A successful fisherman chooses bait based on what fish he’s planning to catch, and goes home with a nice bounteous load. A foolish fisherman chooses bait based on what he likes, and most likely goes home with nothing.

Did you know the press release format dates back to the 1880s? Isn’t it surprising that this major business communication format hasn’t changed despite all the digital communication changes…i.e. Twitter, Facebook, blog?

PR professionals need to take a sales pitch lesson from fishermen and choose the bait and hook that our readers want.

Let’s face it. Readers are selfish – perhaps this is because they’re bombarded by 5,000+ media messages a day. They have the mindset of WIIFM - “What’s in it for me?” If it doesn’t interest them or help them, they don’t read it.

It’s a foolish writer and the height of arrogance to think that a reader is going to read every single word you write.

I had the privilege of attending a writing seminar given by Ann Wylie. It was a great workshop and completely changed my approach to writing. She gave a few helpful tips I want to share:

Think like a reader when you write. What does the reader want to read about? Your client? Not really.

They want to understand how what your client does will impact their life. And they want what they’re reading to be interesting. So, if you’re news release is boring you, it most certainly will bore your reader.

Build a Solid Structure. Forget the news pyramid, and begin with what readers want to hear. Here’s a formula Ann gave us -

• X {users} who have struggled with Y {problem} will now be able to Z {benefit}, thanks to A {product or service}

Cut Through Clutter. Readers will skip over long paragraphs and words. Keep it simple.

Also remember that the average person reads 200 words/min. In today’s fast paced digital world you only have about 2 minutes at most to tell your story. That means you have 400 words. Good luck.

In closing, two final thoughts regarding reviewing:

1. Read everything you write out loud!
2. Think to yourself, does my story pass the skim test? Could a reader get the gist of my story without reading a single full paragraph?

And no worries. I know you skimmed this. Hopefully it sold you into this new way of thinking about writing, and maybe, just maybe entertained you.  

They say it takes six weeks to settle into something fully, be it an exercise routine, a diet, or in my case, a job. I started as a PR Administrator at Fifth Ring six weeks ago but actually felt settled in after one. Although now in realisation the transition into my role seems easy, I wish my six-week future self had told that to the nervous wreck on the morning of January 4^th.

Despite having lived in the oil capital of Europe all of my life and having parents who work in the industry, I worried about my knowledge of oil and gas. My passion is fashion. An internship over the summer allowed me to work for an up-and-coming fashion designer, Liz Black. Day-today work consisted of sourcing stylists and make-up artists, or having six-foot models parade about in their underwear for castings. Why did Fifth Ring want me? Would my colleagues have visions of an Elle Woods character breezing into the office on the first day; a blond bimbo with her pink fluffy pens, easily managing to rattle off the names of 30 shoe designers, but not have a clue about oil platforms? Just like in the film Legally Blonde, I wanted to be taken seriously. I wanted to show I could turn my hand to anything.

I can tell you the difference between a Chelsea boot and a Brogue. But now I know the difference between upstream and downstream. I know that Sarah Burton is creative director at Alexander McQueen, but also that Colin Parker is chief executive at Aberdeen Harbour Board. And although I still enjoy looking at the beautiful models and clothes in i-D and Dazed and Confused, my bedtime reading has shifted to Offshore Engineer and Recharge.

When you think about it, the two industries are not that different. You still have a range of products and services to promote, important people you need to know about, markets to target, and publications that incorporate it all. Having a challenging job is exhilarating and rewarding. The fashion industry is challenging, but so is the oil and gas industry. It’s a steep learning curve, but one I’m really happy to be on.

Still, I’m always going to have a copy of Vogue in my drawer. 

With offices in the energy capitals of the world, Fifth Ring is no stranger to internationalisation but we didn’t get there without hard work, determination and help from Scottish Development International (SDI).

As Ian Ord explained at the Glasgow leg of the ‘Grow your business internationally’ conferences, the support of SDI gave Fifth Ring invaluable knowledge of new market places and created business networks which helped to start the Houston branch of the office. SDI support certainly accelerated our growth in Houston and we would have been unlikely to have won PRSA Houston Mid-Sized Agency of the Year in under 3 years without it.’

The Smart Exporter service that SDI offers is a new international trade skills development programme which provides free, high quality export support to Scottish businesses and individuals.  The aim of the programme is to improve skills and the export performance of ambitious Scottish companies. Fifth Ring highly recommends using this service and getting in touch with SDI if business success abroad is important to your company.

