Category: Uncategorised

In this blog, our team often comments on the world of tech, and the latest business trends and, while not a complete divergence, I wanted to use this week’s post to be a bit more reflective.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the PRCA National Conference. If you haven’t come across it yet, the PRCA is the PR industry body that carries out a wide number of functions, from lobbying and training to charity work.

The theme for this year’s conference was an extremely interesting one: ‘Embracing Change’.

‘Change’ in this instance was broadly defined as societal shifts (for example Brexit and the 2016 US election), technological shifts (impacting how we live, work and buy) and business shifts (‘Goliath’ brands failing) and what this means for the PR industry.

The good news – for us at least – is that it means opportunity! These factors have combined to create ‘the age of earned’ – which puts PR firmly ‘in the sunlight’ and at the heart of the marketing mix, according to speakers and panellists at the show.

The ‘age of earned’ essentially boils down to the importance of traditional earned media in shaping public opinion, given the very obvious lack of trust in established pillars of society. Something further exacerbated by fake news.

The reasoning makes sense. The ability for PR firms to earn reputation for their clients, doing so across multiple channels, and to create experiences with brands, is unrivalled. If we accept that the purpose of PR is ‘to protect and enhance brand reputation’ – then this creates huge opportunity at a time when consumer confidence can be lost on the basis of one bad tweet. One excellent example cited was the fateful day that Snapchat had more than a billion dollars wiped off its value after one unhelpful tweet from social media mega-star Kylie Jenner who said she no longer used the platform.

Enlightened CEOs must understand the value of trust and the downfall that follows when it evaporates.

Yet, set against this, it was claimed that the PR industry is suffering from a lack of confidence. As an industry, conference speakers said, we have lost pride in the primary influence of PR in the marketing mix and instead sought to justify our place in it.

A 30-year advertising veteran who closed the conference said that those on the outside looking in (such as advertising professionals) accept that we as PR professionals are on the same hallowed ground that advertisers occupied in the 90s.

It was fascinating to listen to so many established industry leaders and hear their thoughts on the present and future of our industry.

In many ways they echo the belief at Whiteoaks that PR has, is and will continue to be vital to brands. The wider societal shifts outlined at the top of this blog absolutely strengthen our resolve. We are proud to represent many disruptive B2B tech companies that, now more than ever, require measured, bespoke communications to facilitate their growth.

While the PR and communications industry is definitely not just about traditional media relations any more, the need for cohesion across many different channels is obvious – and PR is at the very heart of it.

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

Until now, I’ve always worked in-house for large B2B technology companies.  I started my career in PR and social media, but from an early stage I knew digital and social media was where I wanted to be, so I carved out my career in that direction. After nearly seven years of working client-side I’m really enjoying agency life.

 

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

Outside of my working week, I also work in property development. The hardest weekend of work I have ever done was when the Beast from the East met — ironically — Storm Emma, causing the worst weather in the UK for 10 years. I was working on a property with no central heating, or windows! To say it was freezing … is an understatement!

 

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

I most certainly couldn’t live without Instagram or, my guilty pleasure, the Daily Mail. I secretly love a bit of celebrity gossip. Although, we all do… right?

 

4. What’s the best advice you’ve been given?

Live for the moment! Never think ‘if’, ‘what’, ‘but’, just go for it.

 

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

Two things: successfully trying something new and being part of our internal Social Club. The digital landscape is so fast paced, so when you nail something new, that’s exciting and rewarding. All of the social media experts at Whiteoaks International belong to ‘The Social Club’ and part of what we do includes sharing new tactics and performance – it’s great for keeping creative ideas fresh.

 

6. Do you personalise your workspace?

I currently don’t. But if I did, it would be covered with glitter and flamingo inflatables.

 

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

First thing in the morning at home, I switch Radio 1 on, and as soon as I arrive at the office, it’s coffee!

 

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

A great TV programme that’s just started again is No Offence on Channel 4. It’s a fab witty drama that will fill your Thursday evenings. I would give it a solid 10 out of 10 rating.

On the 150th anniversary of its creation, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) brought a smile to many a worker’s face across the British Isles. We were told that with the latest advances in technology, especially #AI, a four-day work week is within our grasp.

Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC insisted that the change is possible. “In the nineteenth century, unions campaigned for an eight-hour day. In the twentieth century, we won the right to a two-day weekend and paid holidays. So, for the twenty-first century, let’s lift our ambition again. I believe that in this century we can win a four-day working week, with decent pay for everyone,” she said.

