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How do you treat your Captive?

September 2, 2013

Tent - Electric Picnic

We were going to Electric Picnic the following day and as we are a little older and used to our few comforts we opted for the hotel in Portlaoise instead of a tent!

The hotel that is normally “from €59” per night was now €200 but the snag was if you wanted to book for Saturday night then you had to book Friday night at well – fair enough we reckoned.  We have come to accept that when you are a “captive” they can pretty much charge what they want – its like the last minute Ryanair flights.

Maldron Hotel PortlaoiseThe first thing that got me was the “from €59” banners on the way into the hotel – at least have the decency of taking those down when you are charging people €200 x 2!

We weren’t expecting The Ritz but we were hoping for this hotel alongside the motorway to be good at least and maybe there might be a buzz and a few things going on for the “Picnic”.

We booked in to be told that the rate was room only and breakfast, which was extra would be served from 8am …hmm

The room was a little bit tired but functional, the second bed had been removed, the light kept switching off in the loo and there was virtually no mobile phone reception (not their problem I guess) – my kids would be ringing as we were meeting up at the festival the next day.

We had done enough driving for one day so we decided to grab a bite to eat in the restaurant – it was surprisingly quiet as we were pretty much the only diners except for a bunch of young women. We managed to get the worst chicken wings of all time and the 100% beef burgers (festival fever was kicking in already!) were tasteless and overcooked.

We watched as a man sat alone in the corner waiting for his meal – from where we sat we could see that it was ready and sitting under the heated lamps. The waitress was chatting to the manager but didn’t seem to spot that his meal was ready – she came over to us, cleared our plates and then collected his meal and brought it to him. I’m guessing it was sitting there for about 5 minutes.

It was at that point that a young and older woman arrived – they were obviously here hoping for a nice meal and I felt a sense of responsibly towards them. I felt like telling them to go somewhere else!

“Are you sure I shouldn’t say something to them?” I asked Dee.  “You can’t do that and besides, they will think you are mad” A good point I reckoned!

The manager marched around the restaurant with a sense of authority – I watched him wondering – does he realise how bad the place is?  The two chefs were staring out from the open kitchen waiting for another customer order – come on guys, surely you want to produce better meals?  Do better even for your own satisfaction?

Our plates were cleared – the waitress had a sixth sense that “how was your meal?” was a question she shouldn’t bother with.

Young Wonder at Electric Picnic 2013

Young Wonder from Cork

The following day we had a great time at Electric Picnic, the highlights being Young Wonder, Daithi and the rock god Robert Plant (ex Led Zeppelin). At the festival you could see that some of the vendors were taking advantage with expensive food and beer but some were charging normal prices.

We were back at the hotel for about 2 am to find none of the glasses had been cleared from the room from the night before – I was looking forward to checking out the next morning.

This place has settled for a certain standard, a level of service that delivers you rooms at €59 and one that leaves you unsatisfied and sealing the argument that you get what you pay for. They could do better, an awful lot better if they just tried and had some pride in their product and service but In some ways it didn’t matter because we were captives for both nights.

Instead of giving us a “good” experience for our overpriced stay and possibly making us consider it again (at €59) we will now pass the hotel every time we take the trip back and forth to Dublin and say “that’s that poor place that totally ripped us off during Electric Picnic …do you remember?”

There are times when our customers are captives:

  • They need something urgently
  • They are stuck with a problem
  • You are the only one open
  • They have a crisis
  • They have no other option at the time but deal with you
  • You have a monopoly in that area
  • You are the only one with their files

When your customer is a captive how do you treat them?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Design firm in Irealnd with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Customer Care, Entertainment, Hospitality | 9 Comments »

A New Generation needs Old Values

August 22, 2013

Eminem - Slane Convert

Once again a social media fuelled incident has hit the headlines as a result of the #Slanegirl photos that bounced around Ireland and beyond from the Slane concert recently where the famous Detroit rapper, “the poet for a New Generation” Eminem was the headline act.

