Anna Terrell

This is the first year we've entered the AMEC Measurement and Evaluation Global Awards at Acorn Strategy. We've spent a lot of time refining our process to ensure that what we do produces more than just vanity metrics—it has true impact, with purpose, and drives business results. After watching from afar for years, we've been shortlisted for 3 out of 3 of our entries! This is also a recognition that the best work comes from clients who are true partners. Honest, transparent, and willing to share access to business outcomes, they’re committed to long-term partnerships. Clippings, billboards, website visits—they’re all nice to have, but what have they actually contributed to business objectives and social impact? Very excited to be in such great company. I’ve been crushing on the Specsavers campaign and obviously love our partners at CARMA, but also... Met Gala and Super Bowl 🤩 #AMECAwards #BusinessImpact #TruePartnership #AcornStrategy #CommunicationsStrategy #MeasurementMatters #AMECAwards #BusinessImpact #TruePartnership #AcornStrategy #CommunicationsStrategy #ImpactWithPurpose #MeasurementMatters

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Do you realise that you’re sat on PR content? Content that will get you into the media- so you can reach more people and build your credibility and visibility through being elevated and celebrated. So often in business we just get on with what we think is normal. Book launches, event planning, thought leadership - we often forget to capitalize on it. The media can amplify your message, it can shine a light on your work, it creates a new level of energy around you when you step into celebration mode What are you doing in your business that you should be celebrating?? I’ll bet there’s something!!!

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Managing a crisis is no easy task. Learn more in our latest WellRed post by Daniel Ahern #Crisis #PR #CrisisPR #PublicRelations #Management #Reputation #Communicaitons The Pollack Group

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Have you ever looked at my profile and wondered just what it is that Skout does? This is a great overview from our MD, Rob Skinner that sets out who we are, what we do and our areas of expertise. If any of this resonates with you, feel free to drop me a message and we can arrange a quick catch up to chat about how we can help you reach your strategic marketing goals. #b2bpr #b2bpragency

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Focussed pitching over the last few weeks, grounded by solid PR strategy has secured some terrific coverage for Shine PR clients across a range of top tier media outlets, with some big exclusives, interviews and features secured for Q4. If you’re looking to: 🚀 Raise your brand profile ✨ Improve your brand image ⚡️ Connect with your target audiences 🎙️ Manage your reputation 💥 Stand out from the competition 📰 Generate positive publicity Then drop us a line: [email protected] #PRScotland #TravelPR #HospitalityPR #FoodAndDrinkPR #PRCoverage #ClientCoverage #CoverageWins #MediaCoverage #PressCoverage

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This article on PR Week yesterday offered nothing new in times of the PR recruitment market. It is hard. It has always been hard. Attracting and retaining the best talent is a constant challenge for PR agencies. Never in my 20 years' in the industry has there been a "easy" time for hiring. It has typically always been skewed to candidate led or client led. That said some of the challenges of course have changed, both with attitudes of candidates and agencies but also methods of hiring. I remember having to ring prospective candidates at their work desks to headhunt them, well before people would just send off generic messages! What I always say to candidates and clients is it is always evolving and always changing. The lows don't last, but nor do the highs for either side. Retaining your best people is always your first step in also hiring the best. Hiring for attitude and aptitude over "perfect on paper" almost always works better. Listen to your people, what are their priorities? Actually action things you discover. Listen to your recruitment partner, we have a huge amount of insight into the market and what candidates want, which processes are working and where people want to work. Oh and above all else. If you want to have the best teams, hire diverse talent. It makes commercial sense, you will do better work that reaches wider audiences and to top it off "a diverse and inclusive culture" regularly comes up high on priorities for my candidates. Yes times are tough right now but "this too shall pass". https://lnkd.in/eSBsQ-95

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PR insights: This video will appeal to those with responsibility for generating media coverage for their organisations. You'll know the difficulties in getting coverage, so watch for insights into how to turn this around in your favour: https://lnkd.in/eiemMuzd #pr #mediarelations #mediacoverage

