Can I have copy approval? 5 ways to prevent this (coverage) killer question from cropping up

It’s simple: don’t. Asking for copy approval is the easiest and most sure-fire way to kill an interview stone-dead and blow any rapport you’ve established with the journalist out of the water.

Asking for copy approval at the end of an interview creates a problem for a number of reasons. These have...

Three key skills for account execs in tech PR

It seems hard to believe that it has already been three months since I started working here at Spark. Two years working in analytics recruitment had given me a good technical grounding, but I had to bolster my skills quickly to deliver the coverage my clients are looking for.  The biggest shock wa...

Crouch, touch, pause, engage: Why PR agencies should follow the rules of rugby

How many meaningless emails have you received today?  We have 1,728 of them to wade through each year, according to a recent Sennheiser Communications study.

Unless you’re Apple, relying too heavily on emails as a PR tactic is a sure-fire recipe for wasted time and effort. I’ve always found it’s...

How to test whether you are qualified to comment on a technology trend

Many analyst houses and big consultancies have released their top technology focus areas for 2015.  The Economist and PWC are suggesting private cloud, data mining and analytics, and cyber security will top the agenda for 2015. Gartner is also tipping cloud as a major focus area, among other t...

5 tips in 5 minutes – making sure media interviews run to plan

Media interviews are a much-vaunted, much-loved staple of any PR programme worth its salt, but, like anything in PR, they can go horribly wrong. But even when an interview isn’t a complete car crash, as any PR pro will know, a lot of interviews can end up being merely a so-so experience – instead...