If you missed all the drama a young woman (newspaper reports claim she is 17) and an older guy were caught performing an inappropriate act in quite a public place at the gig. The incident was photographed by a bystander, pushed out on social media and before you could blink (or a hash tag was created) the photo went viral by people retweeting and sharing.

This 17 year old girl and the guy involved must now deal with the pressure of a huge media/public spotlight – too much for any young person to cope with.

At a media conference in the US in 2011 celebrity Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, said that the popularity of Facebook, Twitter and websites like her online news site indicate that “self-expression has become the new entertainment.”

We can see in this scenario how Arianna was right at so many levels.

Once any incident occurs good or bad that has an “Oh My God, guess what I’ve just seen” element to it, you are guaranteed that it will travel like wildfire in our New Generation.

Pretty much all of us are now self publishers and with our own platforms and audiences we are armed with powerful devices that can bring something to life within seconds.

As usual after this incident social media got a huge amount of flack and all sorts of issues have been raised- the experts from the legal professions, the various authorities, organisations and social media were wheeled onto TV and radio shows to give their many and varied opinions.

Both Twitter and Facebook did react and pulled the posts down as soon as it became clear how distasteful the content and the act of sharing and commenting was. Unfortunately the damage was pretty much done at this stage – these pictures are still widely available online.

New GenerationWhat can we do to stop this happening? Can we do anything?

The police are conducting an investigation – is the young man in trouble, what about the person who took the photo and what about those who passed it quickly along the chain on the various social media channels?

Who was to blame and how can they be punished?

We will huff and puff but ultimately very little will happen – it’s virtually impossible to shut down the self publishing machine.

Besides demonstrating once again how hurtful and irresponsible people can be, the Slane incident is very frustrating for a number of reasons:

The Social Media is to blame argument

Social media is powerful and hugely beneficial but it is mostly in the media spotlight when something “bad” has happened.

You never really hear in the media about long lost relatives connecting through twitter, businesses thriving by using the platforms cleverly, people publicising causes and injustices or tricky problems being solved online – it is mostly the negative, controversial stuff that we hear about.

We find ourselves blaming the social media platforms and not the users – twitter, facebook and all the other platforms are only as good or as bad as the people using them.

The platforms do have a big responsibility to respond quickly to sensitive issues and have methods of detecting and dealing with inappropriate content. At least accounts were pulled down on this occasion, which will send a strong message to all users who use social media as a core part of their lives.

The Incident

This sort of misfortunate incident is not unique and has been happening as far back as I can remember but the difference is that now we can share it easily so the impact and consequences are much larger, which brings me to the point of New World Rules.

1. We need to be extra vigilant in our new world and be extra careful with any incident in public

2. Accept that the incident will be recorded as nearly everyone watching anything has a phone capable of taking a good photo or even filming the activity

3. Assume automatically that the photo or footage will be shared on one or more social media platforms complete with descriptions and hash tags instantly and with the capability of identifying the individuals in the picture.

4. Assume if the incident is an “Oh My God, guess what I’ve just seen” then it will be shared online and will quickly spread virally

5. Posting or sharing anything online leaves a digital footprint back to you and more importantly gives an instant impression to others about you as a person, good or bad. This impression tends to stay with you.

We can look to the authorities to legislate for such instances and we can work with the social media platforms to introduce better controls and quicker ways to respond but the real job lies with us, the users.

We, the New Generation need to understand the powerful technology that is at our fingertips and we need to use it responsibly. That simple photo, status update, share or retweet can cause untold damage to someone’s life.

We need to think about our own values and the values we pass onto our children – this applies equally offline and online. There is no difference.

We must take our own personal responsibility – if we see something not right when we are out or online we should react and play our part and instead of saying “Oh My God, guess what I’ve just seen” we should be saying “It’s not right ….stop” and report it immediately.

