Richard Beck to lead on strategic comms at Nationwide

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Richard Beck has been appointed director of strategic planning and external relations at Nationwide. The building society is combining its strategy and stakeholder relations functions under new CEO Joe Garner.

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Richard Beck

Beck joins the Nationwide Building Society’s Executive Committee and will play a leading role in the development of the new communications strategy, which is intended to project the ‘member and societal value of mutuality’.

Garner said: “As a mutual building society, we have the privilege of being owned by our members, which allows us to operate in the wider interests of members, customers and society. It puts a special premium on understanding and engaging our stakeholders and aligning interests with our society strategy.”

Beck will also lead in all aspects of external relations planning, including investor relations, media engagement, public affairs and company narrative. He joins from a chairman and principal partner role at international advisory firm Teneo and will continue to advise non-competing clients in a private capacity.

Beck added: “Nationwide’s team has done a tremendous job building an enviable reputation in a sector that makes such an important contribution to society, but has been dogged by disaster and difficulty. We have a golden opportunity to demonstrate what being a member-owned organisation means, and to take a position of real leadership in the industry. That’s the challenge that tempted me back in-house, in particular to join Nationwide Building Society.”

Prior to establishing and running Teneo’s UK business, Beck was a group communications director at HSBC.

Most read people news on Gorkana News

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Your bite-sized round-up and update on the latest people news featured on Gorkana News:

Former news journalist Anthony Barnes has been appointed director of communications for lobby group UK Music.

Barnes worked for many years as head of showbusiness, media and arts at the Press Association. He has also been arts and media correspondent at the Independent On Sunday and has held roles with Q magazine, Classic FM and Record Collector.

Drew McNeill 2Membership body for the UK real estate industry, the British Property Federation (BPF), has appointed Redwood Consulting’s Drew McNeill as PR manager.

McNeill is currently a PR account manager at Redwood Consulting, where he has worked since 2014. Prior to that, he wrote for HR Magazine, part of the Excel Media Group.

 

FTI Consulting has expanded its strategic communications health and life sciences team with the appointment of Con Franklin as senior director and Hanna Skeppner as director.

Franklin joins FTI following three years at MHP Communications and will lead key global corporate and brand communications clients for the company’s growing healthcare business. Skeppner joins from New York agency Joele Frank, where she managed a range of healthcare accounts including Allergan and Proctor & Gamble.

Jo Swinson 2Former junior equalities minister and Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson is working with Portland Communications to help the agency improve upon its workplace diversity.

Swinson’s request to work with Portland was approved by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments on 7 October, and was published yesterday (1 November). The letter states that the paid project will involve ‘several days’ work’.

 

Charles Naylor will take up the corporate communications director role at CBI (Confederation of British Industry) on 28 November. He will report to director-general Carolyn Fairbairn and will join the CBI Executive Committee.

Naylor has led corporate affairs strategies for firms in a number of sectors including, most recently, in a co-head of global communications role at HSBC. Prior to that, he held the chief communications officer role at Credit Suisse. He has also worked for Centrica, Hess and Shell.

 

Jonathan Smith to head up trade team at Cirkle

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Jonathan Smith, former associate director at Clarion, is to join Cirkle as director of its 20-strong trade team on 5 December.

Cirkle Jonathan Smith

Jonathan Smith

Smith has 15 years’ experience in trade and corporate PR, helping clients to deal with regulatory and legislative issues, as well as running category education campaigns.

He has run campaigns for multi-brand owners including JTI, Wrigley, Nestlé Confectionery, Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser.

Smith will sit on Cirkle’s management team, taking a lead role in its internal ‘Trade Excellence’ training programme, and will work across a range of the agency’s trade clients, including Nestlé Waters, Hovis and Pernod Ricard UK. He will report to Cirkle’s MD Ruth Allchurch.

Allchurch said: “We took the search for this particular role incredibly seriously as we wanted to get it right. We are very lucky to have found Jonathan and know he will be a tremendous asset to Cirkle as we continue to grow our dynamic business.

“His strategic mind and FMCG and retailer industry knowledge will help continue to build on our already healthy trade and corporate remits as part of our ‘Influence in the Round’ offering to clients.”

Cirkle’s trade and consumer clients also include Morrisons, Premier Foods, PepsiCo, GSK, the happy egg co, Mission Foods, Ferrero, Energizer, Hipp Organic and Kerry Foods.

