10 REASONS WHY THE PRESS RELEASE LIVES ON

Mark Twain once famously said that rumours of his death had been greatly exaggerated.

It followed speculation that he’d been gravely ill, and I sense a need to issue a similar reassurance on behalf of the much maligned press release.

Far from being terminally ill or deceased, the press release is in very good health, now an increasingly important PR tool with multiple applications in the digital world.

For starters, it puts a company, a brand, a product, a service, an event into proper perspective.

It contains important information and carries key messages which give the subject an individual identity.

Once written, it has multiple functions:

·         generating immediate online or print exposure

·         persuading journalists to write their own story on the subject

·         influencing media to use the source for input into future sector coverage

·         entering media diaries for upcoming event coverage

·         shaping social media content

·         designing blog posts

·         sculpting audio commentary

·         modelling video scripts

·         directing marketing campaigns

·         developing spokesperson messages

A former client once turned to an international agency to handle a big event.

They returned three months later after the agency failed to produce anything which put the event into perspective.

Underestimated maybe, or a little misunderstood, but don’t let anyone kid you that the press release is dead.

MEDITATION A NECESSITY TO FIGHT CRISIS - GURUJI

There has never been a better time to meditate. If you haven’t tried it yet, now is your opportunity to start from the comfort of your own home.

The founder of one of Dubai’s leading yoga institutions, who has started offering online classes, explains that meditation can play a key role in helping people of all ages, and businesses, cope with and recover from the impact of Covid-19.

Sanjeev Krishna says one of the lessons highlighted by the global spread of Covid-19 is the effect that stress, addictions, and an unhealthy lifestyle have in weakening the immune system.

“Meditation now is not an option, but a necessity to allow us to maintain our clarity and keep a relaxed state of mind, in order to face these new challenges with a strong mentality and a healthy body,” he says.

“This is particularly true for business leaders now under great pressure, as well as their staff and people of all ages. We must avoid doing anything to damage our bodies in any way, because that is just destroying the most valuable gift and the greatest asset that we have.

“The coronavirus has made us better understand that stress, an unhealthy lifestyle, and addictions to tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food, weakens our immune system and makes us prone to infection from viruses and other diseases.”

While the Sanjeev Krishna Yoga centre in Jumeirah has remained closed as a result of official regulations, demand has led to the launch of online classes by the yoga coach who begun teaching in Dubai in 2003.

Krishna has for the last seven years delivered yoga instruction to management at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, the educational quality assurance and regulatory authority of the Government of Dubai.

Known affectionately by his students - including myself - as Guruji, he also teaches corporate clients as part of their wellness initiatives, and conducts classes for universities and schools.

FIND YOURSELF TO TACKLE JOBS NIGHTMARE

Losing your job, or the fear of losing it, is now the nightmare scenario for millions worldwide as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

The prospect of finding a new job will become enormously more difficult – perhaps impossible for some – as a result of the catastrophic economic effects now unfolding.

Putting things into UAE perspective, a Dubai Chamber of Commerce survey has revealed that an astonishing 70% of Dubai businesses are expected to close in the next 6 months.

In the past, losing a job for many in the UAE has meant packing up and heading home, wherever that may be, to begin a new job search.

But with forecasts that more than 40 million jobs will be lost in the US alone, and this horrific pattern spreading worldwide, the grim challenge being faced by job seekers is unprecedented.

Many of the employers now being flooded with CVs are in no position to recruit, even if they survive the rest of the year.

There is hope, however, for jobseekers, and it lies somewhere between the certainty that many companies will survive, entrepreneurs are already coming up with innovative ways to launch and drive business forward, and everyone has an opportunity to make more of themselves as a potential employee.

The biggest mistake that many will make is to think only in terms of who they’ve worked for up until now, what positions they’ve held and which specific sectors they’ve worked in.

This will only further restrict their prospects in a world where the candidates-per-job ratio is multiplied many times over.

They key is to take a good hard look at yourself, who you are, what you offer, and what makes you stand out. Identify your main skill sets, what you’re good at, what have been your best achievements, and why you’ll be an asset to a future employer.

This will help you to identify a wider range of potential new job openings, and potentially a new career in a direction, or sector, you’ve never previously considered.

It’s not just a case of rewriting your CV. It’s a matter of changing your mindset.

A friend once asked me to help out a pal who had lost his job as travel manager of a big British football club.

Within weeks he was working for a major airline, where his new job was to manage and negotiate international sponsorships in sport.

In unparalleled times, maybe your time has come.

ALL ABOARD FOR THE JOURNEY BACK TO NORMAL!

After all that we’re going through, why on earth should we be prepared for a subnormal existence in the future?

