A woman in England dumped a real cat in a wheelie bin, was caught on cctv and the footage ended up on YouTube and then national TV.
The Kilkenny hurling team, known as ‘The Cats’ were hoping to make history by beating Tipperary to win 5 All Ireland Championships in a row.
Smack bang in the middle of these two headline news events I came up with a simple idea ‘film someone dumping a ‘Kilkenny cat’ in a wheelie bin’.
The next day, Friday, I drove deep inside ‘enemy lines’ to purchase said cat. I toyed with the idea of getting someone well known to perform the dastardly deed. Perhaps a well known Tipperary hurler dressed in drag or similar. I thought about it for a while and decided it best to keep it close to the original video footage and ’employ’ the services of an unknown woman (nationally at least).
Cue my mother. “Ma I want to video you throwing a cat in a wheelie bin” I said. “For what”, was her confused reply. I explained what I had in mind and this was the result.
On Monday evening 30th August I uploaded the video to my YouTube channel and then posted to my Tipp Tatler Facebook page and then shared through my personal page. I was banking on family and friends and relations who knew my mother Noreen picking up on it and sharing it further. I knew it was quite good and would probably do the rounds of Borrisoleigh and maybe a bit more as she is a popular woman and much liked by all who come in contact with her, and little did I realise her exceptional acting abilities. I had no idea it would go to the 120,000+ viewers that it now stands at or would be featured in so much of the mainstream traditional media and linked to on dozens of websites.
I think the video is beautifully simple (not that I’m biased or anything). But the screenplay, if you like, has all the main ingredients of the original video with some extras thrown in. The solitary wheelie bin at the beginning and end of the clip, the arrival and departure of the woman caught on camera, the stroking of the cat, the binning of the cat (which happens to be from Kilkenny) and the coup de grace the catchphrase ‘Five in a Row My Arse!”, language unbecoming of a mature lady some might think. All captured in 17 seconds. The fact that practically all of the country was hoping for a Tipperary win possibly also helped.
YouTube have a thing called ‘Insights’ where you can analyse statistics like who’s watching your video, their age, what they are watching it on, how they came to watch it etc. If you’re interested in that kind of thing read on, if not, tune out now.
Statistics on the location of the video.ie. Where was the video viewed, shows that
53.3% on YouTube
31.8% on an Embedded Player (where the video is on a site other than YouTube, eg Facebook, Tipp Tatler etc.)
14.6% on Mobile Devices
.32% YouTube Channel Pages
Facebook without doubt won the embedded player contest with 28.8% of the views on embedded players coming from there. Followed by Boards.ie 0.69%, Newstalk.ie 0.44% and Tipp Tatler 0.32% (Yeah, yeah, there I go plugging it again, well tough :))
The demographical statistics are also quite interesting.
Broken down by sex the video was viewed by 64% Male 36% Female.
The larger male % is probably explained by the video associated with a predominantly male sport.
The video was viewed more by the over 35’s than the young whipper snappers.
More than half the viewers were aged between 35 and 54.
13-17yrs 10%
18-24yrs 12.05%
25-34yrs 15.55%
35-44yrs 26.81%
45-54yrs 23.60%
55-64yrs 9.66%
65+yrs 2.28%
The Hot Spots chart is pretty nifty I think.
It tracks the audience attention by watching where viewers tune out or rewind a particular piece to watch it again. A red vertical line moves along as the video plays so you know at what point viewers enjoyed most. The graph below shows the audience attention was in the hot zone throughout. I guess the length of 17 seconds made it easy enough to accomplish that.
Some other, what I think are interesting, points are
When it was at 14,500 views I had a look at the insights and the % for viewing on mobile devices was 21%.
While the 35-44yrs group was still the biggest % of viewers, the 25-34yrs was slightly more than the 45-54yrs.
The day after I caught those figures was the day that the story appeared in the newspapers and was mentioned on radio etc. This suggests to me that the traditional media sources drove an older demographic who were less likely to have smart phones to search for the video online. This is further borne out by the statistics of the number of visitors to the Tipp Tatler website through various combinations of the search words Tipperary, woman, cat, bin, Kilkenny etc. which increased significantly towards the end of the week.
I was tempted as it was growing in popularity to edit the video online, as YouTube allows, and maybe add in some reference to the Tipp Tatler magazine but decided against it, as I didn’t want to interfere with what appeared to be a winning combination. In any case, a lot of the national media mentioned the Tipp Tatler along with a local paper and ourselves of course. Our YouTube channel is linked to our website, but that reference would be lost viewing it embedded on other sites. If doing something similar again however I would be sure to put in some subtle hint of who was behind it. Hindsight is a great thing.
