Twue or False: Twitter Turns Hearsay into Headlines

Justin Bieber has died several more times than an 18 year old pop sensation can reasonably expect. That is, according to posts on Twitter. On a bad day in June 2011, he died twice – once murdered by his publicist and once killed in a car accident. For those who depend on Twitter headlines for their news, such stories can often be indistinguishable from real breaking news. Reports of Whitney Houston’s passing first appeared on a Twitter account with a mere fourteen followers. The death of Amy Winehouse circulated on Twitter for 40 minutes before BBC confirmed the news.

Despite common celebrity death hoaxes, Twitter has become a major conduit for big breaking news. Witnesses tweeted pictures of the 2009 US Airways plane on the Hudson River just minutes after its emergency landing. The 2010 Arab Spring uprisings were heavily reported on Twitter, with many using it not only to cover the protests but also to facilitate them. It has become a news site that not only reports the news, but that also creates it.

The speed and scope of Twitter are irrevocably changing the news environment. It’s caused journalism to accelerate rapidly, but while it enables journalists to find new stories and get them out quickly, it also means that they are competing with non-industry tweeters who happen to be in the right place at the right time.

Yet journalists writing on the subject have largely agreed that Twitter complements those sources rather than outdating them. In gathering real-time news, it can be a powerful tool for journalists, rather than a competitor. As traditional publishers have increasingly incorporated the social network along with other new media forms into their activity, concerns over Twitter’s immediacy have lost momentum.

Yet in their eagerness to gather news with the help of new media, traditional news sources with established reputations can fall victim to the unreliability evidenced by Twitter’s highly inaccurate celebrity death count. Mistaking Twitter rumours for news does the news industry a great disservice. Andy Carvin, senior strategist at American news network NPR, used Twitter to provide frequent updates on the situations in Tunisia and Egypt in 2010 and 2011 with great success – but had to be careful to distinguish between raw data and news. He told GigaOM’s Matthew Ingram, “I get uncomfortable when people refer to my Twitter feed as a newswire. It’s not a newswire. It’s a newsroom. It’s where I’m trying to separate fact from fiction, interacting with people. That’s a newsroom.”

Without mediation and editorial stages, problems are resolved in public rather than in the newsroom. On Twitter, fact-checking may consist of followers replying with corrections rather than editors making changes pre-publication. When a BBC Newsnight report on child abuse in north Wales implicated a senior Conservative from the Thatcher era, widespread speculation from tweeters named a former government minister, falsely alleging that he was the perpetrator. He has since assembled a legal team and claims to have a list of over 10,000 Twitter users who defamed him, including high profile political, media and entertainment personalities, that he intends to sue. As his solicitor pointed out: “Twitter is not a place where you can gossip and say the nastiest things possible with impunity.”

Twitter libel (or “Twibel”) has only emerged over the past several years, but so far has only resulted in settlements. US singer Courtney Love became one of the first to be sued for her tweets in a case that was finally resolved in 2011 after two years. Love eventually paid £264,000 to fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir after attacking her on Twitter. The agreed amount came from consideration of Love’s influence as an entertainer and the massive dissemination potential of Twitter. Soon after, a Welsh town councillor settled the first British Twitter libel case by paying £3,000 to a rival candidate.

As long as these cases are settled rather than battled out in court, Twitter will continue to define its own boundaries. Although the former minister’s legal team has diligently tracked down malicious tweets, most of the 10,000 tweeters on the list will not be charged with individual lawsuits, and will instead likely be given the option to make nominal donations of at least £5 to the BBC’s Children in Need charity. These casual tweeters are those most in need of a wake-up call, as the next major defamation victim may not extend such lenience.

People’s readiness to retweet a rumour indicates that they need to spend more time thinking not only about what they tweet, but also about the tweets they read. Although much of Twitter’s appeal is its informality, it enables users to make painfully public mistakes with a wide reach and considerable consequences. Twitter’s offices have been silent on the libel suits, and there is no indication that Twitter will introduce any new mechanisms to encourage fact-checking or to discourage potentially libellous tweets. Until Twitter takes steps to mediate its content, it falls to tweeters to regulate themselves and the courts to punish pernicious posters.

Heroes of Apps World London

 

The Parker Wayne & Kent heroes arrived on-scene at Apps World London and were immediately attracted by the LeadBolt stand - that's what LeadBolt does, they grab your attention.

  

Our PR heroes regroup at the Parker Wayne & Kent stand and make a plan to navigate the expo and gather information.

