Tank News and Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Public Relations’

A Gem in the crown of local radio

27-01-2011 | Martin | Tank PR News

The start of the year saw major changes to local radio across the East Midlands. Global Radio-owned Trent FM, Leicester Sound and Ram FM merged to create 95-106 Capital FM, while Orion Media’s Heart 106 rebranded as Gem 106.

While both chose the start of 2011 to make a change, that is where the similarity in their rebranding technique ends. Capital FM’s approach is consistent with many changes in the radio industry over the last few years, where stations retain a locally produced breakfast and drive-time show, but take nationally syndicated programming for the remainder of the day.

Of course, there is a degree of logic behind this. With advertising revenue across the board remaining low, this approach is a cost saving one. Syndicated shows require one presenter, one team of production staff and one studio, so it’s easy to see where savings can be made. Consequently, money can be invested in sourcing big name presenters and guests, and, as is the case with Capital, invest in a high-profile, celeb-packed TV advertising campaign.

However, there is a downside to this option and you need to ask if syndicated programming is relevant to a local audience. Chat becomes hugely generic and not geographically focussed, which really jars when the local breakfast and drive presenters are doing all they can to reinforce the idea of locality.

Gem 106 on the other hand, has done the complete opposite. Orion took a bold step by ditching the well-known Heart brand in the East Midlands. Ok, it had syndicated programming, but it also had strong listener figures. However, I can’t help but admire what they have done by bucking the trend.

On the Gem 106 website it says: ‘We believe that the best radio is made when it’s done locally. You know. People from ‘around here’ talking about the things that you care about’ and I have to agree that this is what people expect when they turn on their local radio station.

This approach obviously has its benefits for us as a Nottingham PR agency, as a locally focused station is more likely to engage with local news stories. But, that aside, I’m pleased to see at least one station not succumbing to the easy, generalised, celeb-orientated option.

That is not to say of course that Gem 106 is perfect. The transitions are a little slow, the idents sound outdated and song repetition is high, but these are problems that can be ironed out, and it has only been broadcasting under the Gem umbrella for a month.

Despite these teething problems, you have to take your hat off to those that aren’t afraid to be different and stand out from the crowd.

Gem 106, Tank PR salutes you!

Martin


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Tank PR client Curries favour with Royal Marines

21-01-2011 | Louisa | Public Relations

A great success - Marines cooked for over 90 guests at the Curry Lounge

As a Nottingham PR agency, it’s not often that you’re involved in a project that fills you with pride, humility and curry all at the same time!

Last night, Tank PR client the Curry Lounge held a charity fundraising event for the Royal Marines Benevolent Fund where six Royal Marines cooked traditional curries for around 90 guests, including local dignitaries, sportsmen and business owners.

The Marines met Curry Lounge owner Raz last year when he went to their Taunton base to help fundraise for the charity. Amazed by the lads and their experiences in Afghanistan, Raz was keen to do more to help Marines who have been on the front line, particularly those who were flown home to a life of uncertainty after experiencing terrible injuries.

“These guys are just doing their jobs out in Afghanistan and when I thought about what I could do for them, I decided that I could do my job!

“We wanted to do more after we visited Taunton, so we invited a group of Marines up to Nottingham to learn how to cook traditional Indian food.”

The dinner was a huge success and, coupled  with a charity auction, helped Raz and his team to raise over £6,000 for The Royal Marines Benevolent Fund.

With over 300 pieces of coverage – locally, nationally and online – we like to feel like we’ve done our own bit to highlight a truly worthwhile cause and the inspirational guys that we had the pleasure of meeting – the Royal Marines from 40 Commando.

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2011: The year of the tweet

05-01-2011 | TankPR | Social Media

I’ve spent quite a lot of time on Twitter over the Christmas break. Admittedly, it’s mainly been about catching up with friends that I haven’t had chance to see in person and commenting on the festive goings-on over the past few weeks, but it’s also helped to reinforce the importance of Twitter for businesses.

Many have been using their allotted 140 characters to reinforce their post Christmas sale offerings and festive branding messages. This has an obvious benefit for B2C companies, providing an instant, and free form of direct marketing, but Twitter’s advantages for B2B organisations shouldn’t be overlooked either.

It’s the perfect way to engage with potential new leads on a more informal basis, injecting some personality into your corporate image. It sits nicely alongside the likes of Linkedin as a network-building tool, allowing you to engage directly with some of the country’s biggest brands.

Twitter also has the ability of driving web traffic, either directly to your own site or to articles relating to your field of expertise. And, of course, the PR value of Twitter is ever increasing. Not only have I seen it establish individuals as thought-leaders, but I’ve also seen some of our most impressive pieces of national and trade coverage come from a single tweet – you should never forget how many leading journalists are active Twitter users.

