Leader, unique, great….we’re all guilty of using these buzzwords in press releases, news articles and other promotional material but it seems that so are the rest of the world’s PRO’s. Earlier this year PR strategist Adam Sherk undertook a study of the most overused words in press releases. The results are pretty damming, especially when you look down the list and spot the odd word that you use in your own releases (usually on clients request albeit). Adam created a list of the top 100 overused words however as that’s a few too many here’s a list of the top 10 perpetrators instead/

What is the reason for the overuse of these words though? Have PRO’s become lazy and stuck in a rut, churning out the same old phrases over and over again or is it the clients fault? Are they that driven to have their keywords in a press release that it makes all future releases look the same?

Personally I think it’s a bit of both. In the short time I have been in the industry I’ve been guilty of using the words ‘Leading’ ‘innovative’ and ‘unique’ but can anyone honestly say they haven’t? Of course everyone thinks their product/service is unique. Would people really buy a product if it had no USP? Most likely not.

Note to self – must use new words in press releases

Social media appears to be everywhere, with the likes of Facebook and Twitter regularly making the headlines in news broadcasts all over the world. With this burst of online communities and networks, businesses have begun to look at ways of using it for contacting consumers. So seemingly PR and social media would fit hand in hand as if almost made for each other.

Social Media is being used so much now, to the point of becoming a new form of live coverage, following major events worldwide from the 2010 World Cup finals to the UK election debates not to mention press conferences and pretty much practically anything and everything else. But what are the best ways for PR to tap into social media effectively?

Importantly sites like Twitter and Facebook should not be used for invading clients or customers personal space, or used in a poor and lazy attempt to simply pour out endless streams of what can only be described as ‘spam’. This will only reflect negatively to the targeted audience.

They should be used for interacting with clients and their target networks, advising, commenting and conversing with people around common and business interests. One impressive strategy is making your company more personal by giving their social media a personality of its own through an employee, which leads nicely into resolving complaints in the public domain quickly and efficiently. Virgin and PayPal are just two examples who manage this very efficiently.

Being able to create a relationship with your targeted network is exactly what PR using social media is all about. Of course it lends its hand to showing off your latest bit of coverage or new account wins, but really if you can utilise it to network and build relationships and create a positive rapport then PR fits perfectly with social media.

Social media is still relatively new and with the speed technologies are developing at the moment and instant access to the internet we have available it’s hard to stop and think before the next strategy needs be devised. But as long as you keep on communicating with your networks and stay up to date with the latest talking points you’re on the right track.

Big Cat Group and AMP Entertainment have joined forces to launch a new European live entertainment consultancy, Big Cat Europe. The new entity will have operations in Barcelona, Birmingham, London and Paris and will be delivering projects across Europe.

The pan-European consultancy will offer services including booking and marketing services for a broad range of international touring exhibitions and family shows. The new firm will offer complete tour support drawing on the operational and marketing capacities of Big Cat and utilising the extended international reach of AMP.

The company recently handled the negotiation and set-up of the European premiere of “Star Trek: The Exploration” exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Science in Valencia, Spain. The exhibition opened on 22^nd July and will run until February 2011.

Established in 2000, Big Cat Group is a full-service agency incorporating PR, marketing, events and creative design functions.  AMP’s working relationship with Big Cat has grown through collaborations on the UK debuts of the exhibitions “Bodies Revealed” in October 2009 and “CSI: The Experience” in March 2010. In addition to carrying out the communications and marketing plans, Big Cat handled the setup logistics and on-site management of both exhibitions.

As part of the deal AMP France and AMP Spain will become Big Cat France and Big Cat Spain.  The businesses will continue to offer their core sports, entertainment and experiential marketing services, and will also be expanding their service offer to include creative design, advertising, public relations and event management in France and Spain. 

Both AMP and Big Cat see important synergies to be reaped from this merging of forces. Mike Molloy, Founder of AMP now named Managing Director of Big Cat Europe said: “We are looking forward to announcing new clients and projects in the coming months.  I will be working with Nick Morgan, CEO of Big Cat Group, to integrate the teams of the two companies to make these new projects a reality.”

