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As part of the University Guide 2020 series on The Guardian’s website on Friday 7^th June, there was a feature on Journalism, publishing and public relations (PR). The article looked specifically at how these professions have evolved especially since the advent of social media and the increasing prevalence to self-publish, presenting both opportunities and challenges for print media.

It got me thinking about how fast paced and varied the B2B tech sector is and the four tips I would offer new recruits thinking of joining.

 

#1 Understanding media

To succeed in public relations, it’s important to read, watch and listen to as many newspapers, blogs, magazines, radio and TV and social channels. From the outset it may seem an insurmountable task but when you know your B2B tech client and the specialist verticals they operate in it becomes a more manageable part of your job to navigate.

#2 Storytelling

The ability to tell a story and shape the narrative when pitching a new fintech solution or providing fast action commentary on a topical news item like cyber security or artificial intelligence (AI) will help you cut through the media noise and get your client the media exposure you were hired to secure. Understanding what makes a good story should make you friends with journalists for life.

#3 Networking

‘People buy from people’: it’s not just a truism in selling, it’s also valid in PR and communications. While your social profiles (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) are all excellent ways to connect and show that you are keeping up to date with the industry, it’s also important to network in person with targeted, relevant journalists and influencers. All PR professionals that are successful are well connected and, more importantly, seen as reliable sources for access to media commentary.

#4 Creativity

PR is a very creative profession, where original ideas are hugely valued, no matter the industry. Notwithstanding the need to be well organised, injecting a creative spark will be what makes your hard work worthwhile and gets your client the headlines they are looking for and the subsequent sales leads.

If you would like to find out more about B2B tech PR and who works for Whiteoaks just watch this short video on our Careers web page and get in touch. We’re always on the look out for the next B2B tech superstars!

In an age when we’re always connected and find it almost impossible to go anywhere without having some kind of technology with us, are we right to blame the technology and not ourselves when there’s a problem?

Since we’re surrounded by technology wherever we go, and its involvement in almost everything we do, it can become easy to blame all our problems on technology “Automation is destroying jobs” “Social media is addictive and damaging our social relationships”. We are quick to blame social media for our bad choices – being on your phone and crashing your car, and then blaming it on social media, well, it’s a bit like blaming the oven for burning your food.

And how does this track when most of us now look to technology to solve the world’s problems, for example, technological innovations are now seen as one of the main drivers to help tackle climate change. So, should we be blaming technology for our problems but then expect it to solve every challenge at the same time?

On a personal level, technology has helped me stay in touch with people that have moved further away, so if it wasn’t for technology I wouldn’t be in contact with them now. But that doesn’t mean using technology should completely fill my time. Taking a break from technology and trying new experiences outside of your normal routine can be a very beneficial thing to do. Yet, placing all the blame on technology doesn’t seem right when we’re the creators and controllers of technology.

Belinda Parmar, CEO of The Empathy Business, recognises technology has many positives but points out that “tech also has a dark side”. There is an argument that some tech companies have abused their power and influence to create a society that is completely reliant on technology – such as social media companies. At SXSW 2019, Aza Raskin, co-founder of the Center for Human Technology, spoke on a panel about the “digital loneliness epidemic” and the “infinite scroll”, the design principle that enables users to continuously scroll through their feeds, without ever having to decide whether to keep going or stop.

On a surface level, it’s a great design feature but it contributes towards us being unable to put our phone down and potentially causing addictive behaviour. It’s true that Big Tech has figured out a way to steal and keep our attention, but we’re not powerless to resist. We are now inundated with notifications, whether it’s a reminder of a distant friend’s birthday or a suggestion of a photo we might like, we seem to struggle to ignore notifications (no-one wants to experience FOMO) leading to the feeling that you can never be without your phone. In fact, some of Silicon Valley’s tech pioneers keep their phones on black and white mode, because they themselves know how the bright colours and those little red iPhone notifications were chosen to create addictive behaviours in us all.

