What next for the banks?

The positive financial news from the banking sector which has come out over the last few weeks (Barclays 8% rise in first half profits, Goldman Sachs making record amounts of dosh) certainly seems to suggest that the sector is beginning to get back on its feet. It is certainly going to take a little longer for the worst cases to record performances like that, but it is clear that we can now begin to focus on the medium to long term futures of our failed banks rather than worrying about whether they are going to announce another £20 billion or so in asset writedowns.

In fact, my back of a fag packet calculations would suggest that, at current market prices, the Government is set to make a tidy profit on its shareholdings in Lloyds (43%) and RBS (98%). The question now is: how and when does the Government sell its shareholdings? The answers are ‘very carefully’ and ‘not yet’. Certainly pumping that amount of stock into the market in one go is out of the question so we are probably going to see a drip, drip of placings with institutional investors in the secondary market over the next 3-5 years.

You can’t help but wonder though whether a more equitable arrangement would be for those that saved the banks to truly benefit from the upside, namely you and me. What about a return to the privatisations of the mid-80s and an invitation for us all to fill our boots like we did with the British Telecom and British Gas? We could even have a “Don’t tell Sid” TV advertising campaign updated for the new millennium.

It would certainly make for a very populist policy for any political party to take into the next election campaign and would seem to sit very well with the Conservative Party’s publicly expressed aim of breaking the link between retail and investment banking.

Oh and there’s another very good reason to go truly public and have oiks like me at their AGMs - the banks would hate it!

Graduates need not apply?

Fresh faced and ambitious, many new graduates are embarking on the search for work within the exciting arena of PR this summer, but what are their prospects within the current climate?

This time last year, PR Week reported record numbers of graduates coming into the industry which was very encouraging at the time – after all, these are the account managers of the future. However, with the economic outlook challenging for companies across the board, the problem now is that there simply aren’t enough jobs out there. PR certainly hasn’t been immune. To put this in context, a recent survey from the Association of Graduate Recruiters found that there were 48 applications for every graduate vacancy. Within the competitive PR industry, this is much higher (our latest graduate position was responded to by 80 applicants), so the prospects for university leavers aren’t looking too healthy.

That said, I don’t think that the outlook for graduates is quite so bleak and would encourage any students reading this not to be disheartened. If anything, the trials and tribulations of gaining a first foot on the PR ladder will stand you in good stead for the trials and tribulations of life as a PR practitioner. As the old adage says, ‘what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger.’

In my view, university leavers need to be realistic. We would all love to fall into our dream job straight away and start earning the wages that make our student loan look like peanuts. However, what the graduates of today are facing is competition from their professional elders who have been unfortunate to find themselves out of work and who need to go for positions further down the ladder just to keep doing what they love.

For all new recruits, experience, commitment and a strong work ethic are the order of the day. Many universities offering PR related degrees are now placing a much stronger emphasis on work experience throughout the three years – this is crucial in building an understanding of the PR world outside of the lecture hall and will set students up with the all-important contacts that could be invaluable once the degree results are in. With that being said, it can be a ‘chicken-and-the-egg’ scenario, as students can only gain relevant experience if agencies give them the opportunity in the first place, so a little understanding on both parts is needed.

Four years ago today, I joined WPR just one month after getting my degree results and whilst I was very fortunate to find the right company with a junior executive position available, I hope my personal experience helps new graduates to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, PR is as hotly-pursued a career as ever and each agency has a different protocol when it comes to recruiting students for work experience or graduates for junior positions, but the industry needs fresh blood in order to keep its finger on the pulse. This is more relevant than ever with the growth of viral, digital and social networking possibilities and graduates would do well to understand the skills they can bring to the fore.

Whilst some agencies have put the brakes on graduate recruitment, others have been unaffected and to be successful in the search for work now, adaptability and versatility is key. If you can’t get a placement with a PR agency when still at university, widen the net and consider other aspects of the media; after all, journalists, researchers and design agencies need PR’s and PR’s need them. The most important thing is that you DO something that will help demonstrate your skills and appreciation of PR to a prospective employer.

To achieve stand out, show you understand the company and the career you are pursuing, and you never know, you could be the right graduate at the right time.

Rupert Changes His Mind

A $3.4bn loss is enough to make anyone think again and that is exactly what Rupert Murdoch is in the process of doing. After once declaring that the subscription model for online news does not work, last week he declared himself confident that his company could produce "significant revenues from the sale of digital delivery of newspaper content" and that “we intend to charge for all our news websites.”

