By Hazel Butters

April 17th, 2013

A PR perspective: An American in South Korea

A PR perspective: An American in South Korea

Today we have a blog post from Vicki Kim, who works as an extension of the Prompt PR team in South Korea. If you subscribe to our Impromptu newsletter (if you don’t, you can sign up here), you may be interested to know that Vicki is the person who diligently puts this together for us. With the recent escalating threats from North Korea, we’ve all been keen to know that Vicki is okay and to hear her view on the situation. Here she generously shares her thoughts:    

A lot has been said in recent weeks about the state of the Korean Peninsula, specifically about the recent threats from North Korea. The whole world seems to be on high alert, especially with the 101st anniversary of North Korea’s founder Kim Il-Sung’s birthday. As an American living in Seoul, it’s been surreal to read the news coming from all over the world where the reactions have ranged from derision to veiled panic.

The view from Seoul, however, is entirely different. Locals go about their days as if it’s business as usual, almost entirely unaffected by the threats and rants of their northerly neighbor. Nuclear missile hitting any second? No worries. Korean citizens still go to work, their children continue to go to school (and then academy after academy for a total of 12 hours a day), and they spend their weekends taking walks along the Han River while enjoying the annual cherry blossom festivals. Plus, there’s no way they’re going to let a silly nuclear threat get in the way of a Psy concert.

But the recent string of threats has not been totally ignored. South Korean and US armies have increased the frequency of their joint drills, and it’s much more common to see military helicopters making the rounds above the city. The North continues to set deadlines (first April 11 and then Kim Il-Sung’s birthday) that have us on edge, if only in the backs of our minds.

Many ex-pats (foreigners living in South Korea) have begun to head for the hills. Every day we hear more news of a friend or friend-of-friend who has decided to return home. Watching them go is both sad and worrying, but South Koreans have an uncanny ability to see themselves through a lens that magnifies their abilities tenfold. They are an incredibly proud people, and while this can be extremely irritating and unrealistic at times to us foreigners (oh the stories I could tell…), their lack of fear and their unwavering belief in their own country’s strength is not only admirable, it’s comforting.

By Hazel Butters

March 21st, 2013

The UK Budget (a man called George joins Twitter)

The UK Budget (a man called George joins Twitter)

You may have missed it (if you live on another continent or happen to live in Britain without access to a TV/radio/the internet) but yesterday was the UK budget, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announces the annual taxation, spending and budgetary plans to the British public. If you don’t know George, you may remember him as the man who was booed at the Paralympics in response to the UK Government’s heavy cuts to disability benefits.

Wednesday was also, quite bravely, George’s first day on Twitter (check him out @George_Osborne), which resulted in a huge number of, er, let’s say less-than-flattering and rather strongly worded tweets directed at the Chancellor. He’s not been discouraged though, and has now stated on a British TV interview this morning that he wants to get more followers than his Labour counterpart Ed Balls (@EdBallsMP).  As things stand, George Osbourne has 34,717 followers at this moment (after a momentous four tweets) while Ed Balls has 78,006 followers (after 3,000+ tweets).

Of course, followers don’t mean that people like you, agree with you, or even want to listen to you.  Twitter is a very powerful way to communicate; while followers are an indication of some level of influence, it’s also important to consider reactions — in the form of retweets, replies and mentions.  To get a clearer outlook on how an individual is regarded, you need to analyze sentiment and go beyond keywords by interpreting irony, sarcasm and humour (there was a lot of each of these in reaction to George and his handful of tweets).

One of my favourite tweets was from comedian David Schneider (who gained a lot more retweets than George):

From a press perspective, the London regional paper, the Evening Standard, kind of stole the headlines. Even before George had stood up to make his speech, the newspaper had gone to press with a front page that detailed the key points of the budget. Poor George had to make the speech with Ed Balls standing opposite him in the Houses of Parliament, waving a copy of the newspaper.

Though the most disturbing front page goes to the Daily Mail, which, in a supportive gesture to reflect how the budget mirrored Margaret Thatcher’s core conservative values, mocked up this montage on its Thursday-edition front page, using inspiration from Thatcher’s famous ‘This Lady’s not for turning’ speech.