 

We joined forces with the powerful SAP, whose martial arts moves are as efficient as the companies they support.

 

 The heroes then made a swift connection to 5App, which links mobile acts and business software.

We charged to SafeCharge next, but the stand was as secure as its credit payment systems. Even the pens were clear of listening devices.

Luckily, the Magic team only uses their powers for the good of enterprise integration and mobility applications.

Our new friends at CommonTime conjure cross-platform mobile apps at the speed of light.

Furious Tribe was furiously focused on business strategy and competitive analysis, so our heroes went by to get their intel on the expo threat level and strategize a way to save the day. But DefCon was 5, so they just went on to a different stand.

Apppli, an app developer with a sharp eye for fresh design, said they hadn't seen anything suspicious, but Batman left a calling card just in case.

The heroes heeded CreditCall's call, and picked up some cash using their new mobile payment services.

Twilio's technology uses web apps to leave voice messages for friends - and BatMan's new friends left him with a bum print on his leg.

At the Payleven stand, we saluted the iPhone extension that makes credit card payments totally mobile.

 At iZettle, Batman swooped in to swipe a pen from the phone device that enables mobile sellers to accept chip and pin instead of just swipe cards.

Mobile marketer Ad4Screen has its own set of superpowers - acquisition, retention and monetization - and proved a match for heroes' skills.

Apress ain't no dummies and impressed our heroes with its info for tech pros.

We continued through the expo until we sensed where Sensewhere was, but those without super-senses can use their new snapp! social mapping app to find them.

Professional collaborators at Ciklum were excited to team up with our heroes, who were beginning to suspect that the forces of evil had overslept.

 The easiest show we got was with the social FotoChat app chappess.

We found another ally in Arxan, whose software maintains order and app security for sensitive user information against the evils of mobile hacking.

We were excited to also find the Nominum team fighting to protect mobile users' data and improve subscriber experience.

Web developer tNex had to hold back an overly enthusiastic Batman.

Smaato's mobile advertising drew the PR heroes over for a photo.

At the last stop before declaring the expo safe, our heroes pose with the team from direct billing developer Mach.

During the last sweeps around the expo, more civilians leapt at the chance to be photographed with Batman and Superman.

The heroes returned to LeadBolt who swooned at the work we'd done to keep Apps World safe and sound before heading home. All in a day's work for PWKPR.

Bondage: Backlash and Bend Over

Gender equality has become a relatively mainstream concept, so it seems strange that 50 Shades of Grey has received so much commercial success. The erotic novel, containing strong themes of female submission, has become the best-selling book in Britain since records began.

Written by a woman, with a female dominated audience, 50 Shades of Grey has been described as “mummy porn” containing steamy sex scenes involving taboo subjects such as bondage. The book details an innocent virgin dominated by her high powered boyfriend. Female commentators have branded it a victory for female empowerment. Their argument often goes as follows: the novel encourages women to take charge of their sexuality; the theme of female submission plays out within sexual fantasies which are just that – fantasies rather than reality; just because a woman enjoys being dominated in the bedroom, does not mean she rejects power in other aspects of life. Popular feminist blogger Maya suggests, “…[if] gender equality allows for greater and deeper trust between men and women, then maybe we’re destined to get kinkier and kinkier… I am fully in support of anyone doing whatever (safe, consensual) thing that wants (sic) to do to get themselves off. Feminists for orgasms.”

If 50 Shades of Grey fails to offend ideals of gender equality, then surely the same would apply for women appearing in other aspects of the media - at least those with no intention of portraying females in a derogatory manner. However, Lush’s PR stunt about animal testing (see video right) earlier this year was heavily criticised for its so called use of bondage when animal torture techniques were performed on 24 year old Jacqueline Traide in the shop window of the beauty brand's Regent Street store.

(To make a disclosure: the person who organised the Lush campaign - Tamsin Omond -  used to work in Parker, Wayne & Kent’s offices for a pro bono client, although she was not directly employed by us.)

Executed in April, one blogger commented on the campaign, “Women aren't marketing tools. Rape is not a gimmick." [It now seems that that blog has been deleted.] Blogger Another Angry Woman wrote; “Lush have used violence against women to promote their own products. This is never acceptable and ultimately serves to perpetuate the context in which this occurs.” Laura Woodhouse from The F Word blog wrote, “We desperately need to draw attention to violence against women, not use violence against women to draw attention to other issues...In this context, Lush's actions are crass, insensitive and actually damage many of the people who care about the issues they are trying to raise.”  The criticism got to a scale where Omond felt compelled to use a column on Guardian.co.uk to defend the campaign from its critics.