Radical thinking or panicked knee jerk reaction? Only time will tell, but we have been down this path before with the New York Times and they were forced to pull back more than two two years ago (although the Paper of Record is reportedly looking at the subscription model in another format again).

Those, like me, who remain fascinated by the future shape of journalism and the print media in the digital age might find some enlightenment in this week’s Time Magazine which was delivered to me via snail mail on Saturday morning (I remain a luddite at heart). It contains an excellent article by James Poniewozik which can be found online HERE.

Definitely worth a read.

Warts and All to be Saviour for Brit Teens’ Esteem

Teenage girls live in a world of comparison, insecurities and media – from the glamour of American teen hits Gossip Girl and “reality drama” the Hills to Britain’s very own Chester beauty queens on Hollyoaks. The pressure to look good impacts on every teenage girl’s esteem – but how much of this is really down to advertising airbrushing?

The Liberal Democrats yesterday launched their campaign to ban airbrushing in children’s adverts. With their latest campaign for “Real Women” it feels as if someone has been reading through Marketing Week, noticed Dove’s award winning “Campaign for Real Beauty” and saw column inches waiting to be capitalised on.

For anyone who didn’t see Channel 4 news last night, it was the battle between Annabel Brog, longstanding editor of Sugar Magazine, and Jo Swinson, the Liberal MP at the helm of this campaign.

Brog justified her corner by saying they used lots of “real girls” and that airbrushing was only used for an out-of-place hair here and a pimple there. Having interned on the magazine a few years ago (under Annabel’s leadership) I can only herald the attitude of the editorial team. They were extremely conscious of their role as an outlet for teen issues and keen to grasp the balance of being responsible without being alienating or judgemental.

Swinson suggested airbrushed advertising aimed at under 16’s should be banned - and for adults should be signposted, literally, with a flagged up commentary. Yes, this beauty is too perfect, too polished and, to be frank, too unrealistic.

But this campaign also seems to underestimate people on a grand scale.
Advertising is not the only arena where this happens and her example of Kate Winslet on GQ’s cover hardly works as an example, with under 16’s clearly not in the title’s demographic.

If airbrushing is really doing us harm why not just ban the use of airbrushing in general? Perhaps it is because we like to see attractive people? Who wants a luxury product advertised by average Jo when by its very nature it is aspirational?

What about those too thin? Too muscly? Those who have had cosmetic surgery? Or those who are genetically gifted?

Teenage girls, and boys, have rising complexes about the way they look but I fail to see how the implementation of this one thing would have any causal effect.

She wants to see girls getting more involved in physical activity and the introduction of modules at school to discuss body image, health and well-being, and media literacy. That’s a lot of pressure being put on the girls themselves – to wisen up! To get fit! To forget what they hear and read and to be themselves! To be individuals!

Surely as a teenager trying to find yourself and be comfortable in your own skin is the hardest thing. With their identification with brands they are merely playing with what is out there. Maybe this has been taken too far and the brakes need to be put on a little - but as to how much of a success I can see those classes being, I’ll bite my tongue…

Coverage in the past two day has managed to take us away from Lembitt’s ladylove and handily airbrushed the expenses drama away. Cunning Jo.

That’s “Real Women” for you.

“Another remarkable day in internet land”

I would have to agree with comedian Richard Herring that this Monday was another fine example of how Twitter is having a marked effect on traditional media.

The furore kicked off thanks to an online Guardian article about modern comedy and how it has become more acceptable to make offensive or often racist jokes. Despite not knowing the work of all the comedians mentioned, even I got the initial impression that there was a lack of context which meant the piece was pointing fingers – a fine line to walk when it comes to such sensitive topics. In true Twitter form it was only an hour or so until one of the accused comedians, Richard Herring, was spreading his outrage at being misquoted and being portrayed as racist.

It was interesting to see people’s perspective of what a ‘respected broad sheet’ means in terms of journalism compared to a tabloid as the fact that the article came from the Guardian certainly heightened the anger. Numerous blogs and tweets were up within 24 hours in support of the wrongly quoted comedians. With the eyes and tweets of the world now in motion, no journalist is excused for quick or sloppy research. With Richard Herring’s response letter being printed in the Guardian tomorrow, surely Twitter has again proved its worth past telling people what you’re having for lunch in 140 characters.

