Edelman PR

The Sun newspaper has a video of the publicity stunt to promote the Simpsons Movie in the UK (unfortunately they have disabled the embedding feature on YouTube so you have to visit the page directly.) An image of Homer Simpson displaying his love for doughnuts was painted next to the Cerne Abbas giant, a famous hillside fertility symbol. It was one of many viral marketing initiatives to promote the movie.

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The Pew Internet & American Life Project has recently published a report which shows that 57% of internet users have watched videos online and most of them share what they find with others. The full report can be read here.

The BBC reports on a YouGov survey which shows that the majority of UK consumers are unwilling to pay higher taxes to help sustain the environment.

Eoghan Ó Neachtain has been appointed as the new Goverment press secretary according to the Irish Times. He joins from the ESB where he has been the public affairs manager for the past five years.

Media Contact reveals that “Eddie Hobbs’ new monthly consumer magazine, You & Your Money, has been an instant national success, with average net sales of 40,092 per edition after just three issues. The magazine’s sales figures were audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) and relate to the period March - May 2007.”

The Irish Times reports on a CSO study which shows that “Irish people have a higher disposal income and are spending more per week than seven years ago.”

RTE reports on the latest census figures which show that “foreign nationals accounted for more than 10% of the population in Ireland on census night last year.“

The Irish Examiner reveals that the director of media and public relations for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Sinead McSweeney, is to become the new director of communications at for the Garda Siochana.

Technorati Tags: BBC, Edelman, Irish Times, PR, Public Relations, RTE

There’s been a lot of coverage about the Daily Mail giving away Prince’s latest album in a recent edition. It’s been hailed as a marketing coup for Prince and underlines the dramatic changes in the music industry of late. While it seems like a win-win move, Follow The Media has a very interesting article on whether the Mail benefited from the promotion.

While the paper shifted an extra half a million copies and obviously drew a lot of advertisers because of the publicity it was garnering, FTM questions how many of those extra readers actually bothered to read the paper. A fact underlined by a studio guest on the BBC proclaiming that they were going to buy twenty copies of the paper to give the CD away as gifts.

Either way the music industry has a lot more to worry about at the moment. Another interesting fact which was reported last week by the Irish Independent was that “the number of consumers buying music singles online has doubled in just 12 months, with four out of every five singles downloaded from the internet. Last July, downloaded music was included in the Irish singles chart for the first time, when 59pc of sales came via retail stores, with the rest bought online. Figures from the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) show that in the past year Irish fans have turned to the internet in their droves, with 80pc of single sales now made this way. However, 96pc of albums are still sold in high street stores.“

Technorati Tags: Edelman, Prince, Music

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Adverblog highlights a T-Mobile contest in Germany to coincide with a new flat rate package the company has launched. “The contest sees teams of 2 people aged 18 to 25 constantly talk to each other, day and night. The team that shuts the talking for more than 10 seconds, is striked out. Every two hours, each participant gets a 10 minute break (eat/drink,toilet etc). The other talker has to continue talking to himself and if the team member doesn’t return on time, they are also striked out. The team that resists until the end wins 10k.”

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It’s interesting to note that radio isn’t as unpopular with teens as is being made out by some commentators. Youth oriented station’s like Dublin Spin 103.8 FM continue to go from strength to strength and a new regional version of the station is due to be launched later this year. Anecdotal evidence from a focus group we held with a number of teenagers also shows that this fickle audience is also happy to sit through ads until the song they’ve been waiting to hear is played. One interesting thing to note about youth radio stations though is that the audience is most engaged in the later afternoon and early evening, i.e. when they get back to school. So if you are targeting this group that’s the key time to book shows for radio promotions.

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RTE reports that Communicorp has bought Today FM, FM104 and Highland Radio.

The Irish Independent has a great interview with Peter Draper, former marketing director with Manchester United.

The high profile advertising campaign around a property development in Dublin that was dubbed as ‘property porn’ in the media has been taken down following complaints to the Advertising Authority. The Irish Independent reports on the story.

RTE reports that “Dublin has the highest proportion of non-Irish nationals at 13% of its population, or 150,000 people.”

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If Machiavelli were alive today, I have no doubt that he cite the Prince of Drumcondra and Duke of Ballybough, Bertie Ahern as the role model for a successful political leader. The formation of the new government is quite simply a work of art. Bertie Ahern has created a situation where neither the Greens, nor the Progressive Democrats nor indeed the independents can bring down the Government on their own. When the Progressive Democrats had four T.D.×?Ts and the ability to bring down the government they had real power. In the last administration they had eight T.Ds but lacking the ability to bring down the Government on their own had far less power.

In addition by co-opting most of the independents Bertie had destroyed the technical group and thus the ability of Sinn Fein to ask Leaders questions. Having already put a stop to Sinn Fein×?Ts electoral gallop ( the first time in 15 years that Sinn Fein has suffered an electoral set back) it must have been a source of some satisfaction to Bertie Ahern see the expression on the Sinn Fein T.Ds faces as they realised that they were now to be denied the significant platform of Leaders questions.

