The Business of Manufacturing, a Question Time style debate on the future of UK manufacturing, chaired by Peter Marsh of the Financial Times, attracted lots of media attention last week. With some high-profile business leaders on the panel, including Juergen Maier of Siemens and James Averdieck, founder of Gu Chocolate Puds, the event created plenty of incisive comment on the prospects for growth in manufacturing and engineering rebalancing the national economy.

Working with the debate’s organisers, Marketing Leeds and Leeds Manufacturing, Appeal helped broaden media interest in the story by creating a video that provided an informative summary of the event, featuring interviews with the speakers. The video was used on TheBusinessDesk.com, to generate greater depth and interest to the Business Desk’s report on event.

A recent survey by Havas Media indicated that Europe is seeing a similar trend with digital readership overtaking print in France. The research found that people spent 37 minutes a day reading digital publications, and 22 minutes per day reading print.

It also showed greater diversification than previously with 51 per cent accessing news via websites; 31 per cent read electronic editions; and 17 per cent using mobile apps. Already, 56 per cent of tablet owners use them to access branded press and with the explosion of tablets, this is likely to increase considerably by next year.

Not surprisingly, advertising spend has followed these trends with online advertising now outstripping newspaper advertising. Between 2009 and 2010, online spend grew by almost 14 per cent in the US to reach $25.8 billion.

What’s more, with the recent News of the World hacking scandal and subsequent closure of the newspaper fresh in the minds of the public, online media looks set to benefit from the consumer backlash.

The United Bank of Carbon (UBoC) is the brainchild of Jonathan Wild, former chairman and chief executive of Bettys and Taylors Group. Having spent much of his career leading a company with strong links to the tropics through its tea and coffee growers, Jonathan was ahead of the times, investing in environmental initiatives long before the concept became popular.

Twenty years ago Jonathan started a campaign to engage customers in support the company’s environmental projects. Since then, Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate has succeeded in planting three million trees across the globe and its latest mammoth undertaking is to support a UBoC project that is working to save a rainforest in Peru which is the size of the Yorkshire Dales.

The Bettys & Taylors name has become synonymous with green initiative s and ethical trading and there can be little doubt that its phenomenal success as a business owes much to the place it has won in the hearts of its customers and staff as a result.

Anyone who has met Jonathan will know that his conviction is contagious. Having listened to him explain his vision to a journalist, we immediately offered our services on a pro bono basis to support UBoC’s communications needs. Working with Jonathan and fellow trustee, Professor Piers Forster of the University of Leeds, we have re-launched a brand new website for the organisation to showcase its achievement so far and encourage more businesses to join the collaboration.

The re-designed website now focuses on the motivations that have driven supporters’ involvement. It is not necessarily a case of ticking the corporate social responsibility box, it may that supporters gain benefits through improved employee engagement and customer loyalty or they may be thinking of the future potential of carbon credits. The reason for involvement doesn’t matter, what is important is the fact that leading companies such as Deloitte, Bibby Line Group, Straight plc, Premier Farnell and DDB believe that they have something to gain from their investment.

With PR ‘greenwash’ receiving much criticism in recent years, supporting UBoC is an easy way in which businesses can make a genuine contribution to protecting our world. Surely the success of Bettys & Taylors, a £103m business and blender of Yorkshire tea, the third largest tea brand in the UK, is proof that investing in the environment really is a sound commercial investment.

In the past, many businesses have been deterred by complex and time-consuming production along with prohibitive costs.  However, the advance of social media together, together with camera technology, has made it an ideal time for businesses to experiment.  Existing media relations campaigns can be complemented with an online video which can be produced for a similar cost to a stills press shot and hosted on YouTube – still the leading brand for video streaming.

Figures show that online video usage is a huge area of internet growth.  In October 2009, Nielsen reported a 25 per cent increase in online video viewing year on year  and the trend is continuing – January 2011 saw annual usage in the US increase by 45 per cent. In February, there were a staggering 139.2 million unique US online video viewers who streamed 13.6 million videos and spent an average of 4 hours, 20 minutes viewing video.

With online media such as TheBusinessDesk.com requesting that businesses submit video releases, it’s a great way of getting more profile for your story.  What’s more, Google loves video so it will also give valuable search engine optimisation benefits.

Many businesses remain cautious, with the old days of hugely expensive corporate videos still too fresh in their minds.  However, for innovative companies (particularly those who have succeeded in building up a strong social media presence) there are huge benefits to be reaped.  Here’s the latest online video we’ve produced for one of our forward-thinking clients, JCT600.

We operate PR accounts for around 15 clients, some large some not so large, some really tiny! With a range of media targets from national news titles, through all the regional and local papers to the thousands of trade media periodicals it can be just as difficult tracking coverage we get as it was securing it in the first place.

