Iphones help on the site!

Paul White writes......
You still hear a lot of people complain: “All I want to do is make a phone call. Why does my mobile have to be so complicated?”
I have to admit that there have been times when I have felt intellectually humbled by modern technology.
It is true that all some people want from a telephone is to call or text. However, as a PR professional who often has to work out in the field, the additional benefits of my iPhone have never been more useful.
For example, last week I spent the day working with clients as part of the coverage of the GDP figures for the final quarter of 2011. A few days earlier, Sky News’ Gerard Tubb had contacted our office, asking who we might have available from various sectors to discuss the economy once the figures were revealed.
Sky’s planners eventually settled on the construction sector and we arranged to be on site in York with Fabrick Housing Group’s Martin Hawthorne. The site is being built by another Recognition client, Southdale, and we were joined by Southdale’s Siobhan Campbell.
Having used my iPhone to ensure everybody involved made it to where they were required to be, it was the additional utilities of the phone which then came to the fore.
Prior to Martin’s interview, I was able to use Recognition’s app, which features all of our clients’ recent media releases, to remind him of some facts and figures.
As he was about to “go live”, I opened up the Sky News app and watched the channel’s coverage on a one minute delay. Not only was I able to confirm very quickly that the strategically placed Southdale branding had been featured in the item, Martin could also watch himself back as soon as the interview was over. At least he would have been had someone not chosen that moment to call me...a moment when I felt that perhaps the phone element of the iPhone should be removed, just as it has been for the iPad!
A few minutes later, when Sky decided they wanted to change the emphasis of the coverage to manufacturing, the phone’s ability to conference call allowed me to almost instantly grasp the opportunity for another client, Ebac, and it was up the A1 to Newton Aycliffe for more great coverage.
At Recognition, we have even started using our iPhones to record videos for our client, to be edited back in our studio.
The technological advances being made by companies such as Apple are literally creating opportunities in the palms of our hands and making communications and feedback almost instant. We should embrace it to help us do our jobs even better.

Good day in London promoting Tees Valley

Jamie writes.....Recognition helped organise a successful delegation to London to deliver the message that 'Tees Valley is open and ready to do business'. The objective was to meet a City audience but while we were there we also held a very effective event at the House of Commons.

We worked with the Tees Valley Local Enterprise Partnership to facilitate the event at Westminster, which gave MPs and Lords the opportunity to find out how the LEP is driving the growth in the Tee Valley economy.

The event was attended by MPs from across the country coming along to meet the LEP team and see what one of the UK's first LEPs has already achieved and its plans for the future including the new Enterprise Zones.

The main event for the LEP in London, was for property investors and intermediaries based in the City.

So, just like a scene from BBC’s The Apprentice we packed up at Parliament and jumped in cabs to take us across London for the city event!!

This meeting was organised in conjunction with City PR firm Redleaf, a business Recognition has worked with on a number of occasions over several years.

As well as giving the LEP the opportunity to showcase Tees Valley to guests, it also enabled the LEP to hear directly from a City audience of what would attract them to the area.

Taking the Tees Valley LEP to London not only highlights Recognition’s event management experience and utilisation of its invaluable network, it demonstrates our understanding of the issues affecting businesses and the influence decision makers and those in positions of responsibility can have to support the continued growth within the Tees Valley.

Recognition and DFC, a brief history

Graham writes......I am not the biggest football fan in the world. I can’t tell you who scored in a league match in 1983 or memorise facts and figures from league tables in years gone by. But I do follow my local team and I do know the importance of football in binding ties together in local communities and its relevance to the image of a town. The fact that Darlington gets a mention on the Final Score results show, that every few weeks TV programmes preview the matches is a symbol of a town’s strength and vitality.

That is why, in 2004, I listened to Northern Echo editor Peter Barron when he urged me to help the new chairman of Darlington football Club, Stewart Davies. Peter had received some unjustified complaints from the Chairman about the paper’s coverage of the team. He had met him and calmed him down. Peter realised that the club had no structured media relations service and suggested my firm, Recognition PR, get involved to help with communications.

Recognition is a successful PR firm, dealing with well-known people and growing businesses; not just in the North East but all over the UK. One of our best known clients, Duncan Bannatyne, had always warned against getting involved in football. In a memorable phrase he said he would “rather have a sex change than buy a football club.” Darlington had just been taken over by an unknown Chairman after the rollercoaster years of George Reynolds. That Recognition could represent a club that serious businesses around the UK regarded as being owned by a ‘safecracker’ was not something I relished.