Nick Morgan added: “Big Cat Europe will fill a specific niche in the European market that links major international content developers with promoters and venues. The new business will fully utilise the skills and resources of Big Cat and AMP which offer a range of complimentary services.”

Birmingham based full service agency Big Cat Group has been recruited by government regeneration agency Urban Living in partnership with Arts Council England to help promote their Beyond Bricks community arts campaign.

Beyond Bricks focuses on engaging creatively with local people and restoring community pride in neighbourhoods within the Urban Living catchment area.* as part of an ambitious regeneration programme which aims to improve housing and living conditions for thousands of people. The scheme is one of a number of projects which Urban Living has established in order to increase community cohesion within the area.

Big Cat will support the campaign by handling the PR for a number of artistic projects and workshops taking place over the next four month which are being managed by community arts organisation Multistory. Activities range from creating a local magazine to erecting community statues, allowing residents to work together and celebrate their community.

Anthony Tattum, Managing Director, says: “We are thrilled to be working on such an important project for the communities of Birmingham. The Beyond Bricks campaign has a community spirited message with the aim to bring people together. We are excited about being involved in such a worthwhile venture.”

Tess Randles, Urban Living’s PR and Communications Manager, adds:”We wanted to ensure that the Beyond Bricks campaign would really get noticed and engender the kind of pride and involvement that makes a tangible difference. This is why we brought Big Cat in and the signs are that the campaign is already getting noticed.” 

Earle, who was sacked early last week for passing on tickets that he, had obtained through ITV for family and close friends only. The tickets somehow managed to find their way into the hands of 36 female Holland supporters who just so happened to be pulling an advertising stunt for Bavaria Beer.

This landed Earle in big trouble with FIFA, the FA and England supporters. FIFA have launched into legal action with the Dutch beer company, whilst 2 of the 36 females have found themselves in South African Court, possibly facing jail for illegal advertising.

England fans have been complaining that pundits shouldn’t even be able to get their hands on anywhere near the number of tickets Earle had managed to buy from ITV at a discounted rate.

Somehow, I don’t think Earle will be able to pass off the troop of young females as his close family and friends, and the ex Wimbledon and Jamaica international has even been dropped as an ambassador for the 2018 World Cup bid.

This is the second issue ITV have blundered into since the World Cup began, after their HD coverage missed Steven Gerrard’s early opener against USA. With all the bad press around at the moment, they’ll have certainly been hoping for a Gary Lineker love rat story to break at any moment for them. However in true fashion bad things do tend to come in 3’s, and although we can’t firmly put the blame on ITV for England’s lacklustre performance and 4-1 capitulation to Germany so it would seem they are now through the worst of it.

They missed one of England’s 3 world cup goals, one of there pundits sold on tickets and made them and himself look like rather stupid, and before they could redeem themselves England managed to knock themselves out of the competition. Never mind, 4 more years!

Well Done Nick from the entire Big Cat team!?!

It seemed to have crossed the line but the FA has evidently seen fit to intervene in the latest scandal to have hit football. Whilst not quite on the national scale of Ashley Cole’s numerous affairs or John Terry’s infidelities, it does pose the most significant threat to the harmony of the England team and strikes at the heart of the credibility of the one time untouchable England Manager, Fabio Capello.

The subject of the controversy is Capello’s new business venture unveiled on 10^th May, which would have seen him publish his post match reports from the World Cup in order to collate a performance table/ranking system. The goal of the service termed the Capello Index, would have been to create an accurate scoring system that would be implemented into Capello’s soon to be released video game Capello XI. The move was immediately branded as a ‘PR own Goal’ from the usually suave Capello.

Imagine if you will having submitted a tender or proposal, that the first thing your bosses did was to immediately Tweet about your performance even going so far as to give you a score out of ten. The embarrassment alone would impair your judgement on your next case and cause you to question yourself, making decisions that normally you would not. That in effect, is the system that Capello was hoping to deploy.

