Simon Turner, managing director, commented: “The North West PR industry is very strong and as a growing agency, it is pleasing to feature well. Our focus is to continue doing good work with good business partners.”

For a long time I’ve been reading PR Week blogs. And in truth, some of them are making me nervous. Why?

I think the industry is in danger of becoming too focused on digital and social media – and runs the risk of ignoring more tried and tested media outlets that clients still need. Don’t get me wrong. I love social media and what it can achieve. And it is right that the industry is talking about these new innovations in the media landscape. Social media is a really important part of the PR mix. But it is just that…Part of the mix. It isn’t right for every brand or every campaign.

The aerospace industry needs a showcase like this to demonstrate the giant leaps it is making in environmental and commercial fields on behalf of UK plc.

Boeing boasts the Dreamliner is its most fuel-efficient airliner, and the world’s first major airliner to use composite materials for the majority of its construction. Airbus also reports that the A380 is actually one of the quietest long-range aircraft in the world, despite its size, and has a very low fuel consumption. Plus, because of its sheer size, it can potentially carry more passengers and thus carry out less journeys.

The aerospace giants know they must do their bit for the environment, and make it known to the world that this is being done, and they need to showcase the technology in order to achieve this in the first place. It is then that it is possible to communicate the groundbreaking steps being taken in terms of the environment.

For an industry that has previously been under-marketed in relation to its importance – the UK’s is the leading aerospace industry in Europe and second to the US globally – it deserves support from its own community at a time when it is also under review as part of defence spending cuts.

The facts and figures speak for themselves: More than 2,600 high-value manufacturers and other companies providing jobs for more than 100,000 employees, revenue up 5.4 per cent over the last year to £11.6 billion and exports responsible for 70 per cent of turnover. All this against the backdrop of a world recession.

For anyone who still thinks ‘manufacturing is dead’ I would invite them to Lancashire to take a look at the hundreds of businesses working to support the likes of BAE Systems and Rolls Royce, who in turn employ thousands.

At Freshfield, we are proud to provide the public relations function for the North West Aerospace Alliance, the largest organisation of its kind in Europe representing hundreds of member companies in the supply chain, contributing over £6 billion pound to the UK economy in total. Surely the NWAA – and the wider advanced manufacturing industry which makes up the aviation sector – deserves marketing properly as we strive to emerge out of recession.

The benefits of the marketing of Farnborough are borne out by the investments and commitments made. This not only helps to showcase the industry to the UK and overseas investors but also to those young people with the skills who are so important to the future and will sustain the industry at a time of great need.

Long live marketing, and long live Farnborough.

Jess formerly worked on a diverse range of business to business and business to consumer clients including Harvester, Arriva Buses and Goodyear Dunlop.

Jess returns to Freshfield for her second spell at the Preston-based consultancy having completed an internship while studying public relations as the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), followed by a spell as account executive in 2007.

For Freshfield, she will be working on a range of business to consumer, business to business, education and public sector clients.

Jess said: “I am excited to be back at Freshfield, which has grown and developed considerably since I left in 2007. I hope to play a pivotal role as the company drives forward with its plans for the future.”

Freshfield managing director, Simon Turner said: “We’re thrilled to have Jess back on board. Her appointment will only strengthen our team and her experience is relevant to many of our sector specialisms. Many clients will be pleased to see her back.”

The work is based on the theme Lawyers for Life, focussing on MWR’s first rate client satisfaction results. The new look is being rolled out across all its marketing communications material including clients guides, brochures, newsletters and adverts. 

Freshfield has also restyled and built MWR’s website www.mwrlaw.com, installing a new content management system through WordPress. Freshfield’s media relations team will now be managing online content on behalf of MWR, as well as providing ongoing press office and content generation roles. 

MWR is the latest of a growing number of professional services firm to engage Freshfield on a full integrated marketing communications basis.

The simplest way to bring yourself to his or her attention would be to pick the right moment, introduce yourself, engage them in conversation, and at the end of the chat suggest you swap cards and get in touch.

However, imagine instead that you merely left your business cards dotted around the room, on the off chance that person saw your name, realised you were there and came to introduce himself or herself to you.

I think we’d all use the first option. Yet time and again, organisations use inappropriate and ineffective communication channels to target their key messages at audiences.

The reasons for this are numerous, but it often comes down to a failure to step back and consider the audience in terms of type, size, location, interests and so on.

Our audiences are nearly always easier to identify and target than we think. Take, for example, a cheese producer looking to get a new organic product into the major supermarkets. The boss of the company tasks the marketing agency with getting coverage for the product in a national newspaper.

The marketing team go away and devise a clever PR stunt which gets coverage in The Sun and Daily Mail, giving a few million readers the opportunity to read about the product. This may even create some demand for the product among some of those readers. However, on this particular day, the 10 people with responsibility for new product buying for the major supermarkets, the only people who can help the company with its objective, didn’t read The Sun or the Daily Mail.

With a small target audience it’s almost always better to try and communicate directly. With a little research, what the cheese company boss could have done was send samples of his product to the 10 purchasers along with a covering letter and information about the new product.

The following month he or she could then have showcased the product at a national food exhibition, which he or she knew would be attended by the 10 purchasers.

After striking up this initial relationship, the company could have followed up on the exhibition by sending the 10 purchasers the company’s monthly e-bulletin which includes updates on other new products and innovations. The company could also have targeted those 10 purchasers through social media, for example, using a targeted Twitter campaign to keep them updated about the product.

