The Style Editor

The fashion editor’s guide to global travel

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Bonnie Rakhit is The Style Traveller. Bonnie was previously fashion editor at British Elle Magazine, Sunday Times Style and Grazia, and uses this expertise to show off the most stylish places on the planet. The luxury travel blog, which was recently named in the Top 10,  gives a unique perspective on hotels, destinations and experiences.

We caught up with Bonnie to talk beautiful places, her favourite bloggers and working with a diverse range of brands.

What makes your blog successful?
I think authenticity has a lot to do with it. I only feature hotels and destinations that I have personally visited and stayed at myself, which means my reviews are genuine and honest. I also love aesthetically beautiful properties and locations so the blog should hopefully deliver a bit of aspirational wunderlust.

The Style Traveller

What makes luxury travel better than other types?
Everything! From the organisation, the service, the hotel decor and quality of food and staff. I’ve done my fair share of backpacking and loved it at the time; there is definitely a place in my heart for the good old days of roughing it. But a little older, wiser and few more pennies in the pocket, I feel like I’ve worked long enough and hard enough to deserve a bit of luxury on my holidays.

What destination would you suggest to first time travellers?
I think rather than easing yourself in, go big for your first destination and pick a location that is as far removed from your day to day life as possible. Go for adventure and stunning locations that will assault your senses. My top destinations of all time are India, Cuba and Brazil.

What about seasoned travellers?
I feel that if you’re an avid traveller you’ve seen and experienced so much already that you need to push the boundaries a little further and experiment more. If you’ve ‘done’ all the big tourist vacations why not try off-the-beaten-track places. Pick Anguilla rather than Jamaica, Boston rather than New York or Bilbao rather than Barcelona. There’s so much to discover wherever you go.

Bonnie Rakhit

Is there anywhere on your bucket list you’ve yet to visit?
I’m currently planning a trip to Peru in August. But otherwise I still haven’t been to Hawaii, Tahiti or Fiji. The Pacific is still my oyster to discover.

If you could only take three items with you when travelling, what would they be?
My phone is a must, from photography to itinerary I can’t live without it. A scarf or wrap is so useful, covering off everything from a blanket on the flight, cover up in the cold or religious temple to beach towel and sarong – it’s a versatile bit of kit. And sunscreen!

What should PRs know about you?
I love all things luxury and aesthetic experiences. If it will make for a beautiful photograph and content, I’ll be there.

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What’s the best PR/brand campaign you’ve worked on?
I’ve worked on hundreds of campaigns over the last few years from Mercedes Benz to Veuve Clicquot, from Peru to Prada and Primark. I also work with lots of hotels and tourist boards. If you think your brand or product will be a good fit for me then just reach out and contact me directly.

What do you call yourself (blogger/influencer/content creator)?
All of the above.

What other blogs do you read?
I like Angie Silverspoon for a more foodie perspective and also Feya from Fitness on Toast for all things health and fitness. I also love Aggie Lal from Travel In Her Shoes and Sam Kolder’s YouTube.

 

Bonnie and her blog are both listed on the Vuelio Database, along with thousands of other fantastic bloggers, journalists, editors, MPs and SpAds.

Rudd resignation

Is Amber Rudd’s departure good crisis comms?

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The latest episode in the Windrush saga was Amber Rudd’s departure from her role of home secretary last night. But rather than a sign of things falling apart, is this actually crisis comms gold?

One of the main aims of any crisis communications is protecting the reputation of an organisation. That can come in many forms: stopping customers from leaving, protecting figureheads or keeping the company together. For the Conservatives and the Windrush scandal, it’s been all three.

It’s accepted that the Windrush scandal was borne out of Theresa May’s ‘hostile environment’ policy created when she was home secretary, and Amber Rudd was just in charge when the policy exploded.

It’s also widely accepted that Amber Rudd was a buffer between Theresa May and the scandal, protecting the prime minister in her role, and therefore the Tory party’s stability.

Rudd was May’s human shield, so surely her resignation is a misstep?

Well, no.

Amber Rudd has not resigned over the Windrush scandal, a move that would have inevitably led to Theresa May’s position being untenable as the architect of the offending policy, but due to ‘inadvertently’ misleading Parliament.

This stops Windrush becoming a career-ending issue and instead means Rudd has gone for the same reason as Priti Patel and Damian Green. Theresa May gets to continue in her role and quickly fill the Home Office vacuum with an MP who can clean up the Windrush scandal and maintain the ‘Prime Minister Buffer’.

Sajid Javid, housing and communities secretary, has been touted as the favourite for Rudd’s replacement, and coincidentally he was in the press over the weekend discussing the Windrush scandal, saying, ‘It could have been me’.

Some commentators are still questioning Theresa May’s future, including Labour MPs David Lammy and Diane Abbott, but it now seems unlikely the Windrush scandal will have the legs to take her down. With a sympathetic press, the perception of a political scalp (Rudd’s) and a new home secretary to fix the Windrush scandal, this story is likely to die fast.

The Tories will chalk this one up as a win, and whichever comms pro handled it will be commended. But the celebrations won’t last long, May’s Brexit secretary, David Davis, is threatening to quit if she joins a European customs union. Let’s see how this one plays out.

What do you think? A crisis disaster or a communications triumph? Let us know on Twitter @Vuelio.

Update: Sajid Javid has been appointed Home Secretary, and James Brokenshire has been appointed housing and communities secretary. 

You shouldn't have missed

Five Things: Top 150, Millicent Fawcett, Facebook, Kanye and Daily Express

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Much to Amber Rudd’s delight there have been other news stories this week. But with Prince Louis, historic scenes in Korea and Trump’s announced visit on Friday 13 July – you probably missed some of these…

1. PRWeek Top 150

Top 150
Okay, so if you’re in it, it’s very unlikely you missed it. PRWeek has released its Top 150 UK PR Consultancies, which once again sees Edelman sitting pretty above the rest. Though with only 0.9% revenue growth year on year, 2019 may see a new contender for the crown. The mostly likely choice? Weber Shandwick. The multi-discipline agency has seen a massive 19% year-on-year revenue growth, and it’s now snapping at the heels of Edelman.

This ranking is the first without Bell Pottinger, which in 2017 ranked 13th. The top 20 in 2018 are no doubt benefitting from the redistribution of the fallen agency’s £27m of revenue.

Other key stats from the 150:

  • 23 saw a fall in revenue, two didn’t change and the remaining 125 all grew – The Romans by 108%!
  • Only 27 agencies are based outside London, none of which make the top 20 (the biggest non-London agency is Pegasus in Brighton at 26 on the list)
  • Edelman has the most staff with 497 employees, and Steinreich Comms Group has the least with just nine
  • 38 agencies shrunk, 21 remained the same and 89 took on more staff – Yellow Jersey growing from six staff in 2016 to 23 in 2017 (that’s a rise of 283%)
  • Finsbury is the best performing agency in terms of revenue per employee, with each staff member accounting for £294,118

 

2. Millicent Fawcett

suffragist
A statue of the suffragist Millicent Fawcett has been unveiled in Parliament Square. The statue, which shows Fawcett holding a banner that reads, ‘Courage calls to courage everywhere’ celebrates 100 years since the Representation of the People Act (when the first women were allowed to vote). The statue has proved controversial, with the Guardian collecting views that the words on the banner are a ‘travesty’, or the statue is of the wrong person; City A.M. suggests Fawcett would be ‘outraged at today’s feminism’, as it is ‘creating an unnecessary victimhood narrative, to which women are encouraged to subscribe’; and the Spectator calls the statue ‘embarrassing’ as it is ‘timid, ponderous, confused’.

Fawcett’s statue is now one of the few in the country that represent real, non-royal women, which can only be a good thing and hopefully a sign of change.

 

3. Facebook joy

Facebook
It wouldn’t be Five Things without a Facebook story but it’s rare that it’s good news. The social giant has posted record revenues in the first quarter of the year, despite all the negative press (covered here, here and here). Beating analysts’ expectations, the company brought in $11.97bn of revenue, which is up 49% from 2017. Twitter also benefitted from social media growth, posting a quarterly profit, with revenues up.

In further good news for the Zuck, the #DeleteFacebook campaign seems to have had no legs. Daily active users grew quarter-on-quarter by 48m to 1.45bn, and monthly active users are also up to 2.2bn. Both numbers are 13% up on the same quarter last year.

Repurposing the word ‘important’, Mark Zuckerberg said: ‘Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018. We are taking a broader view of our responsibility and investing to make sure our services are used for good. But we also need to keep building new tools to help people connect, strengthen our communities, and bring the world closer together.’

All this good news has been offset (a tiny amount) by Ofcom’s report that only 70% of British social media users consider Facebook to be their main platform, down from 80% last year. Of course, this means nothing when we see that Facebook is losing out to WhatsApp and Instagram, both of which it owns.

As a lot of noise around the Facebook scandal came at the end of March into April, we may yet see an impact from the deluge of negative news. So we’ll see it in a Five Things story in about three months.

 

4. Not losing fans and influencing people

West
Kanye West has become a prolific tweeter in recent days as he gears up for his new album. Among his many, many words of wisdom – including: ‘I don’t believe in horizontal hierarchy. If you build a ladder too high it’s actually most dangerous for the people at the top’, and ‘we have freedom of speech but not freedom of thought’ – were his thoughts on Trump. In two tweets Kanye said:

 

And, almost like a joyous child:

 

 

Trump responded to Kanye, saying ‘very cool!’

Rumours that Kanye lost millions of followers because of the MAGA hat tweet have been quashed by Twitter, who said any discrepancies in numbers are actually just ‘inconsistencies’. But that didn’t stop Kim Kardashian rushing in to Kanye’s rescue:

 

We could obviously make this post go on and on, and surely books will one day be written on Kanye’s musings. Except his musings are a book, which Kanye is writing in ‘real time’. So maybe one day his musings will just be published, and all of us will have the Book of Kanye on our coffee tables. I look forward to chapter 26:

 

5. Express concern

Express editor

Trinity Mirror’s takeover of the Daily Express hit further trouble this week as Matt Hancock (Yes, the one who is, is a founder of, and is on: Matt Hancock) suggested there might need to be a public interest intervention on the deal. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is already deciding whether it needs to investigate the acquisition, so Trinity Mirror currently has to keep the Express and Star Newspapers as a separate entity until the CMA comes to a conclusion.

