Lee Cullen

Measurement matters… and now we have an international certificate to prove it!

Lee Cullen — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 12:02:00 +0000

It’s been an interesting year to say the least

We’ve seen things like making banana bread, rainbow paintings and completing Joe Wicks’ workouts all feature heavily in people’s daily routines (all of which we’ve also done!).

Learning and development have also been a big focus for a lot of people, and as a team, we’ve invested some of our time in understanding how we could be even better for our clients.

So, earlier this year we committed to link up with the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) and take on one of their gold-standard measurement courses.

We enrolled on the AMEC International Certificate in Measurement and Evaluation – a ten-week course taught online at degree level – and are proud to say we passed the assessment with flying colours!

It means a lot of what we were already doing and measuring for our clients stacks up pretty well against industry-leading standards. So obviously we were pleased about that.

But we’ve also been able to evolve the way we plan and evaluate our activity in line with the AMEC framework, which is helping us drive even better results all round. There are so many great tools and techniques now to help track campaigns more effectively, which means we never want to stand still and we’re always looking to improve what we do.

Measuring Outputs, Outtakes, Outcomes and Impact

Outputs are the things that can be measured across PESO channels. Things like the reach of paid advertising, visitors to a website, the reach of media coverage or how many social posts have been posted.

Outtakes start to focus more on qualitative measures. This is the response and reactions seen to any activity. How well understood was the topic? Did people subscribe for more information? Or did you see an uplift in return website visitors?

And then there are Outcomes – the holy grail of PR. This is where the effect of the activity on the target audience needs to be measured. So, we’re looking for increased levels of trust, lead generation, registrations or greater brand preference.

The final piece of the puzzle here is Impact – measuring the difference that all of the efforts have made. Has staff or customer retention increased? Have sales gone up? Have cost savings been made?

For too long agencies have been guilty of focusing too much on outputs without knowing if programmes of work were making much difference to the companies and organisations they support. The work of AMEC is helping to shine a light on bad practices and we’re proud to be putting our work to these incredibly high standards.

Does PR or communications really deliver any value?

I’ve spent the majority of my career working in PR and over the years, I’ve found that the brands and businesses I speak to generally fall into one of two camps – the believers and the non-believers.

The believers get it. They know how important reputation is for their business. They know the impact it can have on things like sales, share price or staff retention. And they understand how important it is to create stories and content regularly, to shape people’s opinions and ultimately influence their behaviours.

Then there are the ones that don’t get it. They can’t understand the value of reputation building. They view most communications work as the ‘dark arts’. And unless there’s a direct boost to the bottom line at the end of the month, they don’t see the point of it. To be honest, we tend to find these businesses are the ones that are looking for short term fixes and don’t want to tell their stories (for a variety of reasons), but that’s probably a blog for another day!

Despite knowing how the non-believers were never likely to be the kind of clients we would be working with at No Brainer, it’s always bothered us how the importance of good communications and building long-term trust can so often be overlooked.

Evaluation and proving the value of communications is usually at the heart of it and the industry only has itself to blame. Years of poorly planned and badly measured campaigns have created an environment where work is rarely understood, and its value rightly questioned. PR and communications have been way behind the curve.

There is no single metric that defines success in marketing or communications. But integrated campaigns where the combination of different tactics and channels are being measured side-by-side is where every communications agency needs to be. And AMEC agree.

We’d love to put our fancy new AMEC credentials to the test, so if you’re fed up with your current agency, need some extra resources for your team or have a campaign you’d just like to chat about, drop us an email to team@nobraineragency.co.uk and we’ll get straight back to you!

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Hat-trick of new clients for No Brainer

Lee Cullen — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 20:36:00 +0000

We’re delighted to welcome three new clients to our roster, further solidifying our growth in the north-west.

Our new clients include a soon-to-open, pandemic-themed visitor attraction called ‘Sick to Death’ in Chester, a virus-killing protection spray from Protection Zone, and award-winning IT software consultancy, Synyega.

Protection Zone, an approved UK retailer of revolutionary virus-killing protection spray Liquid Guard®, has appointed No Brainer to handle its PR and social media strategy to help build brand awareness around the launch of the business and its products, as well as driving sales with both B2B and B2C audiences.

No Brainer is delivering PR and media relations support around the launch of ‘Sick to Death’ in Chester, the UK’s first visitor attraction to delve into the nation’s gory history of medicine and pandemics. The immersive experience, featuring the city’s infamous Plague Doctor, is set to open later this year, subject to government announcements regarding COVID-19.

The agency is also now working with award-winning software licencing consultancy, Synyega following a competitive pitch process, to develop an integrated B2B campaign to raise brand awareness and accelerate company growth through PR, social media, content marketing and SEO.

Gary Jenkins, No Brainer’s co-owner and Managing Director said: “We’re delighted and proud to welcome a further three clients to No Brainer, which come hot on the heels of a recent award win and some strong industry rankings for the agency.

“The pandemic has been challenging for our industry and agencies in particular, but to be able to generate new business during that time is recognition for the hard work our team puts in every day.

“It’s also a testament to the clients who have put their trust in us, utilising our skills and knowledge as an extension of their teams. We’re looking forward to long and fruitful relationships with them.”

