How to trash a company’s reputation in 2 weeks

Corporate reputation matters (just ask Toyota!). It takes very little effort to keep customers happy; yet many companies seem to have such disdain for their clients that they just can’t be bothered to solve little problems effectively. But the customer is fighting back. Thanks to social networking sites like Facebook, blogs (like this one) and [...]

Hospitality – How not to treat your customers

What, I wonder, is the corporate party season going to be like this year? A friend of mine, who works for one of the big merchant banks, tells me that he’s not allowed to have a Christmas party. In fact, his company is so paranoid about bankers being seen as profligate that he’s been told [...]

Alex Tew: when publicity goes right

This post is a tribute to Alex Tew. Alex is one of the UK’s youngest and most successful entrepreneurs. He’s the guy behind the original Million Dollar Homepage – a true piece of internet history. Basically, Alex decided that student life was expensive. What, he thought, could he do to make a million dollars quickly? [...]

Different perspectives: what you think ain’t what the world thinks

I think I might have some Yorkshire blood: I think I’m pretty plain speaking. I’m certainly not one for politicking. Which is why I enjoy the bawdiness of PR man Colin Byrne’s blog. (I’m also not going to criticise Colin because he looks like a Friday night bouncer who eats dobermanns for elevenses). He’s recently [...]

A superb example of forward thinking PR

I wanted to share with you this piece of excellent PR work (which I found on the excellent Robert Scoble’s technology blog). Declaration of interest: This blog is sponsored by Microsoft Let me give you the story first, and then I’ll tell you why I think it’s a piece of genius. Microsoft has produced a [...]

Need good PR? Get a monk!

Nobody is as smart or as well informed as they like to think. One of the big news stories of the past fortnight has been the tension surrounding the procession of the Beijing Olympic Torch around several world cities, London included. The processions have been troubled by sometimes violent protests over China’s treatment of neighbouring [...]

Oh dear: ‘You’ve been Londoned’

As the Mayoral campaign hots up, I’m watching news bulletins which included the fact that, thanks to the Terminal 5 fiasco and some rather unpleasant remarks about living in the UK from folks like Madonna, hip travellers in the US areĀ using the phrase “You’ve been Londoned”. It means all the things we’re fed up of: [...]