I'm Not Here

If you're looking for Tom Malcolm as you can see I'm no longer here. Make sure you pop by Shoestring Spirit and I'll say hello.

Thanks Qantas

I thought I'd share what I think is quite a brilliant video made by my friend Andy Tyler following his trip was disrupted thanks to the Volcanic ash cloud...

With so many airlines getting it in the neck both in the print media and through social media for their poor handling of customer relations during the disaster - it's refreshing to see how far a little spot of customer TLC in a crisis can go...

I hope Ryan Air are watching....



A personal explanation from Andy....

"Two Qantas flights, QF31 and QF9, took off from Sydney and Perth respectively, on Thursday April 15th, both with London as their destination.

They both reached their stopover point of Singapore, only to be told upon arrival that the second leg of both flights would not be leaving on time due to some ash in the sky thanks to a volcano erupting in Iceland. It was delayed for 12 hours, and most of the passengers opted to sleep at the airport gate rather than move to a hotel just in case anything changed and the flights could depart sooner than expected.

Nothing changed - in fact, the ash cloud only worsened, and nobody knew when it would be safe to fly to Europe. About 14 hours after the flight had been due to leave, despite over 3,500 people being stuck at Singapore airport and numerous conferences in town filling up hotel capacity, the Qantas staff announced they had found hotel rooms for the passengers who were still waiting at the gate.

We all expected that to mean low budget, bare bones accomodation, since Qantas were offering to pay for it. We all assumed it would only be one night. How wrong we were on both counts.

Qantas paid for us to stay at the Orchard Hotel (millenniumhotels.com.sg/orchardhotelsingapore/), a luxurious hotel in the heart of Singapore, with all our meals included, as well as a 5 minute international phone call each.

The next morning came, and with no good news on the ash cloud front, we were told Qantas were paying for us to stay another night.

The same happened the following day, except we were told we couldn't stay there on the night of the 19th because the hotel was full. We all thought our luck had run out and we would be taken back to the airport.

How wrong we were, yet again. Qantas put us in luxury coaches and transferred us across the border into Malaysia, where we were booked into the Pulai Springs Resort (pulaisprings.com/v_flash/index.html), a resort hotel with two golf courses, a driving range, several swimming pools, gym, spa, tennis court, squash court - the list goes on. Most was included but some we had to splash out for; not too much of a burden considering the situation!

We were there for two nights, before flights resumed on Wednesday night and once again we were transferred by coach back to Singapore airport, where we checked in and departed for our final destination, London.

There was an almighty round of applause on touching down at Heathrow.

This video is our cheeky little way of saying thank you to Qantas for being so awesome and looking after us during our unexpected six day holiday in South East Asia.

Thanks Qantas!"

Boris VS Bob Crow: Streetfighter Style

Suralan

As we enter the final fortnight of The Apprentice, I came across this amazing homage by Cassetteboy which I thought I'd share - pure genius....

Response Sauce

Below reads a response source from Jeff Maysh at Loaded - possibly one of the funniest I've received in my PR career - had to put it up here. Thanks Jeff, you certainly brightened up my day....I need to get into Film PR....

MEDIA OUTLET: Loaded Magazine (editorial request) MEDIA TYPE: Consumer Press

JOURNALIST: Jeff Maysh (staff)

DEADLINE: 03-February-2009 16:00

QUERY: This is a tricky response source to write.

I hope someone can help me out. Sometime between September and October 2008 I visited the film set of the latest British horror flick, 'Doghouse'. It stars Danny Dyer, which is where the problems started, and also Stephen Graham.

It was my job to go on set and interview the stars and get some photos taken with the blood and guts and stuff. Which I did, but like most of the cast, I'd had a pretty big night the evening before and they werent really up for talking. In fact one actor took my photo using his iPhone and threatened to kill me if I wrote him up badly.

Then I got in trouble for nicking a script, which was just laying around and I thought it was free for all to take. They were worried I'd know the secret ending of the film and blow the plot...how wrong they were, because I cannot remember a fucking thing from after the set bar opened at 11am selling Guiness for a pound a pint.

