By Media Team

May 29th, 2013

Prompt Communications wins Equiso public relations account

Prompt Communications wins Equiso public relations account

By PromptBoston

May 16th, 2013

Pitch it perfectly with Prompt: Come visit us at CIC’s Venture Café Office Hours

Pitch it perfectly with Prompt: Come visit us at CIC’s Venture Café Office Hours

Are you looking to spark genuine, valuable, press interest and conversation around your technology product, app or service? It’s certainly not an easy task, but we’re here to help.

On Thursday, May 23, 2013 Prompt Communications will be hosting ‘Office Hours’ at the Cambridge Innovation Center’s Venture Café event, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. We’ll be ready to discuss what you need to do to gain the media and audience visibility that your company deserves. Come along for a 20-minute tech PR consulting session with Prompt CEO Hazel Butters and get to grips with the objectives, strategies, and tactics that work best for catching the eyes of the press.

With years of experience in the technology sector, Prompt consultants know how to perfectly tailor your PR approach to garner the best results. Are you struggling to identify your target audience? No problem. Would you like to ramp up your core messaging? We’ve got you covered. Simply don’t know where to start? We’ll help you take those first steps.

After just 20 minutes you will walk away with valuable resources from our very own tech PR toolkit, which you can then customize to fit your exact PR needs. Please come equipped with any and all questions you can think of – we can’t wait to answer them!

To put us on your calendar or to learn more information about the Prompt Communications office hours, please visit the Venture Café website.

*This event will take place at the Venture Café, located at the Cambridge Innovation Center, One Broadway, 4th Floor. Visitors must comply with Venture Cafe attendance policies (see http://bit.ly/vc-credo for more details).

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 Helpful Hints, Prompt Technology PR

January 7th, 2013

Prompt’s content marketing Monday tip #1: Avoid the hype

Prompt’s content marketing Monday tip #1: Avoid the hype

Here’s a piece of advice that’s relevant across all communications channels: there’s no advantage in being boastful, overselling or forcing far too much detail about your products and services down people’s throats. You won’t make any friends this way, and ultimately you’ll actually make fewer sales.

We all know that the very essence of marketing lies in communicating the value of products and services to customers in ways that lead to sales and revenue. But there is a distinct line between engaging customers, partners and prospects in an encouraging dialogue, and simply delivering a one-way torrent of hyperbole. It’s important to learn how to emphasize a strong ability to meet demands and solve problems, without making such grandiose claims that the truth in those message is entirely overlooked and lost.

Like marketing, selling isn’t about being boastful or pushy. It’s not about simply repeating a blunt descriptive phrase of what your company does until it sticks. It’s about sharing the features and benefits of your products and services, and genuinely engaging with prospects about how you could help them and work with them. It needn’t be a soft sell, but neither should it be so hard that it puts customers off.

So the next time you’re mulling over content for your new pieces of marketing collateral, dump the hype and be straightforward and genuine.

By Hazel Butters

November 29th, 2012

Uk Public Relations viewpoint: The British press needs regulation

Uk Public Relations viewpoint: The British press needs regulation

As a public relations consultant I think today is a landmark day for the British press, with today’s publication of the Leveson report and a call for legislation to regulate press practices and ethics.  

The 2,000 page report is an unprecedented examination of the British press, resulting from the much-publicised inquiry led by Lord Justice Leveson and launched by the British Prime Minister in July 2011.The inquiry itself was prompted by what can only be described as atrocious acts of phone hacking by a section of the press of a number of individuals. Of paramount public concern was the hacking of the mobile phone of murdered 13 year-old schoolgirl Milly Dowler, which gave her family false hope that she might still be alive. The culmination of these events led to the closure of The News of The World newspaper by the News International media group.

The damning report published today details the need for press regulation, sparking immediate consequences. Leveson concludes that a tougher form of press self-regulation should be imposed, backed by appropriate legislation necessary to uphold press standards. British PM David Cameron broadly welcomed the principles for change recommended in the report, but has expressed “serious concerns and misgivings” over the concept of statutory regulation. The PM articulated concerns over the curbing of Britain’s proud tradition of free speech and a free press, when he told MPs today: “For the first time we will have crossed the Rubicon of writing elements of press regulation into the law of the land. We should think very, very carefully before crossing the line.”

