One project which had proven particularly successful was The Brian Cox Effect – where an image of Brian Cox depicted as Jesus was plastered across the back streets of East London, along with the hashtag #TheBrianCoxEffect. The campaign sent the Twittersphere abuzz with people tweeting the images and even lead to an article in The Guardian discussing the divine comparison.

What’s more, the festival itself was a great form of science communication with scientists on hand to explain their research and give live science demonstrations. The crowds seemed truly engaged as they chatted to researchers and participated in experiments. And with thousands attending over the course of the weekend, it was great to see the passion and enthusiasm for science burning brighter than ever.

Surely all PR professionals should aspire to be nerd-like? To investigate this, a group from Kaizo visited the Festival of the Spoken Nerd at the Bloomsbury Theatre last week, could we all be nerds too?

Festival of the Spoken Nerd is a comedy show based around science and maths. The cast consists of Helen Arney, an award-winning singer, stand-up mathematician, Matt Paker and BBC One science experimenter Steve Mould, as well as regular special guests.

The show began with a large-scale domino chain experiment to showcase how different styles of circuits work, with over 1,000 dominoes to set up on stage. Following this, highlights included; a song by Helen accompanied by Matt using an overhead projector (yes they still exist) and Steve using his laptop to illustrate the song, in mathematical equations, graphs and similar. Other lessons included learning how to do basic computer coding to launch a virtual fireworks display and how all computer screens are made up of tiny rows of spread sheet cells (it’s true, try putting your phone under a microscope).

Sides splitting and smiles aching, the night was great entertainment, but it was also gratifying in how it supported some of ways we work with clients.

Most importantly, it reinforced the need to combine energy and genuine insights into a topic, with creative and inspiring ways to tell your story if you want to make a genuine impact on the audience.

So my final declaration is … if this is what a nerd does then I’m a nerd and I’m proud to be one!

]]> http://www.kaizo.co.uk/2013/04/nerd/feed/ 0 http://www.kaizo.co.uk/2013/04/kaizo-consultant-elected-to-stempra-committee/ http://www.kaizo.co.uk/2013/04/kaizo-consultant-elected-to-stempra-committee/#comments Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:48:21 +0000 Emma Knott http://www.kaizo.co.uk/?p=3800 Read more]]> Kaizo’s Emma Knott was elected to join the Science Technology, Engineering, Medicine Press Officer Association (STEMPRA) committee, at the Association’s AGM on Wednesday.

STEMPRA is network for individuals working in science communication to share best practice, discuss industry issues and enhance professional development through training workshops and seminars. Members include press officers and other communications professionals working for a variety of organisations including universities, research councils and museums, as well as freelancers and consultants.

Emma will serve on the committee for two years, where she will represent STEMPRA members and help to ensure the Association’s constitution is upheld.

Emma said: “STEMPRA is an incredibly valuable resource for science communication professionals. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to give something back to the network and I’m looking forward to continuing the excellent work that STEMPRA does.”

Emma is a Senior Consultant at Kaizo. With a strong science background, Emma works across Kaizo’s portfolio of science and health clients, including Elsevier, the European Science Foundation, the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee and Truvia® sweetener.

Kaizo has been hired by Sharp Electronics (Europe), the European subsidiary of Japan’s Sharp Corporation, the world-leading inventor and manufacturer of audio-visual, communication, health, environmental and information products and core technologies to revitalise the brand across Europe.

Leading its Worldcom partners, Kaizo will be working with Sharp to articulate the new vision in Europe following its transformation from a country led organisation to one European sales led business, as well as supporting launches for innovative products. The account will be led by Rhodri Harries MD of Kaizo and Steph MacLeod Director of Kaizo.

Ingrid Helderman, recently promoted to Manager Corporate Communications for Sharp Electronics (Europe), said:

“At Sharp, we have always prided ourselves on amazing technology and world leading innovation. We’re excited to be taking a proactive new European PR approach, one which matches a new dynamic vision for one European business. Our aim is to communicate with one consistent voice, whilst maintaining a personal touch at a local level.”

Rhodri Harries MD of Kaizo:

“This is a dream win for us as Sharp is one of the most underappreciated innovators and a brand that many of us hold a personal emotional attachment to from the past. We have big ambitions to support the business across its sectors, to excite customers about the technology, the innovations, the products and the applications. Despite their size globally and their heritage, we see Sharp very much as a challenger brand today, so will be developing campaigns with this in mind. We are delighted to beat off stiff competition from global networks for this brief.”

