Vuelio are exhibiting at B2B Marketing Expo 2019

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On 27 and 28 March, the ExCeL Centre will transform into Europe’s leading marketing event, B2B Marketing Expo. Exhibiting on stand 2212, the Vuelio team will be ready to answer any questions about our portfolio of products, from the market-leading journalist enquiry service to our fully integrated communications suite.

You’ll find the Vuelio stand close to three masterclasses, including digital marketing, customer acquisition and empowering your ecommerce, so why not get up to speed with the latest marketing theory and visit our stand all in one trip!

With hundreds of other exhibitors to visit at B2B Marketing Expo this year you’ll need to make sure you’ve got a solid plan, so you don’t miss anyone out.

And we’ll be running a special competition for a chance to win £100 for a charity of your choice. Just speak to any member of the Vuelio team – you can’t miss us.

Unable to make it this year? Follow @Vuelio and stay up to date with the latest news, events and blog posts.

PRCA conference

Public Affairs industry gears up for Brexit

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Yesterday, senior figures from across the public affairs industry gathered for the inaugural PRCA Public Affairs conference. With the UK still due to leave the EU in just eight days, the conference topic was unsurprisingly ‘Cutting through Brexit’.

Opening the discussion with a speech that ranged from emperor Diocletian to Voltaire’s Candide, Brunswick Group’s head of public affairs, Jon McLeod [pictured], explained that Brexit was one of those moments where the page of history turned but it was still unclear what would be on the other side.

Theresa May’s former director of legislative affairs, Nikki da Costa, who is now senior counsel at Cicero Group, provided insight into the goings-on at Number 10. She suggested that it would now have become ‘exhausted’ and ‘defensive’, unable to adapt to the changing climate. She argued that the last few years had seen Parliament grow in strength, doubted that May would get her deal through and thought the chances of there being a general election this year were high.

What does this mean for the public affairs industry?

It’s clear that Brexit has already provided new opportunities for a sector that thrives on political uncertainty, from high levels of engagement with c-suite executives, as FTI Consulting’s Alex Deane observed, to relatively small companies needing to work with public affairs agencies for the first time, as John Higginson of Higginson Strategy has experienced.

However, there have also been problems. According to Gill Morris, founder of DevoConnect, practitioners like her who do something a ‘little bit different’ have suffered from ‘Brexit paralysis’. There are future opportunities too, Deane pointed to regulatory divergence potentially allowing the UK to become a world leader in new technologies, such as driverless cars.

Another important question was if the UK’s attractiveness as a base for international businesses would decline after Brexit. The Law Society’s Alexandra Cardenas felt that the UK would still be an attractive destination because international businesses valued the certainty of UK common law and its expert courts.

Dominick Moxon-Tritsch of Taxify said that the UK was currently a good environment for start-ups, but that Brexit risked this, while tax policy had already pushed some tech firms to choose alternative locations. He also expressed concern about the UK being left on the margins of pan-EU regulations.

Ketchum’s Jamie Robertson warned that there was a risk of global businesses feeling that they were being ignored or treated with hostility by the Government, though the ‘eccentric’ political system provided opportunities for public affairs professionals to provide their expertise to multinational businesses looking to invest in what is still an ‘essential’ market for them.

So far Brexit has been good for most public affairs practitioners, exposing the industry to a broader and more senior range of clients as businesses reach out for a helping hand in a time of adversity. However, the post-Brexit era will pose new challenges, from changes in the strategy of multinationals to getting to grips with an independent UK trade policy. Whatever happens in the coming days and months, it’s clear that ‘business as usual’ will not return any time soon.

Emergency Brexit

Emergency Brexit: Predictions for the Comms Industry

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The UK is set to leave the EU on 29 March – that’s only 25 days away. Our next webinar will explore what these final weeks have in store for the comms industry and what’s coming next.

Emergency Brexit takes place at 11am on Tuesday 5 March. You can sign up to join us live, or receive the recording afterwards.

The webinar will hear from leading industry experts including Iain Anderson, executive chairman at full-service communications and market research agency Cicero Group, Matthew Elliott, who was chief executive of the Vote Leave campaign, and our host Lionel Zetter.

Matthew, who is now senior political adviser to Shore Capital, has been described by the Financial Times as ‘one of the most formidable political strategists in Westminster’, by the New Statesman as ‘one of the most successful – and feared – campaigners in British politics’, and by the BBC as ‘one of the most effective lobbyists at Westminster’.

He previously led the successful NOtoAV campaign in the 2011 referendum on changing Britain’s voting system, and he also founded the TaxPayers’ Alliance and Business for Britain.

Iain is an expert in integrated communications, global political risk and public policy. He has over 25 years’ experience in communications, initially as a business journalist and then as a founding shareholder at Incisive Media. He has also worked for a range of politicians, including Kenneth Clarke MP on his leadership bids.

He is co-founder and executive chairman at Cicero Group and focuses on public policy and corporate communications strategy supporting many global FTSE and Fortune 500 blue chip organisations. He provides CEO and Board-level counsel.

Lionel is known across the industry and has written, spoken and taught widely on politics and public affairs. The former CIPR President is an expert in lobbying and will play host to our other esteemed guests.

The webinar will cover the comms aspects of the original Brexit referendum, the effect the result has had on communications and business over the last three years, how to prepare for Brexit and what the likely scenarios are over the next four weeks and beyond.

Everyone who signs up will have a chance to question our guests but if you’re unable to join us live you’ll receive a recording of the whole webinar afterwards.

Sign up here, and prepare for Brexit.

DEFRA

Government comms focuses on influencer outreach

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Michael Gove’s announcement that he has appointed 10 ‘green ambassadors’ is the latest sign that the political and influencer worlds are colliding.

Under Gove, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has embarked on an ambitious programme of work. Some of this is forced – leaving the EU requires major changes to agricultural, fisheries and environmental policies – but much of it seems to stem from Gove’s own desire to make a mark.

