Exitlog | Leaving Impressions

Twelve months of hard work and enthusiasm has borne fruit – STAN, my home away from home, has been nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2009 Big Chip Awards.

The award recognises outstanding new talent in the North West within the digital media industry. STAN is one of a few businesses nominated for the award. The Big Chip Awards are in their eleventh year, and have come to be recognised as the definitive, digital showcase for those working in the sector up North (read outside of London and the South East). The awards are run by Digital Manchester, an organisation which supports North West based digital agencies.

Update

Congratulations to AdInsight, worthy winners who beat us to the award. Just to be nominated is an endorsement of the work STAN has put in. Well done to the team.

Updated June 2009

We need tech-savvy kids not the clichés. When it comes to educating the PR hopefulls of tomorrow universities are failling. Most PR and communications courses were woefully unprepared for the reality of the public relations.

From the previews of the latest films and music to the names of footballers and politicians the press can’t name for legal reasons these fresh recruits are already exposed to digital PR. So where is the formal study and practical use?

Traditional PR is dying. The old techniques are a fading force with many practitioners spent. Column inches? It is method in decline. We certainly don’t need any more old hacks. Nor do we need a new generation practising the tired, old strategies.

The Internet has changed the way we interact with communications. Technology has begun to liberate the public from timetables and publishing schedules. Opinions are manipulated at the speed of a mouse click. Digital Marketing was always going to herald Digital PR.

Is PR to join the list of the other dead languages? At this rate, yes – but it doesn’t have to die just yet. Instead let’s take time to teach the kids that digital PR is fact of life, and of entertainment.

Originally published in PRWeek, 6 October 2006