A Media Person's Musings

McCanns and The Media (Continued..)

A little while ago I wrote a blog on the relationship that the Kate and Gerry McCann (parents of missing Madeleine) have with the media and how the previously supportive press corps is showing signs of turning. The McCanns have their own crack media relations team, access to media training and briefing and now their own personal spokesperson who makes appearances on prime time TV shows on their behalf. In the last month or so they have kept a deliberatley low profile and tried to get their lives back in some sort of order and I think that was absolutely the right thing to do.

However, today's news is full of their 'first broadcast interview' in months. Interviewed for a Spanish TV show, the couple were asked all the same questions as they have ever been asked so they should have been more than prepared. When asked if they had sedated their children Kate McCann practically snapped that she wasn't going to answer the question. Gerry McCann jumped in appearing to try to justify her response by saying such questions were not to be tolerated as they were so ludicrous.

Reacting so badly to suspicions that they are more than aware of already was a big mistake and very likely to further alienate the McCanns. Kate and Gerry should have been fully briefed for those questions and prepared to answer them too.

Great Service Pays

It's very rare you find yourself compelled to write about good things that happen to you in life. It is far easier to criticise from afar or complain about the things that go wrong in the world. Recently I encountered two great examples of amazing customer service that actually resulted from bad experiences that I had with the two organisations concerned.

The first was with the firm Mulberry that makes, among other things, very expensive bags. I was lucky enough to get a Mulberry briefcase as a gift and of course I used it all the time. However, after a relatively short time the leather tie on the fastener wore down and it became impossible to close. Also the strap broke and I was on the verge of throwing it away when my colleague Sophie said that I should get it repaired. I was convinced that it would probably cost as much to repair as it would to replace it and reluctantly sent it off for a quote. I didn't hear from Mulberry for a couple of weeks so chased them up to see if they had received it. They came back saying that they had and would be back to me in due course. I then completely forgot about it until one day a box appeared on my desk. When I opened it I found my briefcase completely restored. Small things that I wouldn't have expected to be repaired (such as a tear in the lining) had been taken care of. Inside was an envelope that I assumed was going to be a bill. I was just getting into high dudgeon about the fact that they hadn't given me a quote and had just ploughed ahead with the job when I was surprised to find a letter apologising for the trouble I had with the bag. Furthermore there was to be no charge for the repair. I was stunned.

The next instance came on my recent trip to New York when I stayed at the Hotel Roger Williams in Mid-Town Manhattan. It is a very friendly, affordable modern, boutique hotel that is in a perfect location - five minutes from the office so I was pleased to have found what I thought was a complete gem. Things didn't go so smoothly with my stay. I had asked for a room with a bath but found I only had a shower so had to move rooms which was a pain. Then over the course of two nights I was bitten to death by something. When I spoke to our office manager Lee he told me that New York as a whole was suffering from an invasion of bed bugs...I was horrified. When you look them up on the Internet you will see what I mean.

I spoke to the hotel's duty manager who assured me that they didn't have bed bugs and had all the right processes to check the rooms regularly and that I must have been bitten by a mosquito or a spider. But they did move me to another room and quarantined my old one and I felt reassured enough not to check out. I didn't get eaten in the new room but life still didn't run smoothly. Normally I am 'green' and don't expect clean sheets every day but in light of what had happened I thought it best to err on the side of caution and request for the bed to be made up. It wasn't. So I called down to request that it was. The front desk staff were great, apologised and sent someone up straight away. He came with towels and not sheets and pushed back when I asked him to change the bed. He was so insistent on hotel policy that I ended up having to show him my bug bites (horrible sight) to convince him I wasn't going to back down. When I checked out the next day I was adamant that I wouldn't be staying there again no matter how perfect the location.

Yesterday I had a call from the hotel manager who had heard from the front desk of my woes and called to apologise. I was really impressed. Being a typical Brit I hadn't made a formal complaint. I just paid my bill and left vowing not to return. However the Hotel Roger Williams obviously values its customers and she listened to my sorry story and then made the case for the hotel without making me feel that I was being petty. She staked her career on the fact that there were no bed bugs in the hotel and I believed her. She said that she wanted me to come back to hotel and compensated me by taking some money off my bill. This was totally unexpected, much appreciated and it totally turned my perception of the hotel. Of course it was great to get a discount but it was more the fact that they had taken the time to contact me when I hadn't even complained formally.

