07 August 2007

Just stick the PowerPoint on the SatNav...

Lovely idea from Nick Booth hidden in a Response Source request for ComputerWeekly.com:

"Does anyone want to give me a car briefing? That's where you pick me up at 8am from my house, and give me a briefing as we drive from Kingston to Sutton. The return journey is also available. It's mobile working in its truest sense. And there may be a story in it. Terms and conditions apply."

Let us know if you take him up on his, um, kind offer...

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

You laugh, but there's a PR agency that gives IT security journos a limo ride to or from home/Earls Court for InfoSecurity event!! I looked a bit out of place as is swung through Deptford!

Very enterprising Nick.

Anonymous said...

A few recent 'piss taker' journo requests, combined with the ususal PR-bashing journos made me think (not particuarly orginally) that the PR industry should do a national 'no PR' day to make them all aware of how lazy and useless they all really are! What do the TWL faithful think?!

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

I think it would say as much about the importance of the PR industry as the 'laziness' or otherwise of hacks...

Anonymous said...

"the PR industry should do a national 'no PR' day to make them all aware of how lazy and useless they all really are! What do the TWL faithful think?!"

Journo says: Great idea, how about making it a month and see how many PR agencies are still in business, compared to news publications (of any reputation)?

Can we give this PR hates journo, journo hates PR nonesense a rest? We both need each other to greater or lesser extents (depending on which sector).

Let's play nicely children and share the love.

Peace x

Anonymous said...

the IRA used to be particularly good at 'car briefings' during the 70s and 80s.

Wouldn't like to guarantee the physical condition of the hack at journey's end though....

Anonymous said...

Anon fair enough. Everyone hates the bashing that goes on. It would be great if we all got along. But i think World's leading was merely taking the piss out of the individual request not jounalism in general.

THHB said...

Obviously some journalists/PRs are easier to get along with... for various reasons.

Anonymous said...

tim hoang - totally agree. But it was anon 1:43PM I was talking about re. us all getting on better. TWL are lovely chaps - have no beef/boeuf with them!!

Anonymous said...

Not sure why Nick is attracting such sarcasm/odium - it strikes me as a particularly interesting suggestion. The period commuting to and from work is dead time that could be used more constructively and this is something like this could suit both parties.

(thinks, wonder if anyone could fit in a limousine ride from Brighton to Gray's Inn Road ... )

Anonymous said...

...I get car sick.

Anonymous said...

I agree with anonymous 1.59pm, however surely the reason that TWL is so popular is that there are many outlets for hacks to be rude to flacks, and this is pretty much the only one for the flacks to vent their own spleen.

Give us a bit of a break - we have years of bitterness to get out of our systems.

Anyway - its all good fun. A bit like national stereotype/xenophobia ... we hate "the french", but we like most of the french people we meet.

Anonymous said...

I thought it was quite a reasonable idea. Terribly sorry if Anon thought it was a 'piss taker' journo request.

What about this for an idea?

You get ten PRs who can work work together, who persuade (say) ten clients (one each) to buy a bunch of EuroStar tickets.

Then you invite an aggrievance of technology journalists to come along. During the journey, they take turns being briefed by each of the ten ear bending marketing managers.

Then, at the end of this ordeal, we arrive at Gare Du Nord in Paris, we all get out and go our seperate ways for a few hours.

Result: We get a free return trip to Paris, and a working day out the office, and you get your client seen by ten journalists. (Maybe even get some coverage, although I can't promise anything. Terms and conditions apply)

Anyone up for it?

If you buy Eurostar tickets in advance, they're dirt cheap.

Anonymous said...

"an aggrievance of technology journalists" - an absolute genius descriptor, like it Nick.

Anon@5:32PM - fair point, fair point. I guess it was more the indiscriminate "all journos" are tossers. Some of us are actually(quite) nice. But then again - we all slag off PR's . So all is fair...

Anonymous said...

I need to get to South America. Trans-Atlantic briefing anyone?

I don't do cattle class by the way - Club World or First only.

Anonymous said...

artichoke - are you Chris Green? Gis us a cake!

Anonymous said...

I was on your side, Nick, until the Eurostar comment!

Don't mock our efforts to brief you on stories that matter to our clients, it's our job. But that doesn't mean we're going to let them pay for 20 minutes of your time on a Eurostar journey so that you can spend some quality time cheese munching in Les Deux Magots with your mates.

Anonymous said...

I rather liked the idea - showed creativity.

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

Me too...better than spending a chunk of money of some poxy room in a London hotel. Probably cheaper too.

Anonymous said...

The answer, obviously, is to hire limos with hookers, hookahs and lashings of champagne for the briefings