The sooner we realise that old values need to be applied to our New Generation the better.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer Social Media Consultancy and training in Ireland from offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Entertainment, Facebook, Parenting, Personal development, Publishing, Social Media, Twitter | 10 Comments »

€20 and the “too good to be true” Dream Client!

July 21, 2013

Too Good to be True

Is it ok if I show this man around your office?” Frank our landlord asked (by the way he hates if we call him that – he prefers to say we are his customer and to be fair that is always how he treats with us).

“No bother at all Frank” – he wanted to see how we had laid out the office space, which had the same footprint as the vacant unit two floors down.

Frank introduced me to this English gentleman, Mr Cooper who was starting an airline, which was to operate from Cork ..interesting!

He would be needing Marketing and PR support and he also would need the services from our graphic design team. We had a quick chat but I had another appointment to get to – he wanted to tie things down quickly so he asked us to meet with him the next day for a full briefing.

This could be a very exciting project to work on.

Just before I ran out the door I did a Google search on this guy to see if there was some evidence of his existence online ..nothing!

On the way to my meeting I rang Frank to make sure I caught the man’s name correctly – I had.

“What do you make of our English gentleman?” Frank asked. He explained to me that he also popped into the accountants on the floor below us who were also going to do work for him. The following day they were to introduce him to one of the banks.

“Frank, is he too good to be be true?”

saab airline

We both agreed that maybe it was wrong to be cynical and there was a chance that this well dressed, well spoken Englishman was the real deal after all.

He arrived the following day, a little later than organised but even more well dressed than the previous day. He apologised for being late – there were some technical financial details he was ironing out with the accountant about licences.

He took me through his project in detail – he was really looking for a marketing partner for this venture. He told us that he really liked and trusted us. He spoke to our really talented head designer, Jonathan about his brand and what he had in mind – we all agreed that while he was on a deadline, the work should be done properly.

Maybe this guy was a dream client after all?

After many years in business and knowing how hard you must work to win a new account, this guy had me suspicious. I was “on guard” for a sign, any sign that this was not going to work out.

He started telling me about the lonely childhood he had and now he was alone and did not have any attachments.. for reasons that we would understand. Hmm..where was this conversation going?

He had a request – he wanted to give us a shareholding in the business!

He wanted to embrace the true spirit of partnership – if this happened everyone would work together. He explained he would make the same offer to everyone that was involved in his project. He was doing this as he had no family and he wanted the business to have a “safe” home if anything happened to him.

While this was an outlandish tale maybe it was true? The alarm bell was ringing in my head at this stage but I was feeling a little sorry for this lonely businessman.

I politely told him that people might think he was “nuts” if he were to have that shareholding conversation with them – I advised him to keep that idea to himself and if he wanted to do something like this down the line, then maybe.

He had another request – until he had office space sorted out could he work from our offices?

He had noticed on the day that there were desks with no one working at them. A louder alarm bell started to ring!

That wouldn’t be practical I explained but maybe he should have a word with Frank who might let him use some of the available space in the building until he had a formal arrangement made.

He told me he understood ..

We had arranged to meet the next day when he wanted to introduce us to some of his team who he had already recruited..that sounds ok I reckoned.

Just as he left the office he patted his pockets ..”Damn, I’m a bit short and the bank is closed. Could I borrow €20?” Even though the alarm bell was shaking the whole building at this stage I found myself handing this guy who we hardly knew €20.

On the way home I bumped into Frank as we left the building.

“Well, what do you make of our friend?” I asked. He had told Frank that he was very impressed with Fuzion and the accountant and he just needed to finalise everything and get cracking. I told him the story (with a red face) about the €20 knowing already how the whole story was going to unfold.

What’s worse I told Dee the story about the €20 – “You big fool” ..she told me.

If this was going to end up going nowhere I’d prefer to kill it quickly. Before he was to arrive I would prepare a budget and insist on a % payment upfront before we committed any resources to the job – if he was not the real deal then this would flush him out.

