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Tulchan Communications has been retained to provide financial PR services for Frontier Developments, the British video game developer.
Frontier Developments
Frontier, which was founded in 1994 by David Braben – co-author of Elite – develops and publishes games, including Elite Dangerous, LostWinds and Zoo Tycoon, for platforms such as Xbox and Apple’s App Store.
James Macey White, partner at Tulchan, and associate Matt Low, will lead its financial PR account team.
Tulchan Communications is an independent communications advisory firm that specialises in financial communications. It advises companies on building and maintaining their reputation within the Capital Markets and the financial media.
David Paterson, UK corporate relations director at beer and cider producer Heineken, talks about the dynamic sector he works in and the challenges it presents. He also talks about the the differences between working in politics, on FMCG brands and why he moved in-house.
David Paterson
What’s it like to represent alcohol brands? It’s great fun to work in the beer, cider and pub business. We’re all about enjoyment of life. When I tell people what I do, I always get great feedback. Of course, working for a beer and cider company brings huge responsibility. We take that seriously. While the majority of consumers enjoy our brands responsibly, some don’t. That’s why we work with partners like Addaction to tackle alcohol related harm and are using the power of our brands to make responsible consumption cool though our Heineken Moderate Drinkers Wanted campaign.
What’s unique about Heineken? We’re the world’s most international brewer, but what I love is that despite our scale, we’re still a family business. We’ve been in business for more than 150 years and we’re clear we want to be around for another 150. The Heineken family still own the company and I think this helps us take a balanced and long term view.
Here in the UK, we’re unique within the Heineken group. Everyone knows the name above the door, Heineken – but we also have Foster’s, Kronenbourg 1664, Sol, Birra Moretti, Desperados and Tiger to name but a few.
We are also the pioneers of cider! With Strongbow and Bulmers, we use 30% of all the apples grown in the UK to make our ciders in Herefordshire. Not many people know that we take apples from around 10,000 acres of orchard.
Put that together with the 1,100 pubs we own through our Star Pubs & Bars business right across the UK and we have an offer that no one else does.
Your role is UK-based, but do you need to keep an international outlook/perspective?
We get real freedom within a clear framework which is great and allows us to innovate and take the right choices for the UK market. However, the UK is a beacon market globally. UK policy, legislation, innovation and consumer trends travel far and wide. Of course the UK media also has global influence. Brexit means that we remain very much front of mind. For all those reasons we work really closely with our global colleagues and with other Heineken companies around the world to coordinate campaigns and share best practice.
What’s your favourite part of your job?
Beer, cider, pubs….hmmmm, that’s a tricky one! What really makes me proud to work for Heineken is the chance to make a positive impact in communities. We recently celebrated ten years of partnership with Addaction – it’s changing lives through the Right Turn project we support helping veterans through recovery. We’ve also created 100 community orchards across the UK through our Helping Britain Blossom project.
Most recently we partnered with Neighbourly, a community charity platform which helps us connect with projects local to our sites. Being a good neighbour and improving our local communities is very important.
You used to work in politics, how does FMCG differ?
They are very different working environments and it took a bit of getting used to! I loved my time in parliament and working on campaigns but it is genuinely non-stop. It’s so hard to raise your head from the day to day. Here there’s greater flexibility and we are better able to be proactive, take a longer term view and choose where we focus our time. That said I think business has a lot to learn from politics. It’s too easy to be glib about politicians. My view is some of the best campaigning minds in the country work in politics. As transparency increases and social media democratises public spaces, business is going to need to learn more from how political campaigns target, change and lead opinion.
How does in-house compare to agency/consultancy work?
There’s no better start to a career in comms than working in an agency. You get to work with great people and see a real breadth of clients and issues. But I much prefer in-house and the depth of knowledge and responsibility that comes with it. The other difference is the exposure to the commercial side of the business and decision making which is very hard to do when you’re a consultant. Of course the challenge in-house is to continue to reflect the outside in, retain perspective and not fall in to the trap of believing your own hype.
How do you switch-off from work in the evening or on the weekends?
If I’m honest I’m pretty bad at switching-off in the evenings, but I try hard to keep my weekends as work free as possible. I’ve got a three and a seven year old, so they keep me busy! They give me perspective and for me it’s about not missing the simple pleasures that come with a kick about in the park or scrambling around the beach. The chance doesn’t come as often as I’d like these days, but scientists now say it’s hard to beat a cold beer in a great pub with old friends and I’m happy to agree with that!
