iTing Blogs

Welcome, study PR

2008-04-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

After this Wednesday’s debate about Professionalism in PR, I became interested in reading this PRWeek’s annual Salary Survey, Salary Survey 2008: A war for talent in a thriving industry.

Maybe it proves something.

No matter if you have a PR Master Degree, a career in PR can potentially be financially rewarding.

‘Over half of respondents to the most recent PRCA trends barometer are looking to increase staff numbers this quarter, while 81 per cent are planning to maintain the same levels of graduate recruitment.’

Anyway, that’s good news isn’t it?

For me, beside these facts, studying PR in the UK is very beneficial.

One of the deciding factors of choosing PR as my course was the wish of starting my own PR firm in China in a few years time (I WISH!). As a result of this, I thought that obtaining a solid foundation of PR would be important in my career. Fortunately, I found that it really necessary to have this kind of study experience.

Another thing is that this study experience has opened a new way of looking at life for me. I might have thought about issues such as ethics in the past, but never had any insight into them. This provides me with an opportunity to take it serious.

Our last New Media class was held in the virtual world The Second Life, where we went on an amazing tour of how this virtual world can be used as a marketing & PR tool. Our module leader Reuven’s colleague Russell gave us a brilliant presentation on Virtual Worlds and using them to channel information and messages to customers and ultimately lead us on an unforgettable tour.

During the Q&A session, I asked: In the Corporate structures of traditional mass media, ownership is power, but who has the power in a virtual world and the broader new media environment.

Russell gave me an impressive answer: To an extent, individuals can challenge of the great.

I think he is right, because the first stop on our Second Life tour was American Apparel’s virtual store, which unfortunately closed down, because people in 2^nd life didn’t like it.

In the end, I had too many questions to ask, but too little time.

Even for those who don’t work in new media sector, I still feel that it is a good thing to understand, utilize, develop and use it to add value to their existing products or services.

(That is our Second Life session‏)

Actually, I am quite impressed with the practical aspects of this course, which are very beneficial for my studies, since it has helped me to develop a project or PR campaign from start to finish. I think it is very important for a PR beginner.

Finally, I would like to say that studying this course has been a very challenging and fruitful experience. I never thought that could learn and do InDesign well, although I managed to keep up to date with new technology.

Left behind? No!

2008-03-31T15:42:00.000-07:00

As our “New media” team gave the group presentation last week, we answered the question: has PR left behind by new media?

The answer is: No.

Even in the pitch of our online PR campaign on new media module, we still considered how to combined new media options with tradition media.

Thanks for Reuven’s great lectures and my lovely classmates’ fabulous performance (especially the brainstorm section) in the past classes.

Since our last class will be in the second life, the virtual world, I would like add some additional details to our group presentation. This is the text for my podcast assignment and the last reflective log as well.

The PR industry has not been slow to adapt the new media options.

With the emergence of new media, some people may say that ‘the PR industry has been slow to adapt the new media options’.

Different thinkers have taken almost completely opposite views about this. Some hold the opinion that the PR industry is being forced to adapt to new media slowly. Others, however, take a very different position. They argue that PR practitioners embraced new media a long time ago and understand the changing dynamics.

Well, who is right in this debate? I tend to agree with the second opinion.

The level of PR professionals in new media today is much higher than it ever was before, and involves a much wider range of practical skills and services.

First of all, I would like to see new media or social media as opportunities rather than threats in the quest to manage, improve or protect a company or brand reputation.

New media offer PR new business opportunities. Advantages for PR practitioners include the convenience and accessibility of online media, plus the many options available to monitor public trends. In these ways, PR firms charge clients for additional services. New media is a very good add-on business in the PR world.

Furthermore, I believe that the PR industry is exploring the new media rather than simply adapt to its options.The nature of Public relations is about communications, and the PR industry is considered as a deliberate and creative industry. In fact, the PR industry learns to quickly adapt to change, typically faster than other traditional industries.

PR industry has explored the use of new media in many combinations since its birth. It also connected new media and itself, and the fact that the global PR industry is booming is evidence of fast adaptation.

Secondly, PR practitioners grow up with new media together, and also develop new media.

It is already a very common thing that PR practitioners and PR firms use new media tools such as the Web, Podcasts, Rss, Social Networking etc. to enhance the value of PR campaigns. For example, some PR agencies like Text100 have opened their 30th office in the virtual world “The Second Life” in 2006.

Thirdly, the research and education of new media in the PR industry have never stopped.

