As pandemic restrictions have continued to ease in recent months, our content creators, much like everyone else, have been making the most of the return to freedom. For periods of downtime however, we’ve not squandered the opportunity to delve into a good book, watch some fascinating TV series and even perfect our cooking skills! Here’s the rundown from the team:

Ollie
I’ve just finished reading Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell. It’s the tale of a fictional band’s sudden rise to fame – and subsequent fall – during the late 60s. Some of the dialogue is a bit wooden and there are some cheesy and predictable moments, but despite these flaws I actually found the book hugely enjoyable. You get the impression Mitchell had a lot of fun researching the era, trying to capture the zeitgeist and making this fictional band’s story come alive among real life characters and events.

Next up is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles which is about a Russian aristocrat living under house arrest. Can’t think why I put off reading this one during lockdown…

Natalia
Being a self-proclaimed chef, I always dive deep into my quite large collection of cookbooks. As I wasn’t able to celebrate all the birthdays and anniversaries over the past 18 months with the usual tour-the-hidden-restaurants, I transformed my kitchen into a very messy food sanctuary. I’m currently trying out Mauritian recipes from my signed copy of Sunshine On a Plate by MasterChef winner Shelina Permalloo. Truly great fusion cuisine with African, Asian, and European influences, perfect for sharing, and those who have to follow a gluten/dairy-free diet like me.

In between flicking through cookbooks and, of course, football, I got to enjoy a good binge-watch session on Netflix. A thriller mini-series The Woods based on Harlan Coben’s bestselling novel kept me in suspense, biting my nails and munching on toffee popcorn. If like me you can’t wait to get hooked on the next intriguing mystery, and don’t mind English dubbing or subtitles, I can recommend this absorbing, well-written piece of Polish cinematography. Whilst I’m tempted to re-watch Lucifer for the 3rd time, I promised my friends to catch up on The West Wing, a gripping American political drama from the early 2000s. Off to buy some more popcorn then!

Alex
Listening to music has always been one of my favourite ways to escape stresses of daily life, and it’s proven no different in 2021 during lockdown and restrictions. New albums by Wolf Alice, Royal Blood and Twenty One Pilots have been on repeat on my Spotify! Euro 2020 fever has also struck me during the last few weeks and I’ve enjoyed listening to the Peter Crouch Euros Podcast on BBC Sounds as they take a light-hearted analysis on games in the tournament. I’m currently reading Born to be Mild by Rob Temple, an autobiographical journey by the man behind the popular Very British Problems profile on social media.

Hannah
We’ve recently moved house, so I’ve been watching a lot of short programmes to keep me entertained while decorating. At the moment, that’s Younger, a show about a woman in her 40s who pretends to be in her 20s to get a job in publishing. Looking a bit further ahead, I’m very excited that not one, but two(!) film adaptations of Jane Austen’s Persuasion (my favourite book!) are currently in the works. It’ll be a while before we get to see the finished results but I can’t wait to see what they do with Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth’s story!

I’m also reading the award-winning Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. It’s a bit of a departure from what I usually read but I’m enjoying it so far!

Richard
I really enjoy reading history and biography and am currently combining the two by working my way through a book about Clement Attlee called Citizen Clem. It is a fascinating insight not only into Attlee’s life but also into 20th century Britain. I’d highly recommend it. In terms of television, I’m a huge armchair sports fan and I’ve been following the Euros avidly but also keeping in touch with all the latest from Wimbledon and the international cricket. Great escapism in these stressful times.

Hugh
I’ve gone back to The Times Atlas of World History, starting from the bit where it’s all pictures of skull fragments and hairy hominin ancestors. I’ve got as far as the destruction of Mycenae and Knossos, which remains mysterious. I was dipping in and out, but the chronological approach is more fulfilling.

I’ve also been catching up on Ed Reardon’s Week on BBC Sounds. A journalist colleague once compared me with the irascible, feckless, ale and cricket-loving hack writer Ed Reardon and I was sadly proud.

By Sophie Sadler, Senior Account Director

One of the longest running discussions we have with clients is about the face off between trade and national coverage. Which is better? Which most benefits the business? Which delivers the most value?

Coverage

In the B2B tech space, you’re often spoilt for choice with specific titles that potentially better serve your brand’s audiences, despite smaller overall readerships. But you also have the bright, shiny lights of national or broadcast coverage, with the attraction of higher audience figures and the prestige that comes with being featured in such widely known names.

