PR Insight

Why Do So Many PRs Look The Same?

By Geo Craig

Mixed-race, 21 year old, former aspiring footballer who left the education system aged 16 and with no A-levels or uni degree to his name. Not exactly the archetypal platform from which to launch a PR career at a top consumer agency - but why is this the case? In an industry where our job is to get under the skin of brands and what makes their customers tick, why do so many PRs look, dress, speak and think in the exact same way? Surely that can only breed ideas that speak to a certain market of individuals, and if fame, vast exposure and virality is the benchmark here then there should be as much cultural representation in every brainstorm as possible.

I’m not going to lie and say it’s easy working in an industry where so few at board level, or even senior positions, look and speak like me. It’s immediately noticeable whenever something remotely ‘urban’ comes up in storm, and heads turn towards me. This will be a familiar feeling for any creative who looks even partially ethnic. Why do we have to be the sole torch bearers of inclusion, why can’t there just be a general attitude shift across the board? It’s time now for a recruitment strategy that actively seeks out those with unorthodox backgrounds, recognising the possibilities having a truly diverse team would open up. 

The truth is, brands have arguably the biggest part to play in the issue of diversity, as they have the audience and platform to send out the right messages. They need to start understanding that just installing Common as a face of a campaign, or, worse still, getting Kendall Jener to open a can of Pepsi, does not constitute a ‘diversity campaign’. It just feels like an after-thought and is clearly the brainchild of a meeting that contained not one person who represented the audience they were trying to reach. It’s just simply not real enough, and if anything, it deters BAME candidates from a career in advertising and PR - why would they want to take part in an industry that more often than not, clumsily botches it’s job of engaging with them? 

So, more diversity in teams will naturally result in a more wide-reaching and considered suite of ideas. Great. But what benefit does having an ‘unconventional’ mentality have on personal working experiences? 

My own unorthodox PR background has, in fact, been my biggest strength early on in my career. It has allowed me to see industry with a fresh mind, chat to various experts around me and quickly pick-up skills. Diversity fosters an environment of constant learning, where no 2 team-members experience is the same, and where creativity is constantly tried and tested amongst a wider sample group of society. If you can constantly challenge your team to learn on-the-job, not only about industry, but also different cultures, then surely as an employer, you are fulfilling your duty to provide staff with the opportunity to grow. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

by Drench Design

Been there…done that…bear the scars

By Chris White-Smith

Personal record - Played 3 – Won 1, Lost 2

So mid-table mediocrity in the league of successful funding. On what basis, therefore, my right to posit about the tactics for success? Simple - Failure.

The most successful entrepreneurs fail brilliantly. Perceived wisdom suggests that if you’re not failing, you’re too cautious and caution is the first turn off for investors. On that basis, I’m in….

One chance with a potential investor, probably one minute, 5 at the most, so you’d better be prepared – prepare to blow’em away, and prepare for plenty of no’s, not because your idea isn’t great, more the ratio of opportunity to investment most make. I put your chances on average at best 1:100, so don’t fear failure. Its nothing personal.

Channel that fear to adrenalin and passion. But watch out for dilusion, a fast track to fanciful planning. Fact - Investors won’t believe your plan, however ‘genuinely realistic’ you believe. They’ll slash it, and give it the once over. If it passes first muster, they’ll halve it again. If it passes again, you’re chances just increased by a smidge.

All adds up to a massive adrenalin rush. So if you ain’t got that hit, you shouldn’t be in the room.

9 out of 10 start ups don’t make it, for a million different reasons - Investors know that too. The passion for success must be shared, so invest in your investor for value-add beyond cash - its a rollercoaster ride, and you’ve got to feel them feel it.

So my top 10 tips for maximizing your chances: (by-passing the ‘Have a great idea’ bit):

1. Prepare for no’s
2. Invest in your investor
3. Be tight with your equity
4. Borrow small. Crowdfund as last resort
5. Blow away pitch – 5 mins max to hook them
6. Prove the market in the gap – No blag…they’ll find it
7. Believe at every stage
8. Be confident and passionate, not arrogant
9. Be clear on the exit
10. Be Lucky

I was lucky once. I’ll take that…

Good Luck!

by Drench Design

Growing Your Facebook Page: The Insider Tricks

By Marketing Assistant Geo Craig 

Social media has opened up a whole new world for brands, and is an exciting method for them to connect with their customers with meaningful content. With 4 billion people worldwide now using the internet, and 97% of marketers using social media to reach their audiences the simple fact is that social media now plays a vital part in a marketer's arsenal.

