Tag Archive for: media relations

PR PLANNING FOR A NO DEAL BREXIT

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Despite two years on negotiations it seems that no one is any clearer whether there will be a deal or not when it comes to the UK leaving the EU.

This has caused a huge amount of uncertainty in the business community, with many reluctant to spend on potentially unnecessary plans, while others are doing what they can to be ready for all eventualities.

The one thing that’s certain in this uncertain world is that businesses need to consider their communications when preparing for the various scenarios.  A business needs to assure and reassure audiences to show that that are in control, regardless of the outcomes.

Much of it comes down to sentiment – employees, customers and suppliers all need to feel confident that they can survive, or even thrive, regardless of the outcomes.  If they lose their confidence or feel threatened productivity is proven to fall and commercial confidence declines.

Get Ready for Brexit

The Government has launched a new ‘Get Ready for Brexit’ campaign to help provide answers to questions and to provide support to those preparing for our departure from the EU. We’d advise that all businesses provide something similar for their employees, suppliers and customers – considering what are the likely questions, what are the threats and also what opportunities are presented.

The food and drink industry is one that looks likely to be particularly affected.  The industry-backed Brexit Food Hub provides a place for businesses to go to access a wide range of official advice and expertise from UK food and agriculture partners, including the latest information as it becomes available.

As always, ‘front foot’ communications are best as it enables a company to put its best foot forward and be prepared to head off any negative PR or communications before they develop.  If caught off guard by the media, employees or even concerned customers, it’s harder to get on the front foot and paint the positive picture that gives assurance to your various stakeholders.

If you need help getting that message out there, or some guidance about how to prepare a communications plan for Brexit, please contact us today.

ELMAC TECHNOLOGIES TURN TO SOURCE PR FOR PR AND SOCIAL SUPPORT

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Elmac Technologies, head quartered in North Wales, has appointed Source PR to support the business with their media relations, social media management and stakeholder engagement.  The company is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Flame Arresters, supplying clients and distributors around the world.

Elmac’s innovative Flame Arresters and Low-Pressure Venting Equipment are utilised by OEM’s and Operators in a wide range of industry sectors including; petrochemicals, oil and gas, bio-fuels, mining, pharmaceuticals, power generation, agrochemicals and distilleries.

Source PR has been appointed to raise awareness of the company’s state-of-the-art design, manufacturing, testing and commercial facilities as well as its comprehensive range of enhanced In-Line and End-of-Line Deflagration Arresters and In-Line Unstable Detonation Arresters. The Elmac product range also incorporates a wide range of valves and other low-pressure venting equipment designed to meet client-specific requirements.

Louis Hill, Managing Director at Source PR, comments: “Elmac is centred on delivering its core purpose of protecting people, property and the planet. The company has a truly global reach and we have exciting plans in place to help communicate the innovative R&D, efficient operations and unparalleled customer service they deliver.”

Digital communications

Award winning Source PR is headquartered in Chester and offers a range of communications services including public relations, social media management, content management as well as digital communications.  The company has clients across the UK, offering a range of B2B and B2C communications advice.

COLLEGIATE AC TURN TO SOURCE PR FOR STRATEGIC PR SUPPORT

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Collegiate AC, one of Europe’s leading providers of contemporary student accommodation, has appointed Source PR to help them raise their profile across Europe as the company looks to secure a second wave of strategic investment.

The company currently manages more than 20 developments across the UK, Spain and Portugal with schemes typically between €35m to €100m in gross development value.  In total, they currently manage assets to a value of nearly £2bn.

Collegiate has announced its intention to raise a further £2bn of strategic investment to expand the company’s portfolio to new and existing territories across Europe and has asked Source PR to help raise awareness of the business and the opportunities presented.

Louis Hill, Managing Director of Source PR, comments: “This is a great win for the team and a further endorsement of the work we have been undertaking for clients across the property sector.  We’re excited to be involved with such an innovative and forward looking brand of student accommodation.”

Corporate PR

Headquartered in Oxford, Collegiate has a major European office in the heart of Madrid where it has an in-house team of four full time architects supporting European design, specification, procurement and construction. Collegiate AC has a reputation for delivering state of the art residences using efficient construction methods to deliver investor objectives.

Award winning Source PR is headquartered in Chester and offers a range of communications services including public relations, social media management, content management as well as digital communications.  The company has clients across the UK, offering a range of B2B and B2C communications advice.

SOCIAL, SALES & REPUTATION

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Social media is ever-changing and ever-growing, with new updates bring the capability of sharing more and more information in different forms month on month. For businesses, this can seem like a perfect sales platform, with the ability to use strategic spend to target potential leads.

Of course, as social media companies recognise their worth to businesses, the cost to advertise goes up. But those looking to generate sales on social media shouldn’t be down-heartened – as a well-thought out and strategic ads campaign can still bring valuable results.