The Leveson recommendations do put the PM in a rather tricky position, with many media and public observers concerned that this might be the start of some kind of slippery slope as far as British press freedoms are concerned. Mr Cameron’s concerns also put him at direct odds with his deputy Nick Clegg, who made his own statement claiming the recommended changes in the law were “the only way to guarantee” the press remains in check in the future. This sentiment echoes that of opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband, who is today urging the government to adopt all the recommendations of the Leveson report by 2015.

As Brit, I’ve always been very proud of our press freedoms, and the acutely balanced edge that this has encouraged. But no-one can deny that the much-publicised phone hacking scandals, highlighted by the awfulness and moral wrongness of hacking Milly Dowler’s phone, revealed a need for restraint. Like many others, I had assumed to this point that publishers and editors would continue to serve as moral compasses for their own publications. However, since the phone-tapping accusations and the arrests that have followed, my view has changed, despite my sadness at the very thought that any legislation is required to underpin the regulation of the practice and ethics of our press.

By Brooke Wenrick

October 10th, 2012

Prompt Communications wins Crimson Hexagon UK PR account

Prompt Communications wins Crimson Hexagon UK PR account

- Prompt to drive UK media relations and copywriting for social media platform based on patented technology originally developed at Harvard University -

London, UK and Boston, MA – 10 October 2012 – Prompt Communications, a digital communications agency with offices in Boston, San Francisco and London, has been appointed by Crimson Hexagon as its UK public relations firm.

Under the new contract, Prompt will work on targeted media relations, opinion placement and securing editorial opportunities to support Crimson Hexagon’s sales to B2C and B2B marketers, data specialists and business strategists. Prompt will work on campaigns targeting marketing, business, retail, and consumer publications.

With offices in Boston and London, Crimson Hexagon provides big data analysis software that delivers business intelligence derived from social media and other data sources to global organisations including Microsoft, Starbucks and the United Nations. Crimson Hexagon was named one of the ‘Top Ten Most Innovative Web Companies’ by Fast Company, along with Twitter, and Google.

The technology behind Crimson Hexagon’s ForSight™ platform, was originally developed at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science and is supported by an intelligent, customisable algorithm. The ForSight platform surpasses traditional social media monitoring software by relying on a unique combination of human judgment and computer scalability. The platform currently holds an estimated 175 billion social media posts in its database, and adds an additional 1 billion posts to its database every two days.

Wayne St. Amand, VP of Marketing for Crimson Hexagon, said: “With our growing international presence, we needed a communications agency that had experience in working with US-headquartered companies that are ramping up in the UK and Europe. Prompt was the perfect fit. We’re familiar with some of the team members and how capable they are, and we know that they will give us the drive, expertise and momentum to support our UK sales efforts.”

Prompt Communications is a digital public relations consultancy with industry expertise in the technology industry since its founding in 2002. It has worked with clients such as Dell Compellent and Oracle Corporation, as well as a number of early-stage technology companies.

Hazel Butters, CEO of Prompt Communications, said: “Crimson Hexagon’s ForSight platform is a brilliant piece of technology that analyses a phenomenal volume of social media data. As a result, the company is seeing a real demand for its platform and we’re excited to support the sales efforts and to demonstrate the need for organisations to understand social sentiment, and to apply it to business strategy.”

About Crimson Hexagon, Inc.
Crimson Hexagon, founded in 2007, is the leading provider of analysis software that delivers business intelligence from big data sources like social media and other data types for global corporations. Powered by patented technology developed at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science, the Crimson Hexagon ForSight™ platform delivers the industry’s most comprehensive Big Data analysis capabilities for a variety of large-scale data sources. Clients include leading global organizations such as: CBS Films, Microsoft, Paramount Pictures, Starbucks, Simon & Schuster, Twitter, The United Nations, and many more. For more information go to: http://www.crimsonhexagon.com or read the Crimson Hexagon blog: http://www.crimsonhexagon.com/blog/.

About Prompt Communications
Founded in January 2002, Prompt Communications is a communications agency with offices in London, Boston and San Francisco. Prompt offers expertise across all marketing disciplines, teaming its consultants’ extensive knowledge of technology with experience of pan-European and American media, analyst and marketing campaigns. Using highly targeted marketing, PR, analyst relations, social media and corporate copywriting initiatives, Prompt helps its clients gain the visibility needed to achieve their business objectives. www.prompt-communications.com

By Hazel Butters

September 19th, 2012

Prompt Blog: Germany says ‘verboten’ to IE?

