Twitter + @BrentSpiner = mental coincidence

This is an actual screenshot of @booper's twitter account after he called me a geek for using a picture of @brentspiner in a blog post. Who was the last person on his following list to tweet? AAAARGH WEIRD!

Disregard data at your peril?

My colleague Karla Wachter wrote a dramatic piece today on the Waggener Edstrom Studio D blog today about data (OK, not Commander Data off Star Trek - but I thought that's what she meant at first).

She was, in fact, talking about the often ignored area of data analytics in PR. I'm the first to admit that I'd rather spend my time creatively brainstorming campaigns than worrying about the metrics that underpin them. But I also know that Karla's got a point when she says "data is an engine that fuels innovation and creativity."

But there can, she says, be too much of a good thing:

Of course there is a dark side to data. With the wealth of data accessible to us, we now are at risk of data overload. How do you know what data is the right data, what conversations are the most meaningful, who is my target audience, who is influencing them, where and how should you engage, how are my efforts driving tangible business actions and outcomes… And the list of questions goes on and on and on.

I agree. Digital PR has opened up new ways of measuring effectiveness to a group of people not used to measuring stuff. Long gone are the days of the sole remit of PR being 'awareness'. Now, conversations are monitored, influence closely measured, and decisions tracked back to the message that initiated them.

Which is why we're spending so much time creating the services to make dealing with data second nature, automated and easy. Thanks to the tools that Karla's team have created - including one launching next week that I just couldn't possibly tell you about - people like me can get on with the important task of running creative campaigns.

I'm off to go imagineering.

Modern Warfare meets the modern media

In what has been described as the biggest computer game launch of all time, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launched at midnight to a fanfare of glitz, glamour and beautiful people.

Predicting 3m sales across the UK, Activision rolled out the marketing big guns, including sending tanks into London's Leicester Square manned by legions of chiselled warriors for a showbiz party hosted by Vernon Kay and featuring Dizzee Rascal and a camouflage carpet (instead of a red one). They even managed to get an MP to complain. This was surely a fantastic end to a slick and well-executed media assault.

But BBC News reminds us all that this is just a computer game, and not a Hollywood blockbuster, with its choice of photo to accompany the news story on its mobile site.

Isolating the profile of a Twitter user

Based on information gleaned from Viralheat, here is the exact consumer footprint of a Twitter user.

1. They make calls on their iPhone or BlackBerry or Android or Nokia or Motorola device.
2. They're calling on T-Mobile or O2.
3. They watch YouTube or CNN or Disney or MTV or BBC.
4. They drink Starbucks or Coke or Pepsi and eat in KFC.
5. They drive a Toyota or Ford or BMW or Honda or Nissan.
6. They wear Gucci or Nike or Chanel or Tiffany (possibly simultaneously).
7. They shop on Amazon or Ebay or in Ikea.
8. They have an Apple or a Dell or a Sony or a Samsung computer.
   
9. Their computer has Microsoft installed and Intel inside.
10. They read Mashable or TechCrunch or The Guardian.
11. They fly British Airways.
12. They listen to Spotify.
13. They play with Lego.
14. They Digg you.
15. They talk about Twitter (a lot).
16. They are 31.
    

(I made this up in three minutes, based on precisely no analysis whatsoever. Cool eh? Terrifyingly, when applied to my life it's 100% accurate. And I lie about my age.)

The Economist gets down with the kids

I picked up my free 'sampler' copy of The Economist this morning from the cheery chaps who seem to be outside my tube station every day now. (Despite honing their freesheet skills on Stylist, Shortlist, Sport and The Evening Standard they were struggling to give this one away.)

Having read it on the journey in, I can only imagine the editorial meeting that resulted in this 22-page taster.

"Let's give away a free copy of The Economist, with stuff in that'll win new readers."

"How about just giving next week's away for free?"

"Nah - we need to act cool. So, you know, they buy us next time."

"Well... We did that article about legalising drugs, like, in March?"