To find out more about SDI support we suggest you visit one of the upcoming ‘Grow your business internationally’ conferences in Dundee on the 16th of February or Aberdeen on the 22rd of March. For more information visit http://www.quaydigitalscotland.co.uk/sites/events/sbi-conferences/sdiroadshow/

Annette Fernandes, Director at Fifth Ring in Dubai, attended a British Business Group hosted event in early February presented by Ed James, head of MEED Insight. The event evaluated current trends and sought to identify areas of interest within the immediate future for UK energy companies based in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.

The presentation revealed that the sector has largely been unaffected by regional political turmoil with both size and number of large-scale projects having surged in recent years.

Investment within the sector remains strong with nothing to suggest that this will change in the near future. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait continue to lead the way within the GCC and new players like Iraq and Kurdistan are also establishing a significant presence in the region.

All the leading international EPC contractors are active, with Western and Japanese contractors traditionally the market leaders. Clients are mostly blue chip and dominated by NOCs.

Aggressive bidding has seen Korean contractors become the dominant force since 2009 and lump-sum turnkey contracts are the favoured procurement model, with the risk heavily on the contractors. However there is a growing degree of local capability on the subcontractor and supply levels.

The GCC hydrocarbons sector has been through an exceptional period with new contract awards reaching a record high in 2009, but falling back to the recent historical average in 2010; 2011 looked to be performing marginally better than 2010, but fell away in quarter four.

With the exception of 2009 and 2010, Saudi Arabia has been the biggest market for major hydrocarbon awards in the GCC; it has propped up the overall value of awards in the region in 2011, accounting for 57% of all hydrocarbons awards.

Oil and gas production projects have been the largest segment of the hydrocarbons market, followed by processing and petrochemicals. Gas production accounts for $38bn of the overall total. UAE represents 44% of production, 21% of processing, 41% of Transmission 28% of Petrochemicals.

Hydrocarbons projects made up the largest segment of the GCC projects market (by contract value) from 2000 to 2005 when it was superseded by civil construction. After the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, Hydrocarbons again became the biggest sector. Bar 2008, it has been consistently the largest sector or second largest (behind Construction) every year since 2000.

The value of projects due to be awarded between now and end 2012 for the GCC Hydrocarbons sector demonstrates that there will be a steady flow of contracts over the next 11 months. There are 58 projects in the GCC each with a value of over $1bn, due to be awarded between now and the end of 2013 (27 in 2012, 29 in 2013).

Priorities going forward

• Expanding gas production to meet increased demand from the industrial, oil and power sectors with the focus being on more difficult gas plays
• Increasing refining capacity to meet domestic demand as well as more stringent international product specifications
• Raising oil capacity in Abu Dhabi, Oman and Kuwait, while maintaining it at current levels in Saudi Arabia and Qatar
• Increasing petrochemical capacity through refinery conversions and speciality chemical production
• Developing local engineering and contracting capabilities especially in Saudi Arabia and Oman

In Summary

• New project activity is set to recover in 2012 after the decline in 2011
• Areas of highest activity are expected to be offshore, refining and gas processing, with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia potentially the biggest markets
• Growing pressure on EPC contractors to go ‘local’
• Koreans will remain a major force as they seek to maintain market share
• The more multi-disciplined EPC contractors will look to offset the decline in GCC energy projects by targeting the regional power sector
• Developments in Iraq could well impact the regional EPC market from 2013 onwards

#PRDefined: 300,000 website hits. 30 trade and business media articles. 50 blog posts (if you're reading this you’ll now know it’s 51). Thousands of blog comments from respected professionals (even going as far as renowned theorists). 1,000 submitted definitions of public relations, and finally, thousands of tweets.

And we’re still not there, yet.

However, in true public relations style, the campaign has created a storm of its own.

There has been much debate since the initiative launched on 21^st November 2011, with many backing the view of Steve Barrett, editor-in-chief of PRWeek’s (US) recent column entitled, ‘Let’s Cut the Crap and Get On with the work’.

Mr. Barrett states, “Let's quit our inside baseball obsession with defining stuff, cut the crap, stop wasting time, and concentrate on getting on with the work and addressing issues that really matter.”

He argues that the tools, channels and techniques enlisted may have changed over the years, but the meaning of PR has not.

Where many of us can seemingly relate to the argument Steve Barrett makes, on the flip side, it does leave you wondering…

Is it just that we’re too busy ‘getting on with it’ to take the time to truly respect how hard we do work in an industry that’s been around for more than a century?

Gerard F. Corbett, chair and chief executive officer of the PRSA, and the man at the heart of venture, thinks so.

Having recently taken time out to speak to The Drum on his online column, Mr. Corbett says, “Society has a preconceived notion of what PR professionals do – some concepts more targeted than others – but no universal definition exists”, which in his opinion, leads to the fact that “we in PR admittedly have a PR challenge”.

