New Outdoor Advertising Company Launched

http://www.adworld.ie/news/?guid=29e224ed-61c8-41d0-bc38-10a3573ce9f9

Competition in the outdoor advertising market in Ireland is to get a much welcome boost in the form of Fourth Edition, a new company which has been formed to make a significant foray into the €125m market.

Headed up by the highly regarded industy veteran Martin Barry, the company has also boasts a number of high profile and heavyweight shareholders and investors. They include Anne Riordan, the company’s chairman. Riordan is a former head of Microsoft’s Irish operations. Also on board is entrepreneur and investor Eddie Kerr one ofthe founders of companies like Sharptext and Conduit. Other directors include David Coleman, Richard Hall and the CEO of OHM Group, Declan McCourt.

Previously known as Kerbside Media, Fourth Edition was only recently rebranded and restructured with a view to making a full frontal assault on the lucrative outdoor advertising market.

The company already has a number of deals in place with the a large number of astro pitches around the country as well as the National Hockey Stadium in UCD

New business venture for Tom Reddy – PR

Reddy Communications Ltd is a new public relations company offering a wide range of services. Established by Tom Reddy, a former journalist with the Irish Independent and former head of the Fianna Fáil press and research office, Tom’s most recent role was as Executive Director at O’Herlihy Communications. Services offered by Reddy Communications include political communications, crisis management and crisis communications, internal communications, VIP care, media training and public information/consultation campaigns. For full details, contact (01) 475 9066 or call Tom directly on (087) 222 4213.

Special Report ROI: The quest for an ROI formula

http://www.eventmagazine.co.uk/news

Ever since its conference at the NEC in September, the Association of Exhibition Organisers’ (AEO) has been promising to deliver a formula that will help exhibiting companies to work out the return on investment (ROI) of their firm’s presence.

ROI is currently the hottest topic in live events and was one of the main points of discussion at the AEO conference.

As a result, trade bodies that make up the Events Industry Alliance have spent the past few months developing a model that can eventually be used to measure the ROI value of exhibiting.

We are confident that the model will enable media buyers, marketing budget controllers and agencies to conclude that exhibitions are the most cost-effective form of media in the UK.

Exhibiting is a very difficult marketing medium to measure, because it offers an extremely diverse number of objectives that are both quantitative and qualitative in nature.

So the development of a measurement system for both tangible and intangible objectives can prove a somewhat complex challenge. Also, the reasons exhibitors attend shows vary significantly between companies.

The basis of the rationale used to develop an ROI model focuses on two major aspects to an exhibitor’s performance at a show. First there’s the ’outcome-based’ dimension. This includes sales-related activities and all activities that relate to on-site sales as well as sales immediately after a trade show.

Second is the ’behaviour-based dimension’. This includes a number of activities that can be broken into four major types:

Information-gathering activities, including the collection of information about competitors, customers, industry trends and new products at the show

Image-building activities, relating to building corporate image and reputation at the show

Motivation activities, which involves maintaining and enhancing the motivation of company employees and customers

Relationship-building activities, which includes all activities related to maintaining and developing relationships with both established and new customers.

Building on these criteria the purpose of the ROI study is to:

Measure income ROI exhibitors receive from exhibitions

Calculate the total exhibitor expenditure with a breakdown of items

Provide ROI figures for the exhibition industry, against those of other media

Calculate visitor expenditure.

To be specific, “return” is defined as financial and soft. In other words, the value of the “live” media, time and customer analysis, number of sales leads, number of contacts made, market testing, relationship building, brand building, the development of new markets, recruited support for a product and the amount of media attention attracted.

Exhibitor objectives are then divided into five main categories:

Sales

Information-gathering

Brand marketing

Product/service marketing

Relationship-building.

Within these categories are 17 further specific actions and aims such as generating sales at the show; generating sales leads; conducting research in the target market; generating face-to-face brand experience; launching a product/service and building relationships with sales channels/partners.

The current process includes assigning values to all of these in order to be able to produce a final financial figure.

The associations are working with leading academic institutions to fully test the hypotheses and formula before the planned launch of an ROI mechanism by the end of the year.

John Sanders is deputy director of the Association of Exhibition Contractors.

