Measurement and reporting

3 tips to improve your PR measurement and reporting

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As part of Vuelio’s Customer Voice series, we host regular focus groups to hear from our clients, track the latest sector trends and make sure we’re delivering what the industry needs.

Our most recent session focused on measurement and reporting, and the impact of PR campaigns on your organisation’s goals. A few clear challenges came out of the discussions along with practical advice to improve best practice.

1. Coverage quality vs coverage quantity
Reach is a common way of reporting on the potential number of people who could have seen your coverage. While reach figures look impressive to the board, on their own they provide little indication of the quality of coverage. For example, while the BBC might have a reach of 500 million, this doesn’t reflect how many of your target audience your coverage actually reached.

Providing context to the success of PR activity is a real challenge. Part of the problem is educating the board how a piece of coverage from an online influencer can be just as impactful as a piece in a national newspaper. The reach figure maybe vastly different but the reach of an influencer/blogger is much more targeted.

Pivoting from quantitative to qualitative reporting means moving away from numbers such as reach and circulation.

2. (Un)Integrated measurement
While PR teams are working closer with marketing and social media teams, when it comes to planning integrated campaigns they are all still reporting separately.

One option is to align PR KPIs with the marketing funnel to demonstrate that what they do helps fill up the top of the funnel and provides marketing with an engaged audience. Another option is to create KPIs together with all related departments to ensure you’re reporting on the same tactics in the same way.

3. Frameworks? Give us practical advice!
The approaches our group took to reporting were similar and everyone had a real appetite for practical best practice advice on measurement and reporting. With all the talk of how to tackle the challenge of evaluating PR in a meaningful way, there appears to be a knowledge gap between those leading the measurement conversation and those on the ground looking for credible methods to demonstrate how PR impacts on organisational goals.

This means if you’re involved in measurement in your organisation or in the wider industry, you need to do more to bring your colleagues, who are often at the coalface, into the conversation. It’s something we’re focusing on at Vuelio and we’d love to hear your thoughts on how we can all improve this process. Get in touch and let us know.

Are you a Vuelio client? We’d love to hear from you – get involved in our Customer Voice series.

The Creative Shootout 2020 finalists

Finalists announced for The Creative Shootout 2020

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Eight agencies have made it through to the live final of The Creative Shootout 2020 on Thursday 23 January, which will be held at Picturehouse Central.

The eight finalists were chosen by a high-profile judging panel after they had all submitted their 60-second content. The finalists will take to the stage to show off their creative clout for a cause that needs bold solutions: homelessness. This year The Creative Shootout’s charity of the year is Crisis, who will provide the all-important brief on the day, which the agencies will use to create their 10-minute live pitch in the hopes of taking home the top prize.

The eight PR and marketing agencies who have made the final cover a range of disciplines:

  • Alpaca Communications – PR agency
  • Epoch Design – Design consultancy
  • Fever – PR, social and influencer agency
  • FleishmanHillard Fishburn – Communications agency
  • Grayling – Integrated communications agency
  • Haygarth – Brand engagement agency
  • TracyLocke – Advertising agency
  • Wavemaker – Media agency

To enter The Creative Shootout, these agencies had to submit a 60-second piece of content to demonstrate their creativity.  The entry format was open and not restricted to a specific type of content.

Creative Shootout founder Johnny Pitt said: ‘With entries ranging from ads to vinyl records, to films and bespoke board games, the entry creativity was jaw-dropping this year. The Shootout exists to showcase the extraordinary talent and thinking in our industry, whilst giving back – and year five looks set to be a blockbuster of a live final.’

At the live final, the finalists will draw straws to determine the running order with each agency having just 10 minutes to pitch their idea to the judges and a live audience of 350. The winning agency is crowned on stage and will get to work with Crisis to see their idea come to life, aided by a £10,000 prize fund – as last year’s winner Wire did with A Plastic Planet.

Matt Downie, director of policy & external affairs at Crisis said: ‘Ending homelessness will require brave people and brave thinking. The Creative Shootout is about just that, and everyone at Crisis is looking forward to seeing what happens in January.’

Vuelio is proud to sponsor The Creative Shootout for the third year in a row and we are looking forward to seeing the creative ideas from all the finalists.

The 2020 judging panel includes:

  • Victoria Buchanan, executive creative director, Tribal Worldwide
  • Kate Davies, head of brand, Guardian News and Media
  • Matt Downie, MBE, director of policy and external affairs, Crisis
  • Nils Leonard, founder, Uncommon Creative Studio
  • Elspeth Lynn, executive creative director, Geometry
  • Johnny Pitt, founder, The Creative Shootout
  • Laurent Simon, chief creative officer, VMLY&R
  • Gary Wheeldon, co-founder, Talker Tailor Trouble Maker
  • Ann Wixley, executive creative director, Wavemaker

Want to attend the live final? Get in touch here.

Measurement

How metrics are helping us prove the value of PR

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This is a guest post by Sarah Evans, senior digital strategist at Bottle.

It’s no longer acceptable to say PR has a measurement problem. As an industry we’ve been (fairly) challenged to demonstrate what value our campaigns, our work, that piece of coverage had in real terms. How does that feed into business objectives?

At Bottle, we believe brands grow when their stories flow. To measure the effectiveness of that, we need a blend of short- and long-term metrics. A regular flow of stories being published – audience-first content and coverage, both on and offsite – builds a momentum that cumulatively shifts a larger dial over time that indicates brand growth.

Are your stories flowing?
We still need to keep sight of things like coverage itself, for example: how many pieces, the quality of the sites that are linking, how many unique referring domains link back to your site? These help us keep on top of the momentum and frequency that we’re building. In previous reports, we may have stopped there, however now we know we’re influencing behaviour beyond that initial burst of activity.

Next, we need to look at the immediate impact of that activity. Indicators that our coverage is valuable to its intended audience are things like social shares and comments. If there are any links in the piece, did anyone click on them (and if they did, were they ‘long clicks’ or did they bounce?). If coverage doesn’t have a link, and people like what they see, they’ll have to either Google you or come directly to your website to find out more. Google Analytics (or other website tracking software) can tell you all of this, and more.

How is your content performing? Are people reading and engaging with your content? You can look at this through pages per visit, bounce rate and time on page. Is your content doing the job it set out to do? And what do people do next on the site?

Is your brand growing?
As well as short-term metrics, we also need to balance that by zooming out and understanding how all that activity is laddering up into wider marketing objectives. We may not have sales-led objectives, however a common KPI we look at is site traffic (as a whole, or specifically from channels that we’re most likely to influence with ‘brand building’ activity, like organic search or direct).

