As for the TV show – that’s awesome news! If you go ahead though, make absolutely sure you have rights over the direction of the final edit. Editors in this country are well known for ‘sexing up’ documentaries and you’d be surprised at how bad they can make you look if they want to.

Maybe what companies need, aside from a great product, is to hire people who are PR people at heart, as well as skilled in their own field!

If you’ve got that, then stop wishing and appreciate what you’ve got, because you’ve found yourself a star team!

Its the same reality for business success as it was 100 years ago, create value. OR at worst create the perception of value and have mounds of one time customers.

Today the noise level is so much higher, that there are hundreds of reasonably effective core marketing strategies, which take time and effort to implement. Put all of these irons into one’s marketing fire and results come. Its not mystical nor is it rocket science. Its a doggedness to keep talking longer and louder and through more channels than ever before.

Facebook – created value for two reasons – ease of use & qualification of known acquaintances & friends required – took facebook one notch up from Myspace.

MySpace – created value – because it allowed millions of dis-illusioned trailer parkers believe they had a big pool of friends, instead of a lonely life filled with despair (ok thats a stretch but you get the idea)

Using standards based markup, XHTML which verifies with http://validator.w3.org/
does not make ones company remarkable. It makes ones company – one of the pack, at the front of the pack of packs.

Time is money yet millions tout internet marketing as a “free” alternative. How much are they paying you for the TV work? or is it a vehicle for future potential exposure – which drives you to do it.

I’ve worked a four day week for the last 7 years and having a free day to just create, write, produce saved my virtual soul. Its worked well and when I originally read about your new plan for a four day week I thought, – finally another web head sick of endless toil & the productivity issues which go with it.

I have to say I’m really keen to watch the TV show. Can you give us any clues as to when it will be aired?

Keep up the great work.

I long for the time when all men wore hats – not because I’m gay btw, but because us gents accessories and variety in the wardrobe is few and far between compared to that of the good ladies. Anything that adds to my generally ability to look damn cool a sophisticated is a boon as far as I’m concerned.

And why doesn’t my bank manager where a bowler hat? God damn it if you’re twisted enough to want to be a bank manager you should surely at least embrace the trappings of parochial power…!

It will be interesting in the future to see whether companies adopt more communities peeps and fewer PR firms!

As for Ryans hat, honestly who gives a shit (I wish I had a hat that suited me). If you are coming here for fashion tips then comments are welcome but seriously do you need to post about it? Ryans company looks as if they are having a great time doing what they do, how many firms can say they do so much on their terms?

It seems that in this age of “anyone can contact anyone else about anything”, giving people something worthy of conversation is all the PR you really need. The key word there might be “giving”…you can’t count on people coming across your culture/story if you’re not willing to put it out there.

Maybe you “promote” it your own, maybe you’ve got someone taking care of that for you (not everyone can do it themselves)…but the most important part is to BE remarkable in the first place.

I deal with an awful lot of PR people think I only agree with you partially Ryan, because it feels like you’re conflating a number of issues. For example:

a) There’s a difference between having a remarkable product and being a remarkable marketer (Facebook would probably come in the first category, Carsonified maybe in the second)

b) Some companies are lucky enough to have both, but you can’t buy it in and you can’t force it. You’ve either got it or you don’t.

c) Being remarkable is not, in and of itself, necessarily a desirable quality. For example, being the greatest place on earth to work isn’t necessarily that great if your company’s built on sand. (ie Google’s culture may be remarkable, but it is not what makes the company remarkable. There is a difference)

d) You can never make an unremarkable company be remarkable with PR. You can never make an unremarkable company be more remarkable with evangelism.

e) Start off by working out why you’d need PR in the first place. The clue is in the name, and, in fact most businesses don’t deal with the public (in its widest sense) at all. They deal with a segment of people who are interested in their area, or they deal with other businesses. If you spend a few minutes working out who you are trying to sell to, chances are you can also work out how to sell to them yourself.

PS I know Adam was a wee bit rude, but I often end up wondering whether you’re actually being controlled by a little bodysnatching alien who lives under the hat.

Oh, and ignore Adam. Anonymity’s a wonderful thing.

But – if you don’t stand up to the ‘remarakbliness’ (is that a word .. ) you promise – you’ll need a big PR company to save you from drowning. What I want to say is – don’t only shine, deliver.

I guess that will keep the good press attention flowing.

A series would be cool, and would most definitely boost the brand name around the country ;)

From what I have read of yours, you are very PR orientated yourself. You probably could work in PR yourself.

For most companies I would say hire a good PR… concentrate on what you are good at and pay someone else to do their job. We started out trying to do our own PR and it turned out to be a massive false economy, it was taking up way too much of my time and it wasn’t any good!

We now use a very good PR company… who are a fairly new business themselves which helps.

Having said that, the founder and key personnel of a new business should be involved in the PR (But not running it by themselves).

Instead of following Robert Stephens’ quote, I like the “Content is King but marketing is the Queen, and we all know who runs the household.”

I agree that having a PR company solely for the use of GETTING press is a waste if your product/project isn’t worth talking about anyway. If people like something, they’ll talk. If they’re not talking, maybe the idea needs some work.

Either way it got me off my ass to do something about it, so thanks!

Heh, come to think of it i reckon they should do a company version of wife swap, 2 companies swop MD’s for a week! that would be a hoot!

Ben