Visit Jersey appoints Hills Balfour to lead European trade activity

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Visit Jersey has appointed travel and tourism consultancy Hills Balfour to develop its European short-haul trade relations activity, with a particular focus on the UK, France and Scandinavia.

Following a competitive pitch, the agency has been appointed to influence travel distribution and specifically identify, court and capture new sources of visitors via off-island travel trade buyers. This will include traditional tour operators and carriers.

Hills Balfour will identify key travel intermediaries and initiate relationships with them and target travel suppliers in new markets to inspire visitors to discover Jersey.

Keith Beecham, CEO at Visit Jersey, said: “We are thrilled to announce our new appointment of Hills Balfour to handle Visit Jersey’s European market development. Hills Balfour’s breadth and depth of trade experience in both the UK and on the Continent aligns very well with our vision for 2017 and beyond, as well as tying in with our goal of increasing awareness of the potential that Jersey has to offer the trade.”

He added: “We look to Hills Balfour to build on our existing tour operator relations in addition to opening Jersey up to new markets, audiences and revenue streams through creating more reasons and opportunities to visit.”

W promotes World Cancer Day

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Cancer Research UK has called in W’s talent and influencer division to raise the profile of World Cancer Day 2017, which takes place this Saturday (4 February).

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One Direction’s Niall Horan

World Cancer Day – an annual event – aims to prevent millions of deaths by raising awareness of the disease, educating the public and pressing governments and individuals across the world to take action.

Cancer Research UK has selected W to secure “top-tier talent” for the event, which takes place on February 4 2017.

Activity has already kicked off with One Direction’s Niall Horan (pictured) posting on Instagram that he’ll be wearing his Unity Band on Saturday to promote World Cancer Day.

The appointment follows W’s recent talent and influencer campaign for blood cancer charity DKMS, which saw the agency garner support from the likes of Liv Tyler and Poppy Delevingne.

Sophie Raine, deputy MD at W, said: “This is an incredibly important cause and one that is close to many hearts at W, so we welcomed the opportunity to be part of such an influential and impactful campaign.”

Personal Group appoints Hudson Sandler

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Personal Group, a leading provider of employee benefits and employee related insurance products in the UK, has appointed Hudson Sandler as its retained adviser for its strategic communications and investor relations support.

personal-group-bcHudson Sandler will work with Personal Group to promote its investment case, build institutional and retail shareholder support and drive awareness and engagement among key stakeholders across HR, business and vertical sectors.

Nick Lyon will lead the Hudson Sandler team with support from Sophie Lister, Lucy Wollam and Jasper Bartlett.

Nick Lyon, partner at Hudson Sandler, said: “We are delighted to be working with such a dynamic company and look forward to supporting Personal Group during its next stage of growth and its ambitions to make employees happier and more productive.”

Mark Scanlon, CEO at Personal Group, added: “We’re very pleased to be working with Hudson Sandler. Their integrated approach and knowledge of our space means that they’re ideally placed to raise further awareness of our business and communicate our story to our key stakeholders.”

60 Seconds with WE Communications’ Meredith Lynch

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Meredith Lynch

Meredith Lynch, head of tech at WE Communications, on why storytelling is important for tech, how PR briefs are getting tighter and why her most important advice is “don’t be an asshole”. 

How did you come to specialise in tech?
I spent the first 12 years of my communications career with WE (formerly Waggener Edstrom) in our Pacific Northwest Headquarters focused on Microsoft – one of our biggest partnerships. It was a phenomenal study in impactful communications and a massive education in the potential and far-reaching impact of technology.  I’ve been a woman in tech ever since.

What do you like about the sector?

I am a passionate technology enthusiast because great technology provides solutions to improve lives, shape society, connect people and enable positive change.  From the tiniest sensor to the largest supercomputer, it’s where creativity meets science, data meets human insight and where the future of food, health, transportation, art and education will come from. It doesn’t replace the need for connection – it enhances our ability to connect. There is no greater story to tell – it’s constantly in motion and that’s part of our DNA at WE. We’ve been telling the ever-changing story of technology for over 30 years.

What makes tech PR unique?

PR is the art of storytelling – in no other sector do you spend quite as much time focused on getting past the technology itself, to understanding and articulating why it matters on both a small and large scale.  In PR, we have to find the real and meaningful impact a technology can and will have, and articulate that in a way that makes people, business leaders and journalists care.  We take the incredibly complicated and make it compelling and easy to understand, helping our clients and partners to better articulate that no matter who they’re speaking with:  a customer, a journalist, an investor or their neighbour.

