PR News in Brief

This week’s PR news in brief (9-13 April)

/in /by

Here’s a round-up of the week’s essential PR news, featuring Rugby editor-in-chief Alex Mead, PR thought leadership from Gumtree and the “Hacks vs Flaks” match report.

Thought leadership

Xanthe Vaughan Williams, director and co-founder at Fourth Day PR, discusses the findings of the agency’s second Purpose of PR Report.

Fergus Campbell, head of PR and communications at Gumtree, reveals which tools the company deploys to power its media relations activity.

Interviews

Alex Mead, editor-in-chief at quarterly sports journal Rugby and content director at eric, talks about launching the sport’s first “coffee table” title, the state of publishing today and his love of long form journalism.

Hamish Thompson, managing director of Houston PR, explains how the space theme runs through the fabric of the agency, sending a press release into orbit and how Houston juggles its diverse client list.

Events

Tom Ritchie, Cision’s EMIA VP GTM and product, will give a practical talk and Q&A on how earned media measurement can help prove your worth at PR Week’s PR360 conference next Thursday.

Networking, campaigning and training body Women in Journalism has partnered with Cision to deliver an events programme that supports female journalists as they grow their careers.

Account wins

London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts has appointed Newsfeed PR to develop and implement a new communications strategy.

Munch has been appointed to support the launch of GigRev, a platform for musicians and influencers from UK tech entrepreneur Kevin Brown.

Drinks distributor Edrington-Beam Suntory UK (formerly Maxxium UK) has handed Hope&Glory the consumer and trade PR briefs for its spirits portfolio.

Dr. Martens has selected creative comms agency John Doe to deliver the creative, content and execution for its AW18 product launch event.

Anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label has appointed The PHA Group to support its press office and UK campaign activations, following a competitive pitch.

Jupiter Asset Management has selected Powerscourt as its financial and corporate communications adviser following a competitive pitch.

Manchester-based PR agency Galibier is partnering with FinTech North to co-promote its series of events across the “Northern Powerhouse”.

Charity Crohn’s and Colitis UK has appointed The PHA Group to implement a three-month campaign to promote the charity’s annual WALK IT events.

Fitness and activewear brand Tikiboo has appointed Promote PR to raise its brand profile and drive consumer awareness.

Cleaning solutions and kitchen appliances company SharkNinja has appointed The PHA Group to manage its UK corporate and consumer comms strategy.

Lateral Property Group has appointed BWP Group to oversee naming, branding and strategy planning for the launch of Axiom, an out-of-town retail, leisure and sports development.

Marine motorsport promoter Powerboat P1 has expanded its relationship with Champions (UK), enlisting the agency to support its digital activity across 14 social media accounts in multiple markets.

Agency news

Isabella Gornall, the former head of Maitland Green, has launched Seahorse Environmental Communications. The agency’s mission is to design and execute political campaigns and comms programmes to enhance both the natural environment and clients’ commercial success.

People news

Sarah Richardson, Edelman‘s former senior director, is joining Weber Shandwick’s UK leadership team as the managing director of its corporate practice.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has appointed Ben Crosland as its senior communications officer for UK and Nordics.

Hotwire has appointed Susannah Wyeth as an associate director, responsible for driving growth and greater awareness across the agency’s B2B technology footprint.

Barry Leggetter will step down as CEO of the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) at the end of 2018, following 11 years in the position.

Redleaf Communications has promoted Ian Silvera to account manager in its capital markets team. He joined the agency in September 2017 from Newsweek Media Group, where he was a senior reporter.

Maitland Political has appointed Razi Rahman, Tony Blair’s former assistant political secretary, as chairman.

Caro Communications has hired Rossana Palmisano, Gracie Bennett, Catrin Podgorski and Cheryl Cross as account manager, junior account executive, digital media executive and office manager, respectively.

Built environment comms consultancy becg has appointed Shine Communications founder Rachel Bell as non-executive director and chair of its operational board.

MRM has promoted Tom Briffitt to senior consultant as the agency looks to grow and develop its consumer finance division. Briffitt previously led MRM’s consumer finance team’s media relations activity for clients including Hometrack, Scottish Friendly and John Lewis Finance.

