21st March 2024
Media campaign for Government tech programme
We’re pleased to be delivering a media relations and marketing campaign for a prestigious Government initiative to help UK tech companies expand in Asia Pacific.
The UK-APAC Tech Growth Programme is being run by international business development specialists Intralink on behalf of the Government and provides free and subsidised support to help ambitious companies expand in 11 countries across the region.
We’ve been appointed to market this initiative to British innovators in high-growth fields including ...
3rd January 2024
Is the FT wrong about PR?
Today's FT article – titled When CEOs should ditch the "PR polish" – has upset a lot of people in the marketing and PR business.
It’s easy to react to the headline – coupled with parts of the article recognising Ecotricity founder Dale Vince for “bucking the trend of media-managed executives” – and assume it’s a piece bashing the whole discipline of public relations. But it’s not. On closer reading, it's ...
2nd February 2023
Fire chief shows how not to handle TV interview
I just saw the BBC's interview with Dorset & Wiltshire fire chief Ben Ansell about allegations of a toxic culture in the service. It's clear Ansell had prepared - but it's an instructive example of preparation misapplied!
The BBC's Dan Johnson asked Ansell about an email from a former employee blowing the whistle on ...
7th January 2022
National recognition for Asia expansion client
We're so pleased to have kicked off the New year by getting our client Intralink into a Sustainable Business supplement within The Times.
Intralink helps western businesses to expand in East Asia. And, while the pandemic has meant they've had to stop travelling to the region, instead of their business taking a hit, they found they've secured more deals for their clients in Asia than ever. It's been a surprising boost to ...
3rd November 2021
Crisis communications for care home charity
We’ve been providing crisis communications support for The Fremantle Trust, a charity providing support for older people and adults with learning disabilities.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) had carried out an inspection of one of its care homes, which highlighted significant failings. With nine other care homes in operation plus a number of additional services supporting more than a thousand people, it was vital for the Trust to defend its reputation. Publication of the CQC report was looming and ...
14th October 2021
How to (mis)manage a personal crisis
North Yorkshire Police Commissioner Philip Allott finally quit today in the wake of his inflammatory comments about the tragic case of Sarah Everard, abducted and murdered by Met Police officer Wayne Couzens. Three big problems stand out for me in the way Allott has (mis)managed his reputation throughout his career crisis of the last two weeks. The first - and most obvious - is his ludicrous ....
2nd August 2021
6-page media feature for sharing economy startup
We’re thrilled to have helped land a glowing, six-page media feature for sharing economy startup God's Own Guitars - the only business to hire out instruments owned and made famous by the world's legendary guitarists. God's Own Guitars offers a stunning collection of iconic instruments, amps and effects - including guitars previously owned by ...
6th August 2020
“I thought I’d just ignore it”
“I thought I'd just ignore it,” he told me. There are many cases where I’m sure this is absolutely the best policy. Junk mail. A minor insect bite. An insult from someone you don’t care about. But an approach from an investigative BBC journalist isn’t one of them. I was a bit surprised the other day when I first got the call the other day to ...
19th October 2018
Walking off camera – huge blunder for Persimmon boss
What a blunder for Persimmon CEO, Jeff Fairburn, to walk off camera this morning when politely asked by the BBC about his £75M bonus. Clearly his bonus wasn't what he intended to be there to talk about. And, having been awarded some while back, it isn't news. But - as the biggest ever paid in ....
1st June 2018
Terrible TV interview from Defence Secretary
I've never thought of Richard Madeley as a hard-hitting interviewer before. But he wasn't going to let Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson off the hook without answering a straight question this week about his comments that Russia should "shut up and go away" following ...
2nd May 2018
Latest media interview lesson: know when the camera is on!
Sainsbury's CEO, Mike Coupe, learnt one of the most basic media interview lessons the hard way this week: make sure you know when the camera's on! In case you missed it, while waiting for his ITV interview about ...
18th September 2017
Another ‘instructive’ media interview!
Last week gave us another astonishing media interview - with more lessons of what not to do. Irish channel RTE interviewed John O’Keeffe of the Garda Representative Association about an investigation which found the Irish police have been falsifying breath test data. O’Keeffe looked calm enough, but ...
5th September 2017
Lord Bell on Newsnight – lessons from another car crash interview
See the cringe-worthy interview with Tim Bell on Newsnight yesterday? Bell was interviewed by Kirsty Wark about the fall from grace of the Bell Pottinger PR firm he founded because of the shameful campaign it ran to stoke racial hatred in South Africa. It seems incredible that a figure with 50 years in the PR industry ...
3rd May 2017
Excruciating media interview lesson from Diane Abbott
LBC Radio's interview with Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott yesterday brilliantly underlines the importance of one of the fundamental rules of effective media interviews: make sure you know your core facts.
10th March 2017
How to handle live TV interviews – a hilarious reminder!
Everyone knows the first rule for conducting a successful media interview is: Be Prepared.
27th September 2016
Crisis for Concentrix: the mistake of not showing up
Another week, another lesson in how not to manage a deepening crisis of failures and mismanagement ...
9th September 2016
Southern Health: How not to handle a crisis
The beleaguered Southern Health NHS trust has been lurching from tragedy to farce – with the deepening of its on-going crisis appearing largely of its own making. And its account of its actions this week have only caused further damage to its reputation.
3rd June 2014
Election cock-ups – and lessons for media interviews
Looking at the recent EU and UK council elections, we could analyse who had the clearest message and most effective delivery – but it’s much more fun to look at the blunders.