Tangerine PR

Describe your agency in five words:

A breath of fresh air (this is how our clients described us in a recent survey)

How would you sum up 2010 for your agency?

Everyone knows it was a challenging year economically, but we made a conscious decision to not just batten down the hatches or to panic. Instead, we focused on how we could improve, how we could offer a better service to clients, how we could support our staff more and how we could play a bigger role in our communities.

Our approach has paid off. We hit all the targets we set for ourselves at the start of the year; we’ve kept hold of all of our retained clients and both revenue and staff numbers are up.

What was your agency’s high point of 2010?

Our business goal is to become one of the best and biggest (in that order) PR agencies in the UK, while maintaining our core business values, and we celebrate every time we reach a milestone along the way. This year we gained our Silver Investors in People award and passed the PRCA Consultancy Management Standard at the first attempt.

But the highlight has to be when we were given a ‘Special Award’ by our long standing client Dulux Decorator Centres. The award was given for “adding the most value” as a supplier. When a client formally recognises you for doing that, you know you’re doing a great job!

What was the low point of 2010?

The year hasn’t been without its casualties. We had one client go under. Thankfully for ourselves, we weren’t too exposed financially but it was sad all the same. It was sad for the team who enjoyed working on the account and for our client contacts with whom we had great relationships. At the end of the day, people who worked for the company and who we had worked with for years lost their jobs. That’s not the news anyone wants to hear.

Please give an overview of your staffing through 2010, including significant hires and internal promotions.

Our headcount has grown from 26 to 32 in the past 12 months, but the actual numbers don’t tell the whole story. We’ve undergone a significant structural change with the agency, being split into three key specialist teams: Consumer, B2B/trade and Juice Digital (our sister agency, dedicated to social media). We also recruited a creative director and full time senior media consultant. This all adds up to the most comprehensive levels of consultancy and support that we have ever offered our clients.

What were your three best campaigns of 2010?

The best campaigns are those that you can properly measure. In 2010, we helped No Fear Extreme Energy Drink achieve a 524% sales increase in a single twelve week period, we worked with Dulux Trade to grow market share by 1% in a really competitive market and our anti drink drive campaign in Greater Manchester saw positive breath tests in the region fall by 10% over the Christmas period.

What were your most exciting client wins of 2010?

They were all exciting, because we only work with clients that we can get excited about ourselves. 24 new clients were added to the Tangerine/Juice client list in 2010, including: No Fear Extreme Energy Drink, Mars Drinks, Johnsons the Cleaners and Hugo Boss. But it’s not just the names that are exciting, it’s the campaigns themselves.

Just over two years ago we had half a dozen clients using digital PR and social media in their PR campaigns. Today we’re delivering genuinely integrated campaigns for almost all clients, with more measurable success stories to report than ever.

Of which achievement in 2010 are you most proud?

We’ve enjoyed national and regional award successes and won over £600,000 in new business over the year so there have been many highs, but the one single thing of which we we’re most proud is the fact that we’ve maintained all retained clients – some achievement in this market.

The awards, the business growth, the happy clients, we take all of this as proof that we are right to stick to our core values of honesty, courtesy and respect.

What trends did you notice throughout the year in the industry i.e. Clients taking longer to sign off budgets?

There has been a lot of talk about horrible trading conditions and tough times but, while it’s certainly competitive, our experience is that there were more opportunities in 2010 than in the year before. Eighty five per cent of our existing clients increased their spend with us, while we were invited to pitch for more new clients than we ever have done. All in all we’re feeling positive for 2011/12 but it won’t make us complacent.

How has digital changed the agency landscape in 2010?

Digital wasn’t a new thing for 2010. PR campaigns have included online elements for years. What’s different now though is that the way people use digital channels is closer to PR than to advertising, direct mail or any other marketing discipline.

Because of that, it’s no longer good enough for PR agencies to outsource their digital requirements and the best ones have brought those skillsets in-house. Experienced PR consultants are being retrained and agencies are vying to attract people with specialist digital expertise. That’s why we’ve invested in Juice Digital – not only to deliver campaigns but to ensure every Tangerine consultant is trained and at the forefront of social media - and our clients are reaping the benefit.

What are your plans for 2011?

The agency is in growth mode and we have more than doubled the size of our office space this year, but the real key will be to keep investing in good people and finding new ways to improve what we do for our clients.

Continued integration between traditional and digital PR will remain an important issue but things won’t stop there. We believe there are synergies between what PR consultants, social media experts, SEO specialists and even lawyers offer to clients and we have some exciting developments in the pipeline that will co-ordinate those services better than anyone has done before. Watch this space.