Hi everybody.

I’m Rich. I work at 10 Yetis PR Agency. (‘Hiiii Rich’, you say in a soothingly choral sort of way).

And I’m an addict. (You clap empathetically, looking at me with a knowing approval and compassionately tearful gleam in your eye).

It all started out as a pastime. A bit of fun to while away the time with friends. I don’t need to use it, I’d tell myself. I do it because I want to. I was in control. And then, over time, things changed. I started using it at all hours of the day. I’d wake up and use it. I’d use while at work. I’d do it instead of spending time with my family. I’d do it as my family continued to live their lives around me, disapproving of my developing dependence. Then, as I found out about more and more different types – as other addicts eulogised – I’d have to try them. I needed to.

My addiction developed. Read More »

PR agency Brandlink Communications found itself in a PR disaster over the weekend when one of its vice presidents called influential blogger Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess), a “f***ing bitch” in a reply-all kerfuffle.

According to Lawson, the saga began when she received an email pitch from Brandlink about a Kardashian sister who had been spotted wearing pantyhose. Read More »

More insight from Advertising Week in New York. This time from MaryLee Sachs, author of The Changing MO of the CMO (How the Convergence of Brand and Reputation is Affecting Marketers ).

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While you were sleeping: hijacked Twitter feed

UPDATE – So a day later and Mark Davidson has still not taken control of his Twitter account.

Another series of tweets have appeared from the rogue ghost Twitter writer who appears to have posted an ad for a new ghost writer and another saying another of his ghost writers have quit. Read More »

Some interesting research has gone into this infographic from Alterian looking at how three infamous social media driven PR crises to understand the effect a crisis has on a brand’s reputation.

It looks at Nestle, United Airlines and Domino’s and the severity of the public’s reaction to the crisis, the time it took for each brand to return to their pre-crisis standing, and if or how the brand’s reaction to the crisis affected public opinion. Read More »

CityJet: droll response

All respect for whoever runs job CityJet’s Twitter feed, and their rather elegant response to the news that French actor Gerard Depardieu has trouble holding things in.

Depardieu was on one of CityJet’s flights earlier this week when, according to another passenger, he announced to everyone in hearing distance that ‘I need a piss’.

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Domino's: your name - and feedback - in lights

Social media is making customer feedback a lot more public, but pizza delivery chain Domino’s is taking this to a new extreme in a US campaign running for the next month.

To promote its ‘tracking’ service – where hungry, housebound customers can see exactly what stage their pizza order is at, right down to the name of the person making it – Domino’s has hired a piece of Times Square’s famous advertising hoardings and is live-streaming customer feedback.

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I managed to get 5 minutes with Peter Vesterbacka, creator or the game sensation Angry Birds, when he came to speak at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last month.

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PR agency Redner Group got sacked by its biggest client, video game publisher 2k, after it tweeted that it would punish bad reviews of  the game ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ by withholding future releases from reviewers.

For a PR agency it was insanely stupid thing to do and although an apology was quickly offered it was too late. The tweet was out and the agency lost its account. Read More »

Wolfstar: report on social media usage

Should every business have a Twitter feed, a Facebook page or someone engaged in social media, even if they don’t really know what it’s for?

A new report out today says that while 60 per cent of companies in the FTSE Global 500 have some social media platform, under 10 per cent are ‘effectively using social media to support their corporate and social responsibility activity’.

Read More »