Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Graham writes…..
I was both fun and a little daunting to appear as Duncan Bannatyne’s ‘phone-a-friend’ on the celebrity edition of the ITV quiz show ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ The question was: how do you express the year 2013 in Roman numerals, a choice of answers was given and the correct one was MMXIII.

The programme phones its ‘phone-a-friend’ participants in real time and no editing takes place. You are put straight through to Chris Tarrant and there are thirty seconds to answer – including the time taken to read the question!

Duncan Bannatyne had teamed up with Olympic gold medallist Greg Rutherford and was stuck on the Roman numeral question, which was worth £20,000. Fortunately I knew the answer – not because of any classical education, I went to comprehensive school in Middlesbrough! – But because I watch the credits on TV shows in my PR job and know how the date is expressed; it changed to MM in the year 2000.

Duncan and Greg stormed the show by going on to win £150,000 for the charities Mary’s Meals, which Duncan has supported for many years, and Sport Aid.

It all goes to show the power of Duncan’s celebrity. He is one of the few really well known business people in the UK. Recognition has worked with him since 1992 and he is a genuinely inspirational character. This one appearance generated tens of thousands of pounds for charity to add to the millions he has raised over the years. He comes across as tough and uncompromising on the Dragons’ Den TV show, which is a true character trait in his business life too but he is also somebody with his feet on the ground and has a real instinct for the needs of people less fortunate than him. Well done Duncan and Greg!

Happy New Year!

Graham writes.......

A busy New Year already; new clients on board and two new staff joining the team in the next two weeks. The year started with my op ed piece in the Journal on New Years' Day, it was about hope versus fear.

You can read it here:

As I start the New Year I reflect on the words of a Christmas Carol I sang at Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve; ‘the hopes and fears of all the years’. And I ask myself, ‘does hope trump fear?’

Last year some of our fears were realised but our hopes came true too. We entered a double dip recession but unemployment started to fall, 17.9% in the North East in 2012. There were also massive turnarounds in industries like car production and steel; the job losses announced in 2009 were effectively reversed in 2012.

On a very personal basis, I have reason to elevate hope over fear in 2013. My wife is facing a real battle with cancer. Last year started with a terrible operation and radical treatment but ended in remission. Naturally, we are concerned that remission will be short lived but we have every reason to be grateful to live in the North East. Here, we have the excellent facilities of the NHS in Middlesbrough and Newcastle, with the outstanding Bobby Robson Cancer Unit providing hope for thousands of patients and their families. It is here, in the great North East, that people spontaneously offer the love and support that has been born of facing years of adversity with fortitude and a generous spirit.

New Year’s day is a time for coming together. Positivity not partisanship is needed today. I am a Conservative to my finger tips but I’m sure my friends in the Labour Party will recognise some of the good things that are now happening in our region; just as I recognise their real concerns that local government budgets are being hit hard and that people on in-work and out-of-work benefits will worry about the cap in benefits rises. The debate about the deficit and the need to control public spending can happen another day but we can start the New Year with one certainty; the best form of welfare is a job and progress is being made to secure and create the jobs required.

Since 2010 the North of East has been allocated £382 million of investment from the Regional Growth Fund, which can create or safeguard 72,000 jobs. Exports from the North East are also promising: according to HMRC and UKTI, they reached record levels in the year to June 2012, amounting to £14 billion - an increase of 7.8% on the previous year. The North East is now the only region in the UK which exports more than it imports.

The Government's tax policies will also make a real great difference for working people in the North East: since 2010, 90,000 people in the North East have been lifted out of Income Tax altogether as a result of increases in the basic tax threshold. This year many thousand more will have a cut in tax as a result of the threshold rising; money that can be spent in our local economy. From April, in my home town of Darlington 31,906 people will have slightly more cash in their pay packets and in Newcastle it is around 150,000 people.

Last year was London’s year for big events – the jubilee and Olympics. This year, instead of a massive spotlight on the Capital we need thousands of smaller lights from the individual successes of small enterprises here in the North East – the result would be better than the one off boost to growth the Olympics gave London. It could be a permanent rebalancing of our economy. Fortunately it has already started. North East towns are now seeing record numbers of new business start-ups.: Darlington saw record start-ups of 140 in the first quarter of 2012 and Sunderland saw its highest ever level of company formations - 171 in quarter two, 2012. In Newcastle and Middlesbrough, start-ups in quarter one and quarter two 2012 saw a return to pre-2007 levels of company formation.

