– I’m a doubter

Which is why I consider this so bang on. Read more…

– Worth doing, but no news guarantee

Most business involves selling a scarce resource. Generally, the business offering is enriched or cheapened by availability. Lots of similar stuff and prices drop, and vice versa. Seasonal produce is a good example of this tipping scale

Strange to some it may seem, but the business of news follows the same rules. Value of the news product rises when the publisher leads the news or reports it exclusively.

Conversely, ‘news’ is largely valueless when someone else has reported it.

A media release by nature is a statement released by a self-interested party to a number of media outlets. Read more…

– Look what I just ate

Are we really so interesting that the digital universe should open its mouth to even more spoonfuls of streamed consciousness and random upchuck?

Why is it that this high frequency micro blogging is so popular? Apparently 200,000-plus Kiwis operate Twitter accounts.

I’ve always taken a dim view. The whole thing looks like sad attention seekers sticking fingers down their throats hoping to excite passing strangers with what they last ate.

But there must be something in it. I see that brothel House of Divine Milton Keynes recently tweeted to say that Lucia and Karol are working on Sunday. Great. Read more…

– How much?

How do you put a value on words?

What did Nike pay for Just do it – three short words all freely available in the dictionary? $1 million? $10 million? Certainly not 80 cents a word.

So why is it likely that Nike paid a fortune for these three short words?

Nike didn’t pay for words. Instead they got priceless steppingstones to feelings and thought. Read more…

– Long live PR

PR’s abstractedness and lofty service aspirations can make it tough for people to buy. Just how do you go about buying stakeholder goodwill and corporate reputation management? What might it cost? Can I see it first?

As important as these things are, commercial reality often narrows the buying spotlight to news media publicity. For some, in fact, for many, a PR agency’s only redeeming value is unlocking the door to ‘free’ publicity. Read more…

– “I don’t know” is expensive.

Marketing budgets have never been so closely scrutinised.

Accountants hover, knives probing for bone; their decisions slicing expenditure that doesn’t generate immediate cash flow.

But the lust for budget cutting could end up costing companies more in the long run, as new friction, or tax, attaches to revenue generation.

When people ask me about PR payback I show them this quote: Read more…