Tom Cooledge

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My thoughts on social media, PR and who, truly, was the very best Thundercat.

11/11/2011 • 3:04 pm 0

Merry X-Factor-Mas

 

So, I started my Christmas shop yesterday.

 

Before you throw your coffee at the monitor or dangle the laptop out of a nearby window in disgust, it wasn’t something I wanted to do. Christmas belongs to December; I noticed a Christmas tree in the Hourglass on Lower Briggate early September and I’ve boycotted it ever since.

 

Thing is, my parents have promised to pick up some of the more cumbersome presents this weekend and take them back to my home town. Since my circle of friends insist on having (cute, funny, lovely) kids, the train ride home for Christmas gets more and more difficult. Who wants to be sat next to the person balancing a tub of Duplo, six Winnie-the-Poohs and a drum kit on their lap? No-one wants to be friends with that guy.

 

Well, apart from any man drinking Stella Artois on a train – they’re desperate to chat to anyone. I think I sneezed once and Stella guy picked up with “Bless you. Well, now that we’re talking…”

 

The other tricky aspect of buying for the kids is the retail experience. I like the Early Learning Centre for good quality, educational gifts, though walking through its door prompts an epidemic of maternal Turrets as women summon their children to their sides; everyone automatically assumes the worst of a single bloke in a toy shop.

 

“Chelsea/Christabel/Stephanie-Louise, here, NOW.”

 

To come back to the Christmas shop, it struck me that it might be a case of ‘the earlier we start, the better’ this year.

 

Almost every winter, journalists discuss the influence of the X Factor, suggesting we might as well kiss goodbye to our free will as consumers as the show marches on. However, the impact, importance and potential of related advertising has really come to the fore in 2011, following this sad week for the Muppets. Not only are they missing out on hosting the Oscars, but earlier on, they also kissed goodbye to the X Factor dream.

 

Frankie Cocozza, or the contestant most likely to be a Jim Henson creation, has (been) withdrawn from the running following alleged drug use.

 

Quick! Get him off the M&S ad before buyers think they lace the cranberry sauce!

 

I’m joking: there’s no question that the founding father of high-street retail was doing the right thing by editing Frankie out of its TV ads. However, Marks & Sparks’ PR machine seem really determined to milk the scandal it for all it’s worth as stories of its revised campaign are appearing everywhere.

 

Typically, it would just be a valid, interesting news story worthy of extensive coverage but the stampede of organisations and individuals looking to exploit the ITV vehicle in 2011 makes it difficult to determine genuine, newsworthy information from Tulisa and Kelly supposedly feuding over a leading line of nail varnish.

 

In my humble opinion, PR professionals would be foolish not to make the most out of the X Factor, but it all feels a little crowded this November. As brands, contestants and judges compete for their share of the limelight, I feel like I’m having my intelligence insulted.

 

We’re lacking a truly transparent figure or affiliate to maintain the integrity of the show and suggest “it’s all about the music folks” rather than product endorsements or playing the fame game.

 

Bring back the Yeo Valley farmers and Simon Cowell – at least both were upfront and honest about what they wanted from their audience.

Filed under: Uncategorized

21/06/2011 • 9:16 am 0

Cheese

I had a really heavy night on Saturday. I went to three different birthday parties (really uncommon, promise) and toasted at each over lunch, dinner and later that night. I can only imagine how bad I looked by closing time and, luckily, that’s all I’ll ever be able to do. Imagine.

Cameras don’t like me and I’ve tried everything. Flashes wipe my flesh tone and the outcome is something a fanatic might produce in support of the life-beyond-death argument. However, thanks to a Photo Booth app that night, a nostalgic sepia effect kept my colour and even smoothed over my ruddy awful complexion. I think I sighed with relief.

As rare as a solar eclipse, I always get excited when somebody manages to take a good photo of me. It’s usually because I can share it on facebook with my friends (provided they aren’t part of the group allegedly shunning it at the moment.) There are plenty of studies that suggest social networking boosts confidence and people skills and I can well believe it. It’s a great opportunity to put forward the best version of yourself, as well being the perfect playground for cyber-disinhibition.

What disappoints me is that, whilst most social networking promotes self esteem, others are all too happy to unpick it.

I was delighted to think that beautifulpeople.com had been infiltrated by renegades with enough techy know-how to bypass the entry criteria yesterday. Infamously dropping members for ‘gaining holiday weight’ last January, the site only permits forum members that are considered attractive by other users. For the codeheads behind ‘Shrek’ to have gained access was one-up for those continually disappointed with how their photos turn out, reclaiming online societies for all.

