Do it – pull the pin !!

pull the pin and see what heppens

Sometimes to get noticed you need to be a bit controversial

We’re all drowning in the sea of bland, corporate copy that most communications departments peddle.

With the editorial departments at newspapers and in the trade media now reduced to a one or two person department most press releases are simply getting copied and pasted into position with no editorial control.

This isn’t as good as it sounds – it all sounds the same. What happens next? People stop reading it. Your customers stop reading it.

So how do you get noticed among all of this?

Just be a bit controversial – it sounds simple but most communications departments are restricted by copy guidelines and the fear of senior management that any deviation from the standard press release template will result in you being seen as ‘unprofessional’.

Have a chat with magazine and newspaper editors and ask what they want. I have – and what they’re after is someone – anyone – with an opinion.

Don’t hide behind the corporate mask – put a face to the release. Speak like a real person. And tell people what you think.

Go on – try it. I guarantee you’ll see your coverage explode.

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Digital DNA – time for a rethink?

Digital DNA Belfast

Digital DNA is a business conference in Belfast

The 2nd Digital DNA Conference was held in Titanic Belfast this week with a series of events running across 4 days. I was lucky enough to be asked to deliver a presentation on the work that we had done at CDE Global to maximise the impact of digital technologies.

I’ve long been a believer that we shouldn’t be putting ‘digital’ in a silo – it needs to be integrated with the rest of our business strategy. Digital is simply one of the mechanisms we use to deliver the company strategy.

Actually, it’s the single most important consideration in how businesses will deliver their strategy. For far too long ‘digital’ has been the reserve of the marketing and IT teams. If the Digital DNA conference taught me anything this week it is that there are thousands of companies missing out on fantastic insights because of a mistaken belief that digital isn’t relevant for them.

We all need to embrace the opportunity that digital presents. For those who do the future is very bright. For those who don’t the end is nigh.

Congratulations to Gareth Quinn for organising a great event this week. It was fantastic to get the opportunity to speak at the conference and I’m already looking forward to Version 3.0 in 2015.

If you’re based anywhere in Ireland and you’re involved in any sort of business and you haven’t been at Digital DNA in Belfast – It’s time for a rethink.

Hands off our music

Never mind the latest instalment of pointless ramblings at Stormont where our neanderthal politicians will spend the next month in their tribal gear knocking ten shades out of each other and getting nowhere.

ulster orchestra by petrac marketing

Stand up for the Ulster Orchestra

Meanwhile, in the real world the same politicians – that approximately half of us vote for – are systematically turning the places we live into joyless places where any experience that might actually enrich our lives is cast aside because the return on investment doesn’t add up.

What price the joy of a child learning to play a new musical instrument?

What price the joy of discovering that music is mind and mood altering? It can bring joy from the depths of despair, it creates memories that will never be forgotten.

What price the release that music gives you after another day on the treadmill?

You may not listen to classical music but this still affects you – they’re coming for whatever you get your joy from and they’re dismantling it.

It can’t be allowed to happen. It’s not even the Ulster Orchestra we’re standing up for. We’re standing up for our desire to live somewhere that is actually a nice place to be, where people want to come and visit, where enjoyment is around every corner.

Hands off the Orchestra. Hands off our music.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2014/oct/14/the-ulster-orchestra-funding-cuts-crisis