Gorkana meets… Kristine Brabson, GoodHousekeeping.com

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Kristine Brabson, site director at Hearst Digital Media publications GoodHousekeeping.com and HouseBeautiful.com, talks to Gorkana about reaching new audiences through digital and maintaining magazines’ legacies while adapting to modern life. 

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Kristine Brabson

How does your role as a digital journo differ to that of your print colleagues?
When it comes to brass tacks, I’d say the biggest difference is where and how we focus our time reporting and creating content. Print editors have a clear and relatively fixed platform that they’re producing for daily/weekly/monthly. The goal: Create the best all-in-one experience that hits on variety, balance and the most engaging topics they can fit.

In the digital landscape, there are no limits or even single platforms — all we’re held back by is our time and resources! So this means we can expand and explore new topics, help bring the brand into smaller niches and onto broader platforms or into bigger conversations.

More and more every day, we have new places we can bring ourselves to and use to capture and delight people. And we’re pivoting quickly to grow and stay relevant. We’re not just thinking “How can we fill these 70 edit pages with the best of the best?” It’s more: “Okay, this hour, how can we program our site with awesome content that can live on the dot com and elsewhere?” And then, even more importantly these days: “What do we want to delight people with on our core social platforms (Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram), on newer social platforms and tools (Instagram Stories, Facebook Live), via distributed video, on our content apps, and now for some of my colleagues, on podcasts, Snapchat Discover and more, more, more…

That said, I’d argue that the idea of “print journalist” is no more, or is too dismissive of people who see their work in print first or in addition to digital. No matter where your story first appears or what specific platform you might focus your daily efforts on — a magazine, a website, TV, a book, a podcast — if you want a story to resonate and your work to reach people, you have to know how to make it impactful.

You need to know how it can have legs in all the places it might live, to drive chatter, engagement or reactions. We’re in a world where stories exist in so many ways and journalists are working to make them fit in, but it’s not one-size-fits-all. It’s all about a great story and multiple ways/places to tell it.

Why is digital important to Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful?
Good Housekeeping celebrated 130 years last year and House Beautiful is celebrating 120 this year! So this answer may sound like a cop-out, but in a world where there are new digital-only editorial juggernauts taking over the social universe, where retail brands and celebrities are content creators, and where a beauty-obsessed teen in her room in Florida can have millions of YouTube fans, we have to keep expanding our bag of tricks and find our audience.

It’s nothing new, but it’s the truth of all media: we have to follow where the people are and evolve to stay relevant and interesting. I sincerely believe magazines are here for the long haul, but as audiences diversify how they want to be informed and entertained, GH and HB have to do that as well, or risk aging into extinction.

We have almost no overlap between our readership of the magazine and our social and dot com audiences— that means every person we bring into our digital world is a new person to the brand. I take that responsibility very seriously by aggressively seeking out new places to bring people into our universe and by taking risks, thinking about how the brand can be a little different (but still keep its hand on the core touchstone) and be interesting to differently aged women (and men — we have 20% male readership in digital), with different interests and passion points, and even levels of experience. It’s a great big puzzle — and I focus on all the pieces everyday but know exactly the beautiful picture we’re making.

How would you describe the magazines’ online style? Are there any golden rules?
There are many rules and we always assume next week, they’ll probably be broken — because they’ll no longer be relevant. But the one core question we ask ourselves before we ever commit to anything we do is: “Who will care about this? And why?” With so much to do and only limited time, it keeps us focused and successful.

Online, for both brands, our goal is make the tone and voice sound relatable, clear and human. On GH, we try to be that smart, but not pedantic, girlfriend, who is the one you always call when you need to buy a new fridge, you hate the at-home fringe trim you just gave yourself and “OMG, what do I do?” or even when your kid is being a total brat — because if she doesn’t already know the answer, she knows who to ask or she just read something about it and has a link to send.

She’s going to sympathise and she’s going to help. I take our 130 years of being a trusted brand very seriously. We’re careful to not just repeat bad advice floating around Pinterest or repeat poor advice, we bring our GH Institute in as myth busters or guideposts and service is our backbone.

We also want to reflect what the modern family and woman’s life looks like today, so we actively pursue less mainstream topics via personal interest stories and dig deeper on tougher subjects, such as domestic violence, mental illness and other meatier pieces.

For House Beautiful, it’s about a mix of “get that life” and “dream the dream” — we use the beautiful, deeply informed design foundation that the magazine brings to life each month as a foundation for “your dream home” and room porn eye candy, but then take other elements of the brand, which has been America’s home décor bible for 120 years, and bring to life the service, the tips and how to make it work.