Indeed, improving our environment seems to have become something of a personal mission for Gove, who tweeted that footage of the impact of plastic pollution on our oceans in David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II had left him ‘haunted’. Measures he has announced include a ban on plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds and a deposit return scheme for drinks containers.

When Theresa May launched the 25-Year Environment Plan in January 2018, one of its measures was a commitment to make 2019 the ‘Year of Green Action’, alongside a commitment to scope out ‘an evidence-based behaviour change strategy’. Indeed, one of the most important parts of delivering the environmental change our planet requires is to deliver behavioural change by getting us to appreciate our impact on the environment.

With this in mind, it is hardly surprising that Gove has chosen to work with influencers in order to communicate his department’s environmental message. By moving beyond ‘traditional’ ambassadors – you might expect such a list to contain charity leaders, academics or high-profile businesspeople – Gove will know that his message is reaching a larger, more diverse audience that more conventional figures simply wouldn’t reach.

Indeed, the list of ten ambassadors is wide-ranging. It contains Besma Whayeb, whose blog Curiously Curious was ranked as one the top ten UK green blogs by Vuelio, and Sian Conway, the Green & Eco Influencer of the Year 2018. Alongside these, the list also includes an endurance swimmer, television presenters and an adventurer who sailed across the Pacific in a boat made of 12,500 plastic bottles. And while there is an academic – Professor Tim Jackson – even he has nearly 11,000 Twitter followers.

Gove’s expressed hope is that his strategy will, ‘ensure that this country is recognised as the leading global champion of a greener, healthier, more sustainable future for the next generation’.

The ambassadors were introduced at a reception which also featured the #iwill4nature campaign, encouraging young people to take part in green social action. Among the newly-announced influencers was the student Izzy McLeod, who blogs as The Quirky Queer. It seems clear that by working with younger influencers to spread messages about environmental responsibility to their peers, Defra hopes reaching the next generation and implementing its environmental goals will be much easier.

Photo of Cardiff University building

Transforming public affairs at Cardiff University

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Building, developing and keeping track of corporate relationships with different stakeholders is a challenge often faced by anyone working in public affairs. Whether you’re faced with losing vital information when an individual leaves or lacking a central place to log every interaction, the small issues can build into a bigger headache.

Ed Bridges, public affairs manager at Cardiff University, told us about the challenges faced in his team and how Vuelio has ‘transformed and professionalised’ the University’s approach to public affairs.

Find out more about our public affairs services

Cardiff University

The challenge

While the University has historically had good relationships with our political stakeholders, the management of those contacts had at times been haphazard. Valuable contacts were sometimes lost when individuals left the University, key interactions were often not recorded, and it was sometimes hard to evaluate the level of interest/take-up from stakeholders in our work. Previous attempts at using a database to manage these contacts hadn’t worked, primarily because we had tried to tag Public Affairs onto databases which were more appropriate for sales or marketing.

The solution

After looking around for an appropriate solution, it quickly became apparent to us that Vuelio was not only the best database for our needs, but would significantly enhance the work of the team. We were particularly impressed by the level of information available on the Vuelio Database about our stakeholders. This has allowed us to do things like identifying groups of politicians interested in particular areas of our research and target briefings to them.

The database also had as much data for political stakeholders at a devolved level as it did for those in Westminster – something which, for us, was a key requirement. We have also been consistently impressed by the level of technical support we have received from Vuelio, which is allowing us to get the most out of the system.

Benefits and results

In the four months we’ve been using Vuelio, we have been able to track how many and which stakeholders have been opening and reading our briefings, and tailor/improve them accordingly. We have also been able to put steps in place to ensure that interactions with key stakeholders are properly recorded so there is a lasting record of who has met with the University (and, just as importantly, so we can identify who hasn’t).

Are you ready to transform your public affairs strategy? Fill in this form and we’ll be in touch.

Fyre Festival

5 PR lessons from the Fyre Festival

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The Fyre Festival, the botched attempt to run the most luxurious and Instafriendly festival ever, was already famous thanks to several viral posts highlighting failings at the time in April 2017. 

However, two documentaries, on Netflix and Hulu, have shed new light on the fiasco and brought the event back into the spotlight. The documentaries have also inadvertently provided simple lessons (the good, the bad and the ugly) for anyone working in PR and comms.

1. Influencer marketing works – but needs strategy
How do you make an event super famous? Get the most famous people on Instagram to promote it for you. Fyre Festival had a simple plan, pay a fortune to social media influencers – from Bella Hadid to Kendall Jenner – to promote the event and create a ‘big buzz’.

As evidenced in the documentaries, the budgeting was way off and the cost of the influencers unsustainable, but to make matters worse, the promotion wasn’t clearly labelled by many of the influencers, and the wording suggested all the stars would be in attendance, potentially misleading the audience of ticket buyers. After the event, the rules around disclosure tightened in the US as a result of this lack of clarity.

Yes, influencer marketing works, but it needs to have a clear strategy, be affordable and be ethical.

2. Communication, communication, communication
Seems like a given in a PR post but if the documentaries taught us anything, it was how important it is to have good comms. There were a number of occasions communications let down the event – at the beginning, middle and end – but perhaps one of the most obvious, particularly highlighted in Netflix’s documentary, was when they failed to alert guests to the fact that the festival was not going to take place.

This is crisis management 101 – be transparent and honest before things get worse. The lack of communication led to a number of guests arriving and sharing the chaos (and cheese sandwiches) on social media. It also led to a number of them becoming stranded and was when the story became the viral sensation it didn’t want to be.

3. Never lose sight of the purpose of an event
How many people knew Fyre Festival was intended to promote a celebrity booking app? The event became the company’s sole focus to the detriment of the app it was intending to promote.

Sometimes publicity can seem like the greatest goal but if no one knows what you’re publicising, a great stunt is a spectacle and nothing more.

