Citypress hires Sam Elmidoro as senior social media manager

Citypress hires senior social media manager

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Citypress has appointed Sam Elmidoro as senior social media manager.

Elmidoro will help to deliver campaigns and provide strategic advice to clients across the agency.

She joins from Sky, where she was senior social media producer, while she has also worked for b2b titles including PR Week and marketing portal Brand Republic.

Ruth Lee, director of social at Citypress, said: “Sam brings direct experience of delivering news and engaging content to an audience of millions on a daily basis.

“Her news skills and judgement, combined with deep analytics capability, further strengthens our growing social team of strategy, analytics, content and community management specialists.”

PR News in Brief

The end-of-year PR news round-up (11 December 2017 – 5 January 2018)

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Catch up on the essential news, events and thought leadership you may have missed over the festive period with this end-of-year PR news round-up.

Thought leadership

Ketchum’s Stephen Waddington gave his top predictions for PR in 2018 in last year’s final Cision webinar. Click here now to see why he believes it will be a breakthrough year for PR.

Influencer marketing was one of 2017’s biggest success stories. Click here to see how Erin Deering used influencers to build a £34 million swimwear empire – and how you could use them to grow your business in 2018 and beyond.

Agency news

Good Relations has launched a publicist shop called Newsfeed PR. Liam Maguire, the ex-journalist and former Good Relations head of news, will lead the initiative. It will operate as an independent sister agency and sit within the VCCP Partnership.

W Communications has acquired a minority stake in Facets PR, a specialist jewellery comms agency. The move is part of an ambitious growth strategy that saw the firm buy House last autumn and launch W North through its purchase of Glue PR in March.

Hotwire has launched an energy, environment and sustainability practice. The global energy team includes specialists in strategic communications, messaging, PR, brand, design, social media and public affairs.

Hanover has unveiled a new leadership team for its public affairs team in London. Katie Blower has replaced Laura Swire as managing director. Rosie Luff and Daniel Gilbert have also been promoted to join Rhoda Macdonald as directors.

Claire Ayles and Mike King have launched Eleven Hundred Agency, a PR and content creation company. The boutique agency aims to offer integrated services to high growth tech brands to plug gaps left by the traditional PR agency model.

Flo Powell and Alex Hankinson have purchased Midnight Communications from founder Caraline Brown. Brown has also sold the company’s events arm to The Platinum Group.

Account wins

The comms industry rounded off 2017 with a flurry of PR account wins from Frank PR, Newgate, Hudson Sandler and many more. Click here for the full end-of-year breakdown.

Awards

The agencies competing in the Creative Shootout 2018 live final will be Bottle, Clarion Comms, Frank, Ignis, Mischief, Pretty Green, Shape History, Talker Tailor Trouble Maker and Text100. It will be held at BAFTA later this month (Thursday 25 January).

People news

FTI Consulting has promoted Giles Barrie, Alex Deane, Christine DiBartolo, Myron Marlin and Robert Skeffington. They are now all senior managing directors within its strategic comms division.

M&C Saatchi PR has promoted agency co-founder Chris Hides to global managing director and hired Davnet Doran as its new UK managing director.

MHP Communications has promoted Rachel Rowson to the newly created role of head of health innovation. Kate Pogson will take on Rowson’s previous role as head of MHP’s health practice.

Little Red Rooster has appointed Alison Payne as a senior PR consultant. Louise Emptage, Sam New and Jessica Alley have joined the firm as PR consultants. It has also welcomed Alice Harfleet and Devon Cairns as junior PR consultants.

FleishmanHillard’s Sophie Scott has been promoted to global managing director, technology. She was previously the managing director of technology and strategy for the UK and EMEA.

Higginson PR has hired Sian Sutherland as its associate head of brand. Sutherland was named the CIPR’s Female Marketer of the Year in 2014 and was the 2008 BFI British Inventor of the Year.

Katy Stolliday has joined Brands2Life as deputy MD, consumer. She joins the firm from Unity, where she had been a board director since 2013.

Substance Global has appointed Olivia Gourlay as its commercial director. She joins the agency from Zero Degrees West and has 15 years’ experience in PR.

Network Rail has appointed Caroline Murdoch as group communications director. She will join from the National Crime Agency on 26 February and will sit on the rail owner’s executive board.

