We are absolutely delighted to be the official PR provider for Cheltenham Fashion Week. Taking place in September, this is an event which will showcase some great designers, introduce The Cotswolds to some exciting new labels and also give young people the chance to gain experience within the fashion industry.

Cheltenham Fashion Week is all about:

Showcasing new labels and designers
Celebrating the UK’s top designers, especially those based in the south west
and Opportunity – giving young people the chance to gain fashion & event based experience

As the official PR provider, and in line with the core objective of providing young people with opportunities, Silver Ball PR will be taking on a number of paid interns this summer to work on the Cheltenham Fashion Week project.  They will work alongside our consultants to help shape and deliver the PR campaign leading up to Cheltenham Fashion Week 2012.

For more information, on the internships visit http://www.silverballpr.com/pr-careers-and-jobs.php

View the advert here

I think it would be fair to say that this is another nail in the Costa Cruises coffin. That brand is going to need more crisis communications support than Fergie needed when she met the Fake Sheik.

When one thing goes wrong for a brand, you can usually rebuild the public’s trust. When two things go wrong in less than two months, people start to think that there must be a deep lying issue within the organization – and in that case, rebuilding confidence is very hard.

Crisis communications is an art.  It is also a practice that has many facets – from the moment the story breaks to 12 months down the line when you are still trying to convince and rebuild your stakeholders’ trust in your brand.

This week there was the classic case of chalet staff barricading themselves into a luxury chalet in the French Alps following a dispute with their employer, Skithe3v.  Due to the fast moving pace of the media and social networking, they were able to secure the interest of the public within hours.  Their employer however was slow to respond and kill the story.    A resolve was finally agreed – but by that stage, none of the media were particularly interested.

Many companies don’t realize they need crisis PR support until it is too late and sadly this is to their detriment.

To finish, an entertaining advert from a company who doesn’t care too much about which boundaries it pushes…. Paddy Power….. See below their latest controversial ad for The Cheltenham Festival. Click the below link and enjoy!

Paddy Power Chavs Ad

Watch it here:

http://www.themontpellierchapter.com/explore/videos

000 Through the Lens May 11_Low res

1)  Build up a rapport with the PRs before going in for the kill.

An email out of the blue to a PR requesting a free holiday goes down as well as an unsolicited press release landing in your inbox. Give the PR a ring before asking for the freebie, introduce yourself and do your homework.

2)  Find out what clients we represent

PRs are always being told to do their homework.  We spend a lot of time finding out what you write about and for who – so spend some time finding out who we represent and where our clients operate in the world.

3)  A journalist with a commission in the bag is a more inviting prospect than one without

We need to persuade our client as to why they should offer you a complimentary week at their luxury 5* resort.   They will also want to know that they are most likely going to get some sort of coverage at the end of their investment. Make sure your publication would be prepared to run your review on your return or you have a commission from a media outlet that will.   We are much more likely to entertain your request if this is the case.

4) Make sure your readership aligns with our clients target market

PRs have justify every freebie dished out to journalists.  Make sure that you write for a publication which the destination/hotel you are visiting would want to be featured in.  We are not going to send someone from Truckers Weekly to a couples retreat in Sri Lanka as quite simply no matter what coverage you could give us – it probably won’t boost visitor numbers!  Tell the PR about your publication, your readership and your usual style of reviews.     This will help us make your case to our client.

5)  Finally don’t be scared to ask. Just make sure you have done your homework first.

________

Dear Ms Rayer,

We are writing to offer our services as journalists to review a holiday for one of your clients as our honeymoon.

We both work in the regional press and are passionate about travel and writing.

We believe we would provide an interesting case study for your clients and are open-minded to destinations, timing, holiday-types and what publications our review would be used in.

We look forward to hearing from you if you are interested in our proposal.

Kind Regards,

One ballsy journalist!

One could easily be forgiven for assuming the strange, silly and often pointless tweets look more like the actions of computer hackers who must have hijacked the feed. In fact this is exactly what Richard Bloch, Betfair’s international PR manager, wants us to believe. The tweets are part of a very deliberate strategy, one that has been in development for over six months now.

Jennifer Whitehead’s recent article for The Wall takes a closer look: http://wallblog.co.uk/2011/01/10/whats-the-thinking-behind-the-betfair-poker-twitter-feed/

Crucially, what Bloch and his team have realized is boring, corporate-sounding tweets are, well, exactly that. They fail to generate the kind of buzz and excitement which has fuelled the success of sites such as YouTube. The Betfair tweets are beginning to go viral – with hundreds of users re-tweeting the quotes back and forth to their friends.

So, now that Betfair has revealed that the Tweets were actually part of a corporate plan, do we believe they have covertly developed a new global marketing strategy? Personally, I prefer to still think it’s a few guys fooling around in an office who would rather play cards…

A total of 300 guests descended on the Bayshill Road establishment to toast the success of the hotel that has recently reopened after a multi-million pound refurbishment transforming it from its previous life as The Kandinsky.