Filed under: Uncategorized
Drinkard, J, January 26, 2005, USAToday.com, Report: PR spending doubled under Bush. Available at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-26-williams-usat_x.htm
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2005, Reading Images: The grammar of visual design. 2nd edn, Routledge, London & New York.
Mero, J, 2007, Public Relations Handbook – Guidelines & Tools ForEffective Public Relations, Association of Washington Public Hospital Districts. Available at: http://healthprv2.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/prhandbook.pdf
Nowlan, M, November 15, 2006, Enterpreneur.com, PR Trends: A Press Release for Social Media. Available at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/publicrelations/prcolumnist/article170552.html
PRWeb Press Release, 2005, Survey Shows Pay-For-Placement PR Model is Expanding Number of Companies Outsourcing PR Services. Available at: http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/4/emw226382.htm
Thangaraj, J, 2004, Fascinating Fonts; Is the power of typography a marketing myth? PRism 2. Available at: http://praxis.massey.ac.nz
As PR practitioners, we are well trained to think on our feet and respond with our wits. But very often, we see in one dimension and in monotone.
Just like a good television advertisement, viewer’s recoginition comes from the bold use of colours and graphics. PR should not be left out. I have seen too many newspaper clippings pale in comparison without a good picture.
Apart from providing quality picture sources, we know that colours are a vital part of meaning-making (Kress & van Leeuwan 2006, p215) and that colours can be effectively used as a semiotic source (Kress & van Leeuwan 2006, p225-228). Kress described the communicative functions of colour to fulfil three metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal and textual.
Colours evoke emotions and provoke ideas. Many successful campaigns are built on the use of colurs, such as the Motorola Red Campaign and Pink Ribbon for Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign.
Typography, on the other hand goes hand in hand with the graphics and colours, which is often overlooked. I have come across a piece of work done by Thangaraj which discusses the Fascinating Fonts.
More work needs to be done…but first of all mindsets need to be changed.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Back in Singapore, serving as a regional communicator, answering heaps of emails from internal customers makes up most of my day. I began to wonder, how much do I really know about PR?
Yes, I do give strategic counsel and advise for countries to roll out new campaigns and scientific data. But I am not in the frontline of handling external media. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise as I am spared from the irony of pleasing difficult journalists on a day to day basis.
But PR cannot be remote. One needs to know his/her country well – demographics, government policies, people, language, culture, beliefs, trends and lifestyle. And every country is unique. In Asia, especially, it is non-homogeneous. For example, what may work in Hong Kong may not work in China, although they are under the same rule and consist of a majority of Chinese.
I may not have served PR locally but I do know the tricks by observing my colleagues in the region.
For more information on how to be the local angle to national stories, log on to: 101 Public Relations.