 

By Hazel Butters

March 6th, 2013

Media relations and 10,000 journalists

Media relations and 10,000 journalists

Last week was another fun and brilliantly hectic week in technology PR, littered with events, press meetings, analyst briefings, a last-minute media training lesson and an enthusiastic messaging brainstorm.

Following one discussion about whether a certain high profile IT publication would consider an angle as ‘relevant’, I found myself reflecting on media relations and the sheer number of journalists, editors and freelancers I’d spoken to personally since my early years in the PR business working for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).

There have been times when I may only have spoken to one of two journalists in a day, but these have been more than balanced by the many ‘ring-rounds’ in which I’ve called dozens. While trying to calculate the approximate number of journalists I’ve called over the years, I plumped for a conservative estimate of three a day (excluding weekends and holidays, although one of my favourite pieces secured in the Financial Times was the result of a Saturday call).

The total came to 10,000 conversations.

I certainly don’t claim to know everything or everyone – far from it – but one of the things I do love about liaising with press in the technology industry is working to keep pace with the relentless, positive momentum. Nothing ever stays the same. Over the decade and a half that I’ve been working in the industry, I’ve witnessed constant evolution and innovation. I have worked through the shift of business computing from mainframes, to client/server, and on to the cloud, while the growing pile of obsolete flip phones and PDAs on my home office shelf bears witness to the unstoppable explosion of mobile devices and the corresponding BYOD challenges facing IT directors today.

There have also been major changes in the ways in which we all work. I remember stuffing envelopes with press releases, worrying over whether the top-tier press had received their faxes, and visiting the brilliant tech labs owned and run by publishers. I recall going to the opening party of Information Week, and mourning the closure of PC Week.

The technology press can be as cynical as any other facet of the media (can’t we all?) But more typically, the individuals working in that sector are passionate, enthusiastic, dedicated individuals, who are constantly intriguing to work with. One thing that certainly hasn’t changed is that a good story is still a good story. As a PR with a few years’ service in this great industry, I know that it is part of my job to continue to recognise and drive those strong stories – and I genuinely believe this, for 10,000 reasons.

By Hazel Butters

January 30th, 2013

Watching the Detectives

Watching the Detectives

This week back in 1952, the first TV detector van – a brand new way of tracking owners of unlicensed television sets in the UK – was demonstrated in front of Postmaster-General, Lord De La Warr.

Now, although this may just sound like a quirky historical technology milestone, we think that detector vans deserve a little more explanation – both for our readers outside of the UK, and for those among you who have never quite been convinced that this method of detection was all that it seemed. So here’s some brief background.

In 1926 the British Broadcasting Company – a British commercial company formed in 1922 by British and American electrical businesses trying to sell their innovative products to radio buyers – was wound up. All of its assets were transferred to the non-commercial, royal chartered British Broadcasting Corporation, or the BBC as we know it today. With the advent and wider adoption of TV broadcasting, the British government decided to introduce a licence fee payable by all TV set owners, who by necessity were viewers of BBC programming, the only show in town.

Introduced on 1 June 1946, the licence covered a single channel, black and white BBC television service, and it cost £2 per year. In 1968, a ‘colour supplement’ of £5 was added to the then £5 monochrome licence, making a full-colour licence fee £10 per annum. Today the equivalent fee for every UK household (with a variety of exceptions) receiving television broadcasts is £145.50 (£49 if you’re still watching solely in black and white) – and that includes the use of devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones. In 2011–12, declared licence fee revenues were £3.681 billion – the lion’s share of the BBC’s total income of around £5 billion. The licence fee is classified as a tax set by the UK’s Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport, with the BBC authorised to collect fees by the Communications Act 2003. Evasion remains a criminal offence, and nearly every household in the UK routinely pays their licence, with many believing that detector vans will find them out if they don’t.

But would they? Really?

The 1952 detection equipment was developed at experimental Post Office labs in Dollis Hill, London. Contemporary photos show three horizontal loop aerials slung on the roofs of old trucks. These detector vans were apparently designed to receive signals from TV sets in homes using internal or external aerials, and were said to patrol Britain’s streets regularly, pin-pointing signals and matching them against a list of licensed homes before making doorstep demands.

