AURATALKHELPING SMES STAND OUT

Picture by Laura Sutherland

in Glasgow

Issue no. 4

EDITOR'S NOTE

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

Welcome to the fourth issue of AuraTalk.

In Scotland we've had about three weeks of sunshine, but we know the south of England hashad glorious weather for weeks! We're not jealous at all, honest!

We've had a very busy summer with the PR Festival, West End Festival, The Big Lunch, lots ofnew business activity, my usual blog posts and getting to grips with what the rest of the year hasin store. I launched my own blog lauramsutherland.com too - you should sign up to follow it.

This issue takes a look back at the last month or two and we look at what you need to be doingto prepare winter campaigns and what new tools are available to use to help you.

AuraTalk has helped clients and colleagues alike, giving them tips on what to do and how to goabout it. PR is not something we suggest you do yourself if you're not experienced and skilled.Get the experts involved - it'll save you time, money and get you effective results.

A bit of news from Aura, Laura's blog posts have been counted in the top 25 female PR careeradvice blogs! Laura has also been invited to join the Board of the Scottish Communicator'sNetwork, helping bridge the gap between public and private sectors in PR and comms.

Enjoy this issue and hope to talk soon.

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Laura Sutherland

Images: Stewart Attwood

#PRFest

NEWS... in briefAura has been handed the contract to launchTherapie Clinic in Scotland. Two clinics willopen in Edinburgh and Glasgow in October.

Therapie has 15 clinics in Ireland and the£2million investment in the Scottish launchwill see the start of Therapie's expansionacross the UK.

www.therapieclinic.co.uk

Aura has worked with the International Aspirin Foundation todevelop a strategy to raise awareness of the benefits ofaspirin. In September, Aura will head to London to the Senior ScienceAwards working to raise awareness of the award and winner.

www.aspirin-foundation.com

Aura has worked with the West End Festivalfor the last five years helping engage thepublic with its June festival and for the last twoyears, The Electric Gardens. This winter, Aurawill help launch a new initiative - a torchlightparade taking place on 26 November.

www.westendfestival.co.uk

Laura has commited significant time in the last six years to thedevelopment of the PR industry and indeed practitioners. As aformer Board Director and current Council member, Laura will stand inthe upcoming CIPR Council elections, looking to secure a seat for2017 for a two-year term. Voting starts on Monday, 12 September!

www.cipr.co.uk

Aura worked with The Big Lunch inScotland, to help raise awarenessand encourage sign-up ofcommunities across Scotland, totake part in The Big Lunch, whichwas held on 12 June.

Apparently Dundee was the'warmest' city in Scotland, withmany communities regularly eatingmeals with friends, family andneighbours.

Thanks to our three helpers forposing for media pictures atSighthill, Glasgow!

Summer intern, Lesley Clark, tells you

what it's like to be an Aura intern...

Today marks my last day as a PR intern in the Aura office. My notepad is full,my brain packed to the brim with new information. I’m reflecting on howmuch I’ve had the opportunity to learn in the short space of four weeks. I

hope by sharing my experience, it can offer a little insight into day-to-day lifeas a PR intern.

Here’s a snapshot of what I’ve been up to this month…

#1 ‘Same task, different day’ doesn’t apply in PR – each day is different

For many, the idea of an internship conjures up bleak thoughts. Perfecting coffee making,stapling ‘til your heart’s content and pretending to look busy. Not at Aura, and thankgoodness! I’d been a PR intern an hour and already Laura had introduced me to a newhealth and beauty client proposal. She asked I pull together data sets from nationalpublications. It soon became clear that finding this kind of information requires assertive,clear and concise communication with publications to get fast and relevant results.

This brief allowed me to switch roles. I went from a consumer to someone actually seeingthe ins and outs of the process of selecting the right publication for a campaign. Theimportance of selecting options which will gain the most engagement became clear. Itsurprised me that many national publications could not supply relevant data. Geo-

targeting Scottish audiences was outlined as a key priority for this client. It was, for thatreason, essential to select publication options which would be measurable.