These metrics by their nature can take consistent, sustained activity to shift (which is why we set the pace with the shorter-term metrics). Things like the number of people searching for the brand, direct traffic and positions for target keywords, topics and products are all key indicators that your brand is growing in visibility and authority.

Branded searches are a proxy for awareness, and even loyalty if someone already knows who they want to buy from. Direct traffic (although a bit of a messy, catch-all channel) indicates how many people have been to your site before, have you bookmarked, or type your URL in as their destination. A growth in search visibility (or how many times Google has served up your site as an answer to someone’s question) tells us that Google is confident that people will get what they need from your site, in turn driving more organic traffic.

Reporting is empowering
As the boundaries between PR, marketing and SEO activity are merging ever closer, there’s no excuse for PR to shy away from measurement any longer. It’s empowering to demonstrate the value of your work; it unlocks budget, helps us plan the next campaign and sometimes it even makes great case studies. We’ve been influencing these metrics all along, without taking any of the credit. We’re not a direct acquisition channel, but a valid and vital part of the journey. Understanding and articulating the role it plays, both long and short term, is the key to PR’s digital evolution.

Social media tips guest post

5 steps to more creative and effective social media campaigns

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This is a guest post by Ellen Morris from Billion Dollar Boy. 

Effective social media campaigns are all about innovation and creativity, and the more effective your campaigns are, the more successful your business is. Here are five useful steps to create social media campaigns that achieve your business goals.

1. Listen to your social audiences
Listening to your social audiences can give you solutions to numerous problems. Most importantly, it will give you the most accurate insight into what they really want.

Social media campaigns aren’t about pushing as much content as you possibly can for the sake of measuring the effects. They are all about building the right content that will grab the attention of your consumers. This will help you build more engaging content that produces sentiment and real responses.

2. Don’t run away from experts
Consulting experts about how to improve your social media campaign is one of the most efficient ways to make the most out of your efforts. Social media marketers know everything about how this online environment works but, most importantly, how social media users behave.

They can provide extremely valuable insights into specific data that can help you understand how each particular campaign affects not only your business but your existing consumers as well as potential prospects. Take your time to read what they have to say or even talk to them and ask specific questions about how to engage with your audience even more or how to reach a wider audience with the same effort.

Following the experts in your business niche is essential to forming decisions that will help you get ahead of the competition curve and engage with your audience in the right way. This is about seeing a bigger picture and where your company stands on a broader level.

3. Work on your customer experience
A customer’s experience is everything in an online customer-centric environment. Talking to your customers and listening to them is the best way to engage with them. Run a survey and ask for their feedback. Find out what they want from your brand.

The feedback you get is valuable information that will help you determine the next best course of action. This will also help you understand how your target audience feels about your industry in general. When you know their opinion, it will be easier to shape your future social media campaigns based on that data.

4. Take creative steps and think outside the box
Social media is not anything new anymore, and users are fed up with boring, standard social media updates. When creating your campaign, you should think outside the box. Here are a few creative social media tactics that guarantee a certain level of engagement:

  • Create a quiz, test your audience’s knowledge about your brand or a specific product you are pushing, and offer rewards for the best participants
  • Create a ‘tag a friend’ contest and offer giveaways
  • Post ‘behind the scenes’ images and videos to further humanise your brand
  • Take advantage of Facebook’s reactions – for instance, you can start a poll and each reaction represents a different choice

5. Follow the right trends to reinforce your brand message
Showing the right content at the right time is a tricky business as there are many factors that determine which campaigns will excel in different moments in time.

What is popular today may not be popular tomorrow and one mistake could endanger your brand reputation. When putting together an effective social media campaign, think about how your audience responds to different content. Shift your focus to the emotional connection with your audience by presenting the right topics that resonate with their current interests.

5 PR tips from the hotel industry

5 PR tips from the hotel industry

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This is a guest post from Frank Marr of AM+A Marketing and Media Relations.

Frank has compiled a list of AM+A’s top tips for creating and putting into action an effective hotel PR and marketing strategy, which the whole PR industry can benefit from. From adopting an integrated approach to channelling your inner journalist, every successful PR and marketing campaign should consider these five steps.

1. Regularly update creative strategies
The media, PR and marketing industries are extremely fluid. Regular creative brainstorms are useful for keeping your brand on trend. Launching a hotel or product is easy, keeping it in the press is not. Creating a major annual event or unique promotion will help maintain exposure. Big events should also be supplemented with smaller, tactical ideas. This is a fine line to tread. You want to keep your brand in the media and engaged with customers without bombarding journalists/ audiences to the point of apathy.

2. An organised integrated PR & digital approach
The key to any successful PR campaign is organisation. It’s true that we must react to news and trends as they emerge, but the best campaigns involve a proactive 12 to 18 month plan incorporating key dates throughout the year from national days to major holidays. Creating smaller, six-month plans allows you to regularly catch long lead media and consistently keep your hotel in the news.

3. Build a network of influencers
As social media continues to hold its position, the importance of building a high-quality influencer network cannot be overstated. According to Havas Group’s Meaningful Brands 2019 report, 81% of brands sold across Europe could disappear and consumers would not care. Building a trustworthy brand is therefore vital for engaging consumers. Create a rapport with your influencers, bring them back time and time again and utilise their contacts to create an even greater reach for your brand.

Influencer marketing is still a murky area but there are a few pointers to help you get ahead: to ensure you make the most out of the relationship include looking for an engagement rate of 4% – 6% on posts; define expectations beforehand to ensure they are met; and aim to state what you want before working with them, so if you want 10 photos, ask for 10 photos.

It’s important to research your influencers and ensure they’re a good fit for your target audience to produce content that maximises your assets.

4. Think like a journalist and blogger
To generate publicity for your brand, try to understand what appeals to journalists and online audiences – and what doesn’t. By thinking like a journalist, you can tailor your campaign and present your assets in a way that is far more likely to be picked up. To be able to think like a journalist or your audiences, you should be constantly monitoring media not just within your industry, but a wide variety. Devour the media, find the angles behind features and learn to spot current trends, journalists love anything new and anything that taps into their calendars. Winning the media over is vital to a successful marketing campaign.

5. Maximise your assets and production
Even if you use all of these tactics and create an innovative, well-structured campaign, you cannot succeed if you don’t have the assets in place to maximise your product. Stay on brand and build up a vault of high-quality images, videos, blog posts, graphics, animations, infographics and articles while ensuring any logos and branding materials are designed to the highest standard. This should be your starting point for any successful campaign.

