Old Rockers, Roland and Brand Consistency

November 13, 2023

Roland

I couldn’t resist when I saw this gig announced…

Glenn Hughes formerly of Deep Purple, one of the greatest rock bands of all time was touring the UK to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their album ‘Burn’ .

The gig was at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London and my London buddy Roger agreed to come along with me and spare Deirdre the experience of having to “suffer” through four hours of standing and listening to a night of hard rock complete with long hair, 1,000 guitar solos and even a 10 minute drum solo!!

While I wasn’t going to gigs 50 years ago when I was eight years of age, I did start at 13 and Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy just hooked me and I’ve been a huge music fan ever since.

At that first Thin Lizzy gig that I went to, us boys wore our denims, our rock hero t-shirts and our leather jackets and this time at the Electric Ballroom while our gig uniforms were exactly the way they were, we have all aged more than a bit, but like Glenn Hughes who is now in his seventies, we still rocked !!

Glenn served up two hours of Deep Purple classics and while I never saw them in their prime at least now I heard all of those monster tracks delivered with precision 50 years later – I was in hard rock heaven.

Glenn Hughes

A huge shout out to Roger who declared that it was an “interesting experience”!!

In the spirit of great music and guitar heroes, Roger brought me to Denmark Street the following day which was famous as a haven for songwriters and record companies. Now it is famous for the collection of specialist shops selling instruments, everything for musicians and their rock star dreams.

One of the shops we couldn’t resist popping into was the Roland store – Roland are famous for keyboards, synthesisers and electronic drum kits and it was exhilarating watching potential purchasers sitting at the various instruments in display and putting them through their paces.

This of course included some young kids with their parents sampling the expensive equipment that might just be the next step to a career of stardom.

Before we left I noticed a display of t-shirts donning the famous Roland brand – wearing one of these would give me huge automatic kudos with the music fraternity even though my 7 years of piano lessons resulted in my 3rd teacher giving up on me with a break up note to my mother who was paying for my lessons “Greg is wasting my time, his time and your money “ .

That was very harsh !!

If she was a better teacher and inspired me more maybe I would still be playing and legitimately wearing one of these t-shirts (at least that is my version of the truth)

Feck it, I’ll buy a t- shirt, a very cool souvenir from my trip to London.

“Would you like a bag” the sales assistant asked.

“Of course” I said, and eagerly awaited a cool bag with that iconic cool logo to carry around London with me for the rest of the day.

My heart sank when he pulled out a white unbranded plastic bag and placed my t-shirt in it.

What a waste .. maybe they ran out of cool branded bags or maybe they just don’t value the little chance of their brand being carried around this bustling city?

I thought about Glenn Hughes and his flawless delivery of classic Deep Purple songs 50 years on despite being in his seventies and I thought about Roland and their iconic brand.

Put the t-shirt in a proper bag and give your famous brand the respect and consistency that it deserves

Greg (the rocker!)

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Brand Loyalty, Branding, Music | Leave a Comment »

Paddy and the tweet 

November 1, 2023

It can be like a drug at times …

You are one of the “brave” ones, one who has a prominent profile and one who has no bother speaking your mind on the public social media platform that we all used to call Twitter.

The fans / supporters / followers like what you said and say “well done, I’d never be as brave as that, I prefer to stay quiet”

Paddy Cosgrave fits the bill perfectly – he is a clear “leader” in the tech world with his hugely successful event ‘Web Summit’, and in many ways he became as prominent as many of the high profile speakers and tech stars who participated in the event.

As an avid Twitter user you couldn’t help but notice Paddy because the algorithms liked the level of interaction with his tweets, which were often controversial. He even resorted to spending money on the platform from time to time “boosting” his posts to make sure even more people saw his posts, which often were airing particular gripes of his about something or another.

The attention drug needed an even bigger audience/fix. 

One particular recurring theme with Paddy is his pure hatred of Ireland, the media here and the political establishment. A lot of his time and energy has been spent relentlessly bashing Ireland, a place which despite all of its issues is a pretty good place when you take a breath and compare it to other countries.