#2 Paid, earned, shared, owned media – the importance of combining all four

The PESO model, paid, earned, shared and owned media, something that flutteredaround once or twice during my marketing lectures. For something so important, itwasn’t given much thought. Working at Aura has emphasised how crucial this model isin succeeding within PR and communications. The industry moves faster than you havetime to realise you’re actually moving. Adopting PESO is essential to keep up with therace and to demonstrate return of investment (ROI).

One clear piece of advice I’ve had working as a PR intern at Aura is that creatingvaluable, relevant content is vital to the success of any engagement. Although the PESOmodel begins with ‘paid’, this does not need to be the key starting point in engagingtarget audiences. My time as a PR Intern here has emphasised that media andcommunications cannot be approached as a linear process, but instead one whichrequires a combination of elements of the PESO model and most importantly, awillingness to try new things.

PESO model

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#3 Creating a PR tool-kit

Before working at Aura, my PR tool-kit was near enough empty. I had a few ideas aboutmedia tools but didn’t have much experience putting them into practise. There are somany other resources available to assist with working day-to-day.

Here are a couple I’ve been introduced to…

– Canva

The power of visual marketing is more significant than ever before within the PR industry.Laura introduced me to Canva. It’s a visualisation tool which provides a massive amountof resourcespr intern Canva . There are free images, templates, fonts & photos whichcan help to create many different infographics for media purposes. I have seen first-hand, the potential for a blog post to go from a non-engaging mish-mash of text, to apiece of content which looks bright and well-structured. This makes the readergenuinely want to carry on reading past the first paragraph and it’s all thanks to Canva.

– Hemingway Editor

My last written exam was in April and I’ve been sunning myself abroad for the majority ofthe summer. So, I think it’s safe to say my writing skills are a little on the rusty side. WhenLaura asked me to put together my first blog for the Aura website, she suggested I makeuse of the Hemingway Editor. It’s a tool which helps writers to structure their ideas into aneasily readable format – think spellchecker, but for style. The app highlights where yourwriting is too dense, disorganised and needs a bit of attention. For a self-confessedwaffler like me, this tool has been incredibly useful and I highly recommended it. Clickhere to give it a go…

#4 Be a sponge!

pr internIf you want to learn you have to be willing to ask questions, and loads of them.Make mistakes, but learn from them fast. The ability to take constructive criticism well willhelp too. BE A SPONGE!

Personally, I learn best by being chucked in at the deep end. My project briefs weresuccinct for a reason – so that it was a learning process. All too often, throughoutacademia in particular, we become horses lead to water. This experience has given methe opportunity to learn as I go, it has encouraged me to ask questions.One of the briefs given to me was to help in creating a corporate sales strategy for anevents venue client. I compiled a document which included both competitor analysis aswell as a strategy.

This was designed to look at the sales process as a customer journey. Though thedocument included images throughout, with the intention of appealing to the reader, itbecame clear after consulting with Laura that although in some cases this can add tothe value of content, when it comes to the nitty gritty, sometimes it’s best to stick to text inorder to keep things concise. Without trying and testing different formats, I wouldn’t havebeen able to learn from my mistakes.

So, how’s it been?

Four weeks ago, I drove into work as a new PR intern, not quite knowing what to expect.Frankly I felt a bit like I was starting secondary school all over again, as the ‘newbie’.Luckily, my time here has been anything but as scary as school. I’ve had anencouraging, dedicated mentor with a genuine interest in challenging me professionallyand shaking up the PR industry. My time at Aura has been jam-packed. I’ve exploreddigital marketing, data analysis, PR best practice, crisis communication and mostimportantly, how to best conduct myself as a professional in the industry.

One-on-one interaction has been invaluable. I can’t thank Laura enough for offering methis opportunity and I’m excited for new ventures to come. It’ll be interesting to put whatI’ve learned into practice!

Four of Aura's favourite summer PR tools

#1 Instagram

Now with an even better platform,easy to use and reaching anyone,anywhere, Instagram has developedfrom just a selfie sharing platform intoa platform where people can findanything of interest to them in a real-life way. It’s authentic, as all content

should be!

#2 Tweetsmap

A paid-for platform which looks intoyour audience and helps understandwho you follow and who follows you.

