WHITEPAPER: How to create a brand story with PR

This whitepaper was produced by The Think Tank director Samantha Dawe as part of our on-going sponsorship of B2B Marketing's PR knowledge bank.

It highlights the importance of writing your brand story in a way that engages a wide range of audiences.

Included are a set of rules to help write successful PR stories in the B2B sector.

Read or download it below.

How to create a brand story - The Think Tank.pdf (406 kb)

How to write a press release that gets attention

Our PR Director, Samantha Dawe, has been featured in B2B Marketing Magazine today.

In an article published in the 'How To' section of the magazine, Samantha looks at How to Write a Press Release that Gets Attention.

Take a look at her seven tips for better press releases below.






How to write a press release that gets attention.pdf (1112 kb)

A surprising ad from 1988

Digging through some archive files at the weekend I came across some classic old magazines including The Face 100th Issue from 1988.

Packed full of great photography and a list of 100 inventions from the 80's it was an interesting read until I came across this advert for the Young Persons Railcard. 

How times change!

(For those not old enough to recognise the celebrity it's Gary Glitter)

Google cut ties with keyword search data

Over the past couple of days Google has announced it will switch users to an encrypted search domain, meaning that users will no longer be able to view the keywords people have used to search for their website.

These restrictions continue a trend for Google; you may remember back in October 2011 it was announced that search results would be encrypted for logged-in Google users – including any Google-owned product like YouTube, Google+ etc. Now Google has gone a step further.

This new encryption only affects organic searches and keywords can still be tracked through paid campaigns. So having an AdWords paid campaign will allow you to develop a more balanced strategy that will allow you to gain more information about your users.                                                           
Google argue that these changes are aimed at building higher levels of security for its users, however what is true is that these changes should encourage a strategy that’s built around good website content rather than purely keyword analysis.  

But don’t despair, there are still plenty of ways to use analysis to benefit your website; for example you can still look at the top organic landing pages, and draw comparisons between search volumes before and after work is done to improve your site.  

If you get tired of Google controlling the digital world you can always glean analytical insights through other search engines such as Bing and Yahoo, which currently remain unaffected by these encryptions.  

If you have any queries regarding your SEO or need any additional assistance contact the Think Tank team for assistance.

A litre of light

What do you get when you mix sunshine and an old plastic bottle filled with water and chlorine? Thanks to this latest innovation you now get a 55-watt solar light bulb!

It’s powerful enough to light up a home but  most importantly it’s environmentally friendly, inexpensive, and easy to make.

Originally designed by a Brazilian mechanic this bottle light is already having a big impact in poorer communities - with charities like Myshelter Foundation now calling for bottle donations to aid the third world.

Take a look at the video below to see the effect this invention is already having, and tell us if you can see this lighting up homes across the world.

Riverside Museum wins award for engagement

The Riverside Museum in Glasgow has won the prestigious European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA).

Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the museum which opened in June 2011, has received the award for it’s ability to “demonstrate brilliantly how a specialist transport collection can renew its relevance through active engagement with the wider social and universal issues.”

The museum, which has received over 2 million visitors in less than 2 years, was chosen out of 40 museums from 21 European Countries and fulfilled the EMYA's criteria of public quality at the highest level.

The Riverside Museum showcases Glasgow’s transport, shipbuilding and engineering heritage.

New Twitter cards to allow email sign-ups

Twitter has unveiled a new lead generation card that allows brands to gain email sign-ups direct from tweets.

The new tool, which has been tested with a few brands already, allows users to sign up via their twitter credentials within the app or website. With one click their username and email address is completed for them and then securely sent to the brand.

This seems to be further expansion by Twitter to appeal to brands, especially following some high profile hacking that has taken place recently.

Currently the lead generation card is only available to Twitter's managed clients but there are plans to roll out globally and to small to medium businesses in the future.

Find out more on their blog.

Fun new campaign from National Trust

A tongue-in-cheek campaign for the National Trust was launched in the East of England late last month. 

The posters, which are placed in strategic locations across the National Trust sites, encourage visitors to enjoy their natural surroundings, using lines like 'Keep on the Grass' and 'Please Do Touch'.

The signs are designed by The Click Design Consultants and also encourage people to use the hashtag #NaturesPlayground as part of the light-hearted campaign which will feature in print ads, posters and promotional literature.

