Most UK PRs now follow influencer marketing guidelines

/in /by

Most UK communicators are now following the Committee of Advertising Practice’s guidelines for influencer marketing practices, a survey of 600 marketing and PR professionals has revealed.

The Takumi team

Takumi founders (left to right) Solberg Auðunsson, Mats Stigzelius and Gummi Eggertsson

The research which was released today by influencer marketing platform Takumi, found that more than half  (54%) of industry professionals now follow the guidelines, up from 37.5% in 2016.

The survey also revealed that 75% of marketers and communicators agree the guidelines are important for ensuring transparency about sponsored content, while 43% believe influencer marketing is the most effective way to target younger audiences.

Of the professionals surveyed, 65% use influencer marketing – with 33% of those who don’t citing concerns about being unable to effectively measure influencer marketing and 17% of them saying their brands don’t see its benefit.

“PR and marketing individuals and brands are becoming more and more savvy when it comes to working with influencers and content creators,” said Mats Stigzelius, Takumi’s co-founder and CEO. “I think that we can expect to see an increase in the use of influencers as part of a more targeted approach for consumers, particularly for millennial audiences.”

He added: “Whereas before there was a certain amount of confusion with regards to the guidelines, this research has shown that there is a greater awareness on how to get the most out of influencer marketing and what the guidelines are.”

What does the PR industry need from its leaders?

/in /by

UK business – not just media and PR – is facing unprecedented change with Brexit underway and a general election looming. So, what do leaders in PR need to do in this fast-paced environment. Aliya Vigor-Robertson, co-founder at JourneyHR, discusses what skills they need.

Aliya Vigor-Robertson

Our industry is rife with consolidation and expansion, which means that many agencies now face the challenge of adapting to new leadership teams and executive appointments. At the same time, today’s industry leaders need to cope with an uncertain political climate, address concerns over fees and payments, embrace emerging technologies and manage changing client and employee expectations. So where do we start?

Beware of blind corners

‘Uncertainty’ has become a buzzword that we’re all becoming numb to, but the truth is, it’s still having an impact. We are on an uncertain path, with a general election and the details of Brexit still to be determined. However, the show must go on, and having an innovative, experienced leader in the driver’s seat will allow agencies to capitalise on this changing environment, rather than succumbing to it. By aligning the agency with industry expectations and assessing ‘risk’ areas of the business, changes and efficiencies can be implemented sooner rather than later.

A rocky road

The marketing industry is still in the relatively early stages of the ‘fee transparency’ issue. Many agencies are still working to establish if they have any historical issues related to unjust payments and ‘kickbacks’ and, if needed, figuring out what to do about it. Strong leadership is the only way through this. Correcting this longstanding trend is an industry-wide challenge that must be managed with precision, communicated with honesty and resolved without jeopardising confidence. It will take a tenacious, inspiring and genuine leader to drive an agency along the rocky road that lies ahead.

We’re all still learners

Changes in technology, employee expectations and clients’ needs mean that workplaces and workforces are changing. As a business adapts to these developments and futureproofs itself against further changes, how can a leader stay ahead of the game? Truthfully, it’s a challenge. However, a strong leader will position the business strategically, promote agility and hire teams that can navigate through a changing environment to ultimately triumph.

The key to being a successful leader is to champion the beliefs that resonate with you.   Passion is contagious.  Create a compelling vision that people will want to follow and surround yourself with brilliant people who can make things happen.

Quite Great wins opera-themed restaurant TWID

/in /by

London restaurant and cocktail bar TWID has selected music PR firm Quite Great Communications to promote its opera-themed dining experience.

TWID

Quite Great will handle the Battersea venue’s brand promotion and implement a creative, multi-layered strategy to compliment the blog and social networking agencies already working with TWID.

“TWID represents a great place to eat, as well as wonderful opera-themed mayhem,” said Pete Bassett, Quite Great MD. “We are extremely excited to be working with such an innovative enterprise.”

He added: “Our aim is to firmly cement TWID as a renowned restaurant within London and the home counties, especially among opera and classical music lovers.”

Cyprus Tourism Organisation appoints Rooster PR following UK tourist boost

/in /by

The Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) has handed a PR brief to London-based Rooster PR after reporting strong UK visitor figures for the beginning of 2017.

Lefkara, Cyprus

The CTO predicts that 2017 will be a record-breaking year with over three per cent year-on-year increase in UK visitors recorded from January to March.

Cyprus received 99,503 UK visitors from 1 January to 31 March 2017 – a 3.6 per cent increase compared to the 96,009 UK visitors to Cyprus from the same period in 2016.

