Virgin Media PR joins Rooster

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Virgin Media’s former consumer PR lead Joe Thomas has joined Rooster as the PR and digital comms agency’s first creative director.

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Joe Thomas

Thomas, who led consumer PR at Virgin Media after a long spell at Brands2Life, joins Rooster’s senior team following a year of significant growth at the agency, with new clients including Contura, Ecoffee Cup, MOBKOi and Tianjin Airlines.

At Rooster Thomas will develop client campaigns and “champion creativity” across the agency, reporting to MD James Brooke.

Brooke said: “Joe comes with a wealth of agency and in-house experience and that all-important creative flair to ensure that Rooster continues to deliver the big ideas and integrated campaigns that clients demand.”

Thomas added: “Rooster’s evolved a winning ethos with ambitions and prospects to match. I look forward to helping our clients achieve their ambitions and to helping write the next chapter in the Rooster story.”

Opinion: Make video streaming work for your budget

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Rory Green, videographer at broadcast PR agency Shout! Communications, talks about video streaming as a valuable tool for PR campaigns and explores live streaming options for every budget.

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Rory Green

Live streaming has made a big change to the world of PR video. It’s not a new tool, but the cost has lowered in the last 12 months.

A few years ago live streaming was relatively expensive, but thanks to the promotion of services by social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, and advances in smartphone tech, costs for live streaming have fallen drastically.

Audiences are also looking to interact with video content more than ever before. Just look at how popular virtual and augmented reality is at the moment (I am looking at you Pokemon hunters!).

Ultimately, live streaming can drive interest in a campaign. Its immediacy makes viewers feel as if they are part of something, or are getting a special or exclusive insight into a product or event. Alternatively, it might show an interview with a celebrity, or just some interesting footage. Anything that makes followers feel in the know.

If you are able to integrate live video with a social media campaign – for example Tweeting questions and comments during a live stream – the audience will engage with it on a whole new level.

There are a few different ways to include live streaming in your PR campaign. for every budget and outcome.

Option 1: Free!

Everyone who owns a smartphone has the ability to livestream. Using a phone’s camera and free apps like Facebook or Periscope, users are able to broadcast to the world.

This is a quick, convenient and cost effective way to live stream. For a glossier, more professional feel there are other options.

Option 2: From £1,000

The next step up involves a professional camera crew – so the overall video will look slicker. Footage is streamed via a video encoder to YouTube or similar. You only have one camera (a multi camera shoot and a mixing desk will not work at this basic level) which means you only have the one shot, but it’s a good compromise of budget and quality.

Another benefit to this option, over the free social media method, is that you can record for longer. As you are recording on professional cameras, you are also able to simultaneously record what you are streaming to a memory card. This means you can put the whole recording onto a website, or take clips for social media.

Option 3: £2,000 plus

At the top end of the price scale would be an outside broadcast involving multi cameras and a mixing desk. Changing shot makes the output a lot more interesting for the audience. This sort of production is more akin to a television programme. The expense is greater, but the outcome is more professional and perhaps better suited to a more corporate audience.

For example, I was on the team at Shout! Communications when the agency supported P&O Cruises‘ latest ship launch, Britannia. This included live streaming footage of the naming ceremony to the company’s fleet of ships, wherever they were around the world. Most were at sea, so we used a satellite truck for streaming.

  • Before joining Shout! Communications, Rory Green worked as an assistant video producer for law firm Simmons & Simmons. He has more than eight years of videography experience.

Lansons appoints Rollo Crichton-Stuart

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Rollo Crichton-Stuart

Lansons has hired Rollo Crichton-Stuart as board director to strengthen the consultancy’s financial comms remit.

Crichton-Stuart joins from an associate partner role at Bell Pottinger, which specialises in corporate, financial and political communications. He was a senior member of the capital markets team supporting clients across the financial and business services, energy and technology sectors. He also spent two years on secondment at MAERSK Oil & Gas UK.

Crichton-Stewart will support the growth of Lanson’s financial communications capability. The consultancy’s recent projects include the IPO of Metro Bank earlier this year.

Tom Baldock, director of financial communications, said: “Lansons is an ambitious agency with a great culture where high calibre practitioners can thrive. Rollo has all the attributes we look for in a senior hire and I’m looking forward to working with him as we expand our capital markets advisory work.”

Crichton-Stuart said: “I’m delighted to have joined Tom to expand Lansons’ financial communications capability. Lansons has a brilliant reputation for the quality of its work and it is one of the most forward-thinking agencies in the industry in terms of its culture and investing in the services clients really need. I’m looking forward to starting.”