I’ve never met Paddy, but with me and others you would talk to, this bashing of our country started to wear very thin and people started to dislike this person that we didn’t actually know.

Without knowing the detail I’ve always understood that at the heart of this Irish bashing was a deep anger because he felt that Ireland didn’t do enough for him and his event to keep it on these shores.

Paddy also spent some time doing some investigative work “naming and shaming” various accounts on Twitter for one reason or another. At one point I recall getting a crisis communications enquiry from a potential client – they had been named and shamed by Paddy and with his volume of supporters and the huge visibility that goes with that, their personal reputation was in tatters and it needed some careful restoration work for them.

They were being cancelled by our boy Paddy. I always wondered what satisfaction did he get from putting so much precious time and energy into this public shaming?

And then there were the public spats with his former Web Summit colleagues – stormy waters everywhere.

When Hamas savagely attacked innocent Israelis on 7th October and the predominantly pro Israeli western world spoke about “unconditional” support for Israel, Paddy felt obliged to tweet.

Anyone using X/Twitter or observing the media coverage of the Hamas attacks could see how divisive this topic was with entrenched views on the different sides. Compounding the issue for most people was the lack of understanding of the history behind this bitter conflict, and before joining the Twitterati you were well advised to take a breath before adding your tuppence worth to all of the public outrage.

Paddy was trying to make a valid point – he commended the balanced response by the Irish government to the atrocities and criticised the other predominantly pro Israel, western world response. A war crime shouldn’t be then followed by a reciprocal war crime battering even more innocent people regardless of religion or nationality.

While he had a very valid point he didn’t read his audience – Web Summit sponsors and customers, all from the tech world are predominantly pro Israel (a tech haven in its own right) and they were outraged.

Whatever about “cancelling” a person on Twitter / X for what they have said, this crew voted with their pockets and cancelled their participation in the event, no doubt inflicting deep financial and reputational wounds on the phenomenally successful Web Summit. Even some of the high profile speakers decided to withdraw from the event inflicting even more wounds on this wobbling beast.

Paddy (probably crafted by his PR agency) offered an apology on Twitter and when that wasn’t enough to halt the tide of withdrawals from the event he soon stepped down as CEO – we all know it’s Paddy’s gig so that won’t convince anyone.

For Paddy and the rest of us who love expressing our views on X / Twitter the tide has significantly turned.

While the attention drug is very appealing, wanting to have our voices heard just isn’t working in the positive way that it might have done before, and all you get now is the risk of the downside.

Paddy learnt a very harsh lesson – we all need to pay heed as we could be next !

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Crisis PR, Reputation, Social Media, Twitter | 3 Comments »

A life of Mondays…..

October 16, 2023

If on your last day on this earth an angel appeared and offered you more time but the offer came with a big catch.

Each of those years was to be made up on Mondays and nothing else, Monday after Monday after Monday.

Would you take it?

Have a great Monday !!

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Motivation, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

When ‘East Meets West’ and the many twists and turns of life..

September 24, 2023

When we were in the process of buying our little West Cork retreat I found myself driving through the beautiful town of Schull in search of a gift for a friend that we were about to visit.

The display of beautifully lit mosaic lamps in the window caught my attention and within minutes I had the perfect gift (one of those lamps) being wrapped while I chatted to the sales assistant. The shop, ‘East Meets West‘ had an eclectic range of beautiful stock, everything from rugs, lamps, clothing, jewellery, furniture children’s toys and much more, all sourced directly from small manufacturers in India.

On another visit to the store a few months later I met the owner, Amanda Connell originally from Norfolk in England, and in no time at all I started to hear abut her colourful story, which was just as fascinating as her very special shop.

Life is full of personal and career choices and there are times when the ones we make aren’t the most obvious and some might say, a little bit crazy!

Amanda agreed to sit down with me at her gorgeous new home near Schull and share her story for the Win Happy podcast – I hope you enjoy getting to know Amanda as much as I did.

Greg

The Win Happy podcast is available on all podcast Apps and on Spotify.

This show has been produced by Fuzion Communications, a Marketing, PR, Graphic Design and Digital Marketing Agency in Ireland with offices in Dublin and Cork.

