Page 6 – Gorkana

Cision’s Alex Hunter to join PRWeek influencer session

September 11, 2018/in Industry News /by Alister Houghton

Alex Hunter, Cision’s head of sales and relationship management – agency, will moderate a panel discussion at PRWeek‘s ‘Making Influencers Work For You‘ breakfast briefing on Tuesday 25 September.

The Cision-sponsored event will encompass four sessions which explores what it takes to create truly standout influencer marketing campaigns. Hunter will moderate the morning’s final session: Choosing the right influencers to maximise return on investment.

He will lead a discussion which will examine how to create and maintain long-lasting relationships, how to balance the need for reach against influencers who are right for the brand and how to utilise social platforms to get the best from influencers.

Hunter will be joined on stage by influencers and BBC Radio 1 podcast presenters, Niki & Sammy, Karmarama social and influencer lead Katie Hunter, Manifest Group founder and CEO Alex Myers and Stephen Farrell, influencer marketing strategist at The Communications Store.

Hosted at the Regent Street Cinema by PRWeek‘s editor-in-chief, Danny Rogers, the breakfast briefing will feature a number of sessions designed to hone communicators’ influencer marketing strategy by examining all aspects of the discipline.

In addition to the session chaired by Hunter, delegates will hear how they can spot fake influencers and bots, discover how best to measure campaign success and hear from regulators on when and how to label content.

More information on the securing tickets and the full event agenda to this exclusive breakfast briefing can be found here.

CisionMeets… webinar series launches with The Hook

September 10, 2018/in Features /by Alister Houghton

Cision is thrilled to announce the launch of the CisionMeets… webinar series, which combines its industry-leading media briefings with the webinar format.

CisionMeets… webinars will marry the insight-laden Q&A format of traditional media briefings with the visual opportunities and unlimited space for attendees provided by webinars.

To help launch this new series, we are delighted to be joined by social publisher The Hook’s chief content officer Mike Burton and head of production Jessica Lever.

From 3pm-4pm on Tuesday 18 September, Lever and Burton will talk all things The Hook. The pair will start with a short opening presentation which will be followed by a Q&A covering topics ranging from the publisher’s audience to how it works with PRs to produce its content.

The final part of the sessions will see audience members be able to submit their questions to the pair. On signing up to the webinar you will be able to pre-submit questions for the closing part of the session, or you can ask them on the day.

A social publisher with a tongue-in-cheek tone, The Hook is synonymous with viral entertainment, pop culture and comedy content featuring a host of celebrities. The title has worked with the likes of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington to produce compelling content which helped the stars to promote upcoming projects.

The Hook uses its own original entertainment and comedy content to engage and amuse, which has helped it to build a core millennial and generation Z audience of over 10 million across all its social channels.

Join us from the comfort of your own desk on Tuesday September 18 for insight into one of the fastest growing and most popular social publishers.

PR news round-up (3-7 September)

September 6, 2018/in Industry News /by Alister Houghton

Here’s a round-up of the week’s top PR news, featuring the first CisionMeets… webinar, an interview with Marie Claire editor-in-chief Trish Halpin and senior FTI Consulting stalwart Andrew Walton’s move to Lloyds.

CisionMeets… The Hook

Cision is thrilled to announce the launch of its new CisionMeets webinar series, which combines our industry-leading media briefings with our webinar format.

In the first of our CisionMeets webinars, we will be joined by social publisher, The Hook’s chief content officer, Mike Burton, and head of production, Jessica Lever.

The pair will talk all things The Hook for around 45 minutes, including the title’s commitment to publishing funny, viral entertainment content, the make-up of its social following, and how PRs can work with the publisher.

Then, we will open up the session to a Q&A segment available to everyone viewing the webinar.

Account wins

Picture credit: imagecomms

Mongoose will handle the global PR campaign for The World’s 50 Best Bars 2018 awards.

Food, drink and hospitality events company Fresh Montgomery has appointed Speed to promote The International Food & Drink Event 2019.

Quality Meat Scotland has appointed Weber Shandwick Scotland as its lead integrated MarComms agency.

Swedish beauty brand Oriflame has appointed Manifest to communicate its new “Beauty by Sweden” proposition.

IMAN Cosmetics Europe has selected Kay Flawless PR to handle all press enquiries and influencer collaborations.

Global not-for-profit healthcare organisation The Patientory Association has appointed The PHA Group to manage its comms.

Digital marketing agency NMPi has appointed Jargon PR to increase the visibility of both the company and its executives.

