AMEC 2016: Andy West, group chief development officer at Hotwire PR

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Andy West, group chief development officer at Hotwire PR, asks whether size matters, and talks about some of the inspiring case studies that have been shared at this year’s AMEC summit.

The Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) is holding its annual International Summit in London this week (15-16 June). You can follow highlights from the AMEC summit on Gorkana’s Youtube channel, as well as Gorkana News.

AMEC 2016: Ben Levine, VP, global research & analytics at Ketchum International

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In his session on the second day of the AMEC summit, Ben Levine, VP, global research & analytics at Ketchum International, wants to emphasise that measurement is not an end point, it’s a continuous push towards improvement. He says, “Don’t ever be satisfied with what you’re doing, always push it to the next stage.”

The Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) is holding its annual International Summit in London this week (15-16 June). You can follow highlights from the AMEC summit on Gorkana’s Youtube channel, as well as Gorkana News.

AMEC 2016: AMEC research shows the measurement barriers non-profits face

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During a session at the AMEC International Summit today, AMEC’s Non-profit Group launched research showing the barriers to measurement non-profit organisations and charities face and how AMEC hopes to help. 

AMEC’s Non-profit Group, which consists of UNICEF, Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, Cleveland Clinic, Barncancer Fonden, Amnesty International, Cancer Council Australia, Owl RE and The Right Livelihood Award, looked to find the barriers that non-profits have in implementing measurement strategy in their campaign.

The study involved 339 respondents and showed that  more than half (52%) believed they had a lack of staff to measure campaigns effectively. Some 47% said they had a lack of budget to do so. Furthermore,  a quarter (25%) of those surveyed believed they had a lack of time to carry out measurement.

The importance of measurement

The research shows that there is a keen interest from non-profits to measure more effectively. Nearly all of the respondents (91%) recognised the importance of measurement in driving their organisations mission and 74% said they would be more likely to measure comms more if time and money were not an issue.

Non-profits also say that they are currently likely to include ‘some type’ of measurement and evaluation in their strategy. Of those surveyed, 77% say that they are measuring their outputs and 71% are measuring outcomes. Only 2% said that they don’t use any measurement at all.

Eileen Sheil, executive director, corporate communications at Cleveland Clinic (pictured), said that education is at the heart of the matter. She added that although professionals at non-profit organisations are using measurement, education is still needed across the entire organisation on why using data metrics is important, as senior leaders are still proving to be a barrier to implementing further measurement strategy.

The AMEC group has stated that they will look to take part in further activity to promote measurement in non-profits. Along with the AMEC board, it will look to:

  • Educate more non-profit organisations about measurement
  • Launch an international campaign with the AMEC board to raise awareness of The Barcelona Principles
  • Employ guidance on implementation of communications measurement in small, or medium sized, organisations that have limited resources
  • Encourage more non-profit organisations to join the AMEC non-profit group
  • Launch a new valid metrics framework as a free resource
  • The research was carried out in partnership with Braun Research and Ketchum Global Research & Analytics.
  • It took place worldwide from 14 March to 18 April 2016 and received 339 respondents. 

AMEC 2016: Predictions from media intelligence leaders

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As the AMEC International Summit continues, three leaders from Kantar, Cision and Isentia predict what changes are coming in the media intelligence industry.

During a panel discussion at day two of the AMEC International Summit, the leaders agreed that although the industry is in a strong position it needs to further consolidate with other businesses and regions to keep up with technological and behavioural changes worldwide. The three executives made these key predictions:

Data will break down the silos between PR and marketing

Walter Patanella, global CEO, reputation intelligence at Kantar Media, says that clients are more frequently requiring that the industry changes the way that it works. They want to see a breakdown of the silos that PR, marketing and market research exist in.

Clients increasingly expect PR agencies to act ‘horizontally’ and change their practices so that they connect with data sets from other industries. Patanella adds: “They want to converge them more and provide them with more insight which gives them more power and decision-making capabilities.”

The Asian market holds big opportunities for consolidation

John Croll, CEO at Isentia, says that the larger organisations in the industry are all pursuing a similar strategy of moving from being a business that helps clients to make decisions through good data to becoming “much more a part of the decision-making process”.

Croll says that this is why we are seeing more consolidation in the marketplace and that Asia offers a number of opportunities to continue this and grow the industry.

“We’re down in Asia-Pacific with more than 5,000 clients and we have more than 29% of the market share in Asia, with Meltwater as our largest competitor at about 5% market share and a very good company out of Hong Kong called Wisers, which is about 3.5% of the market share down there,” he said.

He added that as market leader, with only 29% of the market share, it leaves a lot of opportunity to work with small companies in that region that do a “good job” and need scale. This provides further opportunities for consolidation.

Five trends will impact the industry

Jeremy Thompson, AMEC chairman and EMEA MD at Cision, lists five trends the industry will experience as it moves towards “much more integrated solutions”:

  • Increased demand for real-time access to contextual insight
  • Multimedia storytelling becomes more important
  • Micro-moments of content engagement become more significant
  • Digital influencers will grow in importance
  • Predictive analytics will drive content strategies.

