In the current digital age, the power of word of mouth has never been so great. Not only do people share their good and bad experiences in person, they now tell their friends about it on Facebook, their followers on Twitter and their connections on LinkedIn.

From talking to tweeting and updating, people power is worth its weight in gold (if it’s positive of course!) and this was at the forefront of my mind as we celebrated the opening of Côte Brasserie, a new French restaurant in Mermaid Quay.

Côte Brasserie is a new name for Cardiff, specialises in traditional French food and superb service, definitely something to shout about. However it opened in November amongst Christmas party mayhem and the snow which brought the city to a standstill, with weather the only topic on people’s lips and fingertips. So we set to work on spreading the word about Côte in advance of the RBS Six Nations, when people start venturing out after the January hibernation.

To start with we went back to basics. Rather than just telling people about it, we wanted them to experience it firsthand in order to give them a reason to share it. Getting 500 people convinced about the credentials of the restaurant, means they’ll tell 5,000 of their friends about it.

We targeted people who like to talk and come into contact with potential diners on a daily basis to spread the word across the city. We invited hairdressers for team meals, offered vouchers to hotel concierges and receptionists to enjoy themselves or to pass onto guests and welcomed all the city’s taxi drivers for a free breakfast.

An evening reception of champagne and canapés for all the key players in business, arts and media in Cardiff with a sprinkling of celebrities provided real time promotion via social media, with endorsement tweets and Facebook updates about Côte.

You see it’s human nature to want to tell people if you’ve been treated to something good. And when it comes to choosing a restaurant, it is recommendations people look for, checking out the place their friend was raving about and knowing what to expect.

It’s these referrals which lead to success and create the domino effect, with the confidence that person will have a good experience and pass it on. It’s truly infectious, if done right.

By the way I can personally recommend Côte’s warm chocolate fondant, just don’t tell my personal trainer!

Kate

Equinox’s newest recruit talks about her first few weeks..

Coming from a creative background with a degree in advertising, I targeted Equinox because of the marketing and PR mix and the varied client base. I didn’t think I’d get the PR Assistant role as first jobs are so competitive and I hadn’t had much PR experience. Following my interview back in December, I came out thinking I would still be on the job hunt, but a few days later I had the news back saying I got the job. They liked my creativity and knowledge of online communications. I was assured that I would have on-the job training to provide the best grounding for the rest of the role. Maybe the reason I was successful had something to do with the valiant effort I put in to arriving to my interview, on the snowiest day of the year in Cardiff, travelling 45 miles to get here. Turning up smartly dressed but in my walking boots! (Probably not the best first impression!)

Once getting Christmas and the New Year out of the way, it was time to think about starting my new job. As expected, I had all the usual thoughts and worries go through my head when starting a new job.. What do I wear? What will everyone be like? What will I be doing on my first day?

As I arrived, I walked into a manic office with the sounds of people on the phone, keyboards tapping and printers printing. I was shown my desk (I’ve never had my own desk before!) and set up with my own computer. Starting back after Christmas seemed like the busiest time to start – everyone overloaded with work to catch up on.

With my lack of experience I did not really know what to expect, but was given a list of duties for the PR Assistant role. I soon found out what cuttings are, how to use website CMS and where the post office is! My duties here include everything from admin tasks such as scanning and evaluating cuttings, contacting competition winners and ensuring we don’t run out of stationery, to research and data gathering, updating social media channels, drafting HTML’s, calling shopping park tenants and not forgetting bugging Elinor every half hour with questions!

Almost one month into the job now and have so far learnt that the most important aspects to this job are organisation, managing priorities, keeping a note of everything and asking questions!

Since starting at Equinox, I have become a lot more familiar with the clients and am mainly involved on The Valleys and Savills accounts, as well as helping out when needed across the others. I’m still surprised at how a fairly small team manages such a heavy workload, but that’s all part and parcel of working in a great communications agency I guess.

Laura

WEATHER WARNING

Well the weather is awful this winter, it’s been snowing- lots, and the whole country is obsessed with it, especially the media. I don’t think I’ve had a conversation over the past month which hasn’t included some reference to it. While this is a well documented British obsession, the reason for the preoccupation with these adverse conditions is of course travel over holiday periods.

Over the past few weeks we’ve provided 24hours communications support to clients such as Arriva Trains Wales, Cardiff Airport and Fastnet Line when the whole country has almost come to a halt because of the adverse weather.

The elephant in the room, as always, remains, ‘why, when we have had warning about the conditions, isn’t the UK travel network more prepared to deal with effects of snow?’ This is a big question which does not have a simple and a “quick-fix” answer.