4. Make sure you’re consistent
The event filmed a glamorous promo promising an experience on an island that wasn’t the one used for the actual event. From start to finish you have to be consistent with your message and if circumstances change outside of your control, then communicate them professionally and clearly – see point 2.

5. Big campaigns need an integrated strategy
It’s hard to say if traditional media outreach was part of the Fyre Festival PR plan but there’s little evidence of it in the documentaries. That means when the only news about the event was from the disgruntled guests on social media, knee deep in mayhem, there was no official channel of communication and the press could only report the news they were presented with: basic cheese sandwiches and soaking wet mattresses.

Big campaigns, the kind of campaigns that intend to support the greatest festival event ever, need to be fully integrated and consider every type of media, relationship and channel.

Did you spot any PR lessons in the Fyre Festival documentary? Let us know on Twitter. 

Want to create integrated campaigns, work with influencers in the right way and manage all of your relationships in one place? You need Vuelio.

CIPR advisor service

How to hire PR professionals and agencies

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The CIPR has launched the Client Advisor Service to guide businesses through the process of hiring public relations support. Whether it’s for in-house PR staff or external PR agencies and independent practitioners, the new Service will connect businesses with experienced CIPR Client Advisors.

The Advisors are all Chartered PR Professionals and will help businesses identify their needs and provide a range of support from preparing job descriptions and briefs to joining interviews and pitch panels.

The Service will be launched at MHP Communications on 24 January, where CIPR President, Emma Leech, will set out her vision for the CIPR in 2019. You can register to attend online.

The CIPR has also launched two new guides, designed to further support businesses looking to recruit PR staff or hire the right PR agency.

In-house roles
Recruiting for public relations roles offers information and advice for individuals and businesses seeking to recruit for PR roles. It covers the whole hiring process from common job titles and typical salaries by both role and experience, to shortlisting and making an offer.

The guide is also a valuable tool for anyone applying for PR roles, as it’s the ultimate guide to what’s required.

PR agencies and independent practitioners
The second guide, A guide to selecting PR agencies and independent practitioners, explains what services you can expect to receive from external PRs, how to define what you need and how to select the right people.

The guide provides detailed case studies for different areas of PR including The McOnie Agency’s work on the Ebola outbreak for Arco – in the ‘Issues and Crisis Management’ section; Taylor Herring’s Fit Kwik campaign for Kwik Fit – in the ‘Special Events, Conferences and Meetings’ section; and MHP’s Drop the Duty campaign for the Wine and Spirit Trade Association & Scotch Whisky Association – in the ‘Government Relations and Public Affairs’ section.

Again, the guide is not only vital for businesses trying to work how to pick a PR agency, but also for the agencies and independent practitioners themselves, who can draw inspiration from the detailed selection of successful campaigns.

Emma Leech said: ‘Reputation has never been more important for businesses and yet public relations is sometimes misunderstood and undervalued by UK PLC. The Client Advisor Service, along with these new guides, aims to change that.

‘The Service takes the pain out of hiring PR support and gives businesses peace of mind when recruiting or hiring agencies. Our Client Advisors will work closely with businesses to ensure they get maximum value from their public relations function. This is an exciting and significant step forward for our industry as we continue to assert the strategic value of public relations to the business community.’

Find out more about the Client Advisor Service. 

Vegan sausage roll

The best campaign of the year …so far

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We’re only a week into 2019 but there’s already a strong contender for best campaign of the year. Greggs grabbed headlines throughout 2018 with its reactive PR and campaigns and this year is no different.

The launch of a Greggs vegan sausage roll seemed inevitable – there are reportedly over three million vegans in the UK and ‘vegan’ was one of the most requested topics by journalists in 2018.

It was the social strategy that went alongside the launch that received all the attention, particularly when it triggered Piers Morgan into tweeting this:

This was the start of a series of anti-vegan tweets from the GMB host. Greggs, already dealing with a few ‘upset’ social media users, replied to Morgan with:

This simple, inoffensive reply shot the story into the headlines as the company was seen to be ‘hitting back’ at Piers Morgan. With a slow Government-isn’t-back-in-session-yet start to 2019, stories about the vegan sausage roll started to dominate – the Evening Standard reported that Londoners are split on the ‘insanely popular sausage rolls’, while Good Morning Britain presenters (without Morgan) tried them live on air.

Morgan tried one this morning on air, and spat it into a bin.

Greggs scored a whopping result with a single, simple tweet that wasn’t mean or malicious. A later tweet from Morgan perhaps revealed how much he enjoys getting attention this way, while also highlighting Greggs’ success:

Other brands joined in on the pro-vegan gently-anti-Morgan tweeting, including McDonald’s:

As well as Pizza Hut and TGI Fridays:

But the media’s attention was only for Greggs’ vegan sausage roll and ‘owning’ Morgan.

So, what lesson have we learned for 2019? Is it this one from W?

Or is it the same as every other year: be smart, be responsive and be relatable.

Happy 2019 from your Monday PR Club. Now… where’s the nearest Greggs?

shouldn't have missed

Five Things: The Circle, CIPR, GDPR, Evan Davis & Cathay Paciic

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This week’s Five Things covers a week of news (see what we did there?). We have a new social media warning, a new President-Elect, a new development in GDPR, a new presenter for Radio 4’s PM and a new job for the plane paint shop.

1. The Circle

The Circle

Is it another naff reality show or a comprehensive comment on modern society? Possibly both. The Circle sees a group of people isolated in their own flat within a block, only able to communicate through a social network called ‘The Circle’. While the personalities are loud, and some of the interface action quite annoying (the shouting at the ‘voice-recognition’ system, which is clearly an intern typing what’s being said, is quickly grating), there’s definitely an interesting point being made about social media and its role in modern life.