In my opinion, the question shouldn’t be which is better, trade or national media, but rather, which will serve your purposes better. For example, if you are positioning your brand for an M&A or investment, then national coverage makes more sense. However if the goal is launching a new solution aimed at a specific set of customers, then trade media will yield the most value.

National coverage is the idea vehicle to generate top of the funnel awareness and address higher level and c-level issues. It also helps with the searchability of your brand online and SEO because national publications lend significant authority to search. There’s also no question that it’s unbeatable in terms of reach and it does deliver your message to a much wider audience.

But in the example above, wider audience isn’t necessarily always a good thing. Trade media has the benefit of having niche titles that are targeted at your target market. More than that, with trade publications, there is the opportunity to build relationships with the journalists, and a better chance to tell your story more in-depth; whether that’s related to pain points, profiling or thought leadership. The opportunities are also more frequent, guaranteeing more consistent coverage over a longer period of time. And that’s not to discount the impact that trade coverage can have on SEO, with more chance of making use of backlinks in articles, something that is near impossible with the nationals.

After weighing it up, it’s clear that shouldn’t come down to a face off between trade and national coverage. Depending on your objectives, the two should (and can) complement one another to support you reaching your communication goals. It’s not about choosing the best option, but creating the best mix of coverage that is going to benefit your business.

If you’re looking for your own answer to the question, keep three things in mind: What are you trying to achieve? What are your timescales? And which mix will deliver the greatest value?

Feel free to get in touch to discuss.

By Ellie Nash, Senior Digital Account Executive

What’s your career background, in brief?
Previously to starting at Whiteoaks, I worked at a B2B IT Managed Service provider in Fleet, Hampshire. This was my first role in Marketing and where I completed my Level 4 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship. I worked there for almost 2 years and within that time assisted with multiple campaigns, a re-brand, email marketing, social media management and content writing. Before, I had multiple part-time jobs which I worked at whilst completing my A-Levels at Farnborough Sixth Form.

What’s the most challenging job you’ve ever had?
The most challenging job I’ve ever had was most definitely my previous role. I entered my role at only 18 and had no experience within Marketing. I joined as the only girl on the team and the first Marketer, they had not even heard of Social Media Marketing before I arrived… Within my time, I taught myself everything I know now; from Adobe Creative Suite to SEO, I was able to build their Marketing from the ground just by regularly attending seminars, webinars and watching YouTube videos. It was extremely difficult but I am grateful for the opportunity as it allowed me to build my skill-set and come away with a Level 4 qualification.

What apps, technology items and gadgets can’t you live without?
I am a social media girl through and through; I could not live without Instagram or TikTok… Being without my phone would be the end of my world.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
I personally love quotes; Pinterest is a great place to find some amazing motivational speakers. My favourite quote at the moment would be “Work hard in silence and let your success be your noise” said by Frank Ocean. I feel that we live in a world where, Instagram especially, has given us a platform to show off all the best parts of our lives like fancy sports cars or a new designer handbag. Although it has taken me a while to learn this, I feel succeeding in silence will bring you ultimate happiness and pride; nobody else needs to know how much you earn or how well you’re doing. Do it for yourself!

Name one thing about your job that gives you a sense of satisfaction or makes you leave the office smiling…
I love being part of a team that has the ability to transform the digital side of a business. It brings me so much satisfaction to see rising analytics of the success of recent campaigns and being able to present it to the client and show how we are assisting them towards their goals; whether that be new business or just a greater social media presence.

Do you personalise your workspace?
I LOVE personalising my workspace! I haven’t had the opportunity to do so as of yet at Whiteoaks as I’ve been working from home the majority of the time however, I am very excited to bring in a plant, a photo and some organisers!

What’s the first thing you do in the office in the morning?
Definitely make myself a cup of tea… I am an avid tea drinker and cannot function without one in the morning.

What are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment?
I’m currently watching Narcos on Netflix and I LOVE IT! I used to live in a Spanish speaking country so I really enjoy watching a Spanish series (Money Heist is my ultimate favourite). Narcos has been a really captivating watch and definitely one to binge on the weekends.