WE has hired Catherine Devaney as head of healthcare and vice president, UK. Devaney will build out WE’s health comms capabilities while growing the client base across pharma, med-tech and consumer health.

Sue Anstiss, CEO of Promote PR, has been awarded an MBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List for her services to grassroots and women’s sport.

Adrian Bull, external relations director at the National Nuclear Library, has been awarded an MBE for his work on the development of public understanding in nuclear research.

Communications consultancy MRM has promoted senior consultant Nick Paler to head of investment news and content and Charlotte Massey to consultant.

Tonic Communications has appointed Paul Simpson as account director. He will work across a variety of accounts, including National Pizza Day, Rosa’s Thai Cafe and Peter Gordon’s The Providores and Tapa Room.

Natalie Hilton has joined BIG Partnership as a senior account manager in its Aberdeen office. She will work with clients such as Stewart Milne Group, KPMG, Oil and Gas Innovation Centre and Stronachs.

HROC has hired Sophie Moss as media and planning account manager and Amhan Kaur as an account executive following a number of business wins and client growth.

Opinion: The Launch guide to (festive) media relations

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Niki Wheeler, director at Launch, reveals her top tips for generating earned media “cut through” for Christmas campaigns.

Brits are saying “bah humbug” to 2017. The BDO High Street Sales Tracker heralded the start of the final trading quarter of the year as the worst in a decade.

Black Friday seemingly failed to tempt savvy shoppers, and it remains to be seen whether “blockbuster” above the line campaigns featuring Moz, Paddington and co. will score above the “real shopper” social campaigns from the likes of Primark.

Against a backdrop of royal babies, royal engagements and Brexit – media relations has got to work smarter than ever if it is to warm hearts, encourage spending and shift the dial for clients selling their wares this Christmas.

To help create great content and get consumers in the festive spirit, here are my top tips for generating cut through with your Christmas comms campaigns:

Get personal with product placement

We’ve been talking about Christmas gifting since July. But what are the price points, personality types, trends and “pegs” that are inspiring both you, and your colleagues as you tick off your own Christmas shopping lists?  It is this personal insight that will help you gain traction in the style and shopping pages. (Markle sparkle, anyone?)

And don’t forget some social stalking. Matching product suggestions to what you can see a journalist is interested in from their Instagram and Twitter feed is just as important as reading their articles on and offline.

The advent of a new era of media relations

Group editorial chiefs and specialists at key magazine houses mean that the way we target our consumer titles needs to change. That means adopting more targeted approaches, relationship building at a higher level and commercial activities meeting editorial ones.

Gone are the days of making 20 separate calls to Hearst et al in a single day.

Unwrap the layers, so your stories keep on giving

When it comes to festive news stories, have you explored every angle (and picture), for every type of specialist and supplement? Remember that business pages will often carry pictures when results slow down.

Create a “halo effect” with newswire releases

We used to be cynical about newswires. But as news outlets start their Christmas rotas, using them as a tool to enhance reach when it comes to news stories and announcements is a useful ingredient in the mix.

Have fun with your festive comms

Timing is everything. But with all this doom and gloom going around, providing a little festive cheer through pictures, captions and authentic insights is exactly what everyone needs right now!

Cision webinar Stephen Waddington 5 predictions for PR in 2018

Stephen Waddington predicts 2018 will be a breakthrough year for PR

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In this year’s final Cision webinar, Ketchum‘s Stephen Waddington predicted that 2018 will see communicators capitalise on the opportunities new technology is creating.

In a wide ranging presentation, the agency’s chief engagement officer outlined what he sees as the key catalysts for change in the industry today.

“We’ve seen AI emerge in almost every area of our business,” he said. “We could talk about listening. We could talk about content development. We could talk about channel management and how content is seeded out to networks.”

“It’s helping us become smarter in every aspect of what we do,” he added. “More opportunity is going to be created by this wave of technology. I’m hugely optimistic about it.”

From the promise of PR measurement technology to the changing face of media relations and the rise of “social leadership” – he described how he sees each of his top trends transforming the industry over the next 12 months.

PR will finally be recognised as a management discipline

Waddington began his presentation by commending the work of the PRCA for “beating the drum of professionalism” in public relations this year.

