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BBC News - Row over live it love it brand
The BBC story
about the Leeds, Live it, Love it brand is now out with a quote from me
and Councillor Keith Wakefield. There is a response from Tony Stanton,
CEO of An Agency Called England (formally known as Mediaworks).
And I'm sorry but Marketing Leeds CEO Kevin Johnson's claim that "the
cost of developing the Live it Love it brand was zero, but the
research, printing and launch show had so far cost £150,000" just
doesn't add-up. The term 'research' can cover a multitude of sins and
no PR company or agency works for nothing.
In my professional experience the two most expensive elements of
developing a brand are the research and the implementation (producing
new stationery, signs, vehicle livery etc). Also a £150,000 for print
and the launch show sounds expensive. That's a hell of a lot of print.
Tony Stanton, the chief executive of An Agency Called
England said he had come up with the 'Live it Love it' idea completely
independently and only in the process of due diligence did he find it
had been used elsewhere.
Tony is no doubt right that they came up with the idea completely
independently but the bit that doesn't add up is the "in the process of
due dilligence". That is the sort of the marketing bullshit that is
used all the time by PR and marketing people. I know, I admit to having
done it myself. It makes you sound like a lawyer and you hope it makes
you seem more professional. After all due dilligence is what lawyers do
for you when closing a deal.
It wouldn't sound so impressive if you said "I typed a couple of words
into Google and this is what I found". But that's all it takes to find
out just how many times the phrase has already been used in place
marketing and branding.
I don't like critiscising fellow professionals in my home town (and my
comments certainly aren't directed to the people on the board of
Marketing Leeds, some of who I know and have respect for) but feel I
have to do it for two reasons:
1) Leeds has some worldclass businesses, universities, organisations and people. They all deserve better than this.
2) As well as running a Leeds-based PR company I am also an elected
city councillor and have a duty to the people of Leeds to ensure that
their money is spent as effectively as possible. I remain to be
convinced.
I'm cross posting this to my councillor blog and would like to invite
any of those involved to visit one of the two sites and use the
comments to respond to some of the critiscism from myself and lots of
others. Over to you.
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