Not everyone is being themselves – for example, there is a gay man pretending to be straight, a man pretending to be a woman using his girlfriend’s pictures and an ad exec pretending to be an oncologist. All of it is being done in the name of being the most popular to win a prize, with regular star-ratings from the other Circle users (oh hi Black Mirror!). It’s hard to watch this without thinking about your own social media use, thinking you ‘know’ people online – and, inevitably, drawing parallels with the frequent ‘scandals’ hitting the influencer marketing industry. In an age of FAKE NEWS, ‘for the Gram’ and catfishing, The Circle may be just what everyone needs as a reminder that we really don’t know who’s behind the avatar.

And if you still doubt whether Channel 4 are using The Circle to troll social media every night for three weeks, check out the retweets of Ian Katz, director of programmes at Channel 4 (including some colourful language):

 

2. New CIPR President Elect

CIPR

The CIPR has named its President-Elect for 2019. Jenni Field, director of Redefining Communications and co-founder of The IC Crowd, will become President in 2020 when she takes over from 2018’s President-Elect Emma Leech.

Jenni has been a volunteer with the CIPR for several years and championed the work of volunteers in her candidate statement. She is going to use her tenure to find a way to further utilise volunteers in the organisation and grow membership. Find out more about her appointment and the CIPR’s 2019 Council here.

 

3. GDPR

GDPR Made simple

The first GDPR notice has been served by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). AggregateIQ (AIQ) – which has been linked to scandal hit Cambridge Analytica – has 30 days to cease processing ‘any personal data of UK or EU citizens obtained from UK political organisations or otherwise for the purposes of data analytics, political campaigning or any other advertising purposes’.

If AIQ fails to comply with this Enforcement Notice, or is unsuccessful in any appeal,

the ICO may serve a penalty notice requiring payment of any amount up to 20 million Euros or 4% of AIQ’s worldwide turnover.

It is the first time a GDPR notice has been served by the ICO, and while AIQ’s activities took place before GDPR came into force, it is still considered to be processing the data after the GDPR. All eyes are now on this story as it unfolds to see how GDPR will shape the future of data processing in the UK.

Vuelio helps its customers to comply with the GDPR – find out more about our extensive GDPR work here.  

 

4. Evan Davis

Evan Davis

Evan Davis has left Newsnight to become the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s PM programme. He was at Newsnight for four years and was previously a presenter on the Today programme as well as the BBC economics editor before that. On his appointment, Evan said: ‘Having survived several years of people saying “you’re not as good as Jeremy Paxman”, I now look forward to people saying “you’re not as good as Eddie Mair”.’

Eddie left the BBC earlier this year to join LBC, where he now presents his own afternoon show.

Evan takes up his new role later in the autumn; a Newsnight replacement is yet to be announced.

 

5. Cathay Paciic

Cathay Pacific

Sack the sub! Cathay Pacific were left with red faces after the livery on one of their planes missed out one of the 13 letters that makes up the company’s name. As any PR knows, you proof, proof and proof again. Then you get someone else to proof, then you proof again – because once it’s done, it’s done.

Cathay Paciic were good sports about the whole thing tweeting:

As was pointed out on Twitter, no Fs were given that day.

 

Did we miss something? Let us know on Twitter @Vuelio.

CIPR

Jenni Field named 2019 President-Elect of the CIPR

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Jenni Field, director of Redefining Communications and co-founder of The IC Crowd, has been named President-Elect of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations for 2019, having stood unopposed in the 2018 Election.

Field, who will take over from Emma Leech as President in 2020, is a chartered PR practitioner and former CIPR Inside Chair. She said: ‘I am delighted to have been nominated as the CIPR’s President-Elect for 2019. I have been a volunteer with the CIPR for several years and I’m proud of the work we have achieved to further our profession. I’m excited about working closely with Emma Leech and Sarah Hall, as well as with those who’ve been nominated to serve on Council.

‘I’d like to thank all those who supported my nomination and I hope that with their continued support we are able to make a real difference to the profession and the communications industry as a whole.’

Current President, Sarah Hall said: ‘Volunteers are the lifeblood of the CIPR and my thanks go to all the fantastic professionals who have put themselves forward to ensure the Institute remains ambitious, relevant and forward looking.

‘Jenni is a superb board member who has brought additional internal comms expertise to the table and has always supported the drive to reassert public relations as a strategic management function. I know she’ll bring strong leadership to the role and look forward to seeing all she achieves over the next three years.’

Field was nominated by 10 other members. In her candidate statement, she said: ‘[The CIPR] should be the body for all practitioners at every level – understanding the changing environment practitioners operate in and how PR has a role to play in organisational leadership.’

She has also outlined her commitments, which are:

  • To grow membership and increase volunteer engagement
  • To improve the understanding of PR as a strategic function
  • To have a training and development programme for everyone

Alongside Field’s appointment, the full line-up for the CIPR’s Council in 2019 has been revealed:

  • Jenifer Stirton
  • Laurian Hubbard
  • Hayley James
  • Chris Taylor
  • Nicola Brown
  • Gary Taylor
  • Andras Sztaniszlav
  • Alison Tobin
  • Andrew Bartlett
  • Michael Blowers
  • Mandy Pearse
  • Daniel Gerrella
  • Peter Holt
  • Kerry Sheehan
  • Rachel Royall
  • Lindsey Collumbell
  • Clare Parker
  • Deb Sharratt
  • Andy Green
  • Trudy Lewis
Nigel Milton

How Heathrow used an integrated campaign to win its third runway

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Nigel Milton, director of communications at Heathrow Airport, recently spoke at the CIPR’s Influence Live event and explained how the airport went from being called ‘Heathrow Hassle’ to having its third runway approved by Government.

Heathrow airport is the busiest in Europe, with some 78 million passengers passing through it in 2017. It’s also recently had plans for a third runway approved – fulfilling the UK’s need for increased air traffic capacity.