I think the answer to my question is ‘Yes’, hope can conquer fear but we need hope in our hearts to begin with. It won’t be long before the media turn up the gloom index and we hear about the most depressing day of the year, normally the third Monday in January! I for one will remain grateful I live in a region of friendly people, with kind temperaments and resilient personalities. This matters more than any of the arguments about politics or economics. Hope comes from within people and commentators in the media and politics should not try to extinguish it. So, although we may fear the worse, let us hope for the best and work towards it with a kind and generous spirit. Happy New Year.

RECOGNITION BUILDS ON INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE WITH LAUNCH OF DEDICATED ENERGY TEAM

Our own media release about our newly formed Energy team.........


Recognition PR, the North East England-based national public relations and marketing consultancy, has launched a specialist team to serve clients in the energy industry supply chain.




The firm’s experience and strong understanding of the oil & gas, nuclear and offshore renewables sectors, has enabled it to build up a practice of 15 energy industry supply chain companies within its portfolio of 75 clients.



Building on its expertise and reputation, Recognition PR has now formed a dedicated team to support organisations operating in these markets.



Led by Jamie Collis, who is a Partner at Recognition PR with more than 15 years’ public relations experience, particularly in the energy market, the Business & Energy Team is made up of experienced former journalists and marketing professionals supported by Graduate-level assistants.



Having established excellent relationships with national, regional and key trade media, Recognition PR delivers public relations strategies predominately for tier 2 and tier 3 contractors including TAG Energy Solutions, Darchem Engineering and Modus Seabed Intervention.



The firm is also the PR and Communications partner for business development organisation, NOF Energy. Recognition works closely with NOF Energy to promote the activities of the organisation and its 420 UK and international members to the media as well as aiding the growth of its reputation as one of UK industry’s leading member bodies.



Recognition PR also supports North East England’s renewables group, Energi Coast. Jamie Collis played an instrumental role, working with NOF Energy, to launch the initiative, which promotes the North East’s capabilities to become a hub for offshore renewable supply chain activities.



Jamie Collis, Partner at Recognition PR, said: “Creating a dedicated team to serve energy supply chain companies is a natural progression for Recognition PR as we have developed quite a unique understanding of the energy industry.



“This experience and expertise has enabled us to support our clients with authority through creative and effective PR strategies. With the formation of a dedicated team we can now expand our offering to more clients and further enhance the reputation of the supply chain through the media.”



Graham Robb, Senior Partner at Recognition PR, said: “The energy industry, and in particular the oil & gas sector, is one of the jewels in the UK economy’s crown and we are proud to work so closely with some of the supply chain’s leading companies.



“With increasing activity in the oil & gas sector, alongside the emergence of the offshore renewables industries to help meet our green energy targets, there is a greater demand for the supply chains’ high quality products, services and technologies. PR is an essential part of the marketing and business development mix, which plays an important role in supporting companies’ ambitions to secure some of the these opportunities in the marketplace.”

Welcome to Stacey and Matthew! Our Experiences Working at Recognition

Since leaving University at the end of the last academic year and beginning work at Recognition, we have experienced a dramatic learning curve. Through studying Media Studies with English and Multimedia Journalism Degrees respectively at Teesside University, we thought we were prepared for the challenges of working in the media industry. But in the two-month period that we have been at Recognition, we have woken up to the realisation that there is a lot more learning to be done. 

Transferring from University to a business environment has meant that we have had to adapt to an array of new systems and methods that are standard at a PRCA-accredited PR firm like Recognition. 

Due to our university courses being slightly different in content, we have each found different aspects of our roles challenging. 

Matthew 

Working on the Business Team has proved to be a real eye opener for me. Coming from a background mainly in music and sports journalism, I have quickly adapted to my new role. I have had to pick up a wide knowledge of how the business world works in order to successfully transfer my skills. 

As a PR Assistant on the Business Team, there are a lot of aspects that play to my strengths in journalism, such as writing press releases. 

The main challenge I have come up against is balancing my workload. Having to deal with many different clients and many complex projects over a wide range of sectors has meant I have had to quickly acclimatise. 

Stacey

During my time at Recognition I have had to adapt quickly to a busy office setting. After being placed on the Consumer and Healthcare Team I have had the opportunity to work on many varied and high profile clients.

