The lingering smell of Bad PR

This week in the exciting world of cellular comms, news broke that the Finnish mobile handset giant Nokia is planning to turn its back on corporate push mobile email – for anyone reading this who is already dozing off, this post will get around to Bad PR shortly.

I wrote a feature, oooh bloomin’ ages ago now, 2005 in fact, about mobile email. I spoke with some operators, analysts and a number of vendors in the space. However, I didn’t speak with everyone. I simply haven’t got the time, y’see.

So, after the magazine went to press, imagine my surprise when the PR of a mobile email vendor phoned me to angrily complain that I hadn’t spoken to his client.

How could I be so stupid as to not talk to his client? His client was the leading player in the space, did I not research the feature at all? I spoke with some of his client’s rivals, it’s not fair. What was I going to do to make amends? Maybe feature an executive interview with his client in the next issue? Maybe let his client write a piece for inclusion, setting me straight on one or two points?

Maybe?

Or, how about, maybe jotting down the name and number of the PR and his firm and vowing never to pick up the phone when he called or open his emails again?

Yes, yes, maybe I’d do that instead.

For the record, the PR’s client was bought up by Nokia, who this week effectively put the business out to pasture, then announced (almost in the same breath) that it would be buying another consumer mobile email firm… and guess what kids? It’s only one of the mobile email firms that I did interview for the piece.

Now, I’m not claiming my feature had any real impact on the outcome of the PR’s client disappearing off the face of the earth, while a rival’s mobile email product is set to soon appear on the terminals of the number one handset manufacturer in the world.

To be honest, I don’t remember why I spoke with one of the firms and not the other, I guess it was just pot luck. I do, however, remember very clearly the telephone conversation that the PR and I shared. It has a lasting effect calling me up to tell me that I’m not doing my job properly. I’ve got a very understanding boss who tells me that every day thanks.