Brompton appoints The Earned Agency

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British bicycle brand Brompton has appointed The Earned Agency as its UK PR and comms agency, following a four-way pitch.

The agency has been briefed to create a series of strategic campaigns to showcase why a Brompton bike is “perfect for both work and play in the modern city” as it looks to reach a new consumer base.

Activity will also include social media and event support, with the team undertaking a number of partnership initiatives, as well as campaigns to outline how a Brompton bike can provide practical solutions to the day-to-day challenges of living in a city.

Stephen Loftus, chief sales and marketing officer at Brompton, said: “The Earned Agency is more than just a PR agency. Its blend of expertise in traditional PR, social media, search and content marketing – all underpinned by good strategic thinking – really appealed to us when reviewing the market for a new partner. It demonstrated a thorough understanding of the brand and had some bold ideas as to how we can take our messages to a wider audience.”

Neil Foster, MD at The Earned Agency, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Brompton bicycle. It’s such an appealing brand with so much depth and heritage. We are really looking forward to leveraging our expertise amongst active lifestyle brands to help drive sales and let more and more people realise the convenience and freedom that owning a Brompton brings.”

Mischief PR wins first Creative Shootout

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Mischief PR has been named the winner of the first one-day creativity competition Creative Shootout, winning the title of the UK’s most creative PR team for its response to a brief from Unicef UK.

Six agencies responded to the brief from Unicef UK, the charity associate of the competition, last Thursday morning, and, in response, pitched to judges and a live audience of 200 people on the same day at The China Exchange in Soho, London.

Teams were challenged to come up with a creative campaign tapping into the story of the 70 years Unicef has been saving children’s lives, writing the manual for, and delivering children’s development and rights.

They had four hours to respond to the brief in private Creative Shootout ‘hangout rooms’, before returning to The China Exchange and pitching their ideas in 15 minutes to a judging panel, which included Jane Cooper, director of comms and brand at Unicef UK, Nicola Green, director of comms and reputation at O2 Telefonica and Simon Redfern, EMEA director of public affairs at Starbucks.

Frank PR was named runner-up. The four other finalists were TVC Group, Bottle, Dynamo PR and PLMR.

Damon Statt, creative director at Mischief, said: “Creative Shootout was stressful, nerve-racking, exhilarating, and great fun. Most importantly, it showed we’ve all got the power to come up with ideas that can change things for the better.”

Johnny Pitt, founder of The Creative Shootout and Launch PR: “The Live Final shone the spotlight on creativity in a new, radical and pure way that’s captured the imagination.  All agencies did themselves proud, with only four hours to turn round the creative response.  A line in the sand has been drawn and we now have a realtime showcase of creativity in the UK.”

Gorkana meets…Last Word

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Gary Corcoran, editorial director at Last Word which publishes financial titles International Adviser, Portfolio Adviser, Expert Investor and Fund Selector Asia, on the publisher’s recent rebrand, its push into video content and how PRs can help amplify its coverage.

Can you tell us about the recent website rebrand at Last Word?

Last Word celebrated its 10th birthday at the end of 2015 so we took this as the perfect opportunity to have a look at all the brands that make up the business. We gave them an entirely new look and feel that is not only consistent with the values of the company as a whole but also ties all the individual brands (International Adviser, Portfolio Adviser, Expert Investor and Fund Selector Asia) together more readily (and recognisably!) under the Last Word umbrella.

What is the target audience for the four publications?

The audience differs slightly depending on the brand but, in general, the titles are all aimed at professional fund selectors, asset allocators and portfolio constructors. International Adviser also has a holistic financial planning audience among global intermediaries.

Who are your competitors in the space?

Again, there are competitors depending on each brand and the varied platforms they engage with the audience. I would not want to generalise here so I’ll leave it up to those who think they compete with us to carry on doing so…

How are decisions made on which content is kept purely in your digital magazines and which is included in the print version?

