1. Thou shalt remember that six things sell in the media. Sex, death, scandal, celebrities, money and humour. Keep that in mind when writing your releases and you’ll be on the right track. 
2. Thou shalt always use the preferred means of communications to pitch a journalist. We will try to make journalists’ lives easier however we can, if Twitter works – great. If it’s Facebook, fab. Texting? No problem.
3. Thou shalt not send out boring press releases. We’ll work to obtain journalists’ attention in innovative ways. Our pitches will be concise, pertinent and tailored to each publication.
4. Thou shalt read what a journalist has written previously before sending them a pitch. We know, we know, we promise this every year, but this year, we’re going to try really hard.
5. Thou shalt not share thine own news before it’s sent out. We’re looking at you companies for this. You’re ruining your own coverage and your PR’s day.
6. Thou shalt not assume people care about thine new carpet. Stop believing your own hype and look at what’s actually on the news agenda; that’s how you’re going to get coverage.
7. Thou shalt not covet your competitor’s news. Yes, they may be in the FT this week, but you were in it the week before. Focus on your timeline, not theirs. Remember copying won’t get you anywhere. Be bold, be different and stand out.
8. Thou shalt remember that the world is round and that online means everywhere. Remember, that an embargo has to work for all the countries you’re announcing in. If it’s a UK launch, don’t announce it in the middle of our night. And don’t give it is an exclusive to an online US title, as well as a UK one… neither will be pleased.
9. Honour your own customers. Try not to announce their news for them, use them as an important reference source, and don’t complain about them in public forums; especially not in interviews.
10. Thou shalt make time for PR. Probably the most important from our point of view, but if you want your campaigns to be successful, invest time in the team. Give them content, provide them with spokespeople. The more you give, the more we can do.

One company in particular is at the forefront of this trend: the Union Square Ventures-backed Codecademy that uses game mechanics to make learning to program easier. Launched in August 2011, the company ramped up its efforts in a big way on 1st January by announcing a new project called Code Year, with the tagline ‘Make your New Year's resolution learning to code.’ More than 290,000 would-be Spolskys or Dorseys have signed up to date, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Why now?

Despite the hype, learning to code via online exercises isn’t new. W3Schools for example, which provides tutorials on a wide range of web development topics, is a relative dinosaur, founded way back in 1999. Yet 2012 looks set to be the year when the wider industry goes code-crazy.

The reality, as we all know, is that tech has finally hit the mainstream. Geeks have never been so hot and tools like Codecademy and Bloc, that are fun and make joining the pack seem easy, are booming as a consequence.

Getting involved

At a time when tech is one of the few industries that is growing and software engineers are in high demand, new ideas for integrating programming into education are significant. Minister for Education Michael Gove seems to have picked up on this, announcing on Wednesday a complete overhaul of the current ICT curriculum. Alex Hope, one of the authors of NESTA’s Next Gen report, even told the BBC that coding should be ‘the new Latin’ (though famous coder-classicist Mark Zuckerberg might recommend both).

The benefits for non-technical founders are also clear: a little knowledge of code can go a long way towards making CEOs less dependent on their CTOs and helping them work better with their engineering teams. A small insight into programming is even valuable for people in PR and marketing, enabling them to communicate their clients’ stories with a greater level of understanding. In short, most people would probably benefit from some small insight into the workings of the tools that we all use every day. 

Getting carried away

I do think there's a risk of hyperbolising, however. There’s an interesting debate that non-technical founders are having with themselves every day: do I get really great at what I’m already good at (e.g. biz dev) or try to catch up on the technical side?

Complex programming, like any difficult skill, is not for everyone and personally, I question the value of dedicating too much time to something that's either not relevant to a person's job or goes too far against his or her skill-set. Even, if you don't believe the Gladwell theory of 10,000 hours of experience before success, it demonstrates a good point: sometimes, focus is good and a fun hobby (as coding is likely to be for many of the late-starters) is just that.

So, although Michael Bloomberg and, rumour has it, Boris Johnson, will be setting a great example in joining Codecademy and expanding their knowledge of important parts of their economies, we know (or at least hope) that for the most part, they'll be sticking to their day jobs. Without scuppering too many dreams, I think there’s probably a wider lesson in that for a lot of us.

