By Alex M

One of the great things about working in PR is the opportunity to travel. Whether you’re in-house or agency side, there is always a marketing summit or awards do to attend, or an essential meeting that requires an overnight bag and a passport. Admittedly the airport-hotel-meeting room-airport sequence does lose its shine after a while, but if you are the sort of person that thrives on getting to know your international colleagues and experiencing different ways of working, you could do far worse.

Of course there is a fine balance between when travel is essential as opposed to just ‘nice to have’, and particularly when you’re trying to be environmentally friendly it is important to evaluate each opportunity carefully before booking that trip. But I am a firm believer in getting to know people face-to-face, whether they’re colleagues, journalists or clients – and no matter how skilled a communicator you are, a phone call, email or even a tweet is never going to be a substitute for catching up over a coffee or visiting a client’s offices. How else can you really get under the skin of a business, understand the cultural landscape or local issues? Building relationships takes time and effort, and if that means jumping on the Eurostar or catching a plane every now and then, so be it. Just don’t forget to off-set!

By Becky H

There are two big events scheduled for 2012 in the UK. The first one is the Olympic Games and the second is…? Here’s a clue: it started last year and will almost definitely affect you personally.

Still nothing? Well, you’re not alone. Almost half of UK consumers did not know that our good old analogue TV signal will be switched off in 2012 according to the results of a recent survey by MoneySupermarket.com which we saw yesterday.

It seems amazing to the team at Hotwire that this can possibly be true.  Working in technology and with clients in this space, it sometimes feels as if we have been talking about the switchover for years already!

There’s no shame in not knowing the intricacies of the digital switchover. We appreciate that most people won’t ever need to know that the switchover to digital is vital to free up radio spectrum for new wireless services and technologies. We’re even more aware that ‘everyman’ will not necessarily want to know the minutiae of those behind the scenes – the infrastructure providers, test and measurement companies, signal assurance businesses or performance management providers. You don’t need to know everything about every service in order to use it.

No, the switchover will be deemed to have been a success when everyone in the UK switches on the TV in 2012 and…it just works. Seamlessly and as simply as flicking on a light switch, and all because of the range of service providers, test and measurement firms, service assurance providers and many more, have all been diligently working behind the scenes to make it happen. While confident that this will be the case from a technical point of view, there are two sides to every story.

From a PR point of view, the real shame, and threat to a successful switchover, is that these backstage contributors are leaving a very obvious space upstage in the spotlight. That vacancy is glaringly evident when reading headlines like, ‘UK still in the dark about digital switchover’ two years into the process.

As someone once sang, “this is your moment”. There is a huge opportunity for businesses involved to raise awareness of the process, educate the potential users and propel themselves into the spotlight. The real question is who will switch on to this opportunity first?

By Chloe W

Like many industries, the print and publishing sector has been hit hard by the recession. According to the UK’s PPA, magazine purchases fell by 95 million last year and the most recent ABC circulation figures for print and publishing also made for grim reading. As the demise of many previously popular, best-selling titles, such as Arena continue to hit the headlines and others such as Maxim are now only available online, the challenge facing struggling publishers is how to survive the downturn and how to ensure they emerge fitter and stronger on the other side.

The best way for publishers to support offline content is to produce a digital edition. Despite these clear benefits, in certain sections of the industry a perpetual reluctance to invest in digital exists. There is a misconception that investing in digital requires publishers to shun their traditional roots and that this by default signals their acknowledgement of a demise to print. This of course need not be the case, digital editions are not designed to challenge or to pose a threat to print, but instead to support it, enhance editorial content and to improve reader choice.

With sales of magazines continuing to decline, publishers should respond to fresh consumer demand and seize the opportunity to drive sales, increase advertising and to support their offline and website content. The challenge for providers of digital editions is to work with publishers to show them that embracing digital will not accelerate the decline in print.  Instead, it will support the industry through a difficult time by providing new and exciting prospects when the economy recovers. Publishers ought to be excited about the opportunities that digital editions can offer and with technology continuing to advance their ability to add value to magazine content and to enhance reader experience can only improve.

By Annie W

It’s official, we’ve launched a specialist digital agency, 33 Digital, and the news has been warmly received on and offline. The new agency is supported by a pan-European team of PR, digital marketing and web design specialists. Here’s a link to the full team.

In the UK, PR Week has already covered the launch and there have been a host of comments on 33 Digital’s blog as well as postings on all the digital platforms you’d expect, including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and FriendFeed. You can read some of the chatter here.

33 Digital will provide international brands with digital agency offerings as well as providing existing Hotwire clients with complimentary services. With the likes of Debenhams, FT.com and Evernote already on its books, we are very excited about what the future holds for 33 Digital. Best of luck guys!

By Giles P

The news that Oracle is to acquire Sun Microsystems came out of the blue on Monday. After weeks of speculation around IBM buying it and then dropping out, many commentators looked at fellow hardware makers HP, Cisco and others to step in for Sun. But the Oracle move while initially looking odd – software firm buying a known hardware company – on reflection, looks like a great deal. There is no doubt it will require clever communications with all stakeholders – customers, partners, analysts, investors, media, developers and bloggers – but it is an acquisition that if executed well will be a huge move for Oracle.

As commentators are recognising, while Sun provides Oracle with access to servers and storage systems, this is heavily commoditised and an area that Sun has not been doing well in. It is fighting hard on the server side against the likes of IBM, Dell and HP, and on the storage side has seen its market share tumble against the likes of EMC, NetApp, Hitachi, IBM, Dell and HP. However, as pointed out by The Economist, Sun has three software jewels that Oracle will benefit hugely from having under its wing. It has Solaris, a well respected operating system, MYSQL, an open source database, and Java, one of the most widely used application programming languages that Larry Ellison has said is ‘the single most important software asset we have ever acquired”.

With the Sun assets Oracle has a huge opportunity to become an even more formidable competitor to IBM and HP within the data center. What Oracle does with the hardware pieces and the necessary R&D required will be interesting to watch. It may feel that this is not where it wants to go and seeks to offload this bit of business to a traditional server manufacturer but given the huge number of Oracle Database customers using Sun servers and Solaris, it does allow them to keep IBM, HP and others at arm’s length. From a communications perspective it provides huge opportunities for commentary because as Ellison says in the announcement release, this acquisition has the potential to change the IT industry.

By Mairi D

Yesterday, Hotwire’s Energy team helped organise a press conference for the Renewable Energy Association (REA), which took place in the hallowed corridors of power at Portcullis House, Westminster. The event launched the findings of a study into the cost to the UK economy of failing to invest in renewables and energy efficiency.  The report quantified the benefit to the UK ‘balance of payments’ – the difference between imports and exports – of moving to a more sustainable energy mix, to the tune of £12.6bn. Any deficit will mean the UK will be spending more overseas on importing fossil fuels than it would have cost to build and support an indigenous renewable and energy efficiency industry.

The Shadow Climate Change ministers from the Tories and Lib Dems provided vocal support (and pledged action and funding…remember this, depending on the outcome of the next election!) for the REA, alongside a representative from the German Embassy. He described how Germany successfully implemented a similar cost/benefit analysis of its sustainable energy measures, showing that by 2020 the avoided imports will have saved €36bn, against an implementation cost of €31bn leading to savings for German industry and consumers.

Read the Guardian’s take on the news.

View the full report on REA’s website here.