Newington Communications has announced four new hires and promotions. Naomi Harris has been promoted to chief operating officer, while directors Chris White and Muniya Barua become managing directors of its public affairs and corporate affairs divisions respectively. Tom Flynn joins the agency as director of digital.

Alison Clews has also been appointed as head of Newington’s education, health and social care practice to cover account director Antonia Norman’s leave.

Elevate PR has appointed Harriet Saywell Lee as senior account manager. She has experience in the consumer and corporate property sectors and has worked with the likes of Berkeley Homes, Redrow Homes and JLL Residential.

Former journalist Pete Carvill has been appointed as a communications manager at Retresco.

Awards news

Cision companies have topped the list at this year’s AMEC Awards in Barcelona, with an overall total of 16 nominations across two organisations. The company received nine nominations across four award categories, while Cision-owned PRIME Research is nominated seven times across six categories.

Hacks vs Flaks

The Hacks and Flaks Easter Sports Day raised more than £15,000 for Cardiac Risk in the Young, a charity which helps prevent sudden cardiac deaths in the young. The Hacks won the netball convincingly, while the Flaks clinched an epic football contest.

FTI Consulting’s Jamie Ricketts summarises both fixtures:

Driving rain did nothing to dampen a red-hot football match. With the scores level at 2-2 in the dying seconds, Uber’s Loven Jay fired a cross-cum-shot into the Hacks’ net through a sea of defenders.

It was a dramatic twist to an epic contest, as the PRs claimed victory over the journalists for the first time in five years.

Only minutes earlier, the Hacks had seemed destined to win after mounting a stirring comeback in the second half – pulling back a two goal deficit to level the scores.

Referee Harry “Pierluigi Collina” Staight (FTI Consulting) awarded the Hacks a stonewall penalty – a rare blemish for the Flaks’ outstanding defender Calum Macdougall (MHP Communications). Converting the penalty would give the Hacks the lead with only minutes left in the game…

But Flaks ‘keeper, Tom Bermingham (Brands2Life), turned the game in its head. After the journalists dithered over penalty-taking duties, the Flaks goalie made a fine penalty save. Moments later the Flaks sealed victory in a breathless finish.

Hacks v Flaks football. Photographer: Justin Thomas. For: Visual Media

After reclaiming the trophy following a five year losing streak, the Flaks once again lost the netball as the Hacks delivered an outstanding performance to reclaim their reputation as fixture champions in a 59-17 win.

In the first half it was clear that Fran Carson (Fitch Ratings), Rebecca Hampson (financial journalist) and Jodie McEwan (The Times) were an attacking force to be reckoned with. The BBC’s Holly Jones supplied some great feeds into the ‘D’ and Esther Shaw (personal finance writer) controlled the defence.

Scoring just two goals in the first quarter to the Hacks 17, in slippy conditions, things looked up when star Flaks regular Emma Walsh (Brunswick) turned up late. However, just five minutes into the second quarter Walsh, fully committed in the wet, went hurtling into the metal railings. A short cameo.

Player of the match went to Emma Goodwin (Luchford) who stoically defended against the Hacks attack. Marissa Chodakowski (Good Relations) played GA and GS for the Flaks despite an injury and should be commended for her performance.

We offer a big thanks to Tahlie Cooper (Good Relations) who helped organise the event and raise vital sponsorship.

Hacks v Flaks netball. Photographer: Justin Thomas. For: Visual Media

After the action, the players and spectators heard from a Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) ambassador on how the charity works to prevent sudden cardiac deaths in the young.

With a record fundraising haul of more than £15,000, CRY received generous contributions from lead sponsors Nationwide and Uber, as well as co-sponsors EY, Direct Line, FTI Consulting, Sharpener Communications, VisMedia, Telford Homes, Purplebricks, Galliard and Rokstone.

PR Case Study: Propellernet – Evans Cycles: Return to Gold Hill

PR Case Study: Propellernet – Evans Cycles: Return to Gold Hill

/in /by

Richard Paul, PR consultant at Propellernet, reveals how the agency helped Evans Cycles to promote its electric bikes by visiting the hill made famous by the classic Hovis advert.