However, reports that the hack was a hoax for publicity meant that I didn’t get chance to fly the flag for long. Isn’t it a little crass to gate a community and create a USP, then use those outside the elite as fodder for column inches? Maybe it’s just me.

Filed under: Online Individual, Online networks, Uncategorized

14/04/2011 • 4:20 pm 0

Six items or fewer at any time

When was the last time you visited your local library and took a book home with you?

The concept itself is almost an anachronism.

However, certain aspects of this traditional relationship between lender and borrower are alive and well today. Content might be available over thousands of new channels but some providers seem to keep up unreasonable restrictions and stamp a date, in red, on all outgoing media.

Spotify announced today that it’s free music allowance will be halved from 20 hours to 10 on May 1st. Six million users in the UK will be allowed to listen to one particular song five times a month until the online music library renders it unavailable.

Spotify remains one of the best models for tackling illegal downloading: easy to access (and purchase) content attained with the permission of record labels. Although co-founder Daniel Ek is probably making a shrewd business move, he’s driving music fans – happy to operate within the realms of the law – off of the straight and narrow.

It seems a shame, especially considering the music industry’s very public struggle with internet piracy issues. The Recording Industry Association of America had their entire CSR strategy questioned in 2003 when filing a lawsuit against a 12 year old girl accused of illegally downloading music. Lobbyists felt so passionately that an independent group financially recompensed the family for the amount sued in fact.

More recently, in 2009, the Digital Economy Bill threatened to force the hands of UK ISPs to disconnect homes suspected of piracy. It still looks likely that broadband providers will need to make these cuts – at their own cost – and block all sites suspected of sharing content without permission.

What I’d like to see is, rather than a government hell bent on policing existing channels, is one happy to innovate and develop its own. There’s no reason why the nation couldn’t have a similar library as Spotify, subsidised using Digital Economy Bill resources, with any profit paid into the struggling UK music industry.

Filed under: Digital Economy Bill, Filesharing, Uncategorized

23/01/2010 • 11:46 am 1

Unchartered territory

Last week the Crème Egg came back en force. Utilising New Media in every which way, the 2010 reappearance was not only inescapable but, with online gaming and a Facebook fan page, it had a much greater Web 2.0 draw.

Handling several online incarnations of the brand, like this, is here to stay according to Hill & Knowlton’s Tech Decision-makers Study last year. Results confirmed certain Retail Marketers found ‘online social media…as important as traditional media.’ However, it was refreshing to see on industry sites this week that the PR professional is not the only one to pit their skill set against these new, emerging channels.

The pressure to understand and even create new digital interfaces now lies with the Journalist, according to American blogsite Gawker. ‘As if the journalism job landscape wasn’t terrifying enough, now you’ve got to think about learning to code.’ Prompted by the bankruptcy of several US newspapers, ‘Network Journalism’ (coined by academics Bardoel and Deuze) i.e. to devise and maintain Web 2.0 news forums is more economically viable than the traditional press. Also, ‘shovelware’/simply uploading content to a website is no longer sufficient. If the readership or the content requires a new platform, it’s down to the Journalist to create it.

As Clay Shirky points out, though, the rise of Programmers will not negate the difference between ‘people who write code’ and ‘people who are paid to write code.’ The journalist’s trepidation to broach unfamiliar territory could partially be down to the news industry’s incessant eye rolling at those amateurs that ‘dabble’ in Citizen Journalism.

Mercedes Bunz of The Guardian is right to point out that the sooner journalists engage with emerging technology the better; ‘journalists of the future will have more forms of expression than ever before.’ Plus, almost as an incentive, Gawker lists writers such as New York Times’ Nick Bilton who’ve embraced coding, or the ‘nerdy trend’, to their benefit. Gawker’s quite right to infer that coding will ensure the news spans further; the same dream as the early ‘pamphleteer, typesetter, postmaster and newspaper publisher.’

OK, the professionals haven’t always welcomed the reports of the Citizen Journalist but the qualified journalist can maintain their advantage, according to Bunz, as long as he/she continues to ‘value the ethics of journalism.’

Filed under: Coding, pamphleteers, personal journalism, Uncategorized

About Tom


Tom is a PR professional with six years experience of working within Leeds' creative community. With a background including events management and journalism, he recently graduated with an M(Sc) in Corporate Communications and continues to support high profile clients on national B2B and B2C campaigns.

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