20 minutes after he was scheduled to arrive I called him ..nothing.

Another 10 minutes ..nothing.

A few minutes later I received a text from him saying that Fuzion and the people in Cork were the most unprofessional and backward that he had ever come across and he was going to set up in Belfast instead.

Needless to say I haven’t heard anything about the airline but I do wonder about the “dream client, Mr Cooper” who got away.

When it seems too good to be true it probably is ..the tale alone was worth the €20.

Mr Cooper …good luck with your venture!

Greg Canty is a partner Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Graphic Design firm in Ireland with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Business Start Ups, Entertainment | 8 Comments »

The Palio and the Magic of being part of Something

July 7, 2013

Siena

About six years ago we wandered into the city of Siena in Tuscany while on holiday. To be honest we had no idea what to expect as we entered this gorgeous city with narrow cobble stone streets and old buildings with history in every brick and wooden door.

We noticed that many of the people wandering around the town were wearing scarves and it took a while to realise it was to do with a famous horse race and not a soccer match!

Palio march

Sitting in a cafe on one of these narrow streets doing our share of people watching and soaking up the atmosphere we started to hear some drumming and a crowd chanting …. this chant got louder and louder and a pattern emerged. You could hear males chanting this song, then women, then children and then everyone together and the magical sequence started again.

Louder and louder the chanting seemed to get closer to where we were sitting – eventually the group were led by some flag wavers and a horse with a trainer, followed by hundreds of men, then children and then women all continuously chanting.

The hairs stood up on the back of my neck and this was the moment I fell in love with Siena and the Palio.

Il Palio

Palio Race

The Palio di Siena (known locally simply as Il Palio) is a horse race that is held twice each year, on July 2 and August 16, in Siena, Italy. Ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in the incredible colours, represent ten of the seventeen contrade, or city districts.

The race itself (after hours of pomp and ceremony, believe me!), in which the jockeys ride bareback, circles the Piazza del Campo, on which a thick layer of dirt has been laid, three times and usually lasts no more than 90 seconds. The race is frantic with jostling between jockeys who are often thrown off their horses while making the treacherous turns in the piazza. The winner is greeted by incredible celebrations from the supporters from that contrade.

This year was the forth time we have come to Siena for both the beautiful place (the city is beautiful and it is located in the middle of Tuscany and the Chianti wine growing region) and the festival and I wonder why do we keep coming back when there are so many other fabulous places to be discovered?

Palio March

Is it the pomp and the ceremony, is it the beautiful city or is it the excitement of the race?

This year I think I finally figured it out … All of the things that I have mentioned make Siena and the Palio very special and if you look at the pictures or the clips on YouTube you will get a sense of it.

What you won’t see online is the incredible sense of togetherness, community and belonging of the people that you will only witness when you experience the event for yourself.

They say in Siena you are baptised twice – once in Siena and then in your Contrade, which is your part of town. This is the part that means everything to you.

Palio meal

During the Palio practically every man, woman and child from each place comes out, participates in the blessing of the horse, the marching and the chanting. And every night (there are a few rehearsal days in advance of the “big” race) the groups get together in their part of town for a feast – you will see thousands of people all gathered, sharing food and drink proudly celebrating their colours and where they are from.

In most other countries the event would be commercialised and sponsored – in Siena it has and will always be untainted.

On the night of the Palio this year after the race was over we found ourselves walking in the middle of the crowd from a particular contrade who happened to be heading in the same direction – we listened to the chanting and we watched as people waved from the windows, even a nun was hanging out her window frantically waving her flag and cheering!

The hairs stood up on the back of my neck once again – I love Siena because for a moment you feel the power of community, you see people who are proud to march and show their colours, you feel part of something and sense the power of being together.

Do we have to go to Siena to feel like that?