Campaign: Return to Gold Hill
Client: Evans Cycles
PR Team: Propellernet (Stephen Baker, Richard Paul, Stephanie Finch)
Timing: August 2017
Budget: Under £50k

Summary

Electric bikes (or e-bikes) are relatively unknown in the UK, despite being popular in other parts of Europe. Their benefits of both helping people to keep cycling later into their life and providing a more straight-forward, less-sweaty commuting option, presented an opportunity for Evans Cycles.

The campaign needed to present these benefits in a way that the British public would easily identify with.

With this in mind, Propellernet decided to revisit what has been voted Britain’s favourite advert – the Ridley Scott-directed 1973 Hovis spot ‘Boy on Bike’ – helping the now 58-year-old childhood actor from the original finally conquer the steep incline of Gold Hill, with the help of an electric bike.

Objectives

Research showed that e-bikes are somewhat unknown by the general public in the UK.

In the cycling community, their advantages are either celebrated by people that own them or are chastised by the more ‘hardcore’ cyclists that feel they represent cheating, due to their “pedal assist” functionality.

Therefore, the campaign needed to:

  • Promote the advantages of electric bikes to a wider UK audience
  • Combat negative opinions about e-bikes within the cycling community
  • Position Evans Cycles as a market leader and authority on electric bikes
  • Boost Evans Cycles’ sales of electric bikes
  • Increase Evans Cycles’ search rankings for e-bike related terms

Strategy and implementation

Propellernet’s research identified two main audience types that would benefit from using an e-bike, both of which were more likely to be male and were 35+ years of age:

  • Riders who still want to ride. E-bikes can extend the range (altitude and age) of any cyclist. With cycling being such a passion for so many, Propellernet knew targeting this audience with the message that an e-bike can keep you riding for longer would be paramount.
  • Car-less commuters. Commuting by car is too expensive, commuting on public transport is stressful and commuting on a standard bike is a sweaty affair. Electric bikes offer a solution to these commuting woes, while simultaneously providing health benefits.

Taking the above audiences and their age/gender into account, Propellernet decided to create a story that would focus on using nostalgia to bring an electric future to life.

The strategy was to pair an attention-grabbing piece of content (the famous ride up Gold Hill), with a data-led story emphasising the benefits of the technology.

Our findings suggested that UK commuters who don’t currently cycle to work could save an average of £7,791 on their current commute in just five years by using an e-bike.

Results

Return to Gold Hill achieved coverage in over 50 publications, with a combined readership of over 1.5 billion. It generated overwhelmingly positive feedback from the cycling community across social media and in cycling-specific publications.

Coverage in the Daily Mail print and online versions even became the inspiration for a follow-up article by the title, which looked back at other childhood actors and placed a further spotlight on the ‘Hovis boy’ and the many benefits of his electric bike.

The video recreation was viewed online over 400,000 times across Evans Cycles channels and the official Hovis Facebook page, which also shared the recreation to its own audience.

This resulted in a wide-ranging increase in search rankings for Evans Cycles in e-bike related terms, such as ‘e-bike’ moving from 7th to 2nd position and ‘e-bikes’ to the top spot in Google. This additional search traffic and brand recognition around Evans Cycles’ electric bikes resulted in an ROI of 795%.

  • Pictured: ‘Hovis boy’ Carl Barlow
Instinct appoints Penny Joyner-Platt and Joe Mowles

Instinct appoints associate director and influencer relations lead

/in /by

Instinct (formerly Instinct PR) has appointed Penny Joyner-Platt, Frank PR’s former associate director, as associate director and Joe Mowles as head of influencer and VIP relations.

Joyner-Platt has 11 years of consumer brand experience. She will head the agency’s QVC and Feld Entertainment accounts, managing the team and driving current and new business.

Mowles left creative agency Exposure to take up the brand new role at Instinct. He has over 10 years of experience in influencer and VIP relations.

Instinct PR recently dropped the ‘PR’ from its name, rebranding to instinct and refreshing its website with a new look.

The consumer and fashion agency has also made several internal appointments. Rosie Taylor is now a senior account manager, Grace Carroll has been promoted to senior account executive and Sophie Williams has joined as senior account manager.

