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BLOG: Why shorter is better for Business 2 Business video marketing

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BLOG: How to sell a memoir of someone who’s not a household name

After two years of perseverance, my friend and associate Stuart Hall put the proverbial pen down after dotting his final full stop.

His book, a memoir of football coach Gordon Young’s career, was complete. 

Gordon who you ask? Well, Gordon is currently assistant manager at Scottish First Division side Cove Rangers, with a long, and if not quite illustrious, certainly varied career.

His football journey has taken him from playing with Junior side Cambuslang Rangers, to coaching with Motherwell, Falkirk, Dundee United and Sheffield United; as well as coaching the Latvian national team to success in the Baltic Cup and squeezing in spells in India and USA to boot. 

On such a long and winding road, he surely has some tales to tell, and Gordon Young: Licence to Skill tells them well.

But no matter how entertaining his anecdotes are, with 188,000 books published in the UK every year, how do you get someone to pick it up in the first place. And then part with their hard earned cash to read about the life of someone, who outside of Scottish football, no one knows anything about.  A big ask indeed.

So, how to persuade wavering book buyers and tell the story of Gordon’s story. The answer, as always starts with a plan.

After taking a decision to self-publish and distribute through Easyecom fulfilment service in Glasgow and Amazon it was all systems go to start shifting copies at a reasonable £12.99, an ideal stocking filler in the run up to Christmas.

First task was to set up and establish a social media following on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin for him.

For content we had preprepared a series of interview clips with Gordon talking in short snippets about the book and his career, a series of pictures of him in the kit of clubs he’s coached with and a strategy of tagging in high profile people he’s worked with.

Content for each was tailored to individual club’s supporters, with a follower build up strategy of targeting supporters of each club he’s been involved with and call to action link to Amazon.

Response to this approach was good with strong interaction and a steady build-up of followers across all platforms, with some solid endorsement and recommendations from high profile players with big social media followings such as Celtic’s David Turnbull, who Gordon signed for the Motherwell Academy. 

The hard copy sales approach was to get books into the club shop of team’s Gordon’s been involved with and market through social media again with content related to each individual club. Successful approaches were also made to Waterstones and independent bookstores.

For mainstream media, the focus was to concentrate on pitching to journalists with a previous relationship with Gordon, as well as targeting local papers in areas where he has coached.

Results were encouraging, big spreads in The Sun, Daily Mail, The Times, The Herald, Glasgow Times and The Scotsman as well as locally in the Rutherglen Reformer, Falkirk Herald and Stirling Observer. A media appearance was also secured with Peter Martin and Alan Rough’s youtube show PLZ.

Podcast appearance with sports broadcaster Graeme Speirs and Lanarkshire Sport live too.

To sustain momentum over the longer term the book was entered into sporting literary competitions nationally. 

All the boxes were ticked: media coverage galore, solid, interactive social media following, high profile endorsements and recommendations. 

By all accounts Gordon Young: Licence to Skill should be flying off the shelves. It’s well written, well publicised, funny, with some great reviews from national journalists.

However, in a crowded market, if you’re not a household name, however interesting you are, it would appear otherwise.

Copies of Gordon Young: Licence to Kill are still available on Amazon

The book has also just been released on e-book format

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BLOG: Anniversary celebrations and Belize's Scottish roots

As the Central American country of Belize celebrates 40 years of independence from the UK, its historical foundation has deep Scottish roots.

The dream of building a Scottish ‘empire’ in the 17th century was left in tatters with the collapse of the Darien project in 1698.

The ill fated adventure to set up a colony in modern day Panama, Central America, not only cost the lives of some 500 Scots men, women and children. It was said the financial impact of the disaster was so catastrophic, that it was a major factor in pushing the country into the Act of Union nine years later.

But where the Scottish government failed to make its mark in the Caribbean, a few hundred miles further north on the same coast, a small band of Scots adventurers had already established a successful community 50 years before the Darien mission set sail.

These roots put down by, among others, the Wallace, MacDonald and Forbes families survive to the present day and ensure a lasting Scottish legacy in this corner of the world, long after the painful memories of the Darien project faded from the national psyche.

This Caledonian connection is with Belize. Squeezed in between Mexico to the north and Guatemala to the west and south, at 280 miles long and around 70 miles wide this tiny enclave is around the size of Wales, but with less than one tenth of the population at under 250,000. The development of modern Belize is a remarkable story and one in which Scottish influence has had a considerable and enduring guiding role.

The history of civilisation in this part of the world stretches back to the first millennium. Southern Mexico and the area now covered by Belize was the cradle of the great Mayan dynasty long before European’s conceitedly christened this land the ‘New World’. At its height between 250 A.D. and 900 A.D it is estimated this area of land which, today is so sparsely populated, supported more than three million people. The earliest known settled community in the Maya world dates from 2,000 B.C. and from this developed a society as complex and advanced as either the better known Aztecs to the north or the Incas to the south.

The Maya cultivated cotton and learned to dye and weave cloth. Religion, mathematics and astronomy all played an important role in their culture. Great cities flourished at Atun Ha and Carcol with grand temples, palaces and public buildings, plazas and ball courts. All before Scotland as a nation even existed.

It was just as Kenneth McAlpine was unifying the throne of Scotland and becoming the first king of the modern nation in the 9th century that the Maya reign was coming to an end.

Although the causes are not certain, archaeologists believe it was due to population pressure with the land no longer being able to provide enough food. Changes in climate, wars and scarcity of products to trade have also been presented as reason for their decline.

