Wyatt

Who’s in the hot seat?

Gill Holtom, PR Director.

Agency’s 2010

Transformational! Major wins, major hires, substantial shift in culture and capability topped by great performance and fantastic results

Three best digital client or account wins

Amongst a number of sizeable digital account wins, the three that stand out are Legrand  - for the launch of the company’s Salamandre steel trunking to the electrical installer market. Our strategy was web centric involving the development of a microsite modelled on F1, comprising a CGI movie of a Formula 1 car racing through the Salamandre steel trunking. The website also included a real time leader board for electrical installers taking part in a national competition to find Britain’s fastest fitter at a 100 location roadshow series, all supported by Facebook updates and YouTube downloads. A truly integrated campaign that has had a major impact in the electrical market and on sales of Legrand’s new product.

Brammer plc – Europe’s no 1 distributor of industrial engineering products awarded Wyatt its 15-country PR and group digital strategy involving the development of 15 local websites, e-commerce integration and social media marketing. This follows a partnership between Wyatt and Brammer in the UK for some five years, though the European account was highly contested and won in a three-way pitch.

Finally Meguiar’s – producers of the finest surface and car care products in the world, entrusted to Wyatt the development of its new iPhone App – a UK first for the car care market. Wyatt has managed Meguiar’s UK PR account for over a year and was instrumental in the development of its UK social strategy.

Best piece of digital work not done by Wyatt

I love anything that makes me smile and there are plenty of campaigns out there that have achieved high rankings because of that. Old Spice really stands out as a hugely entertaining and amazingly successful digital campaign. To take an old brand and catapult it into the limelight and then build on that established rapport through social channels, merchandising and even gaming, is an illustration of how you really get consumers involved in your brand. The creation of Alexander Orlov and Meerkovo is another example of taking a potentially boring brand in insurance and transforming it into a highly engaging campaign across multiple platforms. I think clever copywriting and a distinctive language style played a huge part in the success of these campaigns and that element of personality and humanisation of brands has to be a key consideration when planning social media and digital campaigns, whether they are in the B2B or B2C landscape.

Highlights of 2010 from a digital perspective

2010 saw us fully integrating the digital elements that have the potential to deliver customer value as well as commercial benefits to our clients’ campaigns. We have taken a very strategic approach to introducing social media and digital campaigns to our clients and, in some cases, have designed bespoke training for them to ensure they have the capabilities and understanding to achieve the best results. Customised plans are a must and we can support our clients with a broad spectrum of digital services from design, planning and set up, to full scale project delivery, or from simply writing tweets and blogs to building and managing entire social networking campaigns.

Fundamental to the success of this approach has been recruiting the right people. Indeed, we have recruited several digital specialists to strengthen our creative, marketing and PR teams. These include Mark Fones, Client Strategy and Creative Director, Vicky Kesterton, PR Account Manger and PR Account Coordinator Kirsty Bosley. They have helped to catalyse the growth in digital and social media in the agency and have combined energy and experience to inspire our clients as well.

Before joining Wyatt, Mark worked as Executive Creative Director; for TMP Worldwide where he realised over sixty industry awards and delivered seven UK digital marketing firsts within innovative online, mobile and in-game environments. Vicky has developed her experience in managing Twitter and Facebook campaigns to help drive clients’ social ambitions in the right direction. Another digital native to join the team is journalist Kirsty Bosley, who is fully immersed in conceiving and delivering exactly the right type of content for particular social audiences.

Plans for 2011

To reflect the evolution that has taken place at Wyatt, we are re-launching our brand in June to not only fully embrace the closer integration of PR with all the disciplines on and off line in the agency, but also to better accentuate the depth of our heritage and experience. It will show how we have a tradition within the agency of blending the old and new and this has been integral to our continued success not just in 2010 but for almost 50 years. As the business continues to grow, not just in PR but across all disciplines, we also expect to make some more key hires over the coming months.

One key prediction for digital in 2011

I firmly believe that ‘humanisation’ will continue to be a key factor in delivering successful social and digital campaigns. Creating a real and rewarding feel good factor for audiences will be vital for engagement. Delivering a positive and personalised experience will help B2B organisations to not only acquire and respond to new followers, fans and customers, but also to recruit the best talent. We are already seeing Twitter becoming a valued part of the customer service experience and I think giving brands that accessibility, personality and social face will continue to drive positive engagement and help to manage negative experiences quickly and effectively.

What can PR bring to the digital offering that no other marketing discipline can?

A passion for conversation and an instinct for news. What I have always loved about working in both newspapers and PR is that hunger to learn, engage with others and share and that is what social is all about. Every day, there is something new and exciting to share and PR practitioners have the right skill sets to package information in the right way and quickly!