THERE aren’t many start-ups that last ten years.
And of those that do survive, not many become synonymous with their art.
No, we’re not talking about Brazen’s 10th anniversary this year.
Though, clearly, we could be.
But that’s for later in the year.
Today we’re saying happy 10th birthday and a huge congratulations to Jimmy Wales, the founder of the web phenomenon that is Wikipedia.
There isn’t a day goes by in this office when we, one or more of us, are knee-deep in Wikipedia’s tiniest crannies seeking out some little fact to help support a press release or researching a brand.
The mark of a really progressive company is one which not only realises that its USP is never enough on its own to guarantee success but constantly acts to stay ahead of the game. So it evolves, sometimes forcing that evolution to happen even though the present state of affairs sees it comfortably ahead as market leader.
Jimmy Wales is a such a man.
Though Wikipedia’s monumental success and place in history is assured Jimmy is forever picking holes, finding better ways to do its business, to make it more appealing to its customers.
Wikipedia is too complicated for many people to modify despite billing itself as “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”, Jimmy believes.
So he’s going to change its established interface in a bid to attract a new generation of users and massively increase the number of female contributors to its pages.
That’s why his is the fifth biggest website in the world and getting bigger by the day.
If only Myspace had enjoyed the same foresight.
August 10th, 2010.
Renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has said mankind must move to outer space within a century to survive.
Nice thought for the start of the month eh?
In an interview Hawking says threats to the existence of the human race such as war, resource depletion and overpopulation meant it was at its greater risk ever.
“It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million,” he said.
Great. Cheered me up no end that little missive, Stephen. I’ve just redecorated too.
It gets better.
“Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out into space.
“We have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space.”
This from the same man who, earlier this year, warned that exploring space may not be entirely without risk and that humans should be wary about making contact with alien life forms as they may not be friendly.
OK. A few thoughts occur. Indulge me for a moment.
Stephen, with the greatest of respect for a man clearly light-years ahead of me in intellect and simple, homely good looks, please stop it. Now.
I realise that musing scientifically about the future and how the magnetism of space may provide a new home for many of us at some post-apocolyptic point on the horizon is what you do but, really, I don’t need to be force-fed the grim details of mankind’s potential demise while I’m eating my Bitesize Shredded Wheat.
If all you have is bad news, then stop sharing it with us. Harbingers of doom are never popular people you know. We used to burn them at the stake in centuries past.
Wars, you say? They’ve come and gone. The race is still here. Surviving and living. It’s the Human condition you know. We fight because we can’t communicate without anger.
I don’t want to live on the moon, forced to wear a ridiculous air-tight, fart-proof suit, made to eat food-flavoured toothpaste and ordered to refer to everyone by military rank. Morning Captain Dad! That’s not life. That’s surviving.
The Human Being is designed to live, not just to be.
By Adam Moss, News Editor
So Gordon Brown thinks things may have been a little different had he reaped the benefits of a media studies course.
Yeah. Right.
Because that’s what they teach you in media studies isn’t it?
Lesson one: Never call a politically out-of-touch old lady a ‘bigot’ when you’ve got a microphone strapped to your lapel.
Lesson two: Develop a sense of humour well in advance of the day before you’re expecting the entire country to vote for you.
Imagine if Mr Brown had enjoyed the experience a media course would have given him.
He’d have still shouted at incompetent ministerial aides wouldn’t he? Media training doesn’t teach you what to do when you lose your temper at the sheer ineptitude of your underlings.
He’d have still called Gillian Duffy a “bigot” when he assumed he was back in the safety of his blacked out government limo. Media Studies doesn’t teach you NEVER to reveal your true feelings does it?
It teaches you the tricks of communication. How to use every available tool in the communications workshop to make your point heard and memorable.
Brown got the ‘memorable’ bit all by himself. His problem was his method of hammering it home. Gordon’s approach was tantamount to using a sledgehammer where a meat tenderiser was all that was required.
His true failing was revealing that, like the rest of us, he’s infallibly human. He swears, cusses, gets angry, argues, is irritated by morons and endures bad moods just like we all do.
Like all ailing superheros, it is that humanity which eventually becomes the fuel of their ultimate downfall.