Advertising – It’s a Funny Old Business

http://www.adworld.ie/features/?guid=cb3e52d0-6f6d-4f80-b77c-d8cde4a1bc3c

In a world of homogeneous brand messages, humour can often help to cut through. Yet advertisers don’t go for comedians as often as you’d think. Paul Golden reports.

In a world of brand strategies and tightly defined product messages, humour is the great variable. Even for companies targeting the youth market that is the major consumer of comedy, the profile of the performer is usually of less significance than the script’s ability to press the right buttons.

Although Ireland is renowned around the world for the wit of its literary figures, economic and social factors prevented stand-up comedy from taking off in the way it did in the UK and US during the 1970s and 1980s in particular. However, this began to change in 1987 with the establishment of the Comedy Cellar in Dublin by Barry Murphy, Ardal O’Hanlon and Kevin Gildea, the first of whom has since become a regular on the voiceover circuit.

Fast forward a few years and comedy had become the new rock ’n’ roll. The UK comedy scene had never disappeared, but in the early nineties it enjoyed a renaissance with the emergence of talents like Eddie Izzard and Bill Bailey.

Meanwhile, the more relaxed political situation in Northern Ireland had a dramatic effect on nightlife in Belfast and stand-up comedy was much in demand in venues like The Empire.

As the vast majority of the audiences were in the 18-35 age group, marketers targeting this demographic began to wake up to the possibility of using comedians in their ads. Leading British comedians were recruited to promote a variety of products from video recorders to chocolate bars and some became synonymous with the brand, for example Harry Enfield with the Dime bar commercials.

The overall quality of ads featuring comedians over the last 20 years is a bit patchy – neither John Cleese or Billy Connolly will look back on their efforts with any great affection – but others worked very well. Indeed, the Philips ad featuring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones where the former is a customer looking to buy a video recorder was voted the best radio commercial of all time by the UK Radio Advertising Bureau.

Many of the current examples of humour in Irish advertising are to be found in beer commercials, explained Dara O’Connell of Brown Bag. “Promoting the product as a bit of craic alongside the message about enjoying the product sensibly is quite effective. It creates a better feeling towards the product rather than getting any particular message across.”

Ironically, despite the fact that humour is finding its way into ads for cars and even previously terribly serious subjects such as banking, O’Connell reckons most clients purposely avoid using comedians. “They don’t want to make the humour appear forced – punters respond better to ’real people’ and also react well if they think the dialogue is not too scripted. It is very hard to make an ad sound spontaneous.”

One of the difficulties for any celebrity who agrees to promote a product or service is the impact it might have on their public image. An interviewer once rather snootily asked Jane Horrocks (who made her name in the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous) why she continued to appear alongside Prunella Scales in what ended up as a long running Tesco ad campaign when she was so well regarded as a performer. Her reply was simple- it allowed her to pay off her mortgage!

Of course, very few funny people are given the opportunity to secure their financial future simply by playing the put-upon daughter of a fussy senior citizen for 30 seconds, but it is not hard to see why those who are asked to perform in this environment reserve the right to lend their image and/or persona.

Comedian and actor Paddy Courtney says he would not be worried about damaging his artistic integrity (”I wasn’t sure I had any in the first place!”) and as a comedian who is a trained actor, would not have a problem appearing in an advertisement. “However, I do reserve the right to pick and choose the castings I would put myself up for. If I used a product or service in my everyday life, I would see no problem in advertising it.”

Tara Flynn, best known to ad watchers as one half of the couple in the IFSRA “People don’t talk like this” commercial, is also careful about what she would lend her face or voice to. “I don’t do voiceovers for political parties I wouldn’t vote for and I once turned a company down because I was concerned about their operation overseas.”

But she also admits that – to paraphrase Helen Mirren on nudity- it is never really about the script, it is about the money. “Most Irish performers can’t afford to turn down work; that is why you will have seen me in a dressing gown for the IFSRA. That was a very funny script and I got to work with a wolfhound, but the great Bill Hicks would definitely see such wantonness as an example of “sucking satan’s c**k”.

Given that any performer will be more comfortable with a script that they have contributed to and that most comedians write a high percentage of their own material, allowing them some creative input might sound like a sensible strategy.

At first glance it appears illogical to employ someone known for the quality of their material as nothing more than a conduit for someone else’s words, but according to Al Byrnes of production company Caboom this is how it has to be if the agency and client are to control how their product or service is portrayed.

