News from EIDO Public Relations

Although we have forged an excellent working relationship with many colleagues in the Russian branch of one of our major corporate clients, and indeed many of the journalists working in their sector, we haven't as yet "gone solo" with PR work on our own account. Communicating across cultural boundaries is a complex and sometimes difficult task. But it is an area where we have amassed a good deal of expertise over the years. One of the things we have learned is the importance of "Boots on the ground", so to speak and so we are delighted to say that we will be assisted in our efforts by a new Russian associate who will be providing the specialist language and cultural skills to get the project off the ground.

Spring is fast approaching (everywhere except the UK, it would seem!)and it's an good time to think of ways we can improve the service we provide. So, over the next couple of months, we are aiming to make some changes to this and the main Eido Europe website, aimed at creating a more aligned overview of our activities. Behind the scenes, we are looking at expanding our team to increase our capabilities into new areas, and to reinforce our core business expertise in the UK, Europe and Japan. Watch this space for more news.

Eido PR's Japan Representative Office will be relocating at the beginning of November 2012 to a new facility in Yotsuya. The new location is conveniently sited right next to Yotsuya station on the Chuo line and offers some great new facilities, including a 22 seat seminar room that's ideal for training or press conferences.

Our telephone number will also be changing, and we will now be able to offer direct dial extensions and user-selectable language options. Our new contact details from November 1st will be:

Eido Europe Ltd
4F Uni-Kojimachi Building
6-2-6 Kojimachi
Tokyo 102-0083
Tel: +81 (0)3 4520 8919
Fax: +81 (0)3 6794 7905

European Directive 2002/58/EC, passed last year, comes into effect from May 26th 2012. The so-called "Cookie Law" is designed to ensure that websites cannot save small pieces of code on your computer, called cookies, which can be used to monitor your browsing habits.

The legislation has attracted widespread criticism because of its lack of clarity, its interference with site users and the onerous responsibilities it places on website operators. As a company, we believe the legislation as it exists is harmful to business and unfairly restricts user's freedom to browse internet content freely. We recognise, however, that some visitors may be concerned about the use of cookies and that we need to address those concerns.

We have therefore changed our Privacy policy for this and related sites to try and clarify the few circumstances in which we use cookies, their purpose and how you can prevent this site from storing them on your computer. You can read our policy here. If you have any concerns about your privacy, please feel free to contact us.

Southern Manufacturing & Electronics 2012, held on the 15th and 16th of February, has been hailed as a tremendous success with both exhibitor and visitor numbers well in excess of previous years. As we have done since 2008, Eido PR ran the PR campaign in the run up to the show and the press office at the event itself. One of the secrets of the show's success is the incredible effort the organisers put into marketing the event; of which the PR campaign is an integral part, encompassing the full range of activities from press releases, feature articles and editor outreach to blogging, SNS and Twitter.

Having an extremely visible PR campaign is not just important for the show; it also gives exhibitors confidence that their investment is going to be well-rewarded in terms of leads and visitors on the day. Feedback received at the event seems to indicate "mission accomplished" for Eido PR: Ted Waller, Sales Manager for Finder plc, Europe's largest manufacturer of electromechanical components, commented, "We were impressed with the coverage before the show. Good pre-event publicity build-up and seems to have paid off judging by the numbers."

The show may be over, but the PR campaign will continue as we build-upon the success of the show blog and LinkedIn group. There were so many great stories from this year's show that we have decided to continue blogging for the foreseable future. Check out the latest updates at http://blog.industrysouth.co.uk

When a major US manufacturer of personal safety equipment wanted to boost its profile in the Netherlands, they turned to Eido PR to devise and execute a cost-effective strategy to achieve media coverage for its products. Thanks to the combination of our expert knowledge of industrial products and a specially assembled team of Dutch consultants, we were able to achieve coverage for the firm in a comparatively short space of time. Such was the success of the programme, that it has now been extended for the rest of 2012 and there are plans to roll-out a similar programme in Spain later in the year.

The joint charter, the result of consultations between the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the Investor Relations Society (IRS), the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), aims to reduce the incidents of "media spamming" by PR companies. Media spamming occurs when journalists and editors are inundated with press releases and PR contacts which are intrusive and/or inappropriate for their needs. The problem was highlighted originally in the recent Irrelevent PR Truth campaign (see our blog).