For £20 can look at people’slocations, interests, see who is activeand inactive, see who follows you

back, all the way down toengagement levels.

#3 Canva mobile

I use it almost daily for creatingvisuals for social, blogs, video and

The mobile app uses free images ina variety of templates, ready fordifferent platforms. You can thensave it to your phone, upload onwhatever platform and Bob’s your

Uncle!

#5 AMEC Framework

I found out in June just before#PRFest that AMEC would belaunching a new framework tool

online, to help practitioners be moreconsistent in delivering qualityevaluation of campaigns.

Paid and earned media -

there is a big differenceAs Aura works across the medialandscape, it has become obvious thatthere is work to be done to ensure clientsare fully aware of the difference betweenpaid and earned media.

The Competitions and Market Authority(CMA) have started to become involved incases where paid media hasn't beentransparent.

As you may know, Laura is a member of theCIPR's Council and as such, believes insetting an example to fellow PRpractitioners.

She has recently finished a best practiceguide, co-authored by fellow CIPR memberGavin Harris, which talks about the ethicalapproach to paid and earned media.

What is paid media?

Simply put, it’s media that you pay for! Paidfor Facebook posts or promoted tweets arecommon examples of paid media on socialmedia. Traditional paid media streams suchas display advertising and searchmarketing are a more directly relevant routeto generate users to the site, which is usefulto create traffic and in turn create websiteconversions. Paid media in public relationscan directly target audiences in a timelyand relevant manner.

What’s the issue?The question of ethical earned media canbe blurred particularly if editorial is offered aspart of a package of paid media.

If you look back at the PESO model, you'llsee where each has their strengths andwhere they apply.

What’s the difference between advertisingand advertorial?An advertorial is an advert which appears inthe form of editorial content. The word"advertorial" combines the words "advert”and editorial." We tend not to use 'advertorial'as it can confuse people if it's paid orearned.

What is earned media?

Earned content is earned on merit becauseof its relevance and value to audiences. It’salso distinguishable by the fact it’s neverpaid for. Earned content should begenerated through following an ethical andtransparent process that seeks to informaudiences on how content is generated.For example, if you have paid for editorialwhich includes an image and links, then thiswill be considered an advertorial and shouldbe ‘labelled’ as this, by the publisher.

#ad

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The UK Code of Non-broadcastAdvertising, Sales Promotion and DirectMarketing (CAP Code) provides clearguidance in this area and the UKCompetition & Markets Authority (CMA)

has sought assurances from advertisingagencies that they won’t breachconsumer protection legislation.

The bottom line is consumers must alwaysbe aware when content is being fundedby a third party.

Other types of earned content includethose generated through influencerrelations such as blogs, vlogs andmentions in posts on social mediaplatforms like Twitter, Facebook,Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. Thesame rules apply here – regardless ofwhether if it’s a “mention” in a tweet or awhole blog post dedicated to a brand or itsproducts and services, it’s only earned if it’sproduced on merit and not paid for.

If it is paid for, you're likely to see #ad orsomething similar. Laura often commentson celebrity and brand posts, asking themto be more transparent to readers.

Ethical implicationsWorking on behalf of an employer or clientsto generate content from bloggers andsocial media influencers who don’t revealwhen they are being paid to promote aproduct, service or brand is against theCIPR Code of Conduct.

Complete transparency is the only way.

The best practiceguide will launch on1st October as part ofthe CIPR's Ethics

Month

New frameworkfor measurement

& evaluation

Aura's Chief, Laura Sutherland, led a panel of

practitioners to review the new frameworkPart of the issue of understanding the value of PR, is the poor quality of measurement andevaluation from practitioners.

Until recent years, AVEs were used against the quantity of coverage, which simply isn't a form ofmeasurement.

AVEs are no longer accepted across much of the industry and organisations such as AMEC,the International Association for Measurement of Communications, is making headway toimprove industry standards.,

As a result of consultation with the industry and indeed importantly, the business world,, AMEClaunched a new framework online, in June.

The framework in my view isn't quite there, but it's a starting point. I led a panel of five otherpractitioners, from across the world, on behalf of the PRCA. We used the framework on projectsand reviewed a number of things: 1. the concept 2. the usage 3. the information and reporting isgives and 4. how it could be developed.

