Fishburn Hedges

Carolyn Abbasi Larkey

Standing on the escalator in the tube on my way home from work the other night and looking at the ‘stand on the right’ sign instructing me to do just that got me to thinking, would we be more likely to walk if the signs said ‘walk on the left’ instead?Ultimately the message is the same, but this would offer positive reinforcement for the walking option instead of the standing option. If my...

Is it legitimate to use paid-for search marketing techniques as part of a crisis communications response? This is a question being asked by many in the media today, in response BP’s decision to use sponsored links to direct people to its information website. This is clearly an emotive issue at present, but it is worth asking the question in a broad sense: should paid-for search be a part of the ...

Simon Matthews

Brave new world? Well, perhaps not yet, but this post-crisis, not-quite-recovery, no man's land certainly feels different. You can't move for talk of responsibility and shared values, for one thing. But a few other things haven’t changed.The FT supplement this week announcing the latest Business in the Community excellence awards rightly points out how the financial meltdown and more recent even...

Andy Berry

So Ocado, the online food retailer, is to join the stockmarket via an IPO, one of the first companies and arguably the most high profile UK candidate to do so since the financial crisis.We can expect the usual range of announcements from the company during the process; appointment of advisers, confirmation of intention to IPO, pricing range and – hopefully – a successful debut on the stockmark...

John Williams is a founder of Fishburn Hedges

Do you remember Tony Blair's "Big Tent"? It was a way of describing an all-inclusive, everyone-likes-me, pre-coalition way of governing; it lasted a long while, before becoming, under Gordon, "goats" (government of all the talents) which was a ruse for bringing outsiders into the bear trap of government in return for a bit of ermine and a brief headline. The talented ones baulked most and baled f...

Paul Sweetman

The last week has seen one of the most rapidly-assembled mergers in living memory, with the political marriage of convenience between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, celebrated today with the publication of its programme for government.  However, while it all seems rosy now, the litany of failed mergers in the corporate world suggests there may be trouble ahead. Lessons from businessSpeech...

The FA's quick apology is just the start of the long road to recovery says Paul Raeburn

The FA’s textbook ‘nip it in the bud’ strategy following Lord Triesman’s worryingly frank comments shows that they have learnt from crises past, but the real problem in this issue lies in how it plays out abroad, where it really matters for the World Cup bid.  Many will rightly question whether the public interest has been served by this episode, and note the political angles in some of ...

Joanna Kwiatkowska on volcanic ash and the blame game

The press love a good old-fashioned ‘travel chaos’ story (second only to the ‘extreme weather event’ in the news popularity stakes).  In most cases, these kinds of sagas always find themselves a good scapegoat – British Airways for failing to stop cabin crew strikes or local councils for failing to prepare roads for the Big Freeze.However, aside from God and, I suppose, Iceland (althoug...

Peter Sigrist

Social media is a fad, but most people who say that have misunderstood why, and don’t know what to do about it.For anyone who’s taken Marketing 101, you know that one thing comes first in the world of business – customers.Communications people talk of the customers much as actors or film directors do – as an audience.  That’s natural, and there’s nothing wrong with thinking in those t...

Peter Sigrist

There’s been plenty of speculation since News International announced its decision to erect a pay wall around The Times and Sunday Times websites. There is no doubt it will reduce the readership of what will soon become sister sites, but the question on everyone’s lips is – how many readers will be left?Capsizing audiencesNews International’s announcement will have an immediate impact on ...

Rob O'Halloran

Hung parliaments are rare beasts. Because the swing in key marginals is difficult to predict many commentators aren’t yet clear about the number of seats that will change hands at this election. Polls suggest a shift in voting intention but it’s hard to call a decisive majority for the Conservatives at this stage.We are almost certainly closer to a hung parliament than we have been since the e...

Rory Scanlan

Rory Scanlan, director of Fishburn Hedges, gave his thoughts on the 2010 general election recently in a 'soap box' article published in PR Week.It’s easy to forget how brutal British politics can be. Nowhere is this seen more vividly than when a defeated PM is turfed out of No10 within hours of the polls closing.In many countries a change of administration is a more orderly process. US Preside...

Guy Corbet

Guy Corbet offers a view on Friday's big apology.  Friday afternoon.  A strange murmur was going through the office.  Some people were congregating around the TV screens.  Others had their heads down to meet weekend deadlines, so the broadcast was only coming through in fits and starts.  Something big was happening. What was this though? Had a monstrous ex-Yugoslavian war criminal finally ...

Clare Hinkley

Clare Hinkley considers some of the communications implications of "climategate".  When Al Gore accepted his Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, he was praised by the committee for creating "an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming".Fast forward two and half years, and the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra P...

John Williams, one of the founders of Fishburn Hedges

One week.  Two crises.  Different approaches. Here, John Williams, one of Fishburn Hedges' founders, gives a perspective.There’s a case still in reputation management that sometimes, perhaps only rarely, less is more.  The lesson from the one training course I ever attended that involved the legendary Harvard Business School marketing case studies was that sometimes the most profitable strate...

Guy Corbet

Fishburn Hedges director Guy Corbet on what's next in 2010.For all that we’ve become accustomed to turbulent times in the past year or so, the next twelve months could see as much change again as the ramifications of the financial crisis begin to settle down.There’s all the opportunity and uncertainty that a new administration will bring. The new government, whatever the colour, will need to t...

Simon Redfern

Communications has gone digital and politics has followed. Whatever the outcome of the next General Election, it will be the first social media election.For every political party the use of this new medium will force them to break with the past and change their approach.  The spin doctors will still try to command the news agenda for each campaign day, but success will necessitate embracing and e...

Jason Nisse

Jason Nisse, director of Fishburn Hedges, recently examined the communication challenges faced by a Northern Rock preparing to return to the market, in an article published on Gorkana.September has been the cruellest month in the credit crunch. Two years ago there were queues outside Northern Rock branches as customers, unsettled by Robert Peston's exclusive about the bank's cry for help, demanded...

Marc Moninski

Fishburn Hedges director, Marc Moninski, explains why getting an insight into people’s lives is a key part of being a better marketer.It ought to go without saying to anyone in the marketing services industry that the end audience is at the heart of everything we do. Knowing who they are and what interests and motivates them is a fundamental part of the marketing practitioner’s art. It is the ...