Rooster PR has been hired to manage its press office and deliver a series of creative campaigns, following a competitive pitch.

The agency will raise awareness of Cyprus as a safe, accessible destination “with the perfect year-round climate”.

Rooster will be responsible for all B2B and B2C, pro-active and re-active media enquiries. This will include a PR plan, news generation, press trip co-ordination and crisis management, as well as social media activity.

The team will also implement two large-scale creative events aimed at generating widespread press awareness of the destination’s tourism offering. Details of the first event, which is due to take place in the second half of 2017, will be announced shortly.

Orestis Rossides, UK director of the CTO, said: “Visitor figures for 2017 are looking positive and this upward trend is only set to continue. Many travellers are already turning to Cyprus for its year-round sunshine, stunning landscapes, world-class spas and range of activities; and with Rooster’s help, we’ll be able to entice many more.

“The team has hit the ground running already and we’re looking forward to working closely with them on some exciting campaigns to further maximise awareness of, and bookings to, Cyprus.”

James Brooke, MD at Rooster, added: “2017 has been a difficult year for many destinations but Cyprus is going from strength to strength, thanks to its great climate, accessible location, safety and varied tourism offering.

“We’re delighted to have been appointed and have already got cracking with plans to help raise further awareness of the destination’s strengths to holidaymakers across the UK. I’m particularly excited about the first high impact event we will be implementing later this year – more will be revealed soon!”

Discount retailer The Works appoints Finn for corporate brief

/in /by

Finn has been appointed by discount retailer The Works to handle its corporate PR brief.

The Works

Reporting into CEO, Kevin Keaney, Finn will deliver a communications campaign designed to raise The Works’ business profile and communicate its proposition within national and retail trade media and online channels.

Finn will work closely with The Works executive team, private equity shareholders, Endless LLP, and chairman and investor, Dean Hoyle, one of the UK’s best known retail entrepreneurs and founder of Card Factory.  The agency team will be led by Finn corporate communications partner and director, Alison Puente.

Keaney said: “We’re very proud of the business we’ve built over the last decade. However, we’ve historically been one of retail’s best kept secrets and we feel it’s time to change this and to start telling our story.

“We have a long standing, trusted relationship with the Finn team and felt that their strategic communications input, relationships and enthusiasm for The Works made them the clear choice to support us on this corporate PR brief. We look forward to working with the team on this campaign.”

Alison Puente, Finn partner and director, said: “We are thrilled to be back on board with The Works.  The leadership team has built a phenomenal business and we feel fortunate to have the opportunity to work closely with them to build the strong corporate reputation for The Works that this success deserves.”

Mash PR to launch new fintech startup Hedgd

/in /by

London-based fintech startup Hedgd has brought in Mash PR to handle comms activity around the launch of its upcoming flagship product.

Stu Campbell-Carran

Hedgd designs software to enable investment managers to take control of data, costs and productivity.

Mash PR will drive Hedgd’s messaging, content marketing, media and analyst relations as it enters the market.

Oliver South, co-founder and CEO of Hedgd, said: “Mash PR takes an enthusiastic and creative approach to our business on a personal level.

“It’s great to partner with a team that understands what we aim to achieve and has the creativity to communicate effectively how our service will help investment companies take control of data, costs and productivity.”

Stu Campbell-Carran (pictured), managing partner at Mash PR, added: “Mash PR has decided to launch a dedicated B2B practice. We have always executed trade and corporate activities for our consumer clients and are delighted to start working with Hedgd as our first client in this area. Challenging the current state of affairs is always exciting – especially in an industry that’s typically perceived as very traditional.”

Edelman hires Kate Hawker as healthcare MD

/in /by

Edelman UK has appointed Burson-Marsteller’s former healthcare chair, Kate Hawker, as MD of its UK healthcare team.

Kate Hawker

Hawker brings 25 years’ experience working with biopharmaceutical companies across a variety of therapeutic areas.

Formerly healthcare chair at Burson-Marsteller, she tripled the size of its healthcare business and led global, EMEA and UK clients, including AstraZeneca, GSK, Novartis and Colgate.

Before Burson-Marsteller, Hawker was business development director at InforMed from 2009 to 2012, and director and partner at FleishmanHillard from 2000 to 2009.

In 2000 she founded medical comms agency The Remedy, and sold it to its parent company FleishmanHillard in 2006.

In her new role at Edelman, Hawker has been tasked to ensure further integration of digital and creative capabilities, including the creative offering of Edelman Deportivo UK, to help advance client ambitions in the healthcare space.