Looking to make new relationships? Monitor the press? Prove and report on your success? You need Vuelio. 

PRCA

PRCA announces five new fellows

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The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) has announced today that they have appointed five new Fellows. Congratulations to everyone, we look forward to seeing your ideas for the PR industry in action.

Joining the esteemed list are Paul Bristow FPRCA, managing director, PB Consulting; Mark Glover FPRCA, chief executive, Newington; Richard Millar FPRCA, global president, H+K Strategies; Warwick Smith FPRCA, managing partner, Instinctif Partners; Donna Zurcher FPRCA, former managing partner, Instinctif Partners.

Three of the newly appointed Fellows (Paul Bristow, Mark Glover and Warwick Smith) have all been recognised for the work they have done to integrate the PRCA and APPC into the Public Affairs Board. Bristow says, ‘I’m proud to have worked as a public affairs practitioner and to have played my part in creating the Public Affairs Board.’

Glover praised the PRCA describing it as, ‘the pre-eminent organisation for representing the interests of public affairs practitioners’ and Smith echoed these comments stating, ‘It is humbling to be recognised by the industry which has given me so much satisfaction over the years’.

Both Richard Millar and Donna Zurcher have been recognised as an outgoing member of the PRCA Board of Management. Millar says, ‘Working on the PRCA Board of Management has been very rewarding and I look forward to further working for the good of the industry as a member of the PRCA Fellows’ and Zurcher heartily agrees saying, ‘I am absolutely delighted to have been selected. It is a great honour’.

David Gallagher FPRCA, President, Growth and Development, International, Omnicom Public Relations Group, and Chairman, PRCA Fellows, said: ‘The Fellows have become an essential sounding board for the PRCA and the 2019 class join at an especially exciting time for the association and discipline. Congratulations and welcome.’

On behalf of everyone at Vuelio congratulations to the newly appointed Fellows, we look forward to seeing your ideas for the PR industry in action!

Amec 2019

AMEC Global Summit 2019: Data, algorithms and analytics

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In its eleventh year, the Amec Global summit last week in Prague was focussed on data, algorithms and analytics. Panels discussed the future of measurement and the need to link PR and communications to audience behaviour. Conversations were inspiring and reminded the team there from Vuelio of the importance for ongoing development in media measurement.

A core theme of the presentations and workshops across the two days was audience. As the media landscape changes to reflect the dynamics of consumer behaviour, measurement and analysis must do the same. We need models that are flexible so that we can measure what matters to the business.

Fundamentally, this means that rather than working in silos, a more holistic approach is taken to how we consider every aspect of evaluation and how we incorporate data; such as demographic data, internal and external stakeholder surveys and call-to-action engagement. We have to work towards measuring beyond outputs to outcomes of the entire communications input. For too long measurement has concentrated heavily on outputs that do not link to business objectives and don’t provide PR functions with the tools they need to bring to the table which prove the worth of PR.

While media measurement and analysis has certainly come a long way, such as the transition away from AVEs, it is crucial that we continue to develop. In the future, this could mean that evaluation frameworks include:

  • Clever data collection techniques to link influencers to audiences with the goal of linking communications to business objectives
  • Development of algorithms to understand audience behaviour and increase efficiency and accuracy of NLP techniques
  • Continue to use best practice analytics methods, such as the tools and frameworks available from AMEC, to prove the worth and credibility of PR, moving away from vanity metrics.

Find out more about measuring your value with Vuelio. 

Amec 2019

AMEC Global Summit 2019: Data and measuring the value of communications

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The Vuelio team headed off to Prague to join the AMEC Global Summit which, this year, was focused on data and what the acceleration of trends from augmentation to AI mean for the communications industry. Day one included sessions that ranged from the implications of blockchain to how Diageo, Sage and Adobe have transformed their global evaluation frameworks.

There were a huge range of experiences and opinions but there was consensus that far more must be done to improve the sophistication of evaluation. Still, PR and communications professionals, whether agency or in-house, do not invest sufficient time or resource to understand impact. According to the PRCA Census, 26% of the industry admits they do no evaluation.

And this has significant knock-on effect. The industry is unable to prove its worth, unable to provide insights that drive business strategy, which puts budgets at risk and leaves PR the poor relation to all other marketing disciplines. Worse, it directly affects the ability of PR to sustain profile and attract data talent.

The good news is that industry groups are taking steps to help. AMEC recently launched M3, a free-to-use measurement framework that supports PR and communications leads to take their organisations (and clients) along a journey to understand and embed best practice evaluation.

It aligns with our view at Vuelio. Measuring the effectiveness (value) of PR and communications begins with understanding the audience the organisation has to reach and the change sought whether awareness, engagement or product purchase. Only if we think in this way will PR and communications evolve to be considered by its contribution to overall business performance. It is a shift essential to the future of the industry.

Find out more about measuring your value with Vuelio. 

Cats Protection

How Vuelio helped Cats Protection save time and money

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Cats Protection is the UK’s leading feline welfare charity with a nationwide network of over 250 volunteer-run branches, 36 centres and over 100 charity shops that together helps around 200,000 cats and kittens each year.

We spoke to Kate Angel, Media Assistant at Cats Protection, who talked us through the charity’s need for a new solution and explained how Vuelio had saved them time and money. 

Cats Protection’s Media Team promotes the charity throughout the UK and provides PR support for volunteers and other departments. The team sends out a daily Media Update to the network that summarises news stories from print, online and broadcast outlets that have featured Cats Protection or are relevant to the charity in some other way.

The charity uses Vuelio Media Monitoring to source the stories using a list of keywords that is continually reviewed. It also uses Vuelio to send out press releases, for media contact management, evaluation on a monthly basis, and for specific communications campaigns.

The Challenge
Prior to working with Vuelio, Cats Protection used a different supplier that was ‘more expensive and less innovative’. The charity found that it was rarely using the supplier to send out press releases as the method was clunky.

The Solution
Cats Protection got quotes from three suppliers prior to its contract with its previous supplier ending. It was given a demo of Vuelio and shown what it could do – the team was looking for a one-stop-shop, which Vuelio was able to offer. The price was a big factor as well as Canvas, which allows Cats Protection to display its coverage in a modern, visually attractive and user-friendly way. The team is also now able to track the success of press releases and campaigns more effectively.

Benefits and Results
The team now use Vuelio to send out all its press releases and find it helpful to see the tracking of how many have been opened. The contacts and influencer functions are more detailed than the charity’s previous supplier.

The hourly coverage alerts mean the team is able to see coverage when it appears, and the reporting process is much improved with Canvas.

