: Archive

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Onlinefire shortlisted for the SABRE Awards

This month the SABRE Awards, which celebrate the very best and brightest in PR over the last year, announced it’s long-awaiting shortlist. Onlinefire and its sister agency Eulogy! had an amazing four campaigns shortlisted. The quality of the entrants was incredibly high and given the strong level of competition – there were more than 1,600 entries overall, of which only 20% were finalists –...

May 11th

Eulogy! in the PR Week Top 150 Leagues

We just wanted to wish a very heartfelt congratulations to Eulogy!, our wonderful sister agency in this crazy PR World. Why, you ask? Well, the PR Week Top 150 Leagues came out this week and moved up an astounding EIGHT places on 2009. They now reside at number 57 in the Top 150. And in the Top 50 Independents, they’re at number 21 – up 4 places from 25 in 2009. Well done everyone!

Apr 23rd

The Leaders' Debate as seen on Twitter

—Andrew Unless you were under a cloud of volcanic ash (oh, wait…), you’ll have known that last night saw the UK’s first ever leaders’ debate on ITV. The event, despite an Icelandic volcano’s best efforts, has dominated the news agenda across all media platforms for the last week. Online opinion tracker Tweetminster provided consistently interesting facts throughout proceedings and in the...

Apr 16th

Mar 26th

uSocial media and politics: power to the people?

—Andrew Boyers The General Election is unlikely to be dominated by social media, as it was in the 2008 American presidential election. It will, however, be the first in this country to be influenced by its presence. One only has point to Barack Obama’s success to see the benefits of using social media as a grassroots support tool. While millions of dollars were raised and on-the-ground...

Mar 17th

Watch

This is the latest from our production team. We made this cheeky little Paddy’s Day video for our sister agency, Eulogy! How to Make a Baby Guinness on Vimeo (via Vimeo)

Mar 16th

Opinion: #SaveBBC6Music?

—Rik Salmon One of the biggest stories dominating the media over the past week has been the BBC Strategy Review and Director General Mark Thompson’s decision to shut down BBC 6 Music. For a nation of licence fee payers, it’s inevitable that any change to the structure of the BBC is greeted with a tide of reaction. While we are all entitled to voice our opinion, should we have any say in...

Mar 15th

Has the 3D World Gone Crazy?

—Katie Bawler For a majority of consumers, 3D has always been about film, but a recent series of media developments have thrust into the mainstream. Whether it be sport, television or even the first-ever 3D catwalk at the Burberry’s London Fashion Week show, I think we can safely say that nothing is off-limits from being ‘three-dimensionalised’. Without question, the success of...

Feb 25th

A breakdown of the blogosphere

—Melanie I came across this over at my favourite coolhunting spot, The Presurfer. It’s a breakdown of the blogosphere today. It’s certainly not an Earth-shattering representation, but it’s a very clever way to visualise it. Thumbs up to Intac for some brilliant linkbait.

Feb 24th

Linkbait Generator →

Super cool little work distraction that generates attention-grabbing headlines for blog posts. Our favourite so far? ‘5 amazing things you probably didn’t know about exotic dancers’

Feb 23rd

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NME’s new model retains army of readers

—Andrew The ABC figures released this week paint a familiar picture for the music press: year on year, music titles are facing a brick wall as prominent as Pink Floyd’s; their readership being squeezed like Jools Holland on a bad day. Weekly titles NME and Kerrang! announced falls in circulation of more than 20 per cent, while monthly titles MOJO and Q also posted circulation decreases,...

Feb 18th

Could you go a year without reading a newspaper?

—Katie Bawler Talk has been rife in the media world about the waning importance of print media and whether it is due to have the final nail banged into its coffin. In his blog, the COMMS corner, Adam Vincenzini is undertaking a substantial experiment to put to the test accusations of digital media cannibalising print media. On January 1st he embarked on a quest to go one year without...

Feb 11th

Location Matters

—Charley In 2009 we saw the rise of user-friendly location-based services (LBS), but in 2010 location-sharing is set to come into its own. This year, PRs who are in the know will be actively exploring the opportunities that GPS-aware services can offer, devising new and creative ways to capture consumer attention in a far more tailored and targeted way than ever before. Last year saw...

Jan 7th

Can PRs do SEO?

—Charley SEO PR or ‘Search Engine Optimisation Public Relations’ is a term which has been banded around for a number of years, but it is only recently that the PR industry has adopted the practice in earnest. This is mainly because there’s been a lot of controversy over who should own SEO, but fundamentally, SEO and PR go hand in hand. They work together to dramatically enhance...

Nov 25th

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How to be a blogger (even when you're really...

—Melanie Whenever people ask me about blogging or social media, they usually say something condescending like, ‘Oh, good for you. I just don’t know how in the world you have time for that… I’m just soooo busy.’ It’s a fair point. Being a blogger does take some effort, but the way that I look at it, the benefits far outweigh any negatives. The way to do it is to find the right balance...

