Facttactic's online PR journal

Here’s a very nifty postal gimmick … great for customising envelopes: the Google Map Envelope.

Simply enter a location in the box and get back an envelope ready to print with a Google map picture of the location you chose. Nice!

(0) Comments | Tags: Branding, Design, Google, Marketing, Public Relations

It is said that Google reaches about 167 terabytes of information on the open web but there are another 91,000 terabytes sitting in the ‘deep web’ that Google, Bing, Yahoo and other mainstream search engines can’t reach. Here’s an interesting article on 10 search engines, such as Infomine, DeepWebTech and Scirus, that can search the deep web to find those hidden libraries of knowledge you never knew existed.

(0) Comments | Tags: Google, Intellectual property, Internet

A huge sign on a hill shouting out Wellington’s high-standing in the movie industry seems a good idea but the slang word chosen — ‘Wellywood’ — has long been a slightly juvenile, throw-away and ironic term that has somehow crept into the mainstream.

And as a PR opportunity for the capital’s undoubted world-class skills and success in international move-making, the Miramar hill is a great site for incoming tourist flights, but Wellywood is an opportunity wasted.  It may be familiar and humorous to some ‘in the know’ but I’m siding with the growing number of voices calling it tacky.

But at Facttactic we’re not in the business of criticising things without offering positive solutions so it was great to see the guys at online-design outfit Skull and Bones with their interactive Wellywood Sign Generator. Type in your own word or phrase and see what it looks like on the side of the hill!

(0) Comments | Tags: Branding, Marketing, PR, Reputation management

Facttactic’s core business is writing for other businesses. We spend a lot of time doing it — writing, that is — and a lot of time thinking about how to make it better and how to give our clients the best writing service they could get.

So …  we always enjoy finding out what other accomplished writers have to say on the craft of writing. This Guardian article is a good read. It asks a bunch of established, British, fiction writers for tips on the dos and don’ts of writing.

While we don’t write fiction here at Facttactic, there’s a number of tips in the article we think are worth keeping in mind — Jeanette Winterson, for example: “Turn up for work. Discipline allows creative freedom. No discipline equals no freedom”, and Colm Tóibín: “Get on with it”. Consider it done!

(0) Comments | Tags: Fiction, Journalism, Writing

There’s nothing like the gentle tones from a simple strum of a ukelele to get people nodding their heads and smiling. The success of the Wellington International Ukelele Orchestra is one example — and here’s two more for a super, sunny Sunday afternoon sing-along.

Take it away … Aucklander Gin Wigmore and the undisputed ambassador of the ukelele Hawaiian Israel Kamakawiwo.

(0) Comments | Tags: Music

Do you like to ‘think outside the box’? Well, keep it to yourself! The phrase has just been voted the most annoying office buzz phrase, followed by ‘Let’s touch base’ and ‘Blue sky thinking’.  Here’s the top 10 most annoying phrases.

It’s great to see that list — for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, because that empty phrase has long annoyed me and I was astounded to see that the pinnacle of Wellington’s international cultural scene — the Arts Festival — seems to have used it as the main metaphor in their marketing for this year. Have they no idea?! Or do they mean ‘one out of the box’? Another corporate and empty cliche. Bring back the zing!

The other, more positive reason I like it is because it is a great example of how to get global media attention. The survey comes from a London firm, Opinium; and, if you Google it, it has appeared in more than 70 media outlets around the world.

A snappy idea, a well-crafted media release, the reach of the internet and you have an idea that can quickly go global. The actual content of the release may not have a direct spin-off for the firm, but the wit and relevance behind the whole thing means its name is highlighted globally and positively.

By the way, the annoying jargon came 4th on a list of things that annoy workers the most. Grumpy or moody colleagues, slow computers and office gossip made up the top three.

(0) Comments | Tags: Marketing, Media release, Survey

It was great to see a big bunch of Wellington-based Weta digital artists getting nominated today - for their work on Avatar - in the prestigious Visual Effects Society Awards in the US. The nominations are here.

Weta had nine nominations, more than any other effects house working on the movie. Weta Digital was also the only effects house to be mentioned by director James Cameron in his Golden Globe best picture acceptance speech last week.

It’s been a privilege working with Weta’s digital artists over the past 12 months and fantastic to see them getting recognised for their groundbreaking work.

(0) Comments | Tags: Avatar, Cameron

A good read here about the marketing efforts of the Big Day Out organisers and whether their ‘controlled kaos’ is really giving the finger to mainstream society as inferred, or is just another slick commercial money-making machine in poor disguise; and in today’s marketplace, where ‘authenticity’ is the name of the game, the article is a good dissection of where the BDO’s marketing authenticity really lies.

(0) Comments | Tags: Branding, Marketing

I’ve found a pen that records and remembers what it writes and also records sounds and then links the recordings to the words that were being written at the time … when I first read about it I was blown away by the concept.

We don’t generally use this blog for product promotion, but as a writer and a regular interviewer who needs to record conversations, the Livescribe pen is one very cool piece of high-tech equipment.

But at $500 I won’t be buying one. Why? Well, when I can buy a full-spec computer for less than twice the price and a good quality digital voice recorder for well under half the price, I can’t see the value in that price point. If I could I would snap one up because it’s a neat toy, but unless the price drops a bit below its new-technology price, I’ll be sticking to my trusty blue biros and my hard-working, hard-wearing voice recorder.

(0) Comments | Tags: Journalism, Technical writing, Writing

“I need the sound of the keys, the keys of a manual typewriter. The hammers striking the page. I like to see the words, the sentences, as they take shape. It’s an aesthetic issue.”  Not many people will have as sensory and physical a relationship with their keyboard as one of our favourite writers Don DeLillo.

He’s quoted in this Guardian article that looks at the future of publishing, e-books and reading and the blurring of lines between our ‘real’ lives and our digital ones.

The article is oddly apocalyptic in its view of the future of good writing but it raises some interesting questions to think over … I don’t know if I prefer reading from paper pages to reading from a screen, but there is something to be said for standing in front a shelf of familiar books, running your eyes aross the titles and authors on the spines and letting the fonts and colours and design of the cover help shape your memories and emotions as you work out what to read next.

(0) Comments | Tags: Journalism, Publishing, Writing