Of course, positive media coverage is a huge advantage to any brand, but the communication has to be targeted, relevant and worthwhile. In the above instance, one story about the product in a magazine like The Grocer, would likely have been more valuable than coverage in all of the nationals put together.

Yes, the media is certainly a major aspect of any successful public relations campaign. However, it’s also just one in a wide range of communication channels and, like the networking meeting, there will be times when direct communication is far more effective.

For the aviation industry’s largest and most prestigious event, the NWAA staged a major presence with a pavilion, briefings, a reception of its own and activities for schoolchildren.

In support, Freshfield organised pre-event briefings with key regional and national correspondents, developed a Farnborough Press pack and brought out a special newsletter. For the show itself, the agency’s Ben Hewes attended the event and set up the NWAA’s own Press Office, drafted a daily blog, organised further press briefings with key NWAA executives at the show and arranged photography.

In all, Freshfield generated 41 pieces of coverage for the NWAA relating to the Farnborough Airshow across regional and national trade publications with a potential readership of 2,566,144.

This coverage, which included pre-show and post-show activities as well as media relations during the event, equated to an AVE (advertising value equivalent) of £116,670.11.

1. Always wait until 5pm on Friday to call looking for a quote that “has to be in today”. PR people like the adrenaline rush. 

2. Always tell the PR person, “I’m sorry, I don’t regard you as a good source for a quote. I need to speak to your boss.” This is particularly effective with female PR people. 

3. Always be rude. PR people misinterpret politeness as lack of urgency. 

4. Always call to demand invitations to events for which you’ve been overlooked. Then don’t show up. Remind them who’s boss. 

5. Accept all invitations to one-on-one interviews. Then, just before you hang up, make a comment that implies you’ve always wanted to have a real go at the interviewee and you’re looking forward to it. PR people hate to feel secure. 

6. Always use the same excuse when you miss interviews. PR people will eventually get the hint. 

7. A good interviewing technique is to interrupt the interviewee and say you’re not interested in his/her opinions, but only in answers to your specific questions. This keeps the interviewee from gaining control. 

8. Never thank the PR people for anything. Gratitude upsets them. 

9. Do not make positive comments regarding information provided or skills such as writing, presentation, or running an event. Better to say things like, “Gosh, the [name rival PR agency here] event I went to was really good. We had champagne.” 

10. Always tell PR people what kind of giveaways you want. If you’re sick of T-shirts, don’t hesitate to say so. PR people really welcome the feedback. 

11. Assume that every journalist is exactly like you, and whatever you want is what they’ll all want. Educate PR people accordingly. 

12. Refuse to help PR people get to know you via questionnaires or off-deadline phone calls. What happened to good old-fashioned social skills? 

13. Always yell as abusively as possible when PR people *in your estimation* fail to deliver what they promised. Accept no excuses: these people are *paid* to serve you. Make sure they know you’ll complain to their client companies if they don’t shape up. 

14. If you haven’t been invited to a PR company’s most recent press event, call them and shout at them for ignoring you. Make sure they realise how important you are. 

15. If you missed a press conference, call the PR company and shout at them for not checking that you’d gotten the invitation. If they did call, shout at them for nagging you. 

16. Always demand a free meal as the price of doing an interview with a company executive. 

17. Request a special meeting with a client because you share his personal interests. Put the PR people to great trouble getting tickets and other access to sought-after locations. Reconfirm when the PR people call you the day before. Don’t show up. When the PR people call to ask what’s happened, say you forgot. 

18. On press trips, be unpredictable. Miss the plane.

After all, nobody sees the need for accountancy training to help us deal with meetings with our financial advisors, or lawyer training to handle tricky legal eagles, so why do we need media training? 

Like it or loathe it we all live in a media-driven world. With limitless ways of getting your business message out there it makes sense to learn how to do it well. That’s the theory anyway, but media training itself has a confused image, to say the least – let’s call it the good, the bad and the ugly. 

Starting with the “ugly”. Politicians, universally acknowledged as consummate media performers, have undoubtedly made us all more than a little cynical when it comes to the idea of being ‘trained’ to handle media interviews. Well schooled in the art of avoiding the question and dodging the straight reply, to the point at which many observers will be screaming, “Answer the question!!!” at their TV or radio, these media-savvy pros can be extremely frustrating. 

Then there’s the “bad”. You can usually spot an over-trained interviewee. They always start with the name of the interviewer, presumably because they have been told this is disarming, and they have lots of linguistic techniques up their sleeve to use in any situation. The bad news is that these people don’t make good interviewees and they often drive journalists up the proverbial wall because what they are looking for is a natural talker, a ‘good’ voice – whether it is broadcast or in print. 

So there’s our third category, the “good’ face of media training. These are people who understand the way the media think because their trainers have taken the time to explain it to them and put their training in context. They aren’t giving a ‘performance’, they are meeting their interviewer on a level playing field because they know the rules of the game. They answer questions directly but they don’t lose sight of their key messages because both they, and the journalist, know that this is a trade off for moving the story on and delivering the information that is required clearly, concisely and effectively. 

Understanding how journalists work, appreciating the demands of their hectic working day and knowing how you can help them to do their job is the result of media training at its best. 

You see, it’s not so strange after all.