Blog

By Alysha S

Last night, as I started to wind down for the evening, I found myself watching “The Big Bang Theory” and was completely absorbed in Sheldon’s ramblings on quantum mechanics. Listening intently, it got me thinking that as socially-stunted as Sheldon’s character is supposed to be, he can certainly deliver a good speech. Obviously covered in satire and sarcasm, but the boy captures his audience, even one entirely non-interested in quantum mechanics like myself. But how?

If you look through history, there have been numerous individuals who have managed to gather some quite momentous mainstream support for some very simple and sometimes tedious concepts. Why do some people manage to stir up a storm and others are left sitting on their soap boxes with no audience, but perhaps some brilliantly untapped ideas? In my opinion, it all comes down to packaging: not just aesthetic packaging (not everyone can capture an audience by looking like Cheryl Cole) but the entire package from appearance through to position, knowledge and delivery. From a PR perspective, we focus on ensuring that companies provide the best spokespeople, who deliver the right messages for the company and through their rapport nurture solid relationships with their wider audiences.

But when it comes to the crunch why was I so enthralled by Sheldon’s speech? Well it’s quite simple really – he’s an authority on the subject, has a clear argument when he delivers, is relaxed and confident in what he is saying and most importantly, doesn’t shy away from questions but tackles them head-on, using them to support his argument and stay on track.

But I think what’s more important and often overlooked is that he is clearly passionate about quantum mechanics and we all know passion is infectious. What makes a good spokesperson is this kind of passion for the topic and allowing that passion to extend to your delivery. You can always find someone with good presentation skills but finding someone with the passion to excite and engage is what makes a truly inspiring spokesperson.

By Lauren M

Social media has truly erupted over the past three years and has lead to a wealth of personal information being available online for all who care to look at it. Today however we stand at an interesting juncture where new laws look set to more carefully police how the information we disclose online can be used by third parties. We have all read stories in the media about the mistakes employees and family members have made on social media platforms that have led to employer action, but should employers be able to use what they find on our profiles against us in a court of law? One court in Germany has ruled no!

The law states that employers will not be able to use content found on social networking sites such as Facebook when they come to make decisions on new recruits. Dubious drunken photos and ‘look away’ status updates cannot influence a decision. Is this a fair ruling, should we no longer be held to account for our digital indiscretions?

It is scarily easy to find photos, age/sex/location and other sensitive data from a simple Google search. As highlighted last week by Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt: “I don’t believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time”. Schmidt commented that one day young people may have to change their names to avoid being haunted by their online past.

Our generation however cannot rely on the excuse of youth. If we are savvy enough to create a profile and choose to share our personal lives we need to take responsibility for what we post. Surely by passing laws such as in Germany we are effectively wrapping people up in cotton wool. Rather than allowing potential employees to get away with whatever they like online, perhaps the emphasis should shift towards educating them on what they should and shouldn’t be sharing with their social networks.

Fiona S

I’m sitting here at Hotwire, dressed in the clothes my housemate picked out for me (entirely the opposite of what I originally chose this morning) and getting acquainted with our blog system and the torrents of different opinions that fly around the London office. In the two hours I’ve been here, I’ve heard two colleagues debate the merits of Portugal as a holiday destination and the incomparability of Australia and the UK as countries to live in, due to their divergent lifestyle choices.

Trivial as these debates may sound, it did made me think about the whole concept of influence. Casting my mind back, I can’t actually remember the last time my restaurant choice wasn’t dictated by a rave review I read in a newspaper or magazine, or when I last bought a product on Amazon that hadn’t been given a five star rating.

The power of influence from a broad range of sources is nothing new, but in this age of hyper-mediated communications, a term gaining in prominence in the PR industry is influencer mapping. The clichéd discussion of the blurring of boundaries between traditional and social media is, to a certain extent, irrelevant. Companies seeking to grow their brand presence have come to recognise the diversity of publics they need to engage with in order to achieve their PR objectives. These include a wide range of individual bloggers, forums, think tanks, analyst houses, as well as traditional media publications (both on and off-line) which form the basis of the ‘mixed media’ approach fundamental to modern integrated communications.

However, the danger with the rise of the influencer is the risk of over-engagement. In this era of influencer mapping, using a targeted approach is of ever increasing importance. Brands do not want to be seen to be engaging with every man and its dog, when they bear little relevance to either the company or its target audiences. In an ever-shifting media landscape, the key to successful influencer engagement is selecting the right blend of publics based on fundamental clarity of a company’s brand values, key messages, target audiences and objectives.