“The copywriter has responsibility for the brand and it is up to the copywriter to ensure that the script gets the message across,” he said. “It is usually pretty much set in stone before the performer gets their hands on it.”

“With any other acting job, I would offer script suggestions to the director, but more often than not the advert is fine tuned by a copywriter and the client in order to have it right before casting or shooting,” said Paddy Courtney, while Tara Flynn revealed that there are times when her tongue is well and truly bitten.

“Most copywriters encourage a bit of ad-libbing to make the delivery more natural, but clients can be a different matter! When you write your own gags or are an improviser, it is very difficult not to make a suggestion. You have spent years thinking about what is funny and why and you just want to help. You are trying to do your job and make it as good as it can be, but sometimes it is not as a client heard it in their head and at that stage you just have to deliver it as they wish and put your instincts to one side.”

She acknowledges that a much worse situation arises when the client’s input extends to advice on delivery: “If a client demonstrates a delivery style and encourages you to parrot it back, you may as well not be there and the finished product always sounds affected.”

Most comedians believe their effectiveness as a marketing tool is down more to their delivery than public profile or script. “I know of some comics who have appeared in adverts because of their acting ability and more specifically their timing, so skill rather than celebrity is clearly the important factor,” said Paddy Courtney.

There are relatively few genuine Irish celebrities anyway and most Irish comics are well known on the circuit but not on TV, added Tara Flynn. “But that doesn’t mean they could not do an ad as an ’unknown’ in an acting capacity and do a great job. Getting a laugh is a great way to get a product to stick in a listener or viewer’s mind. If an ad is believable (and most good comedians tend to be good actors) it gives the product credibility.”

John Holohan, IAPI information manager and director of the Shark Awards festival says clients have to be careful that the humour doesn’t overwhelm the brand. “However, humour can create a goodwill factor and get around some of the limitations on what you can say about a brand.”

He referred to a number of well known campaigns for beers and tobacco products as examples. “Hamlet built a brand on using humour in its advertising because it could not actually talk about the product. Such limitations force you to be more creative in your thinking. Humour can also be used to make a serious point through the use of sarcasm or irony.”

Exhibiting: After-show reflection

http://www.eventmagazine.co.uk/news

The show is over. Your space for next year’s is pencilled in and you are now wondering how well it worked for you.

There are a number of factors to consider when evaluating your success. Most of these should relate to your original objectives for attending.

A look back

Establish how many new clients you made contact with. How many did you have and how much business was done on the day? What about your leads? Were they the right sort and value, or from the target market? Have any of them converted already? Will they be easily?

Did you have enough space for all your staff and products? Were you swamped or could you manage with fewer stand personnel and were they the right mix of people? What did your stand look like – are you happy to revisit your photographs in the cold light of day?

Did you generate much press and media attention – if so where could you make improvements? Which parts of your pre-show promotion worked well and what was less successful? Can you maintain the PR momentum by reporting show successes or newsworthy items or use web-based marketing methods to capitalise and enhance your physical presence at the show?

The staff perspective

It is well worth asking your staff how they viewed the event. What did they make of their input? What suggestions for improvements would they offer? It’s worth remembering they are likely to have seen competitors in action.

Ask what they think you could do next year to ensure an even better time? Were there gimmicks or crowd-stoppers that made an impression on them? Also, be ruthless about how they performed on the days of the event – did they work the stand properly or were they glued to their mobiles? Could they have done better or would they improve with some simple training? Could you do something more creative and different for the next event?

How well did your graphics convey your message? Did you have enough stock, materials, brochures and promotional giveaways? It is also worth contacting the organiser and finding out whether the numbers were up or down on forecast. Was there an explanation for this and what will the prediction be for next year?

They are well poised to provide you with pre- and post-show statistics that can make evaluation easier. By asking questions such as these you can ensure you continue getting the right return on your investment.

UK Advertising Rises 2.6% in 2005

http://www.adworld.ie/news/?guid=f97220b1-fa4b-4c9d-97ca-adec83101790

Advertising expenditure in the UK rose by 2.6% to around Stg£19 billion in 2005 according to figures published by the UK’s Advertising Association. This compares with just under Stg£18.5bn in 2004.