Though that didn’t stop them installing new editors across the titles. Gary Jones, who was made editor of the Daily Express, told a Government committee that some previous Express front pages were ‘downright offensive’. For some reason this was misconstrued by the British press as an ‘admittance’ of some sort of failure or guilt, rather than a new editor (from a left wing background) distancing himself from his paper’s past (of a right wing persuasion).

Read more about Trinity Mirror’s Express concerns here, including why the acquisition is very unlikely to be seen as a competition issue.

 

Did we miss anything? Let us know on Twitter @Vuelio.

Blog association

Time for a blogging trade association?

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This is a guest post from John Adams, blogger at DadblogUK.com, about the need for a blog association. Have your own opinions about this? Want to write a guest post? Email Jake O’Neill or tweet us @Vuelio.

There’s been a fascinating conversation on Twitter recently. It was sparked off by a post on the Dad v World blog.

While David, the author, was questioning the merits of being known as a dad blogger, it created a lot of chat about changes in the blogging world. Some questioned the way blogging has become monetised, others felt it was acceptable, others sat on the fence but acknowledged blogging has become more competitive over recent years.

I launched my blog, Dadbloguk.com, six years ago. In that time, I have noticed an increasing number of people have turned blogging, not to mention vlogging and Instagramming, into an occupation. For some time now, I’ve been wondering if we’ve reached a point where some form of trade association for bloggers would be a good idea.

In fact, I’m not the only person to have had this idea. A short while ago I was quietly approached by what I’ll euphemistically call an interested party. I was asked whether a trade body was needed for the blogging community.

The approach was very timely. I had, just days previously, joined the Federation of Small Businesses. The FSB is a great institution that offers SMES some amazing services. You can call upon it for crisis communications help, it’s presently offering members workshops on the GDPR, it will help you out if you find yourself on the wrong end of a tax investigation by HMRC and so on.

It doesn’t, however, provide specific, targeted services for bloggers. Blogging is specialism that requires special skills and knowledge and, at this point in time, bloggers have no body to represent their interests.

Here are a few issues I think a trade body could help with:

Continuous professional development
We all need to know about the GDPR. We all need to keep up with the latest SEO developments and learn how to use social media channels effectively. A trade body could organise events and workshops to help its members keep their skills up to date.

Late payment assistance
A trade body could help bloggers when invoices go unpaid. It’s easy to ignore one blogger chasing up an invoice. A trade body, however, would be much more powerful and repeat offenders would find it harder to do business with reputable bloggers.

Code of Conduct
This, I feel, could massively help both bloggers and the PR industry. Let’s just take the issue of paid-for content as an example.

We’re all supposed to be playing on a level field and declaring paid-for content. Yet we all know that not everyone follows the rules.

Members of this yet-to-be-established trade body could abide by a code of conduct requiring them to declare paid-for content in line with Advertising Standards Authority rules, just as the print industry has done for years. This would make life much more difficult for those unscrupulous PR and SEO agencies that frequently ask bloggers to host paid-for content without declaring it or pay tiny amounts in return for bloggers taking part in link building schemes.

Think also of those bloggers who ask for and receive expensive review items and then never do anything with them. This harms the reputation of the blogging industry. If bloggers signed up to a code of conduct, it would give our colleagues in the PR industry some comfort that we were going to produce the goods.

Representation at Government level
Yes, yes, I know this sounds very boring, but I think this is one of the most compelling reasons for the establishment of a trade association for bloggers. The Brexit talks are a fantastic way to demonstrate this.

Representatives from the motoring, fishing, farming and financial industries have been consulted as part of the Brexit talks. As bloggers, we need standardised technological protocols and data protection regulations with the EU and beyond. Without it, it would be very difficult for our blogs to operate.

Who is lobbying for bloggers’ interests at this point in time, to ensure this happens? I’ll tell you who: no one.

Press regulation is another issue. At one point it looked like bloggers were going to fall under the remit of the press regulator. Thankfully it didn’t happen, but there was no trade body in place to argue our case.

Limits of any trade body
While a trade body would be an amazing development, I think it needs a clear remit. It shouldn’t be a union, I don’t think it should negotiate rates of pay. Us bloggers are probably a little too individualistic to want to be constrained by union rules!

 

Challenges of setting up any trade body
I have heard it said that it would be ‘too difficult’ to set up a trade body for bloggers. I think that’s very defeatist.

The closest organisation I can think of is the National Union of Journalists. The NUJ represents news reporters, features writers, trade journalists, broadcast journalists, freelancers, staff writers, photographers, sub-editors, editors, art critics, political correspondents and so on.  Yes, okay, it’s a union so not quite the same thing as a trade body, but if the NUJ is such a broad church, then a blogging trade association could represent fashion bloggers, news podcasters, travel Instagrammers, mummy and daddy bloggers and so on.

I imagine there would be some resistance from people who either make very small amounts of money from blogging or who do it solely as a hobby. I can see ways around this, but there are very few occupations where you don’t get professionals and amateurs rubbing along nicely side by side.

You get professional and amateur sports people, professional and amateur photographers, writers, actors, painters and so on. Yeah, okay, the day I see an amateur fire fighter tackling a blaze I’ll get very concerned, but you get my point.

Often, it’s a career path: you start off as a hobbyist and become professional. Blogging is no different.

Blogging is no longer ‘new’ media. It is established media and no properly organised media campaign takes place without the involvement of bloggers. A trade organisation would help give us the respectability we deserve but frequently don’t get.

There could be different tiers of membership depending on income, age of blog etc. maybe those blogging for the love of it could receive associate membership. Who knows, but there are possibilities to explore.

 

Final thoughts
Setting up a trade body for bloggers would have its challenges. It would definitely have its opponents.

I personally feel that the industry has developed to a point where it would be no bad thing. It would provide some security and protection both for bloggers and to the people we work with in the PR and SEO agencies. I think there’s real potential for it to drive up standards and to make it a recognised and understood occupation.

What do you think? Would you be tempted to join a blogging trade body? Do you think it could drive up standards? Would it bring some respectability to the blogging world?

One final thought, if I ever saw an amateur firefighter, I’d probably ask for a selfie and post it to Instagram. I am, after all, a blogger and, trade body or not, that’s the kind of thing we do.

Emma Spencer

Emma Spencer: Relaunching The Emasphere

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Emma Spencer is ‘the poser’ at The Emasphere, the luxury travel and lifestyle blog. Recently relaunched by Emma and her partner Tim, The Emasphere tracks Emma around the world, and showcases the restaurants she eats at, the outfits she wears and the beauty products she uses.

The Emasphere was one of 11 blogs we said you needed to follow in 2017 – and now we can reveal why we were right!

Why have you relaunched The Emasphere?
My partner and I kept saying we needed to change it up and do something different in the blogging sphere. We finally had our photography style down, and we were getting recognised for our quality content and crazy poses. But there was something missing. We didn’t have a proper strategy, and to be honest with you, we couldn’t properly describe what The Emasphere was all about, apart from being a blog where I shared my favourite things. So, we knew something had to change.

We wanted to create a good strategy, so we had a clearer direction of where we were going and what kind of content we wanted to produce. We also wanted to stop creating content just for the sake of it, and focus more on quality and adding value to our readers. We wanted to build a website, which not only looked good, but was easy to navigate, showcased our imagery well, and moved away from that ‘blog’ look and feel to become more of a professional online lifestyle destination.

In regards to content, we still have a mix of travel, fashion, lifestyle and beauty, but are now introducing more food, wine and dining articles; having regular interviews with unique brands and go-getting entrepreneurs; highlighting cool and individual brands I love (this includes lots of Australian brands); and providing both luxe and attainable travel advice, from hotel and restaurant reviews, to 48 hour travel guides. As I’ve always wanted to be a TV presenter/actor, so we’re also focusing more on YouTube this year!

Emma Spencer

What makes your blog successful?
Our quality content is definitely something that stands out. We put a lot of time and effort into creating editorial-worthy imagery and valuable content. By heading to theemasphere.com or our Instagram feed, our readers and followers know they’ll come away with advice or inspiration, whether it’s in travel, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, food and drink.

We profiled you at the beginning of 2017, what have you been up to since?
Travelling a lot! My partner and I aim to go to a new destination each month, so we’ve been here there and everywhere – from eating pasta and drinking wine in Rome, to skiing in the French Alps. I also spent a couple of months back home in Australia last year, while my partner sorted out his visa. We realised although we love Australia and love spending time with our family and friends, we really enjoy living in the UK. There are so many opportunities here, both professionally and personally. We also love the fact we can easily jump on a plane and spend the weekend in another country! Apart from travelling, I’ve been working on building The Emasphere and moulding it into a lifestyle destination!

Who/what is your favourite fashion designer/brand?
That’s a hard one! I’d have to say I love Australian brands so much. Every time I wear something from an Aussie label, everyone falls head over heels! Some of my favourite Australian brands include Talulah, C/MEO Collective, Finders Keepers, ASILIO, Thurley and Dion Lee.

What’s the best place in the world to visit for a weekend?
Anywhere with good food and wine, ha! Rome is without a doubt one of my favourite cities in the world. The food and wine are to die for, the culture and ambiance are both romantic and dreamy, and the Roman style is so unique and sophisticated.

Is there anywhere you haven’t been that you would still like to visit?
There are so many places I’d love to go to! I’m dying to go to the Amalfi Coast, New York, Greece, the Maldives, Provence, Bahrain, Oman, Dubai, South Africa… there are still so many areas of the world left to explore!

The Emasphere

How important is social media to your blog?
Social media is super important to help you build your online presence and promote your blog and brand. Our largest social platform is Instagram, where we’ve been able to present The Emasphere’s aesthetic and our quality imagery to a large audience, giving them a snippet of what the brand is all about. Instagram is also a great way for our followers and readers to find out more about me as a person, by seeing daily personal insights, from where we’re travelling to and what restaurants we’re eating at, to what I’m wearing and the beauty products I’m using.

What should PRs know about you?
I’m a full-time blogger, originally from Australia, but I’ve been based in Liverpool in the UK for nearly three years. Although I’m based up north, I do come to London regularly for meetings and events. I have a mixed audience, predominately from the UK, Australia and the US, so I have the ability to introduce Brits to Aussie brands and vice versa.

We pride ourselves on creating quality content, with editorial-worthy imagery and in-depth, well-written articles. Videos are a new thing for us, but they’re something we’re focusing a lot more on this year. I love working with a mix of brands from travel and fashion, to food and wine, to beauty and lifestyle, and discovering new and unique brands and destinations.

