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Phoenix Trading greets Firefly for brand uplift

18 February 2010
by Firefly news team

Independent greeting card publishing house, Phoenix Trading, has appointed Firefly’s consumer media and social media teams on a PR brief to build the profile of the fast-growing, award-winning business and recruit more Traders to further growth. The campaign starts by promoting the success story of female founder Robin Bradley, and is supported by a Twitter initiative to encourage dialogue with and between the 9,000 geographically dispersed Traders in the network.

Commenting on the new partnership Robin Bradley said, “This is the first time we have called on PR for the business within the UK. We are excited to be working with Firefly and are confident they will succeed in achieving our goal of recruiting more Traders.”

Phoenix Trading, a top ten greeting card publisher in the UK, has an exclusive range of 797 greetings cards, 78 talented artists and network of over 9,000 independent Traders across the nation. With over 100 million cards sold and after ten straight years of blistering growth, Phoenix Trading is firmly positioned as one of the fastest growing and most successful greeting card publishers in the UK.

Social media, proof of the pudding

3 February 2010
by Sophie Goodwin
Tags: eCairn, Google Analytics, Omgili, online engagement, PR, Radian6, Social Media, social media tools, Technorati

Proof and measurement of online engagement is critical, especially if we as PRs are to get our clients as enthused in social media activities as we would like. While we must measure engagement, reputation and sentiment, being naturally pre-occupied with outcome-based results businesses also need tangible proof, such as number of downloads, comments, click-throughs, enquiries etc to provide that halfway stage between campaigns and direct sales.

There are hundreds of tools available that can prove sentiment and engagement, some free and some paid for – some are rubbish and some are pretty good. Radian6 is expensive, but provides the most comprehensive measurement reports in a really simple format. eCairn is arguably the best, but is fairly raw in format and the reporting function is not as ‘glossy’ and easily digestible as Radian6.

Then you have the free tools. Most do the same job as the paid-for tools, but you just need to spend more time digesting the information and putting it into digestable and meaningful format. We find a combination of Google Analytics (including blog and site search), Technorati and Omgili is sufficient much of the time.

Social media measurement tools do come with a health warning – not one tool is really able to provide a truly accurate view of positive or negative sentiment (although several sites claim to do this), so you really must have human intervention. The sentiment reporting function should really be used as a good initial guide for any red flags, but you then need humans to research buzz properly to verify positive/negative sentiment.

Of course, while proving sentiment and maintaining reputation is a start, converting it to direct output is quite another.

What adland can teach agency PROs?

2 February 2010
by Claire Walker
Tags: Adland, Advertising, Claire Walker, client handling, COI, Mark Lund, media, PR

Oh how PRs love to have a bash at the advertising industry! Truth is we’re in this together…whilst on the PR side, earned media is highly influential, there is and will always be a place for bought media as well.

Now this blog caught my eye this morning. Dan Shute interviews Mark Lund, the grande fromage at the COI. Everything he says about the suits in advertising applies completely and utterly to agency PROs as well. Take note, this is a classy training course in client handling, from the comfort of your desk.

Digital communications agency i-level appoints Firefly for on and offline campaign

14 January 2010
by Firefly news team

Impressed by its ability to engage with both the social online and traditional print media, Firefly has been appointed by i-level Group, the award-winning communications agency, to handle its PR needs as it enters into its exciting 10th year of operations.

Drawing on its experience of providing successful PR campaigns, Firefly will help position i-level as an industry thought leader, renowned for its innovative and market leading strategies.

Incorporating news generation, issues hijacking and feature tracking, Firefly will build the group’s profile within the media and ensure it is the communications partner of choice amongst potential clients.

i-level is the UK’s leading independent digital communications agency, employing 140 people and generates a total turnover of £100m. Including the COI (The Central Office of Information), i-level works with some of the world’s leading brands, such as Experian, Laterooms, LoveFilm, News Group, Next, Orange, Proctor and Gamble, Specsavers and WWF.

Cringe TV

13 January 2010
by Claire Walker
Tags: whatshot

As the reporter begins bashing the phone against the tank, you can almost see the outline of the CEO’s fingers and toes…all firmly crossed. Unfortunately for him, that doesn’t do any good as the screen on the “unbreakable” phone, well…erm, breaks!

While this clip is certainly an amusing, there is a clear PR lesson to be learnt.

CES is the world’s biggest gadget show and every January the world’s tech media focus in on Las Vegas for a week. As such, competition for column inches is fierce and some manufacturers choose to make quite outlandish claims in order to get into the spotlight.

An unbreakable phone? It’s a bold statement alright and pitching that concept to the media was always going to be like waving a red rag to bull – with every journalist determined to break the unbreakable phone.

The moral of this particular story? Be very, very careful what you claim…especially in Vegas!