Celebrities – why some of you get a bad press

What’s the least likeable trait of some ‘celebrities’? Well, there are plenty of options to choose from but I’d put self-importance somewhere near the top.

You know the sort of thing: visiting ‘star’ expects Bollinger ’73, room painted cream, heated to 23.4C, and adorned with Birds of Paradise flowers.

Worse, the ‘star’ deigns to do an interview with common media folk, but first we must go through the ritual of PR people prepping the reporters. They’ll get a set time and under no circumstances should they ask about certain topics.

Take for example French director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi at the Cannes Film Festival. A press conference was held to publicise her film. Reporters were warned that they mustn’t ask her about being the only female director in the competition. Nothing about her private life could be asked either, although the film was about her family.

So she gave what was, it’s said, a charmless and ‘huffy’ interview. Then The Times critic asked about the boyfriend, who played himself in the film. “Stronza!” she shouted (it’s Italian for ‘shit’, apparently – or s**t as The Times pointlessly censored it) and stormed out.

So there you have it: another seemingly irritable person who gives the impression of hating dealing with the hoi polloi. Boo! Why can’t people just deal with such situations?

How about not telling journalists what they can and can’t ask and just getting on with it? And if you get a question on something you don’t want to deal with, good naturedly say: “Sorry – I don’t want to go into that, what else can we talk about?” And if you’re asked again, give a similar answer.

It’s not hard and makes it less likely you’ll get a bad write-up. And by being humble and friendly we may even like you a bit more.

But as a PR person, would I be doing myself out of a job?

Wyn Emanuel

Two companies: and a contrast in customer service

I’ve just had two private consultations for health purposes – and seen a stark contrast in customer service and how companies present themselves.

I saw an advert for company A and ‘phoned to book an appointment. Easy. I turned up and was immediately assessed with the aid of what seemed to me to be ultra modern equipment. My results were explained to me, I was given a print out to take away, and told about my options.

Then I saw an advert for company B in a newspaper, and wanted to compare results and costs. This company expected me to fill in a form, cut it out of the newspaper and post it. I didn’t want to do that, and as there was no email address I ‘phoned the advertised number. It rang and rang and after about six tries someone answered. An appointment was made.

Later, I wanted to confirm the location. No answer again on the published number, so I looked up the company on its website. The number on it was not in use and no-one answered the Head office ‘customer service’ number.

For some reason I persisted: I turned to Google Earth and found the location. I turned up and waited a few minutes. The person I’d come to see said sorry about the wait as he was sorting out a few drinks with his mates that evening. The consultation seemed lower tech and the place was a bit old fashioned and slightly ramshackle.

The company B man filled out a chart with my results, but didn’t give it to me. He seemed knowledgeable enough, and the costs were comparable to my earlier consultation.

Guess which company I’m thinking of handing over a few thousand pounds to? It’s the one in which I’ve more confidence.

Wynford Emanuel

Two companies: and what a contrast in customer service!

I’ve just had two private consultations for health purposes – and seen a stark contrast in customer service and how companies present themselves.

I saw an advert for company A and ‘phoned to book an appointment. Easy. I turned up and was immediately assessed with the aid of what seemed to me to be ultra modern equipment. My results were explained to me, I was given a print out to take away, and told about my options.

Then I saw an advert for company B in a newspaper, and wanted to compare results and costs. This company expected me to fill in a form, cut it out of the newspaper, find an envelope and a stamp and find a post box. I didn’t want to do that, and as there was no email address I ‘phoned the advertised number. It rang and rang and after about six tries someone answered. An appointment was made.

Later, I wanted to confirm the location. No answer again on the published number, so I looked up the company on its website. The number on it was not in use and no-one answered the Head office ‘customer service’ number.

For some reason I persisted: I turned to Google Earth and found the location. I turned up and waited a few minutes. The person I’d come to see said sorry about the wait as he was sorting out a few drinks with his mates that evening. The consultation seemed lower tech and the place was a bit old fashioned and slightly ramshackle.