You can read the full Guardian article here: www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/jul/27/comedy-standup-new-offenders

and Richard Herring’s response here:

www.richardherring.com/warmingup/warmingup.php?id=2460

Have you been Shortlisted for your own personal Stylist this autumn?

Breaking news in the world of magazines...

For every woman who’s ever been handed a free copy of Shortlist on a rainy day, only to sit down and trudge through a wealth of sport and gangster film reviews, for every one of us who is forced to splash her cash at the tills for a magazine that thinks Madonna’s latest adoption is the most newsworthy story of the week, or forced to watch Natalie Cassidy’s weight rise and fall...apparently our prayers have been answered.

Project Y has been under operation for nearly 8 months now but with the big reveal today: Shortlist, the free male weekly title, is to distribute a new women’s magazine on Wednesday from late September/October.

Titled Stylist, 400,000 copies will be dispersed over 6 cities, giving you content such as the high-end fashion you may expect right through to travel, people and careers.

We’ve seen this before you might say – revolutionary topics such as “I earned more than my husband so he left me” or “I’m the breadwinner in our house” featuring the obligatory stiletto heels and red lipped smirk. But Chief Exec Mike Soutar of FHM fame seems to be taking this seriously:

“...There are some important things it will never do: it will never publish unflattering paparazzi shots of celebrities looking their worst, never invent spurious stories about stars’ relationships and never cynically exploit women’s body anxieties.”

Sounds like a publicist’s dream – polished images and positive content. But even the likes of Grazia can’t resist a comment or two on the fashion fails and tangoed terrors.

We all get frustrated with the lengths some titles go to chart weight loss – stopping just short of calling them in for a weekly weigh-in. But everyone likes a little comment here and there, something that makes these glamorous celebrities seem human. Kate Winslet has built her career on interviews talking about how much she has struggled with, and learnt to love, her “real body.” Surely a sweat patch here or there or a mascara-teared picture looking worse for wear only helps this?

Targeting “affluent professional women” or as one reporter hilariously put it “20-40 year old women who enjoy 11 years of freedom and career building before starting a family”, Stylist is looking to challenge the Grazias and Marie Claires of this world.

Bypassing the comment that women only have 11 years of freedom (?!), it’s going to be a tough market to crack and I certainly wish editor Lisa Smorsaski (formerly of More) the best of luck.
It’s a step in a different direction – one that men’s magazines such as GQ and Esquire seem to have succeeded in achieving where most women’s magazines have failed.

But from one 20-40 year old woman in the “career-building” time of life who will be handed the title one Wednesday in Birmingham, could we please have just a little bit of celebrity smirking? In the nicest possible way of course...

Declaring War on the Twitter Frauds

There’s something that’s been bugging me of late. Since Twitter has exploded into the mainstream, more and more companies, individuals and sites have been springing up which claim to be able to artificially grow your number of followers in an instant. What’s more, there are plenty of people out there who seem to think this is a genius idea. 0 to 1000 followers in a few seconds flat? My, aren’t you popular! That’s sure to impress the suits who insisted you start a Twitter feed for their company because they’ve suddenly realised they need a social media strategy.

I hate to ruin the party, but isn’t this completely missing the point? The idea of Twitter – particularly from a business point of view – is that it allows you to form valuable, personal connections with like-minded people who are genuinely interested in your opinions/services/products and vice versa. What possible purpose can it serve to have a following made up of users who either don’t exist or have absolutely no relevance to you whatsoever?

In the same way that Youtube cheats pay to increase the number of views to their videos, so Twitter frauds are creating a false reality just to puff up their own egos – or those of their bosses and clients. The practice delivers zero commercial benefits: these people aren’t going to form a relationship with you or your brand and help you convert their following into sales, work or footfall.

All it does is cheapen the entire concept of Twitter and cause a headache for everybody else. 300 followers who are grown organically and are bona fide fans of your brand and Twitter commentary are worth infinitely more than 30,000 fake followers – but try telling that to the powers that be who just look at the numbers.

And therein lies the problem. When using Twitter and other social media, businesses need to embrace a major cultural shift and understand that it’s about quality, not quantity. It’s about connecting with the right people and having conversations which give your brand personality and humanity, not blindly pushing sales messages to as many people as possible.

Until this sea change occurs, we’ve got a battle on our hands. As for the Twitter frauds, they may be winning the numbers war, but in my book it’s a very hollow victory indeed.