And it appears he’s not wrong. After conducting recent research of my own, I found that the range of opinions and definitions towards PR wavers greatly.

From the more pragmatic view, “It’s much more than pushing releases into the press, it’s about using PR tactics to leverage thought leadership – particularly in B2B. It builds equity in your brand and provides secondary endorsement from media channels”.

To the more negative, “Champagne, high heels and parties”.

While many may laugh, one thing is clear, Mr. Corbett is right when he states, “No one definition is considered the de facto industry definition”.

After analysing nearly 1,000, “Public Relations Defined” is in its final phase, with just three definitions remaining. These are now up for public vote, and the winner will be the new modern definition of public relations in the digital revolution.

• Definition 1 – Public relations is the management function of researching, engaging, communication and collaborating with stakeholders in an ethical manner to build mutually beneficial relationships.
• Definition 2 – Public relations is a strategic communication process that develops and maintains beneficial relationships between organisations and their key publics.
• Definition 3 – Public relations is the engagement between organization and individuals to achieve mutual understanding and release strategic goals.

Regardless of which side of the fence we find ourselves on, we, as public relations professionals owe it to ourselves and our industry, to cast a vote, because one thing I’m sure we can all agree upon, is that it’s about time the fluency of voice we give our clients is aptly represented by a defined voice of our own.

Every once in a while I tweet music star, Taylor Swift, to let her know that I'd be happy to answer the phone if she ever wanted to call me. 

She never tweets me back. Besides becoming a Grammy nominated country music artist, I don’t know what more I can do to get her to notice me. Which is why I’m writing a blog post.

I need to strengthen my social media presence so maybe I might stand a chance, because power lies deep within credibility and numbers…and social media.

What are some things that we as practitioners should try to integrate into our social media life?

According to Forbes, we should be involved in a large number of channels such as YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and LinkedIn and participate frequently.

CommPRO.biz has 10 tips of their own on what to do in 2012 for social media. Here are the ones I thought were the most important.

• Add search engine optimization (SEO) keywords to social media blurbs because by doing this it helps people find us.

• A social media icons to all of our websites to make our efforts easily accessible.

• Create and announce a “we’re going to the Moon” plan.

“The U.S. went to the moon because the president set the goal, called both industry and the citizenry to action, and would not take no for answer,” said Vicki Flaugher of commPRO. “Follow this example with social media implementation. Include everyone and set the bar high.”

• Produce more original content. As I said earlier, producing content is the way to become a social media presence, but this content must be original content. Be interesting!

• Stop all third person jargon. Social media needs the personal touch because as Flaugher puts it “would you consider it professional to introduce yourself in third person at a business cocktail party?”

• Above all – find the right people in your company to use social media, but also include everyone because they may have some ideas that will help.

To read all of commPRO’s tips, click here.

For the holidays, the Fifth Ring Houston team went out for dinner. Since we are communications professionals, we notice things that sometimes go unnoticed by the public-at-large.

Once dinner was finished, the waiter brought the check and an envelope with a special offer.  In an effort to have customers return, the restaurant provided diners with an envelope guaranteeing a prize. Service-type businesses such as restaurants typically give away coupons, but this was no ordinary BOGO (buy one, get one) offer. Instead, you had to bring the envelope back after the New Year and open it in front of your server. Then, and only then, could you receive your prize of some sort. Open the envelope before you were seated in front of the server and the certificate was null and void.

Even though we understood the premise of the offer, we instantly wanted to know what the prize was. A free meal? Two free meals? Even better, free dessert? The possibilities were driving the table crazy.

We even tried to peek, however the message we saw when we lifted a corner of the envelope was “No Peeking!” They knew we would be tempted and were one step ahead.

Hmm, this was tough. It made us all want to come back. The food was good, ambience casual and the service was attentive. It was then we began to appreciate the value in their incentive. They had the same thoughts we did and decided to act upon it to help retain their business.

Brilliant.

Too often companies fail to show the proof points or the “how” in their marketing communications. How is your product or service different from your competitors? How do you increase the number of hits on your website? Or how do you entice a reader to keep reading? For this restaurant it was how do you get all these people to come back again?

The answer on this night? The perceived value in the envelope.

What keeps your (potential) clients coming back for more? It doesn’t always have to be a prize, but it has to be something they value.

Learning your stakeholder’s value is no easy task, but the payoff can be just as sweet. It takes time, research, understanding and skill. Often, it requires the expertise of professionals like our Brand Positioning team. However, mere mortals—and PR professionals—can do this too, but it does take a little know how.

