“What Happens in Vegas, stays on Facebook”
November 8, 2011
The fourth of the CIPR Autumn Guest Lecture Series at Leeds Met was hosted by Managing Director of the northern arm of Euro RSCG, Brian Beech, accompanied by Jenni Bamford, a recent Leeds Met graduate now working as an Account Executive at Euro RSCG.
Brian began with an entertaining metaphor: “PR practitioners are like rhinos – thick skinned and charge a lot!” He then stressed the importance of the utilization of the news agenda and topical word of mouth, citing the death of Schmeichel (a dog from Coronation Street) and Pets at Home’s information campaign to advise pet owners on how to deal with a death of a family pet.
Brian then identified the key issues surrounding the future of the PR industry:
- Significant growth in online media
- Less journalists covering more areas
- Explosion of social media
- Development of consumer-generated content
Nonetheless, he was quick to outline that British people remain the most avid newspaper readers in the world, with 33 million print readers a week, this is unlikely to change anytime soon. Moreover 71% of people read regional papers in contrast with 57% of people who read nationals and the percentage increases the further north you go due to a growing perception that nationals are too London-centric. This outlines the redundancy of ‘mass’ comms and the need to target micro, rather than macro-environments when communicating a message.
“The growth in new media is the biggest paradigm shift since the industrial revolution. It’s not a fad, it’s here to stay,”
Brian quoted the fact that 96% of people have used social media at some point, and the new phenomenon has overtaken pornography as the number one activity on the web. 1 in 5 couples met online. However as Brian ironically pointed out 1 in 5 marriages that end in divorce are because of Facebook.
“ 50% of pensioners in the UK use Facebook and a third use Youtube, every minute 24 hours of video is uploaded to Youtube; there are even babies in Egypt named ‘Facebook!’”
These statistics illustrated the need for PR students to transcend beyond mere enthusiastic amateurs to experts in digital media. Social media is instant, mobile and permanent and professional communicators will need to respond rather than deny – to quote Brian “What happens in Vegas, stays on Facebook!”
Brian concluded a rather entertaining lecture by emphasising the need for students to be doing work experience throughout their studies, otherwise how will you know what you like and you are good at? Brian was also keen to outline the need for PRs to specialise, or be negatively regarded as generalists. Ending with on a comical note, when asked what he specializes in, Brian replied “Bullshit!”
David Miliband Visits Leeds Met
October 21, 2011
Rt Hon MP David Miliband was welcomed by a full house at the Rose Bowl today in what was a very lively and interesting Q&A event. The former Foreign Secretary’s first question was focused on the transition of economic power from West to East. Miliband referenced the prediction that China’s economy is expected to overtake the US by 2020 and the need for us to adapt to the changing world order.
Miliband was keen to emphasize the shift in power from bourgeoisie to the people, using the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street as an example. He attributed this shift to new technology, citing the Zimbabwean electorate using their phones to take pictures of their vote to prevent foul play by despot Mugabe.
On the subject of democratic process, Miliband pointed out that many express concerns over the future of Libyan politics, fearing a fundamentalist Islamist majority. Mr Miliband rejected these concerns, calling for us to promote democracy, regardless of its consequences. Furthermore, he reiterated the fact that the tide of revolution that has swept the North Africa is home grown, devoid of western intervention, therefore we must support those seeking democratic change.
Questions then moved onto Syria and the Assad regime. “Despite the deaths of 2900 protestors, the situation in Syria differs significantly different to that in Libya,” Miliband said. He then highlighted China & Russia’s veto on any form of action against President Assad and the divide of philosophy among the international community on foreign interventionism.
When asked if we should ignore the veto, Miliband replied “yes, if there is a humanitarian need, a viable military solution and the geo-political positives outweigh the negatives,” citing the Sunni-Shea Muslim divide and the connections with Iran as political antagonists for military action.
On the subject the 2010 election, Miliband conceded that his party lost because “we didn’t give people enough reasons to vote for us.” He was very keen to reject a claim from a member of the audience that Labour because of the Iraq War, arguing that those that defected because of Iraq defected in 2005, yet Labour still won. However another member added that Labour’s return to opposition was overdue, citing 5 million voters lost in 2005.
When pushed for a position on university staff strikes by Professor Paul Blackledge, Miliband claimed “strikes should be used as a last resort tactic, there needs to be a greater, coherent strategy,” referencing the historic Jarrow March of 1936 and the movement’s failure to achieve anything because of a lack of strategy and leadership.
One member of audience protested “if you support the will of the people in the Arab world, you are heavily contradicting yourself by not supporting our strike against pension cuts.” A slightly rumbled looking Miliband replied saying that he is not against strike action; however he fears the political resolve of the uni staff maybe lost if there is no clear strategy that will achieve the desired results.
Miliband advocated multi-lateral disarmament when quizzed on the relevance of Trident in the 21st century and confirmed his support for the plight of the Kurdish population against Turkish aggression. Moreover, Mr Miliband supported the call for a compulsory register of Lobbyists “anything to control lobbyists” he remarked, much to the dismay of aspiring public affairs professionals in the audience.
In conclusion, a very insightful and worldly talk by the MP for South Shields was commended with thundering applause from an over-capacity lecture theatre.
