News March 07
Posted in News on March 12th, 2007St. Patrick’s Day Dublin, Ireland’s National St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations
Dublin, Ireland – The only place to be in from 15th – 19th March 2007
Sometimes it seems that the whole world wants to be Irish and on March 17th. As one of the most recognised national holidays on the global calendar, St. Patrick’s Day is a great excuse to party with no better place to celebrate than Ireland’s thriving capital city, Dublin.
Being Irish, celebrating for a day is not enough; now Ireland’s national holiday is marked by a 5-day Festival. From March 15th – 19th Dublin rocks to a Celtic beat for a carnival of monumental proportions celebrating all that is great about Ireland.
There’s street theatre, music, dance, comedy, film, a treasure hunt, Irish language events, family fun and of course the best St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the world. As a highlight of the Festival, the Parade presents innovative street theatre troupes, artists, giant puppetry, dancers and marching bands from Ireland and across the globe. The Festival programme offers something for all tastes and ages – and remember most of the events free of charge, so there’s no excuse for not joining in.
More than one and a half million people, including 40,000 visitors, join the locals to experience Festival fever every year. No one throws a party like the Irish; so you are guaranteed a week you’ll never forget and you never know, you might even see some leprechauns!
So, put the date in your diary and come and be part of it all in 2007 and experience the warmest of welcomes and join in the “craic” that is awaiting you in Ireland.
For further information contact: Áine O’Mahony, St. Patrick’s Festival
Ph: 353 1 676 3205 Email: aineomahony@stpatricksfestival.ie
Press releases need a rethink as the web changes the media landscape
What’s the future of the press release in today’s web world?
In a nutshell – needing to get back to fundamentals. The much maligned press release faces more pressure than ever before. Not just because it is has been abused over the years; but because technology had fundamentally changed the media scene. Ironically it was just over 100 years ago – on Sunday October 28, 1906 – when what is acknowledged as the first press release was issued. So in order to better understand the future of the press – or media – release it might be helpful to trace its evolution.
How did the first press release come about?
It was the brainchild of an external consultant, Ivy Leadbetter Lee, who referred to himself as a ‘public relations counselor’. The release followed the derailment of a train owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad that resulted in the loss of 57 lives. Lee not only recommended that the company issue a statement to newspapers regarding the accident, but also persuaded the railroad to run a special train to take reporters to the scene of the accident. As a result the New York Times published the press release word-for-word on its front page. Soon the Pennsylvania Railroad was earning praise from American media for its openness and apparent concern for safety. In the days when business was distrustful and fearful of the media, the concept of an organisation openly admitting to an accident and voluntarily going to the media was unheard of.
How did the press release evolve?
From this the press release evolved over many decades to what it is today. Superficially, little has changed, in that the press release:
- Was a conduit to reach the general public through a source they trusted – the media.
- Became an information delivery mechanism – specifically designed for media consumption.
- Was designed to alert media to newsworthy occurrences – and to serve as a basis for the media to write its own story.
- Was generally written in a style and format that replicated that used by media itself.
What’s the status of the press release today?
Thousands of forests later, the press release has become a much abused tool. After years of manipulation by organisations it suffers from a bad reputation. And much of it is deserved.
The principal problems facing the press (or increasingly the ‘media’ release as it is often called today) is that it is no longer written taking into account the media’s needs or that of the end reader, viewer or listener. Press releases become documents written from the organisation’s perspective (as evidenced by how many start with the organisation’s name).
Common mistakes made include:
Writing releases for the wrong reason – internal pressures, to spike competitors or simply to be seen to be ‘regularly releasing stuff’.
Writing releases in the wrong language.Gone are the days when media release were crafted by experienced journalists who ‘knew the game’. These days releases are often written by an assortment of people – lawyers, marketing people and accountants – who have no conception of what is media ‘style’.It’s become a corporate document, which must meet corporate guidelines – not the media’s!
Sending releases to the wrong media.This has become particularly prevalent since the advent of the electronic age.Press a button and it’s just as easy to send it to 100 media as five. Never mind that the release is only relevant to five!
Not understanding NEWS.Media are bombarded by irrelevant material that often has no news value. This is because most of today’s pr people have an academic – rather than a news training.
But overall, the biggest mistake made is that many organisations see press releases as a complete tool in their own right. They are not. They work best when they supplement personal relationships built up with media that are relevant and important to an organisation. Ivy Lee may have issued the first press release – but what was more important was that he and the Pennsylvania Railroad personally engaged with the media by giving them access to the accident site. His press release would not have had the credibility it did without this.
So what’s the future of the press release?