The defence seemed to fall on deaf ears. Anna Breslaw from Jezebel.com – the site billed as “gossip, culture, fashion, and sex for the contemporary chick” –  wrote of the campaign and the follow up statement: “If…a certain sort of man will be masturbating to it later, does its self-awareness negate the fact that it's perpetuating the same sort of titillation”.

This stunt involved a female being subject to imprisonment and torture at the hands of a man. But, Lush’s campaign was not about sex. Or for that matter about highlighting women’s issues. It was about animal testing. It used a conceptually very simple mechanic to convey to members of the public the horrors of animal testing by aiming to arouse empathy with animals. The most efficient way to arouse feelings of empathy amongst an audience is to use human beings as the subject  - as an audience can relate to the subject easily. It’s a mechanic used by pretty much every pressure group, theatrical production, book or film.

The scrutiny directed at Lush for supposedly grabbing male attention and downplaying women’s issues seems unwarranted. Putting aside the fact that Lush has very little interest in marketing to men – their products are made for women – if the stunt was to titillate men, as alleged on Jezebel.com, upper / top shelf men’s magazines like FHM, Zoo and Nuts would surely have covered the PR stunt for their audience of groin grabbers as it’d be free content for the magazines to use. Sales of 50 Shades of Grey suggest that if bondage was going to tickle anyone’s fancy, it seems to appeal to women rather than men.

Much of the online criticism the Lush campaign received challenged the use of a female subject in the stunt. From a PR perspective the answer to this is simple: to draw attention to your campaign, whether ethical or not, you will be more likely to get coverage if you use images of women than if you use images of men. Open any newspaper, magazine or visit a website to find out whether that’s true or not.

It is interesting to consider whether public reaction would differ if a male test subject was used. In this instance, would the campaign still have been criticized for supposedly having sexual connotations? Probably yes, as it arouses 1980s concepts of Miss Whiplash and her clientele of MPs. The public reaction would also differ. The stunt would probably be downplayed as tongue-in-cheek. Surely subjugation and torture of any human being – regardless of their gender – should arouse disgust.

But possibly the motives behind the selection of the performance artist for the stunt are being over-intellectualised. The artist in question, Ms Traide, was known to the stunt organiser, Ms Omond. In this economy, it could be fair to say that paid work for performance art is pretty hard to come by. There could be a pretty basic fact being over-looked here. Ms Omond was in a position to give her mate a gig. Not such a bad decision to choose someone for a PR stunt, is it?

By sowing the seeds of public debate, Lush did indeed reap the benefits of the public’s attention. Unfortunately, however, this stunt was undeniably brand damaging. Then again, it was always going to be – and Lush would have known that. Associating a horrific image such as animal testing with a commercial product, service or brand is going create associations with a brand that are ugly, even when the brand is actually campaigning against such horror. Lush have built a great high street business, and as such they aren’t ignorant marketers. That the company persisted with the stunt is a truly commendable decision.

Criticism with similar sentiments has been levied at another campaign with ethical messages: American Apparel’s search for XLent models. “Plus-sized” customers were invited to e-mail self portraits to the company to win the opportunity of modelling for their new XL clothing range. Unlike a similar UK campaign, Dove’s “Real Women” Campaign, American Apparel were not lauded for promoting women of all shapes and sizes, but instead slated for having no respect for larger ladies. Nancy Upton, who won the competition, actually sent in her photographs to mock the campaign. She produced a series of humorous images including one where she slathers a pie across her face and another where she stuffs chicken in her mouth in a swimming pool. With no intention of modelling for the company, Upton said, “Companies don’t do enough research or even talk to enough plus-size women to know that these are strong, confident women. We don’t need to coddle them. We don’t needto talk down to them. We can talk to them like other people.”

Despite the fact American Apparel and Lush were campaigning for wildly different causes, they both received a hefty backlash from commentators on women’s issues. Which raises questions how 50 Shades of Grey, another commercial product with very apparent themes of violence against women is attracting acclaim. Perhaps campaigners distinguish the novel as a form of art rather than what it truly is; a business. Perhaps it’s an admission of self-defeat, that the intense buzz surrounding 50 Shades of Grey – the first commercially successful, female orientated, bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism book (there’s an initialism, apparently, which is “BDSM”, but that was found by researching this issue, not that we’re “into” that stuff) – would surely overshadow criticism of the book’s glamorisation of women being hurt.

