When clients and people that come back into the fold, it's the best thing, and we've had both recently.

The clients first.  In 2009, a year that most of us would like to forget, a handful of our clients decided that they had to stop spending money with us, focus on survival and just go brace themselves for a bumpy recession. It was all pretty grim.  I know from mates in other agencies that they had the same experience.

We were upset, particularly when we'd done great work and had a strong  client relationship, but we chalked it up to experience and moved on.  So imagine our delight when two clients, Celona and OpenCloud, called us recently and said: "We made it through, we've survived, won new customers, we're stronger and we want you to start promoting us again."

And it's happened with people too.  A great Account Exec left us a few years ago to go do other things and we were gutted at the time.  Now he's back, older and wiser, and he's slotted back in perfectly.

So does this mark the recovery kicking in or signal the end of the recession?  Not willing to call that just yet.  So what's the real moral of the story? Well, I think it's more simple than that.  Be nice, work hard, keep in touch, don't burn bridges. People and clients, like boomerangs, do come back.

Jon

For some reason, perhaps connected with my sad lack of a decent social life, I've been thinking a lot lately about ideas.

I come not from PR but from a journalism then an advertising background. Advertising is a business that's all about ideas (although in the ad biz ideas are called concepts because that sounds way more impressive and you can charge a lot more for them).

When ideas are needed in advertising, account management brief a creative team (a copywriter and an art director who always work together). The creative team then go away, look terribly important and busy and artistic for a few days, and come back with a bunch of ideas (sorry, concepts) of which the best three are then presented to the client.

It's a hugely inefficient process. It's a bit different here at Octopus. We have brainstorming sessions and they're all well and good. But for slightly smaller projects, people use the company-wide email address to send out a shout for contributions.

So as an Octopede you'll be sitting at your desk doing your normal job and suddenly a company-wide e-mail will arrive asking for ideas about a name for this or an approach for that or a clever way of doing something else.

And it works like a charm!

In minutes, ideas come bouncing out of the oddest places. People who work on a tech account, send off really good ideas for an environmental client. And vice versa. People whose job has nothing to do with copy come up with better lines than the so-called professional writers (i.e. -- me).

And it all happens in about twenty minutes.

It's far more efficient than the ad biz creative team model and even more effective than our normal brainstorms.

So I got to thinking about why.

And I've come to the conclusion that our e-mail brainstorms allow everyone to contribute at whatever level they're comfortable with.

You can ignore it. You can get involved. You can build on and enhance someone else's idea. Or you can shift the entire discussion in a brand-new direction. You can do whatever you like.

These online brainstorms are fast-paced so there's an incentive to think on your feet and get involved. And, most importantly, they're fun.

So next time you need a good idea, think about firing off a company-wide e-mail and see what comes back as 'reply all.'

The response may surprise you.

Mark

It was not without a little trepidation that we agreed to get up ridiculously early to visit a new automotive client in the European hometown of their current president for our kick-off meeting last week. But after a 4.30am start (I did say it was ridiculous) we headed off fuelled with Lufthansa's finest coffee to BMW's Innovation Centre in Munich, while the petrolheads in the office could hardly contain their envy.

Perhaps somewhat ironically (having taken a taxi, a plane, a train and a tube to get to our destination but *helpless shrug* needs must) the main discussion at our meeting was on sustainability. It's an issue that has for the first time in the industry's history now taken precedence over safety as the biggest challenge for the world's automotive engineering community.

In PR terms it makes for a really interesting conversation. Sure we all know that "petrol cars = bad for the environment" but how many of us are also aware that "electric cars = actually more carbon-intensive than the humble combustion engine until we get our renewables strategy sorted out?"

But with the world's media ever more focused on mankind's environmental impact, it's easy to get carried away with the hype. And so begins the debate, much discussed here and here among others: what is the role of the car in the low carbon society of the future?  

              Some impressive BMW innovation spotted in London W6 this weekend

With our heads brimming full of ideas and buzzing with newly discovered knowledge, we began our return journey. Unfortunately despite the very efficient instructions given to us on how to get back to Munich Airport, we got distracted while discussing various possible storylines and found ourselves hurtling in the wrong direction with a rapidly ticking clock.

And then we had one of those strange but brilliant European experiences where every person on the train was not only friendly and informed about the region's train timetable, but also able to explain where we'd gone wrong in perfect English and direct us back in the right direction. A big danke schön to our fellow travellers that day.

We made our flight with moments to spare, and so we returned, feeling we had both physically (albeit accidentally) and intellectually gone an extra mile or two for our client that day. 

Ruth

We're big fans of a good media partnership over here. We're also firm believers that there's a certain appeal to putting two things together that really shouldn't go, but just do - chilli chocolate, we're looking at you.

