ROManian PR. In English.

However creative your adverts are sometimes they’re just not enough. Everyone may remember the jokes and their punch lines, but are they buying your product? Sometimes innovative and fun just doesn’t cut it. That’s where PR comes in. You want to show your product around, you have advertising, but if you want to change people’s attitudes and behaviours you have to go with PR.

This is what a Romanian brand did. They manage to create a debate out of nothing and outlined a bigger problem. For some time now, most young people are leaving the country for better opportunities, hoping for the “American dream” so to say. They decided to address the issue in an original way, by linking it with their chocolate brand, which until then had been advertised as being Romanian to the core.

Here is a video on the campaign. It’s in English, so no worries.

They had a huge response, even my friends sent me the adverts as they were being launched and there was talk about this move of Americanising our Romanian chocolate everywhere. They got people talking about them, and genuinely creating a demand for their Romanian-flagged product again.

Personally, I love this campaign. I like how it attacked the problem head on while still maintaining a fun aspect to it and the ability to go viral.

From what I gathered working there, the Romanian PR industry, even though still developing, is on the right track. Brands are starting to realise more and more there is a need for PR professionals rather than just advertisers and they’re finding that they can get creative with their tactics.

I actually got the chance to work in the PR department of a Romanian publishing house, Polirom having as my mentor a very bright and creative PR professional. She won a PR award for excellence with her creative 2009 campaign “Ask me about Firmin” and I learnt a lot from her.

I believe that it’s a good moment for our PR industry and it’s this creativity that will make an impact on an international plan. But then again I could just be biased because of my nationality so what do you think about ROM’s campaign? Do you like it as much as I do or do you believe it was just a bad PR stunt?

Unlimited Edition with an Unlimited Supply

The music business is going through a lot of changes that’s for sure. Over the labels’ usual problems of having to deal with a decline in sales, the “digital shift” in music consumption (on which I am writing a dissertation) and a on-going crusade against piracy, this week rumours of EMI’s split between Sony and Universal have been confirmed plus on a slightly different note we have John Lewis, a chain of department stores killing a Smiths song.

First things first, EMI’s meltdown.

Until now, the music market was mainly controlled and divided by ‘The Big Four’ – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI. A study conducted in 2010 by Nielsen Soundscan has shown that these record labels controlled more than the majority of the market with Universal being the lead in total album sales and a close second Sony.

Now, Sony is bidding for EMI’s publishing business while Universal is hoping for a rise in recorded music. The company will be split in two and years and years of history will be going in a different course.

I actually chose to do a presentation on EMI’s brand management in my second year Corporate Identity Course. I chose them because of their history and I admired and how they managed to maintain cohesive image throughout all their ventures and history from the Gramophone Company to His Master’s Voice and all the way to EMI today. But I guess when music becomes just business, less art, these things are bound to happen.

Slowly the music industry is headed towards monopoly isn’t it? Maybe at one point it will just be a Sony-Warner-Universal label and all the independents.

But getting back on track (never mind the fact that the music business is going crazy), let’s talk about the John Lewis advert.

Actually let’s talk about music as art and how it fits in this act of branding. Using music in adverts is not in any way recent and I’m pretty sure it’s how most clothing brands get noticed, by using music their target audience listens, the only thing is they usually use pop music which I don’t have much affection for or I happen to agree to their choice. But this time, I’m against it. So, yes it is subjective. For me this song was art instead of business. I believe they ruined a perfectly beautiful Smiths song. And all the covers I loved that were made after it.

As a PR student I understand how using music in adverts may be beneficial to both retailers and songwriters (especially in this time of declining music sales), but  as a fan I just thought some bands were never going to sell their music to advertisers. And of course there are some that don’t do it, but it just wasn’t this one. And my question here is, am I the only Smiths fan that feels a little bit betrayed?