The art of conversation

Posted September 1st, 2010 by Christine.
Category Personal Tags ,

I’m on a packed train from Leeds to London – busier than usual because it contains the cancelled 8.40ers like me, now with irrelevant seat reservations, as well as the 9.05ers, determinedly claiming their rightful seats.

And I’m wondering whether we’ve all become less fractious as travellers now – grown immune to the frequent problems and delays and sweetly grateful when we can report “a really good journey” – or are we all just ensconced in our own virtual worlds?

I can see laptops on nearly every knee and table, several iPhones, Blackberries and other mobiles. But no conversation. Despite the gift of mutual inconvenience, shared train company gripes, competition for worst travel nightmare story – the only exchanged words are “I think that’s my seat” “Sorry” and “Thank you”. Were we all sharing our frustrations on Facebook? Tweeting our angst?

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Americanizzzzzation……are the yanks coming?

Posted August 26th, 2010 by Sarah.
Category Language, Media Tags , ,
Blair & Co.

I’m quite a fan of the USA. Most of my TV watching is West Wing, The Wire, ER and even Friends when extremely hungover. And New York is my first choice for the next MCG PR office and one of my favourite places on Earth.

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Inaugural taste test – jaffa cakes

Posted August 13th, 2010 by Rachel.
Category Friday taste test, Interests Tags ,
the panel

We launch our Friday tasting panel series with the serious business of a jaffa cake-off. Which brand won and which was chemically? Whose was the most citrus?

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Brand England – The Fabio effect

Posted August 10th, 2010 by MCG guest blogger.
Category Marketing Tags , , , ,
Brand England

Ahead of Wednesday’s first football international match at Wembley since England’s terrible World Cup campaign, football fanatic and sports marketing director Gary McCall looks at what Brand England needs to do to restore faith in our national team.

“In this time of austerity is there anything that can lift this nation more than a successful national football team?

Everyone thought that Brand England could not get lower than when we failed to qualify for Euro 2008 but the recent World Cup 2010 performance of the national team has had terrible consequences, which reach further than the football and sports industry. That aside and as we look forward to the next round of qualifying matches we have to face facts – our national football has regressed years irrespective of what we do now. From a brand building point of view the FA must act now and remove Capello – it’s the only way to salvage Brand England.

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It isn’t SPIN!

Posted August 6th, 2010 by Katie.
Category Marketing, PR Tags , ,

Last week, PR took centre stage in Marketing Week as they assessed the damage the oil disaster had caused to BP’s reputation following the way the issue has been handled through media relations. Editor Mark Choueke made the crucial point that “PR’s not just spin, it’s brand management”. I felt compelled to respond…

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Weather – whether we like it or not

Posted August 5th, 2010 by Kate.
Category PR Tags , , ,
weather

Recent research by VisitBritain has revealed that foreign visitors to Great Britain are not worried about the weather during their visit. Whilst we all discuss the vagaries of the British climate at the drop of a (waterproof) hat, tourists visiting the UK are not put off by our cooler summers, drawn to our shores by the world class culture and heritage instead.

Meanwhile, this summer has seen a PR debate raging about that most routine of British institutions – the weather forecast.

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To whom it may concern

Posted August 2nd, 2010 by Sarah.
Category PR Tags ,

I should start by saying I’m a big fan of young people. I have three of my own and I love them and their friends. I don’t buy into the theory that most young people are a waste of space and usually up to no good. Rather, I think they are, on the whole, funny, fearless, sassy, ambitious, inventive, adventurous, bold and loyal.

However, at the moment, I am struggling to defend their attention to detail and real application to the task. As a PR company, we receive many unsolicited CVs every week from young people wanting work experience or jobs. Many of them are either about to start University, part-way through a course or have just finished University. Very few are impressive and many are simply terrible

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It’s the county that counts

Posted July 29th, 2010 by Kate.
Category Interests Tags , , ,
White rose of Yorkshire

It’s Yorkshire Day on Sunday and we’ll obviously be celebrating at Mortimer Chadwick Gray with lashings of Yorkshire Tea, Yorkshire pudding, parkin, balti, rhubarb and Tetley’s bitter.

We have plenty to be proud of in Yorkshire, but then the same could be said of many counties in the UK each with their own identity, traditions, regional specialities and sites of historical interest. So why do so few of them have a county day? Just Yorkshire and Lancashire according to my research, but they only wanted one because we had one first.

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Focus Groups

Posted July 23rd, 2010 by Kyla.
Category Marketing Tags , , , ,

I’d never been to a focus group before so I was intrigued and excited when our client Greencore, invited me along to a session to discuss a new Weight Watchers product.

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Leeds is missing a Moose

Posted July 23rd, 2010 by Kate.
Category Interests, Marketing Tags , , , , ,
Advice for commuters

Every evening as I drove through that underpass I admired the artwork that adorned the walls. Someone inspired and talented had taken a scrubbing brush to those grotty tiles and removed the exhaust fumes and dust to create images of flowers bowing in the breeze and swirling script – every night this reverse graffiti genius reminded me to ‘go gently’. That graffiti cheered me up and made me smile night after night. And then one day it was gone

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