The company B man filled out a chart with my results, but didn’t give it to me. He seemed knowledgeable enough, and the costs were comparable to my earlier consultation.

Guess which company I’m thinking of handing over a few thousand pounds to? It’s the one in which I’ve more confidence.

Time to curb free bus travel?

I caught a bus the other day and couldn’t help noticing that no-one paid the fare.

Everyone on it had grey hair, including me. That meant we over 60s had free bus passes, and it got me thinking about the fairness of this system.

Plenty of 60 plus people are still working: some through choice and others who need to carry on to 65 or beyond to get the level of income they want or need. There’s no doubt that this universal benefit is hugely popular.

Most over 60s have done the big things in life. They’ll likely have grown up children and probably small or non-existent mortgages. If renting, the chances are that the cost is less of a burden than it may be for much younger people with families. Some will have progressed in their careers to have good incomes. This is of course a generalisation – as it must be. Others will be unemployed and not doing very well at all. But it is undoubtedly a fact that some very well off people are being subsidised by people with less in their pockets.

On another occasion when I caught a bus a young man in front of me in the queue, maybe in his late teens, had to pay the full fare. I didn’t pay anything. I’m guessing he didn’t have a highly paid job, so he was subsidising people like me – and I must assume that after decades in the workforce I’m a lot better off than him. This seemed unjust.

There is, after all, no such thing as free bus travel. Someone has to pay to cover the cost of my journeys, and it’s people like this young man through the taxation system – which in the end compensates the bus companies. I suppose I could volunteer to pay my fare, and that gesture may be noble – but insignificant. So what, if anything, is to be done to save public money and, perhaps, keep down this £1bn plus cost to taxpayers?

What has no price is often seen to have no value, so it’s sometimes taken for granted. I suspect that many bus trips are made with no purpose. They happen because it costs nothing.

Scrapping free bus travel is the equivalent of an election poster saying: ‘I hate the old. Vote for the other lot.’ So that won’t happen. Means testing is out of the question as the bureaucracy involved could even increase the cost. But there are some options:

What about a concessionary charge? What if the over 60s were to be offered a local bus journey at, say, 50p? That’s less than a third of the local fare in Cardiff. It’s not much, but just enough to make you think whether the journey is necessary.

And why not make eligibility reflect pension ages? After all, 65 is the retirement age for men. Yes, it would be unfair to men right now – but not for long.

What about restricting free travel times? Concessionary fares could be outside peak travel times of 7-9am and 4-6pm. If you’re still working and need to travel in these times then pay the full fare.

Some people will hate any chipping away at this perk. Any suggestion of eroding it makes some people very angry indeed. A change in the rules would cost me, but it could reduce bus travel costs overall and save taxpayers’ money. That would benefit the people who most need it – like the young lad in my queue the other day.

Wynford Emanuel

To frack or not to frack? That will be the question.

Fracking: it’s an ugly word for what some people see as a big threat to their environment.

But many others view it as a golden opportunity to tackle our looming energy crisis by reducing our uncomfortable dependence on imported energy.

Most of us have seen the media reports of protests and ‘mini-earthquake’ stories as shale rocks or coal seams deep underground are hydraulically fractured by high pressure fluid to extract gas. We’ll see it all again the next time a proposal crops up. As a nation we need the gas because we have very little storage capacity for cold snaps such as over the past few weeks, but a lot of people are dead set against this technology. So what are we going to do?

Fracking has become big business in north America, in terms of unleashing vast quantities of energy that has reduced gas prices and dependence on imports. Fortunately for the Americans and Canadians, the wide open spaces on their continent mean that they can frack far away from most communities – reducing the volume of opposition (although there’s still plenty of it). They’re even making a Hollywood film about fracking, but if it’s anything like Argo, it’ll be more about entertainment than facts.

