The Apprentice - Why Morgan PR has soured to Sir Alan Sugar's circus.

Did you see the first episode of the new series of The Apprentice? It has attracted record audiences by all accounts in today's media - yet we chose not to watch it. Why? Excepting the obvious and scatalogical condemnation, just why we have abandoned Sir Alan in his hour of needing viewers deserves exploration.

I'll admit I did see the clip that the BBC released earlier in the week to oil the PR cogs and honestly? It was terrible - my dog was flinching at the high pitch squealing ridicule as the apprentice candidates lambasted a garage salesman that he must be wrong quoting his current supplier's charges of £60 to wash three Hummers - when they wanted £300. I know not the outcome, and nor do I need to. It confirmed the worst suspicions!

This programme is so cynically edited to elicit the greatest sense of drama that it leaves little for the viewer to garner any business information from. Okay - it is entertainment and that must be what most viewers want. But don't try and pass it off as anything other than a gameshow.

We also abandoned Dragon's Den just a few episodes into the last series for much the same reasons - and our objection to the blatant way the Dragons (more like wolves if you ask me!) would gang up to ridicule and wear down a candidate... before Colombo-like returning to throw them a lifeline which would tempt them into some awful in-equitable share deal.

I think the only time Dragon's Den would work for a business is if their name was a web address - the marketing of the repeated web address would drive traffic, especially if it were a decent product.

I guess the most amazing thing is that people volunteer for these programmes!

Women in Newbury use networking to raise £600 for charity - doing something clever for money!

While many put on red noses for Comic Relief, over 100 people were donning their thinking caps at Newbury Rugby Club, for a charity quiz in aid of the Rainbow Rooms at Newbury Hospital.

Women in Newbury, one of West Berkshire’s most lively and entertaining networking groups, organised a quiz with the proceeds going toward Newbury and District Cancer Care Trust. The quizmaster was Roland Gardner, Chief Executive of Newbury Building Society, who ensured that there were enough fiendish questions to tax even the most experienced quiz goers in the room.

Morgan PR's very own Diane Morgan chairs the networking group and she explained: “This is the second event the group has held in aid of the Rainbow Rooms and we are thrilled with the response and generosity of those attending. As well as our fabulous raffle with many prizes donated by local companies, Giles Penfound, of Giles Penfound photography kindly donated a limited edition print from his Skies series that was auctioned on the night and reached a winning bid of £100, going to Newbury's finest search engine marketing experts Inspiration Inc.”

If you would like to find out more about this growing group, please visit the Women in Newbury website or contact them on 0845 003 1077 - the group's hotline sponsored and manned by Verbatim.

Pictured above are (from left) Michelle Lucas of Greenfields Consultancy, Roland Gardner, Chief Executive of Newbury Building Society, Win chair Diane Morgan from Morgan PR, Caroline Billington of a-count-a-bility, Ros Comins from Newbury Building Society, Dr Paul Millard, Newbury & District Cancer Care Trust.

NRG Networks in Bath: seminar on 'Surviving the Broadcast Interview'

Morgan PR heads west today to co-present the 'Surviving the Broadcast Interview' seminar at the NRG Networks meeting in Bath. We take to the stage with former BBC Producer and founder of BizView.TV, Dave Harries.

Our background in broadcast media management for Thames Valley Police gives us a terrific insight not only into what the broadcast media want, but also how best to present that and how to avoid the all too common pitfalls when stepping in front of the video camera or radio microphone.

We are expecting 20 for the lunchtime event being held at the University of Bath and knowing the script it is destined to be a lively event.

Morgan PR will be offering '15 Seconds of Fame - 15 Top Tips for Surviving the Broadcast Interview' as a free download on this month's 'Creating Reputations' Newsletter - subscribe now on this page if you are not already among our loyal readership!

Organic PR: The Video - discover why so many people are raving about this Morgan PR event

Two busy weeks have passed since Morgan PR delivered its Organic PR seminar at the Sheepdrove Eco Centre. It has been tremendously rewarding to see so many of the delegates following our advice and already they are creating a home grown buzz by simply reflecting what they do through blogs, on Twitter and Squidoo.

In a pesticide free nutshell, we maintain that every business is capable of Organic PR and by leveraging the activities within their companies through a joined up strategic approach they can promote themselves to their customers - and of course the media. In the seminar we argued that video goodness was part of that mix so, not surprisingly, we had commissioned a video of the event.

We have talked about Julian Wellings before on this blog for his excellent newsletter support through Expertise on Tap, he is also behind Julian Wellings Films and created this brilliant record of the day:



What do you think? We are touched by the heartfelt testimonials given by so many of the delegates and you can see these on the video. They were – with lovely clickable Google-friendly goodness:

• Sue Terry, Argon Associates - Housing and Social Care consultants
  
• Mike Samuels, life saving Medical Photographer
  
• Lucy Venables, marketing guru of Red Prosper
  
• Sarah Dawnay, Mothers of Innovation, fabulous products for Mums and kids
  
• Graham Rhodes, internet marketeers 6th level marketing
  
• Fiona Grindrod,will writings specialists, Just Wills Ridgeway
  
• Michelle Lucas, life, career and executive coach of Greenfields
  

You may have guessed we talked about the importance of hyperlinks and it seems only fair to offer links back to these generous delegates.

We also made a rather generous offer to delegates - as we had paid for Julian Wellings Films to be at the seminar, we were able to share his skills. Delegates were able to record their own promotional video and someone who took up this offer was Mary Thomas of Concise Training - you can view her video below, which perfectly explains how you can benefit from working with her:



We have already had numerous enquiries about the next Organic PR event and will have a date very soon. Do contact us if you would like to reserve a place. We are also exploring delivering the seminar within companies - we would be keen to hear from anyone interested in this service.

A personal recommendation from Seth Godin? Not quite! But Morgan PR does his kind of PR!

Morgan PR has long raved about the marvellous Seth Godin - his books are those most frequently pulled from the shelves, his blog was the first to be honoured with an RSS feed (ensuring we received his blog post promptly) and his books are also frequently given away by us to clients.

So reading his latest blog post: The difference between PR and publicity, has created great excitement in the office because his definition - those most people only do publicity and few doing PR - is one agree with and absolutely, Morgan PR does PR as defined by Seth Godin!

Ask any of the delegates at February's Organic PR seminar we delivered and they would concur. PR is about storytelling and it doesn't always involve the media! Some of our most successful PR has involved a the deft and timely use of Twitter and this blog - with not a journalist in sight (apart from my own reflection!).

Godin says:

A publicity firm will tell you stories of how they got a client ink. A PR firm will talk about storytelling and being remarkable and spreading the word. They might even suggest you don't bother getting ink or issuing press releases.

Yes! Exactly! We do that!

Now, we would forgive you for muttering about the Morgan PR chickens and eggs, querying which arrived most promptly. Are we merely expounding the law according to Seth Godin, or was this always our approach? Honestly... I could not be sure, so long have his books been read that they must have influenced us. Of course, that is why this eptiomy of abundance has written the books!

However, even when this highly sought after poaching consultant was a mere gamekeeper at Thames Valley Police (press officer!) and before I'd be enlightened by Seth Godin's writing, I sensed that some of the best PR I did involved getting the right people talking without a word ever being printed or broadcast. It was never about the headlines - that was the fire fighting. It was about laying the foundations and cultivating the mavens - and it still is.

We quoted our all time favourite Seth Godin line at our Organic PR seminar to encourage delegates to take what they had learned and embrace Organic PR with some actions. We quoted:

Stop trying to be perfect and start being remarkable

Many heeded this fine advice and more on that tomorrow when we post the video of the event!