All those peddling the idea of a “new normal”, in the process pushing their expertise in helping us cope, apparently want us to accept the unacceptable.

Over breakfast, I read this from a communications firm: “How do you catch up with a world where crisis is the new normal?”

I almost swallowed my fork.

They have all the answers, however, so if your business needs advice like that, give them a call now and hire them to tell you how to survive in the fearful new world they portray.

Alternatively, do what I told a client last week – put all thoughts of a “new normal” immediately out of your head.

If your business survives Covid-19, you can rebuild it with new strength, passion and ingenuity.

Your customers have been through hell. They want a return to normal, to the things that they took for granted, and never will again.

How you now recover, rebuild, reinvent and innovate, is a vital part of their recovery as well as yours.

How you communicate this is enormously important.

In the UAE, we can learn a great deal from how the government has acted to restrict the spread of Covid-19, and how it has communicated with us all.

Elsewhere, delayed response, confusing messages, bickering, and over dependence on the advice of so-called or self-appointed experts, has created mayhem, all fuelled by media hysteria.

Dubai’s Ruler, Sheikh Mohammed, has challenged ministers and officials to restore the UAE to its pre-Covid-19 glory “faster than any other country in the world”.

Everybody needs to get on board.

WHAT'S THE POINT OF VIRTUAL ADVISORS?

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a box of pencils hidden in a drawer.

I found they worked better than either of the Mont Blanc pens I own.

No good for writing cheques, but perfect for every day jotting down of notes and messages.

So I started using them daily, to the point where they needed sharpening.

So I bought a three dirham sharpener from the supermarket.

On the same day, it took more than an hour to get through to the phone company to check a billing issue.

Mostly because the virtual advisor couldn’t understand what I was saying.

After being cut off several times, I Tweeted the phone company to ask if they had any humans I could speak to.

They asked me to DM them to explain what I wanted.

I told them - no, you’re the phone company, call me.

Which they did, and we sorted everything out quickly.

So what’s the point?

It’s just that pencils seem to work better than virtual advisors.

And there’s not much technology in a pencil.

So maybe technology is not always the answer.

WHY I'M WISHING A HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR HI

For this New Year I’ll leave it to others to announce the 6,7,8, 9 or 10 most important new PR trends for 2020, all inevitably linked to technology.

Instead I’ll just focus on the single most important PR factor for any year – human intelligence.

HI may be a new concept to some, but it’s been around for ages and will continue to be a key element in any area of PR work, and all walks of life.

If it isn’t buried beneath the tidal wave of movement towards AI and all other emerging forms of new technology, while so much of what should come naturally to us all is widely being erased.

HI is the most powerful tool at our disposal. It combines all the natural skills and senses we were born with, and the vitally important, but increasingly abandoned, ingredient of common sense.

If you go to a music concert these days and are among the army of people watching the act through your smart phone, are you enhancing the live experience, or missing out?

Do you really go home and play the concert back the next day? If so, notice anything you missed at the time because the phone was in front of your face and you couldn’t see much else beyond the forest of arms raised all around?

Inside our head is a device which captures perfectly sharp and true to life still and moving images, along with the corresponding sounds, stores them away for life, and allows us to play them back at will.

I still see and hear Bruce Springsteen kicking off his 4th July 1985 visit to Wembley Stadium with ‘Independence Day’, and remember how the whole place bounced when ‘Dancing in the Dark’ blasted out.

That’s not to say that my iPhone 11 Pro, with its three cameras and everything else, isn’t a wonderfully helpful device in PR or any other business.

But it’s a device which has its place, and my New Year’s resolution for 2020 is to use it less, and do more to keep HI alive.

REAL NEWS: MORE LEG ROOM PLEASE

If, like me, you normally shower before heading to the airport, you won’t be surprised to know what was one of the ‘most read’ stories around this week.

Three days ago it emerged that UK authorities have apparently banned Emirates airline’s first class cabin ‘shower attendants’ from operating on all UK-bound flights as they are not technically crew members.

So what’s the fascination of this story, and what does it say about our taste in news when we’re bombarded with it from multiple media sources?

Think first who is directly affected by the story, particularly as there’s no suggestion that the ban will extend to people actually taking inflight showers.

Basically we have the airline’s first class cabin shower attendants who work full time on flights to ensure shower facilities are clean. 

But who did the story interest most? The shower attendants? The first class passengers who don’t have time to shower at home or like to have another before landing? 

Or the rest of us who’d like to see the space taken up by the showers used instead for more leg room?

WHY ET (EASY TO) PHONE HOME MAKES SUCH GOOD EXPO SENSE

In PR terms, it’s been a good week for the UAE, with rising Dubai property sales followed by an IMF forecast of faster economic growth driven by Expo 2020.