Rome Olympic bid team picks Ketchum

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Ketchum’s global network will provide international PR and media support to the Rome 2024 Committee, promoting the City of Rome’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

David Gallagher 1

David Gallagher

Rome is competing against Paris, Budapest and Los Angeles to host the Games and the result will be announced on 30 September 2017.

David Gallagher, CEO of Ketchum Europe, said: “We will rally international support for Rome by demonstrating how this ancient global city will enrich the Games. By evidencing the meticulous planning behind their infrastructure business-case, and by sharing the story of the city’s unmatched hospitality and magic, our global team will deliver a real-time, integrated campaign.”

Ketchum has previous experience communicating around large-scale sporting events; it previously supported Special Olympics Global Ambassador, Apolo Ohno, on his tour of China to promote the 2013 Special Olympic World Games. On another occasion, Ketchum teamed up with the Committee to Preserve Olympic Wrestling (CPOW) and campaigned to have wrestling reinstated in the Olympic Games after the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to have it removed.

Ketchum’s partnership with the Rome 2024 Committee will last until September 2017.

Finn to open London office in July

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Leeds-headquartered agency Finn Communications has recruited Matt Bourn (pictured) from MWW to head its new London office, which opens next month.

The move will extend the 10 year-old agency’s consumer, trade and corporate PR services to media brands, as well as bring new content and platform expertise to the agency’s existing clients.

Bourn is the former MD of Braben and, most recently, SVP Europe of MWW PR’s media practice, where he has successfully built a client base including Bloomberg Media, Sky Media, Bauer Media, and the Content Marketing Association.

Finn clients include Taylor’s of Harrogate, Quorn Foods, ghd, Morphy Richards, R&R Ice Cream and Addo Food Group.

Richard Rawlins, MD of Finn, said: “The appointment of Matt and the opening of our London office is a significant milestone for Finn. We deliver largely national briefs from Leeds and this strengthens our connection with London’s influencer base. At the same time, we can apply Matt’s deep knowledge and expertise in the media sector to the many consumer and B2B challenges facing our clients.”

Matt Bourn, partner and director, Finn London, added: “Clients need agency partners who can manage and build reputation to positively impact on commercial performance. I am hugely excited to be joining Finn which is perfectly sited at the heart of consumer brands, technology and the media landscape.”

Threepipe wins care marketplace brief

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SuperCarers, an online business helping people to find vetted carers, has appointed Threepipe to boost enquiries from families. 

SuperCarers was founded last year and is designed to act as a marketplace for professional carers.

Threepipe is handling separate campaigns to attract carers to join SuperCarers and to raise awareness of the service among families looking for care support for relatives.

The latter campaign is initially focusing on specific areas of high demand within London through a hyper-targeted paid search strategy, supported by Facebook ads.

Adam Pike, who founded the business with his brother Daniel after finding it difficult to search for suitable care for their grandmother, said: “Threepipe’s experience in delivering business growth and their ability to run such highly targeted campaigns was key to their appointment.”

PR Case Study: The Aldi Wine Store

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To promote the launch of Aldi’s new online wine platform, Clarion Communications launched an ‘Apple store’ of wine shops to capitalise on the discount supermarket chain’s sponsorship of the London Wine Week festival. The result? A 47% sales uplift the day the shop opened.

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Campaign: The Aldi Wine Store
Client: Aldi
PR Team: Clarion Communications
Timing: May 2016

Objectives

Aldi launched its wine e-commerce platform aldi.co.uk earlier this year and came to Clarion with one business objective:

  • Drive awareness and sales of its quality, great value wine on aldi.co.uk amongst both new and existing consumers, with a particular focus in London and the South East, where currently, there are a low proportion of Aldi stores present.

Strategy

Clarion’s strategy was to position Aldi as a major player in the drinks industry by having the retailer become the official supermarket sponsor of the London Wine Week festival – a week-long celebration of London’s thriving wine scene. We used this sponsorship as a platform to showcase Aldi’s online wine offering to people in London and the South East.

As well as the sponsorship, our strategy was to create a vehicle which would drive sales of Aldi’s wine online, communicate the quality of the wines, and generate media coverage to raise awareness of the online store.

To capitalise on the sponsorship and grab the attention of London-based consumers, we hosted a pop-up shop, the ‘Aldi Wine Store’, for a three day period at London’s trendy Boxpark in Shoreditch. Shaking up the traditional convention of a wine shop, the Aldi Wine Store represented a refined and futuristic approach to helping shoppers choose their wine – the ‘Apple store’ of wine shops – not what you’d expect from a discount supermarket! Its sleek, minimalistic design consisted of glass wine displays and stations lined with tablets where customers could purchase their favourite tipples to be delivered straight to their door.

To communicate the quality of the wines, customers were able to try before they bought online with a resident Master of Wine – one of only 338 in the world – to guide wine lovers through Aldi’s award-winning range. What’s more, visitors wanting to up their wine knowledge were able to participate in various free masterclasses including an introduction to pairing wine with cheese, and how to identify characteristics of new world verses old world wines.