By Adam Moss, Brazen News Editor
If you missed Brazen PR’s Twinterview with media specialists Gorkana, read the entire transcript here.
citizenofbrazen @Gorkana Hi Celina, welcome to the Brazen Twinterview – it’s not as scary as it may sound. Honest. #brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen Feeling honoured that you think Gorkana is in the same league as Kai Wayne Rooney #brazenqt
citizenofbrazen @Gorkana Kai is certainly a media favourite but then Gorkana will know much more about the media game, I believe. #brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen We like to think we’re pretty plugged in – our mission is to bring PRs and journos closer together to help…#brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen…both communities save time and hopefully more efficient in this crazy time pressured world. #brazenqt
citizenofbrazen @Gorkana As media middlemen how does Gorkana work to bridge the divide between what journos want and PR agencies have to offer? #brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen We work with journos by helping them find story content via our media requests and we also provide a snapshot…#brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen …of what they write on, how they like to be approached and the best time for PRs to make contact. We also…#brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen …invest in regular breakfast briefings to bring senior journos to the PRs masses. #brazenqt
citizenofbrazen @Gorkana Some PRs use scattergun approach when issuing press releases, is there a way journos can exempt themselves from lists #brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen Not at the moment but it’s something we want to address. We’re keen to hear from journos about how…#brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen …they would like us to work with them. Basically we’re all ears and keen to engage…#brazenqt
citizenofbrazen @Gorkana That scattergun approach has been rightly criticised but don’t Gorkana bear some responsibility too? #brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen Yes which is why we’re keen to get it right. Equally important is the broader question of PR training. #brazenqt
citizenofbrazen @Gorkana Fair point. Social Media – its the future. What is Gorkana doing to give PRs new and relevant Social Media solutions? #brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen Glad you asked! We’re working on a really exciting social media offer at the moment. Can’t say too much yet but…#brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen …watch this space (don’t you hate it when people say that?). More news soon on that and a…#brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen …social media breakfast we’re also planning – all very exciting. #brazenqt
citizenofbrazen @Gorkana Social Media Breakfast? Hmm, a kind of Twitter on toast then? #Brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen Put it this way – it’ll be pretty tasty. #brazenqt
citizenofbrazen @Gorkana Has the digital media revolution affected the way Gorkana works and how do you see that changing in the next five years? #brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen No doubt. Our social media offer will be a whole new way of operating. More change to come and we’re ready…#brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen …for it. We’re an online biz so can respond quickly to market changes. Bring it on we say. #brazenqt
citizenofbrazen @Gorkana Isn’t everyone an online biz these days? How has it changed the way you work and what makes you “ready”? #brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen Not like Gorkana – our ‘products’ are all online. We have a social media outreach programme , we have tailored…#brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen …our breakfasts so they have a digi element , we’ve got a Twitterati section in the alerts and we list ..#brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen …twitter handles on journo pages – just a few to the things we’re doing. We’re also constantly talking to….#brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen …our clients to find out what they want. #brazenqt
citizenofbrazen @Gorkana Thank you Celina. Here’s hoping you serve poached egg with your social media breakfasts. #Brazenqt
gorkana @citizenofbrazen A pleasure citizenofbrazen – it has been a lot of fun! See you ’round…#brazenqt
She’s long been painted as the cuckolded golden girl trying desperately to give her errant, morally-empty celebrity footballing man a second chance.
But this morning, as she rose from her princess-pink bed a new, Ashley-less single woman, Cheryl Cole can console herself in the knowledge that Brand Cheryl is about to hit stratospheric heights.
The agony caused by the collapse of her marriage should, by the time summer arrives and, in true panto style, be well and truly behind her.
She was already, as a result of her roles in Girls Aloud and X Factor, the nation’s golden girl. A position only strengthened by the fact she stood by her man when details of his ‘away days’ were splashed unceremoniously across the front pages of the Sunday tabloids last year.
No-one, Ashley Cole aside, would have anything but sympathy for her today as her management announced that, as more revelations of Ashley’s meanderings made headlines, she had simply had enough and dumped the love-rat where he belongs – in the gutter.
Ashley is, reportedly, distraught. Bless him.
Cheryl, meanwhile, maintains the moral high-ground, has the nation’s sympathies, and can discretely smirk to herself in the knowledge that she’s just given her personal brand the biggest fillip possible before, as expected, she tries to break America.