By Chloe Knowles, Junior Account Executive

In light of World Ocean Day on June 8th, it made me think. Other than looking pretty whilst at the beach or on holiday, does the ocean really need its own day? The ocean covers approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface, with the Pacific Ocean alone covering around 32% (which is almost 10 times the size of Russia). But, with only 5% of the ocean having been explored and charted by humans, how impactful is the ocean on our lives and why do we need to look after it?

If current trends continue, experts speculate that the amount of plastic waste polluting the oceans will grow to 29m tonnes a year by 2040, which is the equivalent of 50kg for every metre of coastline in the world. To put this into perspective, a study done by the University of Georgia found that 18 billion pounds of plastic wind up in our oceans each year. Which is enough rubbish to cover every foot of coastline around the world with five full bags of rubbish…every year. If these expected stats become facts, this could impact our lives in many ways.

That’s why this year and the coming years are some of the most important in protecting our oceans. This is the first year of the UN’s Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. It aims to utilise advanced technologies and research that are being developed to help sustain the Blue Economy, which will tackle climate change and spur economic growth, to name a few.

How ocean pollution affects humans 
– 70% of the oxygen we breathe is produced by marine plants
– 97% of the Earth’s water supply is contained in the Ocean
– 30% of CO2 emissions produced by Humans in absorbed in the Oceans (which helps to slow the rate of Global Warming)

How can we pitch in to reduce ocean pollution? 
– Use a reusable water bottle instead of a single-use plastic bottle
– Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Reduce your usage of single-use plastics.
– Avoid buying products with excessive packaging.
– Bring a reusable bag for shopping (e.g. supermarket, retail shops, etc.)
– If you are to buy/use a product that contains a plastic holder, be sure to cut it before disposing of it as in the ocean, these can strangle or trap wildlife

Fortunately, there are some great causes out there that are trying to combat the pollution, such as The Ocean Cleanup that is developing and using advanced technologies to help rid the ocean of plastic. As well as smaller groups like local beach clean-ups – each group plays their part in the aim to reduce pollution.

So, although the ocean does look nice for a photograph background whilst on holiday, it really is an integral part of our lives, and we all need to ensure to do our part to look after it.

By Emily Fishburn, Junior Account Manager

This week marks Nutrition and Hydration Week, a week that takes place annually and aims to re-energise conversation and top tips around the ways to best maintain health and wellbeing, something that can easily be neglected in our busy lives. Earlier in the week, the Whiteoaks team had a session with a registered nutritionist and health coach, Claire Sendall from Health Empowered who taught us her top tips for becoming a healthier and better-hydrated version of ourselves. In this blog, I’ll share some of the advice learnt.

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Staying hydrated

On average we should be drinking around 2 litres of water per day to stay well hydrated and support our bodies digestion, circulation and temperature control for our brain to work well. Many of us can find this a tricky target while it can be difficult to measure how much water we are actually drinking. An effective way of keeping track is by investing in a good water bottle, some even have a guide on the side of the bottle of where the level of water should be at certain hours of the day. By drinking from a reusable water bottle can also be healthier for us than reusing a single-use plastic bottle over and over while they can leech chemicals and bacteria can grow in them which could be harmful to us.

Why is nutrition important?

In a similar way to how being hydrated can impact our mood and performance, what we eat can have just as much of an impact. Eating a healthy diet contributes to preventing illness and improving quality and length of life. Understanding what we are putting in our bodies and our foods nutritional value is important to be aware of, some food restaurants now are helping us to educate us on this by labelling menus with their nutritional value. From April 2022 the UK government has ruled that large businesses will need to display calorie information on menus and food labels – another way that can support us to make healthier choices when eating out.

Having a better focus on health and wellbeing – an ongoing journey

Over the past year or so, while our busy lives have been put on hold somewhat this has given us time to focus on getting our health and wellbeing in order, and so has seen the rise in popularity of PT’s such as Courtney Black, James Smith and nutritionists such as Graeme Tomlinson, aka the fitnesschef on Instagram. Many, including myself, have looked to their social accounts for inspiration and guidance.

From apps such as MyFitnessPal, wellbeing, fitness and nutrition influencers on social media to wearable gadgets such as Apple Watch and FitBit, today we have so much information and support readily available to help us better look after our health and wellbeing – it’s just about putting in the effort to find the approach that works best for us.

Name, title and how long you’ve been at Whiteoaks
Mark Wilson, Creative Director. Since Jan 2020.