It could be that campaigners criticize established brands to obtain the most publicity for their own cause. According to a survey recently conducted by international consultancy agency, SIGWATCH, the most scrutinized companies are not the ones with the worst intentions, they are merely the ones with the profile to boost publicity for the issue campaigner’s cause.

Any brand taking forays into ethical campaigning places itself as a target for criticism. In marketing for a more perfect world, imperfections become apparent. It’s easy to criticise such campaigns, because nobody’s perfect. Campaigning organisations themselves aren’t perfect, and if they have such an arrogance, they themselves must be questioned.

When commercial entities make moves into ethical campaigning, they need to be supported – particularly by campaigning organisations. This will encourage more brands to act more ethically. If their first attempt is feeble, they need constructive criticism to tell them how to be better, not destructive criticism that will dissuade them from ethical behaviour in the future.

Trolls don’t just tweet

Trolling was once known as a simple fishing technique yet today the term is entwined in a tangled net of abuse, challenges to freedom of speech and questions of morality. In a contemporary context, a ‘troll’ is someone who posts vitriolic messages and images in various online environments with the intention of provoking or mocking others.

Public relations practitioners have an interest in this issue as protecting and enhancing the reputation of others is a major part of the job. However, the courts and law enforcement are increasingly becoming involved.

In June this year, an important legal decision by the High Court forced the social media site, Facebook to surrender the IP addresses and details of a woman’s online abusers. Earlier in March, troll Liam Stacey was jailed for fifty six days for inciting racial hatred on Twitter stemming from his comments about football player Patrice Muamba who was fighting for his life in hospital. With the maximum sentence for inciting racial hatred carrying seven years – the same amount of time you can serve for carrying a loaded gun in a public place – it demonstrates how serious shooting your mouth off online can be, and the need to be mindful of the explosive effects of words.

Extreme cases have even occurred where trolling has been used to target and cyber bully the vulnerable. In some instances, the combination of bullying and trolling has forced a few young people to take their own lives. Celebrities are not exempt from these attacks; pop starlet Cher Lloyd recently explained her constant fear of online abusers on the BBC programme Panorama. Presenter Richard Bacon also led his own documentary The Anti-Social Network looking into his personal experiences with the morbid world of trolling.

Very recently author and journalist Grace Dent found herself on the receiving end of a troll attack on Twitter. The situation sparked great media attention when it turned out that the troll in question worked for a PR company Dent claimed to be in business with. Needless to say, Dent did not take kindly to being disparaged online by a complete stranger and threatened to have her troller sacked. Grace’s response can’t really be faulted given the cowardly nature of the attack by a not so anonymous troller. In fact her actions have been met with much praise in the media and by fellow celebrities.

And so, the anti- troll bandwagon trundles along picking-up celebs keen to exert their right not to be criticised, yet many need to look at their own behaviour. Grace Dent is not impartial to making judgmental commentary about individuals and celebrities she doesn’t know personally; in fact she recently described columnist Samantha Brick as ‘creepy’ in her column for the Independent. Dent would likely argue ‘fair comment’ whilst a person less thick skinned than Samantha Brick may well claim ‘trolling’.

Being horrible about other people, including members of an audience, makes up much of the material of stand up comedians. Anyone who’s been to a comedy club can retell a story about the complete annihilation of an unfortunate audience member done ‘for a laugh.’ Nobody- least of all the comedian- ever takes a moment to consider how their mocking has affected that individual. Leigh Francis- famous for his 2002 programme ‘Bo Selecta’ and more recently appearance as the character ‘Keith Lemmon’- based much of his TV show around a caricature of the celebrity singer Craig David. At first the show was taken in good humour by Craig David, but after two years and five series understandably, it got a bit much with Craig detailing how inside it was absolutely ‘pissing’ him off and hurtful beyond belief. When questioned about Craig David, Francis shirks all responsibility claiming the sketch was a joke and insinuating Craig was being too sensitive.

With this in mind it is quite difficult to empathise with celebrity comedians such as Isobel Fay who recently wrote a sketch song called “Thank You Hater” based on her trolling experiences. Although incredibly entertaining, well written, well produced and with an important message, comedians need to understand that if they’re going to take the higher ground they must ensure they’re on solid ground.