We live in a world where brands are constantly in motion relative to their competitors, customers, employees, governments and society. As brands either seek to seize opportunity created by constant transformation or react to transformative pressures, they are propelled forward, spin in place or move backwards.

At WE Communications, we understand brands in motion. We grew up with one. We had – and continue to have — a seat at the table of transformation-driven motion. We understand how to harness motion. How to manage it for mutual benefit. How it impacts brands. How it impacts stakeholders. How it impacts society.

What changes to your industry do you foresee taking place over the next five years?

I view our industry as not a PR-only industry – I see the merging of PR, marketing, social and advertising happening very quickly (not a revelation for anybody at this point).

With that convergence, the access to discoverable data and the rise of insights and analytics, we should expect to see a power shift in the relationship between creatives (agencies, creative services) and marketers (brands, marketing and communications teams) from one where creative is on top to one where analysts, or modern planners put the marketer on top.

This will result in much tighter briefs requiring faster turnaround for very specific platforms.  The free reign of creatives will come under significant price pressure – and creative service providers will have to justify their budgets and do a lot more for less.

We are also entering a period where Internet of Things and artificial intelligence are creating an entirely new wave of impact on insights, creative, devices and platforms. It will be interesting to see how this affects communications professionals and the areas in which we can and should explore.

What new skill, do you think, PR professionals could most benefit from mastering?

It’s not just ONE thing – but in addition to constantly challenging ourselves, we need to stay curious… always ask why. Be clear about what you want and need to be successful. Never show up unprepared. Read non-stop. Make sure your research takes you away from your computer and brings you, your team and your clients new insights and experiences. And most importantly: don’t be an asshole.

Does WE have any ambitions for 2017 that you can share with us?

Brands and their stories are now in motion at a greater velocity than ever before across devices, platforms and channels. This means that brands must move away from static messages and single-platform content and create deliberate threads of content that engage consumers in their daily lives.  Through this lens we will relentlessly pursue what is possible for our people, our business and our clients.

The business case for social mobility in PR

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Encouraging social mobility and diversity are challenges for many sectors and PR  is no exception. Comms pros and diversity experts from Ketchum, Forster, Burson-Marsteller, Taylor Bennett Foundation and Media Diversified tell us why there is a business case for building a more socially mobile and diverse PR industry.

The Social Mobility Commission has revealed that professional people from working class backgrounds are paid an average of £6,800 less than their colleagues from more affluent backgrounds in its latest report. Alan Milburn, chair of the Social Mobility Commission, said: “This unprecedented research provides powerful new evidence that Britain remains a deeply elitist society.”

Media and other professions the report cites, including medicine, law and academia, remain dominated by people from “more privileged” backgrounds. This was reflected in the PRCA’s 2016 Census, launched last June, and showed that diversity remains a problem in PR. Statistics in ethnicity and class have remained relatively unchanged since 2011.

Gorkana has spoken to comms pros and diversity experts who believe, alongside fairness and social justice, there is also a clear business case for diversity in the profession.

PR must be diverse if media output is to be diverse

Maurice Mcleod, director of campaign group and online publisher Media Diversified, says PR can aid journalism in becoming more diverse as reporters begin to heavily rely on the relationship for fast-paced and accurate news.

“As journalists are required to produce more and more copy to ever tightening deadlines, the power of the well-resourced PR industry continues to grow. PR teams often get to choose what images are used and what stories are told, as many journalists no longer have time to scrutinise the information they are given or in some cases even to rewrite press releases,” he says.

He adds: “Having PR resources delivered from diverse agencies gives journalists options to highlight new stories and challenge perceptions. Journalists – who are over 94% white – rarely have time to develop meaningful links with communities other than their own and so in many cases they rely on the content suppliers, the PR companies, to provide diversity.”

PR is about connecting people and telling authentic stories

Jo-ann Robertson, deputy CEO at Ketchum London, says that the research from the Social Mobility Commission reflects her own experience: PR agencies tend to be more homogeneous in the make-up of their workforce. She argues more diversity would improve the profession.

