Tara Hewitt

Is Happiness Your Company's Superpower? 🌟 Earlier this month, I had the privilege of attending the Alliance of Independent Agencies’ Festival of Happiness 2024, with fellow bean and Mental Health First Aider, Abi Fraser. A day dedicated to exploring the powerful connection between agency culture, wellbeing, and high performance. The key takeaway? Culture isn’t fluffy - it’s commercial. The stats speak for themselves: poor mental health costs UK businesses £51 billion annually, yet teams with strong cultures outperform others by 4x. Here’s what I learned: * Happiness is measurable: Tools like the The Happiness Index highlight how emotional data - not just engagement - can help leaders understand their teams. *Relationships matter: Feeling connected and safe at work significantly impacts retention. Have a workplace bestie? You’re less likely to leave. *Leaders set the tone: From values to actions, leadership shapes the culture and drives wellbeing - a BIG thank you to Elaine Jobson for sharing her insights and experiences. It’s not a sprint, though. Building a culture that fosters happiness and productivity takes time, a clear plan, and collective effort. But the results? Worth every step! Read my latest jellybean blog to learn more about the importance of culture when it comes to high performance. #FestivalOfHappiness #WorkplaceWellbeing #AgencyLife #Leadership https://lnkd.in/evbiuGCb

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Why proactive PR strategies are essential for ambitious B2B brands To maximise media coverage Create the story, lead the story, be the story. Proactively engaging with journalists and influencers ensures your brand is consistently in the spotlight, enhancing visibility and credibility. To shape the industry narrative Lead, challenge and guide. By leading conversations rather than reacting to them, your brand can set industry trends and become a thought leader. Proactive PR allows you to control your brand's narrative and influence market perceptions. Strengthen stakeholder relationships The more I see you the more I like you. Regular, proactive communication builds stronger relationships with stakeholders. It demonstrates your commitment and foresight, making your brand a trusted partner in the industry. To accelerate business growth The more I like you the more I trust you. Consistent media presence and positive coverage fuel business growth. Proactive PR strategies attract new clients, retain existing ones, and boost overall brand equity. Ambitious B2B brands can't afford to be passive. Implementing proactive PR strategies is key to staying relevant, influential, and ahead of the competition. How does your brand lead the narrative - Teddy 👇👇really wants to know? #Marketing #B2BPR #InstinctToBeDistinct #TechPR

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Some tips from me on entering these (or indeed any) awards. 🏆 On discussing Press For Attention PR’s sponsored category, Responsible Business, Greg shared: “First up, tell us judges a story. We don’t need to hear about what you do, your history and inside leg measurements. Set the scene by all means but grab our attention early on by explaining the problem or challenge as it stood and how you tackled it and crucially…why? How did you change things? What does it mean for the user/stakeholder? Remember, nobody wants a drill…they want a hole in the wall. Show us the results.

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So here it is, introducing fable comms...

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After a few days off moving house (not recommended when we have some of the hottest days of the year so far), I've come back to a busy inbox... But this inbox is full of brilliant client coverage, exciting new project confirmations, fantastic client and partner testimonials and a whole host of other amazing work by the Ambition PR team 🤩 If you're an author launching their book in 2024 or a professional services team ready to showcase your expertise on a global stage, AmbitionPR is on-hand to increase your visibility, credibility and influence 💪 #BookPR #BookPublicity #PRAgency

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Great day at #Speciality today - catching up with Ceres PR clients & colleagues from across the world of food - including HAMES CHOCOLATES LIMITED Some excellent presentations from the The Collaborators: Branding & Design & thefoodpeople and many more besides. Favourite fact of the day - human attention span is now estimated to be 8 seconds - slightly less than a goldfish at 9 seconds! Making branding & first impressions more important than ever! #foodmarketing #foodpr #storytelling

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As using AI to drive marketing and communications efficiencies becomes the lowest common denominator, businesses must look beyond efficiency to AI solutions that help their brand stand out, through the lens of more ambitious and meaningful ideas.     We have developed a value-based framework to help marketers and communicators develop a beyond efficiency mindset, and:    - Transform passive customers into active participants by delivering autonomy, validation, ethical empowerment, and emotional understanding.  - Help them address concerns about privacy, regulation, and transparency with AI usage.  - Explore ambitious, intriguing, and creative ways of incorporating generative AI to their customer journey.     Learn about the AI Beyond Efficiency framework. #AIBeyondEfficiency #CustomerCentricAI #AIInnovation

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Excellent #Guardian / #Observer interview with David Richards, chairman of #Prodrive, who are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year and are a great client of my comms, PR, social media, content creation & digital marketing agency #DiagonalComms. Written by the fine journalist Giles Richards (no relation to David!), it includes the following DR quote: “Back then we were ambitious, starting with nothing, and we had great plans. But I always like to think that the best is still to come.” I am very sure it is. Click below to read more. https://lnkd.in/eiSMngDx

