Myc Ruggelsford workshop review

Grassroots pr workshop for pr histories and practices. A review.




We had entered the room with two men already standing talking in there. One was our tutor, Jon, the other, the man who would be talking at us for the next 48 hours. We all drifted in and sat in two rows whilst we were introduced to Myc Riggulsford and explained to that this was a workshop over two days whereby we would be learning about our new module PR histories and practices. A head-bob goodbye from Jon left us with Myc who we all tiredly turned towards.

The first thing he did was smile in a way that made the whole atmosphere change, everyone sat a little straighter, notebooks were out and pens were ready. He let us know it was important for us to spell everything right, including names, which can be complicated, writing his own on the board. Welsh origins, a little different, but you could tell that this man was not going to be an ordinary Mike.

Myc hadn’t started with public relations. Originally he was a journalist; mostly on radio for Plymouth Sound, but after went freelance. He had his first taste of pr in the health service and enjoyed it but when in 1991 regulations were brought in to limit who he could contact he realised it was time to break free.

This was when he created his own agency, the Walnut Bureau. His eyes sparkled with compassion as he described his agency. “Imagine a very old bureau made from walnut wood, very old school, where you would not be sitting typing at a computer but have a quill with paper, how writing should be.” Myc wanted his agency to be simply PR that everyone understood, no complexities that would make people confused, nothing so futuristic that it couldn’t keep up with itself. Although he did have to make an income, even myc knew an agency needed a reputation before it could win good deals, so he made the first UK issues management pr. Crisis has to be managed by an agency already associated with the company, as it needs to be a speedy response and know the people and inner workings to make a respectable campaign. Issues are long term, another agency can come in and work solely on them rather than trying to juggle with all the other sides of pr, as there are many. Issues can be with extremist groups, or that the company may not be as ‘carbon footprint’ friendly as others but cannot cut down any more than they have so need the public convinced they are still good.

We learnt of four categories that all institutions fall into; the ‘public funded’ who need power, this is usually government and related; the ‘non-government organisations’ (NGOs) who are pushed into their causes by ethics, mostly charities; the ‘industry’ segment has a lot of marketing based pr as it is selling things to make profit; finally the ‘academics and professionals’ who are ranking up their reputation and need to relay facts and knowledge to the public, this is from scientists, lawyers, universities, etc. The media joins all four of these groups together. Myc gave us the tip that this square was important, if we were up against an issue with one of these segments then we needed the other three on our side to create an effective campaign.

Moving on to communication and what we pr do, Myc said that the main fear of clients is that pr can’t prove what they have done, excellent pr is hidden, the public shouldn’t realise, but how do the company know they are paying you to do something and not nothing. Trust; but a detailed plan and organisation help a lot. See flow chart below.

However, even with all the details written down, even if you have calculated every move you make, pr will sometimes be easily way sided by journalists due to context and barriers. If everything goes right at the right time then pr will happen, but there are news priorities such as tragic anniversaries like September 11 and annual holidays like Christmas. There is no use trying to overrun that coverage, it will fail. See chart below.

We started the second day with the question “what is PR for?” But before we actually answered it Myc asked us why we wanted to go into PR. Our answers referred to the challenges that it gives whilst also being able to travel for the work, socialising, the creative aspect and of course there is money to be had. He smiled, and agreed that we were in it for the same reasons as most. Then we looked at what it is for. There is an argument that PR is advocacy for clients in the media. Everyone has the ‘right to be represented’ such as a lawyer would a defendant, and that is what a pr does in front of the media and the public, like judge and jury, although many times these roles are switched between the pair so a pr also has to be able to adapt quickly and seamlessly.

As pr is new there are many arguments for what it really is, all true and all not quite exact. There are so many definitions that it is hard to pinpoint, but many still insist it is just another part of marketing for a company. As Myc had said the day before, this is quite accurate for industry pr, but what about NGO and Professionals/Academics pr? These institutions are not being marketed but just convey information and sometimes needs more media coverage to gain access to the public; those who insist pr is marketing have just overlooked the subtlety that pr practitioners work with to get media coverage and probably don’t realise that there is so much to be done.

Myc also explained that when you are working on a campaign for a company you may want to enlist help with others, but there are levels to how you work with people:

You can engage with other companies or individuals, whereby you just make sure you will not upset them, as it would be detrimental to your cause if you did. Just informing someone with information keeps them separate from your work but they feel a part of it all, and consulting and collaborating means you physically take advice from them or let them have some run of the project too. Knowing who fits these categories is as important as the campaign itself.