“It drew a line in the sand about what is ethical and what is unethical behaviour in our business,” he explained. “In 2018 we’re going to continue to see this break through as an issue. It’s absolutely critical to us to improve our value.” He argued that ensuring PR achieves professional status will arm communicators with the same authority as other execs in the boardroom.

Proper measurement will play a big role in achieving this goal. Waddington said that once you can show PR’s effect on your organisation’s business objectives using the same KPIs the board room uses, you will be able to increase the value you offer.

Communicators will use data to reach the right digital audiences

Noting that everyone on Earth will have an internet connection by 2030, Waddington examined the opportunities technology is creating for communicators as the media continues to move into the digital space.

“Organisations like Facebook, like LinkedIn, like Google are providing fantastic tools to us,” he said. “There are native tools we can use to understand where our publics are, what they’re talking about and how we should best engage with them.

“And then there’s a massive third party market emerging as well – with tools provided by companies such as our hosts today, Cision.”

Comms teams will become more like newsrooms

In an increasingly digital media landscape, Waddington said comms teams need to become more like news organisations. He recommended assigning specific staff to tasks like monitoring the media, brainstorming ideas and creating content.

“We’re having to operate at the speed of these new forms of media,” he explained. “Traditional PR and comms functions just cannot operate at that speed.”

“What we’re starting to do in our organisations is create newsroom-type models,” he continued. “This is an absolute requirement of modern public relations, to enable us to be responsive to the pace of conversation on the internet.”

He said getting approval for ideas quickly is typically the biggest challenge comms teams face when implementing a newsroom structure. To combat this, he suggested agreeing in advance what issues your company is happy to take a view on and create content for.

Media relations will continue to expand into influencer relations

Waddington observed that every new form of media that has emerged over the past 10 years has also created opportunities for individuals to create new forms of content around specific topics to build communities of their own.

“This is a huge emerging area of public relations practice,” he said. “As the media has fragmented, influencers provide a means for us to engage with their communities, with their audiences, and connect around topics that are interesting to them.

“I don’t think you could have any presentation deck at the moment about public relations without talking about influencers,” he quipped.

The best executives will invest in “social leadership”

Social platforms are also driving changes in the way company executives communicate with their stakeholders, Waddington argued.

He said executives that are serious about leading a modern organisation will invest in their social media footprints in 2018. This trend creates a huge opportunity for communicators to understand how these networks function and help them create content that works.

“When I started out in PR, executive profiling involved writing byline articles or pitching stories into the national media, or the trade media,” he explained. “Now, executives are using social forms of media and owned forms of media to create their own content and publish their content out onto either owned blogs or networks.”

Communicators will discover new uses for AI technology

Finally, Waddington namechecked AI as one of the hottest topics in PR. He said there’s now a huge opportunity for the PR industry to be assertive and uncover novel applications for internet connected devices like the Amazon Echo.

“It’s something we’re very firmly experimenting with within my business to understand the relationship between a consumer and using one of these devices,” he said. “You can already see it’s stripping out a layer of mediation with the internet.”

“The other area is around bots,” he added. “People are creating bots for basic sales functions, basic customer service, basic travel information – so if you want to query the time of a train or plane you can do that.”

#CisionCelebrates – terms and conditions

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#CisionCelebrates – terms and conditions.

These terms and conditions together with any specific rules set out in Competition Notices (as defined below) are the Competition Rules (“Rules”) and apply to competitions taking place across Gorkana Products and Services The promoter of Competitions is Cision, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU.

Competition Notice
Entry for this competition is by completing a daily social media task, details of which can be found daily on the @Gorkana and @CisionGB Twitter accounts, and also by following both accounts.

The competition begins on Wednesday December 13th, closes on Wednesday December 20th and the closing date for each prize is 6pm on the day it is promoted.

Each entrant will enter the prize draw via Twitter only, an entrant must follow the daily instructions given and must enter the competition by using the appropriate hashtag (#CisionCelebrates).

Two prizes will be allocated each day, one for a Cision employee in the UK, one for for anyone from outside the company and who enters The Competition

Each day’s winner will be notified by DM, the day after, and the winner has two hours to respond. If they fail to respond within the allotted time, another winner will be selected,

The daily prize will be delivered to the winner’s office in the UK.

