Author Archives: Amy Johnston

Hull the most romantic city?

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Posted by Amy Johnston on February 11, 2009 – 1:33 pm
Filed under Public Relations

I’ve just read a NIB in the Guardian saying that Hull has been voted the most romantic city. Second place is London; third place is Wolverhampton and fourth is Belfast.

This survey was done by a flower delivery company, which used the number of bouquets of flowers bought on Valentine’s Day to determine the league. I know this is just a quick-hit PR story, but I wondered which cities people really thought were the most romantic.

If I had to choose in the UK, I think I’d have to say Edinburgh. I love the city because it has everything - culture and beautiful sights; plus the cosmopolitan bars and restaurants.

If we were talking worldwide, it would have to be New York. For me, it’s the most amazing place ever. I love being able to wander round the leafy village, jump on the underground and be in Time Square, then go over to gorgeous Central Park and finish with some shopping on 5th Avenue! I’m totally in love with New York - so it’s the ultimate in romance for me!

How about you? Which do you think is the most romantic city and why?

Barry Islands in the stream…. Proper tidy!

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Posted by Amy Johnston on February 10, 2009 – 4:59 pm
Filed under General

I won’t lie to you, I’m a massive Gavin and Stacey fan (said in Nessa style accent) so I’m v excited to find out they’re releasing Islands in the Stream for Comic Relief!

This should raise loads of money for charity, but more importantly, give Rob Brydon (Bryn) and Ruth Jones (Nessa) a chance to mock up a faux-music video… I’m just praying they keep the rest of the cast line dancing!

Don’t forget Valentine’s Day or else

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Posted by Amy Johnston on February 10, 2009 – 3:15 pm
Filed under Consumer Social Media

Agent Provocateur has recently launched this raunchy video on their website to promote their Valentine’s Day range. It is quite funny and definitely plays up the ‘girl power’ feeling that is evident in most of their communications strategy.

The ad stars ‘the next big thing’ in modeling, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and shows her punching her boyfriend for cancelling on Valentine’s Day. A little extreme but fun all the same.

I have to also say at this point that I’m not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day. It seems if you’re single you feel lonely and sad and if you’re in a couple you’re forced to be extra ‘in love’ just because it’s the 14th of February. However, I don’t think any men in their right mind would be cancelling on Rosie looking like this, the guys in my office certainly agree!

This web-based ad campaign was coupled with an exclusive male screening of the new collection for high flyers in the City. High-earning men were invited to private lingerie shows where they could find out exactly what women wanted for Valentine’s Day.

I think this is a good idea and is especially timely because of the press coverage about the banker’s bonuses. The events and advert address both of the key target audiences -men with money and women who love their products - engaging both groups with the brand, whilst creating conversation, word of mouth and some great PR.

The timing is perfect, so it creates a call to action for consumers and also encourages people to forget about the credit crunch - if you can’t splurge on Valentine’s Day, when can you?

Just don’t expect a visit from Rosie if you don’t.

Mummy bloggers, how to outreach in more ways than one

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Posted by Amy Johnston on January 20, 2009 – 11:40 am
Filed under Consumer Social Media

I read a really interesting article today by professional mummy blogger, Jessica Smith, about the misconceptions surrounding mummy bloggers. At work I have recently implemented a social media strategy for a new children’s TV show, Chuggington, and part of that was a blogger outreach programme.

Once we began looking into the blogosphere, we found there were hundreds of mummy bloggers out there, most of whom were extremely influential, with thousands of readers. On closer inspection of these blogs, it became clear that although all of these bloggers wrote about motherhood in some sense, their post varied massively.

These women were all mothers, but they had many more facets to their personality than just that. Some used their blogs to talk about their experiences with being full time mums, others talked about juggling a busy career with children. Some used their blogs to air their views and get opinions on parenting, whilst others had teenage children and used their blogs to vent their inevitable frustrations!

As with any outreach programme, we had to listen to these conversations and pinpoint the key bloggers who would be interested in the new TV show. We decided to put on a blogger event in London where attendees could bring their children, see two exclusive episodes of the show, talk to one of the creators, have a lunch and a tour of the venue, the Movieum.

This gave the mummy bloggers a chance to meet up face-to-face and get some interesting information for their blog. The real life meet up was one of our key selling points when approaching them about our event. Many of these bloggers knew of each other online and would comment on each other’s posts etc, but had never met in real life.

They were so excited about the chance to meet up and network, not to mention put a face to the name and meet each other’s children whom they’d read so much about. The feedback from the event was brilliant and everyone said how individual the approach had been and how nice it was to meet fellow mummy bloggers.

I think the fact we provided an opportunity for a real life meet up made all the difference to the campaign. As much as people need an online community and they are hugely beneficial, I believe sometimes there’s nothing like sharing a cup of coffee with someone and having a chat face-to-face.

