Those working in the communications business whether in advertising, marketing, sponsorship or public relations are consistently challenged by clients to devise bigger and better stunts, secure long-lasting coverage, redefine how an industry is promoted and provide value for money. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most effective – such as a 3,500km bicycle race around France.

The idea of the first ever Tour de France was to sell copies of L’Auto newspaper, a publicity stunt that was such a success it destroyed the paper’s rival Le Velo in the process. The race is now owned and run by a subsidiary of Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) http://www.aso.fr/index_us.html , which since 1993 has been part of the media group that owns L’Équipe, France’s most successful sports newspaper.

Le Tour de France is now the biggest annual sporting event in the world, run over 21 days in July, the race has grown to become a rolling publicity caravan watched by millions who line the roadside and millions more on television. One wonders whether the France tourist board ever need to undertake any paid for advertising or other promotions as, for three weeks of every summer, we have spectacular pictures of fields full of sunflowers or lavender, mountain pastures full of plump dairy cows and historic chateaus amid vineyards beamed onto out TV screens.

Cycling has seen its reputation tarnished repeatedly over recent years due to various doping scandals but Le Tour’s popularity has remained strong. The sport as a whole is starting to attract lucrative new sponsors such as satellite broadcaster Sky (Team Sky) – who have built on the British cycling’s recent Olympic success – Taiwanese technology company HTC have partnered with US sports apparel manufacturer Columbia (Team HTC-Columbia) while sat-nav producer Garmin jointly fund a team alongside glasses maker Transitions (Team Garmin-Transition).

Copyright ASO

What is attractive to corporate sponsors is the relative cost of sponsoring a pro cycling team is tiny when compared to other global sports. You can run a team for an entire season on a budget comparable to a formula one driver’s annual salary and there are more than just 19 race weekends.

Copyright ASO

107 years after journalist Géo Lefèvre,  talked his editor, Henri Desgrange, into the bold move of hosting a publicity seeking event for the benefit of one company, the Tour provides a vehicle for publicity for hundreds of businesses, host cities and an entire country. It is arguably the biggest and longest running PR stunt in history and redefined an industry. Maybe Monsieur Lefèvre was wasted in journalism – perhaps he should have worked in PR?

The overreliance of the UK economy on the financial services sector is over exaggerated when compared to single sector economies, such as the oil dependant Middle Eastern states. However, its rehabilitation is vital to the future prosperity of the country.

The economies of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), notably Abu Dhabi, are clear in their objectives for the transformation of their economies. Abu Dhabi’s Economic Vision 2030 sets a course for the development of a modern, diverse economy, to pave the way for the day when the oil wells run dry, which incidentally is way beyond this date. Clearly, this means moving away from the Emirate’s current over-reliance on oil and petrochemicals and into other sectors previously monopolised by the more developed economies. This includes financial services.

There is a big difference in the way this message and the austerity message to the UK financial services sector has been communicated. While the Emiratis realise that the prosperity born out of the oil wells is finite, they have sought to communicate the message that in the medium term, the diversification of their economy means growing other sectors to overtake the current contribution of oil to GDP, rather than reducing and replacing the contribution and prominence of the sector that has been their lifeblood.

In the UK, we have seen the bank levy, bonus tax and talk of more hits to come on this vital sector. While some argue that the financial services sector has penance to pay for its role in the recession, the UK will only maintain its position in the global economy by maintaining favourable trading conditions for these institutions in the UK. In a mobile, modern, global economy, where you are physically situated is not as important as it used to be. If we are to keep the financial services institutions situated and paying taxes here, we need to communicate the message to them that we understand that their existence here could be finite and that we want to grow our economy with them, not in spite of them.

Reading today’s story in The Daily Telegraph about an Apple engineer who has come forward to claim he warned Steve Jobs about the antenna problems that have overshadowed the launch of the Apple iphone 4, I was reminded of the recent plight of golfer, Tiger Woods.

In the same way that Apple was built up, in part by the media, over the years as the antidote to boring, technology; and as purveyors of iconic, cool, must-have gadgets of the 21st century, Tiger was seen as personifying the very essence of golfing professionalism and ability; and as someone who made a sport, mainly associated with white, male, corporate bores, cool.

However, what goes up must come down…and down…and down. While the media will happily play its part in the rise of an individual or organisation, they will be just as happy (and quick) to knock you down given the slightest opportunity. As communicators we all know that reputation takes years to build but, with twitter hash tags and a 24 hour media, just hours to destroy.

In the hours after Tiger Woods was first reported to have been involved in a car accident after an alleged row with his wife, there was a deafening silence from him and his team which the media merrily filled with speculation of varying amounts of accuracy. Similarly, the media has had a field day (or week) as Apple has stayed silent, instead just posting an open letter from Steve Jobs on the Apple website insisting there is no fault and we are all just holding the phone wrong.