By Andy W

I dipped my toe into a LinkedIn Tech PR Group debate recently by asking a question about typical hourly rates for a tech agency on the West Coast of the US. The response and subsequent debate has taken me by surprise.

Here at Hotwire we have a very transparent billing model based upon hourly rates. This has worked extremely well for the agency over the past ten years and has been the cornerstone of our success. It is our belief that hourly rates combined with clear deliverables costed alongside those rates provides for ultimate accountability. And guess what? Clients appreciate the approach and keep coming back for more. So this tells me it works.

A couple of the comments made by the Tech PR Group highlighted opinions that hourly rates suggested inexperience and contribute nothing to the client’s peace of mind. Indeed one response put forward the view that charging out at hourly rates put us in the same league as bricklayers. Now this in itself is no bad thing. I have tremendous respect for bricklayers. After all, they can stand back and look at something they have built. No questions about measurement or RoI there. But let’s not get into that debate.

No, the argument seems to be that PR professionals should quote a price for an assignment and price it according to the nature of the activity. I have sympathy for the ‘value based pricing model’ and can see how, in certain circumstances, it can work for both client and agency. Indeed, Graham Goodkind of Frank PR argued as such only recently when branding times sheets as “meaningless”.

My view however is that for core press relations activity and the majority of assignments handled by agencies of our type, a model based on hourly rates works best. Let’s be clear, Hotwire charges retainers along with the rest of the industry for all the right reasons of resource planning etc. Our difference is that we are not afraid of breaking these down in detail and providing our clients with insight into the time spent delivering the specific actions required of the campaign.

Times might change and while we are seeing an increasing number of projects that fit an alternative pricing model, the transparency and accountability inherent in the hourly rate approach will remain in place for the time being here at Hotwire Towers.

You can read Andy’s personal blog here

By Sarah A

As a PR agency, we pride ourselves on the ability to communicate creative ideas and campaigns to a high degree. Although I work within the operations team, I understand the need for strong communications within the industry and how important the use of language is to this.

Learning languages from the age of 10 has taught me how powerful words can be. Working on the front desk here at Hotwire, acting as an intermediary for both clients and colleagues from across the world, I started thinking about the international reach of the company. The strength of a business is often measured by how many worldwide offices it has, and Hotwire can boast five overseas. As the hub, here in the UK we don’t just deal with English-speaking clients and when we are representing companies from overseas, we need to make sure that the way we communicate our messages is appropriate to each region.

It is important to not forget where our clients come from and the impact their differing cultures have on the way we represent them. To lead the PR pack, there’s no room for falling into a comfortable lull and taking it for granted that clients will speak English; we should make an effort to learn a little bit more about their own language and culture.

The English are not well-known for being good linguists in the same way continental Europeans are. As a linguist myself, I am a strong advocate of going that little bit further, building a rapport through sharing languages and communicating on their level and not just ours. Even if it’s a few words, or even a whole sentence (don’t use online translators unless you want to embarrass yourself!), believe me, it makes a difference. The better we understand the client, the easier it will be to represent their needs. So allons-y! Andiamo! Vamos!

By Alysha S

It was as I walked out of Barbican station this morning that I took the opportunity to grab my phone and log on to my bank’s website. After struggling with logins, passwords and security questions- ahhhh my account balance finally arrived.

I wondered what it would be like if I didn’t have to navigate my way around their website using my tiny phone screen; because let’s face it…many of us now search the net away from our computers. And what if I received the latest updates or product info in my Twitter feed, or saw ads for new banking services as I watched You Tube?

It makes me think, I know that financial security is important…. In fact it’s paramount but with everything else morphing into social media won’t all UK banks eventually have to follow suit?

I work for the Hotwire marketing team and we sit quite near the banking & finance practice. Recently they conducted research into whether recommendations made on social media sites for financial services and products actually worked and I can’t say I’m surprised but they do; and more so than for any other type of product. In fact, 43% of people buy a financial product or service because of a recommendation from a member of one of their social networks.

I remember my mum telling me not to talk about money- its rude right? But today my friends and I openly discuss finances, which credit cards are going to hurt you later down the track and whether an ISA is even feasible on an entry level salary- so yeah I would definitely take this conversation online and probably trust a lot of the stuff I hear.