“Beyond a sense of fairness and social justice, there is a robust business case for diversity.  As a profession, PR is about connecting to people by telling authentic and creative stories. Having a workforce that is representative of our society enables us to connect in a truly authentic way. If we don’t embrace diversity, we risk missing out on talent within our workforce. And without diversity of thinking, we risk omitting – if not alienating – a very significant market for us and our clients.

“I genuinely believe that a diverse workforce leads to more innovative thinking and increased revenue.  That view is borne out by research from various sources (e.g. from McKinsey & Company and the University of Illinois).”

Peter Gilheany, PR director at Forster, adds: “The profession is missing out on the talent, perspectives, insights and experiences of a really diverse workforce. The PR industry often strives for authenticity and needs to be able to communicate the experiences and reality of all the different audiences it seeks to engage.”

Reaching all sectors of society

Sarah Stimson, chief executive at Taylor Bennett Foundation – a body that promotes equal opportunities at work, says that if communications practitioners are trying to reach all sectors of society then it stands to reason that they have a better of chance of achieving that if they are reflective of that society’s demographics.

She continues: “PR firms say they want to hire the most creative and innovative staff but by continually recruiting from the same pool of people they are missing out on talent with different insights and experiences. There’s a strong business case for diversity, the 2015 McKinsey report found that more diverse teams outperform their competitors but more than that, opening up access to the industry to people from all walks of life is just the right thing to do.”

This view is reflected by Stephen Day, chief operating officer at Burson Marsteller UK, who says: “It’s vital that PR companies employ people from a wide variety of backgrounds simply because it makes good business sense.  If you are trying to help clients understand an increasingly diverse and globally minded range of consumers you had better make sure that you have great people who are well placed to do that.  They are more likely to be able to do that if they themselves have a wide array of views, backgrounds and life experiences.

“One of the issues with social media, particularly in political communications, is its ability to provoke group-think – with people imposing filters so they only hear from those they agree with.  By only listening to those who share your outlook you only see half the picture which is damaging to campaigns and leads to badly based decision making.  Therefore having diverse teams of people and views is more important than ever.”

This week’s top trending features on Gorkana News

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

london-live-jim-grice-2Gorkana meets… London Live
Approaching its third birthday, London Live is the first and only 24-hour entertainment channel devoted to London. Jim Grice, head of news at London Live, talks to Gorkana’s Louise Pantani about why he’s keen to cover stories that might be seen as too niche for other broadcasters, what PRs need to consider before pitching an idea (hint: think visual!) and his dream of getting an interview with Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger.

60 Seconds with Goadi Consulting’s Fiona Chow
Fiona Chow tells Gorkana how her personal experiences led to the creation of her own consultancy Goadi Consulting and motivated her to help secure rights for women who take maternity leave.  

mischief-winners-bcThe Creative Shootout winners on what makes a successful pitch
Eight agencies battled it out in the final of The Creative Shootout last week to prove which had the best idea for a real creative brief received on the same day. Mischief, Hotwire and Ready 10, which came first, second and third respectively for their responses to the brief provided by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, reveal why they each had a winning pitch.

Gorkana meets… The Register and The Next Platform
Drew Cullen, editor in chief at Situation Publishing, which owns The Register and The Next Platform, talks to Gorkana about integrity in journalism, the challenges facing tech media and the publications’ plans for the future.

 

Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust appoints Rooster

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Rooster has become the first PR and social media agency appointed by the Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust (ABTOT) since the association launched in 1993.

Rooster has become the first PR and social media agency appointed by the Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust

Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust

ABTOT offers financial protection for both professional and occasional travel organisers that offer non-licensable (non-flight inclusive) packages.

Rooster will be responsible for creating an ongoing media strategy, managing ABTOT’s day-to-day press office and setting up and running the association’s social media channels.

Paul Fakley, development director at ABTOT, said: “After 24 years of organic growth, we want to build on the success to date and start to raise awareness of the growing portfolio of financial protection benefits and other services that we offer both professional and occasional travel organisers.

“In this ever evolving market, we’re looking forward to working with the Rooster team to raise ABTOT’s profile and become the voice of financial protection for specialist travel organisers.”

James Brooke, MD at Rooster, added: “After more than two decades of growth and development, ABTOT has become an essential figure in the UK travel industry, providing bonding, advice and other financial services to specialist travel organisers.

“We’re excited to help ABTOT generate the share of voice it richly deserves while helping to communicate the association’s expertise ahead of key changes in Package Travel Regulations.”

