Category Archives: Insights

The wood flooring is laid. The IT and phone systems have been installed. The exterior signage is up and as for the interior – perfect feng shui! But does anyone know you have moved?

Businesses of all sizes move at some stage and it presents great comms challenges and opportunities. Your communication strategy should be planned as early as the move itself. Here are five top tips.

1. Let people know!

This may seem obvious but many companies get this wrong. Moving office is a positive story and a great opportunity to let customers and contacts know you are on the up. A creative mailer is a good idea and cost effective. Follow this up by putting a message on your email signature letting people know the moving date. Your campaign should be carried out over a period of months leading up to the move to ensure new contact details and key messages are communicated. Website and social media channels should also be used.

Likewise, moving to new premises is news – highlighting the growth, expansion and development of the business, so tell the media. Either speak to the regional and trade media or hire a good PR agency to handle the external communication. Many PR companies are happy to work on one-off projects. There are two opportunities for publicity. Initially, to announce plans to move and secondly, when the move has taken place. As with all press releases, a good photograph will help. (more…)

The PR and communications challenges facing building developers to engage with the communities their proposals affect seem to have just got tougher.

The default position ‘yes’ in favour of sustainable development – originally proposed to kick-start investment, jobs and the economy – has been removed with immediate effect in the National Planning Policy Framework.

At the 11^th hour, there were amendments from Planning Minister Greg Clark to also protect ‘garden grabbing’ and local school playing fields.

Separately, developers also need to observe the Localism Act 2011 which sets out very clear legislation for local planning issues to make sure that local communities have a greater say in the developments that affect them. (more…)

Members of the Freshfield team paid a visit to the stunning MediaCity development as a guest of BBC Manchester this week.

Assistant editor of BBC Radio Manchester, Mark Elliott, led us on a behind-the-scenes peek at the jawdropping new home of the BBC in the North West.

The development is truly world class and Freshfield managed to nip in a day before Her Majesty The Queen was due to visit to officially open MediaCity, also host to ITV, Coronation Street and the University of Salford. (more…)

Trying to find the best way to engage with ‘the yoof’ of today is, for many organisations, like searching for the Holy Grail.

In times past, you could bet that if advertising, marketing and PR execs thought something was cool, then the best way to target this tricky demographic was via television, radio or the press.

These days they’d be cataclysmically wrong. It would be the marketing equivalent of seeing your dad dance when MTV was on. Yes I did witness this awful occurrence once and will remain scarred for life.

I digress. At Freshfield towers we recently commissioned the good people at Carat to identify for us what was the best media channels to target 14-19 year olds as a significant part of our client portfolio lies in the education sector. (more…)

The PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) recently unveiled its new definition of PR: “Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organisations and their publics.”

This definition was reached after debate and a public vote, in which 1,447 people took part.

In the same week, PR Week analysed the recruitment policies and attitudes to qualifications of PR agencies. It debated the need for PR degrees for a career in PR.

I can sometimes forget that I once studied and gained a PR degree, spending several years trying to define PR in my head. Seems a world away. Even now, I sometimes struggle to articulate to family and friends what PR is. My old man (in a Lancashire accent) often describes me as ‘someone who knows a good article when he sees one’.

So it was interesting to read the PRSA’s new definition, which should serve as a reminder to everyone that PR is a specialist discipline – that requires quality knowledge, skills and understanding to execute well. (more…)

Have you noticed a drop in Facebook likes or a decrease in the number of times you have been @mentioned on Twitter? The ever-evolving social media phenomenon is becoming a competitive market and only those that create winning campaigns and provide appealing content will prevail.

Facebook’s recent changes to its platform include a tough algorithm which makes only the most engaging content appear in users’ Timeline’s and decreases the prominence of those which are not. This means that if posts or images are not commented on, liked or shared they may go completely unnoticed to those fans you’ve managed to conjure up over time.

Brands and businesses using social media must therefore place renewed emphasis on engaging content. User experience should now be a top priority in any social media strategy. Messages shouldn’t be broadcast to the masses, postings should instead be personal and give fans and followers an incentive to interact.

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The beautiful game just got more beautiful – or at least it did for the Freshfield Retail and Leisure team this weekend.

Working for client, Manchester City Football Club, Freshfield launched the Harvey Nichols concept box at the Etihad Stadium.

A first in world football, an 8ftx11ft platinum hospitality box, transformed into a designer paradise, made its debut at the Bolton fixture.

Packed with designer fashions, jewellery, handbags and shoes from Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin and Dolce & Gabbana, Freshfield showcased the concept to national journalists from GQ, Esquire, Daily Mail, ShortList and Sunday Times Style Magazine. (more…)

When you’re in a busy newsroom, you get used to various kinds of material coming at you from different directions and sources.

As a former journalist, along with a number of other colleagues, I was often turned off by some of the approaches and behaviour of ‘PRs’.

Here is a short list of some of the biggest turn-offs, and a few lessons learned along the way from the other side of the fence. (more…)

1. Base the navigation around the user

Your website is useless if the user can’t navigate it. Clear and easy navigation makes any website better to use and will keep users coming back. Look at the BBC news website which has dual navigation at the top, a generalised section-based navigation and then further down the page a more direct specific set of navigation points. It’s a great benchmark. People don’t want to have to hunt around for 10 minutes to get to a specific link; they should be able to find what they want within two to three clicks of their mouse.

2. Keep the website uncluttered

A website is like a museum or art gallery. Rather than cramming every wall with every drawing, painting, or sculpture created by mankind, they are laid out in such a manner that gives them room to breathe. Creating a neutral space around items can make them easier to view and understand. Most importantly you avoid scaring the user off by throwing too much at them. (more…)

The first Government-funded PR apprenticeship scheme for non-graduates announced recently (to be run by the PRCA) should be applauded throughout the industry. Hopefully, it will result in a higher calibre of young professionals coming through the ranks.

Sadly, the current system involves too many PR graduates coming straight from university into the working environment without basic skills. True, employers have a duty to train and develop their people in the workplace, but much more should be done to prepare graduates for the technically demanding world of PR and communications.

The solution could lie in a post-graduate training programme focusing on the development of practical skills and knowledge. It could operate in a similar way to the one for young solicitors, who must complete a training contract before becoming a fully-qualified solicitor.

Just like the accountancy and legal sectors, PR is a professional service. However, there are no formal entries to market, either as a person or agency. This means it is essential for the industry to find more and better routes to professionalise and improve standards. (more…)