- Rachel Phythian

There’s no right answer. Each launch must be evaluated from both a PR and business perspective to decide the best option. Below is a list of tips to help guide that decision.

1. The media demands news first. If something has been written about before, whether in a competitor publication or on a blog, they probably won’t touch it.
2. From which it follows: remind all team members not to tweet, blog or tell friends about the launch prior to the official announcement.
3. Never pre-announce things. You risk looking ineffective if the launch date slips. Who wants a supplier who misses deadlines?
4. Be prepared. Have your key messaging in place, your spokespeople chosen and trained, and additional company information available in a press pack. Take the time to think how you’ll answer the tough questions.
5. If you have case studies to show how a product is being used, all the better. Don’t just say your product is useful; let your customers show the media that it’s useful – ideally, with metrics to prove the value. Waiting for case studies does add the risk that the media or a blogger will find your product and write about it before you want them to. However, without third-party endorsement the same people might decide to wait for proof points before giving coverage to the product.

Finally, keep in mind that what’s interesting to you might not be to the media. “Product does what it was designed to do” won’t turn heads. “Product adds £1m to the bottom line” probably will.

- Cordy Griffiths

But could the burgeoning love affair be in trouble? 

US House of Representatives bill SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act) and its Senate companion bill PIPA (Protect IP Act) may soon result in censorship of the Internet, endangering consumer rights and stymying free speech via techniques similar, absurd as it seems, to those used in Iran or China.

The goal of the bills is to stop global copyright infringement, an admirable aim in theory and one that’s been received warmly, not only in Hollywood but in many other creative industries, including the music business.

Contrary to the rights enshrined in 1998’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which protected search engines and other such third-party sites, SOPA empowers rights-holders like producers and record labels to take action against intermediaries doing business with “rogue foreign sites”. The hope is that the rogue sites would then be throttled.

Why does this matter, particularly to those of us over in Europe? Well, the reality is that many of the US services we use will be destroyed by the burden of unmanageable regulation, while new ones that we might want to use won’t get off the ground. As with many political issues, where the US leads, others follow and these bills set the dangerous precedent of censoring organisations that aren’t responsible for the root problem. The idea of similar legislation being passed in Europe is deeply unpalatable.

SOPA / PIPA-style legislation will damage one of the few industries that’s doing well in the current economic climate. It’s essential that the technology sector be cultivated, not penalised, to avoid driving innovators away.

There’s already a macro trend, demonstrated by initiatives like Bitcoin, of national boundaries and their associated laws decreasing in importance. Punitive legislation may protect the IP and associated assets of some industries in the short-term, but it could also leave the enforcing nations without a slice of a far bigger monetary pie.

- Rachel Phythian

What?!

For those of us who grew up playing Pac-Man at the video arcade or Frogger on the living room Atari, video games have come a long way.  Nowadays, the quality and features take users to an entirely new level—sometimes blurring the line between what’s real and what’s not. 

But there’s a new dimension in gaming right now involving a more traditional industry, one that—while most would probably not call it as much fun as gaming—is indeed very, very real.  The industry?  Health.

Often perceived as a sector somewhat resistant to change, health is a hotbed for innovation from a technology perspective—from consumer wellness apps to remote patient monitoring.  Just to put this in numbers:  the global health IT market is forecasted to reach $162.2 billion in 2015. 

So this brings me to the merging of gaming and health.  When I attended the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco in 2010, I met a few attendees who were involved in some serious health-related stuff – with a twist.  One had developed a game to help medical students learn and memorise bacteria and their characteristics; another was a member of a disease-related association who was encouraging Twitter users to propose a gaming idea that could help “eradicate” the disease (on a virtual level of course). Two examples of how games have evolved from, say, frogs dodging cars in the street to dodging diseased molecules.

These ideas were just the tip of the iceberg of what was to come in 2011. There’s been talk of physical therapy computer games potentially helping Parkinson’s disease sufferers, video games that could possibly fix lazy eye in older children and technologies that merge exercise with video games, just to give a few examples.