If you search for “PR and new media” in Google, you will get 22,500,000 results. Today, besides crisis management and reputation management, digital media relations and grassroots PR have become new specialties within the field of public relations as well.

PR education already includes online PR such as writing online press release and creating PR campaigns in social networking. PRWeek, the leading weekly magazine in the PR industry, introduced a technology news page on their websites in 2006.

These facts all prove the new media rise in the PR industry.

There is no doubt that the new media is becoming increasingly important in the PR world, affecting almost every aspect of PR practitioners’ live.

For better or worse, we are being propelled into a new order that maybe no one fully understands, but I believe that the PR industry has not been left behind the new media waves, and new media is generating growth within the PR industry itself.

New Media Presentation for PR Course-Something about New Media

2008-03-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

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The rise of CSR around the world

2008-03-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

I was quite surprise today about the “dark Google” home page saying: “We’ve turned the light off, now it’s your turn.”

Google changed its home page to “strongly support the Earth Hour campaign”, which is a global event designed to spread awareness of global climate change and save energy.

What a nice try!

Not only did this increase the search giant’s CSR performance, but it also increased the power of World Wildlife Fund’s global Earth Hour campaign.

In addition to this, Google released the following statement:

“Why did Google choose this specific organization?”

Although we can't guarantee either a placement on the Google homepage or even a response to every query, we do read every email we receive and welcome your ideas of organizations that you believe we should feature. ”

This confirms that Google is willing to be more socially and environmentally responsible, driving innovation in every aspect of society.

Last week, during our group exercise for choosing dissertation topics, the CSR group came up with a topic of how environmentally unfriendly China is, although they didn’t have any Chinese students in their group.

How did they come up with this topic then?

Every day, the Western media reports comment on how China is the 2^nd most polluting country after the USA and that it is using more and more resources.

If we look at China as a corporation, its CSR should be focused on improving its reputation with people and improving their understanding of environmental issues.

How can they improve their PR? Like Google, they should use their global influence to establish their ethical image at home as well as abroad, helping to drive projects.

Recently, there was a project launched by the Mayor of London to give out free energy-saving light bulbs to London. They claimed that it would save up to 700,000 tons of CO2 a year. I believe that projects like these can be easily replicated in countries such as China, not only increasing its reputation, but also doing a great deal for the environment.

Recently, our guest lecturer Adam Garfunkel talked about the reasons why companies are reluctant to embrace CSR.

5 things companies say when talking about CSR:

- “I can’t believe that lot are getting so much credit for what they’re doing.”

- “We’ve been doing this stuff for ages, it’s just that nobody knows about it.”

- “People don’t understand how difficult this stuff is…”

- “We’d rather not talk about the bad stuff.”

- “Ooh we can’t say that, that’s commercially confidential.”

These are all true with the Chinese government and as a whole, it lacks “ambition, vision, courage and communication skills” in this area.

But, we’re improving…

Recently, China banned the use of plastic bags, something that the British government is planning to consider in the near future.

According to Reuters Beijing:

“China launched a surprise crackdown on plastic bags on Tuesday, banning production of ultra-thin bags and forbidding its supermarkets and shops from handing out free carriers from June 1.”

It has long been known that plastic bags are not only being wasted most of the time, but they are also incredibly hard to recycle.

A saleswoman shows a cany shopping basket at a supermarket in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug.31, 2006. The supermarket invited the customers to use the cany baskets instead of the plastic bags for shopping. The customer could bring one renewable and refundable cany basket home by paying 15 yuan deposit. Source:People Daily online

In order to save resources and try to improve its environmental image, the Chinese government has passed legislation that:

- Forbids supermarkets and shops from giving out free plastic carriers.

- Discourage the production of plastic bags

A few points from the public announcement were:

- "Our country consumes huge amounts of plastic bags every year. While providing convenience to consumers, they have also caused serious pollution, and waste of energy and resources, because of excessive use and inadequate recycling," the announcement said

- The finance authorities should consider adjusting taxes to discourage the production and sale of plastic bags and to provide incentives to the recycling industry.

- Chinese people use up to three billion plastic bags daily.

My take: What does the third party say about it?

- “A surprise crackdown” (Reuters)

- That surprise move - which went further than anything done by the US, the UK and many other developed nations - was hailed by Greenpeace, Earthwatch and other green groups as a sign of growing environmental awareness in China.(Guardian)

As with any story there are two sides to it. Although the ban has helped to reduce the use of plastic bags, 20,000 factory workers will have an uncertain future.