While some of us may feel like we’re in an epidemic over the misuse of technology – new technology always comes with a stage of adoption, during which time we figure out the best ways to use it and break every rule, until we find a better way, or at least a way that works for us.

There could be more education about the risks as well as the benefits of technology and having an informed society will benefit us in the long term. New innovations are developed faster than we can master them, and while Big Tech has an enormous amount of responsibility, I don’t think we should be blaming them for every problem that we have.

We are living in a time of innovation. The sheer volume and diversity of disruptive businesses being started, invested in or sold is testament to this.

At Whiteoaks we have had the fortune of meeting – and discussing growth strategies with – firms across the globe – from Russia and India, to the US and Australia. It makes tech PR and communications a hugely dynamic and exciting place to work in 2020. It’s true we’ve all been impacted by the pandemic, but moving forward, the focus on growth and success will remain.

With that in mind, it’s important for businesses of all sizes and stages to consider whether communications consultancy is the right strategic support service for their brand – but it’s a particularly important question for businesses undergoing some form of step change or transformation – be it corporate growth, a re-brand, entering new markets, or refocusing and looking at a future post-COVID-19.

The first question any such tech company should ask themselves is “what do I want PR to achieve?”. This may sound a fundamental question, but too often it is ignored by businesses that embark on a PR campaign because they feel they should, or they have been told to by people outside of the company to do so. Worse, it often results in sending out a press release every once in a while to journalists who, with the best will in the world, have never heard of said company, receive (honestly) hundreds of similar news releases, and are therefore are far less likely to report on the announcement.

This creates a vicious cycle.

With no coverage generated, leading to no inbound phone calls, PR can be viewed as a waste of spend, and effectively kill any debate around ramping up budget for some time. For any marketing professional joining these firms, it can be a frustrating experience.

We believe there is a better way, as our credentials explain.

The starting point for all our campaigns as a B2B Tech PR Agency is to define business objectives – and this is where it gets interesting for fast-growth businesses, as we believe PR should be fundamental to achieving that growth.

We have worked with clients looking for very specific outcomes; building towards a funding round, creating a pathway towards an IPO, entering the US market for the first time or increasing the number of channel partners on their books – and sometimes, all of these goals at once. Each of these objectives would require a very different set of tactical recommendations, using a number of different channels – not just PR. Importantly, by being far more targeted, the ability to measure outputs attributable to PR increases exponentially.

What’s more, the robust, reader-centred content needed to generate results in traditional PR, including media relations, should drive the content chosen across the marketing mix, including web content, social media and sales materials. This adds value to the business and increases overall return on investment in PR and marketing communications.

Businesses undergoing a step change need PR to actually deliver for them, but the perceived lack of transparency around what they are getting for their investment can be a huge stumbling block. How does a set number of hours every month help them achieve their strategic goals? Frankly, it doesn’t.

This is why our deliberately different approach of set fees for set deliverables, linked to clear performance commitments underpinned by a formal service level agreement, continues to resonate so well with tech firms.

Working on the business development side of our business, organisations we speak to tend to have had one of two experiences regarding PR:

• They have never invested before – and therefore like the certainty that we can offer in terms of transparency and commitment to results. Oh, and if we fail to deliver what we said we would, they get their money back;
• Or they have invested in PR before and had a negative experience with the retainer-based approach, for all the reasons outlined above.

I would encourage any company considering PR investment to first ask themselves how it can aid their growth plans, not accepting any set of recommendations until the agency can directly prove a link between what they are doing and the company’s goals. It sounds simple, but PR justified through filling out a timesheet simply doesn’t cut it anymore.

To hear more about the fast-growth tech firms Whiteoaks represents and discuss how we could help your organisation, click this button tell me a bit more about you.

Let us elevate your PR

Bekki Bushnell, Head of Business Development

@ Work questions:

1. What’s your career background, in brief?

My career background prior to PR was in journalism. From work experience at my local newspaper, The Peterborough Telegraph, to graduating with a sports journalism degree at Sunderland University just under three years ago. I have also been fortunate enough to work as a freelancer for the Peterborough Telegraph covering my beloved Peterborough United (The Posh) on match days, while also reporting on the local greyhound racing and Speedway.