Then in September, a major trade publisher, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., whose titles include the respected 30-year old Genetic Engineering News, introduced a bi-weekly e-newsletter G4H Industry Insider for “those involved in, or simply curious about, health games as a resource for improving human health and well-being.”  The publishing industry has recently been in a crisis, where a number of trade magazines have folded or been merged into sister publications, and now a major publisher creates a new media dedicated only to gaming in health—an interesting milestone, if not validation of a budding sector. 

So, back to that headline above:  This topic was featured in the international media, not just in headlines in scientific trade press, demonstrating the potential of two intersecting industries and its appeal to a broader audience.  Whether consumer health or scientific research oriented, the long-term benefits of technological developments in health gaming remain to be seen, a potential that only time and pooling together brainpower from multiple sectors will determine.

- Christina Aplington

Online shopping is undeniably big business and the figures are suggesting it’s going to continue to get bigger. Some online retailers are even going so far as to offer physical ‘stores’ on the high street. It was recently announced that eBay was setting up a five-day UK trial of a ‘try before you buy’ shop near Oxford Street. One of the remaining issues with online shopping is the inability to test a product before paying for it and these kinds of shops, even though consumers can’t buy the products there and then, could go some way to pushing eCommerce to the next level.

The high street has been threatened in the past by the growth of online shopping, as the disadvantages of eCommerce start to be outweighed by the benefits, but it seems like the high street isn’t quite willing to give up yet. Taking some of the major advantages of the lack of queuing, a to-your-door-service and guaranteed stock, a number of the major Oxford Street retailers are offering their own in-store eCommerce solutions for the Christmas rush. Shops including John Lewis, Gap, Topshop, Selfridges and Debenhams are planning to offer in-store ‘order online’ terminals and John Lewis is also offering free WiFi in its stores nationwide by Christmas so people can bypass queues and buy online.

The real trend emerging seems to be a blending of eCommerce and the high street, to bring together the best of both options. While this is mainly being trialled over the Christmas shopping period, with retail figures still not recovering fully, this mix of online and offline shopping may prove to be increasingly common in the future.

-Rose Crossgrove

With this in mind, I began to research the link between Apple and the healthcare industry. During the past few months the media has been particularly focused on the company’s various mobile health (mHealth) projects. Steve Jobs has left behind a legacy of technology that not only changed how we communicate, but could also change the health industry for generations to come. The following lists a cross-section of articles that discuss the large mHealth footprint that Steve Jobs left behind:

• Three reasons why doctors mourn the passing of Steve Jobs

Many doctors have embraced Apple products and Steve Jobs was a significant force behind these products, leading to tributes from the medical profession.

• New Apple Developments will Likely Spur Mobile Health Innovation

The Apple impresario announced the company’s most talked-about offering, iCloud, at its Worldwide Developers Conference in October. These new developments have the potential to help spur on some key innovations in healthcare.

• The Jobs Legacy: Former Apple CEO Leaves His Mark on the mHealth Industry

Apple’s mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and iPad2, have been received enthusiastically by large numbers in the healthcare profession, many of whom are pushing for their use in the professional setting.

• Researchers don't wait for iPhone 4S to make healthcare customisations

The recent iPhone 4S release has already spurred one team at UC Davis to begin experimenting with the devices to produce medical-quality imaging and chemical detection devices.

• Steve Jobs' legacy will live on in healthcare

It's hard to overstate the impact Steve Jobs had on technology over the past 30 years: in hardware, software, communications and design. This post reflects on how this has, in turn, influenced healthcare.

• With iPhone, iPad Apple's Steve Jobs Changed Course of Health Care

With Steve Jobs at the helm, Apple developed the iPhone and iPad, creating a way for doctors to monitor patients remotely, e-prescribe medication and hold telehealth sessions.

• For some doctors, the iPad is claiming a key spot next to the stethoscope

In March, at the launch of the iPad 2, Apple showed a video in which Dr. John Halamka, chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess, said the iPad “will change the way doctors practice medicine.’ A bold statement, but it can’t be denied that hospitals across the globe have embraced the use of iPads.