"Brilliant. Stick it in. And how about that article we did about Heathrow where we suggested the third runway was a bad idea and called Gordon Brown 'as noxious as a jet engine's exhaust?"

"The kids'll go crazy! And let's reprint that one we did in the summer about the Greek trying to steal stuff from the British Library. Just in case we get some arty types."

"Hmm. But what about the finance pages? What if they think we go on too much about economics?"

"Don't worry - there's that one we wrote the global prices of Big Macs in July. They'll dig that."

"Awesome. Now let me just rustle up an editor's letter that explains what a 'leader' is..."

Hyundai viral hijack is inspired

You've probably seen the video doing the rounds of the BMW 4x4 attempting to park and destroying a few cars in the process. In this small but perfectly-formed marketing gem, Hyundai respond by giving one of the victims - a customer of theirs - a new car.



(Via Mashable.)

God is second only to Apple

I was just trying out some new social media tools and found this:



It seems God is the second most discussed 'brand' online. Perhaps it's time for some more celestial spin?

TfL bosses bin Kelly Brook's buns after Tube boob

Posters of Kelly Brook advertising her naked appearance in West End play Calendar Girls have been deemed too raunchy for London Tube passengers, according to every single newspaper in the known universe today.

Following alleged complaints from Transport for London, the advertisers have been asked to enlarge the pictures of the iced buns she is holding to ensure the ad complies with its policies.

Full marks to whoever engineered this story. Not only does it manage to fuse gratuitous pictures of Kelly Brook's cleavage with limitless use of moral outrage (making it OK to show the pictures) but it went national the day before she made her debut in the show.

Note: PR does not get much better than this.

Outraged Balham residents scramble for the truth

Today, Boris Johnson launched Oxford Street’s new ‘scramble crossing’ by banging a giant gong.

The diagonal pedestrian crossing has been heralded by many of the news outlets as a copy of the famous walkway in Shibuya, Tokyo. The Metro even went as far as naming it, slightly ambiguously, as a ‘first’.

Luckily in almost all the comments under the stories, the general public set things straight by pointing out that Balham, far away from Oxford Street in SW12 (the horror!), forced people to scramble across the road in 2004.

The idea was first raised in a Wandsworth Council meeting in 2002, according to the meeting minutes published today by local councillor James Cousins in his post on the subject.

Best of luck to the ‘triumph for British engineering, Japanese innovation and good old-fashioned common sense’.

I have lived in and around SW12 for a decade and hardly anyone uses the diagonal crossing due to, as far as I can tell, the terror one feels when one gets half-way across.

Can PR pounds fuel healthy debate?

It’s National Obesity Week this week – a week of raising awareness of the problem of obesity in the UK, organised by the National Obesity Forum (NOF) and supported by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).

(The NPA’s support has, I’m sure, nothing to do with the global market for weight loss treatments being worth upwards of $500 billion by 2014.)

But while we’re yet to see the fruits of the NOF’s no-doubt tireless promotional campaigning to force the obesity issue into our nation’s news, it has fallen to Tanita, a PR-friendly manufacturer of ‘precision electronic measuring devices and health-related diagnostic tools’ (also known as scales) for the quick win.

“Tanita proudly donates time, equipment, funding, and other resources to a variety of community and school events at local, state, national, and international levels,” says the manufacturer's website in between invites to follow it on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and news of its latest Body Fat Perception Poll.

Aside from the wonderful headline in The Express (and the picture of four particularly slim women), the survey results have also appeared in The Daily Mail and a couple of other small news sites. I’m sure it’ll roll on as the sites pick up and syndicate the story.

In a crowded media market, it is no longer enough to be running a campaign designed to improve the public health to win news headlines. A communications-focused company with a survey budget and some results that a subeditor can turn into titillating type are necessary fuel to the marketing engine.

The result is, on the surface, a win/win – the NOF gets more exposure for National Obesity Week while Tanita enjoys a nice PR hit that plants it in the nation’s mind as a manufacturer with a social conscience. But is it really anything more than product placement at the expense of discussing the wider health issues?

