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As The Age confirms TiVo’s arrival in Australia in a digital alliance with the Seven Network (”welcome to the digital age, Seven” said the already there, Foxtel cheekily), there must be sweaty palms in the Comms business; sweaty palms in Adville (Cripes, what if the jig is up?) and sweaty, cash-expectant palms in PRland (Grunig was right about 2-way comms!!).
TiVo and iQ essentially allow consumers to ignore/skip over ads. So how many times is PR gonna get the chance to be the lead MarComms discipline? Every time, it seems to get outflanked by marketing, advertising, brand experience and e-DM agencies who take it in turns to discover/proclaim that stakeholder engagement/relations is the future. It is. But it’s already PR territory, if we can hold onto it.

Where: Rendezvous Hotel Melbourne, 328 Flinders St, Melbourne
When:12.30pm until 2.00pm, Thursday 7 June 2007

Next Thursday, I’ll be speaking in Melbourne CBD to a cross-disciplinary group of marketers from IABC. Here’s a synopsis of the session if you’re interested in attending:

“In this age of globally-networked and agenda-driven reputational terrorism, anti-corporate websites, bloggers, citizen journalists and e-media activists are armed with fully mobile, web-enabled technologies that can instantaneously broadcast, podcast and lambast every piece of corporate or personal communication.
So how can you protect yourself from these aggressive reputational threats?”

Cost: IABC Members: $45, PRIA Members: $55, Non-Members: $65 (light lunch included).
Any questions about this IABC event may be directed to: events@iabcvic.com.au
To register online, click here: https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?ID=613

Activist author Nicky Hager says security advisers to a state-owned business - Solid Energy - paid a student spy to infiltrate eco-protest group for $400 a month; the result is an embarrassing media disaster as everyone’s dirty laundry gets washed in public.
After the PRINZ conference, there was me thinking the land of the long white cloud was somewhat unsullied by the usual PR smog. Alas, a request for an interview by an NZ journo, Marta Steeman, alerted me to this case of ‘information obtained by subterfuge’ that echoes the one involving Helwett Packard’s CEO Patty Dunn earlier this year. Read more

This morning ABC Radio played a tape recording from November 2006 of Electrical Trades Union secretary Dean Mighell gloating after he’d managed to use industry-wide agreements to screw millions of dollars out of employers; he sounded like a schoolboy boasting to mates that he’d spat on the back of the headmaster’s jacket. Deano may be right in his claim that he hadn’t done anything illegal (by ‘outsmarting’ bosses - his word) but his assertion that the tape was recorded as part of a Building Industry Taskforce campaign to discredit him is somewhat flawed. Surely they didn’t script his lines? His choice lingo - while a crowd-pleaser for union roughheads discredited himself, and profiled his union, and now the LP in an unfavourable light. The truth is, because of the probability that there could be a campaign launched against any media figure, being circumspect is absolutely critical for us all.
Timely reminder for all Comms Managers to rebrief their charges that absolutely everywhere is the public sphere; every utterance can be recorded and used against you and your associates.

Another PR dinosaur informs us some key reasons why your ‘PR’ might not work; maybe because your ‘press agentry’ definition of PR is about four decades old? Anyhoo, Andy Lark soon puts her straight.
http://andylark.blogs.com/andylark/2007/05/the_top_10_reas.html

Coincidentally, Peter Himler (The Flack) posts on a similar topic.

Joey, Sid, Joe and Kurt; punk’d by ad agency?
Grauniad reports that Saatchi & Saatchi has been fired over their proposed series of ads featuring dead rockers wearing Doc Marten’s bovver boots (Read ‘Public Relations Disasters’ for similar case where PR man used dead pop stars in press release for ‘Rock manager’ computer game). Seems someone ‘leaked’ the ads without client approval.
With all-too-typical ad agency disregard for all relevant stakeholders that could be affected by their communications, the agency overlooked that the ads could offend some sensitive soles/souls; cue delicate flower and weeping widow of Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love and Joey Ramone’s brother both of whom’re reportedly disgusted, various blogosphere stories claim. But the plot thickens… Read more

From the Brisbane Times, this special ‘carwash’ in a suburban garage in Brisbane has had national TV coverage, and Australians up in arms. Read the quotes of the bikini-clad soap stars; hilarious! So if you fancy opening a private carwash in your home town, some soaped up German backbackers are the PR solution for bringing your business to public prominence.

Richard Ford in Auckland today; his books are marvellous so buy ‘em if you like marvellous books.

Got the chance to meet great American storyteller and author of my fave book trilogy - The Sportswriter, Independence Day and Lay Of The Land - Richard Ford today at the Auckland Writers Centre. More on his interview with NZ TV host John Campbell later. From web viewpoint, I asked Richard if he thought the blogosphere could help unearth and promote new literary excellence; No was his answer. Why? “The blogosphere is democratic, great art is not.” More later…

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