What sort of content does well?
On GH, almost everything! And I’m glad that we’ve curated an audience that has such a broad palette. That was my immediate goal when I took over GoodHousekeeping.com three years ago: Make the digital world understand we aren’t just cleaning tips (but we do have those and yes, they work) and amplify that the brand has always been about relationships/family, beauty and personal care, health, food and more. A to Z of a woman’s life. In terms of engagement, our top performing categories are beauty (especially trends and inspiration), home care tips (who doesn’t love a good hack — that works?), and really relatable personal essays and parenting stories.

On HB, organizing. The world is just awash in stuff and people never tire of learning how to deal with it. Also, we’ve had great success with anything we pivot around “expert advice,” which is perfect for us because we’re a stage for so many fantastic designers, manufacturing experts and more.

When are PRs most useful to you?
Press releases keep us informed but they can be overwhelming. The ones that stand out in the flood are the ones that truly keep tabs on what we’ve covered before, what a rep has seen has gotten engagement on our social channels and considers that when pitching, supplies an angle or calls to light why we might want this for the platforms we care about.

What do you wish they would remember?
If you gave the same quotes, photos, stories, book excerpt, or FB Live interview to a bunch of other people, it’s just not important to us anymore. Try to think about how to differentiate.

What would you like to do more of?
Video! And much more of it is coming. Keep your eyes trained on our Instagram and Facebook pages in the next couple months. We’re doubling down.

Also, investigative, meatier features continue to be one of three top priorities for the year ahead. I’ve spent the last two to three years recreating the content strategy and growing the online and social audiences on both GoodHousekeeping.com and HouseBeautiful.com, and we’ve been nimble and expanded our scope.

Now I want to continue to go deep and produce more extensive editorial experiences that come to life in different ways across the sites and social platforms. It’s important as we keep growing to continue to bring to life online the storytelling and personal experiences that that magazines have a legacy of creating.

To me, the world is ready to read deeper pieces and consume juicier content. Our audience’s engagement with long-form pieces and more expansive content already exists, so we want to keep sating that hunger.

Anthony Barnes named comms director for UK Music

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Former news journalist Anthony Barnes has been appointed director of communications for lobby group UK Music.

Anthony Barnes 2

Anthony Barnes

Barnes worked for many years as head of showbusiness, media and arts at the Press Association. He has also been arts and media correspondent at the Independent On Sunday and has held roles with Q magazine, Classic FM and Record Collector.

More recently he has worked in the media office at public service union Unison, in addition to providing consultancy work for a number of entertainment PR agencies.

Barnes will be responsible for UK Music’s internal and external comms strategy, industry campaigns and will handle reports about the state of the sector.

Reporting into UK Music’s chief executive, Jo Dipple, he takes up his new appointment on Monday (7 November) and replaces James Murtagh-Hopkins, who has joined Universal Music Group as senior director of comms.

Dipple said: “There is a copyright package going through Europe. Brexit is looming. The Digital Economy Bill is being scrutinised by Parliament. The collective voice of the music industry needs a steady hand and Anthony is the right person at the right time. I’m delighted he is joining the UK Music team.”

Barnes added: “I feel excited and privileged to be joining the team. I’m looking forward to building on UK Music’s considerable achievements in representing the successes of the industry and putting the case for change and support where it is needed.”

Splendid creates VIP Greggs WhatsApp group for pasty lovers

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As part of the Greggs Christmas campaign, Splendid Communications has teamed up with the UK’s largest bakery chain to launch an exclusive Greggs WhatsApp group.

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The Greggs WhatsApp group for pasty lovers

The ‘Festive Bake Lovers’ WhatsApp group went live on Wednesday (2 November), inviting fans via Twitter and Facebook to join and snap up one of 250 places.

Those who have secured one of the limited number of places will get the low down on launch dates, exclusive content and competition opportunities.

The WhatsApp group will run until Christmas, with the Festive Bake pasty available in Greggs shops from 8 November.

Lucinda Blencowe, account director at Splendid Communications, said: “The Greggs Festive Bake is a firm favourite amongst pasty fans and we receive queries about the date of its in-shop arrival from as early as July.

“Our brief was to engage and generate conversation around the Festive Bake, giving something back to our loyal pasty fans. 77% of all UK content sharing is happening via “dark social”, such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, than anywhere else so it seemed a perfect opportunity to serve customers exclusive content in the way they like it most.