Nov 13th

Top Twitter tools to make life a little easier

With hundreds of Twitter tools readily available and many more launching on a daily basis, it can be quite a daunting task to work out which are worth signing up for - and which aren’t. So, Onlinefire thought we’d let you know about six Twitter tools we really like and why… Bit.ly - shorten, share and track links Fast surpassing TinyURL, Bit.ly is an intelligent link shortening service which...

Nov 3rd

A fine way to regulate endorsements

—From Melanie The US has announced a crackdown on product endorsements. For years, we’ve all been used to seeing celebs and models hawking everything from car insurance to beauty products, but surprisingly this ruling isn’t limited to Iggy Pop or Sarah Jessica Parker – it includes bloggers too. The new rules say that anyone endorsing a product must give full disclosure about what he or...

Oct 23rd

Next Generation Talent is back for 2009

Hola everyone! We’re knee-deep in a few amazing campaigns at the moment (which explains the absence), including this little gem: Next Generation Talent. If it sounds familiar that’s probably because we kicked off the 2008 inaugural competition back in November. (If you need a refresher, NGT is an initiative by Panasonic to foster more interest in the creative industries. The...

Jun 5th

From a Young PR's perspective...

—From Anne Since joining the wonderful world of PR I have noticed that many companies only focus on the traditional methods of PR. I’m amazed how, even now, there are so many who haven’t joined the online PR bandwagon. Looking at the way the media has reacted to online in general -blogs and social networks, etc. I don’t think there has ever been a more important time for people...

Apr 17th

Why online PR taken so long to arrive...

—From Graham Where was online PR when ‘online marketing’ was coined? Where was it when online advertising arrived on the scene? E-mail marketing quickly became the digital equivalent to direct mail. Banner ads instantly imitated print display ads. PPC has grown to become very similar in principle to traditional classified ads. Over the past 15 years or so, every traditional form of...

Mar 23rd

Graham Lee featured in Netimperative for social...

—From Melanie Never one to hold back from shameless self-promotion, I wanted to pass on this piece that Graham wrote for Netimperative on how social media should be used for product development. If you have any thoughts or comments on it, please feel free to contribute to the conversation! —Graham Lee Social media has made real steps of late to becoming more integrated into...

Mar 19th

Who is Anne Fuller?

Name: Anne Fuller Hometown: Essex!! (and proud!!) Favourite PR campaign you’ve worked on: Panasonic - ‘Next Generation Talent’. This was the first proper online campaign I worked on J We engaged the social media circuit by bringing in a select panel of influential bloggers and online journalists to judge the entries before turning the final vote out to the public Favourite...

Mar 19th

Mar 16th

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Tips for Starting a Successful Corporate Blog

Last week, our very own Melanie was featured in UTalkMarketing’s How-to Guide for her Top 10 Tips on How to Start a Successful Corporate Blog. we’ve done the service of reproducing it here on the onlinefire blog, because - hey- what’s the harm in spreading the word a little bit more? —— Kicking off a corporate blog can be a daunting task when you don’t know where to...

Feb 23rd

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UK snowfall shows the need for cloud computing

Last week extreme weather took over the UK and bought us to a standstill. For most people the snow was a bit of fun but some people took it a bit more literally. News reports surrounding the snow blamed the UK government of not investing early enough in precautionary measures and transport links. One person on the news compared the UK to a third-world country – pretty harsh considering that...

Feb 10th

Who is Nicholas Head?

*Editor’s note: We have a new(ish) addition to our team here at onlinefire. If you’ve been keeping up with our campaigns, you’ll know that they often have a video element. Nick is the man behind the camera.* Name: Nicholas Head Hometown: Windsor, Berkshire, next door to the Queen. Favourite PR Campaign you’ve worked on: Probably our most recent work with Panasonic and...

Feb 9th

A whole new crop of Twitter bashing

—From Melanie There has been a bunch of, well, freaking out that so many celebrities are on Twitter bringing it finally into the mainstream. In the UK, the frenzy started with Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry’s conversation about Twitter on Ross’s ‘welcome back’ show a couple weeks ago. While I was sitting there, I kept refreshing on their Twitter pages to see the...

Feb 6th

Welcome home Wossy!

—From Jimmy Today we see the return of Jonathan Ross to UK audiences – Shortlist said it best with “Thank God he’s back” – and I think I’d have to agree… even if it does mean all he’ll do is talk about Twitter all night.

Jan 23rd

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Pot Calling the Kettle Black

—From Jimmy No matter what sort of office you come from hot drinks are an essential, but depending who makes the tea can tell you something about them – normally when to reject their offer for refreshment. Over my time working in an office I’ve had all sorts of tea from all sorts of people and I’ve noticed a few awful trends… The Accountant – Be wary of any person that...

Jan 22nd

Jan 21st

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Is our MD leading a double life?

—From Tony Is our MD leading a double life? No, not you Graham, we know where you live…. But James? Apparently, an American outfit called Fitzgerald + CO have produced this new Durex viral: Care to enlighten us James? Not about your use of condoms, we know about that….

