date published / 12 May 2010

Public Relations Idiot Say: It is Still the Dark Night

Today’s hot PR tip from a tit at just another London PR agency is this: when you’re putting out a line to the media, it’s often worth writing certain sentences in a slightly different tone, or with a slightly different feel. We did it this morning with Fishers, our accountancy client. One line in the quote, which was on the unemployment data, was deliberately over-dramatic — “It may be a new dawn for politics but for jobs and the economy it is still the dark night.” — and guess what, The Sun went for it. The rest of the quote was more technical and was picked up by the likes of the Beeb. So, while you should always keep the overall tone and fabric of the text consistent with the client’s brand, a few subtle adjustments here and there can make all the difference in terms of pick-up. Keep reading for more fantastic tips from London’s most idiotic pr agency. Tomorrow. Or maybe not.


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date published / 9 May 2010

Public Relations Idiot Say: WTF was that John Wayne gait all about, Bottler?

It was Campbell, bitters, mixed with Mandy camp, I’m talking about that bizarre gait of the Bottler, Great Leader Brown, as he retreated from the lectern after his shameless ‘Get In Before the Tories at all Costs’ speech on Friday afternoon......Read more


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date published / 6 May 2010

Public Relations Fluffies Hit Penge High Street

Spent most of today in Penge. Which is quite the shithole. We were shooting a viral for one of our clients, VivaStreet.co.uk. Can’t say more at this point for obvious reasons but we’ll be seeding it in the next week or so. Will obviously post it here when it’s done. PR is certainly more fun than it used to be…. online stuff certainly lets you be more creative, especially if you’ve got a client that’s happy for you to be creative and take a few risks — which we have in the shape of VivaStreet (like Gumtree but better). Anyway, if you’d like to try out a viral, but only have a shoestring budget, drop us a line or call us. Line of the day: some guy with a fag and can of Special Brew bowls up to our actor and says, “you’re ‘avin a bubble me ‘ol son”. That could only happen to a public relations fluffy in Penge.


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date published / 5 May 2010

London PR Agency Say: Read 120 Days of Sodom, not PR Manual

I had two books by my bed last night. One was some PR manual or other by a yank called David Meerman Scott — The New Rules of Marketing and PR. The other was The One Hundred And Twenty Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade. Which did I read?.....Read more


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date published / 3 May 2010

Small PR Tip for Small UK Businesses and Start-Ups

A very short but very sweet PR tip from London’s most rhizomatic PR agency today. Think carefully about the words you use when issuing a reactive media statement… in some cases the way you say something will ensure you get picked up even if what you’re saying isn’t that ground-breaking or original. For example, last week, on behalf of CJ, one of our property clients, the following two sentences got major pick-up across national media: “The property market may have edged into double digit territory but it’s important to put this symbolic price point into context. The price rises of the past year have been driven primarily by a shortage of stock rather than strong demand.” Why did these lines get so much pick-up? Simple. Because they sound clever/authoritative even if they aren’t really that clever/authoritative. Oh, and because I know that journos on the likes of The Times and Torygraph (the two key media for this client) love words like ‘symbolic’… papers are keen to play to the intellect of their readers and so we play that game, too.


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date published / 2 May 2010

London's Top PR Agency Needs You (Unless You Work in PR)

Rhizome PR, London’s top ‘pound for pound’ pr agency — the Floyd Pretty Boy Mayweather of public relations — urgently needs a senior account manager, whatever the hell that is (Jonny says it is a fairly experienced PR fluffy)......Read more


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date published / 29 Apr 2010

Iz you a Property Company? Duz you knead a PR?

Then you iz in the da rite place. Rhizome PR, the anti-PR, the great undoer and despiser of all things soft and fluffy, is the best property pr firm you will ever come across. Period (property)......Read more


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date published / 28 Apr 2010

PR Tip for Gordon Brown re. Gilliangate

Ha ha ha. Brown’s gaffe today — and it was a big ‘un — has the UK’s PR professionals out in their miserable droves, desperate to prove how perceptive they are in crisis management. What rot. Read this garbage on PR Week. Brown should have looked sorry when he said sorry, Brown shouldn’t have criticised the media, Brown shouldn’t have XYZ, it was a train crash in slow motion…. aarrgggghhhhhhhhh! Do you know what my advice to Brown would have been?.....Read more


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date published / 27 Apr 2010

Best PR Agencies React to the News

I’ve said it before 197 times, but when you’re choosing a pr agency make sure you find one that is able to react quickly to the news. We did it this morning when the British Bankers’ Association published its latest mortgage lending stats. The stats came out at 9.30 and by 10 we’d pinged out a line from Brian Murphy, the resident guru at the Mortgage Advice Bureau. Pow, a couple of hours later and it’s snowing coverage online: on The Times, Telegraph and no end of trades, for example, Mortgage Solutions. The lesson of this rather short (and shamelessly salesy) post is this: generating media coverage is really quite easy if you keep your ear to the ground and react.


