Author Archives: Peter Davies
Old Alts and Altrincham Grammar School for Boys
Today I renewed my membership of ‘Old Alts‘ the alumni group for Altrincham Grammar School for Boys. I have fond memories of the school and I’m still good and close friends with at least a dozen of the lads I … Continue reading
Content marketing infographic
Here’s a nice infographic on content marketing to ease you softly into 2013. Happy New Year to everyone!
Costello’s and Altrincham real ale
One of the finest places to sup real ale in Altrincham is Costello’s situated in Goose Green. A hybrid of bar and pub it is operated by the Dunham Massey Brewing Company. Altrincham Pilsner is a lovely drop beloved of … Continue reading
PR agencies deliver the’ best ideas’
PR agencies are the group most likely to deliver creativity and ‘best ideas’ to comms directors, according to research by PR Week. This is a big change from last year when agencies were lagging behind in-house teams and advertising agencies. … Continue reading
Has PR lost its creativity?
There’s an increasing demand from clients for PR agencies to be more creative when it comes to executing campaigns. PR Week carries a couple of interesting items on this theme. The headline this week concerns Mars (the confectionery firm not … Continue reading
Top ten PR tips for SMEs
Getting the basics of PR right means that you’ll see the benefit of plenty of free media coverage for your business. Too many businesses either don’t have the time or resource to focus on PR and marketing but there are … Continue reading
Urgent – please help find Chris Brahney
UPDATE: Regretfully Chris was found in the Manchester Ship Canal. My thoughts go out to all his friends and family at this sad time. R.I.P Chris. I went to see the Stone Roses on Friday 29th June 2012 and just about … Continue reading
How to handle a Jeremy Paxman interview
PR folk have been quick to plug their own media training services following the appearance of Chloe Smith on Newsnight. If you haven’t seen the interview – and you’re prepared to cringe for several minutes as Smith gets owned by … Continue reading
The impact of late pizza on your PR
A tasty PR campaign cooked up by ONIRIA/TBWA saw two pizza shops provide a deliberately slow service to help customers begin to understand those affected by hunger. Teaming up with the Food Bank Foundation, the agency persuaded the “two important … Continue reading
Nice PR stunt for the humble…sponge
If you handle PR for a company that makes sponges then it can be a be a tough brief to make them famous. This PR agency came up with the idea of giving restaurant punters the choice of paying the … Continue reading
PR lesson #2…don’t sue the Daily Mail
Everyone makes mistakes. However, there’s none as stupid as Carima Trimingham’s idea to sue the Daily Mail. It seems the PR adviser took exception to some childish name-calling by the newspaper and wanted a massive amount of compensation. Boo-hoo. You … Continue reading
Did you make the PR Week Top 150 Agencies list?
It was pleasing to see some Manchester-based PR agencies in this year’s PR Week Top 150 list. The report (which features in this week’s issue) highlights the growth of some of the country’s top PR companies. Manchester and Cheshire agencies … Continue reading
PR fun with Google Street View
Ever since I first saw Google Street View a couple of years ago I’ve been hooked. Being able to do a virtual walk up memory lane is a great way to while away a lunch hour or two. I hadn’t … Continue reading
The universal truth about working in a PR agency
Sometimes some clever clogs comes along with a nifty bit of creative that really cuts through. To the genius who made this about working in a PR agency – I don’t know who you are but I salute you. Enjoy.
Stop talking bullshit
There’s too much waffle in the world. A nice blog post by my friend and creative genius Dave Milligan-Croft, found that he was exposed to more than 7,000 brands in one day. You can read his excellent ‘Brands for Breakfast’ … Continue reading
PR and SEO for Manchester solicitors
I know from my PR work with lawyers that they tend to scoop up more work by targeting so-called ‘long tail keyword searches’ performed by Google users. Some research recently indicated that law firms are more likely to attract and convert … Continue reading
Can HR and PR work together?
“I wanted a happy culture…so I fired all the unhappy people” There are many good reasons why your PR agency should work closely with your HR department. At the most basic level HR departments are fertile ground for human interest … Continue reading
Manchester and Cheshire PR and corporate photography service
After more than ten years of working with Manchester and Cheshire’s best PR photographers I’ve decided to launch my own photography studio for clients looking for corporate and commercial photography. If you need photography, for a fixed-price, to accompany: a … Continue reading
How to value a brand
One of the questions clients ask marketing and branding agencies when undergoing a re-brand or a brand refresh exercise is how do we value it? Let’s assume a client has already attributed a financial cost to a re-brand. Remember, that’s … Continue reading
How to avoid a ‘soggy middle’
The starting point for marketing a brand is to uncover what it truly represents. If a branding agency has done its job properly and the market research is done and dusted what a business actually represents is very often not … Continue reading
PR agencies save ‘millions of pounds’
Some good news has emerged for PR companies and their clients who are facing ever increasing redtape and fees – but the picture is still far from clear. The Copyright Tribunal today slashed the licence fee increases the NLA had … Continue reading
Smoking is less addictive than tweeting
Researchers have found that we are more likely to reach for Facebook and Twitter than we are to reach for a cigarette or our favourite alcoholic beverage. The research involved more than 200 participants and researchers believe that this is likely to be because … Continue reading
PR gets personal with social media
Personalisation is one of the new four p’s of marketing which is why I’m impressed with this creative use of Facebook. Heinz used Facebook as a platform for fans to send personalized tins of soup to friends suffering with a cold. Heinz … Continue reading
Freelance PR scene in Manchester
Since launching my PR career in 1999 I’ve noticed a huge increase in the number of experienced freelance PR consultants operating in Manchester. There are still relatively few PR agencies in Manchester but the number and quality of freelance PR consultants … Continue reading
Does Twitter need a PR Agency?
