DRPR’s latest e-newsletter up and running!

 

DRPR’s latest quarterly e-newletter, Drumbeat is packed with PR insights, tips and news from the industry and the DRPR team.

Click on the image below to read the articles in full. Happy reading!

 

 

DRPR’s latest team bonding expedition

 

Always better late than never – here is the run down on DRPR’s latest team bonding venture!

DRPR’s keen photographer, Nicola Rutzou organised last month’s DRPR social, taking the team on an educational and fun photography expedition.

After a short lesson in the office, the team set off into the city to discover the colourful and exotic wonders to be seen at the recent Chinese New Year celebrations. With cameras poised , everyone explored the maze of activity - all on the hunt for that golden shot.

As twilight set upon us and the lanterns in the trees blazed with colour, the team enjoyed indulging in a diverse range of Chinese food from the many food stalls while watching the spectacular Chinese dragons dance throughout the crowd – and taking photos of course!

On returning to the office, everyone shared their best shots with the team with the winning photo going to Gemma Crowley (as pictured below).

Thanks Nicola for organising a great team bonding event. We are all looking forward to the next social event – the details of which have been left in Dennis Rutzou’s trusty hands!  

@GemCrowley

Public Relations Network buddy system: Gaining insights from PR agencies around the world!

 

Sitting at your desk in the bubble which is your own agency, do you ever wonder what goes on behind the walls of other PR agencies around Sydney, Australia… the world?

Often agencies are rather closed when it comes to internal practices and client processes and for good reason – it’s a jungle out there and one needs to keep a competitive mind set.

However perhaps opportunities are being missed while existing entirely within your closed in, sealed tight box. Letting the walls down slightly and sharing with others in your industry can have its benefits.

As a member of the Public Relations Network (PRN)  – an international collective of like-minded independent PR consultancies – we recently realised the power of the amazing resource we have at our fingertips, i.e. the knowledge and experiences of 20 odd PR agencies worldwide all with different ideas, customs and procedures.

To maximise our experience with PRN and increase our sharing of information, we’ve decided at DRPR to create a ‘PRN buddy system’. Each of us has been assigned a couple of PRN member countries to get in touch with once in a while and ask questions as well as share our own information.

We recently utilised our PRN buddy system by going to each of our buddies with questions regarding the infamous measurement and ROI of a PR program. At our last monthly meeting we shared the insights gathered from the following PRN members:

• Aleph Communication, Spain
• Creative Crest, India
• Mantra, USA
• RCA, Belgium  
• Soluzione, Italy
• Boman Communications, Denmark

DRPR’s offsite meeting a great success!

 

The beauty, peace and serenity of the Blue Mountains formed the perfect backdrop to what was deemed DRPR’s best offsite meeting to date.

Last week the team escaped to a quaint cottage in Bullaburra for a day of strategic planning for the year to come. With everyone focused, a hefty agenda to plough through and ideas and creativity flowing in abundance, the team ended the day with energy levels going through the roof – 2010 is shaping up to be an exciting year for DRPR.

Aside from a definite focus on strategy and business growth development, team bonding played a significant role with wines by the fireplace, a bush walk, shopping and the all important devonshire tea adding to a very pleasant Blue Mountains experience.

However not only were there plenty of laughs and great memories to take away from the weekend, each staff member also left with a prestigious award under their belt.

Daily Telegraph front page – what an insult.

 

Last night as former NSW Premier, Nathan Rees’ fate was sealed and Kristina Keneally stepped up to take on the scrupulous task, the Australian female population took two great steps forward in the ongoing battle for equality in the political stakes.

NSW now has its first female state Premier, a promotion which also marks the first female double act in Australian political history with Carmel Tebbutt announced as her deputy.

A cause for celebration? You would think so.

However unfortunately the media decided such a landmark in Australian politics wasn’t ‘sensational’ enough to be the ‘hook’ of the story and decided to go with the puppet show analogy instead.

The first day in the office and Kristina Keneally wakes up to this disgusting image gracing the front page of the Daily Telegraph this morning.

 

The image speaks for itself. What an insult.

Romanian PR campaign: Zero budget. Amazing results.

 

I often find myself contemplating the massive budget that would be required for a client to bring some of my huge, creative campaign ideas from the pages of my notebook to reality.

