News Generation Keynote Theatre - Marketing Show North

 

We are delighted to be sponsoring the first ever News Generation Keynote Theatre, on 27-28 February 2019 at Event City, Manchester.

The event will be part of Marketing Show North 2019, which brings together over 10,000 digital marketing and PR professionals from all over the UK.

A well-delivered piece of News Generation, presenting a creative idea, be it a PR survey, stunt, data visualisation or video, appeals to the media and never fails to cut through on a national scale.

As the north's most prominent publishing and events company, Marketing Show North has seized the opportunity to become a trailblazer in acknowledging this fundamental element of the PR industry. Challenging the status quo that PR relies on big ideas and big budgets, News Generation demonstrates the remarkable results that creative agencies can achieve.

Speakers include; Jack Peat, Head of Digital at 72Point, Jay Williams, Director of Strategy at 72Point and former Head of News at Freuds, Richard Moriarty at The SunScott Fisher, Former Product Affairs Manager at Volkswagen UK  and Creative Director at Scribe PR,  Joely Carey, Branded Content Specialist.

 


72POINT SHOOTS AND SCORES A PLACE IN THE CREATIVE SHOOTOUT 2019

WINNING AGENCY GETS TO SAVE THE PLANET ON 24th JANUARY:

We are incredibly proud to be finalists in The Creative Shootout 2019. To secure our place in the live finals, we delivered a dark, dystopian vision of the planet’s future oceans, with a chilling message from the head of a powerful, plastic-addicted corporation – revealing how nature will be affected if we fail to turn off the plastic tap.

The Live Final of the 2019 Creative Shootout will be held at BAFTA on Thursday 24th January 2019. Tickets can be purchased here – so please come along and support Team 72Point!

Creative Shootout Founder Johnny Pitt said: “The quality of entries was off the scale this year and our brave agencies now have the opportunity for creative fame, as well as to make a marked difference to a blight that affects every single one of us.”

72Point Managing Director Chris Pharo said “We relish the opportunity to demonstrate the high-quality of our creative to a live audience. We will throw everything we have at the chance to support A Plastic Planet in their mission to reduce the planet’s plastic waste problem with the execution of a global, hard-hitting, multimedia anti-plastic campaign.”

 


How To Avoid a Halloween Horror Show

Halloween has hit hysterical heights of marketing, PR and comms activity in recent decades, with most businesses or organisations dedicating massive budgets to campaigns with mixed results. An increasingly saturated landscape means brands are vying for a finite amount of media space, which makes the need to be inventive and imaginative more important than ever.

We look at how you can maximise your exposure in a period of frenetic PR activity, cut-through the noise and make people stop, think and engage with your brand. Here are our top tips to avoid a Halloween Horror Show:

1) Interaction

Halloween is all about communities. Children spend the evening getting into the spirit with costumes and face paint, and then knocking on the doors of their neighbours seeking out tasty treats. Parents and adults often get together for Halloween themed drinks and parties within their local communities/work circles, and so we should be looking at building on that interactive feel in our comms. Content that requires people to get involved (such as quizzes, animations and online surveys) is far more likely to be shared both online and verbally during the Halloween season. Interactive content also gives the public a conversation starter or party-game during the Halloween period, maximising the reach of the campaign.

 2)  Coverage, Coverage, Coverage

Clever creative is ultimately the key to a cracking campaign, but creativity is nothing if no one sees the content. In a season with so much creative scope, ensuring a press release stands out from the crowd, and isn’t dismissed in a matter of seconds by a harried news editor is often a question of timing. Understanding the news agenda at that time, cleverly written toplines and knowing what the publisher wants during the Halloween period all go a long way to maximising the exposure of a campaign. And if you need a cheat, we’re always on hand to help.

Our 40-year heritage as part of the SWNS Media Group and our ability to produce content with mainstream media appeal coupled with our confidence in our creative work is backed up by a solid guarantee of coverage, and vast experience in media relations that will help ensure your campaign travels far and wide

  3) Visual Content

Halloween is a season that is bursting with visual content. Commercial, digital, print and retail landscapes are dominated by content and items produced with spooky themes in mind.