This is something Graco in the US have taken full advantage of. In addition to their online community of mummy bloggers, they also host quarterly real life meet ups for their bloggers.

For me, the things you gain from meeting someone in person - whether that’s a journalist, fellow PR person or blogger - are invaluable. I think your relationship with someone changes so much once you’ve been able to experience their mannerisms, sense of humour and personality in the flesh. These things are very hard to convey online, even for the most transparent social media advocate!

Social networking is an extremely powerful tool, but I think if you combine it with a personal touch it is unstoppable.

Not another 2008 social media review

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Posted by Amy Johnston on December 23, 2008 – 3:26 pm
Filed under General

So, it’s that time of year where people reflect on the past 12 months and reminisce about the good times. Of course we’ve had the highs of Kerry Katona’s GMTV interview (still makes me cringe / laugh) and getting my new job here at Wolfstar then the lows including the tragic death of Heath Ledger and the worst economic climate for decades, but I’d rather focus on 2009.

On a personal level, I will no longer have the house to myself in the New Year. My lovely other half is packing his belongings as we speak and will be a fully fledged housemate as of 2009! Cue lots of arguing about the toilet seat being left up, socks being on the bedroom floor and the football constantly being on (that’s ANY football from the Premiership to the Chinese under 7’s annual tournament).

Plus, I think 2009 is going to be the year of the geek! Apparently, I’m now officially a geek because in three short months at Wolfstar I have started my own blog, tweet once a day, am on Linked In and now use Facebook for more than just checking out the embarrassing photos from my friend’s birthday night out…

I’m not sure if this makes me a geek, I just find these things make my job a bit easier. I’m still learning but I take a lot of these new tools with a pinch of salt. I think Twitter is great for making contacts and networking, but sometimes the inane comments (most of the time from me included) do get on my nerves!

I agree that having my own blog gives me a voice and a chance to express my opinion, but it can’t be a fad. If I stop blogging or just lose interest, it says more about me in a negative way than any post would.

On a work level, I wonder where 2009 and will take us in terms of social media? As I’m quickly learning, social media is ever changing and we can never be experts in the field. So how do you stay on top and in the loop, especially in the current challenging climate?

Did anyone in a 2005 year end review predict that a micro-blogging service where users could issue updates in 140 characters or less would take off and become the next big thing? (Enter Twitty banter, or Twanter, here if so!)

I suppose we need to go back to basics and remember that the skills and techniques are always the same - relationship building and communication - it is merely the tools that change.

As budgets dwindle and confidence drops in the business world, where will this leave PRO’s in 2009? Typically PR, advertising and marketing budgets are the first to be cut - so to succeed and retain clients, PRO’s need to raise their game and prove their worth.

I think 2009 will be a tough year for businesses and consumers alike. It might sounds like a very naïve view, but I think we need to stick together and work hard to make things run as smoothly as possible. Only then will people regain the confidence we so desperately need to get things back on track.

It’s nice working for an outstanding small consultancy…

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Posted by Amy Johnston on December 18, 2008 – 3:56 pm
Filed under General

Excuse the blatant self-promotion, but this week Wolfstar, the consultancy where I work, has been named the national Outstanding Small Agency of the Year by the CIPR. We won the gold award at the regional heats back in November, and we’ve now won the national award.

This is great news and I’m really proud to be part of the team. Hopefully this is only the start and we’ll go on to even bigger and better things in the future. I’ve been working at Wolfstar for just over two months, so I’m still relatively new, but definitely feel like part of the team!

I recently accompanied Stuart to the Don’t Panic Guide to Social Media conference in Manchester - I should have blogged about it sooner but things have been very hectic running up to Christmas.

The conference was great and I really enjoyed hearing about social media being used so diversely, by everyone from councils and police forces, to consumer agencies and big brands like Microsoft. It was good to see examples of social media in practice. As I’m quite new to this area of PR, a lot of what I learn is from books, the internet, my colleagues and existing blog posts. The speakers at the conference really put social media into context and inspired me about how it can be used in a unique and impactful way.

As I now know is good blogger practice, I’d better big a few people up…. Speakers who stood out for me were Tom Murphy from Microsoft, Stephen Davies at 3W PR, Meg Pickard from the guardian.co.uk, Mark Payne from West Midland Police and Marshall Manson from Edelman. All very different, but all entertaining and extremely informative!

Anyway, that’s all for now. It’s our work Christmas party tomorrow (double celebrations after picking up the award) so I may have some interesting tid bits to blog about in early 2009!

Also, if you want a sneaky peek of our Christmas video, click here.

Happy Christmas!

The Home Office and Pablo the dog launch new campaign to tackle cocaine use

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Posted by Amy Johnston on December 8, 2008 – 1:03 pm
Filed under Consumer Social Media

You’ve probably seen the Pablo the drug mule dog advert, created by Mother for the Home Office and drugs body, Frank. If not, click here because you’re in for a treat.