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An incredible win at the PRCA Dare Awards 2020

Lee Cullen — Tue, 18 Aug 2020 21:01:00 +0000

We’re great believers that there is always space for good news in our world. It’s our job to find it.

In amongst all the dour warnings of global crises, quarantining, deep recessions and further lockdowns, we all need good news now. We need it more than ever.

Families, friends and colleagues need to believe that good can prevail even in the darkest of times, but also that there’s hope, belief and passion in our businesses to survive, recover and, in time, to thrive once again.

We received our own good news this month and fulfilled one of our dreams to become regarded by our peers as one of the pioneers in our field.

The PRCA – the world’s largest professional PR body – held the PRCA Dare Awards, and we walked away with the biggest award on the night in the Northern categories; winning Medium Consultancy of the Year!

We now go forward to the national gala to compete against the best of the best PR agencies in the UK.

It’s a huge award for us – probably our biggest ever – and we celebrate it with all of you. Our amazing team who work so hard every day; our partners who offer exceptional advice, our suppliers who help keep our business ticking over smoothly, and importantly our friends and family. We also want to extend our sincere thanks to our clients, who have put their faith and trust in us, allowing us to share their good news with the world during such challenging times.

We celebrate with you because you’ve supported us, worked with us and believed in us over the last five and a half years. It’s been an unexpected journey at some points, but one we’ve enjoyed every minute of none the less.

Our job now is to continue to tell the good news our clients have in bucketloads, to inspire the audiences they’re aiming to connect with, and to help them survive and thrive both now and in the good times to come.

Here’s to building bigger and better!

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Digital PR and SEO – the power of backlinks in media coverage

Lee Cullen — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 09:15:00 +0000

The times they are a-changin’, and as more content moves online and digital marketing becomes more prevalent, the need for the Digital PR and SEO (search engine optimisation) industries to adapt and evolve has never been greater.

How PR can support link building

Backlinks have always been an important element of SEO, and Digital PR is a fantastic way to earn high quality links to your site from other trusted websites. We’d argue the combination of these two marketing tools in a backlink strategy is one of the most important tactics you should be using in any integrated marketing campaign.

How do links to your site help you?

Backlink building to your website has a hugely positive impact on how your brand ranks in search engine results pages. It builds your Domain Authority (DA) and can drive referral traffic to your website to boost, among many things, leads or sales.

Not sure what Domain Authority is? Check out our article on the basics of SEO.

When it comes to determining your brand’s position in the search rankings, search engines use a whole range of “signals” to decide who sits where. The exact science behind it is a card that the likes of Google keeps close to its chest, but plenty of studies have shown that securing high quality links plays a massive part in bumping up your organic positions online.

Here’s what the team at Moz had to say about search engine rankings and the relationship with backlinks:

“When they are deciding this, the search engines do not just look at the content of the page; they also look at the number of links pointing to that page from external websites and the quality of those external websites. Generally speaking, the more high-quality websites that link to you, the more likely you are to rank well in search results.”

Link building needs to be closely aligned with your keyword research to make sure you’re getting the right kind of traffic. Gaining backlinks to your website is meaningless if the sites and the people that visit them are in no way relevant to you. But ultimately, no matter what type of business you are, if you’re getting more of your target customers to visit your website, you’re more likely to be achieving your goals and conversion targets.

Why Google rankings matter

Before we get into the specifics, it’s important to consider the different search engines and the rules everyone really needs to play by. There are other search engines like Yahoo and Bing to consider, but with Google owning more than 85% of the market in the UK, it’s definitely the one that matters most to marketers.

Research suggests that around 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine like Google, so they really are the gateway to your digital presence. But, if your brand awareness (online or offline) is low, how will you be found organically through an online search?

The harsh reality is that if you’re not on page one of Google for anything relevant to your brand, the chances are no one will find you.

Here are a few fascinating stats from the team at Backlinko just to emphasise that point:

75% of people never scroll past the first page on a Google search
The #1 result in Google gets 31.7% of all clicks
The top 3 Google search results get 75.1% of all clicks

If you want people to find you online, it’s clear you need to be working hard to get as high as you can in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

The fundamentals of SEO need to be right to help you achieve that, which means things like having great pieces of content and optimising text and images, as well as good loading speeds and mobile accessibility on the technical SEO side.

But if everyone is doing the same thing, how can you stand out from the crowd and get yourself ahead of the competition? That’s where combining the power of SEO and Digital PR to secure backlinks can really give you a competitive edge.

Choose backlink quality over quantity

Link building isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s been happening for years but historically, it’s been a tactic that has very much sat in the SEO world. However, it’s important to understand a bit of the history behind it to see how it’s evolved…

It used to be the case that SEO experts could buy up tonnes of backlinks from a range of (sometimes pretty questionable) sites and simply play the numbers game to get their clients to the top of page one on Google.

But there was a massive shift in 2012 when Google introduced the Penguin algorithm update, which turned the SEO industry upside down. It specifically targeted link spam and any websites found to be doing this were severely penalised by Google.

So why did Google do it? Here’s a great explanation from the team at Search Engine Journal:

“By better understanding the process the types of links websites and webmasters were earning, Penguin worked toward ensuring that natural, authoritative and relevant links rewarded the websites they pointed to, while manipulative and spammy links were downgraded.”

