For US clients particularly those tech companies in Silicon Valley, we can offer strong domestic PR capability integrated with seamless and scalable international campaigns without the high cost associated with traditional multinational PR firms or the hassles of managing multiple agencies. For clients based outside USA we can now offer strong US public relations capability covering consumer, corporate, digital, IR and technology, all as part of their international campaigns. Read more

So what is interesting about Disk Storage? Well, a London-based visual effects house Cinesite, a Kodak company, carried out artistic rendering of animation and scene development for the  Warner Bros blockbuster “Clash of the Titans” using a storage system from BlueArc. Also Cinesite is currently working on the following forthcoming releases, “Marmaduke” (Fox), “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” (Fox/Walden) and “John Carter of Mars” (Disney/Pixar), all of which are being produced on the same BlueArc system.

And other customers include: Double Negative Visual Effects (the FX studio behind movies like “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” and “Batman Begins“), Eidos Interactive, Mill Film, Photon VFX and Redchillies.vfx. Most recent success in the sector was when four-time Academy Award® winning New Zealand based visual effects creator Weta Digital relied on a BlueArc storage solution for artistic rendering of groundbreaking animation and scene development for the film “Avatar.”

So its not that you think you have a great product but who is using it and what for that can make it interesting. More on this story

For successful international PR campaigns, it is very important to have PR professionals who understand the local market, know the local media, live the local culture and speak the local language. But this does not have to mean you have to have a retained PR firm in each country.  Much of the management can be handled at a regional level,  for instance campaign coordination, creating regional content and measurement of success.  So  in-country teams focus on personal media outreach and monitoring.

There are also benefits for certain campaigns that may only need to reach an English speaking audience such as in South East Asia,  Middle East or Southern Africa where there are number of regional media in English or in Latin America where Spanish and Portuguese dominate.

Now that we are working in 50 countries and with Regus in 30, it was time to move forward with our plan to establish 10 regional hubs that can cover the whole world. These regional hubs will be

1. London: Western Europe
2. Paris: Southern Europe
3. Munich: DACH region
4. Prague: Central & Eastern Europe
5. Dubai: Middle East
6. Johannesburg: Africa
7. Singapore: Asia
8. Sydney: Australasia
9. Buenos Aires: Latin America
10. San Francisco: North America

Apart from London and Paris, which are owned offices, BondPR regional hubs will be joint ventures with independent local PR firms or experienced professionals who are already working with us. Where possible we will concentrate resources and activity at the regional hub level and bring in any of our established team of local delivery partners in over 80 countries as required.

The aim is to offer one point of contact for the world or the region, so reducing the hassle of coordinating multiple agencies or managing separate campaigns at a country level. This means clients retain control centrally or regionally, ensuring consistent messages, topical content and cost effective use of budget.

So if you want to talk to the world, talk to us, global campaigns just got easier…….. more info

As Regus grew to operate in over 75 countries, so too did the number of PR agencies and it became a  management nightmare. Regus still maintain agencies in 10 key markets  such as UK, USA, France…., but for 30 countries where there were 20 agencies, there is now one. Regus wanted the best support in local markets but through a single point of contact, they selected BondPR, as we offer “a unified cost-effective and results orientated approach, as well as good chemistry and significant global reach.”

The campaign is being built around Regus’s key messages which are particularly relevant at this time of globalisation, cost review and changing work patterns.  Regus  already generates a significant amount of content in the form of news, articles, briefing papers, surveys and research reports. BondPR is tailoring, localising and translating this content to meet the needs of key business and management media around the world.

So being in PR we wrote a news release about this.

We  were already a customer of Regus and look forward to making a significant impact on their further success.

Actually we have been handling international PR campaigns for PR firms in the UK, USA and Germany for a while but now want to extend our partnerships and also offer white label service if required.

BondPR only has direct employees in three countries but has put in place delivery partners in a further 77 countries and is currently active in 30. We add value by making multi-county campaigns simple. We manage the international team and take care of consistency and quality of service, offering one point of contact. However if a PR firm wants just one country we may put them in direct contract with our local office.

As more clients look to manage international campaigns centrally partially due to budget constraints, then this option makes sense, they have their main PR firm whether it is in USA, UK  or wherever and they can use BondPRNet to deliver the campaign and the message as if it was their own team. Yes, it makes multi-country campaigns simple.

So we thought we would help here, to get you started Bond-i has set up its new Bondcast service, driven by our very own Neville Hobson, who has got to be one of the most experienced podcasters on the planet, having presented a show called “For Immediate Release” for four years and also co-written the definitive book on Podcasting. Corporate podcasting should be an integral part of any organization’s PR mix, it’s a valuable medium for communicating your message to a targeted audience - whether that’s customers, prospective staff, media or other key influencers. So listen up, podcast your message……now, you may be heard and eventually seen by the people you want to influence.

So just take the “news” release for what it is, a release of news to everyone. Craft it carefully so your key words and phrases are included and get it out online. so when a real journalist or blogger is researching your field, they find you by hitting on the content you created. And don’t just do one release a month, write more short pieces, even very week, just updates on your company, comments on the market, agenda setting thoughts on your sector. Also make sure your international offices get them too so that it gives ideas they can adapt and amplify locally. But don’t send them unsolicited to journalists, just the online news sites, journalists deserve the personal approach. So create the buzz, then you may get the bang.

So it was interesting to note that BondPR is currently handling campaigns for tech companies in 30 countries through its team of offices and established delivery partners. So does that make us Number One for global reach!

A study carried out by the German Institute for Share Promotion (Deutsches Aktien Institut DAI) gives quoted companies a bad certificate: only 44% of private investors read annual reports and even only 32 % quarterly reports. The survey was conducted among 470.000 smallholders.

This is “a catastrophe for stock corporations” states Bernhard Pellens, one of the authors of the study and professor for economics at the Ruhr-University Bochum.

Two factors are specified as reasons by the private investors: the huge amount of information and the bad comprehensibility of the texts.

The length of the reports probably can hardly be reduced – but the improvement of the texts provides a high potential. Here lies the key for the optimization of the communication between companies and their private shareholders.

The ‘Perfect Client’ is hence one that:
- Knows how to provide a clear briefing
- Congratulates the PR agency when a job is done well
- Doesn’t look to be on the front page of a national daily come what may, because it knows that sector specific media are or can be more important
- Doesn’t ask over and over again before a press conference: “How many journalists are coming?”
- Doesn’t want to hold a press conference every fortnight and distribute a press release per week (unless it can be justified)
- Doesn’t expect journalists to drop everything to cover their event, because no matter how important it might be, sometimes other breaking news stories take priority
- Can be flexible with budgets so that, although not limitless, they allow for a creative or newsworthy action that makes the agency’s work easier
- Looks upon the agency as a member of it’s own team and not an external supplier of solutions to problems
- Doesn’t prolongue to approval of materials until editorial deadlines have passed and the opportunity has been missed
- Is willing to do interviews, and if not, then doesn’t complain because the media never publish interviews with them
- Trusts the agency to do what it does best - COMMUNICATE on its behalf - and doesn’t leave it to find out important things about the company from third party sources
- Is realistic about the budget and what it can do with it
- Has an open and fluid relationship with the agency and doesn’t squeeze its time with the agency into the five minutes between sales meetings.

As soon as I find out who the winner was, I’ll let you know.