But getting to this point wasn’t an easy journey; while a third runway was initially supported by Gordon Brown’s Government in 2009, the policy and politics all changed when the coalition Government came to power and immediately scrapped it.

Milton told Influence Live that when he joined in 2010, the airport already had the reputation of a ‘national embarrassment’, with ‘Heathrow Hassle’ in the lexicon. This made finding political supporters almost impossible.

So, how did they manage to turn it around? With the help of an international event, the London Mayor and an integrated campaign like no other.

In 2012, London hosted the Olympics and Heathrow became the official airport of the games. For Milton, it was an opportunity to reset the dial as the Games could effectively make or break the airport’s fortunes. In Milton’s own words, they ‘nailed it’.

Part of the success was leaving nothing to chance. Not only did Heathrow prepare for the oddly-shaped luggage carried by international athletes (oars, bikes, racquets etc), it also increased spending on toilet maintenance because, bizarrely, the number one factor that makes a difference to someone’s opinion of an airport is the cleanliness of the toilets.

Major incident-free, the London Olympics were a huge success for Heathrow and, what’s more, the Government had changed its position on the need to expand UK airport capacity. This policy reversal was, in no small part, thanks to the London Mayor at the time, Boris Johnson.

While Johnson may have more recently been elected as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip with the promise there would be no third runway at Heathrow, he was at the time considered the airport’s champion politician – Milton said, ‘Without Boris, we wouldn’t have secured a third runway’. Johnson had argued that London needed more airport capacity, favouring the creation of an island in the Thames. While this wasn’t realised – his desire for more capacity was and so the long road to an extra runway began again for Heathrow.

The success of the Olympics put Heathrow in a strong position for its runway plans, as it could now trade on its national and international reputation of excellence, making it the frontrunner for expansion.

Milton’s approach was two-fold, a public relations campaign was designed to bring everyone, from its staff and local residents to Scottish businesses, on board and a public affairs campaign to gain political support.

The airport’s four business priorities were at the centre of its PR campaign:

  • Mojo – getting staff onside by making the airport a great place to work and risk-free when increasing staff numbers
  • Service transformation – proving it can deliver the best service for passengers and airlines
  • Beating the business plan – staying ahead of its plans so it could meet deadlines and expectations
  • Sustainable growth – working with local communities to impact them negatively as little as possible and positively as much as possible

The campaign was complex, with thousands of stakeholders to be considered, influenced and managed. It required a national strategy, and the airport reviewed both passenger and freight journeys, so it could prove that it wasn’t just London’s airport, but Britain’s airport. It got Scottish business to back the plans, explaining the benefits locally because, Milton explained, ‘My accent saying Heathrow expansion is good for Scotland, in Scotland, means nothing compared to a Scottish accent saying it’.

The PR fed into the public affairs, Heathrow using the wins up and down the country to gain additional political support. It also polled politicians to show MPs they were not alone in their support. With a comprehensive integrated campaign that took everything into consideration, Heathrow was successful and a third runway has now been approved.

But the challenge isn’t over yet, as Milton is all too aware. When Vuelio asked if he was planning for a change in Government, Milton responded that yes – administrations and policies change and Heathrow was still preparing for every eventuality.

Do you want to run successful campaigns that combine public relations and public affairs? With Vuelio, everything you need is in one place, on one platform. Find out more.

Daily Mail

Dacre out, Greig in

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Paul Dacre has reportedly edited his last edition of the Daily Mail, months before his supposed November departure date. The Press Gazette also reports that Geordie Greig will take over earlier than planned in the role, becoming editor on 1 September.

Press Gazette questions whether Dacre will be given the official Fleet Street banging out, as some mail staff are calling his low-key departure a ‘soft exit’.

The change of editors has created a big question mark over the future editorial direction of the Daily Mail – the paper is one of the most vehemently pro-Brexit nationals, which is completely at odds with Greig’s remain stance.

Greig, who has already left his role of editor at the Mail on Sunday, received a custom front page from colleagues, which carried the headline: ‘You lot Remoan here. I’m heading for the Grexit!’, as well as the strapline: ‘Remainer-in-chief Geodie Greig’s farewell to his troops as he rides to the dark side.’

The Guardian reports that Grieg will ‘only gradually tone down the strident pro-Brexit agenda espoused by his predecessor’. Grieg apparently fears alienating readers, who have, for some 26 years, hungrily consumed Dacre’s idiosyncratic editorial line. There’s also concern about the wider political situation, which remains uncertain, and Greig will be wary of heavily supporting a political position when it could all change overnight.

The Guardian also reports that during Greig’s leaving drinks, he praised his Mail on Sunday colleagues’ efforts as ‘tireless and fearless’, ‘imaginative and persevering’ and ‘collegic’. The Guardian suggests the last point is an emphasis on teamwork that has never been associated with Dacre and his hierarchical management style.

To help support his slow and steady editorial transition, Greig has brought a number of staff from the Mail on Sunday with him: Gerard Greaves and Tobyn Andreae as his new deputies; Ruth Sunderland as financial editor; and Simon Walters – the Mail on Sunday’s political editor – as his assistant editor. Walters is considered to be closely attuned to Greig’s thinking and will be used to assert the new editorial line.

Whatever Greig does to the paper, he’s likely to have Dacre breathing down his neck now that the latter has ascended to become chairman and editor in chief of publisher DMG Media. Though Dacre won’t be directly involved in day-to-day decisions (especially now he has sold his remaining shares in the company), if readership figures start to slip, Dacre will be in a strong position to oppose Grieg’s changes.

BBC

BBC spends £2.5m to hire PR agencies for licence fee promotion

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The Times reports that the BBC is spending £2.5m to hire six PR agencies that will ‘promote the licence fee and spell out the consequences of non-payment’.