Amidst the growing debate Capello’s employer (the FA) have stepped in and put the kibosh on the deal suggesting that the move is insensitive and could affect the mood of the players. This comes as a massive blow for both Capello and Pitch who were brought in to handle PR for the account. In the wake of all the bad press and with an indefinite postponement and distancing from Capello, it will be interesting in the coming weeks to see how Pitch can disencumber the rubble of their campaign.

In the wake of the sex scandals that have left Woods a virtual recluse for months, last weeks Masters was supposed to be the beginning of the way back for the fallen hero. Behind the return were a dedicated PR team that have guided him through his recent turmoil to deliver him to the Masters. But the reality of the ending is far from the fairy tale Woods’ remaining sponsors would have hoped for.

In basic terms for a man that has not played competitive golf for some six months, to be able to contend on such a brutal course as Augusta is a feat in itself. Alas, his final day with its ups and downs, moments of pure genius and foolery saw him finish the tournament in a commendable fourth. But what was the perception of the new Tiger and did he at times revert back to the man people associate with the scandal?

Prior to the Masters Nike ploughed millions of dollars into adverts that showed a humble Tiger listening to words of wisdom from his departed father. Earl Woods was widely regarded as the only person Tiger was willing to answer to and the campaign was at first heralded as a stroke of genius for its utilisation of a voice over from Woods’ father. Whilst the advert may have swayed fans, it seems to have further enraged his long suffering wife and could potentially be the last nail in the coffin that is their marriage.

This was seemingly the height of the PR effort that frankly has been less than stellar, topping off a catalogue of errors that, in my humble opinion, have made this situation ten times worse. In the first instance Woods’ ridiculous commendation of the efforts of his wife in freeing him from his crashed vehicle reeked of cover up and opened the floodgates for the press to dig deeper and the gold diggers to line up. Subsequent denials then confirmations and stories of huge payouts to tell tale women, have all piled on the agony for the Woods family. This culminated with his presentation to the world where he admitted his guilt. But even this was wooden and did little to assuage the anguish felt by fans who had been let down by their hero.

Finally, Masters week was upon us and what we all expected was a triumphant return. It was not to be however and the polished veneer of a new humble Tiger fell away at times and he allowed the arrogance associated with the old Woods to seep back into his performance. With a week that started with Woods fist punching crowd members, smiling and acknowledging the crowd more than ever before, it ended with him sloping off like a petulant child highlighted by his three putt on the 14th. It seems his PR efforts stop when he is not winning.

Let me clarify my position. I am one of those long standing fans who quite honestly could not care less about what he gets up to off the course. For me it’s all about his talent. I respect and understand his sullen nature at times as he is a consummate professional performing under difficult circumstances. His lack of attending celebrity venues is a representation of his sportsman discipline. Granted, had that same discipline been applied to his love life then none of the last six months would have happened but they have.

With Woods on hiatus for the near future, his PR team will no doubt be dreaming up new ways of presenting brand Woods to the public once more. I just hope that they do a better job in the aftermath of the storm than they did in its eye.   

In 2008 Big Cat were responsible for the PR account for the inaugural Hello Digital festival designed to bring together non-techies and techies alike to explore the new developments in the digital world.

 The efforts of Big Cat generated a PR campaign worth an estimated £180,000 and was spear headed by a publicity stunt involving a 8 foot robot named Titan. He took over the Bullring shopping centre squirting patrons and generally wreaking havoc all in the name of Hello Digital resulting in features on ITV News and multiple articles in regional press. 

It seems the menacing robot has reappeared and was spotted at The Gadget Show Live which took place at the NEC from 8^th – 11^th April, showing that when it comes to forward thinking you just can’t beat a Big Cat.

Nick Clegg and David Cameron need not flex their creative muscles when it comes to smearing the current PM as it seems that Gordon Brown, shovel in hand, is more than happy to dig his own gave.