But we’re not here to talk about advertising strategies – let’s be honest, we’d be here for hours – but rather the value of non-sales focused social content. It can be tempting to see any posts that don’t directly link to sales goal as pointless, but it’s important to remember that social media shouldn’t be a platform with the sole purpose of sales.

Social media acts as the face of your business’ brand. Any potential customers will check social media pages to get a feel for what your brand does, and how you work. The amount of content you post, its relevance, the reactions you spark, your engagement and interactions all help to shape who you are in both your current and potential customers’ eyes.

Social media

Social media can, of course, support sales, but it’s also there to build and maintain reputation – an exercise which should never be underestimated. Having a solid, reliable reputation has no quantitative metrics to measure success, but it is vital for business growth. Constantly working on proactive reputation building essentially gives your business credibility points in the bank – credibility as a successful, industry-leading and valuable service for a customer to invest in.

So, when looking at your business’ social media: keep an open mind, and remember that thought out, strategized posts are still working to build your reputation and secure your long-term growth.

NEW TALENT SOURCED – MEET REBECCA

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We’re delighted to announce that Rebecca Shearman has joined Source as a Junior Account Executive.  Becca joins the award-winning team from Mercury Press & Media in Liverpool where she worked as a Features Writer.

Becca will support clients from a range of business sectors including; property manufacturing and professional services and adds the additional resource needed to deliver PR and social media campaigns after a number of recent account wins.

Louis comments; “She’s a proven writer, a people person and has slotted right in with the team.  2019 has started with a bang and a wave of new client wins.  We aim to maintain this momentum by delivering engaging and insightful campaigns while also being great people to work with.”

Source is always on the look-out for top talent.  If you feel you have something to offer, please contact us by emailing your CV to hello@sourcepr.co.uk.

 

PR TRENDS FOR 2019..?

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It would not be January without a wave of predictions from PR and digital agencies about what’s in store for marketeers in 2019.  So, we’ve asked around the office for our own insights and thoughts and compiled what we believe will be some of the PR and digital trends for the year ahead…

It’s all about influence

Influencer marketing will continue to be a key platform for PRs to extend the reach and position of client brands.  However, if the economy declines post Brexit we may see a consolidation of budgets and a check in the increasingly disproportionate costs charged by some influencers.  Savvy PRs will spot the up and coming influencers and ensure a brand is well positioned and appropriately exposed to generate the best ROI.

Continued pressures on traditional media. 

Traditional media reach is likely to continue to decline, but value remains through targeted exposure, brand leadership as well as links to a client’s website.  Clients will need to be comfortable with using sponsored content as part of their mix as 75% of communications professionals are already using it in their strategies to support the publishers hungry for new forms of revenue.

Strategic partners

As traditional media declines, PR agencies will increasingly be used as a strategic communications partner to clients, whether media relations, content creation or social media management.  Let’s also not forget the ability to identify opportunities for news stories and provide first-class content journalists can use.

Good PR professionals will help clients develop on-going relationships with a broad range of audiences across a range of interest segments. As a result, clients will expand and deepen their reach by securing a share of audience attention through consistent content distributed across multiple channels.

Message development

PR agencies should tailor their messages to include more visual, video and voice content depending on which device is used.  This is best achieved by creating bespoke content across multiple channels to expand and deepen a client’s reach.

Great content needs to tell a story, not just for the media but all audiences.  Also, expand the audiences you work with to include a broader set of partners: websites, content syndicators, trade associations and others who can help bring your story to a wider audience.

Positive year

PR agencies are the marketing sector’s best content creators and storytellers, and have the unique opportunity to support clients across the communications spectrum whether the space is paid for, earned, shared or owned by clients. To have a successful 2019, PR agencies needs to be confident with numbers, data, software and proving their ROI in the increasingly digital world.

IT’S MORE THAN JUST THE MESSAGE

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Anyone who’s been involved in media training or been interviewed on TV or radio has probably been advised to focus on three or four key messages to ensure that they get their point across.

Fair enough, and there’s no denying that is some pretty sound advice, particularly if there is the potential for the interview to become complex or to be pulled in different directions.

There is however one problem, and that problem has been beautifully highlighted by someone who should quite frankly know better.  Our esteemed PM.

She could be accused of running perhaps the worst political campaign this century when she squandered a 20 point lead in the polls, to nearly lose the General Election to an opposition that many had predicted would be wiped off the political landscape.

What went wrong?

So, what went so wrong? In my view it was the over use of the ‘Strong and stable leadership’ message.  People started counting the absurd number of repetitions and it was not long before the memes started and social media undermined the message – along with the robot like delivery.  I believe Ikea even used it in their advertising along with a picture of the PM seated at a desk with the caption “strong and stable” shelving.

Theresa May, and many of her ministers, forgot one of the most important elements of an interview and that’s to add some personality and dynamism if you’re looking to attract support and get people to back your cause.