One of the biggest PR firms in the world recently parted company with Twitter – after just a few weeks. Rather than dwell on what makes a client fire a PR agency after just a few weeks (it was a … Continue reading
The best slogan of all time is on my wall
There’s loads of media buzz flying about today discussing a poll which reveals the ‘best slogans of all time’. The top spot goes to Maurice Drake who devised the classic Beanz Meanz Heinz slogan. His inspiration? A few pints with his … Continue reading
Join the CIPR North West
All the finance directors that I know are members of CIMA. All the HR managers I meet are members of the CIPD. Loads of managing directors I meet are members of the IOD. The CIPR is the only chartered body … Continue reading
Ten simple truths for clients and Manchester PR companies
I hope my industry peers working in Manchester PR companies, brand marketers and businesses find this post valuable. Here follows ten simple truths about social media marketing, the role of the client and the role of the PR agency… It’s … Continue reading
Is PR the new advertising?
Of course you know that PR is the best value for money marketing spend you can get and if you’re reading this blog you’ll know the power of PR over advertising. Danny Rogers, editor of PR Week makes a neat … Continue reading
The internet is always wrong…sometimes
The more time you spend on the internet the more you realise that everyone is wrong and you are right. Paul Weller once sang the more I know the less I understand and I can relate to that. I’ve got … Continue reading
How to PR a new product or service
If you’re launching a new product or service into the UK market then PR is one of the weapons you’ll need to generate some sales momentum. You need to speed up the diffusion of the product into the marketplace. Diffusion is … Continue reading
Five stages of the game
I read this by Seth Godin (who also appears on my ‘Thought Leaders of Men’ list on the right-hand side of my homepage) and thought I’d share it with you. You don’t even realize there’s a game. (And any contest, … Continue reading
Where are the good PR photographers in Manchester?
Who is the best PR photographer in Manchester? I’ve worked with dozens of good (and bad) ones down the years. But what makes a good PR photographer? A well-known business editor tells me that stories with a good picture have … Continue reading
What DO you do again?
Considering most PR agency folk can’t explain to their own mothers what they do for a living here’s an initiative that should make life a lot simpler. The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) is supporting the Public Relations Society … Continue reading
Linked-In infographic for digital numpties
I’ve been connecting with people through Linked-In for about two years. Some of my colleagues have been on ‘boot camps’ to hone their skills. Instead of paying for a course run by a ‘social media guru’ in a bland conference … Continue reading
Does price matter?
“There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey.” That’s a quote by John Ruskin, the English … Continue reading
PR in Altrincham
I was thrilled to be invited by the leader of Trafford Council to share some thoughts, informally, with some industry colleagues about a future PR strategy for Altrincham. We met up at the excellent Francs in Goose Green and I was … Continue reading
What makes you so special?
Every day you are exposed to more than 8,000 commercial messages. How many do you remember? How many do you act on? What can you do to cut through the clutter and get your product or service noticed? Having a … Continue reading
Local press gets PR boost
Being famous in your own backyard is always the starting point for a PR campaign. If people in the same street, village or town haven’t heard of you – why should the rest of the world care? A new campaign … Continue reading
Stone Roses, PR, Life and Death
Running the press conference to announce the return of the mighty Stone Roses has got to be on my wish list of PR jobs. Legendary music PR man Murray Chalmers landed the gig of promoting the resurrection of the Roses … Continue reading
How can brands exploit Facebook video chat?
Facebook’s new feature is a real time live video chat facility. You don’t need to type text in real-time to your friends (yawn…it seems so antiquated already) but you can speak face-to-face via a Skype application embedded in Facebook anywhere in … Continue reading
Pitches can be bitches
A good story about pitching is told by Jerry Della Femina in his seminal 1970 book ‘From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor’. The tale comprises of two hapless agency guys presenting a campaign to a prospect and … Continue reading
Neuromarketing is PR
Neuromarketing is probably what Bill Hicks was really raging about in one of his most famous routines. Beefing up your brand with the help of clever, bespectacled men in white coats is de rigeur for big brands. Neuromarketing helps brands … Continue reading
A new PR infographic
You can always rely on Brian Solis to come up with a nice infographic. The architect of the world famous Conversation Prism (as adorned on t-shirts and posters by social media agencies worldwide) made such a global impact in 2008 … Continue reading
Agency personality . . . which one are you?
PR Week discusses the different personality types found in public relations. Research by the magazine and APCO reveals there are typically six personality types found working in-house. In-house PROs were asked to pick which persona they identified with most … Continue reading
How to fire a client
There’s a nice piece in the latest Creative Review about how to fire a client. Every PR agency I know has had to fire a client at some point and there’s lots of ways to do it and plenty of … Continue reading
Idea#1…Manchester Think Tank
So, I’ve got this idea called Manchester Think Tank. It’s a website where people share their big idea for Manchester. It’s a crowd sourcing hub for ideas at a time when people are swelling with civic pride. The wisdom of crowds theory … Continue reading
Just another Manchester PR blog
In many ways I’ve been a blagger blogger all my life. I’ve always jotted and scribbled ideas, notes, opinions, expressions down in one way or another. I read all the marketing and PR trade press and come away inspired, annoyed, … Continue reading