People news

FTI Consulting’s global head of financial services Andrew Walton is set to join Lloyds Banking Group as group corporate affairs director. Walton will take up the role in December and report directly to group CEO Antonio Horta-Osorio.

Grayling has appointed Bronwen Andrews as head of business development, Europe. She will focus on adding to the agency’s national and international client list.

Philip Morris Limited has appointed Amanda Pierce as its head of communications. In the newly created position, Pierce will lead on driving the overall communications strategies for the company.

TNR, the Press Association’s sister comms consultancy, has appointed former Sky News executive producer Jamie Wood as head of production.

Healthcare comms specialist ROAD has hired Anna Ramsey as content manager following a number of new client wins.

PWR Media has appointed Frankie Potter as PR and marketing manager. Potter will oversee the distribution of Viestra magazine at a range of travel hubs and corporate HQs.

Asia House, the London-based centre for trade, investment and public policy in Asia, has hired Ed Ratcliffe to head its new Research and Advisory practice.

Specialist UK-Asia/China agency 11k Consulting has appointed Jing Wei Sunny as digital marketing manager.

TV and content industry specialist consultancy Boom! has hired Andrew Dickens as account director.

Agency news

Comms consultancy MRM has acquired paid media specialist CCM. Mike Richards, CCM founder, and fellow director Becky Ford will join the executive committee of the newly formed MRM Group.

CCM founder Mike Richards (left) and MRM group CEO Andrew Appleyard

Hacks vs Flaks

PRs will take on journalists in the annual Hacks vs Flaks summer sports day on Saturday 15 September at Acton Cricket Club’s ground at Club des Sports, with cricket and rounders matches set to determine bragging rights between the two groups.

The events start from midday at Club des Sports, followed by a reception around 4pm by event ambassadors and a barbeque.

Hacks vs Flaks is a regular sporting event between PRs and journalists held to raise money for good causes. The fixtures have raised more than £350k in the past decade for a variety of charities.

This year, the National Autistic Society has received generous contributions from lead sponsor Lowell, as well as from the other event supporters, Ascot Lloyd, CBRE, Blackstock, EY, FTI, Brewin Dolphin, Emperor, Vismedia, Sharpener Communication and Yopa.

The full fundraising total will be revealed after the event.

“Hacks vs Flaks is open to all, come and cajole and enjoy the setting. It is a great day out and we are delighted to be raising money for the National Autistic Society this year,” said FTI Consulting’s Ed Berry.

Those interested in participating should contact Ed Berry, Jamie Ricketts (020 3727 1624) or Dan Hyde for the cricket and Anna White or Vicky Connybeer for the rounders or head to the HacksvsFlaks Facebook page.

Meet the Journalist: Marie Claire’s Trish Halpin

September 6, 2018/in Interviews /by Alister Houghton

Trish Halpin, editor-in-chief at Marie Claire, discusses the magazine’s 30th birthday issue, how the publication has changed over three decades and how PRs can work with the title.

Marie Claire’s 30th birthday cover

Today sees the release of the 30th birthday issue of Marie Claire. What is the secret behind the magazine’s longevity?

When Marie Claire launched in 1988 it was the first women’s glossy to combine thought provoking features with aspirational fashion and beauty. Global reportage stories, investigative reports and features about empowering women the world over was really quite ground breaking at the time.

While the editorial delivery has evolved over the three decades, we’ve stayed true this DNA, and gender equality, the rights of women and girls, finding success as well as purpose in your career and life are still as relevant today as they were then.

I’m hearing the phrase ‘brands with purpose’ everywhere at the moment, and I don’t think that anyone would deny Marie Claire has been a brand with purpose for the last thirty years.

Are there any special features you’ve commissioned to celebrate the milestone?

Yes we commissioned a series of conversations between high profile women to tackle the topics that we’re all talking about.

A couple of examples are “Guilty Feminist” Deborah Frances White and comedian Aisling Bea discussing friendship and feminism; MIA and journalist Deeyah Khan on race and identity, while shoe designers Charlotte Olympia and Sophia Webster share their experiences of building their businesses and brands while having seven babies between them along the way.

I also travelled to Ghana with my 14-year-old daughter Esme to meet young girls who are doing their best to stay in school despite poverty and teenage pregnancy. For me, girls’ rights and education are the most important issues Marie Claire has championed over the past 30 years.

The landscape has changed dramatically for women over the past 30 years, how have these changes shaped your editorial strategy?

Well, it has and it hasn’t. Yes the world looks like a very different place because we see so much of it now via the digital landscape, we travel more etc. But as I mentioned before, there is still so much inequality, a continuing lack of diversity, plus a very tough economy and political uncertainty so our readers still want us to tackle those issues.