Certainly by the time the first Scottish adventurers set foot in Belize the Maya were no longer a unified functioning society, but survived in sporadic pockets scattered through the dense jungle landscape.

There is no exact date for when this event took place but most indicators suggest it was sometime in the 1630’s and where Darien is a story of incompetence, bad luck and political betrayal, the successful founding of modern Belize is a tale of survival and triumph against the odds.

The Darien scheme began in 1695 when the Scottish Parliament passed an Act for the establishment of a 'Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies'. A huge fundraising effort was initiated and capital of £400,000 was pulled together, an enormous sum for the time amounting to around half the total capital available in Scotland.

A small fleet of three ships with 1200 people on board sailed in July 1698 with the intention of founding a new colony in present day Panama, finally landing in November of that year.

Although the settlers enthusiastically started putting down roots in New Edinburgh, they had seriously underestimated the scale of the task in hand. This part of the Caribbean is known as the Mosquito Coast and the settlers were soon weakened by diseases of the climate; yellow fever, malaria and dysentery.

Although the settlers made treaties with the indigenous Indians the surrounding Spanish conquistadores proved a sterner test and ultimately snuffed out the fledgling colony within two years.

Abandoning the colony in 1700 only one of the three ships made it back to Edinburgh in one piece.

Meanwhile a mere 700 miles away the new settlements in Belize were already well established with a strong Scottish contingent. Although facing the same intense pressure from the surrounding Spanish the final outcome was to be much different from the fate of their kinsmen further down the coast.

The Spanish had first settled in the Americas in the years following Christopher Columbus’ voyage of discovery in 1492 and by the time the Scots arrived in Darien they were firmly established throughout the Americas...

By 1520, Hernan Cortés had conquered the Aztec empire in Mexico. His lieutenant, Pedro de Alvarado, defeated the Maya in Yucatan and expeditions were sent to conquer what is now Guatemala and Honduras. Cortés himself passed through the south-west corner of Belize in 1525.

Although thanks to local Mayan resistance they never had a firm control over the country their presence devastated the local population as it succumbed to European diseases. It is estimated that 86 per cent of local people who came into contact with the Spanish died as a result of disease or war. So by the time the first Scots landed in Belize the Maya were no longer a force in the country.

Evidence suggests this first foray was led by a Scotsman, Peter Wallace, who with 80 of his crew established a settlement on the Belize River. He was possibly born in Greenock but there are conflicting stories. What is officially recorded is that he was a one time Governor of the island of Tortuga and had served as a lieutenant under Sir Walter Raleigh in the Royal Navy.

It is thought that the name Belize is an extreme Spanish corruption of the name Wallace which is easier to understand when seen as the Spanish spelling, Belice.

Wallace’s presence in Belize was not as any officer of the crown however, but as a buccaneer, a privateer or pirate - the title depended on whether seen from a Spanish or British point of view. For the 17th century was the height of Spanish power in the Americas and the seaways of the Caribbean were packed with ships of the crown transporting gold looted from native Indian society back to Madrid.

Belize with its sheltered Cayes or islands lying off the coast and its shallow waters and dangerous barrier reef made an excellent protected raiding base for these buccaneers to prey on passing vessels. A pastime positively encouraged by the British at the time who were almost constantly in a state of war with Spain throughout this period.

But after the Treaty of Madrid in 1670 a period of peace saw the new Belizeans or Baymen reinforced by disbanded soldiers and sailors. These new arrivals turned to logging, particularly logwood which, was used to produce dye and was in great demand from the flourishing European cotton and woollen mills.

Demand for hardwoods such as mahogany also grew and the fledgling colony expanded with many new arrivals from Scotland.

According to John Holm, professor of linguistics at the University of Nassau, the Bahamas in his book ‘The Creole Language of Nicaragua’: "There seems to have been a high proportion of Scots among the British in the western Caribbean from the seventeenth century onwards."

But the new settlers did not have a quiet life with the bountiful mahogany forests attracting growing interest from the surrounding Spanish. Throughout the 18th century the Baymen experienced a series of violent skirmishes with their aggressive neighbours. For Spain claimed sovereignty over the entire New World except for Brazil which, was a recognised Portuguese possession and were insistent that the Scottish and English woodcutters were trespassers.

The raids of 1717, 1730, and 1754 were particularly damaging with evacuations into the interior necessary as the Spanish sacked the Baymen’s towns and villages.

Following their defeat in the Seven Years War though, the Spanish agreed to give the Scots and other settlers the right to cut and export timber, but still claimed sovereignty over the territory. This ongoing dispute inevitably led to more attacks and in 1779 the Spanish captured St George's Caye a small island off the coast of present day Belize City.

Agreements continued to be made between the Spanish and British about the rights of the Baymen without any long term solution. Bad feelings rumbled on until the situation came to a head with the Battle of St George’s Caye in 1798.

A defining moment in the early modern history of the country, it is still celebrated as a national holiday on September 10.

With news of an impending Spanish invasion bigger than anything ever attempted, the Baymen called for reinforcements from British forces in Jamaica.

But the future of Belize was clearly not a priority for the government of the day and they sent only one small gun brig HMS Merlin along with a company of the West India Regiment.

In total the Baymen managed to assemble only 12 vessels, most of which were wooden rafts fitted out with a few guns, backed up by a few hundred settlers and regular soldiers. Against this makeshift force the Spanish had 32 ships, 500 sailors, and 2,000 troops.

