Tag: Public Relations

Why I Think Obama’s Cairo Speech is Great

June 6, 2009 • Public Relations • 1 comment

I just watched the above speech made by President Barack Obama of the United States in Cairo (you can find the full text here if you prefer to read it) and was rather impressed by how Obama, one of the most eloquent and impressive political orator in this present age, managed to up the ante yet again. There has been numerous analyses of the political content of his speech so I shall not go there. What I am more interested instead is in the masterful way in which he embraced the art and craft of monumental speech making. Here are some perspectives on what we can learn from Obama’s speech which may be useful to bear in mind if we ever address a crowd or are tasked to draft a speech for somebody who will be doing so.

1) Rigorous Research. The first point in monumental speech making is to ensure that one’s facts and figures are in place. An example was this section made on the achievements of Islamic inventors and artists which contributed towards our progress:

If Someone Slaps You on the Left Cheek…

March 29, 2009 • Public Relations • 6 comments

Don’t get into a hissy fit! (courtesy of Kevin Steele)

Life is never a bed of roses in Public Relations (PR). Especially when the negative public feedback and criticism is directed towards your organisation, products or even worse, your colleagues.

Should you simply grin and bear it? Or give it all you’ve got?

How China Could Resolve Its Growing Consumer Crisis

October 29, 2008 • Public Relations • 4 comments

Victim of the tainted Chinese Milk (Courtesy of Chonkit Leong’s Blog)

One after another bad news came thick and fast for the middle kingdom. And then some more.

First up were the contaminated pet food which caused the deaths of many precious pooches and kitties in the West.

How To Write a Great Speech

September 17, 2008 • Public Relations • 4 comments

Michelle Obama at the DNC (courtesy of AP Images)

[This post was updated twice on end March 2015 and 27 July 2016]

Michelle Obama brought the house down at the Democratic National Convention this year. Her wonderful speech affirming Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was widely lauded as one of the best speeches made in the ongoing race for the President of the United States, with elections slated for 8 November 2016.

Some have even proclaimed that she was the star of the show that night – and she isn’t even a politician by any measure of the word!

Singapore is World’s Number One Brand

August 28, 2008 • Public Relations • 2 comments

Courtesy of Christopher Chan

Yesterday, I flipped through My Paper and read that Singapore has hit the top spot in East West Communications global survey.

According to the report, all 192 countries in the United Nations together with another eight which were not are included in the survey. The company has also analysed five million references to the 200 countries or regions. These references are found in about 400,000 news articles found in 38 leading global media sources in the second quarter this year.

Telling the Bad News

July 23, 2008 • Public Relations • no comments

Crises can be opportunities if handled well, as these Chinese characters show (courtesy of tingilinde)

One of the most important skills PR practitioners need to know is crisis communication. That is when things go wrong but need to be made public. Public listed companies would probably be most familiar with this when sharing their quarterly earnings reports.

Hiding the truth is probably one of the worst things to do in such a situation. The widespread availability of information and records through both the internet and public libraries makes it difficult for one to fudge. Sooner or later the truth will come out, and it would be far better coming from you rather than a third party source.

Good PR and Marketing Reads

December 8, 2007 • Public Relations • 2 comments

Decided to follow the illustrious examples of some of my friends in highlighting the worthy reads in PR and marketing this week, focusing on those in Singapore’s blogosphere.

First up is Daniel’s excellent analysis of the Prima Deli debacle and how the company could have saved itself more heartache by harnessing the media and public opinion. Let’s hope and pray that they will survive this one.

Melvin Yuan of the PR2.0 Universe has a good take on the PR 2.0 bubble. Read it and see if you agree or disagree whether new media is a fad or will eventually exist side-by-side with other more mainstream forms.

How Clients Should Manage PR Agencies

December 4, 2007 • Public Relations • 4 comments

Source of image

Here’s a counter post following my first one on how PR agencies should manage their clients. Hats off to Priscilla Tan who used to work in an agency but will now be joining a global MNC (drool).

Getting the most out of your PR agency doesn’t mean squeezing the life out of them. Conversely, it also doesn’t mean that you just let loose completely and pray everyday that page one news would come on its own. Sorry buddy it doesn’t work that way.

So what can you as a client do to optimise the Client-PR relationship?

How PR Agencies Should Manage Clients

November 28, 2007 • Public Relations • 12 comments

Source of image

I got tipped off to write about this following Priscilla Tan’s expose on what goes on behind the doors of PR agencies and their clients. Many of the situations which she described – expecting page one news, wanting to be called “the next big thing”, and agency bosses “kow towing” to clients – are not unique indeed.

Sharpen Your PR Pencils!

August 26, 2007 • Public Relations • 10 comments

Uber marketing guru Professor Philip Kotler

I had the fortune of attending a recent conference featuring one of the world’s top management guru Philip Kotler. Apparently, he is a museum fan too and may feature the National Museum of Singapore in his next book. Woo hoo!

At the lecture, Professor Kotler shared about the rising importance of PR versus advertising and gave us a new acronym – PENCILS – in which to desribe the dimensions of PR. What does it mean?