If you are looking for advice on or help with public relations, give me a call.
As a former consultant with Band & Brown Communications, I have more than half a decade's experience of PR campaigns for companies such as BT, the telecommunications company, and Somerfield, the UK supermarket chain.
My experience spans all areas of PR - consumer, business-to-business, hi-tech, media relations, media training and promotions - and all media audiences, apart from investor relations.
I can put this experience at your disposal for everything from press release and case study writing to advice on strategic positioning and selection of PR agencies.
Unlike many PR consultants, I am also an active journalist - so I can offer advice on what works from the perspective of someone who has been on the receiving end.
However, I don't manage PR programmes personally because of possible conflicts with my press work and the difficulty of keeping up to date with media contacts as a non-specialist consultant.
I currently work with press offices of major firms such as Cisco Systems and start-up companies. To see if I could help you, too, email or ring me now.
Examples of PR-related work:
>Istanbul Police Department Keeps Streets Safe with Help from Cisco Systems press release for Cisco Systems.
>Saudi Arabia's Public Sector Gets Top Marks in Technology Adoption and Use press release for Cisco Systems.
>Belgian Federal Public Service Finance Chooses Cisco Systems for 4,000-Internet Protocol Phone System press release for Cisco Systems.
>E36 starts operations at Trentham Gardens press release for Ecocats (this link opens as a Word document).
Case study: in June 2000, I was approached by WWF, the global environment network, to help with the launch of the Oceans Recovery Campaign, an initiative aimed at raising awareness of the plight of sea-life around Britain's coasts.
I advised the environment body that the most newsworthy angle for the campaign would be the threat the imminent commercial extinction of cod in UK waters meant to one of Britain's most notorious national dishes - traditional fish 'n' chips.
Working to a tight deadline, I drafted a press release and assembled a 'virtual team' of other independent consultants to help manage the staging of a launch event and handle media relations approaches to British national press and broadcast organisations.
The launch went ahead to schedule less than six weeks after the initial briefing from WWF, with a press call at London's Billingsgate fish market that was attended by a number of national television news crews.
The launch strategy proved a hit with the media - the appeal was reported on TV news bulletins across the country, as well as national and local radio and several UK-wide newspapers.
The success of the campaign proved WWF could achieve significant coverage for an issue even in the absence of a weighty scientific report - something it had not tried before - and gave the organisation a sound platform for the release of concrete data later in the year.
jd sep 2006
