Another Successful Kinetics Celebration

On 11th May the soon to be Hotwire Kinetics gang hosted a shin-dig for clients, media, prospects and friends to celebrate our merger and the appointment of MD Jörn Sander. Guests were given the opportunity to sample a range of gourmet offerings from Stix Catering's 2010 menu, with Kerrie Brown from Stix on hand to provide her expert knowledge on the dishes served. Delicious wine was also provided by team member Bridie Gaynor’s family vineyard near Orange NSW – Printhie Wines

The event drew a total crowd of 50, including 23 members our journo community – from media outlets including ABC Online, Appliance Retailer, CNET, PC World, T3, Atomic, 2GB Radio plus our favourite freelancers David Flynn, Brad Howarth, Angus Kidman and Graham Lauren – and 17 clients and prospects from the likes of Cisco, FileMaker, PicNet, bwired and BigHand.

Kinetics’ Jody Lennon commented that journalists often get calls and invitations from PR people who want something, so it's nice us to catch up with them face-to-face just for the fun of it! She said, “We kept things simple and relaxed, with the emphasis on good food and wine. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves... and lingered way past the time we thought we’d finish. The feedback from clients and media was very positive, both about the event and the recent news here at the company.”

And here is the pictorial evidence...

Hotwire Kinetics

It's a little blurry and we're short one thanks to annual leave but here we are: the merry little band that is Hotwire Kinetics. From left to right there's Jody, Kya, Kat, Polly, Jörn, Bridie, Kenny and Andy (Hotwire's MD of International). Missing is Carly.

Kinetics goes International!

What do you get if you cross eight Aussie tech comms experts with 110 European ones? You get Hotwire Kinetics!

Hotwire is an international public relations consultancy headquartered in London. It employs over 110 staff in offices across Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK, with other sister agencies and affiliates around the world. Since launching in 2000, the Hotwire mantra has been 'next generation PR today': an amazing team, a real flair for creativity and an approach to measurement and transparency that means the client is in control. This approach has led them to a number of awards for their client work including PR Week, Sabre, IPRA and the Top Com d'Or.

... and as of July 1 Hotwire also have offices in... Australia! Yes, as of 1 July we’re formally joining forces with international Photon sister firm - Hotwire - to make sure that we can deliver the benefits of a larger firm while retaining our stealth and dexterity that we’ve honed as Kinetics.

So of course there is a cause for celebration. If you are in the city next Tuesday, please join us for a drink. Andy West, who runs the international portfolio of Hotwire, will be here to party with us. Details of celebrations are below:

Tuesday 11th May
Kinetics office
439-441 Kent Street
Sydney
5-7pm

RSVP by 4th May to kya@kinetics.com.au

SMX 'Search Engine Boot-Camp' Wrap Up

Attending SMX's 'Search Engine Boot-Camp' was the perfect start to interning at Kinetics.

It gave me an understanding into the world of social media and the huge importance it plays in PR.

The aptly named 'Boot-camp' was a fast and effective way of teaching companies exactly how to incorporate social media into their brand in a profitable manner.

I found both the 'Facebook/Twitter' and 'Social Media Integration' presentations fascinating.

Social media can be used in a business sense to create interpersonal relationships with customers/clients to break down the corporate walls, creates a public face for your clients to recgonise your company, visbily monitor clients movements and opinions about your company and most importantly it has the ability to reach the public with information faster than many news companies can- just think, that camera phone you're holding could be your key to fame in the media industry!

Being an intern and only half way through my degree, it seemed incomprehensible to me, that my usual time-fillers and procrastination enhancers, could now ultimately make or break a company.

Gone were the days of pointless status updates, as we welcome the mouse clicking revenue brought to us by all forms of social media.

Despite what my university teachers remind me daily, it seems in the world of PR, being social WILL get me far in life!

Signing off, Aniela- the intern.

INVITATION - Kinetics Celebrations

Changes are afoot at Kinetics, so we are holding a night of culinary delights and exquisite flavours to celebrate!