The battle was a game of cat and mouse for five days as the Spanish armada tried to out manoeuvre the defending flat boats and make a landing near the mouth of the Belize River. Once a bridgehead had been established the plan was to call in overland reinforcements from Mexico

Finally, on September 10 the Spaniards rushed into the fray with fourteen of their biggest and most heavily armed ships of the fleet. After a bloody engagement they were eventually forced into retreat again. But this time the Spanish losses were heavy and they withdrew back to their Mexican ports.

This defeat was to be the final time the Spanish tried to exert their influence over Belizean territory by force. The battle secured the country’s future first as the colony of British Honduras and later as the independent nation that is today Belize.

The scarcity of records from this period makes it difficult to determine exactly how many Scots were involved in this heroic action. But Stephen Forbes himself a Scotsman by birth and author of the historical novel the ‘Baymen of Belize’ describes the country in the late 1700s as "an essentially Scotch community."

Certainly the ‘community’ would have been backed by several hundred African slaves brought into work on the logging camps and plantations throughout the century as well as settlers from other nationalities. This mixture of colours and creeds is what makes Belize the country it is today, one of the most multicultural on earth.

A melting pot of Garifuna, from South American Indian and African descent, indigenous Mayans and Mestizos who are descended from Mayan and Spanish settlers. Add to this creole, black Africans born in the region, to a steady stream of Scots and other Europeans. Combined with American refugees from the Civil War in the 1860s and later Indians from the subcontinent and more recently Chinese, Taiwanese and German Mennonite immigrants.

A heady mixture, but one in which Scots heritage remains strong through surnames and place names.

The town of Bermuda Landing off the northern highway on the way to the Mexican border is believed to be named after the Bermuda grass planted by Scottish immigrant farmers looking to graze cattle on cleared forest land. Flowers Bank is named after Adam Flowers the Scottish immigrant who made the casting vote in the decision to defend rather than evacuate Belize City in the face of the invading Spanish in 1797. Nearby Scotland Halfmoon Village is said to be named after a homesick immigrant who arrived during the half moon, and Scottish surnames survive throughout the country.

Perhaps the greatest legacy left by the early Scots is language. The Battle of St Georges Caye might appear a mere skirmish in the grand scheme of world history. But it helped secure a free nation whose place is now secure within the international community, the only English speaking nation in Central American.

Exactly 100 years after the ill fated Darien project set sail, Scots finally realised a dream of helping to build a new society on the Caribbean coast.

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BLOG: Why online video is a critical marketing tool for your business or organisation

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BLOG: Why do awards matter for your organisation?

There are cynics out there who think business awards are nothing more than a massage for the boss’s ego, you may even be one.

Just another task to add to the ‘to do’ list that you really don’t need.

A task to be battered out last thing Friday afternoon. I mean, you’ve colleagues to keep happy and deadlines to meet; you have an actual job to do.

For small companies and organisations entering business or sectoral competitions can be a challenge. It may seem like a ‘would like’ rather than a ‘must do’.

This is short sighted. Competitions that recognise your expertise simply have to be built into your marketing and communications plan. It should be seen simply as another platform to get your story told to the people who need to hear it.

Time and resources should be built in to research what competitions are right for you, depending on what your priorities are for the year, what categories most closely fit what you do best, and will demonstrate what you’ve achieved. Time should be spent thinking about what will add value to your entry.

A successful short-listing in a competition of your peers is a great way of letting you talk about how good you are at what you do.

It’s much more than just a piece of bling to stick on the reception desk. It’s a chance for you to blow your trumpet, a chance to spread the word about how much better you are than the competition: through the press, through social media, a chance to reinforce your excellence through some some engaging online video content, or a hook to invite along a key stakeholder to demonstrate your expertise.

It’s not just an award, it is a gateway to tell your story the way you want to.

Like any communication activity there are no guarantees, but you are selling yourself short if you don’t give yourself the very best chance of success.

Entering awards though is a bit like a tendering process, it’s critical you tick all the right boxes, however, unlike tendering, you also need a creative eye that can position your organisation as a stand out against the competition.

I help organisations reach the podium and occasionally win gold, feel free to get in touch if you are struggling to build award entries into your business development strategy.

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BLOG: Pandemic fuelled bonanza for baristas

A surprising side effect of the pandemic induced collapse in office commuters has been the growth in independent neighbourhood coffee shops.

While city centre sandwich shops and transport hub food chains have seen a collapse in trade, World Coffee Portal reports a 40% decline in sales in branded coffee shops, demand has been simply displaced.

It would seem it will take more than a pandemic to end Britain’s love affair with the latte.

An estimated 30 billion cups of coffee are enjoyed in the UK each year worth more than £10 billion to the economy.

A quick glance around my local area tells me my neighbours are doing their bit to boost the nation’s caffeine intake. As more people are forced to work from home clearly they are not quite ready to make their own brew just yet.

In less than a three-minute walk from my front door I’m taken to the counter of no less than 15 outlets serving everything from a Hot Belgian Chocolate Mocha to a Caramel Machiatto.

At least one third of them have appeared over the past 12 months and apart from a well-known northeast baker, every one an independent.

Up until the Covid 19 emergency coffee sales in the UK were growing year on year by more than 7% and experienced 20 years of continuous growth according to food and drink market researchers Allegra.

But while coffee chains report declining sales the same researchers found that

80% of independent coffee owners reported sales growth over the past 12 months.