A very big change of course is how women are consuming media and engaging with brands. While print remains at the heart of Marie Claire, we are reaching a growing audience of like-minded women through a number of different channels, our digital and social platforms, experiential events like our careers conference Future Shapers Live; beauty shopping via our Fabled by Marie Claire website and store; and in the next few weeks we’ll be launching a new fashion shopping portal called The Marie Claire Edit.

Has the magazine’s audience changed over the past three decades? What is the combination of loyal, long-time readers and those who are discovering the brand?

Today we are looking less at age demographics and more at the shared values and outlook of our audience. I recently received a letter (an actual handwritten letter no less) from a woman in her 60s who bought the very first copy of Marie Claire and is still reading it today, and I had a tweet from a 30 year old reader who told me she loves the magazine because it shows how multi-faceted modern women are.

What is your relationship like with PRs? How do you and the team like to work with them?

PRs are crucial to the work we do at Marie Claire and establishing good, long standing relationships is really important to us.

I really like it when I see that a PR has thought about why the brand they are promoting is right for Marie Claire, what the angle of the story could be or reference a similar feature that you’ve seen in the magazine, particularly if they don’t already have a connection with us.

We hate being bombarded with random items in lots of packaging that will clearly never make it into the magazine or website, so I’d much rather PRs saved the money (and planet).

Finally, if there is one celebrity or influencer who embodies Marie Claire‘s outlook on life, who would it be?

It has to be our 30th birthday cover star Jodie Whittaker! Becoming the first female Doctor Who is really big deal and I think she’s going to be such a great role model for girls and women everywhere. She’s a brilliant actress, a real professional but also really down to earth, warm and friendly in person too.

Picture credit: Tracey Griffin

PR Case Study: Speed – BuzzBites

September 5, 2018/in PR Case Studies /by Alister Houghton

Speed devised a thought leadership campaign, BuzzBites, to enable Nestlé Professional to gain cut-through in a competitive industry.

Campaign: BuzzBites
Client: Nestlé Professional
PR Team: Speed
Timing: Nine months across 2017

Summary

Nestlé Professional tasked Speed to come up with an innovative new PR model. Using social listening tools and media analysis, Speed planned and implemented an umbrella thought leadership campaign – “BuzzBites” – to bring recognition to new food service trends.

Speed designed the integrated campaign strategy to build stronger relations with media, influencers and customers.

Via a series of exclusive reveals, the programme released co-created industry content and insights over a number of quarters. Each reveal was delivered through shareable experiences which showcased the company’s commitment to helping the planet, industry and families.

The campaign not only achieved thought leadership cut-through, but also generated hundreds of new business leads. The initiative has also been recognised across the industry – ranging from winning the ‘Integrated Campaign of the Year’ at the PRCA DARE Awards to being shortlisted for the UK Content Awards.

Objective

Move away from traditional comms campaigns which weren’t delivering desired cut-through in a crowded marketplace.

Strategy and implementation

Every quarter saw Speed oversee the launch of a new BuzzBites initiative (spanning nine months), with five strategic storytelling pillars providing the foundation for each reveal:

PR content: New proprietary research conducted to create insight-driven thought leadership e-zines to drive interactions and provide a strong news hook
Pioneers: One or several keynote speakers known for breaking convention, being forward-thinking and recognised as exciting presenters who would interest the media. The pioneers co-created content for the e-zine, spoke at the insight launches and supported with promotion on social channels
Place: A creative and unexpected setup, designed to be memorable, experiential and to inspire – an industry first format to create conversations
Platform: An experience element to create buzz and provide memorable moments with an aim to get people talking and sharing. A social strategy was curated to encourage sharing of all content with incentives to drive downloads of the e-zine from the Nestlé Professional website
People: Exclusive guest list comprising industry leading brands, customers and media who are passionate about the subject matter

The implementation of the campaign was split across quarterly activations across nine months.

The first event was the BuzzBites Nutrition, Health and Wellness event, which saw award-winning dietitian Lucy Jones host a talk on how nutrition, health and wellness can help businesses.

Held in an executive suite at the Casual Dining Show, innovators from Leon and Mindful Chef also contributed insights to a Good Food, Good Life report.

The second experience was named BuzzBites Breaking Industry Innovations. This involved a surprise tour of innovative brands and businesses while enjoying afternoon tea “on-the-go” to launch the Hyper Convenience report.

The final activation was BuzzBites Talent Attraction and Retention, which featured three meals, three tables and three talks.

