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Digital Download – World Cup Special

Friday, June 11th, 2010

 

Here’s the Shiny Red team’s pick of the most interesting social web stories around the World Cup, seeing as things kick off (haha) today:

  • BBC Radio 5 Live has kicked off a social media campaign calling for the public to join in creating a giant digital Mexican wave video for the World Cup, hoping to attract a younger audience and boost engagement with listeners. Fans can upload photos of themselves in one of four Mexican wave poses at bigmexicanwave.co.uk, which will turn them into 30-second videos showing members of the public alongside 5 live presenters and celebrities. Celebrities including Dizzee Rascal, Justin Lee Collins, LL Cool J, Miley Cyrus (!) and Richard Hammond are backing the campaign, which will also run across BBC Radio 1. The images are then being beamed onto the network of 19 BBC Big Screens across the UK. Users can then share the finished result on Facebook, Twitter and via email. The video will be available to watch on YouTube.
  • Meanwhile over on Twitter there’s a special hub where fans can view live tweets from around the world. In typical Twitter-style, they’ve kept it quite simple: click on a flag to see what everyone’s Tweeting alongside upcoming match times. If you’d like to join the conversation, use the relevant hashtag- #eng for England and so on. In fact Twitter have just introduced icons that appear alongside the hashtags every time they’re used – a small change, but a fun one.
  • Mashable have pulled together a useful guide on how to follow the tournament on Twitter – including lists of the best people to follow, the most used hashtags, and the best news and views from across the network. Along the same lines the team at footie blog Whoateallthepies has pulled together guides to top showboaters as well as best players and hard men – if you’re a footie fan, agree or disagree and if you’re a bluffer, great if you want to do some quick World Cup swatting.
  • If you’re interested in stats, this article shares some fascinating numbers around the World Cup, including Nike having the biggest share (30.2 percent) of blog, forum and social network mentions when compared against the other sporting brands, despite not being an official sponsor.
  • Sticking with big brand involvement, there’s an introduction here to Adidas’ digital strategy for the tournament – involving Facebook, Youtube, auctions, and a virtual comic. They’re giving away prizes to fans who accurately predict the outcome of various statistical and skill challenges – so one for the true football nuts.
  • The FA themselves have got some nice stuff going on, including a new Facebook page that allows fans to get their own team number, create a shirt, and show support. In addition they have a branded Youtube channel with interviews and behind the scene clips (including a popular one of Becks getting a dressing down for kicking the ball), and an official Twitter presence sharing teams news, updates, and links to all other channels.

 

And finally:

 

  • Best ever world cup England song, World in Motion – can this really be 20 years old? And why oh why did John Barnes wreck a beautiful thing for Mars money?
  • My personal favourite of the many ads / virals flying around trying to tap into World Cup fever – if only for David Beckham still managing to sound like a wally with only one line.

World Cup fever: we’re Shiny Red and White for charity

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Shiny Red and White Logo Grass

 

 

 

 

 

As you might have seen from our new-look logo, Shiny’s gone football crazy ahead of the World Cup.

For the next month or so, we’ve changed our name to Shiny Red and White to support the England football team and our official charity Centrepoint.

Along with our parent company Red (now Red and White) we’re aiming to be the UK’s most football friendly workplace and raise enough money to fund 25 Centrepoint rooms for the young homeless for the next year. We will be making donations for every goal England score and for every front page snap of a WAG, and hoping to raise £3,000 for Centrepoint along the way.

We’ve also launched a World Cup-themed Twitter feed, @redwhiteconsult – so come and follow us! And let us know what you’re doing to show your support for England over the next few weeks.

Shiny Red’s take on the iPad – is it worth the hype?

Monday, May 17th, 2010

As iPad frenzy builds ahead of its UK launch on May 28 the Shiny Red team have been getting a sneak peek and playing with a rare US import. It’s fair to say we’re pretty divided here, with a few of us completely won over and planning to buy our own as soon as they hit the shops, but others less blown away. 