Everyone communicating in public whether on TV, radio, news papers or online must understand that words have power and can hurt. Humour, criticism and straight up abuse lie very close to the same fulcrum.

As with many tales containing monsters, goblins and trolls this one ends with the monster being persecuted- or in this case prosecuted- and rightly so. Their vicious ways plague society. But trolling isn’t confined to the internet; vitriolic abuse of others- effectively a form of bullying- is practiced everyday by public figures as well as seemingly anonymous internet trolls.

If you can’t say anything nice, you’re just an ugly, warty troll with no friends. And you need to get back under the bridge you came from.

LinkedIn Users Loving Twitter Breakup

More than three out of five LinkedIn users (61 per cent) say their experience of the business networking service is now “better” or “much better” since their connections’ Twitter updates were removed from their live stream. The poll, carried out by Parker Wayne & Kent Public Relations, also shows that younger LinkedIn users were more likely to be in favour of the change. 

In June 2012, Twitter announced that tweets would no longer sync with LinkedIn streams, severing the two and a half year partnership between the companies. Ryan Roslansky, Head of Content Products at LinkedIn, said the split stemmed from Twitter’s “evolving platform efforts”, suggesting a push in efforts by the micro-blog giant to channel consumers back to its own site.

According to Michael Sippey, Product Team Director at Twitter, some of Twitter’s new features, such as expandable tweets, were not visible on LinkedIn. He noted in a company blog post that “[users] need to be able to see expanded Tweets and other features that make Twitter more engaging and easier to use. These are the features that make Twitter Twitter.”

Whilst many may have expected this backtracking move to be met with objection by social media users, poll responses suggest otherwise. Of the 300 voters who participated in the poll on LinkedIn, just 11 per cent of voters feel that it has become “worse” or “much worse” while 28 per cent maintain that their experience of the site remains unchanged by the split.

Many assume that younger people are the most hungry for social media updates from every platform, yet the results of the poll prove that those in a younger age bracket appreciate the split most. Of the voters whose birthday is logged with LinkedIn, users in the 18-36 year old bracket showed a significant tendency to say that their experience has been improved.

When the partnership between the two social media sites began in 2009, the syncing of streams was set to boost the number of younger users on LinkedIn. In return, Twitter was to gain increased exposure to LinkedIn’s fast-expanding user base. The sync appealed to users as it allowed CEOs and employees on LinkedIn networks to provide real-time updates to their connections.

However, the poll revealed that the general sentiment once tweet updates were removed was one of relief. Participants said that having LinkedIn activity streams filled with tweets became a nuisance. Where many Twitter users may update every hour or so, LinkedIn users might only update their statuses once a week. The result was that carefully put together LinkedIn updates were swamped by a mass of tweets. One user commented, “The tweets on LinkedIn were akin to spam mail, rarely having anything to do with professional networking”. Another user commented “it is too bad that this feature was abused by so many”, whilst one referred to the tweets on LinkedIn as “pointless rambling”.

Senior Public Relations professional at Parker, Wayne & Kent, Richard Bell, said “If social media sites are going to collaborate successfully, there needs to be a way to filter what is relevant for the different sites and for the different users. Syncing updates across all social networks makes the content untargeted to each networks’ communities and users’ various groups of connections. The time-poor business community wants focused content with a personality on LinkedIn; Facebook users want deeper personal information from people they’ve met; Twitter users want information, recommendations and short comment from strangers as well as friends.”

It is still possible for LinkedIn updates to broadcast to Twitter. When posting a status on LinkedIn, clicking the ‘Share on Twitter’ button beneath the text box will permit the status to appear on Twitter feeds.
The results of the poll here. 

News you might have missed during the Olympics

One message pervaded the British media over the first 2 weeks of August 2012 - with a particular emphasis during the 6th - 12th August. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic's “inspire a generation” message was unmissable, dutifully mentioned in a mass of media articles - whether news or feature; print, broadcast or online - and expressed by presenters, interviewers and journalists as well as interviewees. It was a veritable cut-and-paste of key messages during a largely manufactured public euphoria surrounding the Olympics TV event. The last time a phrase was so eagerly taken up by the media was probably in 2001 - when a war was declared on an abstract concept - has media coverage been so on-message. “The War on Terror” message was adopted by the media as much as it was proffered by politicians. 