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Design agency in Ireland with office in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Entertainment, Family, Friendship, Holidays, Tourism | 4 Comments »

Mark Geary, my Grandad and Ghosts

March 29, 2013

Mark Geary - Coughlans Bar

We found ourselves last night squeezed into the most intimate venue ever, Coughlan’s Bar on Douglas Street in Cork to see the fabulous Mark Geary.

This was my first time at Coughlan’s, which is a one of those fabulous old style pubs, a listed building, which has been in the Coughlan and Ellis family for over 200 years. The gig happens in a little room at the very back of the pub, which is no bigger than a large dining room.

Annette who manages the music at the venue maximises every inch of space so that as many people as possible can enjoy the gigs – we were lucky to get in and only for an intervention by Mark himself (yep, we’re one of those “fans” who he knows by name – so many great chats after gigs.. Mark is like that) we would have been home early.

Mark was brilliant as always with his mix of great songs, fabulous guitar work, the very talented backing singer Grainne Hunt, a terrific keyboard player, Mark Penny and of course flavoured with his quick wit and story telling…his “da” was from Charleville (where they eat their children, apparently!!).

Mark launched into song after song including a great track called “Ghosts” , the theme song from one of his superb albums …he spoke to us about his dad and I thought about my own family.

This would have been one of my granddads locals – Jack Burke lived literally 100 feet away from the pub, living at the bottom of High Street. He drank there and apparently my great grandmother had the odd tipple in the snug – women would not have gone into the main bar.

My granddad passed away 47 years ago just after I was born.

Coughlans Bar - Douglas StreetAs we left I looked around the pub at the old bar counter, the old seats, the old pictures on the wall and imagined all of the customers down through years who sat there, sipping on their whiskey and having the banter and I tried to picture Jack Burke sitting on his stool with a family anxiously waiting for him, wondering when he would be home.

..Ghosts

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Entertainment, Family, Hospitality, Music, Personal development | 2 Comments »

Newspapers and Social Media – Parallel Media?

March 7, 2013

Old Man Reading a newspaper

Saturday morning and I’ve just read through the newspaper, The Irish Examiner, which we have delivered with the milk on a Saturday!

From the age of 13 till 21 I delivered enough of them when I had my own newspaper round ..

To be honest I often never get to read it. I pop it on the kitchen table, with every intention of having a peep at it later and often this never happens and it stays there unread.

Today I read it cover to cover including the supplements and it really showed me what I am missing, why we need newspapers so badly, even in a world where we can get news instantly via our social media channels.

I’m a self confessed lover of Twitter and I tell people at my social media courses and our clients how powerful the platform is – even if you never decide to tweet you can follow your favourite newspapers, radio stations, journalists, celebrities, sports stars, friends and other interesting folk.

Fire it up anytime and you will see a constant stream of updates from everyone you are following. You can use the powerful “search” function and track anyone that is tweeting about a subject.

That sounds pretty incredible – it is.

Why would you bother with a newspaper?

Reading the paper today it showed me some really valuable things that Twitter or any of the other social media platform could not bring me:

Emphasis – The editor and the team will decide the stories that are bigger and the ones that are smaller, those that deserve more space and the ones that deserve to be closer to the front of the paper. Twitter will be delivered to me in messages of 140 characters or less, regardless of how important each tweet is. The skill involved in organising and prioritising all of this is so valuable.

Organisation – The newspaper is organised into a particular sequence, which makes it really easy to find the topics that you are interested in. I can organise the twitter accounts I am following into subject matter lists but this still misses the skill delivered by the newspaper team.

Investigation – We badly need teams of journalists who will investigate topics of interest. We need teams of journalists with a great “nose” investigating issues that may not yet be of interest but they have an instinct that something is wrong. Social media definitely helps with all of us having a voice to highlight issues that we feel are important – we need great journalists using their skills to pick up on these.

News – With so much information hitting us via all the various channels it is really important to pick up the newspaper and glance through all of those headlines so that we don’t miss the “important news”. I learnt a lot today quickly by flicking through the paper.