The event featured an afternoon of inspiration, insight and networking at The Clink Restaurant in HMP Brixton – a unique restaurant within a prison which facilitates a training programme to upskill and rehabilitate prisoners.

This was the launch pad for the report Talking Talent: Taking an Innovative Approach to Tackling the Skills Shortage, which looked at how the industry can change perceptions.

Results

Speed’s campaign exceeded all of its KPIs, in some cases by as much as 300%:

Position as a thought leader

Some 67 pieces of in-depth coverage in key titles (target of 20) of which 17 were thought leadership (target of eight)
A 40% increase in thought leadership coverage compared to the previous year

Drive sales leads

Around 230 report downloads, equating to over 200 new high-quality leads

Deliver face-to-face opportunities to meet potential customers

Over 50 event attendees – from across key sectors

Provide new and insightful content

Around 1,200 page views of BuzzBites content

Picture credit: Anthony Upton

60 Seconds with Tyto PR’s Brendon Craigie

September 4, 2018/in Interviews /by Alister Houghton

What were the challenges moving from running a large agency like Hotwire to then going back to founding an agency with a small team?

The biggest challenge is also the biggest opportunity – namely, you start with a blank sheet of paper.

Based on lots of conversations with past clients, we could create a very clear strategic vision for our agency, so we knew the direction we wanted to head in. However, this doesn’t take away from the fact that we then needed to make this a reality in every little aspect of the business.

In a large agency, it’s 95% business as usual with minimal innovation. When founding a new agency, from day one, it’s 100% innovation. The upside of this is that there is a chance to build something completely fresh that’s never been seen before.

Why does Tyto PR specialise in tech, science and innovation?

Technology, science and innovation are driving both economic growth and the wider social agenda concerned with improving our quality of life. In the past, these themes were the preserve of experts, but today they are mainstream debates permeating society and all levels of business.

The worlds of technology, science and innovation are also colliding, and, in doing so, are uniting to find solutions to the world’s greatest problems.

What are the most challenging and most rewarding aspects of starting a business?

Laying out a vision and making it a reality is probably the most rewarding. You get to handpick the people you work with (both employees and clients), and you get to make decisions in the very best interests of your clients rather than short term financial goals.

The more difficult aspect of this is the need to be clear and selective over the types of briefs and clients you want to work with. We have to be very disciplined about this and have turned down 75% of the briefs we’ve been invited to pitch for. In fact, so far 90% of all our clients have come via referral without a pitch at all.

Tyto PR has a flexible working philosophy at its core. Why did you decide to go in that direction and what does it mean practically for the agency?

In practical terms it just means that when we’re not meeting as an agency or with clients; employees can work wherever they like. We’ve taken great care to ensure our IT caters for and accommodates this, which makes this way of working as seamless as the traditional office without all the wasted time and energy on commuting.

Consequently, when everyone is remote, no-one actually feels remote. I should, however, also caveat this with the fact that most of us – through one form or another – still see each other in person once or twice a week.

But, why do we do this?

We were inspired by lots of high growth technology companies already doing it
It felt like a socially innovative approach creating huge quality of life benefits for employees
It meant we could provide our clients with the very best talent from around the world, regardless of where these individuals are based

The end result – our clients have unlimited access to a team of comms black belts.

Do you believe more businesses will move away from having a bricks and mortar office?

I think the idea of the office in the old-fashioned sense of the word is the greatest source of friction in the talent market.

By removing the need to hire individuals solely on the basis of their ability to commute to a single location on a daily basis, this opens up a much wider and more diverse talent pool. It also greatly reduces the need for ambitious individuals being forced to work inside the M25 corridor.

How has the changing perception of the tech industry altered the way PRs go about working with companies in the sector?

Tech companies have gone from operating in the shadows away from preying eyes to becoming the most exposed and scrutinised businesses in the world. In short, the entire tech industry is under attack like never before.

Some of these companies already know it but are struggling to get to grips with it, other companies aren’t quite up to speed with the changing relationship between the industry and the expectations of society at large.

How do you look to measure the work you do?

Client loyalty. Everything we do is about giving our clients everything they want and everything they don’t even know they need.

Finally, what do you believe will be the biggest global innovation within the next five years?

The mass adoption of electric cars.

Opinion: How to communicate in the ‘techlash’ age

September 2, 2018/in News Analysis /by Guest Contributor

Amy Drummond, head of technology at AprilSix Proof, discusses the findings of the agency’s latest report into the current backlash against tech companies.