Some UK banks are right there in the thick of it but many others are on the back foot here and should be taking more notice of how they can engage online. If I’m being honest, at the ripe old age of 21 I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the finance industry but I do know, like many of my friends, that if a brand is constantly appearing in my online space I’m paying attention!

By Kristin S

The silly season is upon us. The media has lost every senior staffer to the seaside and we’re left with feature writers and interns turning their hand to news. Not for nothing is this period called the silly season in the UK, cucumber time in Norway and pickled cucumber time in Germany.

In the UK we have suffered through a front page story in the Daily Telegraph about research that apparently shows if you are insecure or depressed about your relationship you are more likely to suffer a stroke or heart attack. This leads to their inevitable conclusion that you really can die from a broken heart. The Daily Mail, meanwhile, had a story about a dwarf rabbit called Skater in London who had suffered from buck teeth and needed an operation to correct his overbite.

Asking around our offices in countries where the heat is starting to take its toll on the news agenda my favourite story came from Reyes in Madrid. She told me that this summer the biggest story in the Spanish news rooms is on where Octopus Paul, the FIFA World Cup legend, will live its retirement. Either at the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre to continue with his former work, or at the Madrid Zoo, which hopes to acquire Paul as a tribute to the triumphant Spanish team. They have even a `transfer fee´. Oh dear.

The only way out of this, from what I can see, is to avoid the silly season entirely by joining our news editors and journalists at the seaside.

By Richard J

So a new door opened in Holborn today for British banking. Metro Bank – a bank that welcomes dogs and promises ‘no stupid bank rules’ – will open its second branch in Earls Court next week, and plans to have 12 in London within a year.

But is the apathetic British consumer really interested? Well the first customer to queue up and open an account in Holborn was. He moved his account from Barclays today, because he thinks they waste all his money sponsoring the football. So non-football lovers and dog lovers may have some motivation to move to this new bank. I wonder how many of them live near the Holborn and Earls Court branches?

Customer inertia will be the main challenge for Metro Bank; people need a reason to move. Metro is focussing on customer services in order to provide this, but if it’s to woo serious numbers of customers, it will need to offer attractive savings and mortgage rates too. Metro’s products are not currently in those best-buy tables.

But if there ever was a time when the public want to see a new type of bank, it has to be now. The world is only just recovering from the first bank-induced recession in living memory and that public backlash against traditional banks is sure to win Metro a few fans.

By Alex M

I am writing this on my BlackBerry from my seat on the 7.08am train from Surbiton to Waterloo – except we’ve been sat outside Clapham Junction for the last hour because of a fault on the train which the driver regularly promises us is being investigated.

What’s amazing is how unruffled most of the passengers are, myself included. And when I look around it’s easy to see why. Rucksacks have been taken down from the overhead racks and laptops produced; BlackBerrys are being used to deal with emails, browse the internet or (like me) write blogs; almost everyone is plugged into an iPod and the buzz of sympathetic phone conversations with co-workers and the ping of incoming text messages provides the backdrop to this seemingly interminable wait.

If I’ve sensed the mood right, most people would be quite happy to stay put for a few hours more or at least as long as their batteries last and the signal remains strong. So could this be the answer to London’s transport problems? Forget the expensive upgrades, Boris – just give us wifi on the tube, power sockets on the trains and we’ll stop complaining about the delays!

By Becky H

The Twitterverse is in mourning today for Britain’s and indeed the world’s oldest social networker: Ivy Bean.

Ivy had over 56,000 followers after joining twitter last year at the grand old age of 104. However, this wasn’t her first foray into the world of social networking, having set up a facebook account at the age of 102. She was proof that life doesn’t stop at retirement and that there is never an excuse to stop learning, no matter how old you are.

It’s worth noting that when Ivy was born in 1905, the quickest possible communication was the telegram, telephones were a rarity (the first national telephone network wasn’t implemented until 1912!) and the Internet was a good 50 years away from its earliest inception. The world has changed so much in the past 100 years and we (particularly those of us working with new technologies every day) take for granted the wealth of communications options we have available to us – mobile voice, text, email, video calls, social networking and the good old fixed-line phones.

This makes it even more impressive to see someone who has not only witnessed these changes but adapted to them so enthusiastically. She was an inspiration and an example to us all.