Having been advised recently to engage more with the public as it was felt he was previously seen as being too aloof, the PM has gone on the offensive meeting the public left right and centre. It seems though that his advisers forgot who their candidate was; the George Bush of British Politics.

The PM was in Rochdale when he came across life-long Labour voter Gillian Duffy. Towering over the pensioner, Brown began confidently defending policies on pensions and accepting praise for the state of the school system in Rochdale. When presses on the issue of migration the PM (seeming somewhat flustered at this point) tried to deflect the question stating “a million people come into here…but a million British people have gone into Europe”. Deflecting the question he returned to policies where Labour has had some success in an attempt to end the matter on a high.

However Brown was unaware as he extradited himself from the situation that his microphone was still. He began engaging in a personal conversation with one of his assistants in which he blames ‘Sue’ for making him speak with the woman and called the woman in question a ‘bigot’, assumedly relating to her pressing on the immigration issue.

This is not the first gaffe the Prime Minister has made but it may prove to be the final one. In Dec 2008 he was ridiculed in the House of Commons when giving a speech regarding the banking system. Meaning to say he saved the banks he instead professed to having ‘saved the world’. Needless to say, the Tories pounced on this momentary slip and the session descended into a debacle. Then in 2009 at the 65^th anniversary of D-Day the Prime Minister, seemingly gushing over his new friend President Obama, repeatedly referred to Omaha Beach as ‘Obama Beach’.

So whilst Brown tries to extricate his foot from his mouth (in the process blaming the news company who owned the microphone for taping a private conversation), Nick Clegg and David Cameron are certainly not going to be hiding their smiles in the wake of the latest Brown gaffe.

Celebrity Cruises have put an indefinite hold on the launch program of their latest super vessel the Eclipse. It was scheduled to begin a week’s worth of events to celebrate the launch including onboard parties with some very special guests. But in the wake of the chaos reaped by the Icelandic volcano the cruise company made the dramatic decision to abandon party plans and head for Spain to mount a daring rescue mission of Brits that have been stranded their amidst the air chaos. Dan Hanrahan, President of Celebrity Cruises stated: “A party at this time didn’t seem right – we had to help out.” And help they have.

Arriving at the Spanish docks in the early hours of the morning the ship was a sight for sore eyes for the 2000 plus Brits unsure of how they would ever make it back home. The cruise company have made plans to pick up customers on all inclusive breaks from Thompson, the Co-Operative group and Thomas Cook. On board the relieved travellers will have the run of the ship and be able to take advantage of the luxury facilities including multiple pools and a 24hr Casino, all free of charge in a deal with their travel providers. But after all the families have been through recently I’m sure they are just happy for a warm bed and the prospect of home.

But lets not be naive about the situation, as certainly this is an act of humanitarianism but it is not without its merits for the cruise company. The media and press attention that this ‘rescue mission’ is receiving is worth considerably more than the attention the launch would have gained originally. A stroke of PR genius, the Eclipse has been thrust into the spotlight and has become the figure head of the British rescue efforts. It’s not quite Moses parting the Red Sea, but it’s as close as we are going to get in these cynical times.

The ability of the internet to be accurate and factual has long been in question and now as social networking sites spiral out of control the question has been asked-when does news become noise?

A new survey of senior journalists featured in PR Week, has revealed the implications that the sudden and exponential rise of social networking sites has had on the traditional media sector, and is being blamed for cost cutting measures that are currently plaguing the Media sector. In Europe as cuts are being attributed to the economic crisis, Journalists have communicated a severe decline in their numbers and the quality of work available. With sites like Twitter and Facebook seemingly becoming a vehicle for breaking news this worrying trend has led some to believe it has become almost impossible to discern ‘news from noise’ as falsities run rampant in the digital realm.

