Creative Times

CREATIVE Times talks to three big players in Manchester’s oft misunderstood Marketing and PR industry.

Paul Patton
Impact Media PR

Tell us about what you do.

I am the Managing Director and founder of Impact Media PR. I set the company up with a principle aim - to deliver highly creative public relations campaigns with an emphasis on bringing both tangible and measurable results to our clients.

Broadly speaking, our role is to manage and enhance reputations of our clients via all media channels, including print, broadcast, online and other new media. I am fortunate to work across an eclectic mix of clients that broadly encompass the property, regeneration and consumer sectors.

On a day to day basis, I operate a very hands on approach to ensure that we deliver our promises to our clients. This involves regular client meetings, managing and advising on media strategy, supervising events such as launches, meeting journalists and encouraging them to write favourable articles, setting up interviews with clients and of course, writing. This could be copy for a brochure, website or announcing a flagship residential property scheme.

What’s been your biggest challenge to date?

Every business experiences growing pains, no matter how well the foundations are laid. A PR company is only as good as the talent it employs and every so often you get a bad apple or two. However, over the past few years I am fortunate to have built up and nurtured a superb team of highly talented and experienced professionals, with the drive and passion to produce excellent work. It’s my view that attracting and retaining high calibre staff is an industry wide issue, and one that needs to be addressed at the source by ensuring graduates have some practical vocational training.

What are the best and worst things about doing what you do in Manchester?

We are fortunate to have a healthy and growing media scene in Manchester and this will be given a further boost when the BBC relocate some of their departments to Salford Quays. Certain brands won’t put you on their pitch list if you don’t have a London office, but that “old school” style attitude is certainly changing, after all we’re only a couple of hours away from the big smoke by train these days!

Debunk a myth about your industry for us.

It’s all fluff and no substance. Wrong! These days around a third of the content in your average newspaper is derived from a PR source. In a digital multimedia age, newspapers and newsrooms are very lean operations where journalists rarely have the opportunity to leave their desks, and even though they don’t like to admit it, they in turn heavily rely on PRs for content, contacts and story leads. A case in point: who does Kerry Katona call after her house is broken into, not the police, oh no, her PR agent allegedly!

What’s next for you?

My determination to continue to exceed clients’ expectations along with winning more industry awards for our highly creative PR solutions. We’re also very fortunate to have some really exciting projects coming up - one that springs to mind is the European Cage Fighting Championships that will take place in Liverpool next year.

W: www.impactmediapr.com

Rowan Atkins
Rowan Atkins PR

Tell us about what you do.

I’m a marketing and PR consultant working primarily with creative organisations and social enterprises – companies that use business techniques to achieve social aims. I started off in the private sector, marketing the Guardian newspaper and then managed press and marketing for a local authority. I now deliver a broad range or work for clients including an arts centre in Liverpool, a national housing consortium, a Merseyside based tourist attraction and a social research agency in Manchester. The diversity is great. One day I might be writing a marketing strategy or delivering a PR training workshop and the next I’ll be speaking to journalists to generate media coverage or composing copy for a brochure.

What’s been your biggest challenge to date?

Moving from the private to the pubic sector. Delivering marketing in a private company where the main focus is making money and you have substantial budgets is worlds apart from managing a small PR and marketing team for a council department bound by bureaucracy or a cash strapped charity that relies on sponsorship income to market itself. Early on I realised that I wanted to promote organisations that focused on something other than making lots of cash. Moving into the public sector was a culture shock but as a result I have experience of delivering effective marketing for a range of organisations in different sectors.

What are the best and worst things about doing what you do in Manchester?

The best thing is the vibrant creative and social enterprise sectors in the city. Manchester is miles ahead of many places in terms of supporting cultural and creative companies and organisations that plough their profits back into social causes. There is a real understanding in Manchester that one of the key ways of developing these sectors is through marketing and PR.

The worst thing about delivering PR in Manchester is the reputation the industry has gained for itself. There is a misconception that public relations in the city is all about glamourous parties and celebrity endorsements. PR is about so much more than this and it’s a relevant and valuable tool to even the smallest charity or creative organisation.

Debunk a myth about your industry for us.

PR has got a bad reputation. People can be cynical about the industry, thinking it’s based on superficiality and spin. Having worked in PR for eight years I’ve witnessed the power and benefits of managing the media. The press are an important route through which you can communicate messages to your audience and raise awareness locally, regionally and nationally. The public listen to the independent voice of the media and press coverage is often much more effective than paid-for advertising.

What’s next for you?

I’ve just had a baby so I’m having my first career break since I left university. My plan is to return in February 2008 and do a lot more strategic work, spreading the word about how important marketing and PR is to a successful business.

W: www.rowanatkins.co.uk

Andy Spinoza
SKV PR

Tell us about what you do.

I am the Managing Director of Spinoza Kennedy Vesey PR, the award-winning PR agency. I set it up on my own in 1998 and I run it and lead twenty full-time staff - all great people. It’s a pleasure to work with such a bright, clever and funny team. Among our clients are public sector bodies like the MIDAS and GMPTE, and private companies like Swinton Insurance, Allied London and Ask Developments. We grew by launching bars, restaurants and hotels before getting more corporate work. At a very basic level, we write press releases and get our clients in the papers and on TV. At a more sophisticated level, we give them strategic advice and manage their reputations, in their arena where reputations are made and lost – the media.

What’s been your biggest challenge to date?

I left my job as Diary Editor of the Manchester Evening News in 1998 after ten years there because I needed a new challenge; it was just me and my Filofax (younger readers may not remember them!). People said I had the best contacts book in the city but setting up the agency (as Spin Media originally) brought on some sleepless nights. I don’t know if that was more of a challenge than setting up the original City Life magazine with two other ex-Manchester University students and a £700 overdraft, in 1982. We only had a few hacks and hippies to help us out; in retrospect that was probably harder to pull off. But we were inspired by the likes of Tony Wilson and Factory Records and also the city’s great tradition of alternative, independent media. The biggest challenge is not setting something up - it’s sustaining and growing it. City Life was under-capitalised and I suppose it was doomed, SKV has a different business model and is thriving.

What are the best and worst things about doing what you do in Manchester?

While we actually operate nationally, with offices in Liverpool and London, the head office - and the heart - of the agency is Manchester. The city’s grown like mad but it’s still small enough to be enjoyable and I enjoy the friendships and social interaction side of being based here. The worst thing about being here? Being better than London agencies but not getting a sniff of certain business.

Debunk a myth about your industry for us.

There are three PR images in the public eye. 1. PR on the door at air-kissing, champagne parties. 2. PR as grubby Max Clifford-style celebrity kiss-and-tells for eye-watering sums. 3. PR is the Alastair Campbell-style government spin doctor – he could get away with bullying the media because he had access to the PM and big stories. But 95% of PR is none of that. It’s hard, labour-intensive detail work and managing lots of relationships. It’s being the interface between the demanding client and the demanding journalist. It can be difficult and pressured work, and we insist on being well paid for it.

What’s next for you?

A bowl of hot and sour soup in Chinatown. Then continuing to work with our staff and our clients in this great city. I think we’ve got a different, tighter team spirit from the other agencies. I’ve been working in the city’s media for twenty-five years and played my part in the whole renaissance. I’ve invested my whole life in Manchester and the Northwest, so you can be sure I’ll be around for a long time to come…

W: www.skvpr.co.uk