In response, Tahmina Begum @tahminaxbegum, reporter at  the Huffington Post took to the streets and asked people what they would do if they had a four-day week and ultimately an extra day to themselves. Those she spoke with suggested they would spend more time with their families, catch up on sleep or take up a new hobby. There are currently trials taking place at organisations based in New Zealand and Italy to see if a four-day working week will work. The jury is still out, with little evidence to back shorter working hours, especially after a two-year trial in Sweden when some companies introduced a six-hour working day has been inconclusive.  Although significant productivity benefits were initially reported, experts found that the cost outweighed the benefits overall.

With the UK having the lowest productivity of any country in Europe but one of the longest working weeks, maybe the tide is about to turn? Especially as many of us frequently check our emails and work when we’re meant to be on holiday.

Although a shorter week may still be a way off in the UK, if you are a client-side marketing or PR professional working in technology with not enough time in your work to get everything done, it would be worth considering hiring a specialist agency.

While we can’t commit to reducing your working week to four days (sorry!), we can guarantee tangible and impactful results that are underpinned by robust performance commitments and formal service level agreements within a strategic yet creative campaign. We all work hard to ensure that our clients can rely on us to be an extension of their in-house team, taking the time to really understand their businesses, challenges and the industry in which they operate.

To see what we do in practice, you can read some of our client case studies on our website.

Every day we’re confronted with waves of content. Whether it’s push notifications on your personal device teasing you towards new content, advertising campaigns, browsing or discovering the web at your own leisure. Content is a 24/7 industry, 365 days a year. We know that due to the rise of mobile and superfast 4G – with 5G just over the horizon – we’re consuming more content than ever before. But just how much? IPA data shows that in the UK, adults spend, on average, eight hours a day consuming media. That’s almost half of most people’s waking hours. Unsurprisingly, watching TV/online video takes the top spot, taking up four hours 30 minutes of time every day. Social media accounts for almost three hours a day and the internet, just over two hours. And, as you may not be surprised to know, social media consumption increases to nearly four hours each day for 15-34-year-olds.

Social media landscape

Social media is no longer the new kid on the block, but the king of the playground with people spending more time than ever connecting, interacting, discovering and browsing. At an all-time high, 83% of the UK population use social media. So how can a brand in the B2B sector use social to its advantage? Tapping into the power of social media means different things to different organisations, and quite rightly so, depending on a company’s vision and business strategy. From snappy, informative customer service feeds, to ultimate brand and influencer feeds. But what unites them is the opportunity to reach a desired audience, grow the personality and voice of a brand and convert business. It gives an organisation the power to interact, engage and learn from its customers and followers. It also provides the opportunity to build trust – something which should never be taken lightly.

For any B2B firm, running a brand-owned social media channel across one or multiple social accounts, can be challenging. The need to keep them consistently performing at optimum and aligned to social and business objectives never stops. The trick is continuous testing, evaluating, learning and – the most important part – acting. By far one of my personal favourite aspects of social media as a communications method, is the analytics capability and the insights I can gather for our clients. It gives me, and other professionals like me, the authority to make a difference, demonstrate business impact and prove the value of social.

Content is key

There is perhaps a simple social media basic that is sometimes overlooked. Content. You can’t have one without the other. Content is the fuel that drives a channel and the channel is needed to share the message and amplify reach. Whether the content is a press release, blog, long-form video, or whitepaper. Social media thrives on content especially when applied with a native platform approach in mind.

It’s not as simple as just posting good content. Every post shared must be accompanied with an aligned social tile, such as a graphic, photo, chart, GIF or short video. It’s a ‘no brainer’; social posts shared with images have a greater impact. This is true for every social channel: tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than those without and Facebook posts with images receive over double the amount of engagement than those that don’t.

It’s important to remember that social tiles should, in most cases, be designed for each specific platform. The varying size dimensions should be respected, algorithms considered, and the imagery used should resonate best with the audience to encourage engagement.

Related: Good content is good… but why have good when you can have it all?

Digital first? Or digital together?

Standalone digital campaigns sometimes have a place. If done well, they can reach millions of people at the fraction of the cost of traditional marketing activities. We’re starting to see more companies lead with digital-only campaigns, particularly in the B2C sector. I believe that B2B brands with a strong digital presence could follow suit in the not-too-distant future. This autumn,  Marks & Spencer ditched its broadcast budget in favour of a digital only campaign – Marks & Spencer Must Have. By combining its social media activity with paid search, SEO and other digital tactics the campaign will certainly reach its desired audience.