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Can you, or should you engage in PR if you don't have regular news to put out? We speak to quite a few companies who quite understandably* think there isn't much point in doing PR if they don't have 'hard news'. They're often talking about funding, or the lack of recent news on that front. Or they might have great partnerships they want to shout about but these are under NDA or aren’t able to be publicly shared for other reasons. Yes, the tech and business media can seem fixated on covering funding and other markers of growth and success like big deals or impressive awards. Yet lots of our clients get regular PR coverage - sometimes 8 or 10 pieces per month, without ‘new news’. They might have instead: 🗞 A company growth, or ‘pivot story’ 🗞 A founder ‘hero story’ 🗞 Industry insight, from their sales team perhaps 🗞 Proprietary data which points to a trend 🗞 A new product, or a move into a new area which points to a trend 🗞 Staff stories - apprenticeships or longstanding members 🗞 Opinion - a new take, a strong view, an honest admission… *they should come to us for a strategy session where our team of PRs and ex journalists can take 2 hours to brainstorm and unearth stories & angles ⭐ #PR #news #marketing #techpr

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Back in the early noughties these types of ‘formula’ were a handy tool for PR folk looking to secure coverage for all sorts of brands. Remember the formula for calculating the ‘beer goggles effect’?! Out of curiosity, for a bit of fun, I asked ChatGPT to come up with a mathematical model that quantifies the impact of thought leadership and visibility on investment appeal. I won’t share the whole thing, but this is the headline formula it came up with. II = B + (wV×V + wC×C + wP×P) + ϵ Here’s how it works: 🔎 Visibility (V): Increasing the public presence of the CEO or founders—through media appearances, conference engagements, and social media—raises the company’s profile among potential investors. 🤝 Credibility (C): Demonstrating a solid track record, supported by peer-reviewed publications, industry awards, establishes the company’s reliability and expertise. 🧑‍🔬 Perception of Leadership (P): These efforts culminate in a stronger perception of the leadership team, which is crucial for gaining investor trust. (Mathematician connections - feel free to challenge this! 😄) But there’s a much easier way of demonstrating my point: Visibility = Investment. You really don’t need to have a complex understanding of algebra to see that making your founders more visible - showing their leadership, their expertise, their strategic thinking - makes your life sciences business more investable. #ChatGPT #ThoughtLeadership #ExecutiveVisiblity #LifeSciences #MakeBusinessSocial 😁 I'm Chris 🗣️ Partnering with life sciences companies to raise their profile, visibility and authority Liked this post? Want to see more? 🔔 Ring the bell on my profile 🚀 Follow me ➡️ Connect with me

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70% of the PR sector got a pay rise in the last year. This is down from 79% in the previous year. A survey of over 400 UK in-house and agency corporate communications professionals from The Works, found that 82% of in-house and 76% of agency employees were “feeling OK to very happy” with their pay. This is an increase of 4% and 13% respectively, on the previous year. The Works said this highlighted how a soft market and companies tightening their comms budgets had “taken their toll” on the industry as the reason for the drop in pay rises. It’s really interesting to see the comparison between in-house and agency professionals salaries, bonuses and pay rises.

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Here’s what’s (sadly) noteworthy in PR this week: massive media job cuts. What does this mean for PR? And what does this mean for journalists? Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the job cuts, and we stand in solidarity with our friends and colleagues in the media who are struggling during this time - whether you’re facing a job loss or trying to keep your head above water with a significantly reduced team. #publicrelations #PR

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Last week (well - the week before - I've been on holiday!) I had the pleasure of presenting at Campaign Live, discussing all things Ad Amplification. It's traditional in PR circles to roll your eyes VERY HARD when you get asked the question 'Can you PR this ad?', but there are ways to make it fly. And sing. And sometimes, even do a little fandango. The short story* is: - Give us as much time as humanly possible (glitter is good.... diamonds are better!) - Include PR in any and all talent agreements - Let PR broaden the story and build on the campaign messaging - And let US tell YOU what is newsworthy.... we're the experts and we know what will land. Hit me up if you want to know more. I rather like making diamonds! Thanks to Haymarket Media Group, Campaign UK, Beau Jackson and the forever unstoppable 72Point (...*as if I ever tell a short story...!)

