For years men have had to put up with the constant remarks and ridicule from our female friends on our apparent inability to do one thing whilst concentrating on another.

So I was heartened to read Ofcom’s latest report on media consumption, which revealed that when it comes to media multi-tasking men are just as good as women.

According to the report, we Brits are masters at media multi-tasking, juggling several types of media at any one time to satisfy our appetite for information. Whether it’s watching TV or listening to the radio while surfing the Internet at home or work, media takes up 45 per cent of our time. Although, according to Ofcom, the actual amount being consumed is even higher, thanks to mobile computing and the ability to surf while we roam.

Whilst the study doesn’t actually go as far as breaking media consumption down between men and women, it does reveal that those between the ages of 16 and 24 are particularly adept at juggling multiple media tools, and are consuming more media than any other age group. Not exactly a revelation.

Apparently, the over 55s still prefer to use more traditional forms of media, with TVs and radios accounting for 67 per cent of the media they consume. The 16 to 24s on the other hand have embraced new technology, with computers, mobile phones and handheld devices making up more than half (58 per cent) of their media diet. Again, this isn’t exactly surprising.

Of more interest was the amount of time users spent on social networking sites. According to Ofcom, the average user spent around six hours and 30 minutes on Facebook in May 2010, compared with nearly one hour 30 minutes for users of Google and nearly two hours for those using MSN. Twitter was the second most popular social networking tool, ahead of MySpace and LinkedIn, with traffic to its website up 56 per cent in the last year.

One of the reasons for Facebook and Twitter’s growing popularity could be the increase in business users on the sites.

No longer just a means for sharing holiday snaps with friends or telling the world what you ate for breakfast, Facebook and Twitter have become important business tools, providing companies with the ability to share corporate news and information with a global audience at the touch of a button. 

They are also invaluable tools for the PR and marketing industry. Client press releases can be distributed to a wider audience; the latest offers and promotions can be spun out to consumers; advice can be administered; brands can be built and advocated; and negative press can be monitored and managed.

For the modern day PR then, the ability to multi-task is a prerequisite of the job. For example, while writing this blog I was checking my email, Twitter, Facebook, Google Alerts and LinkedIn. 

So, sorry ladies, men might not be able to multi-task when it comes to holding a conversation while watching the football on TV, but where social media is concerned we’re more than capable.

Blissfully unaware of the fate that was to befall England in the knock-out stages of the tournament, more than 40 guests, including clients and journalists from the local media, gathered at the Sun on the Hill, on Bennetts Hill, to watch messrs Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney carve out the narrowist of victories,  beating the Slovenians 1-0 to take them through to the last 16.

The celebrations, however, were short-lived as England’s World Cup dream was shattered for another four years in the next round by bitter rivals Germany.

Still, we got to enjoy it while it lasted, as the picture’s from our event demonstrate. 

Matt Taylor (Headline Communications), Lara Day (Want Space Got Space) and Paul Sargent (Brewin Dolphin)

Simon Horan (Savills), Dawn Roberts (Headline Communications) and Lisa Hunt (Savills)

Paul Slinger (Mills & Reeve), Andrea Jones (Beam Construction) and Andy Passmore (BWB Consulting)

Alun Thorne (The Birmingham Post), Darren Walker (Cobbetts) and Surjit Soundh (Mills & Reeve)

Ben Burton (Shaylor), Andy Coyne (Midlands Business Insider) and Ian Kilvington (Shaylor)

Angus Turner and Amanda Porter (both Mills & Reeve) with Tim Hurdiss (Deeley Properties)

Martin Guest and Ashley Hancox (CB Richard Ellis)

Pictures by Anthea Bevan Photography (www.antheabevan.com)

At the time you thought nothing of it but the next time you’re in Waterstone’s (other good book stores are available) the name of the book suddenly pops back into your head. The next thing you know you are stood at the till with a copy of it in your hand. Congratulations, you’ve just succumbed to the marketer’s latest trick up their sleeve – subterfuge marketing.

That innocent conversation you witnessed on the train wasn’t as innocent as you first thought. It was for your benefit and was played out by two actors paid by a marketing agency to sit on the train and discuss the book at length for other passengers to overhear.

It’s a sneaky tactic, but one that more and more canny marketing companies are using to promote their clients’ products, be it books, clothing, music or the latest coffee brand to hit the high street.

Sony Ericsson, for example, notoriously used subterfuge marketing to launch a new camera phone by hiring teams of actors pretending to be tourists who wanted to have their photo taken.

Gone then are the days when we were told, “don’t believe everything you read”. Now it appears that we can’t believe everything we read, see and hear.