At the heart of these changes is user intent. Google (and other search engines) want to make sure that every search query gets the best results – first and every time – and that means pushing credible sites with authority higher, while scaling down the visibility of those that just try to play the system.

What are SEO backlinks?

If you want to rank well, you need to be authentic, you need to have great content and you need to be adding value to the search experience for your target customers and clients. Quality backlinks are seen as a trust signal of all of this.

Make no mistake, earning backlinks isn’t easy. It’s hard work and if any agency tells you they can get you thousands of links in just a few weeks, you should run a mile. Quality links win through every time and should be part of every SEO backlink strategy.

Why PR people are so much better at getting backlinks

I haven’t met many SEO experts that enjoy getting backlinks. In fact, most hate it and actively avoid doing it. The vast majority would agree that link building is one of the hardest parts of their jobs, but they know how important it is too.

The key to earning them is relationship building and thankfully, that’s one of the core skills for anyone working in Digital PR. When you put SEO objectives together with Digital PR outreach, it’s a really powerful combination.

One of the biggest misconceptions I find when it comes to earning links is that every article or piece of coverage generated should have one. That’s simply not the case.

Sometimes a great piece of coverage is exactly that – it’s not about securing a backlink and asking a journalist or an influencer to simply give you one – often the answer will be ‘no’ and it could actually damage the relationship with them if you’re too persistent.

You need to give people a reason to link to your site in order to successfully carry out digital PR link building, and to do that you have to offer something that genuinely adds value to their article or content.

The BBC have offered some really useful guidance on when it would be appropriate for their journalists to link to an external site, and have said they will do so when it is deemed as being ‘editorially justifiable’. Here are five cases where they would consider including an external backlink:

For further relevant information
Background information
Key source material
Useful practical information
Further informed comment

Although this is a specific BBC policy, the key principles apply to the majority of other news sites too – especially those with high DAs, which is vital information if PR link building is part of your wider strategy.

Things like eBooks, white papers, and infographics can all fit the criteria and if you have some unique data you can shape news content from, we find that can often work really well too.

We’ve been able to earn backlinks for our clients from the BBC and a whole host of other national and regional news sites through this kind of approach and the benefits for clients are phenomenal.

Generally speaking, the higher the authority/power of a website (scored from 1-100), the more SEO benefits you will get from earning a direct link. The BBC has a DA (Domain Authority) of 96 according to Moz, whereas a website created a few weeks ago will likely be under 10, just to put things into perspective.

Are press releases good for link building?

Press stories can be great for link building, but it very much depends on how that story is communicated to journalists and whether there is enough motivation for them to include a link with online coverage.

You need to think about the link type too – links that are ‘no-follow’ bring little or no SEO value compared to ‘follow’ links. There are other benefits from no-follow links and brand citations, but that’s a blog for another day!

The relevancy of the site you secure a ‘follow’ link from can be another important piece of the puzzle. It’s unlikely to impact SEO value as much as a high DA, but as an example, if you’re working on an employment law story, other websites focused on HR topics and content will be ideal. They’re more likely to be interested in your story and from an SEO perspective, they’re really valuable too.

The pace of digital change

This year has been an interesting year in many ways (we’re trying hard not to say the word ‘unprecedented’!), but there’s no question that COVID-19 has accelerated the pace of digital change.

All the website development agencies I speak to are telling me they’ve never been busier, with all types of businesses and sectors pivoting to do more business online. It’s a trend that we were already seeing, but it’s increased over the past few months as many companies adapt to survive. Marketing and PR have to follow suit.

It means the competition online is greater than ever with lots of different companies vying for the same online space, so brands need to be thinking creatively and combining Digital PR and their lead gen or ecommerce SEO strategies to really get more online exposure and visibility.

If you want to know more about how we’re adding measurable value for our clients through the power of Digital PR and SEO, drop us a line and we’d be happy to chat it through!

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We’ve been named as one of the top 20 PR agencies in the North West!

Lee Cullen — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 09:42:00 +0000

We’re thrilled to announce we’ve been named as one of the top 20 PR agencies in the North West!

Moving into 20th place after debuting at 23rd last year, we’re the only Warrington-based agency to feature in this year’s list of the region’s biggest and brightest PR consultancies, compiled by North West Business Insider.

We really are proud to be recognised for our growth over the last 12 months and to be named as one of the top 20 PR consultancies in our region for the first time.

We’re ranked alongside some incredible agencies, so to achieve this in just five years is fantastic recognition to our team, who work so hard. In 2019, we saw a lot of changes and expansion, but we’ve always worked hard to balance that carefully with continuing to deliver quality results and outstanding services for our clients.

Though the next 12 months are set to be challenging for many businesses due to the impact of COVID-19, we still have the ambition, hunger and ethic to succeed and grow.

Over the next year, we’re aiming to further strengthen and diversify what we do, which will ensure we remain competitive and ahead of the curve for clients who are looking for smart, integrated marketing strategies and high-impact campaigns to drive the results that really matter.

The independent ranking from North West Business Insider is based on financial performance and growth, but also takes into account data including staff numbers, client wins and a range of other metrics.