The conflicting views of US communities can be seen in this four minute film by the BBC’s Laura Trevelyan http://tinyurl.com/clcrwrk

On our crowded little island the seams to be gasified will always be near to someone – albeit a mile or more underground. Some small earth tremors may result, as they do naturally from time to time. Here in Wales we have already seen opposition and will see it again. People are naturally concerned if they think their local environment and homes may be damaged. Who wouldn’t be?

And while the process of extracting the gas and using it to produce electricity is environmentally cleaner than burning coal, there are lots of other claims and counter claims about its risks that won’t be resolved any time soon.

So, while each application should technically be determined on its planning merits we can’t shy away from the fact that we’ve a tough policy decision to make towards the technology. The UK Government’s moratorium on fracking is over. So, from now on, do local and possible environmental interests come first, or are the needs of the wider economy and energy security more important?

The next time a fracking proposal appears there’ll be media stories and likely opposition by communities, environmental organisations and some politicians. Their views may prevail (subject to compliance or otherwise with planning rules) and they’ll be happy, while the bounty under our feet is sterilised.

The views of local people and environmental and economic experts must and will be heard under our planning regimes. But which principle should we follow? Do we ensure that local people are undisturbed and there is nil potential risk to the environment, or should we allow a tightly regulated industry to exploit a resource that could benefit the whole economy? Compromise isn’t an option; it’s one or the other.

When it comes to the crunch, as it could in the near future, the outcome may dismay some local communities. The balance may shift in favour of the people with the drilling rigs.

Wynford Emanuel

Director

What would Wales do with increased planning powers?

A call has been made for the Welsh Government to have a greater say on energy planning issues. Welsh Conservatives want devolved decision making to increase from 50MW to 100MW projects.

But what would this achieve? Would it help to speed up a Welsh planning system that has been described as ‘glacial’ in its speed? And, more importantly, would it mean that Wales is more likely to give the green light to a greater number of large-scale energy proposals?

Determination by the UK Government of these larger energy schemes annoys many people in Wales. They want what they see as a more democratic system with decisions made here.

The Scots already take their own decisions and they seem be using energy development as an engine of growth. Large schemes, particularly for renewable energy, tend to be looked on favourably.

Would that happen in Wales? The fact is that many people want decisions to be taken here not only for accountability, but also the motivation is sometimes that projects can be stopped. Even where smaller schemes can be determined in Cardiff Bay we hear calls for them to be ‘called in’ to the Welsh Government – in the hope they’ll be turned down.

Leading UK business people say that our planning regimes make Wales a less attractive place to invest than elsewhere in the UK.

People often oppose any developments near their own homes. That’s only natural. I’d be upset if there were to be something built near me that I didn’t like. But local self-interest and the interests of Wales as a whole won’t always coincide. Unfortunately, economic development will mean that, from time to time, groups of people will be annoyed -  as will the AMs and MPs who support them. It’s unfortunate, but Wales must come first.

So what would happen if we get these increased powers in Wales? Would we harness them for economic growth, or use them to thwart projects some people don’t like? If the latter, that would make investing in Wales even less attractive than it is today.

What’s gone wrong with planning in Wales?

Twice in the past fortnight senior UK business leaders have taken a swipe at how Wales handles planning issues. And both think that the result is a lack of investment that could be hurting the Welsh economy.

First, the chief executive of energy giant Scottish and Southern Energy, Ian Marchant, warned that investment in wind power in Wales will be lost ‘unless the gap between the rhetoric and reality of support it actually receives is narrowed.’ In other words, there needs to be realistic backing for wind farms beyond the confines of Cardiff Bay.

Then Redrow chairman Steve Morgan praised the UK government’s attempts to rejuvenate the housing market but said the conditions were not the same in Wales partially because of “onerous planning and regulatory burdens”.

So, very different businesses but both think Wales is stifling development – through a burdensome planning regime and a lack of government support.