This is a campaign we have been following closely because the relationship between PR and journalist is the essence of what we do. Unlike many other PR companies, we have always worked hard to try and ensure that our communications go only to those who we feel will find them useful. But given the scale of the problem highlighted by the campaign, we felt we should do more. Our first action back in the Summer of this year was to migrate our news circuits to an online server and give journalists the ability to add or remove themselves from any of our circulation lists if they feel they have been poorly targetted.So far, we have had only one such request.

Further to this, we have adopted a change in policy with regard to press release distribution. For most press releases, we now ONLY circulate stories initially to editors and journalists on our lists. This means that stories journalists get from us are still newsworthy - i.e. they aren't already freely available online. At some later stage, we may circulate stories a second time to online portals to help boost search engine visibility and penetration, but our focus remains primarily on the needs of journalists and we will not knowingly undermine their efforts to produce unique, newsworthy content.

As a last step, we will now include the CIPR Media Spamming Charter into our standard Terms of Business, clearly stating the negative effects of engaging in spam-like activities or unprofessional harassment of the media. We will also reserve the right to decline to participte in any such action on the grounds that it is not in the client's best interests and may be damaging to our own business credibility.

Download your own copy of the CIPR Media Spamming Charter by visiting our Free PR & Marketing Guides page

The first guide looks at preparing for an exhibition and how, with some simple advance planning, you can really make the most of your investment. Whether large or small, exhibitions offer great opportunities to promote your brand and build stronger links with your customer base. The guide looks at how you can use the show organiser's marketing strategy to your advantage, how to prepare your news stories and how to ensure they get noticed by editors and journalists.

In the coming weeks, we'll be adding more guides to the collection which will address some topics such as developing your international marketing, tips for successful email campaigns, dealing with the trade press and more. We hope you find them useful, and don't forget we are always happy to talk to you about how PR can improve the dialogue you have with your market.

It came as something of a shock to discover that over 8 million mattresses are dumped in UK landfill sites every year. That's a collossal amount of waste, and an amazing waste of precious landfill capacity. Eco-Matt aims to reduce that startling figure to zero. Eco-Matt is the UK's first specialist mattress recycler. Using specialist techniques and machinery, they are able to break down old mattresses into recyclable components, enabling up to 90% of the material to be reclaimed. Based in the south of England, Eco-Matt also handle plastics and cardboard waste from businesses all across the region. We are thrilled to welcome Eco-Matt on board and we look forward to spreading the word about this exciting new process.

The Incovenient PR Truth campaign draws an analogy between pollution in the physical environment and 'news' pollution of the online environment caused in no small measure by PR companies blasting out irrelevant or inappropriate press releases indiscriminately. Journalists are bombarded with such stories daily and it is a source of great irritation - especially when followed-up by the inevitable 'did you get my email' call 15 minutes later.

There is no doubt that 'PR spam' is becoming a bigger problem, partly because of the ease with which stories can be circulated by email and partly by the increasing number of companies offering 'media lists' that are often poorly researched and out of date. Coupled with inexperience on the part of the PRO, this combination of flawed data and naivity creates a potent cocktail that can all too easily wreck delicate PR/Media relationships and create a strong negative backlash against the client.

In response to what some journos believe to be an increasingly serious problem, the campaign proposes a journalist's Bill of Rights which enshrines a code of practice to be followed by PR companies. The code places specific obligations on behalf of the PR company to research its distribution list better and take further steps to ensure they are not spamming recipients with inappropriate stories.

From our point of view, we agree wholeheartedly with anything that helps ensure our stories land on receptive ears. That's why we have always relied on lists that we research and maintain ourselves. There are some in the PR industry, however, who have raised concerns that the Bill goes too far in restricting our ability to sell-in stories to less familiar publications. We too share some of those concerns.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be looking seriously at what lessons can be drawn from the campaign and how we can incorporate those into our business practices. Our objective will be to draw up a code of conduct that encapsulates the essence of the Inconvenient PR Truth campaign. We'll be posting more on this on our blog, Talkback, which you can find on the right hand side of this page.