And here’s the rub. Although most Brits grew up watching foreboding adverts of a slow moving but scarily sophisticated fleet of vans, and have dutifully paid their fees in fear of detection, an increasing number of people today have stopped believing in them entirely. It began when I was young, when I was told that what the licensing people actually did was just randomly knock on the doors of households with rooftop TV aerials  and spot checked licences, solely to keep the detection van myth going. This cynicism has grown and grown, and today it is generally accepted that if there really is a fleet of vans, then it probably fits in one pretty small lock-up garage, and only exists for PR purposes, if at all.

What is almost certain, is that the vast majority of licence evaders these days are not tracked by tricksy vans with special equipment on their roofs at all, but by unpaid direct debit records, tracked against an historic database, and prompted by renewal letters. In fact the only time I’ve ever heard of friends having their licences checked is when moving house, which again doesn’t demand much investigation by the BBC, and certainly not a spy vehicle of any kind.

So what do you think, really – 60-odd years of expensively maintained vehicle fleets and armies of personnel roaming the British countryside fingering licence evaders, or an evolution from random checks with clipboards into routine checks with databases and bank records? High-tech mobile surveillance, or a deterring veil of Orwellian scare tactics? Every opinion from every angle can be found online, of course (some pretty definitive, actually), but sometimes it’s more interesting to ask yourself – what do you really think? Had you even bothered to question the existence of detector vans?

Oh, and don’t forget to tell us!

By Hazel Butters

January 15th, 2013

Why your business should hire a Cambridge teenager in 2013

Why your business should hire a Cambridge teenager in 2013

Here at Prompt we’re all big fans of innovation, of being active in our community, and of all the opportunities that are created when innovation and communities come together.

At our @PromptBoston office, overlooking the Boston skyline from the inspiring Cambridge Innovation Center, being part of a community expands beyond the scope of our own building to the broader Cambridge community. This manifests itself in many ways, one of which includes our support of Cambridge youth projects, including the Cambridge Challenge. This multi-year initiative led by the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce’s Community Outreach Committee, brings businesses and youth together. Just last week we were invited by the Cambridge Challenge to a guest reception, where we were able to meet Cambridge City’s Mayor Henrietta Davis, as well as Cambridge Schools Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Young.

CIC’s Tim Rowe greeted everyone at the event, including companies and organizations like us that had recruited Cambridge teenagers over the previous year, as well as representatives from the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce. Tim then introduced Mayor Davis who explained how being introduced to business at an early age – particularly in Cambridge’s hotbed of science, technology, engineering and mathematics – can really give teenagers a feel for what is possible in life. The Mayor’s comments were complemented by thoughts from Jeffrey Young who talked about the immeasurable gains for youngsters participating in programs such as the Cambridge Challenge, as well as the many benefits for the businesses involved. From Prompt’s experience of working for a number of years with local Cambridge teenagers, we couldn’t agree more.

One of the talking points that really resonated with me personally was the broader opportunity for the Cambridge community. Working at this unique confluence of world-leading universities – including MIT and Harvard – businesses with cutting-edge technologies have a huge opportunity to make a real difference in teenager’s lives; inspiring and shaping them for the challenges that lie ahead.

It’s not the first year that @PromptBoston has been involved in the Cambridge Youth employment program, and it certainly won’t be our last.  We encourage other companies – within the CIC and in the wider area – to really participate in this. You can sign up by emailing teenjobs@cambridgema.gov

By Hazel Butters

January 10th, 2013

Mass Innovation Nights: #MIN46 and its ‘Innovation Optimists’

Mass Innovation Nights: #MIN46 and its ‘Innovation Optimists’

The human drive to innovate overwhelms me.  I’m reminded of this most days, as I have the luxury of working with technology enthusiasts, those driving startups — the people I see as innovation optimists (because you have to not only come up with the idea, but have to have the passion, enthusiasm and belief in it as well).

