We’ve moved!
You may have noticed it’s gone a bit quiet on the pr2go blog the last few days…that’s because we’ve moved.
We’re now hosting the blog on our website, which you can get to by clicking here.
Look forward to seeing you there!
Thanks,
The pr2go team.
Is all publicity good publicity…?
A pub in the North East has hit the headlines today after being criticised for selling drinks for less than 70p.
A local police officer has created a storm accusing the landlady of being irresponsible and raising concerns about public disorder.
The 69p drinks are being served on a Thursday night at the Darlington pub – traditionally the town’s student night. However, defending the move the pubs owner said she would only serve people one drink at time and would refuse to serve anyone who was too drunk.
Surely the mistake on the authorities part here is causing such a fuss that the story ended on the BBC England website front page as well as in the Daily Mail! Any Darlington students reading the article are unlikely to agree with the officer and boycott the pub. This media attention is nothing but good PR for the pub, encouraging large amounts of people to head there.
Click here to read the full story.
Our stand at The Business Growth Show, Ramada Manchester Picadilly.
James Hobday chats with another exhibitor
Lollypop, lollypop oh lolly-lollypop....
James Hobday modelling the stand at New Start Wales, Cardiff International Arena
It was a bit of a tough one today, there were plenty of really obvious ones…Jedward as ever…but I’ve tried to come up with some that aren’t so obvious!
The good –
Belle de Jour unmasks!
The real Belle de Jour has finally revealed herself after years of anonymity, and the university she now works for has given her their backing.
Research scientist Dr. Brooke Magnanti now works at St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol and is employed by the University of Bristol. She finally revealed that she was the writer behind one of the literary world’s biggest secrets in an interview with the Sunday Times.
Her anonymous blog began in 2003 detailing her experience working as a high-class call girl, it was the inspiration for both a book and a TV series.
Magnanti revealed she began working as a prostitute whist studying towards her PhD.
Bristol University, who now employ her, have said her previous life has nothing to do with her current employment and say they’ll support her.
The bad –
Birmingham City Council has admitted it could have done more to prevent crowd surges at the cities Christmas lights switch on at the weekend.
About 20,000 people turned up to the concert at which JLS and the Sugababes were due to perform – over 5,000 more than expected.
The event left 60 people needing treatment after those unable to get in broke through a fence causing a crowd surge – a councilor has now said they could have erected big screens so those who couldn’t get in could still watch.
The concert was cancelled after JLS performed.
What makes a great story?
It’s not always easy blowing your own trumpet, but let’s be honest, if YOU don’t no one else will. So each week pr2go shares a few great opportunities for shouting about your organisation and promoting your business.
Uniqueness
So you’ve come up with a great business idea everyone tells you is great – but it’s easy to be modest right? Well maybe, but it shouldn’t be! The chances are if people are raving to you about it, they’ll probably be off telling their friends about it too!
It maybe that you got so frustrated with not being able to easily do what you wanted to online that you decided to set up your own website, or perhaps you’ve just thought of a new product to add to your current service offerings.
Take a step back and look through someone else’s eyes – if you’ve gotten so annoyed it drove you to start your own business then it’s more than likely a newsworthy story!
One tip though – try to get a customer testimonial or review, it gives it another dimension and means it doesn’t just come across as an advert. If you haven’t launched yet – get someone to try it out first!
At a time when many property companies are only just keeping their heads above water, niche developer ‘Floating Concepts’ is bucking the trend by making two new senior appointments to strengthen its existing team.
American architect Jonathan Baker (40) joins the Board to oversee design issues and to develop and expand the company’s own design concepts. These include its floating homes, hotels, offices, student houseboats and affordable ‘buy-to-let’ concepts.
Baker, who cut his teeth on designing floating structures in Denmark, is one of the world’s elite group of ‘aquatects’ – architects who have not only designed floating structures, but have seen them built, floated and occupied. “I am looking forward to applying the wealth of experience I have amassed in designing residential floating communities in Denmark to the UK,” says Baker who has 19 to his name to date. “I see enormous opportunities both for the regeneration of the UK’s many redundant docks and harbours as well as bringing forward imaginative, but realistic solutions to the flood threat arising from climate change.”
Jane Wilby-Palmer (28), who holds a law degree and has a legal and commercial property background, will head administration with particular responsibility for legal matters.
A passionate advocate for eco-living, Jane sees her appointment as “an exciting opportunity to be involved with a company with an environmental conscience producing low-impact, sustainable floating structures, as well as pioneering innovative solutions to deal with the consequences of climate change.”
Floating Concepts CEO David Beard is up-beat about his unique property venture despite the downturn in the economy. “The recession has been a fantastic opportunity for us to take up the lead position in a new emerging market,” says Beard. “Blue-field sites – once a hitherto unrecognised, national resource, are as valid a development medium as their brown and green-field sisters.
Jonathan will bring a global perspective to the company’s activities whilst Jane will co-ordinate all aspects of the business,” adds Beard. “These latest appointments will take our management resources up to the next level when I expect to recapitalise the company to achieve the sort of explosive growth that will guarantee market dominance from a 2010/2013 recovery onwards.”
Beard has over 30 years experience in property development in the UK and was part of the syndicate of investors involved in the early regeneration of Liverpool South Docks in the 1980’s. He now owns the 350 berth Liverpool Marina and his last land based project was the £60 million Citygate complex in Manchester.