In putting Mary Harney back in Health Bertie Ahern once more demonstrated his political acumen. Had he replaced Harney with a Fianna Fail Minister he would have sent a signal to the vested interests in Health that they had won. Having won one political scalp they would doubtless have sought another, and done all in their power to frustrate the radical reform necessary in the Health Service. Contrary to the popular and media view Mary Harney has delivered significant reforms to the system. Services in accident and emergency are slowly but surely improving. Now she is in a far more powerful position than she was when she first took the position of Minister for Health. There were many in the Health Service who believed that all they had to do was wait for the election and the reforms and Mary Harney would disappear. Well neither have. The positive noises emanating from the Consultants are a rueful recognition of this reality.

In bringing the Greens into Government has once more demonstrated his shrewd understanding of the people×?Ts will. It is true that the environment did not feature as an issue in the election. However that had less to do with the level of people×?Ts interest in the environment and more to do with the fact that the relentless focus Ahern×?Ts finances by the media squeezed all of the real issues bar the economy out of the debate. The truth is that environment is now a real issue for people and they do want to see government action to curb carbon emissions. Whatever the makeup of the new government, its agenda was bound to be green. The programme for Government contains nothing that should keep a Fianna Fail Co Councillor or Jackie Healy-Rae awake at night. However by giving the Greens Energy and Environment he has given them the means the make a real difference. If they are successful Fianna Fail will claim the credit and bask in the glory. If they fail, well it just shows you that for the tough jobs you need Fianna Fail. For make no mistake it will be a tough job. Writing the policies for a greener Ireland is the easy part, implementing these policies is the tough part. We have set ourselves very aggressive targets for the reduction of carbon emissions and for the adoption of renewable energy. Reaching these targets will require a lot of tough decisions. Everybody wants wind power but few people want a wind turbine in the field beside them. The new Green Ministers face massive challenges in implementing their agenda. However if they can skilfully use the synergies between the Departments of Energy and Environment they have the potential to do so. Trevor Sargeant×?Ts move into Food is also a good move from the Green point of view. The archetypical green voter (32 year old female with two kids) is deeply concerned both about the environment and about the food her children eats.

Where does this leave the opposition? When Fine Gael stop celebrating their recent success and look at the result in the cold light of day, they will realise they face a formidable challenge in the next election. They ran an excellent campaign and Enda Kenny fulfilled his pledge to electrify the party. However they did not make significant gains in the crucial commuter belt constituencies. Nor did their frontbench cause any real problems for the big guns of Fianna Fail. In short the Fine Gael Front bench did not give the sense it had the heft to form the core of an alternative Government. Labour face an even more difficult prospect, they probably ran the best campaign they had in years but failed to bring in new blood to the party. Labour has some of the best T.Ds in the Dail but it is an aging party and urgently needs renewal. For Labour the local elections are a make or break decision point.

For now Bertie Ahern is the master of all he surveys but as his predecessor rightly noted it is not the big hurdles that trip you up but the small ones.

Seamus Mulconry is director of Public Affairs in Edelman Dublin

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Liam Reid, Environment Correspondent with The Irish Times, has been appointed as press advisor to John Gormley TD, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

Marc Coleman, economics editor with the Irish Times, has left the publication to join the Sunday Independent.

Emma Kennedy has joined the Sunday Business Post. Previous to her appointment, Emma worked with RTE as a researcher on The Business and also freelanced with the Irish Independent.

John Burke has been appointed as Public Affairs Correspondent with The Sunday Business Post. Previously he was Crime Correspondent with The Sunday Tribune.

Hugh Linehan is the new Features Editor in The Irish Times. Previously Hugh was Editor of The Ticket, The Irish Times listing magazine. Conor Goodman has taken up Hugh’s old position in The Ticket. He was previously Production Editor for The Irish Times - Weekend Magazine.

Deaglan De Breadun has taken up a new role with The Irish Times as Political Correspondent previously he was the Foreign Affairs Correspondent.

For more industry movement check out Mediacontact.ie, where you can also purchase the Irish Media Contacts Directory.

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The BBC will launch its on demand TV service, the BBC iPlayer, on 27 July. It will enable UK users to download popular shows over the net seven days after broadcast to watch on their PC. Speaking about the launch, Director General Mark Thompson said, “Forty years ago, in July 1967, BBC Television launched colour TV. This July we are going to launch the iPlayer and in our view, the iPlayer is at least as big a redefinition of what TV can be, what radio can be, what broadcasting can be, as what colour television was 40 years ago.”

BusinessWeek has a fascinating article on how the second-generation Internet is spawning a global youth culture and how businesses are trying to take advantage of it. Lynx/Axe’s Bow Chicka Wah Wah campaign, the brainchild of advertising agency BBH, is offered up as a great example of how BBH created a wolf whistle that would be recognised around the world and identified with the iconic brand.

HP have launched an amazing campaign in the UK by partnering with the National Gallery in London. Eric Kintz, Vice President of Global Marketing Strategy & Excellence for HP, describes the campaign on his blog, “HP has reproduced masterpieces from Caravaggio, Le Nain, Monet, Botticelli and others through innovative and creative imaging and printing and turned London into a giant art gallery by hanging the full size paintings in the most unusual places.” To find out more about the campaign, dubbed the ‘Grand Tour’, visit the campaign homepage.

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