In reality traditional media is no longer as relevant as it was. The days are gone when people with an interest in a subject simply waited to see what their daily newspaper has published. Nowadays the media is no longer the conduit to the end consumer. Increasingly the consumer – via the web – wants to access news and information themselves. In fact recent a recent Network PR/Galaxy Research study showed that 66% of online Australians turn to the internet for news updates in preference to TV, radio and newspapers.
This means that issuers of press releases need to go back to the principles espoused by Ivy Lee and the early PR practitioners who wrote very much with the end audience in mind.
There is a new type of editor – the search engine. To get ‘published’ by search engines organisations will have to start writing much more precisely targeting the interests of the consumer.
So in future press releases will likely fall into two categories:
Those that are sent to traditional media for them to assess, edit, re-write and publish if they consider the content relevant to their readers. The pros – there’s an intermediary who can polish the copy and target the story at the end consumer. The cons – you have no control over the final copy.
Those that are aimed at the web and therefore have to stand as they are and be written with the end consumer very much in mind. Pros – you have the opportunity for the consumer to see exactly what you want. Cons – it will take much more skill, and discipline, in order to achieve.
This means that the easy ‘one release covers all’ approach and let the media sort it out will no longer be sufficient. Those responsible for communication will need to be more aware of their end audiences and assertive with management in raising standards.
100 years after Ivy Lee first conceived the press release perhaps we are on the verge of moving back closer to the basic principles of the press release. If, as ‘new media’ pundits opine, the power is again with the people, then chances are that people like Lee will once again flourish.We will have come full circle!
Online Ad Spending Growth To Slow
On-line Ad spending growth will slow to less than 19% this year after three straight years of more than 30% gains, according to a new report by market research firm eMarketer.
The study cites a maturing market and a weakening U.S. economy for the slowdown in 2007, but predicts a rebound next year to 22.1% growth in online ad dollars due to the presidential election and the summer Olympics.
Overall, eMarketer predicts that online ad spending will rise from $16.4 billion, or 5.8% of total U.S. ad spending, in 2006 to $36.5 billion, or 11.3% of total spending by 2011. While paid search will continue to claim the lion’s share of online ad buys over the next several years, spending on rich media and video ad formats is expected to enjoy the fastest growth.
"As we move into the next decade, marketers will put more of their online budgets into video and other rich media categories than they do into display ads, banners and other static placements," states the eMarketer report by senior analyst David Hallerman. Spending on rich media is expected to nearly triple to $6.2 billion in 2011 from $2.1 billion this year. Paid search will roughly double during that period to $16.1 billion from $8.2 billion.
In Google’s purchase of YouTube, eMarketer sees the start of a promising connection between search and video that will become a powerful combination for publishers and advertisers by decade’s end.
Surveying forecasts from a group of 20 other market researchers, eMarketer finds that nearly all predict online ad spending to grow through 2011. Its own estimate of 19% growth for 2007 puts it in the middle of the pack–between JMP Securities’ prediction of 25.8% and Borrell Associates’ prediction of 10.2%.
At least one agency executive concurred with the more optimistic outlook of JMP and other firms. "I think we’ll certainly stay in the 20% to 30% range in 2007," said Scott Symonds, executive media director at digital agency AKQA. He added that the agency’s own billings are still growing at more than 30% annually, and he doesn’t expect any slowdown this year. Symonds sees especially strong demand for video advertising, benefiting from the improved ability to "serve video ads with the same targeting that you can send banners."
But looking further ahead, five of the firms–Borrell, Forrester Research, JupiterResearch, Oppenheimer and PricewaterhouseCoopers–predict annual growth slipping into the single digits in the next couple of years, for the first time since the start of the commercial Internet.
Maintaining a more bullish view, eMarketer projects online ad growth to fall only to 13.4% by 2011. In defending its estimate, the firm argues that even if the economy slows, the continued growth of the online audience and attendant advertising will drive an ongoing shift away from other media, especially radio and newspapers.
The better targeting and tracking capabilities of online advertising and the expansion of Web video ads will also help increase the Internet’s share of ad dollars, according to eMarketer.
In comparing 2007 forecasts for Internet advertising as a percentage of overall ad spending, however, eMarketer was more conservative than many, at 6.6%. Estimates of a dozen other firms range from 12.5% by Veronis Suhler Stevenson to 3.6% by Universal McCann. (The agency’s forecast, however, doesn’t include paid search ads.)
Every season Dublin Fashion Week have brought in fashion industry insiders to provide short talks to the public in what have proven to be hugely popular events in themselves. Over the past few years these have included Stephen Sealy, the head buyer from Brown Thomas, designer and owner of No.6 lifestyle boutique Helen McAlinden, and the European Editor of Fashion Wire Daily, Godfrey Deeny.
