Are you an established brand looking for a fresh new approach to your PR or marketing communications? 

If you’re tired of hearing the same old strategy and ideas from your PR or marketing agency and are craving a fresh, new approach, we’re here to help.

New is in our DNA

As the only PR company to specialise in market entry, we have helped hundreds of new brands achieve success in the UK. In fact, our team is known for working with consumer brands like Nando’s, Lavazza and Guylian during their early years here in the UK.

We know that the key ingredient that new to market brands need to succeed is a very clearly defined proposition. Alongside the right partners who can shout about it, to the right people.

Which means, we skilfully apply the same thinking to established companies and brands too. We view them with fresh eyes, as if either the brand or company were just about to enter the market. It’s an approach that helps us strip right back to the heart of the brand’s unique proposition and what makes it stand out.

What makes us different? 

To bring our approach to life, we’ve highlighted a range of common frustrations that you have probably experienced and detailed how our alternative style works around them:

Problem:

All too often agencies send their most experienced team to wow at a pitch or initial meeting and then you rarely see them again, instead work is delegated to a junior team.

Whereas we: are exclusively a senior team, with 15 years+ expertise each. You can trust that your business will always be in safe, experienced hands, the same team attends meetings and provides weekly updates on progress.

Problem:

Agency insists on pitching a lengthy, retained contract before you even know if the team and the return on investment will be worth the spend.

Whereas we: only ever start on a project basis, to give clients the flexibility to commit to a time frame and budget that works for them.

Problem:

Processes and red tape within large agencies mean that nothing happens quickly enough to keep up with your business.

Whereas we: find our small but mighty team means we are able to shift and adapt to our clients’ needs immediately and get things done at pace, delivering meaningful results at speed.

Problem:

The work requires a suite of agencies to meet your needs, which is expensive and the briefing is time consuming.

Whereas we: are hailed by our clients as being ‘much more than just PR’, our senior team has worked in PR and marketing long enough to have worked across a broad range of sectors and disciplines. Nothing fazes us and we have an excellent extended team of consultants, should you have niche or specialist requirements.

Problem:

Agency doesn’t challenge your thinking and just tells you what you want to hear.

Whereas we: aren’t afraid to speak the truth because the team that came up with the idea is also the team that pitches it (no handing off to more junior members of staff).   We believe in the work we do and want to achieve the very best outcome. So, if we know an idea isn’t going to work, we will explain why and offer an alternative for consideration, balancing strategic and creative thinking in equal measure.

Our fresh approach undoubtedly sounds great in theory but what does it actually mean in practice? Well, wonder no more because here are some case studies that demonstrate how our new thinking comes into play across clients:

Reinvigorating centuries old brands

How do you get people to take notice of brands that have been around for longer than any of us have been alive? It requires some thought..

Police Mutual tried various approaches and agencies but never got their PR off the ground.  We first proved we could achieve coverage for their annual review, then for insurance and savings products on an ongoing basis. We supported their CSR programmes and demonstrated that we understood what mattered to serving Police Officers, creating content that resonated and generating coverage that converted to leads and sales.  We also worked on a similar strategy for their sister brand, Forces Mutual.

As for Royal Hospital Chelsea, this respected, venerable institution needed to communicate with the outside world for the first time to raise funds. The scarlet suited Chelsea Pensioners may have been famous but the organisation itself was little understood and not nearly as visible.  As a result of our approach and success, we went on to retain them as a client for over 10 years.

Enlivening financial services

How do you encourage engagement with what can be seen as a relatively “dry” financial product or service?

For Centric Commercial Finance we identified that their messaging needed to change from the intricacies of invoice finance as the key focus, to stories about what the funding allowed company owners to do: “finance personally approved by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs”.  The media got interested and coverage flowed. We also produced their annual reports and their marketing collateral.

Equistone Partners Europe (previously Barclays Private Equity and prior to that BZW Private Equity, we worked for them all), had a constant stream of investments and exits and portfolio companies that needed PR coverage.  Focusing on great photography and the brands, rather than simply the finance supplied, resulted in regular coverage in key nationals.

Repositioning food & drink brands

The food and drink category is crowded and it can be hard to get the cut through needed to make your brand truly stand above the noise. What did we do?

We helped launch Guylian into the UK back in 1999 and over the years it became an established, well-known brand. The challenge was keeping shoppers interested when there was very little NPD or variation from the hero product, Sea Shells. In a perfect example of our ability to create ‘new’ news even where there isn’t any, we generated hundreds of pieces of coverage every year and exponentially grew the brand’s UK Instagram channel. We did this by working together with influencers to bring people’s love for the brand to life and creating beautiful bespoke recipe collections for key seasons, entitled ‘Finishing Touches.’

We worked with Donatantonio, an importer and distributor of fine foods including 100% peanut-free spread Wowbutter. Our clever new positioning of the brand and top-notch media contacts achieved great trade media coverage. Our piece in leading FMCG title The Grocer generated a meeting with a grocery retail buyer that they had been trying to reach for some time.

So, with all this in mind, perhaps it’s time for some help to look at your brand with fresh eyes and clever new thinking to get your message heard?

We’d be very happy to assist.  Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!