I love creating stories with our content. Our audience knows whenever we travel somewhere, they’re going to be taken on a journey, which will not only inspire them to go to the destination, but they’ll have all the information they need to have a great trip, including what to wear, the best places to eat and drink, what stylish hotel they should stay in, and how to get there. I’ve been told quite a lot recently that our travel content has spurred on our audience to book more trips this year, which is super exciting!

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What are your favourite campaign collaborations?
Recently, Havaianas Europe (who are represented by Alter Agency) had an opportunity to take one person from the press in the UK to Lisbon to interview Naia Cheschin, a Brazilian illustrator and graphic designer they recently collaborated with to create beautiful bespoke prints for the brand. I was chosen to go on the trip, which was a huge compliment to me; I was absolutely thrilled. While I was in Lisbon, I interviewed Naia, and as I really want to get into presenting, this was a dream come true.

On top of that, while we were in Lisbon, I was also able to create and style content for Havaianas, to show how you can style their latest range of sandals with any kind of outfit, from casual to dressy.

Having the ability to work with a brand you’ve loved for years and come up with and create fun content for them, is what I enjoy most about my job.

Collaborating with rentalcars.com at the beginning of the year, was another amazing campaign I worked on. We spent a week skiing in the French Alps, while sharing our journey of renting a car and driving around and exploring the Alps.

It was our first time in this area of France and our first-time skiing, so it was an incredible experience. The content we created for the trip has been our best yet and we had such incredible feedback from rentalcars.com and our audience. With the outfits I wore and the wonderful car we rented, we were able to successfully show how to take on the slopes stylishly.

What do you call yourself (blogger/influencer/content creator)?
I call myself a blogger, but as I create videos and imagery, and work a lot with social media, content creation is the core of what I do. So, I guess I can call myself a content creator too!

What other blogs do you read?
I read a variety of blogs, some of my favourites include Margo & Me and Harper & Harley for fashion and beauty, and Wood & Luxe for travel and wellness.

 

Emma and The Emasphere are listed on the Vuelio Database, along with every other Vuelio Blog Awards winner and thousands of other fantastic bloggers, journalists and editors.

AI

PR industry welcomes £1bn AI investment

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The Government this morning announced a deal to back the British artificial intelligence industry with £1bn of investment, including £300m of newly allocated Government funding.

More than 50 businesses have contributed to the £1bn fund, including Hewlett Packard, BT, Rolls Royce and the UK Space Agency. The investments are being spread across a vast number of projects as the UK looks to seize on the potential £232bn opportunity AI can bring to the UK economy by 2030.

The PR industry has welcomed the announced investment, with the CIPR’s #AIinPR panel commending the focus on ethics, knowledge and skills. Among the projects receiving investment include a £9m Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, which will advise on the measures needed to enable and ensure safe, ethical and innovative uses of data-driven technologies.

The CIPR also praises the fund’s focus on developing AI skills, with announced training for 8,000 specialist computer science teachers and funding for 1,000 new AI PhD places by 2025.

Ketchum’s Stephen Waddington, who leads the AI panel, said: ‘The deal places ethics at the heart of the country’s AI strategy, in line with our previous calls for Government to claim a leadership position in education, investment and the development of AI.

‘The CIPR’s #AIinPR panel has found that while the current use of artificial intelligence in PR is limited, it is likely to have a greater impact over time as it enables the elimination of repetitive, administrative roles and automation of simple tasks and workflows.’

AI already plays a big role in Vuelio software, with much of our product now intelligently automated to provide our clients with the best results.

Joanna Arnold, CEO of Vuelio, said: ‘We’re delighted with the Government’s investment – AI plays an increasing role in all of our lives, and it’s fundamental to the work we do at Vuelio.

‘We are continuing to develop Vuelio’s AI capabilities to better support communications, whether PR and marketing, public affairs or other stakeholder management activity, and look forward to seeing how we can work within the new framework to further enhance AI’s role across the industry.’

 

Find out more about Vuelio software and how you can benefit from our artificial intelligence. 

Marcel Klebba

MK: The Best PR Blog in the UK

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Marcel Klebba is MK, author of the eponymous blog that was crowned Best PR, Media & Communications Blog at the Vuelio Blog Awards 2017. MK started his blog while studying at university and it provides a unique insight into a PR student turning pro.

We caught up with MK to talk about winning his award, the importance of mentors and reaching high profile people.

What’s your background?
I’m originally from Poland. Four years ago, I came to study PR and advertising at the University of Westminster and while I was studying I aimed to get as much work as experience as possible. In my final year, I started a blog, which became my playground to explore ideas, connect with likeminded people and learn more about the industry.

You studied both advertising and PR, how did you choose one over the other?
I don’t think I would be the right fit for advertising. PR appealed more to me, because I’ve always loved media and been surrounded by it growing up. I really appreciate the power of media and PR, and I wouldn’t be exposed to that so much in advertising.

You’ve interviewed some really high-profile journalists, is that thanks to you or the blog?
The blog is massively helpful when it comes to approaching people, because I can say: ‘I’ve got a platform and I want to interview you/I want your opinion/I want your quote – just for my blog’. I think that’s very enticing for people. Twitter is also a great place to chat with people, especially journalists. I don’t think journalists like to be pitched to on Twitter but it’s definitely a good place to build a rapport and relationship.

Does connecting with people through the blog help you professionally?
Definitely. Whenever an email pops up in a journalist’s inbox with my name, and they saw my name on Twitter the other day, it’s probably more likely to be opened and read. And they know I’m not going to jeopardise the relationship we’ve built with a bad pitch.

It sounds like having a blog has helped you a lot, do you think other PRs should have their own blogs?
I don’t think blogging is for everyone – it’s a massive commitment. Blogging is a great idea for PR students, but there are so many sites that have been abandoned after a few posts. It’s great from a career standpoint, but people should be aware that it’s a responsibility, and a blog needs to be constantly updated and it needs attention.

You mentioned students, and they make up some of your readers. How do you interact with your audience?
Through Twitter mostly – it allows to see who is interacting with my blog and commenting on my posts. Also, I get feedback from PR students that enjoyed my blog, which is great, and other people in the industry including my colleagues.

Talking of industry colleagues, I know how important mentors and mentorship is to you. What roles do they play in your development as a blogger and PR?
It’s huge. I started the blog because two people specifically – David Gallagher, then Ketchum but now Omnicom PR Group, and Stephen Waddington – told me I should be writing in order to have a great career. There always seems to be people around you that supply you with good advice, and it’s always good if you’ve got an issue or questions, to go to them directly. I wrote a blog post about mentorship, and in that I wrote that it doesn’t have to be one-to-one sessions, it can be reading something they’ve written or listening to a podcast they’ve made. In the digital world, mentorship can be more virtual and those people don’t necessarily even need to know they’re mentoring you.

Marcel Klebba and Stephen Waddington

You’re at the Vuelio Blog Awards, sitting with, among others, your mentor Stephen Waddington (pictured above), and you win the Best PR Blog award. What’s that like?
A little bit of imposter syndrome. It was huge, a highlight – I didn’t believe it and I definitely wasn’t expecting it. Now, I feel like I’ve got a mission and I still need to plough through, even if there’s difficult times or I’m lacking inspiration. I need to think how I could bring value to the industry and tell people things they might find interesting or to engage people who are just starting out and are thinking about a career in PR.

What’s the community of PR bloggers like?
I think it’s small, but everyone has their own speciality: Ella Minty is all about reputation and the power of influence, Stephen Waddington is all about the tech and professional practice, Scott Guthrie covers influencers, PR Examples covers stunts, and Richard Bailey is doing amazing work bringing everything together and supporting student communities with PR Place. There are also some really remarkable student blogs, including my friend Orlagh Shanks’, Jessica Pardoe’s, as well as the community blog Ulster PR students.

What’s your speciality?
Careers, starting out in the industry and documenting my journey.

You’re making a name for yourself in the PR world, what do you think has contributed to the opportunities?
Because of the blog, I built relationships. I was recently on a panel with Women in PR about personal branding and the people from the panel knew that I wrote my dissertation on personal branding, and I wrote about the dissertation on my blog. So, I think it’s everything all together.

The blog leads to so many opportunities. We are in a niche area – so I’m not a beauty blogger and I’m not getting free cosmetics – but the biggest benefit of having a blog is building relationships with likeminded people. In the last year, I’ve been running the Four PR Questions series, which is all about interviewing high profile leaders and I think this made me connect with other people and get my name in front of them.

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What are your top tips for reaching high profile names for interviews?
The majority of people who are afraid of reaching out to the high-profile figures, think they are not reachable. They’re afraid of failure. I was rejected loads of times and lots of people didn’t respond, but there are plenty who did respond and let me interview them.

I think it’s a case of trying and not being afraid you’ll be rejected, because rejection will happen. Also, high profile people are just human – and if there’s someone junior approaching them – they will be impressed.

What are your future plans?
Obviously I want to remain in Vuelio’s Top 10 PR Blogs. Professionally, I want to stay in the agency side of things, and start managing people and thinking about strategy, and implementing digital. I want to keep learning and be challenged every day.

 

Marcel Klebba, MK, is listed on the Vuelio Database, along with every other Vuelio Blog Awards winner and thousands of other fantastic bloggers, journalists and editors.

guardian oberserver

Guardian on track to break even

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The publisher of the Guardian and Observer has announced that it is on track to break even this year – in line with its three-year plan.

Guardian News & Media halved its losses in the last financial year, reporting a £19m loss, which is down from £38m the year before. The publisher is now in the final year of its three-year plan to break even, which started with the company making a loss of £57m.

Better than expected revenue growth and cost reductions of some £20m, which includes the new tabloid-format paper, means the paper is ahead of schedule to break even.

The Guardian is famously a loss-making paper financed by The Scott Trust.

In a joint statement, Katharine Viner – editor-in-chief of the Guardian – and David Pemsel – chief exec of the publisher’s parent company Guardian Media Group (GMG) – said: ‘We are well on track with our three-year strategy to make the Guardian sustainable and break even at operating level by 2018-2019. Thanks to outstanding collaborative work in the UK, US and Australia, we have finished the second year well ahead of our forecast.’

Revenue at the publisher is up by 1% to £216m, but it is the source of income that is changing dramatically. Print ad revenue is down industry wide, but the Guardian has picked up more than its lost in reader revenues, which now exceed its advertising revenues.

