Former Weber MD Jo Leah launches the little big agency

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Jo Leah, who recently stepped down as MD of Weber Shandwick Manchester after two decades at the helm, is opening a new Manchester-based comms firm called the little big agency.

Jo Leah

The little big agency will focus on building reputations for companies, brands, people and places through strategic comms, consultation and activation.  Leah has initially invested private funds in the start-up, which currently has a staff of four.

Leah says she has established collaborations in place with other “entrepreneur-driven businesses” across England and Wales, as well as an agreement with littleBIG Marketing & PR in Melbourne, which was founded by Sally Harley 10 years ago.

The little big agency will open with several clients in the food and drink sector, and Leah is currently looking at a place making brief.

As well as her role as MD of Weber Shandwick Manchester, Leah was also chair of English Regions and Wales for the agency. She says she wants to continue her connections with academic institutions across England and Wales and is keen to add a non-executive role to the portfolio.

“My time with Weber was done but I wasn’t quite! It’s a great time to be a woman opening a business in my 50s with the benefit of 30 years in MD posts behind me and the experience of managing senior client relationships for over 25 years.”

“I simply want to carry on working in a sector I love, in cities I love, in a country I care about and to use my skills and experience to assist brands, business leaders and their businesses to manage their reputations in an increasingly challenging environment.”

Opinion: Programmatic PR is here

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Adrian Ma, Fanclub PR’s founder, explains programmatic PR and why the PR industry needs to embrace it and understand its media impact.

Adrian Ma

Daniel John Sobieski is a 68-year-old retiree who lives in Chicago. His eyesight is so poor, he needs a magnifying glass to read his computer screen. And yet, this unlikely person offers a glimpse of what could be the future of our jobs.

Sobieski came to the world’s attention when the Washington Post published an article about the work of Jonathan Albright, a professor at Elon University in North Carolina.

Albright studied the most active and prolific Twitter accounts in the final two weeks of the American election. He discovered that the top 20 supported Trump, and that two of the top three belonged to Sobieski.

How was it that this man was so influential in the Trump campaign? He created an automated Twitter bot that pumped out niche, often dubious, news, flooding these stories into the mainstream.

Samuel Woolley, from the Computational Propaganda project at Oxford University, described the goal of these efforts as being to ‘hack public opinion and hack free speech’. He discovered that this Twitter advantage helped pro-Trump and anti-Clinton stories trend online, making them more likely to be discovered on Facebook feeds or on Google News.

One thing is clear: artificial intelligence is having a massive impact on how we do our work. Like it or not, programmatic PR has landed, with which we can automate actions based on data. And those who understand it have a huge advantage over their competitors.

It’s been a long time coming. First there were editors, now there are algorithms. Algorithms on Google and Facebook determine whether your content gets discovered or shared, and that’s why you’ve been busy learning about a whole new set of analytics in order to decipher the effect of PR on these channels.

From the publisher’s perspective, there are already automated WordPress blogs and YouTube videos, which use pre-existing clips to generate fresh stories. The Press Association even announced that it was starting to use robot reporters for sports, election and business stories.

Outside of the PR world, one of our clients, an HR company called Reward Gateway, has developed a chatbot for Amazon’s Alexa to help with reporting. Clients simply ask Alexa a question about performance of an employee benefits package, and the chatbot gives them an answer. Wouldn’t it be lovely for our clients if they were able to get their questions answered as easily?

By 2035, around one-third of marketing jobs will be taken by robots, according to a study by Oxford University and Deloitte. Some people will argue that PR is protected from this risk because of the need for judgement and consultancy, and I’d agree with them, to a point.

In our work, we’re generating buckets of valuable performance data. Sentiment, site domain authorities, follow and no-follow links, social media shares and comments on stories. Optimising work and generating stories based on these data sets is now a part of our job. Sobieski has just taken the next step and automated this process with bots, and that is a world that we need to understand.

 

Opinium Research makes financial and professional services hire

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London-based agency Opinium Research has hired Josh Glendinning as a research manager to strengthen its financial and professional services offering.

Josh Glendinning

Glendinning joins after five years at H+K Strategies, where he most recently served as data and insight manager.

James Endersby, MD at Opinium, said: “We are delighted that Josh has decided to join our team. He has an impressive knowledge of financial and professional services, is intelligent, a brilliant researcher and a great asset to our existing team.”