Anecdotal evidence of the number of people wandering around local parks clutching a reusable mug full of ground Arabica would seem to support this.

Even my local cricket club is tapping into the demand serving take-outs to walkers looking for a quick caffeine fix.

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Latest Client News

New Denny Eastern Access Road opens

Client RJ McLeod has now opened the new Denny Eastern Access Road on behalf of Falkirk Council.

Workspace creates more business opportunities at Queens Cross

As part of the £16 million refurbishment of Queen’s Cross’s CEDAR high rise flats in north west Glasgow, four new commercial spaces have been created. 

The units are located on the ground floor of the newly transformed homes which last year won an Architect’s Journal Award for the best retrofit project in the UK.

Suppporting a 'Summer of Cycling' in Dumfries

I have been supporting events related to the UCI Paracycling World Championships in Dumfries over the summer. All part of a campaign to promote the area as a cycling destination.

Work progressing well on Cross Tay Link Road

The new is designed to improve air quality and ease congestion by taking traffic out of Perth city centre.It is being delivered by BAM Nuttalll and is the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken by Perth & Kinross Council.

Art work for new Stockingfield Bridge well underway

Artwork installations around the site of the new Stockingfield Bridge are now well underway.

Eight projects are currently being worked on, learn about what Heritage Manager, Nicola McHendry and artists Anoushka Havinden have planned for the site.

For more about the bridge

Greener high rise flats attract COP26 praise

Three of Glasgow’s best known high rise blocks have attracted international praise for their improved environmental performance.

The renovation of Queens Cross Housing Association homes at Cedar Court, in the city’s Woodside area was commissioned to address fuel poverty – and since complete energy demand has been slashed by 80 per cent. Read more.

The latest milestone has been reached in Scottish Canals' Stockingfield Bridge Project, the last active travel link on the Forth & Clyde Canal. Read more about it.

Queens Cross Housing Association has won a UK Award from the Architects’ Journal for renovation work on its high rise tower blocks.

Work is now progressing well on a new Scottish Canals bridge over the Forth & Clyde Canal

Queens Cross Housing Association has just launched its new Five Year Business Plan

These are just a few examples where we can help promote one off events, support longer term projects using a full range of communications tools and help organisations plan and write strategic planning and reporting documents.

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BLOG: Macedonia or Macedonia?

If Visit Scotland thinks it gets a hard time for its unappreciated efforts to attract visitors to these shores, then it should spare a thought for the beleaguered head of tourism in Macedonia. Agency chief, Igor Simjanoski, has one of the toughest PR sells in the European travel business.

His problem? How to build a tourism brand for a country whose very name is the centre of an international dispute, a dispute that comes back to the negotiating table again next week.

The problem lies with Greece, Macedonia’s southern neighbour. Macedonia is also the name of a province in northern Greece and this split personality is proving a major stumbling block to the development of the country’s tourism ‘brand’. Currently the Greek government is insisting that Macedonia – the country – be given the catchy title the ‘Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’, to differentiate it from Macedonia – the province, following?

But it’s about much more than a mere name. The Greeks are using the issue to block both Macedonia’s application to the EU and to NATO. Neither party are expecting much progress when they meet in Brussels. Since pretty much surrendering control of their budget to other countries they are unlikely to be in the mood to give up anything else.

Which is a matter of huge frustration for Igor. For Macedonia – the country – has undoubted potential to be the next big ‘hidden gem’ for the more adventurous traveller. With great weather in the summer, skiing in the winter, fantastic hiking mountains and friendly locals, the he definitely think so.

Plans are in place to almost double the size of the industry by 2018 making a contribution of $880 million dollars and transforming it into one of the most important industries in this country of two million people. But if sorting out the name wasn’t problematic enough for Igor and his colleagues another major obstacle is access, Macedonia is not an easy place to get to. So what are they doing about it?

Their answer lies with a full blown public relations campaign throughout the EU, not just to raise the profile of the country but specifically to sell Macedonia as a potential destination for budget airlines. No easy task in a climate that has seen Ryanair cut flights from Edinburgh this week.

But Macedonians are optimists. Their most famous son, Alexander the Great, overcame more than a few hurdles building one the greatest empires the world has ever seen and his spirit lives on. The government sees tourism as key to transforming the Macedonian economy, but their success or failure will hinge on the effectiveness in changing opinions and putting the country on the map.

Getting some closure on what the country is called would be a good starting point.

Update: At the Prespa Agreement in 2018 Greece and Macedonia agreed that in future the country would be called the Republic of North Macedonia

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BLOG: The forgotten 9/11

Jet aircraft bring terror to a major city centre, a brutal act of war against a democratic nation, the deaths of thousands of innocent people and a generation traumatised. The date stamped forever on the national psyche, September 11. September 11, 1973.

The city not New York but Santiago, Chile. British supplied Hawker Hunter aircraft destroy the Presidential palace in a US backed military coup d’etat against the freely elected socialist President Salvador Allende.

On the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 twin towers atrocity the fickleness of foreign policy shouldn’t be too easily forgotten. Twenty eight years earlier it was Chilean freedom and democracy that was destroyed with the help of the very nation now promoting its expansion across the globe. A revisit to this interventionist episode might be timely as President Obama ramps up his public relations push for action against Syria.

With Allende’s death died the democratic dreams of a nation to be replaced by the brutal dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and his military Junta who would rule with an iron fist for the next 15 years.