The paper has 800,000 ‘supporters’, including 200,000 subscribers, 300,000 members or regular contributors and 300,000 one-off contributors.

Viner and Pemsel’s statement continued: ‘We have achieved very rapid growth in our reader revenues – contributions, membership and subscriptions – across the UK, US, Australia and the rest of the world.’

The Guardian reports that GMG incurs its own additional costs so the overall loss is likely to be between £24m and £25m when the group officially reports its annual results later this year. In the previous financial year, GMG reported a £45m loss.

Filament PR my boys club

How to have an ethical and effective approach to influencer relations

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Influencer relations is a hot topic in communications and done well, can be employed strategically as part of a PR programme to achieve campaign objectives. But, as a professional communicator, how do you go about having an ethical and effective approach to influencer relations?

In this guest post, Anne-Marie Lacey [pictured above, left] and Deb Sharratt [pictured above, right] share their top tips.

Approach
You know the saying, ‘If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing well’ – it goes without saying that when it comes to identifying influencers to potentially engage with on behalf of the brands you’re representing, it’s worth doing well.

Vuelio lists 11,000 bloggers and vloggers, and across the world, millions of blog posts are written every day. So how do you sort the wheat from the chaff? Ensure that you’re putting your brand in front of the right people, who have the potential to help you reach a highly-engaged audience? And, those who share an affinity with your brand, its purpose and products?

There’s no short answer. You can use a platform to help you whittle down your search, but by no means is it a case of job done. Just like a traditional press list, creating and building an influencer list needs the same time, care and dedication.

Take the time to look up these influencers and make sure you do your homework. Does size matter? Don’t be bedazzled by big follower numbers if the target audience is all wrong and engagement figures are low. Otherwise, it’s just vanity metrics and ultimately won’t help you to achieve your strategic objectives.

First, take the time to get to know the influencer, their style and content. There’s only one way to do this and it’s a case of getting stuck in. Read their posts, watch their vlogs and follow them on social media to be sure that they are the right fit for the brand you’re representing. Look at what they write and talk about. Are they authentic? See how they engage with their audience. Do they only post quality content or are some of the blogs full of low-quality, paid-for follow links?

Ask to see media packs if they’re not clearly visible online, and really interrogate the data and their profile on Vuelio to whittle down your list. Above all, are they an influencer that you want your brand to be associated with?

 

Pitch
Apply the KISS rule and keep your pitches simple, short and straight to the point. For fear of sounding like The Four Tops, when you ‘reach out’ to your target influencers, remember to answer the W questions in your pitch – who, what, where, when and why.

This is your opportunity to show the influencer that you know their channels, content and editorial style, as well as clearly being able to demonstrate how and why that influencer is the right fit for the brand. Remember, influencers ultimately create content – whether it’s a blog, YouTube video or Instagram post – for their audience. Make it clear in your pitch why their audience would be interested in the brand and in turn, why their channels are the right fit for your brand placement.

One last top tip when pitching is to try to avoid the scatter-gun approach – contacting a long list of influencers and offering them all the same thing. Asking for a product review? There’s nothing more frustrating for an influencer than when they work hard to produce essentially the same content as a handful of other influencers. It’s a competitive market out there for them too, and so they need something unique to engage their audiences with and keep them coming back to their channels for more. Consider exclusives, or different angles for the same product. Think about long-term relationships too – how can the influencer help you to progress the brand’s story and what opportunity is there for follow ups?

Be clear about payment too. Content creators are not the same as traditional media. Many will be expecting to be paid for the collaboration.

 

Work
Now this is where we need you to listen, and listen carefully… the ASA has announced a review into how paid-for influencer and native advertising is signposted online, saying that misleading posts damage consumer trust in advertising and that filters back to the brands participating in this bad practice. We totally agree.

As professional communicators, we work hard to build relationships between brands and their target audiences, while doing all that we can to protect and preserve brand reputation. So, when working with influencers, it’s not only a legal requirement for you to get it right, ethically it’s in everyone’s best interest to ensure the integrity and trust in the brand you’re representing.

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Once your influencer has engaged with you following your pitch and you’re working out the finer details of the agreement, you need to clearly outline your expectations – what you expect, deadlines, budgets and so on. This includes following the regulations set out by the ASA, CAP Code, CMA, Google and the different requirements of each and every social media platform this branded content will appear on. Not to mention, if you’re a member of the CIPR or PRCA, you also need to keep in mind the ethics of the respective Codes of Conduct too.

As a starter for ten, any paid-for content should also be clearly marked as an advert, when paid for, or when receiving product or experiences in kind and there has been some kind of editorial control by a brand – even just asking for a post, inclusion of a specific link or website hashtag is a form of editorial control.

It’s no good having this info buried at the bottom of a blog post – the nature of the brand’s relationship should be clearly marked in the title at the top of any piece of content so as not to be misleading to the audience and run the risk of unethically influencing followers, thereby potentially damaging the brand’s reputation. If the influencer is receiving payment or payment in kind by being gifted a product in order to fulfil their end of the contract, all links back to your brand’s website should be ‘no follow’ links. To be totally transparent, this should also be very clear on any social post linking to the article too.

We appreciate that influencer relations is an emerging discipline and can be a minefield to navigate. A handy way of asserting the nature of a piece of content created by an influencer is to remember the PESO model. If the content has been generated by an exchange of money or something of a monetary value, it is paid and therefore needs to be disclosed as such. If an influencer writes about your brand as your approach has brought it to their attention but there has been no value-exchange-transaction, that piece of content is earned, and so can contain follow links according to Google’s rules.

Moral of the story is, to get the most out of your influencer relations efforts, do your homework. From researching the right influencer, tailoring your approach and keeping up-to-date with the latest rules and regulations to setting out your stall and terms of business. As a professional communicator, it’s your job to protect the brands you represent, and the nuances of influencer relations is something we all need to get-up-to-speed with to do our job ethically and effectively!

 

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Trinity and Northern and Shell

Trinity Mirror’s takeover of Express and Star titles in doubt

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At the beginning of February, Trinity Mirror agreed a deal worth £126.7m to acquire the publishing assets of Northern & Shell. Assets included the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and OK! among other titles. As reported by the Guardian, culture secretary Matt Hancock has now said he is minded to issue a public interest intervention notice for an in-depth inquiry.

The announcement is another blow to Trinity Mirror, after the Competition and Markets Authority opened an initial investigation into the deal and forced the publisher to leave Express Newspapers as a standalone business until that investigation is concluded.

Concern has been raised by Hancock, who said: ‘The first public interest ground is the need for free expression of opinion, and concerns the potential impact the transfer of newspapers would have on editorial decision making.’

Trinity Mirror’s papers are generally left-wing, whereas Northern & Shell’s papers have been traditionally right wing, and Simon Fox, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, claimed the papers would remain independent. Shortly afterwards, Trinity Mirror appointed Gary Jones, editor of the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, as editor-in-chief of the Daily Express, among other high-profile changes.

Hancock continued: ‘The second ground is the need for a sufficient plurality of views in newspapers, to the extent that it is reasonable or practicable. The merged entity would own the largest share of national titles within the UK newspaper market, owning nine out of 20 national newspaper titles.’

While it does own a large number of the UK’s national newspapers, Trinity Mirror’s readership numbers are much smaller as a proportion. According to the latest ABCs, it falls far behind News UK and DMG’s papers by over a million copies a day, and even its combined digital output is dwarfed by the Mail’s.

Hancock and the CMA will decide whether a full investigation is need by 7 June – and if they do, they have the powers to amend or even block the deal. Any media plurality investigation will be conducted by Ofcom.

Simon Fox said: ‘This is a part of the process that we were aware was possible following our acquisition of the Northern & Shell publishing assets. We continue to believe there are no plurality or competition issues.’

Vuelio Blog Awards

Why do PRs do influencer marketing?

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The rise of bloggers, vloggers and Instagrammers has made influencer marketing a hot topic, but while traditional paid media models have fallen to marketing departments, influencer marketing is very much in the hands of PR.

At Vuelio, we spend a lot of time talking to PRs and bloggers about their mutual relationships – including what does and doesn’t work. On Thursday, we published a guest post from Filament PR’s Anne-Marie Lacey and Deb Sharratt who discussed the importance of building ethical relationships and sticking to the rules.

PRs generally have a good grasp on what’s expected for influencer marketing but some still find the rules around payments and disclosure confusing. It’s not surprising, PRs have traditionally focused on earned media, and many still believe they shouldn’t have to pay for coverage.

Full-time bloggers aren’t the same as journalists though; they don’t have a guaranteed salary to fall back on if they’re not paid for content. So, PRs paying for content has arisen out of a necessity, and influencer marketing seems almost the PR department’s responsibility by default.

How can PRs take advantage of influencer marketing?
On Friday, Vuelio chaired a panel session at PRWeek’s PR360 called ‘Is the micro-influencer bubble about the burst?’ The panel unanimously agreed that influencers are not a bubble at all and are very much here to stay. There’s a great opportunity here and PRs should not be looking at influencer marketing as a burden or be approaching it like a marketeer.

Many professional bloggers still post their own personal content, and some work with brands for free (a limited number of times), because they believe in the product or service, or the company and its ethics.

This is where excellent PRs can get ahead. By building good relationships, and telling strong stories, PRs still have the opportunity to secure earned media with influencers. It may be an expert comment, piece of intelligence, a report or study, or even a clever start-up – fulfilling the need of the influencer and piquing their interest is nothing new, and clever PRs already know that.

Clever PRs also understand the power of a paid-for campaign, and the benefits of a long-term collaboration, embracing the creative storytelling influencer marketing is based upon.

Paid or otherwise, influencer marketing would be nothing without the right relationships in place, which is where the Vuelio Blog Awards come in. The Vuelio Blog Awards are a celebration of influencers and have been designed to give everyone an opportunity to forge new relationships.

By sitting on the right table, sharing a drink with the right person or boogieing into the early hours with the right influencer, the Vuelio Blog Awards give you plenty of opportunity to meet the influencers that can change your future.

We are delighted to announced that the Vuelio Blog Awards are back for their fourth year, taking place on 30 November at the Bloomsbury Big Top, in London. The sponsorship pack is available to download here, and we are also working with brands and PRs on custom packages to suit their needs and budget.

Last year’s finalists had over 18 million followers on social media, which is more than the combined daily readership of every national newspaper. Influencer marketing was made for PR, and its time you embraced it.