The dominant PR actor during August has been the Olympics and Team GB. In terms of actual content consumed, BBC Sports reported the highest viewing figures in the history of the UK for the Olympics; 51.9 million UK viewers saw at least 15 minutes of the Games – equivalent to 90 per cent of the UK population. Such content generation provided an unrivaled vehicle for key message delivery. Excellent media training of the Team GB athletes ensured that the key message was at the core of every interview.

The media committed a vast amount of space and air time to the Olympics, but for most other PR actors - whether businesses, not for profits or even governments - it's been difficult or impossible to attract journalists’ attention with news that’s not centred around running, jumping, throwing or rowing. 

Now that the Games are out of the way though, journalists suddenly have a lot of spare pages and airtime to fill, and are hungry for news. Understanding the media agenda is crucial to securing coverage, and a vital element of PR planning. Big events like the Olympics are bound to dominate the media agenda and so block opportunities for editorial coverage of other PR actors. Organisations that have planned well avoided conducting any PR activity over the period. However, the world hasn’t stopped. Big events and noteworthy news were taking place  over the last few weeks. Here’s just a selection of things you might have missed:

• Kofi Annan resigns as special UN envoy to Syria – Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations resigned his position as special envoy to Syria during the first week of the Games. The author of the UN’s six point peace plan for Syria blamed his resignation on “finger-pointing and name-calling in the Security Council” in a letter to the Financial Times. Annan closed his letter by asking “is ours an international community that will act in defence of the most vulnerable of our world, and make the necessary sacrifices to help?"

• NASA lands mobile laboratory Curiosity on Mars – NASA succeeded in shooting Curiosity – a roving, robotic, self-contained laboratory on wheels that is roughly the size of a Mini Cooper – to Earth’s nearest planetary neighbour. The craft travelled a distance of 570 million kilometres and successfully landed in a circle approximately 20 kilometres wide. This is a distance that would take Usain Bolt – the fastest man who has ever lived – 1,459 years to travel, even at his top speed of 44.72km/h. Curiosity was sent to Mars to analyse the planet’s geology in an attempt to ascertain whether it could have once supported life. It’s nuclear powered, on Twitter and has posted several images from the surface of Mars. Yet it secured only one line on the BBC News front page, and the touchdown in the red sand of Mars was several pages behind Greg “Ginger Wizard” Rutherford’s arrival in the long-jump sand.

• UN Global Arms Conference dissolved – On the day of the Opening Ceremony, watched by 900 million people worldwide, a UN Global Arms Conference was quietly shelved without resolution. The conference had hoped to hammer out a treaty to prevent the sale of weapons to nations under arms embargoes, or to those who would use them to “promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.” The treaty has been supported by humanitarian charities including Amnesty International and Oxfam. However, the US, Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea all asked for more time to deliberate, and it is unlikely that discussions will continue until after the US elections in November. This means that, according to Oxfam, it is still easier export AK-47s than bananas.

• Rebekah Brooks and six former News International staff charged over phone hacking – Former News International Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks was formally charged with phone hacking (following the CPS's statement of intent weeks before) and importantly had court dates set. Brooks faces up to two years in prison alongside David Cameron’s former spin doctor Andy Coulson and five other former News of the World journalists. Brooks is set to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in September 2012, while the other seven accused will be heard earlier, at the same court, in August 2012.

• French Central Bank predicts slide into recession – France’s central bank (Banque de France) said it expected the country’s GDP to fall 0.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2012.  This marks the first time the country has officially been in recession since spring 2009.While this news compounds the ignominy of being roundly beaten in the medal tables by Team GB athletes, the UK itself was not immune. The economy continued to suffer as the Bank of England cut its growth prediction to near zero. However, in the wake of the overwhelming wave of optimism and positivity that swept the country over the Olympic period, this gloomy economic prediction was widely ignored.

• Rory McIlroy sweeps US PGA as Tiger lags – In our opinion, sports reporting isn't really news, but a record breaking is. Far from the madding crowds of the Olympics, golfer Rory McIlroy was quietly reclaiming his title as world number one. McIlroy, from Holywood in Northern Ireland, won the US PGA by a record-breaking eight shots – one more than previous record holder, Jack Nicklaus, set in 1980. Despite the fact that golf, along with rugby sevens, will be in Rio’s 2016 Olympics, coverage of one of the world’s biggest golf tournaments was pushed from both front and back pages by the Games.

