‘Earned Media’.

The most common use for it at the moment seems to be around social media. For example if you put an ad on TV you are using ‘Paid’ media. If it’s on your own website or on one of your delivery vans it’s ‘Owned’ media but if someone is talking about your brand online, on Twitter for example, it’s ‘Earned’ media.

What bugs me is that the impression given is that this is ‘Free’. It’s not.

It reminds of when you see how many column inches your PR activity got you – ‘Your campaign earned over X million in free media.’ It simply not true. If someone is talking about your brand online there’s quite a high chance that it’s because you did something worth talking about. If that’s the case then chances are you paid for it. Whether it’s managing a Facebook page, running a competition or promotion or sending a tweet then you have paid someone to do it. Just because it didn’t use traditional media doesn’t mean it didn’t cost you money.

Even when the term was used in traditional PR it was slightly disingenuous given you paid for the PR activity in the first place and it was usually promoting a new product or campaign which, by the way, you paid for too. The paper probably ran the piece because you’re a big advertiser and treating you well encourages you to spend with them.

It’s not that I have a problem with the practice itself, i don’t, it’s all marketing and it’s every bit as effective in reaching the customer, but calling it ‘Earned Media’ is just fooling yourself – ‘Look at how much free publicity we got about our campaign that we spent lots of money on.’

It’s like when we’re absolutely chuffed when our TV ad gets a million views online. It probably got 20 million views on TV during the campaign. The 1 million views online weren’t free. You had to make the ad in the first place and most of the buzz about it probably came from people talking about the TV ad they seen or looking at the ad on youtube after they seen it on TV.

We have to stop pretending the internet is free. It can be cost effective for brands to use online and social media but as far as i can tell the success rate isn’t any better than traditional media and it still costs money to implement and manage it.

It might sound like i’m trying to bash ‘new’ media and I’m a traditional media dinosaur but i’m not. I just don’t think its better than traditional media, not yet anyway, and until it is we need to lose the hype and treat it like all the others.

P

Whilst obviously my main delight in the team qualifying for Euro 2012 was seeing Ireland compete at a major championship for the first time in 10 years, as well as the major lift it can give the country, but i was also really looking forward to seeing a slew of great advertising work created to help light the nations tinder.

So far so incredibly underwhelmed, in particular when you see the current Carlsberg effort – which looks even worse when you see the effort Carlsberg UK have put in

I’m not without hope – there is still 4 weeks to go – and it would be great to think that there is a store of nation lifters coming down the track. But if it does pan out that no one has taken a punt on trying on the mantle of national zeitgeist cheerleader it will have been a big opportunity missed methinks.

Full job Specification

Receptionist

Core responsibilities
•Dealing with all incoming telephone calls
•Meeting and greeting all clients

•Front desk reception
•Ordering couriers
•Managing all stationary requests
•Handling incoming and outgoing post
•Printing accounts invoices and posting of invoices
•Other duties may include assisting with administrative tasks such as word processing, data entry, presentation preparation and desk based research.

Job Requirements

•At least one year’s experience in a Reception role is essential
•Polite telephone manner
•Excellent written and oral communication skills
•The ideal candidate will be well presented and have a professional manner
•The ability to multi-task
•Organisational skills
•The applicant must be highly proficient in Microsoft Office and have a good knowledge of the internet

I was a little disappointed to find ‘chipper chips’ ranking at number 1 for 200 reasons…. And whilst Dublin Town’s piece is a gorgeous piece visually – filled with sunny blue skies, hipsters standing on street corners and the locals declaring ‘everything is great about Dublin’, It does feel a little like a Tourism Ireland piece. I love the style it is shot in, but it doesn’t feel like the Dublin I know… but one I’d very much like to visit.
So, in the interests of jumping on the bandwagon, I conducted a survey of my own and made a bucket list of defining Dublin moments.