For more information about the Vuelio Blog Awards, contact Jake O’Neill.

beer, facebook, ft, greg clark, the sun

Five Things: Wetherspoons, The Sun’s readers, the FT’s opinions, Agenda Gap and Facebook’s GDPR

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This week we’re not mentioning Arsene Wenger leaving Arsenal as it isn’t really a media, marketing or PR story (though it will be when the Arsenal brand inevitably gets scrutinised after their manager of 22 years departs), but we are covering Wetherspoons leaving social media, new readership stats proving tricky, the FT’s new opinions, the MP gender gap and Facebook’s attempt to comply with the GDPR.

1. Wetherspoons calls last orders on social media

Social mediaJD Wetherspoons has removed all its corporate accounts from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, in a shock announcement that has surprised the marketing world. In a statement, Wetherspoons said: ‘Rather than using social media, we will continue to release news stories and information about forthcoming events on our website (jdwetherspoon.com) and in our printed magazine – Wetherspoon News.’

Rumours of the real reasons behind the social departure range from it has links with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, to it’s just a publicity stunt, but as Marketing Week has pointed out, the real reason might be because it’s just not working for the brand. Marketing Week even goes as far as to suggest social media is designed for people not brands – and that ‘people connecting with brands organically on social media was BS from the beginning’. Let that sink in.

With only 44K followers on Twitter and 100K on Facebook, the channels probably weren’t very useful for Wetherspoons, definitely at least not how they were being used. While many brands re-evaluate their strategy when it is not working, Wetherspoons has decided to focus its marketing efforts elsewhere. Like, if you think they’ve made the right choice, or retweet if you think it’s wrong.

Incidentally, this is being called Wetherspoons’ greatest ever social media interaction, and in no way points to the reason the brand came off the platforms:

 

2. The Sun rises on new readership statistics

Newspaper

Two news stats were published this week. The newly formed Published Audience Measurement Company (Pamco), which has replaced the National Readership Survey (NRS), released overall readership numbers and ABC published the latest circulation stats.

Pamco describes itself as using ‘world leading methodology’, based on 35,000 face-to-face interviews for print readership and demographic data, and a digital panel of 5,000 participants for online stats. The stats are, in places, surprising and, just as Pamco points out with the failings of the NRS, it is hard to determine how accurate they truly are. The numbers reveal that The Sun has the largest overall readership across print and digital, with 33.3m monthly readers, as well as the largest reach on mobile; the Mail has the largest reach on tablet; and the Guardian has the largest reach on desktop. For print, the Metro has the greatest reach, with 10.5m readership, but with paid-for titles it’s The National, with 10m (a paper with less than 10,000 copies distributed in Scotland is apparently read by twice the population of Scotland).

The stats don’t make it clear how much digital readership each brand has, as there appears to be duplications across the different devices. Even breakdowns within devices provide inconsistencies, for example – The Sun’s total Mobile reach is 26.5m but then it breaks that number down into phone and tablet, but together that breakdown adds up to 29m. There’s also some question over total reach, with Pamco suggesting 46m people read news brands each month – but combined with other stats, that suggests over 70% of news enthusiasts read The Sun.

The other stats are easier the follow; the ABC data for March reveals The Sun has regained its title of most circulated paper, after the Metro last month knocked it off its perch. All papers lost readers in March, the biggest drop was a 21% fall for the Sunday Mirror, while the smallest was a 0.11% fall for City AM.

 

3. FT changes comments to opinions

comments to opinions

The Financial Times has published a new guide to make it easier for people to submit opinion pieces for possible publication. They take submissions that are up to 800 words, have personal (informed) perspectives and are unpublished elsewhere. As part of the new guide, the FT has also changed the name of its ‘Comment’ section to ‘Opinion’ to: ‘help readers distinguish our carefully selected and edited articles from the online “comments” below stories’.

As part of the changes, the FT has also decided to drop the introductory ‘Sir’ that traditionally started each letter to the editor, as it felt ‘old fashioned’ and should the editor one day be female it will be become inaccurate.

The FT has managed to get out ahead of an embarrassing gender story in future, something a grammar school in Guernsey tried to do this week when it scrapped ‘head boy’ and ‘head girl’ roles to establish gender neutral roles (chair and vice chair) but has ended up with two male student leaders.

 

4. Mind the Agenda Gap

Greg Clark

Talking of gender imbalance (wouldn’t it be nice to not need to? Still, it’s not like it’s 2018), The Times has revealed an embarrassing statistic for MPs on Twitter this week. The paper says that 99% of MPs follow more men than women on Twitter. While 46% of worldwide Twitter users are female, every Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet member follows more men than women. Only five MPs follow more women than men: Jo Swinson, Lib Dem deputy leader, Jess Phillips (Lab), Susan Elan Jones (Lab), Ruth George (Lab) and Tracy Brabin (Lab).

One of the biggest imbalances is in business secretary Greg Clark’s following, which is 75% male and includes no female cabinet members. Clark [pictured] recently oversaw the publication of gender pay gap information in large companies.

Jo Swinson was disappointed but not surprised, she said: ‘One of the simplest things we can all do to tackle sexism and other bias is to make a conscious choice to follow, listen to and amplify the voices of women, people of colour and others whose perspectives are under-represented in public debate’.

 

5. Facebook tries to comply with the GDPR

GDPR

Facebook has started to seek explicit consent from users in compliance with the GDPR. Though it has possibly confused the GDPR and PECR, as it should probably already have permission from users to use their information. Part of its permission seeking is for ‘facial recognition’. Some people are suggesting that while Facebook is asking for consent, it is not making opting out easy, which is against the GDPR as opting out should be as easy as opting in, rather than clicking through two additional pages until you find the right section.

There’s another GDPR question around Facebook, published by the Guardian. The paper suggests that Facebook is moving its privacy controls from its Ireland office to the US, so it won’t have to comply with the GDPR outside the EU (something it has said it would do). However, the GDPR only applies to EU citizens (wherever they are in the world) and is not a regulation of where data is held, so it is hard to see what this change will actually do in relation to the GDPR.

We’ve answered some questions about the GDPR here, which might be able to help Facebook out.

 

Did we miss something? Let us know on Twitter @Vuelio.

Jess Gibson

Authentic luxury experiences: Jess Gibson’s The Travelista

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The Travelista was inspired by Jess Gibson’s love of travel and writing, and is now a space for her to share adventures from across the world. Recently ranked in the Top 10 Luxury Travel Blogs, The Travelista features everything from ice skating on frozen lakes in Canada to elephants in Thailand.

We spoke to Jess, who is on Twitter here and Instagram here, about the best destinations for first time travellers, places she still wants to go and working with PRs to diversify her content.

What makes your blog successful?
I think I have a good business head on my shoulders, which is vital for bloggers that want to become full time. Behind the blog posts, tweets and Instagram stories, I am constantly writing proposals, pitching ideas and negotiating projects with brands and PRs. I thrive off the business aspect of running my blog and have enjoyed turning my hobby into my job. In terms of my content, I try to find a good balance between storytelling and sharing informative posts that really help others to plan their own travels. The Travelista isn’t just about sharing my travels, it’s about giving people the inspiration and information they need to make their own travels happen.

What makes luxury travel better than other types?
To me, luxury travel isn’t about sipping champagne in five-star hotels. To me, luxury travel is about those authentic once-in-a-lifetime experiences that really connect you with the places that you visit, and the people in them. Whether it’s doing a hot air balloon safari over the Serengeti or scuba diving for Lobsters in The Caribbean, I think luxury travel is about having epic experiences that are unique to their destinations. This is the type of content I love to share.

What destination would you suggest to first time travellers?
Vietnam would be an incredible place to go for first time travellers (for the food alone!) I would recommend doing a north to south trip starting in Hanoi and ending in Ho Chi Minh City, stopping at places like Ha Long Bay and Hoi An on the way. I wrote a three-week itinerary for Vietnam and it’s still one of my top performing posts.

The Travelista

What about seasoned travellers?
For seasoned travellers, I would recommend Guatemala. I did a tour of Guatemala and absolutely fell in love with the country. From the Mayan ruins to the incredible fusion food, there is so much culture there. My favourite place was the colourful town of Antigua.

Is there anywhere on your bucket list you’ve yet to visit?
There are so many places! I am yet to step foot in South America and would love to visit the likes of Costa Rica and Argentina. I’m also dreaming of visiting Australia and I’d love to discover the Deep South of the USA. There’s just something about that part of the US that I find really intriguing.

If you could only take three items with you when travelling, what would they be?
It would have to be my camera (for photos), my favourite Clarins moisturiser, and an eye mask (great for sleeping on planes and combatting jet lag).

Jessica Gibson

What should PRs know about you?
I’m a full-time travel blogger. I’m 27 and live in Leeds, although I am regularly down in London for events and meetings. I love to work with travel brands but I also work with large consumer brands in a travel context. This year, I am planning to diversify my content to share more lifestyle topics and to blog about experiences that are closer to home in Yorkshire. I also want to create more style and interiors content. I love working with PRs so please do get in touch, even if it’s just to say hi and request a media kit!

What’s the best PR/brand campaign you’ve worked on?
This February, I partnered with Travel Alberta, who are represented by KBC PR. I worked with KBC PR to put together an epic winter road trip through the Canadian Rockies. I loved this campaign because I felt like it was a real collaborative effort between myself and the PR. I considered the clients objectives and pitched a campaign that I felt would meet the objectives and also align perfectly with my audience. The trip was completely tailor made and so although the content was sponsored, it seamlessly fit in with my blog and social channels so my audience responded really well to it. In short, it was a perfect fit.

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What do you call yourself (blogger/influencer/content creator)?
In my head I will always be a blogger but I am happy to embrace the new term of influencer as I think it is a great umbrella term. With the growth of social media and video, I do offer much more than just my blog now and social media is equally as important these days. I would also define as a content creator as content is essentially the service that my brand and business is selling.

What other blogs do you read?
My go-to blogs include Silverspoon London for travel, Hannah Gale for lifestyle, Apartment No.4 for interiors and Fashion Mumblr for fashion.

The Travelista are both listed, with profiles, on the Vuelio Database, along with thousands of other bloggers, journalists, bloggers, MPs and SpAds.  

