29 September 2006

Wild Geese…

Goose: beautiful, elegant creature…but make it angry and it’ll have your eyes out. Just ask Adrienne Merrill, Business Development Director at Borkowski PR.

Adrienne, you see, used to do a bit of freelance work for ‘Tamsin’, who is now – as head honcho of The Supper Club (which we think is this) - a client of consumer PR shop Golden Goose (which, we note, is nominated in the best new consultancy category at the PR Week Awards).

Following things so far? So here we go…it’s a bit of a long one, but it’s Friday afternoon and you’ve got nothing else on, right?

OK, so Golden Goose organised a press event for The Supper Club last night, and Adrienne went along. Today, she decided to email her ex-client Tamsin telling her what she thought of the event and, in particular, Golden Goose. This is what she said (under the email title, “Great fun!”):

We all had such a great time last night, fantastic entertainment & drinks and music by the DJ was brilliant – we all danced until out feet hurt!!!

As for the PR from Golden Goose – well - the celebrity attendance was what……zero? Oh no, let me think now, oh yes Syed (the one that didn't even come second in what was that show, The Apprentice?) he was there.

And journalists, well now, I did have a pretty full house crack team of publicists with me try as we might to spot one, well I think it was what…zero? Oh, no, wrong again, Chris Sullivan was there. He did let slip to me though that he only popped in to see Mick (the lovely promoter) and he's not exactly a target writer for the Supper Club.

We all make mistakes.

Addi xxx

Which isn’t very nice is it? You might event think she was doing it to try and pinch Golden Goose’s client. Which then doesn’t make it a very good idea to copy the email to a member of the Golden Goose team…who, understandably, felt the need to forward it to her boss and Golden Goose joint-MD Miki Watson.

Miki gives Adrienne both barrels:

Dear Adrienne,

We're delighted that you enjoyed last night's Supper Club party; it was fabulous wasn't it!

I'm terribly sorry that you obviously don't know your media well enough to recognise some of the UK's most influential press by face. We were looking after Esther Walker from the Evening Standard, arranging a photograph feature for Karen Stretch at the Mail on Sunday Live Magazine, introducing some of our guests to Louise Hannah from the Mail on Sunday, arranging a 'date' with one of the country's most well known jockeys that is being written about by Katie Hind in the London Lite and entertaining the GQ editorial team who are writing about Tamsin in November. Oh and Helen Nugent from The Times was having a great time in VIP, along with Georgina Pattinson from BBC.co.uk whom, when she last wrote about an online networking client of us (BeautifulPeople.net), generated 9,000 hits for our client in one day. Pretty good contacts, don't you think? But as you don't know them, we thought we'd introduce you to them on this email; as we always like to help people out in PR here at Golden Goose...it's a pretty sad, bitchy industry when you don't, wouldn't you say?

As for Dave Benett...it's a shame he didn't get a lead picture for today's Diary, but Tam - he had a fabulous time and your picture has also made a story in today's London Paper with a great plug for the Supper Club..Zoe Griffin is very kindly posting us a copy for you now.

Regarding celebrities..well, I don't recall that the Supper Club was meant to be about celebrities? It's about a calibre of person whom you get to meet at the most brilliant soiree. I think last night ticked every box. I don't know if Borkowski solely regards celebrity attendance or celebrity association as the epitome of a campaign's success; but at Golden Goose PR we look at what we've generated in terms of column inches, brand identity and revenue for our client's business. Daily Candy, OK! Mag and London Lite pieces which ran even before the party started yesterday were only the beginning.

Anyway, I'm way too busy to write about all the other pieces of editorial we're working on as my phone is going and people are asking for pictures....

I suggest, Adrienne, that you get back to doing your job too.

Have a lovely weekend everyone,

Miki xxx

And, as Miki pointed out in her email, she copied it to quite a few of the highly influential journalists who were at the event…a number of which decide to provide their own comments, including Katie Hind from London Lite…

I thought that Golden Goose were fantastic last night. They never fail to help me out when I need a favour and this, quite often leads to fabulous coverage for their clients.

…and Zoe Griffin at the London Paper:

I also thought that the event was well organised and that the girls threw a fabulous party. Rather than inviting C-list celebrities that don’t fit with the image of the brand, they made the wise decision to have people who were influential in London and who would want to join Tamsin’s club.

So that’s Adrienne told. Still, she gets the last word:

I see you fantastically out bitched me! A true pro. I have much to learn. Sigh.

Thanks for the advice

Adrienne


It's quieter where we are, but we like it that way...

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you seen that Waggener Edstrom is having an online blogging seminar:
THE INCREDIBLE, DISAPPEARING AUDIENCE: HOW TO USE TODAY'S COMMUNICATIONS TOOLS TO REACH THE CUSTOMERS THAT REALLY MATTER.
Experts share how to reach customers through new media tools.
Unfortuntely Paul Abrahams is not on the panel but it might be fun to encourage people to join and ask questions about his recent article - as you have already covered.

http://www.waggeneredstrom.com/webcastInvite/webcastInvite.htm

Anonymous said...

That is funny. But, ick, reading the first email makes me want to vomit slightly in my mouth.

Anonymous said...

My, my. If ever there was a career limiting move, that's gotta be the world's leading!

Anonymous said...

Why is Wag Ed commenting on this particular blog pushing its online seminar?

....the world's leading.... said...

I don't know...bit bloody cheeky that, isn't it?

Even worse that they've tried to position it as coming from someone else, eh? "Have you seen that Wagg Ed..."

figgis said...

THE INCREDIBLE, DUMB ASS PR AGENCY: HOW TO USE TODAY'S COMMUNICATIONS TOOLS TO ALIENATE THE INDUSTRY.

Anonymous said...

TWL said "I don't know...bit bloody cheeky that, isn't it?"

whaddya mean, you 'don't know'..? This comments forum is moderated by you isn't it...?

....the world's leading.... said...

'Moderated' is possibly bit strong...'publish and be damned' is probably more accurate...

Anonymous said...

And who works for WagEdd ...???

http://renaissancechambara.blogspot.com/

Purely conjecture, of course ...

Anonymous said...

Just noticed the string. Unsubstantiated conjecture the invite wasn't my post. I'm a bit smarter than that, partly because would be prodding a hornets nest and because the event was on indecently late.

In the end I only bothered emailing it to two people in the UK. I take enjoyment in the fact that someone must have read my blog in order to know I work at Waggener, so I have doubled my readership from just my Mum.

Anonymous said...

It's probably not that difficult for Miki from Golden Goose to get coverage in The London Paper given that columnist Katie Hind is none other than Laura Hind, Miki's partner-in-crime at Golden Goose - her sister.

It's great fun playing "spot the Golden Goose event" in Katie's columns. One the other week about The Dangerous Lunch For Boys. I wonder how Katie was the only girl invited....?

....the world's leading.... said...

Umm, we don't think that's right. Miki's partner at Golden Goose is Laura Wood, and she ain't Katie Hind's sister.

Whether Hind's sister works at Golden Goose in a more junior role, we're not sure.