Ruder Finn UK appoints Shelley Facius as head of technology

/in /by

Juice PR founder Shelley Facius has joined Ruder Finn as its new head of technology. She will be responsible for growing the practice, working with the agency’s UK and global teams, and providing senior counsel to clients.

Shelley Facius

With more than 20 years of experience in PR and comms, Facius has held director-level roles at Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Fleishman Hillard, and Spreckley Partners, in addition to in-house positions with Oracle and Coretech, a WPP company.

Facius is a former vice president of WPR (Women in PR) and is currently a WPR committee member. She is a mentor in the PR Week Mentoring Programme and has been an elected member of the PRCA’s PR Council.

She also had her own consultancy, Juice PR, for more than five years, with clients including Sage X3 and Strato  – part of Deutsche Telekom.

Nick Leonard, UK MD at Ruder Finn, said: “Technology is hugely important to our business, as it underpins pretty much every industry and so many aspects of our life. With Shelley’s experience and drive I am positive that we can accelerate growth in our successful tech proposition, as well as working towards owning the health-tech communications space.”

Facius added: “I’m very excited to be joining Ruder Finn at a time of huge opportunity for the business. Working with the global tech practice led from the US, there is significant potential for international business development and collaboration with divisions like healthcare and internal communications. The open and honest culture is also one that suits me well.”

This week’s top trending features on Gorkana News

/in /by

Your bite-sized update on the best PR opinion, interviews, events and insights featured on Gorkana News this week.

More and more PR professionals are choosing to work independently

Insight: Three benefits to independent working in PR
The growth of independent working in PR – as consultants, freelancers and remote workers – looks to change the industry as it has done in many sectors. Nina Sawetz, founder and MD at future PR, and Lucy Werner, director at The Wern, discuss the benefits.

60 Seconds with Milk & Honey PR’s Kirsty Leighton
Kirsty Leighton, former Hudson Sandler MD and the founder of Milk & Honey PR, talks to Gorkana about her experiences as a team leader and the challenges and rewards of setting-up her own agency.

60 Seconds with CIPR’s Jason MacKenzie
Gorkana caught up with Jason MacKenzie, the president of the CIPR, to find out about his goals for the association, his career highlight to date and the advice he’d give to PR professionals starting out.

 

Clifford French wins Farah menswear brief

/in /by

London-based fashion brand Farah menswear has hired Clifford French to activate its position as the official apparel partner of Sahara Force India during the 2017 / 2018 season.

Racing drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon

Farah’s sponsorship will involve supplying team members with a range of clothing to be worn while travelling to and from race and test events. The relationship with Sahara Force India marks the continuation of Farah’s plans to capitalise on the global appeal of the sport.

Clifford French will deliver an “insight driven” content series, consumer influencer marketing partnerships, earned media outreach with premium men’s media and event management around the 2017 British Grand Prix.

Mia Zackrisson, global head of marketing for Farah Menswear, said: “Clifford French impressed us with its insight driven strategy. This is a stylish campaign aimed at a younger sports fan that wants to find out more about a sport which is often over complicated with engineering acronyms. Clifford French’s rich story-telling experience will be instrumental as we educate a new wave of F1 fans.”

Dan French, co-founder of Clifford French, added: “Farah menswear is one of the most exciting brands on the high street and now as a sponsor of one of the youngest and most exciting teams in Formula One, we’re delighted to have been selected to help Farah activate their sponsorship.”

PR Case Study: Find Shorn

/in /by

The Forge Communications and Kingsland Drinks launched the Find Shorn competition to raise awareness of a new product, and to grow a loyal social media following, as well as long-term engagement with the brand. 

Find Shorn wine brand

Campaign name: Find Shorn
Client: Kingsland Drinks Ltd, Shorn
PR Team: The Forge Communications
Timing: 26 July until 26 August, 2016

Summary:
The Forge Communications devised a social media campaign to raise awareness of Shorn ‘Limited Black Edition’ wine, which is sold in Morrisons. A competition was launched across Facebook and Twitter, increasing Shorn’s social media following and driving people to the Morrisons’ website. The Forge Communications campaign resulted in a 70% uplift in sales during the competition period.