 

 Elements that have gone down particularly well with the admirers in the office include:

 

  • The overall design – the iPhone owners in the office all love the look and feel of the iPad, perhaps unsurprisingly, as it’s more or less a supersized version
  • The apps – from what we’ve seen the choice of apps is already very promising, with a great selection on offer for both fun and practical purposes, to keep gamers and less frivolous users happy

 

 Having said that though, there’s some obvious potential problems that, in our view, may deter some potential purchasers from investing in a first-gen iPad. For example:

 

  • No Flash – thanks to the ongoing squabbles between Apple and Adobe, you won’t be able to access any content that requires Flash on your iPad, which means many websites end up full of holes when viewed, and perhaps more importantly: no iPlayer
  • No camera – the size and portability of the iPad mean it feels naturally suited for using with Skype video chat, but the lack of camera renders this impossible. A good reason to wait for later incarnations of the iPad for sure…

 

UK prices have just been announced and feedback has been less than enthusiastic, as we’ll be paying a fair bit more than iPad purchasers State-side. Even despite the cost difference, it’s worth comparing the cheapest iPad (£429) with a similarly priced netbook, as you quickly realise the netbook can actually do more.

 

So to help you decide whether to buy or not to buy here’s our guide to the iPad in action:

 

Red Wins Global Campaign Award

Monday, March 15th, 2010

PR WeekCongratulations to our sister agency Red, whose campaign for McAfee was named Global Campaign of the Year at last week’s PR Week Awards in New York.

The ‘ Dangerous Celebrities’ campaign by Red’s San Francisco office wowed the judges with one judge commenting: “My favorite overall. So clever and so eye-opening. Took a behind-the-scenes business product and brought it up front. Great results!”

The campaign made consumers as interested in web safety as they were in A List celebs by showing how cybercriminals use celebrities to lure internet users to fake websites that look legitimate but contain malware embedded in content. McAfee’s SiteAdvisor tool was used to create data indicating which search topics are the most dangerous, including which stars turn up the riskiest results.

As well as delivering coverage in the USA, Red provided content and guidelines so that McAfee’s global PR teams could replicate the campaign themselves using popular celebrities from their region.
The campaign was also a finalist in the Best Use Of Research category.

We welcome…Matt Park

Monday, February 15th, 2010

We’re absolutely delighted to give a warm Shiny Red welcome to Matt Park today.

Matt joins us as an associate director from Taylor Herring where he headed up the digital team working on entertainment brands including Disney and Fox, as well as Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke, Westlife and Susan Boyle from the Syco music roster.

Great to have you aboard, Matt!

Why old media will ensure the iPad is a hit

Monday, February 1st, 2010

ipad-1up-us-20100127_512x512_001Last week wasn’t an especially good one for Apple. The iPad launch never really matched its billing – it never really could – and negative press articles translated into a wobble on the NASDAQ. The week ended with CEO Steve Jobs allegedly telling a meeting of Apple employees that Adobe was “lazy” and that Google’s ‘Don’t be evil’ motto was “a load of crap”.

Yet while it is clear that Jobs and the Apple board have a few issues to deal with the company has still announced what could prove to be the most significant computing device of the decade.

So in spite of all the negative press why do I feel this way? Well firstly the iPad was never going to match its pre-launch hype. If the company had added an OLED screen, enabled multi tasking (at the moment the device can only run on application at a time which is probably unique among PCs) and added cameras and video calling, it would have delivered a device what would have excited the blogosphere. However it might have seen its shares tumble as the iPad would have retailed for twice the price it currently is.

So Apple chose to build a lower-end device with a competitive price to match and instead delivered a product that was felt by many bloggers to be a disappointment. However the iPad is just a start of a journey for Apple and its consumers. And the irony is that if previous debut product launches from Apple are anything to go by we really shouldn’t have been too surprised that the product was underwhelming.

When Apple launched the iPod back in 2001, it was hammered for producing a device that only worked with Macs, had limited storage and was cursed with terrible battery life. By the time the third generation iPod came along, to say nothing of the iPod mini, the device had got so sexy that everyone had bought one.

Even the now ubiquitous iPhone was given mixed reviews when it launched in January 2007. Sure the critics liked its touch screen interface but the phone itself was a shadow of the type of mobile being produced in Europe and the Far East. It wasn’t even 3G, but ran using an unfashionable and slow data technology called EDGE. Of course then came the 3G phone and the app store and now the iPhone is the best selling smartphone on the planet.

So maybe Apple has a habit of getting it right third time. If that’s the case we shouldn’t be writing off then iPad until we have seen Mk 3 in two years time (or indeed the iPad mini) which by then will almost certainly multitask, sport cameras etc. It will also be very wedded to the whole iTunes/app ecosphere and will surely boast a multitude of innovative and exciting iPad apps.