So now whenever I buy a new bag it will be a Mulberry and whenever I stay in New York (which is frequently) I will stay at The Hotel Roger Williams!

Golden Goldie

Last week a friend of mine who heads up a VC firm invited me to a cocktail reception his company was hosting at the exclusive central london private members club Home House. We had been talking about Peppercom doing some publicity for one of the films he had invested in and I saw this as a great opportunity to get to meet some of the movers and shakers in the industry.

To my surprise and delight the event was put on for Goldie Hawn who was promoting a script that she had co-written. Everyone was introduced to her gradually and when it got around to being my turn I felt suddenly self-conscious and a bit of a fraud so I told Goldie that I was delighted to meet her and that I was of absolutely no use to her bearing in mind her objectives for the evening. I did add (cheekily) that I was a crack PR if she ever needed any help on that front ;-).

Goldie was a true superstar. She invited me to sit down next to her and have a good chat. When pictures were taken of us she shared some tips on what works best on the camera. Then we all went for dinner and had a great evening.

Goldie is everything you think she is going to be. I have met some famous people (naming no names) who are nothing like their on-screen personas and have been diva-like at best and surly and arrogant at worst. Goldie is true Hollywood royalty - funny, elegant, beautiful and kind.

McCartney Millions

So today Heather Mills McCartney will find out how much she will get out of her sensational divorce settlement from Beatles legend Sir Paul MacCartney. The press speculates that she will receive £50M. Right from the start of their relationship cynics stressed that she was just marrying for money. Despite her protests that she married for love it's pretty clear from their very short marriage that she may well have done what the critics suggest.

65 year old Sir Paul is worth an estimated £825Million so some would argue that £50M is a 'drop in the ocean' to him. And I guess it is. But what exactly did Heather Mills MacCartney do to 'earn' £50M? She produced a child for sure but cynics would argue that she gave birth to a rock tight insurance policy.

I find such vast sums being bandied about quite distasteful. I hope that whatever she gets she puts to good use. She, like Sir Paul, has worked for many charities. Let's hope that this gives her the security she needs to continue giving back.

Poker Player

Last weekend I took a leaf out of Steve Cody's book and decided to follow one of my own dreams....that of winning a large poker tournament. I entered the Irish International Poker Open, Europe's biggest tournament with 1072 players from 17 countries.

When I arrived at the hall in the RDS in Dublin I was completely overwhelmed. I was lucky to be with a number of my poker playing friends. Had it not been for them I would have probably turned tail and run. The hall was massive and full of players who undoubtedly were a lot better and a lot more experienced than me.

The tournament started at 12pm and by the first break (2 hours later) I had only played two hands (mainly because I was too shaky to push my chips in!). On the last hand before the break I was dealt KK in late position. The betting came around to me and I made a big bet only to be raised by a Frenchman under the gun. He was then re-raised by a Danish Pro. This was all pre-flop. The Frenchman then went all in, the Danish Pro put enough chips in to put me all in and I was left with a huge question...did the Dane have AA? I must have deliberated for about 10 minutes. I could hardly breathe and then I remembered a piece of advice that Matt Broughton the Editor of Flush Magazine gave me before the tournament. He said the best players make the least mistakes. I determined that not going All-In with KK pre-flop would be a big mistake so I pushed all my chips in. The Frenchman turned over AK and the Dane turned over a pair of Jacks so I was in the lead. Just! if an Ace came down on the flop I was out of the tourney after just two hours. I couldn't look so I couldn't tell you the cards that came out but nobody bettered their hand and I won a huge pot, put the Frenchman out and seriously crippled the Dane.

I nearly passed out through the pressure. The adrenaline was coursing through my body so much that I couldn't stop shaking. I then wondered why i do this to myself? The tournament carried on and I kept setting myself small targets. Just get into the last 700, then just to get into the last 500 and so on. I would have been delighted to have finished in the top 250. After all this was a really good field. Finally at 1.30 am and after 13 hours of play I was short-stacked (not many chips left) and pushed All-In with suited connectors 4 5 spades. I was called by a fellow with A 3 off suit. A 4 and a 5 came down in the flop and I had 2 pairs. Then came a 2 - he had hit a straight and I was out. It was cruel but that is poker.

