Muckle Media, the creative PR and marketing agency, has been named Public Spirited Agency of the Year at a high profile event in London celebrating the best in public sector communications. The awards ceremony, which showcased work from across local and national government, emergency services and other areas of the public and third sector followed a conference that explored the future of public sector communications.

Other winners on the night included the Greater Manchester Police communications team, who won the Bluelight Team of the Year and Crisis Communications Campaign of the Year for their response to the Manchester bombing attack and Greater London Authority who won Best Use of Video for their #LondonIsOpen campaign.

Nathalie Agnew, managing director, said: “Driven by digital, public sector communications is changing and we seek to lead the way in delivering accountable, outcome driven digital campaigns for clients across the public and private sector. We are excited to be recognised at a national level for our work helping public sector organisations reach their audiences and look forward to continuing to grow in the coming years.”

Peter Jones, communications manager at Moray Council, a Muckle Media client that was also shortlisted for two awards for its community engagement using social media, commented, “We’ve worked with Nathalie’s energetic and knowledgeable team at Muckle Media for a while now, and seeing them named as Public Spirited Agency of the Year comes as no surprise.  They consistently deliver great work for us.”

In awarding the prize, the judging panel, which included senior public sector communicators from across the UK, said: “Muckle Media are head and shoulders above the rest, they have clear aims and objectives and have shown amazing results. They may be a small agency, but they certainly have a big social media mission.”

The full list of winners is available here: https://www.publicsectorcommunicationsawards.co.uk/winners

<Ends>
Picture attached L-R – Jane Cumming, director, Muckle Media; Nathalie Agnew, managing director, Muckle Media; Douglas Ross, MP for Moray
Picture credit: Douglas Ross via Twitter

Last night saw the return of the hotly anticipated eighth series of The Great British Bake Off on its new Channel 4 home. Despite some significant line-up changes in the form of presenters Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig, who replace Mel and Sue, and Prue Leith taking the judging reins from Mary Berry, alongside Paul Hollywood, the programme largely remained unchanged – apart from all the ad breaks!

The introduction of ad breaks is great news for brands with big budgets however, allowing them to reach a certain demographic, but the show’s return also offers possibilities for those brands that can’t flash as much cash.

This series’ official sponsors are Lyle’s Golden Syrup and Dr. Oetker. Dr. Oetker seems to have embraced the quirkiness of new presenter Noel Fielding and the wonderfully weird Channel 4 taster advert with singing baked products, by creating a singing three-tiered cake known as the Baker Boys alongside other characters encouraging consumers to ‘Dare to Bake’.

And it’s not just the big, headline sponsors that are getting into the mix. We Buy Any Car had a competition to win one of four car-shaped cake moulds, Aldi launched a stand mixer for budding bakers and Lurpak has been putting out video content to encourage viewers to bake along. As usual, social media is key for brands to reach their target audiences, whatever the budget, with many of them putting out sponsored content and live tweeting during the opening episode. One of our favourites has to be @YorkshireTea, which tweeted:

Controversy can be a good thing when it comes to getting people talking and this week we have to applaud Walkers for its controversial new campaign #chooseorlose in which three of its classic crisp flavours are pitted against some internationally inspired offerings.

The public are taking to twitter to express their opinions on this latest campaign and it makes for some really interesting reading. Who would have thought that there would be such public outrage at the prospect of ditching Salt and Vinegar crisps in favour of Lime and Black Pepper? Well – Walkers actually, and it’s a brilliant move on their part.

Suddenly there are declarations of undying love and a new found passion for classic crisp flavours that have become part of the everyday and unless under threat, would struggle to prompt excitement or conversation. It feels like our Salt & Vinegar, Prawn Cocktail and Smokey Bacon foil packed friends have always been around and always will be. So, there’s nothing like the threat of their extinction to spark some conversation, and some action.

The public are engaging, they are talking, they are ranting, they are expressing their love for the classic crisp flavours and their loathe for this forced ‘crisp referendum’. Voting also takes place via the Walkers website, where you have to register your details (so Walkers can use your info for future marketing purposes of course) so that you can participate.