So, it was with a sense of giddy glee that we opened today's Sun to find two things that definitely don't go - a quite inexplicable but brilliant Sun special supplement on CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Or, as the nation's favourite red top would have it, The Time Machine. Sadly we can't link to the supplement here, so you'll have to dash down to the newsagents if you want to enjoy it for yourself. Pick us up a Cornetto while you're there, will you?

Suffice to say that this is the story of the world's most ambitious, largest, complex and potentially life-changing particle physics experiment poured into a pan on the Sun's news stove and simmered down to a consistency at which it can be understood by today's everyman. Not only does the supplement come with an introduction from particle physicist (and, of course, former D:Ream keboardist) Professor Brian Cox, it also boasts a handy guide to the particles which Brian will be smashing, not least the elusive Higgs Boson, and a dramatic "Science: WE LOVE IT" tagline.

Brian Cox, far right, sneaking in a few thoughts about quarks

and leptons in between chords. Guy on the left, nice suit.

After an initial bout of terror at the prospect of being sucked, Event Horizon style, into limbo when the LHC was switched on it then basically slipped out of our heads. Thankfully, The Sun has taken the liberty of reminding us that "critics fear that, since the scientists at CERN can only speculate about what they will find, they cannot know if they will unleash a catastrophe on the planet, such as a black hole swallowing earth". Nothing like having 2,868,935 jittery, apocalypse expectant Sun readers on the streets after all.

Joking aside, this is a genuinely important and exciting piece of PR. Too few people know about the bigger things going on in this world, happy instead to bounce like a pinball from one celebrity scandal or credit crunch story to another. For something so profoundly important - but essentially unimportant in our celebrity obsessed culture - to justify not only a news story but a poster pullout too is a true wonder.

You see, if even one kid picks up that supplement and thinks "wow, this science stuff is really cool, I'll do that for a living", then it's a great job well done. Hats off the CERN PR team, who have mounted an increasingly brilliant assault on the global media to get this exciting piece of work noticed.

Particle physics. WE LOVE IT.

Chris E

Having just arrived back from this year's mobile mega bash MWC, I thought I'd pen a few thoughts. Despite the cold and rain it felt like the first time MWC was finally comfortable in its 'not so new' home of Barcelona. The mood was one of optimism after a forgettable 2009.

I think that Rick Wray at the Observer called the main vibe on Sunday before a ball was even kicked. His piece on the power shift from Europe to the US in mobile was spot on. The iPhone has changed everything, and the mobile OS wars will be fought out between the US giants. A few years back Microsoft wouldn't have dreamed of making such a huge splash at the show, apparently they had 350 people there this year!

With the iPad on its way there were more than a few companies relived they could get their offerings out in the tablet market before that bomb is fully detonated. And so the battlegrounds are drawn for next year.

The easy way to Barcelona? A 48 hour unplanned stopover in Munich. Yay.

As always the best stuff is to be found when pounding the floors. The best company I bumped into was Mflex. I'm no expert but they apparently do high density component assembly. Their explanation was that without their tech the iPhone it would have been 4mm thicker - that would have made it a veritable brick. I certainly wouldn't have bought one.

From the big boys DoCoMo had a huge traffic surge when Stephen Fry tweeted about its new eye-movement controlled headphones  - "impossibly brilliant" he bleated. They were.

Lastly, It's always great to see the UK PR industry out in force with all the fragile bravado of a hard copy telco publication. Maybe next year the whole UK PR contingent should charter its own plane. It would be more fun and at least Easyjet wouldn't keep us waiting all weekend.

Louie

For an industry that prides itself on pulling off media "coups" for its clients, public relations is surprisingly malnourished when it comes to self-representation. Sure, we have our weekly update of what's going on from the good folks at Haymarket that all the world can see if they choose but, generally speaking, PRs don't get much time in the limelight themselves.

There are a couple of reasons for that. Anyone who has ever had to explain to their mum why the article that they wrote is in their client's name rather than their own will testify to the fact that it's about pushing the people who pay the bills into the spotlight, not our humble (!) selves. And on the flip side, the media tends to steer clear of asking for our views on... well, pretty much anything, alarmed at the prospect of looking either a) lazy when it comes to sourcing commentators or b) naive for trusting anything that utters from a PR's mouth.

Because of that, and as anyone representing a client in a niche industry will tell you, you have to make the most of what comes your way. That's why it's so frustrating that PR - by and large - continues to fluff its lines on the big stage. We're not big fans of finger pointing over here, but it's nigh impossible to avoid in this case, so we're going to do it anyway. On yesterday's edition of The Bottom Line (listen here), journalist, economics expert and former Lemonheads vocalist Evan Davis interviewed a panel of the great and the good from the industry.