Gorkana meets… London Live

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Approaching its third birthday, London Live is the first and only 24 hour entertainment channel devoted to London. Jim Grice, head of news at London Live, talks to Gorkana’s Louise Pantani about why he’s keen to cover stories that might be seen as too niche for other broadcasters, what PRs need to consider before pitching an idea (think visual!) and his dream of getting an interview with Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger.

Jim Grice, head of news at London Live

Jim Grice

Describe London Live in five words.

Confident, Premium, Celebratory, Knowing, Diverse.

Who is your main target audience?

Londoners aged 25 to 44.

The channel will celebrate its third birthday in March. Can we expect anything new coming to the channel?

We have just changed our news programme times (12pm to 1pm and 5:30pm to 6:30pm weekdays) and (12pm to 1pm and 6pm to 7pm at weekends). This is enabling us to concentrate our resources better, improve the quality of the programmes and build on our audience increases of the last year.

Is there any way the PRs can help with upcoming content and your new approach?

We are still committed to reporting live from across the capital as much as we can each day. So if you have a London-specific story, having a location in London where we can tell that story from is a real plus for us. It can be a deciding factor on whether we cover something or not.

Also, our editorial agenda remains as wide as ever – given London’s size and diversity, we are keen to cover stories that might seem too niche for other national or local broadcasters.

Before joining London Live in 2014, you were video editor at the Press Association. What’s been the biggest difference between the two jobs?

Two main differences immediately spring to mind: a return to making content to specific deadlines and a direct relationship with your audience.

One of the main challenges of a news agency is that you are effectively always on deadline – some clients will want the content you are producing immediately.

Working to appointment-to-view programmes gives a different dynamic, but brings its own pressures – you have one chance to get things right, or the viewers let you know. That is the second difference. This is definitely a B2C role, as opposed to a B2B one, so you get direct reaction to your content, as opposed to a reaction from other publishers.

What has been the biggest challenge at London Live since you started?

Getting noticed – both by viewers and also the institutions, businesses and organisations that affect the lives of Londoners, from the Mayor down to community groups. This has also been the biggest cause of celebration, as we have built our audience since our launch in spring 2104, so that people will turn to us for a high profile programme or a major news event such as the tram crash in Croydon.

In terms of the news, it has been very satisfying to build a regular core audience for our programmes and also to have reached the point where press officers and PRs seek us out to make sure we have the latest news lines and get regular interview opportunities.

What are you looking for from PRs?

Like all media outlets, we get a lot of information from PRs so the clearer the key information is, the more chance of getting a story on air. A vital issue for us is the availability of spokespeople and /or filming opportunities on a particular story, as these are the factors that we will use to decide how and if we cover a story. We work in a visual medium, so will need to see something to help tell a story, whether that is an interviewee or a location where we can film.

Finally, if you could have any guest features on the channel, who would you have?

One of the main things we try to do with our news programming is to provide a platform for Londoners to tell their personal stories, so anyone who has a good tale to tell, which hopefully resonates with the audience, is key for us.

Personally, as a life-long Arsenal fan, I’d love to get an exclusive interview with Arsène Wenger on his 20 years managing the club in London… you never know!

Jim was talking to Gorkana’s Louise Pantani

60 Seconds with Goadi Consulting’s Fiona Chow

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Fiona Chow tells Gorkana how her personal experiences led to the creation of her own consultancy Goadi Consulting, and motivated her to help secure rights for women who take maternity leave.  

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Fiona Chow

What made you decide to launch your own consultancy?
I was made redundant while on maternity leave with my son and, while I returned to work on a freelance contract, I was struggling to find a permanent role that was both senior and flexible.

It was either one or the other in most cases. At the same time, I was being approached by a number of old clients, colleagues and friends with various projects they wanted me to help with.

The sensible thing was to umbrella these under my own company. It soon became clear that it was only by taking charge of my own destiny in this way that I could carve out a career that would allow me to also spend time with my family guilt-free (ish).

What is the most important lesson you have learned since taking that step?
The power of no. When you first start out the temptation is to take any gig you’re offered out of desperation, panic or gratitude. Fortunately, I’m now in a position to be selective about the projects I take on, and for me it has to be work that I believe in, am proud of and that justifies the time that it takes me away from my son.

