A year in the life of a Democracy Apprentice

January 31st, 2010
Birthday cake

It’s my birthday!

Not my actual birthday you understand . . .  but my Democracy birthday. Twelve months on I’ve picked out some of the best bits, not an easy task but I’ve had a go.

Favourite consumer campaign

It had to be Manchester Marmalade. Getting to know the guys at Duerr’s has been a pleasure and this product was massive fun to PR and got a great reaction from journalists and media alike. It fitted the Duerr’s brand so well as an authentic Manchester product made by a generations-old Manchester company. It was also unusual in that I got some direct feedback on the coverage; when supervising in store sampling it was common to hear ‘Yes, I saw that on the telly/heard it on the radio’ and sales at Tesco are fantastic as the people of Manchester stock up their breakfast table with a jar of the orange stuff.

Favourite PR project

No prizes for guessing this one; planning and executing a weekend for 20 people to Lynchburg Tennessee for our client Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Sauces. As well as having a great weekend myself being treated like a VIP in a town I’d probably never otherwise have made it to, it was immensley satisfying to know that the 18 others were having just as good a time. Seeing the group just expect buses, hotels and meals to turn up on schedule was nerve racking but pulling off a great weekend made for a very happy Apprentice on the plane on the way home.

Favourite press coverage

Two pieces here for the same client; BabyDeli. Back in February when we started working with Louise at BabyDeli it was so clear that she had a great product and a great business she just needed to tell people, specifically mums, about it. In July, as part of a wider series of media visits and introductions that also secured coverage across the parenting media, The Telegraph picked out BabyDeli on their ‘Food News’ page. I can remember very clearly walking down the street carrying a holdall full of frozen samples and juggling a ringing phone with The Telegraph picture desk after a packaging shot. The second piece followed this in The Times as part of a review of premium baby foods, to see the products included there indicated the extent to which we’d been successful in raising the profile of the brand.

To finish off an action packed year, I had my annual review on Friday, and I’ve been promoted to the role of Client Advocate! Can’t wait to see what next year brings …

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And the beat goes on

January 31st, 2010
Picture 11

The lovely Sarah Hartley, who sadly for us is not based in Manchester any more, has instead been beavering away at Guardian HQ training up three so called ‘beatbloggers’ to usher in the future of local journalism.

Yesterday Sarah announced that they will be hitting their beats in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Leeds as of next week with blogs to be launched in the first half of this year.

This is a really interesting project which the wider journalism community is watching with bated breath. Sarah describes them as ‘talented journalists’ so I for one can’t wait to read their hyper -local blogs.

On the subject of local journalism, I was chatting to the director of a local charity this week who was concerned that the local media didn’t seem interested in the great hands on work they do in the community with groups who generally don’t get a lot of good press.

Maybe hiring talented local bloggers is one way busy news organisations can penetrate deaper into the community they serve without adding massive overheads.

I really hope the bloggers can get onto their beats and into the lives of their readers and wish Sarah and her team lots of luck.

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The iPad, what else?

January 28th, 2010
Steve Jobs

It would seem rather against the grain to talk about anything that isn’t the iPad today, even though I’ve spent most of my day talking about anything but. (That’s jam sandwiches, pelvic toners, entrepreneurs, baby food menus, hall tests and grapefruit if you were wondering)

Anyway onto the iPad, after reading the announcement via twitter during ‘The Derby’ last night and reading the opinions of tech journalists in the papers this morning I’ve just managed to watch the video on Apple’s site and I have to say, that, just like everyone else, I think it looks like a big iPhone.

I am convinced that, like all Apple products, you won’t realise you need one until you get one (or all your friends do first) and I really like the name; it’s like an iPod, it’s like a pad, geddit? Best use of the name so far in a blog from Stephen Fry today entitled “iPad About”.

So if we’re all reserving judgement on the product, which seems to be the general consensus, the thing we can marvel at instead is Apple’s PR skills. When was the last time someone launched a laptop and the world’s media gave it this amount of attention?