• Magic Mike mix-up – A children’s entertainer from Scarborough, stage name Magic Mike, has discovered the hard way that all publicity is not necessarily good publicity. Following the UK release of Steven Soderburgh film Magic Mike, which features Channing Tatum as the titular character – a male stripper. The entertainer – real name Michael DeFreitas – has been receiving inquiries from confused punters seeking “adult entertainment.” Mr DeFreitas has expressed his bemusement and worries about the mix up, stressing that he has never taken a stitch off but is now unsure whether his audience will feature “screaming women or screaming kids.”

Nobody reads the papers for the adverts. They read it for the content – the news, the features, the interviews. But for the first two weeks of August in 2012, almost all of coverage in the UK was Olympic Games related.

While media dominating events can be planned for, circumstances can occasionally conspire to create a media storm that drowns out everything else. On 11^th September, 2001, only one thing was on the media agenda, and no product, release or event could hope to secure coverage for several weeks.

Some things are impossible to plan for, but events like the Olympics shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone planning a PR campaign. With careful planning, companies can avoid conducting PR activity during big, scheduled events such as the Olympics that are likely to dominate the media agenda. Instead, they should use the downtime to develop collateral and to schedule media relations activity for a more opportune moment. Ideally just before the media dominating event is over. The quicker off the mark you are to fill the resultant news deficit, the more likely you are to achieve coverage. 

Picture Perfect Data

They’re eye-catching, they’re informative and they’re easy to absorb. From maps depicting literacy rates across the world, to graphical comparisons of Starbucks coffee and McDonalds, successful infographics have permeated all aspects of contemporary media. They are concise, aesthetically appealing images which convey otherwise-daunting information in a way which is clear and accessible for the reader. But the key word here is ‘successful’. An attention-grabbing infographic is a valuable PR asset that enhances media coverage. Yet one which is too light on visual appeal or too heavy on information will fast lose readers and consequently, interest in your brand’s messages.

Infographics are not a recent invention. Although advances in technology have allowed them to modernise, infographics have held a staple role in media communication for hundreds of years. The weather map began as a chart depicting anticyclone patterns in the middle of the 19^th century. It has evolved into the finely tailored, animated infographic that we see on a daily basis on television. When presented online, the weather map is often interactive.   

Tim Frick, Author of best-selling social media and marketing book Return on Engagement said, “In this age of micro blogging and two-second sound bites, almost no one has the attention span, or time, to read more than a few sentences.”  Infographics provide a solution to this modern-day obstacle as they offer more detail than a photograph, and convey information faster than a video.  

Infographics improve media relations results as they offer variation from simple black and white text, helping to grasp the reader’s attention. They ensure that the communication of data, such as survey results and statistics, becomes more pleasurable as well as providing a vehicle for displaying company branding, corporate colours, messages and even company logos.

Social media also enables such infographics to be communicated virally. Making sure that an infographic is easy to share online by incorporating a ‘share’ link is imperative. Additionally, the images must be mobile phone and tablet friendly, and display effectively across social media platforms.

Poorly executed infographics are not only pointless, they can be damaging to a brand. A common error is to overwhelm the viewer with too much text, making the subject matter appear complex and boring – the exact opposite of what brands seek to achieve when using infographics. The principal purpose of creating these images is to condense information and present it in an easy-to-understand manner. The main ideas in the image should be accessible at a glance.  Information must be ‘bite-sized’. A picture should paint a thousand words, not contain a thousand words. An excess of text in the infographic will swamp the reader’s eye and make the key points difficult to decipher. Even if the media covers it, if media consumers stop viewing the infographic, it has failed its purpose and is simply a waste of money.

Every pie chart and bar graph comes with a key explaining the information presented, just as every map is printed with a legend listing and explaining the symbols used. Likewise, successful infographics help viewers to understand the data displayed. This is why infographics can work so well in PR when pitched with a press release. When an infographic is accompanied by an article, the text delivers expert comment and insight, while the infographic compellingly conveys the data. As a result, the main body of the text does not detract from the clear and concise presentation of the infographic, but adds value to the image. The consumer is given detailed content and varied presentation, which makes the information more interesting.

Aesthetics play a key role in the anatomy of any infographic. Generally speaking, the brain enjoys looking at colour and graphics more than plain text, so make use of this by employing colours which are friendly on the eye. The task that remains is retaining the reader’s attention once it has been attracted. Avoid deterring readers with difficult-to-read fonts. Too much complexity confuses the reader’s perceptions and makes understanding the infographic a chore. Structuring the image in the form of a flowchart is a popular way to guide the reader through the information that’s being presented. Simply using arrows, for example, helps to create a visual flow of data and represents a clear process.