How to write a press release that gets attention

This 'How To Guide' has been written by The Think Tank's PR Director Samatha Dawe as part of our on-going sponsorship of B2B Marketing's PR Knowledge Bank.

There have been many tips offered for writing press releases. The key factor is to write a release that gets the main points of your news across clearly and gains the reader’s interest (whether a journalist, blogger or investor etc). This is simple but sometimes hard to do when you may be loaded with information that you think could be relevant.

It’s wise to write down the core news elements when you start to prepare your draft. There is nothing to stop you following this release up with a subsequent release, if you have more news or a progress report to give.And a word of warning: don’t make claims that you can’t back up. You may think this makes the release more attention-grabbing but if you can’t back up a claim with facts and figures, don’t put it in. A good journalist will check the facts. Your competitors may read it and counter your claims too.One of the best pieces of advice for preparing a release I was given was by a journalist, who referred to Kipling’s Six Honest Men. At the time I had to look that up, so to save you doing so here is the appropriate reference:
“I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When,and How and Where and Who.”

First paragraph
The Kipling reference relates to the fact that you need to contain all of the elements of the story within the first paragraph of your release. That’s because of time pressures. The rest of the release might not get read, but if you have the elements of the story in the opening paragraph this is what will hook the reader. You can work through the six honest men as a check. Don’t forget to put the date when you are issuing the news, and if the story is time sensitive, and the time too, in this first paragraph or just above it.

Targetting
Who are you writing the release for? Make your releases relevant; you may need to prepare two versions of the same news release for example if you are sending one out to the trade press and one out to the local press. What the journalists will engage with is different in terms of the content and what their publications will be looking for in terms of news, even though the core story itself will remain the same.

Language and clarity
Use language that is straightforward and business-like. Don’t waffle. You can leave further explanations and references to technical information for the ‘Notes to editors’ (see below). As a rule of thumb, abbreviations should be spelled out in full the first time you use them, even if you think that everyone knows what the letters stand for eg: Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). After writing out it out in full the first time, you can use the abbreviation thereafter. Use standard measures consistently - don’t mix them in different references: the box measured 50cms high and one inch deep. If this is what you have been given, go and find the correct measurements in imperial and metric of all dimensions.

Quotes
Subsequent paragraphs expand the story and a quote is usually included (not necessary if you are targeting the traditional broadcast media though). Adding in a quote from a company spokesperson or an agreed third party adds interest and can help bring a story to life. You can also use more conversational language in the quote otherwise it can feel wooden. If one of your staff has won an award for example, have a quote from them too. Killer quotes are passionate: “We have won this award through the efforts made by all of our staff here at Widgets Ltd over the past 12 months. We couldn’t have made this sort of progress without this sustained effort”. Rather than predictable: “We are very pleased that Widgets Ltd has received this award.”

Notes to editors
This is a really useful convention to be aware of. Editor’s notes appear at the end of the release and should be written under a separate heading ‘Notes to editors’. This is the place where you can put in more detailed background information, appropriate web addresses; expand on sources of data etc. It shows you can back up what you are talking about with more context. Depending on how the journalist writes their story this information may or may not be included. Put in a short background paragraph on your organisation here too and the website address.

Final check
Take time to proof read your release before you send it out. It is often worth getting a colleague to give it a proof too as they will often see things that you haven’t because you wrote the copy. Don’t rely on spell checks; we’ve all had that occasion when the spell checker has changed the original, misspelling word into something quite different.

Kmart continues down the almost rude route

After their 'Ship my pants' advert, Kmart and agency DraftFCB have created a new borderline ad.

This time promoting fuel prices, they use American expressions to create a rude sounding commercial with their 'Big Gas Savings' spot.

Perhaps not as funny as the previous advert, mainly as you have an idea what to expect, but it still has some funny moments and does lead you to wonder where can they take this next. 

Watch the advert below.

Scrabble points equal Wi-fi minutes in Paris

In this age of smartphones, tablets, emails, text messages and instant messaging, one thing has become slightly neglected: spelling.

To try and address this, at least in part, Scrabble and Ogilvy Paris have created wi-fi hotspots in areas that normally have no internet connection across Paris.

The catch? You have to earn your time by playing Scrabble. Given some letters users must create a word, the higher the scrabble score for the word, the more wi-fi minutes they get.

A clever idea to promote proper spelling, Scrabble and remind people of the fun they can have with words. Take a look at the video case study below.