Are you working in an interesting or unusual PR role? Do you have strong views on the industry that you want to share with theGorkanacommunity? If so, please contact Emily Andrews.
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.
Threepipe co-founder Eddie May is heading up The Playbook, a new Hanover Group agency
People News
Golin has brought in Ogilvy’s Alex Wood as executive creative director, with a brief to “bring innovation into the agency”.
Motor Sport editor Damien Smith is departing the magazine to take up an associate director role at automotive PR specialist Influence Associates in mid-September.
Manchester PR agency Viva has hired Alan Simpson, the former deputy editor of the Lancashire Telegraph, as business development executive.
Citigate Dewe Rogerson has appointed Louise Mason as a director in its financial team, where she will be responsible for growing its existing client base and expanding upon its natural resources expertise.
Chime-owned tech PR specialist Harvard has brought in Gareth Clark from B2B tech sales and marketing agency McDonald Butler to take on the role of client services director.
Autocar has identified the top 100 British women working in the automotive sector, with Fiona Pargeter, head of global PR comms for Jaguar Land Rover, leading the comms category.
Pitch Wins
Convenience store and newsagent operator McColl’s Retail Group has hired Headland to lead on its financial and corporate communications which will include its recently announced acquisition of 298 Co-Op stores.
Tech comms agency Red Lorry Yellow Lorry has been chosen by TV content delivery specialist Edgeware to handle its global PR activity.
Japanese insurance service provider Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdings (Sompo) has handed Newgate Communications a combined corporate, and financial comms and public affairs brief.
TransferGo, a digital remittance solution for migrant workers based in London, has chosen 2SistersPR to promote its brand to the UK’s Polish population.
Clementine Communications has been briefed to handle a 2016/2017 UK PR campaign for fine wine merchant Friarwood.
Agency News
Hanover Group has this week launched The Playbook, a new creative comms agency which will be led by Threepipe co-founder and former MD Eddie May (pictured above). Launch clients include the NFL and the England & Wales Cricket Board.
Threepipe has acquired performance marketing agency Spot Digital, as it looks to enhance its natural search and SEO capability.
Speed Communications, part of The Mission Marketing Group, has acquired PR and comms agency The Splash Partnership, expanding its offer into the foodservice and hospitality sectors.
Media Briefing with NME “Everything we’ve done from a reader perspective since going free has come back with a big thumbs up so far,” said NME’s editor-in-chief, Mike Williams. At an exclusive Gorkana media briefing, Williams, alongside deputy editor Tom Howard and NME.com editor Charlotte Gunn, revealed exciting new content plans and opportunities, explained why the music brand decided to make the momentous move to free and outlined what PRs can to to help with its broadened content remit.
Opinion
How recruitment can close the PR skills gap Peter Cobley, MD at recruitment consultancy Found Us, explains how he thinks talent pipelining could help tackle the PR industry’s skills gap.
Keep calm and brave Brexit
In light of Brexit, Kitty Parry, CEO at financial PR consultancy Templars Communications, advises comms professionals around how they can create confidence in the wake of a shock.
News Analysis
Prime Day or Black Friday: What provides the best PR value?
Amazon launched ‘Prime Day’ offers for the second year on Tuesday. As shoppers scoped out the best deals among its ranges of tech devices, clothing, health, beauty and toys, Gorkana asked PR pros, what provides better PR value – the e-tailer’s Prime Day or the more widely used concept of Black Friday?
Journalist News
Daniel Thomas has been appointed assistant companies news editor at the Financial Times. he was previously telecoms correspondent at the national title.
Arj Singh has been named political correspondent at the Press Association. He was previously parliamentary editor at the organisation.
Jon Livesey has been promoted to online homepage editor at Daily Mirror, based in the London offices.
Sky News’ former business editor, Kirsty Good, has started her new role as campaigns editor at MoneySavingExpert.com.
Jessie Thompson has been appointed as an online arts and culture journalist at the London Evening Standard. Jessie was previously blogs editorial assistant at The Huffington Post (UK).
ITV News’ deputy news editor, Zoe Kalus, has been promoted to news editor.
Sara Schaefer Muñoz has been appointed European banking editor at The Wall Street Journal. She was previously a reporter for the Latin American bureau of the WSJ.
Features
60 seconds with CIPR president Rob Brown
Halfway through his 2016 presidential term at the CIPR (Chartered Institute of Public Relations), Rob Brown talks about the professional body, its ongoing work, and reflects on the issues and opportunities currently affecting the wider PR industry.