In my new role as an assistant, I have been able to use my organisational skills from university and apply that to the clients I deal with. I particularly enjoy the aspect of my job that allows me to assist with event planning and client’s social media activities.

The main challenge I have faced is adapting to the writing aspect of the role. Coming from a wider media angle, writing was only one small aspect of my course. However, I have managed to improve my press releases considerably and I have learned a lot throughout my time here at the business.

In conclusion, we are extremely grateful to Graham for taking us on, and the rest of the Recognition team for making us feel so welcome. We both agree that it is a real pleasure to be part of such a high profile and well-respected company.

Graham writes.....

Once again Recognition PR has delivered excellent media coverage for the annual Radio Festival staged by the UK Radio Academy.

This year’s festival was held at the Lowry in Salford Quays near Manchester and was a great success.

Luminaries of the UK radio sector delivered fantastic presentations. Highlights included a speech by BBC Radio Two’s Jeremy Vine and John Myers who has been a hero of the commercial radio sector for decades. Billy Bragg gave the prestigious John Peel Memorial Lecture and Adrian Chiles interviewed Sony Radio Academy Gold Award-winning broadcaster and comedian Frank Skinner. Jamie from Recognition also met his broasdcasting hero, Johnny Vaughan.

This year the Hall of Fame dinner inducted legendary broadcaster Danny Baker, who has a show on BBC Five Live and was forthright and honest about programme changes that took him off air from the BBC’s London station! Others joining the Hall of Fame included Margherita Taylor, Helen Mayhew and Sandi Toksvig, and one of the greatest British voices of all time, Mick Hucknall, received the PPL Lifetime Achievement award.
Recognition’s team manned the press office and worked hard throughout the three day event. Well done to Caroline Walker, Melanie Smith and Jamie Collis!

Consulting with the public

Graham writes........Consultation is an important part of the process of delivering big projects. Handled well it can make a project better and speed its approval through the planning system. Handled badly it will make the smallest objection appear like a large scale protest.

Recognition has handled scores of consultations and most go very smoothly. The picture shows a consultation exhibition in Durham, which engaged with the public and resulted in minor changes to plans which enhanced the application.

I have some horror stories too. These are mostly from smaller developers attempting their first big schemes. They rush and involve the public late in the day in such a way that presents them with a binary choice – object or accept.

One developer wanted to build a large scale residential development on his farm. He wanted to apply for planning permission before the council’s summer recess and only realised at a date very near to the meeting that he hadn’t ticked the consultation box. He hurriedly arranged a public meeting at the farm, resulting in hundreds of people driving through the beautiful farmland he wanted to develop only to be given a talk by an architect who had never talked to a large crowd before. The result was a disaster. The people, who had never previously met, exchanged phone numbers and organised a protest group and the plans were subjected to a massive press campaign and refused!

Council meetings before recesses – Summer and Christmas – usually spark this sort of misguided consultation. It is unprofessional and counter-productive.

Recognition has a formula which ensures the public can have their say, the developer can make a case and any debate can be conducted in a rational way which avoids hot heads! Take our advice early and let the PR people be part of your team alongside architects and planning consultants.

Recognition's care operator's offering

Graham writes…..


I was very pleased to attend a conference for operators of care homes in Yorkshire at the end of September. Recognition has a new product to help this hard pressed sector deal with the increased media scrutiny it faces.

I was delighted that the regulator – the Care Quality Commission – also attended and heartened by the stance it is taking to root out poor practice and report its findings to the public.

The risk for good care home operators is they are tarred with the bad publicity that poor operators receive. Also, large groups of care homes are bound to have the odd ‘bad apple’ and exposure to immediate publicity can create the wrong impression of institutionally poor practice.

The answer is to have a methodology for answering legitimate media enquiries that will come about as the CQC starts to publicise its inspections. Too often care home operators duck and cover, instead of answering questions in an open and transparent way.

The scale of the media coverage is growing. Recognition handles PR for numerous care sector operators. As I write we look after operators which have in excess of 60,000 beds in more than 700 homes. On average 11.7% of the actual care homes in these groups receive some negative media coverage in a 12 month period, and this percentage will grow as a result of the CQC’s unofficial policy of publicising any bad report after one official warning is given.