Voting in the #chooseorlose campaign commenced yesterday (14^th August). The challengers and favourites featured in the choose or lose campaign are as follows: American Bacon & Cheddar takes on Smoky Bacon, Spanish-style Paprika pits against Prawn Cocktail and firm favourite Salt and Vinegar opposes the Australian inspired Lime and Black pepper.

Choose or lose – is it a good move? Post a comment and let us know what you think.

In 2016 the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (or simply the Fringe) spanned 25 days and featured 50,266 performances of 3,269 shows in 294 venues! As the world’s largest art festival gets underway this year, we have been reviewing the ‘Fringe Guide to Promoting your Show’. Its full of useful tips for performers on how to promote themselves and get people to come and see their show and unusually there is a huge section within the guide dedicated to print distribution and marketing.

For the marketers and communications professionals amongst us, there is a general consensus that print marketing is dying with flyer distribution cast aside in favour of digital marketing which can be targeted and tailored for the audience.

However, if there was ever a case study of print marketing at its best, it has to be at the Fringe. How many of you have been tempted into a show because a flyer has been thrust into your hand by a promoter? I think the answer would be quite a few, I know I’m certainly guilty of this. Often it’s got little to do with how well designed or eye catching the flyer is, and has much more to do with the wit, good humour or sheer brazenness of the person distributing the flyer!

So as Fringe gets underway, we are asking everyone to comment on the best line they have heard from a promoter to get you to a show. To start you off here are my two favourites:

“Sex and violence? No? Then come see this family friendly show featuring singing clowns”.

“Would anyone like a free marvellously designer coaster? Hands flyer to me- here you go, to get the matching set of four you are going to have to see that show now”.

Please share your comments and let us know your favourites below…

Today I graduated. No mortar board and gown in sight, for this was a virtual graduation from Squared Online, the digital marketing leadership course developed by Google. I have been studying this course since January and it was a completely different experience to my first degree in French and German back in 2000.

I got into PR because to be able to communicate in a different language, you need to be a good communicator full stop. You need to be confident at speaking to different audiences, you need to be able to make yourself understood. So, I started my career in PR in 2000 and found that I was actually pretty good at it. I could craft key messages for clients on complex subjects and make them simple to understand; I could identify the relevant audiences and best media to reach them; I could organise events; I could work alongside the ad agencies to deliver an integrated campaign.  So far so old school. Social media was still in its infancy and traditional media still ruled.

Two children and one redundancy later I re-joined agency life at Muckle Media and it was clear that things had moved on and that I was in danger of being past my shelf-life. Since 2014 I have been constantly challenging myself to adapt to the ever-changing environment in which PR professionals need to operate. I have forced myself to create a website and corresponding social media channels, I have volunteered to do all the things that are out of my comfort zone and I have got millennials teaching me new things (thank you Eilidh Marshall and Katie Mackenzie). But my biggest challenge was “volunteering” for Squared Online back in December which we had identified as a significant training opportunity for one of the team who could then share that learning with the wider group. (Helen: “It really should be a member of the senior team shouldn’t it?” Nathalie: “Yes, not sure I can do it with a three month old baby…” Helen: “I’ll do it, it will be good for me….”)

So as the excitement of Christmas passed and my eldest daughter went back to school so did I. Every Thursday at noon or 7pm I have participated in my live classes with tutors and fellow ‘squares’ from all over the world. I have attempted to do all my pre-class and post class homework and I have worked collaboratively and virtually with groups of relative strangers on topics I knew nothing about.

What have I learnt?

I have learnt that the old adage ‘you get out what you put in’ is completely true. Doing a virtual course like this when you are a working parent is a juggling act. But then I think to myself if I had done this course in my thirties, I would have got even less out of it because digital marketing was a completely different ballgame then! I am now revisiting topics that I feel are most relevant to me and where I would benefit from more knowledge.