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date published / 26 Apr 2010

London PR Agency Seeking Firm of Solicitors

Are you a UK law firm? Are you currently looking for some PR fluffies/morons to take your media coverage levels into the stratosphere and protect your reputation when you commit a major public clanger?.....Read more


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date published / 25 Apr 2010

Public Relations and the Matter of Trust

Public relations is often misconstrued as an alternative kind of advertising. Which, of course, it isn’t…......Read more


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date published / 23 Apr 2010

PR Results in Quick Time for Taste of the Grape

Overall, no dammit, pure and simple, it’s been a great week at Rhizome PR, universally voted by nobody to be the best London PR agency there has never been......Read more


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date published / 23 Apr 2010

Free PR advice and Tips from London's best PR agency (ok, maybe not)

Last week I said that we’d be at the French House in Soho to give free pr advice and tips to small companies. But as yet, no takers......Read more


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date published / 21 Apr 2010

Twitter: Thoughts of a Public Relations Idiot

Here are the quickly put together thoughts of a public relations idiot on Twitter:

  • Twitter is full of parasites, millions of people promoting their services/personalities/businesses/lives and trying to conceal their insidious spiel through their non-salesy tweets — 10 fun tweets to one marketing tweet, scream the online marketing experts!
  • Twitter is deeply inauthentic and about as social as a shoulder of lamb. Communicating with others is not necessarily ‘social’ (see above)
  • Twitter is quite useful as a way of starting conversations with new people (hence the interest of the online marketing parasites)
  • Twitter is a great way to speed up the walk to the train station because tweeting kills the time like nothing else
  • Twitter is just another example of how technology is decimating our intelligence by drowning out our minds with endless noise
  • Tweeting is just another way to die. Watching our obsession with gadgets and technology and clouds and real-time communication makes me want to puke. I want chaos, pain, despair, the implosion of this filthy discourse that hold us tight

See you all tomorrow, tweethearts!


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date published / 20 Apr 2010

The Best PR Agencies React To The News

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The best pr agencies know that all you need to do to generate exceptional media coverage is give journalists what they want when they want it. It ain’t spaceship science, kid......Read more


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date published / 19 Apr 2010

PR Man Say: Learn from the Tories' mistakes

While public relations is often focused on generating media coverage, it’s always focused on the type of messages companies or people relay, the tone of those messages and their timing......Read more


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date published / 16 Apr 2010

PR Agency Say: PR Industry Sucks

You may have guessed from the name of this blog — pRIP — that Rhizome has a different take on public relations relative to most other pr agencies out there. Basically, we think the PR industry sucks. We thought this when we were journalists, and we still think it now, as PRs......Read more


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date published / 14 Apr 2010

The Best PR Agencies Are Schizophrenic

You won’t know this but before I became a journalist and before I moved into public relations I actually started a PhD on postmodern French thought. So there you go, secret’s out......Read more


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date published / 12 Apr 2010

Want Media Coverage? Then Stick Out Your Neck

Some people are good at it, others aren’t. To some people it comes naturally, to others it doesn’t. Some people shy away from it, others get stuck straight in......Read more


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date published / 11 Apr 2010

PR Tip From a Public Relations Idiot: Your Business Isn't That Interesting

This will come as a surprise to many company directors, but to the majority of journalists your business will be of very little interest......Read more


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date published / 19 Oct 2009

How to generate press coverage — a tip from Rhizome PR

Want to generate press coverage for your company, want to get your company and brand into the news? Well here’s how......Read more


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date published / 3 Sep 2009

Free press release editing and advice

Obviously we’re only doing this to make contact with new potential clients — why lie? — but throughout September Rhizome PR is happy to review press releases or other media-focused material (within reason!) for any businesses that are having to do their own PR (maybe it’s a small one-off release or they’re just skint). Free PR support from the best PR company in the UK, or certainly London, for bugger all — howzat!.....Read more


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