Gorkana meets…Computer Weekly Bryan Glick, editor-in-chief at Computer Weekly, an online B2B publisher of IT-related news and jobs, and a TechTarget publication, talks about the publication’s shift from print to digital and describes the ideal working relationship with PRs.
60 seconds with Jaguar Land Rover’s Fiona Pargeter Fiona Pargeter, head of global PR communications at Jaguar Land Rover, has been named as the leader in the communications category of Autocar magazine’s ‘Great British Women in the Car Industry’ list. In 2009, Pargeter joined JLR as global PR director for Land Rover after working at Ford, Volvo and Nissan. She talks to Gorkana about her experience as a woman in a male-dominated industry.
60 seconds with Murphy’s Chris Mostyn Chris Mostyn recently joined Murphy (J. Murphy & Sons Ltd) as head of marketing and communications. He talks about his career to date, what makes a good comms team and why he loves working in PR.
Wireless charging service Chargifi has hired Launch PR to help achieve its ambitious expansion plans, following a three-way pitch.
Chargifi is a global, wireless, charging network
Chargifi was launched by 27-year-old Dan Bladen, who, while travelling for six months, found many of the places he visited weren’t set up to let him charge his devices.
The service offers venues, such as coffee shops, bars, hotels and airports, the ability to provide customers with a free wireless charging service for a phone or tablet, while gaining insight into their behaviour at the same time.
Launch PR will run a 12-month brand activation programme for the company. The account will be led by Launch director Niki Wheeler, who will report to Helen Attia, head of sales and marketing at Chargifi.
Attia said: “We saw in Launch PR, a well-networked partner who will think differently, drive great results and challenge our thinking as we grow.”
Chris Ritchie, SQN managing director, and director of PR and communications, Chris Hughes, will lead the account, reporting directly to Karen Waddington, Yale EMEA PR and promotions executive.
Yale, an 137 year old business, manufactures forklifts and warehouse equipment.
Ritchie said: “Yale is an important new client for Sine Qua Non. We are looking forward to supporting the vision to elevate and enhance the Yale brand within EMEA, building on the company’s successful foundations. We pride ourselves on building long-lasting relationships with all our customers, so this early phase of a new working partnership with Yale is very exciting.”
Waddington added: “We are delighted to be working with Sine Qua Non following our recent agency pitch process. SQN demonstrated a perfect understanding of the direction we want to take the Yale brand, as well as a persuasive set of PR credentials and ideas.”
Henley-based SQN began working on the account at the beginning of this month (1 July 2016), and will coordinate with Yale PR agencies in Germany and Italy.
Eulogy has had its PR brief with Molson Coors extended to include the Sharp’s Brewery offer with the Doom Bar brand, following the agency’s work with the UK-based brewer’s other brands Grolsch, Coors Light and Singha in 2015.
Eulogy briefed to increase awareness of the Sharp’s portfolio
The agency has been briefed to grow awareness of the Sharp’s Brewery portfolio, which includes Doom Bar – the UK’s No 1 cask ale – at a national level.
Eulogy will develop a campaign to amplify the Sharp’s ‘Adventure Brewing’ consumer campaign, support Sharp’s experiential activations at live events and promote the product portfolio with various launches and stunts planned throughout 2016.
Jane Hall, brands comms manager at Molson Coors, said: “Over the past year the Eulogy team has demonstrated not only its passion for our brands but also the ability to deliver on their creative ideas. Sharp’s Brewery has a brilliant story to tell and we look forward to seeing them use their creativity to spread the word at a national level.”
Adrian Brady, chief executive at Eulogy, said: “We’re incredibly proud of the work we have undertaken for Molson Coors to date and to be trusted with Sharp’s Brewery – a shining light in its portfolio – is a real honour. Sharp’s Brewery is an incredible British success story and we’re looking forward to bringing it to life with the energy and enthusiasm that matches the passionate team behind it.”
Eulogy continues to handle the PR for Molson Coors brands Coors Light and Singha. The agency undertook project work for Grolsch, which has now ended.
McAdoo joins from ICAEW where he was director of communications. He will lead the ACCA team responsible for driving brand and corporate reputation across the world, and will report to Alan Hatfield, executive director, strategy and development at ACCA.
Harry McAdoo said: “ACCA has a great global brand. I am looking forward to helping the organisation leverage it with its many stakeholders so that it can consolidate its position as the leading provider of professional accountants the world needs.”