By keeping everything about their product a secret Apple created the ultimate crescendo of excitement around the launch event. Rather than leaking specs or samples to favoured journalists or bloggers, Apple kept the tech community holding their breath and they passed their excitement on to their readers, friends and followers.

If only Apple didn’t seem to enjoy making such beautiful adverts they wouldn’t need to advertise at all.

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Update on the PR Apprentice Positions

January 27th, 2010
Logo-Psycuity2

We have invited the candidates that we’d like to meet into the office for psychometric testing sessions on Wed, Thur and Friday of next week.

The sessions are being run by Ian Hudson from Psycuity, a client of ours who has helped us to find the right people to join the Democracy team before.

By the time we sit down to interview the final few, we will already know a lot about their strengths and how they will fit into the existing structure of the team.

Best of luck guys – can’t wait to meet you all next week.

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Social Media Revolution

January 26th, 2010

What we’re watching . . . .

Just picked this up via @guy_fraser on Twitter. It’s one of the best put together Social Media presentations I’ve seen in a while.

For more about Socialnomics check out their site.

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BabyDeli on BBC Radio Manchester

January 26th, 2010

After yesterday’s Panorama programme on BBC One we sent Louise Duerr of BabyDeli over to the Heather Stott Show on BBC Radio Manchester.  To see Panorama’s findings on the high salt and sugar levels in many children’s foods head to their site, below is Louise’s interview on BBC Manchester with some pictures of her lovely BabyDeli food which is definitely good for babies,

(or view on YouTube: BabyDeli on BBC Radio Manchester)

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Social media: The battle of good vs evil

January 25th, 2010
Facebook

As a lover of all things social – it’s remarkable how many people feel the need to share their (or their friends) social media ‘experiences’.

Gone are the days when you’d hear. . . . “you’ll never guess who joined facebook?” Now it’s more about the outrageous and the outraged as social media integrates itself in every day life. Here are a couple of examples, let me know which you think is the force for good:

Story 1: Over Sunday lunch I was treated to the tale of the husband in a recently estranged couple, who decided to divvy up the friends by hacking into his former wife’s facebook account and simply removing anyone he deemed to be ‘his’ friend from her friend list, then going onto his own account to remove the people he left her with from his own account. The lady I was chatting to felt divided, she had been left as a friend of the wife, while her husband was stuck with the hubby.

Story 2: Another friend today, while sharing how he was planning a surprise for his girlfriends birthday, revealed that for Christmas he bought her an iTouch and an upgraded account to Spotify. A an extra special treat, he even hacked into her account to create a series of playlists of her favourite tracks to add to the Christmas surprise.

I know who i think is on the side of good, put perhaps it’s not as clear cut as that. Perhaps the husband wanted to save his ex-wife from the heartache of working out who she should trust. Or perhaps the girlfriend felt invaded at having her password hacked and her personal information viewed – even by the man she loves.

I guess in the battle of good versus evil, social media is just like all the other battles of the world. It’s simply down to the reasons behind why you’re doing it and understanding the effect on the audience.

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Democracy to launch consumer campaign for bodykind

January 14th, 2010
Bodykind

We’re all feeling fit and well over at Democracy Towers, thanks to our latest client win – the natural health and beauty retailer bodykind.

These lovely chaps have taken us on to work with them on a consumer campaign that focuses on how we must be kind to our bodies.

Expect more news soon . . . .

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Cosgrove Hall: our new home

January 5th, 2010
Our new pad

It’s not just the website that has been changed – over Christmas and New Year the Democracy PR team moved offices and are now getting settled in at Cosgrove Hall, the legendery creative birthplace of childhood favourites Danger Mouse, Count Duckula and of course, Chorlton and the Wheelies.

The attic style space we’re in was previously used to make models for animation, so it’s very light and airy with plenty of space for us to develop as an agency (we’d seriously outgrown the last place!).

So, if you’re in the neighbourhood and want to check out the new space, then give me a call and we’ll pop the kettle on. Might want to leave it until next week though . . . . that’s when the sofa is delivered!

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