If it is a newsworthy story and needs to be put in front of our readers immediately, then it goes online first. All magazine content that is normally feature or opinion driven and requires more in-depth analysis goes online during the week after it has been published.

International Adviser serves a global audience – with such a broad remit, how do you decide what makes it into the magazine?

International Adviser’s remit is to serve the global intermediary market that use cross-border insurance, investment, banking and pension products on behalf of their high-net worth clients. Anything we see as relevant is included in the magazine and online.

How can PRs best help with your titles?

By providing details of spokespeople on the relevant topics and issues; make personal contact with the editorial teams to meet and discuss what we do and what their clients do to see where the two overlap; suggest ideas for topics to cover and high-profile individuals to interview.

Are there any regions you’d like to extend your editorial in?

We are always looking…

What is your social media strategy?

We actively use Twitter and LinkedIn to constantly communicate with our growing diverse audiences, informing them of news stories, analysis, unique opinion, market data, as well as a source for potential news leads.

You’ve mentioned before that you’re planning more around video; can you tell us a little more about this?

We are currently looking at our video strategy as part of an overall plan to communicate more effectively and efficiently with our readers and prospect readers across all of the brands, wherever in the world they may be.

And finally, what advice can you give to graduates looking to get into your field of journalism?

Showing initiative by studying for the NCTJ; doing a post-grad qualification if they don’t have a journalism degree; working on a local newspaper – hard and often thankless work, but brilliant grounding!

Gary was speaking to Gorkana’s Louise Pantani

Flagship Consulting wins ABTA brief for #Earlybird campaign

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The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) has chosen Flagship Consulting to enhance the reach of its annual Earlybird campaign, which encourages customers to book holidays early with an ABTA Member.

ABTA wants this year’s campaign to be more engaging and impactful and use new channels to raise the Earlybird campaign’s profile.

The two week campaign kicked off on 11 January and communicates the benefits of booking early through an ABTA-accredited travel agent, or tour operator.

Flagship has created a booking deals map, which collates ABTA members’ #Earlybird deals, whether they are offering money off, free child places or additional holiday activities for free.

Consumers can head to ABTA’s online Earlybird hub and its booking deals map to identify the best, relevant #Earlybird deals.

Flagship and ABTA will work on social media engagement activity, with an aim to drive consumers to the hub. The agency is also coordinating a blogger outreach programme to engage with influential family bloggers.

Victoria Bacon, head of brand and business development at ABTA, said: “We are delighted to be working with Flagship to deliver this year’s Earlybird campaign. We have delivered a strong campaign for the past two years, but we wanted Flagship’s experience and insights to help take it further. We are engaging our members directly with consumers, as well as via ABTA’s own website, and we’re excited to see the impact that our creative campaign is achieving.”

Stripe names Chris Stevenson MD

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Stripe Communications, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary, has named Chris Stevenson, former director of client service and business development at Emanate, as MD of its new London office.

Reporting to Juliet Simpson, Stripe’s CEO,  Stevenson will lead the strategic growth of the agency’s new London office as well as boost its comms services offer.

During his time at Emanate, Stevenson helped grow the business, leading teams and clients to deliver strategic PR, digital and comms campaigns.

His experience spans a range of consumer brands and he has delivered PR strategies across consumer tech, entertainment, FMCG, sports, food and drink and alcoholic beverages in a career spanning 15 years.

Simpson said: “Chris is not only a brilliant leader but a great cultural fit for Stripe. He brings with him a wealth of communications experience, huge amounts of energy and drive, and a passion for innovative thinking. With Chris at the helm we’re excited to see our new London office make its mark.”

Stevenson’s appointment is one of a series of senior hires, including a new director of strategy, head of brand entertainment and creative director.

Anna Russell, former general manager, brand marketing at Audi of America, has been named director of strategy.

Responsible for positioning Audi as a progressive luxury choice, Russell managed a budget of over $150M to help deliver sales. At Stripe, she will expand the agency’s strategic and creative services.