As news of Tiger’s affair seeped out into the media, the kiss and tell stories started and even those closest to him eventually turned on him. Apple’s very own ‘kiss and tell’ story from one its own must be frustrating, but nowhere near as worrying as the investors who have wiped GBP£6.5bn off Apple’s share price on the back of a bad review from Consumer Reports (US version of Which?).

This weekend, the Sundays will undoubtedly pick up the baton and, with the benefit of more space and higher word counts, will start to pick over the bones in more depth. More ‘kiss and tell’ stories from former and current employees along with analyses of the working culture at Apple can be expected if they do not take control of the situation within the then next 24 hours.

Tiger Woods was unable to move on from his discretion until he had publicly apologised and talked about how he would be progressing professionally. Given that Apple are about to hold a press conference today one can only hope that they are about to start adhering to the golden rules in a situation such as this: show empathy; apologise quickly if you are at fault; and tell your customers what you are doing to sort the problem out.

Tiger Woods has yet to recover from his indiscretion both from a reputational and professional point of view. Let’s hope Apple does not suffer the same fate – for what golf will miss with Tiger’s demise, consumer technology would certainly miss from Apple’s.

A day doesn’t pass without individuals, pressure groups and organisations seeking to raise awareness of an issue that vexes them. The fight for share of voice could be about to get even tougher following the launch of the Government’s Your Freedom website. The initiative announced by Nick Clegg asks the public to put forward suggestions of which “unnecessary laws” should be repealed.

Derided by some commentators, the idea is likely to be embraced by those with an issue to raise. The government says that ideas, comments and ratings submitted to the site will ‘directly inform the Government’s policy making’. Some of the proposals ‘could even end up making it into bills before Parliament’. This opportunity, however remote, will surely lead to new pressure groups forming and existing ones being reinvigorated. In setting three three broad categories – restoring civil liberties, repealing unnecessary laws, and cutting business and third sector regulations – the government has looked to focus the debate. The initiative though will inevitably be seen as an opportunity to discuss a whole range of issues outside of the stated remit. Contentious issues like Europe and foxhunting may well dominate much of the debate. However, come the autumn when the government publishes which ideas will be taken forward, other, lower profile, issues may hit the big time.

While changing the law is quite an incentive I suspect that few pressure groups will use this as a serious opportunity to change the law. Instead, many will see this as a platform to profile their campaign. There is, of course, a big danger that campaigners will get lost in all the noise. If the media if not already swamped by pressure groups now it will surely be deluged in the autumn.

On balance, the positives will probably outweigh the negatives. If an organisation can clearly articulate their beef through the media, without the taint of commercial or local interest, using some creative tactics and a good figurehead then their pet issue could shoot up the agenda in double quick time. For efficient, well-run campaigns a summer’s worth of effort could well pay dividends come the autumn.

With traditional media outlets under threat from free online news sites, the debate of ‘Pay Walls’ or ‘Cash for Content’ is raging, with only The Times and Sunday Times news sites taking action.

Rupert Murdoch made the decision to take his News Corporation owned sites into the ‘paid for’ arena on July 2, which has caused ripples across the whole media industry. Will it work? How will consumers react? Will anyone pay for online content when it can be sourced elsewhere for free?

It is a move that will be watched by industry experts, rival publications and those within News Corporation very closely, but what effect does this have on the future of media consumption?

To make an assessment on how things will move forward perhaps we have to look at how we as consumers have changed our communication and media consumption over the last 10 years. Think for example of text messaging, twittering, blogs and Facebook updates. What rings true for each?

Well, they are short, to the point and generally concise. They do not involve a lot of time, be it from the writers point of view or that of the reader, they do not require in depth thought or a need for a long response, it is all about snippets of information delivered quickly.

So how does this transfer to media and news consumption? Well, if we as consumers are to be charged for online news content whenever we want more information around a news story or feature (rather than just reading the headline and brief story summary), then will we put our hands into our pockets and cough up, or will we use the already ingrained response and just ‘move on’ to the next snippet of information?

We have become consumers with no time for long winded news stories and features, so why would we take the step of paying for something we no longer want or perhaps need. Our busy lives have given us the right to discard reams of wordy text, be that long winded emails from friends or lengthy news articles, with the general response of ‘just give me the top line’ or ‘get to the point’.

Is it fair to say then that all we want are the juicy bits, the interesting paragraph and the real talking points as opposed to the depth and background of a news piece? Maybe it is.

Whether that signals the death for ‘proper journalism’ I don’t know (and is a far bigger subject to debate), however it does make you wonder if paid for contents days are numbered before they have really begun.

With a nation who have no time for close friends and family, choosing rather to update them via Twitter updates and Facebook status reports, do the likes of News Corporation think there is any chance of grabbing our attention and wallets for news content?

Only time will tell.