Whilst many other European countries seem to be able to cope with such weather conditions, little Britain always struggles and it’s obvious why others succeed when we fail – they’re geared up for such weather because it comes every year and have the appropriate resources to deal with it efficiently..

If the recent weather is going to become common in Britain then there will need to be a seismic shift and change in the UK’s transport strategy where billions of pounds will need to be invested in new equipment, agencies, resources and people. Money that is not available!

Anyway I’ll leave addressing this issue to Philip Hammond MP but it is certainly an interesting time for those of us in the communications profession, especially if, like Equinox, you have clients covering rail, air and sea travel.

Tales of people sleeping on the floors at Heathrow and being stranded on the M6 for days fill our media, the more dramatic the better but there is little understanding of the huge operation underway for the majority of transport providers to get information to clients.  Regular internet updates and social media help enormously to disseminate up to date information without relying on hourly news bulletins – thank goodness for Twitter – but it is still an enormous undertaking for communications teams and consultancies.

In times of extreme disruption to services over a prolonged period, communication consultancies come into their own by supporting the press office (so people can get some sleep while others field media queries, source new information and update online media). There is of course always a pre-prepared communications plan for adverse weather but if one thing is guaranteed, something will happen which no-one expected and we have to deal with it while keeping information flowing and ensuring customers get the best information on which to base their travel decisions.

It’s that time of year again when already your diaries are full with seasonal soirees and your bellies with M&S Christmas sandwiches. So, to help you get through all of those office parties in style, here are my tips on how to effortlessly go from desk to dancefloor.

And if, like me, the thought of shopping in the city centre fills you with fear, head to Talbot Green Shopping Park, located just off junction 34, for high street without the hassle.

Festive drinks with clients, office parties and industry dos can be difficult to dress for. You need to look sophisticated, but rarely have more than half an hour to get ready.

I’d suggest wearing a classic shift dress to the office with some black opaque tights and ballet pumps. With little time to change, simply add a pair of heels, swap the opaques for some House of Holland inspired patterned tights, a lick of red lipstick and some sparkly accessories and you’re ready to go.

Red fringed dress, £55, M&S

If you don’t fancy wearing a dress, simply replace your office trousers or skirt with a pair of skinny jeans, which will look fabulous with a pretty blouse. Add an oversized clutch, statement heels and a blazer for the perfect office to party look.

Sequin clutch, £22, Next

Remember, you can update your office look really easily, simply by adding a corsage or statement brooch to a jacket, teaming coloured tights with your black dress, or using a silk scarf to transform your plain white blouse in an instant.

And for the blokes out there, extra style points for swapping suits for fairisle knits, or better still, a snazzy Christmas jumper!

Helen

M&S and Next, as well as seven other fashion retailers are available at Talbot Green Shopping Park. Visit www.talbotgreen.com, find Talbot Green on Facebook or follow @TalbotGreen on Twitter for the latest news and fashion from the Park.

The death of Michael Jackson. General Election results.  Wayne Rooney cheating. I first heard about all of them through Twitter. Since February 2009, I have checked Twitter every morning to catch up on the latest news. For me, it’s a quick way to read through the headlines from a range of newspapers, social commentators and celebs in two minutes. Today I have had a quick update on the fall out of the Comprehensive Spending Review from @swbusiness and @GdnCardiff, and my twitter ‘friends’ informing me of the controversy over the Cardiff Half Marathon course being cut 0.2 miles short.

I’m not alone. News spreads through Twitter well before the mainstream media pull themselves together to get something broadcasted, or online. It was blog TMZ that announced that Michael Jackson, one of the most famous people in the world, had suffered a fatal heart attack. Sky and BBC News followed shortly after, but it was Twitter that spread the message across the world.  Does this cheapen news, as some people (non-tweeters) scoff that “I read it on Twitter”? No, as Mathew Ingram from blog TechCrunch, says, Twitter is a source of journalism: “…chaotic situations result in poor information flow — even to the “professional” journalists who are working at the scene. First-hand and second-hand reports on Twitter are no worse. Should anyone take them as gospel, or the final version of the events? No. Obviously, at some point someone has to check the facts, confirm reports, analyze the outcome, and so on. News reporting and journalism are much more of a process than they are a discrete thing. Twitter reports are a valuable “first draft of history,” and that is a pretty good definition of the news.”

On 15 January 2009, images of the US Airways flight 1549 submerged in the Hudson river appeared on Twitter as an eye-witness snapped the passengers and crew being rescued, documenting the news story unravel as it happened. Just four minutes after the crash, @Manolantern Tweeted: ‘I just watched a plane crash into the hudson riv in manhattan’, 15 minutes before the mainstream media alerted viewers and readers to the crash. At the same time, even official information site FlightStats was showing the downed flight as 26 minutes late, but still “en route” to its destination. The reaction made me think – how would 9/11 have been reported if Twitter had been around in 2001?