Lesley Morton joins Stripe as head of brand entertainment. Before Stripe, Lesley headed up the music and entertainment team at CSM Sport & Entertainment, where she delivered global brand strategies for clients.

Based between the agency’s London and Glasgow offices, Lesley will lead the growth of Stripe’s brand activation and entertainment offering.

Hilary Joiner has been hired as creative director. With over 20 years of integrated brand and communications experience, Joiner will be responsible for developing Stripe’s creative capabilities.

Simpson added: “2016 is our tenth year and we’re as ambitious now as we’ve ever been. These new appointments reflect how we continue to innovate and adapt to the changing nature of our business, providing a networked offering, world-class thinking and capabilities that exceed the needs of our clients. With more announcements to come, we’re looking forward to an incredible year.”

THE WEEKLY GORKANA BRIEF

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A round-up of the essential highlights from the main PR and media stories, features and events content on Gorkana News this week.

Pitch Wins

Travel search brand Cheapflights has brought in White Tiger PR to handle its UK consumer and trade PR, following a competitive pitch.

Cafe Rouge, part of the Casual Dining Group, has brought in LightBrigade to handle its consumer PR, as the French-styled restaurant chain undergoes a major property and brand revamp.

PepsiCo has briefed Headland to manage its UK corporate comms, following a pitch for its account in December.

British Gas, the Centrica-owned energy and services company, has chosen Weber Shandwick as its retained B2B and consumer adviser, following a competitive pitch.

PR People News

ITV’s head of press Tracey O’Connor has returned to Pumpkin PR, which specialises in the creative and media sectors, as the agency’s first MD.

UTV Media has chosen Amy Grantham to head up comms. Grantham has been briefed to oversee all internal and external comms across UTV Media (GB) titles.

Former Nexus MD Richard Medley has joined Frank as a board director, with a brief to head up the agency’s corporate reputation, crisis and issues division, as well as oversee a portfolio of consumer clients.

Creative agency The Romans has appointed Citizen junior account director Tom Winterton as associate director as the agency celebrates its first birthday.

Bottle has promoted consumer director Natasha Hill to MD.

Launch News

Andy Coulson, ex-News of the World editor and former Downing Street comms chief, has joined forces with Pitch chief executive Henry Chappell to launch Coulson Chappell, which offers “discreet” strategic comms and corporate advice.

Journalist News

The Daily Mail’s James Coney has moved from Money Mail editor to become finance editor for the title. He will still oversee Money Mail, but also takes responsibility for the news and features operations of City & Finance. Alex Brummer continues as city editor and Ruth Sunderland has been named city features editor.

BBC One controller Charlotte Moore has been named controller, TV channels and iPlayer, as part of a wider reorganisation. In the newly-created role, Moore will take a creative, editorial and strategic lead for BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four and BBC iPlayer.

The Times and The Sunday Times have launched The Times of London Weekly, an international digital app that provides readers with a “world view from London”. The new app will pull together content from both titles in a single digital edition, published once a week on Thursdays.

OK! online reporter Joshua Haigh has been named showbiz reporter for The Sun.

This week’s features

A guide to influencer marketing on Instagram for PRs
Takumi, a free app which aims to “revolutionise the way brands engage with influencers on Instagram, launched in October 2015. Three months on, and with clients including Lastminute.com and Radley, Mats Stigzelius, co-founder of Takumi, says influencer marketing works when its “raw, honest and personal”. Here he offers five top tips for PRs who are launching an influencer marketing campaign for brands.

Davos 2016: how PRs can realise the true opportunity this week’s forum presents
This week’s World Economic Forum (WEF), held in Davos and commonly referred to by its place-name, is both star-studded, including celebrities from Bono to Leonardo DiCaprio, and attended by heavyweight business and world leaders, from Draghi to Tsipras. Many key comms professionals and PRs and their clients attend, but what is the real PR opportunity Davos presents? And do you need to be at an event which could cost an individual, according to International Business Times, an average of £22,000 in the last couple of years to attend, writes Kaltrina Bylykbashi.