This season is no exception with the designer and marketing guru behind Motorola’s new Razr handset, Ignacio Germade coming in, as well as Eddie Shanaghan, a business consultant specialising in fashion and retail, among others. These are likely to be in high demand as they are on a purely first come, first served basis with tickets available at the door of The Fitzwilliam Suite at the Fitzwilliam Hotel for a nominal fee of only €5, so be sure and get there early. Details of the other speakers and times of talks will be posted on our website as and when they are available. We have no doubt that these would prove invaluable to any student of marketing, design or business in general.
Students that are studying fashion design and/or production would also be very interested in the fact that this year sees the first catwalk shows to happen in the history of Dublin Fashion Week. On the afternoon of Wednesday 14th March Joanne Hynes will preview her Autumn/Winter 07 collection at a show in the Mansion House on Dawson St. There will be a number of tickets available to the public, again available at the door. Doors open at 12:30pm, show starts at 1pm.
This year also sees Matthew Williamson showing his Spring/Summer 07 collection outside of New York for the first time in five years at a Gala Event to be held on the evening of Wednesday 14th March. This is a major coup for Motorola presents Dublin Fashion Week and we are very excited about welcoming Matthew to Ireland for what promises to be an unforgettable night.
Tickets for the Gala Event are available for purchase through CSL Hospitality on 01 6766650 or emma@cslhospitality.ie.
Dates: Monday 12th – Wednesday 14th March 2007
Publishers Gang Up on Google
A group of international publishers that includes Independent News & Media is set to launch an automated system to control copyright permission to search engines.
The main target of the initiative is Google and in particular the firm’s online news search engine Google News which currently scours the websites of thousands of newspapers and magazines around the world.
The new initiative, called Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP), is designed to address the ongoing argumnet about whether search engines have the right to aggregate publishers content. While Google is the biggest aggregtor, other services such as www.newsnow.co.uk is also a target.
The initiative comes hot on the heels of a Belgian court’s decision that Google had infringed on the copyright of Copiepress, which represents several Belgian newspapers.
ACAP is still being piloted and is being driven by the World Association of Newspapers, the European Publishers Council and the International Publishers Association.
Some of the companies involved include Ireland’s Independent News & Media, Reed Elsevier, Media 24 and Agence France Presse.
Irish firms stuck in Search Engine Limbo
Irish companies are failing to take advantage of search engine optimisation and are doomed to languish low down the page in search results rankings.
A new survey, conducted on behalf of digital media services firm Captivate Digital, found more than half (53 percent) of leading Irish firms don’t appear in the top five results in search engines based on a simple keyword search in their category.
Companies are increasingly attempting to boost their ratings in search engine result rankings in order to drum up more traffic to their websites. According to Interactive Return, a company which advises firms on strategies for e-marketing and creating online brands, search marketing is a fast-growing medium, with Irish firms shelling out more than EUR30 million each year on the new advertising channel.
However, Captivate Digital’s study indicates that despite spending heavily, many Irish organisations are failing to achieve their aim of coming top in search engine results.
"The results show that many leading Irish companies face considerable challenges in raising the profile of their products and services on search engines," said John Dunne, director of Captivate Digital.
"Our survey shows that the importance of having a strong search strategy is critical, otherwise it’s a case of out of sight, out of mind."
Given that more than three quarters of internet users rely on search engines to find information and that around 60 percent of all websites receive more than half their traffic from search engines, many Irish companies could be losing out to their rivals — particularly if they fail to register high up the page with leading search engines such as Google.
"Google dominates the Irish market and is by far the most popular search engine for driving traffic to Irish websites each month with an estimated 81 percent referral rate," added Dunne.
According to Captivate’s study, Dell has the most visible website among Irish companies with 72 percent of associated keyword searches returning Dell in the top five results.
Microsoft Ireland proved itself adept at getting noticed online, with 68 percent of searches leading to links to the software giant. Building materials group Grafton also ranked highly in results with 66 percent of associated keywords searches ranking the company in the top five results.
In addition, leading companies in the food and drink sector such as Dawn Meats, Fyffes and Kerry Group performed well in the study. Surprisingly telecommunications company Eircom ranked as one of the worst Irish firms, coming in tied with oil refinery ConocoPhilips and slightly ahead of food giant Glanbia.
O2 Ireland was another firm which needs to do work on its search engine optimisation with just 14 percent of associated keyword searches returning the mobile operator in the top five results.
Captivate predicts online spend in Ireland will grow by 54 percent this year to a total of EUR33 million, representing 3 percent of the total estimated ad-spend. This is still some way behind Britain where online advertising in the first half of 2006 accounted for 10.5 percent or STG917.2 million of the total advertising market.