There’s no doubt that getting planning approval for major projects in Wales can take a very, very long time compared with other parts of the UK. Everything we build is likely to be near someone and is not always popular. Getting planning approvals in Wales is often an adversarial slog that can take years.

Mr Marchant compared today’s situation on energy development in Wales with that of Scotland eight years ago. The Scottish Government has the final say on whether large infrastructure projects go ahead, whereas in Wales and England we have a different system.

Scots then saw green energy investment as an engine of growth, he said, and so the planning process was speeded up. Now, a wind farm in Scotland can take just 18 months from application to determination. In Wales “it is five years and counting.” Wales seems to be lagging behind – whatever your view on wind energy.

Mr Morgan bemoaned the fact that the UK Government’s NewBuy initiative isn’t available to potential homebuyers in Wales, so slowing a return to health of the housing sector. He added that another problem is “the increased build cost in the principality due to the more onerous planning and regulatory burdens.” He went on to say that if the proposed changes to the Welsh Building Regulations take effect the situation “will get substantially worse”.

Warwick Emanuel PR has managed communication programmes for many energy and construction projects. In many cases the planning process has moved at a snail’s pace. This delay and its associated cost, coupled with a lack of overt political support in the constituencies, can blunt investors’ enthusiasm. The uncertainty of having to plan for energy market conditions so far into the future is also a worry.

We have the client experience of serious investors who became so exasperated that they walked away – and took their project to the north east of England.

As Mr Marchant said, “Money is like water as it finds the easiest path, and the risk that Wales has is that money for renewable energy just says it is easier somewhere else.

“A marginal site in Scotland is a better bet than a good site in Wales… because I [from an investor’s perspective] will get that one done, whereas in Wales I just don’t know. I genuinely have concerns for Wales.”

Something has gone badly wrong if we are driving investors away. Perhaps it’s time to have a serious look at our planning systems and consider first and foremost the needs of the Welsh economy.

Wynford Emanuel

Warwick Emanuel PR

Sources: Wales Online and Business Insider

Words of Wisdom for PR people

Isn’t Twitter great for getting information quickly? And isn’t it terrible for loading your timeline with stuff that sometimes makes the heart sink?

As a Twitter fan I’ve noticed that it gets news out faster than mainstream media. Sometimes it’s accurate, too. And I love the quirky stuff, like this recent multi-reTweet.

‘AsdaEmployee: ‘What you want on the cake?’

Customer: ‘Best Wishes Suzanne’ and underneath that ‘We will miss you’.

Photo Courtesy of Claire Willis https://twitter.com/clairelou1971

Well, it amused me – and obviously a lot of others.

But there’s one thing of which I am now a bit weary: it’s those little quotes of pithy wisdom that lots of us see on a daily basis. I get so many of them that I remember none. They’ve merged in my brain into an amorphous mass of mini homilies.

You know the sort of thing: ‘The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance.’

Yes, it’s a perfectly sensible and sound bit of advice but there are thousands like it competing for attention. So far, none has motivated me to be more efficient, decisive and dynamic. Of course, that’s more to do with me than them.

So if we’re going to have quotes, let’s have more entertaining ones I say. That means celebrating the wit of geniuses like Mark Twain, Winston Churchill and Oscar Wilde. The bonus is that you can apply them to your own profession or trade.

For today let’s focus on public relations. We PR people love surveys and ‘research’. Well, they seem to do the job for clients.

In the words of Mark Twain: ‘Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.’ Well, we’d all agree, wouldn’t we? Without them, how would newspapers fill all the gaps?

And he also advised: ‘Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.’ Ah yes, so true. And as a last resort: ‘Honesty is the best policy – when there is money in it.’ Steady on Twainy, we can’t possibly agree to that last one.

It’s evident that Oscar Wilde was born before his time. Today, he surely wouldn’t write: ‘It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.’ Dear Oscar, these days we are just about drowning in it from a torrent of news releases. Count yourself lucky.

But he was wise chap in many ways, as I think when I hark back to my early PR days and his glorious quote. ‘I am not young enough to know everything.

