Simon Crunden

Some tips from me on entering these (or indeed any) awards. 🏆 On discussing Press For Attention PR’s sponsored category, Responsible Business, Greg shared: “First up, tell us judges a story. We don’t need to hear about what you do, your history and inside leg measurements. Set the scene by all means but grab our attention early on by explaining the problem or challenge as it stood and how you tackled it and crucially…why? How did you change things? What does it mean for the user/stakeholder? Remember, nobody wants a drill…they want a hole in the wall. Show us the results.

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As ever an insightful article in The Media Leader regarding the GB News and Ofcom situation from Ray Snoddy There is a possibility that GB News are actively undermining the right wing vote by adding to the split between the Conservatives and Reform, thus helping Labour. The presence on GB News of Nigel Farage, a vocal critic of the Conservatives, will reinforce this rift. If so, the losses that Ray refers to in the article will have been even less well-spent.

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Most business leaders are not outspoken - but as the expectation of forthrightness and external profile grows, many are paying closer attention to their personal reputations than they ever have before. Thanks to Emma Newlands as always for publishing this latest ditty. #CEO #PR #positivebusiness https://lnkd.in/e5nGn9zC

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Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Outlines Key Priorities for the next West Midlands   As we approach the West Midlands Mayoral election on 2nd May 2024, FSB has put together a Mayoral Manifesto to help the candidates understand the challenges faced by our members across the West Midlands Combined Authority catchment area, namely; #Birmingham, #Solihull, #Coventry, #Wolverhampton, #Walsall, #Dudley and #Sandwell. This Manifesto outlines areas the Mayor could tackle to help aid small businesses and bolster inclusive growth. This year marks FSB’s 50th anniversary, having been established in 1974 to help our members succeed in business - we are a non-profit making and non-party political organisation that’s led by our members, for our members. In the #WestMidlands we are a trusted voice for small business with more than 10,000 members across the region. We aim to represent anyone and everyone running a business or with aspirations to start a business. With SMEs making up over 99.6% of the indigenous 254,640 enterprises in the West Midlands, 253,575 (99.6 per cent) are small and medium-sized enterprises and, of these, more than 84.2 per cent are sole traders and micro businesses (employing 0-9 employees), it’s easy to see that the West Midlands economy will not be able to boost productivity, tackle the climate emergency or have inclusive growth without small businesses. Small businesses are not only at the heart of the West Midlands economy, they are also at the heart of West Midlands communities. They create local jobs, grow and keep wealth within a local economy and provide vital local services. Our small businesses support communities in the good times and, as we have seen, stick around when the going is not so good. Our manifesto suggests ways that small businesses can help the Mayor create a thriving West Midlands, a successful economy and vibrant communities.   https://lnkd.in/e8ERHqh3 Linsey MIED Mike Goodall Lee Osborne Sue...Sue Tonks Hollie Whittles Rob Harrison Hemant Kalidas Ray Hickinbottom- Supporting Small Businesses Lianne Phillips FSB- Helping Small Businesses Grow Roger Poynton

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Some interesting insights from Chris Bignell.

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Our (recently) award-winning B2B marketing is underpinned by insight-led strategy. We’ve published a practical guide to help you brief better marketing. Find out more and download the full guide here   https://lnkd.in/e6qbZeMc #marketingstrategy #marketing #DMA

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PRmoment Leaders update: We've just launched the PRmoment Leaders In-house Programme for people working in comms roles in the corporate world. The new programme starts in September, alongside our separate agency-side one. It includes the same 11 core elements that enable people to learn from industry experts, to network with peers in similar roles and to prepare for leadership roles. Focus and content are the key differentiators. Our new programme features industry experts delivering masterclasses on topics that address the specific challenges and opportunities faced by comms people in client-side roles. I explain why we've launched the programme below. Let me know if you'd like to hear more...

