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Sector: Design and Content production

Grayling invests in senior strategic and creative hires in London and Manchester

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Grayling today announces the appointment of two new senior hires with Bronwyn Fieldgate joining the agency as Head of Strategy and Andy Garner as Creative Director.

Fieldgate joins Grayling from Ogilvy where she was a managing partner and strategic lead across the agency’s Walgreen’s Boots Alliance portfolio of brands. Prior to Ogilvy she was Planning Director at M&C Saatchi PR.
Garner, who will be based at Grayling Manchester, joins after a decade spent within the Engine group, most recently at MHP and Mischief. Both hires join IGNITE – Grayling’s central global strategic and creative team – with Garner acting as the agency’s first dedicated IGNITE hub outside of the London office. Fieldgate and Garner’s appointment is the latest in a continued investment from Grayling into its strategic, creative and design capabilities and follows client wins, including Badoo and MoreThan.

Commenting on the hire, Fieldgate says: “Grayling is moving at such a great pace and we’re really accelerating the strategic expertise we provide to clients. It’s a unique agency – a regional UK footprint that can’t be matched, a top-class network abroad, and of course a powerhouse London office. Add to that the combination of disciplines we offer and the fact that our talent is down-to-earth, happy and collaborative, the company feels perfectly positioned for where the communications industry is moving.”

Garner says: “I’ve always strongly believed that creativity exists outside of the M25 and Grayling clearly recognises that. I’m looking forward to helping to strengthen and grow Grayling’s foothold across the North but also tapping into the incredible creative minds that the area has to offer. The Beatles, LS Lowry, James Rodriguez… The North has long history of producing and attracting brilliant creatives and the future is just as interesting. Grayling has incredible teams serving both local and national clients and it’s really exciting to be building out our creative offer in the work we do across the region and beyond.”

Commenting on the hires, Nathan Kemp, Grayling’s global head of strategy and creative says: “Bronwyn and Andy are formidable – with talent like this joining the agency alongside the wider team there’s good reason PR Week named Grayling as a one to watch in 2021. We’ve invested heavily and consistently in ensuring we put brilliant strategic and creative thinking at the heart of everything we do, not just in London but across the Grayling network and these hires will ensure we can continue to do that as our client base grows, globally and locally.”

MORE THAN goes the extra mile with Grayling

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Grayling has been appointed as a retained PR agency for MORE THAN insurance, part of RSA Group, as the insurer looks to build more emotional connections with consumers and reinforce its purpose of ‘doing more’ in the UK’s insurance sector.

Grayling will be responsible for driving brand awareness for MORE THAN across its home, motor and pet product lines, as well as providing creative communications and strategic counsel for the brand.

MORE THAN, first launched in 2001 with a mission to freshen up the consumer finance market, is currently undertaking a revamp of its marketing strategy across PR, social, digital and ATL. Brand communications is being underpinned by principles based on simplicity, ‘more-ness’ and forward-thinking to position MORE THAN as an insurer going the extra mile for customers, delivering more than words and treating customers as individuals.

Jonathan Curtis, Managing Director at Grayling, says: “We’re thrilled to be working with MORE THAN to reconnect consumers with its original brand ethos of doing more through compelling storytelling. As the UK’s best-connected agency, this brief plays right into our strengths of understanding both local nuances right through to what is happening at a national level. We’re excited about working in partnership with MORE THAN as it enters a milestone anniversary this year and deliver insight-led and creative campaigns.”

As part of the new brand refresh, MORE THAN recently launched a new website, putting simplicity, ease of use and care at the heart of its design.

James Loder, Chief Marketing Officer at MORE THAN, says: “PR and communications play a vital role in insurance, giving consumers reassurance that their provider will go above and beyond when they need them most, but also through using our insights to guide them on ways they can best manage their risks.

“Grayling stood out for us as the agency that can get truly get under the skin of the issues facing our customers, and has already been helping us creatively communicating how we as MORE THAN can be part of the solution.

“As MORE THAN celebrates 20 years of going above and beyond for our customers, we’re looking forward to beginning this new chapter with Grayling to deliver emotive, category-leading campaigns that puts more-ness front and centre.”

 

Contact:
Joey.Ng@grayling.com

Grayling creates a hair-raising social experiment to protect people against fraud

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It’s not every day that a trip to the barbers can help protect you against fraud; but that’s exactly what we did in a recent stunt and creative campaign for Lloyds Bank.

In the first half of 2020, there were over 1.4 million cases of fraud, totalling £582 million of financial losses. Despite this, more than eight out of 10 Brits (81%) say they could spot a scam, with men in particular being most confident.

This confidence however, is misplaced, with only 1 in 10 being aware of the most common scams or understanding how social media data is being increasingly used for financial fraud.

Lloyds Bank is committed to fighting fraud. Working with their experts, we designed a campaign to help people protect themselves, by making them think twice about what they share on social media.