The winner’s Twitter handle will be posted on the @Gorkana and @CisionGB Twitter accounts after the winner has been selected.

Winners will be selected at random.

Copyright in all entries shall be owned by the promoter.

Obscene or inappropriate entries will not be accepted and Cision reserve the right to reject any entries for any reason at its sole discretion.

The promoter of this competition is Gorkana, a Cision company, and Cision.

Competition Rules
Rules specific to each Competition are displayed in a notice on the page for such Competition and are incorporated into the Rules. In the event of differences between these terms and conditions and the Competition Notice, the Competition Notice shall prevail.

Cision reserves the right to cancel or amend Competitions or the Rules (including the eligibility requirements) at its sole discretion with or without prior notice (i) in the event of any occurrence outside Cision’s reasonable control (ii) to ensure the competitions are run fairly and honourably manner, and (iii) to ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations and guidance.

Any cancellation or changes will be then be notified on the relevant Competition Notice.

In the event of any dispute regarding the Rules, conduct, results and all other matters relating to a Competition, the decision of Cision shall be final and no correspondence or discussion shall be entered into.

Cision reserves the right not to award a prize (and to select an alternative winner) if Cision is aware or has reasonable grounds to suspect that a winner is not eligible for these reasons. By entering a Competition, you hereby warrant that all information submitted by you is true, current and complete.

Cision reserves the right to verify the eligibility of all entrants and disqualify an entrant for submitting false information. The address you provide with your Competition entry will be used to send any prizes so please make sure this is correct. Unless stated otherwise in the Competition Notice, Competitions are only open to residents of the United Kingdom and you are not eligible if you are resident outside of the United Kingdom.

Where a Competition is open to entrants from outside the United Kingdom, you will still not be eligible if you are resident in a country or jurisdiction where the Competition may breach any local law or regulation.

Where a Competition is open to all age groups, you must still obtain appropriate parental/guardian permission if you are under 18. Where a Competition is only open to a certain age group (e.g. 18 and over), this will be made clear in the Competition Notice.

If no age limit is specified, the Competition is open to over 18s only. Cision reserves the right to disqualify any entrant if it has reasonable grounds to believe the entrant is not eligible or has otherwise breached any of the Rules.

In the event that any Competition winner is subsequently disqualified from a Competition for any reason, Cision, in its sole discretion, may decide whether a replacement winner should be selected in accordance with the Competition criteria.

Competition Entries Unless stated otherwise in the Competition Notice, and subject to the remainder of this clause, you may only enter a Competition once and multiple entries from the same email address will be counted as one entry with the first entry being submitted being the entry counted.

Where Cision discovers or has reasonable grounds to suspect that any entrant has used any software or automated process either to answer questions, enter the Competition or to make bulk entries, Cision may exclude such entries and disqualify the entrant from the Competition.

Each entrant shall enter the prize draw via Twitter only, an entrant must follow the daily instructions given and must enter by using the appropriate hashtag (#CisionCelebrates). The winner’s Twitter username will be posted on the @Gorkana and @CisionGB twitter accounts after the winner has been selected.

Copyright in all entries shall be owned by the promoter.

Obscene or inappropriate entries will not be accepted and Cision reserve the right to reject any entries for any reason at its sole discretion.

The winner(s) will be selected at random. Competition entries must be made in the manner and by the closing date and time specified on the Competition Notice. Failure to do so will disqualify the entry.

There is no charge to enter a Competition. However, standard mobile data and internet connection charges may apply. Proof of posting or emailing cannot be accepted as proof of delivery.

Cision cannot take responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure , theft, destruction, alteration of or unauthorised access to entries, or entries lost, damaged or delayed as a result of server functions, technical issues, bugs or any other causes outside of Cision’s control.

Entrants should note that unless stated otherwise, Cision does not accept responsibility for the safekeeping or return of any entries, including those consisting of artistic or other material. You should, therefore, ensure you retain a copy of your entry for your own records.

Prizes where the winner is to be selected at random, he or she will be selected either by a computer process that produces verifiably random results or by an independent person, or under the supervision of an independent person.

If the selection of a winning entry is open to subjective interpretation, an independent judge, or a panel that includes one independent member will be appointed. In either case, the judge or panel member will be demonstrably independent from Cision, any competition intermediaries or from the pool of entrants from which the eventual winner is picked.