So why are brands using subterfuge marketing to sell to us? Basically, it’s because we don’t trust or like advertising anymore. According to research, the average Briton is bombarded by 3,000 marketing messages a day and fewer than 15 per cent of British adults trust adverts. As a result, brands and their agencies have had to employ new tactics to reach their target audiences.    

Today it’s all about targeting, infiltrating and influencing conversations, whether it’s on the train, via email or using one of the many social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo etc. Rather than shouting at consumers, it’s about engaging with them.

Employing actors to pose as real consumers may be the new thing but marketers having been using stealth and subversive marketing tactics for years. Take for example viral emails, product placement and celebrity endorsements. All are designed to lull the consumer into a false sense of reality.

And now, with the advent of social media, that reality has become even more blurry.

Twitter is a good example. Does John Smith really love Starbucks’ tall, extra shot, whipped cream, skinny, vanilla, soya latte that much, or is he being paid to say he does? Does Jim456 really think his new Nike trainers are like “walking on air”? Maybe, but I guess we’ll never really know.

What we do know is that consumers are becoming increasingly attuned to and sceptical of marketing messages. The challenge for brands and marketing agencies is coming up with new ways of influencing their audiences. For consumers, it’s deciding who to trust and who to believe.

So the next time you buy a book, think back to the last time you were on the train. Your decision may have been influenced by a couple of actors. 

ENDS

CBRE’s Ashley Hancox emerged from a ten hour “power nap” especially – he went to his hotel on Wednesday night for 40 winks and failed to wake up until Thursday morning. Must be the Lee Evans-look-alike’s new job, as regional head of offices, taking its toll.

Tom Bloxham of Urban Splash turned up for pre-dinner drinks, but either didn’t like the seafood on offer or had a more pressing engagement, as he didn’t stay for lunch. Still, his suit left a lasting impression. One wag quipped it was from Stevie Wonder’s new clothing range.

Peter Crowther, of Bruntwood, was a popular attendee, as he has a war chest for acquiring office space in Birmingham. He said he loved coming to the city as it is “always sunny”.  Peter hails from Manchester, where, as we know, it’s always raining. Perhaps this is the elusive new marketing campaign Birmingham has been looking for. I can see it on a banner draping provocatively from the AWM apartment next year, right opposite the Manchester balcony: “Birmingham: it’s always sunny. Ha, ha”.

Mike Whitby’s speech was, as usual, passionate and upbeat. Though there was some concerns over the number of city transport projects in the pipeline. Apparently, on the Birmingham stand in the exhibition hall this morning he announced there were nine. By lunch this had reduced to eight. Let’s hope the New Street revamp is still on track.

Word has reached me of Birmingham’s Alternative MIPIM event, held yesterday at Anderson’s Bar and Grill. More than 100 attendees by all accounts, including Dom Stokes and Jon Andrews from Stoford, who flew back specially from MIPIM to do the double. And why not? Because as we all know, while it’s 19 Degrees in Cannes, it’s always sunny in Brum.

The very polished Nick Axford, head of the firm’s EMEA research team, said there is cause for optimism, as the investment market is picking up.

Apparently, retail property is being highly sought after across Europe, with shopping centres topping the list. Girls, just imagine hubby coming home and saying: “Darling, I’ve bought you a shopping centre”. Sigh.

Nick also said that sentiment at MIPIM this year had improved. Of course, that is anecdotal, rather than based on the in depth analysis and professional insight of CBRE’s research team, but it is a view I’ve found echoed elsewhere.

On the Malcolm Hollis yacht this evening, the building consultancy’s chairman John Woodman said much the same, as did their guests from Wardell Armstrong.

Things must be good in Nottingham too, judging by the size of their yacht in the next mooring.

Birmingham has come in for a lot of stick in the past for its MIPIM expenditure. Although admittedly I’ve not been in the bunker and seen our city’s stand at first hand, I have to say our presence seems low key in comparison to others.

While Manchester – with their brazen banner and balcony cafe overlooking the entrance to the exhibition – and Nottingham have gone for the “my marketing budget’s considerably bigger than yours” approach, others, like Coventry, have adopted guerrilla tactics, with posters outside their apartment and the Carlton hotel.

It’s hard to judge which strategy is best – and anyway, they say half of any marketing spend is wasted, you just don’t know which half.  Next year, maybe Birmingham should stop beating itself up, ditch that Quaker mentality and hire a yacht. Let’s get some of that swagger that Professor Parkinson said we lacked.

Ran into Gary Taylor of Argent (running late for the Leader’s dinner!) and Nick Payne of Masshouse fame on the Croisette. Before you get excited and smell a JV in the offing, they weren’t together.

