PR Case Study: #essiexrankin

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essie is a small, cult nail polish beauty brand loved by those-in-the-know, but with the ambition to become a household name. To increase brand awareness, Golin needed to turn it into a lifestyle brand that would be talked about, celebrated and purchased by the masses – not just a loyal few.

Rankin at the Colour Portraits Studio

Campaign name: #essiexrankin

Client: essie

PR Team: Golin

Timing: 2016

Summary:
With low awareness in the UK, essie’s nail colour range needed a polish. Golin’s integrated PR and social campaign had a unique approach to talent, working with legendary photographer Rankin to launch the #essiexrankin ‘Colour Portraits Studio’.

Golin put essie back on the media map by celebrating its colours and the confident women who wear them. By putting women at the heart of its campaign, and using renowned influencers from the photography and beauty world, Golin took essie from a cult beauty brand into a mass lifestyle brand.

Objectives:
This was the main marketing campaign for essie in 2016 and came with the following objectives:

  • Increase essie brand awareness among a core consumer base of 20 to 35 year-old UK females
  • Generate a high-reaching campaign
  • Launch essie’s new Gel Couture nail polish range to key beauty media and influencers

Strategy and implementation
Golin’s starting point was to understand why women choose certain nail polish brands, and what the opportunity for essie could be. Golin’s strategy team conducted extensive social listening research of thousands of conversations about nail care, nail polish and beauty, giving it its key campaign insight; that beautifully painted nails have the power to make women feel confident.

Quantitative and qualitative research identified a robust circle of beauty influencers, targeted by relevancy to the essie consumer, and with enough resonance to propel essie’s brand awareness. Knowing this, Golin’s strategy was to buck the beauty trend by putting women and influencers, instead of celebrities, at the heart of the campaign.

Partnering with renowned photographer Rankin, Golin launched the Colour Portraits Studio, enabling influencers and women around the UK to have a once-in-a-lifetime day where they would be treated like a star. Each attendee received a high fashion photo shoot with Rankin – starring their nails – the pictures of which they could take away and share.

A teaser shoot with influencers and publications including Lily Pebbles, Marie Claire and Hello!  launched via social using #essiexrankin, encouraging women to upload a ‘nail selfie’ for the chance to win a place at the Colour Portraits Studio. High-profile interviews with Rankin featured on Popsugar, Evening Standard and Fabulous magazine to encourage entries.

The Colour Portraits Studio invited 50 attendees – a mixture of real women, influencers and beauty journalists – to receive a stunning one-on-one photoshoot with Rankin following manicures, hair and make-up. Images were emailed and printed for all attendees within the hour to ensure quick social sharing via #essiexrankin, and a sneak peek of the new essie Gel Couture range was given to the exclusive crowd.

Results

  • #essiexrankin totalled nearly 7m impressions across the life span of the campaign, with influencer social posts alone generating over 5m impressions
  • Live social reporting and content creation from the Colour Portraits Studio resulted in @essieuk on Instagram gaining over 1k followers
  • There was a total campaign reach of over 24m, consisting of 249 pieces of coverage and influencer social media posts including Lily Pebbles, Rankin, Huffington Post and OK! magazine
  • The new essie Gel Couture range was referenced in over 50 pieces of coverage including Really Ree, The Telegraph and Fleur De Force.

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

March 20 – 24: the most read people news on Gorkana News this week

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Your bitesize update on the latest people news and moves featured on Gorkana News this week:

Hotwire’s Brendon Craigie steps down
Hotwire’s group CEO, Brendon Craigie, announced his resignation this week as he looks to “pursue other interests”. A successor is expected to be announced in due course. In the interim, Hotwire’s global leadership team will continue to lead the business.

 

Finsbury teams up with Christina Mills 
Finsbury’s London office has brought in SABMiller’s former group director of comms and reputation, Christina Mills, as a consulting partner. She will work through her recently founded consulting business Christina Mills Communications.

 

Nasima Hussain joins Promote PR as managing partner
Speed Communications’ former managing partner, Nasima Hussain, has joined sport, fitness, wellbeing and tech specialist Promote PR as managing partner. She will be responsible for the future strategic direction of the agency, which has experienced significant growth in recent months following new client wins, including Polar and British Rowing.