The brief covers European strategy and content development as well as local market campaigns in UK, Germany, France, Spain, Benelux and Nordics, with Worldcom Partners; HBI (Germany), Yucatan (France), LF Channel (Spain), Wisse (Netherlands) and Oxenstierna & Partners (Stockholm) working with Kaizo.

Sharp Europe operates as one European business with a number of domains. These include Consumer Electronics, Home Appliances, Visual Solutions, Document Solutions and Solar. The brief will cover all the domains to include a broad range of products; from Europe’s leading large screen LCD TV brand Aquos, to its extensive selection of professional LCD monitors and integrated software solutions, its microwaves and steam cookers, air purification systems and refrigerators, to its comprehensive portfolio of award-winning document management solutions and hardware.

SABRE Award nominations are for Best Consumer Electronics campaign (Fitbit: Rise of the ‘Fit-Brit’) and Best UK campaign (Unilever VIP: Proving a Social Community Can Be Commercial).

Good luck Fitbit and Unilever teams!

Everywhere I look I see extreme views when it comes to social media. Brands that have built likes through competitions are told that this is a waste because most will be non-prospects. But this overlooks the connection potential of the personal network of these contest takers. It also overlooks the fact that the competition could provide the foundation for a productive emarketing campaign or affiliate marketing opportunities.

The counter view is to be very targeted so only those people who are the perfect demographic should be attracted to engage. Logical I know, but it pre-supposes that you really understand the true potential of your brand or product. Is its appeal genuinely limited to a tight demographic, or will consumers see it differently if given the chance? A few years ago we were asked to launch a product that was thought to have very niche appeal. We gave it to consumers ahead of launch and they felt it had value for almost everyone. The result? The brand changed its retail strategy and secured mainstream listings and the launch was the most successful in the 50 year history of our client.

If you want a healthy lifestyle, all the gurus talk about moderation in all things. So if you want a healthy social media presence, would moderation in all things be similarly good advice? In my view engaging with consumers on social media has a number of powerful benefits if you avoid these don’ts:

• Don’t be too narrow with your demographic. We recently organised a social sampling exercise on Facebook. One consumer said: ‘Thanks for the sample. They weren’t ideal for me so I gave them to my mother. She absolutely loves what they have done for her hair!’.
•  Don’t underestimate the value of social media feedback.  Because consumers will tell you how it is, the context they provide will help you to switch off people you could never satisfy and attract those that you can. A hotel review that says: ‘Fabulous service but 40 minutes from the nearest night life’; will deter the clubbers and attract those who want to chill out and relax.
•  Don’t miss out on the potential for more targeted messages. By capturing a broad community of followers, you have created the opportunity for more targeted messages using email marketing and other techniques
• Don’t forget consumers come together on social media to discuss topics where they have a common interest. You will build an active following who will genuinely ‘like’ you (and not just like your page) if you add value to the topic they care about
• Don’t miss out on the reach of friend networks. Social media is built on benevolence ie the desire to do dome good for others. As a result people will share things they think are right for their contacts. All you have to do is make sure you make it easy to share everything you say or offer by adding share buttons
• Don’t forget to monetise your social media activities. This may seem obvious but I rarely see good examples of where social media interaction includes the direct opportunity to convert to a purchase. This doesn’t mean you have to be dominated by offers, but it should mean that if people are showing interest by consuming relevant content, you provide them with the opportunity to buy.

If you avoid these six don’ts, I think you will increase the likelihood that your social media presence will pay off. But I’m sure you have some more don’ts we could add to the list. Please share them here.

Take the recent shift by Facebook into the realm of money transfer for instance. Whilst many may believe that Facebook is simply reserved for commenting on friend’s walls and liking pages, the social networking site has moved to incorporate brand pages, host competitions and surveys, and now offers users the ability to transfer money to other Facebook friends at a competitively low fee.

The service uses online service provider, Azimo, and demonstrates that Facebook – like other social media platforms – is rapidly adding a more commercial component.

Online sampling is another example of businesses using social media for commercial activity. These can be in the form of physical products trialled by a brand creatively such as on Instagram, as was done by Rimmel for the launch of its Scandaleyes mascara where participants received a Rimmel gift pack if their photo received the most likes.

To make your social media activity more commercial, why not ask yourself the following?

• How could I use the functionality of each social media platform to my advantage? For example, by monitoring tweets you could identify potential triggers for purchase and respond accordingly
• Will my target audience engage with my content? And if so, how can I use that to trigger the opportunity to buy?
• Could a social network help me capture data for use in more traditional marketing campaigns? The reality is that, set up the right way, activity on a social network can provide invaluable data as the foundation for wider marketing. With so many platforms available for people to use at any point throughout the day, the data opportunities for your business could be significant.

