One inappropriately named PR agency (in this case) called The Good Agency annoyed the editorial team at How-Do with their epic release on Olivia Newton John saving a one day old cat in China.

As you might know How-Do is the North West portal for the creative industries.  So you might wonder what the relevance of Olivia Newton John and a cat on the Great Wall of China is to How-Do: none.

How-Do decided to name and shame the London agency for poor targeting.   The press release is fully of hyperbole including Olivia’s sleepless nights tending for said kitten called Magic.  This dross was accompanied by an e-mail clogging mega pixel image.

It is worth anybody’s time who needs a laugh (link above).

I could not find the Good Agency’s website because of a search of PR agencies there are a few that have good in their text, so they do not have a clue on online PR / marketing either.

Tai Chi and cows, can you believe it?  One farmer apparently performs in front of his cows and yield is up 10% apparently because the bovines are more content.  Of course it might all be down to any one of a number of farming reasons other than being prepared of making a fool of yourself (or local hero).

I cannot see that Tesco is going to pay him more for his notoriety.  The point of the exercise is unclear except for some showmanship and attention seeking perhaps.

Still the lesson is that original and silly stories sell.  This has been on TV, radio and national press.  The value must be tremendous.

The lesson is that there is a lingering misconception in some quarters that news is high brow or standards are slipping.  There has always been a place for low brow.

It is pretty frightening stuff.  How many links could I get to such stories about impending economic doom today?

I have even seen the odds for a Great Depression like outcome, the worst economic climate since the war and an early 90s type recession.  Of course we might get through it  with passing alarm as in the late 90s with the Asian collapse.

WPP has remained upbeat: 17% increase in margins for PR in 2007.  Sir Martin Sorrell chief executive of the marketing monster that is WPP said in PR week: “I can’t recall a time when PR has been as strong.”

My humble outlook seems to echo that as far as I can see Martin.

Just posturing on his part?  I think he means it.

So if we have a slide in our economic fortunes what will happen PR wise?

It might be a mixture of losing and gaining business.  Some budgets withdrawn, other companies coming into play, using marketing and PR to maintain sales in hard times.

I feel as though things are in slow mo.  What can I do?  Keep outgoings low.  Check.  Have a mixture of accounts from many industries.  Check.  Do not rely on one big client.  Check.

I point my ship into the storm and use an anchor for balance.

It is all about bottom line, isn’t it?

Well yes it is. If you demonstrate a return for a client that is greater than the spend then they will probably continue to use you, especially if you factor in all the other benefits.

Yet, it can be about the feel good factor, which is a horrible term but apt here.

I placed a client on TV the other day talking about a business subject that has benefit to his practise. Yet, the thing he mentioned that pleased him was that his young son was so impressed he asked him for his autograph. For those of us not good enough to make Jimmy Page jealous or knock Petrov out of the Man City team it is a result.

Sometimes, and at the risk of being fluffy, raising a smile or making someone’s day is a return in itself.

It is not a new story. Unfortunately it is a common one. You go to pitch and you discover the prospect has been burnt by an unscrupulous agency before.

Even the best ideas and pitches can fall on this fact. Budgets that have been exhausted with little result and any imagination or adventure or even the fact of establishing trust cannot be planted.This must rebound on some PR agencies that are less than scrupulous. Yes, sometimes clients make it hard for the agency to work. Yet, there are simply too many cases of unsatisfied customers owing to little effort being applied on the part of the offending agency.

I can say that this can rebound greatly if the hurt party is well connected, and not all agencies realise how well connected someone can be.

PR and marketing are professions that still struggle to establish their credentials. Less than a professional effort undermines everyone.

I think you get good and bad in every profession, so it might be that I have nothing to really complain about. Even lawyers can be straight forward. I think?

After some PR lobbying (well not too much) from Nathan Smith of Smith and Smith PR I have added their agency to the list of candidates for Manchester’s most famous agency.

Smith and Smith have grown from 2 people when I first met them 18 months ago to 7 and still recruiting. Quite impressive and have amongst their clients Dragon’s Den James Caan and The Football Association’s League’s Hall of Fame.

