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Wrapping up 2020 on a high note

At Zeus PR, we are proud to offer a tailored approach to propel our clients into the limelight. We are experts in product placement and we work extremely closely with our clients to deliver press exposure and substantial media coverage.

With the covid pandemic consuming most of the news over the past 10 months, we continued to remain positive and stay focused in delivering our targets for each and every client.

Over the past few weeks, our hardworking team has secured national consumer pr coverage for each of our lifestyle clients including Weru UK, Not a Box, Holly Johnson Antiques, Kanula, and Beelivery.

We have achieved enormous success, landing on pages of some of the most prominent media titles, including Living Etc, Woman & Home, The Sun, The Guardian, Style at Home, and Homes & Antiques!

Managing Director, Anthea Fosti said, “At the heart of everything we do is truly understanding what makes our clients stand out. We take a deep dive in our clients’ brand values and then activate thoughtful and proactive campaigns to get them noticed.

“For example, when Beelivery informed us that they were recruiting 20,000 drivers by Christmas, we executed a plan and landed the brand across many national media titles including The Sun, The Daily Mirror, and Hello! Magazine. And, to top it all off, we secured a feature on regional news programme, BBC NW Tonight, where they highlighted their successful year and ambitious plans for growth.”

by Zeus PR

Education PR in the Face of Adversity …

Throughout the pandemic, our inspirational school and college clients have continued to provide a first-class education, and so as education PR specialists the team here at Zeus has continued to use our sector expertise to secure media coverage for their latest news and views, helping to raise awareness and drive pupil recruitment in an increasingly competitive market.

First and foremost, a priority was to showcase how each school and college swiftly adapted to online teaching and learning.

Abbey College Manchester adopted a global approach to education during the college shutdown, ensuring that while it may not have been ‘lessons as normal’ it was certainly ‘learning as normal’, as it extended its educational reach to territories as far afield as the Far East. The college also switched to virtual open events, holding webinars which the agency promoted to the Cheshire-based media. Coverage was secured in key local and education titles including In Cheshire, Living Edge, Cheshire Life magazine, Independent Education Today and BBP Media.

Following a period of virtual teaching and learning, and online musical soirees, the extraordinary academic year at Beech Hall School culminated with an exciting digital awards ceremony, which saw 300 attendees from the school community join together virtually to commend the triumphant efforts made. Great coverage was secured in publications including Living Edge magazine, School House and the Macclesfield Express.

A Level and GCSE results days are always a significant event in the academic calendar. This year, in addition to preparing and sharing press releases and success stories, the team at Zeus was busy reacting to the latest government announcements to negotiate radio and TV interviews for our leading principals and head teachers to offer their views. We generated significant broadcast coverage for our clients including a duo of interviews on BBC Radio Manchester’s Mid-Morning Show with Mike Sweeney and That’s TV Manchester, as well as Cheshire’s Silk FM and Hits Radio.

As well as working with radio and TV stations, and, online news sites and newspapers, the agency is in regular contact with specialist independent education publications including Independent School Parent Magazine, School Report, Absolutely Education, School House and Tatler. To discuss how we can support you with education PR, get in touch with us here!

by Zeus PR

Generating News Through a COVID Lens

The wake of coronavirus and the UK lockdown has left many businesses reeling, and we have all had to adapt quickly to change. With further uncertainties looming in the months to come, we have all had to consider new ways of operating with creativity and resourcefulness.

As we watched the news agenda change completely over the past 6 months, our team at Zeus has been working as close as ever with our clients to contribute news and information that is relevant, helpful and appropriate to their sector under the circumstances.

One thing that has remained true is that good news is always worth shouting about.

Anthea Fosti, Managing Director of Zeus PR said, “When lockdown first hit in March, journalists and reporters were keen for positive stories, which helped break up the barrage of the negative stories that took centre stage for a few months. As things start to feel slightly more ‘normal’ and people are coming back from furlough, we are seeing publications continuing to share good news. As experts in PR, it our job to find the golden nuggets of relevant, good news stories, and we have had some great success in securing coverage for our clients through the pandemic in national, regional, local and trade press.”

Throughout the pandemic and ever-changing times, we have been asking ourselves a few questions to help generate the right type of exposure with the right tone of voice for our clients.

• Is your business doing anything to support others during this time?
• Is there anything positive or uplifting happening within your business that is relevant to the general public?
• Have you spotted any new or emerging trends within your sector?
• Has your business adapted something new or unique due to covid?