1. The pork belly in L’Gueuleton (it will get better I promise)
2. The huge array of fantastic pubs from the Baggot Mile to the oldies like Cavistons and Peter’s Pub.
3. The people. You couldn’t find any like them in any other city. Personally, I don’t think the Irish BFF.
4. Grafton Street on Christmas Eve. No one can elbow shove like the Irish in a hurry.
5. Sandymount Strand & bracing walks in dreary January
6. The techno in Twisted Pepper.
7. Tea and chats in Wall and Keogh
8. St. Stephen’s Green when the sun shines and bodies are strewn everywhere. We don’t get to live the summer dream that often
9. Fish and Chips on Howth Harbour. They taste better by the sea.
10.The Hugh Lane Gallery.
11. Temple Bar market on Saturdays – the best place to people watch.
12. The top floor view from The Winding Stair restaurant – especially when raining outside.
13. Powercourts and Westbury Malls –
14.Whelan’s. The underbelly of the Irish music scene. Even if it was tarnished after it’s appearance in P.S. I Love U
15. Trannies. Dublin punches above its weight with the quality of its trannies
16. Knacker drinking at the Pav on a summer’s eve – and pretending it’s civilised cus’ your watching the cricket and swigging on Pimms.
17. The ultra discrete United Arts Club on Fitzwilliam Street, it’s like the Celtic tiger never happened – old world Hibernia
18. The Natural History Museum – the first place in Dublin I ever visited.
19. Iveagh Gardens on a frosty morning, Merrion Square on an Autumn’s. (There’s something liberating about kicking leaves….)
20. A trip up Killiney Hill to see the sun set over Dublin.

DublinTown.ie

Today is the annual tea day of our Client The Alzheimers Society. To support this great cause, the Boys and Girls have baked a fantastic spread that is available in 14 Pembroke Road, so anyone passing with €€€€, please come in and indulge.

Here are shots of a selection of the delicacies on offer

Later there will a grown up Afternoon Tea party with some of Patrick’s “special” tea.

There are currently about 44,000 people living with dementia in Ireland, a number that is expected to double in the next 20 years. The Alzheimers Society work to help support those living with Alzheimers.

Click here to donate directly.

And now it is time for elevenses and some sampling!

Double Life was also the first of a string of brilliant PlayStation ads that would span a decade.

Which is why it’s disappointing that they’ve done it again. Not only are ideas are never as good the second time around, but even the execution has been sanitized. Where the original evokes, the newer ad shows. And in seeing more ultimately, we feel less.  Check it out.

Rory

While many of us will admit to daydreaming about  a big lotto win and buying our very own tropical island, Brendan Grimshaw from Dewsbury did just that. Just off the Seychelles…. cue pang of jealousy.

But the more I read, the more smug I became.

“He spends his days caring for the island’s tortoises and birds that also call it home.
When he bought Moyenne, it was overgrown with scrub so dense that coconuts could not fall to the ground. But Brendon worked tirelessly to transform the island into his own little patch of heaven.
Living in this unique wildlife reserve, he has survived tropical storms, sharks, ghosts, a coup d’etat in the Seychelles and a mercenary raid.”

Ummm, that sounds like my private hell. A lifetime chopping through shrubs and feeding turtles?

Daydreams readjusted. My winning lotto ticket will buy me a shoe heaven.

TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World 2012 list, as voted for by the people, was revealed last week. The list is made up of “people who inspire us, entertains us, challenge us and change the world” - broken into five categories: Breakouts, Pioneers, Moguls, Leaders and of course, Icons. The latter being the category that I found most interesting, mainly because of who it was made up of and where they ranked.

There is no doubt that celebrity endorsements in advertising push sales and that we as consumers are influenced by popular culture, whether we are aware of it or not. However, the problem with celebrities is, they’re only popular until they’re not. The power of influence is subject to change. In terms of icons or celebrities, today’s hot flavour can be tomorrow’s has been. The lists from 2010 and 2011 have little in common with this years.

So if these are currently the most influential people in the world, which brands are queuing up to cash in on their persuasive powers? NBA star Jeremy Lin who ranked number one on the list, was recently signed as Volvo brand ambassador for the next two years. Obviously a clever move for Volvo as they aim to increase the company’s sales to 800,000 units by 2020, with much of that increase aimed at the Chinese market.

The list is a clear indication of who brands should want to be associated with. However, trends and tastes are ever changing and while celebrities in advertising are a means to an end, they are not an end in themselves.

Tiger Woods made the list in 2009 and reportedly lost $22 million from endorsements in 2010 when brands like Gatorade, AT&T and Accenture dropped him faster than you can say scandal.

The flip side to powerful influence is that when it goes wrong, the outcome can be detrimental to a brand image and reputation. Getting them while they’re hot can bear a huge risk. For the most part though celebrity endorsements work out well for all parties involved – we’re so glad H&M signed David Beckham for their 2012 campaign.

Oh, the bravery of Bavaria. The almighty balls of the Dutch. An ad featuring a self-confessed addict, the unbankable Charlie Sheen, about beer and Charlie drops the F bomb.

Bavaria Beer. Winning.