The opportunity presented to brands is to create a campaign that focuses on Halloween visuals, allowing them to tap into the agenda and enhance how engaging their project will be. Infographics, animations, videos and puzzles are all great ways to capitalise on national buzz and ensure that a piece of content gets clicks, views and plays. Make sure that all your visual assets are striking, colorful and on-brand.

 4)    SEO – What Google Wants

An overwhelming 90% of users click on the first 3 results in Google and only 6% click on paid search results. This means that businesses who make a conscious effort to position themselves as thought-leaders and have the nause to craft content that suits Google’s guidelines are at a massive advantage when it comes to generating web-traffic. Here are five top tips on how you can optimise content so it gets seen in search:

  • Utilise keywords. A keyword strategy is key to any piece of content for optimisation. Make sure that you identify key search terms that the content can attack, and include them in valuable places such as the title, headings and subheadings and introductory sentence.

 

  • Reference quality sites within the copy by linking to them. Not only is it good etiquette but they may also notice and link back to your content, showing google that it is a well respected piece.

 

  • Use social media to broaden the reach of your campaign, with cleverly timed and/or targeted posts.

 

  • Build pages and embed assets on your site. This will allow you to generate a traffic funnel of users/potential customers to your site. Not only does Google’s algorithm favour sites with many relevant pages, it will also add value to your site, giving people a reason to visit your page.

 

  • Optimise your images for SEO, by making them relevant to the content, choosing a good file name, adding a caption to the image (for easy scanning), and reducing the file size if possible.

 

5)   Shareability

Social content is a primary driver of traffic to websites. Roughly 3.2 billion social media users globally in 2018 means more consumers are engaging with content on social media than ever before. In fact, it has become the one-stop-shop for users to also share content with friends. This means, to maximise exposure on social platforms, the shareability of the content has to be the primary focus. The way to create shareable content is to tell a story and provide a feed for your audience of what they want to see – so, there’s no better time to create an experience that’s both haunting and brilliant than at Halloween.

Our breakthrough package incorporates social media optimised content, and detailed targeting, to ensure your message gets put in front of the people most likely to engage with it.

The opportunity presented to well-known brands at Halloween is to think outside the box and maximise exposure.

Here at 72Point, we specialise in cutting through the blur of competition to deliver high-quality coverage, even at periods of frenetic PR activity. Our unique relationship with publishers perfectly positions us to provide engaging content-driven solutions to your PR requirements that are newsworthy and most importantly, news-ready.

Last year’s Halloween saw us land 597 pieces of coverage across 38 projects – showcasing how we are able to use popular festivals/events to help brands springboard into the spotlight and connect with more diverse and wider audiences. Campaigns varied from news generation projects, visual assets/video projects, radio and PR surveys. Our versatility in working with brands is unrivalled, and our experience vast.

Avoid a Halloween Howler this year, come to 72Point to ensure your brand’s key messaging travels far and wide this Halloween season.


Lizzie Singleton Joins the 72Point Team

We announce the appointment of Action Global Communications’ Lizzie Singleton to the post of Campaigns Director.

Lizzie brings with her a wealth of PR experience having worked in-house as PR Manager for Debenhams, at ZPR as Account Director and Action Global Communications as Senior Account Director in Dubai.

 During her career, Lizzie has worked on campaigns for P&G, Debenhams, Coral, Whistles, JD Williams, Mamas and Papas and many more.

 We have enjoyed consistent 30% growth in the last two years, debuting in the PRWeek Top 150 list in 2018 at number 54. Lizzie will join a growing team with key players including former Freuds Head of News, Jay Williams.

Lizzie will add an international perspective to our creative campaigns, scaling up the already unrivalled levels of coverage we achieve in top news publications and sites.  Lizzie said: “It’s great to be joining such a thriving agency with a very unique proposition.”

We are a top 20 consumer agency that provides unique creative and unrivalled distribution for some of the UK’s biggest brands such as, British Airways, Virgin Media and Sky.

 Lizzie added: “I look forward to working with the talented 72Point team to deliver stand-out campaigns for our clients in the months ahead.”

Chris Pharo, Managing Director said: “We are thrilled to have Lizzie join the team – she brings with her a broad understanding of creative, strategic and crisis PR and alongside the rest of our brilliant creative team, I am sure she will play a crucial role in our continued development as we move into a bright new future.”


72Point Welcomes Back Jay Williams

 

72Point welcomes back Jay Williams, former Head of News at Freuds, as Director of Strategy.

