Tom is back on the beat today, rounding up this weeks good and bad PR examples.
Good PR
You’ll remember Paul the psychic octopus. Paul took the media world by storm from his home near Frankfurt by correctly predicting the outcome of eight matches in last year’s World Cup.
His “talent” certainly raised the profile of the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre, where he lived – a fact that’s clearly been recognised by another German tourist attraction, Leipzig Zoo.
The zoo’s the home of Heidi the opossum, a cross-eyed creature that’s hitting the headlines for inspiring a song, attracting tens of thousands of Facebook friends and attempting to pick the winners of this year’s Oscars.
We’re pretty good at predictions ourselves, and have no hesitation in forecasting that we’re in for a spate of supposedly sage animal stories from publicity-seeking zoos throughout the world. As the Germans have shown us, they’re a PR no-brainer.
There must be an animal in Edinburgh Zoo with bizarre powers…
Bad PR
It’s reasonable to assume that an organisation on the look-out for a good PR company is, well, PR-savvy.
However, Glasgow University shot itself in the foot when it attached a particularly restrictive condition to a communications contract.
The university determined that only a company with a turnover of £10 million or more could deliver the contract on its behalf – thereby ruling out every single PR firm headquartered in Scotland.
It’s easy to understand why such an august body wants to be represented by the best. But in PR, as in so much else, size isn’t everything.
Judging a company’s ability to deliver the goods by its turnover figure is just plain daft.
One thing’s clear, though – the university could use some PR advice.