Without wanting to replace anyone, my lists now go up to 11.

I was in Waterstones on Saturday and came across the advertising section. I have to say I was impressed. The quality of ideas is tremendous.

Nothing new there. However, advertising is sometimes seen as the arch rival of PR for budgets.

It is nothing new for me to hear that a company has spent thousands on advertising with no result and they might as well have given it away.

It is easy in a pitch to acquiesce and concede the point and that PR is wonderful and highly cost effective.

The point for me is that if advertising is creative and well targeted it can work well. It can really grab a reader’s attention. There is no need to see advertising as a rival. Indeed, the impact of some of the advertising campaigns I leafed through could teach the PR profession a thing or two.

Simon Wharton (pictured) of online search marketing agency PushON is not one to shy away from offering strident, and often perceptive, statements on online marketing.

In this issue of NW Business Insider Simon makes no exception with his view on the common lack of understanding of the Internet amongst many PR and marketing agencies:

“Traditional PR and marketing needs a kick up the backside – a lot of it is hugely dated. PR and marketing agencies don’t understand the Internet.”

“A lot of Manchester PR agencies are absolute rubbish – saying you’re a full-service agency is just words.”

Sharon Nash of Simpson Burgess Nash and Mike Ryan of Idaho, who I pitched to get featured, are less controversial in their comments but no less interesting can be seen in the November issue.

Today’s Manchester Evening News is dominated by Reuben Singh – at one time the world’s youngest millionaire and a fraud.

Reuben had no business acumen and by all accounts he was a con man. His Miss Attitude chain was sold for £5.

One way he did this was to use the media to add weight to the illusion of being a business hero. Photo opportunities with Tony Blair and countless interviews.

He even used the mass of positive coverage in the press to convince the Royal Bank of Scotland to give him a rather substantial loan in the region of a million pounds.

One thing Reuben has learnt is that the media can be like fire: a fantastic range of benefits if you use it well, but cross them and you get burnt. In the Manchester Evening News there are nearly 3 pages devoted to unraveling Reuben’s business history.

Tom Cheesewright, managing director of IO Communications, Manchester’s premier technology marketing agency, gives his views on how PR is changing and how we need to take note.

PR is half as valuable as it was twenty years ago. Why?

Twenty years ago, PR used to be something that differentiated companies. Actively managing news coverage and creating positive stories was something done by only a few, forward-looking organisations outside the FTSE 100. Today, PR is commoditised. If you have engaged a PR agency, most of your competitors have one too (or soon will).

Secondly, there are more news and information sources out there than ever before. No longer does everyone rely on their daily newspaper or even the 9 o’clock news for their information supply. Now they refer to tens of TV channels, hundreds of magazines, and thousands of websites and blogs. With so many authorities out there, each one has slightly less impact.

Thirdly, journalists are now less influential than they were. Research from Influencer50 suggests that in the early 90s, journalists accounted for 80pc of the external influencers on a buying decision (based on a survey of businesses buying technology). Today that figure is less than 40pc.

Combine these three factors and you would have to conclude that the value of PR has fallen sharply. Except, of course, it hasn’t.

The sharp ones amongst you will have noticed that I am not talking about PR, but simply media relations. PR can and should be so much more than that. The tools we use for reaching out to the media and analysts can be turned to other targets, enabling us to engage with other influencers – the peers, competitors, consultants, bloggers, regulators and more who now reach more directly in to our lives and our businesses.

PR people need to raise their game and recognise the value of some of their skills in the changing business environment. Creating compelling content, for example, that can be re-used and re-merchandised not just to influencers but in creative campaigns across the marketing mix.

Networking and interpersonal skills too are a hallmark of good PR people. When a company buys in professional help from a freelancer or agency, it should be like bringing in extra business development staff who can connect them with interesting potential partners or customers.

PR practitioners need to be aware of the impact of technology and market forces on their business, and adjust accordingly to make best use of the skills and resources they have available.

PR isn’t really dead, it is just changing. But any practitioner that can’t keep up, may well be facing extinction.