Toby & Roo

The Best Parent Blog in the UK: Harriet Shearsmith’s Toby & Roo

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What does it take to be the best parenting blog in the UK? Harriet Shearsmith knows; she has the Vuelio Blog Award to prove it. With an honest perspective on parenting, family life and life in general, Toby & Roo has grown a huge following of parents and non-parents alike. We caught up with her to find out about 90-hour weeks(!), the difference between mummy and daddy bloggers, planning content with the kids and working creatively with PRs and brands.

What makes your blog successful?
I think because I treat my blog very much like a business and I work as hard as I possibly can at it, sometimes 90 hrs a week to try and market myself and create the best content I can. I threw everything at this because I needed it to work. I was stuck in a dead-end job and I couldn’t see any out without losing precious time with my kids. It had to be successful.

I also think that, with the best will in the world, if you don’t have content that is authentically ‘you’ then you aren’t going to be truly successful. I hope that my personality shines through in everything that I do and that people can see that when they follow me.

Why did you start your blog?
I remember reading a blog called Babyccino Kids and I adored it, adored what these inspiring women stood for and what they were sharing. I noted that a lot of their blog was about sharing their tips and Internet finds and I thought ‘ohh I know how to do that too. Why don’t I share my tips, my finds and what I’ve discovered about parenting?’ It evolved from there really.

How are mummy blogs different from dad blogs?
Oh, they are! My husband had just set up an Instagram account called TobyandRooDad and later on in the year we have plans for a blog for him. The community, the way that these awesome dads come together to create a supportive community for each other, is epic. I’ve always been a big believer in trying to make my own brand for ‘parents’ and not just mums but the truth is that there is a real niche in blogging for dads – men still do not communicate their feelings well verbally and it’s a huge societal flaw that we ALL need to challenge so to see these men doing that is really awesome.

What’s it like to be part of the mummy blogging community?
There are some absolutely brilliant women in this community that really inspire me and encourage me to question the way I’ve looked at political issues, women’s issues and so much more. The parenting blogging community, be it on Instagram or via blogs etc, can be a really supportive place and a place where we can lift one another up and learn from one another.

How do you plan content with the kids?
Ha, with Peppa Pig, bribery and prayers. Honestly? I try to involve the kids as much as possible. There is very little that doesn’t involve my children so that makes it a touch easier. As for writing and working, I do that while they are at school and after they are in bed. Weekends we go out and film, we take photos and, although they are aware that is what we’re doing, they don’t see it as anything different to normal because all parents are taking pictures of their families; I just happen to edit and use those photos for work once they have trotted off to play or to bed!

How do you feel about your kids growing up and reading the blog? (Are there any posts you DON’T want them reading?)
No, I would let them read everything – the sex, the tears, the anger and the love. I want my children to grow up realising that as people we have a vast array of emotions and this is our lives that I’m documenting – not just theirs but mine and their dads too.

What’s your favourite collaboration with a brand or PR?
I have had so many that I have truly loved. I worked with Birds Eye last year and I think that will always have a special place in my heart because it was my first bigger campaign and as a whole (I was a part but not exclusive) it has also won awards and been accredited as ‘campaign of the month’ for March 2018 with Campaign Live.

I’ve also really enjoyed working with Tesco and Iceland who have had some fab creatives!

Reach-the-right-influencers-with-the-Vuelio-media-database

What should PRs know when contacting you?
You know what, I love a PR that chats to me. I love getting to know the people behind the screen – that’s one of the things I really enjoy about the creative industry, it’s SO friendly. People meet each other and greet with a hug, we go for coffee, we chat and we bounce creative content off each other. I really love getting a new brief through that has someone else’s creative outline and they are asking me to fill in the blanks. Just chat to me – I’m actually pretty friendly and not scary at all!

What do you call yourself (blogger/content creator/influencer)?
Oh geez, the debates I’ve seen on this. In contracts I’m referred to as an influencer or talent (talent always gives me a giggle). I’m not sure ‘blogger’ covers it as I do just as much, if not more, on Instagram than my blog and content creator would probably be my favourite but for some reason I never really use it…

What other blogs do you read?
I’ve stopped reading a lot of blogs lately, I used to be much better but I’ve stepped back a bit now. I really enjoy Nomipalony.com for her feminist posts but I predominantly loiter around Instagram reading people’s mini blogs on there!

Harriet and Toby & Roo are both listed, with profiles, on the Vuelio Database, along with thousands of other bloggers, journalists, bloggers, MPs and SpAds.  

The GDPR: Your questions answered, Part 1

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Vuelio was thrilled to be joined by Rowenna Fielding, senior data protection lead at the data protection consultancy Protecture, for our recent webinar: GDPR for Comms – Expert Advice to Get It Right. Unsurprisingly, we had dozens of questions to get through and couldn’t manage to answer them all on the webinar itself.

We split these questions into two parts: general questions about the GDPR and those specifically about using Vuelio in relation to the GDPR. Rowenna has very kindly answered the general questions below, the second part focusing on Vuelio is available here.

How active does consent have to be? For example, if someone was to add their email to a list knowing they will be updated with an email (“Add your email to stay updated”) would they still need to opt in?
Adding their name to the list would be the opt-in in that case. However, if you collected the email for another purpose (such as sending a meeting invitation) then you’d need to get consent separately for marketing. ‘Bundling’ consent (eg, ‘by consenting to x, you also consent to y’) is not allowed as it is not specific and unambiguous. Similarly, inferring consent (eg ‘by visiting this website you consent to your data being processed’) is also not valid, as consent it is not specific, unambiguous or freely-given. The outcomes you’re looking for are:

  • The person giving consent should never be surprised to find that they’ve agreed to something
  • The person should never be surprised to realise what they have agreed to
  • You can show some evidence that they took some positive action to agree to a specific type of processing of their own free will, having been given enough information to make an informed choice

 

If we remove all information about someone from our database (based on their right to be forgotten and removed), can we store any information on them in order to ensure they are not added back (e.g email in a blacklist)?
Chances are that although they have asked to be forgotten, what they really wanted was to object to your processing – not quite the same thing. If the outcome they are seeking is not to hear from you any more, then you must keep their info for suppression purposes. I advise explaining to them that you need to keep the info to prevent future comms being sent to them but that you won’t use the data in any other way. However, if they insist on erasure then you’d need to look at the legal basis for processing to determine whether that right even applies. Someone who has asked to be erased shouldn’t turn up on the database again unless they explicitly opt-in anyway, unless you’re buying in email contact lists which is a very risky practice, compliance-wise.

 

If we email our contacts asking for their consent, can we still keep sending them stuff if they don’t reply at all?
If you don’t already have their consent (or soft opt-in) for email marketing, then it is unlawful to email them to ask for it. If you ask and don’t get an answer, that’s the same as a ‘no’ – only a positive action to indicate agreement can be consent. If you carry on emailing them without consent, you run a much greater risk that complaints will result and trigger an ICO investigation.

GDPR

If a client asks for our media list with journalists on, would we need to tell each we are passing the information on?
Depends on where the information came from, how, what you’ve already told the journalist about how you’ll use their information, whether the information could be obtained anyway from public sources, what the client is going to do with the information… If handing out the journos’ contact info is something you do often then that’s the sort of thing you do need to put into a privacy notice and call the journalists’ attention to.

 

Would a footer on your email sign off stating that you hold data be sufficiently clear?
It’s one way to communicate privacy info, but since no one actually reads email footers, you might have a difficult time demonstrating that it is an effective approach. Linking to more detailed privacy info in an email footer certainly doesn’t hurt and gives wider exposure but if it is a standard footer then the information given would either need to be large in volume, or so generic that it doesn’t actually meet the GDPR Article 13 and 14 requirements.

 

Are opt-in checkboxes on landing pages and websites enough for compliance for digital marketing campaigns (i.e. downloads, subscriptions)?
Opt-in mechanisms are one aspect, suitable privacy information, unsubscribe links in each message, an accurate up-to-date suppression list and audit trails of consent given are all required. Then, the personal data has to be processed in compliance with all of the principles.

NB: Yes/No sliders or radio buttons are better than tick boxes, as tick boxes create ambiguity about intention where someone who has previously ticked fails to do so a second time.

 

What are the rules within the historical archiving? When do exemptions apply?
If the processing is necessary for historical archiving, then that’s an acceptable legal basis (ie no consent needed, some rights including erasure and subject access are limited, no need to go back and tell data subjects that’s what you’re going to do), but a risk assessment of the potential impacts to the data subjects’ rights and freedoms is required and steps need to be taken to manage those risks. Depending on the processing and the types of data involved, this could vary from not publishing the data for at least 100 years, to redacting names or other identifiers, to only using aggregated statistical information (those are just hypothetical examples, not a checklist!).

 

How long are we able to keep records for?
It depends on the purpose of the record-keeping, any legal obligations for record-keeping, business/operational needs for the data to be preserved and a balance against rights and freedoms of the data subjects. That one is impossible to answer generically, it needs digging into ‘what records and why would you want to keep them’?

GDPR says you can keep them as long as you need them but it’s up to you to justify how long that is and you have to be able to prove that you really need them, and you’re not just keeping them hanging around in case they turn out to be useful later.

 

If we have thousands of emails going back to 2005 from press and clients, do we have to delete them all? The problem is we have sometimes had to refer back to some of them so to delete them all would clear all records of any agreement?
You need to review them to determine which to keep and which to delete – that will depend on the purpose of processing the personal data in the first place, and the legal basis. You could just delete them all – that would be much easier than going through them! However, you can’t just keep them all either in case there is useful info tucked in there. You need to define what you want to keep and why (such as, records of transactions, agreements, complaints) and get rid of anything that doesn’t fall into that critieria.

 

If you gather emails through a third-party email platform, is there anything additional you need to do?
If the third-party is just a Processor then you need to have done some diligence on their data protection compliance, you need contract clauses addressing data protection to be in place and you should be doing some kind of checking or monitoring that they are doing the things you’ve told them to (and not doing anything you haven’t told them to).

Some US-based services are problematic because they are not just Data Processors. They use the personal data that travels across their services for their own commercial purposes, such as profiling for targeted advertising, selling insights or access to data for marketing purposes to other parties, and sending their own marketing comms. You need to read the Ts&Cs and privacy info very carefully – in general, it’s lower-risk to use an EU-based provider, for reputational protection if nothing else.

 

We use an American email service, will it be contravening GDPR because the data goes via a server in the US?
It’s not the US transfer that’s the problem., it’s the processing that the platform may do as a Data Controller (profiling, marketing, cross-customer data-matching, augmenting data from third party sources) which you could be exposing your subscribers to without an appropriate legal basis or transparency info.