Opinium offers qualitative and quantitative research and consultancy across a range of sectors, and owns and manages panels of UK consumers, IFAs and small businesses.

Josh Glendinning, research manager at Opinium Research, added: “Strategy, research and communications will have a huge amount to learn from one another over the coming years, so it is exciting to join one of the fastest-growing research agencies bringing all these disciplines together.”

Opinion: how to tailor apprenticeship schemes in PR

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Ahead of April 2017’s government apprenticeship levy, Aliya Vigor-Robertson, co-founder at JourneyHR, discusses how PRs can better tailor schemes for new recruits. 

Aliya Vigor-Robertson

With so much attention focused on the Spring Budget, it’s easy to forget that April 2017 marks the start of the government’s apprenticeship levy, which requires UK employers, with a payroll bill of more than £3 million per year, to invest in apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships are meant to be genuine jobs that help participants to develop skills in their chosen field. This way, apprentices can gain the technical knowledge, practical experience and wider skills they need for their immediate job and future career.

Unfortunately, apprenticeships have traditionally been associated with low-level admin tasks and subpar pay at best. The government’s apprenticeship levy aims to right these wrongs by raising the quality and quantity of apprenticeships across many different industries, including PR.

To make the most of this opportunity, however, PR agencies have some work to do. For a start, more needs to be done to tailor the schemes so that trainees are being taught the practical skills they will need to become a valuable member of a PR team. For example, developing skills such as pitching to journalists, client liaison and written work will all help the apprentice to meet the demands of working in the PR industry.

Benefits for the business

It’s not hard to see why the introduction of an apprenticeship scheme makes sense for the PR industry. With the cost of university fees having risen dramatically in the past few years, many people have less of an appetite for higher education and would rather look for other ways to break into the industry.

Most PR apprenticeship schemes are still in their infancy, however, which means that the standards that apprentices need to learn are still developing. Agencies should therefore make the most of the opportunity to work with the developers of these schemes to clearly define their standards so that the quality of the apprentices being produced boosts the industry for years to come.

A common misconception when it comes to apprenticeships is that they are only for younger people, straight out of education, but this is not the case. Businesses that are required to pay the levy can opt to spend their contribution on up-skilling their existing staff by sending them on relevant courses or training programmes. This not only benefits the employee, but also the agency, since the opportunity to develop new skills will help the team feel more confident, motivated and engaged.

Whether an agency is required to pay the levy or not, April should be welcomed as an opportunity to introduce change and make the most of the opportunities that having an apprentice can offer the company. By creating a scheme that benefits both the apprentice and the company, agencies have the chance to boost their skills internally and enhance their offering at the same time.

Lynne Hughes joins Clarion to lead Scottish arm

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Clarion Communications has appointed a new senior-level account director, Lynne Hughes, to drive the company’s Scotland office, which opened last year.

Lynne Hughes

Hughes has both agency and client-side experience, having worked for major brands including IRN-BRU, Tennent’s Lager, Vimto Soft Drinks, The Great Run Company and Scottish Government.

She also did a nine-year spell on the former Strathclyde Police news desk, which saw her involved in some of the country’s most high-profile incidents, including the 2007 Glasgow Airport terrorist attack.

At Clarion, Hughes has been briefed to play a leading role in agency operations in Scotland.

She will work closely with the business development team to develop Clarion’s existing portfolio, which includes Edinburgh-based firm Genius, Aldi, Unilever, Jägermeister and Nectar.

Amanda Meyrick , Clarion CEO, said: “We are thrilled to have Lynne on board to spearhead the Scotland office. She is a well-known face in the industry and having worked across some of the country’s biggest and most high-profile brands, brings a wealth of experience to the company.

“Her local knowledge backed by the expertise of the London team is a great asset, and we are confident that we can make a really positive contribution to Scottish business.”

Beano Studios hands Borkowski corporate comms brief

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Beano, the comic publisher and children’s brand, has appointed corporate and entertainment agency Borkowski Ltd to devise and deliver a corporate communications strategy for Beano Studios, articulating the creative company’s latest proposition.

Beano character Dennis the Menace

Borkowski has also been briefed to broker senior level media and industry engagement and support Beano Studios as it continues to deliver commercial deals across broadcast, film, digital and advertising.