Walbrook PR retained by IPPlus

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Walbrook PR, which provides financial PR and investor relations to small cap and AIM-listed companies, has been retained by IPPlus to support its relaunch as a high growth FinTech company.

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Tom Cooper

AIM-listed customer engagement specialist IPPlus has briefed Walbrook to manage communications with financial media, research analysts and investors surrounding the disposal of its call centre operations, and its relaunch as a high-growth FinTech company.

Director Tom Cooper will head up the IPPlus account for Walbrook. He said: “IPPlus has, to date, successfully operated as a broader customer engagement specialist. The decision to divest of the call centre business and to focus the investment in the area of secure payment solutions speaks to the ambition of the management team.

“We are very pleased to be working with the IPPlus management team on their relaunch and ambitious growth plans.”

IPPlus is the parent company of PCI-PAL, which provides businesses with secure, cloud-based payment services.

Newgate advises on Autins Group IPO

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Newgate Communications advised Autins Group, a manufacturer for automotive companies, on its AIM IPO on 22 August 2016.

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Bentley is an Autins Group client

The Newgate team, led by partner Adam Lloyd and supported by associate partner Madeleine Palmstierna and account director Helena Bogle, has been retained to support the business with its financial communications and investor and media relations requirements.

Lloyd said: “We are delighted to have been appointed by Autins Group to manage its IPO and ongoing communications in what was the largest AIM IPO since Brexit. Autins is at a very exciting stage of its development, and the strong support it gained in its oversubscribed placing is testament to the quality of the business and to the appetite investors have for exciting UK-companies coming to the public market.”

Rugby-based Autins Group creates products for companies including Bentley, Range Rover and Honda. It raised £26.6m, in part to fund investment in new product lines and equipment and to support future growth.

Jim Griffin, chief executive officer at Autins Group, added: “Newgate has given us exceptional support and guidance throughout the IPO set-up and implementation. The IPO process was new to all involved at the Autins Group; having Adam Lloyd and his team manage us along the way made the experience as easy as possible and the team were highly knowledgeable and a delight to work with. We are incredibly pleased with the outcome of the IPO and look forward to working towards expanding Autins Group plc further with the assistance of Newgate.”

Newgate recently advised on the IPO of robot software developer Blue Prism.

The Gorkana Weekly Industry News Brief: 3 – 9 September 2016

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Missed out on this week’s PR News? Get your handy round-up of the essential highlights of PR and media stories, features and events content over the last seven days on Gorkana News.

People News

Twitter has brought in Kristin Binns, VP for comms at health insurance firm Anthem, as senior comms director.

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Lee Raftery

Miriam Sapiro, former deputy US trade representative in the Obama administration, has joined Finsbury as partner and head of its Washington DC office.

Former BBC journalist Jack Baine has joined Good Relations’ broadcast arm, Good Broadcast, as a consultant.

NBCUniversal International has promoted its EVP for marketing and comms, Lee Raftery, to chief marketing officer.

Edelman UK has appointed Toby Gunton, head of innovation at media agency OMG UK, to the newly-created role of general manager, digital.

 

Pitch Wins

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A Tag Heuer substitution board

TAG Heuer has appointed Pitch Partnerships, the new sponsorship division for Pitch PR, to launch the luxury watch brand’s partnership with the Premier League.

Full Fat has been brought in to develop a launch campaign for Boxpark Croydon, which is the brand’s first food and drink-focused location due to open in late October.

Berlin-based mobile advertising technology provider, RNTS Media, has appointed Newgate Communications to provide financial PR, corporate PR and investor relations services.

Over-50s specialist Saga has appointed MHP as its retained financial and corporate communications adviser.

Agency News

Lawrence Dallaglio pays a visit to Oakfield school in Newcastle to see how some of the pupils there have been taking part in his Dallaglio Foundation. The foudation was set up by Lawrence to nurture and develop the essential skills of disadvantaged young people.(Note no names of pupils to be used)Pic: Andy Commins 21/02/15

Lawrence Dallaglio pays a visit to Oakfield school in Newcastle

Bottle has partnered with the Dallaglio Foundation, an initiative founded by former pro rugby player Lawrence Dallaglio, on a pro bono basis to bolster the charity’s PR and content offering.

Tech and B2B specialist Fourth Day PR will offer PR and content services to the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) after opening an office in Berlin.

