The Phoenix Partners portfolio of offerings continues to expand with the launch of our Cost Effective Video offer. Following the successful format of set price packages in PR we are aiming to make our skills accessible to a wider range of businesses with video.
There is a misconception that video production is a ‘high spend’ medium through which to communicate and therefore not within reach for most SME’s. This just is not true. Video is an effective way to communicate with both your customers and your staff and can be used in a variety of ways. Whether you are looking to put together training materials, product demonstrations or advertorials, video is an excellent tool with a limitless audience.
The rise of the internet and social networking has given airtime to all sorts of footage and there is a very real chance that your film will be seen around the world by people that you would otherwise not have access to. So whatever your preconceptions are now may well be the right time to reconsider. You can download our brochure through this site or contact rachel@thephoenixpartners.com for a coffee and a chat.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Show me the Money
With the Global economy lurching from one largely unexplainable catastrophe to the next. I’d like to draw a couple of parallels which may help to illuminate the inherent ridiculousness of trading without substance.
In 1593 Tulip bulbs began to become popular across Europe. Particularly sought after were those affected by a virus which caused a distinctive ‘flame’ pattern on the petals. Tulip connoisseurs began to buy at inflated prices and soon Tulip bulbs were seen as an investment. At the height of Tulip bulb mania the value of just one bulb could increase twenty times in a month and ordinary people were swapping their homes, savings and businesses for one or two bulbs. These bulbs were never planted, so their intrinsic worth was never relevant. When the crash came the whole continent was brought to its knees. This has long been held as an example of economic naivety.
Moving swiftly forward to the 1990’s and here we go again. This time Beenie Babies are the fantastic investment. A $10 toy that you can sell on for thousands – understandably (perhaps) a lot of people were very interested. The company that produced them had a fantastic marketing strategy which involved releasing small numbers of each design in different areas to perpetuate the myth that these were limited edition toys. People would miss work and travel hundreds of miles to acquire the one toy that would be their pension plan.
Nobody seemed to realise that there were thousands of complete collections and that the rarity just was not there. Even the famous ‘Royal Blue Peanut’ an elephant produced in the ‘wrong’ colour only ever topped the scales at just over $3,000. A good investment by any standard but not one that was repeatable for every collector. Ten years on from the end of production the average Beenie Baby kept in pristine condition is worth approx $15 - $20. This is held as an example of economic naivety.
Scrolling forward to today - and please bear in mind that I profess to only a lay mans grasp of international economics. I have a house that I could mortgage for approximately three times what it would cost me to build an identical replacement, so which figure represents its actual value? Unfortunately both figures are correct. One to me (how much would it cost me to replace?) and one to the banking world (how much is it worth to mortgage?).
This means that 66% of the value of my house does not, in real terms, exist. With over 25 million homes in the UK, the difference in one country, relating only to property must be absolutely mind boggling. I think that this should be seen as an example of economic naivety.
Am I worried? Not really, I’ve got a garden full of tulips and a loft full of Beenie Babies!
In 1593 Tulip bulbs began to become popular across Europe. Particularly sought after were those affected by a virus which caused a distinctive ‘flame’ pattern on the petals. Tulip connoisseurs began to buy at inflated prices and soon Tulip bulbs were seen as an investment. At the height of Tulip bulb mania the value of just one bulb could increase twenty times in a month and ordinary people were swapping their homes, savings and businesses for one or two bulbs. These bulbs were never planted, so their intrinsic worth was never relevant. When the crash came the whole continent was brought to its knees. This has long been held as an example of economic naivety.
Moving swiftly forward to the 1990’s and here we go again. This time Beenie Babies are the fantastic investment. A $10 toy that you can sell on for thousands – understandably (perhaps) a lot of people were very interested. The company that produced them had a fantastic marketing strategy which involved releasing small numbers of each design in different areas to perpetuate the myth that these were limited edition toys. People would miss work and travel hundreds of miles to acquire the one toy that would be their pension plan.
Nobody seemed to realise that there were thousands of complete collections and that the rarity just was not there. Even the famous ‘Royal Blue Peanut’ an elephant produced in the ‘wrong’ colour only ever topped the scales at just over $3,000. A good investment by any standard but not one that was repeatable for every collector. Ten years on from the end of production the average Beenie Baby kept in pristine condition is worth approx $15 - $20. This is held as an example of economic naivety.
Scrolling forward to today - and please bear in mind that I profess to only a lay mans grasp of international economics. I have a house that I could mortgage for approximately three times what it would cost me to build an identical replacement, so which figure represents its actual value? Unfortunately both figures are correct. One to me (how much would it cost me to replace?) and one to the banking world (how much is it worth to mortgage?).
This means that 66% of the value of my house does not, in real terms, exist. With over 25 million homes in the UK, the difference in one country, relating only to property must be absolutely mind boggling. I think that this should be seen as an example of economic naivety.
Am I worried? Not really, I’ve got a garden full of tulips and a loft full of Beenie Babies!
Monday, 19 October 2009
Opportunity Knocks
It has always struck me as a little odd that we are expected to choose a career for life at a time when deciding what to wear can take up most of the day. The teenage years are not really a time for opting in or out of anything more transient than a hairdo but still decisions have to be made. Careers advice is fine but you can almost be certain that after listing the qualifications you will need to follow your chosen path there will be some bias away from the mundane aspects of your choice. So how can we ensure that decisions are made on maximum information; by giving it a go!
Work experience can be the thing of nightmares (just read the article in this month’s IoD magazine about the experiences of one unlucky work experience’r if you need any further proof!) – two weeks of tea making and filing is soul destroying on every level. Any job combines skills and tasks to make the whole and, in our humble opinion, giving half an experience is giving no experience at all.
The Phoenix Partners had a very successful ‘summer of students’ and when done correctly work experience can be beneficial to everybody involved, so we are excited to report that we are currently able to offer an opportunity to get a real taste of PR. If you are interested in finding out just how frustrating, challenging and rewarding it can be to drive forward a campaign please get in contact. You don’t have to be a student, you may be someone who made their initial decision under the influence of Duran Duran and would like to try another option, all that matters is a willingness to work, a taste for free thinking and the ability to communicate confidently. If you are interested or you would like some further details please email rachel@thephoenixpartners.com.
Work experience can be the thing of nightmares (just read the article in this month’s IoD magazine about the experiences of one unlucky work experience’r if you need any further proof!) – two weeks of tea making and filing is soul destroying on every level. Any job combines skills and tasks to make the whole and, in our humble opinion, giving half an experience is giving no experience at all.
The Phoenix Partners had a very successful ‘summer of students’ and when done correctly work experience can be beneficial to everybody involved, so we are excited to report that we are currently able to offer an opportunity to get a real taste of PR. If you are interested in finding out just how frustrating, challenging and rewarding it can be to drive forward a campaign please get in contact. You don’t have to be a student, you may be someone who made their initial decision under the influence of Duran Duran and would like to try another option, all that matters is a willingness to work, a taste for free thinking and the ability to communicate confidently. If you are interested or you would like some further details please email rachel@thephoenixpartners.com.
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