If there’s one thing that will encourage investors to take the plunge back into real estate, it’s the assurance they get from knowing that many already have.

The news that Dubai property sales in October were the highest since 2008, therefore, can only have been good for investor confidence.

Continuing the positive trend, the IMF has revised its growth forecast for the UAE upwards from a relatively modest above 1 per cent in 2019 to 3 per cent next year.

In between the two announcements came another headline grabber which helps to explain why the best PR is often driven by common sense.

The news that the UAE is likely to unblock the feature which allows calls to be made on WhatsApp was quickly welcomed by observers as a move to help businesses in the UAE, both in terms of costs and easier communication with counterparts from around the world.

The WhatsApp revelation quickly followed an announcement that Expo 2020 Dubai’s ambition to draw 25 million visits through its gates is on track after more than 1,000 authorised ticket resellers had been signed up in key markets around the world.

Combine the two, and you have millions of Expo visitors able to call home cheaply and easily to tell family, friends and business partners what a great experience they’re having, what a splendid city and host Dubai is, and why they’d like to stay.

A brilliant result when you’re looking to attract property and business investment from around the world.

SOME ADVICE BEFORE SOCIAL MEDIA PUTS THE BOOT IN

As supermodel Bella Hadid counts the cost of a social media post that created uproar, the fragile relationship between brands and their ambassadors also comes under the spotlight.

One minute your name and face is up in lights as the inspiration to millions of consumers, the next your image is being hurriedly removed from shopping malls and stores like tins of contaminated salmon.

In a world where the instant wrath of social media followers leads to a rapid corporate trial and guilty verdict, is something missing from the process?

Hadid, a 22-year-old Palestinian-American, was attacked for posting an image seen by some as insulting towards the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Quickly deleted, it showed the model’s boot held in the air near an airport window overlooking airplanes carrying the flags of the two countries.

Her apology, that the post had nothing to do with politics and she’d made an honest, early morning mistake, was barely heard amid the rapidly escalating row.

Dior removed her visuals from shopping malls and stores across the GCC, refusing to confirm whether the decision was terminal but leaving the supermodel out in the cold.

Just days earlier she’d shared a New York Times op-ed on the UAE and Saudi playing a role in Sudan’s military crackdown on demonstrators, later saying it was meant to raise awareness of the country’s humanitarian crisis.

Left to fight his daughter’s corner, real estate developer Mohamed Hadid claims she is the victim of jealous individuals and trolls out to destroy the career of a young, proud Muslim who had been a “champion of Arab causes.”

Was Hadid wrong to put up that airport post on Instagram? Obviously. Did she aim to offend anyone? Almost certainly not. Was her post actually offensive? To some, yes. Were Dior right to distance themselves from her? In the name of sales, surely.

From Dior’s point of view, delaying the guilty verdict would have been an expensive mistake. Wrapping their sympathetic arms around the young lady, with a couple of flags to help, too much of a risk.

Some advice in advance for the luxury brand’s next new face – keep your boots down, stay off social media until you’re awake, and get some professional advice about what you post on Instagram.

HERE’S THE NEWS – OR IS IT?

One of the toughest jobs PR firms often have with clients is making them appreciate what is news, and what isn’t.

Over the years I’ve often started the discussion with the line that news is something new with an ‘s’ on the end.

If the information you’re planning to release is nothing new, don’t expect it to produce good PR when so much information circulates instantly online.

So, if what you want to announce isn’t new, build it into something that is to provide impact and put the service or product you’re selling in front of your audience.

Research can often be the key, providing newsworthy statistics and trends which make an announcement relevant and interesting.

Any story really takes off if it contains elements of human interest, competition or conflict, celebrity involvement or something completely out of the ordinary.

The budget may not run to hiring a Hollywood star to endorse a product on Instagram live while abseiling the world’s tallest building.

But think hard and be creative, like the best storytellers. That’s what the best PR people are.

Why your story must be told during summer

Public Relations works to tell your brand’s story, and tell it all year round.

Slowing down or halting the process during the summer holiday period – as many companies do – hands the initiative to your competitors.

Your PR programme should run consistently during what is traditionally seen as a time when everything slows down, and audiences switch off or go on vacation, particularly in the Middle East.

That’s ignoring the fact that print and broadcast media are still switched on and particularly receptive to good stories at a time when many sources dry up.

Meanwhile, digital media in general and social media platforms in particular don’t shut down for holidays, and consumers certainly don’t switch off, even by the pool or beachside.

Make slow news time your time to capitalise while your competitors nod off in the sun.