You are invited to join the team, our clients and key media contacts whilst we share our good news.

When: 5pm – 7pm Tuesday 11th May

Where: Kinetics Offices - Level 3, 439-441 Kent Street, Sydney

RSVP: Tuesday 4th May - kya@kinetics.com.au / 02 9212 3848

The Death of the Press Release

The concept of the disintegration of a fundamental element of the Public Relations industry has been discussed for eons, but never as succinctly as by the creators of the Social Media Press Release – Real Wire.

In there environmental parody, Real Wire adopt an Al Gorean tone to deliver an amusing analysis of the daily ecological vandalism of Journo’s inboxes.

The lack of research and thought that goes into the colossal volume of press releases sent by PRs leads inevitably to thousands landing in the recycling bin without even being opened.

Being an intern and having only just begun my PR masters, clips like this really convey the future of PR and the changes occuring (or hopefully occuring) in the industry. I'm learning about these transformations everyday.

Thankfully, modern PR agencies are moving ahead of the game, thinking laterally to entice readership and demand attention!

An Inconvenient PR Truth from RealWire on Vimeo.

What makes you influential on twitter?

One of Australia's most popular marketing blogs JeffBullas.com - designed to help business with web marketing utilising Internet mediums in social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin as well as Search Engine Optimisation, Lead Generation and Blogs - recently conducted a survey to gauge ”How Do You Measure Twitter Influence?”

Jeff Bullas comments “Twitter Influence” could become a powerful and significant part of your brand whether it's a ”personal brand” or a ”corporate brand”. So measurement is open to interpretation and different views of Twitters importance also needs to be factored into the discussion.

He then goes on to outline eight possible criteria to measure twitter influence against and conducts a reader survey.

Theresults of which are in fact in line with my own beliefs - please see below:

* The number of followers 8%
* The quality of their followers 16%
* The number of followers re tweeting their tweets or updates 16%
* The quality and value of the links that they tweet 22%
* How often they tweet or update 6%
* The ability to make other people take actions on Twitter 18%
* The quality and popularity of the website or blog that is on their Twitter site 7%
* They are already well known or famous 5%
* Other 2%

A great reminder that content is still king...

Embargoes

Today on twitter and Facebook Australian tech journalists and the social PR and Marketing community were all enjoying this animated cartoon that looks at the ongoing Embargo debate from an uninterested journalist's point of view - was too funny not share (especially on a Friday)...

There's no such thing as a social media expert

Sometimes other people say exactly what you've been thinking but haven't had the wherewithal, time or eloquence to say yourself. This morning when I opened my Google Reader and saw this post from one of my favourite commentators/bloggers/marketers Kate Carruthers I had an "Oh you're sooooo right moment" when I read even just the headline Why I'm probably not a social media expert and neither are you. Why not? Well because it's a bit early in the spectrum to be an "expert" or a "guru" or a "wunderkind" in the field of social media.

A few of my favourite tidbits of Kate's post are:

• Anyone who claims to be an expert in social media is probably talking through their hat.
• Social media has been with us for only a few years. Expertise is not developed overnight.
• Deep knowledge is founded on a basis of research and experience. Lessons learned, especially from failure and pushing of known boundaries, are key to development of expertise.
• Social media is just media and communications on a new platform. I’m not quite sure if that fact privileges social media in some special way?
• Perhaps rather than being social media experts we are social media learners? If indeed social media is a real thing we should even consider in and of itself (but that is a topic for another day)?

This is pretty much my philosophy on social media summed up brilliantly only my lack of skills means I express it more like; "Just get in there and experiment, listen to people, have conversations online and take anyone who calls themselve a social media guru with a big grain of salt because they're barely ahead of you who might like to start today."

Thanks Kate!

Backing up your claims!

The world's largest annual consumer technology exhibition, The Consumer Electronic Show (CES), was held in Las Vegas last week between the 7-10th January.