Those appointed to act as judges or panel members will be competent to judge the competition and their full names will be made available on request. In all matters, the decision of the judge(s) or panel shall be final and no correspondence or discussion shall be entered into.

Prize winners will be notified in the manner and within the time specified on the Competition Notice (and may be contacted by Cision or Cision’s nominated supplier(s)). Return of any prize notification as undeliverable or failure to reply as specified in the notification (and within the time stated) may result in disqualification and selection of an alternate winner.

If more than one prize is awarded only one prize per entrant will be awarded. Unless stated as otherwise in the Competition Notice, claims for prizes must be made in the manner and within the time specified on the Competition Notice.

Failure to claim a prize within this time or in the manner specified may result in disqualification and selection of an alternate winner.

Prizes are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative. Cision reserves the right to substitute prizes of equal or greater value at any time in its sole discretion. Prizes are awarded at Cision’s discretion and no prizes will be awarded as a result of improper actions by or on behalf of any entrant.

Where entries are being judged on creative or artistic merit or other subjective criteria, Cision and/or the Competition judges (acting reasonably) reserve the right not to select a winner, and/or to remove or amend selection criteria and/or the structure and operation of the Competition if entries are not of the requisite standard.

Where there is a minimum age requirement for entry, this will be stated in the Competition Notice and must be observed.

Cision reserves the right to request written proof of age and/or identity of any entrant including the winner. Where no such written proof is supplied, or the entrant is not the requisite age, Cision may disqualify the entrant. All taxes, insurances, transfers, spending money and other expenses (including meals or personal expenses, upgrades etc.) as the case may be, unless specifically stated in the Competition Notice, are the sole responsibility of the prize winner.

Intellectual Property Rights & Use of Entries Cision does not, unless we agree this with you, claim any rights of ownership in your entry (although Cision will be able to use the entry as a licensee). As such, you retain ownership of your entry and, although Cision will be able to use entries as set out in the Rules, you will also have the right to use your entry in any way you choose. Where any entry is to be used in a different way (e.g. we are asking to own this) this will be made clear in the Competition Notice and you will then be able to choose whether to enter the Competition.

If you win a prize, as a condition to receipt of that prize, you may be required to sign a document (in Cision’s standard form) confirming that Cision owns the copyright in the entry.

In consideration of Cision agreeing to consider your entry, each entrant agrees that Cision (and third parties authorised by Cision) may use the entry across its Digital Products and Services and on any other media (including but not limited to third party websites, mobile, television and/or radio). For this purpose, you hereby grant Cision (and third parties authorised by Cision) a non-exclusive, worldwide, irrevocable licence (for the full period of any rights in the entry) to use, display, publish, transmit, copy, make derivative works or podcasts from, edit, alter, store, re-format, use as part of any advertising or sponsorship campaign, sell and sub-licence the entry.

Cision does not guarantee to use any entry. Cision may also, in appropriate circumstances, and at its sole discretion, reject, edit, remove or disable access to entries that it considers may be legally or otherwise problematic.

Your entry and any information submitted by you must be personal to and relate specifically to you. You warrant that your entry and all information which you submit and/or distribute will not infringe the intellectual property, privacy or any other rights of any third party, and will not contain anything which is libellous, defamatory, obscene, indecent, harassing or threatening. In addition, you warrant that you have permission to use or feature any people, content or other material contained within your entry. Cision reserves the right to screen, filter and/or monitor entries for this purpose.

Liability – Cision cannot accept any responsibility for any damage, loss, injury or disappointment suffered by any entrant entering a Competition or as a result of accepting any prize.

Cision is not responsible for any technical issues in relation to any telecommunications or internet network (including in relation to speed or bandwidth), including any injury or damage to entrant’s or any other person’s device related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in a Competition.

Nothing shall exclude Cision’s liability for death or personal injury as a result of its negligence.

Access to Cision’s Digital Products and Services is subject to Cision’s Terms of Use.

Data Protection and Publicity – Winners may be requested to take part in post event promotional activity and Cision reserves the right to use the names and contact details of winners, their photographs and audio and/or visual recordings of them in any publicity.

Any personal data relating to entrants will be used solely in accordance with current UK data protection legislation and best practice.