Looking for a one-stop comms software solution to save you time and money? Find out more about Vuelio. 

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.

Alex Jacquot letter

Qantas and Oceania Express: how the human touch helps brand fly high on Twitter

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If you’re up on brand engagement or extremely-ambitious children building businesses on social media, you’ll have seen Alex Jacquot’s successful schmoozing of Qantas boss Alan Joyce this week. Alex, the Sydney-based 10-year-old ‘CEO’ of ‘start-up airline’ Oceania Express, got in touch with Alan, the 52-year-old CEO of Qantas, for advice on providing a quality service for his customers. Because funnily enough, both Alex and Alan’s airlines are planning similar Australia-to-London flights at the moment.

Alex asked: ‘I’m thinking about, as you are, about an A350 for Sydney/Melbourne to London flights. Seeing as it is a 25-hour flight, we are having a lot of trouble thinking about sleep. Do you have any advice?’

Alan’s response: ‘…to your troubles thinking about sleep on 21-hour flights. This is something we are grappling with too, as we embark on Project Sunrise (which is our plan for flying passengers non-stop between the east coast of Australia and London).’

Cynics may suggest this was a meticulously planned attempt to get publicity for Project Sunrise, but that wouldn’t change the outcome. To media outlets covering the viral tweet, it’s ‘heart-warming’ and ‘cute’, and a story worth publishing.

Just as most of us would prefer human aircrew flying from Melbourne to London instead of the automatic pilot from ‘Airplane’, humanity is what works for brand engagement rather than robotic automated approaches.

Using the human touch to achieve Twitter success is nothing new – here are six examples of brands flying high you may have missed:

1. Wendy’s grapples with wrestling fans
The brand that helped Carter get his nuggs is well-known in social media circles for its sass and witty replies – even interacting with fans of things other than chicken. Wrestling fans, for example, can always depend on the Wendy’s account (and whichever WWE fans are running it) to give thoughts on upcoming bouts and reply with popular catchphrases.

To those who don’t watch this stuff, it seems niche. But to fans, it inspires loyalty to a fast-food brand, which happens to be a perfect accompaniment to pay-per-view watching.

2. Merriam-Webster uses words good

Dryly tweeting long words people can use in their next Scrabble game is one way to use Twitter if you’re a dictionary account. Another is to react to the same things your followers are tweeting about, with added commentary. Merriam-Webster has been helpfully explaining some of the new phrases that have come out of the Whitehouse since 45 moved in, which is very Covfefe, as well as smart PR.

3. DiGiorno brings us back to dough

Making use of popular hashtags is another tried and tested approach for quick engagement, and live-tweeting Maria’s escape from the Nuns and Nazis in ‘The Sound of Music’ is always popular. DiGiorno, the US-based pizza brand, got some tasty returns on their participation during NBC’s live production of the musical in 2013, earning 4,000 extra followers and 65 million media impressions after write-ups in outlets including USA Today, Buzzfeed and Mashable.

4. Fiat drives their followers away in Germany
Back in 2013, the Fiat 500 Abarth was just ‘too fast to follow’. So fast, in fact, that Twitter users were swiftly blocked from following its social media account in Germany. Rushing to see if you’ll be left out can be just as powerful a force as fear of missing out – a tactic also used by the Thanos subreddit that banned half of its community last year. Individual bans: turns out lots of people quite like it.

5. The Philadelphia Flyers’ social media team hits it out of the park

If you watch ‘The Walking Dead’, or read the comics, you’ll know why this Philadelphia Flyers tweet got so much attention. If you don’t [SPOILERS] – actor Steven Yeun tweeted support for the Detroit Red Wings, which the Flyers (the rival team) didn’t take too kindly to… so they tweeted support for Lucille, the baseball bat that’s used to kill Yeun’s character in The Walking Dead TV series. Ouch. It’s nasty, and petty, and got retweets from Dead watchers, and follow-up articles on sports and entertainment websites. Which didn’t hurt the Philadelphia Flyers brand at all.

6. Twitter gets ‘excited’ for a Meghan Trainor press release [Mildly explicit]

And now to the uniquely human trait of hubris. This is a hard thing to pull off, but when it works, it goes viral quickly. This press release for pop star Meghan Trainor’s upcoming single release was considered to be so overwritten and overambitious, it had to be shared with the world. A lot. Not every product can be publicised with phrasing like ‘smashing bae’s junk to smithereens’ but in this instance, it worked, and became one of the most successful press releases of recent times – achieving huge coverage for ‘All the Ways’.

If something’s embarrassing, novel, or features a cute kid who wrote someone a cute letter, it’s got a good chance of getting your brand some attention, particularly from all the humans out there who’ve got access to a retweet button.

Heather Baker feature

International Women’s Day: Advice for young female PR professionals

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This is a guest post from Heather Baker, Founder and CEO at TopLine Comms.

Reassessing the gender pay gap on International Women’s Day

Today marks the 108th International Women’s Day. It serves as a collective call for gender parity and this year’s theme #BalanceForBetter is, in my opinion, one of the best yet. It recognises the fact that balance isn’t just an issue that affects women, but a business issue: and it’s a really important distinction to make.

Even though PR has historically (and somewhat stereotypically) been perceived as a female-led industry, there is still a marked gender pay gap. According to the PRCA’s 2018 PR and Communications Census, the current pay gap between male and female PR professionals stands at 21%. When you compare this to the 2018 ONS stats, which put the gender pay gap at 8.6% for full-time workers (the closest it’s been for 21 years), you realise how far behind the PR industry really is.

Initiatives like International Women’s Day are important because they help create change and raise awareness. On the topic of gender parity, you can already see positive changes in education, with more children being taught how to code at primary school in the UK. By comparison, I went to an all-girls school and had to learn knitting and cooking alongside maths and physics. I ended up studying psychology at university; I would have preferred engineering but it just didn’t occur to me at the time.

Fortunately, my mum was a career woman and my dad always treated me like an equal, which helped me develop some valuable self-belief. After graduating, I went into PR. I’m proud to say that my company, TopLine Comms, is an equal opportunities employer and that our STEM specialist team comprises an equal gender split.

Having built TopLine from scratch, here are some of the things I’ve learned along the way that might help anyone starting out in public relations, or any other career for that matter.

Help others
Watch enough romantic comedies and you’ll end up believing that female colleagues need to be archenemies, but that shouldn’t be the case. Women must help other women succeed. The first step is to help others and hold yourself accountable for speaking up about positive gender parity and equality in your workplace.

