Downton Abbey on location: series 5

On location in Oxfordshire for ITV's global hit drama Downton Abbey: series 5, episode 6

With Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier)
 and Branson (Allen Leech) on set 11 August 

It was a breezy day for filming, with a sense of happiness as sunshine filtered through the leaves of the large tree in the churchyard of St Mary's in Bampton. The village on the edge of the Cotswolds has been the location for many outside scenes for the filming, affording locals and the increasing number of visitors alike, the chance to witness some behind-the-scenes action in the making of this fascinating series. 

Today, there seemed to be an open window granted for people to get close to the action. On other occasions I am told filming was blocked from view to protect the storyline. But not today, it was just a lovely, fun and exciting atmosphere to be part of the last filming for the new series.

Adding to the atmosphere was the subject of the filming which struck a chord as it centered around commemorating the First World War, just as, in tandem, centenary services had been held across the country. 

Setting for memorial service outside the church

The filming was moving, as Carson's deep tones read out a memorial service with the cast seated outside the church in the first scene, soldiers unveiled a large memorial and a bugle horn sounded a long, soulful tone. This scene took the morning to film with several re-takes and was around 30 seconds in total. The second scene shot in the afternoon depicted the Earl of Grantham (played by Hugh Bonneville) unveiling a small memorial set against a wall close to the church.

Crew monitor onscreen progress 

 Throughout the day the cast and extras milled and waited in their costumes of brown hues for another take. The attention to detail on set was phenomenal. In between takes clothes brushes were swept across uniforms, make-up re-touched and rain drops dried. No less than 130 runners, make-up technicians, caterers, camera operators and security were on site to cover every eventuality.  

Lord and Lady Crawley, Carson, Mrs Hughes
 and others take part in the second memorial scene

The props, huge cameras on gigantic arms, crew huddled around screens wearing headphones to scrutinize the outputs, the actors and extras and watching crowds witnessed a full day of filming to produce around 36 seconds of footage. It certainly is a quality production. I look forward to spotting the scenes I witnessed on this memorable day in their final cut in the new series.

Soldiers wait another take on scene 1

Lady Sybil and Matthew's tomb stones appeared
for the filming in St Mary's churchyard 

Writing tip: online style guides

Words, lovely words! Drafting an article, press release or other piece of communication and unsure when and how to use a more obscure or unusual word? If there’s no grammar savvy colleague nearby, use a national newspaper’s style guide for a quick answer. This is particularly useful for PR writing when adopting journalistic style.


Most national newspapers have an alphabetical style guide on their website so they are easy to search for specific words. These are useful for checking correct use and spelling of more unusual words.

Style guides can also be entertaining... Check out the list of 'banned' words in The Daily Telegraph for example. The Telegraph's lists 'sensational' or 'distasteful' words that staff and freelance writers can't use as they simply don’t fit the style of the paper.

The Guardian and BBC (pdf download) style guides are useful too for spelling, definitions and journalistic style. The words section on the BBC guide provides good advice for writing as well as broadcasting. It explains some commonly misunderstood words and definitions.

Happy wordsmithing!

Creativity & chaos freezes BMW campaign

BMW Mini are well known for their creative marketing campaigns – I drive a Mini and it’s great fun.


However, as demonstrated in its latest marketing drive, creativity can rapidly erupt into chaos and crisis management when ideas crash and burn…

Its campaign to sponsor the names of two weather fronts called ‘Minnie’ and ‘Cooper’ to promote its new Cooper Roadster backfired when the weather system’s icy temperatures caused over 100 deaths across Europe. Read my comment on the story in the Oxford Times

More forward planning of what could potentially go wrong with any campaign can help avoid disasters. A simple ‘SWOT’ analysis of a creative marketing idea (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) should help in the forming stage. Not every disaster is avoidable of course - and we can’t always predict everything that could go wrong - businesses will always need crisis communications expertise!

But it’s what you do when things go wrong that can matter even more to your brand... Are you prepared for a crisis and how do you react when one happens?

BMW did the right thing in holding their hands up immediately and apologising. Being open and honest and saying sorry is something a lot of firms could learn from! Timely communication of the appropriate message to the key audience is an important part of reputation management and can help stop negativity gathering force and keeping the story running in the public arena. People can be quick to forgive when an apology is timely and sincere.

We’ll hopefully see many more creative campaigns, perhaps on less weather-dependent themes (?) from the Mini brand.