In terms of the economy, it’s safe to say that the country will hardly be back on an even keel in 2011, and the next 12 months are bound to be spent by many clawing their way back to stability, so businesses will be looking at the best and most cost-effective ways of publicising themselves. This is why I believe that Twitter will continue to expand in terms of business use, presenting new opportunities without impacting on the all-important budgets.

For those of you venturing into the world of Twitter, one word of warning – remember that it should be considered as an important part of your marketing campaign. Be an active user, follow the right people, engage with them and take time to plan tweets. Although it’s important to present a degree of personality, always keep at the forefront of your mind that you’re representing your company and your brand image.

So, if you’re looking to make a New Year’s resolution for your business, you could do a lot worse than Twitter.

Happy tweeting in 2011!

Martin

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New recruit joins the ranks at Tank PR

03-11-2010 | TankPR | Tank PR News

Nottingham public relations agency Tank PR has announced the appointment of a new account director.
Martin Stone joins Tank from BCS PR, with extensive experience of managing high profile B2B and B2C campaigns on both a regional and national scale.

An English graduate and trained broadcast journalist, Martin has worked for BBC television and radio, as well as a number of commercial radio stations across the UK, helping him to develop an astute sense of news judgment and an impressive set of contacts.

As an account director, Martin will be working with the team to develop and manage effective and innovative PR strategies, as well as using his background to provide broadcast training for clients.

“Having worked with Martin previously, I’m all too aware of his ability to gain outstanding, targeted coverage across his account portfolio,” commented Trevor Palmer, director and founder of Tank PR.

“His experience and media knowledge will be key in the future development of Tank and I’m confident that he will be a valuable addition to the team.”

Martin’s appointment comes after a highly successful first year of trading for Tank PR, which saw it dramatically increase its client-base and achieve Recommended Agency Register status from RAR, the independently owned register, which helps organisations source the right marketing agencies.

For more information, visit http://www.tankpr.co.uk or follow @tankpr on Twitter.
Ends

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Online PR – The middle ground?

30-09-2010 | TankPR | Tank PR News

Within the public relations industry, there is a growing demand for online PR. However, we have started to see a cross over of industries as SEO companies and PR agencies fight for the lucrative online sector. Can there really be only one winner?
What is SEO?

SEO is search engine optimisation. Most simply put, it involves tweaking websites to make them easily seen by Google, which will then in turn place the website higher in search results for the keywords you have done work towards. Google wants to return the most relevant results for key terms so the point is to help Google see how much more relevant your site is over your competitors.

SEO is made up of two parts: on-page and off-page SEO.

Clearly, on-page SEO consists of writing Google-friendly content, including the most relevant key terms, which will also appear in your meta information etc. Of course, your website should also have been built so virtual spiders can crawl and extract information easily. Without FPT access, the public relations professional would not normally have a role to play in this aspect.

Off-page SEO is mainly link generation with the best links having a dofollow attributes which includes your key terms in the anchor text. This is where PR people can have a substantial impact. To get your client’s story in a national newspaper is great for traditional PR but for SEO, the aim is to get a link to the client’s website from the newspaper’s website and you will have hit the SEO jackpot. Afterall, the Telegraph’s website has a page rank of 8, the Guardian boasts a page rank of 9 and The Sun has a very respectable page rank of 7. It is well known that links from website with high page rank are more valuable than those from sites with low or no page rank. A persuasive public relations person can get the links that SEO people dream of.

What is online PR?

Again, simply put, online PR is managing a company’s reputation online. This can be done best with social media as companies can create a meeting place for customers who like a brand to discuss products/promotions etc in a social environment that the customer views as their territory e.g. platforms such as Facebook. The great thing about this for brands is that customers let down their guard in this arena, they have time to browse and are relaxed enough to make impulse buys.

SEOs often jump on this task, as it is easy, right? You set up the Facebook page, put a button on the website and let customers come forth and gush about how much they love the client’s brand and we’ll drop in occasionally and use it as a free broadcasting channel. Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy.

Some SEOs get it right and they’re the ones who understand about how social media works and encourage discussion and interaction. Those who get it wrong waste an opportunity for businesses to connect with customers and clients at best. At worst, they create a public relations nightmare that spills off the Internet into a calamity in the traditional media.

The trouble is that not every public relations agency has embraced the Internet. Amazingly, some prefer to stay out and wish not to adapt to the changing times. Unfortunately, this is not a strategy to adopt if you wish to be operating in 5-10 years time.

Separately, SEO and PR have a huge amount to offer clients looking to expand their businesses online. Is the middle ground of online PR a space to be fought over or an opportunity to work together? Part of the battle is that anyone can say they are a ‘Social Media Guru’ and all that will be achieved is a bit of messing around on Twitter with the client losing out. Weeding out the charlatans is the first challenge! Reputation is everything in PR.

Public relations agency Tank PR works with Nzime on several online projects. Based in Nottingham, the two companies work together to ensure that clients get the best deal – amazing websites that are well optimized for search engines backed up with amazing PR.

