H E L P I N G S M E S S T A N D O U T

I S S U E 2

AURATALK

Photography: Martin Shields

EDITOR'S NOTE

E D I T O R - I N - C H I E F

Welcome to the second issue of AuraTalk!

In this issue we talk about finding inspiration everywhere, an article inspired (funnilyenough) by Paul Smith, the iconic British designer who visited Glasgow earlier this year for

the Hello, My Name is Paul Smith exhibition.

As times change in public relations so do budgets. I take a look at how PR budgets arechanging, now we have to pay to reach audiences and break through the sheer volumeof content being generated across the web. Influencer marketing plays a huge role.

We also feature some images of the new Miller & Carter restaurant in Glasgow. Weworked with Glasgow-based photographer Martin Shields to capture the brand and theessence of the new venue, which has already received 30/30 from The Daily Record

reviewer, Gary Ralston.

International Women's Day was on 8 March and I made a pledge for parity. I look at wayswe can help set an equal bar, using PR as an example.

W W W . A U R A - P R . C O M

Laura Sutherland

CREATIVITY ISCONTAGIOUS,PASS IT ON

Albert Einstein

INTEGRATEPR & SEO

I T NEEDN 'T BE A HEADACHE . I TNEEDS TO BE SCALABLE

How to find inspiration... everywhere

As part of the Hello, My Name is PaulSmith exhibition, at The Lighthouse,Paul Smith came to Glasgow tospeak to students and youngdesigners about finding inspirationeverywhere.

5 unlikely places you may findinspiration

#1 Embrace your daydreams

Daydreaming can you bring you back to aplace between real-life and fantasy. Dreamsand ambitions can play out and you'll be in aworld of your own.

Psychologist Malia Fox Mason once said, "Byallowing your mind the freedom to roam, thechances that you're going to have an insightare much higher. It's likely that you are goingto recombine pieces of information in a novelway.”

#2 Pull an all-nighter

Sometimes when you're in a non-workenvironment e.g. the phones aren't ringingand people aren't pestering you with emails,you are more likely to make a link tosomething or when you're tired, you are moresusceptible to the influence of other ideas.

"Unfortunately, we can’t feel like that all thetime. And yet, in the workplace, we’re alwaysexpected to meet -- and ideally, exceed --

expectations ... our inspiration levelsnotwithstanding.

"As someone who has to write and create ona daily basis, I’ve identified (with the help ofscience ... thanks, science!) some lessobvious strategies for upping your inspirationlevels."

Erik sets out some tips...

The funny thing is, everything Paul said madeso much sense, but it was almost too simple.Do humans make life difficult for themselves bylooking for a deeper meaning or analysing toomuch?

Paul was talking about his fashion collectioninspirations and mentioned everyday scenesthat he took and made into a design. Forexample, the shapes and angles whichshadows cast, the waves in their variousshapes and forms in the sea, a pattern from apiece of furnishing.

Finding inspiration for our next campaign orproject can be that easy. Nowadays, we haveaccess to huge amounts of data. What is thedata telling us? What pattern does it show andhow does this translate into the design of ourstrategy?

Sometimes, simple things that are all around usand available to us are the most effectiveplaces to look.

What about unlikely places though?

Erik Devaney @bardofboston says: Knowing the underlying components ofinspiration makes it easy to see why it’s such apowerful force. When you’re inspired, you’re notjust motivated; you’re thinking in a new way,which can lead you to those big, breakthrough,“a-ha” moments.

INTEGRATEPR & SEO

I T NEEDN 'T BE A HEADACHE . I TNEEDS TO BE SCALABLE

How to find inspiration... everywhere#3 Get outside your bubble

Everyone has habits whether it is withfriends, restaurants, routes to work ortelevision programmes.

Breaking those habits will allow you tostep out of your bubble. Researchsuggests (via Psychology Today) thatthere’s a correlation between opennessto experience and

how frequently people feel inspired. So if you’re serious about finding inspiration, give your schedule ashuffle and expose yourself to some different perspectives.

