An interest in Pinterest

Pinterest: it’s the new social media phenomenon that has had a meteoric rise in popularity since its launch less than a year ago. For those yet to experience the addictive (at times all-consuming) realm that is Pinterest – here’s a quick 101. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard which lets you organise and share everything cool that you find on the internet. It’s genius, really. The internet is chock-full of images of amazing places, beautiful homes, recipes, art, funny-looking animals and unbelievable videos and sometimes you stumble across something that you don’t want to lose. Instead of saving the link to a document on your desktop or printing the page out and being left with piles of scrap paper – now, you can Pin it. Pinning an image off a website will transfer that image (and the link to the source website) onto one of your Pinterest Boards. These pinboards can be organised according to your interests – I have one for recipes, one for clothing, one for places I’d like to visit one day and so on and so forth. Or, you can scroll through a live feed of images that other people have Pinned, and Repin them to your own Boards - saving you the hassle of doing the web searching yourself, and often showing you things you never even knew you wanted. It’s an intriguing kettle of fish, this one – a brilliant concept. It has opened up a world of uninhibited online sharing that (in my mind) far surpasses that of Facebook or Twitter. The crucial point of difference that Pinterest has over other social media sites is that the sharing is unrestricted. Anyone can see anything that anyone else in the world has Pinned at any time – it’s quite remarkable. Most interesting is that this all-inclusive news feed provides an easy way to follow global trends (which, by the way, are currently: anything to do with s’mores and cupcakes that look like animals). But the question on every brand manager’s mind is: what does Pinterest mean for my business? Pinterest means that any brand images you have that are unique, strange, pretty or lead to something useful can spread like wildfire – it’s the quickest way for things to go viral, and your content leads back to your website, which can greatly increase page visits. It also gives small companies ‘discoverability’ – you don’t need to be a major brand to be seen, as Pinterest shows people products/brands/styles they wouldn’t usually come across by plugging key words into a search engine (or think to search for at all). Here are some tips to help make Pinterest work for your brand: - Follow, Repin and Like others: if you like their style, they make like yours and follow you back - Create boards beyond your products and brands, but related in some way: for instance, if you’re an airline, Pin amazing travel photos; if you’re a health brand, Pin healthy living and fitness messages; a pregnancy brand, Pin other tips useful to pregnant women - Add a Pinterest icon to your website - Make sure you generate visually appealing content that links back to your website or blog - Provide images that lead to a list of useful tips (e.g. how to make your own beer) - Don’t go overboard with the same old brand images: you don’t want to alienate other Pinterest users by spamming them with boring content! I believe that this one’s here to stay: you can only explore Facebook for so long before the select group of people that you are ‘friends’ with run out of things to say or show you. But there’s always something new on Pinterest – the potential for procrastination is huge, but so is the potential for your brand. It may be time to show an interest in Pinterest! Find the pr shop on Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/theprshop/ Alisa Keall-Grant, on behalf of the pr shop

Land Ahoy!

Travelling to new places can be intimidating even for recreational travellers. So imagine how complex it must seem to a business that is working to export either from Australia to New Zealand or New Zealand to Australia. Working within a different culture, business practices, accounting systems and distribution channels can seem overwhelming. And trying to find the right communications company that will “get” you, the brand, and the way messaging needs to be positioned in order to engage the right audience can be a huge challenge. That’s why being a trans Tasman PR company provides so many additional benefits to those looking to make it big across the ditch. We have networks and contacts that will assist you in making waves - all handled with our no bullshit, friendly, honest approach together with our return on investment guarantee that makes us so unique and easy to work with. Cost efficiency can be had by using both offices to handle copy writing and messaging. And having access to both teams can provide a friendly face no matter what port you sail into. Be a big fish no matter what sea you swim in and reap the rewards of using an agency that doesn’t take advantage of your tourist status. Pippa Lekner on behalf of the pr shop

Fizzy Fits

We love a David vs Goliath battle here at the pr shop, especially when one of our clients (Sodastream) takes the role of David to champion the environment against the mighty global giant Coca-Cola. In case you haven’t been following the story; Sodastream has been running a global marketing campaign called ‘The Cage’ whereby giant cages full of plastic bottles and cans are put on display in public places around the world to draw attention to the environmental waste resulting from the packaged soft drinks industry. The Cage displayed at the airport in Johannesburg, South Africa angered Coca-Cola so much that they fired off a legal letter to SodaStream. The letter demanded that any used bottles with Coca-Cola branding are the property of Coca-Cola and should therefore be removed. Big mistake. Huge. SodaStream refused to back down, arguing very publicly, that if Coke does indeed own its garbage, it should be taking responsibility for it and cleaning it up, rather than letting billions of plastic bottles and cans go to landfill. The media (and the public) backed Sodastream – well who wouldn’t! Briefed by our client to communicate the Kiwi angle to media about the ‘battle of the bubbles’ we learnt a new marketing term in the process: ‘asymmetrical warfare’. According to an article in Forbes magazine, this is a marketing tactic that Sodastream deployed strongly to the detriment of Coca-Cola. We don’t care what you call it – it’s the fact that Sodastream has been declared victorious that counts. Amanda Politzer on behalf of the pr shop