It’s been an unusual but fun week, the phones didn’t stop ringing from when the papers came out on the Thursday with The Independent, The Star and The Evening Herald all with some mention of it and a radio interview with Ray D’Arcy on TodayFM, followed on Saturday with another interview with Marian Finucane on Radio1. I’d like to thank my mother for being such a good sport and for capturing the hearts of so many people.
But do you know what topped it all?
Tipperary won the match! All Ireland Hurling Champions 2010! 
What was Ryanairs reaction? They put it on their website
Not bad publicity for Dublins98 either, well done to Dave and guys.
Here’s the video
]]>The Greenhouse Incubator in Limerick was set up in February by Evert Bopp in response to the closure of the Dell factory. It offers an innovative opportunity for new start ups to get off the ground without getting bogged down in red tape and bureaucracy.
From the site; -“The GreenHouse has been started up now to combat the ongoing economic downturn. While there are a number of admirable government initiatives going on, the only real way for the economy to recover is by an increase of private sector activity. The recent and future redundancies by large, small & medium sized companies create a huge pool of talent. With the right guidance & support a percentage of these people are perfect candidates for developing their own ventures.”
TalentTank.ie is an exciting initiative linking employers and employees in a new and different way that can only be of benefit to everyone. I’ll allow them explain:– “Talent Tank is a website that provides Individuals and Employers the platform on which to have a direct influence on the speed in which we recover from the recession. The concept is simple, talented Individuals offer their skills and experience for free, for a couple of hours or days and Employers avail of this free skills offer.” You can read the press release here.
As we have recently embarked on a new publication and can do with all the help we can get I registered on the site and posted my details. I received a reply fairly quickly from John Jennings who offered to produce a video advert for us. A couple of emails were sent over and back, with good suggestions from John (as I didn’t really have any plan as to what I wanted) the finished product is below. It won’t have the same viral effect as Susan Boyle’s now famous video but I do quiet like it and found John great to work with.
Swop-o-nomics.com offers the chance to barter for products and services. Personally I love this way of doing business and have been known to swap advertising for a TV, photography sessions, IT support, general labour, diving gear and other things I can’t think of right now. I think it makes great sense as the cost of supplying a product or service is less than what someone would pay to buy it from you. Both parties forgo the profit on the transaction and the only cost is your time or the wholesale value of the goods. Although the market value of the goods should be used as the ‘exchange rate’. We all need different goods and services over time and it’s great to see this site up and running. You can read their press release here.
For ideas and guidance I consulted Adrian Weckler’s post and Emily Tully’s ‘5 things you should know when sending out a Press Release’.
When complete I uploaded it to some press release distribution sites. One I had been using regularly for sourcing articles, IrishPressReleases.ie which as the name suggests is specifically for Ireland and the others I found through Google. I have used the links to my press release rather than to the home page of the various sites to allow you to see how each one looks across the various sites. I’m sure there are loads more out there and a professional PR would most likely know about them. They all had free uploads, but with www.1888pressrelease.com, maybe due to a better sales cycle, I opted for the platinum package of $25 which offered better promotion of the release than the free option. A quick look at site stats first thing this morning showed this one actually had send the most traffic through to the site (which will hopefully be looking a lot better very soon). So maybe it was worth the extra expense.
The other sites I uploaded to were PressReleasePoint.com (They have a list of options for you to bookmark on all the popular sites) and PR-Inside.com (who nicely display whatever picture you supply beside the release)
As yet, I haven’t sent to any journalists, newspapers, magazines, TV or radio stations. That’s next on my list. Again a professional PR should have all these contacts. Some would argue that you are better off doing your own PR
Like anything you take upon yourself to do, it is time consuming. But I like a challenge and learning something new. At least now I have the registration part with the various sites out of the way. It has also made me more aware of the need to have something newsworthy to write about, and if I don’t, to go and find something and make it newsworthy.
While writing this I came across these blog posts which have more information on the whole PR thing:-
Whether the press release makes the mainstream news or gets published in any medium remains to be seen. But please do let me know if you see it in your local or daily favourite.
And if you have other ideas on DIY PR please leave a comment
]]>A post by Kevin Dunne had me think about this some time back and recently a comment by him on my blog prompted me to write this.
As Niall Harbison has pointed out before most entrepreneurs have several business ideas each day and see opportunities all around them.
So this is my offering to anyone who fancies making a few quid. I don’t think you’d get rich however and there is a bit of work involved in doing it and it is seasonal and out of office hours. So it may suit students during the evenings, weekends or holidays better. It can be replicated in any town in Ireland or indeed anywhere I’m sure.
What is it?
Basically it’s live tweeting of local matches or other sporting occasions. The ones that aren’t on TV or radio. Suppose your local team, or any local team for that matter, is playing a match somewhere. You go to the match and tweet the action as it happens. You don’t need to know the names of the players, people will be shouting them out for you. Some knowledge of the sport may be useful however….