In your current role, what does a typical day look like?
Every day begins with a cup of Yorkshire tea. After that, I cover off any emails, then check the workflow for the planned work that day. This work can be anything from concept creation, to concept development, client meetings, pitches, work reviews, planning future work etc. The day often ends with another tea then home.

How did you get into creative?
I started becoming interested in design from about 15 years old. I studied graphic and product design at A-Level and then took a degree in Graphic Design. At University I became really interested in not just design but ideas and how they have the power to change people’s behaviours. It was then that I started to look into how to get into advertising. Chatting to professionals, I discovered I’d need to team up with a ‘copywriter’ to form a creative team – to have a better chance of getting into the industry. So after 4 years as a graphic designer, I went back to uni to study Creative Advertising. This was the springboard that enabled me (and my newfound copywriter) to get a placement with an advertising agency. After a couple of weeks, one of our ideas was bought by the client and we were hired. It was there I learned the art of ideas and created several ad campaigns for a wide range of clients, picking up a few awards along the way.

What did you study and how has it helped you grow your career?
As described above, I studied Graphic Design which trained me in the principles of design and creative. I went back to uni later to study Creative Advertising at Falmouth, which enabled me to get a foothold in the advertising industry. Each day I use skills learnt in both these courses.

Why creative?
I love ideas and how they can shape and change people’s behaviours. It’s what makes me tick. I’m passionate about any type of design or creative and how it can answer the brief in a new and engaging way. And there’s always a better idea out there; it’s just finding it…

What is the best part of your day?
Apart from the tea, the best part of any day is creating something new. Whether that’s a new concept, design, or new brief which triggers new ideas.

What advice would you give to people who want to get into creative as a career?
Start creating and don’t stop. Creativity is a muscle – if you don’t use it, it’ll become redundant. Create anywhere and everywhere. Creativity is also problem solving, so don’t be constrained by the stereotypical ‘painting’ or ‘drawing’. Find new ways and solutions to problems and you’ll unlock the joy of creating. For students wanting to get into design/creative – go on a course, learn the basics and keep creating. Then show your work to an industry professional. They hold the keys. They can usually spot talent and passion. Remember to show both!

What do you like most about your current role?
Working with great people – who are also striving to produce the best work in creating new and engaging ideas for our clients.

What has been your funniest / quirkiest moment in creative?
Working with a drunk actor. That’s as much as I can say.

If you didn’t work in creative, what would your ideal job be?
RAF pilot. A childhood dream until I got too tall.

By Mark Wilson, Creative Director

Brand development can sometimes be a daunting task. The thought of overhauling your brand, changing everything and moving away from what you know is a big undertaking. But brand development may not be as daunting and fear-inducing as you first think. In this article, I’ll talk about why brand development doesn’t necessarily mean a complete rebrand by answering three simple questions.

What is brand development?

Firstly, branding is very much the face of your company; it’s how people perceive you and governs their instant reactions when they hear your name or see your product. Brand development is how that brand evolves and develops to ensure that they are staying current. Development can take different forms, such as imagery, tone of voice, messaging, typography, colour, communication channels.

This leads me to my next point, about how brand development isn’t all about changing everything. There are many different intensities to brand development. It could be small tweaks to your imagery and icons or it could be a complete rebranding with a name change and new messaging that is aimed at a new target audience.

A good example of tweaking your brand to constantly evolve is Google – they are always updating logos and icons that generally goes under the radar but ensures their look is current.

Why is it important?

The importance of brand development is easy to understate and sometimes companies don’t realise the importance of it. It’s the face of your company – it’s the first thing people see and think of when your name is mentioned. I always compare it to a news feed; when you look at a news feed that is out of date your perception of it changes and you are unlikely to spend much more time looking through that feed. Whereas, if it’s current, you’re likely to revisit.

Brands are very much the same – you need to stay current to make sure that people trust you are up to the task, especially in comparison to your competitors. It’s no use if you’re a cutting-edge tech company that sells state of the art software but your branding is dated. Your brand needs to reflect the product or service that you are selling.

Where do you start?

This one is a hard one because different factors determine how you develop and what you develop. I look at it in two ways – do you have an old brand, where your brand is established and been around for a long time but needs to be updated? Or are you a new brand that has finished the brand launch and are unsure where to go from there?