The BBC has put out a tender for six regions, with successful agencies representing their geographical area. The regions are: London and the South East, Midlands and East Anglia, Northern England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Drum reports that the agencies will be tasked with ‘fielding enquiries from journalists as well as placing stories in local papers about who must purchase a licence by law or face a £1,000 penalty’.

The successful pitches will also be required to promote campaigns on ‘Twitter and beyond’.

The Times suggests the £2.5m is an unnecessary cost as it is the equivalent of 16,000 TV licences and TV Licensing already has a devoted press team, as does the BBC.

A spokesperson from TV Licensing said: ‘The work of the agencies and the BBC’s TV Licensing communications team has been proven to bring in more money from TV licence sales than it costs.

‘Those working on TV Licensing communications perform a completely different job to the BBC press office, including spending half their time on working with stakeholders such as money advice organisations to help people pay their licence.

‘We will, as always, be looking for the best value for money in the procurement and we have kept the cost of these contracts down at the same level for the last decade.’

Francis Ingham MPRCA, director general, PRCA, said: ‘The BBC is absolutely right to invest in agency support as it seeks to maximise revenue and to remind viewers of their legal responsibilities.

‘Money spent well on PR and communications activity delivers a significant ROI, and this commitment will undoubtedly repay itself several times over.

‘There is something frankly tiresome about this ignorant, kneejerk reaction to any public spend on communications. Not least as it comes from organisations and publications which almost invariably themselves have significant PR and marketing operations, and which therefore know that their apparent outrage is entirely fabricated and false.’

SEO Tips

3 top tips for creating SEO-friendly digital PR content from David Fraser, founder of Ready10

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SEO (search engine optimisation) and its evolution over the past five years, in particular, has been a boon for the PR industry, says David Fraser, founder and managing director of Ready10, a digital-specialist consumer PR agency that works with Paddy Power and MoneySuperMarket, among others.

Fraser said: ‘I am from a consumer PR background and I believe very strongly that SEO is an absolute gift to the PR industry as it shows how effective our work can be. It is an evaluation gift. In some ways, I find it frustrating that not everyone feels that way, but, of course, it means I see great opportunity too.’

Here are Fraser’s top tips for creating SEO-friendly digital PR content:

1. Bring SEO into your thinking as early as possible
‘The best PR people are the best SEO people, but you need to bring SEO into your planning and preparation as early as possible. The best and most effective way to get to the top of the organic search on Google is with good, natural content that has an intrinsic reason to link and that also causes people to like and share.

‘The key is content and creativity – PR skills and thinking are a huge benefit in cracking both the ideas and the creativity. So the earlier the better when you bring SEO into your thinking; your campaign will be more impactful as a consequence. It can be retro-fitted but it’s harder to do, it’s not as good and it will cost more.’

2. Don’t reinvent the wheel – good PR is integrated and digital doesn’t change this
‘SEO and, indeed, digital should not change the way you work or think about integration. The model still works the same. The best work is always integrated and it’s better to have an all-agency solution if you can.

‘In fact, some of our clients are bringing SEO and PR specialists into teams to work together. It makes sense as you can get SEO in your thinking from the beginning. We see this in sectors, like insurance or gaming, where clients have an online transactional ‘reason for being’. In other words, their website is their lifeblood.

‘We recommend an integrated solution for PR and organic SEO. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.’

3. Write for people not search engines
‘As far as it goes on the SEO side of the equation, a lot of results are still driven by text and so this features prominently in a lot of our output. But, things are changing very quickly and Google is looking to advance itself through video, voice and image-search and all sorts of content. PR – to succeed – needs to use its ability to connect with people on an emotional level and convey its core message through great creativity. That can involve anything from video to podcast content. Everything has a role in the mix.

‘We never write for search engines. We write everything for people. Good content has to be new or news and has to be something people like and share. If that happens, then search engines will recognise its quality.’

Five Things: TV, Radio, Mobile, Internet and Post

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Ofcom has published its 2018 Communications Market Report, which covers television, radio, phones, the internet, online content and post. It covers a lot and there’s a lot for the PR, communications and media industry to learn from it – and plan their future strategies – so, without further ado, here are five things you shouldn’t have missed from Ofcom’s report.

1. TV

TV stats

Broadcast TV is in decline, with revenue falling for the first time since Ofcom started measuring it in 2012. It is down from £14.2bn to £13.6bn. At the same time, online TV revenue has increased for the fifth consecutive year, up to £2.3bn from £1.8bn.

The number of minutes being spent watching TV per day has fallen, as it does every year. It’s now at 203 minutes per person (aged 4+), down from 240.7 in 2012. BBC One is still the most popular channel, followed by ITV, BBC Two, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

Across the four main genres Ofcom categorises programmes into – UK drama, sport, soaps and entertainment – the average age of the audience for each is between 54 and 57.

 

2. Radio

Radio stats

Radio is still a hugely popular medium, reaching 90.2% of the population (since 2012 it has always been about 90%), though each listener is spending fewer weekly hours tuning in, down to 20.8 hours per person a week – the lowest on record.

While the BBC’s share of listening is down to 51.9%, it is investing more in local radio and less in its flagship channels such as Radio 2 and Radio 5 Live.

DAB digital radio devices now have a record share of adult listeners, reaching 63.7% of adults up from 57.9% in 2017 (and 44.3% in 2012). Digital platforms also, for the first time, account for over half of all radio listening.

In terms of age, 29.4% of radio listeners are 15-34 and favour commercial radio; 33.4% of listeners are 35-54, also favouring commercial radio; and 37.2% are 55+ but favour BBC radio.

One-in-ten radio listeners use a smart speaker, such as the Amazon Echo, Google Home or Apple HomePod.

Podcast listeners are also on the up, with around 11% of the population listening to a podcast each week. Two thirds of podcast listeners, who are generally younger listeners, are male.

 

3. Mobile and apps

Mobile stats

A whopping 96% of the population now has a mobile phone, but only 87% have an internet connection.

