put forward for what, in the eyes of many in the football media pack, should be a moment of

The genius of McCain's bus stop adverts

2012-02-08T06:46:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I blogged about the rise of scent marketing, which involves pumping artificial smells into shops to entice customers in. And without wanting to come across as a crazy ‘smelling’ man, I sniffed out another great scent story this week – McCain’s new bus shelter ads, which give off heat and release the aroma of freshly baked potatoes. I said before it wouldn’t be long before the

Is the UK really anti-business?

2012-02-06T01:06:00.000-08:00

The backlash against the backlash has truly begun. Fred, formerly Sir Fred, mustn’t be able to believe his luck as the great and good pile in to tell us all that it is terribly unfair. Even Alistair Darling who savaged him in his memoirs has come out for Sir Fred!Most worrying though is the concern of a number of industry leaders who have voiced the opinion that the ‘stripping’ of Fred (

The construction industry forecast at a glance

2012-02-01T06:18:00.000-08:00

If like me a juicy stat gets you all wide eyed and interested, then you’ll understand how I felt yesterday when the latest construction industry forecast landed on my desk. Whilst I’m a stickler for good bit of technical detail, I do believe that sometimes it’s just not necessary and this is definitely one of those occasions. I could probably rewrite the entire forecast into a quarter of its

Chill offensive launched on the UK’s supermarkets

2012-02-01T00:24:00.000-08:00

For years we have been warned of the growing power of ‘super’-markets and their callous ability to shape the UK’s high street, so it was with a small smile that the retail and leisure team at Willoughby PR learnt of the latest initiative from online giant Amazon.According to Retail Week last week, after hiring Doug Gurr for his experience in developing an online channel for another leading

Coalition Splits: fact or media strategy?

2012-01-30T04:20:00.000-08:00

I listened to Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Reeves, speak at a lunchtime meeting at KPMG in Birmingham on Friday on the state of the British economy (she thinks George, as you would expect, needs a Plan B).Anyway, amidst some interesting perspectives on the economy and the UK’s relationships with the rest of Europe, she made a very interesting point about the current travails of

Another day another Facebook privacy issue, but this time have they gone too far?

2012-01-30T01:27:00.000-08:00

Until now, Facebook’s Timeline has been voluntary, but Mark Zuckerberg has announced that in the next seven days the feature will become compulsory and users will have seven days to delete any unwanted content before it’s laid bare for all to see. The social media giant’s Timeline was first rolled out last year , and users have been given the chance to have a play with the new

Jordan and Snickers UK Twitter stunt – a PR success or #Fail?

2012-01-24T11:05:00.000-08:00

As celebrities fearlessly spout forth from the digital roundtable of life, it is expected that amongst the publicity-vetted blandness of the regular tweet, there will be on occasion, a 140 character gem. If you are one of @MissKatiePrice’s, aka Jordan’s, 1.5m followers, this will no doubt have been the case on Sunday. I don’t believe I was alone in dropping my cup of tea as @

2012 – The year of the Tweeting Twit

2012-01-19T08:23:00.000-08:00

Let’s all be honest, when celebrities first got on Twitter, fearlessly spouting forth from the round table of life, it was quite satisfying to see the occasional fall from grace in the form of an all too honest tweet. Twitter, quite expertly liberalised us from the age of publicity-vetted blandness - note @RupertMurdoch’s most recent tirade against Obama and Google recently blogged about here

Rupert doesn’t get the internet, but it doesn’t stop him hating it!

2012-01-19T01:43:00.000-08:00

Good to see Rupert Murdoch in the news again, tweeting away with a careless abandon that must be giving News Corporation’s communications people a nervous tic every time another little missive pops up.Rupert’s latest 140 character musing involves his current bête noir, namely Google, who have previously been described by Rupert and his lieutenants as "leeches", "pirates", “bloodsuckers”, you get

Masterchef returns: Did you spot the brands?

2012-01-18T03:48:00.000-08:00

Last night was eagerly anticipated in my house for the return of Masterchef – and thank goodness they’ve ditched that awful X-Factor style audition process!Aside from looking wide-eyed at the sheer culinary talent on show (maybe not so much in the early stages, especially the poor girl that thought her sole was plaice!), Masterchef gives me a chance to look out for some fascinating food and drink

WATERSTONE’S DROPS A CLANGER

2012-01-13T08:47:00.000-08:00

As wordsmiths, if there’s one topic that’s sure to get a PR team debating it’s the rights and wrongs of words and grammar.So, when yesterday’s news that Waterstone’s is to drop the apostrophe in its trading name and logo, I knew the WPR office was in for a spot of banter.Instant mumblings referred to ‘another nail in the coffin for the death of the English language’ as well as ‘the grammatically

Tough times in retail and the rag trade is only starting to put its numbers in!

2012-01-13T03:00:00.000-08:00

It’s been a fascinating few days for retail watchers as the high street puts out its Christmas numbers and we are assaulted by a flurry of like-for-like statistics with clear winners and losers already becoming apparent. Various reasons have been put forward by the losers for poor performances, including savage discounting by competitors and shoppers using coupons for food purchases. The one

What Liverpool FC should have done!

2012-01-04T01:00:00.000-08:00

Two things have concerned me about the Luis Suarez / Patrice Evra racial abuse case which has been all over the sports pages. The first can be dealt with quickly. Liverpool’s responses have been abysmal. Both statements released by the club, one in the immediate aftermath of the verdict and the other yesterday following the decision not to appeal, have been knee-jerk, ill-thought through and

No hacking required - Rupert Murdoch is on Twitter

2012-01-03T05:41:00.000-08:00