Instinct founder and MD Jonathan Kirkby said: “After such a successful 2017, the move to brand new offices in Farringdon and growing the team to 20 talented individuals, I am so excited for the future of instinct.

“After taking a look at our position in the market, we decided we needed a fresh and creative revamp to our identity. The highly visual rebrand is a notable departure from our original identity and puts clients at the heart of our offering.”

  • Pictured: Penny Joyner-Platt and Joe Mowles
Weber Shandwick hires Sarah Richardson as UK corporate practice MD

Weber Shandwick hires Sarah Richardson as UK corporate practice MD

/in /by

Sarah Richardson, Edelman‘s former senior director, is joining Weber Shandwick’s UK leadership team as the managing director of its corporate practice.

She will report into UK and Ireland CEO Rachel Friend and starts this month with a brief to grow a strong and vibrant UK practice.

Richardson previously founded strategic consultancy Noble Purpose, worked as Starbucks’ director of external affairs and served as Centrica Energy’s director of public affairs.

“Sarah is an impressive individual, whom I am personally delighted to welcome to the team,” said Friend. “Her strength in overseeing and motivating teams, as well as in developing strategic visions for both C-suite clients and internal audiences, makes her the perfect fit for us.”

Jon McLeod, Weber Shandwick’s chairman of corporate, financial and public affairs, added: “As well as her extensive and impressive consultancy and client track-record, Sarah comes with experience as a journalist, a non-executive director and an elected politician.

“It is a real coup for Weber Shandwick to have attracted talent of her calibre, with a widely-regarded and well-established reputation around the industry. We look forward to welcoming her to our leadership team.”

  • Pictured: Sarah Richardson (left) and Rachel Friend
Opinion: What is PR for and how do we know if it works?

Opinion: What is PR for and how do we know if it works?

/in /by

Xanthe Vaughan Williams, director and co-founder at Fourth Day PR, discusses the findings of the agency’s second Purpose of PR Report.

People often ask what PR entails – particularly those who don’t work in the communications sector. The truth is that even those within the sector sometimes struggle to pinpoint the exact phrase that describes their industry perfectly, partly because PR is constantly changing to keep pace with shifts in the media.

In an attempt to offer some answers, we carried out a survey with people working in branding, marketing and PR from various areas of the communications sector. We’ve published our findings in our second Purpose of PR report, which investigates the perception of public relations from the viewpoint of those working in the broader marketing and communications sector.

Blurry at the edges

Some of our findings caught us by surprise. Particularly striking was the response we received to our question about the aspects of PR most important to businesses.

74% of respondents selected content creation, with media relations chosen by only 67%. Close but not quite as popular, social media engagement was chosen by 65% and SEO by just 56%.

What is clear is that there is no longer a well-defined boundary separating PR from other areas of marketing. For example, PR now encompasses services that would once have been associated as the work of “digital” specialists, such as drafting marketing communications, improving SEO or writing content for websites.

This is largely positive however; if the primary goal of PR is to communicate stories to an audience, then the more channels that are available to do this the better.

Likes & shares

One result of PR’s expansion into new disciplines is that new forms of measurement have become available. Social media comes ready-made with bucket loads of statistics about likes, shares and engagement.

Domain authority rankings allow us to put a new number on the value of an online media outlet, while web analytics tools mean that we can identify who has clicked on a link from an article to a landing page. Not to mention PR’s significant role in SEO today.

But none of this really tells us whether a PR campaign has done its job. When asked what value PR can bring to a company, ‘brand reputation’ was chosen by 81% of respondents in our survey. This is harder to measure in tidy statistics. Measuring reputation isn’t easy and it can be expensive; perception surveys, for example, take time and money.

But if you’re trying to find out whether consumers feel well-enough disposed to your brand to choose you over your closest competitor, knowing that 14,000 of them liked your funny video isn’t necessarily going to answer the question. And even driving people to your website doesn’t necessarily help your business if they aren’t interested in your products or services.

Our research has shown that the PR toolbox has expanded but, in essence, the purpose of PR remains the same. Regardless of the advancements in the industry, PR will always be about building a reputation by communicating with different audiences, whether that’s to build trust, attract talent, or just sell more stuff.