This is not meant to be a party political broadcast for any party or policy, but I fear that she’s falling into the same trap when looking to secure the votes needed to deliver on her Brexit proposals.

Let’s keep an ear out for how many times she says; “It’s a good deal for our country that takes back control of our borders, laws and money…”.  We have less than a fortnight before the ‘meaningful vote’ so no doubt plenty of time to be driven mad by the repetition.

If she wants the message to cut through she will need to not just repeat it like a small child on a drum kit, but instead install confidence and support through her body language, confidence in her convictions and even tone of voice.

If not, she’ll run the risk of only ever beings seen as ‘May-bot’ who is good at reciting messages but misses the bigger picture.

Looking to develop your communications strategy or develop messages? Get in touch and let us help you through the process.

Back to School: What is Marketing?

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‘So, what is marketing?’

I wasn’t expecting such a simple question to stump me for what felt like five very long seconds. We were attending the Careers Day at the local Ellesmere College, and we were prepped with a banner and on-brand coloured cupcakes (we know what kids want), ready to speak to students about a career in marketing, PR and communications.

We’re used to dealing with professionals who want to know how digital marketing can work cohesively with traditional PR, or how we can maximise the benefits of influencer partnerships on social media – we’re never asked a simple question which essentially asks, ‘what is that you do, every day?’

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein famously said that “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” We weren’t dealing with six year olds here, we were talking about our industry with curious and intelligent teenagers at a crucial decision-making point in their lives.

As well as being able to help young people as they start to carve the beginnings of their future careers, the afternoon gave us an opportunity to take a step back and go back to basics: what is it that we offer?

After a couple of practice groups of students who feigned a remarkable interest whilst clearly eyeing up the baked goods, I got into the swing of it: we essentially offer a subtle form of advertising.

As opposed to large, in-your-face adverts on the side of the motorway or shoved between TV shows (which of course do have their place), we work with businesses to identify their target audience and, most crucially, understand them. Then we use a whole host of communication lines from news stories, to profiling, to social media in order to influence their audience towards the business. This comes together into a holistic campaign, using every tool we’ve got to ensure that your brand is in front of the right people, saying the right things.

If you’ve got a growing business and thinking of taking your first step into marketing, just get in touch for a laid back chat – you never know, we might even have cake.

MAKE IT, DON’T FAKE IT

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Since Donald Trump’s election the term ‘fake news’ is being increasingly used to discredit all sorts of stories which people don’t agree with, from heavyweight political scandals to the quirky, more light hearted stories commonly found on social media.

So what is ‘fake news’? Essentially it’s when outlets deliberately publish hoaxes, propaganda and disinformation purporting to be real news, often using social media to drive web traffic and amplify the effect.

Why bother?  Well it’s all about generating clicks and advertising revenue, or to enhance, discredit or boost a person, policy or organisation.  Fake news can take many forms but is principally based around;

  • Disinformation: False information which is intended to mislead the audience, rather than explain the full story
  • Propaganda or spin: One-sided information, which often omits key facts or evidence which contradicts it
  • Subjective news: The presentation of one side of an argument more positively than the other
  • Infotainment: Usually stories about celebrities which are based largely on opinions rather than facts.

It could be argued that companies and media outlets have been peddling fake news for ages but the issue appears to be growing as the growth in news channels and social media platforms is pushing ‘editors’ to become more creative with their content in order to attract readers and page visits.  However, if regularly delivering fake news they risk undermining the reputation of their organisations as respected news channel.

Protect your reputation

The same applies to businesses or individuals who seek to mislead their audiences for short term gain.  If you have built up good contacts in the media, you can also quickly lose your goodwill by getting them to help spread stories about your business which aren’t strictly true.

Importantly, it can also damage a client’s authority and position as a media expert in their field and ultimately destroy the trust between your business and your customers, with obvious consequences.

We’d advise against propagating fake news but instead developing meaningful and trustworthy relationships with the media and other digital platforms that build credibility and authority in a sector or service.

Don’t issue news stories unless the story is genuinely newsworthy, which means there needs to be something about your story that makes it interesting and prompts people to read it. Think about your audience and ask why they should care about your story.  Is it something they need to know? Is it something that they need answering? Can your story help them in any way?

Also be mindful of what you like or share on social media. It’s easy to inadvertently like, retweet or share a fake news story. But if you do, you’re unwittingly helping to spread the fake news or even endorse it.

Certain sections of the PR industry are renowned for using trickery, sleight of hand and dark arts to pull the wool over people’s eyes on behalf of their clients.  But if you’ve got a good story to tell, why rely on cheap gimmicks?  At Source PR we offer straightforward, effective and most importantly honest advice.  That’s the best way to build relationships and get results without the need for fake news.

Tag Archive for: media relations