Fascinating Facts

You are currently browsing the archive for the Fascinating Facts category.

How global is their reach?

December 4, 2009 in BondPR, Fascinating Facts, PR by Tom Burgess | No comments

BondPR undertook some basic online research on the international reach of the top 20 tech PR firms in US (Source O’Dywer) and UK (Source: PR Week). Highest was Edelman with a presence in 24 countries, Text 100 with 23 and Lewis in 20. Even outside this list, firms like Fleishman-Hillard may have 80 offices but they are only in 22 countries. Coming close is European focused group Trimedia (now includes Eastern Europe specialist Mmd) with 47 offices in 28 countries.

I can’t tell you how many countries they are running campaigns in but I do know BondPR International though not yet in the Top 20 list is currently running campaigns in 50 countries through its own offices, regional hubs and established delivery partners, working for companies like Autodesk and Regus. Reach out…. we are there.

The Pope does Facebook

May 29, 2009 in Fascinating Facts, PR by Helen Bannigan | No comments

panorama_vaticanPope

Living in Rome as I do, one becomes used to reading about the latest Pope Watch News: from condom usage in Africa to global interfaith dialogue, to his favorite flavor of gelato (Pope John Paul II was apparently a fan of marron glace - the verdict is still out for the current Pope Benedict).

I loved the recent announcement that His Eminence was starting a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, providing content for iPhones, and joining the wacky world of Twitter.  What a hipster, that Popester.  Who knew?

It’s all part of the celebration to mark the World Social Communication Day (May 24), founded by the second Vatican Council following a decree on the media of Social communications back in the 60’s.  The church uses “Social Communications” to refer to the mass media in general – so not necessarily referring to the “social networking” phenomenon that are embodied by Twitter, Facebook, etc.  This Vatican decree overturned a previous Church position that was critical of the liberty of the press, and the day has been used to give an annual update to the followers of the Catholic Church and to foster communication amongst the faithful.

PR, of course, is all about communication, and the exploding social media phenomenon insists that this now be two-way communication with our stakeholders and our community influencers in order to survive.

The Vatican has clearly recognized that it needs to keep on top of its PR game as much as any multi-national corporation in order to maintain visibility and credibility in the global marketplace.  To survive in the competitive area – jockeying for position amongst innumerable faiths and, every more increasingly, the growing tide of “non-faiths” (agnostics and atheists) – the Catholic church must maintain this critical two-way dialogue in a meaningful way with its “customers”.  They must strive to ensure that they don’t migrate to the “competition”,  and try to attract new customers interested in buying its celestial “product”.

How successful will the Holy See be in his endeavor ( www.pope2you.net )?  Will the young, and the not-so-young, flock to the papal Facebook page or track Benedict’s Twitter updates or stay tuned to the Vatican YouTube channel  (http://www.youtube.com/vatican?gl=IT&hl=en-GB )?  Will the content be engaging, uplifting, valuable, provocative, inspiring?  Will the church be able to utilize this medium as an effective crisis control tool?  Will the Pope follow in Ashton Kutcher’s footsteps and surpass a million followers?

God only knows.

Season’s Greetings from BondPR International

December 22, 2008 in Fascinating Facts by Tom Burgess | No comments

The BondPR team around the world would like to share with you how we celebrate the holidays in our local cultures; globally a time for giving time, kindness and gifts to our family, friends and those less fortunate than ourselves.

See a small sampling below from: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kosova, Middle East, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the UK and the US!

Australia

Christmas means summer, schoolchildren get six weeks holiday and many professionals close their office from Christmas Eve to Australia Day on January 26. Christmas Day is spent outdoors, swimming, surfing or fishing, with seafood and cold meats hamper (picnic), though many still like a traditional roast dinner. Santa comes down the chimney on the night of December 24 and eats a piece of cake left out for him. However, it is too hot for the reindeer so he is pulled by six white boomers (kangaroos). The Christmas tree is decorated with candy canes (chocolate would melt!). The presents under the tree are handed out on Christmas Day, December 25, often by the family patriarch with a Santa hat and a tinnie (tin can of beer)!

Happy Christmas!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

President Two-Dot-Zero

November 10, 2008 in Fascinating Facts, Marketing, Media, Politics, Social Media, Technology by Shannon Wolfe | No comments

In a brief op-ed piece published on November 5, Robert Solé of France’s daily newspaper Le Monde qualified the election of Barack Obama as “The first worldwide good news since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989” (“La première bonne nouvelle planétaire depuis la chute du mur de Berlin en 1989”), and judging from the conversations I have had and the front covers of just about every magazine I have seen in my travels through France, the UK and Belgium since last Tuesday, it seems like that could indeed be true.

But perhaps the most fascinating thing for us to study about Mr. Obama’s victory is how extremely well he used new media to motivate his supporters, convince his skeptics, educate, inform, parry criticisms, and raise money.

His official campaign website was universally hailed as being a next-generation model of the genre.

From it, supporters could easily download logos, printable posters, signs, flyers, website buddy icons, computer desktop backgrounds, and more. And much has already been written about his campaign’s record-smashing fundraising: Obama collected donations from some 3.2 million individuals via the Internet.

But beyond providing campaign tools and gathering money, Barack Obama was also incredibly savvy about using social media. His campaign used text messages and e-mails to communicate directly with voters. He had profiles on Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. He Twittered. He published photos — including personal “behind the scenes” shots of his family on election night — to Flickr . His campaign’s YouTube channel has had more than 19.5 million views. He even placed virtual billboard advertisements in popular X-box Live games.

And it doesn’t seem like Obama intends to stop this sort of Internet-based communication now that he’s been elected. Check out http://change.gov/, which is, in its own words “Your source for the latest news, events, and announcements so that you can follow the setting up of the Obama Administration.”

Smart money is on President Obama having a game-changing, highly interactive website, live and operational on January 20, 2009.

How do you think President 2.0 might change our world and our activities?

Tags: , , ,

Keep to the left

November 9, 2008 in Fascinating Facts, Politics by Tom Burgess | 1 comment

obama-write-lhThe hopes and aspirations of the world are with US President Elect Barack Obama, what an inspirational victory speech delivered in  considerate and passionate manner. The significance of his election may have something to do with the the fact that that he is from an African American background, a sector of society that has been considered second class by some for so long.

But there is a reason for his success. He is left handed. Four out of the last six US presidents were left handed since 1974, that’s 66% against the national average of 10%, that is pretty significant. You can guess who one of the two right handers was but he wont be there much longer!

And surprise, surprise,  John McCain was also left handed, so the US would have had a left handed president either way.  By contrast only two British Prime Ministers have been left handed since 1945 and one of those was Winston Churchill. I am pleased to be in such great left handed company!