How do you make money from it?
That’s an interesting question, I’m glad you asked. There are a number of ways to monetise your activities, but it does involve a bit of selling.
You could approach 1 or 2 of the pubs in each town to pay for the service. You or a friend would most likely have to set up a laptop connected to the TV with a broadband connection so the punters in the pub could follow the action. Most of the clientele or publicans won’t have a clue about Twitter so the whole novelty value here would be a crowd puller. It may not be a huge crowd but it would be better than an empty pub for the publican. They could also get some free publicity in the local media for being so innovative.
You could also sell advertising to various businesses in the towns which you could display through Twitpic. Using the Power Twitter add on to Firefox the pictures are displayed without having to click on the link. You can of course put up team photos, action shots and crowd photos to liven things up a bit as well. Lets face it, reading the match commentary does not make for riveting entertainment. But it does give the pub back to the customers who can talk away while keeping up to date with what’s happening. Although some clever tweeting could build up the suspense.
You’d have to decide which platform to use displaying the tweets, the web interface would need regular refreshing but as mentioned photos would be viewable. Twission could also be used if you set up a hashtag and if there were pubs in the rival towns the punters comments of each pub could also be displayed to each other adding to the overall fun.
How much to charge for advertising or using the service would of course be a major consideration. Most die hard sporting fans will be at the match so it will depend on how much extra business the publican is likely to receive. But as already mentioned if they contact their local radio/newspaper/magazine etc. and let them know what is happening, they could get several hundred euros worth of free publicity. Adrian Weckler tells you how to write a competent press release here
It could be a hard thing to sell though as you would most likely have to explain Twitter as well.
That’s just a local example of one opportunity with a limited market. Maybe you can come up with your own model that would appeal to a national or worldwide audience. Remember if you have a lot of people buying from you at a low price, it all adds up.
Not a get rich quick scheme, but it could help earn some extra cash for college, teach you how to sell, be a challenge and possibly be a springboard for even greater things. And maybe someone with a knowledge of building applications or better ways of doing this kind of thing can create the best way of doing it.
Don’t forget Setanta Sports started out beaming live GAA matches into pubs in the US and Australia.
]]>It gave me inspiration for a post about how to get free publicity on the radio.
It’s nothing too exciting or complicated but very easy to do and can be quiet effective. There are only 2 steps involved in the process.
1. Listen to the radio.
This means listen out for subjects being discussed relevant to your business or the event that you would like to promote. Channel surf. Get to know when the stations chat shows are on. Which DJs accept text or email queries seeking advice.
2. Text in to the station.
If you hear the DJ re-telling a problem a listener has sent in and you can help solve the problem, let them know! It’s great if you have a website or blog you can direct them to.
(if you need a domain Blacknight, at the time of writing, have announced a great offer on .ie domains for today (Friday) only)
For instance, using the example above, if Enda hears the DJ read a text such as “There’s nothing for teenagers to do in …..” then he sends in a text. (Real life examples of my own at the end)
It doesn’t matter if the bored teenager would have absolutely no interest whatsoever in attending the event. You just want the DJ to read out your message. It helps if you can find a link to justify sending your text and for the DJ to read it out. Listen out for keywords, so to speak, like ‘teenager’, ‘blogging’ or anything tech related. Then send your text ‘The bored teenager is welcome to attend an event in Dublin organised by teenagers for teenagers, there are details at teencampireland.com”.
If you were really devious you could have a friend get the ball rolling by sending in the initial text. But that would be sneaky …….
Some radio show presenters/researchers will get curious and want to know more. They may call you to see if you are available to talk on air.
Be prepared, have a few notes written down to refer to so you don’t get tongue tied. Practise doing interviews so you will come across better. Record yourself doing it. Try to eliminate the filler words like ‘um’, ‘ah’, ‘you know’, ‘like’. You’ll only have a certain amount of airtime so you will want to make the most of it.
Two Real life examples (please note I will be shamelessly plugging my own site here)
Listening to Ray D’Arcy on TodayFM one morning a listener sent a text in wondering if he should ask his girlfriends father for her hand in marriage. I sent in a text saying “The website www.willyoumarryme.ie may be able to help your listener”. The text was read out and there was big jump in visitor numbers.
Listening to Nikki Hayes on 2fm one afternoon a listener sent a text wondering what song they should play for their first wedding dance. I sent in a text saying “The website www.willyoumarryme.ie has a playlist of first dance songs you can listen to, to help choose” Two minutes later I got a call from a researcher asking if I would go on air to explain about it. That was fantastic for me! A few minutes free airtime on national radio plugging my site for the price of a text.
These were two simple occasions when I took advantage of an opportunity that presented itself.
Now if only I could get my first wedding dance video on TV!
]]>