If you work in PR and are interested in the latest thinking on the media industry, PR planning, media analysis and social media, these are the must-read stories from last week.
- A suggestive advertising campaign by Welsh bus company New Adventure that was meant to “make buses cool” sparked a social media outrage this week. The adverts featured naked men and women holding signs that read “Ride me all day for £3” and were emblazoned on the back of the company’s buses. Passengers took to Twitter declaring the ads “disgraceful” and “atrocious”. New Adventure has since published an apology and removed the ads from its buses.
![Twitter image of bus campaign]()
- Domino’s US has taken its social media marketing to the next level, revealing it is now possible to order pizza on Twitter. Hungry patrons can register their Twitter handle on their Domino’s profile and will then be able to simply tweet Domino’s their order. Returning customers will even be able to tweet a pizza emoji and within 30 minutes their favourite pizza will be delivered to their doorstep.
![]( "Pizza")
- Writing an engaging press release that resonates with journalists is a skill many PR professionals aspire to have. In the good old days, it was all down to your own writing skills and expertise, but no longer. Better PR Writer has launched an online tool where you can test the quality of your press release. Simply copy and paste your text into the tool, hit submit and out comes a score for your press release and some feedback. While a paid-for service, you can currently test it out with a free trial.
- Facebook rolled out Instant Articles this week, enabling users to read stories from the likes of the Guardian and the BBC without leaving the Facebook app. The articles are hosted on Facebook’s servers, meaning stories will load immediately, rather than take the previous average of 8 seconds to appear, and allow for more interactive features. Currently only available on the iOS app, an Android version will be released soon.
![]( "Facebook instant articles")
- Google continues its domination as the world’s biggest media business and is now 136% bigger than its nearest rival, Disney. The annual report by ZenithOptimedia, ranking the top 30 global media owners, also showed that Facebook is the fastest-growing media owner, with revenues up by 63% over the past year. The social network now ranks 10th in the top 30, up 14 places on the previous year.
- Today’s infographic, based on Ofcom data, looks at media literacy in the UK and shows adults’ internet usage has more than doubled since 2005.
![]( "Infographic")