Scrabble WiFi - Case Study from Ogilvy Paris on Vimeo.

Great ad campaign for Vancouver Aquarium

Found on BuzzFeed, these adverts for the Vancouver Aquarium are the work of TAXI.

Clever and thought provoking they promote the various exhibitions taking place at the aquarium.

The campaigns include pregnancy tests in men's urinals that become positive, highlighting the fact that for some sea-creatures it is the male that bears the children.

Another included a board with a shark fin, attached, whilst the advert itself was only visible at low tide, and another used it's placement on street lights to mimic the Angler Fish.

Take a look at the full collection of creative here.

Now you can play 'Dumb ways to die'

Following on from the success of its 'Dumb ways to die' campaign for Melbourne Metro, McCann Australia has produced an iPhone and iPad game built along the same idea.

The game, developed in collaboration with local developer Barrel Of Donkeys, has been the No. 1 free app in Australia for a week, and is charting in 79 other countries.

The concept of turning the viral advert into a game was to continue to encourage younger people to be careful around trains, and avoid dying in a dumb way, as you try to save the characters from the video from their fate.

The game is free from itunes.

Foster Partners design two new London skyscrapers

British architecture firm Foster + Partners has unveiled plans for two residential skyscrapers as part of the 250 City Road project, led by property developers Berkeley Group.

The skyscrapers will form part of a cluster of residential towers proposed for the City Road area in Islington, a redevelopment of a 1.9 hectare site currently occupied by a cluster of commercial buildings.

Other companies involved in the project include landscape architects Gillespies, Dutch firm UNStudio and US architects SOM.

Elsewhere in London, Foster + Partners recently received planning permission for three residential towers on the south side of the river Thames near Lambeth Bridge.

More about the 250 City Road project can be found here.

First Skype enabled campaigned launched

Specsavers has been working with Microsoft Advertising to launch a new competition; 'Spectacle wearer of the year’.

The competition, developed by Manning Gottlieb OMD in conjunction with DG MediaMind, uses Skype to encourage more users to submit photos of themselves wearing their spectacles via their web-cam. Using Skype to promote the competition makes sense as it is one of the biggest video calling services, and recently has been used a Microsoft as a replacement for its Messenger service.

James Hayr, head of specialist sales at Microsoft Advertising, says: “This is the first time an advertising campaign in the UK has used Skype’s video capabilities within a creative solution to bring a brand message to life. Skype’s ability to make more meaningful connections over video means that this is the only platform a campaign like this could have been executed on, outstripping the reach of its competitors.”

The campaign will run till the end of June and will be supported by digital display ads on MSN.

Wacky Races returns in new ad

A great new ad from Peugeot has brought the Wacky Races to life.

The advert features live versions of the characters from the famous Hanna-Barbera cartoon, including Penelope Pitstop and Dick Dastardly.

The purpose of the advert is to show off the features and handling of its latest car, and does it with some great comedy moments.

Watch the advert below and relive your youth.

Russian drivers given unexpected test drive

In Moscow illegal parking is a problem, one that leads to many drivers having their car towed to a location an hour away from the city centre.

In a new campaign, Mercedes has started to offer test drives of their Smart car to these drivers to try and encourage them to switch from the larger vehicles they are used to a smaller car which should be easier to park.

The campaigns came about as Mercedes realised that there was no interest in their city friendly cars, so along with BBDO Moscow they helped 'save' 623 stranded drivers, using a fleet of 40 Smart cars around 8 shopping malls. As a result they found test drives increased 10 fold and purchases by 300% in the two weeks following the event.

Watch a video of the event below.

Mobile bank introduces itself with mobile orchestra

BNP Paribas has launched what it is claiming to be the first fully-digital mobile bank; 'Hello Bank'.

To commemorate the event Publicis Conseil, in collaboration with master production company B-Reel and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, recorded a special performance of 'Carmen'.

During a performance in Prague led by conductor Libor Pesek, the outfit's 60 musicians put aside their instruments and picked up mobile phones and tablets.

To show how much effort went into creating the performance a behind the scenes video was also released which how the mobile devices were hooked up to 227 different interfaces, and linked together via WiFi.

Watch both the performance and behind the scenes below.

Installation creates prison of light

An amazing light installation that was on display at the Mapping Festival, which took place in Geneva between the 2nd - 12th May this year, trapped visitors in a prison of light.