App usage is on the up, the average adult has 74 app sessions a day, each lasting over six minutes. For social media, the stats for the big four are quite varied:

Facebook is used seven times a day on average, with 18-24 year-olds accessing it the most. Sessions last on average just one minute, though for the over 55s it’s 75 seconds. While 71% of all adults have the Facebook app, 80% of women have it compared to just 66% of men.

There is no information for Twitter sessions but on average people spend 51 seconds each time they visit the Twitter app, with those over 55 spending 64 seconds. Only 37% of adults have the Twitter app, which breaks down into 41% of men and only 30% of women.

Instagram is used on average just three times a day, though 18-24 year olds use it five times. On average, adults are spending just 37 seconds on the app, though this rises to over 40 seconds for over 35s. The Instagram app is used by 39% of all adults, 47% of women and 34% of men.

YouTube is used in just two sessions per person per day, but on average adults are spending 85 seconds on the app, with 25-34 year-olds spending 103 seconds. Matching Facebook, 71% of adults have the YouTube app, though this is almost equally split between genders with 71% of men and  72% of women.

Unsurprisingly, the most popular apps are those categorised as communications or social.

 

4. Internet and online content

Internet stats

The internet continues to be the focal point for 21st century lives, with 42.42 million adults now regularly accessing it. For the first time in 2018, women spent more time online per day (206 minutes) than men (197 minutes).

A huge £11.6bn is now being spent on digital advertising, up from £10.4bn in 2016 and just £6.8bn in 2013. Paid-for search dominates this spend, taking just over 50%.

It is perhaps not surprising then that Google is the most popular site, with 41.9m monthly visitors, followed by Facebook (40.2m), BBC (29.5m) and Amazon (37.7m).

 

5. Post

Post stats

Fewer letters are being sent but more parcels are being sent. That’s the Amazon effect.

 

Did we miss something? Let us know on twitter @Vuelio. 

BCW

BCW’s Nick Williams joins PRCA Board of Management

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Nick Williams, managing director of public affairs and issue management at Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW), has been appointed to the Board of Management at the PRCA.

His appointment follows the recent merger of WPP firms Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe, creating BCW.

Williams was promoted to the role of public and corporate MD at Burson-Marsteller earlier this year. He joined the agency as a senior director in 2015 from Fleishman-Hillard, where he was a senior partner for public affairs.

On his appointment to the PRCA Board, Williams said: ‘The communications sector is facing greater challenges and opportunities than ever before. I am delighted to be able to bring over 25 years’ worth of experience in the industry to help build upon the great work the PRCA is currently doing.’

Francis Ingham MPRCA, director general of the PRCA said: ‘We are delighted to welcome Nick to the PRCA’s Board of Management. His knowledge and experience in both public and corporate affairs will bring a unique insight to the board.’

Diversity in Comms

Webinar: Diversity in Comms

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The PR and communications industry is not diverse enough – we lack professionals from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background at every level in every area of the country. How can we tell stories to the public if we don’t truly represent them?

The PRCA Census 2018 revealed that while 86,000 people are working in the PR and communications industry, 78% of those (nearly 68,000) are white British, and 89% are white. No other ethnic grouping makes up more than 1% of the industry. these statistics are surprising considering a majority of the industry is based in London, which is around 60% white.

The PRCA’s charity of the year, the Taylor Bennett Foundation, is trying to improve diversity in our industry, making it a more viable option for BAME graduates and creating opportunities with its training and mentoring programmes. We are delighted that for our next webinar, Diversity in Comms, we will be joined by Foundation alumnus Kuldeep Mehmi, who will tell us his own story of encouraging diversity in the industry and what we can all do to improve it.

Kuldeep, a director at FTI Consulting, has been working with other alumni after his graduation from the Foundation to improve diversity for the benefit of all.

The webinar takes place on Wednesday 18 July at 11am (BST). Sign up here, to hear how Kuldeep has worked his way to the top and learn:

  • How diverse our industry truly is and why diversity matters
  • What the Taylor Bennett Foundation is doing to promote diversity and how you can help
  • How we can change attitudes to improve the PR and comms industry

If you’d like to ask a question before the webinar, you can tweet us directly @Vuelio and we’ll get through as many as we can! 

Prime Minister

Can Theresa May survive another comms crisis?

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David Davis has resigned from the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU). There is no denying this is a crisis for Theresa May, but is it a comms crisis that can be managed, or an irreparable rift in the Government?

At first look, the Government’s lead negotiator resigning just months before a final agreement is due to be voted on by the EU seems like a catastrophe for May. Davis’ resignation letter explained ‘the current trend of policy and tactics’ was making it ‘look less likely’ that the UK would leave the customs union and single market.

On Radio 4’s Today programme, which we know is hugely popular among MPs, Davis gave his first interview and said he did not believe the latest Brexit policy agreed at Chequers on Friday was workable. He added: ‘The best person to do this is someone who really believes in it, not me.’

Again, this looks terrible. But how much difference will it actually make?

David Davis has spent just four hours in negotiations with Michel Barnier this year, that’s less time than most people have spent with their kettles. In the background, civil servants have been working on the negotiations with their European counterparts but mostly there’s very little to negotiate because the Government hadn’t agree its position.

On the first point, May can appoint a new Brexit Minister swiftly – which is what she’s now done in the form of Brexiteer Dominic Raab – without any serious problems with continuity. Friday’s agreement means there is also a new position from which to negotiate, so Raab won’t really be caught up in legacy talks.

The second comms win for May was Davis’ timing. As he announced his resignation just before midnight, the front pages of today’s newspapers were already decided and the majority now won’t be able to cover the story in full until tomorrow. That means Raab has a chance to change the conversation. It also means that today’s story of Davis’ resignation is shaped by the (generally) less partisan broadcast media.