APC appoints corporate comms manager
The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) has appointed Liam O’Neill as corporate comms manager. O’Neill’s background in automotive comms includes a global technology and innovation storyteller role at Jaguar Land Rover. He has been briefed to work with APC’s existing comms team to drive the organisation’s future strategy.

Founder of Hot Tin Roof launches automated PR service
Sarah Lee, the founder of Scottish tech agency Hot Tin Roof, has launched PingGo, an automated PR service which targets start-ups and SMEs. The online new service includes a press release writing tool, media distribution and messaging services and a planner to schedule “news milestones”.

 

Smoking Gun wins Arriva Buses North West PR brief

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Smoking Gun PR has been appointed to handle the PR for Arriva Buses in the North West and Wales.

The new Arriva Hybrid double decker bus

Arriva is one of the largest bus and train transport services organisations in Europe, employing around 34,000 people.

Smoking Gunwill handle media relations and crisis comms, as well as provide support across stakeholder relations and internal comms strategies.

Arriva Buses’ North West encompasses services in Merseyside and the Wirral, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire, as well as North Wales.

Arriva Buses’ commitment to the environmental agenda and eco technology, as well as its community projects in the North West and Wales, will form part of the brief.

Julie Linforth, marketing director at Arriva North West, said: “Smoking Gun PR came highly recommended to us and we were immediately impressed not only by its credentials but its energy and vision for our work. We’re delighted to have the team on board as we spearhead our ‘clean and green’ bus network and launch a series of cultural and charitable partnerships throughout 2017.”

Smoking Gun PR MD Rick Guttridge added: “We welcome Arriva to our roster at an exciting time of growth for the agency. The team will bring a wealth of expertise in travel PR and crisis communications to the account and are matching team Arriva’s ambitions for the year with a robust PR programme to support its business objectives.”

nextbike hands UK brief to Nathan Rous PR

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Nathan Rous PR has been chosen to handle the UK PR for public bike sharing scheme nextbike.

nextbike

The nextbike scheme, which launched in 2004, is based in over 100 cities globally, with more than 35,000 bikes now in service.

With councils and cities under increasing government pressure to reduce pollution levels, nextbike said now is a key time to enhance its PR activity.

Nathan Rous PR aims to raise the profile of nextbike as a sustainable mode of transport and Julian Scriven, MD of nextbike, said: “From the first moment we met Nathan and his team, we were convinced they were the right people to help us spread the word about nextbike across the UK and beyond.

“Bike-sharing is more common than ever but we have to ensure that nextbike continues to be at the forefront of this revolution.”

Nathan Rous added: “We are delighted to announce this new contract and we are particularly excited about working with a company that will be increasingly imperative to the future of sustainable cities.

“nextbike is an exciting and innovative product and we are delighted to be tasked with ensuring the successful roll out of the product and brand within new cities both in the UK and the rest of Europe.”

Couchbase chooses Spark Communications for Pan-European brief

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Spark Communications will manage PR for database company Couchbase across the UK, France and Germany, developing a creative content strategy to engage customers and the media.

Ana Williams

Couchbase delivers NoSQL database technology for businesses focused on digital innovation. Its customers include LinkedIn, PayPal, Dixons, eBay, General Electric, Marriott, Ryanair and Tesco.

Luke Whitehead, EMEA marketing director at Couchbase, said: “Although I’ve not worked with Spark before, I’ve admired its work with competitors in previous roles. It was clear to me that the team have the contacts and creativity that takes PR from being something resulting in sporadic media coverage to something that has a tangible impact on the business. It was clear that with Spark we’d get a strong team, where everyone from the director on our account to the AE actively contribute to the programme and drive results.”

Ana Williams, director at Spark Communications, added: “With a pan-European brief focused on storytelling and content we are really excited about the campaigns we are planning.”

How PRs can help when journalists are worried about trust in the media

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Journalists across the world are showing concern about a perceived declining trust from the general public, but CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal and PLMR’s Ollie Lane say the media must work together to build trusted brands.

After 2016’s seismic political events the media has had some problems with trust, in particular as a result of the fake news concept.

Cision’s State of The Media Report 2017, an annual survey of 1,550 North American journalists, shows that as much as 91% of news media professionals believe the media is either “much less trusted” or “somewhat less trusted” than it was three years ago.

This lack of trust strikes parallels with the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer, which this year saw the public’s trust in the media drop to a level which matched distrust in government officials.