Also caught a glimpse of Clive Dutton, still looking dapper.

Thursday’s big event, at least for the Brum contingent, is lunch on the beach. Apparently they’ve ditched the baltis this year. Read all about it tomorrow.

But no, as Gary Taylor of Argent helpfully pointed out, here on BMI Baby Flight WW6529 was the great and good of Birmingham’s property community.

And, as Glenn Howells, added: “If this plane crashed it would set Birmingham’s property sector back by, er, at least three weeks.”

Leading the contingent was the leader of Birmingham City Council, and his lovely wife Gaynor.

There were plenty of lawyers on the plane: Martineau had wheeled out no one less than their newly minted senior partner, the avuncular Andrew Whitehead. Alex Jones of Mills & Reeve was here for a few days, impressively with only hand luggage. While Anne O’Meara, of Hammonds, had brought along a female colleague to up the female quotient.

A trio of Barclays bankers, who apparently have money to lend (!), took up one row.

As well as Birmingham’s own Starchitect Glenn Howells, Gary Church of NewChurch Integrated Architecture and Engineering represented the design community. Apparently he does a nice line in sheds and, if you’re in the market for a new waste facility, he’s your man.

There were even a few developers here. As well as Taylor, representatives from Miller and Stoford have made the trip.

I shared a cab from the airport (just 140 Euro, gulp) with the lovely Lara Day of Want Space Got Space, but there was no time to lounge at my hotel as I was off to the jointly sponsored Martineau and Tuffin Ferraby Taylor party at Coventy City Council’s apartment. A very pleasant reception, spoiled only by the view of a crass Manchester banner draped across the exhibition centre opposite, proclaiming the northern city to be the nation’s “cultural beating heart”.  I went there once. I’d say they have slightly more culture than a yoghurt, so it’s not much of a boast.

Dinner with Martin Field of the Urban Land Institute was entertaining. He confirmed that global property giant Hines has signed a memorandum of association with Hammerson, Henderson and the Australian Future Fund and that the powerful four are looking at “opportunities south of the Bullring”. I hope that Birmingham City Council can rope them in soon, so they don’t go too far south.

So what of today?

The grandly titled “Leader’s Dinner”, hosted by Mike Whitby, is being held this evening. Sponsors of Birmingham’s MIPIM presence are required to attend this invitation only soiree, and are briefed to bring along a guest from outside the city.

None of them, from what I can gather, has any one lined up yet.  

One, who shall remain nameless, asked me what I was doing tonight. Strictly speaking, as I was born in the Black Country, I do qualify to attend the dinner. Unfortunately, I am otherwise engaged. I suspect the sponsors will be trawling the Croisette tomorrow for contenders.

So far, the big questions for the week have remained unanswered. Is Birmingham going to announce the name of its new Strategic Development Director (the job Clive Dutton wanted, but never quite got – he’s here, representing Newham, by the way)? Word is the City had more than 50 applicants, and have short-listed, but no names yet.

Or is Birmingham Development Company going to unveil it’s new-look for the Post & Mail building? Since Alan Chatham and Mark Billingham are no-shows, I somehow doubt it.

But the burning question, the one that has keep my phone and in-box buzzing all day, is has Mike Loftus been reunited with his underpants?

I have to say, when I arrived in Cannes, there was a faint aroma of camembert. Even though I am in France, for a minute I was concerned it might be Mike Loftus and his cheesy feet.

But apparently not, “the Walrus”, as he is affectionately known in Birmingham, emailed to say: “Mon valise est trouve et arrive”. 

Now, it’s a while since I did O Level French – two decades, and the rest – but I think he was trying to say: my suitcase has been found, and has arrived.

However, as this blog is for an austere organ like the Birmingham Post, I didn’t want to take any chances, so I checked on babelfish (the translation web site). Apparently, the literal translation is: “My bag east finds and arrives”.  Let’s hope there aren’t any French property investors looking to come to Brum this week.

Mike Loftus, of Locate in Birmingham, has emailed me to say he has lost his pants. He means ‘pants’ in the European – rather than the American – sense, which is serious, because it means he could be going commando for the week.

It seems Mike, with just 40 minutes to spare between landing at Brussels and his transfer to Cannes this morning, made the connecting flight, but his luggage didn’t.

To make matters worse, he’s in a ‘low budget’ hotel (ratepayers of Birmingham will be pleased to hear this) with no manned reception. The chances of his suitcase finding him are therefore slim.

Snapper Tony Flanagan also sent me a text to say the weather was hot (hurrah!) and helpfully advised me to bring some Factor 30 and a bikini. This was swiftly followed by a text from his cohort Andy Skinner, informing me that “the look this year is skimpy”.