Mentorship is extremely important to empower younger generations to fill the shoes of their seniors. Look out for mentorship programmes, or simply ask a more senior female colleague to mentor you and show you the ropes

Run your own race
Social comparison theory is the belief that humans are driven to self-evaluate by comparison to others. It’s easy to believe that your peers are better than you – maybe you think that they have better senior relationships, get to work on more exciting opportunities or get better results. But comparison is the thief of joy. It’s a dangerous practice and one that stops you from running your own race and focusing on you. Be yourself, know your strengths, use them wisely and the rest will follow.

Set boundaries
If you haven’t read Michelle Obama’s book ‘Becoming’, I strongly recommend that you do. In the book, she talks about the idea and importance of balance – precisely the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day. Juggling a career, family and friends, and still having time for yourself is no easy feat, so it’s vital that you set boundaries and stick to them.

Try to identify what you feel comfortable sacrificing and what you don’t, and then make sure that don’t compromise on it. It’s different for everyone so, as mentioned above, don’t compare your choices to others. You’ll find lots of articles with top tips from successful people, from not reading emails first thing in the morning to creating lists and getting enough me time. Ultimately, it just comes down to what you need to do to be your most productive self. Find what helps you to balance your time and don’t be embarrassed to incorporate it into your schedule.

Awareness days give us an excuse to reflect on important issues that affect our lives. Let’s use this year’s International Women’s Day and theme of #BalanceforBetter to tackle the gender pay gap and talk more openly about how women can succeed in the workplace.

PR Tips for Monzo success

4 PR tips for Monzo success

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This is a guest post from Katy Bloomfield, Comms Director at TopLine Comms.

Monzo is arguably the UK’s biggest fintech success story to date. Just look around any London underground station and you’ll see hordes of commuters tapping in and out with their bright coral cards. Millennials are mad about Monzo; they make up its biggest market and help to drive its popularity, which continues to spread like wildfire.

In 2018, Monzo welcomed its millionth customer and secured new finance through customer crowdfunding, boosting its value to more than $1bn (£787m). Not bad for a digital bank that first launched in 2016. From its semi-humble beginnings, Monzo has grown into an industry leader. Plenty of start-ups want to emulate its success, and many PR agencies would love to work with them.

There is no doubt that Monzo’s spectacular trajectory is a great story, but it’s important to remember that a number of factors contributed to its rise. Here are four lessons PR firms and professionals can learn from Monzo.

1. Pay attention to timing
When it comes to PR, there is little better than being in the right place at the right time. To maximise this sweet spot, you need to understand your market fully – that includes your target audience as well as your competitors. Pay attention to trends, behaviours and events – this will help you identify the perfect moment to announce yourself.

Monzo, of course, could not have timed its arrival better. The 2008 recession did some serious damage to banks’ reputations, and consumer confidence hit rock bottom. The financial services industry worked hard to rebuild its reputation, but an increasingly tech-savvy customer base wasn’t satisfied with more of the same.

Digital disruptions were upending all sorts of status quos, from hailing a taxi (Uber) to booking accommodation (Airbnb) – and banking was no exception. In 2016, the foundations for a fintech revolution were already in place: 47% of the world, for example, used mobile banking. Monzo was not the first fintech to launch, but it launched during a perfect storm of opportunities and, crucially, launched with a better product than its competitors.

PR lesson: Keep a close eye on the market, and make sure your communication is well-timed.

 

2. Play the long game
Good timing requires patience, agility and a stockpile of content to release at the right time. It doesn’t pay to publish everything all at once, you’ll simply overwhelm your audience and drown them in messaging. Monzo used incremental communication tactics like focus groups, online surveys and social media teasers, and only then did it launch its first campaign.

Monzo also knows how to whet appetites and seed interest. The company cleverly staggers news, product updates and announcements: and the strategy works well. Founder and CEO Tom Blomfield recently penned a blog post on the company’s planned updates for 2019, introducing an exciting next stage of features that could add some serious value to Monzo’s core offering. The response has been positive, loyal and anticipatory – you can almost ‘hear’ the bated breath.

PR lesson: Keep your powder dry.

 

3. Know your audience
Monzo knows its target audience inside out. The company is enmeshed in millennial culture; using collaboration to create a democratic business. The Monzo Community Forum is one such example, encouraging customers to become advocates and evangelists known as ‘Monzonauts’. This community is treated to special events and their insights and ideas are fed back into product development for testing in Monzo Labs.

The Monzonauts are such an integral part of the bank that when the company’s original name, Mondo, faced a trademark challenge from another business, they came up with ‘Monzo’. By allowing Monzonauts to guide the company’s development and get involved, Monzo created a product that people want and will recommend. It worked; early referrals accounted for 80% of the company’s early-stage business.

PR lesson: Focus on the customer. They are your biggest asset.

 

4. Get out there and network
Blomfield has a rather rarefied circle of friends which assisted the company’s ascent. That said, he had to get out there, meet them and convince them of his idea’s viability – which he did. Blomfield cofounded GoCardless, a business aimed at streamlining direct debit collections, with two friends while studying at Oxford. They pitched the start-up to Y Combinator, an innovation incubator in Silicon Valley and in the process, met – among others – Mark Zuckerberg.

In 2014, Blomfield became Chief Technology Officer at Starling Bank. This was one of the UK’s first fintechs to launch after the financial crisis. During this time he met and worked with many top industry people, some of whom now work for Monzo or helped cofound it.

PR lesson: Building a business relies on making good relationships with key people. Make sure your communication efforts are targeted at the brand’s network of contacts – as well as its customers.  

 

Whether you’re a PR agency, or looking for one, keeping these four tips front and centre at all times will give your marketing efforts more oomph in the highly competitive world of fintech.

Scott Guthrie

PR Blogger Spotlight: Scott Guthrie

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Scott Guthrie’s blog focuses on informing PRs on everything to do with influencer marketing, alongside content around wider comms topics. Scott Guthrie is one of our Top 10 UK PR Blogs and we caught up with him to talk about influencer marketing issues in 2019, top tips for pitching and why The Body Shop is winning at influencer marketing so far this year. 

What’s in store for the blog in 2019?
More of the same. I wrote 47 articles on influencer marketing for my blog in 2018 plus a dozen or so covering public relations in general. Increasingly my aim is to peer over the brow of the hill at the issues influencer marketing is likely to face in the near and midterm.

Last year I foresaw three major issues for the nascent industry: influencer fraud; lack of transparency in disclosing advertisements; and a media backlash. These issues will rumble on throughout 2019 but we will also look beyond compliance to consider the ethics surrounding influencer marketing. For example, we will consider why it’s not okay to promote gambling sites to young, impressionable audiences, and why ‘merch’ shouldn’t be so oversold. The industry will also start to ask questions about kidfluencers, image manipulation and virtual influencers. I’ll be writing about these issues and how the industry approaches them via regulation and trade body codes of conduct.