Now, where can I buy some scales for my new bathroom?

Take a Peek at BlackBerry

There isn't anything available in the UK that can compete with BlackBerry for a piece of the mobile email space.

Trust me, I've just been through the weird process of buying a new mobile phone. The market is full of widescreen-media-player-phones, high-resolution-camera-phones and social-networking-and-comes-in-pink-too-phones.

But for email - and, more specifically, actually being able to type emails and rely on them being sent and received - the BlackBerry kicks ass every time.

Which is why I'm so keen to see the Peek arrive here as soon as possible. It takes what BlackBerry has done and strips it down even more. No glossy screens, downloadable apps and faux-leather. Just basic email and a keyboard.



Peek's latest PR coup is the TwitterPeek, a device that costs $200 and only lets you interact with Twitter. The killer twist is that the $200 covers your connectivity too, so there are NO BILLS WHATSOEVER. That's so good it actually hurts me a little bit inside.

I remember the first time I had a go on a BlackBerry. I was in the US, it was 2000 and the device itself looked like a pager. Even back then I knew it was going to be massive and was surprised it hadn't made its way to the UK yet. (Note to self: Go dig out the column I wrote about it for Internet World magazine.)

The Peek reminds me of that feeling, and not only because it looks and acts like an old 'Berry. So when will we see it arrive?

Neil Diamond is haunting my dreams

A brilliant story doing the rounds today is about the mysterious man currently haunting the dreams of tens of thousands of people.



Although extremely convincing, the site was created by the founder of an Italian marketing agency known for hoaxes, according to reports.

I would love to believe someone has honed a psychic ability to surf through people's dreams. I will, however, not be disappointed if it turns out to be a marketing stunt for a new Neil Diamond CD (just in time for Christmas).



What's that? He has a Christmas album just out, including the title track Cherry Cherry Christmas, which is "newly written and recorded by Neil Diamond for Christmas 2009" and "destined to become a new Christmas standard"?

Slap in the Facebook

Facebook's new newsfeed has received a bit of feedback - in the shape of 1,231,797 (at time of writing) members joining the 'CHANGE FACEBOOK BACK TO NORMAL!!' Facebook group.

We're seeing an unprecented rise of grassroots action such as this - be it in response to bad journalism, controversial programming or, shock horror, the apparent inability to see what your friends are thinking in real time.

With Facebook and Twitter constantly fighting to improve their interfaces, it'll be interesting to see if Facebook reverses its decision. It appears neither of them have yet worked out that it is possible to exist in harmony as two very different communications platforms.

That said, I barely notice the difference in my Facebook feed - aside from that I get slightly more relevant posts in the new version?

Eight reasons why the Palm Pre got handed back

Synergy was amazing and the keyboard was more than capable. But:

Battery life. Getting to the end of the day with a working smartphone is, you know, important.

The OS. It was slow, and had to think about things. A lot.

Music. The sound was great, but no iTunes or Spotify became crippling.

The browser. No flash support meant broken pages and empty screens.

Apps. I'm not bothered about the number... Just that they're finished before being published.

Alerts. It's very quiet, and you're stuck with fixed SMS and system alert sounds.

Mic quality. People kept complaining they couldn't hear me, or that I was cutting out.

Finish. It was made of plastic, with plastic trim and a plastic screen. It felt, erm, plasticky.

Guardian Jobs website hacked

For most people that work in the media, the Guardian's jobs paper and website are one of the main ways to look for jobs and recruit new talent.

An email sent out on Saturday night just warned all users that the site (run by external supplier Magdex) has been hacked, and registered users' personal data has been accessed.

I've done a quick story on this over at The Media Blog. I've also sent some questions to the team at The Guardian to find out as much as possible about the breach.

Here's the full text of the email:

SECURITY BREACH - GUARDIAN JOBS

We learned yesterday evening that the Guardian Jobs website has been targeted by a sophisticated and deliberate hack, which has breached the security of the data on the site. You have used the site to make one or more job applications and we believe your personal data, relating to those applications, may have been accessed.