Podcast Production by Greg Canty

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Posted in Inspiration, Personal development, Podcast | Leave a Comment »

Blackberries and new traditions ..

September 18, 2023

I know that she won’t remember this but when little Hazel, my granddaughter came to visit us in Crookhaven in West Cork at the end of this summer I took her by the hand and we went up the narrow little road that runs behind our house on a special mission.

I wanted to create a little memory, the start of an annual tradition that we could share, just the two of us.

On this peaceful little road we picked blackberries together and filled a little carton between us. In between the blackberry picking she was just as fascinated by the loose gravel on the road. She was carefully examining the different shapes and placing the more interesting ones in with the blackberries in the carton.

She is not quite two yet (that is in October), but she was clever enough to know the difference between the blackberries that were ripe enough to pick and those that should be left to ripen some more, and just like other children as many were consumed on the spot as were placed in the carton.

When I first heard that my granddaughter was born (we were sitting up front at a John Spillane gig at The White Horse Bar and Restaurant when the text came through), as well as being overjoyed I had these idyllic notions about seeing her every week and I would be an adored grandad !

However, with these busy lives that we all lead the get togethers have all been very hit and miss but I do think that this little tradition of picking blackberries might be the perfect thing for us to do together each year, or at least until she can remember them…

“Do you remember when we used to pick blackberries together in West Cork?” she might say to me some day….”I sure do“

After the blackberry picking, I picked up the carton with berries and gravel, and little Hazel with her face covered in purple juice took my hand and we strolled back to the house together.

We started a new tradition, but she hasn’t quite realised that yet!

Greg

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Posted in Family | 4 Comments »

Spamming and the damage to your brand

July 31, 2023

Another one of these totally and utterly irrelevant cold “call” emails has cluttered my inbox.

They vary in style and content but the things they have in common are:

  • I have no idea who they are
  • There is no need for the services being offered
  • They all use this “cool”, familiar language

Here was today’s example..

Hi Greg,

Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to connect yet.

I understand; life gets busy.

I hope you don’t take offense to my persistence since I would love to learn more about the prospecting & outreach process in your company and see if we have any points of potential synergy.

(Company name) could help you accelerate your outreach efforts by automating the tedious manual tasks and spending extra time hiring.

Let’s jump into the demo and we’ll discuss everything?

Best,

Anastasiia from (Company Name)

In a world where we are all so busy, how can any company justify employing people to blindly harass poorly researched prospects and in doing so, damage their own brand?

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Branding, Communications, Email Marketing | 2 Comments »

No I didn’t

May 17, 2023

No I didn’t bump into my neighbour and great friend Brian as I was popping down to the local store to grab some lunch.

No I didn’t ask him if he wanted to join me and Dee for lunch.

No I didn’t ask him what he fancied for lunch and no he didn’t suggest that he fancied a nice baguette because he had spotted some guy cycling and he had a baguette.

No I didn’t get a fresh rustic baguette in the store, a selection of salads, marinated chicken breasts and some pastries.

No I didn’t come home, set a table in the garden for lunch in the sunshine.

No I didn’t text Brian to say lunch was ready and no he didn’t come over.

No I didn’t ask Brian and Dee if they wanted some white wine to go with this delicious lunch in the sunshine and while they said no first, no they didn’t change their minds….

No we didn’t have a great chat in the sunshine, we didn’t polish the bottle of wine and we didn’t have coffee and delicious pastries after.

No we didn’t have fun and no we didn’t spend too much time chatting to stop us from being back at our desks for work at 2pm.

No, I didn’t tell you the truth…

Sometimes you just have the embrace the moment because it just might not come again!

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Friendship, Motivation, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

Is there anything else we should be worried about?

April 17, 2023

I was listening to a really popular Irish podcast and the podcast host had one of the countries foremost economists on the show.

As you would expect the economist was fielding various questions and giving his expert opinion on the Irish economy, fuel prices, the war in Ukraine, the ongoing stresses caused by Brexit and how these issues could affect various business sectors in the country.

It was an excellent review and for the listener they would definitely have come away with valuable insights.