Objectives:
The campaign objectives were to devise a social media campaign to raise awareness of Shorn ‘Limited Black Edition’ wine, and grow the brand’s social media following on Facebook and Twitter.

The KPIs were as follows:

  • 5,000 entries into the competition
  • Grow number of target audience followers on Facebook and Twitter
  • 500-1,000 posts shared across Facebook and Twitter using #findshorn hashtag
  • Drive sales from Morrisons.com – a minimum of 25% on the previous month

Strategy and implementation:
With the Find Shorn campaign, The Forge Communications aimed to communicate the personality of the brand to engage with its audience. The outcome would be a loyal social media following.

Shorn Wines launched a month-long competition which utilised Street View on Google Maps to raise awareness of its ‘Limited Black Edition’ Sauvignon Blanc wine, which is sold in Morrisons.

Over 250,000 white and black ‘baaing’ Shorn sheeps were ‘planted’ all over the UK on the maps. Users had to navigate their way around the white Shorns in the hope of bumping into a black Shorn. Those who found three black sheep were entered into a daily competition to win a case of wine, and one in five could also instantly win a black Shorn fridge magnet.

To ramp up the competition, five golden Shorns were also hidden, and regular clues for finding them were published on Twitter. Gold sheep finders won an iPad mini.

A dedicated website was set-up to house the competition, which was enhanced in the following way:

  • Twitter ads ran to encourage people to enter the competition
  • The Golden Shorns were placed at regular intervals throughout the competition, and cryptic clues were Tweeted with #findshorn
  • Clues got progressively harder each day, which encouraged a Shorn-finding frenzy among players (clues were also added to competition forums as everyone helped each other to decipher the riddles)
  • People were encouraged to re-tweet the clues in exchange for naming sheep after them
  • Daily winners were announced at regular intervals to reassure players the prizes were real
  • Influential Twitter handles were partnered with to retweet clues, and further promote the competition eg @winewankers (331k), Nisa Local (20k) and Oddbins (2.5k)
  • People were encouraged to tweet that they had found Shorn using #findshorn

Results:
The Forge Communications created a competition that encouraged long-term engagement and brand recollection. Over-delivering on KPIs, the campaign raised awareness of a new product, and drove sales.

KPI: 5,000 entries to competition
Result: 10,623 entries (people finding three black Shorns)

KPI: Increase Facebook & Twitter followers from target audience
Result: Facebook likes increased from 112 on 26.07.16 to 1,581 on 26.08.16 and Twitter followers increased from 2278 to 2795 in a month

KPI: 500-1,000 posts shared across Facebook & twitter using hashtag #findshorn
Result: 602 shares across Facebook and Twitter all using hashtag #findshorn

KPI: Drive people to purchase via Morrisons.com with sales increase of min 25% (on previous month)
Result: 70% uplift in sales during competition period

Additional results:

  • 23,195 sessions on the website from 8,832 unique players
  • Average dwell time: nine minutes and four seconds, peaking at 16minutes and 40 seconds when people were looking for a Golden Shorn
  • 382k tweet impressions; double the amount of the past 23 months combined
  • 64k Twitter profile visits

Do you have an exciting campaign with impressive results that you’d like to showcase? If so, please email [email protected]

Garmin hires Tangerine to reinvigorate Sat Nav offer

/in /by

The automotive arm of tech firm Garmin UK has brought in Tangerine to support and reinvigorate its Portable Navigation (‘Sat Nav’) and Dash Cam offerings, following a three-way pitch.

Garmin UK

Tangerine’s consumer team has been briefed to working closely with Garmin UK to reinvigorate the category and increase market share through celebrity partnerships, events, stunts, video and rich content, influencer activations and traditional tactics.

Richard Daish, head of marketing UK and Ireland, said: “The decline of Sat Nav sales is well documented as many people utilise free mobile applications. However, over one million people purchased a Sat Nav device last year which makes it still one of the biggest CE markets in the UK.