Emma Scott, CEO at Beano Studios, said: “Borkowski’s heavyweight and long term experience with big brands and personalities in the entertainment space makes it the perfect partner to help build fame for us. We have retained House PR to deliver consumer PR activation, continuing the consultancy that they started when Beano Studios went live last year.”

Beano Studios was developed to provide multi-platform entertainment for kids; including new film and TV programmes, a digital network, live theatrical experiences, consumer products and the comic and annual.

Andrew Olley, director at Borkowski Ltd, added: “Beano Studios has brought us in at an important stage in the lifecycle of the business. Beano’s fantastic track record is one that we have tremendous respect for and we want to ensure that their unparalleled insights into the family market combined with this 21st century content proposition, gets the recognition that it deserves. The brand will always retain its child-like qualities, but we want to show the industry that its commercial potential is far from childish.”

This week’s top trending features on Gorkana News

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Your bitesize update on the best PR opinion, interviews, events and insights on Gorkana News this week.

Insight: 8 tips for communicating to the ‘modern woman’
Engine revealed this week that women feel brands do not accurately represent them. To remedy this, the agency group, which includes MHP Communications, has come up with eight top tips for communicating to the “21st Century woman”.

 

 

PR Case Study: #ForestChampions
During last year’s Rio Olympics, WE Communications and The Forest Council Stewardship (FSC) created a media campaign which raised awareness of the people who play a vital role in the preservation of the world’s trees.

 

 

Insight: UK brands are failing to effectively communicate to women
Engine’s research ‘Engaging the 21st Century Woman; What Brands Need to Know’ highlights that 86% of women think brands fuel old-fashioned stereotypes. This morning, Stylist’s digital features editor Harriet Hall, Sport England’s head of brand and strategy Kate Dale and Stella Creasy MP discussed how brands can better communicate to women.

Opinion: PR needs to speed up progress in diversity
Colin Byrne, Weber Shandwick’s CEO for UK & EMEA, explains why the agency is backing a new diversity initiative and why the PR industry needs to recognise and overcome its unconscious bias.

 

Insight: Top tips for PR firms looking to hire an apprentice
On National Apprentice Week (March 6 – 10) PR pros from The Wern PR and Rostrum give their top tips for hiring an apprentice after signing up their first candidates in 2017.

 

Opinion: Engaging the UK’s Polish Community

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Ewelina Krzysztofik, MD at 2Sisters PR, talks about the unique challenge and opportunity that communicating with the Polish community in the UK offers. 

Ewelina Krzysztofik

With most Poles declaring their willingness to stay in the United Kingdom despite Brexit, they remain an attractive target for British businesses.

However, as with every minority group, they need to be approached in an appropriate manner, requiring high levels of cultural awareness. This task may prove difficult to those who are not familiar with Polish immigrants and who they are as people and customers.

At 2Sisters PR, we have seen numerous campaign fail for this very reason, and the same mistakes reoccur. Therefore, we have developed guidelines businesses looking to engage with the Polish community:

Know your allies
The UK is home to nearly one million Poland-born citizens. This impressive number is reflected in the wide availability of Polish-speaking media, as there are 60 different titles operating on British soil. Naturally, they vary in terms of reach, with the top three, namely Londynek, Cooltura and Goniec, demonstrably standing out from the rest.

Due to their online presence, they encompass the entire territory of Great Britain, making them a safe choice when you target the Polish community as a whole, rather than by specific regions.

Combine your sources
However, these media have target audiences of their own, and chances are they exclude many customers who are potentially valuable to your business.

Poles do not constitute a homogeneous group, and not all of them read news portals, therefore consider combining this tool with another. An entirely digital campaign has the highest chances of providing the intended ROI, as it evades the typical boundaries of traditional channels, and blogs pose an excellent supplementary choice to support your cause.

There is a large number of UK-based Polish bloggers to select from. Many with a substantial viewers base that includes not only Poles living in Great Britain, but also their friends and families back in Poland, as well as a similar community based in Germany. With some 175,000 subscribers and 60 million individual views, they can maximise your reach in ways that traditional media cannot.

Embrace your audience’s perspective
Regardless of your final choice, bear in mind that the PR angles you are preparing for your clients have to be crafted in a manner that will attract the attention of Polish journalists. If they do not consider your news meaningful and relevant to their specific audience, they will simply refuse to publish it. Reflect on whether your piece concerns the Polish community in particular, and make your argument as convincing as possible.