'Your Business - Your Games!'

With the Olympics looming, I went along to an event to find out how the games will affect businesses, and how they can get benefit. Seems there are all sorts of opportunities for businesses - large and small in the build up to London 2012...

Hosted by Business Link, British triple jumper Nathan Douglas who hails from Oxfordshire spoke about his experiences as a professional athlete and hopes for 2012.

It's an Olympic fact:...'an estimated £1billion of additonal visitor expenditure will be generated in the South East as a result of the London 2012 Olympic Games.'

Even if your business is not competing to win contracts for the Games, those businesses who have won contracts may very well need help too! Contracts are advertised on websites including: http://www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/, http://www.businessportal.southeastiep.gov.uk/ and http://www.competefor.com/


The Olympics is certainly proving a popular theme for all sorts of business activities, events and promotions in the run up to the games.

Look out for local as well as national events taking place and opportunities for regional and local businesses to get involved. For example, The Olympic Torch will visit Oxford (7 July), Reading (10 July), Southampton (14 Jul) and a series of other locations (see www.london2012.com/olympic-torch-relay) for all details. Also, in Oxfordshire the Tree of Life cultural event will be on 9 July in Stonor Park. The games are also due to be shown on big screen in public spaces across the county. Go to http://www.oxfordshiregameon.co.uk/ for a calender of local events.

NB: Of course, there are very strict guidelines surrounding all mentions of the games, key phrases to do with the games and of course logos. Full copyright guidelines are on http://www.tourism2012games.org/

New article published: Buildbase's Two Wheel Challenge

It was inspiring to meet the man behind Johnson's Buildbase's 10-strong team who are saddling up for a four-day cross-channel charity challenge to raise £250K for Macmillan this summer. It's a huge challenge for them and a great fundraising goal for their business, so I wish them all the best!

Read how they are preparing for the Macmillan London to Paris cycle ride, what's motivating them to help the charity and how people can get involved too here pages 88-89.

Planning tips - it's necessary but not always boring!

What better use of staying indoors in the warm than thinking of your goals for the next season and beyond...

A little time spent in some strategic and creative thinking can make a huge difference to the success of your PR and marketing plans for the short and longer term. Planning cycles take different shapes depending on the type of business, its customers' requirements and seasonal pressures for example. Plans must be adaptable and allow for reactive measures as well as driving proactive strategies to make a difference to your businesses' overall goals. However, some basic principles apply to planning ahead effectively - whatever the type of business or 'season' you are in.

Now is the time to start planning ahead - here are a few tips to help get into planning mode for success in the new season:

1. Review! What worked well over the past few months/year, what didn't and why? Ask your team for their feedback and ideas. Flag any pitfalls to aviod in the new season, and re-use tactics that worked well (adapting or re-freshing as necessary).
2. Big thinking... What is your overall big idea? What are your key strategic goals for the new year/season ahead? Re-visit your business plan - have your strategic aims changed, and how can you use the many varied tools of PR and maketing to help you achieve your business aims? Think short, medium and long term.
3. Refresh your goals. Once your strategy is clarified (if needed) or re-confirmed, set clear, measureable objectives to support the strategy.
4. Hit the target. Have your target markets shifted? What changes have happened or are currently happening in your industry that you need to take account of in your planning and what changes might come into play soon that will affect your target audiences and your business? Arm yourself with up-to-date market knowledge that will help you make informed decisions.
5. Get creative! Have some fun thinking of creative ways to fulfil new goals or tackle goals yet to achieve. Involve others in some creative thinking time and reward good ideas. Make it visual - use a big board to record ideas or create a colourful 'brain map' or spider diagram of ideas flowing out of a central aim or goal. Tackle one goal or challenge at a time to think about a range of different possible solutions and ideas.
6. Resource your plans... Now you know what you want to achieve next, do you have the support and skills sets in place to get it done? Draw in experts to fill in any gaps. Also think about staffing needs as far in advance as possible to ensure you get the pick of the crop when it comes to hiring talent - whether on a temporary, freelance, contract or permanent basis.
7. Build relationships. People are important! Take a few moments to think about what relationships are important to your business and why. Do you need to review your stakeholder contacts, do you need to nurture some key relationships and are there some new contacts you should be making in order to help drive your new business plans and strategies forward?

Obviously there is a lot more to be said on this topic, and some very specific ideas to put in place in order to create an effective PR plan. Hopefully these pointers might inspire some forward planing that will help reap results. Happy plannng!