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I have had the privilege of being part of the Marketing Leadership Masterclass over the course of the last 12 weeks, run brilliantly by Thomas Barta and Syl Saller CBE. For those that aren’t familiar, the virtual course covers a huge array of topics, spanning all aspects of marketing leadership from behaviours, skills, strategy with a number of hugely inspiring outside speakers from the world of FMCG and service marketing. I thought I would share my top insights below. I would love to hear your reflections on reading. 1.     Be sure of the value you are creating – either for the consumer, your customer or your company. Consider why you are working on something, what are value are you creating, how will you extract the value, is it worth your time, the investment you are making. Always be clear on the ‘value creation zone’. 2.     Zooming out, Zooming in – always be clear on the big picture problem you are trying to solve and present your case using the right level of detail / data to support. 3.     Know your audience – what type of a leader are they? Know what motivates them and adjust your style and the way you present your case accordingly. Are they more detail focused, or more emotional? What will they need to see to go with you on your journey and be convinced? 4.     Zero based Budgeting – this breeds creativity, do less with more. Prove what you need and why. 5.     Know your brand objective  - go back to the funnel – are you needing to raise awareness, considering, preference or conversion? Be focused on the objective. 6.     Bitesizing – consider your journey as smaller, bitesize steps. Consider your audience and reframe the challenge in palatable chunks that will work for them. This approach often helps mobilise energy and support internally. 7.     Start a movement internally – put yourself out there and gather support, build belief. Test and learn and prove the case enabling you to go further, unlocking the support you need. 8.     Don’t let the elephant in the room get in the way – be brave, recognise it, lean into it. 9.     A Team – be demanding on talent, hire for distinctiveness either internally and also with the partners you are working with. Face into where there is a weak link and address it. It’s only fair on them and the rest of the team too. 10.  Build trust – connect with your team, show vulnerability, and build confidence. There is no room for ego. 11.  Ruthlessly prioritise – invest your time and resources in what will build equity and deliver results. Keep doing this, reassessing. Keep focused on the value creation zone. 12.  Be clear on how you inspire others – know yourself and what your purpose is as a leader. 13.  Be Brave, aim high and be your authentic self It was hugely valuable and really thought provoking. Thankyou Thomas Barta and Syl Saller CBE, thoroughly recommend to others.

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Some recommendations for #ScotFoodSept24!

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🍎 Our Purpose Academy (PA) is starting a new cohort in July! PA is a GLOBAL program that's designed for CHARITIES and NOT FOR PROFIT organisations that lack the funding to invest in critical and valuable PR services. 💚 This program is offered at NO CHARGE. All we ask is for participants to commit 6 hours over 6 months to attend monthly webinars. 📕 What will the participants receive? Practical and insightful knowledge and resources to upskill their in-house PR capabilities so that they can reach wider audiences, land more powerful messages and make the most impact. Sign up today! Details in the post below ⬇ #publicrelations #impact #communications #probono #learn #purpose #impact

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***Excuse (the lack of) brevity***   What an intense day yesterday at the PRWeek UK Crisis Comms Event! Here are some useful insights I got at the conference for anyone who needs to manage the company's communication in a crisis situation. Have more or don’t agree with some? Please add in the comments! 🔊 How quickly should you respond to critical comments on social media? #TikTok compared to other social media goes much faster, and one negative comment-or many negative comments-can even go out on their own without intervention. On other socials, such as #X, users are much more attentive and follow each update closely.  If there are only a few negative comments, it is best to move the conversation to DM, so as to take away the emotion and respond on point.   If you fear a story is about to blow up, wait two hours to see if it really scales or not. Start writing proactively when you see the first posts on the topic: not too early nor too late (you don't have to create the story yourself, but neither do you have to show reticence)  Writing a public statement is not always good, especially if there are few who demand it. Think about it: do you really want your entire follower base to potentially read it? 🔊 How to deal with trolling? Banning is an option to consider. It's okay to be transparent, but a non-conversation, nurtured only by aggression without arguments, is not good for the community either 🔊 How to respond to followers who ask brands to take a position on a little bit of everything? It is good to think really deeply about what are the topics against which the company wants to position itself. It is not necessary to have an opinion on everything, especially when one's contribution would not be meaningful. Don't enter into all debates. If your industry has engaged in behaviours in the past that are no longer justifiable, there is no point in trying to hide it or downplay it. But if important steps forward have been taken, your narrative should highlight them More tips will come in the next post! #crisiscomms (Immagine di pch.vector su Freepik)

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Four years on from the pandemic, businesses are still grappling with how to make hybrid working work. At Fox Agency, hybrid working is a key cornerstone of our culture, and brings myriad benefits. As long as you have good communication and are intentional about the time you do spend in person, then there's no reason it shouldn't work. I explained to Elizabeth Howlett at PRmoment why building client relationships in a remote-first world is arguably the bigger challenge. https://lnkd.in/eYiDQniu #pragency #integratedagency #agencylife #remoteworking #hybridworking