“Sat Nav is Garmin’s heritage and still a hugely important part of our business. With greater penalties on using a mobile phone behind the wheel, and our new range of innovative products, we needed a partner who can bring this to life for us.

“Tangerine’s established automotive credentials are what caught our attention initially and the team’s response not only exceeded expectations in their understanding of our audiences but also their strategy development and creative thinking across a wide variety of channels.

“The team outlined an innovative and bold approach and we’re really excited about the proposed strategy which we have no doubt will deliver positive tangible results for the brand.”

Tangerine’s consumer MD, Mary Harding, added: “The automotive sector is one of Tangerine’s heritage specialisms. Over the years, we have supported a variety of big brands in the market, so adding such an authoritative brand as Garmin to this list is a fantastic result for the team.

“We’ve got some big plans for the brand this year and the wheels are already in motion to get them underway. Working as an extension of Garmin’s in-house team, we are collectively pushing the brand forward in terms of content creation and overall positioning, so we’re excited to see how this will be received by its customers both existing and new.”

3 benefits to independent working in PR

/in /by

The growth of independent working in PR – as consultants, freelancers and remote workers – looks to change the industry as it has done in many sectors. Nina Sawetz, founder and MD at future PR, and Lucy Werner, director at The Wern, discuss the benefits of working in this way.

The freelance economy is booming with £4.69 million self-employed people in the UK, accounting for 15% of the workforce, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Trends like this have made many in PR think of new and flexible ways of working. Sawetz launched future PR in 2017 ‘having seen the need for the industry to move forward’ and The Wern was launched by Werner who wanted satisfaction of ‘working independently for independent businesses’.

Both discuss the benefits of launching their consultancies and how an independent approach has helped them keep up with new trends.

Keeping up with the 24-hour clock

Both founders say that working independently has allowed them to keep up with a 24/7 news feed.

Werner said: “The reality is our lives are busier, it can often be a 24/7 job so when you are independent you can take this time back and have more flexibility in your schedule.”

Sawetz added: “As an industry we talk about ‘always on’ non-stop, but as a whole, still work in traditional weekdays. It’s outdated. We’re all in PR and we know opportunities and issues don’t just happen 9-5 Mondays to Fridays. At future, our flexible, 24/7, remote approach means we can do things differently and react faster than others to breaking news, client questions, or customer Tweets.”

No traditional agency overheads

With this rise of costs in office space, particularly in London where there is a concentration of agencies, independent teams can help save funds for the “important stuff”.

Sawetz said: “There are no traditional agency overheads such as office rents, rates or equipment charges, which ultimately end up on client bills. The clients know that by using a remote agency, there are no extra costs to think about and ultimately, they are getting more value for money.”

Working with clients you believe in

Having more independence can mean more flexibility with the clients an individual works with.

Werner said: “Working on clients we enjoy and believe in is a benefit of working independently. A large chunk of successful PR is being able to sell your story to media and if you don’t believe in the proposition, it’s even harder to get a journalist to.”

Cicero’s Iain Anderson joins Institute of Business Ethics advisory council

/in /by

Iain Anderson, executive chairman of communications consultancy Cicero Group, has joined the Institute of Business Ethics’ (IBE) advisory council.

Iain Anderson

The advisory council represents a wider business audience, and meets twice a year to offer support and guidance to the institute.

Anderson said: “The work of the IBE is more important than ever and I am really honoured to be involved. Boardooms need to step up and embrace diversity and inclusion, modern governance that is fit for an open, transparent world and also communicate what they do far more clearly. In my work, I am looking forward to making a major co contribution towards IBE thinking.”

IBE president Tim Melville-Ross added: “We are delighted that Iain has agreed to offer the IBE his counsel as a member of our Advisory Council.

“The IBE was established by a group of business people, foreseeing the ethical implications of a globalised world. They came together to establish a hub for discussion, research and practical advice to promote high standards of business behaviour based on ethical values.”

Cicero Group, which is principally owned by directors and staff, has offices in London, Brussels, New York and Singapore.