Despite the perception of falling trust from the industry in the US, 92% of the respondents value featuring facts over being the first to run a story. This is up 4% from 2016.

Building a trusted brand

Gorkana asked CNBC’s technology correspondent Arjun Kharpal if this concern over media trust in the US is something he has seen reflected in the UK.

He said: “With fake news proliferating the industry, publications – more than ever – have to make sure they are being accurate, smart and thorough.”

Despite this, he adds that coming from a trusted media source such as CNBC can encourage trust among the public.

“At CNBC we’ve actually seen a record number of people coming to us over the last 12 months,” he claims. “We’re a brand that people trust to provide balanced, accurate and actionable news that will keep them informed.”

Traditional news sources remain some of the most reliable, according to former journalist and Government adviser Ollie Lane – who is now director at comms agency PLMR.

He said: “The mainstream media has been dismissed as fake news in some quarters but the reality is that traditional news sources remain the most reliable because of the stringent fact-checking processes their stories go through.

“In fact the explosion of fake news sites and stories has underlined the importance of these outlets. Our experience at PLMR is that professional journalists remain as open as ever to strong, genuine stories with proper news values.”

Lane says that PRs and journalists must work together to provide accurate information as it effects the entire media industry. He adds: “All PRs have a duty to make sure they are being straight with journalists – fake news does lead to a lack of trust in the media, and doesn’t do any good for the media, PRs or the public, who put their faith in the news being reliable.”

Adam Leigh, strategy director at W, said: “The reality is that most journalists – at least those working for mainstream media companies – want to do a good job, get their facts straight, and report the world as faithfully as they can.

“Of course, total objectivity is a bit of a myth – it’s entirely natural that journalists bring their own experiences and perspectives to the stories they cover, but they do try to get it right. And as we’ve seen over the past 24 hours, when society is challenged, we rely on our news media to tell it like it is.”

  • Cision’s State of the Media Report 2017 is a survey of more than 1,550 North American journalists and influencers, conducted annually. This year it reveals that while most consumer trust reports indicate that people have more faith in earned media than paid and owned, journalists perceive they are now struggling to maintain the public’s trust.
  • Despite being the most trusted medium, confidence in the media eroded due to the presidential election and other factors. 2016 was a monumental year for news and the journalists and influencers who covered it.
  • The results of this year’s survey indicate that journalists, publishers and brand communicators
    need to continue to provide relevant, authoritative, accurate content to the public in order to preserve and rebuild consumer trust.
  • To read a full copy of the State of the Media Report 2017, please visit Cision’s US web site.

Five ways PRs and brands can get ready for Christmas 2017

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Christmas may only have taken place three months ago, but savvy retail brands are already planning for their most profitable time of year in 2017, says Courtney Rogers, founding partner of Christmas in July, an annual platform for retailers to showcase their Christmas gift ranges to the press in one location. “Getting gift products into the Christmas features and gift guides can have a huge impact on sales,” she says. “It’s an important part of retail PR strategy and it starts in July.

Courtney Rogers

Christmas In July is the annual PR initiative where brands launch their festive gift collections to the media. This poses challenges for retailers including getting product ready in time, allocating budget and securing good attendance from the press when they can only attend a fraction of the invitations they receive.

Here are our top five tips to get the press interested in your products in time for Christmas:

1. Planning

Strategy discussions should start approximately 12 to 18 months in advance, with every department working together to ensure time frames are met and product collections are ready for the key July period. “If something isn’t ready by July, it has to move to the following year” Jo Malone

2. Host a press launch

Face time and interaction with key media is important to firmly establish awareness of your new product range. It’s a time to build relationships and immerse them in your brand experience, meaning your products are at the forefront of journalists’ minds when it comes to the gift guides. This can also help you to understand best sellers and plan production accordingly.

3. Collaboration

There has been a surge in the journalist community for Christmas In July to be run like London Fashion Week, joining other brands to collectively launch gift collections to the press. The Christmas in July Festival facilitates this, minimising journalists time out of the office and increasing your brand exposure to the press at a fraction of the cost of hosting an individual event, it’s a win-win!

4. Product information and imagery

Sharing the right content with the press is important to get featured in the gift guides “If we can’t find the right information, we just move onto the next product” explains Lorraine Fisher, who worked on the 2016 Daily Mail Gift Guide. Gather and document all information in the planning stages, from product colours to last delivery dates, to maximise your chances of getting featured. The Gift Guide Portal can help you facilitate this in a simple and consistent way.