Last night, PromptBoston attended the latest Mass Innovation Night, #MIN46, at the IBM Innovation Center in Waltham.  Run by the brilliant Bobbie Carlton, a woman who is unafraid to use a bullhorn, this is a chance to meet, speak and hear from a range of innovators – and is a key part of the New England innovation community. Some of the highlights from last night’s MIN event include, in alphabetical order:

- Amico Bracelets: Startup Trovare Inc. has enhanced the way society connects in real-time, face-to-face interactions — all through tech-powered, silicone Amico Bracelets. Along with being quite the fashion statement for techies, Amico Bracelets are completely touch-based and come in several different colors. A user simply downloads the Amico app, connects it to his or her bracelet and social media accounts, and the device will blink or vibrate once others with the same interests and hobbies are nearby. The bracelet overcomes any shyness or fear of rejection when reaching out to new contacts — the perfect accessory for those who want to network and be stylish at the same time.

- Cleverhood: Based in Massachusetts’ neighboring state of Rhode Island, Cleverhood aims to bring together style and sustainability in a smart-looking, durable rain cape. At $239 apiece, more than 400 Cleverhood cloaks have been sold since April. The ponchos, which are designed, produced and manufactured in the US, strive to promote walking and biking as a means of transportation — reducing pollution and heavy traffic flow stemming from automobile use. Last night, founder Susan Mocarski admitted the idea stemmed from her aggravation in hoarding women’s rainwear and yet having nothing practical to wear to face the elements — and we whole-heartedly relate!

- Urvideoprofile: Hiring a caregiver for a loved one is difficult — especially when making the decision solely from a paper resume. With this idea in mind, Urvideoprofile created a safe, online video platform, where applicants can log in, create a brief video profile explaining their experience, and interact with families looking for homecare, childcare, nannies and more. The local invention seems a perfect fit for today’s society, in a world that relies heavily on technology and visual aid.

- ViralGains: This Cambridge-based startup is redefining video marketing. ViralGains is an ad technology company with a focus in viral video advertising. ViralGains’ co-founder Kate Willett, explained to MIN attendees how ViralGains’ platform is built on social syndication, or people-powered placements. Willett highlights the fact that people are 90 percent more likely to watch a video if it has been recommended or shared by a friend through social media. From there, people who share the video are five times more likely to purchase your product. Current clients for this brilliant startup include Pepsi, Sears and Life is Good — all investing in the integration of social media and video. By creating this online strategy, companies can maximize views on videos, at a low cost.

Along with meeting great people, we also left the event with some treats, including UNREAL candy samples from CandyUnjunked (yum). We’re looking forward to the next Mass Innovation Night, and seeing even more innovation optimists take the stage to showcase such great local talent.

For more information on the events, be sure to visit the Innovation Night website. Also, to view Bobbie’s take on the event, read her blog post here – thanks for including us in the round-up, Bobbie!

By Hazel Butters

January 8th, 2013

Using LinkedIn to find a job: A ten point plan

Using LinkedIn to find a job: A ten point plan

One thing that I have learned while running free LinkedIn workshops for the past two years, is that there is no such thing as a typical attendee job role or level of expertise. I have spoken with managers, lawyers, personal trainers, computer scientists, marketers, and people in all possible roles in between.

But there are certainly a few common themes that crop up time and time again. One of these is the question: “How do I use LinkedIn to find a job?” In reply, we thought it would be helpful if we packaged up all our presentations, worksheets, templates and best practices to share with those of you who haven’t been able to come by our offices (although you are always more than welcome). We have also added in some extra videos and anecdotes (just so that you can see what I look like), and can now share all of our ideas with you in our latest course: ‘Using LinkedIn to find a job: A ten point plan‘.

Because we have created such a lot of great content, advice, hints and tips, we are offering it all as a month-long course. This will give you the opportunity to develop your LinkedIn strategy alongside us, and ensure that you have time to complete all the exercises and ask us any questions that you have as you go along.

The course is split into 10 sections and follows a detailed course with accompanying workbook that includes templates, examples, concepts and inspiration to give your job hunt the impact it needs to get you to where you want to be. Additional hands-on support will be provided with a personal weekly support check-in and weekly calls.

Request a full breakdown of the course contents here – get in touch and make 2013 the year that you used LinkedIn to maximize your job hunting.