I have learnt that the other old adage ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ isn’t true. Whilst I would still not claim to be an expert in programmatic advertising or RLSAs or analytics, I at least have an understanding of what they are and know where to go if I were to make this recommendation for a client.

In our final live class, our graduation, today, we were given four takeaways: network, opinion, more than one truth and passions.

Network: I was part of the January 2017 cohort which I think numbered nearly 500 people. I did three assignments with two different groups over Whatsapp, Google Hangouts and Skype where we used tools like Trello and Google Docs. The weekly classes ran in the morning, at noon or in the evening so I met different people each time. During those classes we were often split up to do whiteboard activity. So I now know people with a shared interest all over the world and have certainly met people I respect and will stay in touch with. There is an active Google+ group and I am still in communication with Group 42 on Whatsapp. I plan to stay in touch with my ‘fellow squares’.

Opinion: We were told today to have an opinion and say what you believe. Weirdly, as friends and colleagues will attest, this is never normally problem for me. Yet, my group failed the second assignment and my instinct told me we would but I went for the sticking plaster, don’t hurt anyone’s feelings approach and made token amends – this was an error of judgement.

More than one truth: Whilst being confident to voice your opinion, be humble enough to listen and accept those of others. I think that is true of life in general anyway but certainly was tested with so much virtual collaborative group work during the course.

Passions: Know what they are and harness them to make a difference.  This is an interesting one and arguably the rise of digital has made it easier for all of us to have a voice -the challenge is to put it to good use.

So, thank you Google and my fellow squares, and my colleagues who have supported me as I battled with the content and time commitment. I’m off to celebrate and that won’t be virtual, sorry Google, there’s a limit!

We all know how useful Twitter can be for finding out about current events, and as one of the world’s most popular social networks, many businesses consider the platform to be a key marketing tool. It can be easy to forget about the different ways in which the site’s many features can be used by businesses, so here’s a round-up of everything Twitter has to offer.

 
Twitter lists

If you follow a large number of people on Twitter, it’s almost impossible to keep up with all of their tweets during a busy working day. Twitter lists are a useful way of keeping track of users of interest and ensuring you don’t miss anything important. Whether you follow a user or not, you can add them to a list – public or private – and have all of their updates flow into timelines of your choice. You might want to curate your lists by sectors relevant to your business, or by levels of priority. You could even compile a private list of competitors to keep an eye on what similar businesses are up to. A tool like Tweetdeck is great for seeing your lists as panels and organising them with ease.
 
Live streaming

With live video becoming increasingly popular on social media platforms, it’s no surprise that Twitter decided to add a live streaming feature for users. The company purchased live streaming app Periscope in 2015 and integrated it into Twitter iOS, but the site recently upped its game with live video content.  This year, they launched Twitter’s Live API, which allows companies to hook up their own professional broadcasting and editing equipment for their video output. Live streaming on Twitter doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of slowing down, with Wimbledon broadcasting matches live on the site this year, and the BBC teaming up with the social network to live stream two of their biggest General Election debate shows in June. While Facebook might still be the go-to outlet for businesses to live stream their content, it’s certainly worth checking out what Twitter has to offer.
 
Pinned tweets

If you’ve tweeted something and don’t want it to get lost in your timeline, you can pin your tweet to ensure that it’s always the first thing people see when they visit your page. It might be an event you’re running, a piece of news about your business that you’re especially proud of, or something you posted previously that received a great response – whatever it is, you can keep it where it will receive top exposure for as long as you like.

Advanced search

Twitter’s advanced search option offers search filters that could help your business to identify focused and localised information. You might want to search for people asking for recommendations relating to your business and then filter these by your location, or you might want to target your search to words or phrases mentioned in people’s user bios. Focusing your search will allow you to find what you’re looking for more quickly, and avoid getting lost in the sea of results that a regular search would throw up.

Polls

Polls are a great way to get your audience to participate in and respond to the content you’re putting out. You could use polls to conduct market research of your followers, gain an insight into their thoughts about developments in your industry, or simply to ask fun questions. Asking these questions are an easy way to interact with followers and get them to engage with your brand.