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A lot of great people from a lot of great agencies have added their voice to this piece from Siobhan Holt in PRWeek UK, so naturally I’m keen to chip in my two pennies too.    Let me start by saying this: pitches are great. I love that collective agency energy when you’re working on a big response and how they push us to challenge our thinking. Obvs I love them less when we don’t win, but: life. They can be brilliantly run and terribly run, and while I think a pitching code of conduct is a lovely idea, it’s one that perhaps feels a tad lofty in ambition, needing buy-in from, well, everyone - agencies and brands - to work. Until such a time that we enter PR utopia, I think agencies need to figure out what their hard lines are and stand their ground more. There are also plenty of great clients out there who run brilliant pitch processes, and even when we don’t win, we feel valued and respected. Be more like them.   Adding to the list, some of my personal pitching red and green flags include:   🚩 No budget? No thanks. Giving a budget, even a ballpark, is essential because we want to shape our response to fit what the brand has to spend. Otherwise we might come up with a corker of an idea the client can’t afford and that will make them sad 💚 People who give the gift of time. We work quickly but obviously we will deliver a better and more in-depth response when we have been given a decent chuck of time to respond   🚩 8+ agencies on a pitch list. Brands should feel empowered to be braver and only choose the top 3-4 agencies they really want to see 💚 Client teams who equally invest a significant amount of their own time into the process and who who make themselves available outside official check-in moments for clarification and sense checking. Big fan    🚩 “Submit your pitch online and we’ll shortlist the ones who will get to present.” *Shudders*. Time investment from the agency aside, I guarantee we will bring our ideas to life better than you reading them ever will (even if you have a vivid imagination) 💚 Proper post pitch feedback for the ones you don't win - it's hugely appreciated when clients show respect for the effort, the agency and the work that went into the response, and we want to hear where we fell short. Tell us, ideally on a call   🚩 Key decision makers not being involved in each stage of the process. From the Q&A to the tissue to the presentation, everyone has a different point of view, different motivations and different objectives – and we want to hear them! That collective thinking helps us shape the best, most considered response    These are fair questions and challenges to ask from the outset of a pitch, but there will always be some processes you enter which will take you close to your hard lines. Then it’s up to you whether or not you choose to step over them. #pitching #newbusiness #pr #comms

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Today's all-new Cog Blog is unusual. First it comes from two of us, myself and Nick Manning (ex Manning Gottlieb, OMD and Ebiquity). Second it's got a point to it. We are seriously worried about the threat from various quarters to the craft of advertising (creative and media) and the failure of our industry's biggest players to face up to the challenges we all face. Indeed, we suggest many are part of the problem. We've decided to do something about it and we would like as many who share our concern to join us. At the moment we are at a planning stage (as we explain in the post); how far we take this does depend on the level of support our ideas generate. We urge you to read the post; and if what we're suggesting resonates with you then let us know. Talk about it, comment, share as widely as you can. We hope this will be the start of something.

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Brian Jacobs and I tend to write and talk about the same themes, so we thought it might be good to convene like-minded people to share ideas about how we Make Advertising Great Again (without the red baseball caps). We all know what the issues are so we don't need to elaborate, but we would like to discuss practical solutions. Read Brian's blog and if you're interested in being part of the discussion, our contact details are therein.

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 🔔 PSA: The early bird entry deadline for the Prolific North Marketing Awards is 2nd July.    In case you missed it, these awards are the North’s flagship marketing event, where we shine a spotlight on the most incredible teams, campaigns & leaders from across the industry.    🏆 33 categories   👩‍⚖️ 20 independent judges  🍾 1 bloody good party Got something or someone you want to celebrate this year?   Save yourself the stress of running around last minute (and some cash) by getting your entry started this week.     👇  Link in comments to browse all the categories (give us a shout if you have any questions) #Marketing #MarketingAwards #ProlificNorth

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Looking for some #PR industry views… We recently declined to take part in a repitch as our client was looking to have its agency tackle an international brief, something we’d struggle to do at Action Group with our current structure. The client completely understood and we parted ways on great terms after 8 years of working together, and subsequently a new agency was appointed. Following this, PR Week have approached us to comment on the new agency’s win, presumably after the new agency sent a release to let them know, and then written up that we declined to comment (whilst getting the name of Action Group wrong). Am I on my own thinking this is a strange approach to take? Were they hoping we would badmouth the agency or client? Would the new agency really want a comment from me in their piece celebrating the new win? Am I overreacting to think our trade media should behave a little better?

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Will the next government bring increased regulation for the UK advertising industry? The UK general election falls on the last day of MAD//FEST LONDON, so by the time Grace Carter gets on stage to start the party in E1, many of the votes for the political parties will have already been cast. One change that the new government could oversee is increased external regulation and governance of the advertising industry - would that be a good thing or a bad thing for you? Let's take AI for example. Katherine Viner, editor of the Guardian, recently called for AI regulation. She said, "Without quality journalism to train and ground large language models, these technologies would struggle to make sense of the world around them." Without quality, trusted data to train the AI models on, it is easy to see how we could get into a vicious circle of AI choking on its own exhaust fumes: 1 - Incorrect content published 2 - AI reads that incorrect content 3 - AI therefore writes incorrect content Crap in, crap out, as they say in the trade! ;-) I would also add that digital advertising relies on quality content that consumers spend time with, so that the advertising has a chance of having an impact. For example: The difference in dwell time on an MFA site, which uses GenAI to create the content and click-bait to get somebody there, to a page with 10 ads, is a world away from the experience of a subscriber to a premium publisher site, who logs on to consume the content they pay for and only sees a single ad next to that valued content. 💬 - What do you think - more government regulation or not? #ai #regulation #advertising