Finally, content companies believe strongly in Apple. In a world of indie media, blogging, and start ups Apple clearly has very strong relationships with heritage media and has a proven track record of finding new business models for those companies.

How about this idea? Big publishing houses aren’t making enough ad money from the web, while at the same time sales of periodicals, which do attract big ad spends, are declining. If those publishers can get their periodical content to look and feel like their paper versions on electronics devices they might be able to continue to attract the big ad spend of the paper editions rather than the limited ad revenue of the web versions. To do this they need to get the best device for reading their content to as many people as quickly as possible. Hearst Publishing is already thinking along these lines with its Skiff ereader. However ultimately it might make sense for all publishers to back one platform – i.e. the iPad.

It might even enough sense for the publishing companies to subsidise the price of the iPad or even give them away for free with subscriptions to their magazines both paper and digital versions. It might not happen now, but by the time we get to version three…

Five things that will shape social media next year

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

It is the end of the year so in keeping with our usual custom we are writing a series of articles that look back on 2009 and make some predictions for 2010.

We’ll kick off with five things that will change social media PR next year

1 The commoditisation of mobile phone apps
If 2009 was the year of Twitter then 2010 will be the year that mobile phone apps go mainstream. Obviously iPhone users have been downloading apps for many months now, but as we enter the New Year the quality of those apps is reaching new heights.

Next year will see other manufacturers and mobile phone networks offering apps. In addition to the iPhone there will be a surge of apps for both the Google Android platform and for a revamped Nokia Ovi one. Other manufacturers, like Samsung , have announced their own app platform and networks like Vodafone are hoping to offer unique apps to their subscribers.

We are also about to see a wave of media companies wading into the space too. The Guardian debuted its app last week and the Daily Mail apparently has a dozen or so apps lined up for next year.
It will also be cheaper and easier to make apps. Prices have been tumbling for a while now and there are now even DIY app sites starting to emerge.

What this means for brands/PRs – Far sighted brands are already in on the iPhone market with interesting apps. Next year though the agenda will be less about the iPhone and more about apps that target a range of smartphones. Analysts are predicting a 10% rise in Smartphone penetration for next year, but it will probably be 2011/2012 when the market really matures and apps are central not just the top-end phones to but to all mobile users.

The key for brands will be to develop apps that stand out from their rivals. This means apps that are fun and do something useful but have subtle but clear brand associations.

The problem brands will face will be touting their apps. It will soon be very crowded market – in the same way that Facebook apps were a few years back – and brands will have to work hard on strategies to promote their apps. The days of just creating an app and putting it on iTunes and hoping for thousand of downloads will be gone for good.

2 The rise of Farmville

The most popular web phenomenon of the year wasn’t actually Twitter, it was Farmville. The Facebook powered virtual farm game has attracted over 60 million users – even more than Twitter. The big question for anyone involved in social media revolves around whether Farmville is a fad – like a more sophisticated virtual Pokémon but with pigs and aubergines – or whether it is the start of something truly huge. There are many people who think it is the latter. Farmville’s owners recently took $200 million in investment capital and there are plans to expand the service and offer similar games online.

What this mean for brands /PRs – So far Farmville has proved elusive to brands. Some web based businesses like Netflix have advertised on the game , but as Zynga’s CEO Mark Pincus freely admits it is difficult creating opportunities for brands that enhance Farmville rather than detract from it. It does however remain a great opportunity for far sighted brands to engage with what is already a massive audience. Many brands experimented with the virtual game Second Life when it was at its peak two year ago. Farmville offers what Second Life could never achieve – a huge audience. Zynga will need to work out more subtle ways of monetising the game and clever associations with brands is a very sensible route to go. It will be fascinating to see how Farmville and its relationships with brands develop next year.

3 The contraction of the media/blogosphere

You don’t need me to tell you that 2009 has been a very difficult year for British media. Magazines have closed, newspapers have cut staff and broadcasters reined back plans. If the economy improves then in theory 2010 should be a better year. However the problem facing many media owners is not just declining advertising revenue, it is about the structural change of the media and in particular the rise of the web and the decline of print. Ultimately the media has to work how it can effetely monetise the web. Launching paywalls is one solution but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that readers won’t to pay for online content.