New Stuff – Reading through the paper today I discovered bucket loads of really interesting “stuff” that I would never have stumbled upon. I wouldn’t have been looking for it online so I would not have found it. The team at the newspaper carefully pick through the world of information, new books and new music and deliver what they feel will be of interest to their readers. I also discover new things every day via social media that is equally of interest.

Skill – We need the skills of the journalists, the writers and the editors to deliver us news and stories in a way that grabs our attention and engages with us. We would be lost without these skills.

Look and Feel – While I love my technology and my gadgetry, my iPhone and my iPad there is something very special about the printed material, the paper, the pictures and the layouts. It’s an enjoyable experience to pick up a newspaper with a cuppa and digest all the news and information that’s on offer. Using an App like Flipboard on the iPad to flick through news and information is convenient and enjoyable but it can’t replace the newspaper experience.

While many feel new media will replace traditional media I’m not that sure – both are valuable in quite different ways and we will benefit from both, we need both.

It’s not either or ..it’s Parallel Media.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer social media training and consultancy from our offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Entertainment, Social Media, Twitter | 8 Comments »

Songs for Grown Ups!

February 3, 2013

Boys at Thin Lizzy concertI remember entering Cork City Hall in 1980 – I was just 14 and I was going to my first concert …Thin Lizzy!

It was the most incredible experience and to this day I still remember the floor bouncing as Phil Lynott and his brilliant band whipped the capacity crowd (and me) into a total frenzy ..what a night.

That was a funny year when everything started to get serious – a few months later I had the Inter Cert (the first of the big, state exams) and after that it was all about figuring out some sort of a path that would take you to a job.

I always worried about getting a job – it could be in my make up that I’m a worrier and maybe it all kicked off when my dad was made redundant from the B&I, a ferry service that operated between Cork and Wales. It was on my mind.

This weekend I found myself back in the City Hall for the annual Cork Chamber dinner – the pinnacle of functions for the Cork business community. This is a huge function that invariably is sold out every year even with tickets at €150 per person.

Cork Chamber - Sold OutI remember when I was younger being in awe of these business functions with all of the men in their black formal suits and here at 47 I find myself as one of them.

We drink our glasses of sparkling at the reception, a band is playing that no one can hear, we have our networking “radar” in operation (who do we want to talk to this year?), we mingle and chat, we stand in for a photo, we take our seats in the Millennium Hall (this is a secondary room as the crowd is so big).

We get a lecture about sitting down from a headmaster type of an MC, we look up at the sponsor logos, we can win an iPad, we rise for the President and other VIP’s, we eat our food, we listen to the speeches (they go on way too long and people just start chatting), we hear about the 5 D’s of business and what to call a Bishop, we see videos and business awards are presented, we hear a good comedian, we eat our beef and drink our wine..

“What did you think of the speeches?” , “How is business?“, “Who do you work for?” “What do you do?“, “Where were you sitting?“, “Here’s my card?“, “Is this your first time?” …we chat at the bar, we buy drinks, we are bought drinks, we tweet that we are there, we chat on the way to the loo, we chat on the way back from the loo, we chat to the people we already know and we meet some new folk.

The hours pass by and a few get a little worse for wear ..one guy falls off his chair, another is stumbling, someone is chatting to me but he’s a little drunk (must get away)  ..someone says something inappropriate to my Dee (the male/female ratio is about 90/10 so the women end up getting a lot of attention!) – time to get the coats. The staff look pleased that a few more are leaving!

“Who’s going to The Clarion for a drink? – Ah come on”  ..Oh God, It’s nearly 4am (you know there’s no point but you still go there).

5am..

I’m in a taxi on the way home. I look at my tux and my shiny shoes and I think, It’s official – I guess I’m all grown up now..

I had a good time but think I prefer the songs when I was 14 !

