Freedman International implements marketing campaigns worldwide for leading consumer brands, specialising in bringing new levels of efficiency and innovation to the global marcomms process. Headquartered in London, they employ over 150 staff with overseas offices in New York, Singapore and Atlanta, working for well known global brands including Electronic Arts, InterContinental Hotels Group and Philips.
The Challenge
Disillusioned by previous PR experiences that had delivered piecemeal coverage and failed to prove value and with an international marketing customer base that had no clear media routes to it, Freedman were unconvinced that a PR solution could work for them at all.
What they needed, if it indeed existed, was a PR campaign that could cross international borders and convey a complex, but compelling narrative of their work direct to global marketers, encouraging engagement, raising profile and reputation and ultimately generating new leads.
Following an article on online pr, that Freedman CEO Kevin Freedman had read in a Furlong PR email newsletter, he invited in the company to discuss online pr strategies. More »
Forbes has added a social media ranking to its annual most powerful celebrities list, topped by Lady Gaga.
Forbes explains, “Because of the growing power of social networks, we added a social media ranking that reflects each celebrity’s presence on Facebook and Twitter.”
The Celebrity 100, which includes film and television actors, TV personalities, models, athletes, authors, musicians and comedians, is a measure of entertainment-related earnings and media visibility (exposure in print, television, radio and online).
Oprah Winfrey topped the overall money and fame list, followed by Beyonce Knowles and James Cameron.
Cameron came second on estimated income – $210 million whilst being at the bottom of the social media rankings at 81st, proving that in 2010 at least, you still make shed loads of cash without a million Twitter followers.
Nice use of viral video by tennis racquet brand Head, starring Andy Murray performing some cool tennis trick shots. 550K views in a week since the release on YouTube.
BP has got to the stage in its reputational decline where it is not just a falling stock but a laughing stock, with 7 million views of this spoof video so far and climbing, making a mockery of BP’s own videos of the containment effort.
Google has released the latest in it’s video narratives which tell a story, align with cool events and cleverly sell its products. In this one, our Glastonbury festival goer loses a tent but finds romance, using maps and translate on his phone.
At the Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles, it was agreed, according to Gorkana that Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) – the main PR measuring stick in use for decades has now been rejected by delegates from 33 countries.
Well we always knew it was a bit iffy, not least because the well known phrase ‘you can’t buy coverage like this’ is literally true – you can’t buy advertising in many of the editorial situations the PR industry gets clients onto, plus AVE massively undervalues the longtail benefits of positive coverage.
While Barcelona has put it’s foot down on AVE, the great and good of PR haven’t yet proposed an alternative. Offline they may continue to struggle but happily online we’re got plenty of options, here’s a few off the bat:
1) The number of new links to your site/blog – good for reputation, SEO and reach
2) The increase in the number of mentions on Google your brand gets.
3) Website grade – use one of the online tools to measure how well your website scores before and after a campaign. More »
Facebook revenue may have neared $800m in 2009, almost double previously estimates, according to a report from Reuters.
Last July, Facebook board member Marc Andreessen told Reuters the company was on track to surpass $500 million in annual revenue for 2009. In September, Facebook said that it had become free cash flow positive, meaning that the company was generating enough cash to cover its operating expenses as well as its capital spending needs.
Estimates in various media reports had previously pegged the company’s 2009 revenue at $550 million to $700 million.
The two sources said revenue in 2009 was in fact $700 million to $800 million.
“They are downplaying their performance,” one source told Reuters, adding that 2009 revenue was more than double the previous year’s total. “There’s no upside in getting people’s expectations high, it’s always better to go low.”
If Facebook eventually seeks to go public, unveiling financial figures above expectations could help bolster investor interest. More »
The NetBase Brand Passion Index, which measures the intensity of consumer passion for brands among users of online communities reveals that consumers of a golfing bent are most passionate about Callaway a golf club brand.
TaylorMade is the next most loved brand, followed closely by Wilson and Nike.
While Nike Golf and Callaway are the subject of an equal amount of chatter, Nike is merely liked while Callaway inspires real passion.
Despite the negative publicity, Tiger Woods does not appear to impact the passion level for the Nike Golf brand. In fact, golfers express little negativity towards any of the major brands.
Titleist gets the least amount of love, but is still generally liked. Personally I hate them, keep losing the pesky things! More »
The value to brand marketers of attracting consumers to sign up to their Facebook pages has been calculated in a new survey from Syncapse.
They found Facebook fans spend $71.84 more per year on brands they ‘Like’ and they are 28% more likely than non-fans to continue using that brand.
In addition, fans are 41% more likely to recommend a fanned product to their friends. Amongst the 20 top brands* measured, the average value of an individual fan rises to $136.38.
Among the 20, McDonald’s registered the largest variability in annualised spending between fans and non-fans, with fans spending $159.79 more per year.
In contrast, Oreo registered the lowest variability in spending between fans and non-fans, with fans spending $28.52 more per year.
The five measured variables that contributed to the study were product spending, brand loyalty, propensity to recommend, brand affinity, and earned media value. More »
Over three quarters of FTSE 100 companies lack basic social media tools such as a blog or an RSS feed, according to a new survey by UK PR company Furlong.
Company Profile