CSR: a longer-term view & ideas

Is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme just for larger businesses to demonstrate their ethical credentials to shareholders and customers and companies looking to do some 'team bonding' whilst building something together? Or is it something that can be long-lasting, benefitting communities and stimulating businesses?

From what I've experienced, working with a wide range of clients from coffee companies to supermarkets to SMEs and start-ups, the latter can be true. Projects done in the right way with commitment can be benefit both sides. I have seen examples of where it has and hasn't worked. Good CSR programmes can make a difference to individuals, buisinesses and communities if delivered with some thought and longer-term perspective.

Not only do those on the receiving end benefit, CSR in all its various forms, can provide many positive aspects to office life too. Take annual charity fun runs for example - they can be a great chance for people to get fit, do a bit of team building and raise cash for a good cause. You don't even have to run but can help fundraise or walk! The OX5 Run has been a fantastic way of raising money for the Oxford Children's Hospital - this year it raised £50,000 for new equipment. Oxfordshire-based recruitment firm Allen Associates has sponsored the event for two years now and has been heavily involved in promoting it. Going to their awards evening this year and meeeting some of the children who have benefitted from the new equipment was just awe-inspiring. (photo above: with GMTV presenters Emma Crosby and Kirsty McCabe and Jason Donovan who started this year's OX5 Run)

My sister set up a fun charity challenge for 2010 (in her spare moments from her busy job!) with a friend called '10 4 10' - with 10 creative challenges to appeal to different interests - from mountaineering to gardening and design - to raise money for 10 different charities. Special awards for completing all 10!

Here are a few more thoughts and ideas:

1. Think local: Choose a charity or project that serves the community in which your business operates and where many of your staff will live.


2. It's not all about the money: smaller businesses that don't have much extra cash to give, can be a bit more creative with their CSR - giving of a little time or expertise can be just as much of a benefit - supporting local schools by providing work experience placements is just one idea - you might even find your next talented recruit!


3. Think longer-term: it takes time to get to know a project, charity or community. Take a little time to explore what's around your area or what might be a good fit with your business and its values, expertise and resources.


4. From the heart: why not ask staff if there is something they are already involved in out of office hours that you could support as a business and free up some staff time to get involved too.


5. Get active: there are many charity fun runs, for example that take place every year - why not encourage staff to get fit and raise money for a good cause.

Moving away from short-term goodwill gestures or high profile one-off projects that might grab attention and be nice for staff, towards a longer-term view and valuable relationship-building can benefit all involved. Economic challenges? What difference does that make? Surely building businesses and communities goes hand-in-hand.

Mixing traditional & new PR tools successfully

Berlin is a city of stark contrasts - particularly evident in its buildings. In a recent visit I snapped cool, contemporary architecture alongside beautiful buildings of huge historical weight and interest. The Reichstag building (left: filming a short piece on Berlin outside the Reichstag, right: a contemporary building near the museum district) wraps together history with contemporary values with Norman Foster's glass spiral walkway where people are elevated above the politicians to remind them when they look up of who they work for.

It's the history of the city that makes it so unique - from a a once divided city to one that is now still under construction and constantly changing.

Similarly, businesses are looking to a combination of PR tactics - a traditional and online approach - to tell their own story in a way that appeals to different audiences. Using short audio and visual clips specifically designed to appeal to social media audiences can help bring key elements of a company's story to life in a new way. At a recent social media conference at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, hundreds of businesses gathered to hear about what it can do for their business - it was packed! Rory Bremner's presence no doubt helped attract interest, but there definately seems to be a hunger for more knowledge on the most effective ways of reaching audiences with their messages.

Combining a 'traditional', strategic approach of defining key goals and then selecting the most appropriate tools for the job is proving successful for clients. Helping businesses monitor and then join in and start relevant conversations with audiences online can produce valuable results.

What'll make your business tick in 2010?

Whilst planning for and thinking about 2010 it's good too to reflect on the positives from the year just gone. It's so easy to forget achievements, even the smaller 'wins' and obstacles overcome.

A key highlight for me was attending the Parliamentary Awards at the House of Commons at the end of the year organised by ComRes. It was a significant event in terms of the recognition of the charities' achievements and the involvement of key MPs and businesses.

There's always highs and lows in any business's year - PR is certainly no exception! Getting results for clients is one of the things that makes me tick. I doubt I'd be in PR if it didn't!