#4 Write down all your crappy ideas

No idea is a bad idea! 100 crappy ideas are better than none at all.

Some people are better at working with a starting point on which to build rather than a blank page.Everyone has their strengths when it comes to ideas.

A team mate might take one of your bad ideas and turn it into a great one.

#5 Forget the coffee, grab a beer

We'd encourage everyone reading this to 'drink sensibly', but wedo think that having a beer rather than a coffee can stimulatesome great ideas.

How many times has an entrepreneur said they started out withthe idea on the back of a fag packet or napkin?!

Apparently, alcohol can slow down how quickly the brain can process information. As we've alreadyidentified it's not how quickly you can process information that counts.

Unlike alcohol, caffeine (at least initially) helps you focus. And when you’re focused, you’re not able tomake connections between different ideas as easily.

Breaking that focus is what allows inspiration to seep in.

HOW PRBUDGETS ARECHANGING

I N F L U E N C E R R E L A T I O N S

PR budgetsused to be forfees.

As we work tothe PESOmodel weneed to ensurethere areresources forpaid media.

Recently a client came to me with one budget that was for ‘PR’. I asked if therewas a budget for paid media, after our proposal had outlined the requirement forpaying to reach certain audiences, and the answer was no. The budget was thefull budget.

A few years ago, or maybe even still, most PR practitioners would have taken thefull budget as a fee. Not any more. If we’re going to do it right, we need to bemore flexible with our working.

I quickly worked out a third of the budget would be required for paid media toreach a specific audience we had identified as key. ‘You fool’ I hear you cry. I’verealised that I will have to sacrifice a proportion of some fixed fees to paid media,especially if the part of the brief is targeted at an audience you’re not going toengage easily through editorial and social posts alone. And in this caseparticularly, as there are fairly limited channels to use content marketing, for anumber of reasons.

So within a budget, the PR now has to consider design, photography, filming,media monitoring, occasionally paid platforms such as MailChimp due to thesize of database, and now, paid media including paid advertising, bloggers andsocial media advertising.

Forms of paid advertising I work with varies depending on the audience. I’vecovered print ads, advertorials, email ads, online ads and skin take-overs onwebsites.

Design has included everything from ads, email templates to social graphics.Occasionally you can use the likes of Canva to develop your own visuals, butwhen it comes to campaigns, it’s best to include this within the design brief, forconsistency and to come up with cool visuals which work over several graphics.

Bentley did a great job on Instagram recently, where it used three separate images, posted at differenttimes, to reveal one fantastic image. Similarly, for the Hello, My Name is Paul Smith exhibition (finishingon Sunday by the way), Paul Smith created three images for us to use, across a Facebook advert, whichused the three image ad. The ‘Hello’ was spread across all four images and looked great when it wasset in the ad.

I had mentioned bloggers earlier. A lot of bloggers, particularly the influential ones which bigger brandsuse, will now charge for reviewing, sharing and posting. Whilst we must always remember to betransparent about the paid nature of the post, if you work in fashion for example, you are bound to haveto pay bloggers (or celebs on the likes of Instagram) to feature products.

According to a post I read on PR Daily by Abbi Whitaker, Facing the hard questions about paid content;

"A recent GroupHigh survey found that today’s influential social media users aren’t settling for freeproducts or promises of ad placements on their blogs. Roughly 70 percent of them expect cashinstead.

"Mid-level users are charging from $200 to $500 per post, and more than 80 percent say they acceptmonetary compensation from businesses. “Influencer marketing” now looks more like the traditionaladvertising business—monetary compensation for a contracted endorsement—than a public relationsstrategy."

It’s right. PR practitioners need to start thinking about pursuing and nurturing influencer relationships.Bloggers can be huge influencers and for that they command a fee – a slice of PR budgets.

The article also went on to talk about the value of a paid post:

"A celebrity without expertise brings little value. In almost every niche market, however, a handful ofbloggers with as few as 10,000 followers carry sizeable influence."

You should carefully consider who you think is an influencer and ensure they have a shared vision,aligned brand, authentic voice that people will trust and connects with their followers.