I therefore asked Skinner if he had taken his thong along. He responded in the positive, but regrettably Flan had borrowed it and headed for the beach.

So here’s the outlook for Cannes: Flan, Skinner and Loftus rotating a Peter Stringfellow-style leopard print thong for the week.

It’s not too late for me. Anyone want to buy my ticket?

Marketing Birmingham, which is charged with promoting the city as a visitor destination, hired Hatch to carry out a 12-month campaign to maximise its sponsorship of local Premiership football clubs Aston Villa and Birmingham City.

So, that’s a Leeds-based firm, which has no connection to Birmingham, working with local football teams to help promote the city? Cue the backlash from Birmingham’s PR and marketing sector.

The decision to appoint an ‘outside’ agency was branded as “ludicrous”, “totally ridiculous” and a “slap in the face for Birmingham’s creative industries sector” by some of the more vociferous members of the sector.

And the reason for hiring Hatch, you might ask? Well, apparently they had experience of working with football clubs, which none of the local agencies could demonstrate. Surely that can’t be right, can it? I thought not, but when asked to name a Birmingham/West Midlands agency with specialist sports experience I drew a blank.

If this is really the case then clearly there is a gap in the market for such an agency that can offer the required specialist sports PR services. Should this gap be filled, maybe organisations like Marketing Birmingham wouldn’t have to look elsewhere.

Whilst I firmly believe that you should always try to support local businesses, to be fair to Marketing Birmingham, you can’t expect them to appoint an agency just because they are based in the city/ region. They had to choose the best people for the job, which on this occasion happened to be Hatch Communications.

Of course, it’s not just Marketing Birmingham that is guilty – rightly or wrongly – of buying in PR services from outside the region. I know there are countless other examples of local companies using agencies that are based elsewhere in the country – but I won’t name and shame them here. 

The question is why go elsewhere when Birmingham is home to a plethora of PR and marketing agencies, from small niche independent consultants to large national full service firms, offering a variety of services and expertise, from media relations to online communications strategies?

If you can’t find what you’re looking for in Birmingham, you’re unlikely to find it anywhere else – unless it relates to football, in which case you’d better go to Leeds.

ENDS

According to legal publisher Sweet & Maxwell, in the last 12 months the number of reported defamation cases has risen by 32 per cent and one fifth of those actions have been brought by companies.

This is no surprise as the treacherous economic climate means businesses will fight tooth and nail to protect their reputations, particularly where untruthful and dangerous suggestions of insolvency are concerned.

The immediacy of new media also means that these sorts of rumours are more prevalent and able to spread more quickly than in the past.

But is legal action the best response to defamation and libel, and is it the most effective way to repair the damage done to a company’s reputation?

Even where the case is apparently clear-cut, litigation can be a slow and expensive process and will not deliver immediate results, but a well-executed PR strategy can restore a company’s reputation with the same immediacy with which it was damaged.

In the aftermath of a libel incident it is essential not only to correct inaccuracies but to make people aware of the truth and beyond that, to start circulating positive stories about the company, communicating more buoyant messages and supporting its overall aims.

If a company’s reputation has been damaged unfairly there is still legitimate recourse to take legal action but a two-pronged approach combining this with a proactive PR campaign will be more successful in repairing the damage quickly.

ENDS

I know that BlackBerries, iPhones et al have been making this remote communication possible for some time, which is brilliant for companies when employees are out of the office, but should people really be replying to work emails when they are supposed to be on holiday, having a break from it all?

Holidays, whether they are spent at home or abroad, give everyone the chance to rest, relax and devote some time to family, friends and significant others. After all, the vast majority of our lives will be spent in the company of work colleagues, so is cutting them off for a couple of weeks, switching off our work buttons and switching on our home buttons, really such a bad thing?

There seems to be a perception (I would like to think of it as a misconception) that not taking your holiday entitlement, or choosing to spend it essentially working from home, the beach or your holiday cottage in the Cotswolds, is somehow impressive and worthy of a big pat on the back.

Yes, it shows dedication but does it also demonstrate a certain degree of stupidity? We’re all human at the end of the day and however committed we may be to our careers, everybody needs a break every now and then – a rested worker is a productive worker.

Having said that, the holiday season can be a good time get things done that you might otherwise neglect, such as, you guessed it, a bit of PR. This notoriously slow news period can be a great time to get some press coverage, so if you’re reading this on your iPhone whilst reclining on a poolside sun lounger in Marbella, you’ll finally have a few spare minutes to send us any company news you want issuing to the media. No rest for the wicked!