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The old ways of marketing and PR aren’t working anymore…

Lee Cullen — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 11:29:43 +0000

When I was a news reporter back in the late 90s I used to walk to the fax machine on the hour every hour. I’d also read piles of post at least twice a day.

I’d go and meet people face-to-face, for coffee or beers, to discuss stories.

I’d pound the streets, visiting shops, police, attractions, community centres.

I’d sit in court or council meetings for hours on end.

I wrote in a pad with an actual pen and always had a few spares in case one ran out.

I picked up an actual phone and spoke to people.

And I’d be called by countless PR agencies who were pushing their latest press releases from their clients and wonder what on earth they were doing trying to ‘sell-in’ such a terrible story.

In just over 20 years, the only one of these that doesn’t seem to have changed is the last one.

PR isn’t what it used to be…. Most of the time

The amount of people who still think PR is only about writing press releases and generating media profile genuinely baffles me.

There are still plenty of PR agencies who think this too by the way.

But we’re not one of them.

Instead, we think the old ways of marketing and PR just simply aren’t working any more.

Thinking of marketing in silos is outdated – particularly in a world when marketing channels are converging more than ever.

It’s why Lee and I set up No Brainer, and it’s why we hire people who share the same mindset.

Creative Intelligence

This is why we devised our ‘Creative Intelligence’ model when we set up five years ago, and it still stands the test of time to this day.

In fact, with all the data we now have at our disposal, we believe it may now be more relevant than ever. The ways of measuring the reach of our work are boundless.

Creative Intelligence, put simply, is centred around the function of the brain – left brain (intelligence) and right brain (creativity).

By combining left and right brain thinking, instead of developing content that might look great but deliver nothing, we develop campaigns that are built on a foundation of insight and data to drive meaningful results.

Once we have this clarity for our clients – the intelligence, data, analytics, audience profiles, message clarity, and KPIs that relate to them and only them – we can bring to life genuinely impactful creative and thought-provoking ideas in many compelling ways.

But, critical to all of this is how these ideas and campaigns are delivered.

And, for this, we’re inspired by Gini Dietrich’s PESO model.

Intelligent Delivery

The PESO model – Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned – was officially launched in 2014, when the book Spin Sucks, authored by Gini Dietrich, was published.

It showed the power of thinking in an integrated (or converged) way, and maximising channels and techniques – both traditional and modern – to create way more impact and better results, rather than delivering a single component of the marketing mix.

Together, ideas and campaigns distributed through PESO are incredibly powerful. We know, because we do it through intelligent delivery ourselves.

We also know this approach drives meaningful change and meaningful results.

Only recently, Gini updated the model to create PESO 2.0 and now hosts a series of masterclasses.

Although the model – particularly the latest evolution – does a great job of highlighting all the tactics and considerations needed to deliver an integrated campaign, collectively, as a team it didn’t work specifically for us in its current form.

However, Gini’s work has inspired us to devise our Intelligent Delivery model for No Brainer and our clients, and this now underpins everything we do in terms of our services for clients and prospects.

Our version of model looks like this:

The No Brainer way

We don’t claim to be experts in anything we’re not.

If we need something doing that we don’t do, then we’ll work with best-in-class partners and collaborators and we’ll let our clients know who they are.

We don’t white-label, by which we mean we don’t claim to do it and then discreetly get someone else to. Instead, we give the agencies we work with the credibility and respect they deserve.

But they have to be the very best at what they do, as it’s our reputation at stake if we refer or recommend agencies or partners to our clients. We won’t compromise on that.

So, what are we experts at?

Paid

‘Paid’ media, in our case, doesn’t mean dazzling, big-money TV, billboards and print ads. For that, you’d need an amazing creative design agency – and we know a few if you do.

Instead, for us and for our clients, we’re experts in particular areas of paid marketing.

We specialise in paid social media and re-targeting; native and sponsored content (targeting content and adverts on relevant channels so they look and feel part of that channel), and influencer marketing.

The power of paid social cannot be understated in today’s world. We hear so many people boosting posts here and there. That’s the simplest form, but there’s so much more to it. Done right, paid for social media can truly revolutionise returns for your business, and it can deliver compelling results in every sector you could possibly imagine.

Influencer marketing is not something Lee and I factored into the business five years ago. Today, it’s a critical part of what we do across our client accounts as bloggers and influencers are becoming incredibly powerful for driving engagement, endorsing brands and sales. We have the results to prove this too.

Earned

‘Earned’ media is new-world PR. For us, this now includes elements such as media relations, digital PR, online content, link-building and outreach. It’s a clear strength of our agency and these are all areas we’re proud to lead our market in.

Whether it’s TV, radio, print, online, trade media, a blog or a podcast there’s always a ‘fit’ for any client. It doesn’t matter what you do, there will be a channel – usually very many – through which you can connect with your audiences.

In the last few weeks just for our clients, we’ve generated coverage and profile in the FT, Telegraph, Metro, BBC, Radio Five Live, Guardian, Mirror and so many others. Demand is still high for stories.

Combine that with ‘editorial hijacking’ – basically reacting instantly (or near as damn it) to trending topics with comments from clients – and the opportunities for backlinks, profile and brand building are vast.