However, Stewart Davies was a reasonable man and had only come about owning the club in lieu of a resolving a dispute with George Reynolds; I dubbed him the ‘accidental chairman’ chairman. He regarded it as his responsibility to stabilise the club and move it into new ownership. I agreed to waive the usual fee structure at Recognition and provide a full time media service, 24 hours a day, for around £1k per month. The normal cost of the hours put in by the three staff involved would have been three or four times that amount, and if other clients knew that this special arrangement was being made they would not have been happy!

Things settled down well. The highly regarded David Hodgson was manager and he worked well with our team. Community initiatives were undertaken and on more than one occasion in under Stewart Davies attendances were between 5000 and 7000; compared to recent crowds these were brilliant. In other initiatives a big screen was bought, the Sunday carvery introduced, conferencing facilities promoted, and youth development and schools outreach enhanced. The new chairman also met the fans and ran a tight ship with excellent cost control.

When the time came for him to sell we entered the reign of George the second; George Houghton, a self-made millionaire who had started his business life trading from a cart on the quayside of the River Tyne as a teenager. He now owns a respected chain of nursing homes, Executive Care Homes. I got to know him and our firm stayed on providing a media service. New management was brought in, including Jon Sotnick, who was never popular with fans and had reservations about David Hodgson’s approach. The clash led to David’s departure and arrival of Dave Penney from Doncaster. Dave performed well but costs were still the issue; the stadium was too big. George reached an agreement with a long standing business contact of mine Philip Scott, which effectively put up the land and the stadium as security against a cash injection to help the club continue. Around this time George had also sought and achieved planning permission for limited development on land near the stadium; offices and a hotel but, rightly, council covenants remained in place which limited the scope for commercial exploitation of the site at the expense of football or anything which might put the town centre retail market in jeopardy. Philip Scott is a good man. I knew him professionally, we had started our businesses at around the same time in Darlington and instinctively got on. He is a wonderfully confident entrepreneur and has compassion born out of his early career as a trained nurse. He got a bad wrap as the former chief executive of Southern Cross, the firm was successful under his leadership and, while it is true he made millions, he has reinvested a great deal in UK businesses in the care sector. After Southern Cross he chose to stay in Darlington and relocated the HQ of his current company to a site at DTV Airport, creating jobs as a result.

Professionally, it is important to maintain confidences so I’ll not go into the behind-the-scenes account of the lead up to the transfer of the club to Raj Singh.

Just before Raj took over Recognition was happy to end our professional relationship with the club. What had started out as a genuine attempt to support the communications between the club and the media had ended up as a massively over-serviced account that cost our firm thousands and ended up with many late-night calls from club officials lurching from crisis to crisis, always wanting words to put the best gloss on things. Nevertheless, I remain of the view that the club’s existence is vitally important to the town.

The position under Raj Singh was that DFC became a tenant of Philip’s firm, Darlington Arena Ltd, on a peppercorn rent not much more than £10k per year.

At this recent time of crisis for the club the media has called me every day, many think we still act for DFC, others know that my firm acts for Philip Scott’s business. On Sunday 8th Jan I made a suggestion to Philip. My wife and I were walking the dog by the River Wear in Durham and I took a call from the Northern Echo. It was obvious time was running out and the administrator of DFC needed cash quickly just to keep the club playing and in the league. I knew from my previous involvement with the club that the Supporters Trust had a large sum of money. I’d given a donation myself, in the bucket collections of 2003. At the time I thought the money would be spent saving the club from the collapse under George Reynolds. I also knew it was a constant source of frustration to David Hodgson and Stewart Davies that the money was never made available. So at this important moment for the club I suggested a match funding arrangement to Philip Scott: £50K from him, if the Trust put in £50K. He isn’t a football investor and didn’t want to be but this gesture of goodwill could extend the time for talking providing a vital breathing space. The Northern Echo has proved critical at this time for the club. It has been a vital conduit for messages; Philip didn’t want to invest in the club but was keen to see it survive, purely out of a sense of community.

The Northern Echo reported the offer and, although it didn’t eventually come about with the Trust, the Rescue Group saw the logic and a similar match funding arrangement ended up reprieving the club. Philip has been a great asset at this time of crisis for the club and will be an asset for Darlington. His business, Darlington Arena Ltd, has now gone on the record as saying it will relinquish the stadium in consideration for re-payment of the loans, rather than just at a development premium. Given time this position could really make a difference in the negotiations which will progress between multiple parties.

My next job; to offer some sponsorship for Saturday’s match…..who to call?

