All over Britain, people are living secret double lives. By day, they are mild-mannered pen pushers, officer workers, shop assistants. But when evening comes, they don makeup, slip into a costume, and it’s curtain up, light the lights, we’ve got nothing to hit but the heights! Yes amateur dramatic societies are flourishing the length and breadth of this sceptre’d isle.
It’s a £34 million business, with many productions rivalling the standards, and the costs, of full scale professional theatre. The national organisation that provides information and advice to thousands of societies throughout Britain to make all of this possible is NODA – the National Operatic and Dramatic Association.
Now that Media Mentor has been commissioned to provide media awareness and interview skills training to NODA members, watch out for a dramatic (pun intended) increase in coverage, but more importantly, understanding of the vital work this dedicated body of hard-working enthusiasts does to enrich the lives of everybody – performers, stagehands and most importantly audiences of every type. Their promises – it’s the best night out you’ll ever have!
Chris Klopper learned a great deal in the last week. Chris is the CEO of a PR consultancy amongst whose clients is a travel firm called G.A.P. Adventures. Whose ship the M/S Explorer came off worst in an encounter with an iceberg last week in the Antarctic.
Says Chris Klopper: “Even if you do not think you will have a crisis, make sure your most senior person in every country is media trained.” Klopper said the Explorer accident had been a ‘lesson’ to him and his team.
The entire company’s reputation hung on the performance of the one man who had been media trained – UK sales and marketing director John Warner. Happily he didn’t put a foot wrong. But one wrong phrase and nobody would want to set foot on a G.A.P. adventure ever again.
Are you sure you are fully prepared for the unexpected?
Make sure – give us a call today about our highly praised Crisis Media course which will ensure your organisation will sail through any troubled waters.
We pride ourselves that our clients will experience the genuine atmosphere of a bustling broadcast news studio, wherever they are in the UK. That’s why we describe our courses as stimulating, realistic and challenging. So come with us now, dear reader, as we take you to a recent studio complex, somewhere in the South East of England. Read the rest of this entry »
What could be more innocent and good natured than the magical world of Disney? Who could criticise a place where stories always have a happy ending? Journalists – that’s who. They’re always suspicious.
The twenty first century Disney is no longer just a company of cute animations and even cuter TV shows. Britain is about to experience Disney.co.uk – a website unlike any other, which offers a virtual world in which kids can immerse themselves. Read the rest of this entry »
One of our clients recently spent a day in a real news broadcast centre dealing with potential crises involving fatal accidents, evacuations of ocean-going vessels, poisonings, raging fires etc.
The usual run of luck every large company could encounter. Happily none of it leaked out to the hounds in the newsroom – they’re used to the hysteria emanating from the studio during training bookings.
One of the main obstacles included in the scenarios – collapse of the system to deal with hundreds of people phoning the hotline for information. The solution we revealed included a “breaking news” website with vital information for the various different audiences affected by a serious incident.
Fast forward one week after the course, and we receive a call from the client, asking for advice in setting up such a website service. Result!
Click here for information on our Crisis Courses
Glasgow’s winning bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014 is a tribute to the new confidence sweeping through the city – and Media Mentor, with headquarters in greater Glasgow, is pleased to offer uniquely tailored media training by Hazel Irvine, BBC Sport’s best-known presenter and, as a Scot, one of the main faces of the BBC’s coverage of the games.The Commonwealth Games will bring massive opportunities for businesses throughout the UK – and Scottish companies are anxious to make sure they are well placed to compete for, and win, the big contracts.
Their reputation, their profile, and their ability to get their message across to the public is vital in that battle. Read the rest of this entry »
Heather Mills McCartney was talk of the town yesterday following a live interview on GMTV in which she waged war on the media announcing that she would seek European legislation to compel newspapers to apologise for untruthful stories. During the interview, she compared herself to Princess Diana and Kate McCann and claimed that her treatment in the press has been worse than that of a paedophile. Read the rest of this entry »
THE chief executive and former chairmen of Northern Rock has blamed the media coverage of the bank’s financial situation for its continued troubles.