Greg Canty is a partner at Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing and PR firm with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Entertainment, Personal development | 6 Comments »

Jimmy Saville – the price of staying silent

October 24, 2012
Jimmy Saville

Untouchable ?

Oh my god, it’s all over the TV and radio – that image of the man with the mad hair, the big glasses and the ever present giant cigar.

Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile, OBE, KCSG was an English disc jockey, television presenter and media personality who passed away at the age of 84- this is how he is described on Wikipedia.

No doubt the description and the extra information that is generated about him on that site will expand and change quite substantially as the next few months unravel.

The investigations into the case will continue and no doubt the level of revelations will increase exponentially. This is a truly shocking case and it seems unbelievable that so many victims and witnesses stayed silent allowing this behaviour to continue over and over, drawing more and more innocent victims into his net.

Now that “Jim Will Fix It” is dead many victims and witnesses are prepared to divulge the most sordid of information about him.

Why could people not have opened their mouths earlier is an obvious question to ask? How many victims would have been saved from the most horrible, sordid, predatory experiences if this was the case?

The truth is people are and were frightened – would they be believed, would they be supported, would they be crushed for “speaking out” without sufficient proof, would they find themselves in trouble, would it be better to just stay silent? Even better .. I don’t want to get involved!

Some of the “silent many” were innocent and vulnerable victims. Others were senior media figures, his friends and his peers who lived through this period and in many cases according to reports actually witnessed some of the incidents.

Many innocent people paid a huge price for this silence in the case of Jimmy Saville. We are seeing so many other instances of people paying a huge price for silence in some many other areas. We help them to get away with their behaviour, we help them to be untouchable. The vulnerable must feel safe enough to talk and everyone else who knows better must be compelled to.

We need to look carefully at our legal systems, our values, our structures and figure out who we are really protecting ..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Entertainment, Self Help | 6 Comments »

Kate Middleton – Will I or won’t I?

September 18, 2012
Kate Middleton

Those guys should put a shirt on !

I’m sitting by the pool with my husband William, it’s roasting – I wouldn’t mind taking the opportunity to relax and top up my tan.

Maybe I will take off my top and get a proper tan so I can avoid those awful white lines. Is it proper, is it appropriate – where are the security guys? I don’t really fancy them gawping at me!!

What should I do? Will William mind? What if I get spotted, who’s going to spot me?

Will I or won’t I?  To hell with it – that top is coming off …. Bliss!

Paparazzi - Kate Middleton

Woohoo!!

I’ve been waiting here for hours…. For God’s sake will one of ye stand up and at least give me a decent picture so I can get out of here and get on with my day and pitch these pictures to someone and make a few bob.

That’s right Kate, stand up, please stand up – oh my god, I wasn’t expecting that! Click, click, click …. These pictures are like gold dust.

Am I the first person ever to get a picture of Kate Middleton topless? Woohoo!! These must be worth a fortune, how much will I charge for them? Where will I go on holidays!

Will I get in trouble, what about all that privacy stuff!

Will I or won’t I? Damn right I will …who do I call first?

Closer Magazine - Kate Middleton edition

Payday !

I’m getting ready for this weeks magazine, it’s not that juicy – wouldn’t it be great if I had something decent for the front cover and some content that would really make a difference instead of recycling all the usual celebs.

Victoria at a fashion show, has Katie Holmes been pictured chatting to some good looking guy at a coffee shop and poor Cheryl ….how much more time can we squeeze out of that one?

You really have pictures of Kate Middleton topless! Are you kidding me? How much do you want for them? And you will give those to us first … this is huge, I’ll have to check with my boss.

Oh my God, there will be uproar about this but what a coup! The poor girl on holidays, she had no idea that photographer had her in his sights, god bless technology! Imagine if it was me on holidays, how would I feel? Our readers would definitely love it and my circulation figures will be colossal – we can be the first to ever carry pictures of Kate topless!

