November 30th, 2011 by
David
On the 25th October, George Monbiot wrote an astoundingly vitriolic attack against the advertising industry, an industry that Eulogy! is proud to be well acquainted with. Our expertise within the marketing services sector brings us into contact with many agencies and brands who tirelessly work for their clients and companies as well as a plethora of charitable and worthwhile causes, which I’m pretty sure don’t burden us with debt, restrict our freedoms or do any number of things that Mr Monbiot’s article claim.
Of the clients I regularly work with, I see inspirational work that highlights plights and causes the world over. Just a snapshot of these include work with inner-city schoolchildren, leukaemia and cancer sufferers and budding athletes eager for their shot at glory. Advertising plays a huge part in communicating the message that these often ignored areas of society attempt to broadcast, and in doing so bring in attention, funding and advocates.
Just a look down the street in the past few weeks will have shown the sea of poppies that flooded our streets in support of those who give their lives for the UK, a campaign that receives huge support from the advertising industry in terms of creative production as well as advertising placement. Case in point: a slot during X-Factor worth £3m was given to them free of charge for this year’s appeal. A media infrastructure that allows companies to spread such important social messages should not be so readily dismissed.
Yes, Mr Monbiot may dislike many of the products, services and messages (he’d probably just seen another ‘Go Compare’ advert) that are communicated through billboards and TV ad breaks, but there are constantly ideas and reports covered by the mainstream newspapers that could be deemed equally influential, misleading and morally questionable, and so I feel his footing in the argument is far from sound. In the end, surely there are more important things to discuss and critique than the too often used scapegoat-for-society’s-ills that is advertising?
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Tags: advertising
Posted in Eulogy!, PR industry, advertising | No Comments »
My latest guilty pleasure is Katie Price Signed (probably unsurprising coming from the girl that religiously records Jeremy Kyle everyday). Last week’s episode however, was actually educational from a PR’s point of view – that’s dedication for you. It was all about creating viral clips. The final nine hapless contestants were tasked by the Grande Dame of page 3 to “create buzz”. Each group were given 200 quid, a camera phone, a location and told to make a film that would go viral – other than that there were no directions. Whichever clip when posted on t’interweb garnered the most hits would win.
Chaos ensued as only two group members were allowed to star in the video and the other person had to film – inevitably this ensured that the point of the challenge was missed. Instead of spending the eight hours available to them coming up with a creative concept which might warrant spreadability, they bickered about who would be front of camera.
The results were pretty woeful. One group did a skit on Prince William and Kate Windsor (nee Middleton) on their honeymoon night, another also centred on the sex sells theme and spent the afternoon dressed as nuns flashing anyone that passed by and the third took the comic route of having someone dressed in a sumo suit exercising on the edge of a pond who was given a shove by a very Jim Carrey Riddler-type character. Despite being allowed to send the clip to one contact per group to spread the word and get the metaphorical ball rolling between them they didn’t manage even 1,000 hits. As one of the judges waspishly commented: “About as much buzz as wasp flying into a window”.
This just goes to show that creating a viral isn’t easy. What you may consider funny, isn’t to other people. The key is to think about what would make you forward something onto your friends. The programme rightly said that ad agencies (and indeed PR agencies) are increasingly turning to viral as a medium as it is a cost effective route to gaining wide scale awareness – however it is only cost effective if it does create wide scale awareness – otherwise it would probably be cheaper to place an ad in Downstream magazine (a specialist title for the Oil and Gas industry) which has more reach.
Viral isn’t easy and it just goes to show that not everyone with a camera can generate buzz; it is all about understanding how to get the clip correctly seeded out so that it does get those all important views. It is here that PR comes into its own. We have the skillset, the contacts and the heritage in creating conversations – both online and offline.
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Tags: Creativity, Digital, Katie Price Signed, TV, Viral Marketing
Posted in Consumer communications, Creativity, Digital PR, Eulogy!, PR industry, TV, Virals | No Comments »
Baking is my hobby. Unlike most hobbies you undertake after office hours, it’s not something that helps you lose weight or meet new people. Baking is a hobby that gives you great culinary skills but best of all it gives you the ability to put huge smiles on faces with lovely cake.
I’ve baked a few cakes and jam tarts for the office and I’m proud to say the discerning palettes at Eulogy! polished them off in minutes. I feel I’m doing a service for the agency by giving them a bit of sugar to get the creative juices flowing and create some excellent PR!
When I was asked by the Grand Marnier account team to have a go at making the brands chocolate fondant recipe I was delighted to take part. At the time I was hooked by the British bake off and considered applying, so I was treating this task as though I was competing in the competition. That was until I realised I was being judged on producing a type of cake slightly out of the realms of my signature bakes. The image from the recipe looked like something Raymond Blanc would whip up without looking. While I feel confident with sponge and pastry, getting the gooey soft centre and silky hard casing correct for the fondant would prove a challenge.
Armed with my ingredients and Cath Kidston apron, I pre heated the oven and carefully read the recipe instructions three times. As the mixture started to emerge into what I felt was the correct consistency I threw caution to the wind and divided the carefully crafted chocolate goo into individual pots. After placing the fondants in the oven I had one eye on Coronation Street and the other watching every millimetre of the mixture rise.
When the seven minutes of cooking time was up I pulled the cakes out of the oven and plopped onto a plate with whipped cream and icing sugar. Initial reviews were very good as the piping hot runny chocolate centre went down a storm with my first critic, my possibly biased boyfriend. However after sitting in the fridge all night waiting to come to the office the cakes did not look their best. I should not have worried so much, while they might not have looked like something from Pierre Hermé in Paris; they were devoured by the Eulogy! cake lovers in seconds. As I like to say, it’s not what it looks like it’s how it tastes…well that’s what I like to think anyway. The fondants provided a little sugar to fuel our excellent creative PR ideas.
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Tags: Creativity, Eulogy!, Grand Marnier
Posted in A bit of fun, Eulogy! | 1 Comment »
