We survived all 365 days of January, Great PR for us all. The first week of February has been action packed in media land. Off we go again. This is another week of operational mess-ups causing comms headaches.

Virgin’s too tight to mention

Massive thanks to the industry’s nicest man (name redacted), for posting about this in one of the prime marketing-industry gossip groups on Facebook. Virgin Money is the latest financial services company that attempted to deploy an AI barrier before allowing you to get help from a human.

Muggles may well suspect that these companies just grab an off the shelf bit of tech and bolt it to their websites. How dare they, oh, hang on, it looks like this is exactly what Virgin Money did.

How do we know this? A muggle reported (to the FT of all places) they had tried to use the bank’s name in the chat and was told off by Billy AI for using inappropriate language. The FT wrote it up, the story got shared across corporate land and even made it into one of the most serious journo gossip groups on WhatsApp that I am in. Another example of an operational issue quickly becoming a Bad PR issue.

Barclays goes ATM with its tech fail response

Barclays had a mare of a week. Similar to Virgin Money, an operational fail has delivered a headache for the comms team. I don’t know the reason for the fail, but like many in the industry, I was taken aback with the responses.

There is clearly a disconnect between the comms, brand and customer service teams. I say this because someone in customer service is alleged to have told a muggle that was troubled by the issue that if they were really struggling, they should go to a food bank. The muggle did what they always do, and went straight to the media.

I’m going to declare a personal soft spot for Barclays’ comms here in this very column. Many moons ago I did a secondment with its PR team when I had a proper job at AXA. They were, by far, the best PR team I had ever experienced. They were ahead of the issues curve and taught me more about crisis preparedness than I had ever learnt before.

This is why I was surprised they were seemingly caught unaware. This kind of thing doesn’t happen to Barclays, and certainly the food-bank suggestion would never have passed through the brand internal checks.

You can’t make-up the effect of the Trump Tariffs

Estee Lauder has won the world record for being the first brand to blame Trump and his tariffs in a press release about job losses. It will be cutting 7,000 jobs across the make-up brand and it specifically referenced the negative effect of Trump.

The brand does sell well in China and the tariffs will hit hard but, it is worth noting that sales were in decline in the previous 12 months anyway. The tariff’s represent a fantastic PR open-goal for brands, to help dodge the real reasons why sales are struggling. We can expect it to replace the “strong economic headwinds” line that so many in the corporate PR game have used in the last 4 years.

Kate makes successful PR comeback

A few of you royal observers have messaged me about the rebirth and rise of Princess Kate. She has been through the ringer. Serious illness, death of a family member and other rumours, not what a princess needs or deserves.

Fortunately the royal PR machine has come out in force, and the positive media onslaught is now in full effect. Just take a cheeky Google at “Princess Kate” in its news section.

Princess Kate is a national treasure, loved by all and didn’t deserve any of the negative media scrutiny. I am here for the positive vibes and long may it continue. Great PR for the Princess Kate PR machine.

If Apple doesn’t stop that, you will go blind

Apple is a brand that I love, for its designs, products and comms machine. I love it all. This week they have played a strategic comms blinder. Subterfuge at its finest.

Those in geek-land will know that, a short while ago, Apple got caught up in a legal-tussle with the EU courts over the monopoly it has on the app market. The French and German governments in particular were not happy that Apple could essentially make or break a new app.

They handed down new rules on the checks and balances that Apple should change in order to “free-up” the market. Then, a cheeky euro-app popped up (so to speak) and launched the world’s first porn app to make it into Apple’s app-store.

The software maker received a lot of attention, and not just from those who work in accounting and IT. The world’s media loved it. They loved it so much in fact that it started topping the app charts.

However, journalists started to ponder if this was such a good idea after all, especially when you consider how many kids have iPhones and how they are also able to easily navigate age-restrictions for social media usage. What would stop them getting the porn app?

Apple was approached for comment as the gate-keepers of the App Store. They let rip. I paraphrase: This was exactly what they were fearful of when politicians dealt out the new rules. They are horrified and it is all down to the new laws and entirely not their fault.

A very shrewd and tactical move by Apple, and I fully expect Google to trot out something similar over its own app store being infiltrated by rogue new software. A cynic might suggest that maybe Apple helped the dodgy app in question get some of those initially positive headlines. That being said, I know no facts, mine is pure speculation. Great PR by Apple.

Scottish cats live to fight another day

A puerile columnist would make some cheap joke to link this story to the last. No such low-brow entertainment here, I am afraid.

As a 100% cat person I am delighted to say that Scottish cats have had a reprieve this week. A Scottish government Quango recently decreed that cats needed to be culled.

They passed a report on for serious consideration to ruling Scottish Government ministers and cited the evil trait that cats have of murdering wildlife. Personally, I am relaxed about my cats bringing in the odd part-murdered rabbit, bird or mouse. The Scottish eco-zealots were not happy with the cats following their instinct and suggested that we start killing them off.

I am not sure what the criteria was for who got the chop and who didn’t but I can only imagine that a dog-owner, brainwashed by its hound, was the person responsible for writing the report.

I am glad to report the savvy Scottish Government has thrown the idea out. Great PR for cats, and the Scottish politicians who binned the idea off. 

Play me out, keyboard cat...