72Point is a top 20 consumer agency that provides unique creative and unrivalled distribution for some of the biggest brands such as, British Airways, Virgin Media and Sky.

Williams was one our founders back in 2001, before joining PR behemoth Freuds.  72Point has enjoyed consistent 30% growth in the last two years, debuting in the PRWeek Top 150 list in 2018 at number 54.

He said: “It’s great to be back.  It’s a very exciting time to be rejoining, with 72Point making its debut in the PR Week Top 150 and in the top 20 consumer agencies.  

“They’ve punched above their weight for some time, but much of their work has gone under the radar.  It’s good to see them where they belong – rubbing shoulders with the big players.

“We will be making more key creative hires in the coming months.”

Once synonymous with News Generation in the PR industry, we are taking huge strides to diversify its offering across Broadcast PR, Content Marketing and Social Media Outreach. Williams is one of our biggest recent hires, with Former Royal Correspondent for The Sun and owner of Zest PR, Duncan Larcombe, joining in April 2018 as Consumer PR Strategist.

As part of SWNS Media Group, which has a 40-year heritage in the UK press industry, 72Point continues to harness the power of its strong media connections with top UK national news publications including The Sun, MailOnline, Telegraph and the Independent as well as high-volume news sites UNILAD and LadBible.

Chris Pharo, Managing Director said: “We welcome Jay back to the company with open arms. His boldness, insight and clarity of thought will help us drive the strength of our creative and open up new and exhilarating opportunities for our clients, taking our offering to the next level.”


PRWeek Top 150 - Our Story

72Point has become synonymous with news generation thanks to its ability to put brands at the heart of national conversations.

It’s unique position as a PR consultancy with journalistic talent at its core has helped the agency punch above its weight.

The firm’s offering has evolved substantially which has culminated in its inaugural entry into PRWeek's Top 150 PR Consultancies list in 2018 - coming in at number 54.

At the heart of the company is a creative team of former journalists and editors with an enviable understanding of the media landscape. They are able to help brands with guidance on both campaign ideas and content copy, this has proved integral in removing the risk from earned media, with guaranteed coverage now a staple of the agency’s offering.

72Point’s dedicated and growing digital team was recently shortlisted for the PRCA’s in-house Digital Team of the Year and works to maximise the impact of client stories across online channels. Last year the team achieved 5,269 pieces of online coverage for their clients and 635,000 social shares.

Recent wins for 72Point have included a project for online parenting community Channelmum. The firm's creative handling and media distribution services boosted Channelmum’s story on the ‘gender price gap’ around the difference in price of clothes from boys to girls.

The Digital Outreach team landed 170 pieces of coverage and five top 10 national news sites, generating a public conversation around the issue of the “pink tax”.

Other wins this year included an integrated campaign for Heathrow Express. 72Point’s content marketing team created a visual puzzle that challenged the public to spot a train going in the opposite direction to the others in a busy setting. The puzzle, which achieved both print and digital coverage, provided the client with an asset that attracted people to their new site and promoted the rail link’s high-quality service and reliable 15-minute journey time. The project achieved 769 social shares and an online readership of over one billion.

For Healthspan, seeking national news coverage to support their ‘Live Long You’ campaign, 72Point conducted a survey which elevated Healthspan’s key messages centring around the idea that great health starts with good nutrition and eating well, to a national scale, landing in over four national publications and achieving both digital and print coverage.

A digital revolution

Alongside its creative and distribution work the agency has comprehensive digital and social media services. With international offices and an increased headcount, the firm is working alongside some of the biggest brands and most dynamic SMEs in the country.

72Point’s Managing Director Chris Pharo, says: "The last few years have seen a remarkable transformation at 72Point.

We have evolved from a one-stop-shop for news gen into a creative content powerhouse with several services to complement our unrivalled distribution.

"It is our sincere hope that these will continue to flourish over the next year as we work with more exciting brands and develop national campaigns that solidify our position as a market leader for compelling news generation and exposure in the media."

72Point’s biggest asset is its proven track record, according to Pharo “Our projects have a 100% success rate, delivering an average of 27 pieces of coverage, 460 social shares and 1,327,962 impressions per project.

"We have generated national media exposure for household name brands, including Sky Mobile British Airways and National Express and have advanced the reputation of some of the country’s most promising start-ups and SMEs with creative content and targeted media exposure.

