Archive for the ‘PR’ Category
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
Judy Viitanen and the team believe whether we are communicating with clients/customers, colleagues, or family/friends, we can use positive language to project a helpful image rather than a destructive one. 
The impact and importance of positive communication as summed up by Mahatma Gandhi can be translated as:
- “Keep my words positive. Words become my behaviours.
- “Keep my behaviours positive. Behaviours become my habits.
- “Keep my habits positive, because my habits become my values.
- “Keep my values positive, because my values become my destiny.
- “There is no dress rehearsal. This is one day in our life.”
We can help ourselves to develop positive language by:
- choosing words and actions that convey the impression we wish to give;
- actively listening to the words, tone and intonation we use when we speak and by editing carefully what we write;
- deleting anything negative and replacing it with something more positive;
- practising this process until the negative words and phrases are filtered out before they are expressed;
- when disagreeing with something or someone, giving clearly the reasons for our disagreement before stating that we disagree;
- offering alternatives or suggesting options and amendments to ideas that we genuinely believe inappropriate or unworkable;
- asking for support, and challenge, from our colleagues.
Posted in Advertising, Blogging, Business, By the way, Communications, Education, Lifestyles, Marketing, Media, PR, Public Affairs, Publishing and Literature, Social Issues | No Comments »
Friday, July 30th, 2010
PRimage VIP Events Team
Our areas of expertise include:
- Black Tie Events, Celebrations & Parties
- Corporate Dinners
- Corporate Hospitality
- Road Shows
- Trade events & Exhibitions
- Awards Programmes
- Conferences
- Seminars, Congresses & Symposium
- Internal, external and Partner events
- Sponsorship Management
- Product launches
- Executive and Board meetings
- Press events
We provide an outsourced option – or can work as an extension to your own team.
Our services include:
- All pre-event negotiations and publicity
- Venue research and sourcing
- Bookings and liaison with venues and suppliers
- Full facilitation for your guests including invitations, attendance confirmations, dietary requirements, registration
- Speech writing, publicity and photography
Corporate Events
When you are planning a spectacular corporate event it’s vital that you choose the right company to help. Whatever the event, professional event organising makes it an unforgettable experience that has been carefully planned for every contingency and diligently controlled to delight the senses and be truly appreciated by all.
PRimage VIP Events aim to make your events exceed expectations
PRimage VIP Events aim to make your life easier and add value to your business
Venue Finding
Whatever your event requirement – personal, family or business - our experience and knowledge of the hotel and venue sector ensures the very best available package for you. We can find an imaginative, cost-effective and appropriate venue that will set the right atmosphere and ambiance for your event.
Posted in Advertising, Blogging, Business, By the way, Communications, Conferences, Consumers, Event Management, Financial, Leisure Market, Marketing, NHS, PR, Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacy, Political Scene, Social Issues | No Comments »
Friday, March 19th, 2010
Posted in Advertising, Alternative therapies, Blogging, Business, By the way, Children's Health, Communications, Conferences, Consumers, Crime, Economy, Education, Employment, Environment, Europe, Event Management, Family, Financial, Food and diet, Healthcare, Humour, Leisure Market, Lifestyles, Market Research, Marketing, Media, Men's Health, NHS, News Bytes, PR, PRimage press releases, Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacy, Political Scene, Property, Public Affairs, Publishing and Literature, Retail, Social Issues, Tourism, Transport, Travel, Twitter, USA, Uncategorized, Web Links, Women's Health | No Comments »
Friday, January 29th, 2010
Don’t you just hate all those overused and meaningless clichés, buzzwords and industry jargon that some business people use? PRimage can report there’s many real life David Brent characters around! 
Here’s some annoying phrases that really make Judy Viitanen cringe:
- Leverage
- Disconnect
- At the end of the day
- Synergy
- Think outside the box
- Customer-centric
- Interface
Posted in Advertising, Blogging, Business, By the way, Communications, Consumers, Lifestyles, Media, PR, Social Issues | No Comments »
Monday, September 28th, 2009
This weekend Judy received an email from a friend and business colleague from ‘across the pond’ with an interesting opinion piece article attached, written by Theodore Dalrymple (aka Anthony Daniels). Entitled, ‘ The British Disease’ …… The press cutting was a critique and personal commentary of the current state of play in today’s Britain - with observations about the economy, education, our nation’s lack of attention to service, plus some scathing views on Gordon Brown and David Cameron.
PRimage found it an interesting article (in part) …… we totally agree with the comments on Brown and the state of the British economy … BUT …. we totally disagree with Mr Daniels’ views on David Cameron, whom we rate highly! Cameron and the Tories are way ahead of Brown and Labour in the opinion polls …. A ComRes poll in today’s Independent newspaper puts Labour support on 23 per cent, level-pegging with the Liberal Democrats, while the Conservatives are on 38 per cent. So, unless something goes drastically amiss in the coming months, he looks set to win the next General Election (thank God!).
Judy has read other articles penned from Mr Daniels ….. He positions himself as a ‘caring conservative’ (which is much in line with Judy’s political stance). But we are disappointed by his disparaging comments about the public relations industry in this article; and our professional integrity prompts us to take issue!