Shared

In her latest view of PESO 2.0, Gini defines ‘Shared’ media as social media. However, we believe it goes beyond that for our clients and for our team.

Social media is now a must-have for every business that’s serious about engaging with its audiences. Whether a retail business selling direct-to-consumer or a business selling products and services to other business, social media is the powerhouse of new business and sales.

I’ve lost count of the number of people who have spoken to me to say their business development isn’t working any more. Lots in marketing and PR isn’t working any more.

Done right, social media can drive huge returns no matter what market you’re in or serve. It’s another area we excel in, so it’s a key part of our PESO model for No Brainer.

But it’s also critical to understand the other components of Shared – for us, that’s groups and forums (an underused and powerful channel to connect with audiences) and online reviews, as well as social media.

Groups, forums and online reviews have the power to shape (positively and negatively) how products and services are received and used, so they shouldn’t be neglected.

Social also plays a crucial role in driving brand advocacy and loyalty. The choice of channels is important, but any brand not embracing the potential value of social media has already fallen way behind the times and, most likely, the competition.

Owned

For us, ‘Owned’ is another critical channel, and it’s often a key starting point for us with clients.

Website data (via Google Analytics), email data, SEO audits and the like can often give you a whole raft of insights to make truly informed decisions on the campaigns, content and marketing you deliver to clients.

Many of our quick wins for clients come from this initial analysis, but our regular monitoring also informs our collective strategy and focus as we work closely with clients over the following weeks, months and years.

SEO and PR work hand in hand in today’s world. They shouldn’t sit in their own vacuums. PR is especially crucial to SEO as it helps build vastly superior links – one of Google’s most important search ranking factors.

Put simply, even a handful of placements on the websites of national newspapers, trade publications or big regional news sites can elevate your SEO performance to new heights.

For us, Owned includes SEO, content marketing, websites and email marketing as key ways to amplify stories, and again, it’s where our specialism lies.

Want to know more?

We’ll be sharing more about the different parts of the Intelligent Delivery model over the next few weeks, and no doubt you’ll see it through our own PESO channels (as we make ourselves our own client!).

If you’re interested in exploring how this could work in your world then please get in touch. We’d be happy to chat.

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Why every brand should have media-trained spokespeople (and five great examples to prove it)

Lee Cullen — Mon, 04 May 2020 11:54:33 +0000

Having spokespeople with the confidence and the skills to speak directly to the media can do wonders for a brand’s reputation.

The very best spokespeople have credibility, authority and can remain calm under pressure. They come across as someone the audience can relate to and they convey their messages clearly and concisely.

With a rolling 24-hour news agenda, there are plenty of opportunities for company spokespeople to get ‘out there’ and talk to the media. And if anything, the impact of coronavirus has created a situation where journalists have become even more reliant on good spokespeople to help them craft interesting or informative stories. Particularly TV and radio outlets.

Done right, a great media interview can be a fantastic PR tactic, adding credibility and personality to a brand, helping to position it positively in the minds of the audience. It’s also a great way for a company to stand out from its competition.

But when done wrong, they can have the exact opposite effect and actually damage a brand’s reputation – something which can take a long time to recover from. This is especially true when it comes to handling a crisis (if you haven’t already seen it, take a look at our eight-step guide on the best ways to manage crises from a communications perspective!).

Mastering the art of media interviews

We’ve worked with a whole range of different people over the years and it’s fair to say that when it comes to media interviews, some people love them, and others loathe them.

But the good news is that learning how to handle a journalist’s questions – whether that be for TV, radio, print or online – is a skill that can be taught. In our view, it’s also an essential investment.

We encourage all of our clients to have at least one person within the business that is media trained and understands some of the key techniques needed to manage a media interview.

They need to feel comfortable speaking to the press and as an agency, we only want to put clients into those situations when we’re happy that they feel confident.

With COVID-19 creating a very different set of circumstances for media outreach right now, we’ve adapted our training methods to include media interviews over Zoom – an option we’re seeing more and more media outlets take right now, and something we expect to see carry on in the future too.

Is media training just for TV and radio interviews?

Media relations is just one of the tactics in the PR toolkit, and there are also lots of different ways to effectively do media outreach for a brand.

Print and online media journalists tend to be a mixed bag, with many happy to take pre-written content, whilst some others prefer speaking directly to senior people within an organisation to help shape their stories.

But when it comes to TV and radio outlets, it really is essential to have senior people available (often at very short notice) who can offer interesting and informative soundbites.

Whatever the media format, the fundamental principles of a good press interview carry many of the same characteristics.

Here are five key things you can expect to be covered by the media training we offer, with some high-profile examples of interviewees not quite hitting the mark…

Think about your interview setting

COVID-19 has moved the goalposts somewhat and the option of online interviews are becoming more commonplace. It’s always important to consider your background and the environment for any interview, and that rule still applies even if you are working from home.

Professor Robert Kelly – an American political analyst on inter-Korean affairs – went viral with this BBC interview back in 2017, which was gate-crashed by his children. Far from damaging his reputation, such was the outpouring of support from the public that this incident actually enhanced his public profile as a ‘working from home’ dad.