Yet my view is that, for the most part, when well-thought through digital campaigns are partnered and layered with other marketing activities, more input will mean more results, and the campaign really comes to life. The holy grail of marketing is an integrated campaign. Easy to say, but sometimes harder to achieve. In the UK, research from Kantar finds integrated campaigns are 31% more effective at building brands. And messages are more effective when repeated. So, let’s consider, that eight-hour window again…  When all external promotional avenues align one with a piece of content from a campaign, that’s manipulated, customised and designed accordingly, it’s no longer a small piece of content in an eight-hour ocean. It becomes a powerful set of messages. A memorable message with cut-through.

Related: A unified force – why integrated marketing campaigns matter

Ross Walker, Head of Social & Digital

Deliver Integrated Campaigns

If you were to judge the health of a sector on headlines alone, 2018 has not been a great year for retailers.

House of Fraser, Homebase and Debenhams are among the big brands to fall on bad times.

The Centre for Retail Research reports that 23 UK retailers have failed during the first half of the year, with more than 1,800 stores and nearly 21,000 workers affected.

High rents, lower consumer spending and a weak currency have all been blamed for the downfall of brands which have stood proudly on the nation’s high streets and retail parks for many years.

 But as we all know, it’s the rise of online retailers and e-commerce which has perhaps had the biggest impact.

 The success of Amazon is well documented, its growth seemingly unstoppable.

 Alongside its stunning financial success – this week it became only the second company to be valued by Wall Street at $1tn – Amazon has maintained a good reputation among British shoppers, and recently won the accolade of the UK’s most reputable retailer. According to research from The Reputation Institute, Amazon was voted top retailer for products and services, innovation, leadership and performance.

 It is the continual innovation of Amazon and its use of technology which has made it the envy of the retail world.

 Artificial Intelligence (AI) has played a key role at Amazon for many years – it was one of the first companies to use the technology to drive its product recommendations. AI is at the heart of more recent product innovation at Amazon – the popular Echo device is now a feature in millions of UK homes and features AI bot Alexa.

But it’s not just the big online retailers which are using the power of AI to drive innovation.

 Many of our clients at Whiteoaks are helping retailers use the technology to drive efficiencies and enhance customer experience.

 One such client is global reviews and customer insights company Feefo, which offers retailers an AI-powered online reviews platform, to gain unrivalled customer insight and make smarter business decisions.

The Feefo Smart Themes plug-in helps the customers of its clients instantly find the most relevant and useful information they’re looking for from all the reviews, in real-time.

AI also drives the smart reporting tool, Performance Profiling, which provides unrivalled insights into product and service performance throughout the customer journey, including detailed understanding of strengths and weaknesses along with valuable business intelligence.

 While the subject of AI may seem alien to many smaller, independent retailers, innovative companies such as Feefo are demonstrating how their solutions can help retailers of any size stay ahead of the competition and improve their business prospects.

 AI has a remarkable ability to spot patterns and shifts in data – retailers which fail to invest in such technology risk missing changes in consumer behaviour, and ultimately, risk losing their customers for good.

The UK has long been and is still a hotbed of innovation. The sheer volume and diversity of disruptive businesses being started, invested in or sold here is testament to this.

London is often the epicentre, but I’ve had the fortune of meeting – and discussing growth strategies with – firms up and down the UK, from Cambridge to Cornwall, Edinburgh to Derry. It makes tech PR a hugely dynamic and exciting place to work in 2018.

Communications consultancy is one of those strategic support services that must be considered as to whether it’s relevant for businesses of all sizes, but it’s a particularly important question for businesses in scale-up mode for many reasons. Not least because it is a major investment for firms that might be far more inclined to put money towards R&D, staffing or premises first.

The first question any fast-growth 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 and 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 below explain. The starting point for all our campaigns 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 their Series A funding, creating a pathway towards an IPO, looking to double sales 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.

But don’t just take my word for it. Simon Draper, a serial entrepreneur who has grown and sold tech businesses for over a decade, co-founder of our client Hastee Pay, which is revolutionising the way individuals are paid and access short-term finance. He told me: “PR is a significant investment for Hastee Pay and has a tangible impact on our business goals, which is why Whiteoaks’ approach appealed to us. It isn’t just PR for the sake of it.”

For Hastee Pay, PR needs to be extremely targeted at the HR sector, leading to a specific set of tactical recommendations that deliver on this aim. Cyber security leader, Glasswall Solutions, meanwhile, has become known for its ability to provide unique protection against advanced and zero-day targeted cyber threats, and dominates the national and broadcast media whenever there is a cyber attack.