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Converting through Social Media, how I became a coveted statistic

08-09-2010 | TankPR | Tank PR News

Social media is a relatively new phenomenon, with savvy established brands and new businesses all trying to use social networking channels to their full effect. The principles are simple – approach potential customers in an environment where they feel safe and comfortable, where they feel in control and basically on their own territory.

Social networking can be hugely valuable to companies that get it right. If you know who your customers are, you can target your other marketing and PR campaigns more effectively. It becomes even more valuable when friends of the customer see that they like your brand and may possibly become customers themselves. It is even better if the customer interacts with you on these social networking sites and provides valuable feedback for free… whether it is good or bad.

Working in digital PR and SEO, you may think that someone like me is immune to such campaigns. After all, I know virtually every trick in the book right? Well yes, but I’m still a shopper! I need to purchase goods and services too, which is why I want to share with you how a company found my Twitter profile and encouraged me to become a customer.

I won’t be revealing the company that caught my attention, I am a shopper not their PR department!

1. This company followed me on Twitter first. When I get an email saying I have a new follower, I take a look at this person’s profile. If they appear to be spammy (no picture, lots of links or a username with lots of letter that don’t make sense) then I don’t follow back. This company checked all my ‘genuine Twitter user’ boxes.

2. They didn’t unfollow me once I followed them. There are tools out there that allow you to see exactly who has unfollowed you and when. There is nothing more annoying than people who follow you and then unfollow once you have reciprocated just so they can look popular.

3. This company reached out and spoke to me and replied when I spoke to them. When it seems as though there is a personality behind the screen, it makes the Twitter user more inclined for follow and chat to them.

4. They identified their target market well. As a woman in my mid twenties who uses Twitter frequently I fit perfectly to their ideal customer demographic.

5. Ultimately, the quality and relevance of their products to me was the dealbreaker. Do not take the attitude that if you sell and item and get enough website traffic the sales will roll in. Take responsibility for the product and be prepared to adapt.

Sales made directly through social media can be easily traced through Google Analytics, however, if social media has put the idea of buying in to a customer’s mind this is somewhat harder to track. ROI is then harder to gauge but still and excellent support tool for traditional public relations and marketing. Tank is well placed PR Agency to maximise your social media campaigns.

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Crisis!

18-02-2010 | TankPR | Tank PR News

STORM IN A TEACUP

Trevor Palmer – Director, Tank PR

Crisis: In FMCG markets it’s glass in a baby’s nappy on the shelves; for a construction company it’s a serious accident on site and for a manufacturer it’s redundancies. Multiply this crisis by ten if the media are involved – or at least that’s the commonly held belief.

A different way of looking at this would be to say that accidents happen and that some things are unavoidable and really aren’t the fault of businesses. Add to this the fact that 90% of the UK news media is looking to disseminate news responsibly and accurately – then there is little to be afraid of when helping the media to report a ‘crisis’.

So, if a business is not knowingly breaking the law, ignoring professional working practices or leaving itself wantonly exposed to security risks, in my opinion it’s ready to deal with the media openly.

The most important thing to do in a crisis is plan for it before hand. Take a pessimistic view of every possible scenario that could go wrong for your business and work out what your positioning would be for the possible outcomes.

Get your PR agency involved in this and make time to devise a strategy which includes key spokespeople and template response formats (such as press statements and sound bites) ready in the event of a crisis. This may appear to be ‘overdoing it’, but how ready would you be to draft the press response at 3:00am on Sunday morning when someone’s just burnt your factory down?

You should know who your spokespeople are – and let them know. Ensure that you have more than one to counter holidays. And, if these are the people destined to speak to the media in a crisis, make sure that they’re media trained by media professionals. They take prospective spokespeople through the toughest interview scenarios across the media channels of press and broadcast and prepare them by exposing them to the mediums they are likely to encounter in a crisis. This kind of training is key, helping spokespeople to appear cogent and in control when interviewed.

Once prepared, arm the spokespeople with BlackBerry, iphones or other PDAs so that they can be responsive and if there’s a possibility that your business could find itself in a risk scenario, make sure that your PR agency (if you have one) has similar devices – as they may well be the first point of call.

You also need to consider who may be interested in your crisis media-wise. Get to know this media as they may be crucial to your business. The local, regional and trade media like to know what a business is doing and if they already have an understanding and relationship with you, they will be more likely to empathise and support you if anything goes wrong.

If you have this list, keep the contact details updated as you or your PR company may be able to get a response to them before they come to you – if the circumstances deem this sensible to do.

Never ignore a media inquiry as it makes you appear dispassionate and ‘guilty’ by your absence and ignorance, which is not good equity for your brand.

My team has managed a lot of crisis for clients, but you won’t have heard of the best of them, as the best managed crises are the ones you don’t hear much about, but that’s another story, or not.

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