It’s an amusing and topical reminder of how important it is to make sure that you consider your surroundings before launching into a media interview.

Define your key messages

Understanding the key messages you want to get across in any media interview is crucial, and the secret to it lies in good training and preparation.

Working with a great agency will help to ensure you are fully briefed and know the important points you want to get across to the audience. But, it’s important to have some variation in your answers. And you need to sound like a human being – not a robot on repeat.

This interview with Ed Miliband back in 2011 highlights what can go wrong if you don’t take the time to prepare fully and rely too much on just a couple of key messages…

How to handle tricky questions

Taking on a media interview means you have to be prepared to take the rough with the smooth. You will get a chance to talk about all the good things you or your company has achieved if you handle the questions in the right way (there’s a great technique we teach for that!), but you must also accept that you might get asked some tricky questions along the way.

It’s a journalist’s prerogative to ask a range of questions that will be of interest to their audience, so make sure to consider anything and everything that might come up. Having a response in mind for any difficult questions, along with using clever media training techniques, will stand you in good stead.

Here’s an example from former Persimmon CEO, Jeff Fairburn, showing what not to do when faced with a question you’d rather not answer:

Staying focused and never switching off

One of the very best tips we’ll give for free is to always ask a journalist what their first question will be. If you’re working with an agency, they should have already given you a good steer of what to expect, but before the interview it’s absolutely fine to ask a journalist what the first question will be. It can help settle your nerves and give you time to think about an answer so you can get off to a strong start.

Never, ever, switch off either. That applies before the interview and after it too. You need to remain professional the whole time and remember that someone will probably be listening or recording, even if you’re not aware of it.

In 2018, Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe was caught singing ‘We’re in the money’ just before a TV interview, where he was going to talk about a proposed merger with Asda. He was forced to apologise soon after, but the clip was picked up by media outlets all over the country.

It is worth highlighting, however, that Sainsbury’s is one of the brands that has been highly praised for its response and communications strategy around COVID-19. Coupe has been a key element of that too, so credit where it’s due, but that clip was a moment that will still live long in the memory for all the wrong reasons.

Read the room – conduct your interview with clarity, sincerity, compassion or whatever else may be required

As well as being confident in your answers, it’s important to understand the context of your interview and consider what pre-conceptions the audience may have already about the topics you’re discussing.

If you’re a legal expert for example, it would be wrong to assume that the audience has the same level of understanding as you for complex areas of law. It’s vital to simplify things (without being patronising of course) and keep in mind the thoughts and feelings of viewers, listeners or readers. If the topic is a sensitive one, or you’re responding to a crisis, you need to convey compassion and empathy towards anyone that may have been affected by it.

A recent example of someone getting this spectacularly wrong was Prince Andrews’ BBC interview in 2019, where he talked about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Speaking to Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, the Duke came across as completely out of touch with public opinion on the topic and was, quite rightly, criticised for showing a lack of empathy for victims in the case.

Prince Andrew has since taken a step back from Royal duties in the public eye and it remains to be seen if he will ever be able to recover the damage that was done to his reputation following this interview.

Honing your media training skills

Whether you’re looking to brush up on your media interview skills or learn them from scratch, using some of the time we have right now to practice your techniques will be time well spent.

No Brainer is able to offer media training packages via Zoom right now with a key focus on TV and Radio, delivered by highly experienced journalists. These sessions include practical tips and key message preparation, followed by roleplay interviews, playback and feedback.

If you want to know more about the training on offer, please get in touch with us.

The post Why every brand should have media-trained spokespeople (and five great examples to prove it) appeared first on No Brainer Agency.

Six tips for getting into a career in PR and Marketing

Lee Cullen — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 13:49:36 +0000

Whether you’re currently studying, a recent graduate or are thinking about a career change at any time of life into PR and/or marketing, it can sometimes feel like a daunting prospect, and you might not really know where to start.

Following these tips can help not only with the practical side of building up essential skills and finding ways to stand out on your CV and in interviews, but also in giving you the confidence in your own ability to forge a successful career in PR and marketing.

1. Know your stuff

You might have studied marketing and public relations (or maybe not) but all the buzzwords, models and theory in the world are only useful if you can apply them to real-world scenarios, campaigns, and activity. A really useful exercise can be to try and reverse engineer successful campaigns that you’ve seen (and admire) to work out what it took to put them together (or illustrate how you would do it), and also how the campaign actually benefitted the brand involved in a tangible way.

This is the kind of thing you can talk about in a job interview which shows that you really understand marketing principles and have taken the time to really think about why certain campaigns are successful and how it was done.

2. Do an internship or work experience placement in a PR or marketing agency

We’re not talking about the lengthy unpaid internships of old here, but a great way to get real experience of the PR and marketing world is to ask for a one to two-week placement in a marketing or PR agency where you can learn from people at various stages of their career. Not only does this help you with hands-on experience, but it can also help you to start building contacts within the industry, which can prove really useful throughout your future career.

You don’t need to stop at one placement. Getting experience in different agencies or teams is a good way broaden your knowledge and network with even more people.

