Top of the PR pops: June highlights

It always seems to be the way, it's the beginning of the month then it's flown by in a flash. There's been plenty of things happening over the last four weeks to get the communications industry talking. Here are our highlights from the last month... 

The Scarecrow comes out top at Cannes

On the 17th June Edelman New York, along with Creative Artists Agency Los Angeles, won the Grand Prix and a Gold Lion for PR at this year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for their work on Chipotle Mexican Grill's The Scarecrow campaign.

The definition of PR for the purposes of Cannes Lions is the creative use of reputation management by the building and preservation of trust and understanding between individuals, businesses or organisations and their publics. 

Chipotle believed that the more people knew about the company and the way the brand was positively impacting on the fast food industry, the more they will become passionate and loyal customers. 

So to draw the public's attention to issues within the food industry and encourage conversation around sustainable food production they created an unbranded short film and video game. 

Using no paid media for the first four weeks, the PR team at Edelman were able to gain 614 million media impressions including features on food issues written by influential farmers, sustainability advocates and consumers, across various American and international publications following its launch as an exclusive on USA Today. 

The video was downloaded 650,000 times in North America and the short film reached over 7 million views before a multifaceted digital campaign was initiated to increase viewership. 

The easiest PR campaign Uber will ever run...

On 11th June cities around the world including London, Paris, Berlin and Rome were brought to a standstill as taxi drivers protested against Uber, the app which acts as a fare calculator as well as providing the user with a map and timer of exactly how far away your taxi is, the driver and car details, as well as a simple cashless payment method. 

Unsurprisingly, the fare calculator has particularly infuriated taxi drivers as Uber rates are often significantly cheaper than those they offer.  

In one day the Uber app gained an 850% increase in new users thanks to the extensive media coverage of the protests along with press ads promoting its services to "keep London moving" and an announcement later in the day that they have extended their services to include black cabs.

I am sure that's not the outcome the cab drivers were hoping for...

The Phone hacking trial

After 138 days in court, Mr Justice John Saunders convicted several senior journalists including Andy Coulson the former director of communications of the Conservative Party and former editor of News of the World, for their part in the phone-hacking plot. However, Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News of the World, her husband, assistant and managing editor were found not guilty. 

The trial into New International's conspiracy to listen into the voicemails of celebrities, politicians, royals and ordinary members of the public, including murdered school girl Milly Dowler, is the longest completed criminal trial in recent British legal history with a police investigation estimated to have cost Scotland Yard £32.7 and the trial itself predicted to cost £100m. 

Following on from the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press, the trial has greatly impacted the British media industry by challenging the integrity of journalism while demonstrating that no journalist is above the law. 

We had to mention the World Cup...

I am sure even those not that interested in football will have been gripped by World Cup fever, no? 

There have been some great advertising campaigns and hilarious real-time marketing, particularly after Suarez decided to take a chunk out of Chiellini. 

However, one of the funniest reactions came from Dutch plane operator KLM following Mexico's defeat to the Netherlands. 

This was posted just minutes after the full time whistle blew and went viral. 

However, the tweet was deleted shortly afterwards after hundreds of people complained including Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal who tweeted to his two million plus followers that he would never fly again. KLM also issued a formal apology late on Sunday night. 

To be honest, I do think this seems like a bit of an over reaction. It just seems like a funny bit of banter to me! 

But then again, being Scottish I am not akin to the feeling of being knocked out the World Cup, I hear it's pretty painful. 

And finally...

June has been a fantastic yet busy month for the Mynewsdesk UK team. We ran our first full day conference in London, #FutureComms14, on the 18th June. 

200 delegates joined us to listen to some of the world's leading PR and communications professionals to hear their insights into what the future has in store for the communications industry and the skills you need to learn in order to keep up. 

We were quite pleased that at one point #FutureComms14 was trending on Twitter in London. Check out the conversation the delegates and speakers were having by taking a look at our Twitter highlights.

Also take a peek at some photos from the event below.

We'd be delighted to hear what's got you talking. Please tweet us or leave a comment below.