Prompt Blog: Germany says ‘verboten’ to IE?

Microsoft continues to be dealt blows just days after the weekend technology snafu that left several security holes in versions of its Internet Explorer web browser. The latest insult to injury came when the German government announced that its citizens should seek the use of other web browsers and boycott Internet Explorer (IE).

This development is very unusual since governments tend not to decree flat advisories against the use of a web browser or any other popular tech product (well, some have, but that’s another story and a larger conversation about human rights). The route of the concern was IE’s apparent ability to harm computers if users browsed through to a malicious website, ultimately leading to a German government official admitting that he feared the code would spread if German citizens continued to use IE prior to a security update.

 Microsoft continues to try to get the situation put in order. Last Monday, the company released a security patch called the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit, which is intended to placate users until a full security update can be prepared and released. That security release is expected to be released within the next few days, according to Microsoft’s director of Trustworthy Computing, Yunsun Wee, who remarked that even in the face of international concerns over the consequences of the security brief, in reality there have not been many attacks and the majority of IE users remain unaffected.

As the team at our Prompt Boston office look over to the Kendall Square Microsoft R&D building, am sure they wonder what flurried scurrying of coding must be going on – Godspeed you, Microsoft!

Hot off the press update (20 Sept): On the evening of 19 September, Microsoft rolled out a download addressing this issue and has scheduled a security update for Friday 21 September. 

By Dave Wilby

September 19th, 2012

What have you started?

What have you started?

Last week over coffee and an insistent inbox, I suddenly became part of two cheering crowds receiving exciting news about our recently funded Kickstarter projects.

In the first crowd I was shown post-production photos of the gleaming Defender Bike Lights rolling off the factory lines at Gotham Bicycle Defense Industries, an innovative cycling parts firm that I helped to fund at the turn of the year. And in another, far larger (and more heavily sequinned) crowd, I received my investor’s extended digital download and artwork for the latest album from Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra. It was a big day for my personal investment portfolio!

Which got me thinking. What do readers of Prompt’s blog know about Kickstarter? What do you think about the whole concept of crowd-funding? What projects have you funded to date, successfully or otherwise? Perhaps you even have live Kickstarter projects of your own?

Of course Kickstarter is just the largest and best-known of a relatively new breed of online crowd funding platforms breathing new life into creative projects that need help to gain traction and become realities. It’s been around for over three years now, encouraging people with creative ideas to present their ideas to the global public in the hope of attracting guaranteed financial backing, usually in return for products, services, merchandise or just good karma. There’s no guarantee projects will come to fruition, but as of 22 August Kickstarter had launched 68,224 projects with a success rate of 44 percent.

A core value of the crowd-sourcing concept, is that backers like me must use our judgement in supporting projects that we believe in. I helped fund Gotham after hearing @HazelButters talk enthusiastically about the drive of founders Slava and Brad and reading their story. As a keen cyclist, I didn’t want just branded merch though, I wanted one of the first theft-proof lights they planned to build. So I stumped up the necessary dollars and waited, receiving regular updates on production progress. Gotham needed $18,000 dollars to start building; it received $84,000. The light should be on my doormat at the end of this month.

On a totally different scale, funding Amanda Palmer’s latest album was no risk at all. This alternative musician’s online adventures to replace old school record label and management support with the emotional and financial backing of an international mob of fans connected through her Twitter, Blog, Newsletter and now Kickstarter, have been widely reported. Everybody knew the onetime Dresden Doll would easily get the $100,000 she needed for new album ‘Theatre is Evil’. In the end she secured $1.2 million, the album has been despatched, and the band are now embarking on a world tour – (some of @PromptBoston were also lucky enough to get tickets for her closing night at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club in November).

But what do you think about Kickstarter, and crowd sourcing in general? Is it a good thing? Is it a welcome, innovative new stream of funding, or is it replacing traditional funding mechanisms with a model that provides very little quality control or guarantee of success? We’d love to hear about your own experiences, and of course any projects of your own you’re seeking backing for.

By Hazel Butters

August 30th, 2012

Laughing all the way to the digital newsstand

Laughing all the way to the digital newsstand

After a 75-year run in print publication, The Dandy comic has finally been pressed to the limit. Publisher DC Thomson has announced that the comic will be evolving from a print edition to an online, tablet-ready format.  The last printed edition will appear on 4 December 2012, coinciding with the comic’s 75^th anniversary.