PR and Diversity?

2008-03-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

How to enhance communications skills in the increasingly diverse UK?

Guest speaker Zena Martin from Acknowledge Communications gave us a lively presentation about this.

It is quite interesting that hear an opinion from a PR practitioner who used to work in the US before moving to London.

Zena Marti addressed the difference of multi-cultural communication practice between US and the UK.

It was inspiring to have this international approach in PR context and heard many benefits of join a diverse PR agency.

It is more stimulating that when I read Colin Byrne's article in PRWeek, Industry needs to reflect social diversity , which pointed out another interesting topic: PR industry’s diversity.

He mentioned that

Of the 113 photographs of British PR professionals featured, 112 were white. Just one was black or Asian.

To put this into perspective, of the 400 applicants to Weber Shandwick’s annual trainee recruitment programme, 80 % were white, 9% were Asian and only 4 % were black.

It was also mentioned that “this is hardly representative of our multicultural society” and suggested that “a bit more diversity in terms of race and social background would be healthy for an industry now at the heart of consumer, media and social change”.

Artists & Diversity_Sources:Deepindub.org http://www.deepindub.org/promomix001-diversity/

I have a mixed feeling about this, since I previously mentioned in my blog entry Three views on Feminisation of PR and its consequences that I was told that if we look at the PR industry in the UK as a person, it would be a pretty young blond white woman.

How hard could it be to enter the UK PR industry and make it more diverse? One of the reasons that I love London is that it is a city with cultural diversity. Hopefully the industry won’t disappoint too much.

Reference: Colin Byrne: Industry needs to reflect social diversity , PRWeek 06-Mar-08

Three views on Feminisation of PR and its consequences

2008-02-28T15:38:00.000-08:00

Why are there so many women in Public Relations, but only so few women entrepreneurs? These are the two key questions which were mentioned in this week’s PR issue class.

Compared to Michaela’s presentation about female career choices, this topic doesn’t interest me much, especially when it came to our group discussion about why “women will always work in PR industry, but will never run it”.

I have no problem with women working in Public Relations, especially since women in many countries have only started to get the right to choose their career freely in the last 50 years.

In response to this gender equality issue, I have some different views.

1) The number of women working in Public Relations

Once I was told that if we look at the PR industry in the UK as a person, it would be a pretty young blond woman.

In China, the industry behaves in the same way. For example, Edelman China agency is considered as “a pretty women company”

Fist, I would like to say: Well done, girls!

From east to west, half of this industry is occupied by female practitioners, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing for women.

Secondly, as Grunig (2001) points out in the book "Women in Public Relations: How Gender Influences Practice", some people have the uneasy feeling that so many women in PR just because it is less important and easy to access.

I would argue that more females work in the PR industry not because it is easy, but because women are good at communication and interested in this profession.

Additionally, female professionals have increased their roles, influence and importance very dramatically over the last couple of decades. The so called "feminisation" has increased so rapidly that it is already threatening the roles of men within organizations.

2) “Women will always work in PR industry, but will never run it”

My question is, why must women “run” the PR industry?

Does it mean that all women must be at the top of the PR industry?

Is the only fair thing that 50% of women control everything and let men control the rest? Or should women take care of the board room and kick out all the men?

We all know that female can run the industry, since there are uncountable examples of women running PR practices as our group debater presented in the class.

Men have run their countries for thousands of years (at least 5000 years in China alone). Only in the last 100 years, have women enjoyed a better chance for a good education and all other aspects of life.

I think that it’s just a question of time.

I personally believe that in order to be the “top man”, you need to live a life like a perfect machine. Compared with me being a female CEO, I would rather spent my spare time enjoy other beautiful things.

3) Consequences of the feminisation in PR

I think that in order to succeed, the PR industry needs to manage its reputation as a sexier industry, which will in turn attract more and more talents, both male and female.

BTW, I don’t want to be a top performing robot woman, do you?

Reference:

Grunig, L. A., Toth, E. L., & Hon, L. C. (2001).Women in public relations: How genderinfluences practice. New York: The Guilford Press.

Jeannie Rea.The Feminisation of Public Relations: What’s in it for the Girls?

Hasan Suroor(2005)The myth of "feminisation"

Podcast assignment for PR and New Media: The PR industry has not been slow to adapt to the new media options

2008-02-27T15:00:00.000-08:00

With the emergence of new media, some people may say that ‘the PR industry has been slow to adapt the new media options’.