-Daniela Raciti

Earlier this week seven of us at Ballou PR spent some time discussing where we’re at, both as a business, and as an industry.

We decided to develop what we felt would be the blueprint for delivering successful PR campaigns. If we were buying PR, with our 90 or so years’ experience in the industry, what would we do to maximise our chances of success?

Here’s the top five tips we came up with:

• We’d treat our agency as a valued partner. That way, it would behave like one, and deliver its best work to us.
• We’d remember that we’ve hired experts. We’d challenge them and push them, but recognise they’re the ones who know how the media works and what makes a news story, so we’d make sure not to second guess them.
• We’d invest in building relationships with our key media and analysts. We wouldn’t simply try to get articles, or to squeeze more column inches out of them. We’d accept that if we set out to help them, they’ll turn to us more frequently in the future.
• We’d develop a small number of key messages that we’d thread through all communications. We’d make sure those messages give us a distinct voice. We’d back up our claims with evidence.
• We’d work hard with our agency to develop exceptionally useful materials that the media, and the people who consume their work, will find relevant, thought-provoking and easy to digest.

Our reason for developing this manifesto wasn’t because we’d like an easy life (although we wouldn’t mind). It’s because we want each and every one of our clients to receive outstanding value for money. Follow these five key guidelines, and success will follow.

-David Josephs

Social media has become increasingly prevalent in the business world. It’s unusual now to find a company without its own Facebook page or Twitter feed. Social media is starting to become an integral part of business marketing strategy. Now, the same is true in the public sector. There have been announcements from a number of institutions, including the US White House with its dedicated Twitter feed for news and public engagement, that it has entered the world of social media. The German government has just set up its own YouTube channel and is running a Q&A with Angela Merkel next month. These forms of social media have the potential to become key platforms for government bodies; the chance to interact more directly should help drive engagement with the public.

However, Twitter and YouTube aren’t the only platforms to have attracted users from the public sector. David Cameron, the UK prime minister, has joined LinkedIn and Foursquare.

LinkedIn is typically associated with business and employment and Foursquare is designed for people to publicise their locations to connect with friends in the same area. Both are excellent tools for sharing, but are they right for getting across the PM’s message?

The object is apparently to share the daily goings-on of the PM with the public and show how he spends his time. There are some security issues with using a location-based platform, but there are also questions to be addressed about the kind of message these tools are sending. A platform which tells the general public how much time David Cameron spends abroad or at lunches has the potential to backfire.

Social media for public figures is about shaping perception and it seems that there is still some way to go to understand which tools will help and which will hinder.

-Rose Crossgrove

Over the past few weeks the team here at Ballou has been involved in the UK launch of two Silicon Valley successes: Eventbrite and Twilio. For both companies the London office marks the first international office outside of the States and signals the beginning of a wider expansion into the European market. Silicon Roundabout must be doing something right to attract these big names and it’s not just high profile companies that are making the trip across the pond.

According to a recent article in Wired, more than 50 talented executives have made the move from US companies to Silicon Roundabout start-ups. Included amongst these are Christian Ricci, formerly with Amazon, Michael Choupak, creator of Intermedia, Michael David Smith, formerly with Qualcomm, and Thai Tran, formerly with Google, YouTube and VivaSmart. The reasoning behind these moves range from the density and diversity of London’s businesses, to the city’s close proximity to Europe for travel. With Eventbrite’s and Twilio’s desire to offer a localised service to UK users and the capability to use London as a gateway into further European expansion, London was the obvious choice.

Firstly, despite the fact that we are a well connected global society, companies can benefit greatly from offering a localised service that reflects differing cultural nuances for each local market. Secondly, London’s tech scene is flourishing and starting to grab some serious attention (which is also reflected in the recent press coverage from more mainstream media, such as The Sunday Times’ recent article). Silicon Roundabout’s companies are calculated to have contributed £66.4 billion to the UK economy and are providing much needed jobs (as seen in the recent Silicon Milkroundabout recruitment fair). Of course, this is just the beginning and London is not yet close to Silicon Valley; but surely it’s nothing but a good sign when the Americans are knocking down your door?

-Claire Treacy