Jan 16th

Melanie: I want to take more pictures for our blog. Tony, work very hard. Tony: What, like I haven’t gone for a week? Melanie: …sure

Jan 16th

Write Obama's Inauguration Speech

—From Graham Like the rest of the world, I’ve been following the US presidential election for many months. Naturally I wanted (like the rest of the world) to watch his inauguration this coming Tuesday, but as luck would have it, I will be in a meeting when the ceremony begins at 4:30 GMT. I fear not though, as I just came across The Obama Inauguration Speech Generator. Based on the...

Jan 16th

The History of the Internet

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo .

Jan 14th

Skanks in NYC, an anonymous disaster

Recently we’ve been hearing a lot about Skanks in NYC, a blog written for the sole purpose of accusing former supermodel Liskula Cohen of being “skank” and “ho”. Well within reason, Cohen is pissed off. She’s upset enough to prosecute the writer of libel. There’s just one problem: she has no idea who it is. That’s why she’s decided to sue...

Jan 8th

Merry Christmas

We’re off on our annual holiday leave. See you back in the office 5 January! *Photo graciously nicked from Cellular News

Dec 24th

Virgin Mobile's '30 Peas': PEAS IN OUR TIME

—From Melanie One of the things that’s been taking over our lives as of late is a lovely little campaign we’ve been doing with Virgin Mobile called 30 Peas. About three weeks ago, we were commissioned by Virgin Mobile to come up with an interesting way to publicise the rather dry news story of a new 30p per day mobile Internet data tariff from Virgin Mobile that...

Dec 16th

What a way to end a year…

—From Tony Our work for BBC radio5live has been picked up PR Week as a case study for how to do Broadcast / Digital. Coming on the back of what has undeniably been a good year for a startup (16 months and counting), we at onlinefire are extremely proud of what we have accomplished and how we have managed to hold our head above the parapet to convince clients that innovative, fresh...

Dec 15th

Vote for the Next Generation Talent!

—From Melanie Looooong day for James and I yesterday. Last night we had the esteemed pleasure of sitting down with London’s finest creative, advertising, tech, art and design bloggers to discuss student entries from Panasonic’s Next Generation Talent competition. It was a fantastic panel! With us was: Rich Trenholm from CNET Willem van der Horst from Ice Cream 4 Everyone...

Dec 9th

Why “one night stands” aren’t a good idea!

—From Jimmy Bang Also, jumping off of yesterday’s post: Another Photoshop of Horrors! What’s up with the guys lack of belly button or erm… other stuff? And what is that on the top of the gorilla? Anyone?

Dec 4th

Photoshop FAIL in today's Daily Star

—From Melanie

Dec 2nd

Will the economic downturn create an online media...

—From Graham News has been rife over the past few weeks of media house redundancies. Emap announced 40 cuts two weeks ago; and Haymarket followed shortly after with another round of 50. Print press was struggling during boom times and it’s clear to see things are set to get far worse. From an online perspective, what is interesting is that these layoffs have been combined with news of...

Nov 28th

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Everybody Loves a Bargain

—From Jimmy Bang In the wake of recession UK retailer are entering into fierce competition on a brutal pre-Christmas price war as they prepare to slug it out for the shrinking consumer purse. Analysts said that the price cuts could lead to a vicious circle of margins eroding and sales declining as shoppers delay their Christmas purchases in the hope of last-minute...

Nov 24th

Nov 19th

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onlinefire is working with Panasonic on Next...

—From Melanie Adding another ‘Totally Awesome’ client to our roster, we’re proud to announce a new project from Panasonic called the Next Generation Talent competition. The competition asks students from across the UK to submit a film, storyboard or print ad that tells the story of the new Panasonic Viera Home Hub TV. The winner gets a whole mess of prizes, but the...

Nov 19th

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London Bloggers Meetup, PR and blogging

—From Melanie Introduction I had a lovely invitation from Andy Bargery of the London blogger Meetup to talk about the differences between US and UK blogging. Of course, it ended up into a convo on PR because I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut on it ;-) It is because of that I thought it appropriate to cross post from Fake Plastic Noodles on to this blog. Hope you enjoy! Despite...

Nov 19th

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onlinefire launches MyMall.at

—From Melanie It’s a busy week for us at onlinefire. Really really busy! Don’t you just love how in PR you might have nothing going on for a week and then all of the sudden WHAM! you’re running around like a chicken with its head cut off? Well, there are a couple campaigns I’m working on at the moment, and I’d like to highlight one in particular. We...

Nov 17th

Nov 12th

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Who is Lauren Carter?

Name: Lauren Carter, creative director Hometown: Melbourne, Australia Favourite campaign you’ve worked on: Onlinefire of course! Favourite PR campaign you wished you had worked on: Don’t know about PR, but I wish I worked on the Dare School intro video (ring the bell, he’ll come to the door) Top 5 songs: Ooooh tough one… Massive Attack - Teardrop Faithless - Insomnia...

Nov 7th

Will Obama's campaign get more people into social...

—From Melanie Obviously the world has been buzzing about President-elect Obama’s victory a couple days ago (being American, I actually took yesterday off to recooperate). A big part of that buzz from both inside and outside the industry, however, was the use of social media by the Obama campaign. What I’ve started to realise over the last few months is just how much the Obama...

Nov 6th