The Whiteoaks Consultancy Limited

Who’s in the hot seat?

A senior management team that consists of Gill Craig (Chairperson), Suzanne Munton (Commercial Director), Jane Rigg (Business Development Director) and James Kelliher (Managing Director).

Sum up your agency’s 2010 in less than 140 characters

Our most successful year ever. We added several blue-chip technology clients to our roster; increased fees and staff numbers by more than 20%; and opened a second office.

Name your three best technology clients or account wins

Citrix Online - a great brand and the topic of online collaboration services driving changing working practices is highly relevant and engaging in today’s unpredictable business world.

Teradata – the world leader in data warehousing and integrated marketing management. We were delighted to win a highly competitive pitch process.

Honeywell Life Systems – we extended our work with Honeywell to now include the HomMed and Gent brands.

What was the most exciting technology PR campaign you ran in 2010?

For Citrix Online, we leveraged the severe weather disruption in December to highlight the value of using online collaboration services to work remotely. Using content generated from two YouGov surveys, expert opinion provided by Citrix Online spokespeople and some carefully timed media pitching, we achieved coverage across major national/international media including the BBC and Channel 4 and approximately 50 local/regional broadcast outlets.

Significant technology hires in 2010

We were delighted to appoint James Farquharson to the position of Associate Director, joining us from Hill & Knowlton's technology practice. Hayley Goff was also promoted to the role of account director and Jane Rigg joined the board of the company, becoming our business development director.

Highlight of 2010

While the business accomplished things (see above), the real high points all came from the fantastic work being delivered by our team. Each great piece of media coverage, each nugget of positive feedback from a client and each campaign target exceeded was a highlight.

What kind of work do clients currently want?

Social media and digital have become more prominent. Clients understand there are other ways to engage with an audience rather than traditional media channels. The opportunity for PR is to broaden its scope, as long as we can define the end audience and what we want to communicate

What do you think will be the key trends for technology PR in 2011

The more forward thinking clients and agencies will begin to recognise that PR, as a discipline, has a unique opportunity to increase its remit and value. While the current buzz is social media, and this will continue to be important, PR practitioners will begin to realise that there are multiple influencer channels, both direct and indirect, that we can own and use to effectively communicate with end audiences.

Plans for 2011

We believe clients should demand more from their PR agencies. More transparency; more accountability; more services; and more commitment to both PR results and business outcomes. We will continue to champion the concept of totally transparent PR with proven sales success. We will seek more talented and ambitious people to join our team and continue to expand our capabilities to meet our clients’ requirements.