At 72Point, we utilise our various owned channels (415K total page likes) to generate targeted exposure for our clients with creative content that’s fit-for-purpose. Our campaigns run across multiple channels and media outlets to ensure we maximise reach, with our digital outreach process allowing us to tap into the national media whilst honing in on relevant target groups on social.

Here are our top five tips to growing a social media following:

1 - Post regularly to build up your audience with engaging content

Regularly posting engaging content is rule number one to increasing your following. Video content is essential on most social media platforms now, with 64% of consumers saying that watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced a purchase decision in the last month. Facebook favours original content, edited and over three minutes in length. And don’t be scared to re-use content. A whopping 92% of marketers say that they repurpose existing content and assets to create videos in order to post at least 1-2 times a day; the recommended amount according to SocialBakers.

2 - Ask your audience rhetorical questions to spark debate

Using content that makes the viewer stop, think and engage is key, with slightly controversial videos that ask something or play on opinion far more likely to be shared and commented on. One of our most successful social media campaigns was a social experiment with Mama Mio that saw a Mummy Vlogger put on a baby bump and take to the tube to see if the public would give up their seat for her. It sparked conversation once shared into the right groups, as it plays on an old British etiquecy principle, and sure enough it achieved tens of thousands of views on social media.

3 - Audience management

Once you have a stream of comments on a post, it’s a good idea to interact with your community and respond. This will make your page appear more active and dynamic than one that rarely posts and doesn’t engage with it’s community. Comments are far more valuable social media currency then likes for a number of reasons. For a start, the act of ‘liking’ a post can be an unconscious response, while comments are more meaningful. What’s more, the majority of people who like your post may never actually visit your page and a tiny amount will actually view your posts (it can be as low as 2%). It’s also worth noting that Facebook is looking to create communities, not just a platform for brands to shout at their customers, because ultimately building communities is going to increase the amount of time people spend there.

4 - Set up a group/community

Setting up a group/community connected to your page creates a forum for your audience to discuss different topics and can expand your reach. This also gives your page authority, because If you have an active group running alongside your own channel it gives your following more of an opportunity to discuss, share and engage with your content. Once users recognise your brand as a hub to interact with other users, they will keep coming back for more.

5 - Seeding into groups

Joining relevant groups and sharing posts into them means that you’re putting your content in front of a targeted audience for free. The audience in these groups are then far more likely to interact with your content than the average person scrolling down their timeline. This is a quick and easy hack that is almost certainly guaranteed to expand your post reach and also can have some influence on page engagement, if you re-target those who like your post and invite them to go on and like your page.

by Drench Design

Are Consumers Overwhelmed By Black Friday?

By guest contributor Sasha Gill 

For years, the phenomenon of Black Friday has swept the nation’s advertising billboards, televisions and pop ups. The best day of the year to get a deal on the jeans or the laptop you’ve been wanting for ages, or to save much needed money on purchases for the upcoming Christmas holidays. However, with Black Friday being the busiest day of the year for shopping, can the number of deals and offers overwhelm consumers and leave them feeling lost?

We conducted some research into Black Friday to see if Brits had become desensitised to the shopping holiday.

When is Black Friday?

Our insights revealed that 85.2% of Brits are familiar with what Black Friday is, however, most people who have heard of it don’t know when it falls. In such an expensive climate, you would think that saving on Christmas presents would be high-up on consumer’s priority list.

Despite many not knowing the exact date of Black Friday, those who were planning on buying Christmas presents on November 29th expected to buy around 38% of their gifts on that day. In terms of the type of items people are on the look-out for, 46% of respondents said they are looking for tech items such as smartphones and TVs and around 33% are looking to buy clothing and accessories. 

With competitive deals driving Christmas advertising, it’s safe to say that British consumers will be looking to spend a considerable amount on the day if they find an item they deem valuable. It’s no wonder that 66% of those who are planning to shop on Black Friday are already saving up for the day giving companies an obvious leverage in terms of sales, and showcasing how shoppers should have a pretty sizeable budget to scour the market with. 

Are Consumers Satisfied With Black Friday?

When speaking to those who have participated in Black Friday shopping in the past, many agree that there was a lot of hype, but the deals and offers fell flat and didn’t quite meet their demands. With so much competition going on between brands, getting the attention of potential customers is an on-going battle. Marketers who seek alternative communications can gain an upper hand and cut-through the noise with a clever integrated campaign that reaches their target audience and notifies them of an opportunity. 

With 82% of those who are participating in Black Friday this 2019 planning on buying their Christmas gifts, the opportunity to reach those consumers is still vast. 33% of previous participants shopped across both online and in-store, so the potential for a multi-platform campaign is there. Clever content that provides valuable information to an audience is the way to stand out from the crowd.