All of my experience has been invaluable since I joined the Whiteoaks team as a Junior Account Executive in 2016, before really putting my media skills to full use as an Account Executive towards the end of the year. I have since progressed to Account Manager where I now head-up simply the best team in the agency (slightly biased), Team Taurus. Joining the agency from the bottom and working my way up has been a brilliant experience and learning how each job role works gives you a great platform to pass on experience and knowledge to fellow colleagues at every level.

2. What’s the most challenging job you’ve ever had?

While being an Account Manager is always busy, no pressure compares to when I covered some of The Posh’s league matches for the Peterborough Telegraph. Making sure a full match-report is uploaded to the newspaper’s website five minutes after the final whistle is a different kind of pressure, especially if a late goal goes in.

3. What apps, technology items and gadgets can’t you live without?

My phone is an obvious one, but I’m a self-confessed FIFA nerd, so life without a PS4 wouldn’t be as enjoyable. Amazon’s Alexa is also becoming pretty influential in my life; now I can play Pointless whenever I choose.

4. What’s the best advice you’ve been given? (life or career advice)

To always prepare.

5. Name one thing about your job that gives you a sense of satisfaction or makes you leave the office smiling…

Receiving good feedback from a client that the whole team has worked hard to achieve, delivering on and exceeding realistic expectations.

6. Do you personalise your workspace?

My workspace is very football themed. On my desk I have a personalised Peterborough United mug and coaster that was a birthday present from my team – they both keep me dreaming of a place in the starting 11.

7. What’s the first thing you do in the office in the morning?

I hang my coat up, make a cup of tea in my special mug as I mentioned above and plan out my priorities list for the day ahead.

8. What are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment?

I don’t really read much other than the news. At the moment I’m watching Sky drama Chernobyl and listening to That Peter Crouch podcast on my commute to work, which is well worth a listen!

Retail has changed, both for better and for worse. Gone are the days of visiting a store and finding the product you want is out of stock or ordering something online and waiting days for it to arrive. Now, order before 11pm and you’re guaranteed next day delivery. Everything now revolves around convenience which, as a consumer, is great. At the same time, the high street is struggling. Almost every day we see another news story about a profit warning or a chain going into administration due to the “challenging retail climate” and “changing consumer habits”. However, there are plenty of actions going on behind the scenes that don’t quite make the national news, of technological developments ticking away in the background of the retail sector, all with the aim of revitalising the high street.

VR/AR

Virtual reality and augmented reality (VR/AR) is a widely discussed topic across all industries, not just retail. In fact, over the next few years its use is predicted to increase, from architecture and manufacturing, to interior design and medicine, as well as its use in gaming. VR allows designers and consumers to ‘see’ new cars, factories and houses before they’re built, or for surgeons to study a 3D duplicate of human organs to accurately diagnose conditions.

Although there’s still a way to go, we are seeing progressive take up of VR/AR innovation in the retail sector. For example, John Lewis recently announced it was implementing augmented reality for its customers to see what make up looks like on their faces prior to buying, with more than 300 lipstick brands to choose from. Similarly, M&S has invested in specialist fitting technology that uses 3D scanning to allow customers to find clothing that best suits their shape and size in a bid to cut down returns and bolster sales. Whiskey distillery Jack Daniel’s also released a new interactive AR marketing tool, that turns any bottle of its product into a pop-up like book that tells the story of its brand and history. The technology here is still evolving, but with the innovation in progress already, it will be exciting to see what more VR/AR can bring to the retail sector.