Is this true or false?

This podcast aims to explore and debate this issue. Listen now.

The full audio lasts about five minutes[04:37m].

Publics, audiences and stakeholders

2008-02-25T16:50:00.000-08:00

To be honest, this may be the first time that I really enjoy the “theory” section. Because it is useful indeed!

In today’s class, Michaela's presentation introduced several general stakeholder identification and positioning models that can be applied to help me think about the concept of “stakeholders”, which is a new word for me.

Although I learned something similar before in the Marketing model, there are three ways to identify an organisation’s stakeholders in a PR context.

I’m happy that I was in the ‘9 segments’ group when we did our stakeholder analysis exercise, because it was much easier to identify your stakeholders.

These 9 segments are:

Demographic

Psychographic

Geographic

Organisational membership

Covert power

Role in decision making

Influencers

Opinion formers

Decision makers

Ha-ha, I love theories now.

In theory as well as practice, PR can be considered as “stakeholder relations”. Please Mind that the gap between Publics, Audiences and Stakeholders is necessary in order to achieve your target.

In my view, this is especially true in the new media environment, because you need to know your audience as well as your stakeholders.

Though a project or campaign may only target one main segment, the actual base may extend beyond to include friends, family members, associations and other interested parties or only opinion formers (e.g. Bloggers).

Involving stakeholders is a tough task. The more you get key stakeholders to understand involved, the more successful a project will be. Stakeholders should get involved during every part of the program or campaign’s life cycle.

For the sake of love

2008-02-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that debates of ethical issues can be quite boring. However, our module tutor succeeded in leading an interesting debate in our class,especially through an interesting exercise. (My classmate Nathalie Bellanger had a post on her blog Can PR ever be ethical? describe more details about the interesting exercise in class).

There are many ethical issues in PR related to the public interest, such as justice, responsibility, respect and safety. There are often more complicated than you can imagine.

I am trying to compare this topic with my friend’s personal experience. Until recently, she was happily married with a good job as a chief editor of a fashion magazine, while her husband worked as the CEO of a big IT company.

Everything was fine until the husband found that the beautiful wife has been dating another guy.

He said: A family with lies is unacceptable.

And he wants a divorce.

She said: I did it for the family’s interest, and I still love our family.

The fact was that she lied.

Of course she did something wrong, but who doesn’t.

I think that honesty is one of the basic ethical issues in PR. Coming back to the love story again. If she has a short affair, should she tell her husband?

But if everyone tells, kids will lose their mothers, husbands will lose their wives and there will be no happy families. Is this the best ethical result?

I’m sorry but I can’t agree with that.

It is difficult to construct a single solution for all the ethical values. Putting more regulation and legislation into place is better than just following an ethical code. I think that governments will pay more attention and implement tougher PR regulation, similar to the Advertisement law.

In addition to this, different cultures should have different codes and ethical framework. For example, a lot of English people don’t accept why Chinese people don’t believe in god.

I have been asked quite a few times about why I don’t go to the church. My answer is: I do show respect to God and Buddha etc. but I’ sorry I have no religious belief, I just believe in love.

SEO Press Release for PR and New Media Assignment --- Survey Reveals Britons' Top Online Purchasing Lists

2008-02-07T14:41:00.001-08:00

my fake press release for new media module, but I love it.

A new study from wedeliver.com has found out that more groceries are sold online than any other product in the UK.

Over 50% of internet users have bought groceries online, according to a survey by wedeliver.com, Britain’s largest online grocery retailer. Other top items include clothes, music, technology and DVDs.

The study also reveals that there is a massive rise in the number of Britons shopping online while work.

About eight out of ten of those surveyed have bought something online during work hours, in addition to nearly half of them worrying about their boss noticing signs of slacking off. The average amount of time spent on shopping while at work equates to 6 hours per week.

The study predicted that the growth of Internet shopping in the UK will continue to grow strong with the advent of technology and gadgets (TVs, computers, music players, etc.), the growing demand of furniture and clothes, and the falling prices for personal computers and increased Web access.

“Online shopping has increased dramatically in these years, compared with three or four years ago, when it was somewhat difficult for consumers to buy their furniture online", says Mark Gray, Director of Interactive Media for wedeliver.com.

“Today, online retailers don't just sell groceries and clothes anymore, we've now added an excellent selection of furniture to our product range combined with a high level of interactivity, excellent customer service and prices that have never been so competitive before.”.