Does your celeb scream ‘I’m promoting this brand’ or is the tone natural and with their own voice? Aswith anything you need to attach a goal. What return will you get on your PR budget?

When it comes to paid ads, it’s exactly the same. Did you use a specific URL to monitor clicks andvisits? Did you have a call to action? If it’s an online ad, make sure you’re monitoring the effectivenessof it – you can easily change the ad or the URL. How are you going to measure your activity?

The difficulty in deciding on a budget for paid media is when it comes to splitting the fee formanaging the account, creating the content and delivering the results, no matter what the platform.

We suggest scoping out a range of media and costs and how they are suited to the client’s brand.You’ll quickly find out which will reach the right audience and fit in with your other plans and that willilluminate some. At the moment, I’m working on a TV commercial for my client, after negotiatingaudience, spots and overall portion of the budget. For this project TV is the most effective route toengaging this specific audience. The package is cost effective, too.

Finally, we need to be mindful of activating the campaign across other platforms, reinforcing themessage to the audience. This comes back to the overall strategic plan and ensuring timings andmessaging are aligned with audiences, platforms and goals.

MILLER &CARTERGLASGOW

US ING PHOTOGRAPHY FOR PROPPORTUNIT IES

LAUNCH

On International Women's Day (8March), I made a pledge for parity.

I first attended an Adam & Co International Women’sDay event about eight years ago. I was invited alongto drink cocktails and chat to other women inbusiness. At the time it felt more like a ‘girl power’social event, not really getting to grips with thechallenge of gender equality.

It wasn’t until I really had the opportunity to hearfrom a passionate CIPR board colleague Sarah Hallin 2014, where she led on a piece of work with theCIPR, which issued a commitment to its membersand the wider Public Relations profession to tacklethe issue of equal pay for women and genderbalance in the workplace.

Sarah then went on to use the CIPR’s report to callthe PR industry to action, to grow up and take equalpay seriously.

The CIPR’s research in 2015, “highlighted that aclear pay inequality gap of *£8,483 exists in favourof men, a figure that cannot be explained by anyother factor such as length of service, seniority,parenthood, or a higher prevalence of part-timework amongst women. Findings also reveal thebiggest influences on the salaries of all publicrelations professionals; with gender identified as thethird biggest influence on salary, more so thaneducation background, sector of practice, graduatestatus, and full-time/part-time status.”

In January this year the CIPR also held a debate atthe House of Commons. The motion ‘Requiringlarge firms to publish pay data will end the genderpay gap in a generation’ was proposed by MaryWhenman, President at Women in PR andseconded by Lisa Townsend, a lobbyist and formerConservative parliamentary candidate. Sarah Pinch,CIPR Past President, led the opposition of themotion, and was supported by Stuart Bruce, CIPRCouncil member and Founder of Stuart BruceAssociates.

The World Economic Forum in its Global GenderGap Report 2015 estimates it will take until 117years to achieve global gender parity in theworkplace. 117 years until companies andgovernments are equally led by men and women.

And 117 more years of talent pipelines andprofessional promise not fully realized. Read morehere on the EY website. It’s right when it says “Theworld economy is driven by sustainable value andbusiness growth, which depend upon attracting,optimizing and retaining all talent. It’s in everyorganization’s and every nation’s best economicinterest to fully utilize and optimize the talents ofwomen.”

This is not a tick-box exercise and it’s not for the feelgood factor!

What can we do?

#1 Recruitment and selection process – fairdecisions on salary and work#2 Better access to training#3 Encourage mentoring#4 Expertise and knowledge, systems andprocesses ensuring equality#5 Equal work within jobs#6 Best practice with job reviews#7 A path to leadership with career advancementopportunities#8 Consider paternity leave and flexible working inyour corporate culture#9 Build supportive environments

The CIPR’s gender pay resources is a good place tostart and the IWD website hosts many resourcestoo.