The CQC cannot be faulted for the policy of using a combination of inspections, warnings and publicity to drive up standards. But a good home will also comment in the press reports, reassuring the public, its residents and their relatives that action plans are in place to deal with the issues. On re-inspection a good tactic is to return to the issue and persuade a local newspaper to report that the home is now operating normally and has been given a 'pat-on-the-back' by inspectors. The CQC is quite happen to help present a balanced picture.

Recognition has a special product o help care providers – it is simple to operate and cost effective.

Click here for full information.

http://www.recognitionpr.co.uk/crisis-management.asp

New school year, new clients

Graham writes…As the business season starts again, like the new school year, we’re thrilled to be winning new clients as schools are welcoming new students. We’ve even won a school as a client- I’m especially happy to be working with my old Secondary School, Nunthorpe School, which I left many moons ago!

We’ve won a range of new clients covering a variety of different sectors, including Nunthorpe School, The Trout Hotel, Darchem Engineering, Barrier Group, V&A Vigar, The Nortech Group, Michael O’Connor Furniture and Bishop Property Services Ltd in Brighton, yes even companies in Brighton are contacting Recognition!

Recognition has developed a portfolio of clients in the Energy sector and this has been enhanced by recently securing three more firms from this industry: 

Darchem Engineering is an award-winning world class engineering company based at Stillington, Stockton-On-Tees. It has been in the North East for nearly 60 years and currently employees 650 locally.

The Nortech Group includes Nortech Solutions, Nortech Staffing Solutions, and Nortech Oil and Gas Ltd. Nortech Solutions is an engineering design and project management company, with the capabilities to provide fully integrated services through the life cycle of a project from concept to completion. Nortech Staffing Solutions provides advice and recruitment services. Nortech Oil and Gas Ltd. has a specific focus on the Oil & Gas industry.

Barrier Group is an industrial painting and coating specialist. Based in Wallsend and employing more than 200, it serves the oil & gas, renewables and marine industries.

From the professional services industry we welcome V&A Vigar; a firm of accountants specialising in all aspects of accountancy and tax affairs for small and medium sized businesses located throughout the UK. The company is made up of three distinct branches; V & A Vigar & Co LLP (Peterborough), V&A Bell Brown LLP (Holmfirth) and a newly launched branch, V&A Vigar & Co Darlington LLP. 

Our latest home services client is Bishop Property Services Ltd. The firm is based in Hove and caters for a large range of property needs, large or small. They offer a same day response service for boiler repairs, landlord gas certificates and small plumbing jobs such as leaking taps, pipe repairs and faulty showers or toilets and can deliver larger projects including the installation of bathrooms and kitchens and maintain and service commercial property portfolios.

Our latest client in the education sector, Nunthorpe School, is a specialist Science, Business and Enterprise 11 – 19 comprehensive school which is often among the top 30% of 11 – 16 schools at GCSE performance levels. 

From the hospitality sector we welcome The Trout Hotel, Cockermouth, which provides luxury four star accommodation and is renowned for the provenance and quality of its food with the emphasis being on home grown and locally sourced ingredients.

We are thrilled also to be working with Michael O’Connor Furniture; a family business established in 1983 with a wealth of experience in the furniture industry. It has two showrooms located in Sunderland and Stockton and can deliver to anywhere in mainland United Kingdom. It has one of the largest selections of cabinet furniture, upholstery and occasional furniture to compliment every room in your home.

We look forward to contributing to their success!

A New York welcome - a different way to use the training budget!

This blog is written by top Recognition PR Consultant Melanie Smith, who has just returned from a special trip to New York during which she learned even more about the latest developments in the PR Sector

Melanie writes............Feeling refreshed (after sleeping off the jet-lag) from my training and personal development trip to New York, I thought I would share some of my experiences from one of the most innovative and influential economies in the world.

I was chosen to visit The City to experience and explore several different workplaces across varied industry sectors. As many of you know, my colleague Jamie Collis visited New York three years ago to bring back knowledge of emerging technologies and developing themes within the PR sector.

During my time I went to a PR firm, similar to Recognition in its ways or working, but significantly larger and several businesses which mirrored my clients including The Brooklyn Brewery and New York Radio Festivals, plus renowned newspaper, The New York Post.

PR firm, Cooper Katz and Company was my first stop and it was really interesting to see an office similar to Recognition as I walked in. After a lengthy discussion about the current economic climate and its effect on business, which was surprisingly positive from both sides, we compared procedures applied throughout the firms. We both took a lot from the meeting including new ways of working, which I believe both parties will adopt.