A few final tips and a heartbreaking goodbye from Myc ended our two day workshop. Full of ideas, knowledge and eagerness we awaited the first sessions of our new module.

Guest Lecture: David Rowe; head of media relations Eden Project.

David Rowe had come to talk to us about a £141 million pound project from Boldover Pit in St Austell. How this project had attracted over 11 million visitors since it opened in 2001, visitors who come in all sizes, ages and backgrounds for more different reasons one could mention. That is a lot to talk about.

Rowe explained that Eden Project was so much more than greenhouses, it had steadily grown into a successful brand, being 39th out of 500, also being an educational charity it easily stays on the right side of many organisations as it is profiting for purpose, a purpose that most agree with.

So you would think it easy to do Rowe’s job? Actually no, it seems as though Rowe may have one of the hardest jobs; yes it is goodwill, but how does goodwill get into the published media?

He used the example of ‘the seed’ sculpture that now lives in the middle of the educational centre. It was created over two years of work, but media still lacked interest despite efforts. It was the last day when the ‘seed’ was being installed into the centre when Rowe managed to get a ‘media scrum’ and the ‘eyewitness’ double page spread in The Guardian.

Rowe smiled as he gave us this information. It took one message to get the sleepy journalists to come running to Eden to report on a sculpture none of them cared about before; Rowe just told them all about the danger of putting the sculpture in. Bad news sells, so mentioning that bad news could come will make people want to be there. An interesting tip if morale on a campaign gets low.

His second and most reiterated point that he used many examples for was friendship. PR is about knowing who is who in the media world, and having good relations with them. A friendship with a high profile journalist in Sun motors managed to gain Rowe a free spread worth £150 thousand from a little intriguing story.

Knowing what to give to who is a very important line of PR.



352 words.

Assignment, Histories and Practices. PR Jobs

Assignment: Take a look at the jobs section of PR Week. What kind of skills are employers looking for? Are there differences between sectors? Is there a sector that appeals to you?




Browsing through the job opportunities on www.prweekjobs.com it became obvious; as was expected, that all sectors require an applicant has ‘excellent writing skills.’ A large part of communication is written, be it a press release, an email, a newsletter, etc; therefore an enjoyment in writing and the ability to enchant a reader throughout the text is a desirable quality that is necessary within any Public Relation role as PR is basically the art of communication.

They all made casual references to ‘B2B’ as well as consumer relations; a few on the list saying that they wanted/or would accommodate an applicant who was specialised in either. At first the B2B acronym didn’t make sense to me, but after researching it was business to business it was just another expected characteristic of ‘what public relations people do’ (Fawkes, 2004: 45). It was intriguing that employers would want specialists in either B2B or B2C (business to consumer) when it shows the mark of a good writer when they can easily adapt to different styles. Alas, it seems comforting that employers do have a sense of reality and understand that not everyone is going to be the best at everything and will play to an applicant’s strengths, as, at the end of the day, it is results that matter for the agency and client, and we cannot wait around forever for the perfect person.

In sectors that were concerned with travel and government they specified intimate knowledge of the area, to the point of political agenda and contacts. Prior knowledge is useful in most careers but PR practitioners need to know more than just media related topics, they need to know what goes into the media and every influence; which can just grow in every sector. They need to be omniscient. As amazing as it could be to know a lot, to try and keep so much knowledge, especially in the media where it changes daily, would be intensely difficult. It would become too easy to neglect something unless your time management and observation skills were acute; therefore it can be concluded here that PR practitioners need to be very devoted people.

This statement is reinforced with some examples of skill descriptions such as ‘enthusiastic and passionate about PR’ and ‘willing to go the extra mile for the client.’ To have the loyalty to your career for this, as it is a 24/7 role, would be terrifying for most, and so a strong personality is needed. This is not said explicitly but the cumulative ethos of skills listed so frequently within the jobs description almost screams warning to the weak willed.

Carrying on from an earlier claim; it was surprising to see how often the requirement of contacts came up in the descriptions. Looking at both senior and junior level applications I knew senior roles would already need to have a place within the media industry, but for the juniors it was still necessary, and nobody would take anyone with under a year experience. Therefore, placements whilst in education are really important as Emma Newman, marketing manager at Decca records said in a guest lecture at UCF, Friday 23rd April 2010.

The media is about knowledge of what you know, but there is a very big emphasis on who you know, as friendship relationships will get favours done quicker in the industry, it can be the difference between a press release printed or thrown out.



References

TENCH, Ralph. YEOMANS, Liz. 2006. Exploring Public Relations. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.