Researched and compiled by the World Advertising Research Center, the data indicates a rise in expenditure equivalent to an inflation-adjusted 0.6% increase in real terms.

It represents the fourth consecutive year of positive growth since the advertising recession of 2001. The figure includes production costs as well as media spend.

The press sector accounted for by far the largest share of total advertising expenditure with 45.3% of national spend; television took second place (25.4%), followed by direct mail (12.5%), internet (7.2%), outdoor (5.5%), radio (3.1%) and cinema (1.0%).

Looking solely at display advertising, TV was the largest medium accounting for a 35.2% share of such expenditure, with the press taking second place (31.8%), followed by direct mail (17.3%), outdoor (7.6%), radio (4.2%), internet (2.5%) and cinema (1.4%).

Advertising expenditure in the press sector as a whole declined by 1.8% in 2005 when measured at current prices (or by 3.7% in real terms), with national newspapers, regional newspapers and business magazines all suffering from decreased levels of spend following strong growth in 2004.

Advertising expenditure in directories, however, rose by 5.3% last year amounting to £1,131m when measured at current prices and consumer magazines were also up on this measure, rising by 1.0% to reach £827m.

Advertising expenditure in the television sector increased by 3.6% in 2005 amounting to £4,820m when measured at current prices – a rise of 1.5% in real terms – whilst spend in the outdoor and transport category increased by 5.8% (3.7% in real terms) to reach £1,043m. These two sectors both achieved double-digit growth in the first quarter of 2005.

The internet recorded by far the largest gain in percentage terms in 2005, rising by 65.6% when measured at current prices (62.3% in real terms) to reach £1,366m, up from a revised figure for 2004 of £825m.

Following growth in 2004, advertising expenditure in the cinema and radio sectors fell by 2.1% and 4.5% respectively in 2005 when measured at current prices (or in real terms 4.1% and 6.4%).

Expenditure on direct mail also declined, falling by 3.9% over the course of 2005 as a whole, although positive growth was seen in this sector during the final quarter of last year.

Public Relations Manager -Dublin city

Description:

Our client, a leading retailer is looking to recruit a Public Relations Manager in Dublin.

Purpose of the Role

Full responsibility for all Corporate AND Consumer PR issues and opportunities within the Irish Market

Skills/Knowledge/Experience

This is a senior role within this major Retailer It requires a special individual with not less than 4 years working in Public relations either in house or in an agency.

As the face of the company, the successful candidate will be an excellent communicator comfortable representing the Company at all levels and in all media including Radio and TV. They must also be comfortable with all aspects of the communications mix.

This is a very senior and important role for the Company and offers the right candidate an exceptional career opportunity.

Salary: €50’s & Package

Contact details: 4 Clanwilliam Square Dublin 2

Lower Grand Canal Dock

Tel: 01 6619636

Fax: 01 6610305

Email: davidallan@peoplegroup.ie

Advertising Sales Professional

With an excellent reputation in the marketplace, Generator.ie is looking for the next big hitter in Online Internet ad sales. If you have at least two years advertising sales experience, this could be the career move you are looking for. It’s a growing market and demand is huge.

Generator.ie specialises in site specific representation for an exclusive list of some of the top Internet brands in the Irish Market – household names like Daft.ie, Independent.ie, Unison.ie, Eircom.net, RTE.ie, 2FM.ie, Loadza.com and most recently, Pigsback.com.

Generator acts as a single point of contact for marketers to reach over 50% of all Irish Internet users and 20% of all Irish Adults. Our objective is to generate the best ROI for marketers from the biggest and only the best sites.

Knowledge

Two years Media Sales experience is essential so that you have the confidence to perform immediately.

A keen interest in the internet, the advertising industry, news, business & current affairs is vital

Abilities

You should be persuasive, able to close a sale and full of conviction.

You must demonstrate initiative and ability to work to target.

You should be fired with enthusiasm, a hunger to succeed and a capacity to overcome obstacles

You should be a good listener and not all talk with a personable telephone manner.

Skills

You should be able to demonstrate good fact-finding skills

The ability to think creatively and strategically

You must have excellent writing skills and be articulate.

Key Competencies and Tasks

2+ year’s advertising sales experience.

Third Level Degree or equivalent is preferable

Familiar with typical software including e-mail, power-point, excel and web browsing.