One innovative infographic that deserves its social media acclaim is designer Rufus Blacklock's video infographic depicting the history of the Formula 1 car. This clip transports the viewer through 62 years of engineering in just 60 seconds, showing how the F1 car has evolved into its contemporary form. The visual effects, accessibility and soundtrack appeal to a demographic of viewers far beyond car-racing industry specialists. This resulted in Blacklock’s work being shared and placed on other sites including the BBC’s Top Gear website, proving just how successful a well thought through infographic can be.

This is not to say, however, that the recent surge in popularity of the infographic has gone without criticism. Some might see it as a representation of modern-day laziness, claiming that the simplification of data has become necessary to cater for our short attention spans.

But regardless of opinion, the use of infographics has revolutionised the transmission of information. Some even overcome the obstacle of language barriers – the map of the London underground, for example – as images are universal in language. The infographic is an invaluable tool for communication across sectors.  Not only does it create visual interest, it increases amounts of coverage, offers greater opportunity for brands to be displayed in the media and facilitates the understanding of complex subjects.

If you’d like help creating infographics for your company, don’t hesitate to get in touch at uk@pwkpr.com.

The Heroes of Marketing Week Live





The Parker Wayne & Kent team giving a presentation on heroic public relations on the main stage at MarketingWeek Live.

Evil forces infiltrated Marketing Week Live and kept the Centaur staff imprisoned behind a Phantom Zone of glass. Parker Wayne & Kent got there just in the knick of time to save the day.

We got down to work with Ignition One who are global leaders in digital marketing solutions, which enable companies to integrate and centralise cross-channel marketing efforts within one platform.

The Apteco Fast Stats team welcomed us on to their stall to tell us about how passionately they feel about developing marketing data analysis and campaign automation software, enabling marketers to gain insight from their data.

 We met Digital & Wise; who are a leading digital agency specialising in creative online marketing.

We value creativity at PWKPR, so we went over to see Fusing Creativity who specialise in strategic marketing that inspires, challenges and cares about developing business.

 Parker Wayne & Kent dropped by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations clinic to do their bit and lend a hand.

We met the guys over at Neolane who told us about how they provide coversational marketing technology that empowers organisations to build and sustain one-to-one dialogues with their customers. Neolane's customers must remember: with great power comes great responsibility.

You could say that Batman looks 'angelic' over at the Agillic pitch. These guys provide marketing software that lets you trigger personalised communications across any digital channel.

We stopped by for a parlez-vous with French company Canalchat Grandialogue. They organise  interactive web events for international companies.

We were full of beans to meet The Beans Group on our travels, who own two of the UK's most popular youth websites studentbeans.com and graduate site morebean.com. They help brands connect with 18-24 year olds.

 Parker Wayne & Kent took a long hard look at Steely Eye in the eye. We were victorious in the staring competition, and  won a briefing from the design and development team's position as a production powerhouse for some of London's leading agencies.

We met Grass Roots ProjectLink who offer a range of services from project management to participant customer care for rewards schemes.

We raced over to the Eden Red team who gave us a speedy run down of their range retailers and redemption options.

Spiderman got thirsty, so felt he deserved a little reward of his own. The beer was certainly an incentive and motivation to stop at the Corporate Rewards stand - who provide incentive and motivation programmes.

The heroes cleaned themselves up for a meeting with the Software Bureau team who specialise in data processing and address cleansing software. 

Here we are with DLG: they provide of consumer lifestyle data for both solus and integrated multi channel direct marketing.

The hero's descended on Kxen, the company instilled with infinite insight super powers.

We met Infusionsoft who give small businesses a powerful all-in-one sales and marketing automation software. No kryptonite can beat it.

We made friends over at the SDL. They let us know how they enable marketers to understand their customers and engage with them in a relevant manner.

Didn't know Batman was descended from a fruit bat? Here's the proof as he chomps on a pineapple whilst we spoke to DMRI who own, manage and sell quality data and data capture solutions.

Always up for getting down to business, Pro-Active are an innovative marketing company that helps make the most of both online and offline database assets.

We get social with digital and social media experts The Dubs. They told us all about their work with brands, content producers and audiences to deliver commercial results.

Digital agency Glow Labs left us beaming after they told us about how they help their clients develop online opportunities and make the most of their web and media content.

And finally, Her Majesty stopped by the event to commend us for delivering heroic PR to her kingdom...
All in a days work for the PWKPR Team.