How has PR changed since you first got into the industry?
I can still (vaguely) recall foot messengers delivering financial results and press releases by hand to the City editors. While in newsrooms rip and read printers spewed out headlines from the Press Association. Press releases were usually faxed to newsrooms. The importance of a good story told well from a trusted source hasn’t changed. The technology surrounding news acquisition and distribution has. Technology has splintered the entire media landscape.

How much is Brexit affecting comms in the UK?
Brexit is affecting comms in two ways: by seemingly keeping all other news from front page for almost two years; and, by heightening a sense of anxiety. My clients are typically small businesses. Small business accounts for over 99% of all private sector businesses in the UK. Yet, just 6% of small and medium-sized businesses feel the Government is listening to their concerns about Brexit. That is causing them anxiety and preventing them from making any significant business decisions.

What’s the biggest issue facing the industry (outside of Brexit)?
Influencer marketing offers an amazing opportunity to the public relations industry. The discipline can transcend ‘selling stuff’ to embolden positive reputation, communicate an organisation’s purpose, assist in a crisis situation, or scale subject matter expertise heightening employee advocacy in the process. The biggest issue is the risk that these opportunities are passed up by the PR industry. The risk that these opportunities are squandered; handed over to the other creative industries only for us to look back in future years and realise our mistake. The same mistakes of missed opportunity that we saw with failing to shape the future of social media, SEO or content marketing.

Are traditional media outlets losing their importance to the industry?
There is no secret that the media has fragmented from print, to online and social media. In turn influencers have emerged on every media, in every market. This does not mean that traditional media outlets are no longer important. It does mean that, as effective communicators, we need to know which mastheads, broadcasters and individuals are influencing the important people we are seeking to influence on behalf of our clients. Our opportunity is to work with these organisations and influencers and to engage with their networks in the way we have traditionally done solely with journalists.

What’s the best campaign of 2019 so far?
The Body Shop works with influencers in two very separate ways: to sell product; and to affect positive social change. For its Forever Against Testing campaign, the cosmetic company sought to gather eight million signatures in the form of a petition to take to the United Nations. The campaign over achieved its objective in under the time allocated: 8.3m signatures in 3/4 time. The campaign demonstrated a fundamental element of influencer marketing – that influencers can help affect change in behaviour and opinion. And that the change needn’t be confined to a purchase decision. The campaign also highlighted the importance of an integrated communications programme.

What advice would you give students looking to join the PR industry?
Read widely and read deeply. Acquire a firm understanding about how the PR industry is put together and look to specialise in a particular area. Follow relevant hashtags on LinkedIn and Twitter. Start to form your own opinion then codify and collate those opinions into your own blog. Writing about a subject is a wonderful way to better understand that subject. It is great way to showcase your mastery of the subject and mark yourself out from other graduates looking to enter the industry.

What’s your best pitch tip for PRs?
Never pitch blind. Know who you’re pitching to. Know what they’ve written or broadcast recently. Know their point of view. Understand their audience. Attempt to establish a degree of relationship before you need to pitch. That might mean following the journalist on social media, sharing their articles and commenting on them. My best pitch advice is to be useful to the journalist.

What other blogs do you read?
I am a major fan of Richard Bailey’s work at PR Place. He edits the site and his Friday morning round-up posts are a must-read for PR practitioners regardless of whether they are just starting out or well-established in their careers. I also enjoy talkinginfluence.com, stedavies.com, influenceonline.co.uk,orlaghclaire.com, and the Vuelio Blog natch!

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Breaking News

How long does a news story last?

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Research from Google Trends, in partnership with Schema and Axios, has found that the average ‘big’ news story lasts for around seven days before the public moves on to the next crisis.

The study, based in America, used Google Trends to look at a range of news stories throughout 2018 and found that searches for events — the Hawaii false missile alert or Thailand cave rescue, for example — seemed to deteriorate after just seven days.

Axios said: ‘The news cycles for some of the biggest moments of 2018 only lasted for a median of seven days — from the very beginning of higher-than-normal interest until the Google searches fizzled out.’

Research by Cornell University also found that bad news seems to go away faster than good news, with negative news hitting hard at first then disappearing while positive stories continue to ripple over many hours. 

Public searches are not the same as how long outlets report the story for, but one certainly informs the other. We looked at some of the biggest news stories in Google Trends from last year to see how long searches lasted in the UK. 

Seaborne Freight no deal Brexit ferries
First set of searches lasted for 12 days

Brits were shocked when they heard that a company with no ships had won the ferry contract in the case of a no-deal Brexit. From the point the story was first mentioned, searches lasted 12 days as people tried to learn more about this seemingly unknown transport company. A small peak occurred more recently when the topic was back in the news again after the contract was cancelled. 

Seabourne Freight Google Trends graph

Death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
First set of searches lasted for two months

UK Google searches for Jamal Khashoggi rose when his name hit the headlines after he disappeared at the beginning of October. Rather than coming out all in one go, the story slowly revealed more details, which was mirrored in the searches that continued at a slower rate towards the end of last year. 

Jamal Khashoggi Google Trends graph

Chequers deal
First set of searches lasted for three weeks, the second lasted for 10 weeks

No big surprise that this search team came up a few times since it featured in the political headlines on multiple occasions over the last year. The most searches came when the plan was finalised, and when it was rejected by the EU. 

Chequers deal Google Trends graph

Salisbury poisoning
Searches continued throughout the year with the first drop at around 10 weeks

A story with lots of new developments will reoccur in search terms. For the Salisbury poisoning, searches never really stopped last year, but did peak a number of times as new information and details were shared.

Salisbury poisoning Google Trends graph

Beast from the East
First set of searches lasted for five weeks

If you were anywhere in the UK in February last year it would have been hard to miss the big snow storm nicknamed the ‘Beast from the East’. Although the storm took the country hostage and was trending on Twitter for days, searches for the storm only lasted about five weeks with a little peak again this winter as new bad weather fronts were being compared to the Beast.

Beast from the East Google Trends graph

When it comes to the lifespan of a story, if the media find new developments, then people will continue to search around the story. Things that directly impact people seem to have more searches, as well as anything slightly complicated that the audience wants clarification on.

Public searches are one thing, but what about your news stories in the press? Track your news stories throughout 2019 with Vuelio Media Monitoring.