It’s a good job we have short memories. For back in January 2003, the nation’s sweetheart was very much the bad girl.
Our Chezza was involved in an altercation with nightclub toilet attendant, Sophie Amogbokpa, in Guildford and found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The judge sentenced her to 120 hours community service and ordered her to pay her victim £500 in compensation, as well as £3,000 prosecution costs.
Not exactly behaviour befitting the nation’s sweetheart was it?
But today, Simon Cowell, will undoubtedly agree she’s done more to increase awareness of her brand in the last two days than any number of interviews as ‘Cowell’s new girl’ with the American press corps could have achieved.
Expect romantic links with a variety of young chiseled American celebrity males – just to keep us all on the edge of our ‘is she falling in love again?’ seats and to cement her position as one-to-watch for the American media.
The last Geordie girl to do this well was Heather Mills. Fortunately for Cheryl, she’s not dating a national treasure in the mould of Paul McCartney, or we may be giving her a harder time over her marriage fall-out.
But, while we all pour our sympathies and pound coins into Cheryl’s significantly growing well, we’d also do well to put this whole matter into some kind of real-world perspective.
Cheryl already knew that Ashley Cole was a lying, cheating womanizer. She waited till her star was brightest and the entire nation was on tenterhooks before finally dumping him.
Thus ensuring maximum publicity, potential financial reward and the placing of a glimmering moral halo permanently above her head just before she sets off to tackle the notoriously puritanical United States.
Is it just me or does this smack as much of business decision as matter of the heart?
By Adam Moss, Brazen News Editor
Apart from the Daily Mail’s hideously predictable condemnation, Gordon Brown seems to have pulled off a bit of a positive PR coup with his Piers Morgan interview at the weekend.
Commentators are being, for the large part, generous in the extreme to the hugely under-fire PM after his ‘in-depth’ revelations on the ITV chat show.
It wasn’t, as you may suspect, that ‘in-depth’ or revealing, but it did paint a picture of Gordon Brown as far more human than most of us had imagined.
I smell Alistair Campbell’s involvement here. Somewhere along the line.
There have been one or two accusations of stage-management – i.e Brown knew the questions beforehand and had time to prepare his answers. Let’s be honest here, there is probably a great deal of truth in that theory. But, aren’t all Piers Morgan’s interviews on his show like that?
That’s how he gets such high-profile guests. It’s an old newspaper trick – and it works. Offer up the list of questions beforehand and you’ll get the interview everyone wants and the viewers/readers everyone wants too.
The ‘stage-management’ issue aside, Gordo seems to have ditched the robot-like political cloak he seems to keen on hiding himself behind most days and, as a result, has won some new admirers with his relaxed, anecdotal approach to the whole shebang.
You can’t please everyone of course. The Daily Mail’s old-school Tory bitterness is plain for all to see in Quentin Letts’ assessment of Brown’s hour of light-entertainment dialogue:
“Mr Brown once assured us that he would never use his family for cheap political stunts. Last night he did not just break that word. He shattered any right to be regarded as a man of self-respect.
“No matter how many votes it wins him, I suspect he will live to regret this appalling, ill-judged show.”
I wonder whether he’ll be quite so harsh when it is Tory leader David Cameron’s turn in the primetime spotlight?
Brown, in many ways, was in a no-win situation with this interview. If he hadn’t done it he’d have continued to have been accused of being nothing more than a stuffy, secretive political robot with a firewall between the public figure and his humanity.
And, once he agreed to appear, the knives were already being sharpened in the back rooms of right-wing Fleet Street.
We applaud Gordo for giving it a go. It may well have been stage-managed, he may well have had hours of coaching from a certain Mr Campbell in preparation but we think Toby Young, said it best in the Telegraph:
“The figure that emerged during the hour-long interview was witty and relaxed, never more so than when talking about Sarah, his extremely telegenic wife. He even opened up about the death of their 11-day-old daughter, a personal tragedy that’s sure to touch the hearts of the British people. The contrast with the stiff, socially awkward Thunderbird puppet who has run the country for the past two-and-a-half years could not have been greater.”
Is it too late to save his ailing Labour Government though?
Probably.
By Adam Moss, Brazen News Editor