Looking at it from the old brand point of view – you may have a good offering and a healthy client base but need to re-energise the brand. My first recommendation would be to look at the core messaging to make sure that it is still relevant and resonating with the audience. From that you can evolve your visual identity, by creating a new website, introducing more colours and imagery to give your brand a modern look and feel that can give you a competitive edge.

Now to look at the other position of the new brand, where it hasn’t been long since you introduced the new brand. Should you develop the brand any further? If the brand is very new, then you need a ‘settling-in’ period to make sure that you get some time to increase brand awareness. If you start changing bits about your brand straight away it’s an uphill battle to create some awareness with your target audience. Then I’d recommend starting slowly – don’t jump straight into changing the logo or colours, it can be as simple as changing a few images on your website to keep it modern and up to date. Once you have some brand awareness then you can start to look at refining and moving into new areas, such as channels.

It’s easy to want to constantly update and develop your brand but before you do make sure to look at whether your brand is still resonating with the audience. If it is then there is little reason to make drastic changes. But if you feel that your brand isn’t working with your current audience or are aiming at a new audience then it might be time for a refresh; feel free to get in touch with me to discuss how we could help develop your brand.

By Holly Tyler, Digital Account Executive

Just like social media itself, the humble hashtag has undergone intense innovation over the last few years. Almost every major platform has an algorithm in place to organise and distribute your posts, helping you to target specific audiences, and the creation of the hashtag was essentially an easy way to help yourself and the platform achieve this task. However, it hasn’t always been plain sailing when deciphering where and how to use hashtags. Let me cast your minds back: the year is 2010, the iPod Nano is the height of sophistication, and Instagram has just arrived in the AppStore ready to consume our lives. I’m sure many of us remember our cringe-worthy use of hashtags at the end of every post in a bid to grow our audience and exposure overnight. #LikeForLike and #FollowForFollow still haunt my dreams to this day, and sadly a lot of businesses are still none the wiser when it comes to hashtag etiquette. Luckily, I’m here to help.

Let’s start with LinkedIn. In its Best Practices Guide, the channel outlines three important reasons for using hashtags on their site:

  1. To establish your credibility and expertise
  2. To reach people who value your insights
  3. To jumpstart meaningful conversations over shared interests

On a platform renown for its employment-oriented service and professional nature, LinkedIn is your chance to shine as a business and let your target audience know why you and your team should be their choice of service. Hashtags are a fantastic way to establish this connection, allowing you to specify your engagements and chime in on conversations that can further solidify your expertise. LinkedIn is also equipped with a ‘Hashtags’ feature under the ‘Community’ tab in your ‘Manage’ page, allowing you to add up to three hashtag topics that you are able to see trending posts for and respond to on behalf of your business account rather than your personal profile. If your last eBook is centred around remote working, then you would benefit from adding the #remoteworking hashtag to your tab so that you can engage with conversations that would benefit from your knowledge. Boom! Genius.

Now onto Twitter. In a recent blog titled ‘The dos and don’ts of hashtags’, the Twitter Business team addressed our aforementioned sin of over-hashtagging by stating that “one to two relevant hashtags per Tweet is the sweet spot”. Common myths which circulate telling us to cram as many hashtags into one post as possible are preventing your post from achieving its maximum exposure. This is because the content is broken down across various hashtag streams and therefore becomes less of a priority amidst the algorithm, as opposed to a post that features two prominent hashtags which creates a less-confusing request for the channel when distributing the content. Mind-blowing stuff, right? Twitter also encourages users to do their research before selecting their chosen hashtags, whereby investigating which posts are up-and-coming within your sector and using the same hashtags as them, you can reap the benefits of contributing to a ‘hot topic’. The same rule applies when creating a campaign-specific hashtag – ensure that the wording is relevant to your brand as well as your wider industry with helping from the ‘Trending’ tab.

While the algorithm may sometimes seem confusing, social media platforms are not designed to catch you out – they’re designed to help you grow and innovate, and now you have the tools to do so (you’re welcome).

By James Kelliher, CEO

If there’s one thing that last year has highlighted to business, it’s the value of crisis communications and the importance of having the right strategy in place to deal with said crisis.

But before we start using words like “unprecedented” and “new normal”, it may help to take a step back and ask ourselves what a crisis is — the first step in dealing with one. Simply stated, a crisis is a significant event that results in high levels of scrutiny which has the potential to affect an organisation’s normal operations.

