#hometourist

I spotted on @culturevultures Twitter stream the #hometourist hastag which I think aims to get people talking about the places they visit, that they perhaps take for granted. I was planning on having a pretty varied day, so I decided to use it. An unusually early morning for a Saturday meant I was up at 8am to head to the Leeds Corn Exchange  to help out on a charity event called @Challenge66.

Andy McMenemy, a truly inspirational figure, will soon be embarking on a world record attempt to run 66 ultra-marathons in 66 consecutive days in the 66 official cities of the UK. Andy is hoping to raise £1 million for ABF The Soldiers’ Charity.

Today Andy was running a warm up marathon at the Corn Exchange and was accompanied by Leeds band @Kasiuss.

We had a fantastic response from the shoppers in the Corn Exchange aswell as the Leeds media, with the Yorkshire Evening Post and Calender News both covering the event. After listening to a few Kasiuss tracks, I popped out for lunch before Andy even thought about dragging me on to a treadmill. I took my girlfriend Gem and dog Charlie for a coffee and cinnamon swirl at Patisserie Valerie in the city centre. The place was packed out, with people queuing out the door for tables. We of course were sitting outside because of our four-legged son, so we were sat down and served immediately. Pastry and coffee went down well and Charlie and Gem both enjoyed their first visit to Valerie’s.

We then discovered what we think will be our regular weekend haunt for the most of 2011. We live in the city centre so the dog walking options are not the best, too much concrete, broken glass and too many drunk tramps for an idyllic walk. Unbeknown to us was that Roundhay was so bloody close. The fields, the lake and the Lakeside cafe made for an absolutely gorgeous day. I recommend the Lakeside Open Salmon and Prawn Sandwich washed down with a cold point of John Smiths.

We then embarked on a massive walk around the lake which culminated in me slipping on my arse in the dark boggy fields, but before that happened I snapped some nice shots.

Beautiful day! So roll on this weekends #hometourist.

Presentations on acid!

I was asked by my boss at Ptarmigan Bell Pottinger to present a short overview of our recent social media campaign for Asda at our quarterly meeting in Macclesfield.  Not one to shun the limelight, (see pictures below of 2010 television appearances), I willingly accepted.   I wanted my presentation to be something more exciting than the usual boring Powerpoint, so I decided to have a look at some of the online alternatives.

I was certainly the hairiest link.

You've got to love a bit of Edmunds, unless you leave with £1 and then he's just a twat with a beard.

I had used Slide Rocket before and found it to be a welcome break from Powerpoint, but it still didn’t set my world on fire.  It’s basically an online version of Powerpoint, which allows you to use video and flash more easily, as far as I can see. There are some cool features, like the different slide transitions and some of the animation is slightly more sparkly than Powerpoint, but the end result is not spectacularly different, so my research continued.

I then came across a tool that made me feel like I was in the sequel to Minority Report. Prezi is described on Wikipedia as “a web-based presentation application and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides. Text, images, videos and other presentation objects are placed on the infinite canvas and grouped together in frames. The canvas allows users to create non-linear presentations, where users can zoom in and out of a visual map“, in other words, it makes it look mother effing cool.

Minority Report 2: The rise of the PR student

Prezi is a bit fiddly but once you have mastered the concept it becomes very easy to create an exciting and fast moving presentation very quickly. You can drop video and images in so simply, it makes Powerpoint feel like writing on a blackboard. The most unique thing about Prezi is that there are no transitions and instead you glide through the information and stay on one screen.

The tools in the free version of Prezi are limited, for instance there are only four ways to frame text, one type of arrow and you can’t customize your backdrop. If you want to create something for a brand you would have to upgrade to Prezi Pro but for about £100 per annum, it really is very cheap.  

My first attempt is by no means a master piece, but in the same time it would have taken me to make a Powerpoint presentation, I have produced something far more visually interesting. Take a look at mine aand then have a look at what IE University in Sergovia have produced;  really impressive.

 Just press the arrow key to move through the presentation and press the “More” button to open the full screen option.

 My Attempt Copy of Asda Rio Carnival Competition on Prezi

IE University in Sergorvia Discover IE University! on Prezi

Tags: PR, Presentations, Prezi, Slide Rocket, Social Media

Guest Blogging and Woof Woofing

I have been asked by the lovely people at the Faculty of Business and Law at Leeds Met to write a blog post about my experiences working at Ptarmigan Bell Pottinger. Please have a read.

If you are also on placement let me know how it’s going, or if you would like any advice on finding a placement please do Holla at me!

In other news I am now a dog owner.

The Jockey's Son and the Jockey's Grandson

Meet Charlie, my new puppy. I suppose that makes him “The Jockey’s Grandson”. I’ve never had a dog before and was quite amazed at how much people actually spend on their four-legged friends. A visit to Pets4Home with Charlie’s mummy left me £160 worse off, and Charlie the new owner of a doggy bomber jacket, four leads (“Beacuse he has to be coordinated”), more toys than Richie Rich and more food than Rick “Fats” Waller. I can slowly feel myself turning in to one of those mentalist’s who let’s their dog eat at the dinner table and dresses it in a hat and shoes.