However, some other memorable moments have been those with a particular 'feel-good' factor (e.g.the awards mentioned) and events such as securing David Cameron's support of the OX5Run at Blenheim Palace for the Oxford Children's Hospital. I'm enjoying working on that event again for sponsors Allen Associates.

Whilst the year has had a fairly quiet with the snow flurries I've thoroughly enjoyed working on the launch of my sister's year-long charity event 10 4 10 (which she's organising in her spare time outside her busy job) to raise funds for ten charities. I'll be doing the DIY Dare. Keeps me ticking!

Up for a challenge or 10 in 2010?

Do something different in 2010!

As the New Year approaches, a series of creative, fun charity challenges has been launched by adventurous friends Ilona Woodward and Laura Aktins via their new website Planet Raucous.

Called '10 4 10', the aim of the series of activities is to raise money for 10 charities whilst having fun along the way. You donate via Justgiving, register for the challenge(s) you want and then the fun really begins.

Take your pick of 10 challenges, or complete all 10 and compete for an award…

The 'mountain high' challenge will appeal to those with a love of skiing or adrenalin sports. There are plenty of others to choose from including song recording, poem writing, design or even growing the most unusual plant you can imagine in the most inventive container and place you can think of.

I'll be doing the OX5 RUN at Blenheim Palace again in April but I have the whole year to complete the 10 4 10 challenges too.

Find them of Facebook and Twitter @PlanetRaucous

Could Twitter help solve a business problem?

Twitter personalities (above) suggested by Paul Armstrong of Kindred

Another packed room recently at the CIPR HQ - all gathered to hear if Tweeting is good for business. Read Paul's presentation here.

Before using Twitter for marketing or PR purposes ask: "Why use it? What's the business problem?" It could be used, for example to help drive more people to your website or provide a 'face' to your business. An upcoming feature of Twitter is the ability to create lists of key influencers for your business.

Setting up a Twitter account is easy - it's what you use it for that needs some thought. To engage with an audience consider being a resource too, be relevant, honest and clear.

Social media takes time, so you need to define the goals for using it and allocate time wisely. Have a presence on all relevant platforms but choose carefully which ones to spend time on. 37 million Tweeters across the globe is impressive, but there's around 316 million people on Facebook.

With a digital PR strategy in place, and perhaps some training in how to use social media platforms businesses can test out the benefits of Twitter and its counterparts. Happy Tweeting!

sharp end of digital PR

In a packed room at the CIPR with PR pros keen to be at the sharp end of digital PR techniques a show of hands revealed one or two in the room who had not yet explored Twitter or been within a mile of LinkedIn.

Maybe they will by now though, as speaker Rob Brown of Staniforth did a good job of extolling the virtues of social media for PR, explaining the uses of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for those yet to be convinced.

We're in a 24-hour rolling news society (he says) with news organisations now competing with bloggers for stories. News is instant and many media organisations are taking their business online, as you've probably noticed. The Guardian's podcasts are downloaded around 500,000 times a week whilst newspaper circulation figures are around 350,000.

Looking at the increasing value of digital PR to businesses wanting to inprove their online visibility and traffic to their website was interesting. It's an ever blurring line between PR and search, and they can work hand-in-hand it seems to deliver improved search results and higher Google rankings. PR copy is all-important too, providing essential 'content,' helping keep websites fresh and appealing to search engines. Search terms can also be widened by being used within PR copy online.

More on this topic to follow as there's so much good stuff yet to unpack...

The Twittering classes...

Twitter, Facebook and Stumbleupon... just how useful are such social media sites for businesses and what sort of results can actually be achieved?

A great PR result this week for search engine marketing experts SEOptimise. See their feature in In Business magazine, The Oxford Times, also on Flikr on the use of social media for business.

Andrew Smith interviews Stuart Tofts and Kevin Gibbons from SEOptimise on the latest social media marketing techniques for business.

An interesting read!

LinkedIn voted future proof

Business networking site LinkedIn has been voted the most future proof social media site in a new online opinion poll published today by SEOptimise.


Twenty-seven per cent of voters said LinkedIn would still be here in 2020. Facebook and YouTube came joint second with 25% of the votes each, followed by Twitter at 15%. None of the voters
expected MySpace to survive the next decade.



