Marketing Week’s reporting of advertising spend was upbeat with a 4.2% rise since last year.

Notable is Internet advertising spend up 39.5%, but direct mail spend down 6.5%.  Direct mail often prospers in tougher market conditions because it is easier to track and analyse.

My last post was an innocuous but heart warming story of a man that believed he had been wrongly clamped by NCP Services. The owner of the clamped vehicle sawed his car in two in protest.

Not much of a deal you might say until NCP Services director of communications got on the case.

I had quite an aggressive response to a four paragraph post that simply reported what the BBC had said.

Tim from NCP Services stated based on the factual inaccuracies that: “I would be happy to add you to the database of agencies we would never use.”  You’re barred my son!

It was suggested that I take my “offending” post off, which I replied that because someone thinks it is offensive (could be disagree) is no reason to take something off, unless it is slanderous or grossly offensive or insensitive.

After my reply where I pointed out it was a blog, not a marketing website I got this:  “I didn’t realise your site is just a blog.  I thought it was a marketing website.  Sorry to bother you.”

Well!  You would never have thought communications was becoming more democratic and it was about negotiation and diplomacy and less about force.  And anyone involved in PR, especially if they are senior, should recognise the power of blogs surely?

But you know Tim and NCP Services has a  interesting perspective that might surprise.

When I pointed out the story of the bus that got a ticket in Manchester I got an interesting reply.  The reason was that the bus driver had simply gone off to breakfast leaving the vehicle blocking later buses causing a real obstruction.  That puts things into a bit of perspective.

Tim states NCP Services also have doubled the removal from our roads for untaxed, many in a dangerous state, vehicles.  This is a positive messag that we do not tend to hear or take in.
Clamping and parking fines are a contentious issue.  I know how most people feel and I generally feel the same.  But NCP Services has a story to tell.  Once you explain your position, if it has merit, you can possibly achieve some change in opinion.

Open dialogue has to be the best way for the majority of time.

I am very happy for Tim to supply copy for a post about the work they do and examples of they are trying to change viewpoints and work in an area that arouses strong emotions.

It’s preferable to use “jaw jaw and not war war” as one great man said.

I like this one, especially as I and many other have experienced the greed, the rigidity and lack of common sense of those policing our parking.

In this case a man that parked his son’s Fiesta in his drive got a clamp. There are arguments over whether it was 1 1/2 inches over or more. However, the clamp for non paying of road tax does not show NCP Services in a good light. Apparently the owner has a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification). Despite telling this to NCP Services several times they will not back down.

The answer he cut his car in two and let NCP decide which part it wanted.

A heart warming story and one that shows how David can fight Goliath, I wonder whether they would clamp him for some reason.

Max Clifford was in The Guardian recently for an in depth interview.

You get the feeling that there is quite a lot of depth to Max, but in three pages and it must be 5,000 words, very little impression seems to be made.

(By the way only 10% of his business is the celebrity stories).

It might be worth getting his autobiography as this just initiates the interest.  AIDA: Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action - my post grad study is paying off!

So Sven might be staying and no decision has been made!  Confusing messaging at the very least.

You have to say Thaksin Shinawatra (Frank) is getting the hang of City by following the established tradition of Man City cock-ups: snatching defeat, and humiliating defeat from a glimmer of achieving the average.

Still, it seems that either Frank has come to his senses.  Perhaps the pressure of the protests and strength of feeling including the MEN campaign that was featured on this blog has worked.

I don’t know, he might keep Sven if he cannot get Big Phil Scolari.  Unless he gets Slaven Bilic who has just signed  a contract with Croatia.  He might keep Sven anyway.

Frank has hired a big PR outfit with offices up here.  It’s a challenging brief, even if the team are City fans.

Can they now repair the damage?  It will make an interesting case study in PR Week a few managers down from Sven.

The CIPR has got its conference coming up in London.

From looking at the website it is of interest, but not so much.

However, the price rules it out for me: £750 for both days, £950 for non-members. Put into the equation time off work travel, hotel (I have a few friends so I can stay over) and sundries. I reckon the best part of £2000.

I am not really enticed by the program, but how can it be justified even if you have a better view than me?

Answers telling me why I am wrong in the comments box please.

Canberra, Australia’s capital had fewer protests than London, San Francisco or any of the other cities that has hosted the torch. (The image is of protesters outside the Chinese embassy).

But it was not China’s victory.

The protests, even though combated by Chinese students and citizens in Australia, brought the issue of Tibet and human rights and the environment to centre stage again.

Up until China being awarded the Olympics and especially the idea to parade it through so many cities the issue of Tibet was not high on many politicians’ agendas nor I suspect was it widely appreciated by the general population.  The last time I saw a big article on Tibet was in the early 90s in The Guardian.

The Chinese government has effectively supplied the oxygen of publicity to an extent unthinkable before.

It was foreseeable except to the Chinese government.

This has been a huge miscalculation by a government that does not understand the media because it suppresses its own.

NW Business Insider had a wonderful piece on the dog advertising concept in their current feature on guerrilla marketing.

I originally came up with this concept after selling in the story of a certain dog called Dante in to the South Manchester Reporter. The story of the curry loving pooch spread to the Metro, Manchester Evening News and even The Guardian.

It seemed obvious that there was original and possibly effective advertising mileage to be had and so I teamed up with Mick Greer and Phil Howells, well- seasoned advertising pros.

The lucky recipient was a family lawyers called Greens & Co.

It is some fun but also when there is so much competition to grab our attention it is a little different and attention grabbing.

A quick note: Has no-one done it before? I don’t know. Churchill said an original idea is just a good one everyone has forgotten.

Shocking isn’t it?  The picture above shows some of the damage from the epicentre of last week’s quake.  Some people were woken up no doubt, others lost crockery.

Apart from a serious injury was there any need to dominate the pages and airwaves with this?

And then there was Prince Harry.

Brave lad.  He has done the right thing and you have to admire him for that.  But surely the disproportionate coverage the media has devoted to the story works against their original aim.

When a personality or a story have too much media coverage it undoubtedly starts to grate: people push back against it as though they were being forced into believing something.  It is a natural reaction.

Half the coverage of the Prince Harry story would have got the message across just fine and with more impact.

What else happened in the news last week?  I really don’t know.

Sorry for the long delay in getting to my latest post: there is a real possibility of Artisan being sold for a six figure sum.

But what is a six figure sum? Is it £100,000 or more? Or is it £1000.01 or it could even be £100,000 of the Egyptian variety going at 10:1 against Sterling?  All are six figures and we know in PR presentation is everything.

What am I driving at? I have seen stories in the local business media where businesses have reportedly been sold for impressive amounts but you do not need to be Columbo to work that it doesn’t make sense when you know the companies.

Of course it is all amounts to what anyone would pay, but this doesn’t apply in this case.

My problem is that when such dross doesn’t get filtered out what can you believe?

Gloss yes.  Delusional rubbish no.