Tag: #pr

Celebrity Endorsement

Does celebrity endorsement of a produce or service really work?  It must do to some degree as its something that happens very regularly, and there are those people who aspire to be like their favourite celeb and emulate everything they do.

In the #bellringing world there are actually a number of famous people who have been or are bellringers, generally most of them don’t do it regularly because of their celebrity commitments.  People like Alan Titchmarsh (gardener), Timmy Mallett (kids tv presenter), Jo Brand (comedian), Norma Major (wife of former Prime Minister) have all been known to grab a rope.  Some even did quite well and have rung quarter peals, if not peals.  There are also those who had a bell handling lesson for the purposes of broadcasting a programme.  Changringingwiki (https://wiki.changeringing.co.uk/Famous_bellringers) has a list of some 24 listed as “proper” ringers and another 16 for artistic licence.  I do know of a few others that aren’t on that list e.g. Susan Calman who recently visited a tower in Scotland as part of a series she was recording.

Could #bellringing benefit from celebrity endorsement?  If so, what sort of celebrity would give #bellringing a good name?  There are pros and cons though.

Having a celebrity ambassador or endorsement can help your brand stand out, and can build credibility.  Celebrities tend to be trusted by their fans, whether that trust is founded or not is a different matter.  The celeb would be risking their career if they endorsed a dodgy product or services.  Having the right celebrity involved can open up different audiences to your message. 

It should be remembered though that when you sign up a celebrity, you sign up everything about them.  If that celeb finds themselves embroiled in a scandal, this could have disastrous consequences for your product.  They could overshadow your message.  If the focus is too much on the celebrity, the produce message gets lost, and they could endorse more than one product, which may be counter intuitive to your product. Endorsements can be expensive.  The celeb wants to make as much money for as little work as possible.  The bigger the celeb, the bigger the price tag. https://baerpm.com/2018/01/02/pros-cons-celebrity-endorsements/

Jo Brand recently mentioned on a popular satirical tv show that she learned to ring, but then went on to say that its dangerous and you should have a good A&E department nearby.  That isn’t really the message that we want people to have of #bellringing.  The question now is, can I get her to change her opinion by getting her to have another go.  Teaching and support is very different now to when she learned many years ago.

I’ve written to Jo’s agent, so we’ll see if we get anywhere.

A course, of course

I’ve been thinking for a while now about whether or not to do a formal course in public relations to support the work I do for the Central Council and at local level. All that I have learned so far has been on the job, immersive and quite often responsive., and because I have a full time day job, I’m not always picking up signals that require a response, or that could be utilised to our advantage.

I’ve been having a look around to see what’s on offer, and probably prefer an online course that allows me to work at my own pace around everything else I’m doing.  But of course, these courses come at a cost; some in the region of £1,500 – £2,500, depending on what level you want to study at.

I would be prepared to cough that up myself if I was absolutely confident that the course would give me the tools I need, in the sector I’m in and support what I have time to do.  I wouldn’t dream of asking anyone or organisation to fund it if there wasn’t that guarantee.  But how do you really know? 

I’ve read through the “Who this Course is For” and learning outcome pages, but they all seem to be very business orientated.  I’m looking at the charitable, local organisation sector, which is possibly different in parts.  And as I’m not likely to move into PR as a career, can I justify the expense, or should I just stick with winging it?

One of the main things I want to work on is my writing skills.  Seems odd for someone who brain dumps into a blog every day, but there we are.  I want to be able to write more engaging news stories so that the media will take up our stories and we gain more public awareness, and therefore greater recruitment prospects and also greater acceptance, acknowledgement and appreciation of what we do.

There is one course that I’ve seen that has reference to writing skills in it and it seems a bit cheaper than all the others. It seems to be from a reputable organisation https://collegeofmediaandpublishing.co.uk/product/public-relations-course/ and for £500 covers:

  • An intro to PR
  • Newswriting techniques
  • Writing effective news releases
  • Communicating with the media
  • Online PR
  • Handling a crisis
  • Using TV and radio
  • Organising a news conference
  • Law and reputation management
  • Using other PR tools
  • Running  a PR campaign

Each lesson includes a practical assignment and is marked and graded by tutor, and at the end you get a Level 4 Diploma (equivalent to the first year of a Bachelors degree) in Public Relations. 

I’m quite tempted.