"As a result, we have cultivated our offering, expanded our client base and achieved sustained growth through our sales, achieving new record figures on a consistent basis for the past two years. And as far as we’re concerned, we’re only just getting started."

 

Link to PRWeek article 

 

 


Bitz and Bob - Outstanding Social Results!

Our social project for new Cbeebies programme Bitz and Bob has achieved 488,000 views and 115,000 comments, likes and shares, tackling gender stereotypes in such a fun and creative way.

For a full breakdown of the project click here. 

 

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The Art of Keeping Things Simple

We all know it - simple is best. It is a cross-industry fact that the most successful businessmen and women, musicians, sports people, journalists, media companies and indeed Meerkat comparison sites all have one thing in common; They focus on doing the simple things well. I myself have had countless debates and full blown arguments with friends on what is the main stumbling block for creatives, and we always agree that it often boils down to an urge to make things unnecessarily complex. And the same can be said for pretty much any profession.

On JOE’s recent podcast interview with Eric Cantona, the iconic former Manchester United footballer said; “Simplicity is the most difficult thing, like in football, the most difficult thing is to score a goal when 11 players touch the ball once and the last one puts the ball in the back of the net, so simple but so difficult.” What he’s implying is that simplicity is difficult to obtain and harder to maintain, but that’s where the creative and productive energy lies, not in over-complicating things to the point of losing their essence but in bringing them back to basics.

Musicians have echoed his thoughts, stating that the biggest hits have come from the simplest of writing processes, rather than almost trying too hard to create an obscure piece of art that, again, will not engage the average listener. Oasis’s Noel Gallagher, speaking to Evening Standard on the smash success of his debut solo album As You Were, had this to say on the matter; “It’s been mega. It’s not curing cancer. but there’s an appetite for a good album. The world moves so f***ing fast and everyone’s trying to reinvent the f***ing wheel. I’m not interested — the wheel’s alright.” It’s a typically honest observation from one of the most recognisable and successful figures in modern British music.

 

Film is another industry to suffer from over-complexity with more and more producers losing key audiences due to their commitment to creating works of art that are just so convoluted that they only appeal to a finite number of people. Anyone who had the misfortune of watching The Cloverfield Paradox earlier this year will know what I mean.

Unfortunately, in the increasingly tech-dominant media world we live in, the art of keeping things simple can also fall by the wayside amongst a myriad of complex techniques thought up to maximise reach to a target audience. Which is why here at 72Point, we let the content and coverage speak for itself.

Cision’s state of the media report indicates that if there’s one thing PR professionals can do to help journalists do their jobs better it is to ensure that any press releases they do send out have a clearly stated news hook. That was something 45 per cent of respondents said when asked how press releases can be more efficient. Writing conversationally is also important, as 27 per cent indicated that they dislike press releases that feel templated and include jargon. More simple quotes and multimedia elements would help, too.

An effective press release is creative and intriguing but for it to convey a message then it has to be simple enough for people to understand - something that is often forgotten in the PR industry. Toiling over creative briefs for weeks-on-end searching for the most complex idea wastes time and energy and often results in a solution that misses the mark because it’s far too convoluted to engage the general public.

It stands to reason that key messaging of clients could be potentially lost amongst a sea of confusing copy in a press release. At 72Point, our brilliant creative team craft stories with a dedication to simplicity, knowing that it’s what journalists want, and the results speak for themselves, with 5,269 pieces of coverage and 635,297 social shares in 2017 alone. When you know you have a winning formula, why over-complicate it?


72Point On Top of the World With Borne Charity

April 24 2018

72Point is proud to support the Borne Charity who took us all the way to the North Pole in their recent Arctic challenge.

Their fantastic team has raised over £750,000 for new research to prevent preterm birth.

We supported them with high-quality media exposure and interviewed Hollywood actor Alistair Petrie who shared his experience of premature birth.

To learn more about Borne Charity and their research to prevent premature birth visit their website here.

 


72Point Enter PRWeek's Top 150

April 23 2018

Entering PRWeek's Top 150 at an impressive #54, we demonstrate our unique offering as a PR Consultancy with an innate understanding of the news environment, able to tap into the media landscape across all platforms in a way that most traditional agencies can’t.