PR offers enormous value and deserves the investment required to quantify its effect. Relying on click-counting just isn’t good enough.

Cision secures highest number of nominations at AMEC Awards

Cision secures highest number of nominations at 2018 AMEC Awards

/in /by

Cision companies have topped the list at this year’s AMEC Awards in Barcelona, with an overall total of 16 nominations across two organisations.

The company received nine nominations across four award categories, while Cision-owned PRIME Research is nominated seven times across six categories.

Cision’s projects with Slimming World on its New Year Campaign, Kellogg’s Better Starts campaign and Gumtree have each been nominated for two awards.

Its collaboration with Mischief for the This Girl Can: A triumphant ‘second album’ campaign is nominated for Best use of a measurement framework, while the Bulletin Intelligence AccuReach Data Science Project is selected for the Innovation award for new measurement methodologies.

PRIME Research’s collaboration with McDonald’s International McDelivery Rollout campaign and Jaguar Land Rover’s Changing the Conversation: How JLR became Tech Kings activation both received two nominations.

Its work for Airbus has also been selected for two awards, while PRIME Research senior account manager Dave Reynolds has been nominated for the Young Professional of the Year award.

The AMEC Awards will conclude the 10th AMEC Global Summit, which takes place in Barcelona on 12-14 June. A full list of nominees for the AMEC awards can be found here.

Susannah Wyeth joins Hotwire as associate director

Susannah Wyeth joins Hotwire as associate director

/in /by

Hotwire has appointed Susannah Wyeth as an associate director, responsible for driving growth and greater awareness across the agency’s B2B technology footprint.

As a member of Hotwire’s Directors Forum, she will be responsible for driving growth and delivering campaigns for the likes of BMC, Mindtree and Thales.

Wyeth was previously a senior account director at Atomic PR, where she led the award-winning #BrexitScience campaign for Digital Science. She has vast experience working with a wide range of companies in the B2B technology sector.

“We’re delighted to welcome Susie to the Hotwire family,” said Matt Cross, Hotwire’s managing director UK. “Not only does she have an incredible track record in creating and delivering award winning campaigns for clients, but she truly understands that the secret sauce to Hotwire’s success is our people.

He added: “With her enthusiasm and love for building and nurturing teams, Susie will ensure our campaigns deliver stellar results for our ever-growing client base.”

Wyeth concluded: “Hotwire had previously caught my eye as an industry-leader and award-winning agency in the B2B technology space and it’s great to be part of an organisation which is committed to being the best agency its clients will ever work with.”

Cision’s Tom Ritchie to give talk at PR360 conference

Cision’s Tom Ritchie to give talk at PR360 conference

/in /by

Tom Ritchie, Cision’s EMIA VP GTM and product, will give a practical talk and Q&A on how earned media measurement can help prove your worth at PR Week’s PR360 conference next Thursday.

Tom Ritchie

Tom Ritchie

Titled Earned media measurement for PR – data analytics and insights to help you prove your worth, Ritchie’s discussion will explore the techniques and tools available to practitioners to meaningfully demonstrate the effectiveness of their work.

It will also examine the best ways to prove the ROI of comms activities and the importance of evolving and improving best practices to keep pace with other marketing disciplines.

Cision is the official partner of the PR360 conference takes place across the 19-20 April at County Hall, London.

It will bring together PR and comms practitioners from a wide range of industries to discuss the power of PR in building brand equity, how the role of PR can be elevated within organisations and the future role of PR within the wider communications mix.

We are pleased to be able to provide you with a discount that you and your team can use to save 15% on passes for what promises to be a fantastic event.

Places can be booked here – the following code needs to be entered at checkout to claim the discount: CISION

Barry Leggetter to step down as AMEC CEO

Barry Leggetter to step down as AMEC CEO

/in /by

Barry Leggetter will step down as CEO of the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) at the end of the year following 11 years in the position.

Upon assuming the role, Leggetter has grown the organisation from 19 members in 2007, to over 160 member organisations in over 80 countries. His leadership also saw the creation of the AMEC Global Summit, the Industry Insights Study and the development of various online education resources.

AMEC is now searching for a highly motivated professional with comms or trade association experience to assume the role of chief executive.