Times change and with it enemies. Communism not religious fundamentalism was the threat at the height of the Cold War. Stopping the spread of the Red Terror was the number one priority for the protection of the free world, whatever the cost and they weren’t too bothered about any PR fall out.

“I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.”

Henry Kissenger, US Secretary of State at the time, was then less keen on promoting the benefits of the ballet box to voters who didn’t elect who he wanted.

Pinochet went on to rule directly until losing a plebiscite to reintroduce democratic government in 1988. During the intervening period more than 3000 opponents of the regime were killed and 100,000 plus locked up as political prisoners, many of them tortured.

The bodies of hundreds of these victims have never been found. It was a favourite tactic of the Junta to drug prisoners, fly them out to sea and dump their bodies for the sharks to dispose of.

A death toll in fact not too dissimilar to the twin towers tragedy 28 years later. The irony cannot be lost on those who survived the Pinochet years. In Santiago they died for democracy denied them by the leader of the ‘free’ world. In New York they died at the hands of those who didn’t want it in the first place.

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‘What’s a phone book?’

As an end of term exercise, a journalism lecturer friend came up with a little off curriculum task to test his final year students’ ingenuity and adaptability for the world of work they were about to enter.

‘Find me and file me a story of your choice between now and the end of the day without using any technical aids, no mobiles – only public phones, no internet, no laptops,’ was the straightforward brief.

Rather than freeing them to let their creative minds wander at will, without the crutch of new technology these eager news hounds suddenly lost the scent of how to find and write a story.

‘But what if we need to speak to someone on the phone, how will we find their number?’ one rather perplexed student asked.

‘Eh maybe try the phone book.’ said bemused lecturer.

Now at first he thought the next question was some dog end of term wind up. Which would have been preferable, rather than the depression felt on realising the question was genuine.

‘What’s a phone book ?’ asked even more perplexed student.

Now when you have to explain to a 21 year final year student who has already secured a traineeship with a local newspaper, what a phone book is and where to find one, surely questions need to be asked about our over reliance on technology not just to do our jobs but to live our lives.

Is the next generation becoming so reliant on communication devices and the platforms to communicate with each other they offer, that they are losing the skill of basic human interaction and the ability to problem solve without turning on the internet?

On addressing this astonishing knowledge gap it transpired that none of his students really knew how to use a library. Yes, they could go and find a book, but none of them knew how to use any of the manual research resources, use a microfiche or even knew that libraries kept local records on things like historic planning decisions.

If it was almost as if, if it wasn’t on-line it didn’t exist.

To be fair some rose to the challenge, the pick of the day being a story about a 75 year old grandmother skydiving to help raise funds for her ill grand daughter. A grandniece who had inherited a garage full of wool and was looking to give it away would also have escaped the cutting room floor. But if an editor was relying on this group, on this exercise to fill the next morning’s paper it would would have been a very thin edition indeed.

The task raises some serious questions about the way we are now training young people for a media career. Have we reached the stage that there is now far too much emphasis on information processing?

The quantity of information appearing online means people must be skilled in sifting and editing news from spin and PR as never before.

That is a valuable and essential journalistic skill to have, but is it coming at the expense of basic human communications skills.

Have we reached the stage where students need less classes on how to successfully use social media and more on how to have a meaningful and productive conversation with a stranger?

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Stars are out for the Coll Half Marathon

More than 400 runners crossed land and sea to get to the Isle of Coll annual half marathon at the weekend, swelling the population of the Hebridean island three fold.

Now while this is an annual tourism bonanza, how does an island like Coll market itself successfully for the rest of the year?

With its unspoilt beaches and remote get away from it all feel it has its attractions, but not so different from any of the other remote island getaways off the west coast of Scotland.

With neighbouring Tiree running a successful public relations and social media drive to brand itself as Britain’s windsurfing capital with good effect, Coll is now hoping to to do something similar with its own unique selling point – the stars.

The island has applied to the Arizona based International Dark Sky Association for official Dark Sky status hoping the island will turn into a year round Mecca for stargazers.

Lighting experts are arriving on the island next month to measure just how dark it is, but with the nearest street lights 25 miles across the sea on Mull it is the perfect location for exploring the solar system with more cloudless nights than virtually anywhere else in the UK.

With light pollution rapidly encroaching on the night sky – less than 10% of people in the UK can now see the Milky Way from where they live – the popularity of getting undisturbed view of the solar system is growing.

Coll could soon be the destination of choice for stargazers like Sir Patrick Moore

It is estimated that more than 8000 stars can be seen with the naked eye from Coll on a clear night, compared to just few hundred in light polluted densely populated areas.

Not only can the Milky Way be viewed in all its glory the next nearest galaxy, Andromeda, can also be seen along with shooting stars and spectacular meteor showers.

Light pollution has become a rallying point for environmentalists in recent years, with the British Astronomical Society running a Campaign for Dark Skies. But despite communications to the contrary the message is pretty much being ignored with light pollution increasing 24% across the UK in the last decade.

But what’s bad news for the mainland could well be great news for business on Coll as amateur astronomers flock in for a glimpse of the real sky at night.

Who knows next year the island may choose to boldly go where no half marathon has gone before and host the world’s first stargazing race.

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Using QR codes to grow your business

More and more businesses are finding innovative ways to use QR codes to help market their services or products.

