Ties a bind - and mine’s gone (almost)

OK, so when exactly was it that the all-powerful Lord of Sartorial Acceptibility tapped us blokes on the shoulder, pointed to our tie and declared: “OK, you can take that off now son!”

I really can’t remember when, but it’s definitely happened. I’ve been given the thumbs up by his Lordship to leave my fine collection of timeless neck ties hanging forlornly at the back of my wardrobe, wrench open my top button and proceed in comfort.

But I have to say it’s taken some getting used to. Until recently I had worn a tie all of my working life and before that had been to a school where being caught tie-less was a flogging offence. Although I have taken my stance I haven’t been able to completely shrug off those old tie puzzlers, like...

...if ties really are considered to make us look smarter - why is that? Is it the extra effort required to wrap one around your neck and rush out a cross-knot, that means you are a bit more diligent and hard working than your open-necked brother?

...or is it a question of modesty? With jacket buttoned up and tie pulled tight, very little of that racy M&S easy-iron was on show to turn the heads of the impressionable girls in the typing pool

...or was it just the most brilliant piece of fashion PR ever by the Association of Master Tie-makers - ‘Look here! If you don’t where a tie you won’t be taken seriously by anyone so splash the cash and stock up with a nice silk selection.’

These questions still prey on my mind and in occasional moments of doubt - I find myself worrying about being considered lazy, a wanton exhibitionist or seen as short of funds to buy a fine polyester polka-dot. Damn it, the Prince of Tie Guilt has still got me in a half-windsor!

Jez

Tweet yourself to a taste of Twitter

Twitter has been talked about a lot over the last few months. Many of us have heard Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross, Lance Armstrong and Philip Schofield going on about their love of Twitter.

However, I still speak to many people who either don’t know what it is or just don’t know how they would use Twitter. There is plenty of advice and tips on the internet but I thought I’d share our experience so far.

In terms of Twitter SHOUT!PR has only just dipped its toes in. We have a small number of followers and we follow a few select accounts - mainly news, PR and design led.

When we first started we had the aim of using it as a mix of business, light-hearted social comment and an insight into the personalities at SHOUT!PR.

I think we are achieving a good balance and it’s actually enjoyable to do. We post links to the blog or the website when we have updates or something to share about SHOUT!PR. We comment on what is happening in the office - office chat, music we’re listening to and jobs we are working on. The great thing is Twitter seems to be driving more traffic to our main website and blog.

There is a little network of local businesses forming so you can keep up-to-date with the local gossip and news - The Chad (@ChadNews) have a number of Tweeters in their ranks.

TwitScoop (http://www.twitscoop.com) is great for finding out what the hot topics on Twitter are. Most of the time you will hear news on Twitter before it has reached the mainstream news outlets.

I have a personal Twitter account as well and using this I can keep up-to-date with friends and other cyclists - it’s great for training tips, interesting blogs and hot news. The Twitter account also takes far less management than my Facebook account.

There is still some resistance in the ranks at SHOUT!PR but I like my TweetDeck and Tweetie so I’ll keep Tweeting - until the next big thing comes along.

Paul. (@SHOUTPR)

(If words like Tweeting, Twitter, Tweetie, TweetDeck and TwitScoop mean nothing to you then why not join in and find out what all the fuss is about - www.twitter.com)

Nothing to speak of in Footieland

Now I love football as much as the next football-loving lunatic and there was a time when I didn’t think I could ever get too much of it - the evocative blend of fried onions and fag smoke down by the Trent on match day, the nervous anticipation of the classified results in a bar on holiday, the transfer rumours via a very reliable close friend of a local estate agent who has just had just posted details of their Executive Collection to a footballer’s wife in Premiershipshire... oh and the matches themselves!

But has the background colour of our beautiful game been bleached beyond repair? I was left considering this point after sitting through 40 minutes of Talk Sport phone-in ‘debating’ the big question of the day: ‘Did Fabregas spit at The Hull City assistant manager in the tunnel after last night’s game’. The fact that none of the callers, nor the two show hosts, could have the faintest clue if he did or not, certainly didn’t slow proceedings down.

My conclusion was football, like so many other vital parts of our life, has become victim to over analysis stemming from an ever increasing number of media channels desperate for content.

I guess this is just one small downside to the information-rich multi-media age we live in, and rather than become a grumpy old ‘jumpers for goalposts’-type moaner I could just switch off. But had I done so last week I never would have known how many times (league and cup) Fabregas has been accused of spitting in the last three years.

Brand What?

I was surprised to be asked by the Marketing Manager of a local firm earlier today “what is a Brand Guardian?”

Also known as Corporate Visual Identity (CVI) or simply Brand Guidelines, it is an essential tool for any organisation that cares about its image or trades on its ‘brand’ (and that’s all of you of course!!).

