Hey Pitch PR!
Ever had to fire a client because they were so deep in the brown stuff you just couldn't advise them of a way forward? Perhaps you should seek out the venerable Ms Baroni. She has a valuable perspective.
It's a bit embarrassing really. CARD handed you your own ass this morning. I'm sure you're not too pleased with the fallout. National and international press, trumpeting the CARD cause. The client must not be happy either. They're paying you the big bucks, but they could have made this mess on their own!
Still, maybe there's someone at Pitch who's higher up the totem pole and a little more experienced (and more expensive, no doubt), that could have a bash? Just insist on a bigger retainer.
I'm sure the elusive CARD would welcome a bit more of a challenge. It seems they're just getting warmed up. I swear they must study judo, the way they're able to use all of the might and power you and your Belgian's throw at them against you. They're only on a shoestring budget. Fascinating. Must be frustrating for all involved.
Still, chin up. Why not catch the next match at The Valley? It's sure to be a memorable experience. Plus, you'll get a good look at our hallowed turf. We have Roland to thank for that pitch as well. Like you, it hasn't made much of a difference; expensive as it was, we still can't seem to play much football on it! We're shite.
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Had a flick through.
Chelsea FC one of their other clients. If Chelsea feel the need to use this lot then they must offer something of worth.
Looks like a good company. Although I've got nothing to compare it with that belongs in the same field.
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Charlton, quite possibly their biggest challenge yet.
Something that is pretty much rock bottom.
What looks like a few examples of their other clients, they only probably needed a boost, bit of freshness, different angle.
Our club needs something that a company like this will find very challenging to provide to the point where it's not worth it.
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Yep, we were pretty much rock bottom when they took the gig on and several months in, we are still rock bottom. Money well spent Daisy.
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No doubt Charlton is small fry for them as a client but they might be realising Charlton fans aren't easily swayed by this corporate PR bullshit and at the moment neither are the media. Expect them to drop Charlton as a client or go up the ladder and bring in the big guns to attack us. Scenario 1 is more likely as these companies value their own brand more than their clients in my experience unless they are paying the big bucks. The more it's out there that Pitch PR are advising them the twitchier they will become.2
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Sent to their head of PR - Louisa Fryans (well you know I do love an email)
Dear Louisa,
I hope you don't mind the direct email. I see that you are heading up Pitch's PR offering. The reason for my email is simply to let you know that one of your clients, Charlton Athletic Football Club, are not fit for purpose and I believe that to be associated with them would actually do long term damage for Pitch as an agency. You may well tell me to mind my own business as they are a fee paying client and you have a mandate to help them improve their brand/image and how they are perceived in the wider media. However, I truly believe that the current owner of Charlton and his management team are so inept that whoever tries to help them out of their mess, may well just get dragged down with it.
It may not be yourself personally looking after the account, however given the current situation, I believe that it may take someone of your experience and more, to even help them get a grip of where they need to go next.
I also don't know how much Charlton's management team would've told you about how and why they are in the situation they are in. I say this because as a dedicated fan of 30 years now, I and the other loyal supporters have been subject to many different 'stories', incidents of mismanagement and general disrespect since Roland Dutchatelet took over in Jan 2014.
I am emailing to let you know that I and 1000s of others stand by the statement from CARD released yesterday in response to the club's offer of a meeting. The time for dialogue has long past. If you had had the unfortunate opportunity to be at the Valley this past Tuesday, you would've realised that the club are pretty much at rock bottom. I've seen shit football in my lifetime supporting Charlton before, and I am likely to again. However, this isn't about the quality of the team, it's how the club have got us here.
An absentee owner who seems to have no interest in immersing himself in the culture of the club, the history, the who, the how and the why we exist. A totally inept CEO who had she been CEO at any other private or publicly listed company in the wider world of business, would've been fired as not fit for purpose a long time ago.