72Point specialises in multi-channel, integrated PR campaigns that engage your target audience with creative comms spanning national/regional media, social, broadcast and video. Our denim report campaign for Lyst saw us create an impressive integrated campaign which involved multiple elements including a national news story looking into the fashion trend and an online platform. It was a proven hit with the media, earning exposure in 125 pieces of coverage, 16 SEO links and 5.43 million coverage views, successfully promoting the platform. 

For more information on how 72Point can assist with your Black Friday campaigns, contact the team here: hello@72point.com 

0207 138 3041

by Drench Design

Looking to secure a follow link in press coverage? Follow our traffic light system

Securing backlinks from publishers has become an increasingly important part of the PR function, but picking up those all-important links is increasingly difficult to do.

Publishers are more aware than ever of how the content they put up affects their own DA. With search providing a wealth of evergreen traffic to their site we are now at a point where most hacks wont link back to a brand’s site unless they absolutely have to.

So how do we make a compelling case for them to change their mind?

At 72Point, we use a traffic light system. Stories that fall into the red light category are unlikely to get many links at all, certainly from high domain authority publishers, while those with an amber rating might pick up a handful of referrals from across the board.

But projects that hit green light criteria generally clean up with high-DA links from a range of publications, as well as a high percentage of follow links vs no-follow links.

Here’s how the classification breaks down:

RED – Link to my dot com

We give a red light to stories where the link is simply inserted as the brand citation, or within the copy as a dot com without leading to any supplementary information. These are the easiest links for publishers to remove because there is nothing compelling them to include them. It comes across as salesy, spammy and low-quality; everything most digital journalists are looking to avoid.

AMBER – Link to further information

A step up from this is using additional information, multimedia or resources to add value to the story. We give an amber light to stories where the link gives publisher’s a reason to link through and also demonstrates a natural, symbiotic relationship between the link target and the published piece of content. This may be an interactive quiz which relates to the story, a piece of multimedia content or running survey results in full so readers can delve deeper into your research.

GREEN – Making the link target the story

We give a green light to stories where the link target is the story. Digital publications are increasingly interested in writing about things that happen online, so creating an asset that is both newsworthy and sits on the client’s site is an SEO win for us.

An example of this is a campaign we recently ran for online retailer Lyst. They wanted to optimise their site in search around the keyword “sneaker”, so we developed a “sneaker intelligence unit” campaign and invited sneaker fanatics to apply for their dream job by completing an MI5-esque quiz hosted on their site. The resultant press coverage from the campaign led to 143 pieces of coverage, 82 of which linked back to Lyst.

The key to the success was that publishers had to run the link for the story to make sense, which gave a significant boost to the SEO performance of the project.

For more info on our SEO services, visit this page: https://www.72point.com/pr-services/digital-outreach-seo/

Get in touch today to see how we can help with your SEO projects.

hello@72point.com

0207 138 3041

by Drench Design

RECIPE BOXES: THE NEW WAY TO COOK?

By Marketing Assistant Apprentice Julien Kirkpatrick

In the last couple of years, the recipe box industry has burst onto the scene, getting more and more public attention, and revolutionising the way people are cooking. Time-poor professionals are replacing lengthy processes of shopping for ingredients and crafting recipes with the simplicity of having everything sent directly to their door in one neat box.

We conducted research to take a deeper look at the booming industry.

Our insights revealed that over half of respondents are signing up for recipe boxes to receive new recipes, and broaden the horizons of their culinary skills. In such a fast-moving world, slowing down to try and cook proper meals is virtually impossible, so traditional cooking has become less common.

And people want things quick. Waiting is something people quite frankly don’t have time to do. Forty-three percent of respondents said they would cook more at home if they just had the time, currently making an average of three meals per week. The convenience factor of having everything you need for dinner sent to your door in a neat package is what’s driving this industry, as with many others, and enticing consumers.

When changing to a recipe box meal-plan, the main thing that comes to people’s minds is cost. Are recipe boxes more expensive than going to a supermarket and picking the food yourself, or going to your local takeaway? This is one of the reasons why the price of the recipe box is an important consideration with potential customers, with 57% deeming it the most prominent factor in their decision-making process.

The recipe boxes market has become quite saturated, with there now being nine “main” companies dominating the market. Some of which are better- known than others, with Hello Fresh the most well-known according to our poll.

With it being such a saturated market the number of people trying them is increasing day-by-day. There is a high possibility that people might want to try different services to see if they like one better than another, with 60% of respondents to our poll trying more than one recipe box and 41% trying three or more.