Here are some examples of coverage secured for our clients through a Covid lens:

Beelivery, the UK’s largest on-demand grocery delivery service, announced that the company is hiring 20,000 drivers as well as home-based HQ staff between now and Christmas in response to this year’s rising demand for their service.

The company was featured in BusinessLive, Insider Media, Retail Times, Love Money, and A1 Retail. The business editor of BusinessLive also interviewed Lee Parkinson, Co-Founder and CEO of Beelivery for an exclusive in-depth interview about the business growth and how they have continued to flourish throughout the pandemic.  Read more about Beelivery’s job creation news here

Teletext Holidays was keen to share recent key insights and trend data on the success of their Christmas bookings. Despite the travel industry thrown into disarray due to ever changing travel restrictions, Teletext Holidays has seen a highly impressive 97% Week on Week increase in bookings for the Christmas period (and an overall 164% increase in passengers), driven by Canaries, despite it still being on the quarantine list. Read more here

The positive news story featured in The Independent, The Telegraph and Travel Weekly!

To discuss how we can support you, get in touch with us here!

by Zeus PR

What a Year! Our 2019 Key Highlights…

Well, another year has flown by extremely quickly here at Planet Zeus – a whirlwind of product launches, events, news placement and digital content provision with busy schedules of social campaign planning and influencer outreach.

Here is a flavour of what we have been up to…

We absolutely love shouting about our client’s latest products and services from food & drink and cleaning products to wellness brands, luxury high-end interiors, fashion companies and online travel agencies, and have relished in the national media response we achieved for each and every one.

We started off the year with a majorly successful press and influencer launch with Englana, and their brand ambassador and former supermodel Jodie Kidd at The Ivy in Soho.

For Horlicks, we ran highly successful campaigns launching their New, Improved Horlicks Chocolate, and Horlicks Pods – Original and Chocolate, simply delicious and full of malty goodness that always go down a treat at Team Zeus!

And for Drink me Chai, we loved spreading the word of how you can create indulgent, barista-style beverages at home with the introduction of Drink me Chai’s deliciously aromatic, Spiced Chai Latte and Superblends. Again, the national newspapers, lifestyle mags and lovely high netting influencers loved receiving their samples and were all extremely complimentary in their product reviews.

Building on our travel PR portfolio, we have had major success for our client Teletext Holidays for whom we generated a whopping  229 items of national print and digital media coverage, with an impressive combined campaign reach of 141,130,642  - including 119 write ups in the two largest circulation tabloids The Sun /Sun on Sunday / Daily Mirror / Sunday Mirror.

And for our home and interiors clients; high-end home fragrance brand - madebyzen, premium German glazing manufacturer – Weru UK, and luxury bathroom and tile specialist - Real Stone & Tile, we amassed significant national lifestyle magazine, national newspaper and trade media coverage week in week out.

We also were thrilled to be appointed by two health and wellbeing brands. We are now the retained PR agency for iconic lubricant brand KY Jelly, for which we have been very busy working closely with the wider team, to generate significant exposure across the back end of 2019 and beyond into 2020. After supporting the brand previously, Zeus has also been reappointed by pioneering JL Aesthetics and have since secured press interest for their latest developments.

The year also saw the agency become the PR partner of the prestigious Women of the Year Luncheon and Awards. The glittering occasion took place at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole back in October and was an extraordinary celebration of female achievement.

Not to forget our very important education clients – leading colleges and schools located across the UK, for whom we very much enjoyed sharing news in 2019 of their very frequent successes. Big shout outs to DLD College London, Abbey College Manchester, Beech Hall School, Falcon’s School for Girls, Falcon’s Prep School for Boys and Portland Place School.

by Zeus PR

How to Make the Most Out of your Business Instagram Account

In today’s modern society, social media has become a prominent part of everyday life. In 2018 the average user was said to have spent 45 minutes a day checking their social media feeds!  Because of this, it’s essential that business owners are utilising social media sites, and all their available functions to promote their products or services. Instagram was once called the top platform for engagement by Forbes, and the site now has over one billion monthly active users, so now is definitely the time to log back into your account and get to grip with the site’s full potential!

In this guide we will focus on four key areas, providing you with top tips to ensure you are making the most out your business account.

Posts

It may seem like an obvious one but regular, consistent posts are key to keeping your followers interested and engaged. Everyone creates their own routine, whether that’s posting content every day, every other day or even once a week its completely down to you. However, it's important to stick to this routine once you’ve found it, this enables your followers to know what to expect and when to expect it.