“We’ve had a great response so far and people are engaging within the group massively. We look forward to seeing how it progresses over the next two months.”

British Property Federation appoints Drew McNeill as public relations manager

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Membership body for the UK real estate industry, the British Property Federation (BPF), has appointed Redwood Consulting’s Drew McNeill as PR manager.

Drew McNeill 1

Drew McNeill

McNeill is currently a PR account manager at Redwood Consulting, where he has worked since 2014. Prior to that, he wrote for HR Magazine, part of the Excel Media Group.

In his new role, McNeill will shape and deliver the BPF’s media engagement strategy to champion the UK real estate industry, and will lead on member communications. He will align organisational strategy, marketing and media to profile the industry’s benefits to government and wider stakeholders.

Ghislaine Halpenny, communications director at BPF, said: “We are delighted to welcome Drew to the BPF team. The experience and skills he brings will add real weight to our work speaking for the property industry and delivering impact for members at the highest political levels.”

McNeill added: “It’s incredibly exciting to be joining the BPF to build upon the success already achieved, yet ensure we can further grow the industry’s profile and influence. UK real estate has remained in the media spotlight throughout the early post-referendum landscape as uncertainty dominates headlines, and so it is more critical than ever that the industry’s voice is clearly heard and understood.”

McNeill will begin his new role in January 2017, taking over from Lizzie Lambert, who has moved to a senior communications role at the Government Property Unit.

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:

Fiat Professional Tradesman Trials 2

PR Case Study: Fiat Professional Tradesman Trials
Fiat Professional and Performance Communications launched a campaign (pictured left) that reflected the affinity between football and the trades by providing one tradesman with the chance to secure a professional football contract.

News Analysis: Cohn & Wolfe: Three reasons why PR is performing so strongly
Public relations and public affairs – along with data investment management – were singled out for revenue growth in WPP’s UK operations in its Q3 results this week. Scott Wilson, MD of EMEA and CEO at Cohn & Wolfe UK, gives Gorkana three reasons for this strong performance.

TVC Feature 2Opinion: 10 reasons why working in PR is like fatherhood
Lee Bassin, senior producer at TVC Group, has downed his broadcasting PR tools for five months to tackle the most challenging of roles and take on full-time care of his two infant children. But, with more than 13 years of industry experience behind him, he’s finding some remarkable similarities between running a client brief and taking care of the kids.

Opinion: Four ways to get your PR workforce up to scratch on digital
The convergence of technology and digital has become a significant force within all forms of stakeholder engagement. The failure to deploy technology and digital comms can be seen as “comms suicide” in this day and age, says Andrew Laxton, Racepoint Global’s EVP and MD (Europe and Asia). Off the back of a recent paper from the agency, The Language of Digital, he suggests four key ways to create a new generation of “hybrid PRs”.

exposure Tim Bourne 260 Seconds with Exposure’s Tim Bourne
Eight months after becoming the first chairman of The Marketing Agencies Association from a PR and comms background, Tim Bourne, founder and joint-chief executive at Exposure, tells Gorkana why he thinks the comms industry is “a bit confused at the moment”, which brands he’d most like to work with, and offers four key tips for PRs who want to launch their own agency.

 

Opinion: 10 reasons why working in PR is like fatherhood

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Lee Bassin, senior producer at TVC Group, has downed his broadcasting PR tools for five months to tackle the most challenging of roles and take on full-time care of his two infant children. But there’s no panic in this dad’s eyes! With more than 13 years’ industry experience behind him, he’s finding some remarkable similarities between running a client brief and taking care of the kids…

TVC Feature

“I’m used to having a lot of plates spinning at once with multiple campaigns” – TVC’s senior producer, Lee Bassin

As the nights get longer and winter approaches, I too am experiencing my very own change of season as the world as I know it has been altered considerably.

Thanks to new legislation in 2015, I have been able to take the last five months of my wife’s maternity leave.

And hey presto, for the rest of the year I have gone from being a senior producer at a busy PR agency, creating content for some of the biggest brands in the world, to being a full time dad, arguing with a belligerent three-year-old girl and an obstructive six-month-old baby!

It’s been a culture shock to say the least, but I like to think that my career at TVC has prepared me well for the task ahead and that certain skills I have learned can be applied to my new role.

Multi-tasking

I’m used to having a lot of plates spinning at once with multiple campaigns on the go and numerous shoots to plan at the same time.