PR consultancy Spreckley is looking to capitalise on the growing digital technology sector in Scotland with the opening of a satellite office in Stirling.

Opinion

‘BuzzFeed speak’ leads the media agenda
Traditional media reporting has taken its lead from social media and ‘BuzzFeed speak’ this summer, notes Howard Bowden, media trainer and co-founder of Generation. He explains how this trend will affect media relations.

How to pitch to broadcast media
Good Broadcast this week welcomed BBC journalist Jack Baine onto its team as a consultant. Working on programmes including BBC World News TV, BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat and BBC Radio 5 Live, his 20 plus years at the public broadcaster has seen him on the receiving end of many a PR pitch. As he moves over to PR, he shares six top tips on how best PRs can sell-in stories to broadcast media.

News Analysis

Forster on how focusing on social change is good for business
As B Lab announces the agency’s success, Peter Gilheaney, Forster Communications’ PR director, talks to Gorkana about how it has won the awards for good business practice and how a long-term social change strategy has helped the agency differentiate itself.

iPhone 7 launch: comms pros on Apple’s PR strategy in 2016
Apple has altered its social media strategy as it prepares for its biggest launch event of the year. Ahead of the product launch later this week, Gorkana asks PRs from Babel, Berkeley, Wildfire, as well as Dan Grabham, editor of T3, about any changes to its PR approach in 2016.

Webinar

MEASUREMENT MONTH: How AMEC’s Integrated Evaluation Framework brings measurement to life
Gorkana kicked off AMEC’s Measurement Month with a webinar on Best Practice in PR Measurement where Giles Peddy, group MD at LEWIS, and Paul Hender, head of insight at Gorkana, explained the importance of AMEC’s Integrated Evaluation Framework and how comms professionals can use the free tool to prove, and improve, the effectiveness of their work.

Journalist News

Rachel Jupp is now editor of Panorama. She was previously deputy editor of Newsnight and has also worked at Channel 4 News.

James Gheerbrant has been appointed sports reporter at The Times. He was previously a broadcast journalist at the BBC.

SHARES is to become a digital-only product from 6 October 2016. The last print edition of the weekly magazine will be 29 September 2016. The retail investors’ publication is going digital to align with the way in which most people now research and make investments.

Nina Trentmann has been appointed news editor at The Wall Street Journal’s CFO Journal, where she will be covering corporate finance from London.

Features

National Trust Mischief PR 4

PR Case Study: 50 Things To Do Before You’re 11¾

When the National Trust wanted to send a rallying cry to the kids of the UK this summer to “start a lifelong love affair with the great outdoors”, Mischief built on the trust’s existing ‘50 Things To Do Before You’re 11 ¾’ campaign by enlisting the help of Game of Thrones star and musician Raleigh Ritchie to pen an exclusive rap to champion the entertainment value and endless imaginative possibilities of the humble stick…

60 Seconds with Louie St Claire, Harvard

Louie St Claire, managing director at Harvard, talks to Gorkana about tech specialism, hiring the right people and what it takes to be successful in the PR industry.

Bell Pottinger appoints Ian Shackleton to financial and corporate team

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Ian Shackleton

Nomura MD Ian Shackleton has been appointed principal of Bell Pottinger’s corporate and financial team.

Shackleton has worked for a number of investment banks including James Capel, DLJ, Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers.

John Sunnucks, chairman of Bell Pottinger financial and corporate, said: “Ian is a great addition to our team. The strength of his corporate network, IR experience and reputation as one of the City’s leading analysts will considerably strengthen our offering to clients, particularly in the consumer sector which is a key area of focus for us.”

Shackleton added: “I am delighted to be joining the Bell Pottinger team. I am particularly looking forward to bringing my experience and knowledge to existing clients as well as helping the company generate new business opportunities.”

Shackleton joins the Bell Pottinger team on October 3.

Two PR briefs for The Lifestyle Agency

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The Lifestyle Agency has won PR briefs from Vail Resorts and boutique Croatian hotel The Admiral Zaton.

The Lifestyle Agency

Zaton, Croatia

Following a successful campaign last season, Vail Resorts has re-appointed The Lifestyle Agency to represent it in the UK for the upcoming winter season.

The agency will target lifestyle media, with a focus on international travel and skiing, to raise the profile of Vail Resorts, which has locations in the US and Australia.

Melanie Childs,The Lifestyle Agency’s senior account director,  and senior account executive, Camilla Pelly will lead the account.