Just as the show was about to wrap up, the podcast host asked the economist a simple question: “Is there anything else out there that we should be worried about?”

While it could be viewed as a great question and one designed to make sure that all bases were covered, I found myself getting angry with what I was hearing.

Let’s not look for “more” things to worry about – there is always something if you look hard enough.

Instead, look for the opposite ….how about asking about the great opportunities out there ?

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Change Management, Management, Personal development, Positivity | Leave a Comment »

That was my mam..

April 3, 2023
Ann Magee

A son, who I’m assuming wasn’t used to public speaking stood in front of a big crowd in church at one of the most emotionally difficult movements in his life and he told us about his mam.

We never got to meet Marks mum, and sadly that won’t happen now because she passed away last week.

We know from Mark how kind and caring she was by the way that he always spoke about her and how well he has been raised, such a prefect son-in-law to be. He and my daughter Ellen are engaged, a wedding sometime in the future that I know would have meant the world to his mum.

While we had an impression of Mark’s mum, it sadly took her funeral for us to get to know her better.

At the funeral mass and gathering afterwards we heard about this very special woman from friends, family and even the parish priest who used to visit her on one Friday every month.

For me the moment we really learnt the most about Mark’s mum was when his younger brother John stood at the altar and gave the eulogy, a very touching tribute to her that had us all in tears.

He started by reading from his notes, thanking friends and family for attending the funeral, thanking the funeral home staff and the hospital staff who had looked after her.

He put his notes down and then spoke from the heart telling us about his mam, and in between the tears he told us about the woman with the bright side of life temperament, the one who was the peacemaker in the family, the one who loved fun nights and karaoke, she used talk loudly on the phone to her friends for hours on end and she was the woman who despite being unwell always looked after them, no matter what was going on. “That was my mam” he said.

We got to know her just a little that day and I said to her husband John that it was his job to tell us so much more about her.

Ann Magee, you did a great job as a mum and as a wife and as a person and we thank you for the gift of our future son-in-law, Mark who is a treasure of a boy, a fine young man. You will be missed, but you will live on inside those lucky enough to have met you..

Rest in Peace..

Greg

Posted in Bereavement | 2 Comments »

New Baby. Mum. Dad. Parent. Career …

November 28, 2022

Hazel, my granddaughter was one year old recently- where did that year fly to?!

I’ve carefully watched Brendan and Ayla looking after this little treasure and it definitely seems to be quite a different scenario for parents today compared to when I was a young dad.

With the nature of their work (and some COVID thrown into the bargain) both Brendan and Ayla have been able to spend equal time with Hazel, enjoying every little change in her, and why not ?!

If you ignore their particular set of circumstances and imagine life as a “normal” working couple, things would have been quite different.

Ayla would have taken her 26 weeks paid maternity leave and then had to make a decision to extend that by another 16 weeks and then possibly another few weeks. All in all she could spend a year at home with Hazel unless she decided to stop working for a while.

Watching Ayla, I can only imagine how hard it would be for any mother to return to work after spending all of that exclusive time with their baby.

As for Brendan, he would have been able to take his two weeks leave at the beginning and that would be that – his daddy time would be when he gets home from work and weekends.

I can see how he has treasured the last year with Hazel and how amazing is that, but in truth he was one of the very lucky dads.

If you bring “work” into the equation in that normal situation, there would have been huge career disruption for Ayla, and not so much for Brendan.

On one side of the coin there is precious time with the new baby, but with that comes career disruption and on the other side there is little baby bonding time and no career disruption.

What’s the alternative, is there a better way, or is this the only practical solution to bringing our precious children into this world of ours?

Watching Brendan and Ayla with Hazel I think it’s only fair that society creates an equal opportunity for both to be parents and for both to share that precious first year.

Except for the obvious “biological” leave at the beginning, there should be an equal / sharing of the leave, allowing both to enjoy parenting and maintain their careers at the same time

While this might seem like a radical idea to us in Ireland, it is the norm in the Scandinavian countries, and you can understand why.

So, for all the Brendan and Ayla’s out there, maybe some day it could be like that for new parents in Ireland!

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Caring, Family, Parenting, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

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