In a nutshell a Brand Guardian can be anything from a very simple 2-4 page document (2.94Mb) addressing consistency issues across all branding mechanisms - how the logo should appear across different applications, colour palettes, position and typefaces to be used - or a huge document (14.9Mb) that expands on this – detailing divisional variations, internal stationery layout, email protocol, fleet branding and so on and so on...

Have a look at the examples linked to our website, and get in touch if you’re interested.

Tip: if you care enough to produce it - don’t neglect to police it! Giving staff ownership of their role is commendable - but not at the expense of your organisation’s image and reputation.

Sarah

Royal reward for clients Skill Force

Congratulations to our client, Skill Force. The national charity has been informed that its efforts to secure a high profile new patron have been successful, with Prince William agreeing to support the cause.

HRH Prince William of Wales will undoubtedly add significant new impetus to the charity’s ambitious development plans.

Skill Force works with over 260 schools across England, Scotland and Wales and with over 9,500 young people each year, to deliver engaging alternative learning programs. Many of the young people involved are regarded as difficult to reach, while others simply benefit from the confidence building provided by the development opportunities on offer.

We have worked with Skill Force for several years, on many different communications projects, including its website, on-line student questionnaire, newsletters and annual report, which, according to Skill Force Director, Jonny Gritt was singled out for particular praise from Prince William and his team when they met with him last week!

We are now frantically looking into which of the Royal Warrants this will entitle SHOUT!PR to use on our letterhead, website, business cards and blog!

Horror scenario for book-lovers

I have this recurring nightmare every time I read anything about this one particular piece of new technology...

I’m in this creaking old secondhand bookshop. The distinctive aroma of fusty, nicotine-coloured pages hangs in the air, the bare wooden floors are reassuringly uneven, a thin layer of dust lines the banks of shelving. There’s just one thing missing...books! Real books that is. One sad old desk stands to the rear of the echoing shop. On top of it is one of those heavyweight computer terminals - all yellowing plastic and green-screened antiquity. Beyond the desk is a door, open just enough to see through to a dimly lit storeroom and a rack of humming network servers.

This is the secondhand bookshop of the future - paperless but kept alive by the hard drive space it can give to all the obscure and unpopular ‘books’ that Amazon or Waterstone’s no longer want on their warehouse-sized battalions of on-line servers.

So, you trot along, have a sniff or what used to be, scan through the ‘almost out of print’ database on the flickering old computer, make your choice, hitch up your Kindle, pay the nice old lady who sits knitting on the other side of the desk (she’s given up dusting the shelves), and away you go, cherished book safely stashed on your hard drive.

Apologies to anyone not yet familiar with the Kindle - Amazon’s amazing ‘wireless reading device’, or indeed the eReader, ‘a new way to enjoy books from Sony’, but you need to get up to speed with what’s happening out there in book world. My perfectly rational take on this is that it’s a huge conspiracy starring some of the world’s most powerful technology and retailing giants and their mission is to eliminate the book as we know it, strip all the lovely tactile elements from the reading experience, banish the beauty of cover art and plonk the whole thing on a frigid slab of plastic-coated printed circuitry.

I sense that Sony already know I’m on to them. On their website they declare ‘eReader doesn’t have to replace your traditional books...’ Well no it doesn’t but I bet they said that about those lovely big cardboard and plastic concoctions called vinyl albums when CDs first reared their little silver heads and we all know what happened there!

Jez

Thou Shouldst Consider This...

People who have known me for a while will think I have a cheek writing this - but I am a changed man.

In my first ‘proper job’ I used to walk 45 mins to and from work come rain or shine. The job also involved standing on my feet all day. A few years later, when I could afford a car, I very slowly became... well... lazy! The convenience of driving to work was far too appealing - in one of my jobs I drove less than 2 miles to work, just so I could drive home at lunch time - shameful!

It’s taken a few years but I have at last seen the error of my ways. All the excuses I previously spouted - I haven’t got the time, it’s too hot or too cold, I’ll be too tired blah blah blah - have finally been put to bed!

These days I cycle to work at least a couple of times a week. It takes me 30 mins - no different to my drive time!

Yes it’s cold some days, and no, I can’t sit back with my iPod blasting out, protected from the elements - but there are huge benefits, apart from the obvious health ones:

• Out on my bike I pay attention to my surroundings.
• I smile or wave to other cyclists - when was the last time you waved to someone just because they were driving a car?
• I save around a third of my weekly petrol bill.

• Plus... did you know hum-drum lames your brain? - varying your journey to work is said to be a good brain trainer!

So I know it sounds a little evangelical - but hey, I just feel like sharing something good! Why not give it a go? Cycle, jog or walk to work once a week, see how you feel. Summer is just around the corner, get outside, get fit, lose a little weight or just end the monotony of the drive to work.

Hopefully I’ll be smiling or waving at you as we pass each other on our bikes - just don’t overtake me I don’t like that!