We are absolutely committed to the privacy of our users, and would like to assure you that we are treating this situation with the utmost seriousness. The matter has been reported to the police, who are now undertaking a full investigation through the police central e-crime unit at New Scotland Yard.

The supplier who runs the site has identified the manner in which it was hacked and taken steps to prevent a recurrence.

We have no reason to believe that any financial or bank data was compromised in this incident. However the police advise that those whose personal data may have been stolen in this way should take a number of precautionary measures. These are outlined below:

1) Contact your creditors, even if they have not been affected, so that they can monitor your accounts to ensure they remain protected.

2) Contact a credit reference agency: Callcredit, Equifax or Experian provide suggested steps to resolve the situation and prevent it happening again.

3) Contact CIFAS protective registration: If you think you have been a victim of identity theft you should consider subscribing to CIFAS. This places a notice on your credit file indicating that your name and address may be used to perpetrate identity fraud.

In addition the following websites are sources of useful information:

www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/
www.stop-idfraud.co.uk
www.banksafeonline.org.uk
www.getsafeonline.org

We will continue to work with the police whilst the investigation is carried out. Please refer to the following page for updates:

jobs.guardian.co.uk/securityupdate.html

Bus marketing

Bus marketing,
originally uploaded by PR Geek.

I think it's advertising some kind of journey to New York. Or is it a dig at Boris? Erm...

Palm Pre: 10 things you (probably) didn't know (and might not care about)

Synergy is absolutely incredible. I was worried how I was going to get my contacts onto the phone without it being able to sync with iTunes. IT SUCKED THEM IN FROM SPACE.

The battery life is abysmal. On my first full day I got six hours before it turned into a small, highly-polished paperweight. Am now fiddling with settings to make it better.

The keyboard is, erm, OK. It's not as easy to type on as a Blackberry but after a bit of practice it's fine. The main holdup is getting used to a dedicated full stop key, period.

iTunes won't sync with it, but you can drag and drop any videos / song files into its downloads folder and it'll automatically sort 'em in its media player software.

You can't change the sounds for SMS or emails, system sounds or the low battery alert (which you'll hear a lot). That's just stupid.

The built-in ringtones are dreadful (and a bit sinister) but it will play any song you download or send to it as a ringtone. That's very sensible.

The USB / charger port is hidden behind a crappy little door which, we may as well just face it, I'm going to snap off sooner off later.

It makes a 'shhh' sound when you flick an app off the top of the screen to close it.

The gesture area does a couple of hidden things - you can swipe half to the left and it'll go back, or all the way left and right to switch between apps.

The camera gives you a spray tan by making everything slightly orangier than normal.

Google Wave: I'm Waving! Hello? Anyone?

My Google Wave invite came through this morning. I was excited, immediately logged on and...

Waited. Eventually I bumped into four other people I kind of know and we had a little impromptu Wave of our very own.



The experience? It was a cross between email (asynchronous) and IM (synchronous) but with real time typing preview (weird, with comedic potential) and rich content sharing (took a while to work out, but the clue is in the lightbulb).



Am sure it'll be huge (purely due to the mix of synchronous and asynchronous communication - means you don't have to choose how to contact someone) but at the moment it's little more than a curiosity.

The Jackenhacks bitterness in summary

Jackenhacks co-host Steve Earl has stirred up a lovely pot of passive bile on his blog today.

As I know you're a digital person and can only microchunk (and therefore not read his whole post and the 20-odd comments), here's my summary:

Steve Earl: People are taking things a bit seriously, aren't they?
Someone: It's nasty. I'm boycotting it and you.
Someone else: Come off it, it's only a bit of fun.
Another person: I don't like it. It's got too personal.
And another: What's wrong with you all? They're joke awards!
Someone new: I can't bear it. I'm really upset.
Will Sturgeon: Ah well. Let's just all get pissed, eh?

I'm with Will on this (at the bar).

I never thought I'd want a trampoline

Check out Cirque de Soleil's Oli Lemieux limbering up.



(Via Jordan Stone.)