THEGENDERBALANCE

play your part

8 CREATIVEWAYS TO USEPINTEREST

Pinterest is a platform for research, planning, buying and doing –

the possibilities for business is huge and it marries well with howPR strategies can engage in a creative way. There are 1 million

business users now on Pinterest!

Here are some example of how Aura currently uses Pinterest for PR and marketing and some ideas we’d loveto work on with clients:

#1 To develop creative

Start a board and start pinning posts to it – use the search function adding key words. It’s inspiring and you’llcome across ‘layers’ of pins. We’ve started using this for pitches, rather than fully developing creativeconcepts. It means you can share the board with the client and you can develop it together, so when it comesto developing the final creative, you’re all on the same page

#2 To build a library

Using Pinterest as a showcase for images, creative design works etc is a good way of collating a library forusing in creds

#3 Reaching a new audience

With over 100 million monthly users on Pinterest, there is a platform ready for crowdsourcing, as well asconsidering Pinterest as a platform to showcase products and services across the globe

#4 Increase traffic to websites

Image-led pins with a snappy caption are winners, from how-to’s to products. It helps if you know what youraudience will search for, using the right key words so it’s in the right category, but always remember to add aURL!

#5 Customisation

Customisation is a must for any PR engagement strategy. Getting to know your audience onPinterest is all about looking at what they pin and what they are into. In the age of customisation,brands have a big opportunity to customise their products and services to their audience. This isalso replicable across other platforms with sharing.

#6 Competitions and live engagement

Brands can get their audiences to talk about what they are doing and post pins with hashtags tofollow the story. For example, automotive brands can invite their audiences to take part in acompetition or live activity and ask them to pin pictures as they participate. It could be somethingas simple as a campaign for a specific model of car to take part in ‘the world’s biggest car tour’, withpinners from across the world being engaged with their own cars. Or if they are really extravagant,the brand could hand pick one ‘Pinfluencer’ from each country and give them a car for a week.

#7 Recruitment

By using pins created to demonstrate qualities and skills required, build Pinterest boards to recruitgreat talent and ask applicants to build their own boards to demonstrate how they fit the bill

#8 Activate your brand ambassadors – your employees

By getting your employees to pin products to their boards and with genuine recommendations,tips and pointers, consumers can buy products already having done their research

Final tip – remember to ensure your products and images on your website always carry a Pinbutton!

It's not all about pretty pictures - what story do they tell?

SCOTLAND'SFIRST PRFESTIVAL -BY AURA

Collaboration will be key to driving forward change and improving theknowledge and skills of practitioners

16-17 June in Edinburgh.Book tickets via the website.

Last year, Aura announced it would be develop andorganise a festival for public relations, which wouldbring together all sectors and areas of publicrelations.

As PR moves into marketing, digital and advertisingspheres, PR has a real chance to develop strategieswhich engage across multiple platforms.

The festival was born out of frustration of too manyevents which neither inspired or were in-depthenough to help practitioners in Scotland improvetheir knowledge and skills. If we're not careful, PRcould be left behind!

Laura Sutherland carried out research amongst thePR community to ensure the programme would beinformed and relevant. Of course, bearing in mind,that sometimes, people don't know, what they needto know!

Bringing key people from across Scotland, Englandand as far as Belgium, New York and Stockholm, theprogramme covers a wide range of topics, fromautomation and tools to future proofing anddiversity.

The festival will hopefully be an annual event, withplans already underway to confirm the venue anddates for 2017.

Support has been given from the two key PRmember organisations, CIPR and PRCA, as well asbusiness support from Hiscox and Press Data.

We've also made headway with our relationshihpwiht AMEC - the international association formeasurement and evaluation of communications,which we will take a live feed from into the festival.

There's no point in reinventing the wheel, but thereis a point in bringing quality events such as ThePRofessionals to Scotland - it's crying out forsubstantial learning events, which inspire,encourage collaboration and share best practice.

aura-pr.com

Aura works across the UK with a wide range of clients, large and small. We'd be delighted to hearfrom you should you have any enquiries.

T: 0141 337 6712 E: hello@aura-pr.com Tw: @AuraPR