Posts Tagged ‘youtube’

I’ve just seen footage on YouTube of a reality show that should have the PR industry quaking in its boots – PR-based reality TV show The Spin Crowd.

What I’ve seen suggests that it’s a show packed with clipboard Nazis, fashionistas and other fluffy-brained reprobates representative of the old cliché of what PR is supposed to be about – the sort of people who behave like 9 year olds who’ve found the booze cupboard and whose worldview is shallower than the mirage of a puddle.

The PR industry is undergoing a revolution at the moment – a lot of people are beginning to recognise that it can be a huge force in the world and that the captivating narratives it guides, for people, products and more, can be of enormous use and influence. Read the rest of this entry »

Bo Burnham’s been making up for the PR slip that saw him – or possibly his PR company – reject his nomination for the Malcolm Hardee ‘Act Most Likely to Make a Million Quid’ Award. And he’s been doing it with grace.

It’s hard to tell if it’s his PR doing it or if – and this is perfectly possible – he’s so plugged in to the web that he’s acting on his own. His digital promotional skills are pretty strongly evident – just look at his YouTube channel and the large following it has. His online fan club shows his social media prowess of to very flattering effect. Read the rest of this entry »

It strikes me that all is not well in Britain’s Got Talent, that something is falling apart. This year, the show opened on 10.6 million viewers (a 44% share). By May it was on a 43%. After four weeks in, it is currently running down 5% on last year, which opened with 11 million viewers. The year before it opened on 10 million viewers (a 42% share). There is a sense that it may have peaked in the wake of Susan Boyle – bear in mind that the 2008 season final was watched by 14 million whilst in 2009 16 million tuned in for the live show and an astonishing 17.3 million watched the final results show.

It doesn’t help that this latest series has seen all the same clichés spilling out onto our screens once again. Too many of the same old freaks are attempting to ‘live the dream’. There’s Janey Cutler, who is clearly is in line to be the next attempted SuBo; there’s a comeback kid in the shape of the drummer who was awful last time but in the running again because everybody loves an underdog; there’s the same old ‘outrageous’ acts that Simon can make a pretence of being turned on by.
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I spent a little of last night, as the festive season faded and a whole new year and the return to work hove into view, watching the latest iteration of Celebrity Big Brother wipe it’s arse across my TV screen. As the usual array of desperate people, half-arsed film heroes and one hit blips on the music radar began to settle into the Big Brother house, in much the same fashion as their predecessors had last year, I got to thinking – is 2010 going to be any different from 2009? Will we have ANYTHING new in the coming months, rather than just a retread of everything that’s gone before? As we seep into January, it seems not. Read the rest of this entry »

The Independent ran an article on the rebranding of Sarah Brown and asked several people their opinion on her efforts, including myself – see the excerpt below. To read the full article, click here.

“The publicist Mark Borkowski, a prolific user of new media, believes that Sarah Brown has shown herself far more adept in this area than her husband could ever hope to be. ‘She is operating in areas where he doesn’t have any hope of generating traction,’ he says. ‘He cannot YouTube, she can. He cannot Twitter, she can. Gordon can’t generate sympathetic votes, she can, particularly from women. They’re trying to turn her into a yin to his yang.’

“Borkowski traces the origins of Sarah Brown’s strategy back to last year’s Labour Party conference in Manchester, when she stepped up to the microphone in defence of her under-attack husband. ‘Some people at the time claimed she needed to be arm-twisted into that but actually it was a bit of a toe in the water to see how it would go.’

“Despite her PR background, it will not have been easy for her. She once said of the Hobsbawm Macaulay way of working: ‘Julia goes out to lunch with people so I don’t have to.’ One industry source recalls that ‘She never really hung out with the PR crowd.’”

Here is the webcast of the head to head between Max Clifford and myself at the London College of Communications last Tuesday, in nine handy bite-sized chunks. Apologies to anyone who logged in to Ustream in the hope of seeing the debate streamed live – Ustream crashed and prevented us from going ahead.

Part One

Part Two: Andrew reveals his knowledge of football, and Max discusses the difference between ’stars’ and ‘celebrities’

Part Three: Mark begins with an attack on new agents, who lack in skill and who profit by peddling hope.

Part Four: Are reality shows good or bad?

Part Five: Any advice for Gordon Brown?

Part Six: Which begins with Max being asked how he has kept the identity of his bisexual Premiership footballing client out of the media…

Part Seven: Does Max feel guilty about profiting from Jade’s death, or Kerry Katona’s misfortune – or causing misery for other people?

Part Eight: LCC Year 3 PR student Cally Sheard questions Max on whether the public or the media determine the agenda, using the Barrymore story as an example.

Part Nine: Conclusion!

Luckily, someone at the PR Week Awards was on hand with a camera to capture the Borkowski team’s exuberant stage invasion post the announcement of the team winning the Campaign of the Year Gold Award for the Cadbury’s Wispa campaign. The footage below proves beyond doubt that the only thing to go quietly to the stage was the Wispa itself.

In the grainy film, one can see a clearly over-the-moon Larry Franks, Borkowski’s MD, arriving onstage and skidding to his knees at the feet of Bill Bailey, who gives him a hug, before he leaps up to clutch the award in the manner of an England footballer who’s just scored a double hat-trick in the World Cup Final.

He’s followed by the entire Borkowski team, pleased as punch and just as giddy in their glad rags, smiling fit to split their faces as the award statue flies over their heads, gathering into the sort of group shot that is usually used to sell ensemble TV shows about hip and edgy people doing hip and edgy things in hip and edgy places. Not too far removed from the truth, then…

It’s a shame that the footage ends where it does – but one can always fill in the details of what followed for oneself. I’m currently imagining the entire team taking turns to make their version of the Gwyneth Paltrow Oscar acceptance speech, hot tears of joy soaking the award as they cradle it like a newborn baby. It makes for a most charming scene!