Yet still we go on. I know very little about PR, but I know an awful lot about Charlton Athletic, who we are, our fans and where we come from. I can guarantee that the fans, and the people behind CARD will win this battle and eventually get back our beloved club. I'm not sure that when you decide to take on a client you do a probability or risk analysis of achieving the client's objectives, or they just pay you and you do your best. But in relation to the former, the best outcome for your client would be to sell up. I'm not writing this to cast aspersions on your integrity or ability as an agency, I'm just telling you like it is.
I had a quick look at your profile and saw that you were head of BBC sport and involved in the London 2012 campaign. 2 great achievements and high points that you will probably look back on with pride when you retire, and quite rightly. Charlton just simply isn't worth wasting your time or being associated with.
I appreciate you taking the time to read this.
Many thanks,
Robert
Sent from my iPhone60 -
Well done, Cabbles!0
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@CAFC luke said:
To those on the twitter push, you may also want to target any of these accounts connected with @Pitchlondon that can be found through their twitter page here: https://twitter.com/search?f=users&vertical=default&q=@pitchlondon&src=typd
@HenryChappell
@tomrubashow
@FyansLouisa
@AdamWright06
@Chrissoult
@chris_allen15
@Ruth_Emma89
@Williams_gc
@tomkelk
@dantunna
@stefanpopovic
@BeccaLewin22
At pitch as in life in general Henry is the top boy.
Polite twitter correspondence only5 -
Top work everyone. Well worth doing, IMO, so long as we keep it polite. "Reputational damage" is a phrase they will be familiar with...:-)3
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meanwhile from Linked In , we see that Henry Chappell has set up a consultancy with Andy Coulson, which means he needs to be treated with respect. I mean, the same sort of respect you would accord if you were planning to take on Vladimir Putin...19
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Sponsored links:
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So when's your date?cabbles said:Sent to their head of PR - Louisa Fryans (well you know I do love an email)
Dear Louisa,
I hope you don't mind the direct email. I see that you are heading up Pitch's PR offering. The reason for my email is simply to let you know that one of your clients, Charlton Athletic Football Club, are not fit for purpose and I believe that to be associated with them would actually do long term damage for Pitch as an agency. You may well tell me to mind my own business as they are a fee paying client and you have a mandate to help them improve their brand/image and how they are perceived in the wider media. However, I truly believe that the current owner of Charlton and his management team are so inept that whoever tries to help them out of their mess, may well just get dragged down with it.
It may not be yourself personally looking after the account, however given the current situation, I believe that it may take someone of your experience and more, to even help them get a grip of where they need to go next.
I also don't know how much Charlton's management team would've told you about how and why they are in the situation they are in. I say this because as a dedicated fan of 30 years now, I and the other loyal supporters have been subject to many different 'stories', incidents of mismanagement and general disrespect since Roland Dutchatelet took over in Jan 2014.
I am emailing to let you know that I and 1000s of others stand by the statement from CARD released yesterday in response to the club's offer of a meeting. The time for dialogue has long past. If you had had the unfortunate opportunity to be at the Valley this past Tuesday, you would've realised that the club are pretty much at rock bottom. I've seen shit football in my lifetime supporting Charlton before, and I am likely to again. However, this isn't about the quality of the team, it's how the club have got us here.
An absentee owner who seems to have no interest in immersing himself in the culture of the club, the history, the who, the how and the why we exist. A totally inept CEO who had she been CEO at any other private or publicly listed company in the wider world of business, would've been fired as not fit for purpose a long time ago.
Yet still we go on. I know very little about PR, but I know an awful lot about Charlton Athletic, who we are, our fans and where we come from. I can guarantee that the fans, and the people behind CARD will win this battle and eventually get back our beloved club. I'm not sure that when you decide to take on a client you do a probability or risk analysis of achieving the client's objectives, or they just pay you and you do your best. But in relation to the former, the best outcome for your client would be to sell up. I'm not writing this to cast aspersions on your integrity or ability as an agency, I'm just telling you like it is.
I had a quick look at your profile and saw that you were head of BBC sport and involved in the London 2012 campaign. 2 great achievements and high points that you will probably look back on with pride when you retire, and quite rightly. Charlton just simply isn't worth wasting your time or being associated with.
I appreciate you taking the time to read this.