Reach and exceed when possible sales targets.

Establish and maintain excellent relations with clients and publishers.

Must be a bone fide team player

Location

Digital Hub area, Dublin

Renumeration

Competitive Basic (depending on experience) with OTE €40,000 to €60,000

No telephone applications please.

Respond with CV and email cover letter outlining experience to: info@generator.ie

Event Management Executive

http://www.irishjobs.ie/JobDesc.asp?ID=2204445&MID=2211

Our Client, a Pan European Sports Organisation has retained the services of Deloitte Executive Selection to assist them in the recruitment of an Event Management Executive.

Based in Dublin City Centre, the role will require some European travel.

Key Responsibilities will include:

· To act as a key point of contact for designated clients.

· To implement and improve the delivery of all operational aspects of the organisation

· To drive the event management, including providing creative input at all stages.

· To build relationships with all Stakeholders, while ensuring delivery.

· To prepare various commercial reports on an ad hoc basis.

· Provide assistance to the Events and Operations Manager including, administration, client liaisons, scheduling and venue assessment.

· Lead various projects / initiatives as they arise

· Plan and deliver event management requirements.

The successful candidate will have a good understanding and experience of event management whilst also understanding the dynamics of marketing and branding. A strong creative streak combined with an attention to detail and a willingness to perform a wide variety of tasks is also required.

The person must possess a positive attitude and the ability to work as part of a team or unsupervised. An ability to resolve issues in a professional and reasonable manner is also necessary, as is the ability to clearly communicate. French and/or Italian Language would be an advantage.

PR Assistant

If you have a recognised PR qualification and six months to a year’s experience in a PR-related environment, are a great communicator and have excellent organisation skills, we would like to hear from you. You will get the chance to work on major sponsorships and with great brands and can progress quickly to account executive level. More information on www.lifecomms.com

All CVs to Darlene McCormick on darlene@lifecomms.co.uk.

Communications Manager, The Football Association of Ireland

The Football Association of Ireland is seeking to recruit a communications manager to manage and co-ordinate communications programmes which will inform, publicise, promote and develop the game of football to the widest possible audience, internally and externally. He/she will report to the director of strategic, stadium and media affairs.

The Role

-Define, create and execute a comprehensive communications programme encompassing all FAI activities

-Co-ordinate FAI’s national and regional media and PR plans across all aspects of the game

-Develop a PR programme to promote the FAI’s Technical Development Plan

-Manage and develop the FAI’s website content to best practice standards

-Edit and coordinate monthly newsletter and all internal and external football related communications including match programmes and other publications

-Prepare regular public affairs briefing material for key stakeholders

-Act as front line media liaison and coordination requiring availability in person by phone at all times

-Assist in coaching and developing relevant FAI personnel including team managers, players, staff and officials in communication skills andcontinuous improvement in working closely with the media

-Handle internal and external communications surrounding a wide spectrum of issues emanating from all stakeholders. This requires the collation of the relevant background material compilation of briefing material, press releases etc.

-Lead and nurture staff within the department.

The candidate will be

-Comfortable working in a high pressure environment, sometimes managing tight deadlines for activity and execution

-Capable of managing multiple priorities and responding professionally to outside enquiries, media outlets and other agencies

-A good team player with excellent planning skills who understands the principles of communications.

He/she will have

-Five years’ relevant experience in a communications discipline

-Communications/PR qualification

-In depth exposure and experience with all aspects of internal and external communications including and, in particular, planning, measurement and evaluation

-Experience with issues management and of working in a changing environment, and must be able to cope with unexpected PR issues within a planned communications programme

-A track record in acting as brand/company head of communications is desirable

-Experience in leading and managing staff would be desirable.

The package and applying

The FAI offers an attractive salary and benefit package in line with market rates. Please send CV and letter of application identifying competencies you possess in line with the above not later than 27 June 2006 to Tom Jordan, Recruitment Department, FAI, 80 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, or e-mail tom.jordan@fai.ie.