Twitter moments

Twitter moments are stories curated from people’s tweets to create a snapshot of a particular event. Initially curated exclusively by teams at Twitter, anyone can create a Twitter moment, and they can be formed from your own tweets as well as tweets of your followers or other users on the site. They can be a great way for your business to create a buzz around a story, such as a new product launch or an event, without spamming your followers with multiple retweets that they are likely to ignore. Creating a Twitter moment allows users to easily find out more about the topic you’re talking about, without them having to hunt around and scroll past countless tweets in your timeline. They can be a useful opportunity to present your followers with a clear and concise overview of whatever you want them to know about.

Do you have a favourite Twitter feature? Let us know @mucklemedia

Whether you’re still in education, a graduate, or trying to break into a new industry after a career change, internships are a common way to get started in a number of industries. While there are plenty of horror stories out there, they can be incredibly valuable in building a career.

Here at Muckle Media we are proud to offer paid internships and our current intern, Kyra Gaunt takes a look at why internships can be great opportunities for those at the beginning of their career.

Gaining industry knowledge

The main benefit of an internship is that it allows you to gain first-hand experience and learn about how a particular workplace or industry really works. You may be hoping to embark on a career relating to your university degree, but no matter how much you’ve studied, you’ll never have a real idea of how something operates until you’ve worked in it yourself. An internship allows you to put things you have learned at university into practice, or to learn about something new entirely and are a great opportunity to get stuck in and gain some experience. At the end of your internship, you might stay on at the company you interned with, it might be a stepping-stone to a similar job with another organisation, or you might decide that what you were doing isn’t right for you. All of these paths are absolutely fine. Internships are about learning, and the knowledge and experience you gain in any internship will be valuable in whatever you decide to do next.

Networking

Even if your internship is short-term, you could make key connections in your time there that might benefit you in the future. Aside from the obvious fact that getting to know the people in your team will make your internship experience more enjoyable, it’s also important to build these relationships to ensure that you’re successfully growing your professional network. You never know who might be able to provide you with an opportunity, recommendation, or useful information in the weeks, months and years to come.

Building your CV

Internships are a great way to build up your CV and develop your skills. Some companies give interns more responsibility than others, but don’t be afraid to ask if there’s something you really want to learn. If you can see colleagues using software you’re unfamiliar with or working on something you haven’t heard of before, ask if you can observe or if they can give you a quick explanation when they have a moment. It might be something that’s used across the industry, and if you have experience of using it then it’s one more thing to help you stand out from the crowd when you’re starting out. Always try your hardest to end your internship with as many new skills as possible.

My internship with Muckle Media has been great for developing my experience in PR and marketing. Here are the top five things that have made my internship run smoothly:

1. The Muckle team have been helpful and involved every step of the way. Senior members of the team have provided regular meetings and feedback, and colleagues at all levels have always been happy to help and offer explanations for any questions I’ve had. In some organisations, people can often neglect their interns and leave them to get on with things with little to no guidance, but no matter how busy the Muckle team has been, help has always been on hand whenever I’ve needed it.
2. The internship has allowed me to take on a number of responsibilities, from client social media to event coordination and Muckle marketing. The infamous internship stereotype of making tea, going on lunch-runs and stuffing envelopes has not been my experience at all, for which I am eternally grateful!
3. Experiencing a busy PR office has been invaluable for learning about how the industry operates. I have been able to see what each team member is working on, have watched colleagues secure high-profile media coverage for clients, and then watched them win awards for their hard work. Becoming familiar with what is involved at each stage of the PR process has been a great learning experience.
4. Working in a PR agency like Muckle has allowed me to work on client accounts from a range of sectors, including business, energy and tourism. Working on these accounts as an intern has given me the opportunity to gain an insight into the different needs of each client across several industries.
5. Last but not least – Muckle Media pays its interns! Some organisations expect interns to work long hours without pay, but Muckle’s participation in the Santander internship scheme means interns are paid fair wages for their work.