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Do you look at the data that comes out of all of your different platforms and wonder what it all means? How can you demonstrate the positive impact that your marketing efforts are having on the bottom line? If you want to be able to unpick the story that your data is telling you then why not join me at #B2BMarketingExpo where I will be talking all things measurement. #B2BMarketing #Measurement #ROI

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Great piece Andy. The age of accountability demands that organisations step out of their comfort zones and meet heightened expectations for transparency, collaboration, and trust-building. The new political and regulatory landscape will be relentless, and businesses must pivot from “managing” issues to owning them. The message is clear: reputation isn’t about spin, it’s about substance. That means ditching outdated playbooks and embracing authenticity, humility, and action. As communicators, we’re uniquely positioned to lead this charge, pushing for honest conversations in the boardroom and shaping strategies that endure scrutiny. Long-term trust beats short-term fixes every time. Let’s redefine what it means to truly build relationships with all stakeholders. In 2025, standing still is no longer an option. It’s time to lean into the uncomfortable, acknowledge flaws, and lead with care and conscience. #ReputationManagement #AgeOfAccountability #Authenticity #TrustBuilding #Transparency #CorporateCommunications #Leadership #StakeholderEngagement

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PRmoment Leaders update: We've just launched the PRmoment Leaders In-house Programme for people working in comms roles in the corporate world. The new programme starts in September, alongside our separate agency-side one. It includes the same 11 core elements that enable people to learn from industry experts, to network with peers in similar roles and to prepare for leadership roles. Focus and content are the key differentiators. Our new programme features industry experts delivering masterclasses on topics that address the specific challenges and opportunities faced by comms people in client-side roles. I explain why we've launched the programme below. Let me know if you'd like to hear more...

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This is just a quick reminder about our free press release initiative here at 10 Yetis Digital. I want to ensure that everyone who could benefit from it has a chance of doing so. As part of giving back, and acknowledging that not every individual or organisation has the luxury of an agency budget to support their marketing efforts, we randomly select one start-up and one charity each month to provide a free press release and outreach to. You need to sign up here to enter the draw – https://lnkd.in/ezB4aPS9 If you’ve entered before, there’s no need to sign up again, because you’ll still be in the mix for the random monthly draw. Know a charity or start-up that could use a boost? You can also nominate an organisation, even if you don’t work there (but you must have a contact there to be able to pass on the good news if your nomination is chosen in the draw)! #FreePR #PressRelease #PublicRelations #PR #charity #startup Andy Barr Samantha Walker Hayley Beth Malsom Zac Reynolds Sophie Isherwood

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Need a helping hand in brand or marketing? Would you like to offer a helping hand? Read through this post. Great to meet the Group CEO of BPG Group, Avishesha (Avi) Bhojani, and pick his brains about the bees in the industry's bonnet. Some of the top takeaways? - Brands, marketers, media, agency professionals, and advertisers have a lot of questions they'd love to ask real mentors within the industry. (So, if you have a pertinent question relevant to the broader umbrella of brand building, advertising, media, creativity, digital, PR, pitches and more - and would like a response from a leading industry veteran - write to [email protected]). - Skills gaps remain prevalent with a lot of horizontal movement of talent and insufficient training and mentorship programmes. (So, if you have an answer to a pertinent industry question, or would like to pay your brand and marketing experience forward and be a mentor to others within the industry, write to [email protected], mentioning your areas of expertise across strategy, creative, partnerships, processes, or people, and we'll get in touch). For everyone else who has read the post till here, feel free to like/share/repost so that this message goes out to people who need a helping hand or are willing to offer a helping hand.

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This week I had the absolute pleasure of sitting on a PR Mums panel discussing "What Success Means To Me Now", and the insights were fantastic! A huge thank you to our fabulous hosts Grayling and my fellow panel speakers Heather Blundell, Lucy Hopkins-Parkinson and Shilpa Saul for making it such an inspiring and enlightening discussion. From hilariously practical advice like “don’t have kids with an arseh*le” to creating inclusive company policies and setting boundaries like Gen Z, it was such a meaningful conversation. In my latest blog, I share these gems and more on how we can feel empowered in our jobs, celebrate our small wins, and show up authentically every day. 🔹 Choose wisely in life and work. 🔹 Advocate for flexible and inclusive company policies. 🔹 Set clear boundaries and protect your time. 🔹 Celebrate the small victories. 🔹 Lean on your support network. 🔹 Prioritise self-care and continuous learning. 🔹 Show up as your authentic self, balancing it all with grace. Check out the full blog for inspiration, and let’s keep shining, supporting each other, and celebrating every step of the way. 💪✨ #ComplexParenting #InclusiveParenting #SpecialNeedsParenting #WorkingMums #PRMums #WorkLifeBalance #ProfessionalDevelopment #WomenInPR #CareerGrowth #SupportNetwork #SelfCare #FlexibleWork #Leadership

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