Davis may have missed the papers deliberately, which would suggest a kindness towards May and her position. Or perhaps his timing shows how fragile the Government is. Davis said on the Today programme that he did not intend his resignation as a means to bring down May, as the optimum time for that would have been after the previous election. He also said a leadership contest would be the wrong thing to do.

So, is Theresa May out of the woods?

No. While she has done everything right from a comms perspective, which is not surprising considering her track record, ultimately the Conservative party will decide her future. The 1922 Committee meets later today, and it is there it will be decided if May has had one crisis too many or if the Party can’t afford the chaos of a leadership challenge and, potentially, another general election.

Thanks to ComRes, we now know where the Tories get their news, which means we know the sources that may help to influence the party members’ decision on May’s future. The Conservatives favour Sky News, Guido Fawkes, Andrew Neil, Quentin Letts, Matthew Parris, Daniel Finkelstein and Fraser Nelson. Keep your eyes peeled.

Amanda Coleman

5 Crisis Comms lessons with Greater Manchester Police’s Amanda Coleman

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Amanda Coleman recently presented the Vuelio webinar: Crisis Comms, Lessons from Greater Manchester Police. Amanda, who is head of corporate communications at GMP, talked us through the Manchester Arena bombing and the importance of keeping people at the heart of your response.

The webinar included a live Q&A, but due to the flood of questions coming in, we didn’t have time to answer them all. Amanda has very kindly found time to answer the rest, so we can present five (additional) Crisis Comms lessons.

Can you walk us through exactly what steps you took after the Manchester Arena attack?
The on-call press officer was contacted and called me, as head of branch, to run through a tweet we were putting out to say we knew something was happening and that we would provide further updates. That was sent out without any further authorisation around 20 minutes after the first call to police.

A more detailed statement confirming it was an explosion and that there were fatalities went out 40 minutes after the first call coming in. Regular updates were provided via Twitter and the first press conference was given by the Chief Constable at 3am and then another at 7am. During the night there were four staff in and we worked closely with the operational commander to ensure we could provide accurate and timely information.

I spoke to heads of communications in key agencies including Manchester City Council, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, and British Transport Police during the night. In the first few hours it was about preserving and protecting life and that had to be our focus. There was so much more we did after but that gives you the initial response.

What did you learn from the Manchester attack? What didn’t go well and what would you have done differently? Did you have any issues with other public services?
With every major incident there is a huge amount of learning. For me, it is very much along the lines of what I said within the webinar: people have to be at the centre of everything, welfare must be a priority for organisations and we need to be better at recognising the impact on us as comms teams.

I was really clear about what I would have done differently on the webinar, and that is to call for mutual aid much quicker. We also needed to recognise that the national plans would not fit and the liaison between the national counter terrorism communication structures in London and us in Manchester was going to add some delays into our plans. Working with the partners and other public services was good and, because we knew each other, we were able to have open conversations from very early on in the night. We have a strong network and meet regularly, so working between services was much easier to manage.

Do you ever have situations needing internal crisis communications at Greater Manchester Police?
Yes and the approach is very similar. We need to provide an open and honest response, provide timely information and do it over the whole lifetime of the event or incident. Being visible from the top of the organisation is also critical. Above all, keep the views of the people affected at the heart of how you decide to respond.

Do you have any experience of benefiting from ‘coming clean’ before a crisis is otherwise revealed/comes to light?
Being proactive is at the heart of communication for me. We should ask why we are not providing information rather than why we should provide information. If organisations or businesses look like they are withholding information, even if it is not the situation, then it will lead to concern and will impact on confidence. We have to make sure that we are as transparent as possible even when this may be challenging.

Can you provide any examples of poor crisis comms?
This is difficult as I know that often the response we see is something that may have been challenged by comms teams but senior executives take a different approach. For me, it is anything that fails to keep people at the heart of it, and which may appear overly legalistic. Thomas Cook is one I have mentioned before in relation to the death of two children in 2006.

If you want to focus on people during a crisis, take the pain out of process. Find out more about Vuelio and how it can help. 

Amanda Coleman

Crisis Comms webinar: People should be at the heart of your crisis communications says Greater Manchester Police’s Amanda Coleman

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People – and their welfare – should be at the heart of your thinking when reacting in a communications crisis says Amanda Coleman, the head of corporate communications at Greater Manchester Police.

Ultimately, if you consider your actions and the impact they have on people, then you are doing the best thing for your company, she told the audience of our recent webinar Crisis Comms – Lessons from Greater Manchester Police.

‘People have to be at the heart of what you are doing. Most importantly it is the people affected – by the incident – and the wider public. If you have people at the heart of your thinking, you are likely to make the right decisions,’ she stressed.

‘We talk a lot about the plan, processes and procedures – and they are important – but you have to have people at the heart of it all.’

Coleman, who has been in her role during some challenging times for Manchester – including the 22 May Manchester Arena terrorist attack last year – said the focus on people should include support for the comms teams working in a crisis.

Initially, as events unfolded after the attack last year, she explained that the comms team at Greater Manchester Police worked 12-hour shifts, were undertaking ‘draining and emotional jobs’ and needed to be supported too. They showed how resilient they were, she added.

She said that investigating the opportunities for further support from other police forces in the UK was part of her ongoing planning for the future.

In the webinar, Coleman set out the key principles of crisis communications and answered questions from the audience. Two key areas she covered were:

• Planning and preparation are essential for crisis communications but you have to be flexible if a crisis occurred. Lessons in communications were taken from other incidents in London, she said, but Manchester is unique and some things are done differently. ‘You can look at the risk areas but you have to have flexibility to adapt when you respond to a crisis,’ she explained.

• The importance of speed in your first response to breaking news. ‘When we had the Arena attack the speed of getting the first response out was crucial’, she said.

‘Crisis communications is such an important area and you do need to be ready for it’, Coleman added.

A recording of the webinar, together with copies of Amanda Coleman’s presentation, will be available next week.