NORTHERN ECHO ARTICLE 17 Jan 2012

Graham writes,

I have had some good reaction to the article below, which was published in the Northern Echo today:

The Northern Echo report about employment last Friday only looked at on side of the equation – job losses. It was myopic picture of a regional economy which is dynamically changing. Jobs are being created too – in Tees Valley marginally more gains than losses in recent months. Our exports are strong, the manufacturing sector is investing and a new type of Government support is emerging which targets help in different ways.
David Cameron has been demonstrating something that has gone out of fashion in politics: integrity. The Government has decided to stick to simple orthodox economics – spend only what you can afford; borrow only what you can repay and only cut taxes if you can balance the books.
Everyone knows we need the economy to grow. But that growth cannot come at the expense of losing world-wide credibility on public finances. The Government’s bitter medicine is slowly starting to work. I don’t duck the hard facts that times are tough but some indicators are starting to move in the right direction. Inflation is starting to come down. Many North East people have kept more of their pay packets as lower rate tax thresholds rose. Interest rates have been low and stable for many months, saving a fortune in household mortgage repayments.
The Regional Growth Fund has put targeted resources directly into areas like the North East. The Enterprise Zones offer incentives in areas of need. The cuts to corporation tax will give companies a bit more cash to play with when they invest.
In addition there is the smart idea of using public money to ease credit for small and mid-size firms; which need access to funds on better terms than banks are providing at the moment.
Our regional economy is in a period of transformation. Change is hard and it hurts. But to have a long term sustainable future we need successful private sector firms. Some sectors are performing really well. The offshore supply sector is a good example, so it’s the automotive supply sector.
There are four new factories and facilities projects in the Tees Valley: Nifco the automotive parts manufacturer; Lotte Chemicals; Cleveland Potash; the AV Dawson facility on the River Tees. Also, TAG Energy recently opened the largest factory in England in five years. Two major inward investment projects have happened in the last 12 months: The purchase of the Corus steel plant by Thailand’s SSI and the announcement that Hitachi trains will locate its massive UK production facility at Newton Aycliffe.
Tees Valley was one of the first Local Enterprise Partnerships and won 10% of total of the first Regional Growth Fund bids. The newer Northern LEP is now working; its local authorities and businesses preparing serious proposals. Targeted initiatives have been given the green light for Government funding in recent weeks: Neptune Energy Park on the River Tyne. Central Gateway, in Newcastle leading to development of Stephenson Quarter. The Enterprise Agency Consortium - six leading enterprise agencies combined with The National Enterprise Network and Barclays Bank with a business start-up programme for the North-East.
Since September 2010 over 36,000 new jobs have been announced – I know this because they were covered in the inside pages of The Northern Echo and I keep a tally – but most are in small firms and wouldn’t stand out as a front page headline. When added together they are significant and are part of the rebalancing our economy so urgently needs.
Critically important, more people are establishing small businesses. These did not figure in the Northern Echo’s report on Friday. However, the Barclay’s Regional Business Index now puts the North East in first place for SME confidence, up from fourth place last year.
I run a small but growing business. Business like mine create jobs, keep wealth here and are tremendously loyal to staff in hard times. In the last two months my business has created two jobs; both pay higher than minimum wage and were given to young unemployed people. The second job was created after a company called Triage contacted me. They have been hired by Government to persuade employers to hire registered unemployed people. It saves going through the hassle of job centre advertising and pre-screens applicants. In other words, the system accesses the all-important ‘unadvertised jobs market’. It is an innovative approach and part of a wide ranging series of initiatives that form the Government’s Work Programme.
I was at a meeting of the Institute of Directors recently and witnessed the frustration among business leaders and entrepreneurs about the media talking up our economic woes but ignoring good news. The Northern Echo cannot be accused of that but the mood music from Labour can. Labour’s commentary starts from a premise that prospects are bleak and then highlights the worst but offers no credible alternatives while refusing to apologise for getting us in the mess in the first place.
‘There is no money left’; the only real truth spoken by a Labour politician in recent times in a jokey note from a Labour Treasury Minister to the new team after the last election.
Fortunately, in an uncertain world North East businesses are showing real resilience and are creating jobs when possible. The Government has set out to deliver macro-economic policies which will create the long-term stability that these businesses need to invest and grow.

Happy New Year!

Graham writes.....Recognition started the year well. We won two new contracts and distributed loads of material for all our clients. In fact we stored material up over the Christmas holiday to take advantage of media outlets being a bit short of business copy on their first days back after Christmas.
The return to work felt really positive, the phones were ringing quickly with enquiries about our services. If feels as though business owners, particularly owner managers, have decided that despite the predictions of financial Armageddon, they need to promote their products people and services. The economy is growing, albeit more slowly than predicted in 2010. Two key retailers - Next and John Lewis – have said the High Street outperformed last year and was better than expected. Manufacturing is still doing well – so well there is a skills shortage – and other sectors continue to grow. We won clients in healthcare, food and drink and manufacturing in 2010.
We are hopeful and positive about 2012. Give us a call if you like us to help promote your business and its services.