When I do say no to a project I always try to offer a solution for the potential client, whether that is to recommend one of the many excellent freelancers I know, or to refer them to the Hoxby Collective if I feel they would benefit from a broader offering or if it’s something I’d like to do or stay involved in, but don’t have the capacity to work on it alone.

What tips do you have for consultants trying to secure lucrative freelance gigs?
Value isn’t always measured in monetary gain so only focusing on lucrative gigs can close off other avenues. I prefer to measure value by the satisfaction I get working on projects I have a real passion for, or with people that I genuinely like and want to support. I believe you’re at your best when you are happy and, as a result, deliver the best version of yourself and your work.

It also helps to look at potential not just profit. For instance, one long-standing client pays the lowest retainer of my whole portfolio but a) I take shares in lieu of some payment – ensuring that both he and I have “skin in the game” and b) he has in turn been responsible for 70-80% of all my new business in the last year either through direct or indirect referral.

Why is the maternity issue close to your heart?
My personal experience of the redundancy process while on maternity leave left me pretty bruised and it took me a good year or so to really recover. I was astounded when I started to share my story by how many of my immediate social circle (including many PR and comms people) had a similar experience, but never spoken about it publicly – either because of embarrassment, fear of being seen as a “troublemaker” or otherwise being pressured to keep quiet. I knew then that maternity discrimination is deep-rooted, systemic and needs to be called out.

It was around this time I discovered Pregnant Then Screwed and was inspired to contact founder, Joeli Brearley, to offer my help/skills in any way that I could. I knew that having signed a compromise agreement my own options were limited, but I became obsessed with how I could help other women in the same situation. As it turns out, my timing was perfect as Joeli was about to go on maternity leave for the second time and needed help managing the high volume of media interest in PTS. I work with her pro bono, have had the opportunity to talk about this critical issue on TV, radio and in print and to help launch a free legal advice helpline and a free tribunal mentoring service in the last year.

Excitingly, this year I will be helping Joeli as we attempt to make PTS a more formal organisation with the appropriate funding so we can continue supporting women – and men – experiencing discrimination and campaigning for critical changes in legislation and employer education that will protect and enhance the rights of pregnant women and mothers.

Why do you think the PR industry still has a problem keeping skilled, female workers in senior roles? What can we do to improve the situation?
It’s not just the PR industry that is at fault, but a societal and cultural change that needs to happen. It’s 200 years since Robert Owen introduced the concept of the eight-hour working day (plus eight hours of rest and eight hours of leisure) as part of the Industrial Revolution, and the world of work just doesn’t seem to have moved on from that thinking.

The culture of presenteeism is deep-rooted and the inherent pressure to be seen to be working, rather than have confidence in the output itself, or trust in your workforce, actually hampers the productivity and creativity that the industry needs.

Technology has moved on to such an extent that remote, flexible working should be the norm, not the exception, in order to capitalise on the skills of people who are currently poorly served by a traditional working pattern.

This applies to women and men who choose to start families, but also older, part time retirees, people with physical or health issues that affect mobility or the ability to commute regularly or those who want to build a career around lifestyle choices and have the best of both worlds. This philosophy is at the heart of the Hoxby Collective, and a reason why I have embraced it as a platform and enjoy my role as head of PR so much.

What advice would you give to your younger self, just starting out in the industry?
Business is personal, so nurture your relationships well – at every level. Stay out of office politics and stick to your principles. I was once “advised” by a manager not to be friends with a particular colleague but chose to ignore that advice – she later handed me one of my first and biggest consultancy clients, and continues to send leads my way from every job she’s had since.

Bite signs Azimo

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Azimo, the digital money transfer service, has hired Bite to drive brand awareness in the UK through corporate and consumer media relations.

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Rachel Gilley

Bite will raise the company’s profile in the UK through creative news stories and product launches.

Rachel Gilley, MD at Bite, said: “Azimo was recently described by CNN as ‘the future of money transfers’, which makes it exactly the type of innovative brand we want to work with. Using technology to disrupt the status quo makes Azimo a super exciting company for us to partner with in the UK.”

Azimo, which has more than a million users, allows its customers to transfer money online to over 190 countries.

Marta Krupinska, co-founder and GM at Azimo, added: “Storytelling is key to what we do: the stories of our customers from around the world and our own story, building a successful global business. We’re excited for the partnership with Bite and we’re confident together we’ll take Azimo to new heights.”