The Greasy Pole Redux- Dom Whitehurst

So in a  return to our old favourite, we thought it was about time to start showcasing some of the industry’s, erm, best and and brightest (?!). Who better to start things off than Dom Whitehurst of Hotwire. If you fancy baring your soul, drop me a line.

Alex

Oh dear...

Gorkana or MediaDisk?

Gorkana every time. I  used MediaDisk a lot at previous agencies and to be honest I think the Magna Carta gets updated more regularly.

 

Response Source – good thing or a pain in the a**e?

Tough one. It SPAMs up my email inbox on a daily basis and yet it’s also generated a lot of hits for me in the last week so I think on balance it’s a good thing.

 

I’d love to meet the person who’s day isn’t brightened by one of the daily bizarre requests sent via ResponseSource – invariably for ‘a national’ – asking for interview subjects of the ilk of, “incestuous twins affected by the credit crunch…anonymity provided”.   

 

Best part of the job which you didn’t expect when you first started?

Regular drinking and hanging around with some really good people. The intelligence, creativity and wit of most of my colleagues is far greater than that experienced by mates of mine in other careers.  Maybe I’m overstating that….

 

Worst part of job which you didn’t expect when started?

The necessary admin/reporting/measurement which is an integral if occasionally painful part of the job.

 

What piece of coverage are you most proud of?

My first piece of national coverage, in the Guardian, which referenced a spokesperson and her son(!) but not the company she worked for. It was a happy day at Hotwire explaining that to the client.

 

iPhone, Blackberry or old-school mobile?

It has to be the Blackberry, for the following reasons:

-      It’s a client of Hotwire’s

-      It’s great for keeping tabs on the footy results

-      I don’t pay for mine

 

Most important piece of clothing for a PR to own?

A scarf. Nothing says “creative type” more than a Bob Cratchit (Christmas Carol) style  scarf worn at the height of summer.

 

Most embarrassing moment (as a PR)?

Bothering to say hello to Alex Pearmain at a networking event, thinking that he was some kind of big cheese! I’ll never make that mistake again.

 

Excel or Powerpoint?

I used Excel a lot at university and knowing all of the numerical and formula shortcuts is a great party trick – no really. I hate Powerpoint and would honesty rather present from a flipchart in a kind of neo-‘win, lose or draw’ type format. There’s nothing more impressive than a well drawn freehand diagram, just ask Will McInnes.

 

Facebook or Linked In?

Facebook, I use it more often and actually enjoy using visiting the site – a comment which can’t be applied to LinkedIn.

 

Blog or Twitter?

Twitter, it’s just less effort. Plus in an age when we’re supposed to be engaging in ‘conversations’ online, Twitter is far more useful for talking to individuals rather than the information loudhailering that blogs are designed to do. 

 

Agency you most admire (other than your current one)?

BrightOne….ask @benrmatthews

 

Brand you most admire for their comms?

Honestly? I think the work done by the Tory party to make them electable has been very impressive. You could argue that the actions of the Labour party have had as large an effect on the validity of the Conservatives in the eyes of voters but I think that their positioning has been spot on, on the whole.

 

A lot of people spout on about Innocent, but really the brand is largely silent on the topics closest to its core ie environmentalism, simple food and climate change. Innocent is a genius brand but has unimpressive comms.  

 

Describe your current role.

I am the caretaker of my accounts, both digital and trad comms. My role is to make sure that everything runs smoothly, that clients are serviced, loved up and happy and that we’re delivering the kind of creative and effective comms campaigns that Hotwire is known for.

 

That’s about as specific a description as I can give. My role changes frequently; dependent on the situation, time of year and client.  

 

Describe the ideal PR Director.

Supportive, hands on, respected, creative, organised, generous (when buying rounds), sociable, a mind-reader (when trying to find out what it is the client really wants), inspirational.

CIPR Awards 2008

Monday night saw me fortunate enough to have a jolly at the CIPR awards, where we were shortlisted for agency of the year. (Blue Rubicon won the category).

