Richard Duerr takes his turn on BBC Manchester

February 26th, 2010

Today it was Richard Duerr’s turn to head over to the BBC and chat through the stories of the day with Heather Stott.

Once again it’s a 45 minute clip but there are songs in between…

Jennifer pops in for coffee with Heather Stott at BBC Radio Manchester

February 26th, 2010

This week Democracy PR founder Jennifer O’Grady popped into the BBC Radio Manchester studio to chat with presenter Heather Stott about the latest news over coffee.

Other guests for the 9am – 10am daily slot included Tom Cropper from organic retailer The Farm Shed and Sharon Peake award winning hairdresser from Ethos Hairdressing.

We chatted about everything from men who like curvy women to making the most of kitchen leftovers. If you want to listen to the show, click onto our blog.

The best news is that our client Richard Duerr of Duerr’s will be on the show tomorrow. Should be an interesting show . . . .

Jennifer pops in to BBC Manchester for coffee

February 25th, 2010

This morning, Democracy PR founder Jennifer O’Grady popped into the BBC Radio Manchester studio to chat with presenter Heather Stott about the latest news over coffee.

It’s a 45 minute clip but there is music…

600 tweets a second

February 23rd, 2010
Picture 5

New stats which appeared on Mashable yesterday show that Twitter has reached 500 million tweets a day, or 600 tweets a second.

There’s no indication as to whether this is due to more members or just more active members but it does show that twitter is continuing to grow at quite a pace.

The other big Twitter news is that His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who has had an account for some time, has become active, enabling Twitter to cater for the spiritual needs of the 500 million daily tweets.

A new twist on the PR rollercoaster

February 22nd, 2010
Picture for release Hannah

Well, my first blog at Democracy PR on my new computer at my new desk, how exciting!

I caught the `PR bug` when working at Pleasure Beach, Blackpool in their PR department. Forgive the pun, but yes, it was a rollercoaster of a place to begin your career. The constant excitement and flow of ideas in the office left me wanting to learn and develop more, so when i saw the opportunity at Democracy i knew that it would be a fantastic opportunity to push myself to progress quickly.

I wasn’t always in PR though . . . in fact, I’ve spent many years travelling as a professional dancer for high profile companies including The Moulin Rouge. But my heart stayed in Manchester and I wanted to come back home.

Although it has only been my first day, the atmosphere already has me looking forward to work tomorrow. Where else can you discuss Gordon Brown in one sentence and the positive benefits of honey in the next?

What’s for sure is that this latest twist on my personal PR rollercoaster looks like it’s going to be a thrilling one.

Have you seen SeeSaw?

February 17th, 2010
Picture 4

Today sees the launch of the new online TV streaming service SeeSaw. The concept is that, in a similar way to Google it doesn’t create content, just aggregate it.

So there’s nothing on it that you couldn’t watch on the sites of the channels it streams, at the minute the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5, yet it’s all in the same place. The immediately useful feature is that you can select your content by channel, or by genre; so if you’re in the mood for something factual SeeSaw will offer you programmes originally broadcast on all channels.

It’s also visually very simple and easy to use, closer to BBC iPlayer than Demand 5 in design, and it seems to be using the same strategy as 4OD to get us to re-live great series like Teachers and Queer as Folk.

It’s free to view at the minute and funded by advertising, but according to its controller is planning to charge for some content, like US dramas, as it grows.

I can definitely see the possible uses of the service and am impressed with the design and ease of use, I guess it just remains to be seen, as usual with online services, whether it can attract loyal users and advertisers and make enough money to stick around.

Scruffs get dirty with Democracy

February 1st, 2010
mantips-logo-b

How pleased are we? Scruffs – the cheeky brand of workwear – has decided that they want Democracy to launch their new MAN TIPS campaign due to launch in Feb. MAN TIPS is a cheeky national campaign developed in conjunction with our friends at Manchester advertising agency CBJWT and features been-there-and-done-that Uncle ‘Arry as the ultimate brand advocate.

We adore uncle ‘Arry – he’s always on hand with wise words to help the nation’s tradesmen get out of the sticky situations they face when the opposite sex becomes overwhelmed by seeing them in their Scruffs work gear.

We’ll be working in partnership with the Scruffs in-house marketing team, led by the wickedly creative Chris Mellor-Dolman and CBJWT to exploit the social media opportunities across Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as we engage tradesmen with the MAN TIPS concept through traditional and online channels.

It was a competitive pitch, so we were chuffed when Chris from Scruffs told us the news, but even happier when he told us why:  “MAN TIPS is a great creative, and Democracy PR understood that what we needed was a campaign to support that, not another campaign all by itself. Their social media strategy will be at the heart of everything we do and the tactics they have developed will help deliver on our ambitious sales targets.”

On return to the office (they’re based in Nottingham) even Uncle ‘Arry had something to say: “What can I tell you? Those birds at Democracy know that my words of wisdom could mean a lucky escape for one of my boys next time Big Mrs O’Reilly wants more than ‘er drive layin’.”

What we love about Scruffs is that they aren’t afraid of what social media can do for their brand – in fact, they can’t wait to start talking with their online community. Their cheeky approach to marketing is reflected in the ideas we pitched – we know it’s going to get dirty and that’s just the way we like it!