I grew up reading Desperate Dan and Bananaman in The Dandy. I was also an avid reader of The Beano). And now that I work as a PR and digital communications professional (and not as the veterinarian or paleontologist that the eight year-old me had planned) I have cause to pause and reflect on the state of modern media consumption.

In the 1950s The Dandy had a circulation of over two million, but that has now plummeted to a distinctly unfunny 8,000. So how can publishers and media producers adapt to such change?  Well, by exploring and innovating, by trying new formats, and by testing digital campaigns to see how brands, advertisers and consumers want to interact over the web, mobile media and tablets.

As consumers we have all changed.  For example, from my viewpoint in media relations and PR, I have witnessed huge changes in what clients think of print coverage compared to digital coverage. Far from being the poorer cousin of print, digital coverage is now regarded as easier to share, to use across different  channels, and to drive more immediate calls to action.

To me, DC Thomson’s announcement is not so much about The Dandy’s demise but more about a new beginning.  The Dandy already introduced its iPad app earlier this year, no doubt due to internal anticipation of the printing press closing shop, as well as in response to the exponential growth of mobile device media consumption among youth and young adults. Just like its legions of readers, the comic is looking forward, not back.

So here’s to The Dandy – being alive and well on the digital newsstand for another 75 years to come.

By Jessica Branco, Prompt PR Boston

August 9th, 2012

Prompt appointed by innovative design strategy company The Big Studio

Prompt appointed by innovative design strategy company The Big Studio

The Big Studio has appointed Prompt Communications to conduct its US public and media relations programs. Prompt will work on a highly focused media outreach campaign, as well as delivering content creation pipelines for targeted social media platforms.

Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, The Big Studio provides digital, web and mobile technology solutions for retail, finance and service companies, including Fortune 500 businesses keen to connect business goals with customer needs. The Big Studio does this through untraditional, inventive techniques, ranging from comprehensive research methods to hand-picked innovation teams for each project.

Founded in 2009 by Robert Gauvin and Michael Tuccinard, The Big Studio is a team of talented, experienced professionals that includes behavioral economists, social strategists and concept designers. Together they generate fresh ideas through tactics including role-playing, continuous sketching, in person interviews, co-location and customer behavior analyses.

Robert Gauvin, The Big Studio’s co-founder, said: “We searched for a public relations firm that would understand the style of innovative, outside-of-the-box services we offer, and after high-quality recommendations, we found our solution with Prompt. This team is collaborative and eager to grasp the concept of design-thinking, even hosting numerous face-to-face brainstorm sessions itself. We’re confident that its experience in technology, along with its professionalism and enthusiasm, will help The Big Studio to deliver its message of true innovation.”

Prompt is a digital public relations consultancy with offices in London, Boston and San Francisco. The company has gained enviable experience in the technology industry since its founding in 2002, working with clients such as Dell Compellent and Oracle Corporation, as well as many emerging technology companies.

Hazel Butters, CEO of Prompt Communications, said: “The Big Studio breaks every traditional stereotype attached to design technology and offers unparalleled services to help businesses connect with their customers. With both Prompt Boston and The Big Studio based in the Cambridge technology community, we are thrilled to be working alongside the company’s founders, who each stem from fascinating backgrounds. Through Prompt’s transparent media outreach approach, The Big Studio’s ground-breaking digital solutions will gain the public awareness they deserve.”

About The Big Studio
The Big Studio works with companies striving to use digital, web and mobile technologies to generate fresh ideas, drive product innovation and meet business goals to connect more effectively with their employees, customers and other stakeholders. Its clients include retail, finance and service companies, including Fortune 500 businesses. For more information, please visit www.thebig-studio.com

About Prompt Communications
Founded in January 2002, Prompt Communications is a communications agency with offices in London, Boston and San Francisco. Prompt offers expertise across all marketing disciplines, teaming its consultants’ extensive knowledge of technology with experience of pan-European and American media, analyst and marketing campaigns. Using highly targeted marketing, PR, analyst relations, social media and corporate copywriting initiatives, Prompt helps its clients gain the visibility needed to achieve their business objectives.  www.prompt-communications.com

Media Contact:
Prompt Communications
Jessica Branco
Tel: 617-401-2715 / +44 208 996 1650
press@prompt-communications.com