It isn’t just mainstream media which is contracting. Several high profile blogs went on hold this year as their owners realised that the chance of making money from them was little more than a pipe dream. The number of people blogging for pleasure also declined with many switching to Twitter to share news and ideas with their families and friends.

What this means for brands/PRs – Getting coverage on blogs is becoming more and more difficult. The most high profile blogs are more aware of their position (like old media) and much more picky about that they write about than they were a few years back. Many mid range blogs whose owners write for fun rather than for any commercial reasons, tend to have fewer posts too.

The big issue facing social media PRs is that increasingly blog owners are expecting to be paid for writing about products. This has been happening in the US for a while where a law was recently passed that put the onus on bloggers to admit if they had been paid for a post. In the UK tumbling ad revenues means that many mid range sites are now looking for alternative sources of income. Being paid to write about a company or a product will become widespread next year (it is already a major source of income for newspaper websites e.g. the Daily Mail which typically has 6/7 advertorial on its web pages) and social media agencies will need to work out how it feels about paying bloggers for posts.

4 The growth of parenting websites

Mumsnet may have grabbed the headlines with its election specials, but its recent high profile shines a light on a trend that has been emerging for several years – namely the power of parenting websites. Mainstream media companies like Bauer and IPC largely ignore parenting websites during the early part of the decade enabling groups of independent site of which Mumsnet is the largest, to become very popular. They now wield power and influence that the mainstream companies can only dream of.

More recently the Mummy blogging phenomena, which has become very influential in the US, has taken off in the UK. The British Mummy Blogging network now boast over 700 blogger members with the leading sites attracting thousands of readers each month.

What it means for brands – Web savvy companies have been courting parenting forums for some time now. One company, Johnson& Johnson, has even built its own website forum in Baby Centre. However the largest websites and bloggers now find themselves in a hugely powerful position not because of the standard of their content, but because of the depth of their community.’ The debate on most forums is of little interest to brands because it is such poor quality,’ an advertising executive told me recently.’ However with Mumsnet and the other sites much of that debate is parents offering advice to each other and that makes the sites very valuable among brands who are seeking to court online influentials.’

For social media PRs the sites and blogs represent a problem because they are traditionally wary of brands. Many mummy bloggers now complain of being spammed by PRs who deliver inappropriate pitches, while forums often steer clear of favouring one brand over another. The challenge for PRs in the next few years will be to engage with both forum owners and mummy bloggers, but ensuring that the stories they offer are relevant and interesting. In the same way that PRs quite often know their core journalists very well, so they will now have to develop deep relationships with forum owners, bloggers and online influentials.

5 Augmented reality

The last few months of the year have seen a big spurt in the number of applications that use augmented reality apps, the most important of which is Layar. This lets you overlay a layer of digital content over external reality as seen through your phone’s camera. Point your phone’s camera at a street/building/person, and on the screen, information about what you’re seeing is overlaid onto your view of it. With Layar any developer with a bright idea can add their own layer of content. There’s a Wikipedia layer for location-tagged Wikipedia entries, a find-an-available-house layer called Funda set up by an entrepreneurial Irish developer with an interest in property, and a bank has done one marking all nearby ATMs. Perhaps the ultimate app would be one that enables you to discover more about a person you are talking to, In other words, point the camera at them and it runs through their Spotify playlists, most tweeted words, and your mutual friends on Facebook etc.

There are many augmented reality apps being developed for both the iPhone and the Google Android platform and they are sure to be among the most talked about technology of 2010.

What this means for PRs/brands – From this juncture it is a bit early to say. AR is is perhaps less of an opportunity for brands to PR products and services, and more one for developing interesting niche apps. Augmented Reality does have an exciting future – think educational and remote surgery as two of its core possibilities – but for next year it will be all about travel guides and niche and fun games.

Of course all this is just our opinion, what do you think are going to be the big trends next year? Or if you’re a brand maybe you are planning to be more involved in the social web next year? If so let us know…

A Very Merry Shiny Red Christmas

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Today the Shiny Red team decorated our Christmas tree so we’re all feeling very festive. If, like us, you’re now in the mood for mince pies, mistletoe and merriment, why not take a look at our round-up of seasonal activity online:

 

 

To help you get the celebrations underway you can also win a 12 Beers of Christmas hamper or cook a Christmas meal with beer from an exclusive menu designed by chef Allegra McEvedy

 

If your iPhone is looking dowdy compared to the rest of your house (or office!) give it a yuletide make-over from ShinyShiny’s list of five Christmas iPhone apps

 

The Telegraph has a round-up of the 25 worst Christmas album covers of all time: fingers crossed you won’t receive any of these in your stocking!