A LEADING UK business is on a roll with a novel way of helping its clients get from A to B – while doing their bit for the planet and bank balance.
At first glance they look like a form of transport from another planet and seem to defy the laws of gravity. With two wheels, riders can glide along on the electric Segway i2, upright, at up to 12mph.
And now Executive Communication Centres (ECC), one of the UK’s top Serviced Office providers, have introduced them at their Cardiff branch.
It’s clear that action is needed to save the planet, but most businesses realise that action is also needed to save their profit and loss sheet from upwardly spiraling costs.
Having provided a free-of-charge uniformed chauffeur service in their Business Centres, ECC have received many requests from in-house clients to be taken small distances.
Requests were received for trips that were too far to walk quickly, but were also too close to drive. As a result ECC looked for an alternative solution.
Centre Manager Elaine Green said: “The Segway i2 is widely used in the USA as an effective personal transport solution for short journeys.
“It is used by many police forces and by shopping mall security officers because it is extremely flexible and provides fast access to otherwise vehicular restricted areas.
“Furthermore, apart from the environmental benefit, the Segway i2 is great fun!”
The Segwayi2 is a revolutionary green transport solution, enhancing ECC’s environmental policy – in particular to build on their commitment to offset some of the greenhouse gasses generated by the chauffeur car service.
And able to cover 24 miles on a single charge, they are perfect for shorter trips.
The ingenious electric self-balancing scooter which riders can accelerate by leaning forward and brake by leaning back, has won over thousands with its green credentials, cheap running costs – and, of course, fun factor.
AN INVENTOR has come up with a clever piece of kit which allows business people to check how their company is performing – wherever they are in the world.
The software, called Business Dashboard, will make life easier for owner-managers and CEOs who spend a lot of their time on the move.
Graham Spurgeon came up with the idea whilst he was attending a networking club. Since then he’s been networking around the country, at 22 different venues (and over a months worth of fried breakfasts), allowing him to build up an army of resellers and enough leads to launch the business.
The nifty device shows a company’s key performance indicators (KPIs) – such as repeat custom, supply-chain satisfaction, cashflow etc – in one handy frame.
Using cloud technology Business Dashboard, can be viewed online and on mobile devices such as BlackBerry and iPhone.
The product was launched on October 30th this year, at the Wyboston Conference Centre, in Befordshire – where the business is based. The launch was attended by Business partners of the company, who all gave presentations to the Business Dashboard Consultants.
Mr Spurgeon said Business Dashboard has made a “flying start”. He has recruited 30 consultants or resellers, he’s already got enough work for at least one lead per seller and he anticipates that there will at least three leads a month for each consultant.
Ends
Well, well, well, the post from yesterday has developed hugely overnight!
The good –
It’s been revealed that 3000 people complained about Simon Cowells Jedward u-turn on X Factor at the weekend.
There have also been reports that OFCOM maybe about to launch an investigation after they received 50 complaints.
The episode has lead to claims Cowell purposely made the shock decision to generate even more publicity for the show – but has that now back-fired?
Celebrity publicist and chairman of The Corporation Gary Farrow said: ‘Simon knows what he is doing. He knows what to do to drive viewers and keep advertisers happy. 3,000 complaints out of millions of viewers isn’t bad and they will probably still watch the show next week.’
He added: ‘Simon is a shrew operator and Sunday night’s decision will have no impact on the show’s reputation. The winner is always the one with the most talent.’ (Source: PR Week)
The bad –
Also in the news today, the story of the PMs hand-written letter to the mother of a solider who died in Afghanistan is still making headlines.
The Sun – who first broke the story – has released a secret recording of a phone conversation between Jacqui Janes and Mr Brown. In it Mrs Janes challenges the PM about the lack of equipment for the armed forces.
In September, after more than 10-years, The Sun declared they would not be supporting Labour anymore. Labour is now accusing the tabloid of exploiting the letter and the grief of a mother in its campaign against the party.
Good –
Love them or hate them (and the pr2go office is unanimous on this one!) everyone has heard of Jedward. Even if you don’t like X-Factor and have never watched it you can’t escape the twins.
They’re dividing the judges and the nation and rarely a week starts without the papers talking about what song they sung at the weekend – and this week has been no different…if not worse.
Finding themselves in the bottom two Simon Cowell had the deciding vote as to who went out – Lucie or Jeward. And despite recently saying “If they win, it will be a complete and utter disaster. I’d probably sulk for about six months and I’d probably get on a very fast plane out of the country.” Simon kept the twins in the show.
It means more ten times more press coverage and viewers for the ITV show, which (incidentally) Simon Cowell is executive producer for…
Bad –
It’s been a very bad day for the Prime Minister. He’s upset a mother who’s son recently died in Afghanistan.
In a hand-written letter Gordon Brown wrote to Mrs Janes, but spelt her surname James. The letter, which also contained a number of other spelling errors, was scrawled in black felt tip pen.
Mrs Janes has called the letter a “hastily scrawled insult”. Defending himself Mr Brown has publically apologised and a spokesman explained that the reason for the felt pen was because the PM is blind in one eye.
Writing to the parents of people who’ve died in Afghanistan is a heart-warming thing for the government to do, especially when written by Gordon Brown himself, but how many people really expect hand written letters these days? Aren’t typed ones just as personal? And surely the ‘spell check’ function would make life much easier and cause less offense?