By Hazel Butters

December 13th, 2012

You say December 13, I say 13 December

You say December 13, I say 13 December

Date formats. Is it 13 December today, or December 13? Working as a transatlantic PR and copywriting team, we know that the accepted format is largely decided by which side of the Atlantic you happen to be working on. While PromptBoston would say December 13, PromptLondon would always use 13December (but let’s not call the whole thing off).  Add the year too, and PromptBoston would say December 13, 2012 while PromptLondon would use 13 December 2012 (note the lack of comma).

One of the first things we ask anyone joining the Prompt team, wherever they are based, is to get used to writing the month part of the date out in full, so as to avoid confusion on reports, editorial trackers, client updates, internal planning documents and communications generally. “What do you mean America is going to celebrate independence on 7/4/2013? Really? In early April? That seems wrong?”  “No, Saint David’s Day (Patron Saint of Wales, if anyone is wondering) isn’t on 3 January, I said it was on 1/3/2013, and I’ll be donning my daffodil and making cawl on the first of March.”

The largest slice of the world’s population uses the date format that we’re familiar with in Britain – the majority of Europeans, Asians, North Africans, Latin Americans and Australasians use this ‘little-endian’ approach, beginning with the smallest measurements of time (day, then month, then year). The reverse, ‘big-endian’ format, is preferred most notably in China, Japan, some neighbouring Pacific states, and a handful of Eastern European countries. It is also part of the international ISO standard. The ‘middle-endian’ format (month, day, year) is used almost exclusively in the North America, with the exception of Belize, as far as we know. However, as a Brit who has spent a lot of time in America, I can still see logic in the American approach – the month comes first because it changes less frequently than the day, then you just add the specific date and top it off with the year.

Whichever format you are used to or see as the most logical (please tell us, we’d love to hear your opinions), we all at least get to write the date format the same way once a month (and yesterday brought the further novelty of the year matching too – 12/12/12).

Over the upcoming seasonal break (in between encouraging my British family members to drink eggnog while arguing over Trivial Pursuit), I’m going to spend some time trying to figure out why the date format flips in its journey across the Atlantic. Should we blame George Washington or King George III? Perhaps we can point the finger at Jonathan Swift? In the meantime, please don’t even get me started on why we drive on different sides of the road…

By Hazel Butters

December 6th, 2012

Which tablets do you take? And is the mouse a squeak away from extinction?

Which tablets do you take? And is the mouse a squeak away from extinction?

Regular market research is essential to ensure that you are still tapping the correct markets for your products and services. At Prompt, we undertake all aspects of research, data collection and statistical analysis. Perhaps the easiest and quickest way to take a rapid snapshot of market opinions, is to conduct a survey.

One recent survey we conducted across US and UK tech consumers proved to be a great example of rapid opinion gathering. The survey was conducted online and in-person. It revealed that Apple is still far more sought after than its competitors in the tablet world, and remains better thought of than its competitors in terms of innovation, design, usability, retail and marketing effort.

Perhaps most tellingly, despite significant launches from Microsoft, Samsung, Google and Amazon in 2012, more survey respondents are hoping for iPads, iPad minis and iPhones in their stockings this year, over other tablet-like devices!

In the tablet and smartphone market, companies are constantly looking for ways to become more innovative and to aggressively increase their market share. A responsibility lies with these vendors to be clearer about specs, features and benefits, and to help consumers to navigate the maze of new mobile devices. Clarity, common English and transparency are crucial. Meanwhile consumers are becoming increasingly aware of what products are available and the features they are looking for, while gaining a deeper understanding of comparable benefits.

In the same survey, we also found that although losing popularity with the rise of tablets, the computer mouse isn’t headed for extinction just yet.  That finding probably surprised me the most – personally I work at a touchscreen computer, a laptop with a touchpad, a tablet and a smartphone – all without a mouse in sight. I still carry one around in my handbag though, so perhaps I’m just sentimental…

Would you like to weigh in with your own opinions? Perhaps you’d like to add your own support for Apple, provide some vocal backing for other tablet brands, or just stick up for the mouse? We’d love to hear from you. The survey is still open. Please just click here to share views on tablets, mice and your holiday wish-list.