Jun 01 – September 30 - Diversions
Jun 27 – Aug 26 - Riverdance
Jul 1st – 23rd – Cycling, Tour De France
Jul 1st – 4th (TBC) – Smurfit European Open (Straffan)
Jul 2nd – Budweiser Irish Derby (The Curragh)
Jul 4th – Soccer, Semi- Final World Cup 2006
Jul 4th  (TBC) – Salthill Airshow (Galway)
Jul 5th – Semi- Final World Cup 2006
Jul 6th – 9th – Golf, Smurfit European Open (K Club, Straffan)
Jul 6th – 11th – Galway Film Fleadh (Galway)
Jul 7th – Cinema, Pirates of the Caribbean 2
Jul 08 – Jul 09 – Oxegen Festival 2006
Jul 9th – World Cup Final 2006 (Berlin) 
Jul 9th – 18th (TBC) – Ballina Street Festival and Arts Week (Ballina)
Jul 10th – 13th (TBC) – Cashel Cultural Festival (Cashel)
Jul 10  – Jul 15 – Anna Livia Opera Fringe Festival 2006
Jul 10th – 23rd (TBC) – Galway Arts Festival (Galway)
Jul 14th – Cinema, Superman Returns
Jul 14 – Jul 16 – Howth Peninsula Festival 2006
Jul 16th – Racing, Darley Irish Oaks (Curragh)
Jul 17 – Jul 23 – Temple Bar Circus Season
Jul 20th – 23rd – Golf, British Open (Hoylake)
Jul 21st – Cinema, Cars
Jul 22nd – 25th (TBC) – Nissan Irish Open (Drogheda)
Jul 22 – Jul 28 – Celebration of Shaw’s 150th Anniversary
Jul 24th – 31st (TBC) – Buncrana Music Festival

Find Out More

Ireland prepares for interactive TV ads

http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=9350510

Interactive television advertising has been relatively successful to date in the UK, but views are mixed on whether Irish advertisers will take to the service.

Recent developments have raised expectations in some quarters that Irish viewers and advertisers may increasingly use interactive advertising during 2003.

The first of these is the continued increase in digital TV subscriptions. Recent figures released by BSkyB showed it had 272,000 customers for the service in Ireland in the fourth quarter of 2002, which equates to about one subscribe per five homes. This was up 17,000 on the quarter previously.

Another has seen the UK’s biggest commercial TV operation, ITV, sign an agreement with BSkyB earlier this month that has sees ITV join RTE, BBC, Channel 4, and Sky on the same interactive TV platform. This means that an interactive advert developed for the Sky platform can be launched on all these channels.

According to Nicola Riordan, sales and marketing executive with Irish interactive TV company, Digisoft.tv, advertisers here are excited about the possibilities of interactive advertising.

“We are talking to a number of advertising agencies, as well as companies in sectors such as financial services, travel and retail about the potential of interactive advertising and feedback has been very positive,” remarked Riordan.

She said this was because such ads offer advertisers more than the usual static 30 seconds TV advertisements as they allow them to interact with the viewer directly for anything up to three minutes.

Riordan pointed to the UK as an example of a market that has taken to interactive advertising.

She said that recent research had shown that digital penetration in the UK is greater than 40 percent and 76 percent of households with interactive TV accessed interactive services, including advertising, in 2001. In addition, more than 240 interactive campaigns have been featured on the Sky platform since its launch and a report from Institute for Practitioners in Advertising in the UK has urged the advertising industry and advertisers to adopt interactive TV.

“Rapid growth in digital subscriber numbers, increasing use of interactivity in advertisements and the inclusion of all the major channels on the Sky digital platform are promising developments for Digisoft and our customers,” said Riordan. “These advances will allow our clients to reach a large and rapidly developing market by launching their interactive services across a choice channels.”

However, one channel that may not be broadcasting interactive advertising is RTE. The state broadcaster has recently purchased infrastructure that will allow the service to be offered and it was thought by some that it would start running interactive ads in mid-2003, but this may not now be the case.

RTE’s head of new media, Eugene Murray, told ElectricNews.Net that there had not been much demand for the service so far. "Interactive advertising in the UK has been quite successful, but I am not sure whether the size of the Irish digital market, as it currently stands, will be attractive enough to advertisers," commented Murray.

Conlon bows out of IAVI

Emma Conlon, Marketing and PR Manager with IAVI, has stepped down from her position. Emma, who has worked for the Institute for the last six years, was previously involved with PR for the National Concert Hall and the RDS. She will work on a freelance PR basis in the future.

