PR, marcomms, recruitment and all the bits in between

Designer water

I love the way that water giants such as Evian are using Jean-Paul Gaultier’s design skills to launch a new chic looking bottle! The bottle will make its first appearance during Fashion week in Paris (29 September -7 October).

http://pourelles.bienpublic.com/Jean-Paul-Gaultier-habille-la.html

Recruiters

Like many other PR recruiters, I received an email recently from PR Week about a disgruntled customer who complained that ‘when I have been contacted by the agency - usually after chasing them up - I found that while they were happy to discuss the merits of my substantial experience, the positions I had applied for were no longer available’. I must admit I was surprised to read this – we always have between 200 and 500 live jobs but only advertise 20 or so a week with PR Week, so the chances are that the advertised ones will still be open. That’s unless agencies are inventing them, but why would they need to do that? It would be too expensive and there is not a shortage of candidates at the moment.

The job ad is a summary of what we’re looking for, written with a limited amount of words and often do not include many specifics that clients are looking for. So although a candidate may think ‘I can do that’ and give us a call, we need to talk to them about their experience and skills to make sure they really can and that they’re right for the job. There’s no point in stringing the candidate along and no point in wasting the client’s time by putting forward an unsuitable candidate.

He or she also says that ‘there appears to be a very cavalier attitude among some agencies in the way they handle applications, more often than not there is little or no follow-up and a string of lame excuses for not returning calls or emails.’ The truth is that there are less jobs out there than there were a year ago and clients have raised the bar. This means spending more time talking to clients about their needs and searching for their ideal candidates which leaves us less time for returning candidates’ calls. In this client led market we have to be client focussed, be as professional as we can be and deliver what we’re supposed to – the matching of the right person to the right job. 

So, apologies to the author of the email, but we hope this clears a few things up. We hope that you have better experiences with recruiters in the future!

Kayode Dauda

Pharma communication

Is the Pharma industry ready to embrace digital communication?

‘Today, healthcare communications is changing as much as the world is changing, which is why old strategies don’t work and why old barriers to channels, disciplines and markets are breaking down.  Soon, all of today’s sceptics will be converted.’

Enrique Alda, European director of Innovation, Ogilvy Healthworld Europe

Alice Weightman

Boiling frogs in the office

In your paperless office there is an ever-growing mountain of flagged, exclamated and deadlined emails with your name on them, which are tick tock ticking towards the dreaded 'due-in-10-minutes' Outlook reminder.  Your particular mountain is one of those over developed mounds which started life as a reasonably manageable scraping of mud from a giant's boot and has been steadily added to by other big booted giants since the day you were shown where the coffee and redbull stained mugs were stored. 

On top of the accumulated pile of beeping compost (your re-set due-in-5-minutes reminder) is another who could one day know how you feel, sitting grumpily with a croak of understanding in his throat - the humble frog. You see, he has an amazing ability not unlike your own - if you put him in cold water and heat it up gradually enough, he won’t jump out.  Instead, like you, he will remain unconscious and ignorant to the fact that he is slowly being boiled alive!

Rebecca Griffith

Not just another pub quiz name

“If you have a problem, if no one else can help...maybe you can hire...The A Team.”  Although not sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit and then escaping to become soldiers of fortune, Hanson Search’s very own administration team have long taken the A Team values to heart by taking things which appear unrealistic and pulling them off anyway at that crucial moment.

Although also easily recognisable as one of the most common pub quiz names, the members of this A Team live up to their names with unique resourcefulness one of their prevalent features.  ‘I love it when a plan comes together’ may be heard falling from the Business Controller Jenna’s lips before putting a KitKat finger in her mouth, not unlike Hannibal and his much loved cigar, followed by the Executive PA, Laura: ‘Cut that jibba jabba!’

Rebecca Griffith

Sweet handbag? Or is it just a bit rubbish…

One of my cool branding clients Bloom Design have a really great blog and regularly update on funky things happening in the world.  I was really intrigued by one of their latest posts on Nahui Ollin's handbags, which are made from old sweet wrappers! I love them! Great for the fashion-conscious, eco-friendly, handbag loving consumers out there…

Drug Deals & Corporate Aphrodisiacs?

Word has it that Big Pharma is eager to refill its emptying drug pipelines? Stephen Burrill has been quoted “the bio-tech-product land grab by big Pharma will reach fever pitch”. Well with big patents going off patent, all eyes are on the young biotech upstarts; this may well portent the long anticipated union of the two industries. Will these wealthy drug giants succeed or will the many biotech’s say not tonight Josephine?
It all bodes well for buoyant markets which is rare in current times.

Simon Blake

Marcoms groups defy the doom and gloom

Recent PR Week reports bode well for the PR/Marcoms industry with both Huntsworth and Chime Communications posting impressive half-year profits for 2008.

Chime saw profits increase by nearly 25% on last years earnings, with Huntsworth close by at 21.9%.

Lord Bell was bullish about the next 6 months, but the pressing question remains, when will he get a new headshot?

 

Jamie McLaughlin

Blognoodle

In a recent article, Unilever were exposed to spending circa £20 million (repeat…MILLION) in a campaign to persuade us intelligent folk that Pot Noodles are a HEALTHY snack. It may not be full of artificial preservatives, colourings and the like but it still can’t beat a bag of steamed broccoli (as enjoyed by our Director on a weekly basis!)

Some facts for you:
• It is estimated that 240 Pot Noodles are eaten every minute in Britain. 
• All you need to make a Pot Noodle is a kettle and a fork.
• There are 10 flavours of Pot Noodle and the most popular is Chicken & Mushroom.
• Pot Noodle is available in three sizes: Standard, King and Mini.           
• Mr Momofuku Ando, the Japanese inventor of the instant noodle snack, died in January 2007 aged 96.

In a society where apparently ‘health is wealth’ it seems that endless brands are trying to persuade us to keep spending our pennies to keep their profits in the black. Thank the lord that Unilever has had the sense to go back to the McDonald’s eating youth as their target market…perhaps they will now see a bigger increase than the recent 1% in sales.

http://www.unilever.co.uk/ourbrands/foods/Pot_Noodle.asp

Place Branding – the strength of cities’ brands…

One of my branding clients, Saffron, last week unveiled The City Brand Barometer.  As reported on Design Week, the study was designed to assess the strength of cities’ brands.  The study compares 72 European cities and looks at their assets against the strength of their brands. 

London and Paris came out on top, and are shown to be cities with strong assets, in terms of what the public want, matched with strong brands.  Also among the top cities are Berlin, Vienna, Dublin, Edinburgh and Athens.  Former Eastern Bloc countries and Baltic cities like Sofia, Riga and Krakow show that they have the qualities to attract tourism and business, but are being undersold.  The results of the survey will be published soon on Saffron’s website www.saffron-consultants.com.

To see an example of successful place branding, look at the recent work Saffron did for Poland.  Or have a look at the work of one of my other clients, Lloyd Northover, when they worked on the Black Country, a sub-region of Birmingham. 

Olivia Taylor