Let’s consider news releases. It’s so annoying when our carefully crafted masterpieces of informative prose fail to make it into broadcast media, print – or even online. Sometimes you’ve just got to agree that Gandhi may have got it right. ‘I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.’

Still, forgive, forget and move on, eh?

Aristotle, writing before the IPR got its chartered status, got it spot on about our news releases: ‘Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.’

And what about that Albert Einstein, eh? Not only did he know the secret of nuclear fission, he was also clued up on what makes a damn good news release: ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge…’

Up to a point Albert, but I agree that it must help a bit.

Winston Churchill also had some advice that may be heeded PR wordsmiths:

‘Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.’

And as for grammar: ‘From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.’

Sir Winston also urged people to be a bit realistic. Does this sound familiar?: ‘However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.’

But even if you aren’t in PR, his advice applies to whatever you do: ‘Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

And at this point I think my brief bit of whimsy has gone on long enough. After all: ‘By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be growing old.’ Thank you, Benjamin Franklin.

Follow Wynford or WEPR on Twitter

Work Experience – AKA ‘A taste of the real world’

Finishing my second year at Aberystwyth University, it suddenly dawned on that within one year I will have graduated (hopefully) and be facing the ‘real world’.  Living in university has created a different world for me and the prospect of sitting down and getting a job seemed very scary.

Firstly, as an English Literature student, I didn’t fancy the idea of going into teaching.  A question people continually ask me when I tell them my degree.  So I thought about what I liked doing and what I was good at.  After a lot of searching the idea of PR really interested me, as I already organise and direct plays for my drama society in university, this seemed like a good idea for me to pursue.

I found Warwick Emanuel PR & Film on a Google search and was impressed with what they do.  The website was well organised, informative and interesting.  I especially like the blog, where other work experience placements had written about their time at WEPR.  The fact that they were all positive really encouraged me to apply.  I wrote an email and Elizabeth Warwick replied and offered me a placement. The following emails made me feel very welcome and well informed to what to expect.

So, the day came when I had to get up at 7am, as all students will know, the idea of a 7am alarm is horrible.  Personally I object to 9am lectures! I arrived early and waited till the office opened, I was quite nervous and I’m pretty sure I didn’t say much for the first few hours.

The staff were lovely to me and gave me tasks and lots of help throughout the day.  I was given the task of practising writing a press release.  The structure was completely different to what I am used to writing in my essays, which usually includes a lot of waffle to reach the 2,500 word count.  It took me a few goes until I got the hang of it. Victoria was a great help with it all.  She gave me helpful feedback on how to improve. The first day I also helped Hannah with an eco project that lead to me being put on the phone for an hour, for me this was great, I love a good chat.

Over the week my work has progressed to helping with research for different projects, phoning people for more information and adding to data.  One of my favourite tasks was ringing up an employee from SWALEC to get details on his fundraising event for a press release that I then later wrote up. As I am particularly interested in the organisation of events, Victoria gave me the task of creating a fictional event.  I looked at past examples that the company has organised and took in all the details that they have to entail.  I chose to plan an event around the company Willmott Dixon that WEPR already represent.  I found the whole exercise really useful and enjoyable

Throughout the week I have attended a client meeting in Swansea with Katie, a creative meeting in house for a future project and detailed discussions with members of the team about the jobs they do as well as office tasks.

For a work experience placement I feel that WEPR is a great place, they are so organised and have lots of things for work experience people to do and all of it is really beneficial.  None of this organising the stationary cupboard, the horror stories of work placement.

I still have one day left here at WEPR and I will leave at the end of this week with a better knowledge of how a PR company operates.  I believe that I now have an idea of the future career I would like to pursue after my last year at university.

Grace Collins

Aberystwyth University, English Literature

I’ve just divorced my social media ‘guru’

The world seems to be awash with social media experts. They’re all over the place – and some have even been elevated to ‘guru’ status by people promoting them.