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Good morning today spent with one of our clients at 44 Communications Ltd talking through the results of recent research into one of their core channels. In the past (read: pre-covid) we used to run semi-regular Focus Groups to find out what employees were interested in for the channel. Whilst they were valuable, they took a lot of time to organise and pulled hard-pressed workers off the job for an extended period of time. Not easy to do when there are deadlines and priorities competing for attention. So, this time we worked with the client on a programme of 'Speed focus groups' - fast conversations with employees asking a set of questions and quickly exploring themes. No more than a few minutes of time but some great insights and ideas raised. Added to survey results, these give some flavour and life to the numbers, helping us work with the client to frame an action plan. It's not the first time we've done these. It can be hard getting opinions from front line workers whose priority is service delivery on tight schedules and with limited resources. So, it's important we take time to design measurement approaches that fit their world rather than demand they fit into ours. Just goes to show, research and insight can be done even when operating circumstances may make it seem difficult. It's always worth asking the question "what do you think about...". #internalcommunications #research #engagement #measurement #channels

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We’re proud to be the first agency in the North East to become members of IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) Media Climate Charter, taking a measurable step forward in transitioning our business – and the wider media industry – to a zero-carbon future.   As part of our commitment to tackle climate change, Climate Charter membership brings us the tools, resources, and collective power to make a positive and lasting impact. Using its Media Carbon Calculator, we can now establish the carbon impact of developing, producing, and running advertising and marketing campaigns for our clients, with a view to reducing this to real net zero by 2030. We hope these carbon impact reports will be a starting point for adopting greener practices and sourcing sustainably-minded supply chain partners to genuinely reduce carbon emissions throughout the campaign process. Should clients opt to offset the impact, the calculator determines the exact cost and we can then action this on their behalf through our offsetting partner.   Looking to make your marketing budget more sustainable? Get in touch.   #climatechange #sustainability #lowcarbon #greenerbusiness #marketing #markingagency #creativeagencyuk #advertisingagency #brand #brandagency #media #mediaagency

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Quote of the week from Evan Shapīro's key note at the @News Corps D_Coded event. "If you are making a decision about media company without someone under the age of 35 in the room you are screw*d" The Media Cartographer's view (look him up!) plus Daniella Harkins set up the following... Audiences ( young ones in particular) want hyper personalised experiences from media. Delivering Hyper personal getting harder and harder thanks to cookie deprecation and data privacy laws. Data collaboration is going to be key to enhancing the customer experience, fuel new innovation and insights, and importantly drive ROAS with cookiless activation. News Corp talked us through Audience Fidelity and Interoperability alongside old favourites Audience Addressability and Independent Measurement.      I am proud to say that all of the team at Involved Media can help brands continue to make sense of the ever more sophisticated opportunities our media partners like News Corp build and deliver. One final thing. Alongside all the martech data and systems chat, this slide reassured me! #D_Coded2024 #InvolvedMedia #DigitalMarketing #DataPrivacy #Innovation

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What are the secrets behind some of The Think Tank’s award-winning integrated marketing and PR campaigns? We spoke to PR Director Jo Wilmot ChartPR to find out: https://lnkd.in/eJVkzgNN As leader of the PR team, Jo’s been at the heart of some of our highest performing campaigns. In the latest edition of our ‘Meet the Thinkers’ interview series, she shares her expert insight on: ●       How the PR landscape has shifted ●       Why multi-channel campaigns are essential for driving cut-through ●       What marketers have to do to achieve ‘cut-through’ Read the full interview to discover lots of advice on launching impactful PR strategies. #B2BPR #PR #MediaRelations

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Today's Q1 2024 @IPA Bellwether report showcases a resilient UK marketing landscape, with events and experiences remaining the standout performers with a record expansion. This resilience demonstrates businesses' strong desire to connect with customers, recognising the power of experiences to enable them to achieve this, as well as being a powerful tool to drive their bottom line. Long-term brand building should remain at the forefront amid rising promotional spending. Aligning brand experiences across the different touchpoints with core values and harnessing authentic content created from experiences fosters trust and engagement, and is crucial for navigating the dynamic marketing environment. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eGTDPyN4 #ImaginationGLBL #IPABellwether #UKmarketing #brandexperience #experientialagency #creativeagency

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