Matt Ridley, former chairman of Northern Rock and a former journalist himself, said that without the media coverage the bank’s troubles would have been avoided – not so. Read the rest of this entry »
This week the Nobel Prize-winning DNA pioneer James Watson showed us the importance of key messages and selective dialogue when speaking to journalists and illustrated that even the most intelligent of use require a little media training.
Dr Watson caused international outrage following his comments this week in a national newspaper suggesting that Africans were less intelligent than Europeans. Read the rest of this entry »
Media Mentor, a leading provider of media training in the UK and Europe, has continued its long standing relationship with fast food giant McDonald’s in its fight against the McJob – the definition that is.
This month, Media Mentor’s Paul Murricane held a grilling, educational, yet fun, session for members of McDonalds’ Scottish team. The training session included not only explanations of why a McJob was not a low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, low benefit, no-future job in the service sector but in fact a career path for committed and career-orientated individuals, but also heated live radio and one-on-one debates on the subject. Read the rest of this entry »
Ever wondered how much damage an ill-considered word to a journalist could cost? How about £3.5 billion?
That’s the figure BP are expected to pay after CEO Tony Hayward let loose a few unfavourable comments that are rocking the oil industry.
A fascinating story of what NOT to say when speaking to the media.
This was Rod Stewart’s advice to Paul McCartney as his divorce battle continues to dominate the news headlines – not good advice if McCartney wants to harness the full power of the media and get them on his sideIn a pre-recorded interview for Sky News Steward advised McCartney not to get tangled up in the media battle with estranged wife Heather Mills, saying: “Don’t read the newspapers. Stay out of it.” Read the rest of this entry »
Media training isn’t just about talking to journalists. It’s about knowing how to make the impact of your business as powerful and positive as possible.
The benefits of spending a day getting your messages, and their communication right can have a fundamental and dramatic effect on your business. And the benefits can apply to the biggest organisations in the world. Read the rest of this entry »
The former Soviet republic of Georgia has had a turbulent time since achieving independence as a fully fledged European country. Gone are the drab days of communism, but in place instead is a tense situation between Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia.
Keeping a close eye on peacekeeping activities is the Organisation For Security and Co-Operation In Europe (OSCE) the world’s largest regional security organisation. The OSCE Mission To Georgia is doing a superb job – but they are more aware than most that one wrong word to a journalist could cause untold damage. Read the rest of this entry »
The above phrase could mean anything – we did it on an internet translation site – but one of our clients should know exactly what it means.
Glamorgan University commissioned Media Mentor to take their senior academic staff through two days of intensive training in handling every type of media enquiry from national radio and TV interrogation to Welsh language newspaper features. Read the rest of this entry »
“What sort of people do you train – anyone famous?”
It’s the most difficult question to answer. There is no such thing as a typical client. Certainly not the average cabbie’s idea of the sort of person who receives regular media training – the politicians and personalities they see on the box every day. This month we take officers from British Transport Police through their paces: dealing with everything from community policing to challenging crises which can cripple the transport system. Read the rest of this entry »
Media Mentor has responded to increasing activity in the South East of England – which now accounts for more than half of our business – by appointing a representative in London.
Our London representative, Victoria Lloyd, works from the offices of Z’Est Corporate in Carnaby Street, just a stone’s throw from the BBC’s Broadcasting House headquarters at the top of Regent Street. Toria as she’s known has quickly become a familiar voice to our existing clients, and is really making our presence felt in the hectic and competitive world of media training in the Capital.
Why not give her a call on 0207 734 0404
Our courses cover the essential rules of dealing with the press. But it is possible to spot trends in news from the trends in the sort of clients who book us.
Recently we have noticed a surprising, and rather worrying trend towards scenarios involving the kidnapping of workers abroad. Several London-based international organisations have booked training courses for senior directors, and specifically asked for help in how to handle public concern should groups of their workers in some of the more unstable regions of the world be taken prisoner for ransom by indigenous activists. Read the rest of this entry »