Naomi Narrative, Naomi Lewis

Dating Blogger Spotlight: Naomi Lewis, Naomi Narrative

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Created by Naomi Lewis as a way to get things off her chest after a terrible date, Naomi Narrative is featured as one of our Top 10 Dating and Relationship blogs and focuses on all things sex, love, relationships and dating. Naomi shares why she will be posting even more about her relationship this year, why you should put away your phone during a date, and why she likes reading all about the different perspectives of dating. 

What’s in store for the blog in 2019?
This year, I’m getting personal. Of course, I’ll continue writing about all sorts in the world of dating, sex and relationships but I’ll be sharing bits and pieces about dates I’ve been on in the past – the good, the bad, and the ugly, and more about my current relationship. I think as much as it’s important to share advice and experience about dating when single, it’s equally important to share advice and experience about things that happen in a relationship. There’s too much faff on social media these days and at times, I feel people have totally unrealistic expectations of relationships – quickly forgetting that they take work, so more nitty gritty in store! 

What are your dating no-nos?
Where do I begin with a question like that? My biggest dating no-nos would be: 

  1. Don’t lie – You’ll always get found out in the end. Don’t use photos on dating apps from 20 years ago, don’t lie about your job, etc. You are who you are, and you want someone to find the you that you love. Simple. 
  2. Don’t be unhygienic – There’s nothing worse on a first date than meeting a modern man (or woman for that matter) who doesn’t seem to know how to brush their teeth or slap on a bit of deodorant. It’s not only poor hygiene, but it’s also common courtesy to keep yourself clean and fresh, not just when you’re dating!  
  3. Don’t be lazy – If you’re having a conversation, keep it going by returning a question with an answer and a question to follow, don’t continue to allow your potential partner to plan your dates and holidays. A relationship is a two-way street – you get what you give.  

How does Valentine’s Day affect your content?
As you can imagine, Valentine’s Day is a real hotspot for dating bloggers. You’re getting press releases and samples thrown at you left, right and centre. I wouldn’t say it affects my content as the bulk of my blog discusses dating, sex and relationships all year round. However, with that being said, I always feel that it’s important to remind people of the real meaning behind Valentine’s Day: it’s not about getting yourself into debt to lavish your significant other with material goods, it’s about setting aside some time and not letting life get in the way and celebrating your love for one another. Of course, I’m not saying don’t buy gifts if you like to do that, just don’t forget what it’s all about.  

What’s your idea of the perfect date?
I think the ‘perfect date’ is totally dependent on the two people involved. For instance, for two thrill-seeking go-getters, their ideas of a perfect date might be bungee jumping off a bridge in South America, whereas that’s probably my worst nightmare. I think that if the date is well thought out with the two people involved in mind – taking into consideration their likes and dislikes – alongside dedicating real, quality time to spend together (that means no phones or distractions), that could certainly be pretty perfect. Time and thought are key to showing someone that you really care. THAT’S romance.  

How has the rise of dating apps changed the dating scene?
There are an awful lot of pros and cons to dating apps. Unfortunately, dating apps have had a significantly negative impact on a lot of people – simply due to their very nature. People – both men and women – frequently describe themselves as feeling ‘disposable’. Now, with apps, there is access to so much ‘choice’ in terms of potential partners online that a lot of daters get FOMO and can’t seem to commit. However, on the flipside of that, apps allow you to meet and date people you may never have met in ‘real life’. It’s swings and roundabouts, but as long as you’re using the right apps for the right reasons – with the right attitude – they’re great. 

How do you work with brands for the blog?
I think the most successful way to work effectively with brands is to ensure your communication is spot on. Be totally clear about your requirements, and make sure they are clear about theirs. There are PRs and brands I’ve worked with on an on-going basis and the reason (I believe) it’s worked is because there has always been a clear brief from both ends, and everything’s totally transparent. With expectations and honesty from the outset, it becomes a really easy process for everyone to get what they want from a collaboration.  

What’s the best collaboration you’ve worked on?
I’m currently working with a brand called The Sway and I love it. Not just because of how we’re working together, but because of what they’re attempting to do. The Sway is a subscription box service, where every two months, you receive a pleasure package packed with products, toys, tips, hints – all based on a particular theme – which in essence, is to empower women to explore their sex lives. I adore the concept and think it’s going to be huge.  

What other blogs do you read?
I love reading other dating blogs, especially posts from Eve Greenow’s Never Settle and James Preece. Dating is something that affects everyone at every point in their lives so it’s great to be able to read about various topics and trends from differing perspectives.

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Whatsapp

How to use Whatsapp to spread news

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WhatsApp is increasingly being used by news outlets to share content. The Reuters Digital News Report 2018 revealed another year-on-year increase in WhatsApp being used for news across the world.

This report also found that people use the words ‘honest’ and ‘reliable’ when describing WhatsApp, in comparison with ‘creepy’ and ‘ego-centric’ for social media’s big news-sharing platform, Facebook.

But it’s not just Facebook’s ‘creepy’ side that is making it less relevant for news. Changes in the Facebook algorithm mean news is less of a priority in the platform and has forced publishers to look for an alternative way to distribute news.

In light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook also now faces issues with trust, whereas WhatsApp’s use of end-to-end encryption means that messages are only seen by the sender and recipient, and cannot be intercepted or changed.

Of course, it’s worth noting that WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, so gains by one platform are not necessarily losses for the other.

Reach plc’s Nottinghamshire Live is an avid user of WhatsApp for sharing its top news stories. At newsrewired, Natalie Fahy, digital editor at the outlet, talked about how they make the most of the channel.

Natalie explained how they started by sharing ‘what’s on’ and lifestyle news, but people were calling out for the ‘real news’. They set a format of sending one teatime message a day – in order not to overload people – containing links to three news stories.

They found this process worked especially well for building a more loyal audience and encouraging people to regularly click through to the news stories. People were more engaged on the channel, even providing additional information in relation to published stories.

Natalie has written about how Nottingham Live uses WhatsApp, growing the service to over 3,500 subscribers through trial and error and the introduction of breaking news alerts.

For PR professionals, signing up to news outlets’ WhatsApp channels can be a great way to stay on top of the news that is important to you, spot trends and seize on opportunities for additional comment and brand information. However, this blessing can also be a curse because – due to the encryption – news on Whatsapp can’t be monitored.

Frank Marr

7 tips for creating an award-winning campaign

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Planning your PR and marketing campaigns for 2019? AM+A Marketing and Media Relations has picked up two awards in 2018: the Campaign Challenges Award at the PRCA Dare Awards and the Arts, Culture or Sport Campaign 2018 at the CIPR Excellence Awards – both were for its work on the Paisley UK City of Culture 2021 campaign.