I don’t mind that I get my news from what some people see as a fad. Twitter provides invaluable real-time running commentary on events, which, when read alongside analysis and commentary from the mainstream media, can provide a rich, detailed, and personalised account of major incidents. It offers an outlet for myself and my followers to react to, and discuss, in a direct and snappy (140 characters!) way.

If I had a penny for every Christmas Day countdown post on Facebook this week, I’d be as rich as her Royal Highness.  Christmas it seems, whether we like it or not, is officially here- just check out M&S at Llanishen near our office where the mince pies are already flying of f the shelves!

With The Queen cancelling the traditional Christmas party for staff due to the “difficult financial circumstances” facing the Nation and the Government’s spending review looming times are tighter than ever in the run-up to Christmas.  But, here at Equinox Communications, the Christmas party is an unbreakable tradition. And the planning is firmly under-way.

It seems everyone’s love for the Art-Attack days and making Merry Masquerade masks for last year’s bash at Barocco has got everyone thinking about this year’s pièce de résistence. Arriva Trains Wales has already suggested a fancy dress theme…

Apparently at previous Royal Christmas parties at Buckingham Palace, The Queen,  joined by Prince Phillip and other Royal family members were reportedly mixing with staff and even hitting the dance-floor!  At the “legendary” Equinox party (an endorsement not a statement, I hasten to add) we go that extra mile.  The team still talks about Dolly’s 9-5 karaoke tribute of Christmas ‘07!

Although the countdown to Christmas seems to start in October rather than November these days, there’s still a lot to be said about keeping a little suspense; why kill the festive fun and frivolity by unveiling our plans too soon?

Our party may not stretch to a Royal list of 600 or cost £50,000 to throw, but it’s a tradition that’s here to stay. And  if you’re not yet a Facebook fan or Twitter follower, there’s no better time to sign up…you may just make the list!

Catrin.

The shortlists have been announced, the menu has been revealed and talk in the office has turned to the perfect outfit…In less than three weeks, this year’s CIPR Cymru Wales Pride Awards will be upon us. But aside from the fierce competitiveness, free flowing alcohol and the colourful dresses, the annual awards present an important and significant opportunity for agencies and in-house teams across the country to assert their position in the industry.

The importance of awards in business has been widely addressed. As well as being an opportunity for teams to showcase their work to industry contemporaries, the recognition of an award for agencies demonstrates the team’s commitment and dedication to providing a high quality of work to new clients and helping to secure new business. For in-house teams, the achievement highlights the value of public relations to the rest of the company.

Awards of this nature are becoming increasingly popular. And with the increase, comes the expected cynicism. Much like the well known Brit Awards which strategically take place in February – when record sales are at their lowest in the year, many critics see the industry awards as an opportunity to merely boost sales and increase profiles.

Whatever the motive, the title of ‘Best Campaign under £10k’ or ‘Outstanding Small Consultancy’ can provide that added incentive to secure investment from a new client and ultimately help increase profits in a recovering economic climate and when competition for business is greater than ever.

This year, Equinox Communications is sponsoring the Canmol: Wales Marketing Awards, created by the Chartered Institute of Marketing. With the awards, which celebrate and promote excellence in the marketing industry in Wales, taking place at the beginning of next month (7 October), Equinox has been busy over the past week filming brief interviews with the 15 shortlisted candidates.

From a cheese maturation turned trampoline company in West Wales to the opening of the biggest retail development in 2009, the recognition of even being shortlisted for a Canmol Award will give the 15 diverse organisations and businesses a platform to showcase their innovative campaigns to the rest of Wales.

On winning an award in 2009, South Wales Police’s Neighbourhood Policing Marketing Officer, James Harper said,

“It has certainly increased the standing of marketing in our organisation and was a catalyst to the development of many new marketing initiatives, and important improvements in service delivery for our communities.”

And, in a study undertaken by University of Leicester for the British Quality Foundation and the European Foundation for Quality Management, results showed that award winning companies experienced a higher growth in sales over non-award winning companies by an average of 77%

With the increasing desire for excellence which is both recognised and rewarded, it looks like awards are set to be around for a while yet. So, love them or loathe them, think of the ceremony as an opportunity to network over a glass of wine (mine’s a Sauvingnon Blanc) and grab yourself a goody bag for your efforts.

