PR and Media

We help businesses to grow their sales, charities to grow their influence and people and brands to protect their reputations through intelligent use of media. We offer proactive new campaigns, crisis management support, creative promotional stunts, skills training and ongoing communications support from our bases in North East England and the Thames Valley.

Earned media – the result of effective public relations – builds trust, gives third party validation to the message, is regarded as objective and adds credibility to the organisation. It is also considerably less expensive and more memorable than paid advertising.

In fact the accepted methods of measuring the value of PR suggest that in terms of Return on Investment (RoI) PR is between 10 and 100 times more effective than above the line advertising. At least that’s the conventional wisdom - PR is changing.

As with every other aspect of marketing new media and internet business has changed the landscape of public relations, offering new channels and conventional news media while retaining their role of shaping and leading opinion reach fewer people directly. Social networks provide channels for customer relations and brand promotion, customer reviews of the product and the business are regarded by many as the number one arbiter of the reputation of products. In this world old-style ‘top-down’ advertising is even less credible and earned media – including on line sources, more valuable.

A modern approach to PR effort will take account of multiple channels and will seek to address the reputation of the organisation in the round with a strategic approach. In this new landscape social networks offer a means of amplifying and prolonging earned media coverage.

Helping our clients understand news better, to hone their messages, formulate strategic, develop news agendas and enhance their media skills are all part of the Public Impact’s public relations offering. The first step for many, however, is the coverage of a specific newsworthy event – getting the business in the news in the first place.

PR is not without its risks, of course, and managing those risks is part of the role an agency can play by helping put in place the right processes, checks and balances to ensure the protection of reputation of the business and its brands. Where organisations have problems we are the honest and critical friend that they need – providing careful analysis, devising options and mapping out routes to turn round perceptions of the brand.

Whether yours is a large or small organisation, commercial or not-for-profit we can develop long or short term packages to boost your profile.

Please get in touch for a ‘Chatham House rules’ discussion with no obligation.