Gorkana meets…Last Word
Gary Corcoran, editorial director at Last Word, which publishes financial titles International Adviser, Portfolio Adviser, Expert Investor and Fund Selector Asia, on the publisher’s recent rebrand, its push into video content and how PRs can help amplify its coverage.

Case Study: Energizer ‘Waste to Wonder’
When Energizer approached Cirkle to launch its EcoAdvanced battery, which is made from recycled batteries, the agency created an attention-grabbing, battery-powered, a four metre high replica of Tower Bridge made up of more than 80,000 recycled batteries, which led to EcoAdvanced winning The Grocer’s ‘Launch of the Year 2015’.

NEWS ANALYSIS: As ‘Blue Monday’ informed news agendas again this year, what opportunities can brands and PRs find in such media concepts?
Blue Monday, the third Monday in January which is apparently the most depressing day of the year, is an annual media concept but it divides opinion. While many brands – including Innocent and Vodafone – use the story of Blue Monday to push feel-good products and create playful campaigns, many journalists and media experts feel such ‘days’ are hollow concepts. Kaltrina Bylykbashi investigates the PR opportunities and pitfalls.

60 seconds with David Thomas, head of communications, The World Federation of Exchanges
David Thomas, head of communications at industry body The World Federation of Exchanges, on the fun he had as a journalist in the mid-’90s, how editorial experience is indispensable in PR and his dream to work for expat radio in the South of France.

 

A guide to influencer marketing

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Takumi, a free app which aims to “revolutionise the way brands engage with influencers on Instagram, launched in October 2015. Three months on, and with clients including Lastminute.com and Radley, Mats Stigzelius, co-founder of Takumi, says influencer marketing works when its “raw, honest and personal”. Here he offers five top tips for PRs who are launching an influencer marketing campaign for brands.

 

Bigger isn’t always better

On Instagram, marketers can make the mistake of looking at the number of followers an influencer has instead of the level of engagement.

The traditional PR approach has been to target celebrities with hundreds of thousands of followers, with the belief that this will translate into buzz. However, while these names have a lot of followers, they lack high-quality engagement – comments, likes or reposts on their photographs.

Takumi has analysed more than half a million Instagram accounts and the numbers are surprising. Engagement rates are on average around 4.5% on accounts with between 1,000 and 4,000 followers. This drops to 2.4% on accounts with between 4,000 and 100,000 followers. This goes down to just 1.7% on accounts with more than 100,000 followers.

When accounts reach a certain size, the influencer engages less and less with their followers. As much as they may want to, they simply become too big to respond to every comment or question.

With this in mind, we’ve identified a ‘sweet spot’ of influence – users with between 1,000 and 100,000 followers. This level of influencer guarantees a certain amount of reach while also maintaining strong levels of engagement. These are people who have influence beyond their circle of family and friends but still retain high levels of interaction with their followers – which is an extremely important factor when it comes to influencer marketing.

These ‘micro-influencers’ are the most effective group to work with at scale, and will deliver the most value for money for marketers.

Don’t be fooled by false followers

A big watch out for brands is fake followers. Nowadays there are companies which ‘sell’ followers, and even engagement, from fake accounts. It’s become very sophisticated and consequently pretty hard to spot. Our developers have spent a lot of time creating tools which alert them to any suspicious activity on accounts ensuring campaigns run through Takumi have the amount of reach you are expecting.

The obvious dodgy accounts are those which grow from a few thousand to, say, ten thousand followers in just a few days, but others are more subtle. Sadly, some fantastic Instagram accounts with beautiful feeds are falling into this trap. Brands might think, by securing a few extra thousand followers, this will open more doors for them in terms of brand work – but it results in quite the opposite and undermines the work of genuine influencers with genuine followers.

An easy way to spot something iffy going on is to look at engagement levels – if someone has 100,000 followers but their photographs are only achieving a few hundred likes, there is something going on there, and it’s worth investigating further. It’s definitely worth looking at this before agreeing to work on paid-for campaigns with influencers.