It was pretty good fun, and there were a lot of people from right across the industry there. Great, I thought, there’s probably loads of people here whose views on the winners and night itself I’ll be able to catch up with online. Tuesday came and went, and nothing really appeared. Maybe it is the hangovers I thought, I’ll have another look Wednesday night. Yet still there’s next to nothing.

Why? (I appreciate I’m only just blogging about it now, but I’m pretty convinced we’re not all involved in some giant social media stand-off). Does it reflect a lack of interest in the CIPR awards generally, or just a lack of relevance for the more digital-minded section of the PR community who are likely to be blogging? If it’s the latter, then the CIPR awards are at least gamely trying to engage us with social media campaign of the year etc.

I’m never quite sure how I feel about the CIPR generally. I’m not a member, but have been to events there etc, and do feel it is important for us to have a coherent voice as an industry. I’m also acutely aware that you can’t stand on the sidelines, not getting involved, and complain about how things proceed. So I don’t.

PR or digital marketing?

Let me tell you a story which reflects something I’ve been mulling over recently

(This is me looking mournful, BTW)

A friend of mine from university has been considering getting into PR over the last year. I was pleased; she’s bright, outgoing and self-aware enough to know what she was getting into (which you can’t always say for Oxbridge grads, where we’re largely tailored to think just of careers in banking, management consultancy, or law). Just the sort of person I want in my industry.

I gave her the benefit of my (limited) wisdom, gave her a few pointers on agencies and approach to interviews etc, and crossed my fingers for her. Recently she sent me an email. She’d accepted an offer. Great, I thought, and entirely unsurprising- if I was interviewing for grads I’d take her on.

Here’s the twist though. It’s not in PR. She’s taken a job with an established and well-known digital marketing agency. Not because she ddn’t like PR. But because she liked social media, and wanted to help clients communicate in that medium.

I’m not territorial or possessive about such things; I don’t really think it matters how you define yourselves  long as you do good work for clients in any medium. But it did make me sad that she’d seen the opportunity to achieve her goal, but it didn’t lie within a PR agency. She’s the sort who will end up at the top of her chosen profession, and she’s the sort we need working in PR. You know, the type of person who dispels the image of PRs as fluffy un-intellectual types flogging FMCG crap, and instead combines a decent academic mind with some human empathy and creativity.

It probably doesn’t matter in the long run, we could both easily find ourselves working in the same agency on the same campaigns as barriers between media disciplines become ever more fuzzy, but for the sake of PR agencies as they stand, I hope we don’t miss out on too many more of her ilk.

Alex

iPhone, therefore I am?

About a year or so ago the iPhone was launched with great fanfare – we were told that this would be the invention to finally topple sliced bread as man’s greatest accomplishment. Weeks and months passed and I didn’t see anyone using them and Apple had to admit that the launch was a complete flop.

Now, with a revised price scheme, technical faults ironed out and a high profile court case, the iPhone has been reinvigorated and there is suddenly a distinct lack of BlackBerries on Britain’s trains, tubes and buses.

I don’t have an iPhone, but did have a BlackBerry which I loved to bits. Given its branding and thus the loyalty it has with its users, are BlackBerries in an unassailable position as a PR’s number one gadget or does the iPhone really represent a threat?

Were you to ask 10 random PRs 6 months ago what they had, a BlackBerry or an iPhone, I would guess that 9 would say a BlackBerry. I wonder, if I were to take that poll now, would the results be the same?

A successful marketing, advertising and PR campaign, or is it a case that the iPhone is suddenly living up to its pedigree?

James G

W-to the-W-to the W

OK, I’m a day and a half behind the rest of the UK PR blogosphere with this one (which eqautes to at least a month in real terms), but congrats to Stephen Davies on the launch of 3WPR.

It’s online comms, and what I like best is he’s taking the big picture approach- not just banging the ’social media is the be all and it’s gonna change the world’ approach. Online is about a lot more then that, and looks like he’ll be telling people that. Which is grand. As is being based in Newcastle; lucky chap!

Look forward to hearing more on it.