Thirty-nine per cent of businesses that voted in the poll are using social media channels such as Twitter, StumbleUpon and LinkedIn to boost their brand and drive people to their website. Thirty-nine per cent are using social media predominantly to build and manage relationships.

For marketing anaylsis on the results see www.seoptimise.com/blog

Taste of London’s best with festival vibe

A summer’s evening spent sampling weird and wonderful foods from London’s top restaurants seemed a pretty perfect way for anyone who loves food and wine to spend a few hours. Teemed with a festival vibe, including live music and celebrity chefs, Taste London was a huge amount of fun and even educational. The raspberry mousse dessert from Tom’s Kitchen topped my favourites. Trying pig’s cheek was a first for me. It was a slightly odd texture, but, served with scallops, not too bad.


Meeting the chefs behind London’s best restaurants was a lot of fun. Jun Tanaka from The Pearl was happy to oblige with a photo.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s lively Q&A session was a blast. It was amusingly compèred by TV wine expert Olly Smith who is loud and also a fairly good singer, it emerged. Hugh, well-known to champion a range of ethical issues talked at the beginning on the Landshare scheme which drew some support from the assembled fans.

I didn’t get round to trying the Wagyu, and missed out on some of the amazing-looking Thai cuisine, but I guess there’s always next year...

Is social media future proof?

Which social media channels will be still be around in 10 years' time? Will Facebook, YouTube and Flickr survive the test of time or will new channels continue to emerge? Hundreds of jobs are on the line at MySpace (guardian.co.uk), whilst mirco-blogging site Twitter is booming and boosting Dell's sales (PC Pro). New business tools are rumoured to be launched this year on Twitter and brands like Apple use the channel to create buzz for their products. As reported in the Telegraph the site has even helped chef Greg Wallace find love (ahh).

Have your say on the future of social media with SEOptimise's online poll running see www.seoptimise.com/blog to take part.

Asbestos, Twitter and graduate jobs

It’s been a varied couple of weeks in the world of GBPR. From Asbestos awareness seminars for business and building owners, the use of social media such as Twitter for businesses to the job market for graduates – variety is indeed the spice of working life here. See http://www.oisltd.co.uk/ for free asbestos briefings in Oxford on 3 and 5 June.


For those relatively new to blogging, SEOptimise has inspired huge respect with its AdAge Power 150 List blog – see www.seoptimise.com/blog. The Top 10 Popular Posts section is good for practical advice on online marketing and SEO. Impressively, the blog has more than 2,600 readers and is followed by more than 1,770 Twitter users.


Recent social media news includes new business tools likely to be introduced this year on Twitter, and Confused.com holding the first PR pitch via Twitter ‘Twitch’ (see PRWeek) - it’s certainly an ever-changing and exciting area to be working in.


A more challenging, but not necessarily as gloomy as portrayed topic is the job market. With the recent news that jobs for graduates and school leavers are harder to come by this year than ever before, GBPR has been working with independent recruitment agency Allen Associates to advise on what graduates can do to secure work. http://www.allen-associates.co.uk/

Media frenzy - charity success

April was a busy but successful month organising the PR around the OX5 Run - a charity fun run which David Cameron joined in to raise money for the Oxford Children's Hospital.

More than 700 fun runners jogged the five-mile route around the grounds of Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. Hailed as the most successful OX5 Run to date for the hospital - it’s expected to raise over £50,000 once all the sponsorship is received at the end of June.

My client recruitment firm Allen Associates, sponsors of the charity fun run,

were delighted with the media coverage leveraged in the regional media, (BBC Oxford, JackFM, Oxford Mail, BBC TV South and ITV Meridian) and with the national media attention on the day and post- event (Daily Telegraph, Metro, Hello, Daily Express, Daily Mail etc).

Inviting David Cameron to come along to support the race was a key to the event's sucess - I think his presence there, and the fact he not only started but ran the race, played a huge part in inspiring people to take part.

I also committed to running the five miles around the grounds to raise funds for the hospital. So after briefing PR photographer John Hunt to take the essential set up shots with my client - the event's sponsors - and organisers with David Cameron, and greeting the national media, I headed to the start line. Ending up in the front row line-up having organised the photos I was worried about being trampled by the serious runners, but was able to make way for them OK, phew.

I finished the route in 47 minutes, just three minutes behind Cameron! I was pretty happy with that - being my first ever fun run. My Dad ran with me to help spur me on, so I owe a lot of my motivation on the day to him.