New developments in technology teamed with innovation and creativity, are leading to new ways for businesses to be present on social media. In fact, last year Kaizo proved via its Unilever VIP project on Facebook that people are very happy to have a direct relationship with brands that can have commerce at its heart.

In addition to adding a new platform with which to reach consumers, businesses can also gain valuable data about their target using social media.

A business can use:

• Facebook to gauge sentiment of an experience a consumer is having to feed in to product development
• Twitter to see trends about consumers having the same experience
• Instagram to monitor how many consumers are sharing photos of the experience
• Youtube to gain shareable video content of the experience
• Google Places to record how many people are going to a place for an experience
• Tumblr to target key bloggers writing about the experience

Communities are becoming more commercial, this could be a real opportunity for your brand.

The nominations are for Best Use of Research with Elsevier and Best Media Relations with House of Marley. The awards  take place in London on 21 March 2013. Fingers and toes crossed.

http://www.goldenhedgehogprawards.com/shortlist_south.htm

I watched this incident with interest, not only because a bit of industry mud-slinging is always entertaining, but because having worked in agencies on both sides of the Atlantic I feel like I have something to contribute to the debate.

Now the NYC PR world is by no means perfect, but I certainly learned a few valuable lessons during my time in the Big Apple:

1. There’s no substitute for enthusiasm
When I first moved to New York all of my friends were expecting me to start complaining about the relentless positivity that we Brits associate with Americans. But I actually found it really refreshing, especially in the workplace. To survive in the PR industry in New York you must have a can-do attitude, the word ‘no’ is very rarely spoken. That doesn’t mean that New York PR professionals don’t push back on clients – far from it. Because clients know that their agencies will bend over backwards to get the job done, when they do push back, they know it’s for a good reason.

2. Regional media shouldn’t be an after thought
In response to its London based critics the US PR industry was quick to point out the scale and complexity of the US market. Compared to the extremely London-centric UK market the US is indeed complex with multiple media centres in multiple time zones. That doesn’t mean you can’t run a national campaign from New York, but it does mean that you need to take time to understand the regional media landscapes, get to know the journalists and understand what makes news in Chicago, Sacramento or Dallas. PR professionals in the UK would do well to remember that there are more opportunities with media outside London than offering a regional breakdown of survey stats, and with the much of the BBC moving to Salford perhaps they finally will.

3. Earned and paid media need to work together
A criticism I have often heard levelled at the industry in the US is that there are too many paid opportunities – particularly in big media like the daytime talk shows. It’s true that there are paid integration opportunities but that doesn’t mean that PR is somehow easier or less effective. The best campaigns employ a combination of earned and paid media to drive credibility and reach. This is especially true online, where you can have the best, most engaging content imaginable but if no one sees it you are unlikely to meet your business objectives. PR and media buying agencies need to work together to amplify earned media through paid and vice versa.

And one bonus lesson, this time from London

1. Bigger isn’t always better
I think this may be what PR Week’s interviewees were getting at when they criticised the New York industry. Blue chip clients in the US tend to stick to a small roster of big network agencies, often at the expense of creativity and fresh thinking. When you consider the scale of their campaigns and the sheer size and complexity of the market it makes sense – they want to be confident that their agency has the infrastructure to deliver. However, in London, small agencies with big ambitions have shown time and again that they can deliver for big brands, both in the UK and across regional and global programs. Which is why ultimately, when I moved back home to London I decided to move on from a global network and join Kaizo.

We shared the research with brands via a series of free breakfast sessions and had some lively debate about the results! The results are summarised below:

• The number and frequency of products claiming health benefits continues to rise dramatically but rather than help drive consumer awareness and education about the benefits, 25% of consumers have been left feeling confused by the different health messages.
• 21% of consumers feel bombarded with health message information – clearly brands need to be smarter with how they convey their messages in a clear, concise manner, utilising the right channels.
• Many brands are failing to integrate traditional PR with social and ensure messaging is ‘joined up’ on and offline; in fact 40% of people found that messages projected by TV advertising are completely different to the experience found online.
• Consumers, initially attracted to money offers and free products on fan pages, are put off by the lack of good content or opportunities to contribute – a third never go back!

Get in touch if you’d like to discuss the results of the research in more detail or find out how to get the most out of your social media strategy through joined up communications and consumer involvement.