Now, in any regular blog, this is where you would get three to five tips on how to do this yourself, but clearly that wouldn’t be in keeping with the tone of this post. No, if you want to know how to hone in on what your audience desires, you’ll have to just come back next month, or give us a cal.

However, if you want to know what was in the envelope, it was a certificate for a free dessert!

About two years ago I sat down to apply for my first internship without a resume and without a clue of what it should look like. I emailed my uncle and a friend from college to received their inputs and they both came back with completely different pieces of advice.

Two years later my resume looks nothing like it did when I first sat down. Not only have I added more experience, but I have also changed my format numerous times.

The Hiring Hub recently wrote a blog about how to get your resume right the first time. This blog is a few years too late for me, but I will take their tips and apply them to my resume every time I update it for a new job. I hope it will help you.

They give two great pieces of information everyone writing their resume, either for the first time or the hundreth time, should remember:

• Your resume is yours. It represents you and it is how you sell yourself.
• You can’t please everyone all the time. What one employer may not like, may be the very reason you get an interview with another.

Your resume shouldn’t include everything you’ve done in your career, only the information that is relevant to the job you want. So unless you’re applying for a job in the food/beverage industry it’s probably best to leave off your time as a waiter. The Hiring Hub says your resume is “a simple communication tool designed to show someone that you can do the job, and to help you get an interview.”

They also say the best way to make sure your resume is up to par, so you don’t have to rewrite it again and again, is to:

• “Ask someone who understands what you do or what you want to do to critique your resume. Have them critique the flow and whether or not it accurately describes what you do and the level at which you can do it.”
• “Ask someone who has corporate/agency/non-profit experience but doesn’t know what you do to critique your resume and see if they can understand what you do.”
• “Ask an industry expert to review your resume.”
• “Once you have two or three people review your resume and you’re comfortable with it then send it out. If your resume is not getting results, you may need to redo it.”

What are some tips you’ve received for writing your resume?

After having attended ‘The Mighty Meet-up’, hosted by Fifthring earlier in the year and discussing crowd sourcing design websites and competitions, I have done a lot of thinking about the evolution of branding, logo design in specific.

We are currently in an era of design where less and less time and consideration are put into logo design with websites offering a ‘quick solution’ logo for as little as $100! The result is just that – a quick solution in a rapidly evolving field - which operates around extremely tight deadlines, seems perfect right? The more important question is are the big iconic brands of the world moving in that direction?

It seems more and more marketers devalue the specialized expertise involved in creating trademarks that reflect, enhance and enable positive business outcomes. For me a logo serves many purposes, however the most important has to be to provide differentiation between brands. Established brands often understand and value the process of having a strong brand, however smaller start up companies and local businesses often struggle to see the value in this, hence the booming work and presence in crowd sourcing design services. Trends change so rapidly in design that a logo needs to be timeless, of course, logos do evolve over time but generally with minor tweaks throughout the years to refresh the brand image and keep up with the organization which it represents.

All the ‘classic’ logos tell a story. Today's replacement logos say as little as possible. It's an interesting turn and an ever-evolving one. While the brand and the ‘brand experience’ reign supreme, it no longer seems to originate with an original logo, perhaps there will be a turn of events and once the market is saturated with generic, cliché, $100 logos the savvy business will turn back and look for something more unique.

One interesting observation of recent is the removal of type in logos amongst global companies (Starbucks, Apple, Nike, Mcdonalds to name a few). I have been trying to put my finger on the reasoning behind this, one huge advantage of having a symbol only logo is the benefit for global presence free of language barriers, perhaps there are further advantages.

What are your thoughts? What is the future for logo design and overall brand image? Does it move in trends? Has a logo's job description changed? Does our media-centric culture and highly exposed consumer negate the need for a story communicated from the top down?

(download)

Click here to download:

the-logo-s-job-description-DvozxCxsonacCwyBxmqj.zip (104 KB)

Happy Holiday’s, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Seasons Greetings…

At a certain time of year, in various countries, it is customary, depending on your culture, to send a greetings card. But in our multi-cultural society, this tradition is becoming evermore complex. Who believes in what and what offends whom?

Well this year, Fifth Ring is not taking any chances, and neither should you. Our DIY (Design It Yourself) greetings card is the most politically correct e-card ever! With over 6,000 combinations to choose from, you can make, share and send your PC love around the world.

We’re dreaming of a nonspecific, culturally sensitive, gender generic annual event (on your respective culture’s calendar). Just like the ones we used to know.

Click here to develop your very own “Merry Political Correctmas” card.

Enjoy!