Google leads search, Yahoo wins portal wars

http://www.enn.ie/frontpage/news-9696416.html

While Google is storming ahead of rivals in the search arena, it isn’t faring so well in its non-core offerings, according to figures revealed on Monday.

Newly compiled US statistics from online traffic analysts at Hitwise suggest Google reigns supreme in terms of searches and seems to be increasing its lead. Based on surveying last week’s internet usage, Google receives over 47 percent of search traffic, while Yahoo gets 16 percent and third-place MSN receives just 12 percent.

While Yahoo’s dominance in search has waned considerably in recent years (only a few years ago Yahoo had 40 percent of searches), it is by no means out of the way in the web portal stakes. For example Yahoo’s News & Media service garners a healthy 6.3 percent of news traffic while Google’s 1.9 percent news share ranks fifth for news behind Yahoo, the Weather Channel (5.6 percent), MSNBC (4 percent), and CNN (3.95 percent).

Yahoo’s mail service, Yahoo Mail, also leads the e-mail rankings, recording 42 percent of all visits to mail sites last week, followed by Microsoft’s Hotmail with 23 percent. Somewhat surprisingly, new boy MySpace Mail received nearly 20 percent of all mail site visits with Google lagging at the back of the class with just a 2.5 percent share for its Gmail service.

More than half of all internet visits are to business and finance sites and in this category Yahoo Finance and MSN Money Central are way ahead with 35 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Google Finance lies 40 rankings behind leader Yahoo with only 0.29 percent.

Looking at maps online is a growth area of the internet. Mapquest is the segment leader with 56 percent of this traffic followed by Yahoo Maps at 21 percent. Google Maps comes a credible third place with 7.5 percent while MSN Virtual Earth gets 4.3 percent of armchair explorers, and Google Earth receives 2 percent.

The figures were posted on the blog site of Hitwise analyst Bill Tancer on Monday and have created a mass of speculation already. Commentators are suggesting that Google has received a lot of press over its non-search capabilities but users have not changed over from established portals such as MSN and Yahoo due to familiarity rather than cost. Based on comments from Google spokespersons in the US media the search giant does not seem fazed by its low figures in its non core area and expects growth in the future.

How many (PR) bloggers does it take to change the world?

Piaras Kelly PR – Irish Public Relations

http://www.pkellypr.com/blog/2006/0526/how-many-pr-bloggers-does-it-take-to-change-the-world/

One.

It takes the rest of them to talk about it.

While Irish bloggers are busy waffling about a cease and desist letter. PR bloggers created their own storm in a tea cup last week about the launch of the Social Media press release by Shift Communications.

I agree that the press release is evolving, but I think it’s due to the fact that the way we digest information is evolving. The Social Media press release isn’t suddenly going to do away with puff copy. It does show some signs though of where we should be headed.

For starters, one man’s spam is another man’s treasure. I’ve pitched a story to two journalists before and I was shot down in flames by one, but given a nice feature by the other. In much the same way, when I issue a press release generally I don’t expect every single journalist in the world to write about it.

Everyone has their own viewpoint and their own opinions. I believe that Shift Communications are closer to the money with the inclusion of a link to ongoing coverage, industry news and reaction.

I’m a big fan of Cnet’s ’The Big Picture’ feature whereby news readers can click on the option to put the story into context by showing a diagram which illustrates how it is related to other stories. (Example – Story and The Big Picture)

If press releases are going to start to evolve though, the media are also going to have to make the same leaps and bounds. Too many outlets are taking the walled garden approach when it comes to their online news sections. As a story develops, the article should provide links to relevant milestones in the overall story.

The Internet has enabled press releases to become a much richer experience, providing journalists with related stories, putting them into context and showing current trends. How they evolve will be interesting to watch, but the Social Media press release is only a step in the right direction, not the destination.

Ryanair criticised over ’untruthful’ free flights offer

http://www.breakingnews.ie/story.asp?j=247169100&p=z47y7xx5x&n=247170087

Ryanair failed to make travel restrictions clear in a promotion for three million free tickets, the industry watchdog ruled today.

The budget airline’s national press advert breached the code’s rules relating to truthfulness, the Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) said.

Its offer of “three million £0 tickets – just pay your taxes and charges” did not apply to flights on Fridays or at certain times on other days.

However, the advert failed to make this clear, with small print stating only that the offer “… excludes travel for major sporting events and holiday periods”.