The framework is broken down into seven parts. You simply click on one of the sections toinput information and once you've completed all of them, you submit the content and itgenerates a report for you.

You can't save and go back and amend later as it's done in your browser.

As it stands, there is no room for narrative or explanations. Similarly, if an activity has failed, thatstill needs to be included, but at the moment there is no 'area' for this type of information.

News agendas change every minute depending on what's happening and this canaffect a campaign's success. Again, there is no place for this type of information on thereport.

Measurement and evaluation starts at the beginning of any campaign - not at the end.The framework can help plan a campaign, ensuring all sections have been completed,even with expected outcomes and impacts.

So whilst the framework is an excellent, start, there are improvements to be made. Ihope AMEC takes our review and puts the constructive feedback into action.

How can you use the framework? It will help you to understand what you need to bediscussing and agreeing with your PR agency. It will also help you to grasp what isinvolved in strategy, tactics, measurement and evaluation.

Practitioners need access to all sorts of data to help them measure and evaluate -

Google Analytics, sales reporters, trends, sign-ups etc. It all links back to the objectives,KPIs and the overall impact. There is no point in just listing tactics and outputs.

The above will also demonstrate that PR needs to collaborate with other departments,to gain access to data and to understand the business - before, during and after.

The new framework by AMEC

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Aura strategies

Aura events Aura issues

Aura crisis

Get in touch...you'dbe surprised wherea conversation can

lead!

Aura content

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Christmas shopping will beginsoon. Is your campaign ready?

Aura tips for developing your campaign

Do you have a product which is an ideal gift or a service which can be used across thefestive period? Start to think now, what that is, who you are targeting and how you can getit infront of the consumer.

Magazines will be looking for products to feature in the gift pages of supplements - get aforward features plan and start to sell your product in. You'll need great product imageryand a short narrative with pricing to accompany.

Are you looking for Christmas bookings for your restaurant, hotel, bar or venue? Thinkabout allocating a budget for promoted posts on Facebook, paid advertising insupplements or if you've got something unusual about your menu, it may be of interest tothe features writers. You'll need great photography of the dish to help it in or you could setup a photo opportunity with your chef and the dish.

Don't forget your email database. Email marketing done right can be highly effective.

Make your content visual. Pay to reach those audiences whoare hard to reach.

Try and come up with an original angle - people love buyingunusual or different gifts. Don't just repackage what you'vealready got!

If you need help - you know where we are!

What's on...Glasgow Doors Open Day 12-18 September

Great Scottish Run 1 October

Mackintosh Festival the month of October

Glasgow Loves Christmas 6 October - 31 December

Edinburgh Oktoberfest 5-9 October

BBC Good Food Show Scotland 6 November

The Country Living Magazine Christmas Fair 17-20November

Edinburgh's Christmas 18 November - 8 January

Winter Foodies Festival 25-27 November

Visit list.co.uk for Scotland-wide event listings

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Client spotlight

thelighthouseevents.co.uk

When it comes to hosting an event in Glasgow, The Lighthouseoffers a city centre location in a very stylish and unique building.

Set just off Buchanan Street, the 'Style Mile', TheLighthouse spans six floors. It's an event venue, exhibitionspace and visitor centre.

On any visit you can visit one of the exhibitions, grab acoffee in the Doocot Cafe, see spectacular views, learnabout Charles Rennie Mackintosh, buy gifts or simply havea wander about the fabulous building.

The venue now has a number of event spaces, cateringfrom large conferences and dinners to small boardroommeetings. With on-site catering, free wifi andcomplimentary water, it's a no-brainer to book TheLighthouse for your next event.

The latest room to be added to the venue spaces is TheTower Room. Exposed stonework, large windows and acosy feel makes an intimate space for brainstorming,creative meetings or even a Board away day.

OFFER! Freetea/coffee for up to 20delegates if youquote #AuraTalkwhen booking!

Visit aura-pr.com #AuraTalk

Acting as an extension of your team,

providing a professional and personal

service, across public relations.

@AuraPR