The latest is a funeral director in Poole, Dorset who is etching the codes on to gravestones. When the code is scanned using a mobile phone or tablet, a personalised web page is launched dedicated to the deceased, complete with pictures, videos and contributions from family and friends.

How could you be using QR codes to help grow your business?

QR codes are becoming an increasingly common sight in magazines and newspapers, but what exactly are they? In the simplest terms they are two-dimensional bar codes, called quick response codes – QR codes – and could be described as paper based hyperlinks.

Once you have downloaded the software that allows you to read the code to your phone, you simply take a picture of the code. You are then automatically redirected to a website to give you more information about what you have expressed an interest in.

As the Poole undertaker demonstrates QR technology is not restricted to magazine or newspaper ads. The codes can be put on menus, business cards, gift card, paper coupon and leaflets, websites, they can even be tattooed on to public relations promoters working the streets. All giving the phone user access to more information through their mobile device.

It doesn’t just have to link to a website though, it can be to telephone number that the phone can then dial, a text message containing information, a specific social media destination such as a Facebook page. They are brilliant for promoting customer interaction with your business.

There are a lot of sites where you can down load free QR code readers for your mobile smart phone.

i-nigma

reader 

neoreader 

beetag

There are also plenty of sites where you can generate QR codes for free. Play around with them and have a think about how you could use them imaginatively to help grow your business.

mskynet

qrstuff

qrcode

createqrcode

The possibilities for use as communications platform are endless.

On business cards QR code can give your new contact instant access to your company website using their phone. Or have it direct them to a Google map of where your company is based.

A big use for QR codes by retailers is for discount coupons. For example customers can scan digital coupons and discount offers on a webpage or a leaflet or paper advert and present the discount card via their phone when they go to buy. It is also used in a similar way for loyalty programmes. Or to drive traffic to a particular offers on a web page.

Or simply use them as another platform to drive traffic to your website. QR codes could be another powerful tool to add to your marketing mix.

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Even Glasgow’s petty thieves have Christmas spirit

Glasgow, like any other city, has its fair share of petty crime and unfortunately this week it was my turn to be on the receiving end of some mildly annoying criminality.However, Glasgow being Glasgow, it was I who came away from the experience feeling my perpetrators had actually done me a favour.

The season of goodwill is clearly being embraced by the Gorbals underclass, for that can be the only explanation for my good bad fortune.

The city’s public relations machine has done much to transform the image of this area over the past 20 years and the ‘New’ Gorbals, as it is now known, is far removed from its razor gang past. But even among the swish new private flats and town houses occupying the mean streets of old, it would seem you still need eyes in the back of your head to survive intact.

Briefly taking advantage of Glasgow City Council’s excellent library broadband connections in between meetings, a momentary lapse in concentration and my duffel coat hanging over the back of the chair was gone, despite the fact I was sitting on it at the time. And with it my mobile phone, house and car keys.

Blind panic had me sprinting out the building with visions of the thief chatting to his Aussie cousins on my phone, while driving my car to empty my flat.

Turning the corner, panic turned to relief as the car was still where I left it. This relief then turned to puzzlement on discovering the doors unlocked and house and car keys left lying on the driver’s seat.

Someone was surely having a laugh. But no, on closer inspection of the boot my golf clubs were indeed on the way to someone new to abuse, along with my Raybans to keep the sun out their eyes.

However, despite the loss, I just couldn’t help feeling I’d been handed an early Christmas present.

Season’s Greetings.

[cowbroughcommunications]

Tewkesbury doesn’t turn a drama into a crisis

There can be few more thankless tasks in PR than being a hapless local authority press officer facing the aftermath of a sensationalist Daily Mail story.

Few topics at the moment make middle England’s blood boil more than unworthy scroungers bleeding the state dry. And today’s unfortunate was a 37 year old woman called Heather Frost who lives in Churchtown near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.

Now according to the Mail, Heather was no ordinary benefits claimant, she was in fact claiming for herself and no less than 11 children aged two to 21. That alone would be enough to start the veins popping for your average ‘Outraged from Tunbridge Wells’ correspondent.

But there is more, not only is she claiming 10s of thousands of pounds every year in benefits, the local council has arranged to build the family a new state of the art, six bedroom eco house at a cost of £400,000.

I could almost hear the howls of indignation echoing around Surbiton.

Now as other mainstream media jumped on the bandwagon, Tewkesbury Borough Council could have taken that tried, tested and invariably failed council crisis management approach and taken the phone off the hook. But not, to their credit, the public relations team here.

They came out fighting. Why not? They had done absolutely nothing wrong.

Councillor Derek David on BBC Today and later director of communities, Verna Green on a lunchtime talk show took the brave decision to go live and make their case.  Using one line they succeeded, if not in killing the story, make even the most fervent Taxpayers Alliance representative stop and think about the reality of the case.

Whether this was by design, good fortune or a bit of both, they turned the tables completely by simply asking:  ‘What would you have us do instead?’. The wind in this story’s sails suddenly dropped.

Proving the point if you’ve nothing to hide, don’t just rely on journalists to tell your side of the story, they will always have some agenda. Either through broadcast or social media do it yourself.

Live radio can be risky but in this instance it was a call well made. When you have a cast iron case that is being misrepresented, it’s the ideal platform for setting the record straight, more time than TV and less variables that can go wrong, along with a mostly captive audience.

The simple facts of this case were that there was no alternative course of action within the law that was any better than the one chosen.

The family was staying in unsuitable accommodation and was entitled to be moved into a house that suits their needs. End of, whether they had one or 11 kids is immaterial.