AI and Machine Learning

Numerous retailers currently use machine learning, but AI is still yet to be fully adopted in retail. The primary difference is that machine learning adapts to provide a human with the data and basis to make an informed decision, whereas AI adapts and makes the decision itself, so it’s arguably understandable that many aren’t quite yet at the stage of relying on robots. Yet the industry can establish trends and patterns that can tailor the consumer experience. On the retailers’ side, this is beneficial in ways such as cost saving, as machine learning today can identify changes in the weather or current affairs, for example, and over- or understock accordingly. And McDonald’s recently introduced AI technology that automatically suggests a McFlurry ice cream on hot days, as well as using number-plate recognition to offer customers their usual food order. Walmart also unveiled its new ‘store of the future’ last month, including AI-powered cameras to monitor inventory levels to determine whether shelves need restocking, or if fresh items have been sitting out for too long.

At the moment, these developments are new enough to be exciting, but given the accelerating speed of technological innovation, it’s only a matter of time before they’ll become commonplace in the retail sector. And with that in mind… surely the high street will then experience a real resurgence?

@Work questions:

1. What’s your career background, in brief?

After graduating from university I moved into local newspaper journalism and spent a few years covering everything from local council meetings to major court cases. I loved my time as a journalist and still use my short-hand today. I then moved into the world of PR, starting with insurer Allianz in Guildford before spending the next decade at in-house PR roles in FTSE 100 organisations. I joined Whiteoaks in 2017 and now enjoy a (usually) pleasant drive to our Hampshire office rather than the often-delayed train journey into London.

2. What’s the most challenging job you’ve ever had?

I had a number of jobs during holiday periods while at university, from picking strawberries to making pizzas. But the most challenging job was trying to sell windows; hours on end cold calling householders only to have the phone slammed down within seconds. I admire anyone with the tenacity to succeed in sales!

3. What apps, technology items and gadgets can’t you live without?

I’m a bit of a social media addict —Twitter recently alerted me to the fact that I have been on the platform for 10 years!

It’s great for keeping track of tech journos — what they are writing about and any requests for information and quotes. And as an avid football fan I like to keep up to date on anything to do with my team; Southampton. I’ve also recently started using Garmin watches — one for use during the day to keep track of steps, heart rate, etc., and one for when I (too infrequently) run to keep a record of distance, pace and routes.

4. What’s the best advice you’ve been given? (life or career advice)

The nature of the roles I have had means that I have been involved with a large amount of crisis communications. When you first get a call from a journalist there is often a sense of panic, but I enjoyed the ‘war room’ mentality, ensuring all relevant stakeholders were involved in gathering the information to help us craft a response. The best advice I had when first starting in PR is that the key to crisis comms is preparedness — both in scenario planning and spokespeople training — and keeping calm. It’s PR, not ER!

5. Name one thing about your job that gives you a sense of satisfaction or makes you leave the office smiling…

The biggest kick I still get from PR is getting national coverage for clients. There is nothing better than seeing the hard efforts of your team result in coverage that surpasses expectations. At Whiteoaks we are particularly strong in helping our clients make their voices heard in breaking news stories, such as a major cyber attack. Preparation and speed are key; being ready to contact the right journalists, at the right time with original, compelling commentary.

6. Do you personalise your workspace?

We like to keep our desks fairly clear at Whiteoaks, but I do have a picture of my kids and a mug coaster of my football team.

7. What’s the first thing you do in the office in the morning?

Make a strong black coffee before checking emails that have come in overnight, mainly from clients and partner agencies we work with in the US.

8. What are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment?

My big passion at the moment is the BBC series Line of Duty, the drama about a police anti-corruption unit. For me, it’s the best BBC thriller of recent years and creator Jed Mercurio – who also wrote the excellent Bodyguard – is one of the nation’s finest TV writers.

Measurement. It’s the topic that public relations and communications professionals regularly debate and want to improve – but doing so is a continual challenge.

The softer arguments for investing in marketing of any kind, for a combination or all of the goals of brand awareness, brand development and relationship-building with new and existing customers, are generally accepted.

However, demonstrating return on investment is something that in-house and agency-side communications practitioners still need to justify to their Directors.

First of all, it is almost impossible to set firm KPIs from a PR campaign built around a monthly retainer. If your main scope of work is filling in a timesheet, then deliverables and activity can be mere sideshows. This traditional way of working is one of the reasons PR has developed a bad name.