So I’d like to begin by asking: can please have the word ‘guru’ banned? It’s applied to so many people that the currency has been well and truly devalued. I believe there are now possibly more PR or social media ‘gurus’ in the world than there are people. So from now on I will only believe people are gurus if they are a bit mystic, shrouded in incense and have a very long beard.

But that’s a digression. Back to social media. It isn’t really my thing, but luckily my colleagues are very adept at it – so I’m not short of help. I get many emails from companies and individuals offering advice on how to master its mysteries. There are lots of people on my Twitter timeline who dispense wisdom on how to do it properly, win new business, unlock the secrets etc etc. Some must presumably be very good, as they seem to be making a living from it.

But there are just so many social media advisers out there, and many of them seem to Tweet about as often as they exhale. There is one who must surely be Tweeting non-stop: a bit like those unfortunate people who can never stop hiccupping. He followed me a while back and I reciprocated. I soon began to regret it.

Just about every time I logged on there he was: smiling at me, telling me how to do this or that and giving me links to articles and websites. But he seemed like a nice enough chap, and I didn’t want to unfollow him – as that would have been slightly rude. Yet some of the stuff he did seemed so pointless, like asking his thousands of followers what they were going to do that day. Well, I wasn’t going to bother to tell him. Would anyone?

Then, after a few weeks my attitude started to slide from indifference to irritation. My heart sank a little every time I entered Twitterland and was immediately confronted by this alleged guru, doing his usual stuff. And I noticed that he was repeating the same things over and over again. My Twitter experience became a bit like Groundhog Day.

My feeling ratcheted up from irritation to mild annoyance, like I was locked into virtual prison cell with this guy and forced to listen to him airing his views. And by now the last thing I wanted to do was to click on one of his links. I was determined that he wasn’t going to wear me down. Hell no, I wasn’t going to give in to all this badgering. Yet he had lots of followers; so was this about him being misunderstood by me, or my lacking any sense of perception about the world of social media?

It was particularly peeving when he suggested I should be spending my Sundays ‘strategising’ my next social media campaign, ready for a supersonic start on Monday. No, I wanted to cut the grass and read the papers and recharge my batteries. I didn’t want someone making me feel that I’m a bone idle business failure, thanks all the same.

Eventually, I toyed with a drastic step: unfollowing him. Yes, termination with semi-extreme prejudice. I thought that was probably OK really because, as a social media guru, I suppose you shouldn’t really irritate the hell out of people so much that they wish to avoid you online. That seems to defeat the purpose. It occurred to me that this was an experience that made me question his ‘guruness’. He was having a negative effect on me now. I wondered if anyone would pay any attention to him – in a good way, that is. Any anyway, with all those followers he definitely wouldn’t miss me at all.

But, despite everything, I hung on in there – locked into my Twitter fate.

Then, just the other day, my life changed. I had a tremendous stroke of luck: he had unfollowed ME. This was a joyous and memorable moment, as it now meant I could unfollow him back without feeling guilty, antisocial and sort of giving him an electronic kick in the teeth. I was free! Big Brother had gone. Probably, my inane Tweets lacking any advice on strategy, how to spend your weekends, or anything useful at all, had irritated him even more than the other way around. I don’t care.

Having just unburdened myself, I suppose I should suggest there’s a lesson in this experience, to give it a (very tiny) point. As business person, run-of-the-mill web user and non-social media expert, it made me a bit more sceptical about much of the advice that bombards me via the web and Twitter. Underneath it may all be valuable and sensible stuff, but if the Tweets annoy you to distraction, then it surely can’t work, can it? Or maybe that’s just me.

Luckily, I get some business Tweets that are relevant, don’t turn up too often, and signpost that they will say something of interest. That’s OK by me: I like them and even take a look at some, now and then. Yes, first impressions count: and that’s as true on Twitter as in my non-virtual real life world.

Wynford Emanuel, Director