The film was in Surrey somewhere, I think, I was picked up in a minibus. I remember the PR bringing a cardboard box full of lager. I remember the film seemed REALLY GOOD and the trailer made it look amazing. I have a dictaphone full of interviews, some of them cohesive. I think this will make an excellent feature in Loaded.

I've rung the production company, Carnaby International, who claim they dont have a press dept, and Sony, who Carnaby say are releasing the film (Sony havent heard of it).

I'm almost certain this whole episode wasnt all in my imagination, but as I said...I had endured a VERY big night.

If anyone was on set with me, or if this sounds at all familiar, drop me a line,

XXXX

ps. I have recently given up booze.

Do You Do Diffusion In 2009?

Nearly 6 months now since I joined Diffusion and it's gone pretty damn quick...guess it's all that stuff about time flying when you're having fun and all that.

I've had an amazing time working at Diffusion Towers seeing our company grow and it's been really refreshing to be part of a growing team that's working for some really exciting brands and digital companies...but before I continue gushing, tears come to my eyes and you all start reaching for the nearest bucket, I need to come to the crux of what this blog post is all about....

The boss has asked that I harness the "immense broadcasting power" of my little blog to highlight the fact that we're looking for some new bright sparks to join the team.

Please see the job information below which probably explains it all better than I ever could - it's also on the career's section of our beautiful website if you want to have a peak.

"With a new year ahead of you it’s perfectly natural to be contemplating whether you are in the right job. Are you working for clients you love, in a culture that is constantly innovating and pushing the boundaries of PR? Is your career where you want to it to be and can you see a clear path to promotion ahead of you? Is your employer investing in you to make sure you have the digital communication skills which are essential for effective PR today?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’, perhaps now’s the time to see what fresh opportunities are out there? Here at Diffusion, we are looking for another Senior Campaign Executive to join our seven-strong team in early 2009. After 18-months in PR, you will have a Blackberry bursting with media contacts across the digital media, marketing, technology and national press. You will have a real interest in how brands are using the web to engage with stakeholders and a real desire to represent clients across a wide range of industry sectors, from hot digital start-ups to global consumer brands.

At Diffusion, you’ll not only get job satisfaction from doing brilliant work with great colleagues for fantastic clients, though we think that always helps. Through our commitment to Talent Management we offer fast-track career development to the brightest and a tailored training programme. And it goes without saying that your hard work and commitment will be rewarded with a market leading salary and benefits package. So if you want to spend 2009 and beyond working for one of the fastest-growing and most talked about agencies of 2008, we’d love to hear from you!"

If you fancy joining us at Diffusion Towers then feel free to drop me a note on Twitter but the best person to speak to is our glorious leader Daljit Bhurji who you can reach through the following address daljit.bhurji@diffusionpr.com

Shoestring Inspiration

I was asked this week by the venerable Stephen Waddington to continue a meme passed on to him by Ged Carrol on what inspires him to keep up his blog posts.

I have to say I feel in part this tag was itself inspired by a quick look at my shabby old blog which hasn’t been updated for a while so first and foremost let me apologize...

So inspiration....I think the main one has to be what other people are writing on the blogs I read. I Really enjoy reading the thoughts of others on industry issues – Becky’s, Stephen’s, Chris’s, Drew’s and of course the boss’ blogs all ones I enjoy reading regularly and where I can find something mildly intelligent to add to the debate I will – only problem recently is that I’ve been doing too much reading and not enough responding...

Looking back through this blog since I started it – I guess the other main inspirations have come from the various forms of websites I’m reading on a day to day basis whether it be the trials and tribulations of Tottenham on white hart pain or music and gigs on sites like NME. Aside from that it’s really the events that I go to and the people I meet at them.

I guess one of the main problems I have found with this particular blog and why it has therefore been so neglected has been the lack of personal experiences I’ve been able to put into it...

I therefore have recently started a side project called Shoestring Spirit borne out of jottings and that dreaded word ‘poems’ I’ve put together since my spotty teenage years – it’s refreshing to get feedback from and meet other people online outside of the traditional ‘tech PR blog world’ and in a way it gives me inspiration to keep blogging in another realm outside of the professional – and get people to see some of these thoughts which (while often rubbish) would otherwise be left stewing in a dusty desk draw.

I’ll pass this little meme onto Drew, Becky and Ben