“Change is the only constant”

The last ‘big change’ change I can remember in the PR industry involved switching from faxing to emailing press releases and wow, didn’t that shake things up! 

In case you didn’t realise, PR is undergoing some pretty big changes and we have social media to thank for these exciting times. 

The evolution of technology and the creation of social tools on the web has opened up a brand new world of opportunity for the PR industry. 

Huge debates have been happening (mostly in the US for well over a year) around who should own a social media program; how PR will adapt to social media; how and if practitioners will upskill to seize this opportunity; whether social media will kill PR; even how the social media release might kill off the traditional media release.  I know what you’re thinking - “Please dear God, not the press release!!!” 

I’ve spent hours following these debates in the blogosphere, and I’ve gone so far down the rabbit hole my mind has boggled, or should that be bloggled?  To date, a blog by Brian Solis best captures the state of play and provides the best overview of most current debates and Jeremiah Owyang’s Social Media Frequently Asked Questions is also a great starting point.

Renee Creer

This clip blew my mind.

Not just because of the freaky awesome technology or the fact that the demo, by coincidence, combined my two greatest passions (snowboarding and wine), but because it provides a window into the exciting future of customisation and user driven experiences.

If that means nothing to you, perhaps check out some trend reports at Trend Watching.

I hope Apple’s not listening but full props to Microsoft.  The clip is worth the whole 9 minutes of viewing time but the wine relevant stuff kicks in at about 6 minutes if that’s your thing.

There’s a scene in Zoolander when Mugatu says “Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigre? They’re all the same face!  Doesn’t anybody notice this?  I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!”

Crazy pills indeed.  We recently lost a pitch because another agency came up with an idea that was like nothing the client had seen or hear of before.

When you lose an account for that kind of reason you think “well, fair play to them.” I appreciate the value of a great idea and I respect it when an agency nails a brief with something unique.

The problem is that the idea was like something we had seen and heard of quite recently in the press.  It had already been done by a couple of other brands and funnily enough by our own GM about a decade ago (but they were not to know that).

Then today I stumbled upon this on PR Warrior.  Umm, great result but sorry Scrabble, hadn’t anyone heard about Extreme Ironing which has been around for aggeessss?  Or did they know but not really care because this was scrabble and not ironing?

Julian Cole covers off other examples brilliantly in this blog and more and more I’m hearing about agencies who, let’s say, ‘borrow’ ideas, repackage and flog them (I’m assuming) to unaware clients and eventually to the masses.

Is it just me or is this a bit wiffy? Or doesn’t it matter whose idea it is as long as you change it slightly and the campaign achieves results?

And what about the creative souls who post their awesome ideas on YouTube only to have them turned into award winning campaigns attributed to major agencies?

For me it’s about credibility.  Everyone is influenced by ideas and takes inspiration from what’s around them, but how about giving credit when it’s due?  If you develop an existing idea, pay whatever dues are necessary to the creator and ensure the client is aware of the source of the idea if it’s not an original.

But maybe I’m naive - or an idea purist - I don’t know…?

Posted by Renee Creer

We look forward to Thursdays at Stellar*. Not because it’s one more sleep till Happy Friday, but because on this day we get an email from Rev Graham Long, Pastor at The Wayside Chapel.

No, we haven’t gone all God Squad in here. We were introduced to Graham’s weekly Inner Circle emails last year when we did some pro bono work with The Wayside. In these lengthy emails (which are always immediately read, no matter how busy we are) Graham recounts stories of his week at The Wayside and in an instant, life is put in perspective.

Today another email arrived which also jolted us out of work world. Within it was the New York Tropfest winner’s clip. Shot entirely on camera phone, Mankind Is No Island by Jason van Genderen is truly beautiful and while we’re supposed to be word smiths in here, we can’t possibly describe how perfect it is, so just watch.

We’re in the business of blowing other people’s horns.  We’ve become so accustomed to this role we often forget to blow our own.  However, today we got this email from our client, The Wine Society, so we’re using it to blow our own horn:

“Thank you for all your hard work and dedication.  If people cannot see that Stellar* Concepts is the best PR agency in the known universe then there is something wrong with them.  I cannot wait to send around your PR update for the Young Winemaker of the Year because people will fall off their chairs” Eva Gero, Events Executive, The Wine Society

The finalists with MC, Jean Kittson

This is a big wrap.  It could be a slight exaggeration but who are we to disagree with a client.

What did we do to achieve such lavish praise?
For the second year we supported The Wine Society’s annual event, the Young Winemaker of the Year Award, with a publicity campaign.

What did we deliver?
This year to date we achieved 97 clippings nationwide and in NZ with a couple of big, juicy features still coming (see Sunday Magazine in Syd and Melb in Dec).  This equates to a circulation figure of 2,551,984.

Is this a lot of coverage?
Yes, yes indeed.  This is a veritable mountain of coverage.  If this coverage was a wine bottle it would be the size of a Melchizedek.

Why was this campaign so successful?
The story had national and international scope - so wide reaching appeal, while still being community centric (good for community press) + it allowed tailored, personal messages for specific media outlets.  Also, it was a newsworthy, topical event with a high number of participants which again, increased the appeal.

What was the business outcome?
Publicity helped drive a stronger field of entrants and attracted sommelier judges making the quality of the event greater.  It also helped to increase entrant numbers (up on 2007) and generated greater awareness around the awards program and The Wine Society itself.

I’ll drink to that!

Posted by Renee Creer