The unmistakable look of a man trapped in a studio betwixt three PRs at 8.30 on a Thursday night

Aside from refraining from giggles at Lord Tim's early assertion that "the Bell is me" (that being the Bell in Bell Pottinger which, as a colleague so astutely pointed out, is at least a graduation from being the ampersand in Saatchi & Saatchi), we spent the rest of the interview cringing at the conversation's devolution into something of a slanging match between him, Edelman's Robert Phillips and Julia Hobsbawm of Editorial Intelligence, a slanging match that we are of course now perpetuating.

We won't go any further than to draw your attention to the recording and Davis's growing sighs of frustration at being unable to get a sensible or unified answer from his panellists. While it might be raw idiocy to expect the heads of three competing communications firms to find a consensus on the industry, it's not unreasonable to expect them to come across as more eloquent than a room full of squabbling children.

At the very least, count us relieved that we aren't the ones doing the post interview debrief.

Chris E

It's a bit of an honour to be writing the first post for the new Octopus blog - Blogtopus. But, as is often the case with these things, as I sit writing I find myself overcome with the sense of how hard it can be when you're working with a blank sheet of paper. Writers' block? Bloggers' blog, perhaps..?

Perhaps the only option I can go for is the obvious one, and that's to try to give you a sense of why we decided to have a blog and what you might expect to find on it over the weeks and months to come.

We're not trying to reinvent the wheel; this is where you'll find different people from the Octopus team writing about the things that interest them. Whether that's the things we're working on, cool stuff going on in the industry (who knows, we might even name check other agencies whose work we like), or issues in the wider economy.

Or maybe just something that's made us laugh and we feel like sharing.

It's as simple as that, really.

Of course, it's the comments that often bring a blog to life so don't hold back. Tell us what you think - share and share alike!

Sean F

Our new website. Not a bit like this bike.

On 2^nd February, a group of individuals united by a mutual interest in the environment met at a pub in Angel to talk about corporate carbon. We organised the Carbon Conversation event on behalf of our client Cisco, intending to present the findings of a research project, carried out in association with key a influencer target, news site Greenbang.

The venue (The Duke of Cambridge) was chosen because it is an organic pub accredited by the Soil Association and powered by solar and wind energy, and it proved to be the perfect location (the organic London Beer went down very well!).

                                The new home for the UK's leading environmental thinkers

Organising the event, Octopus secured speakers from The Carbon Trust, British Gas and Greenbang, alongside Cisco, each of whom had just five minutes to talk about their area of interest in corporate carbon (following the ignite presentation rules of 20 slides, 15 seconds each, 5 minutes in total).

The event attracted well over our target 25 attendees, including environmental and technology media, prolific sustainability twitterers and bloggers, CSR consultants and executives from companies in the corporate carbon-reduction space. Attendees were secured from our team's Twitter activity, as well as traditional invites, and the event was organised through EventBrite.

In fact, the event was such a success that you should watch this space for a quarterly appearance of The Carbon Conversation.

While a career in PR isn't likely to leave you with as many good tales to tell the grandchildren as a job in something like international espionage might, it does have its fair share of moments where you can sit back and think "that was pretty cool". Of course, public relations does tend to involve a lot less being shot at as well (particularly bad review meetings aside), and you don't have to ask the grandkids to sign the Official Secrets Act either, both of which are integral parts of the Octopus benefits package.

A few of the Octopus gang were privy to one of those "Ain't It Cool" moments just recently, as we brought together the judging panel for Cisco's Customer Kings campaign - a partnership with Real Business magazine to find the UK's best customer focused small firms, and one that Octopus and Cisco picked up a PR Week award for in 2009, thankyouverymuch.

Joining Cisco's head of SME and Commercial , David Critchley, the judging panel included MoneySupermarket genius and small business supremo Simon Nixon (now running the fabulous travel guide SimonSeeks), The Daily Mirror's resident careers, finance and small business expert Tricia Phillips, and Real Business' Charles "I've written about more brilliant SMEs than you've had dinners, hot or otherwise" Orton-Jones.

With our four judges assembled, it was a bit like having a small business version of the A-Team in the room; the SMB-Team, if you like. And a good thing it was too, because we needed every iota of their entrepreneurial and small business expertise to pick the winners from the many, many fantastic entries to the competition. Yes, this day was cool for two reasons - not just for being slightly star-struck at our judging panel, but also for being able to see the raw brilliance and passion on display from our entrants.

                                                Quite literally just like the judging day...

From those that have come up with a smart, unique idea and just run with it to those who have spent years crafting their business into a well drilled, slick and yet - dare we say it - lovable company, Customer Kings is a wonderful reaffirmation of the breadth of talent and drive that exists amongst the UK's small businesses. When times are tough, these businesses continue to put the customer first, and that's what has made each and every single one of our winners not only a Customer King, but also a roaring success of a small business in their own right.

Stay tuned for the announcement of the winners when the March 8^th edition of Real Business hits the streets. We love it when a plan comes together.