3. Get some journalism experience if you can

If you want to work in PR, a busy news desk can be the perfect environment for you to learn, because of the close relationship between journalism and public relations. Lots of PR people have previously trained and worked as journalists and the transferrable skills between the two are many. You need to be able to find and pitch stories, write good copy quickly and deal with tight deadlines in both professions. Working alongside journalists can also give you great insight that will help with pitching once you’re working in PR. You’ll see first-hand how journalists choose which stories to use from the dozens or even hundreds they receive every day, along with essential knowledge such as the best time to call a journalist and what makes a good story for a variety of different audiences.

4. Get some other relevant experience

You absolutely don’t need to wait for your first role in PR and/or marketing to find relevant experience, and it can really make securing your first job in this industry a lot easier too. Are there any local charities or non-profit organisations that you can volunteer for to help gain experience in the right areas, and achieve something else positive at the same time?

This could be anything from local radio to sports clubs, community groups or any kind of charity. You often get the freedom to try new things in these types of settings and it can be a great way to learn and get that essential real-world experience, which are a great bonus to have on your CV and to refer back to in interviews.

5. Utilise free training opportunities

PR and marketing may have traditional roots but the present and future is ever more digitally focused. To help ensure you have the necessary knowledge and skills in digital PR and digital marketing, there are numerous free online courses that you can take which not only offer value as a learning tool for everyday use in your working life, they also show that you’re committed to developing your skillset and career. Try Google Digital Garage for a range of digital marketing skills and Facebook Blueprint for learning about marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. An absolute must for marketers and those working in PR now is a good working knowledge of Google Analytics. You can access the free Google Analytics Academy training courses here.

6. Build your own personal online/offline brand and make sure you network

Anyone applying for a job in any industry should be aware of their public profile on social media and what it says about them as a potential employee. For those looking at a career in PR or marketing, this is even more important as you can proactively build a personal brand that backs up your CV and can also help you network online with professionals in the area you want to work in.

Networking on social media by engaging with other people’s posts is one thing, but networking in person can have a real and lasting value too. Attending free events run by professional bodies such as CIPR and PRCA can help you meet PR professionals you probably wouldn’t run into otherwise, and free conferences like BrightonSEO can not only inspire you in all areas of marketing, including but not limited to SEO, but also act as a great way to meet marketing professionals from across the full spectrum.

At No Brainer, we’re always happy to help people with their first or next step on the career ladder whenever possible. Take a look at our current vacancies here.

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Wimbledon over the years: brands serve up their best stunt ideas

Lee Cullen — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 14:03:20 +0000

With the nation’s favourite tennis competition starting today, the competition for brand exposure is hot. We’ve taken a look back at some of our favourite campaigns and stunts over the last few years.

Brands who’ve had ‘balls’ over the years

We thought it would be interesting to delve deeper into some of these well-received or even controversial Wimbledon campaigns. Whether funny, thought-provoking or passionate, over the years there has been some incredible stunts and ideas, and below we’re sharing the ones we ‘love’ with you!

Robinson’s Great Ball Hunt

To start off, our favourite campaign of 2015 was Robinsons’ Great Ball Hunt: a nation-wide treasure hunt. To celebrate its 80-year partnership with Wimbledon, the company hid 8 giant tennis balls around the country, inviting the public to follow daily clues given by tennis legend Tim Henman. Once found, the public had to tweet a photo of the ball to Robinsons, to be in with the chance of winning a VIP day at Wimbledon.

We loved this campaign because it used the idea of competition to create online traction for both Wimbledon and Robinsons – plus it gave people the opportunity to go the world-renowned event!

Bathstore’s QLoos

2015, however, also presented one of the greatest stunts we have seen at Wimbledon: Bathstore’s QLoos. The portaloo offered a stress-free option for those bursting for the loo, but stuck in the infamous Wimbledon queues.

With an AstroTurf interior, tennis memorabilia, live commentary of the games and even a strawberries and cream fragrance, the toilet was built in true Wimbledon style. It even came with its own ball boys and girls to guard peoples’ spots in the queue whilst they used it!

At No Brainer we love this idea! It combines comedy, style, class and, most importantly, tennis(!) to provide an amazing advertisement for both Bathstore and the competition.

Feel Wimbledon: Murray vs.

https://youtu.be/45gY53o0dAU

Our favourite 2016 Wimbledon ad brings a more comic element into the mix, with Andy Murray going head to head with Jaguar in a twist on the classic tennis match. The match tests the speed of Murray’s serve against the acceleration of Jaguar cars, allowing the company to display their latest cars.

Jaguar’s ad takes the top spot for 2016 as they don’t even let Andy Murray win the game, despite him being 2013 Wimbledon champion! They even have the cheek to end the video with “Better luck at Wimbledon, Andy…” A humorous way to advertise Jaguar’s new cars and Wimbledon itself.

Paddy Powers’ Cerne Abbas Giant

The ad we have chosen for 2017 is not necessarily our favourite, but it is the most interesting of the lot. Paddy Powers’ controversial Wimbledon publicity stunt involved drawing a tennis racket on the Cerne Abbas Giant, a 400-year-old symbol of fertility, following the announcement that Andy Murray was expecting his second child. The stunt, however, received backlash as some argued that the company had gone too far in defacing a National Trust site.