Paul.


Here are some interesting links for anyone who needs a little more convincing...

http://www.independent.co.uk/money/invest-save/thrifty-living-get-on-your-bike-to-make-big-savings-1634138.html

http://www.bikebelles.org.uk/

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/fashion/article5839358.ece

Our pledge to help smoking quitters

Today is No Smoking Day and there have never been so many different support devices available to smokers to help them quit the habit.

Just a very quick look around the official No Smoking Day website reveals an ‘e-mail buddy’ scheme for quitters, a well patronised ‘stop smoking forum’ where you can share experiences and seek support, a comprehensive calendar of stop smoking events to attend in your area and even a ‘print your own quitting certificate’.

With so many people taking the decision to ‘stub it out’ in recent years the NHS is needing to be ever more inventive and creative in its tactics to encourage the remaining, possibly more entrenched, smokers, to consider quitting.

This is the challenge we inherited at SHOUT!PR when, at the end of last year, we were asked by NHS Notts to devise and deliver a campaign to help boost their 4-week quitter figures in the county.

We decided we wanted to stop nagging smokers about giving up and so instead targeted our efforts at their loved ones and friends! - asking them to do the talking for us and encourage the smoker in their life to give quitting a try.

We designed a printed pledge, including a prize draw function for quitters - 25 wii fit sets were also up for grabs in a prize draw. Some 30,000 pledges and POS material were distributed to local NHS and local authority outlets, and local employers to make available to staff.

Anecdotal feedback on the campaign so far has been extremely positive and now we are just waiting for the new figures for 4-week quitters in the county since Christmas.

It’s a slow down - on the roads as well

Brilliant! The Government has come up with another ingenious ploy to mask the economic slowdown. The national speed limit looks set to be cut from 60mph to 50mph on all but the ‘safest’ roads, and this could happen as early as next year.

A tactical recession-reversing policy is the only logic I can apply to this. Our on-road commerce will all move that bit slower, in tune with the general trading slowdown - a speed reduction of over 17% should more than do it.

To help us adapt to this new pace of life we are going to be watched over by lots and lots more of those wonderful average speed cameras - you won’t be able to say we have not been given every possible assistance to conform.

Of course the official line is that these new measures will be introduced to cut the number of road deaths caused by speeding vehicles, so please immediately cast the next thought from your mind - that this could be anything at all to do with transferring more money from motorists’ wallets to the state coffers.

Telly spot for Breyer models

As part of our PR remit for Treasure Trove - the UK distributor for US model horse company Breyer - we have been busy talking to a whole range of media whose principal audiences are Breyer buyers - girls aged between 7 and 12.

As a result we have secured space for Breyer product competitions in a number of large circulation magazines like Girl Talk and All About Animals, and recently landed two great slots on Pop Girl TV and Tiny Pop TV. Both channels ran a Breyer competition during half-term week, providing us with excellent exposure for the brand.

Beware - the brainjackers are coming

I used to get quite excited about the concept of Joe 90 - the little lad with the glasses, who after spending a couple of minutes in a swirly gyroscope type machine, with some futuristic music playing, got a temporary transplant of some highly intelligent chap’s brain - more often than not a doddery old nuclear scientist. This enabled our little hero to scoot off and foil a dastardly threat to mankind.

That was exciting, but the modern day version of Joe 90 is plain frightening! We were informed via an article in The Times on Saturday that ‘Brainjacking’ technology, or Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature Profiling to give it its full title, is now sufficiently developed to be of use in a wide variety of fields.

Plonk on the electrode-filled cap, plug in and watch your innermost secrets appear on the computer screen. Well, that might be over-simplifying it a little but those Times hacks do tend to do their homework, and they report that rapid recent advances in medical brain imaging mean much is now possible that was once pure fantasy.

Apparently the military, politicians and marketing people (surely not!) are all clamouring to get their hands on the technology which will help them tell if someone has been in a terrorist camp, which manifesto items are likely to win approval or which soap powder jingle prompts a ‘buy’ impulse.

Could the last frontier of exploration - the space between our ears - really be this close to being ‘conquered’? It is indeed a frightening thought, especially when it is being predicted that the physical size of the technology required to steal our thoughts is shrinking all the time and that a device the size of an alice band could soon be adequate! My alice band days are officially over!

Jez

Sporting night out

Cracking night at Mansfield Armchair Club’s Question of Sport evening at the Civic Centre, courtesy of our favourite accountants Stopford Associates. Although our table put up a commendable performance - well Martin did! - we were up against the cream of the town’s sporting intelligentsia and finished third of about 18 tables.

Hearty congratulations to the Chad team who were worthy winners of the trophy after a nerve-tingling tie-breaker.

Bumped in to quite a few old friends and clients during the evening - particularly good to see Nigel and Pete from the Mansfield Building Society and Alan from White Post Farm Day Nursery.

Jez