 

Or of course, you can always keep track of where your presents are by following Father Christmas on Twitter

 

Happy Christmas from us all at Shiny Red!

Shiny MD Helen Nowicka chats with Reputation Online

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

I have been keeping close tabs on Reputation Online since its launch around a month ago. I think that the online magazine from Centaur Publishing, the makers of New Media Age, reports on the way in which brands engage with social media in an intelligent and insightful way.

So the whole team at Shiny Red were delighted that the site chose to interview our MD Helen Nowicka so early in its existence.

The article reminded me of just how far Shiny Red has come. As Helen points out in the article we were formed over three years ago, well before many other PR companies’ digital divisions, and were advising brands on how to work with blogs and social networking sites in the days before Facebook and Twitter became household words.

The site’s editor Vikki Chowney quizzes Helen on a number of topics from how Helen personally got started in PR through to why she feels that this has been the year that consumer brands have really begun to engage with social media.

Helen also touches on how Shiny Red resurrected Habitat’s Twitter account earlier in the summer and what she sees as Shiny Red’s USP.

The interview is here.

5 pieces of advice for grads wanting to enter PR

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

This post was originally written at Adam’s personal blog, flawlessbuzz.

gradsPR week has recently posted an article on the prospects for recent graduates hoping to enter the PR industry. Unsurprisingly, most graduates are finding it difficult to get their big break with considerably more applicants applying for considerably less places shown by the Association of Graduate Recruiter’s survey which found that there are 48 applicants for every graduate vacancy. This figure is likely to be far higher in the PR industry, one of the most sought after industries for recently graduated students.

Personally, I found that this mark was closer to the 100 mark. This added to the fact that there are usually significant barriers for students applying like degree class, certain GCSEs gained, and only allowing graduates from a top class university which means that a graduate must be pretty clued up when applying to go into PR.

After applying for various grad schemes and experiencing various internships, here’s some advice which should help you get one step ahead of other graduates applying.

1. Get into social media

Should go without saying but even if you don’t want to get into digital pr or social media, having a decent amount of knowledge about it will do you. Start a blog, start tweeting, post some flickr photos, upload a youtube video, start chatting on facebook. If you’re not doing any of these, you’re seriously lacking behind a lot of your competition.

2. Get some knowledge

Read anything you can get your hands on. Papers, blogs, web magazines, newsletters, practically anything which someone in PR might have had a hand in creating. The more you read, the more opinions (with substance) you should have on subjects. Learn about campaigns you like/don’t like, read about what’s the latest social media tool/fad and have a look at what every PR person should know.

3. Get some experience

Why do you want to work in PR? Is it the allure of fast cars, exotic women and high-flying celebs? Well, it shouldn’t be because it really isn’t like that. The best way of finding this out is to go get some experience. You’ll find out if PR is right for you, which sector of PR is right for you and if the company you’re working for is good for you. There’s no point in starting at a low-level at a PR agency to find out you hate the industry and/or sector (found out after experiencing an internship in a sector I didn’t enjoy). And it can’t harm that CV can it?

4. Get some research done

How do you know which companies to apply to? By doing a lot of research. PR Week lists the top companies for different sectors, some companies actively advertise internships up for grabs, and if you go to a company’s website they usually have some information on their clients, recent work and personnel. These often give you a decent idea on whether that company is right or wrong for you.

5. Ask

Because of the nature of the job (or maybe just a coincidence?), nearly everyone I’ve met in PR is incredibly nice and extremely helpful. I had no idea what I was doing when I started out in the social media world. So I asked. And people answered. This isn’t just lowly people at the bottom of the PR pile who work for some terrible company. This is everyone who I asked, from MDs of start-ups to CEOs of some of the biggest agencies in the country. If you’re really scared, just ask me! There are enough people out there who got into PR in some part to other people helping them and who are more than happy to pass their wisdom on (I hope).

These 5 steps should help any budding PR enthusiast have a head-start on other graduates, check the shinyred blog throughout the year for details of internships or graduate vacancies.

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