Edelman UK’s COO Matt Hurst said: “Kate’s ability to develop and execute effective campaigns creatively within regulatory and legal frameworks is impressive. Her skills and leadership experience will be very valuable to our clients as we continue to provide senior counsel and build integrated programmes.”

Hawker added: “Edelman boasts a prestigious health team with an enviable client roster and vibrant team culture. There remains a relentless ambition to innovate and to offer ‘best in class’ creative approaches to deliver great work for our clients. There is more to achieve, and I am thrilled to be joining at this time.”

MHP launches Delivering Hope with Palmer & Harvey

/in /by

Global communications agency MHP has launched Delivering Hope, a new corporate social responsibility initiative for Palmer & Harvey, the UK’s largest delivered wholesaler.

MHP launches Delivering Hope

Nicki Durbin whose son Luke has been missing since 2008

The campaign will tap into P&H’s network of more than 1,000 vehicles making upwards of 55,000 deliveries each week to extend the reach of Missing People’s publicity appeals.

P&H will transform the sides of its beige delivery vans into mobile billboards for missing persons’ charity Missing People.

Announcing the partnership at its supplier conference last week, P&H CEO Tony Reed committed to a £1million fundraising programme over the next three years.

“The Delivering Hope campaign allows us to use our extensive delivery network to help this hugely inspiring cause,” said Martyn Ward, P&H MD. “To our customers, what matters is inside the vans. Yet, the exterior is effectively a blank canvas that could be used to grab people’s attention and help those in the communities we serve.”

Jo Youle, CEO of Missing People, added: “The new Delivering Hope campaign will be instrumental in helping us extend the reach of our publicity appeals and we really hope it will play a role in reuniting missing people with their loved ones.”

Cannes advertising festival appoints Propeller PR

/in /by

Ascential, the company that owns the Cannes Lions awards and festival, has hired Propeller PR to aid its comms strategy ahead of this year’s advertising and creativity festival which takes place in the south of France next month.

Martin Loat

The agency will support the existing Cannes Lions press office team and target specific messages and themes around the international festival of creativity to international media and journalists.

This year, the festival will run from 17 to 24 June and its organiser says it expects some 15,000 people from around 100 countries to attend. The PR and PR Young Lions will be awarded on June 19.

Liz Moseley, CMO at Ascential, said: “Cannes Lions Festival is an event that celebrates advertising and the business of creativity on an international scale. Each year our speakers, jurors and delegates use the festival as a platform to redefine what constitutes great advertising, as well as making new connections and discoveries that will change the face of our industry in years to come.”

 She added: “The team at Propeller, with its great press contacts and expertise in the media and advertising space, will be working with us to surface these stories, connecting us with loyal fans of the festival as well as reaching delegates of the future.”

Martin Loat, Propeller Group founder, will oversee the account and commented: “The Propeller team has attended Cannes Lions for several years. As a specialist in business PR for the advertising, media and tech industry, we know the terrain and we’re well-suited to fulfilling the brief set for us by Ascential.”

 

 

City of London hands festival comms brief to Flint

/in /by

City of London has chosen Flint to lead its comms activity for Londinium, a festival celebrating the Roman heritage of the City of London.

Londinium

Londinium plans to unearth some of the City’s long lost stories and deepest buried secrets, and will feature new arts commissions from Boy Blue Entertainment and Wiretapper, the opening of the London Mithraeum, a new play on the warrior queen Boudica at Shakespeare’s Globe, and Gladiator Games on the site of London’s amphitheatre.

LondiniumThe season will also feature a variety of events, including exhibitions, walks, talks, tours and lectures.

Flint will develop a strategy that will place Londinium at the forefront of the summer events calendar, both for Londoners and for national and international visitors to the city.

The festival launches on 27 July and will run until the end of October, with activity taking place at a number of partner institutions across the capital.

Vivienne Littlechild, chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Culture, Heritage and Libraries Committee, said: “We are looking forward to working with Flint on promoting the Londinium festival, which will feature a series of spectacular events, interactive talks, tours, and family activities to bring alive the exciting history that lies underneath the feet of thousands of Londoners.

“There is so much to explore in the City of London, including Guildhall Yard, the site of the capital’s Roman Amphitheatre and the remains themselves in the basement of Guildhall Art Gallery.”

Lucy Dundas, senior account manager at Flint, added: “Having worked closely together on the Great Fire 350 commemorative events last autumn, Flint is delighted to be working with the City of London Corporation on the Londinium festival.

“The varied programme of events running throughout the festival will provide a wide range of exciting story-telling opportunities, bringing the Roman history of London to the surface this summer.”