In fact, I’ve been pondering how to get around the good old money factor for a client only this week. How do you achieve amazing results and wide spread coverage with limited dollars?

With this very question top of mind, I was extremely impressed when reading a post this morning on The Inspiration Room blog about a recent award winning PR effort in Romania.

This agency had no budget. Zero.  

Arsenoaiei & Matasel’s “Accidents Can Happen to Anyone” accident prevention campaign stepped around their zero media budget hurdle with a well thought out collaboration with the Bucharest Police and Romanian celebrities.

Analysing the international realm of blogging

 

Gary Hayes recently posted an interesting article on his Personalize Media blog listing the top 175 non US media and marketing blogs from around the world. Thanks Gary for this fantastic resource.  

I found the below graphs summarising Gary’s findings on which countries are currently taking charge with their online communication of particular interest. As expected, the US is very much dominating the blogging sphere.

Are you kicking your business goals?

 

The other week I had the privilege of going along with Nicola Rutzou to business coach Ilan Kogus’ Mastermind program. As Ilan bounced various statistics around the antique boardroom table , two in particular made me instantly stop and think.

85% of new businesses die in the 1st year.  Out of the surviving 15%, 1 in 4 will still be in business after 5 years.

Weeks later I still find myself pondering this harsh reality. What is it that differentiates those that will survive from those who will fail and fade into oblivion?

There are many variables to be considered and there is no definite answer to settle my inquiring thoughts. However, I do agree with Illan that effective goal setting does have a lot to do with business success.

So on that thought, here are Ilan’s six steps to achieving such goals and succeeding in the great game of business.

Swap online for face to face time

 

Thanks to The Inspiration Room, I came across this interesting advertising campaign this morning from Cadbury promoting Dentyne Gum.

The Dentyne Gum “face time” campaign encourages users to allocate time to be with friends, face to face.

  

   Power down. log off. Unplug.

   Have mercy on your thumbs.

   Browse the world wide something else.

   Send some not-so-instant- messages.

  Undo/hit cancel. Be together.

  Make face time.

 

The message in this campaign reinforces the points made in my previous post. As we continue dive head first into the realm of social media and network away as fast as our fingers can type – it is now more important than ever to stop and take a step back. We need to look at the network of ‘friends’ we have made online, give the typing a rest and invest in some “face time”.

A great thing to remember next time you’re chewing gum!

Cheers – the first round a success!

 

After reading Jo Gitsham’s last post, you may have had a change of heart, giving that networking invitation in your inbox a second glance.

Jo hit the nail right on the head with this one. With the rise in social media, face-to-face networking is becoming more important than ever.

I will admit, without social media tools like Twitter, there is good chance I would have never come in contact with the people I have. It has been great chatting online with people in the industry with similar interests.

Twitter truly is a pandora’s box of networking opportunities. However at the same time, I’ve recently realised just how easy it is to fall into networking complacency. I think to myself - I’m following new people, gaining new followers, interacting while I go. Networking? Well Twitter ticks that box.

And in some ways, yes it does. Twitter is today’s networking. However it is not the only one. It is simply just the beginning and the networking cannot end here.

At the end of the day, meeting face-to-face is essential.

It was this revelation that brought PRinks to life. With a similar interest in meeting up with other professionals in the industry, Roger Christie, Sefiani Communications, and I decided it was not an impossible venture to kick start our own PR networking event.

PRinks is a great opportunity once a month for communication professionals to meet with fellow industry colleagues, share ideas, experiences and enjoy a few drinks. At the end of the day, what comms professional wouldn’t put up their hand for such an evening!

Last night was the first round of PRinks and what a round it was! It was a great to meet new faces and catch up with old and we’re looking forward to seeing PRinks grow as more and more comms types jump on board!

The next PRinks will be held on Wednesday, 9th September at Ryan’s Bar from 6 pm onwards. Feel free to come down and say hi. We’d love to see you there.

 For more information, you can become a fan of PRinks on facebook or contact myself (@GemCrowley) or Roger Christie (@rogerchristie) on Twitter.

There are also several other  great PR / comms networking events around Sydney. If you are an organiser or attend one of these events, please feel free to add the details here. We look forward to coming along and meeting new faces in the industry over a glass or two!

Gemma