In a survey led by Burson-Marsteller which interviewed some 115 journalists from 27 countries, the majority felt that PR industries played an increasingly crucial role in the traditional media sectors. Most confirmed that they worked more now with PR agencies than in previous years as agencies are being heralded as the deliverers of accurate information and providers of substantial leads for stories. It makes sense as PR companies have their fingers on the pulse of society and are adept in recognising even the most subtle changes and are at forefront of client representation.

I myself, fell prey to this web of social network inaccuracies recently regarding Martin O’Neill quitting Aston Villa. The story spread like wildfire amongst my friends and on different sites and it was difficult to discern if this was fact or fiction. I contacted one of my sources at Villa who told me the rumours were totally unfounded. I conveyed this to my friends and fellow Villa supporters but despite my efforts they chose to follow the rumours. Perhaps this is more a reflexion on the gullibility of my friends but I think it represents how social media is able to breed and fuel wild fire rumours on a world wide scale.

Social media sites are certainly the future of communication but beware of the information they impart on you as it may be fact and it may be fiction. For clarification seek out a PR expert for they shall show you the way!

The Big Cat PR team have been brought in to help the Birmingham City Councils communications teams to raise awareness of projects being delivered after help from the fund.

The Working Neighbourhoods Fund has secured a total of £31million to help new and struggling businesses with the aim of stimulating vital enterprise and business activity in the Birmingham region.

Carol Alderson from Birmingham City Council said: “Having worked with Big Cat on previous campaigns such as the Creative City Awards, we were already aware of their capabilities and felt they would be able to deliver this campaign successfully.

“The Working Neighbourhoods Fund can make a real difference to so many SME’s in the region so it’s vital that we get the message out there to as many businesses as possible. After hearing their ideas and plans for the contract we decided that Big Cat would be the best agency to help us deliver the results.

Anthony Tattum, Managing Director of Big Cat said: “As we too consider ourselves to be an SME, we understand how vital this sort of funding can be in getting a business up off the ground. We were delighted to pitch for the campaign and that we have been given the opportunity to deliver it as well. We look forward to working with Birmingham City Council on this campaign and many in the future”.

Since kick starting the campaign back in January, the Big Cat PR team have secured a number of fantastic pieces of coverage for the Working Neighbourhoods Fund. Kirsty Davies, a jewellery designer based in the Jewellery Quarter received particular interest having been invited onto BBC WM’s “Mornings with Joanne Malin” to discuss her designs and the fund. She has also appeared on the Creative Boom website and will soon be featured in the Birmingham Mail.

Obviously this is music to our ears here at Big Cat, having run a number of successful social media campaigns including Bodies Revealed, Funworld and the current CSI: The Experience. However I’m not sure it’s entirely true.

Yes PR agencies can write the copy, upload the links, images and statuses as well interact with other users, but I think sometimes it’s good to have a second set of eyes to look at the campaign, finding new ways to target demographics whether it be through Google Ad Words, Facebook banners or even images and links on Marketing material.

In all honesty I think that’s why our campaigns work so well, although one person in the team might take lead in the realm of social media, he/she always gauges the opinions of the other departments, seeing what they can bring to the table. For a social media campaign to be truly successful a fully integrated campaign with input from across departments can work a lot better than one person sitting at his desk all day on Twitter and Facebook.

For many people this might look like some playground game, but in fact it’s the latest application to hit the social media world by storm.

Foursqaure, a new geotagging application available on iPhone, Blackberry and Web Browser, allows you and your friends to “Check in” at destinations across the globe in order to earn points and badges.
I have to admit, I was and still am pretty addicted to this, checking in every place I visit. Some of my friends have said it would be incredibly easy to stalk me, but I just thought “Who would want to stalk me?”

However the creators of Foursquare have come under criticism recently as apparently this fun application aids robbers in finding empty houses.

Obviously the owners replied straight away stating that there are a lot easier ways to see if anyone is home, the big one is if the lights are switched off.

So what do we think then? Are all these applications and games putting our security at risk or are they just a bit a fun?

I’m a big kid at heart so I think I’ll still be checking in on a regular basis.