They will report to Vail Resorts’ senior comms specialist, Abigail Hein, and senior manager, Johnna Muscente.

The Admiral Zaton, based in Zaton, Croatia, has hired The Lifestyle Agency to handle its PR for the remainder of the season, and into next year’s summer. The team will target target travel and lifestyle media to raise the profile of the hotel.

Louise Gillespie, account manager at The Lifestyle Agency, will lead the acount and report to Jonathan Riff, co-founder of The Admiral Zaton.

Mercieca appoints social media manager

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Mercieca has brought in Sameer Ahmed from The Earned Agency to join its growing social media team.

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Sameer Ahmed

Previously, Ahmed was a social media manager at The Earned Agency, which is part of Cubo Group. Before that, he was an account manager at Communicator.

With more than five years’ experience, Ahmed will work as part of Mercieca’s client services team across brands including Tia Maria, Sellotape and Brooks Sports.

Gemma Oakes, Mercieca director, said: “We’re really happy to have Sameer joining our team as he has a wealth of experience having delivered social campaigns across a number of sectors.

“He’s not only extremely knowledgeable, he’s passionate about delivering brilliant creative content. Our social and digital offering has increased over the last 18 months, and this additional hire, as a result of recent new business wins, enables us to continue to deliver full digital integration.”

Opinion: How to pitch to broadcast media

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Good Broadcast this week welcomed BBC journalist Jack Baine onto its team as a consultant. Working on programmes including BBC World News TV, BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat and BBC Radio 5 Live, his 20 plus years at the public broadcaster has seen him on the receiving end of many a PR pitch. As he moves over to PR, he shares six top tips on how best PRs can sell-in stories to broadcast media.

Good Broadcast

Jack Baine

Over the last 20 years at the BBC I like to think I’ve picked up a few pointers on what makes journalists tick. They’re a strange bunch – passionate, arrogant, clever (mostly), argumentative and downright rude (sometimes). If you’ve ever had the pleasure of pitching a story to a stressed out producer, or a self important reporter, then I’m sure you’ve come across most, if not all, of those traits. People who work at the BBC like to think they’re immune to ‘PR Spin’, as they would put it, but if you follow these six golden rules then you’ll up your chances of getting your message across:

What’s the top line?

All the journalists I’ve come across want to know what the story is in one simple sentence. If you don’t know what it is, then you’ve got no chance. When reporters come to me with scripts for TV and radio packages I insist they write the top line first because everything else should flow from there. It’s about clarity – headlines are important.

Don’t send emails

It may sound a bit silly, but in my experience I’ve never put a story or contributor on any of my programmes from someone I haven’t spoken to over the phone or actually met. Personal relationships matter, so if you get to know journalists then you’ve got a better chance of doing business with them.

Understand the programme

When you’re talking to a journalist you’ve got to know who they are trying to reach. Different programmes on different radio stations and TV channels have very different audiences. When I was deputy editor at Radio 1’s Newsbeat programme, a PR kept sending me emails about classic music and art galleries. They didn’t have a clue about the people who actually listened to Radio 1 so the press releases went straight in the bin.

Timing

Journalists are under constant pressure to fill programmes and you need to understand the planning processes for different outlets. It’s no good pitching a story for the next day if it takes time to set up. You need to target the people in charge of planning desks and get to know when their big weekly meetings take place. Give them a bit of advance notice and it should make life a little easier.

Give them options

Journalists will always be grateful for interesting people to interview or good places to record material for broadcast. Always have options up your sleeve when pitching a story because it shows you’re thought about what it takes to produce a bit of compelling radio or television journalism.

Follow the news agenda

It sounds simple, but being on top of running stories gives you the edge when it comes to getting your message across. Why not craft your campaign around issues that keep on cropping in the news? Can you get your company to put up a contributor who becomes a recognised expert in their field? Journalists always need people to interview so getting your name in their contacts book is essential.

In his new role at Good Broadcast, Baine will help create campaigns to deliver broadcast coverage as part of integrated PR and content work.

He will also play a key role in content production and media training, and report to Phil Caplin, who launched Good Broadcast in February this year (2016).

Caplin and Baine can be reached at  [email protected] and [email protected] respectively.

You can also download Gorkana’s White Paper: Pitching to Journalists: the good, Pitching to Journalists 2the bad and the ugly, which asks journalists from across the media spectrum, as well as senior PR professionals, what makes for a well-delivered PR pitch to the press.

Click HERE to download a copy of this White Paper.