If you’d like to find out more about interning at Muckle, email [email protected]

Kyra Gaunt, intern at Muckle Media @mucklemedia

Muckle Media finished last week on a high after being shortlisted for six CIPR PRide awards, including outstanding public relations agency.

The extensive shortlist reflects an exciting six months for Muckle Media, working on high profile client campaigns such as ultra-endurance athlete Mark Beaumont’s challenge to cycle around the world in 80 days, and launching People’s Energy, the first energy company which will give 75% profits back to customers. Muckle Media helped People’s Energy achieve its crowdfunding target of £450,000 by spreading their message to people across the UK, achieving a media reach of over 30 million.

Muckle Media’s activity with Mark Beaumont has been shortlisted for the Arts, Culture and Sport Campaign, with other client nominations including People’s Energy Consumer Relations Campaign and Best Use of Media Relations, plus a Corporate and Business Communications Campaign nomination for the team’s work with Entrepreneurial Spark, the world’s largest free business accelerator.

In addition to four client nominations, Muckle Media has also been shortlisted for Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy of the Year, and Outstanding Young Communicator for Account Manager, Ellie Wagstaff. The last six months have also seen the company continue to expand with a number of key appointments including Head of Client Services, Sujarda Herring, and Annie Diamond who has taken the role of Head of Media and Events.

The team now has a nail-biting wait until 5^th October when the results will be announced at an awards ceremony in Glasgow. See the full shortlist here: https://www.cipr.co.uk/content/awards-events/pride-awards/scotland/shortlist

Wish us luck!

Fiona Reyner, Trainee Account Executive, @mucklemedia

Muckle Media, the creative PR and digital agency, has made two senior appointments in Edinburgh as it gears up for a year of growth.

Mark Probert has been appointed as finance director and joins the agency in August. Mark will bring his sound financial judgement to the team as the agency seeks to increase revenue by nearly 50 per cent this year.

Also joining Muckle Media’s new central Edinburgh office is head of media and events, Annie Diamond, who started in February. Annie’s career has spanned agency and in-house roles in London and Scotland and she oversees a number of client accounts in the luxury sector.  

Ellie Wagstaff has been promoted to account manager, Helen Nimmo has joined as finance manager, Eilidh Marshall has rejoined the agency as senior account executive and QMU graduate Fiona Reyner has been retained as a permanent trainee PR account executive following a successful internship.

Annie Diamond said: “Muckle Media is well positioned for success having recently secured a string of high profile accounts. I am delighted to join the team during this growth period where I can make a real contribution to the business. I will be working with our clients to deliver impactful communications that not only positively impact the future of their business but also the future of Muckle Media.”

The agency has also been shortlisted for six CIPR Scotland PRide awards including: Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy; Best use of Media Relations; Arts, Culture or Sport Campaign; Consumer Relations Campaign and Corporate and Business Communications campaign. Ellie Wagstaff has also been shortlisted for Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year.

The agency is currently hiring at all levels following a number of exciting new business wins.

Nathalie Agnew, managing director, said: “Annie and Mark join Muckle Media’s senior team at an exciting time and will help to shape the future of the agency as we seek to best serve our clients with strategic communications programmes that deliver business results. This year we’ve moved into new city centre offices in both Edinburgh and Inverness and secured a number of high profile client wins, including supporting Mark Beaumont’s around the world in 80 days cycle. I’m really looking forward to working with all three our colleagues as we seek to grow to enter the top ten PR agencies outside London list by 2020.”

About Muckle Media
Muckle Media is a creative PR and marketing agency with offices based in the central belt and Highlands working within a wide range of sectors to deliver creative and impactful campaigns which support business’ objectives. Established by Nathalie Agnew in 2012, the agency has grown over the years and acquired Inverness based agency Platform PR in 2015. Agnew and her team have implemented PR and social media strategies in a wide variety of sectors including tourism, food and drink, entrepreneurship and social enterprise.

Muckle Media are PRCA Ethical Champions, and most recently won Media Relations Campaign of the Year at the 2017 PRCA DARE awards for their work with ultra-endurance cyclist Mark Beaumont.