 

What is the best way to get informed consent when people are signing up (e.g. to a mailing list) using a paper form? Is it necessary to show them a printed copy of your entire privacy notice?
There’s no ‘best’ way, really. The only privacy info they need to be given at the time of consenting is the stuff that’s relevant to what they are consenting to. So, if you are asking for consent to send email marketing, you’d need to tell them about any embedded tracking, data augmentation using third party sources, and what sort of content they can expect to receive (the purpose of the processing). If your privacy notice is one huge document that tries to cover everything, then you’re doing it wrong! You also don’t have to supply the information in hard copy. See the ICO’s Privacy Notice Code of Practice for more detailed guidance.

 

What consent is required for taking a photo for a news release or social media feed and then storing it and reusing in a publication? Must they tick every box, for example: ‘you can use my photo on: website, social media, corporate publications etc. Or can it be a catch all paragraph giving permission to store and use on any comms channel and just give examples within that paragraph?
It depends on the purpose that the photo will be used for. Journalistic (ie informing the public rather than marketing) uses have a large exemption so consent would not be needed (although a model release for image copyright purposes may be advisable – but that’s a totally different thing for a different law). Consent must be specific to the purpose and the types of processing associated with that purpose – so just listing channels wouldn’t be suitable unless the photo would be used on all of those channels for exactly the same purpose. Catch-all/blanket consent for any possible future use is never valid. In every case, you need to look at the purposes of taking and using the pictures, determine the legal basis for that, provide suitable privacy info, inform people of their rights, have processes in place for objections (where those apply) and good record management to support subject access or erasure requests later.

 

What words would we need in a contract in terms of providing a service to clients?
Depends on the service you’re providing! Impossible to answer that without more info; that’s the sort of advice you’d need to hire a data consultancy for.

 

What is changing with the GDPR in Open Source Communities that use ‘Open access’ Database?
The GDPR doesn’t change much in principles and obligations, so if everyone using that resource is doing so in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 then all they need to do is some additional record-keeping and a review of any consent that may be needed. However, if data protection has not been designed into the structure and uses of the database, then there may be a lot of work to do. That one’s impossible to answer without much more specific information on who the Data Controllers are and the purposes of processing!

 

If you’d like to make sure your comms is compliant with the GDPR in time for 25 May, then get in touch and we will help you out. 

Data funnel

The GDPR: Your questions answered, Part 2

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Vuelio was thrilled to be joined by Rowenna Fielding, senior data protection lead at the data protection consultancy Protecture, for our recent webinar: GDPR for Comms – Expert Advice to Get It Right. Unsurprisingly, we had dozens of questions to get through and couldn’t manage to answer them all on the webinar itself.

We split these questions into two parts: those about the GDPR in general and those specifically about using Vuelio in relation to the GDPR. Here are the answers about using Vuelio in relation to the GDPR, Rowenna has very kindly answered the general questions here.

If we obtain information from Vuelio such as media lists, do we still need to tell people they’re on our database?
You are a Data Controller in this scenario so you need to have your own lawful basis for processing people’s data and make this clearly available to those you’re contacting. If you’re using consent, you need to have a positive opt-in from the individual before you contact them. That means if you have not previously gained contacts’ consent to be emailed, you are not able to ask their permission as part of a consent model. Also, if you choose a consent model then you have to get an affirmative opt-in in order to use that person’s data. If they say ‘no’ or do not reply to your consent request, you can no longer contact that individual – even if they’re on the Vuelio database due to our legitimate interest.

If you have a legitimate interest, you’re not seeking permission to use the data but rather making it clear why you’re using it in compliance with the GDPR. A legitimate interest needs to make it clear why you have their data, what you’re using it for and prove you have considered your interest against their rights and freedoms in something called a balance test. This can be available in a link to a privacy policy web page or in the email you send them, but it should be specific to the situation and not generalised.

Whatever your basis, you need to have a clear means to opt out and you need to keep a record of the fact you’ve informed them of your lawful basis, in whatever manner, as this is part of the audit trail.

 

Can we maintain and update notes and information on individuals (ie journalists) without their consent, and do we need to share these notes with that individual if they request to see the data we hold on them?
It depends what your lawful basis for processing data is. If you are not using consent as your lawful basis for processing personal data and are instead using legitimate interest, you would not need to seek consent for keeping notes but would need to make it clear what type of notes you’re keeping and the purpose you have for keeping them, considered against the journalist’s rights and freedoms. This balance test cannot be a catch all if you are keeping different types of notes for different reasons for different journalists. The legitimate interest should be clearly laid out and made available to the journalists so they are informed of your lawful basis.

If a contact wants to know what information you hold on them, you have just 30 days to send it to them. It includes all information in spreadsheets, emails, different folders or presentations – and does include private notes you keep on them. We recommend that our clients keep everything in Vuelio, so that information is available in just one place, which makes it easy to report to the contact.

 

If liaising with a journalist through a third-party media database, would that need to be updated or would the responsibility be on the database company to uphold the GDPR?
You are processing their data and you are therefore a Data Controller. That means you must have clearly outlined your lawful basis for processing their data and make it available to individual you’re contacting. Vuelio has its own lawful basis in legitimate interest, which we are communicating with everyone whose data we process in compliance with the GDPR.

GDPR guide

Our database is an excel document stored on our network (accessed only by the in-house PR team) – it contains journalist, blogger, editors etc. information. What do we do about this? How do we move forward?
Storing personal data in Excel spreadsheets makes the security of that data more fragile as it may not be comprehensively stored (is your system safe against hacks? Do all of your colleagues have access to it? Do they need to? Is there a risk someone could lose a laptop and the spreadsheet be accessible to an outsider?). There’s also a risk that if a journalist makes a subject access request – asking for every piece of data you hold on them – you’ll miss something from one of your spreadsheets as you’re relying on a manual process.

We would always recommend keeping every stage of the process inside Vuelio, so we’re able to ensure maximum software security for the data. If you’re not sure if your database is compliant, fill in this form and one of the team will be in touch.

 

What’s the situation for pre-existing data in the database service? That data won’t have been obtained by the client, so how is a legal basis/legitimate interest established or consent managed?
Vuelio is able to build and maintain our Database due to our legitimate interests. You need to establish your own lawful basis for your legitimate interest, which will include private contacts you’ve uploaded, and you should only hold information about them which is necessary to maintaining a good working relationship.

We can only guarantee the data we’ve uploaded in the system is GDPR compliant and would recommend you seek legal advice if you think your private or personal data that you’ve uploaded into Vuelio does not comply with the GDPR’s legitimate interests.

 

Is it important to centralise all data into one place, for example a CRM system or a crude Google Sheet?
We recommend keeping everything inside Vuelio, so we’re able to ensure maximum software security for the data and so you can manage subject access requests without manually searching through various programmes and documents. You do not have to keep everything in one place, but the more places you keep it, the more risk you are exposing yourself to, both in the security of the system (and a potential data breach) and a risk you will not be able to easily gather information for subject access requests if the required information is in multiple locations.

 

How does the GDPR impact exporting groups from Vuelio? Are there limits to what can be done with those exported contacts?
There are no limits (within legal reason) but under the GDPR it is a more complex burden. The security of the data becomes your responsibility, as does its deletion if a journalist wants to be removed from your mailing list. Excel spreadsheets and Outlook (including your sent items and inbox) become part of the GDPR chain. So, you’ve gone from one system – Vuelio – which is compliant, to at least three – Vuelio, Excel and Outlook.

If a contact wants to know what information you hold on them, you have just 30 days to send it to them. That may sound like a lot of time, but it includes any information in spreadsheets, emails, different folders or presentations. If you keep everything in Vuelio, that information is available in just one place and easy to report to the contact.

If you export information from Vuelio and then the data is accidentally lost, stolen or removed from your computer, this is a breach. All breaches must be reported to Vuelio and the ICO, and you will be responsible for the consequences of that breach. Vuelio takes its security very seriously to limit the chance of breaches and keeps its data in compliance with GDPR.

GDPR

Can you give an example of a Data Processor?
A Data Processor is a company that is contractually obliged to process data on behalf of a Data Controller. There must be a contract in place explaining what the Data Controller requires and limiting the Processor’s actions to meet these requirements. A Processor is not allowed to decide how data is collected or what it should be used for, and should not use it for any other reason than those stated by the contract with the Data Controller.

Vuelio is both a Data Controller and a Data Processor. When we create our Database, we decide how that information is being collected, why, how it is stored and the process for its deletion. When our customers use the Database, they become the Controller as they are deciding which data to use, how, why and are responsible for its deletion if it is requested, and Vuelio is the Processor – contractually obliged to process the data in line with the expansive capabilities of our software.

 

If the client doesn’t add private contacts on the Database but requests that Vuelio adds them, who is then Processor and Controller?
If the client has supplied the contacts to be uploaded and they are being uploaded only to the client’s Database, then the client is the Controller (they’ve decided what, how and why the data was collected) and Vuelio is the Processor (contractually obliged to upload them in accordance with the Controller’s request).

If you make a request for contacts to be added to the Database and they become available for everyone, then both Vuelio and the client is a Controller.

 

 

Nerve agent

Ofcom launches seven RT investigations

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Ofcom has launched seven investigations into programmes on RT, relating to content broadcast in the wake of the Salisbury poisoning. The regulator is deciding if the programmes, broadcast between 17 March and 16 April, have breached the Broadcasting Code.

RT is operated by TV Novosti, which holds three UK broadcasting licences, two for RT and one for RT Europe. RT has an average UK audience of 3,400 viewers at any given point and an average weekly reach of 1% of adults.

Before the Salisbury poisoning on 12 March, TV Novosti’s compliance record had not been ‘materially out of line with other broadcasters’, and there are only 15 recorded breaches of the Broadcast Code since 2012, which is comparable to other broadcasters of a similar size.

However, its broadcasts since the Salisbury poisoning, which the UK Government has blamed on Russia but Russia strongly denies, has led to the investigations. RT is run by the Russian Federation, and therefore ‘toes the party line’, something which Ofcom is particularly considerate of when assessing breaches of impartiality and accuracy.

The regulator is now determining whether TV Novosti (and therefore RT) is fit and proper to hold their licences. If not, Ofcom has the power to revoke the licence, stopping the channel broadcasting again until the offending behaviours are remedied.