More than 2,500 technology companies introduced new products to kick off the next decade of technology innovation by unveiling technology trends ranging from 3D TV, mobile DTV, and connected TV to green technologies, tablets and apps.

Among than 20,000+ products on display was Sonim's "unbreakable" smartphone. The only problem was reporter Dan Simmons from the BBC's technology show Click managed to break it in a matter of minutes during a demonstration at the show.



You can watch the clip here and have a giggle.

As a member for the PR community I really felt for the product marketing team and I thought this incidence was a great reminder that in all areas of Marketing Communications you really need to be able to put your money where your mouth is!

The difference between PR, advertising, design etc

With thanks to @issue where I saw it, and to Marty Neumeier who drew this little visualisation in the first place - this is a FANTASTIC way to describe the different ways different marketing professionals go about wooing consumers. Some people are just so clever! Plus it's funny because it's true :)

10 levels of intimacy in today’s communication

via tiphereth

December Birthdays

Well you would think that with all the Christmas parties at this time of year the @KineticsPR team would have had enough to celebrate...

Thankfully for the gang this is not the case. Yesterday we celebrated three birthdays in one – JodyLennon’s, @KatRoss’s and mine (@KdeR). In true Kinetics style we secretly passed around birthday cards to be signed whilst turning a blind eye to our own and then feasted on raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake. Could December get any better???

And so the end of 2009 is nigh...

There's just over a week until Christmas to go and the end of 2009 is nigh. December is being its usual crazy self and acting like a strange combination of winding down to the break and frantic mania trying to get everything crossed off the to-do list before the end of year. I imagine it's this strange juxtaposition for many businesses and it is certainly the case for a PR agency like Kinetics. You end up juggle the looming 'Christmas closedown/slowdown' deadlines of all the major publications against client's expectations of getting news out the door and achieving targets for the year. Throw in the mix Christmas parties, 2010 strategic plans, contract renewals, staggered annual leave calendars (both clients' and our own), family interruptions (there's always some this time of year), early invoicing and reporting requirements and you've got a recipe for organised chaos. This year has been no exception. For example at the moment I'm sitting in the office all alone as one colleague is on personal leave, one finding lunch, one on a last minute client Christmas present mission, the other hand delivering presents, one picking up relatives from the airport, one at the last board meeting for the year and some others at a final client meeting. Tis the season eh!

In any case, I thought I'd take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We especially want to thank our clients for their support this year and looks forward to an even better 2010 ahead working together! And to the team, I want to thank you all for your hard work and effort in what has definitely been at times a trying year, you're brilliant and deserve a break this Christmas. Travel safe and have a happy time!

NB: The office will be closed from 1pm on Thursday 24th December to Monday 4th January but if you need us call the office number and it will divert to Kenny's mobile.

The Photons

Did we mention that Kinetics is part of the Photon Group? The Photon Group is Australia's largest marketing communications services company and the 12th largest marketing communications services company in the world!! It's made up of over 50 specialised companies in Australia (and the rest of the globe), with companies split up into five divisions:

Specialised Communications - public relations and public affairs consultancies, corporate communications and events management (which is Kinetics' group);
Marketing - provides outsourced sales execution and merchandising services to FMCG, telecommunications and other industries;
Internet & E-Commerce - high growth combination of digital services, innovative product sales and transaction based marketing;
Integrated Communications & Digital - world class advertising agencies, recognised for creative talent; and
Strategic Intelligence - independent communications advisory and consumer research.

Being part of the Photon Group is excellent as we can offer all of these services to our clients via a single contact (or one butt to kick). The other excellent thing about being part of the Photon Group is that they throw very good parties... Last week Kinetics attended the annual Photon conference which was at the Sydney Convention centre and hosted by comedian Wil Anderson, and then in the evening we were shipped off (quite literally) to Cockatoo Island where we were wined and dined, enjoyed the lovely DJ Ruby Rose and the incredible Australian act Empire of the Sun... not bad for a Christmas party really :)

A merry Kinetics Christmas

Our friends over at Media Connect wrote this great wrap-up of the Kinetics Christmas Party today:

Technology media celebrated a Mexican Fiesta Christmas party with Kinetics this week, also marking the agency's 13th anniversary.