In the build-up to the store opening, we issued a listings press release to maximise coverage opportunities in London ‘what’s on’ sections both on and offline and ran two dedicated advertorials in key London media: Time Out and Metro.

They provided an opportunity for guaranteed messaging within publications historically less inclined to feature Aldi’s wine offering due to lack of stores in central London. Each advertorial included information on Aldi’s sponsorship of London Wine Week, details on the Aldi Wine Store, aldi.co.uk and a competition to win a pair of London Wine Week wristbands and exclusive masterclasses in store.

Additionally, the London Wine Week sponsorship package provided coverage on the official London Wine Week website, brochure and social channels, targeting 8,000 wine lovers in London.

On the day prior to launch, we issued a series of photographs to national consumer and trade media – creating vast amounts of coverage.

To drive longer lead coverage of aldi.co.uk, a private media launch was held for consumer journalists from the likes of Woman and Delicious.

The activity also provided Aldi with an opportunity to shout about its wine range on its owned channels; a dedicated page was set up on Aldi.co.uk highlighting the sponsorship and pop-up activity (with a limited-edition ‘Best of London Wine Week’ mixed case sold online), as well as being featured in a dedicated e-newsletter and in multiple social media posts.

Results

To date, the Aldi Wine Store has gained 52 pieces of coverage, spanning UK national news and consumerAldicoverage and influencer media.

  • Overall coverage reach to date: 90,000,000+
  • 47% uplift in online sales amongst shoppers in London the day coverage landed and shop opened (vs. previous week)
  • Key coverage included Metro.co.uk, CityAM.com, Independent.co.uk, DailyMail.co.uk, TheSun.co.uk, The Sunday Times Magazine and The Star. Online coverage was crucial to creating links direct to aldi.co.uk
  • The Aldi Wine Store had a footfall of almost 2,000 people over three days
  • 5,500 samples of Aldi’s wine were sampled
  • Out of the 39% of people surveyed in store that hadn’t already tried Aldi wine prior to visiting the store, 87% said would buy Aldi wine online in the future
  • The activity had a positive direct impact on sales via the eCommerce site. In commercial terms, during the activity, overall transactions on aldi.co.uk increased by 41% and revenue increased by 35% (Source: Aldi eCommerce sales data – Vs week prior)

Damien Barr from The Sunday Times said: “Aldi promises the ‘Apple store’ of wine at its pop-up event in Shoreditch’s Boxpark. The Exquisite Oz Riesling is a proper zinger. And don’t miss its Blanquette de Limoux – it comfortably outsparkles most fizz at this price.”

London Wine Week Festival director Emma Murphy said: “The Aldi pop-up for London Wine Week 2016 was no doubt a highlight of the festival. We encourage our partners to break the mould and Aldi most certainly achieved this with their forward-thinking concept. The location and design of the pop-up was really well suited to our audience and the execution of the activity both in the run up and during was very cohesive. The feedback from consumers was great and a number of guests cited the Aldi pop up as their favourite part of the festival in our post-event evaluation survey. It was a pleasure to work with Clarion Communications on this project.”

Aldi’s comms director Mary Dunn said: “We are delighted with the London Wine Week campaign. It successfully answered our business objectives in a very creative and engaging way and is a great example of how PR can have a real impact on sales. The online sales uplift as a result of the activity was phenomenal.”

AMEC 2016: Chris Foster, worldwide executive vice president at Burson-Marsteller

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At the AMEC summit, Chris Foster, worldwide executive vice president at Burson-Marsteller, explains why he believes ‘metrics matter’, talks about measurement as a journey and looks forward to a Gorkana party.

The Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) is holding its annual International Summit in London this week (15-16 June). You can follow highlights from the AMEC summit on Gorkana’s Youtube channel, as well as Gorkana News.

Hanover appoints London director

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Alex Thomson 1

Alex Thomson

In his role as director for Hanover Communications, Alex Thomson will help to provide strategic advice to blue chip clients.

Since 2010, Thomson has overseen Localis’ growth into a leading think tank on issues related to localism and the devolution of power in the UK.

Thomson also helped develop the Conservative Party’s thinking on decentralisation, local government, housing and planning. Prior to working with the Conservatives, Thomson was a civil servant in DCLG and DEFRA and was part of Boris Johnson’s successful 2008 mayoral campaign team.

Thomson said: “Hanover’s reputation in the marketplace was a big factor in my decision to move into consultancy. I’m very much looking forward to joining what is a very talented team of people.”

Hanover is a corporate and public affairs consultancy with offices in London and Brussels. Its blue chip client list includes Goldman Sachs, Sky, Microsoft, Amgen, Lucozade Ribena Suntory, Airbus, De Beers, Gatwick Airport, the NFL, Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Steel.

Laura Swire, director of advocacy at Hanover, added: “I am delighted to welcome Alex to the team. He brings a breadth and depth of experience that will complement and enhance Hanover’s existing offering in advocacy and public affairs.”