Carefully craft your execution
Once you have finalised your strategy, it is time to prepare the launch of your campaign. This part will be challenging at best, and chances are it will prove far more difficult than the previous steps. Avoid these five common mistakes.

1. Never send English press releases to Polish journalists

English is merely a secondary language to the vast majority of Poles, and Polish journalists do not wish to double their workload by translating the materials they receive. Given the number of messages they get each day, seeing one that is overtly English, they may not even click on the attachment, let alone consider using it. To maximise your chance of success, use their native language for both your email conversations and the actual press releases.

2. Check the spelling on online banners and adverts – thrice!

Polish is considered one of the most difficult languages there are, and online translators are still far from a reliable source to refer to. A bad translation can completely distort, or even ridicule your intended meaning: protect your brand assets and your budget by ensuring that the copy on your ads is in proper Polish.

3. Do not release a Polish language version of your website until it is proofread by a professional

Same rule applies to your website – after all, it is an official showcase of your business. Even if the messages you include there are fairly simple, you may stumble upon words and terms that do not have a straightforward equivalent in Polish. In such cases, even the data from most renowned dictionaries will prove misleading. Consult a professional translator before you launch your website, so that once it goes live, it will serve its intended purpose of converting Polish viewers into customers.

4. Do not write in English when crafting posts for Polish social media users

Poles simply prefer to exchange messages in their native language, and social media marketing is all about reciprocal communications. Stay close to your audience by speaking their language, and allow them to talk to you in the same way.

5. Do not submit English ads to the Polish media

Adjust your promotional materials to the tastes and needs of the Polish audience on all levels, including the linguistics! Members of the Polish community differ in terms of their familiarity with English, therefore do translate your ads; otherwise you are running a risk of being misunderstood, or worse – completely overlooked.

  • Authored by Ewelina Krzysztofik, MD and Aleksandra Paprot, PR assistant at 2SistersPR. The agency is a London-based communications agency focused on planning and managing campaigns targeted at Poles for leading brands in the UK and Europe

Hacks vs Flaks organisers call for Easter Sports Day teams

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The Hacks vs Flaks organisers have made a call for new teams on Easter Sports Day, which takes place this year on Sunday 9 April.

The event, which takes place at the Bank of England sports centre in Roehampton, will see teams of journalists and PRs go head-to-head in football and netball matches. Kick-off is at midday and the afternoon concludes with a buffet lunch and prize giving ceremony.

Amazon are the lead sponsors for the event and all proceeds will go to WheelPower, the national charity for wheelchair sport, which “provides opportunities for people with physical impairments to take part in sport”.

To sign up and take part, those interested should contact the team captains below:

Football

Hacks: Nick Clark [email protected] and Dan Hyde [email protected]

Flaks: Ed Berry [email protected]

Netball 

Hacks: Anna White  [email protected] (A Team) and Ros Snowdon (B Team) [email protected]

Flaks: Vicky Conybeer  [email protected] (A Team) and Sorrelle Harper (B Team)[email protected]

To donate to WheelPower, sign up here. For any further information about sponsoring or taking part in the matches, please contact Ed Berry at [email protected], or 0203 727 1046.

Totaljobs hands content brief to Frank

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Totaljobs has appointed Frank on a retained basis to deliver a series of content campaigns throughout 2017.

Totaljobs

Totaljobs, described as one of the UK’s most established jobs boards, attracts 12 million visits and three million applications from jobseekers every month.

Frank has been briefed develop a series of PR SEO-optimised content campaigns that will allow Totaljobs to develop its own distinct market position among its competitors.

Frank’s London and Manchester offices will be involved in delivering campaigns. Editorial director Ryan Sketchley will lead the account.

Martin Hofschroer, lead content strategist at Totaljobs, said: “We were really impressed by Frank’s creative approach and the coverage levels they delivered around two projects towards the end of 2016.

“We are keen to create a distinct voice and market position. As such, we felt engaging Frank on a retained basis would better enable us to achieve the marketing objectives we have. We look forward to working with the team.”

Andrew Bloch, founder and group MD of Frank, added: “Totaljobs is a fantastic business. Recruitment, employability and the workplace are all such fertile areas for discussion. There is real scope for all manner of creativity.”