Virgin's 25 year anniversary ad - still red hot

This is the first 80s throwback ad which I think works very well, even down to the retro styling of the ad direction. Brings back a lot of memories. Top marks all round.

But why can't I find a decent quality version on YouTube from Virgin themselves? Why only have it on Virgin's microsite with no share/send buttons? You can't even watch it on Facebook... Considering Mr Branson's dalliances with Twitter and social media this seems like a real faux pas, no? Or does Virgin not want to have it discussed/forwarded on? In which case, why have a dedicated microsite, and a pretty effective PR operation to support it, but no obvious campaign to generate online talkability/distribution of the ad. Curious. I'd have loved to have the brief to generate coverage for the ad and the red hot campaign...

Anyway, excuse the quality. But do admire it at the same time.

Memes maketh the man (2) - What made me go into PR?

Another meme, this one from Adam Lewis of Flawless Buzz fame.

He's asked five of us

1. Ben Matthews
2. Tom Malcolm
3. Jedster Hallam
4. Chris Reed
5. Richard Bailey

to answer three questions about the world of PR... So here goes

1. What is the one piece of advice you would give to someone entering the world of PR?

Consume all of the media you want to influence and get to know journalists' likes and dislikes as soon as possible. The single worst mistake anyone can ever make in PR is to not know enough about the individual you're pitching to, what they've written/broadcast before, and how they like to be approached. And with the advent of google and social media (especially Twitter) it's actually much easier now to research these things than ever before.

Totally understand the topic/area/product/sector you're going to represent. You're only useful if you know more than the person you're talking to, or can help them quicker and better than Google can. You have to earn their respect and trust by being authorative, accurate and helpful. And don't miss their deadline.

Actually - if it was just one thing, I'd say it's be transparent at all times. Never lie.

2. The favourite part of your job?

The variety. I've always been interested in marketing communications, advertising, DM etc - but with PR you can combine the best bits of all of those disciplines. The best PRs are account handlers, creatives, strategists, planners, project managers and evaluation experts all wrapped up in one person, or one tight team.

3. Why did you decide to go into PR?

I'd thought about law, but felt I could not represent people who were so obviously not telling the truth. I thought about journalism, but after seeing some death-knock tabloid hacks in action decided I wouldn't get a kick out of it... In my last year at Uni (1992) I was running an environmental/recycling campaign. I wrote and sold in a press release about it which got me interviewed on the local BBC station. I liked the idea of giving journalists a story they wanted but with my agenda. The rest is...

Next up for this one (partly because I'm curious) is Daljit, Becky, and Stephen Davies. Consider the meme batton passed on, if you fancy it. And while I'm at it, Alex or one the PR and Comms Network bloggers.

Do slow memes maketh the man?

I've been tagged twice in memeworld (once ages ago) so thought both worthy of a reply. Belatedly, mind. I've been quiet on the rss reading/bloggy/tweety front recently. Christmas with two young kids. My three year old got a new bike and learned to ride straight away. Total highlight.

Anyway, the entertaining Melanie Seasons tagged me and Iain Tait (I'm a big Crackunit fan) in the "What inspires you to blog?" meme, which as so far attracted some of the old guard like Drew Benvie and Ged Carroll, as well as Jaz Cummins, Jonny Rosemount, Lewis Webb, Wadds and no doubt lots of others who did theirs way back when.

So here goes.

1) It's when interesting thoughts and time to write about them collide. Generally late at night, with one eye on the laptop and one eye on the TV. Especially true after I've tagged things in Delicious during the day/week before and there's not that much on the box

2) If I see something I want to share - which requires a bit more commentary than 140 chars. Often this is something I really like. Sometimes it's something I can't stand

3) When something in the world is just plain wrong - according to my own ginger world view

4) When I think I can add something useful to a conversation (Chris Applegate's recent post on Andy Burnham's proposal to age-restrict certain sites was so spot on I simply didn't want to re-write it after he'd done it justice already)

5) After I've met, listened to or talked to someone interesting

6) When I want to pimp great stuff any of my mates are doing/have done

By way of pedigree... my first blog was a travel blog in 2000 (The only page left on the Way Back When machine is in 2001). Since then I didn't pick it up again until this one. But I also have a little music blog which I'm not quite sure what to do with. And I set up Twitterfund.com after what I thought was a great idea (but unfortunately just before Twitter got $17M in VC funding). I'm not good at generating linkbait. But I do like to learn new stuff, share stuff and be helpful... Which is, I guess, why I got back into blogging - to participate in conversations.

And given that this is all about a conversation - albeit one with a massive gap between sentences, I tag Robin Wilson, and James Gordon-Macintosh to continue (or rather revive) things.