Looking at 2020, the defining feature when it comes to the crisis is that the pandemic has affected all organisations; it’s a global challenge. Yes, it has impacted businesses differently in terms of customer service, logistics, supply chain, etc., but overall, everyone has been affected.

That said, the basic principles of crisis comms still apply and haven’t changed. What may change, and certainly should change, is the way we approach planning given the benefit of hindsight and experience from last year.

A case in point is scenario planning; a successful crisis comms plan includes preparing for a host of potential crises e.g. an executive scandal, data breach or natural disaster. Now, however, and moving forward, we’ll be including managing the impact of a global pandemic.

Because one key piece of advice we offer our clients is that you shouldn’t do crisis comms planning during a crisis. It can lead to hasty (and poor) decision making and a less than favourable outcome for the business and its stakeholders.

Our current situation might be an anomaly, but it has demonstrated how important the core principles are:

– Plan for tomorrow
– Respond rapidly
– Work with local authorities
– Position your management front and centre
– Be open and honest
– Demonstrate concern and convey integrity
– Speak with one voice

It has also highlighted the importance of accuracy. During a crisis, it is crucial for businesses to only communicate what they know to be true. Speculation is never advised. Earlier on in the pandemic this came into sharp focus with many brands falling short after making bold statements about impact, job losses, etc. when they simply didn’t have the information available to back that up.

Brands that fared well include those that admitted what they didn’t know but balanced that with making it clear what their plans were to deal with the crisis.

Looking ahead, it’s natural that the crisis comms landscape will continue to evolve, shaped by external factors — much like it’s changed from the 1990s (when it was primarily media relations focused) to now where multiple audiences are important and the use of social media makes it simultaneously more challenging yet easier to monitor what is being communicated.

While COVID has certainly taught us a lot, it’s the adherence to the basic principles and being prepared that will help organisations through. It’s about being proactive, understanding the situation and having the tools at your disposal (like the right message communicated to the right audiences) to ensure you’re addressing the crisis and demonstrating that you have a handle on things, even when there is information that you don’t yet know.

By Amber Chawner, Account Executive

In the era of self-driving cars and smart home devices, it’s hard to believe that once we would have been riding around on horse and carts, or heaven forbid, be forced to use a phone that was connected to a landline. Technology is ever-evolving, which means that as a PR working in the tech sector, we need to be constantly evolving too in order to keep pace. Building strong and successful media relationships is one of the core fundamentals of a successful PR campaign, and while there are definitely some methods of doing this that have withstood the test of time, others have required a bit of adapting.

They say a magician never reveals their tricks, however, consider this your lucky day – as below I outline four tips for building media relationships that are made to last.

Don’t be late to the party: I know people say it’s okay to be “fashionably late” to a party, however, this does not apply to the world of PR. Pitching ideas to journalists that they covered several months ago is a sure way to lose brownie points with them. When deciding on new themes to pitch, make sure you have done the reading and that you are adding value to existing conversations, or moving the conversations forward. Offering the media great, future-looking content is the best way to build solid relationships with the press – which leads nicely to my next point.

Do your due diligence: Researching content is important, but it’s also important to research press targets. Having great content is only half the battle and targeting a cyber security publication with a piece around retail trends, for example, because you didn’t sanity check your pitch list, is a really easy way to burn any bridges that you may have with them. Take the extra time to do your due diligence before starting any outreach to make sure you are targeting the right publications and the right journalists.

Pitch punchy, but with personality: This is something that I truly believe helps differentiate yourself from other PRs, and helps creates a strong foundation for media relationships. Journalists receive so many emails every day that you want to make sure you are doing your part to stand out in a very crowded inbox. Making sure your pitch is short and punchy is more likely to get your email read, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be regimented. Allow some of your personality to come across in your conversations – whether that is via email, in-person or over the phone – and you will find it a lot easier to build and maintain strong media relationships.

Keep your ear to the ground, and your eye on the papers: Underpinning all of this in the recipe for media relations success, is the importance of keeping up to date with the news agenda and current affairs. Having a sound knowledge of what is going on in your sector and the rest of the world is key to delivering insightful commentary; helping to build those all-important journalist relationships.

Ensuring that you have a strong media relations strategy in place is key for the success of any PR campaign, so make sure you take the time to get it right, and you’ll see the results come pouring in.