Don’t be afraid to use social media marketing as a listening tool

The brands which get the most out of influencer marketing campaigns are those who are flexible and open about the type of influencers they are targeting. Something that is unique to Takumi is that it gives the influencer the freedom to choose the brand campaign they work on – rather than the other way around. Sometimes brands feel uncomfortable with this, as they’re used to actively selecting influencers to work with.

However, the benefits outweigh any negatives. Firstly, the posts are much more authentic – as an influencer will only choose a campaign that their followers are genuinely interested in hearing about.

Secondly, this process enables brands to find out who their influencer set is. For example, a health food brand may think it wants to target fashionable lifestyle influencers from London. But, for instance, “male cycling influencers” might be a good way to get to an audience. It’s a lesson in finding out who is interested in your brand.

Also, comments on influencer posts are often fantastic feedback for product development. It’s a journey of discovery and an invaluable social listening tool which helps shape brand identity.

Let the influencer have as much creative freedom as possible

Some brands get twitchy about relinquishing creative control for influencer marketing campaigns and opt to write detailed and complicated briefs incorporating their brand guidelines as well as reams of rules, and dos and don’ts. However, creative freedom is exactly what’s great about influencer marketing. It’s not supposed to be preachy or prescriptive – it’s supposed to be honest, raw and personal.

Influencer marketing isn’t a one dimensional discipline. It’s more than just getting a product into the hands of the right people. It’s about how these influencers see the brand, and how they interpret a brief in their own style that appeals to their followers. It’s about a product fitting seamlessly into an influencer’s curated world without it disrupting it – and the only way that this type of marketing will be authentic and effective is if the influencer is given the liberty to see the product through their own eyes.

It’s about tailoring content to fit the influencers’ aesthetic, rather than shoe-horning a square peg into a round hole. Brands need to let go, and trust the influencers… and the more they let go, the more pleasantly surprised they’ll be with the results.

Don’t be afraid of paying influencers! Respect their art and value what they do

Some brands are staunchly opposed to paying for influencers to post about their products or services. What’s important to remember is that the influencers they should be engaging with aren’t amateurs. They are professionals and they need to be valued as such. You’d pay a celebrity to endorse a product, so it makes sense to apply the same logic to smaller influencers. It’s about respect and recognition for the art that goes into creating a successful feed and beautiful photography. We named our platform Takumi, after the word ‘artisan’ in Japanese, to ensure that the talent of these influencers is at the forefront of people’s minds when working with them.

Many forward thinking brands are recognising the strong commercial impact it has on the bottom line. Our research has shown that half (54%) of all consumers have actually bought products after seeing them on Instagram, with 18 to 24 year olds most (68%) influenced by the popular photo-sharing platform. Over half (51%) of Brits admit they are more likely to purchase items after seeing them on Instagram.

In order to see the best results from influencer marketing it is crucial for relationships to be authentic and for brands to be bold and brave. Keeping these simple tips in mind will really help marketers navigate the minefield of influencer marketing and make their campaigns as successful as possible.

For more information, contact [email protected]

Change comms impacts positively on business

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In a special Gorkana webinar this week, Ketchum directors David Rockland and Kieran Colville explained how the agency helps businesses change, how it measures change communication effectively and, ultimately, how change communication can boost the bottom line for its clients.

To create effective change communication, Rockland and Colville insist it is important to set clear goals, pay attention to context and use “predictive analysis” to help achieve results internally. These ideas are as important as they are in external comms and are needed to help business leaders tackle change within a company as it grows.

In the webinar, which was moderated by Jeremy Thompson, Managing Director of Cision EMEA, Rockland and Colville explained how they based their technique for successful change communications on the seven Barcelona principles of communication, which – as issued by AMEC – is a set of voluntary guidelines established by the PR industry to help agencies and brands measure the true effectiveness of PR campaigns.