Isotopes v.2 by Nonotak Studio was inspired by events surrounding the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami back in 2009. The result of this natural disaster led to a meltdown at the Fukushima's nuclear power plant, an event classed as a Level 7 Disaster, the highest level issued by the government.

The installation is an open space that slowly surrounds the visitor in a barrier of intense light, a play on human-kinds approach to nuclear power.

Watch a video of the installation in action below and for more information click here.

Location guessing game for endless fun

Another company has taken Google's Street View and created something wonderful, this time it's a game. GeoGuessr is a location guessing game, perfect for travel addicts.

The game is pretty simple; you are dropped in a location on Street View and by clicking around you use the map interface in the top right corner to guess where you are, the closer your guess is to the actual location, the more points you get.

You get dropped in 5 locations each game and you can move around as much as you like.

Why not have a go for yourself here.

Watch the top of One World Trade Center spire be installed

After some delay the final piece was put in place on the One World Trade Center tower.

The spire for the building was installed, making it the tallest building in the western hemisphere and will stand as a focal point  in a group of buildings designed to replace the Twin Towers that were destroyed in the September 11th attacks.

To commemorate the topping off, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey released a video of the spire's installation. Filmed using a GoPro camera which was attached to the spire itself, it gives a stunning glimpse at the height of the tower.

Watch it below, but be warned it can cause vertigo!

Being an award winner

This post was written by The Think Tank's PR Director Samantha Dawe, as part of our on-going sponsorship of the B2B Marketing Knowledge Bank.

Just been having a chat with a good contact on a key industry magazine for the architect and design sector, and the subject of that magazine’s annual awards came up...

Now I know how passionate B2B Marketing magazine is about its very own annual awards…and rightly so, but it made me reflect on why we enter and why we encourage clients to enter industry awards.

We have worked with one of our clients for almost a decade. Certainly for the past four years have prepared entries with them for a European-wide series of awards that are seen as particularly prestigious. This year they won one. They are over the moon, and so are we. The press release about this Award is going to be issued globally by the various communications teams.

Entering, being shortlisted and hopefully winning awards can help achieve press coverage certainly.

But winning an industry award can also boost staff morale, attract new business, impress potential investors, gain prestige and recognition from peers and respect from customers, and raise awareness of a new product or service.

It’s worth considering an entry for a local business award for these reasons too – usually in the UK organized on a county by county basis. A local platform for celebrating the very best business successes, they will not only cover how well your business is doing, but aspects like customer service, environmental awareness and staff training and development.

For staff to see their organization recognized within their immediate community and can be really motivating.

It’s also a great way to stand back a bit and assess what you’ve been focusing on and to celebrate any innovations and efforts that are making a real difference to how you do business, or in the services and products you provide.

Of course much depends on the time and resource you have to devote to preparing entries. So set a realistic, tangible goal, for example, entering at least two different Award schemes this year. And if you don’t win the first time, don’t give up… next time you might be that winner.

Clerkenwell Design Week reviewed

It's been a hub of activity near the office this week as Clerkenwell Design Week kicked off in great style. So far we’ve managed to take a look at what’s on display in the Farmiloe Building, which provides a fantastic backdrop for the exhibitors to showcase their designs, with four floors of the building filled. The vast colours and textures on display from international interior design and architecture suppliers provide a stunning contrast to the exposed brickwork and floorboards of the elegant Victorian former glassworks.  

A few stands caught our eye including James Burleigh’s classic furniture with a modern twist and splashes of colour.

Duffy London made us smile with playful yet beautiful designs such as the UP dining table and the swinging chairs.    

The trail of showrooms and fringe events creates a really fun atmosphere and luckily the weather has stayed dry encouraging visitors to spill onto the streets with chatter and inspiration. A scenic walk up to the House of Detention was peppered with installations in gardens and pop up shops. The House of Detention was really exciting as it was underground, there was an acoustic performance and all the stands were in the cells of the Victorian Prison – a huge contrast for those who had just been to ExCel May Design Series! Particular favourites were Foundation Rugs graffiti style soft decorations; Mirror Glow’s beautiful pieces which really lended themselves to the surroundings and Merve Kahraman’s genius and luxurious furniture.

Clerkenwell Design Week has established itself as the UK’s leading independent design festival. The event finishes on Thursday 23rd May so there is still time to see what’s happening at any of the 60 showrooms taking part.