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What is Havas set to lose here though? Surely the concern is that major businesses start to no longer see value in B-Corp - ad agency networks are unlikely to favour it over big fee paying clients unless it’s expected of them to gain those accounts. If there isn’t a major consequence then what will stop others from simply doing the same thing? 🌍😳 #advertising #environmentalism #shell #Havas #bcorp

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So what does a General Election mean for your PR team? 💁‍♀️ 📰 ✨ If, like me, you're working on a variety of activities over the next month, you'll be considering how things will look in the run-up to the 4th July in the UK. You'll be asking: should I press pause or pivot my PR plans or should I just crack on? Here's my tuppence: 👉 There will -obviously- be an increased media focus on politics. The general election is almost certainly going to lead the news for the next few weeks - from debates, updates, and coverage of election-related events. This can make it challenging for non-political stories to land (or land well). 👉 Your audiences' attention will also be heavily focused on the election, which might reduce the impact of your PR efforts as people may be more engaged with political news and less with other areas of the media (ie. lifestyle, consumer finance, technology). 👉 Editors and journalists will likely prioritise political stories over other content, leading to less coverage and lower chances of your work getting featured prominently. Similarly, journalists who cover non-political beats might get roped into the GE coverage, so don't assume anyone is working BAU. So what can you do about it? Most of us won't want to turn the taps off entirely and if you're gearing up for something big, you might worry about missing your moment (and trust me, I know that sucks because I was meant to launch a campaign 9th September 2022). Consider your options. 1️⃣ Reschedule your PR diary - If possible, it might be time to pivot your activity so that anything major kicks off after mid-July (assuming it's a clean election and there's not another hung parliament / coalition situation). This will help you avoid the peak election coverage period, particularly if you're launching a bigger project or campaign. 2️⃣ Embrace newsjacking - You can't be afraid to lean into politics with a small-p for this one, but if rescheduling is simply not an option, consider tying your PR campaign to the election in a relevant and newsworthy way. 3️⃣ Go niche - Now might not be the time to hit up your pals at the nationals. Think about the smaller publications that have a different remit. Be creative if you're on the consumer side. If you have a B2B arm, hone in on it. Focus on niche publications and online platforms that might still have space for your story, even during the election period. 4️⃣ Break away from the usual earned media channels - Think about your owned options. Social media, email marketing, and other direct channels can help you reach your audience when the media agenda is too crowded. Using these channels also means you can be more reactive, entertaining, and consistent in your comms despite the saturation of election news. There you go. My starter for ten. What would you add? Or if you have a question about what you should do, drop a comment or give me a bell. 🔔

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Wrapping up the week with a question: are industry awards still worth it? From my perspective, yes! (but only if they’re the right ones).  Reputable, independently judged awards are the ones that truly matter. They are not just about shiny trophies, awards can build trust, attract talent, and open doors to new opportunities. Our recent wins and nominations for our clients are proof of how impactful they can be for B2B tech brands. Plus, the buzz they create for the team is always a bonus!  What’s your take? Are awards still as impactful as they once were? #B2BPR #Awards https://lnkd.in/eqNTwmGr

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We've been creating again. Here's our latest mini-guide to crafting a meaningful PR strategy in a changing environment. What are your key PR concerns today?

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Write a cheeky, but all to relatable post and watch the "LinkedIn Thought Leader" imposter syndrome evaporate as the flood of engagement roles in. Parlay that engagement into a post that drops some real knowledge and insight and quickly revert back to said imposter... 🤣 #Marketing #PR #Strategiccommunications #ThoughtLeadership

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