Thompson introduced the discussion by explaining how communicating to diverse groups and applying best practice is difficult due to the complexity of information we have available today. Data on communications effectiveness and the impact on engagement is vital to help improve how leaders and communications functions connect with employees through change, he added.

Three of the key elements of successful change communications discussed in the webinar include:

  • Clear goals are an essential starting point

Rockland tells us that ‘well-written goals’ were an essential element in the success of Ketchum’s project with BIG4, an organisation that is made up of four large worldwide accounting firms.

Once BIG4 defined its goal to increase effectiveness of internal communications, it was able to set quantifiable metrics to improve employee engagement. The outcome was not only financial, but it increased “employee intent to stay” at the company.

  • External influences and environments need to be considered when evaluating progress

One of the Barcelona principles suggests social media should be measured consistently alongside traditional media.

Ketchum used this as a guide for internal comms on various projects. It is possible to sensitively monitor social media to see how employees are feeling, or what they are saying, while still protecting privacy.

Colville told Gorkana that employee comms usually only looks internally, but the reality is there is an external environment that has just as much impact on engagement and attitudes.

  • Data should be used to create insight and guide strategy

Rockland and Colville say that the collection of data is no longer the problem, but the challenge is how this data is used to guide strategy and gain insight to create an environment where companies can predict employee reaction to change.

Rockland said: “Data is not particularly important in itself. It is useless unless you analyse it, whether in a robust or simple way to gain insight. It will guide your strategy and what you are going to do.”

Pegasus hires Alison Perkins as head of studio

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Health and beauty specialist Pegasus has appointed Hogarth Studio’s operations manager, Alison Perkins, to the newly-created role of associate director, head of studio.

With 30 years’ experience in production and advertising, Perkins joins from WPP-owned marketing agency Hogarth Studio, where she headed up a 73-strong team working in London, Milton Keynes, Prague and Dhaka.

In her new role, she will take responsibility for all operational aspects of Pegasus’ creative and digital studio, The Lab, which accounts for around 20% of the agency’s revenue.

The Lab is a creative resource which supports the company’s business units with campaign creation and delivery. Its services span traditional design, animation, web and app development, film and advertising work.

Perkins will set up a new production and workflow process, as well as manage on-going resource allocation and delivery.

Stuart Hehir, Pegasus’ creative director, said: “Alison’s arrival clearly reflects the scale of our ambition when it comes to delivering integrated campaigns that inspire healthy decisions. The Lab’s rapid growth is a clear sign of how we have shifted to become the strategic, creative and now multi-channel delivery partner for many of our clients and we see no sign of this slowing down.

“Having overseen the growth of the Hogarth studio from four through to 73 people, Alison brings a wealth of experience and knowledge that is both unmatched and invaluable, and we are all genuinely excited she has chosen to join us as we continue to evolve and grow.”

AMEC partners with Cannes Lions

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AMEC, the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, has linked up with Cannes Lions to launch an advisory service for the Research and Measurement categories of the PR Lions awards.

The measurement body will provide research advisors to help firms improve their entries to two categories in the awards, which are part of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, through a Data & Measurement Advisory Scheme. The categories are: Research, Data Analytics & Insight Generation and PR Excellence in Effectiveness.

Research advice is available on a confidential, first come, first served, basis and will be allocated to the first 20 entries, which can now be submitted, in each category, determined by the PR Lions organisers prior to the festival.

Barry Leggetter, CEO of AMEC (pictured), said: “We are thrilled to be associated with PR Lions to help them grow these two data and research categories. It is a practical way in which some of our most expert researchers can help enhance research entries.”

Fiorenza Plinio, senior awards manager and regional festivals lead at Lions Festivals, added: “With a bigger focus now being placed on data analytics and evaluation within PR, we are looking forward to seeing some great work being entered into these categories in 2016.

“We believe this partnership with AMEC will offer entrants a unique opportunity to get strong, objective advice from industry professionals, and have the best chance of showcasing award-winning work.”

The festival takes place in June in southern France from 18 to 25 June.