But now I’m a full time dad with a three-year-old and a six-month-old, the multi-tasking has gone next level, as they need feeding, entertaining and clearing up after, often at the same time!

However these three rules help me multi-task:

  • Whichever one is crying gets whatever they need first
  • The big one helps look after the little one
  • Neither of them will remember any neglect during my time as their primary carer

Get used to dealing with demanding people

“You carry on with what you are doing, what I want can wait,” SAID NO TODDLER EVER.

But after dealing with some very demanding clients in my time, who wanted my immediate attention whenever they felt like it, telling my three-year-old to wait five minutes before I put Minions on for the 87th time is a piece of cake!

Negotiation is key

Negotiating thousands of pounds worth of costs for highly complex shoots and campaigns is one thing, but the hardest negotiation I have ever had was trying to get my daughter to eat three carrot sticks for dinner.

Ignoring the fact that I had to offer a chocolate brownie, a portion of chips and some actual money in return, it still felt like victory!

Work calmly under pressure

Working well when your back’s against the wall is a key skill in my line of work.

But getting seven scoops of formula milk into a bottle without losing count while my six-month-old daughter screams like she has never eaten before is my new definition of calmness under pressure!

Be organised

If you miss even the smallest detail in my job, it can be catastrophic.

Miss one detail in my current role and you leave your baby in the house while you calmly drive off thinking this fatherhood lark is a piece of cake.

TVC Feature 5

“Getting seven scoops of formula milk into a bottle while my six-month-old daughter screams like she has never eaten before is my new definition of calmness under pressure!”

Best laid plans …

No matter how much I plan a shoot, things happen to change my perfect schedule and I have to roll with the punches.

And so is the case with my six-month-old daughter, who constantly ruins my lovely meal plans by looking at me with disdain rather than opening her mouth to accept whichever mashed up food I am giving her at that time, will only eat food that is pureed to the right consistency and my personal favourite, has a habit of spitting food directly into my face.

Don’t be late

I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I was always late to shoots and never delivered any of my edits on time.

Likewise I would be a pretty poor parent if my daughter was late for school every day and I was late to pick her up, leaving her sitting on the school steps on her own with only a disapproving teacher for company and the wrath of the School Mum Mafia.

All it takes is leaving six hours before school starts to beat the traffic.

Be patient!

There’s lots of waiting around on shoots and you need to be patient and understanding.

There’s also lots of waiting round when your three year old insists on putting her own shoes on, buttoning up her coat herself and searching for the teddy bear to take with her that she only acknowledged the existence of a day ago, but which has suddenly become the centre of her world.

Sometimes you just have to play along

We’ve all been there in the PR game, when the client is married to an idea and you just have to go along with it.

Which is what I was reminded of the other day as I played a game of hide and seek where my daughter spent most of her time hiding in plain sight and a game of I Spy with someone who doesn’t know letters.

“I spy with my little eye, something beginning with car.”

Deal with mountains being made out of molehills

When it comes to people you are working with, sometimes they make a big deal about something that really doesn’t warrant it.

Kind of like my daughter:

“Daddy you didn’t cut my toast up.” (Cries)

“Daddy you wouldn’t let me put shampoo in my hair.” (Cries)

“Daddy you put my shoe on the wrong foot.” (Cries)

“Daddy you gave me a blue cup.” (Cries)

For all the chaos though, this is proving to be a rewarding experience, spending time with two of my favourite people.

And who knows, maybe I can learn some new skills to bring back to work with me in January.

Because if a client needs someone who knows every episode of Sooty back to front, can carry a small baby while preparing a bowl of cereal and doesn’t flinch at a baby poo that a 40-year-old man would be proud of, then I’m your man!

  • Lee Bassin is senior producer at TVC Group.

 

Top Italian pasta brand hands UK PR brief to Aduro

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Barilla, the largest pasta producer in the world, has chosen Aduro Communications to deliver its first ever UK press and PR support.

Barilla

Barilla

Worth €3.3bn globally, Barilla sells more than 100 types of pasta and 15 different pasta sauces.

Aduro has been briefed to introduce the pasta giant to UK press for the first time through an influencer-focused campaign. The team will also support experiential activity.

Irene Ippolito, Barilla’s UK brand manager,  said: “It is important for us to find an agency that understands the UK consumer and has a wealth of experience in food and drink. Aduro has just that and we’re looking forward to working with it to grow our UK business.”