For businesses at an aggressive growth stage of their maturity, the perceived lack of transparency around what they are getting for their PR investment is also a huge stumbling block. These types of companies aren’t interested in buying a certain number of hours on a retainer; it just isn’t the language they speak.

This is why our 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 the UK’s fastest growing 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 been burned by the retainer-based approach, for all the reasons outlined above.

I would encourage any fast-growth firm 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 fluffy PR justified through filling out a timesheet simply doesn’t cut it any more.

To hear more about the fast-growth tech firms Whiteoaks represents and discuss how we could help your organisation, click here to contact us.

Bekki Bushnell, Head of Business Development

Deliver Integrated Campaigns

Who are you? And what’s your job at Whiteoaks?

 Hi, I’m Samantha and I’m the Digital Account Executive for Team Taurus.

What does your daily to-do list look like?

 Generally, my day can vary quite a lot. But there are few tasks that are consistent, like scheduling clients’ social posts and engaging with their social communities, making schedules for the following week and generally keeping the social media channels up to date. But each day is different and can be unpredictable, which I like. This can be a bit challenging and my to-do list always changes — but I do love crossing things off when they’re done.

What made you want to get into PR and communications?

 After studying English Literature at University, I felt I had a lot of options open to me yet no defined path. Therefore, I decided that an internship in the US was best for me.  I worked on a media company’s website and social media feeds and this led to my interest in PR and communications. After completing the internship I decided that I wanted to pursue this career path in the future.

Who is your favourite brand and why?

 Picking a favourite brand is hard as this changes all the time with me. If I HAD to choose my current favourite brand it would be Gucci, an expensive obsession, but with its new designer Alessandro Michele and his rebrand, I don’t think anyone can help but obsess over this brand. I must admit though that I’m not overly loyal; it’s either my style or it isn’t. As a result, my favourite brands fluctuate regularly.

What’s your top tip for someone who wants to get into the PR industry?

 PR is an extremely fast-paced industry and staying current both with the news and the industry itself will definitely benefit anyone trying to get into PR. When breaking into the industry, I think gaining as much experience outside of education as possible is essential. I think my job in itself is an example of there being many different ways into the industry as it is not the most traditional role within PR but very current to the digital age of today.

How do you unwind after a day in the office?

 My normal evenings will involve going to the gym or yoga which tires me out and prepares me for an evening winding down, watching one of my favourite series, which at the moment is Gossip Girl or Vampire Diaries. However, if Suits is on that night then it obviously takes priority.

What’s your favourite anthem suggestion for Friday’s Whiteoaks Power Hour?

 This would have to be an old-school Beyoncé song; nothing like Queen B to put you in a good Friday mood.

If you could be any character in any film, what would you be?

 Maybe not quite a movie but surely this is allowed as Sex in the City was made into two movies (the third isn’t going ahead, much to my disappointment)…. It would be Carrie Bradshaw. She’s smart, gets Mr Big and who wouldn’t want her wardrobe? Most importantly though, she lives in New York City in a penthouse and isn’t that the dream?! For me anyway…

What’s your ideal getaway location?

This would be dependent on the season. In the winter my ideal getaway will always be skiing in Meribel, a French Ski Resort, as there’s no better escape than the Alps. In the summer, New York City is my ultimate getaway purely for the shopping, good weather and endless rooftop bars with views to die for.

What’s your go-to party trick?

 I should probably make up some extravagant trick, but I’m scared somebody may ask me to do this so I’m going to be brutally honest instead. I am not generally the most extroverted, so would shy away from having a party trick at all…

 And finally, cheesy chips?

Definitely a Yes! A throwback to my Uni days.

The question: “how technology affects our lives?” is one that has many answers — not all of which can be covered in one blog. But I will have a go at explaining some of the ways that technology has changed our everyday lives.

Some people argue that technology is making the world a better place, while others say that technology is having the opposite effect. Let’s explore both sides.

For almost all of us, technology plays an invaluable part in our normal day. We use technology from the time we wake up to when we go to sleep. A recent study by Ofcom found that Britons check their phones on average every 12 minutes. This is something I can relate to; I’m woken up in the morning by the alarm on my phone, so it’s the first thing I look at and it’s also most likely the last thing I look at before I go to sleep. This might seem like an unhealthy habit but having a phone that can allow me to manage my life and connect with anyone that I know, regardless of where they are in the world, has meant that I have been able to show friends and family experiences and moments that they would never have seen if it wasn’t for technology. But there are wider benefits, beyond social ones.

