Another week rolls by and here I am again with the hits and misses from the world of PR from the last seven days. Having written this column for so long now dearest reader, I can tell you that some stories are cyclical.

Phone companies will promise to cut the cost of calling abroad just before peak holiday season. Amazon will have a major news announcement before Black Friday. A take-away brand will deliver a meal to a train passenger during their journey, at a designated station, to dominate Google with their brand just before a peak online ordering time, such as Valentine’s Day.

Let’s crack on.

Take-away brand delivers a meal to a passenger during their train journey

As if by magic, my first good PR of the week goes to pizza-magicians Domino’s. A stag group was on a long train journey. All the ‘lads lads lads’ banter got them hungry so they ordered a truck load of pizza to be delivered at a set time, to a set station en route.

Domino’s obliged and the motley stag crew even circulated slices to fellow passengers. Everyone squealed with glee. Really though, have you ever tried this in real life? My local Domino’s (who won’t even deliver to my very-slightly-rural location when I offer them a cash bribe) act more indifferent than a French person mid-shrug.

If I was to ring them and ask them... in fact, I will test this right now whilst writing this column.

Call made on Weds 12th Feb, 3.45pm:

Me: “Hi, I am on a train journey that passes through Gloucester. Would you deliver to Gloucester station for me to collect as I pass through?”

Incredibly polite Domino’s worker: “Unfortunately not no”.

Me: “Ok, thanks, bye”.

There we have it. You called me a cynic for saying this story is fortunately timed. I proved my own theory that it was tactical to land in Google just before the peak online-ordering period of Valentine’s Day.

I do love them for this though and this is why Domino’s gets my first, and very respected, good PR of the week.

Labour gets an unhappy meal

Sticking with the fast-food theme. Long-term sufferers of this column will know that I am a massive fan of the McDonalds comms machine. It is slick, savvy and have historically dodged having political debates in the public eye.

Probably the best example of this in action was how the company did not get drawn into the American election hullabaloo. This was despite a franchisee allowing Trump to work at the drive-thru for an hour or so. It was under serious pressure to make a statement, but knew any comment would be over analysed, and dodged it altogether.

I can only imagine how frustrated McDonald’s must be, as it made a statement about the UK farmer IHT rage. Lobby groups had put the Golden Arch brigade under some serious fire.

Given its McReliance and McRelationships with British farmers, it had little choice. Fair play to whoever wrote the statement. It stopped short of damaging its delicate relationship with the Labour government, but also gave a significant show of support for the farming community.

Great PR for Ronald and yet another big brand to give side-eye to the surely hanging-on Reeves.

Fresh bus of bad air

Remember all the negative headlines about the clean-air zones that were causing drivers of unhealthy smog-machines to cough up more when they entered a city? The local authorities and bus companies have had the last laugh, well, in Bristol they have.

A load of new bus routes have been announced in the UK cider-drinking-capital. The routes come with new buses, both funded by the drivers that had to pay to enter the clean air zone. In just under one year since its launch, Bristol’s city traffic controllers raised enough cash to fund the routes until 2028. Great PR for the boffins behind the plan and brilliant to see more being done to help get more bums on seats for public transport.

Sonos goes down

Sonos is a brand that, maybe for me alone, has always stood on the edge of greatness. Its tech, in theory, is great. I am an early adopter of its gear and when it works, it wows you.

For years, the main issue was that during peak user times such as New Years Eve, some Sunday afternoons and from about 9pm until 9.04 on Valentine’s evening, the service would fall flat because of over-use.

Sonos bosses seemed to pin all their hopes on fixes coming via the launch of a new and improved app. As demand grew for the app, the deadline for its launch got pushed back further and further. I get the feeling the CEO had enough and forced it to be released, no matter what state the app was in.

At roughly the same time, a new and unsuspecting CMO joined the company. Likely doing so thinking it was the perfect time to join…

Trust me, the app is truly shocking. It has more glitches than a piece of code written by ChatBLT. The CMO inherited it, through no fault of their own, when the app was too far down the deployment track to be rescued.

Who gets the chop to try and appease the shareholders? The CMO. Apparently, they didn’t fit with the culture of the brand. Maybe they showed up and worked for too many hours in the day, something that Sonos products rarely actually do.

Bad PR for the company with the sexiest looking speaker collection that rarely works as it should.

Reach for the stars, but don’t link out

Digital PR land won’t be able to read this without shedding a tear. Reach PLC overlords will not allow journalists to add third-party links.

It was initially said that all journalists were banned from linking to any external site, but Press Gazette reported last week that an updated memo clarified reporters can link to the source of stories. It said "unauthorised commercial linking” was the main bother, and must be pre-approved, unless it is an affiliate link “approved by the affiliate team”.

Not to shatter the lies of the SEO outreach ninjas, but affiliate links carry zero Google impact. What triggered this three-line-whip from the bosses? Apparently, a cheeky freelance Reach journalist was getting paid by third-party organisations to add links into stories.

Which industry was caught doing this? Shock horror, the gambling and casino brands. They ruined it for everyone. The only winner in all of this is Neil Shaw’s inbox. The days of begging him for syndication are surely now over.

BUT, what is this breaking news I see before me? Britney Muller of SEO legend fame has formally announced that brand mentions are the new follow link for SEO in the AI era. Undelete Neil Shaw immediately. Reach and syndicated content is back in the game.

Brand recollection gets Littler and littler

Luke Littler has had a whirlwind few years. First entering our Christmas TV viewing schedule in 2023, he reached peak brand in Xmas 2024 by getting asked to appear on celebrity Bullseye.

He has taken it one step further and at just 17 years of age has had to threaten legal action against a pub in my own hometown of Liverpool for treading on his trademark 'The Nuke' nickname. I doubt he has heard of the pub, not least because he is a massive Manchester Reds fan, who previously voiced his dislike of Liverpool.

The pub in question is the newly named Nukes Sports Bar. It apparently copied not just his nickname but also his dart shirt colours. He is well within his rights to protect his brand, and fair play to him for being surrounded with the right people who can protect him from things like this.

The pub claims it is paying homage to him. Homage don’t pay the mortgage though my friends, so cough up some brand-licensing fees or get rid of the name. They have got rid of the name.

Great PR for Littler, bad PR for the pub.