How was your Easter? Did you eat too much chocolate? Either way, I hope that you had a great religion-inspired break.

This isn’t just a cyber-incident, it’s an M&S cyber incident

My love affair with M&S continues. As does my urge to write any M&S headline in that style. It had a cyber attack, but successfully rebranded it to an incident. The media covered it and the brand quickly moved on with confidence and panache.

Lots of people shared the story with me saying it was a PR fail. In my mind it wasn’t. I will try to explain.

Very few of the stories sent to me are actual PR fails, in that they are caused by the PR or comms team. This column — when you look past my being a 48-year-old guy, who has been there and done that in comms terms and who rants a lot — is about the PR skills behind the successful launch of a story, or defending a brand because of a situation.

In this case, M&S’ comms team handled the situation perfectly. In recent times it has reclaimed its crown as the darling of the high street and this undoubtedly helps when the odd headwind comes along. Good PR for how the comms team handled it. Look out for more brands trying to use the term “cyber incident” going forward.

Intel unleashes dastardly comms plan that many in PR have seen before

If M&S handled tough news very well, my spidey-senses tell me Intel has opened the PR-skullduggery playbook and gone straight for option 101.

When I worked in-house for an American-owned UK utility, I learned a lot about the effective art of comms subterfuge. The current Intel story about job losses comes straight from that world.

In short, if you have a big job cut announcement coming up, leak to the press that it is going to be two or three times bigger than it will end up being. When the stories of the inflated job cut numbers run, be incandescent with rage that the media could get it so wrong. In fact, berate them for reporting on nothing more than rumour and speculation.

Then, a little while later, release a lower number and hey presto, you get a softer landing of a tough message. Now, obviously I hope I am wrong and no job losses happen at Intel at all.

When I read this story, it took me back to 1998 when I had to listen in on a conference call. I was with the then CEO of the UK utility company, and it was with his American overlord and a very nasal Texan PR agency bod. They explained how we would position making half the UK workforce redundant using this tactic. Delighted to give Intel Bad PR if the same happens here.

Hobbycraft misses the comms mark

I think this is a comms fail, but the loving PR-man within thinks the PR team will have pushed for this, and the CEO took it out.

I will confess, I don’t get the love for Hobbycraft as a brand. To me it just looks like a hoarder’s paradise.

It seems I am not in the minority as sales are falling and store closures have been announced. This, as I know all too well, is a hard message to communicate. The brand needs to not give wider customers an inkling that there are potentially bigger problems but also needs to show sensitivity to the affected employees. 

I feel like the brand fell short in the latter part. The statements had little to no mention of the staff, no offers of support and no encouragement for other brands to step forward and consider hiring its dedicated workforce.

Every time I’ve gone into a hobby, I have been under duress because an Amazon order deadline has been missed. But, I must admit, you can’t fault the knowledge and expertise of the staff.

You dash in like Anikka Rice (digital PR types, give her a Google). You announce to the shop worker that your eight year old child, (meaning you) needs to construct an 11ft totem-pole that represents Gandhi in the modern era using only feathers, crepe paper and wood-chip for school assembly the next morning. They will have you sorted, and given you an outline plan of attack within seconds.

The staff deserved more consideration in the comms statements that I saw. Bad PR for Hobbycraft.

Miliband and his electric dreams

I worked in the leccy industry and it is a tough sector that is, no matter what you think, expertly marshalled by Ofgem. I didn’t work for them, but I did come up against them plenty of times and found them firm but very fair. This week has been a good example.

The Telegraph ran a zonal pricing scare story. The headline was that Southerners would pay more for their electricity than Northerners. Clear industry puff via a leak.

I suggest it was leaked, as is the seeming preference of all modern governments of the day, to gauge public reaction. Like the earlier Intel tactics, the actual policy is then tweaked and revised based on public and industry reaction.

Miliband initially didn't give an outright "no it won't happen" and said he is "determined" to try hard. Sigh. It was left to Ofgem head-honcho Jonathan Brearley to calm the industry rage, which he did brilliantly. Miliband and Number 10 has, as of today (24 April) according to The Independent, confirmed that ministers are looking into zonal pricing.

Bad PR for Miliband and his team's handling of this one. It takes a monumental cock up to knock Trump and the Pope off the front page of a national newspaper and yet, they managed it.

The course of true love never did run smooth

Dearest reader, I bring some positive news of the romance variety. Shakespeare was not quite the drunkard wife hater that we have all been led to believe. Well, maybe the drunkard bit.

English history writers had it enshrined that Shakespeare ditched his wife, Anne Hathaway, in Stratford so he could run off to London to find his fortune and fame. Professor Mathew Steggle of the renowned University of Bristol has uncovered fragments of a letter to her, from a muggle, that reveals she did in fact spend some time living in London with him.

The letter references our oft-quoted author as owing him money and asking Hathaway, as his wife, to pay up. He also talks about the couple having lived in London which has the historians re-thinking their original hypotheses.

It’s not the most earth-shattering news but the global media have lapped it up. Good PR for Shakespeare but even better PR for Professor Steggle and the University of Bristol. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and now Professor Steggle has had greatness thrust upon him.