Technology has also helped the world in more significant ways than people checking Instagram to see how many likes they got from a photo they took of their dinner last night. Today’s smartphones can be used as health monitors as they can measure your heart rate and tell you when you should be active, among other features. Technology has also helped develop medicine and produce drugs, such as the vaccine for polio, which has seen a drop of 99.9% in the number of cases since 1988. Pacemakers can now be fitted with Wi-Fi capabilities that allow data to be sent from the person fitted with the pacemaker to a certain hospital giving the doctors real-time updates of the individuals condition.

Projects being led by Health Data Research UK funded with £37.5 million via the Industrial Strategy Challenge fund have set up Digital Innovations Hubs with the aim to utilise scientific information and emerging technologies to develop new drugs and devices. This could lead to major discoveries that will impact people’s lives forever, be it longer life expectancy in third world countries or helping people with long-term illnesses experience a higher quality of life.

On the other hand, it can be argued that technology has made the world a worse place. The amount of data that is collected on citizens, combined with cases of cyber-attacks doubling in 2017, has meant some people feel more vulnerable about their personal information getting into the hands of the wrong people. Especially with medical information, highlighted by the NHS WannaCry hack last year that disrupted hospitals and reportedly put lives at risk.

Technology is also impacting on our mental health. It can also be said that even though we can be connected to anyone, anywhere and have endless information available to us, technology is making us as a society more unsociable. A lot of the time people choose to engage with their phones instead of engaging in conversation with the person next to them, which can lead to social isolation, anxiety and depression.

Cyber-bullying is also a much bigger problem than it was 10 years ago, with one in eight young people in the UK being bullied on social media in 2017 according to Ofcom.

There is an app for everything – even to help people with mental health issues with apps such as Calm and meditation apps like Headspace. These apps can give people access to help that they wouldn’t have been able to access before. With a little bit of faith in humanity, you’ll see that there will always be people trying to work against misuse of technology to see that it is used for the greater good. The rise of cyber-crime has been met with a rise in the number of cyber-security firms working to protect personal data and data belonging to businesses.

I believe if we choose not to accept or invest in technology, we will stagnate and be left behind while others embrace technology and reap the benefits of it.

There has been a lot of discussion and debate about the future of PR, but perhaps none so telling as the latest move by Bournemouth University.  From Autumn 2018, the University has announced it will no longer be accepting new entrants to its BA (Hons) Public Relations degree – a move that has sent shockwaves through the PR world.

Speaking as one of the 2011 course graduates, I have to say, the news comes as a surprise. Not only is the course at Bournemouth the UK’s longest-established BA degree in Public Relations, but it has become a hub of PR talent – producing a string of high calibre graduates that are sought after by companies and agencies alike.

And Bournemouth is not alone. The PR course at Edinburgh Napier University is also set to close, while the University of West London no longer offers one. So why are so many universities closing their doors to PR-only courses and what does this mean for our industry?

According to PR Week, the latest ‘State of the Profession’ figures show that just 17% of PR practitioners have degrees in PR or comms, while 57% have degrees in another subject. A quick poll around the office here at Whiteoaks paints a similar picture – only two members of the office have a degree in PR. So, is it just the case that PR degrees are no longer needed?

Not necessarily. There’s no denying that having a degree in PR certainly helps, but what I’ve learnt is that it isn’t a prerequisite for getting a job in PR. Instead, employers tend to favour particular skills and attributes in line with their company culture and any relevant work experience gained in a similar position. Of course, that’s not to say there’s no longer a role for the PR degree, just that a number of skills needed in PR – like communications and relationship building – can often be found across other disciplines too.

Instead of signifying what some may see as ‘the end of PR’, what the decision does indicate is a wider shift towards the integration of PR and marketing. In the case of Bournemouth, rather than standing as its own discipline, PR will now be included as an element in a wider marketing degree.

Speaking about the decision, Dr Darren Lilleker, who heads the corporate and marketing communication academic department at Bournemouth University, said the changes were being made “in line with industry trends and the integration of advertising and public relations into a broader communication framework”.

What this suggests is the fusion of three industries – advertising, marketing and PR – a trend we’re certainly seeing more and more among our client base. Long gone are the days when marketing and PR were viewed in isolation. Today, we’re increasingly running integrated campaigns for clients consisting of earned, owned, paid and shared media.