If attention spans are getting shorter should that mean videos should be too?

In 2017 we are now swamped with online video content, most of it being fed to us via social media. For the marketing world this can be a daunting prospect as the audience attention span has now shrunk to a mere eight seconds, which can be compared to a goldfish coming in at nine seconds. What does this mean for audience engagement for video content?

According to research* if you can hold the audience for the first eight seconds then the optimal length of a video should be no longer than two minutes, after this engagement begins to drop. However, perhaps it is a good thing that most people drop off after eight seconds as you are then left with your true audience – with people who are truly interested in what you have to say and are more likely to comment, like or share.

Nonetheless length of video should not be an absolute, it should be a consequence of considering your target audience, keep the video tailored to them and this may help you decide on a suitable length. Also remember to consider quality, it is always more important than quantity, the audience will more likely keep watching if you are offering them a quality product which entertains them.

Finally it should be noted that 12 minutes or more is a big ask, stick to the safe zone between six to 12 minutes, this apparent ‘sweet spot’ means the audience will generally commit to anything in between this so don’t stress on length here.
If you want to test your own attention span, try watching this video and note at what time your mind begins to wonder this can be simply scrolling down the page or starting to read something else on your screen….the result may surprise you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwyHk8OkGng

*https://wistia.com/blog/optimal-video-length

On Wednesday 5^th July, Muckle Media sponsored the ‘Muckle Media’s Miracle Miles’ race at Perth Racecourse. Our teams from Inverness and Edinburgh both attended the races for Muckle’s away day, and all enjoyed a flutter. But what makes sponsorships so important for brands and businesses?

Sponsorships are a great way to increase brand awareness. Businesses can sponsor anything from teams and individuals to events and TV shows to get their name across.

Under Armour, the American sportswear brand, is a great example of a company that gradually built their reputation as a leading brand, helped in large part from sponsorships. After producing sporting outfits for films such as The Replacements and Any Given Sunday, the company went on to secure deals with the National Football League, the National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball teams. While the brand enjoyed significant prominence in the US, it was less well known in the UK. This changed, however, when Under Armour teamed up with Andy Murray, Tottenham Hotspur, and the Welsh Rugby Union through sponsorship deals. These associations helped take the business to the point where it is now the UK’s 12th biggest sportswear brand, and is soon set to open a flagship UK store.

TV shows are another of the most highly sought-after sponsorship opportunities for brands. Research has found that viewers often have more positive impressions of brands who sponsor their favourite shows, which makes those short appearances on either side of the ad-break a desirable spot. However, there are always risks involved with these kinds of associations if circumstances change around the show in question. Carphone Warehouse famously withdrew their sponsorship of Celebrity Big Brother at the height of its popularity in 2007, after the programme became talked about for all the wrong reasons – an important reminder that brands should always keep their values and public message at the forefront of their minds when securing sponsorships.

As for Muckle Media, we were delighted to sponsor Muckle Media’s Miracle Miles Novices’ Handicap Chase at Wednesday’s races. It was a close race but Welcome Ben emerged on top, with the team going on to present the trophy to the winner. Hundreds attended on the day, and Muckle Media had a prominent presence across the racecourse. Our trip to the races had two key objectives. Firstly, to reward our team with a fun day out for all their hard work over the year, which was achieved. Secondly, our aim was to drive up awareness of the agency to secure sales, which we are currently monitoring and will continue to measure against to evaluate success.

Here are our top 5 tips for getting the most out of sponsorships:

1. Remember your objectives – what are you hoping to achieve through the sponsorship? Clear objectives will help you to identify the right approach for your brand
2. Ensure what you sponsor is aligned to your brand and has a clear purpose
3. Maximise the sponsorship by creating compelling content to shout about your partnership
4. Negotiate marketing reach within the sponsorship deal – how many name checks will you get and what is the reach
5. Always evaluate sponsorship and measure the impact of what you will get back from it

What do you think about the value of sponsorships? Let us know @mucklemedia