Some clients opt for the full media monitoring service from a specialist cuttings agency – a retainer fee each month (typically £60 – £100 for consumer and a similar fee for trade media) and then an individual cutting fee (around £1.80 per cutting or online article).

These ‘Rolls Royce’ services are worthwhile to some clients, and Cision, Durrants and Press Index are among the best available if you are in the market.

However the bills can run into many hundreds of pounds each month, and with recent advances in technology there are alternatives that can be up to 90 per cent as effective.

The first option is one that most people are already aware of, Google News alerts. To set one up,  simply type your desired keywords (such as the company name) into Google, click the ‘News’ tab at the top and search.  At the bottom of the page you will see an option to create an alert.  These are free and can be really very useful for monitoring online news coverage and web mentions, but they are not by any means comprehensive, especially at covering articles in subscription only websites.

The more recent entrant ‘PickaNews’, is a free (for how long, we don’t know) and is a true media monitoring service that allows similar alerts and searches, but instead of simply scouring the web, it also shows print articles that are scanned and you even get a visual of the article on the page.

Setting up alerts is just as simple as with Google.  Go to  PickaNews and type your desired search term.  You even get to tick options for print, online or broadcast media – amazing!

After a search, you can set up an alert, just confirm the email and frequency, and Bob’s your uncle.  Now we haven’t worked out how they can do this for free.  It started in France and has been here for around nine months, and we love it at Appeal.

Have a look, make the most of it and don’t rule out using it if they raise a paywall later.  It is a great and useful service, and if, in time, they have to charge a small fee to keep it running, I don’t mind paying my share.  It’s a valuable business tool, and it deserves to succeed.

Neil discussed some of the questions posed by many companies as they are faced with the apparently diametrically opposed goals of using marketing to sell more while promoting sustainability in order to consume less.  Using retail marketing as an example, he looked at the extent to which marketing academics and practitioners have adopted sustainability.  While the phrase ‘sustainability’ is new and is not covered by the classic marketing texts, the idea of societal marketing, with business seeking positive benefits for the wider community, is not.  Dating back to the 1840s, the Co-operative movement embraced this approach and has flourished, becoming one of the UK’s leading supermarkets with many of its competitors following suit and espousing green credentials.

Despite 35 years of extensive studies and academic debate on the efficacy of societal marketing, many experts are concerned that the social, ethical and environmental issues have not been addressed and, if anything, have deteriorated.  Neil advocates ‘sustainable marketing’ which holds that marketing decisions should be ethical and guided by sustainable business practices which ultimately are the only way to resolve the tensions between consumers’ wants and long term interests, companies’ requirements, society’s long run interests and the need for environmental balance.

Greenwash

Although general awareness of the concept has increased, so has cynicism both by companies and consumers.  Credibility is essential – companies must test market their CSR policies and re-position themselves to ensure that their stakeholders, particularly customers, believe in their green credentials. 

Neil believes that organisations with strong ethical commitments have a real commercial advantage, historically outperforming traditional companies who see profit as their only goal – consumers are drawn to green, ethical and societal responsibility, so companies demonstrating these beliefs will win more market share in the long term.  They are also proving particularly attractive to younger people who are actively seeking employment within organisations which behave responsibly.

Market research has shown that an effective and comprehensive CSR programme gives a number of benefits with 87 per cent of respondents believing it is good for the bottom line; 85 per cent agreeing that it generates a sense of employee pride and engagement; 84 per cent seeing increased customer loyalty; and 80 per cent believing it attracts new customers (Sirota survey 2007).

To summarise, Neil believes that there is a shift in customers’ perception of the retailer’s sustainable position and to avoid alienating customers, organisations must align themselves with what the market wants.  What’s more, consumers are likely to be nudged further in this direction by the activities of pressure groups- a staggering five million people in the UK are members of the 13 largest green groups.  While there are barriers to sustainability, this is a trend that cannot be ignored as it continues to gather momentum and competitors adopt a responsible approach – can your business afford not to seriously consider sustainability?

Freelance Public Relations photographer and former picture editor at the Yorkshire Post Newspapers, Giles Rocholl gives a brief guide to how to get a picture that will sell your news story

The first thing that people notice when viewing media are the pictures.  What’s more, many pages, whether they are on the web or in printed publications, are planned around the images.

So, it is particularly important to accompany articles and releases with images that relate to or promote the message you wish to convey in order to give your story maximum impact.  The image should catch the attention of the viewer and encourage closer enquiry about the message or story behind the picture.

The following steps will improve your chances of success in capturing readers’ attention by using photography to enhance to your message.

