The sun is shining and the UK is on the up (for this week anyway)
The sun pops out and all of a sudden the UK appears to be on an upward trend with positive news galore.
The shit hit the fan for Rolls Royce Aerospace this week
Royal Bank of Scotland is leading the way with some impressive results, although they appear to have accidentally buried their good news by announcing it on the day that UKIP is crowned by the media: political party of the year.
As an aside, UKIP appears to have been unprepared for today given its website had fallen over this morning when I decided to go and take a look and see what all the fuss is about.
Back to the Royal Bank of Scotland and its Herculean rise from being in the grave to being back in the black.
The public relations messaging could not have been more spot on: talk about becoming a private company again, great messaging videos on its website, a cursory nod to the previous bad times and a real spring being put back in its step.
Kudos Royal Bank of Scotland; PR awards now surely beckon for the retail banking giant?
Another company that has dominated the news this week is Porsche and its new 911. Similar to Land Rover and its “f*ck the recession, here are some beautiful vehicles what we have made” approach, I love that Porche is going for it.
In a nod to the tough economic times, and unlike Land Rover, Porsche did not seem to launch the new 911 with any great fanfare. No James Bond or any other glam celeb, although maybe this will change come the Frankfurt motor show when the car is officially revealed.
Some people with a tough few weeks ahead is the Rolls Royce Aerospace division PR team.
The head man, Mark King, had only recently had a promotion and was being lined up for media appearances at the Paris Air Show in a few weeks but was unceremoniously dumped this week.
The rumour mill was awash with speculation that it was linked to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into goings-on at that division of Rolls Royce, and the company has not helped itself with the way it has handled the communications.
The line “gone to spend more time with his family” brings a wry smile to the face of every comms person who works in a corporate PR environment and is the key indicator that someone has been pushed out rather than went willingly.
This story is going to run, especially if King goes public, although he probably has the Rolls Royce of confidentiality agreements in place.
Let’s end on a high though; the Insolvency Service has said that personal insolvency registrations are at a 5 year low. Hoorah, everyone can have one extra sausage on their BBQ this weekend.
It is nice that such a doom and gloom organisation finally has some nice news.
Have a nice, long, weekend everyone.
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