5. Sampling / Gifting

Gifting at your press launch and sending samples to the press in the lead up to Christmas helps to keep relationships and product awareness with the press. This is a great solution if all of your products aren’t ready by July and with the Gift Guide Portal, you can simply add products as and when they become available.

  • The Christmas In July Festival takes place on 12 and 13 July 2017 at Victoria House, Bloomsbury, with over 100 brands exhibiting their gift collections to 1,000+ media and influencers. More information can be found at www.christmasinjuly.co
  • Don’t forget to login to Gorkana’s media database to access thousands of media calendar listings and lead times for features and news opportunities, as well as our ready-made lists, which cover sectorised opportunities, seasonal dates and topical subjects.

Founder of Hot Tin Roof launches automated PR service

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Sarah Lee, the founder of Scottish tech agency Hot Tin Roof, has launched PingGo, an automated PR service which targets start-ups and SMEs.

Sarah Lee

PingGo offers a do-it-yourself, automated PR service designed to improve visibility for small businesses through earned media coverage.

Lee, founder and CEO at PingGo, said: “My vision is to democratise the PR industry so that lack of budget and experience are not barriers to a company getting media attention. It is the strength of the story that should determine whether the media picks up on a story and reports news.

“Media coverage cannot be bought. It has to be earned. When a company is just starting out it is critical that it establish credibility, but traditional PR is out of reach to most.”

The online service offered by PingGo includes a press release writing tool, a media distribution and messaging service and a planner to schedule news milestones. The business is the result of a 12-month research and development project co-funded by Innovate UK, the UK Government’s innovation agency, which completed in February.

Matt Brown, creative programme lead technologist at Innovate UK, added: “PingGo really stood out as a great concept that our expert assessors thought would bring a lot of benefits to micro and small companies looking for PR services. It’s just the kind of early-stage project that we are looking to co-fund.

“PingGo made it through a rigorous selection process designed to identify the most interesting digital media businesses in Edinburgh.”

Based in Edinburgh, PingGo will initially be run out of the offices of Hot Tin Roof. The company has plans to hire a full team over the next 12 months. PingGo plans to release new features and enhancements regularly in response to feedback from its customers.

The product was designed and built by digital product studio NEU, which is based in Glasgow and specialises in creating products aimed at disrupting traditional industries.

Ilk wins Adlington

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Ilk has added Adlington, an independent living company, to its client roster. The new account will be managed out of the agency’s head office in Leeds.

The sales team at Adlington

Ilk will deliver PR and social services to support Adlington’s expanding luxury retirement apartment offering across the North West and the West Midlands.

Nev Ridley, managing director at ilk, said: “A renewed focus on our new business activity after our rebrand last year saw us end 2016 on a high, and the addition of Adlington to our growing client list this year is a result of this building momentum.”

Claire Reede, sales and marketing manager at Adlington, added: “Adlington is expanding exponentially this year throughout the North West and West Midlands, and we really wanted to work with an agency that understands our industry, market and objectives. We were impressed with ilk’s ideas and clarity of approach, and we’re excited to see what we can achieve together.”

Ilk, formerly Manifest, is based at Leeds Dock.

Buchanan advises Solo Oil on Tanzanian investment

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Buchanan is advising Solo Oil on its acquisition of a 10% interest in Helium One, a private helium exploration and production company in Tanzania.

Solo Oil

Buchanan’s sector specialist team, comprised of partner Ben Romney, account director Chris Judd and account executive Henry Wilson is advising Solo Oil.

Solo, an oil and gas investment company, which focuses on acquiring and developing a portfolio of strategic assets, has acquired a 10% interest in Helium One for a total consideration of £2.55m. It has a 90-day option to increase its interest to 20%.

Dan Maling, finance director at Solo Oil, said: “We’re pleased to have Buchanan on board, and look forward to working with a team that possesses a diverse skill-set and a strong reputation in the oil and gas sector.”

The transaction expands Solo’s presence in Tanzania which already includes production from Kiliwani North and 25% interest in the Ntroya gas discovery in Ruvuma Basin.  The company’s portfolio also includes investments in UK, Nigeria and Canada

Ben Romney, partner at Buchanan, added: “We look forward to providing Solo Oil with ongoing communications as the company’s story develops.”