Here, the agency’s managing director, Frank Marr, reveals seven tips for creating an award-winning campaign, from developing a cross channel strategy to improving your web ranking.

1. Campaign Creativity
The most effective campaigns are often down to the creative process. Ideas can come from anywhere and anyone. Once an idea is there it’s just a matter of strategically managing it. Using creativity to build brand stories and memorable content is a key way to entice your customers.

2. Campaign Strategy
It’s vital to have a clear outline of how a creative idea can be brought to life – whether it’s the development of a new product or a seasonal celebration. You should always start with a timeline of asset creation, media communication and which platforms you need.

3. In-house & Freelance Team Assets Creation
Decide which assets will be required from an exciting video and imagery to infographics and promotional material. Consider cross-platform social media material, signing up influencers and managing data capture with tracking links.

4. Improving Web Ranking: AdWords & PPC
If the creative campaign focuses on a new package, there are often opportunities to get a competitive advantage by reviewing low performing or non-existent AdWords. Look at how your organisation can boost its web ranking by creating new search engine terms.

5. Press Office, Contacts & Media Trip Programme
Whether you’re planning a short campaign or a 12 to 24 month promotion, communicating the right messages to gain the media’s attention is key. Make sure you’ve planned your media lists, media assets and a campaign timeline. If you’re doing a product launch or exclusive event, make sure you get the media to the right place at the right time, considering when you want the publicity to appear.

6. Social Media Campaign & Owned Online Content
Find stories around your campaign that aren’t necessarily commercially oriented but do create a story that benefits the reader. From your owned content, you can implement a strong tone of voice on social media, engage with influencers and promote campaign messages. Pre-plan your budgets for targeted posts, core target audiences and geo locations.

7. Sales & Results
Measure Google Analytics, monitor online engagement and tweak content as you go to maximise brand reach and monitor the scale of publicity.

AM+A can be found sharing PR and marketing tips on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

Ready to make an award-winning campaign? Find out how Vuelio can help.

The future of social media for comms

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The way that PR and comms teams are using social media channels is changing, with more focus on paid campaigns and less on customer service.

Last week, the PRCA’s Digital PR and Communications Report found that the majority (55%) of marketing budgets is now being spent on paid social media advertising. Buffer’s 2018 State of Social survey found that businesses using social media advertisements are more than twice as likely to report social media marketing as ‘very effective’, which, on top of algorithm changes, may be why brands are more eager to spend more on social.

Social media being used for customer service had its biggest drop, to 35% this year – 11% down on 2017 and 21% since 2015. But it’s not just the way social media is being used, there’s also been changes in who is creating the content and where it’s being posted.

Who is creating social content?
Over 57% of respondents said their social media content is created by the PR and comms departments, an increase of 12% from the last two years. Dedicated social media teams are down by 28% from 2014, at just 12%, showing the move to more mixed-role responsibilities in PR. In the CIPR State of the Profession survey this year, social media relations was rated as an activity undertaken by 54% of respondents, 65% of those in non-managerial roles. This shows that it is definitely still an integral part of comms.

What are the biggest challenges?
The PRCA found that both lack of staff and lack of time have increased as reasons why brands are not using social media. Lack of budget and fear of attack from campaigners also remain high.

Which channels are brands using?
91% of agencies and 94% of in-house comms teams say they use Twitter, followed closely by Facebook. The use of Snapchat and Pinterest has dropped, while Instagram has increased to 56% in-house and 70% in agencies. In the next 12 months 78% of agency respondents expect to use the platform.

Looking at Google Trends, there’s been a decrease in people searching for the term ‘social media marketing’ since its peak in April 2017. Facebook marketing hit its high in February 2011, Twitter marketing in October 2014, and Snapchat marketing in April 2016 – although it’s always been relatively low compared with the others. Instagram marketing is the exception as it continues to grow in search volume.

Social media comms google trends

Social media certainly isn’t on its way out, but brands will need to adapt to make the most of the platforms.

Instagram is up, Snapchat is down. Platforms like Twitch will start to take the limelight as brands search for new ways to reach more engaged audiences. Social will be used more and more as part of integrated campaigns, and paid is likely to be more important than ever.

Ready to plan and implement your social media campaign? Find out how Vuelio can help. 

Channel 4 in Leeds

Did Leeds agencies win over Channel 4?

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Channel 4 has announced its new headquarters – outside of London – will be based in Leeds, ending a lengthy pitching process and fierce competition. Leeds defeated many other cities, including Manchester, Cardiff and Birmingham, to be named the new home of some 300 Channel 4 staff – but how much of this was down to the creative agencies, PRs and marketers who banded together for the All in. Leeds campaign?

All In. Leeds was launched at the beginning of September by Leeds Council and over 50 agencies as a collective effort to showcase creativity in the region. Initially presenting a ‘love letter’ to Channel 4 – thanking them for prompting the creation of All In. Leeds – at the campaign’s heart was a manifesto that aims to shape the future of the creative sector in five areas: education, community, talent & diversity, businesses and creativity.

All five manifesto pledges are linked by the agencies’ desire to work together, as a collective, for the greater good of creativity in the city and region.

This collective undoubtedly played a part in the city’s victory, as Channel 4 said, in its official announcement, that Leeds is home to ‘a thriving digital industry and a strong digital talent pool’, which will help support Channel 4’s new Digital Creative Unit.

Alex Mahon, chief executive of Channel 4, said: ‘Leeds put forward a compelling and ambitious strategy for how they could work alongside Channel 4 to further build the strong independent production sector in the city and develop new diverse talent from across the region. Locating our National HQ in Leeds enables us to capitalise on a strong and fast-growing independent production sector in cities across the North of England.’

The move is a huge opportunity for agencies outside of London and signals a potential shift in the future of the media landscape. Channel 4 was forced into this decision by the Government, and it may now open the floodgates for more regionally-diverse media representation across the country.

Good news, perhaps, for the three Leeds-based PR agencies that are big enough to appear on PRWeek’s Top 150 – the industry’s barometer for PR success – but maybe a concern for the 122 that are London-based. A surge in regional PR offices is now likely, as PRs look to remain close with decision makers and stakeholders increasingly spread out across the country.

This is all opportunity for PRs, but perhaps the biggest opportunity is the results that can come out of working together. All In. Leeds showed how simple it is to work together and how many common goals competing agencies have. It’s a reminder of the power of the existing collectives in industry – the CIPR and PRCA – and a reminder that PR is buoyant and strong in its own right.

Congratulations Leeds, we’re excited to see what’s next.