For further information or an interview, please contact the wedeliver team on 020123456 or email wedeliver@x.com

NOTES TO EDITORS

- About The Survey
Wedeliver.com Shopping Survey was conducted by Fly Research from October, 2007 to January, 2008 via email invitation to online shoppers. The total sample size was 10,000 respondents.

- Further information of the wedeliver.com survey can be found at http://w.w.com/

- About The Wedeliver.com
The w.com is Britain's largest online grocery retailer with leading market positions and recognized brands in online marketing operations.

Propaganda – What PR is not

2008-02-01T15:03:00.000-08:00

As a student from China, I cannot tell the true difference between Public Relations and Propaganda. Because sometimes, Public Relations ‘is seen as an instrument of persuasion ‘, as Shirley Harrison points out in “Public Relations An introduction”.

But the BBC Correspondent War Spin: the Truth about Jessica really told me something about Propaganda and gave me a very clear understanding about the difference between Propaganda and PR.

This is a story of Jessica Lynch, an icon of the Iraq war in 2003. On the US side, she was captured by the Iraqis and rescued by US Special Forces, and the whole Hollywood style story boosted American morale during the Iraq War.

But on the other side, a reporter from the BBC exposed that the whole story was just like a made up movie. The fact was that the US Special Forces rescued Lynch from the treatment in an ordinary Iraqi hospital.

In addition to this, almost all journalists from around the world gathered in a warehouse to listen to this story fed to them by the US military.

The question is ‘is this propaganda or public relations’? Almost our classmates including myself agree that this is typical propaganda.

Propaganda, which is often confused with PR, has an equally long history as PR and can be best described as a means of gaining support for an opinion or belief.

Propaganda is defined by the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), quoted by Philip Taylor, as

‘any information, ideas, doctrines or special appeals disseminated to influence the opinion, emotions, attitudes of behaviour of any specified group in order to benefit the sponsor either directly or in directly’.

Another useful thing I found is Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model (1988), quoted by Johanna Fawkes in Exploring Public Relations.

They suggested 5 “filters” including the size and concentration of media ownership, the role of advertising in providing income for media organizations, the “official” sources, the ‘flak’ as a means of controlling media content, the ‘anti-communism’ as a ‘national religion’ and control mechanism.

I personally think that in this model, Jessica’s story is absolute propaganda.

The question that our course leader asked us to think about is “What do you feel after watching this video? Do you feel comfortable or uncomfortable?”

To be honest, I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all, because things like this happen every day. Everyone knows that propaganda and governments work hand in hand. In addition, I am quite familiar with this type of stories in the mass media.

My main concern from War Spin is that the journalists and media just pick up the official story and create and twist it to generate publicity and money.

During a US Army news conference in the Iraqi desert, a reporter from the New York magazine asked General Vincent Brooks, “Why should we stay?” he answered with “that is your choice”. In the end, it is the American media’s choice to accept propaganda instead of gathering their own information in the middle of a war.

Reference: Shirley Harrison Public Relations An introduction

One country's ad is another country's poison — Crisis management in a new global environment

2008-01-25T12:34:00.000-08:00

It really surprised me today that our course leader Pam used the Chinese word “危机”meaning dangers and opportunities to start the lecture on Crisis management.

Pam also said: “One person's nightmare can be another person's everyday life”.

In the same way, one country’s ad may become another country's poison.

In a recent Citroen advertisement, it shows Chairman Mao’s picture frowning on Citroen’s new car, with a tag line "…but at Citroen the revolution never stops." The purpose of this advertisement was to show off Citroen’s technological prowess and make it the focus of their success.

Although this advertisement was shown in several Spanish newspapers, it caused a huge stir in the Chinese market. Soon after, Citroen decided to release the following statement: “French car-maker Citroen has apologised to China for running a full-page advertisement in several Spanish newspapers featuring a poster of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong pulling a wry face at a sporty hatch-back. “(Source: Reuters)

It is too complicated to explain the relationship between Mao and the Chinese people to a Western country, but according to BBC’ s research, the Chinese people believe that “it is not only insulting Chairman Mao, but the whole Chinese nation”.

In light of this PR disaster, I believe Citroen responded in a very professional way, dealing with the situation in an efficient and reasonable way. However, according to a Chinese news survey, 76% of participants will not buy any Citroen products.