After an extremely long cab drive across the iconic Brooklyn Bridge I arrived at The Brooklyn Brewery and not to what I expected. I envisaged arriving at a thriving hub with beer enthusiast propping up the bar and keen tourists stocking up on Brewery memorabilia, what I found was quite different. The whole place was very quiet unlike my client, The Black Sheep Brewery, which runs a visitors centre which is an integral part of the Yorkshire tourism market. After being buzzed in through a locked door, I was led up to the Managing Director’s office where I met Eric Ottaway and the PR Manager for the Brewery.

This was a great meeting for me as it gave me chance to get some inside information about the day to day running of the Brooklyn Brewery and who they recommend as distributers in the US market. I gained a great insight into how they interact with their customers and was advised their social media success was due to interaction, interaction and more interaction! A great PR initiative they are currently running includes all members of staff designing their own beers using any flavours they wish. The beer is then sold at the visitor’s bar, which is only open when the tours are on for two hours every afternoon.

I made a fleeting, but very exciting visit to see Elvis Duran and The Morning Show, who I first worked with at The Radio Academy’s Radio Festival in Manchester last year, when he delivered a master class on how to broadcast the best morning show. It was great to see the team again and see where they broadcast their award winning show from.

Next was a trip uptown to The New York Post offices to meet with Thomas Hinton, the Business and Social Media Manager for The Post. When asked what the main aspects of his role were he said a bit of everything! This seems more of a common theme within this climate as people are expected to do more, merging roles together. When discussing social media Thomas very much believed in the Obama Effect, where everyone who ‘follows’ President Obama on Twitter receives a follow back, he believes this is a sure fire and simple way to increase your followers.

On the subject of emerging social media platforms, Thomas felt that Pinterest and Tumbler were at the top of their game in the States at the moment but Twitter was still the most influential and powerful social media tool and within six months both Tumbler and Pinterest would be more or less redundant.

Despite many publications readerships declining, The Post still registers a daily circulation of 555,327 and is ranked 8th in the world for number of unique visitors for an online newspaper.

The New York Festivals organise the New York Radio Festival, which rewards and highlights the best of radio talent. I currently manage the PR for The UK Radio Academy’s annual Radio Festival, which similarly aims to commit to encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence in UK radio broadcasting and audio production.

A main theme which emerged from the meeting was communication is key. During events and seminars, social media, in particular Twitter, should be used to gain maximum coverage for each key point made.

The whole experience was more than a fact-finding mission, it was an inspiring and motivating adventure which has broadened my knowledge and expertise of how the industry I work in is progressing and evolving. Being a professional working in New York City was really exciting and a chance of a life-time, which I had the pleasure of experiencing first-hand (along with a few tourist attractions thrown in during my spare time of course!)

I want to extend my thanks to Graham and the Partners for giving me this opportunity. I was able to bring back my findings and present to my colleagues in order to support the business’ knowledge in moving forward as a progressive PR firm.

August silly season postponed…….

graham writes......August is traditionally seen as a ‘silly season’ in UK media. Parliament, councils, some courts and leaders of high finance are away and major news stories and announcements are delayed. This year though we have the spectacular of the London 2012 Olympics acting as a ‘news sponge’ (a catch-phrase now established by Alastair Campbell in the latest edition of his excellent diaries) keeping our media busy.




Every outlet is at it, from the BBC clearing the entire schedule of BBC 1 to local newspapers reporting the detailed progress of any local Team GB athlete and all sorts of obscure Olympic angles. One of our clients is a nursery school chain and is having an ‘Olympic’ visit from a local torchbearer; a little obscure but enough to generate coverage!



So Recognition is using the Olympics to plan other material for clients to be distributed in the two weeks following the closing ceremony. This is a time that media will be looking for material.



We are also using the period for one of our most exciting training initiatives. Lucky PR consultant Melanie Smith is to visit New York in a five day trip that will visit some of the top US PR firms together with meetings at US based businesses in the same sector as her clients and two major media outlets – a top radio station and the New York Times.



The visit will help us to exchange ideas and consider future planning for the ever changing media and web based social media environment. Melanie will be reporting back on this blog in a few weeks and we expect her visit will help Recognition to maintain its place at the forefront of dynamic PR activity in the UK.