The Death of the Press Release?

I stumbled on this excellent summary of how the internet and social media is affecting the way we communicate. The Buzz Factory has enjoyed some excellent results achieving client coverage on blogs recently. Great news for click throughs. But Blogs are the tip of the iceberg as you will see.

It’s a little heavy going in places if PR isn’t your passion, but pick out what you need.

Risking it All

If you get the chance, watch Channel Four’s excellent ‘Risking it All’

This week’s new series featured Loaf Hair in Sheffield. These guys had a target of £2,000 a week turnover to break even. But in their first week they doubled it.

Within five months of starting up (investing just £35,000) they were achieving £8,000 a week and on target for £10,000 a week plus in the run up to Christmas. And their business was valued at a whopping £350,000! Better still it was projected to be worth £2.5 million assuming the same level of business in four more planned salons.

Their business success – and it’s no coincidence – was accompanied by some great local PR. I loved one idea in particular:

The salon’s five senior stylists spent a morning finely crafting hair-dos on five local models. They then took to Fargate shopping centre in Sheffield City centre and passers-by were asked to nominate their favourite. Their details were entered into a draw and the winner received a full hair and nail makeover.

Coverage here.

Rats the way to do it!

Every so often you see a news story you wish you’d come up with yourself. The best you can do is doff your cap and hopefully use it to inspire your own PR activity.

Congratulations to Preston Borough Council who put one of its officers in a glass box full of litter and … rats! All this to highlight the problems of litter. It achieved some great local TV coverage and will have had viewers squirming in their thousands as they watched. A great ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ parody.

Buzz Factory clients beware of being strapped up in rat-infested glass boxes very soon!

See the coverage here and here.