Please see Cision’s Privacy Policy for further details. Data relating to entrants will be retained by Cision for a reasonable period after the Competition closes to assist Cision to operate competitions in a consistent manner and to deal with any queries.

Jurisdiction All Competitions and the Rules are and will be governed by English law and any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.

How to contact us
You can contact us in relation to any Competition by writing to #CisionCelebrates, Cision, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU.

PR News in Brief

This week’s PR news in brief (4-8 December)

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Here’s our round-up of essential PR news stories and features from the past week, including an interview with National Geographic Food’s Maria Pieri, account wins for Tin Man and b. and new hires at MHP and 8 Outdoor. 

Opinion

Golin‘s Michaela Gray says businesses should act now to prepare their comms strategies for “toxic fallout” from the new gender pay reporting rules.

Interviews

Maria Pieri, National Geographic Food‘s launch editor, discusses the reasons behind the magazine launch, its content and regular features and what she is looking for from PRs.

Account wins

The Spanish Tourist Office has appointed LOTUS to handle its PR, events and digital campaigns in the UK market following a competitive pitch. The agency has been tasked with raising the profile of Spain’s authenticity, broadly focusing on the themes of cities, culture and gastronomy.

Facilities management services provider ABM UK has appointed Seymour PR to design and deliver its Junior Engineering Engagement Programme (J.E.E.P) campaign to change the perception of facilities management and engineering in the UK.

Tonic PR & Communications will manage PR for London cocktail bars Callooh Callay and Little Bat. The agency will promote both brands to a London audience.

New lifestyle brand Invisible Heels has appointed b. to handle its PR. The agency will help the brand to promote its range of invisible insoles.

WaterAid has appointed Tin Man to promote its Untapped appeal, which aims to raise awareness of children living without clean water or a decent toilet.

Agency news

Specialist tech consultancy Red Lorry Yellow Lorry has announced that it will open an office in Berlin, headed by former Hotwire Germany head of client services and corporate communications Saskia Stolper.

People news

MHP Communications has promoted Gemma Irvine to head its brand practice. The appointment continues CEO Alex Bigg’s reorganisation of the agency’s senior team.

Launch has promoted Juliet Cameron to chief operational launcher, making her responsible for the day-to-day running of the business.

Manifest has appointed Andrew Soar, Saxony Goodwin and Woody Anderson as creative communications director, senior brand strategist and senior account director, respectively.

The PRCA’s 2018 PR and Communications Council has elected Amanda Coleman as its vice chair. Coleman, who is head of corporate communications at Greater Manchester Police, will take on the role in January.

Digital advertising signage company 8 Outdoor has appointed Eleanor Crossman as its marketing and communications director. Crossman previously worked at MWW and will report to chief executive Cennydd Roberts.

Luxury tour operator Abercrombie & Kent has appointed James Treacy as PR and communications manager. He joins from Tourism Australia.

Cheshire legal firm Aaron & Partners has appointed Christos Kottis as its head of marketing. Kottis will overseeing all marketing activity, including PR and comms.

PR events

Cision’s final webinar before Christmas will see Stephen Waddington, Ketchum’s chief engagement officer, make five PR predictions for 2018 and share practical tips on how you can prepare and take advantage of the opportunities. Sign up here and join Stephen and Philip Smith, Cision’s head of content marketing and communications, at 3pm on Tuesday 12 December to gain valuable PR insights for 2018.

Portland Rising Stars event

Portland’s Rising Stars event

Portland brought together some of the most talented young communicators for its bi-annual Rising Stars event at London’s Hospital Club last Thursday.

Tim Allan, the agency’s group managing director, and Kate Andrews, news editor at the Institute of Economic Affairs, both made speeches discussing the importance of networking for young professionals.

Mercieca hires Jade McCartney as senior account manager

Mercieca hires Jade McCartney as senior account manager

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Mercieca has appointed Jade McCartney as a senior account manager to its client services team.

She joins from Clarion Communications and will work across a number of integrated PR clients.

Gemma Oakes, PR Director at Mercieca, said: “Jade is a welcome addition to the Mercieca team as we head into a new year. She will be working across some of our biggest FMCG and lifestyle clients, as well as helping to support on forthcoming new business pitches.