What’s the next step after cleaning the mess up? I think that time goes on and campaigns need to be developed to mend the wounds. How do you put a price on the reputation lost and is there a set way of carrying out crisis evaluation and management?

With the gloablisation of information, multinational companies must take into account that information spreads faster than before. Cultural sensitivity is a key to developing a successful crisis PR plan in different cultures.

I’m sure that Citroen has their own PR teams, however their internal communication is neither global nor any good between the PR and Marketing teams.

Finally, it seems like Citroen is still having no luck with the Chinese people, although Chinese people supposedly have a good relationship with the French.

Good luck Citroen…

Who can’t live without whom?

2008-01-24T12:23:00.000-08:00

Who can’t live without whom?

There are so many good optional modules in the second semester, which makes it very hard for us to choose only two of them.

I feel quite sad that we couldn’t take the Fashion PR module, because not enough people enrolled for it. Instead, I chose New Media and Marketing.

In the first Marketing class, there was a debate between the importance of PR and Marketing.

In our tutor’s opinion, when it comes to Marketing concepts, Public Relation is just about communications. It is a tool that is used like promotions or advertising.

My classmates however, had opinions which sounded like “Marketing cannot live without Public Relations”.

To me, it depends on which side you take.

Do you work in a PR agency? Are you in the marketing department of a big company? Or are you an in-house PR?

Obviously, in the PR word or in a PR practitioner’s world, Public Relations is everything.
How can you judge if Marketing or Public Relations is more important?

This Venn diagram can explain why Public Relations belongs to the School of Media, Arts and Design, instead of the Business School.

It is true that a company may not have a PR department, but you cannot imagine one without a Marketing department.

If you try to find a job in the Guardian, both categories are listed together as “Marketing & PR”.
In China, this would be strange to see a job advertisement listed in such a fashion.

In the world, I think that it’s more likely that a PR practitioner turns into a PR Manager than the other way around.

What’s next? - The Challenges for Cross-Media

2008-01-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

This book brought me here: the Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR

Let me introduce you to a book first: The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR.

This book brought me here, London, England, put me in a classroom where I learned more information than I had ever before.

When I wanted to transform my career, I asked my friends for advice, and one of them showed me this book. I thought that its Chinese name is much more attractive: PR first, advertising second.

It sounds so interesting, who wouldn’t want work in an industry with a golden future? So I chose PR as my major.

The authors credit PR, not advertising, for the marketing successes of Starbucks, The Body Shop, Harry Potter etc.

It created plenty of debates, although half of them are about advertising, but I do agree with the author’s view that PR is about building the brand.

How do you build a Cross-Media brand?

What are the Challenges?

First of all, this landscape provides challenges and opportunities.

Structure

Some old-fashioned organisational structures still exist, but some have changed already.

From the picture below, you can see that BBC attempts to build its Cross-Media brand.

One and a half years ago, BBC launched its Creative Future content strategy and announced significant organisational changes.

These changes were aimed to ‘enable 360 degree commissioning and production and ensure creative coherence and editorial leadership across all platforms and media.’

BBC Director-General Mark Thompson said:

"We need a BBC ready for digital and for 360 degree multi-platform content creation, which brings different kinds of creativity together – in technology as well as content – to deliver what we need in this converging world.”(BBC) http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/07_july/19/future.shtml

From this example, we can see that companies like the BBC have recognised the challenges in a changing industry and have made changes to its structure to operate more efficiently in a global world.

The Creative Power

The Creative Power is another big issue. It's easy to talk about a “Big Idea”.

But how can we inspire an exchange of storytelling practices?

How can we use media creatively to reach our audiences?

And how can we unleash the creative talents to building the Cross-Media’s brand?

This is one the beauties of Cross-Media.

If you want to be creative using the Cross-Media, it is necessary to change your way of thinking. Not only do you have to come up with a big idea, but you also have to think how it applies to different types of media and how they interact with each other.

Measurement

How do you measure the success of a Cross-Media campaign?

It is a new challenge to an old problem.

The solution is to develop Cross-Media research tools.

Yesterday, the latest news of The World Association of Newspapers was that they have 'launched a new website to support and promote the use of cross-media audience measurements that will allow publishers to provide a more complete picture of their reach than print circulation alone.' (Editors Weblog) http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2008/01/web_site_launched_for_crossmedia_measure.php

What's next?

Let's wait and see…

I believe that the future of PR must be cross-platform and multi-platform, and PR practitioners should take full advantage of the new range of platforms. As I commented on my classmate Ha’s blog:

“After all, it is people and not technology leading PR trends.”