Hatfield added: “I am really pleased that Harry is coming on board. Throughout the interview process he demonstrated a clear understanding of our strategy and brand as well as the values that make us who we are. I have no doubt he will make a strong contribution to our future success.”
London-based Dynamo PR is launching a sister company in Redwood City, California, to support its US client base.
Heather Delaney
Heather Delaney, vice president, North America, will lead Dynamo’s US business having previously launched Dynamo’s consumer technology and crowdfunding divisions.
Delaney said: “Dynamo has grown so much in a short space of time to be truly international in its client base, largely due to the success of our crowdfunding campaigns across the world. We’re responding to our US clients who’ve been asking us to set up a West Coast office for a while. This is a chance to bring Dynamo’s creative approach to PR to the place known for creating truly disruptive start-ups.”
Dynamo, which claims to be the first agency to implement an ‘unlimited holiday’ policy, in the style of Netflix, is currently hiring for its Redwood City office.
Sydney Wiseman, brand manager at entertainment robot developer WowWee, a Dynamo client, added: “We have hired Dynamo for the US and we welcome them opening their North American office as our strong relationship with the team is rooted in the fantastic global results they have consistently delivered. Based on their core values, and impressive knowledge of the US media and technology landscape, this expansion is a no-brainer, and hugely welcomed by everyone here at WowWee.”
Peter Cobley, managing director at recruitment consultancy Found Us, explains how he thinks talent pipelining could help tackle the PR industry’s skills gap.
Peter Cobley
Recruitment in the world of public relations has been through a bumpy ride lately. The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) refers to a significant skills shortage, and there are so many agencies cropping up each year that this issue might worsen. As a result, I think it’s about time the sector started to take recruitment more seriously.
The problem
PR agencies aren’t short of grads that are keen to break into the industry. They’re short of the time to train them up effectively. Over time this has resulted in a real shortage of senior level candidates – I’m constantly speaking to businesses crying out to fill these roles.
Recruitment is time consuming, and if you’re outsourcing this process it can also be costly. This is potentially the biggest barrier – big agencies don’t have the time, and small agencies don’t have the time or the cash. However, there is something that all agencies can do to solve one of the biggest problems causing the skills gap, particularly at a senior level.
Why talent pipelining might be the answer
Talent pipelining is an increasingly important technique in the PR battle for talent. Yet, a worrying portion of the agencies I speak to regularly aren’t developing their talent pipelines properly, which I think is a big contributing factor to the skills gap.
This technique requires talking to people that aren’t actively looking for an immediate role, so that when they do, further down the line, they will have you in mind.
This is an age-old approach for recruiters, but it is also a really good technique for agencies that do their own recruitment, as candidates are responsive to being head-hunted. For example; I once contacted a senior London broadcast candidate about a role, who was personally delighted to have been asked to look at a more senior role that involved managing broadcast media for a major supermarket. However, currently, just a handful of agencies I talk to are using this method in their recruitment process.
There are other benefits to talent pipelining
Not only will this approach give you more control over the kinds of candidates you employ, but targeting people yourself will make them feel more special, which is a good introduction to the business.
This approach is about developing relationships, much like PRs do with journalists or clients, and finding out about that person away from their professional achievements or experiences. Not only will this help you figure out if they will be a good cultural fit, it will put you ahead of others in this competitive market as you can build an organic relationship that candidates are more likely to trust.
The skills gap in PR will likely to worsen, which could have an impact on the sector’s growth. But this means that, more than ever, new recruitment approaches need to be taken. And talent pipelining is a good place to start.
Chime-owned tech PR specialist Harvard has brought in Gareth Clark from B2B tech sales and marketing agency McDonald Butler to take on the role of client services director.
Gareth Clark
A board member at McDonald Butler, Clark created demand generation campaigns for clients including Microsoft, HP, SAP and Oracle.
Leading a large client services team, he was also responsible for developing the agency’s growth strategy and leading new business efforts.
In his new role at Harvard, Clark has been briefed to grow the agency’s demand generation and sales enablement business.
Louie St Claire, Harvard MD, said: “This is huge hire and a massive coup for us. Our clients want two things from us: to raise brand awareness and to generate sales. Gareth’s appointment brings an entirely new set of skills into the business and allows us to offer a combination of PR, digital engagement and demand generation-focused marketing for the first time, all underpinned by a dedicated strategy and insight team.”
Clark added: “I’m delighted to have joined a multi award-winning agency in Harvard and I’m confident that with world-class PR and digital foundations in place, we will be able to support our clients’ businesses by delivering truly integrated, creative and results-led campaigns.”