Demands to break the family up had neither basis in law or economics, as keeping them together is cheaper than keeping them apart

All points well made by the Tewkesbury council representatives.

Of course there may be a moral question around whether it is right for a mother to have 11 children when she has no means of supporting them, or indeed question the father/fathers role or lack of it in the family’s life.

But it is not up to the council to take a moral stand, it is up to them to establish what their responsibility is to the family and how their circumstances can be managed within the rules.

Now if the Daily Mail doesn’t like the rules then fine, come up with viable alternatives, but don’t blame the council for implementing them in a professional, considered and yes, cost effective manner.

[cowbroughcommunications]

Good spokespeople don’t need the answer to every question

In a previous life I had a boss who insisted on producing media briefings of biblical proportions.

If the CEO was being interviewed or taking part in a media conference, teams of people would sit around brain storming for days on end, endlessly trying to think of every possible fence to fall over or ditch to stumble in.

These tomes would run to dozens and dozens of pages with categories divided and subdivided for quick reference.

They were masterclasses in self generating paper pushing with every new question opening a pandora’s box of new potential pot holes. It was self perpetuating, on and on the treadmill would go until his appearance day arrived.

Of course the whole exercise was a complete waste of everyone’s time.

I and every member of the media team knew that the said CEO wouldn’t read a briefing of more than three paragraphs.  But of course the very idea of trying to second guess every question a journalist is likely to ask is utterly ludicrous.

It is not the questions that spokespeople should be preparing for, but the types of question that might be asked and the techniques for answering them.

For purposes of example let’s put the questions into the context of a real situation. Primark were the main UK company mentioned in the aftermath of the tragic building collapse in Bangladesh recently. For purely illustration purposes let’s imagine their spokespeople under scrutiny.

You don’t know the answer

As I said, it is impossible to know the answer to every single question you will be asked. You will invariably be asked something at some point that you don’t know the answer to. So what do you do?

This can be particularly distracting if the interview is live.

A Primark spokesman might have been asked in the immediate aftermath of the collapse: ‘How many t shirts did your company have made in that factory last year?’

It is highly unlikely he would know the answer but saying ‘I don’t know’ doesn’t look or sound too good.

Better to tell the reporter what you do know related to the story. He may well know who their contractor there is, for how long the company has worked with them, what they make for Primark etc

If the worst comes to worst it is ok to say ‘I don’t know’ if its is supported with ‘but I’ll find out and get back to you.’

Social media is a great platform for disseminating supplementary information after a mainstream media interview. You can talk directly to your audience without the potential distortion of the message by a third party journalist. So don’t just go back to the journalist who did the original interview with the answer to the question. Tell everyone.

You’re asked to speculate

A Primark spokeswoman might have been asked in a live interview:

‘Is the company going to pay compensation to the families of the dead and injured?’

If she answers wrongly, then it could come back to bite in the future. Don’t take the bait. Stick to the facts, if compensation is being looked at, say so.

If it hasn’t been discussed yet, say you can’t speculate until the the facts of the accident have been established.

Answering a speculative question either affirmatively or negatively could damage reputation if the standpoint needs to be changed later on in the crisis.

Asking for personal opinion

‘Do you personally think it is the Bangladeshi government’s lax building control rules that is ultimately responsible for this accident?”

As a spokesman or women you are always the representative of the company. Never give personal opinion, even if you predicate the statement with ‘this is my view only’ it never is. In the eyes of the viewing, listening or reading public you are the company or organisation.

A simple yes or no

“I’m looking for a simple yes or no answer here?”

How many times have you heard interviewers use this technique when they know fine well they will not get a simple yes or no answer. It is designed to knock the interviewee off guard and make them look shifty. And how it works.

They are so effective because they almost always have an obvious answer and the viewer or listener knows it.

But if the interviewee does answer yes or no it can come across really badly as there is no room to manoeuvre from this position.

“Is it true that Primark knows that its Bangladeshi suppliers pay workers less than £1 a day?”

To answer ‘yes’ is to admit that you condone the payment of what amounts to slave wages. To answer ‘no’ is to admit your company either doesn’t know or doesn’t care what goes on in its supply chain.

This is where the great phrases of obfuscation come into their own. Don’t answer on the reporters term.

> You know, it’s not that simple.

> There are instances when things are never black and white

> This is a very grey area.

> To give such a definitive answer would be unfair on those involved in the case at this stage.

> If we want to encourage true understanding of what happened here then it is far more complicated than a one word answer can justify.

> This would not be a dignified answer to the complexities of this case.

> It would be insulting to the intelligence of your viewers to treat such a complex matter with such simplicity.

Sometimes though it can get out of hand.  For instance the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman once asked the then Home Secretary, Michael Howard, the same yes or no question 12 times about the dismissal of a prisons’ chief.

But most interviewers are not as tenacious and will move on, if the question is dealt with skilfully.

Bringing in third parties

Promoting conflict always helps make a story more interesting. For example a Primark spokeswoman might be asked.

‘Marks and Spencers today said that they always personally inspect their suppliers, no matter where they are in the world.  Will you be following their best practise?’

Again don’t take the bait, talk about the positive aspects of your own company’s performance or experiences.

No one ever won any bonus points by getting into a public spat criticising competitors without them there to give their right of reply.

Repeat, repeat, repeat

Reporters will often ask the same question several times over but slightly altering the words to make sound like a different question.