Many thanks,
Robert
Sent from my iPhone8 -
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I bet that the PR company have never had a clients "enemy" come after them!
Good work everyone5 -
I know someone that was part of a PR company that represented CAFC recently, I found this out during a conversation. Before I'd had chance to give any opinion he told me that the regime were a joke and kept sticking there nose in and were basically dictating the PR from the PR company.
... so even when recruiting for off the pitch jobs, they can't keep there egotistical beaks out long enough for someone to do the job the hired them for !9 -
Which PR company? @shine166shine166 said:I know someone that was part of a PR company that represented CAFC recently, I found this out during a conversation. Before I'd had chance to give any opinion he told me that the regime were a joke and kept sticking there nose in and were basically dictating the PR from the PR company.
... so even when recruiting for off the pitch jobs, they can't keep there egotistical beaks out long enough for someone to do the job the hired them for !1 -
As Ms Baroni would also testify.shine166 said:I know someone that was part of a PR company that represented CAFC recently, I found this out during a conversation. Before I'd had chance to give any opinion he told me that the regime were a joke and kept sticking there nose in and were basically dictating the PR from the PR company.
... so even when recruiting for off the pitch jobs, they can't keep there egotistical beaks out long enough for someone to do the job the hired them for !1 -
Haha, working in an agency myself what you've effectively just described is a client.shine166 said:I know someone that was part of a PR company that represented CAFC recently, I found this out during a conversation. Before I'd had chance to give any opinion he told me that the regime were a joke and kept sticking there nose in and were basically dictating the PR from the PR company.
... so even when recruiting for off the pitch jobs, they can't keep there egotistical beaks out long enough for someone to do the job the hired them for !16 -
Yeah the r was auto correct on my phone - don't worry mate all delivered and no bounce back ;-)PragueAddick said:@cabbles
How did you track down Louisa Fryans? She doesn't come up on Linked In...
Ah. Fyans. No "r"1 -
@PragueAddick also mate, was remarkably easy, she had her email on the website. Even their CEO does1
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That's good PR!cabbles said:@PragueAddick also mate, was remarkably easy, she had her email on the website. Even their CEO does
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Sponsored links:
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I wonder if it's worth approaching some of Pitch's other clients to put some pressure on them?
I've got multiple connections with people connected to Pitch people: https://linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=875773&trk=rr_connectedness
But alas none are clients of theirs.3 -
Send them messages via LinkedIn and tell them the issues, ask for feedback, to be our mole!SE10Addick said:I wonder if it's worth approaching some of Pitch's other clients to put some pressure on them?
I've got multiple connections with people connected to Pitch people: https://linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=875773&trk=rr_connectedness
But alas none are clients of theirs.0 -
What football clubs fail to realise is that their prime target audience is very much niche by comparison to other companies who would use PR to manage their relations with the general public.
Yes, a slick PR company may be able to spin a yarn for the national papers so some bloke in Doncaster reads the Sun and thinks "Charlton's owners are turning it around finally, good for them" before going back to tending his whippets and not giving it another thought; and perhaps it will even take the attention off them for a while in the mainstream press (I can see some value in that).
However the point they completely miss is that their target "customer base" is 99.9% not those people and those who are their "customers" in the main have a real idea of what the score is regardless of how much bunce they pay a group of media people to come up with some bullshit spin.
They can spend as much money as they like paying PR people to try and pull the wool over their mug customers' eyes and gloss over the shambles that is pretty much every material element of their ownership but the key audience to the "business" who they are talking rubbish to is us the fans....and even the most dim witted, mouth breathing element of our fan base will only swallow so much spin before realising that hovering above the relegation zone in the third division and losing to Crawley at home in a stadium emptier than Ron Jeremy's scrotum is not conducive to progressing a football club and reconciling supporter relations.
Don't be a twat and you won't need to pay someone to may you temporarily appear not to be a twat. Easy.
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I think that might be a bit of a stretch. Not quite a national PR scandal yet. Also we need to try and confirm 100% that Pitch are still working for them. @cabbles will manage it with a bit of pillow talk :-)SE10Addick said:I wonder if it's worth approaching some of Pitch's other clients to put some pressure on them?