Richard Bagnall, AMEC’s chairman, said: “What is important is to find a new CEO who understands the importance of delivering results for our members and the PR industry. We need to continue to punch above our weight while further developing our global reputation for the education and promotion of best-practice measurement and evaluation services.”

He added: “Barry’s leadership and international approach has been at the heart of AMEC’s growth. He has a collaborative style which has got the best support out of our members as volunteers and other trade association friends and partners.

“The ideal candidate will be able to build on the legacy that Barry has established whilst also helping drive the organisation in new directions.”

Bagnall will lead the search for the new chief executive. Interested candidates should email him with their CV at [email protected]. The closing date for applications is Monday 14 May 2018.

Meet the Journalist Rugby editor-in-chief Alex Mead

Meet the Journalist: Rugby editor-in-chief Alex Mead

/in /by

Alex Mead, editor-in-chief at quarterly sports journal Rugby and content director at eric, talks about launching the sport’s first “coffee table” title, the state of publishing today and his love of long form journalism.

Alex Mead Rugby

Alex Mead

Why did you decide to set up a journal dedicated to rugby?

We just felt there was nothing like it out there. We love print, we love rugby and it’s the perfect sport for a journal with that ‘coffee table’ feel.

Rugby hasn’t really got anything with that ‘coffee table’ feel, and we wanted to make something that has substance and tells the proper stories about rugby. The people that play, coach or watch it, or even just the places in which it happens – real grassroots stories.

What are the benefits of being a quarterly journal rather than a more regular magazine?

I think it’s more about time than anything else. We’ve tried to write proper stories that you read when you’ve got a spare 15 minutes as a bit of indulgence – something to really get lost in.

Every story is 2,000 words plus. Most are over 3,000. And given how hectic life is for everyone, we figured people generally wouldn’t have enough ‘spare 15 minutes’ every month, so quarterly was the right frequency.

You’re also chair of the British Society of Magazine Editors. Does your decision to publish quarterly also reflect wider changes in the magazine world?

There is always a need for monthly and weekly titles. It just depends on the area they’re covering and how they’re covering it.

With Rugby, our stories are timeless and told in a way that’s meant to be consumed at leisure. But some fields move much faster. If you’re in fashion, food, politics or entertainment, for instance, the world changes much more quickly. So they need to be increase in frequency to meet audience needs – whether that’s monthly, weekly or online.

What type of content can we expect from Rugby?

We’ve made a point of getting people who aren’t rugby fans to read every feature to see if it’s interesting to them. We want good stories, not just good rugby stories.

We try and go beyond the sport and give insight into the people and places. So, for instance, we travelled to Shetland to join the rugby club on a 15-hour away game (one way) that they have to do every week. But while telling a rugby story, we also told the story of Shetland, with the players telling us about what everything from burning Viking boats to its pelagic fishing fleet and the impact of oil on the islands.

We do have big name players, but we spend a day with them and get insight about them beyond the game itself. It’s about the people around them, how they grew up, what they do off the field. Another story is about a Jamaican player who grew up in one of Kingston’s toughest neighbourhoods and worked in a morgue aged 13 and found himself in the middle of the Tivoli Gardens incursion.

It’s about more than rugby.

Is your target audience limited to hardcore rugby fans?

Not at all. If you’re interested in people, places and bits of history, there’s something for you in Rugby. The imagery is stunning, too. We made a point of using non-rugby photographers and feature a lot of people from fashion and reportage backgrounds to give it a point of difference visually too.

What’s your relationship like with PRs? How can they best work with Rugby?

We’re always open to ideas, especially if there’s a good back-story behind it.

In Issue One, we wrote about a new bit of data analysis for scrummaging. But it was created by a guy who had been helping NASA build a thermal nuclear rocket designed to reach Mars!

Finally, which do you prefer: a British and Irish Lions tour or the Rugby World Cup?

As we created the British and Irish Lions programmes last year, I should probably say the Lions. But next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan is going to be ground-breaking. So many people are going to use it as the perfect excuse to tick off a bucket-list trip to Asia.

I think just for the variety of games and the chance to see the likes of Tonga, Romania and Namibia get a crack at the big boys you have to say a Rugby World Cup.