Fortunately, the tide is changing. As awareness of the need to measure PR output grows, supported by the recent AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework, the adoption of systems and processes to manage marketing communications measurement have increased accordingly.

Platform Adoption: The Marketing Automation Stack (MAS)

Take CRM systems as a first example. They should never be purely the domain of the sales team to log and prioritise leads.  They should provide marketers with significant data, which can be analysed to demonstrate the value of and better PR and communications – and ideally, that data should come from both potential and current clients.

In our recent research report, ‘A Perfect Match: ABM and ABS’, 59% of 200 senior B2B Sales and Marketing decision-makers said they use a CRM system to gather, retain and take action on information about both groups. As more and more marketing teams understand the possibilities of automation, the needle is beginning to shift around measurement.

At the centre of any good PR campaign is strong content creation. Content is fundamental to securing opportunities with the media, analysts and other influencers.

So it’s natural, we would argue, that a strategy must demonstrate how this content is delivered in a tailored, relevant and timely way to each audience segment, through as many channels as possible. Integrated marketing is proven to be more effective in terms of awareness, recall and consideration, than single-channel marketing. Not only does this approach increase return on investment, but it retains the consistency of messaging to the audiences, regardless of how they consume information.

Which brings us onto marketing automation software, sometimes combined with a CRM system, or integrated with it. By connecting social media channels, blogs, forms, email marketing and more to a platform such as Hubspot, savvy marketing teams can track leads directly from content created by the PR and communications agency.

Delivering Marketing Leads to Sales Teams

Take our client, Omnico, for whom we launched the first, and now established, Retail Gap Barometer – created to chart the gap between consumer expectations in an omni-channel world, and the reality of retailers to deliver upon them – at the start of our engagement.

Rather than taking the survey data, creating a press release and simply delivering a quality volume of media coverage, our partnership with the client has led to a vast variety of asset creation, including reports, eDMs, sales brochures, eBooks and more. With this approach, Omnico was able to attribute more than £12million in qualified sales leads to our work alone by tracking the campaign through their marketing automation platform.

It’s results from projects like these which prove multi-channel marketing can have a demonstrable benefit in generating sales opportunities for B2B brands. Encouragingly, our research found that 89% of both professional groups agreed with the statement that their company’s marketing efforts have a positive impact on sales efforts and lead generation.

Evolution not Revolution

Armed with the impact and measurement of our work for Omnico and other clients, we have been able to put metrics against our work which grab the attention not just of the sales and marketing teams, but the boardroom too.

And it is a key starting point for us with prospects and clients.  The question “Do you use a CRM and marketing automation system?” has become one of the first we ask senior marketers and PRs at our first point of engagement. It can fundamentally alter the capabilities of and deliverables in our campaigns and moves the conversation from one of coverage volume to sales leads – right from the start.

By Susan Richter, Head of Marketing Communications

Deliver Integrated Campaigns

Andrew Bailey, the FCA’s chief executive spoke last week of his “fears” that the city regulator would be left behind by technological innovations including blockchain and artificial intelligence. The comments came as the regulator released its new annual business plan. He wanted to stress the fact that without regulation in close harmony with technological advances, financial firms could be left vulnerable to making bad business decisions and, as a worst-case scenario, even go bust. Although I’d argue that two other joint worst-case scenarios are data breaches and mistreatment of personal and business customers, both of which remain significant compliance and regulator risks…

A lack of appropriate regulation could potentially undermine the strength of London as a leading financial centre as funds and resources continue to be allocated to the cost of Brexit. “The more money we have to spend on Brexit, the less we have to spend on other areas“, he added. With the FCA set to spend an extra £22m on Brexit preparations, the effects on the organisation’s budget is clear to see, especially with further delays to Article 50 possibly pushing this figure higher. Therefore, finding the budget to keep up with the rapid pace of technological innovations will only become more challenging.