I've got multiple connections with people connected to Pitch people: https://linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=875773&trk=rr_connectedness
But alas none are clients of theirs.
I am trying to get a contact for someone at PR Week, the house magazine of the industry. It would be embarassing for a big agency to see one of its campaigns ridiculed there.
But we need to make sure, and I'm mindful of what @shine166 wrote, using the past tense.
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Spot on.RodneyCharltonTrotta said:What football clubs fail to realise is that their prime target audience is very much niche by comparison to other companies who would use PR to manage their relations with the general public.
Yes, a slick PR company may be able to spin a yarn for the national papers so some bloke in Doncaster reads the Sun and thinks "Charlton's owners are turning it around finally, good for them" before going back to tending his whippets and not giving it another thought; and perhaps it will even take the attention off them for a while in the mainstream press (I can see some value in that).
However the point they completely miss is that their target "customer base" is 99.9% not those people and those who are their "customers" in the main have a real idea of what the score is regardless of how much bunce they pay a group of media people to come up with some bullshit spin.
They can spend as much money as they like paying PR people to try and pull the wool over their mug customers' eyes and gloss over the shambles that is pretty much every material element of their ownership but the key audience to the "business" who they are talking rubbish to is us the fans....and even the most dim witted, mouth breathing element of our fan base will only swallow so much spin before realising that hovering above the relegation zone in the third division and losing to Crawley at home in a stadium emptier than Ron Jeremy's scrotum is not conducive to progressing a football club and reconciling supporter relations.
Don't be a twat and you won't need to pay someone to may you temporarily appear not to be a twat. Easy.
However Daisy isn't trying to appease us through these channels, she's trying to save her own personal reputation with the wider business world. As proven time and time again, she doesn't care about the fan base. This is about 'Brand Meire' and vehicle for her ego that she's trying to spin and protect...
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Never ask a stalker to reveal their techniques.PragueAddick said:@cabbles
How did you track down Louisa Fryans? She doesn't come up on Linked In...
Ah. Fyans. No "r"6 -
Spot on. All we have seen of late - admissions of mistakes, promises to listen, meetings with 'fans' etc - is carefully scripted by the PR company with both eyes on the media. After all, that's what PR largely is, how a client is viewed by the media. Get them onside and the 'customers' will follow.T said:
Spot on.RodneyCharltonTrotta said:What football clubs fail to realise is that their prime target audience is very much niche by comparison to other companies who would use PR to manage their relations with the general public.
Yes, a slick PR company may be able to spin a yarn for the national papers so some bloke in Doncaster reads the Sun and thinks "Charlton's owners are turning it around finally, good for them" before going back to tending his whippets and not giving it another thought; and perhaps it will even take the attention off them for a while in the mainstream press (I can see some value in that).
However the point they completely miss is that their target "customer base" is 99.9% not those people and those who are their "customers" in the main have a real idea of what the score is regardless of how much bunce they pay a group of media people to come up with some bullshit spin.
They can spend as much money as they like paying PR people to try and pull the wool over their mug customers' eyes and gloss over the shambles that is pretty much every material element of their ownership but the key audience to the "business" who they are talking rubbish to is us the fans....and even the most dim witted, mouth breathing element of our fan base will only swallow so much spin before realising that hovering above the relegation zone in the third division and losing to Crawley at home in a stadium emptier than Ron Jeremy's scrotum is not conducive to progressing a football club and reconciling supporter relations.
Don't be a twat and you won't need to pay someone to may you temporarily appear not to be a twat. Easy.
However Daisy isn't trying to appease us through these channels, she's trying to save her own personal reputation with the wider business world. As proven time and time again, she doesn't care about the fan base. This is about 'Brand Meire' and vehicle for her ego that she's trying to spin and protect...
The email from Squirrel Face - the content, the timing etc - just serves to underline that. Almost every action the club is taking is aimed at the media, not the fans.
To be fair, the PR company is the best thing about the club at the moment. Perhaps they should start picking the team?1 -
Are they trying fake fans on Twitter too?3