“Jade is a seasoned PR who I have known for a number of years, and am confident that she will not only deliver brilliant results for our clients, but also play an instrumental role in the ongoing development of our junior team.”

Helen Cable, Good Relations

Influencers are essential in every marketing strategy says Good Relations’ Helen Cable

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Helen Cable, senior digital consultant at Good Relations, talks about micro influencers, her favourite “rising stars” and why every brand should be using influencers in 2018.

Good Relations launched its influencer division at the end of 2016. How has the influencer landscape changed over the past 12 months? And what lessons have you learned?

Influencer marketing has only become more important. Influencers are an essential part of every marketing strategy and need to be given the same consideration as you would social media or a TV campaign. This is no longer an optional extra but a critical component.

During 2017, we’ve really put science into this art, with a robust and results driven methodology that drives real returns.

How do you expect the way brands work with influencers to evolve over the next 12 months? What are the biggest challenges and opportunities they’ll encounter?

We will start to see more long term influencer relationships with brands rather than one-off collaborations. This highlights the need for authenticity, which is the biggest challenge, as these will become a bit like ambassadorial relationships.

There’s a huge opportunity to leverage influencer advocacy, content co-creation and other areas of collaboration – but a massive challenge if influencers aren’t genuine fans of the brand.

With new micro influencers gaining traction all the time, how should brands go about finding the best influencers to partner with?

As the best-known influencers become more expensive, micro influencers will continue to be as a cost effective way to reach a target demographic.

Our proprietary algorithm identifies rising stars and assesses their potential impact. We also have strong relationships across the industry, so are alerted to up and coming influencers through our extensive network of contacts.

The Good Relations team boasts a number of in-house influencers, including a prominent parenting blogger. How do they like to work with brands?

Having influencers working on our own team keeps us at the forefront of best practice and gives a real insight into current trends.

Like most influencers, they prefer to have creative control when working with a brand because they are best placed to know what content their audience will love. As always, it’s a case of making sure we have a tight brief then letting the influencer put their creative flair on it.

How important is it to measure the performance of influencer marketing campaigns? How do you go about this at Good Relations?

Very important – influencer marketing needs to be given the same strategic weight as any other marketing channel and that means it needs to show ROI. We take a very data-driven approach, in part through our both our proprietary algorithm to assess impact.

Of all the influencer campaigns you’ve been involved with over the past 12 months, which are you proudest of, and why?

For Subway, we brought together a “Subsquad” of four influencers (Arron Crascall, Cian Twomey, Jahannah James and Scola Dondo) and created a YouTube series featuring the group undertaking different challenges.

The weekly episodic content drove a huge reach and engagement – it’s far more than a media buy. Bringing influencers together in this way has real brand impact.

Finally, can you name an influencer you love, and whose career you think will take off in 2018?

We do a lot of work with Mum-fluencers and I think this is an area which is only going to continue growing. Personally, I love watching (and working with) Katie Ellison (@mummydaddyme) and I think we will see her really hit the ‘big time’ in 2018!

Helen Cable is one of five influencer marketing experts Cision interviewed for its brand new white paper, ‘Why every brand should be using influencers in 2018‘. Download it now using the form below.

Incorrect information? Clear the form.

Hotwire hires Adele Breen

Adele Breen joins Hotwire as director of corporate strategy

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Hotwire has appointed Adele Breen as its first director of corporate strategy, responsible for overseeing the agency’s focus on emerging sectors and delivering specialist analyst relations, crisis comms and executive comms projects.

She will join Hotwire’s UK board and will report to UK managing director Matt Cross. Her role will entail working with both existing clients and prospects to build tailored comms programmes to help alignment between business strategy, R&D, sales, partner ecosystems and support teams.

Breen was previously a director at AxiCom and has extensive experience in leading global and regional corporate and B2B comms and analyst relations programmes for the likes of Dell, Orange and Neustar.

Cross said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Adele to the Hotwire team. We are constantly looking for ways to challenge our own thinking, and bringing together some of the best talent in the industry is a critical part of that.”

Breen added: “Hotwire is an ambitious and relentlessly proactive company with a stated commitment to being the best agency that clients will ever work with.

“Our global reach means we can support clients as their businesses grow and evolve, and getting messaging right at the corporate level is critical in realising that growth. It’s a very exciting time to be at Hotwire.”