I often argue that poker is a game of skill but it also is a game of luck. This tournament taught me more about the qualities you really need to succeed: concentration, determination, persistence, concentration, discipline and courage. Pretty much the same qualities you need to get on in life in general. I finished in 133rd place, just a few places shy of the money, but I was still really pleased with the way I played and took a whole lot of learning from the whole experience. My friend Stephen Richards came sixth and made 12,000 euros so we all were celebrating in the end anyway.

Remembering Vicky

I seem to be writing a lot about Steve Cody recently (can you tell I am a fan?!)! Well last weekend Mr Cody was pursuing another personal goal – he ran a half marathon in New York and did it in a great time too. The very same weekend we had the Great North Run which is the UK’s most famous half marathon. This year it was a very special occasion for Adam Chataway who is a friend and client. Adam was supposed to have been getting married that weekend but his fiancée Vicky was tragically killed last October as she cycled to work. Adam, Vicky’s family and his family, refusing to let her light be extinguished, decided to write another chapter in her life so that her enthusiasm and zest for life would never be forgotten. He and his friends (a group of truly amazing people) decided to raise money for a cause that Vicky believed in passionately – getting fresh drinking water to poverty stricken villages in Ethiopia. Vicky’s Water Project was born, a target of £226,000 was set and the first donation was the £10.88 that Vicky had in her pocket when she died. Over the last year Adam and his friends and family have been fundraising via many events: I wrote about a poker night that we had for the charity in my blog a while back.

The Great North Run marked the culmination of the programme. It was the most fitting platform as Vicky and Adam had run it many times before. Adam, his father the famous Olympic athlete Sir Chris Chattaway (who was Roger Bannister’s pacemaker) and 190 of their friends and family ran in honour of Vicky, raising enough money to smash the target. Furthermore the TV coverage featured a segment of film that had been shot in Africa when Adam, his parents and Vicky’s Parents went to Ethiopia to visit the villages that they were to be helping. It was incredibly moving to see what we had all been involved in actually coming to fruition and I felt very privileged to have been a very very small part of it. Adam even ran a half marathon in Ethiopia with Haile Gebrselassie who went on to smash the world record at this weekend’s Berlin Marathon. He was wearing a blue ribbon in memory of Vicky and I like to think that she gave him the extra incentive to break the record.

It’s not often that I am genuinely in awe of someone but Adam has to be the bravest man I have ever met. I cannot express how much I admire him. He has worked tirelessly and unselfishly to ensure Vicky has a real and fitting legacy. It goes to show that true love endures.

Following the Dream

Steve Cody, the co-founder of Peppercom has a hidden talent! He is a stand-up comedian. Recently he decided that there were a number of things that he wanted to achieve before he got much older (and he is pretty old!). One of those things was to write and perform stand-up routines. As soon as I got off the flight to New York on my latest trip I hotfooted it across Manhattan to watch him perform. He was actually really good. Some of the folks here at Peppercom Europe asked me if I felt strange watching him in a different and pretty scary environment but I didn’t. He was, as he is in business, the consummate professional. His routine was brilliantly constructed, practiced, polished and very funny.

One of the many things I did when I was in New York was meet with five bright young interns. They were ‘meeting the management’ so that we could tell them about our backgrounds, answer their questions and generally give some advice. One of my pearls of wisdom (apart from ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’) was that if you want to achieve something don’t be the one to put barriers in the way by thinking that you are not good enough or that you not experienced enough. I truly believe that you have the power to make anything happen if you want it enough and are prepared to apply yourself.

One of the great things about Peppercom is its entrepreneurial, go-getting spirit and a culture that encourages challenging existing practices and creating new offerings in line with the ever-evolving media landscape. Steve is the embodiment of that spirit and culture. I don’t know of many CEOs that would take stand-up and improvisation classes every week to follow a long held dream. Just like with Peppercom it doesn’t stop there: This Christmas Steve is following another dream - climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with his son Chris (ex-Peppercom Europe intern).