The offer was only available on flights between noon on Mondays and noon on Thursdays and only after midday on Saturdays. It did not apply on Fridays.

After an investigation, the ASA said: “We concluded that the ad was misleading and told Ryanair to make clear all significant exclusions to offers in the small print of future advertising.”

Ryanair said the advert was not misleading because it made clear that the offer excluded major sporting events and holiday periods.

The advert also directed customers to the airline’s website, where all the terms and exclusions were explained, the airline said. Around 98% of Ryanair bookings are made online, the company added.

Power to the public relations people

http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv–radio/power-to-the-public-relations-people/2006/05/24/1148150262740.html?page=2

Celebrity culture is critiqued in a wry British satire, writes Michael Idato.

In the murky, manipulative world of Prentiss McCabe, the fictional public relations company that is the centrepiece of the brilliant new satire Absolute Power, anything, or anyone, can be spun.

A boring Big Brother contestant flogging an appalling novel? An ambitious archbishop with the Church of England’s top post in his sights? What about a famous TV historian whose sources are unsound? It’s all fair game to spin doctors Charles Prentiss (Stephen Fry) and Martin McCabe (John Bird).

The series, which borrows its name from British historian Lord Acton’s famous quote that “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, explores the tools, mechanics and methodology of public relations and its complex relationship with the modern culture of celebrity.

Acton uttered the line while speaking about the crisis of “Papal infallibility” that rocked the Roman Catholic world in 1870. Absolute Power examines its implications in a more modern context.

“There is such a huge need for celebrity in this country and, I’d guess, all over the world,” producer Paul Schlesinger (Wild West, People Like Us) says.

“You ask young people what they want to be and the idea of wanting to be something specific is being eroded. The answer has become, ’I just want to be famous or rich’, and fame is more addictive than anything else.”

Absolute Power was created for radio in 2000, written by Mark Tavener, whose major credit was the dark comedy In the Red, about “murder, finance, and intrigue in the halls of the BBC”.

Tavener moved two of In the Red’s characters, Prentiss and McCabe, into Absolute Power, which focused on political spin in the wake of the rise of Britain’s New Labour movement in the late 1990s. Three years later, when Absolute Power was adapted from radio to television, Schlesinger admits the drastically different political landscape required a serious rethink of the show’s focus.

“A lot of time had elapsed and we felt the jokes had to widen out from the purely political to cover other stories,” he says. “The nice thing about a PR company, which wasn’t just a political PR company, meant we could look at PR in all its forms.”

The brief changed from dirty politics to celebrity scandals.

Changes were also made to the Prentiss-McCabe team featured in the radio series: arrogant Prentiss, wry McCabe and a work experience girl.

“It seemed an unlikely, or slightly incredible, team of people to be dealing across all these landscapes,” Schlesinger says.

In came devious Jamie Front (James Lance), honest Alison Jackman (Zoe Telford) and party girl Cat Durnford (Sally Bretton).

“A larger group of characters enabled us to cover a lot of different stories and to introduce another layer of character stuff, which I hope comes across in the television series,” Schlesinger says.

With Fry and Bird confirmed for the television version, Schlesinger was able to secure a great writing team: journalist and media commentator Mark Lawson and screenwriters Andy Rattenbury (Teachers) and Guy Andrews (Paparazzo).

“Stephen, as Charles Prentiss, has bucketloads of arrogance, a huge kind of brain and a huge amount of boldness in his approach. John, on the other hand, has a wonderful, benign cynicism. He’s slightly more cautious and he brings a wonderful dryness and wryness to the character. Once the writers got hold of that, we pushed it to its limits,” Schlesinger says.

Absolute Power is the latest in a long line of BBC comedies that began on radio before moving to television. Little Britain, Goodness Gracious Me and People Like Us were all radio comedies.

The relationship between the two media cultures, Schlesinger says, is vitally important to developing new ideas in comedy and entertainment.

The traffic isn’t all one way. Schlesinger recalls Little Britain’s Matt Lucas and David Walliams first dabbled in television, then radio, before returning to television, while Goodness Gracious Me creators Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal first pitched their series to TV comedy chief Jon Plowman, who decided its best chance was on radio.

“What is great about that is that it is a two-way process,” Schlesinger says.