Elinor

After finishing today’s task of a difficult sell in to a number of prickly national journalists it got me thinking about the age old argument of PR versus journalism. The complexities of the relationship between journalists and PR professionals are not new and have, in fact, been commented on for years. However, the issue has been brought to light again after a recent experiment by PR Week.
PR Week’s deputy features editor and a PR agency professional swapped jobs for one week to see if they could hack the other professional’s job and to hopefully have a better understanding of each other’s roles.
What would a PR officer think of a journalist’s deadlines, being on the receiving end of pitches and deciding on stories in the news meeting? And how would a journalist cope with managing clients, pitching to fellow contemporaries, and having to make those dreaded follow-up calls?
At the end of a long week experiencing the highs and lows, and dealing with the demands and pressure of each other’s jobs both had a new found respect for the others role.
These two professionals have been ‘enlightened’ but that is just two out of many. It got me thinking, will we ever work harmoniously side by side? Could this constant struggle be down to something as simple as that we both feel we have the more difficult task?
John Lloyd writing for the Financial Times a few years ago, said: “Public relations and journalism do not inhabit separate worlds; in particular, the relationship between them is not that of sleazy liars seeking to seduce seekers after truth. Truth does not reside on one side only. Standards are not the monopoly of one and unknown to the other. Journalism cannot understand itself unless it understands what public relations has done to it; how murky and grubby the relationship can become, with the connivance of both, and how the relationship might work to the benefit of citizens who should be told something like the truth.”
Even after a number of years working in PR I still find myself on occasions being almost apologetic that I might have interrupted a journalist even though I know that what I have to tell them about is actually very interesting.  Maybe if we could all undertake a job swap when we start out in our respective careers it might do something towards ending this long battle and join the two sides together.

Katie

Some months back I held a media relations seminar for about forty 16-18 year old A-level business students in South Wales and, as part of the course, discussed their understanding of the media and news.

When asked how many read a newspaper regularly only two said they did and, when asked which newspaper, The Sun and The Daily Mirror was their response. Apart from a handful who got their news online the remaining 60 per cent were either not interested in news or, worryingly, got their news from weekly celebrity magazines – a subject matter for a future blog!

This was an alarming revelation – no one in that seminar was reading from a Welsh publication and therefore  not reading about the news and issues relevant to Wales, let alone their local news.

More recently I facilitated another media relations course but this one was open to business leaders and professionals who wanted basic training in media relations.

The age span of those present ranged from early twenties to mid fifties with a varied mix of managers, administrators, in-house marketing executives and directors.

This time when asked where they got their news from, thankfully more were news savvy and did follow the news, although social media as a news source was alien to the vast majority.

But once more, most read the national newspapers, either in print or online, or got their news from the BBC news website. Again, no one read their local weekly newspaper. This confirms the statistics that approximately 90 per cent of people in Wales read a paper that doesn’t contain Welsh news.

It is therefore no surprise that once again figures released last week show the continued decline in the print media industry in Wales. The latest figures show that some newspapers have seen a drop of more than 10 per cent in circulation compared to last year’s figures.

This situation is not unique to Wales; across the UK newspaper circulation figures have been falling year-on-year and newspaper owners have had to face up to these challenging times by adopting some radical changes.

For example, one of the Midlands’ main newspapers, the Birmingham Post was a daily until November 2009 when it moved to a weekly publication and, within the past twelve months three weekly newspapers in Wales have closed down, the Neath Guardian, Port Talbot Guardian and Wrexham Chronicle.

There are three key reasons for the decline in newspaper circulations; firstly, the economic downturn – less being spent on advertising means falling revenues, secondly the competition from other media outlets and online, which provide ‘instant’ news, and thirdly, our changing habits with regards to how we source our news.

In an attempt to reverse the trend newspaper owners have revamped the look and content of their newspapers, some evening papers are now available as morning publications (the South Wales Echo, Argus and Wrexham Leader have done this in the past year) whilst others have invested in their online presence with a view of appealing to a younger generation and developing ways to establish revenue streams from advertising similar to those achieved in the print media heydays.

With these changes some industry analysts believe that our weekly, and perhaps even daily newspapers in Wales will have all but disappeared within a decade – a very sad and sobering prediction!

Today, news is available 24/7, on TV, radio, online or on your mobile and so it’s no surprise that the traditional structure of a newspaper, be it daily or weekly, is facing a challenge.  There are of course many media outlets that put the traditional structure at a disadvantage.

If our weekly newspapers disappear then reporting of local and community news will be jeopardised and possibly lost for future generations. The traditional weekly newspaper is often seen as the glue that keeps communities together, it’s a part of communities’ daily life and its local heritage.

If the experts’ predictions come true then a large amount of Wales’ news, events and history may not be recorded as in the past and may be lost forever.

If my recent experience is anything to go by, I wonder whether there will be a need for any ‘real’ news outlets in the future. Whilst I embrace the ‘new’ news sources, outlets and social media it would be a real shame to lose more than 150 years of newspaper history in Wales… time will tell.

Eryl