Word of mouth was a key driver for potential customers trying boxes out, with 28% admitting that being recommended by family and friends had motivated them to try a recipe box service. And if happy with their service, these customers will be loyal with 70% committing to more than six months and the average length of commitment being 8.5 months.

One thing’s for sure, the industry is waiting for a powerhouse to creatively dominate the landscape and position themselves as forward-thinking, solution providers to all of these concerns. Who will that be?

For more information, contact us: hello@72point.com

0207 138 3041

by Drench Design

#SecondHandSeptember

By Lisa Malyon

72Point has been flexing its CSR muscles this month, with the successful launch of Oxfam’s Second Hand September initiative – encouraging Brits to sign up to 30-days of buying second-hand, instead of new. The hard-hitting behaviour change campaign reached over 10 million consumers via national TV and radio (6m), print (1.95m) and online (2.6m) coverage, and resulted in a great big spike in people making the pledge.

Having already undertaken primary research revealing the shocking stats about the environmental impact of fast fashion, Oxfam enlisted the support of 72Point to ask consumers how the stats made them feel when it comes to fast fashion, and if they would change their behaviour. If you were told that buying a new white shirt is as bad for the environment as driving 35 miles, would you think twice about buying it? A massive third of all Brits said that although they were shocked about the impact their fast fashion purchases have on the planet, they probably won’t change their habits. The study of Brits also found the average adult spends £27 a month in fast fashion outlets and two items are currently owned which remain unworn.

The shocking fact is that every week 11 million items of clothing end up in landfill - with many of them being still wearable - and every minute two tonnes of clothing is bought, producing nearly 50 tonnes of carbon emissions. We, as consumers, must change the way we act. Join us in doing so, and make the pledge today – it’s never too late.

by Drench Design

5 Top Tips To Running Social Media PR Campaigns

72Point has strengthened its social presence significantly over the past year, now commanding 385,000 likes across a variety of pages, achieving 15.7m reach and 3.45m engagement in the last month alone.

Read more about how our social media PR services can help you to develop a winning social media campaign.

Check out this video that went viral on one of our affiliate pages The London Economic's Facebook, with over 3.3m views:

Social media PR is an integral part of any brand’s marketing mix, providing the nuts and bolts of strategies geared towards engaging consumers.To fully maximise their impact, you must meet users with content that is geared towards social, with factors such as virality, engagement, shareability and visual pull all playing an integral part in running a winning social media campaign. 

Here’s our 5 top tips: 

1) Think Social First 

For any campaign to truly leave its mark on the social media landscape, the creative idea must be thought out with social in mind first. In this day-and-age of multi-platform campaigns and content that can thrive across various outlets, it can be easy to allow social to fall by the wayside when thinking of what channels to target. It shouldn’t be an afterthought or bolt-on to an existing campaign, social should be where you start and the content created should be powerful enough to dovetail with all other channels including digital and print media. 

 2) Visual Works

Social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter are ruthless battlegrounds for content where the contest is won and lost with the swipe of a thumb. Your content must be battle-ready. How can you ensure this? Think visual, think striking, think attention-grabbing. Visual concepts can portray information and retain attention in equal measure. 

3) Know Your Enemy 

Each social media platform has a different audience, different interfaces and different purposes. You’ve got to know what platform you’re targeting and tailor your content accordingly. For example, blogs work well on LinkedIn, images and videos perform well on Instagram and quick updates/nuggets of information work well on Twitter. Make sure you carefully consider which platform your content is looking to target and the audience you’re looking to reach.

4) Be Fireproof and Flexible

Sometimes campaigns don’t perform as well as intended. But here’s the good news: that’s OK. Fear not and don’t be deterred. Social media gives everyone, anywhere the power to publish content which means your campaign can get lost in the sea. Be prepared for things not to go to plan and be ready to make subtle tweaks to campaigns during the process. If a certain piece of content isn’t being engaged with, use or make another one. If posting at a certain time of day isn’t getting sufficient eyeballs, try another. You’ve got to be flexible to reap the rewards of an ever-changing hub. 

5) Be Bold

Social media honors the brave. Stories and posts that are slightly controversial encourage talkability, get discussed more and therefore are shared more within social circles.  Who knows, if your campaign is effective enough, it may even benefit from the Morgan Multiplier, or be talked about by another influencer. If you can create something that gets mentioned by a celebrity, then not only have you unlocked the reach of their following, you’ve also most probably got an easy route to other forms of media. Fortune favours the brave.

by Drench Design