The ‘techlash’ – the backlash against the technology industry – is growing in intensity, fuelled by public, and political, concerns around data privacy and job security. But what does the techlash mean for strategic communications – specifically PR- and its influence on the board?

This summer we polled 400 UK-based marketing and comms professionals, working in technology, about the impact that the techlash has had on the perception of PR within their organisation. Nearly a third (30%) of the professionals that we polled said recent technology-related PR crises, such as Facebook’s data breach, has meant that PR has more influence within their organisation. Yet, only a fifth (22%) said decisions regarding PR are ultimately taken by the board.

Now seems to be the time to make the case that PR can be a strategic and valuable asset for the board. It can tune into the full spectrum of stakeholder concerns and influence the board to not just change the way it communicates, but the way it does business. In the age of this techlash, PR should be, more than ever, a two-way mode of communication – a feedback loop. That loop needs to run from external stakeholders – for example, employees, the public, customers, or government – through to a company’s key decision makers: the board.

Communication professionals are in the natural position to educate their organisation’s stakeholders on the techlash – explaining the damage that it has already caused brands, not just to their reputation but to the bottom line too. In many cases a backlash has happened when a company’s actions have contradicted the values they promote, or they’ve been unclear about their business objectives. Companies can learn from this and evaluate how well their vision, values and objectives are understood both internally and externally, and how they chime with current stakeholder sentiment.

By creating a robust feedback loop – one that monitors stakeholder debate and feeds that sentiment to the board in order to drive change where necessary – makes sense not just from an ethical perspective, but a business perspective too.

Meet the Journalist: TI Media’s Lucy Gornall

August 31, 2018/in Interviews /by Alister Houghton

Lucy Gornall, health and fitness editor of TI Media’s weekly magazines, reveals how she is able to manage content across multiple publications, how she likes to work with PRs and combining work with her role as a personal trainer.

You are health and fitness editor across TI Media’s weekly publications, what does that entail?

I live and breathe health and fitness – luckily! I manage all the health/fitness content for Now, Woman, Woman’s Own, Woman’s Weekly, Chat, Pick Me Up and Fit&Well.

Describe a typical day in your role.

I think I spend half my day emailing, so that’s an ongoing thing. I am super-productive first thing so I get in and do all the important bits first such as urgent proofs, sorting out book exclusives, editing copy and usually some sort of planning meeting.

The rest of the day is constant proof checking/editing copy (there’s a LOT of health pages going through!), and writing. I got into journalism initially because I love to write and I never want that to stop so I always make sure I have articles and pieces to write myself.

I also spend time liaising with the advertising team to make sure advertorials are correct, as well as working with brands on new releases and products. Oh and then there are our lovely health experts who I commission on a weekly basis, they submit copy to answer our readers’ burning questions!

What type of health and fitness content works best for your portfolio of magazines and digital outlets? Is there anything that doesn’t work?

SUCH a range as our readership goes from twenties right up to eighties so to be honest, most stuff will work as long as it’s health/fitness related. Seasonal is great and anything that ties in with national days/months is also useful, as is any info relating to a news story or shock new statistic.

How important is social media for the content you produce?

I don’t work on digital as much, but for me personally social media is key. It promotes yourself and allows people to realise your true hobbies and passions – in my case, anything health/fitness related!

The Fit&Well Facebook page is great for promoting the magazine and it’s also a brilliant platform to communicate with readers.

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

I love working with PRs and I am a strong believer that contacts are key! Email is always best – sorry, but my office phone isn’t even plugged in! I love hearing about new products/launches/events/statistics and there’s such a broad content scope in my mags.

Finally, you’re also a qualified personal trainer, are there any similarities between personal training and journalism?

Hmm well, they both involve a lot of communication. You have to be positive – no-one will want to be around anyone who always brings a dampener to the situation.

Journalism involves lots of meetings and chats and you need to be social and upbeat. Luckily, I get to use my personal trainer knowledge in writing plans and workouts for several of our magazines so that’s great!

PR news round-up (28-31 August)

August 31, 2018/in Industry News /by Alister Houghton

Here’s a round-up of the week’s top PR news, featuring Cision’s latest white paper, new hires at Telefonica UK and Hudson Sandler and the Hacks vs Flaks summer sports day.

The four steps to creating a foolproof crisis comms plan

In our latest white paper – The four steps to creating a foolproof crisis comms response – we explore the four key areas communicators need to cover to ensure their organisation can get on the front foot during a crisis while being secure and consistent in its response.

Opinion

Jill Coomber, co-founder of OneChocolate, explores the findings of the agency’s report into micro partnerships and why marketers now value brand awareness and value, over sales.