10 Yetis PR News posted by Lise

10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad Public Relations - Thursday 4th April 2013

Shannon here with today's examples of good and bad PR!

Good PR

With the Grand National set to take place this weekend, it's a cue for bookies everywhere to gear up their PR machines. Coral's PR stunt has certainly stood out above all others and has received a generous dollop of media coverage.

What did Coral do that was so great? Well, they customised 20 jet skis to look like horses with the people riding them dressed in the colours of the jockeys set to race at Aintree this Saturday.
The riders had a 500m race up the River Mersey competing to win The Coral National. The Jet Ski jockey that won the race was wearing the colours that will be worn by real life horse jockey Daryl Jacob (competing with Join Together) on Saturday for the main event.

It was a great PR stunt that resulted in a fantastic picture story, which all PR people will know is what you need for good media coverage!

Bad PR

Man City and Argentina football star Carlos Tevez will be swapping his football kit for some dashing high vis gear (potentially) after being sentenced to do 250 hours of community service for not only driving while disqualified but also doing so without car insurance (surely you can afford that, pal?).

The 29 year old will need to carry out unpaid jobs as punishment for his driving offence, such as cleaning churchyards and clearing allotments.

After an anonymous tip off, Tevez was pulled over on March 7th after leaving Mottram Hall Golf Club in Cheshire (good PR for them after all this) and now he's being punished for his actions. Tut tut!

	Lise posted on 04/04/2013		post a comment

10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad Public Relations - Wednesday 3rd April 2013

Good PR

It's been 40 years today since mobile phones entered our lives (12 since they entered mine)- so today's good PR rightly goes to the all-powerful mobile phone!

Mobile phones have come a long way since they were first created. The first one made its first call on April 3rd 1973 by a Motorola employee. The device was 9 inches tall, had the capacity to last 35 minutes and needed 10 hours to be fully charged.

Mike Short, expert form the Institution of Engineering and Technology, said that 'The first decade was a research or a 'demonstrator' phase, rapidly followed by analogue networks deployed over 10 years from the early 1980s largely based on car phones and used in business in the developed world.'

The mobile phone industry has come a loooooonng way since they were first created. They have since incredibly (lucky for us) evolved and people can still expect a lot more development in the future. Who knows, maybe one day we'll be able to call from space or be able to smell fragrances through text messages, but in the meantime we can already do some pretty cool stuff! So Happy Birthday and thank you!

Bad PR

It is a very bad day for Scottish and Southern Energy today as the energy company has been fined the total sum of £10.5 million by Ofgem for lying to customers. SSE has been found guilty of 'management failures' that led to mis-selling services via telephone, in-store and doorsteps sales, even though the company stopped door to door sales back in 2011. The SSE breaches took place between 2010 and 2013.

SSE has 10 million customers, of which thousands will be entitled to share £5m in compensation refund from the energy company. Customers who've not been given 'adequate information on the price of energy, exit fees or unit rates and standing charges' or were 'told that other suppliers cost more than they really did' may receive compensation.

Ofgem cannot force companies to offer compensation but can only penalise with fines. It was in the Scottish and Southern Energy company's best interest to take the initiative to refund their customers. It might take time for them to rebuild trust with their existing and potential new customer base, however...

	Lise posted on 03/04/2013		post a comment

Today Example of Good and Bad PR - Wednesday 20th March 2013

Good PR

If one story stood out from the crowd today it will surely be this one.

A builder has been named a 'hero' today after reviving a two-year-old little girl who stopped breathing in a supermarket in Australia.

Rowan O'Neil was casually packing his shopping at the checkout in an Australian supermarket when a woman ran into him with the lifeless body of her daughter. Frantically panicking, the woman handed her daughter to Rowan O'Neil so she could get her husband outside the supermarket. After trying to shake the poor little girl, people decided to clear the checkout and lay her down so he could practise CPR on her. After 90 seconds of hell, Shaylar finally started breathing again.

She then spent the night in hospital where doctors diagnosed her with a high fever.

We see way too many horrible stories in the news so thank you Rowan O'Neil for showing us that we can still have faith in a good news story!

Bad PR

The evening Standard newspaper is having a pretty bad day after a picture of their front page about George Osborne's 2013 Budget was tweeted BEFORE the chancellor had even delivered his speech.

The publication was allowed to know the details of the budget before it was delivered, but only under the strict rule of keeping the information secret until the Chancellor had announced the budget for 2013. The tweeted picture highlighted the cancellation of September's fuel duty rise, amongst other details of the budget.

Sarah Sands, Editor of the evening Standard announced: 'An investigation is immediately underway into how this front page was made public.' She then declared that the person responsible for the tweet has, for now, been suspended while an investigation takes place. Not a great day for the Standard, who set Twitter and the press alight with outrage at the 'leak.'

	Lise posted on 20/03/2013		post a comment

Today Example of Good and Bad PR - Wednesday 13th March 2013

Good PR

We always see people using Twitter to bully, criticise and generally abuse strangers, friends or celebrities, so I was quite pleased when I came across this story!

Curtis Woodhouse received a bit of Twitter abuse after losing his boxing fight last week. Feeling enraged, he decided to track down his critic and offered £1,000 to anyone who could help him find the right address. It didn't take long for Curtis to not only get the address, but also drive to the street of his Twitter troll.

The person slating him online, using the Twitter name of 'Jimbob', soon realised how serious it could get and didn't wait a moment longer to apologise (coward!). His defence was he thought that Curtis would take the abuse as 'a joke' and how things were now getting 'out of hand'.

Curtis Woodhouse carried on updating his Twitter followers and later declared that "Jimmyob88 never came out to play so I'm going". Later, he admitted "Maybe a bit daft what I did today but sometimes enough is enough."

It's way too easy to hide behind your computer and tweet abuse away. I say well-played Curtis!

Bad PR

If you're a Taylor Swift fan then you won't like the sound of this as hundreds of unopened letters from fans have been thrown away at the weekend in Nashville.

Kylee Francescan described how she found the stash destined for the American singer and wasn't sure if the letters got lost or stolen (Huh, really?) and felt a bit bewildered about her discovery. What really happened is not yet clear, as members of staff normally regularly visit the local post office to pick up fan's letters which are then recycled.

The only 'possible' explanation was given by a spokesperson for Taylor Swift who explained how a small batch, which should have been delivered, might have been put accidentally with the batch going to the recycling centre.

If you've written a letter to Taylor Swift though, worry no more! The letters have now been redirected to Taylor Swift's record label company to make sure she receives them all. Pphheewww!!

	Lise posted on 13/03/2013		post a comment