According to CEO Jody Lennon, journalists from a variety of media outlets including technology, consumer, lifestyle and business attended the festivities, while longtime clients rubbed shoulders with those who signed up a few short weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the winner of the best costume price was Kinetics client Mathew Luu of Lexar, who wore "a very macho, silver-trimmed black sombrero that made him look like a bad hombre".

"Most journos present showed their support of the theme by consuming large quantities of Sol beer, frozen Margaritas and pina coladas... and we figure that’s what inspired Ty Pendlebury’s dance moves to the accompanying mariachi band!' said Lennon.

For more pics check out the @KineticsPR account on Twitter...

Thoughts on Google Sidewiki...with thanks to creo

Our fellow “Photon-ites” from across the ditch at creo communications wrote an excellent blog post  this week about a new widget from Google that might just have quite the impact on the PR industry: Sidewiki.

Creo said:

This month Google launched Sidewiki. It is effectively a 'micro-wiki' enabling users to comment and discuss any webpage, while browsing that page. The principal idea is noble...why, then, is it causing a stir in the communications business?

For the same reason that many companies, and the PR people that represent them, still struggle to grasp the basic concept of Social Media.

Surrendering control. Conversations between consumers about organisations and their reputations are taking place on any number of Social Media channels around the clock. The amount of influence PR professionals and their clients have over these conversations is limited. It's a case of power to the people.

The difference, and sticking point, this time though is that, unlike say Twitter or Facebook - where negative commentary is physically (and thus psychologically) separate from the brand being discussed - Google Sidewiki appears directly connected to, even floating on top of, a company's website.

There’s more detail to be had on the Creo site but they definitely make a valid point, and I’ll confess to being initially a little overwhelmed and terrified at the thought of that level of openness online between businesses and individuals. But on the other hand Sidewiki is really just a new way to have those conversations that are already going on, and perhaps a way for businesses to see more clearly and more quickly what the opinions out there are saying. And once again the principles of listening and getting involved will be key to success online. As Creo said, it is well worth watching, and I’ll add worth playing with too!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I really don't know where this year went, I'm sure it was just two days ago that I attended a raft of Christmas parties and worked myself into a right frenzy in order to get a mountain of stuff done that had to be completed in 2008 before the whole of the Australian nation went on hiatus for January 2009. But apparently that was 12 months ago, and now we're shaping up to do it all again! So what's on your to do list between now and the summer holiday break? You know there's only five weeks left don't you? And that a fair chunk of that time will be taken up with social activities - both during work hours and outside them? But never fear, it will all get done! Somehow it always does. The adrenalin and excitement of the season will see you through.

What really kicks off the silly season for me is the Kinetics Christmas Party, it's always a November occasion and often close to first cab off the rank for the tech PR and media communities. Not so this year, but it's still close, with the date all set for five days from now in the evening of Tuesday 24th November. Come join us if you're free for our Mexican fiesta - we'll be the one's in the sombreros! Email me 'polly at kinetics dot com dot au' if you want more details. Hola!

Lest we forget

Image

A little theory we're working on...

Crossing over: The nexus between marketing, technology and business process.

Historically technology existed in back office silos and then it moved to also being a facilitator of company window dressing with the intro of website marketing and static pretty sites. But now we’ve reached the point where the best use of technology can be found at the nexus between business process and marketing.

I know you will have heard the saying that marketing is about “selling the sizzle, not the steak” but in fact now we need the sizzle plus the steak – cook, carved and served to the exact standards the customer requires every time. And to do this there absolutely must be synergy between the technology and people at the forefront of the business and the marketing activities and business processes and technology behind the scene to create customer engagement. 

What do you think?