Don’t lose patience. Stick to the key messages you want to get over. But it is fair enough to play the same game and slightly alter the words to make it seem like you’re giving a different answer.

It is the reporter’s job to give you a hard time. He or she needs to be seen to be painfully extracting the truth from a cornered corporate giant twisting and turning to avoid the consequences of their company’s actions

It is a spokesman or woman’s job to be seen as a willing participant offering the truth openly, confidently and honestly. But remember you don’t need to know the exact answer to every question to successfully achieve this.

[cowbroughcommunications]

G1 media response should take a look in the mirror

What exactly did the G1 Group, owners of Shimmy nightclub in Glasgow, think was going to be the reaction when they fitted a two way mirror into the women’s toilet?

From a reputational point of view they haven’t so much as shot themselves in the foot as blown both their legs off below the knee.

What female would choose to go to a nightclub that thinks it’s acceptable to let male (or female) customers spy on them in the toilet?

The foolishness of the concept aside, from a public relations point of view their media response to the breaking story has been a masterclass in how not to manage a crisis.

First reported in the Sunday Express,  G1 Group spokesman, Gary Hall was quoted as saying it was ‘definitely not the case’ that two-way mirrors had been installed.

This was followed up yesterday in The Guardian after a complainant shared an email apology from the company’s director of risk and compliance Kirstin Nicol. In the email Mr Nicol confirmed there were two way mirrors and apologised for any offence. He went on to say that it was meant as ‘a bit of fun’ adding that a small disclaimer was printed on the glass.

Glasgow City Council confirmed to The Guardian that they had received complaints about the mirror and police also confirmed to the newspaper that they were looking into it.

Without going into what’s actually wrong with fitting a mirror in the first place, let’s look at the PR lessons to be learned.

Firstly, such flippancy as a ‘bit of fun’ should never be used in any communication related to a serious complaint and secondly Mr Nicol should know that no communication these days is personal. If you are not happy to see your words printed in the media don’t write them down in the first place.

Every email, letter, facebook comment or tweet is potential newspaper copy.

Secondly know what you’re talking about. The company broke two fundamental rules of good media management they didn’t seem to know exactly what the facts around this matter were and they had different people giving out different messages. Consistency of message is vital if the reputational damage is to be minimised.

The contradictions between Mr Hall and Mr Nicol says G1 is a company that really doesn’t know what it’s talking about. Who would put any trust in company like that?

Third mistake, according to The Guardian G1 did not return any calls yesterday to what is clearly a live story. This head in the sand approach simply makes G1 look like a company with something to hide.

So what should G1 have done differently?

As soon as a the first media call came in they should have established what the facts were, agreed what they were going to say and appointed an official spokesperson to deal with the media. They should have been available at all times to present the company’s position robustly or apologetically as the situation required.

Next the email apology issued should have reflected the agreed media statement, consistency is vital. One organisation saying the same thing across all media channels is an organisation in control.

Finally be proactive. Get on social media to present your case. If you’ve made a mistake, admit it.

The sooner you own up and the more people you tell the sooner it will all blow over. Remember, duck and dive keeps the story alive.If you’ve nothing to hide use it to defend your corner. I suspect in this case, even without knowing all the facts, it should have been the former.

[cowbroughcommunications]

Effective PR crucial to Huntington’s disease understanding

In what is Huntington’s Disease (HD) Awareness Week an incident in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania yet again reinforces the huge PR task facing those fighting this degenerative brain disorder.

A local doctor battling HD was denied a taxi ride because the driver thought he was drunk.

Huntington’s causes changes to muscle control, thinking processes and may cause long-term mental health issues.

All too common these symptoms, manifested as slurred speech and stumbling are, as in Dr Andrew Tomasi’s case, mistaken for drunkenness.

The average age of onset is between 33 and 45 and those living with the condition will require 24 hour care as it progresses into its later stages. There is no cure and each child of someone diagnosed with HD is at 50% risk of developing the condition.

Being hereditary it is not just the person directly affected who’s life is impacted but their whole extended family who may need to make some difficult life choices.

For those living with the condition this is more than enough to be getting on with without throwing discrimination on top. Dr Tomasi’s said that several yellow cab drivers just didn’t want to hear about his condition, assuming he was the worse for wear.

Eventually, it wasn’t until the police were called that it was realised that he wasn’t drunk, but was in fact suffering from a debilitating condition.

Dr. Tomasi finally got home six hours after he first tried to flag down a taxi.

“I guess the old adage; don’t judge a book by its cover. Just try to understand the situation; it may not be exactly what it looks like,” he said.

An adage staff at Hampden Park would do well to heed after refusing entry to Derek Hastie from Prestonpans, East Lothian. He missed the chance to see Hibs’ 4-3 Scottish Cup semi-final win against Falkirk.

He too was falsely suspected of being drunk, while in fact displaying the typical symptoms of HD.

The Scottish Huntington’s Association and its sister organisations around the world have a job on their hands to increase understanding when people are so quick to jump to conclusions.

There are very few diseases that require the support and intervention of so many health professionals psychiatrists, occupational health speech therapists social workers and physio therapist to name just a few.

Educating this audience as well as the general public about HD is a huge communications task, the secrecy and stigma that surrounds the disease makes it even more difficult.

Getting exposure of the condition through initiatives like HD Week helps break down barriers and increase understanding.

For as long as ignorance of the condition exists, the unfortunate experiences of Andrew and Derek will continue to embarrass us all.