By the way, because all BlogSpot blogs are blocked in China (which is another political PR problem of Google in China), so I will post my entries on my Chinese Blog (www.yitingxu.com)

I will try to keep it alive and post in English as well as Chinese.

What Makes Cross- Media Cross? --- Let’s Talk Facts on the top news of 2007

2008-01-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

What makes Cross- Media cross?

How mainstream is Cross- Media?

Let’s take some time to review the top news of 2007 and exam the Cross-Media trends again.

1. The New Economic Opportunities

First of all, money is the most important factor. The emergence of new media provides a broader audience, which translates into more money.

Let’s look back at May 15, 2007, when it was announced that Canadian news and information groups Thomson Corporation agreed to a merger with Reuters group, a deal valued at US$ 17.2 billion.

Source: ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=3174768

This creates one of the world’s largest providers of financial news and information and as part of this plan ‘they are expected to liken the sector to the music industry, where the rise in online sales has quickly created new competitors’ (The Telegraph).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/05/14/cnthom14.xml

On one side, there is the merger of traditional media groups, whereas on the other hand companies like Google have built a Cross-Media empire across different platforms.

2. The Concentration of Cross-Media Ownership

Ownership and control of media are changing every day and Cross-Media ownership is becoming more common. An increasing number of Media Groups have restructured and established Cross-Media department to grasp the opportunities.

One of the most important news in media industry last year is ‘Rupert Murdoch Buys Dow Jones and Wall Street Journal’. In August 2007, News Corporation reached an agreement to purchase Dow Jones for an estimated $5.6 billion, adding the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) to its worldwide media empire.

The concentration of Cross-Media ownership provides the possibility and conditions for Cross-Media.

Source: ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/story?id=3105688&page=1

3. The Rise of Social Media

New media provides technological tools and a community environment, which makes social media one of the hottest things in 2007.

Facebook, The Second Life, MySpace and Youtube

According to Forrester Research, these social media companies double their impact and reach every six months.

From a Cross-Media perspective the continued growth of social networking provides a broader audience, an effective tool and a new platform for building business.

Undoubtedly, 2007 is a Facebook year. By the end of the year, the company was said to be worth $15 billion. So it’s not a surprise that ‘Microsoft beats Google to Facebook shares’. Microsoft has beaten Google to be the first to invest in social networking web site Facebook, paying $240m for a 1.6 per cent stake in the company in Oct 2007.

Now, Facebook was supposed to be a PR practitioner’s dream.

It is said, 'A picture is worth a thousand words'. I think that the proverb for Facebook should have been 'one group is worth a thousand press releases'.

The key to reach the Cross- Media: Integration

2008-01-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday, and what I learned is how to cook egg fried rice well. It sounds easy, but for a terrible cook like me, it is not such a relaxing experience. But today, I found that the secret is to dry the rice first, before frying it.

That is it! Only use dry rice, which is the reason why I failed thousands of time.

Coming back to my topic ‘Cross- Media’, I think that the key to reach Cross-Media is integration.

Change or Perish：

The new role of PR agencies In the past, traditional PR agencies had a clear role: do research on the mass audiences, create attractive campaigns, and use their influence to get television and newspaper coverage.

But this simple solution doesn't exist anymore. Television and newspapers have lost their once so dominant position in the media market. A whole new world of new technologies, new media, new clients and new consumers means that PR agencies must devote more time to media evaluation and selection.

This means that they will be able to produce more effective media coverage, provide what the client wants and more answers to their marketing problems.

The integration of Cross- Media is not only to get media coverage of different media platforms, but also to make communication interactive to achieve win-win results.

Integration: Both Content and Corporate

In July 2007, Google launched the Expands Print Advertising Program in the USA. This is an expansion in size and scope of its existing Print Ads TM advertising initiative, covering more than 225 newspapers from an original 50 newspaper publications.

Recently, according to The Sunday Times, Google plans to expand its newspaper print ad business in the UK.

In general, advertisers can search for newspapers through Google’s system using a number of criteria, including their circulation and geographic region. They can then make an offer for a certain ad size and wait to see if the ad is approved or the publication responds with a counter-offer.

See, new media and old media are getting closer every day. Even Google as an icon of new media, the search giant also wants to integrate its technologies to be able to reach traditional media.

New media cannot just be seen as a cold-blooded killer for old media, the integration is the future.

New media is not a cold-blood killer for old media, the integration is the future.