1.  Study the images already published in the target media and decide which style will best promote your accompanying message
2. Press photography is a specialist skill and most people will need to commission a professional to create the type of images needed for publication.  You can find a reputable photographer by looking at the bylines for photographers in many publications, by contacting the picture editor for recommendations or by Googling photographers’ websites which usually include a portfolio. NB Ideally, use a photographer who has a history of successfully publishing their images in the target publication 
3. Check what format the publication prefers, such as jpegs, TIFFs, prints etc, and how they prefer the image to be delivered (email, CD ROM, hardcopies).  Be aware that the digital file sizes required by publications differ between newspapers, magazines and websites.  For newspapers, RGB jpegs, 8Mb uncompressed or 2048 pixels along the longest edge of the image are generally acceptable (these are normally delivered as email attachments compressed to about 1Mb or less in size at Photoshop compression quality value 8).
4. Most photographers are happy to be part of the creative planning of a picture and will bring their own practical experience to achieve the impact desired.  With a track record of success, they know which images stand the best chance of working for you successfully.
5. Expensive photography does not always guarantee success; carefully thought-through and practical application of skills and efforts are more likely to achieve this.  If using a photographer for the first time or working to strict budgets, always confirm charges and full costs of photography before booking a photographer’s time (rate per hour, mileage rate, processing costs, delivery charge, any additional charges). Don’t forget to check copyright and reproduction arrangements.
6. A written brief with an outline of what is expected from the shoot is appreciated by the photographer and stops any misunderstandings from occurring.         
7. By all means send a couple of different shots to a publication, or vary the shots you send to different media, but don’t overload picture desks or publications with images, unless asked for. 
8. Keep captions and copy brief and informative (Who? What? Why? When? Where?) and, if possible, embed captions in image files. 
9. PR aimed at newspapers needs to be fresh and turned around within hours sometimes.  Check deadlines for images and copy well in advance. 
10. Keep on the right side of editorial desks by making their jobs easier for them – deliver what they want within their timescale.

Take our client, Stockley’s Sweets. Last week, they moved to a larger factory, investing £200,000 into a new home which makes, amongst others, thousands of rhubarb and custards, fudges, sherbet lemons and humbugs a day. It was a nice local business story that did deserve some column inches, but it was the photo that really gave the piece that extra boost.

A quick, creative, sweet-filled shot taken inside the factory was all it took to pin down a hugely successful response from the media. The article reached a broad audience geographically, appearing in the Yorkshire Post, the Yorkshire Evening Post, TheBusinessDesk.com both in the North West and Yorkshire, the Lancashire Telegraph, Burnley Citizen and Yorkshire Business Insider. It’s also due to appear in The Grocer and Food Manufacture, both key trade titles for the client.

For a little investment, quality photography really pays.

Now it isn’t unusual for TheHuffingtonPost  and celebrity blogs to break some of the world’s biggest media stories, but does that mean they are at all useful tools for every business?

Nowadays we get asked the question on a monthly basis: “Should our company have a blog?”

The answer is often yes, but not always, and we run through a few questions before we advise either way:

1. Do you want to attract more relevant traffic to your website?
2. Are you willing to give away a few ‘tricks of the trade’ in exchange for this traffic?
3. Do you have expertise in your firm that can say interesting useful things on a blog?
4. Will your organisation have the resource to update a blog regularly?

If the answers to the above are all yes, then your organisation might well benefit from using a blog to broaden your profile as experts in your chosen field and markets.

In terms of building a blog, there are many suppliers springing up, and, just like web design, there are many pitfalls and a huge list of dos and don’ts.  Here are a few basic tips to remember;

1. Use WordPress freeware to build the blog – it is the most effective way of attracting Google traffic at present (make sure you include an ‘About us’ page, readers will want to know who you are; and add links to other social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn)
2. Use an expert to build it – we outsource to one of a few suppliers, they typically charge £600 to £800 to build a good blog that mirrors the style of the rest of the site
3. Keep the blog within your URL if possible – i.e. use a page within your site – www.yourcompany/blog
4. Study blogs that perform well within your sphere of work, and think carefully about how the bloggers on these structure their posts – learn from good practise!  The Top 50 Business Blogs as identified by The Sunday Times is a good place to start researching -
5. Ensure your posts are informal and informative – don’t get carried away with opinion unless it is really very interesting
6. Never rip off other people’s content or images – its bad manners and also breaches copyright
7. Think carefully about keywords and make the content relevant to potential customer searches (search engines such as Google love websites with blogs because they contain regularly updated keyword-rich content – implementing an effective blog is a great way of pushing up your Google ranking)
8. Include links to interesting content elsewhere and to websites that allow further research on the subject – be altruistic!
9. Offer the reader something they wouldn’t get elsewhere – information, hints, tips and free advice that they would often have to pay for
10. Blog about a broad range of subjects and companies, not just about yourself

Blogging is not the same as any other form of writing, it is more personal and informal, and the best blogs have links and images embedded that enhance the search relevance of the article.  It is impossible to impart every aspect of what works and what doesn’t, but hopefully these are a starting point.   

Our own blog, started in September 2009 delivered a 70 per cent increase in relevant traffic to our website within a year, and has delivered a number of very high quality business leads – proof positive that a good blog is good business.