Step inside Johnny’s Chop Shop – an iconic barbershop in central London and home to our fraud awareness stunt.

Our barbers scanned the public social media profiles of each unassuming customer, to find out as much as they could about them.

The last place they went on holiday? Check. Marital status? Check. Mum’s name? Check. Armed with this information, along with the scissors and shampoo, our barbers started to drop these anecdotes into conversation, while customers were in the chair. And we filmed the results.

A mix of surprise, shock, nervous laughter and suspicion, as our barbers revealed more and more personal details about their new customers. And if we could find all this out, so could a fraudster, couldn’t they?

This high-impact stunt got everyone talking about online fraud and social media – with 40+ pieces of media coverage, reaching a quarter of all Brits. We further amplified the campaign through a partnership with LadBible, with 300,000 followers taking an Instagram quiz about the latest techniques scammers are using.

And the result? 75% of people who saw the campaign said they will think twice about what they post on social media in future. This increased to 79% of men – a real result.

Want to find out more about this campaign or how we can help you? Contact sophie.young@grayling.com.

Communications in 2021: What Does the Future Hold?

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Well, no one saw 2020 coming… Picking the bones out of a year defined by COVID-19 can seem difficult – but there have been some clear themes. For example, we’ve seen an incredible acceleration in digital transformation, while tech brands have also been forced to think about what they should communicate.

As technology PR heads put their communications plans together for 2021, I want to explore four themes that will define the near future for communications.

  • The COVID-19 legacy

Despite the rollout of a new vaccine, it’s highly unlikely that we will suddenly flock back to the way things were before the pandemic. I think we’ll see more people working both from home and the office. Work-life balance, support and professional development for staff is going to be a huge differentiator when it comes to attracting talent.

Positively, budgets are likely to pick up in 2021 with increased hiring set to follow. We are also all looking forward to attending live events, and we know nothing can replace the value of meeting face-to-face, especially for the first time. However, the virus has pushed many events to be adapted online, reaching huge audiences at low cost. I believe that we’ll see innovative online events continue to play a key role in tech communications during 2021. Online interactions are not fruitless after all, as we’ve seen at Grayling over the last 12 months, having both won new business and delivered great work this year for clients that we’ve only ever met on Microsoft Teams.

  • Brexit will cast a long shadow

It’s already December and we’re still not clear what the UK-EU relationship will look like, more than four years after the referendum. What is clear is that there will be an impact on recruitment. British PR firms, for instance, looking to access talent from EU countries will face new difficulties that will make hiring from abroad less attractive. The detail is yet to be finalised, but my hope is that Brexit does not impair our ability to hire the best talent, wherever those people come from.

Brexit also has potential impacts on the way we handle data in the UK and is set to dominate the news agenda during 2021, as the pros and cons of leaving the European Union become clear. This will have a knock-on effect for UK-based tech companies and those that do business here. As spokespeople for the tech sector, we should be ready to support the sector as it goes through this uncertain period – and continue to bang the drum for our world-leading technology industry in a post-Brexit world.

Communicators will just need to continue to be flexible.

  • Social media literacy more vital than ever

PR communicators need to think more carefully than ever before about how their campaigns could be perceived to avoid a backlash across social channels. At a time when many consumers and businesses are feeling under pressure, brands need to ensure they have their finger on the pulse and ‘read the room’ effectively. It is important to get a wide consensus on any campaign ideas before you commit to them and open them up for scrutiny with online audiences.

And then there is the rise of TikTok. The platform continues to have real momentum and I think it poses a real threat to the dominance of the other main social networks. We can expect it to play a key role in Europe, although its future direction in the US may well depend on how the new administration views the platform.

Video content is the most persuasive content format for the C-suite, this medium is still under-utilised in business-to-business marketing, in particular. I’m also interested to see how business leaders use LinkedIn’s new Stories function or Fleets on Twitter as we go into 2021.

  • The rise of B2B influencers

Influencers are going to grow in importance and continue to host valuable platforms for tech brands to reach their target audiences, especially for many business-focused brands that may not have considered working with influencers before.

At Grayling, we ran a very successful B2B campaign for Kaspersky this summer with the help of two thought leaders in their field. The webinar we hosted as part of this campaign provided two conflicting viewpoints which really helped us see thought-provoking sides of a critical argument and create a solid piece of long-tail content that continues to deliver coverage and links to our client. The key is to make sure the influencers you choose to work with have reach and credibility, and that they are a suitable brand fit.

It looks likely that we’ll see even more competition for creativity in both B2B and consumer-facing tech marketing.

Recent action from the UK Competitions and Markets Authority led to the Facebook-owned platform Instagram committing to doing more to prevent hidden advertising on the social network. The PR industry must be more stringent on disclosure and make sure it is built into their influencer contracts.

So, those are four key areas that will define tech communications in 2021. Let us see what the new year brings…

If you’d like to discuss how Grayling can support you in 2021, please drop me a line on liz.alexander@grayling.com