The traditional financial services firms are investing in technology such as AI to speed up decision-making, create efficiencies and improve customer experience. It’s also to keep up with the competition posed by specialist Fintech and Paytech start-ups, something my colleague John Broy recently blogged about in more detail. The commercial advantages are clear for these businesses, but Bailey stressed that changes in technology could bring risk to the operational resilience of our financial system. This poses the question of how accountable firms are for the effects of decisions taken by machines. It’s important to also consider the risk to consumers who could make ill-informed decisions without the adequate guidance that humans provide, compared to machine algorithms alone. This could potentially leave us all more exposed to financial scams and leave some of the less tech savvy generations struggling to participate in a technology-driven banking system.

One of the reasons that the FCA is concerned they won’t be able to keep up with the changes in technology is that they could struggle to acquire the skills and resources to match a changing landscape. There is no doubt technology will revolutionise the financial system in the next 10 years but at what rate and to what degree, no one can predict. It is essential that international financial regulators like the FCA continue to invest in resources but more importantly their people. Regulators must continuously upskill existing staff and create an attractive place for new people to join, as technology advances to make sure they can provide consumers and firms with the right advice and products.

2019 marked the 22^nd year that Whiteoaks attended Las Vegas’ NAB Show – the ultimate event for media, entertainment and technology professionals – which is longer than some of the new ‘Oaksers have even been alive!

Held in the Las Vegas Convention Center, this year’s NAB played host to over 90,000 attendees where guests could roam the hall floors to explore the ground-breaking innovations fuelling the media and entertainment industry, including 5G, 8K TV and Artificial Intelligence.

As always, we supported our broadcast clients by hosting journalist meetings; with almost 30 briefings booked across three days, these face-to-face sessions gave them the chance to discuss the latest trends and how their own evolving solutions continue to mould and shape the wider media and broadcasting industries.

One of my highlights included the fact that one of our long-standing clients signed a deal on stand at the show, a first for us and them, and being there live in Pacific Time meant we were able to support the drafting of the press release and distribute it all within 12 hours. This kind of ‘on the ground support’ proved invaluable to our client’s marketing team and once again demonstrated that done well, media relations can still play a vital role in generating new business – something my colleague Simon Coughlin recently wrote about in detail.

Between the Whiteoaks team old and new, apart from racking up well over 250,000 air miles over this time travelling to the ‘Sin City’ of Nevada, it has also meant we have since become quite the experts in knowing how to survive a trade show.

So, whether you’re an exhibition veteran or you’re planning your first trip, here’s five handy tips that will ensure you have a successful show – and have fun too:

1. Comfortable shoes – an absolute must. You‘ll be on your feet for the majority of the day, standing, walking and sometimes even running if you’ve got a briefing booked in a different hall. So be sure you aren’t wearing in a brand-new pair of shoes for the first time and go with something you know you can wear for a few hours.
2. Water and snacks – you’ll need something to keep you going. Sadly, exhibition show food isn’t usually a great culinary experience – more there for speed and convenience – but if you do find yourself busy around lunch time it’s a good idea to keep a quick snack and some water in your bag to give you some energy along the way.
3. Journalist details. So, you’ve done all the hard work before you attend the show and booked in meetings with the client and the journalist, but it comes to your agreed time slot and the journalist isn’t to be seen. Don’t panic, give them 5-10 minutes just to make it to you from any previous appointments. Then give them a ring to see if they can still make or try to rearrange for another time during the event.
4. Take advantage of the free magazines. Many publications will make a special edition version for big industry shows and often give these out for free during the event. Make sure you grab some to show the client that all important coverage secured ahead of the show.
5. Finally, have fun. Trade shows don’t need to be feared. Embrace the opportunity and if you’re lucky enough to have one in Vegas I would definitely recommended seeing one of the infamous Cirque du Soleil shows, watching the Bellagio fountains or going on the New York New York rollercoaster.

We still won’t be relaxing – even though NAB is officially over, there’s all important follow-up calls and emails with the journalists we liaised with – plus it will soon be time to start thinking about IBC in Amsterdam in September!