Sydney, which gave Paris a run for its money, London, Rome and New York round out the top five, while San Francisco (#7) and Los Angeles (#8) were other U.S. cities in the top 10.
The firm says it tries to capture consumer perception of the image and reputation of 50 major cities with its survey, saying those views have an impact on where people live, work and vacation.Ten thousand adults were polled for the study across 20 countries.
PR pro Drew Kerr thinks the Twitter hype might be reaching a turning point, and it may be time for its mass appeal to start to diminish and fall into niches.
"When the cold light of day arrives, and Twitter's ROI is scrutinized by corporate America, PR firms, Hollywood, and everybody else who drank the Kool Aid, it may turn out that Twitter is only effective with a certain niche of early adapters, or highly mobile and connected individuals," he writes. "Twitter may be more comparable to the specialized smaller audience of Wired magazine versus the colossal mass outreach of Good Housekeeping."
Drug companies are warming up to social networks, even though the rules of the road for the Internet have not yet been etched out in stone by the FDA. But Bayer and Merck are on Facebook, Reckitt Benckiser is posting YouTube videos and Novartis is tweeting.
"As online users of all ages spend more time engaged in social media, drug companies appear to be following,"an analyst told the Washington Post.
Current TV is staying mum as two journalists working for the network have been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea. U.S. officials have denounced the conviction and have said N.K. is looking to use the two as a bargaining chip.
Here are three quotes from recent articles noting Current's silence:
"Current TV public relations director Brent Marcus said in an e-mail that the company had no comment..."
— June 16, Associated Press
"Brent Marcus, director of public relations for Current TV said the media organization has 'no comment' on Lee and Ling's sentencing."
– June 9, Epoch Times
"Brent Marcus, a spokesman for Current, declined to comment on any specifics of the situation."
— May 31, Wall Street Journal
Today on odwyerpr.com (sub req'd):
FDA Hits Golin Harris Client
Omnicom Shuffles PR Units
Iran Orders Foreign Journos Out
Letterman Protest Still Set for Today
NBCU PR Exec Put in Charge of IP Push
FDIC PR Tab Passes $7.6M
Obama Pockets Weakened Press
Quotes of the Day
"You have to be aware of, no matter who you are speaking to, all the possible audiences that may hear it and then interpret it in a different way."
— Price Floyd, newly minted head of public affairs for the Defense Dept.
"PR firm I'm dealing with has 'latest news' section on front page of website -- with 7-year old item on it."
— Irish journalist Adrian Weckler, via Twitter