Suffice to say that as a PR practitioner of many years standing and achievement, Judy gets very weary with some of the misconceptions, ‘labels’ and myths about public relations …. which include: ‘fluffy, insubstantial hype’, ‘the work of spin doctors’, or ‘a sneaky way to hide things’. Certainly, by its very nature, PR can never be as transparent as advertising or direct marketing, and perhaps this is the essence of its perception problem.
Mr Daniels views are yet another unfair reflection of what PR does. His comment on Cameron’s pre-political career in PR and observation that public relations is ‘hardly a school for intellectual and moral probity’ is both damaging and totally unjustified!
For the benefit of ill-informed individuals (Mr Daniels, take note) …. PR is about informing, influencing, improving, and initiating, with the resulting outcome being a desired, legitimate change in behaviour. Maybe some overlapping synergy with politics?
Anyway, here’s the article in full ….. post a blog comment and let Judy and the PRimage team know what you think …..
Posted in Advertising, Blogging, Business, By the way, Communications, Consumers, Crime, Economy, Education, Employment, Europe, Financial, Food and diet, Lifestyles, Market Research, Marketing, PR, PRimage press releases, Political Scene, Public Affairs, Social Issues, Tourism, Travel, USA | No Comments »
Friday, May 15th, 2009
In these grim economic times we all need to sharpen up our business ideas, thinking and techniques – and so the PRimage team have just been checking out an interesting new book for some inspiration - “The Economist Guide to Management Ideas and Gurus”, by Tim Hindle (Profile Books; £20). This guide has the low-down on more than 50 of the world’s most influential management thinkers past and present and over 100 of the most influential business-management ideas. Worth getting!
Posted in Advertising, Blogging, Business, By the way, Communications, Economy, Employment, Financial, Marketing, PR, Social Issues | No Comments »
Friday, May 15th, 2009
Whatever type of company you operate - from a large business to a fledgling start-up - strategic, strong and intelligent branding is a ‘business must’ in your marketing and business plan, and contributes enormously to your business and product success.
A mix of targeted marketing strategies, PR, Direct Marketing, Ad Campaigns, Exhibitions and Trade Conferences all go towards you building a strong, lasting, brand identity that will influence both your sales and your products long term success, keeping your company’s name and products ahead of the competition. 
PRimage comment:
Call PRimage Services now on 01727874137 – or e-mail judy@primage.org to discuss how we can successfully improve your company’s image or product/service positioning.
Posted in Advertising, Blogging, Business, By the way, Communications, Consumers, Financial, Marketing, PR | No Comments »
Friday, May 15th, 2009
On a recent trip to the States, PRimage MD Judy Viitanen was chatting to a B-List American media commentator and sports celebrity about the benefits of recommending clients to use celebrity endorsements as part of their PR strategies. He was a powerful advocate on the ROI of this approach – but then as Judy reminded him, the costs can be huge!
The PRimage view is that celebrities can be very impactful and powerful tools in building publicity around a launch or campaign, and this is especially the case when you do not have a strong news story and need a famous name or personality to drive initial interest in your messages. So yes, using a celebrity can give you and your client ‘column inches’. But, it is unlikely that this is your only objective. Driving awareness of a product or issue is important, however, if it doesn’t result in any change in behaviour or action, it probably hasn’t been worthwhile – or worth the money!
Celebrities cost a lot of money - often between £15,000 to £25,000 for three hours of work (with A-list celebs generating much higher fees) - so you need to weigh up how else you could use this money to influence your target audience. In Judy’s experience, once you examine this and assess the costs involved and the ROI, the importance attached to using a celebrity is often diminished. 
We’ve all seen press pics and stories of celebrities discussing awareness campaigns that they are supporting. The question is, does this really succeed in driving action? Celebrities can be used at any time to support a huge variety of PR, marketing and advertising objectives, but in our view, you must acknowledge that no celebrity will make a poorly planned campaign or a bad idea successful.
PRimage would also add a few other words of caution: Clearly you should always check industry regulations to see what you can and can’t do when factoring celebrity endorsements into your campaigns and product endorsements. And you need to ensure that the celeb you select either has a direct link to your cause or fit the profile of who you are trying to target.
And it goes without saying that if you opt for celebrity endorsement for your campaign or product launch, you should factor in (and manage) some of the likely risks. For example, are they going to stay on message, or is there a possibility that they could be involved in a scandal in advance of your launch? Obviously there is no way you can completely control this; however, you can minimise the risks. So, it’s important to select a celebrity who does not have a wild lifestyle and is not so high profile that they are uncontrollable (unless you specifically want this for your campaign!)
Judy’s pic of her current favourite male celeb - Philip Glenister, from the wonderful ‘Ashes to Ashes’ TV programme.
Posted in Advertising, Blogging, Business, By the way, Communications, Consumers, Event Management, Healthcare, Leisure Market, Lifestyles, Marketing, PR, Social Issues | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm!” J
Posted in Advertising, Blogging, Business, By the way, Communications, Family, Lifestyles, PR, Social Issues | No Comments »