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello- The best New Year's Eve Event in the world

2008-01-01T15:45:00.000-08:00

Last night, I celebrated the New Year by attending a spectacular fireworks display organised by the Mayor of London, on the banks of the Thames.

From a PR view, it was a very successful campaign.
The objective of the event was very clear: to gain a worldwide reputation for London as being the place to be on New Year's Eve.

The campaign targeted Londoners and tourists, with an estimated attendance of 350,000 people for the fireworks display in Central London, as well as many millions of viewers over television in the UK and the rest of the world.

I guess the biggest winner is BBC One, with millions of viewers, although the campaign has generated a tremendous amount of print, online and broadcast media coverage.

According to the Daily Telegraph‘Olympic imagery was projected on to the Shell building, near the London Eye, marking the fact that 2008 is an Olympic year and that the Olympic torch will soon pass into London's hands.’

I thought of projecting imagery onto a building by the Thames for my PR Pitch, but I realised that it is impossible with a £40,000 budget, not to mention that it’s already been done before.

Anyway, I wish everyone a happy new year and best wishes in 2008!

My Cross-Media Image

2007-12-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

This graph I drew shows my opinion of what Cross-Media is. As you can see, Cross-Media is different from multimedia, new media or social media. In other words, Cross-Media is at the intersection of new media and traditional media.

But as a new way to deliver messages, Cross-Media is also about communication, strategy, storytelling and much more.

My Cross-Media Map

What is a Cross-Media deal?

2007-12-28T16:52:00.000-08:00

A typical example of a Cross-Media deal can look like Michael Franzini's One Hundred Young Americans. According to the Publisher’s Comments, the purpose of the book is to capture ‘first-hand accounts of youth culture in America from 100 teenagers in 50 states’, although the key is that this generation is the first to have ‘grown up with unprecedented access to media and information’.

It combines a book publication with a gorgeous web site containing elements such as image galleries, video elements and blog articles, from which you can get an in-depth account of their story, as well as participating in the community through social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

Through this case we can tell that a book is not only a book anymore, when it is enhanced with other media to become a kind of social network.

Press releases, advertising and PR campaigns are all about telling a story. Cross-Media is a new way to telling your story and a big opportunity in the PR industry can be found in the emergence of Cross-Media storytelling using different platforms.

Visit 100youngamericans at:
http://www.100youngamericans.com/

A very interesting video'The Break Up'

2007-12-28T10:18:00.001-08:00

In the short video ‘The Break up’ (available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3qltEtl7H8), a man and a woman meet up in a restaurant, where the woman announces that she wants a divorce from him, although he has no clue what the reasons are for the divorce.

It shows the relationship between the advertiser who has gone off and done his own thing and the client who is not impressed that the things he is doing doesn’t seem to be in the best interest to her.

In my opinion, PR practitioners and agencies need to be careful to take into account the client’s view of things in a Cross-Media world. The quote ‘I’ve changed, but you have not’ sums up the fact what the PR industry needs to be able to adapt to client requirements as well as keep up with new media, otherwise it will end up just like in the video.

It also reminds me of Mark Borkowski in his talk last month. He claimed that a ‘generation of PRs will die if they do not accept the new media’.

This leaves us to think about the importance of new media in the PR industry, as well as what clients want and whether it is possible to sell them ideas using the Cross-Media way.

The Break Up Video sent by geertdesager

Welcome to Cross-Media – A new way of thinking!

2007-12-26T17:40:00.000-08:00

With the emergence of new media, people may say that ‘TV is going to die’ or that ‘newspapers will disappear in 20 years’, but in my opinion, the information contained within traditional media can be combined with new forms of media (Web, Streaming Video, E-mail, Instant Messaging, Social Networking etc.) to enhance the value of PR campaigns through the effective use of Cross-Media.

A definition of ‘Cross-Media’

According to Wikipedia, Cross-Media (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_media) ‘is a media property, service, story or experience distributed across media platforms using a variety of media forms’.

The part that relates directly to PR is that the effective use of Cross-Media ‘invites the receiver to cross-over from one medium to the next’ and that it can enhance the value of communication through targeted and personalised distribution of a message or campaign.

In my opinion, using traditional and new media in any combination allows the content and meaning of work to be transmitted in one form.

As a term, it did not exist several years ago and came from the publishing industry using the motto: ‘Produce once, publish everywhere’.

This blog aims to explore this trend and expand on it by exploring the different areas that it might develop into.