I believe we’re entering a new era of communication; one where the lines between marketing, PR and, to an extent, advertising, are increasingly blurred. The advent of social media and branded content means that no longer can the three disciplines be viewed in isolation.  And as, Paul Holmes, founder of The Holmes report commented “The PR industry will have to adapt to a world in which the lines between paid, earned, owned and shared media are not only blurring, but largely irrelevant in the minds of consumers”.

Our industry changes every day, and not all change is bad. In this new landscape, content is still king – and it’s in this environment that PR professionals have the opportunity to step up and take the lead. The main focus should be on achieving communication objectives through whatever means that might be.

When you’re currently operating from one country with a great PR or integrated marketing agency on board, taking the leap to an organisation that wants to expand to other territories is, well, a big leap. If your company fits or is about to fit this bill, there are some questions to ask yourself.  How do you know when to expand your PR and marketing efforts to complement the business expansion? What are the indicators which tell you that multinational PR and communications is a good use of your time and budget in the short to medium term? This article sets out to help you along that decision-making process.

The two main options

If the following two routes sound familiar to you, you’re not alone.  At a minimum level, you could consider distributing company news to international newswires from HQ and/or working with in-country freelancers. This level of international PR is hard work – translating or approving copy and managing that freelance network – but it’s relatively low cost, low risk and flexible. It may suit some companies at the beginning or test phases of international expansion.

At the other end of the scale, full-service international PR may seem like the next step. This route however best suits mid-to-large sized multinational companies, for many reasons:

• To make it work, you need a local sales team, who can efficiently do the comparative job of your home country’s sales team;
• An office or sufficient operational structure with a meaningful presence in each additional country;
• The time and resource, in-house, to effectively brief, manage and deliver the PR and marketing campaigns; and
• Budget – here, I’d say money does matter to a degree. Your company needs to have ‘enough’ money to allow each in-country agency to focus on making sure your business scales, reaches and achieves company goals in local markets.

Working with us in this way means that we deliver you our International Performance Management (IPM), agency-agnostic approach. There are four different options, from working with some of the pre-selected, independently owned and managed WIN PR Group agencies, one of which is Whiteoaks, to mixing and matching us with other agencies that you may have an existing relationship with.

But, back to the budget.

• For example, if you spend £5k per month in the UK or your home country on a PR and communications agency. A lot of prospective and existing clients tell me that they can allocate around £2k, maybe £3k each for example, for an agency in Benelux, France, Germany and the Nordics. You can choose to do this, but I think it’s simply not going to change anything. It’s not enough budget to deliver the same or similar effect that you already experience in your home country.
• My recommendation is that you need to match your UK or home country monthly agency spend if you plan to expand into countries including those primary key European markets that I mentioned earlier. This also applies to the Middle East, Africa and some of the smaller Asia-Pacific markets
• In the US and larger countries in Asia like China and Japan, I’d recommend doubling that home country monthly budget.

The genuine alternative

For fast-growth, innovative tech brands, that kind of budget is simply not achievable at this mid-point in their lifecycle, but an extra £2k or £3k per month can still present you with options to achieve change. Working with your UK or native country’s PR and communications agency to develop an integrated marketing programme where PR doesn’t mean only media relations, you can for example develop and execute:

• A robust content marketing strategy, which works hard to re-purpose themes and tailor content for other countries local variances;
• Campaigns and targeted problem-solving thought leadership in the trade media and for hand-picked contacts in the broader print and online press in English-speaking countries. Working from the UK to drive a client’s expansion in the US works well here, for example:
  • • We’ve been working with Fraedom, a fintech provider for banks and global businesses, for the last 12 months, developing and delivering thought leadership programmes and research-driven news campaigns in the UK and the US
    • Retail technology and consulting firm, REPL Group, hired us this Spring to raise its profile in creating best-in-class workforce management and engagement, warehouse management and in-store solutions. Just a handful of months later, the company has asked us to expand our UK media relations and thought leadership programme to the US market;
• Local social media;
• Marketing emails and blogs driven from and effective content plan;
• Cherry-picking attendance at events with stands and speaker slots; and
• If your company is launching a product or service or wants to announce its expansion into a new sector or country, then of course there are cost-effective ways to do that centrally on an ad hoc basis with media relations.

Related: How we provide global PR services to clients

I hope that in this piece, I’ve helped you to realise that there is a workable, high performance and cost-effective middle ground to managing international B2B PR with one or more agencies. If you would like to discuss the options in more detail, contact us here.

James Kelliher, CEO

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