 

3MANFACTORY wins PR brief to celebrate Eureka!’s 25th birthday year

/in /by

Yorkshire-based children’s museum Eureka! has handed a PR  and comms brief to 3MANFACTORY, as the visitor attaction celebrates its 25th birthday.

Nathaniel Cassidy

3MANFACTORY, which won the account following a four-way pitch, has been briefed to spearhead PR activity and media relations for Eureka!, with a national press push to focus on the implementation of new exhibition experiences at the museum, as well as its 25th birthday celebrations.

The Preston-based team, led by Nathaniel Cassidy (pictured), PRCA council member & Chair for the north, will look to establish a strong position for Eureka! as the UK’s only dedicated interactive children’s museum through national and regional press pushes, both on and offline.

Alongside a portfolio of ambassadors, they will be working towards increasing new and return visits to the museum from key sector demographics, whilst also launching new attractions and celebrating the quarter of a century landmark birthday the Eureka! are celebrating in 2017.

Sophie Ballinger, head of comms for Eureka!, said; “We’re really excited to be working with the team at 3ManFactory during our exciting 25th birthday year. We’ve got big plans, exciting announcements and some lovely stories to share, and we’ve found the perfect agency to help us spread the word.”

Cassidy added: “We’re delighted to be working alongside Eureka!, especially in such a special year for them. Their offering is truly unique and makes a real difference to the lives of countless children across the UK, so it provides a fantastic opportunity to help them. We can’t wait to get on board and put our creative imaginations to work.”

This week’s top people news on Gorkana News

/in /by

Your bite-sized update on the people news and moves featured on Gorkana News this week.

Katie Baldwin leaves Yorkshire Post for NHS comms role
Katie Baldwin is leaving her position as a health reporter at the Yorkshire Evening Post/Yorkshire Post for a senior communications officer role at NHS Digital, the new name for the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

 

Nissan Europe hires Microsoft’s Jesse Verstraete
Nissan has hired Jesse Verstraete, currently director of corporate communications for Microsoft Asia, as its new general manager of corporate communications and CSR for Europe.

Highland Marketing hires strategy and content director
PR and marketing agency Highland Marketing has appointed Lyn Whitfield to the new role of strategy and content director.

 

 

Lottoland hires Laura Pearson as head of corporate affairs
Lottoland has hired Camelot’s Laura Pearson as head of corporate affairs. She will join the organisation in May.

 

Choose Chicago hires The PC Agency

/in /by

Choose Chicago, the official tourism body for Chicago, has brought in The PC Agency as its UK in-market PR agency.

The “Cloud Gate” in Chicago, designed by British artist Anish Kapoor

Chicago welcomed 54.1 million visitors in 2016, which a 2.9% rise on the 2015 figure. According to the tourism body, 156,832 were UK travellers  attracted by Chicago’s food, entertainment and shopping scene, coupled with new hotels, international events, a thriving LGBTQ programme and distinctive neighbourhoods each offering fresh ways to experience the city.

David Whitaker, president and CEO of Choose Chicago, said: “The UK is a vital part of our global strategic efforts to attract more visitors to our city.  UK visitors are choosing to visit Chicago, for long weekend breaks as well as lengthier vacations, so they can experience the vibrancy and excitement of one of America’s greatest cities.”

Michelle Revuelta, vice president of media relations for Choose Chicago, said: “Chicago is an excellent choice for UK travellers considering a trip to the U.S. We are confident that the strategic vision, vast network and creative storytelling that The PC Agency exemplifies will benefit our efforts to continue to enhance Chicago’s position as a leading destination.”

Paul Charles, founder and CEO of The PC Agency, added: “If you’ve been to Chicago, you know how incredible this city is. It has everything you could want in a US break – from the ease of walking in the public parks to the inspiring food economy to the many attractions to keep you occupied. With new hotel openings and innovative architecture, there are so many reasons to visit Chicago this year. We’re looking forward to highlighting what’s on offer.”

The account will be run by founder Charles and associate director Sarah Potter.