Top of the PR pops: February highlights

For our February round up of the campaigns, research, and issues most talked about in the PR community I'm happy to report I'll be sparing you from the usual nauseating Valentine's campaigns we are typically bombarded with at this time of year. 

For the most part, the world's attention has been focused on the Sochi Winter Olympics and the socio-political issues it raised. This brings us nicely onto our first campaign...

Hello, my name is Vladimir.

On 4th February Brew Dog released their latest beer Hello, My Name is Vladimir, a double IPA brewed with Limonnik berries and some of the most colourful branding ever to bless a beer bottle. 

"The sick, twisted legislation brought about in Russia that prevents people from living their true lives is something we didn't want to just sit back and not have an opinion on. Our core beliefs are freedom of expression, freedom of speech and a dogged (no pun intended) passion for doing what we love. Thus, we are donating 50% of the profits from this beer to charitable organisations that support like minded individuals wishing to express themselves freely without prejudice." 

Such a brilliant idea and great message.

The best PR prank that never was…

When I first saw this I thought it was awesome! Brave, funny, and simple yet incredibly clever.  Using an advert created using temperature sensitive foil UPS, TNT and DPD advertised for DHL without knowing it until it was too late….

However, the sad reality is that this stunt never happened. Apparently the video was created by an external agency for their own internal use, DHL played no part in it and were unaware of it ever being released to the public. Check out this article for more info.

In saying that, this worked out so well for DHL without them ever having to do anything themselves (or risking legal action from their competitors) – just look at the number of views - over 4,500,000!

The State of the Profession Survey 2013/14

Last week the CIPR released the results of their latest survey of over two and half thousand public relations practitioners, examining issues within the PR industry.

The findings will not be surprising to most. There is an emphasis on the importance of professionalism within the industry despite 25% of practitioners saying that they do not hold an academic qualification. 

However, what's more worrying is a severe gender gap still exists with men twice as likely as women to hold top level positions.

Looking forwards, PR practitioners see the expanding skill set required of professionals as one of the biggest challenges they face. This is in part due to the continual blurring of the lines between the PR and other related disciplines such as marketing, events and customer service. 

Check out the SlideShare for a more in-depth look at their findings.

CIPR State of the Profession 2013/14 from Chartered Institute of Public Relations

Facebook acquires WhatsApp

The tech and social media world was taken aback by the announcement that Facebook had bought the messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion. However, it remains unclear what exactly this means as it has been said that WhatsApp will continue to operate independently.

In terms of what this means for PR and marketing professionals, at the moment it would appear not very much.  As Danny Whatmough says “Facebook’s number one goal (as it has been elsewhere with the launch of Facebook Home and Paper) is to keep mobile users engaged so I doubt we’ll see them opening up the platform for brand either through advertising or for community engagement.”

A simple idea with a powerful message

What would you do if you saw a little boy sitting alone at a bus stop without a coat in the middle of winter?

As part of their campaign to provide warm clothing for displaced children in Syria the Norwegian branch of SOS Children's Villages International secretly filmed bystanders at a bus stop to see how they would react to the little boy. 

Their aim was to demonstrate that the people of Norway "should care as much about children in Syria as they care about this boy". 

Check out the video below...

It's a numbers game...

Finally, our Mynewsdesk highlight of the month was the launch of our new Analytics tool and Ketchum and PR Moment's PR Analytics conference. Check out this post about our update and highlights of the analytics conference here.