 I’ve even got my eye on his Halloween costume for next year.

Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na Dogman!

 

Tags: Leeds Metropolitan University, Ptarmigan Bell Pottinger, Student Placement

Social Media at its finest!

On Monday I blogged about the Facebook “pass it on” campaign that had got, I’m guessing, tens of thousands of people to change the Facebook profile to their favourite cartoon character. The origin of the campaign was not clear and the rumours about it being an NSPCC job were squashed by their comms team. After doing a bit of research I came across a blog I read regularly belonging to Greg Felgate of Finn Communications.

Greg pondered the similar issues as I did, but went a mighty leap further by setting up his own Just Giving site and encouraging people to put their money where their cartoon mouth was and donate to the NSPCC. Greg has so far raised £840.75 and is not far off his £1000 target, so why not help him out and donate a couple of English pounds. Another example of just how powerful social media can be, but how long will it be before a brand try’s to do something similar.

In other news, I was rewarded by the Ptarmy Army after securing a new client. I can’t say who it is just yet, but will be sure to blog about it when the cat’s allowed out of the bag. 

The campest present giving in history?

 

Mystifying Monday!

Two things have really stumped me already this week and it’s only Monday! Firstly, after a crushing defeat from West Brom on Sunday,  Mike Ashley has decided, rather bizarrely to sack Chris Hughton, a decision I see as completely short-sighted, (probably due to the fact the fat idiot can’t open his stupid fat eyes and see Hughton has done a marvelous job under the circumstances). As a life long Newcastle fan, I am growing extremely tired of the rash decisions made by our board and the inability of most football clubs to give young managers time to build their teams. Rumour has it Martin O’Neill is favourite to take over, but why the bloody hell would a man who was last season managing a top four contender want to come up north to manage a team who will surely be battling for relegation. Whatever happens Chris Hughton will always be a hero to the Geordie fateful, after all he did this just over a month ago.

The second conundrum facing The Jockey’s Son on this snowy Monday evening is Facebook related. My Mum has become Zebedee, my best mate thinks he’s Zelda and my girlfriend is Mini Mouse, yes I’m talking about the takeover of cartoon characters on Facebook. So this is the message doing the rounds…

“Change your FB picture to a cartoon from your childhood. The goal is not to see a human face on FB until Monday (Dec 6th) Join the fight against child abuse & copy and paste to your status!’

The NSPCC has declared that they have nothing to do with the campaign but they are, “pleased that it’s got people talking about child abuse” either that or they’ve just sacked their social media bod.

So who started this? What were their motives and why has it been so powerful?

The origin of this “pass it on” message may never be known but it does remind me of what I learnt whilst running my first social media campaign for Asda last month. For social media to work on mass, simplicity is key.  Make something too difficult or time consuming and you will find it very difficult to engage. The motives behind people changing their profile picture to Charlie Brown or Apu Nahasapeemapetilon may be different, some may just enjoy reminiscing about old cartoons, some may actually want to support the heart-felt campaign and some might just want to feel a sense of belonging, but the reason it has been so succesful is because it is so simple and easy to do.

On Sunday Google reported that the top 20 search terms were related to cartoons so the campaign has certainly been successful in provoking a reaction in the social media sphere, what would be nice to see is just how many people changed their profile picture and whether or not there has been an uplift in donations to charities like the NSPCC. Whatever the outcome, I enjoyed being TinTin for a couple of days.

 

The first of many I hope……………………

So this is about my third attempt to start and maintain a blog, the last few have perished for a number of reasons but I won’t bore you with excuses, instead I will set my stall out like a premature New Years resolution. My new blog ’The Jockey’s Son’ will offer my views on everything from my favourite eatery in Leeds, to which pleb I think should be voted off X Factor on Sunday and everything else in-between. I see my blog as a way of sharing my experiences of living away from my home town Newmarket in the vibrant and culturally rich city of Leeds, basically its a way to show my mum i’m not just sitting on my arse watching Alan Partridge re-runs and eating Monster Munch, one of my favourite hobbies as a child.

So why ‘The Jokey’s Son” I hear you ask, well just like a certain woodstain manufacturer, it does exactly what is says on the tin. My dad is a former jockey and because he always encouraged me to write I thought I would name my blog after him. Although I grew up in Newmarket, the home of British horseracing, I am actually a closet Geordie. All my family hail from Durham and are huge fans of the Toon Army, so many posts will feature “Stephen Taylor’s Black and White Army” including this one, here is my favourite Newcastle player of all time…………Peter Beardsley

Unfortunately as I write this blog post we have just ben roundly trodden by the baggies. 3-1, Peter Lovenkrands getting our only goal in a terrible performance, Danny Guthrie looked completely out of his depth and our stand in centre half pairing resembled something from a Marx Brothers film. Still, shouldn’t grumble as we are having a very good season and Chris Hughton is doing a fantastic job.