Other state funded broadcasters that operate in the UK include Al Jazeera, which is funded by Qatar, PBS, which is funded by USA and the BBC, which is funded by licence fee and the British Government. Ofcom points out that many foreign state broadcasters may broadcast material that is not in line with British values but this is not a consideration when it is investigating whether a channel is fit and proper to hold a broadcast licence.

Ofcom hasn’t detailed which comments or content has caused the investigation but has said: ‘On the material we have, it is not possible or appropriate for us to seek to reach an independent determination on the events in Salisbury. In this particular case, in our view, the most appropriate way to consider whether TV Novosti is likely to act in a fit and proper way is to consider its broadcasting conduct and on this, we are concerned about a number of potential breaches of the Broadcasting Code.’

RT has yet to comment on the announcement.

HelsBels

Honesty and running: Helen Tamblyn’s HelsBels

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Helen Tamblyn is the top running blogger behind HelsBels. Recently ranked in the top 10 UK running blogs, Helen covers marathon training, health and fitness (with a side of cake and beer). Helen told us about her honesty policy, the blogs she loves to read and working with brands in the way she wants.

What makes your blog successful?
Define successful! I don’t have as big a reach as many running bloggers, but I think I have an audience who have stuck with me over the years and it’s been nice to see my Facebook page grow over the last year or so. I think it’s because I will talk about anything related to running and fitness and I try to be honest with what I say. It has got me into trouble with brands once or twice when I have given negative reviews, but I try to make a point of being honest and saying what I want to say, as opposed to what other people might want me to say. It seems to be working out well!

How do you plan your blog content around your runs?
I don’t. I know most bloggers tend to have a content schedule they stick to, but I tend to write when I feel like it. If I have several evergreen post ideas in mind, then I’ll try to spread them out to create an even flow of content, but generally I write as ideas pop into my head, or if I’ve had a run I want to write about, or if I’ve just completed a race.

What’s the best place to run in the UK?
I moved out of London last year and I absolutely love it as a place to run. There are so many different routes you can take and one of my favourite routes was running along the river from Putney down to Richmond. Impossible to get lost, peaceful by the water and lots of friendly runners and cyclists. It’s also great fun running through the city, taking in the landmarks before turning into one of the parks for a change of pace. It’s never boring running in London!

What advice would you give to new runners?
Believe that you can do it and you will. Running is definitely as much mental as physical for me and going in with the mindset that you CAN do it is really important. Of course, we all have bad runs and bad races, but I also believe that if you can learn from the experience, then was it really all bad?

How important is the right equipment/outfits for successful runs?
Very! Make sure you get a gait analysis to find the best pair of shoes for you – it could well prevent injuries later on. And if you’re female, make sure you have a good sports bra. For me, this is the most important piece of kit and it’s not something that you should try to ‘make do’ with. Get fitted properly, jump around, shop around, just make sure you get the right bra. There is something out there for everyone.

What’s the best race you’ve competed in?
The Spitfire Scramble in 2017. It’s the only 24 race in London and I’ve taken part in it three times now. I did it in 2015 and 2016 with a team of bloggers from the UK Fitness Bloggers network I established, and then in 2017, I did it as a doubles pair with my friend Corey from The Hinz Adventures. This was really her shining moment as I’d come down with pneumonia when in Malta a few weeks before and I wasn’t allowed to run, but my doctor said I could walk a lap. Corey ran nearly 50 miles and I jogged/walked 12 which saw us take second place in the ladies pairs. The atmosphere at this event is second to none, the route in Hornchurch Country Park is beautiful and it’s very special seeing the sun rise at the top of the hill in the morning, if you are out on a lap. I was also so proud to support Corey!

What one thing should PRs know about you?
I am honest and although I am constructive, if I don’t like a product or experience, I will say so. I will always try to be balanced and offer the right to respond, but I will not edit a review or be dishonest through fear of upsetting a brand relationship.

Reach-the-right-influencers-with-the-Vuelio-media-database

What’s the best campaign you’ve collaborated on?
I’ve recently just worked on a great campaign with Red Letter Days where they sent me on a bungee jump! It’s not something that I would ever have done otherwise and when they got in touch, I had to say yes because I knew I would regret it if not. It was exhilarating, terrifying and liberating all at once and it has given me a story to tell – for that reason, I have to say that was the best campaign I’ve collaborated on.

Away from working with brands, I partnered up with a friend of mine Stephen from How Many Miles last year on a campaign we called #EndGreatRunHerbalife after Herbalife were announced as the nutritional partners of the Great Run Series. Between us, we wrote a series of posts, set up a petition and rallied runners on social media, which ultimately led to the partnership being pulled. That felt like influencing, although it feels a bit like I’ve been on the naughty step since where working with brands is concerned. But I don’t regret it – it felt like the right thing to do.

What do you call yourself (blogger/influencer/content creator etc)?
Blogger. I enjoy social media and I offer management and content creation on a freelance basis, but I would class myself as a blogger. I don’t have a set social media strategy for my blog and I don’t beat myself up scheduling content.

What other blogs do you read?
Too many to mention, but I particularly make a point of keeping up with A Healthier Moo, How Many Miles, The PHD Runner, Jog on Mum, Paddle Pedal Pace, The Fat Girls’ Guide To Running, Learning Patience, keep it simpElle, JogBlog, and although he doesn’t blog much on his website anymore, Gavin Wren is a beautiful and articulate writer.

Emma Neachell

Don’t compare yourself to other runners: Emma Neachell, The PHD Runner

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Emma Neachell writes The PHD Runner, which was recently ranked in the top 10 UK running blogs. Emma is a hydrologist by trade but uses the blog to share her running adventures (and misadventures!). We caught up with Emma to talk about the joy of running, how simple it is to start and what’s she’s looking for from PR collaborations.

What makes your blog successful?
I personally don’t think my blog is very successful. However, people who read my blog on a regular basis have said they appreciate my honesty and my willingness to share my unflattering running photos.

How do you plan your blog content around your runs?
When I’m training for a target event, for example the Cambridge Half, this is relatively easy as I’ll produce weekly training updates. I also really enjoy writing race reviews as every race is unique. As a runner, I find race reviews really useful, so I try to include as much information as possible. I’m unfortunately injured at the moment so, although I can’t run, I’ll be able to write about how I deal with being injured.

What’s the best place to run in the UK?
Sutton Park in Sutton Coldfield. It’s one of the largest urban parks in the UK and has some amazing trails.

What advice would you give to new runners?
Running is quite hard to start with but it does get easier. Don’t compare yourself to other runners and most importantly, have fun!

How important is the right equipment/outfits for successful runs?
One of the reasons I love running is the fact you don’t have to invest in a lot of running kit when you start out. All you need to start with is a pair of running shoes, some decent socks and a sports bra. If you find you enjoy running, invest in more equipment and running kit. The expensive GPS watch can wait. In my opinion, comfortable, correctly-fitting kit can make or break a run. I’ve actually had to cut training runs short due to kit related issues.

What’s the best race you’ve competed in?
I feel that I should say one of the three London Marathons I’ve completed, but I won’t. The best race I’ve competed in was the Cathedral to Castle 10 mile run. The course was quite challenging but I loved every second of the run. I’ve already entered next year’s event!

What one thing should PRs know about you?
That I exist and love writing! I haven’t had many blogging opportunities this year.

Reach-the-right-influencers-with-the-Vuelio-media-database

What’s the best campaign you’ve collaborated on?
This is actually quite a tricky question to answer! I was thrilled to be asked to join the Decathlon Bloggers Community and can’t wait to get involved in some exciting campaigns later this year. I think it’s a case of watch this space.

What do you call yourself?
I don’t think I’m an influencer. I’ll always call myself a running blogger.

What other blogs do you read?
I don’t have as much time as I’d like to read blogs but my favourites include: AnnaTheApple, HelsBels, A Healthier Moo, Maria Runs and Deutscher Wanderwolf.

 

The PHD Runner is listed on the Vuelio Database, along with thousands of other bloggers, journalists, bloggers, MPs and SpAds.  

WPP

Martin Sorrell quits WPP

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Sir Martin Sorrell, the 73-year-old founder of the world’s largest ad agency, WPP, has quit his role of chief executive before the results of a misconduct investigation.

Sorrell had denied all allegations against him, but accepted that the investigation needed to take place. After almost two weeks, and just before the independent (and confidential) findings were to be presented to the WPP board, Sorrell has stepped down, effectively retiring.

WPP has come a long way since Sorrell took over the Wire and Plastic Products shopping basket manufacturer in 1985; it is now recognised as the largest-by-revenue agency of its kind, with over 200,000 employees across 400 businesses with 3,000 offices in 112 countries.

Sorrell has been a contentious leader, not least because he is one of the highest paid executives in the world and has now left the company with some questioning how clear the succession plan is. His exit, which is being considered a retirement by WPP, comes with a potential £20m pay off and the option to set up a competitive company as he doesn’t have a non-compete clause in his contract.

Setting up a competitor is considered unlikely though, due to Sorrell’s advanced years and the fact he owns nearly 2% of WPP (worth hundreds of millions). The group’s share price reacted to Sorrell’s departure by falling, at one point, by 5%.

The chief executive said: ‘For the past 33 years, I have spent every single day thinking about the future of WPP. We have had a succession plan in place for some time. We have weathered difficult storms in the past. And our highly talented people have always won through, always. As some of you know, my family has expanded recently, WPP will always be my baby too.’

He has been replaced, for the time being, by Mark Read, chief executive of WPP Digital, and Andrew Scott, chief operating officer for Europe. Sorrell will reportedly be available during the transition period. The FT reports that the long-term replacement is likely to be an external candidate naming Jeremy Darroch, chief executive of Sky, and Andrew Robertson, chief of BBDO, as possibilities.

While his successor will eventually be big news, the bigger news may be the future of the company. Multiple reports suggest it was only Sorrell’s unique leadership that was able to hold together the sprawling business, and now WPP will be split up in order to provide the most value to shareholders.

PRWeek has reported on analysts’ predictions that WPP will sell its market research unit and possibly its PR businesses, but will try to keep the rest of the group whole. The PR business includes Hill + Knowlton, Finsbury, Ogilvy PR and Burson Cohn & Wolfe. Whether they are sold as one unit or individually, the PR industry is in for a rocky time.

WPP also owns huge stakes in Vice Media, Chime Communications and App Nexus – there are very few media companies that will be unaffected by Sorrell’s departure. Which is, probably, just the way he wants it.