It opens with Pablo, a canine drug mule, lying dead with his stomach slit open. This may sound graphic, and it is quite a shocking image, but the narration by Peep Show’s David Mitchell is inspired and instantly changes the mood.

David / Pablo then comes to life and meets people involved with drugs from the dealer to the clubber to find out more about cocaine. He’s on a mission to find out the truth about cocaine but can’t get much sense out of anyone he asks. Cue him making a call to Frank at the end of the ad.

It’s a well made advert and is maybe just bizarre enough to create a bit of word-of-mouth among their target audience, 16-25 year olds. The advert aired on Channel 4 on Thursday and thanks to some clever online marketing and social media seeding, it has had over 20,000 views on You Tube in just three days.

I have a sneaking suspicion cynics out there may feel this is just an attempt to jump on the bandwagon of ‘shocking’ viral videos and that it could be perceived as a little patronising to its age group. What do you think?

Swarovski Crystallized video on Vogue TV

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Posted by Amy Johnston on December 3, 2008 – 1:10 pm
Filed under Consumer Social Media

More and more consumer brands are beginning to use social media to promote their products. This could be due to dwindling marcomms budgets during the credit crunch, or simply big brands realising the huge impact this kind of campaign can have in a relatively unexplored consumer space.

The Bag Lady recently posted about a great example. Swarovski Crystals have just launched a Christmas-specific campaign called Swarovski Crystallized. This includes a dedicated glitzy webpage, complete with online club and personal stylist features. They’ve also worked with Vogue TV online to create an exclusive video called ‘The Crystal Playground’ showing Daisy Lowe, Jamie Winstone and Pixie Geldof creating their own personal Halloween jewelry in the new London store.

I love the decadence of the film; it’s literally wall-to-wall diamonds and glamour. (Being a massive Jamie Winstone fan also helps - who else could pull off Mickey Mouse ears and a blazer and look that good?)

I think the way Swarovski have tapped into these key social media tools is very innovative and unique for a fashion / lifestyle brand. This method has allowed them to directly reach the Vogue audience, whilst remaining edgy and credible.

Have a look here and judge for yourself.

Mamma Mia and the power of word of mouth

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Posted by Amy Johnston on November 28, 2008 – 4:34 pm
Filed under Word of Mouth

Mamma Mia has defied the initial critics to become the most successful British film ever.

Now, in the interest of transparency, I have to admit to being a fully fledged Mamma Mia fangirl - one who saw the film, owns the DVD, bought the soundtrack and is often found singing ‘Does your mother know’ when I think nobody’s listening. However, on a professional level, I’ve also been blown away by the impact that word of mouth has played in the success of the film.

Mamma Mia had a very low-key opening; the premier was held in London and then a European launch followed a few weeks later. There was hardly any hype before the opening and the film was supported with limited advertising and PR beforehand.

In comparison to its opening week rival, The Dark Knight, (which executed a truly amazing social media campaign throughout the 12 months prior to opening) marketing for Mamma Mia was practically non-existent.

To be honest, I’m surprised that a low-budget film starring a singing Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth even survived, considering it opened:

  • a) the same week as the most hyped film of the year, which featured a surely Oscar winning performance from the late Heath Ledger, and
  • b) during the worst economic crisis of the past 15 years - the papers claimed that people didn’t have enough money for bread, let along musicals!

However, the film became the unexpected success story of the year and many actually credit its success to the timing. Not only did Mamma Mia offer an escape from our dreary summer, but it also offered some light relief from the highly publicised economic crisis. The sight of sun drenched beaches, beautiful people, great music and a happy ending certainly cheered me and my friends up on a cold Wednesday night!

WOMMA believe that word of mouth marketing is now the fastest growing and most in-demand set of marketing practices today. The power of word of mouth is immense and it’s something that consumer brands need to consider and take very seriously. The basic premise of word of mouth is that people like to talk to other people - and they certainly enjoyed talking to other people about this film!

Universal have since capitalised on the buzz surrounding Mamma Mia by creating a sing-a-long version currently being shown in cinemas around the UK - and it’s also included as a bonus feature on the DVD. (Cue lots of girlie trips to the cinema after a couple bottles of wine, or the perfect way to finish off an evening of X Factor.)

This clever modification gave people another reason / excuse to go and see the film again and experience it in a totally different way, whilst doubling the ticket sales, hence the record breaking stats - and also appealing to the current karaoke craze sweeping the nation thanks to games like Sony’s SingStar and dozens of new karaoke bars appearing in our cities overnight.

Mamma Mia has not only smashed box office records and given PR people a fantastic WOM case study, but it’s also allowed thousands of people to escape a recession - if only for a few hours. Just don’t mention “Money Money Money”.