Will I or won’t I? Hmmm … Go for it, call that photographer, try to bargain him down but get the deal done.

Irish Daily Star

But we’re Irish?

That rule doesn’t really apply to us, surely it can’t ? It’s ok for them over the pond to be sensitive about the Royal family but to us they’re just like another celebrity, isn’t Kate just like Sheryl or Rhianna after all?

I know there is a big storm and the Royal family are threatening to sue the French and Italian magazine group – surely that is just talk? It’ll probably go nowhere.

Privacy laws – in fairness, this is no worse than a lot of the stuff we do on an ongoing basis. It probably won’t come to much, other than a little slap on the back of the hand. They’ve printed them anyway so why not give our readers what they want ? It won’t do our circulation figures any harm either!

Will I or won’t I? Ok lads, extra copies to be printed for Saturday, it’s going to be a big one!!

Kate – look what you have done!

Thank you for changing the conversation and for sparing us a few days of property tax, budget talk, austerity and EU misery …

Will I or won’t I?.. glad you did!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Glossy magazines Closer in France and Chi Chi in Italy were the first to publish topless pictures of Kate Middleton snapped relaxing on holidays in a private villa. The Irish Daily Star published these pictures the following Saturday.

Fuzion are a Marketing and PR firm with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Crisis PR, Entertainment, Marketing, Publishing | 10 Comments »

“It’s a Long way to Tipperary”

July 14, 2012
Its a Long way to Tipperary festival

Everyone is Happy !

“Everyone is happy” we heard the old gentleman say to the person he was with as we walked past him on the street.

“Everyone is happy” he repeated, this time a little louder to make sure what he was saying registered with his buddy.

This was the main street in Tipperary town, and the “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” Festival that our client , Tipperary Co-op were sponsoring was in full swing.

We had just left the Tipperary Co-op Hardware store, or Top Creamery as the locals know it and there was a great buzz with threshing, old kids games, people enjoying the BBQ and of course plenty of banter. I spoke to a friendly gentleman from Rossmore called Liam O’Dwyer who was giving a blacksmith demonstration – he had an incredible display of old signs and as part of this was an old “Death Penny” from World War 1 (I’ll tell you about that in a separate blog!).

In our stroll down the town the locals were in full spirits, stopping to chat and enquiring where we were from. A old woman stopped me and I had to sign a book that apparently promised her a dance later! We popped into a small shop that had a full display of war memorabilia including war posters and a full history of the iconic song. Once again we were overwhelmed by the friendliness and warmth of the people there. The immortal song was made famous during World War 1 by the soldiers all over Europe.

Making the whole festival (which was celebrating 100 years of the iconic song) really special and great fun was that many people in the town were dressed in costume from that era.

It's a Long Way to Tipperary

Altogether now ….

(Imagine the anniversary of this famous song passing without marking it in any way – in Fuzion we refer to this as “Never Wasting a Good Story” – there is a huge PR tip for you!)

When we arrived in the town we had parked at the other side and walked all the way through. There were vintage cars, old tractors and motorbikes, people dressed up, everyone posing for photos, posters and banners and a fabulous, genuine “feel good atmosphere“.

Before we left the town we popped into the Tipperary Co-op owned SuperValu, which had its own exhibitions, competitions and the team there joined in the spirit of the festival wearing clothes from that era as well – all except for Pierce, the manager of course!

When we were there we were chatting to the guys from Tipperary Co-op, Richard, Pierce and Tom. They were thrilled with how their sponsorship of the festival had worked out but more than that they explained how the festival seemed to “unlock” a sense of spirit and fun in the town that seemed to have disappeared over the last few years through a mixture or recession, bad weather and general worries.

Maybe, everyone took a step back and grabbed onto some old values from a time when life was a little simpler.

As the old gentleman had said ..”Everyone is happy“.

It was worth repeating.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Entertainment, Hospitality, Ireland, Marketing, Positivity, PR, Tourism | 8 Comments »

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