For us at No Brainer, the ad presents the age-old question: is all publicity good publicity? Although the advertisement has been widely criticised, it has also made headlines across the country – increasing Paddy Power’s reach to the public.

So, although controversial, the stunt made the company the talking point of many British households – which makes us ask ourselves: was it powerful or damaging advertising?

#TakeOnHistory

Our favourite campaign from last year’s Wimbledon, commissioned by the All England Club, celebrated and honoured the 150^th anniversary of the club and 50 years of Open tennis. The animation shows the evolution of Wimbledon: from its beginnings, in 1877, with smartly dressed players and few spectators, up to the present day, showing tennis legends surrounded by tens of thousands of people.

The #TakeOnHistory campaign takes the top spot for 2018 because it shows how Wimbledon still embodies the same values; strength, camaraderie and sportsmanship; even after 150 years of change and improvement. Additionally, its use of video to create a sense of ‘Britishness’ and community amongst viewers is a testament to the amazing Wimbledon branding.

Championship point

So there you have it – our favourite ad campaigns of the last few years.

With Wimbledon starting today, here at No Brainer we are not only extremely excited to see the spectacular tennis matches, but also to see the variety of ad campaigns produced this year!

The post Wimbledon over the years: brands serve up their best stunt ideas appeared first on No Brainer Agency.

A fantastic four years – what I’ve learnt so far about running an agency

Lee Cullen — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 14:15:15 +0000

By Lee Cullen

This week marks four years since I, along with my co-founder Gary, decided to leave the relative comfort of a full-time job and salary to make a go of it as a business owner.

There are plenty of things I’ve learnt about running an agency along the way, but as we’re celebrating another big milestone in the history of No Brainer, it made sense to try and condense them down to fit the theme of the week!

There have been some wonderful highlights already and I couldn’t be prouder of everything No Brainer has achieved in such a short timeframe. But we’ve also taken a few knocks along the way, and I think those are the experiences that really make you stronger.

From those very early days of working on an old dining room table-come desk, to becoming a team of brilliant Account Managers and Executives along with our wonderful Office Manager, working from what has been widely (I use that term loosely) described as Warrington’s coolest office, we’ve definitely come a long way since April 2015.

So, if I had to distil everything I’ve learnt along the way down into just four things, it would be these:

Focus on your team and the company culture

Working as a two-man team was great and I have some brilliant memories when I look back. But we always wanted to be surrounded by a talented team of people and really establish No Brainer as a brand, not just two individuals.

I’m a really big believer in the power of company culture. I think a strong team ethic rooted in core company values is one the keys to business success and it’s especially crucial when you work in a service-based business like ours.

It’s super important to have the right blend of personalities and skills too. Alongside a strong work-ethic, one of the biggest attributes we look for in people is emotional intelligence. We’re fortunate to have some amazing people at No Brainer and there’s no doubt that our team is our biggest asset.

Never forget the clients that put their faith in you

It goes without saying that we wouldn’t have a business if people hadn’t put their faith in us in the early days and continued to do so ever since. The fear of doing them a disservice is what drives us on every day to keep on being proactive and achieving results that really matter to them.

As we’re marking our birthday this week, we’ve also made a point of including our clients in the celebrations and we’ve arranged for small presents to be delivered to all of them. It’s only a small gesture, but it’s the little things that count.

Innovate, don’t stagnate

It’s a bit of a cliché, but you have to keep moving things forward because if you stand still, you’ll go backwards.

As we’ve increased the size of our team, we’ve expanded the scope of our capabilities and we’re now offering our clients more than ever before.

One of the main reasons for establishing No Brainer in the first place was because we felt too many agencies were offering an outdated, one-size-fits-all approach. We’ve always embraced integrated communications and over the last few years, we’ve grown to offer a range of content to help our clients tell their stories better.

That includes everything from paid social media campaigns to media relations; video through to white papers. We’ll always keep on training and up-skilling our team to make sure we keep pace with the fast-paced nature and evolution of communications.

Invest time in building your brand equity

From the very first day of No Brainer, we’ve always thought of ourselves as a client. So much so, we allocate hours every month across our team to make sure there is always time to promote the business.

We know the value of marketing a brand effectively and the power of storytelling because we’re doing it for our clients every day. Reputation and perception is everything and we think it’s crucial that we practice what we preach as an agency.

There’s also the power of your employer brand. Each and every one of our team has applied for a role at No Brainer after scrolling through our social media feeds to see what we’re all about. It’s the moment of truth when someone decides if they can see a future with you or not, and that’s why it’s so important to be authentic and show off your brand personality in the right way.

Looking ahead to the fab five

We’ve got a very clear plan in place to keep No Brainer moving in the right direction and we’re working hard to continue on the pathway of sustainable growth over the next 12-months.

So much so that we’ve just launched our fourth recruitment drive and are looking for more great people to join our team and help write the next few chapters in our story. If you or anyone you know is interested in finding out more, then please do get in touch.

Nobody knows what the future holds but I can’t wait to see where we are when we hit the five-year milestone in 2020. With a top team around us, great clients and some exciting plans in the pipeline, we’re ready for another big year.

To find out more about our latest recruitment drive and how to apply, visit nobraineragency.co.uk/careers.

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