Archive for the ‘Interests’ Category

Constructive Criticism

Posted January 6th, 2011 by Christine.
Category Interests, Media Tags , ,
spiderman

Having just returned from one of my favourite places in the world, New York, I find myself one of the privileged (?) few who has actually seen the much talked-about new musical Spiderman. Due to open in February, preview performances have made the headlines on safety issues, with four actors injured, one seriously after he plunged some 30 feet into the orchestra pit when a safety rope snapped.

Now New York theatre critics have broken the traditional embargo on previews by writing damning preliminary assessments. Like circling vultures they are predicting early closure for the $65 million production – New York Post columnist Michael Riedel said: “I don’t think Spiderman can overcome the publicity”.

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Too much hype for The Archers’ 60th anniversary episode?

Posted January 5th, 2011 by Sarah.
Category Interests, Personal, PR Tags ,
archers

As a PR professional, I’m always looking for the news hook to make a story fly in the media. Being a former journalist, I’m usually pretty good at knowing what is news and what isn’t. There are always anomalies, sometimes something with very little legs flies and sometimes the best story nosedives. But I like that, it’s part of what makes this job so interesting.

Knowing and loving The Archers as I do, the recent hype around its 60th anniversary episode which promised “to shake Ambridge to the core” was always going to be difficult to deliver.

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A picture is worth a thousand words

Posted November 30th, 2010 by Kate.
Category Interests, Photography, PR Tags , ,
01 November Fluttering Ribbons

Tomorrow marks the start of the MCG advent calendar, for the next 24 days we’ll be searching for Christmassy images to hide behind the doors of our virtual perforated cardboard treasure trove. There won’t be any chocolates, but I have already filed three wise men and a donkey.

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Tomato Ketchup Taste Test Shocker Silences PR Professionals

Posted November 26th, 2010 by Joss.
Category Friday taste test, Interests Tags ,
tommy k 002 - LR

After the resounding and quite frankly, overwhelmingly shocking results of MCG’s last taste test, we decided to hold another in honour of one of Britain’s best traditions; the humble chip. And what does one use to grace the humble chip? Why tomato ketchup of course.

Ketchup, red sauce, tommy k; we had them all and settled on the six brands which we thought best represented the current market:

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Is social media making us anti-social?

Posted November 22nd, 2010 by Becca.
Category Interests, Media, Personal, PR Tags , , , ,
Giles and Sue

My social community is made up of celebs, colleagues, competitors, brands, characters, hats, dead monarchy – the list goes on…and I am very proud of this little community that I have built up myself and which I interact with daily. However, the question I asked myself last night was when does interaction become obsession?

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Spooky stuff at MCG

Posted October 29th, 2010 by Rachel.
Category Interests, Top Twelves Tags ,
29 October Pumpkins

With Halloween turning into a bigger and bigger affair every year, we all decided to get into the spooky spirit and embrace the event fully. Unfortunately no scary costumes this time…maybe next year.

Starting off the week with a few horror stories and tales of random ghostly sightings, all of which are true I’m sure (!), the week culminated in a slightly…no, very competitive pumpkin carving competition!

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Give a little whistle

Posted October 18th, 2010 by Kate.
Category Interests, Top Twelves Tags , ,
whistling

The first track on the radio at MCG this morning was Paul Simon’s ‘Me and Julio Down by the School Yard’. Cue a heated debated about the best songs featuring whistling. So here they are, our top twelve (cos that’s the right number for a mix tape OK) tracks featuring that little added extra. Purse those lips and blow:

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You have a small chance of dying whilst reading this

Posted October 12th, 2010 by Kate.
Category Interests, PR Tags , ,

As a PR consultant I spend a fair amount of time thinking about measurement. Ours is a notoriously difficult discipline to quantify – that’s one of the things I like about it. How do you measure the success of a campaign that will build awareness and may influence a purchase or a decision months later? As an industry we are building new techniques and tackling the changing media landscape with a desire to measure our results meaningfully for our clients – The CIPR’s Barcelona Principles may well spell the end of AVE

But, what are the chances of me surviving to see them come to completion? Well I can probably measure that too, using micromorts – a nifty unit of measurement designed to quantify risk. One micromort is a one-in-a-million probability of death. The concept was introduced by Ronald A. Howard who pioneered the modern practice of decision analysis.

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Food for sport

Posted September 27th, 2010 by Sarah.
Category Food, Interests Tags , , , ,
freddie football

Much has been made of the state of the accommodation at the Commonwealth Games athletes’ village in India, but what about the food?

With a son who plays football to quite a high level and rugby-loving husband, I’ve visited many different sports stadiums of all shapes and sizes from park pitches to Wembley. But the one thing they all have in common is the food. It’s universally dreadful.

After many a football match at clubs where they talk about the importance of nutrition to the players, my son is offered chips or a hot dog by the home club. A sandwich is rare and you can forget about fruit or vegetables, the five-a-day are nowhere to be seen.

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Some things are just better in print

Posted September 7th, 2010 by Kate.
Category Interests, Language, Personal Tags , ,
Scrabble winning q-words

I’ve been browsing Amazon this morning following the news last week that the next edition of the Complete Oxford English Dictionary might not be published in a paper format. The full set of 20 volumes will set you back about £700 – perhaps a little excessive for my everyday use, but thinking about the pleasure of browsing through a really good dictionary prompted me to order a copy of the more modest Shorter OED for myself. I’m ashamed to say my home is equipped with nothing more than a school dictionary and a broadband connection.

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