Another way of relaying a reliable, consistent impression could be to maintain a theme within the content you post. Not only does this make your feed look aesthetically pleasing, but it also creates a sense of professionalism as it shows thought is behind each post. One way of sustaining a particular theme could be to ensure your posts feature certain colours or shades, or even simply sticking to the same edit style.

Hashtags

In this guide, we believe hashtags deserve their own heading, as they play a crucial role in driving traffic to your posts. By ensuring that relevant hashtags are included in all uploaded posts, those searching the hashtags will be able to access your feed. This can prove beneficial as those searching your chosen hashtags usually have similar feeds and interests and therefore are more likely to be suited to your business and eager to engage.

Instagram Stories

Launched in August 2016, Instagram Stories are a useful way of keeping your followers up to date on any news or work you may be doing. They provide users with the ability to share content that they may not want to permanently appear on their feed.  An Instagram story can be up to fifteen seconds long, an image, a video or even a boomerang. Instagram Stories allow for a brief snapshot into life behind the scenes, this could give followers the impression that they are partly involved in the business, allowing a loyal fan base to form. This involvement can be enhanced with functions such as the ‘Poll’ tool or the ‘Ask Me a Question’ feature, where users are given the chance to have a say and to share their own opinions. The site also provides you with the option to save your stories onto your feed through the Highlight Reel, allowing users to reflect back on certain posts. These posts can then be organised into themed groups, for example, all Q&A related stories can be placed together, allowing your content to appear accessible for all.

Insights

Last but not least, when owning a business Instagram account, you are able to access the ‘Insights’, the analytical tools that allow you to monitor, and reflect upon your own statistics. For instance, you are able to check how many people a post is reaching, how many visits your profile is receiving, what days your followers are most active, as well as information about the demographic of your followers. These insights prove useful as you are able to adapt your content and schedule to reflect and suit the needs of your followers according to the data.  For example, you may be inclined to change the days you are posting content, or adapt the language used to be more age appropriate. Consequently, this function allows you to become more aware of the reach and the potential reach of your content, enabling a more pro-active approach to hitting new levels of engagement.

In summary, here are some of the benefits that may occur when your Instagram account is used to its full potential…

• You are able to raise the awareness of your business, as information on the products or services you provide will be made available to a higher number of consumers.
• You become viewed as a reputable brand, as you are easy to contact and frequently posting content.
• The way you use your account will directly suit the needs of your target market, encouraging them to join your loyal fan base.

by Zeus PR

Zeus Goes Back to School

The Zeus PR team have had a busy few months out and about with our education clients, supporting their events and capturing those all-important press shots. We love being in the right place at the right time to gather the information and material we need to propel our client’s message into the limelight. Melissa, our account executive, recently attended the Abbey College Manchester awards ceremony at the prestigious Raddisson Blu Edwardian in central Manchester to assist with photography for the event, speak with attendees and collate information for the media. It’s not only big events that we assist or clients with, we regularly visit the schools to capture a range of different activities. Our account manager has been enjoying her time at Beech Hall School photographing their events such as Wellbeing Day, Musical Soiree and also Grandparents’ Day.

Always on hand to snap up photo opportunities, the Zeus team know what it takes to capture a great press shot. We’ve shared our top-tips below:

• Ensure the photo is relevant to the story and include any appropriate props. For
  example, if a group of pupils have won an award capture an image of them holding a
  trophy/certificate, rather than staff members.

• For group shots in particular, composition is key. Spacing and direction are equally
  as important, get the group to be equally spaced and close together. ‘Get that close
  you’re uncomfortable’ is a phrase we are often heard shouting.

• A cluttered background is a cluttered photo. Are there people walking around or
  standing in the background? Are there any unsightly signs or displays? Does it look
  messy? The people in the shot should be the focus of the image and not
  overpowered by whatever is going on behind them.

• A lovely bright shot is more appealing to the press than one taken in a dark room.
  Try to capture imagery outdoors or in rooms with lots of natural light.

• We’re not suggesting that you hold up huge signs advertising your business, product
  or service, but some subtle advertising can work well. Small touches such as
  wearing a branded uniform can discreetly raise awareness of the brand.

• It’s important that your photo is of a high quality. It might seem obvious but ensure
  that the camera is held straight and still, and then remember to share the image in its
  original file size.

If you would like to generate awareness of your school or college with specifically targeted education PR and marketing, get in touch! We would love to hear from you.

by Zeus PR

Growing your Web Traffic with Digital PR

Many of our clients, especially the smaller, ambitious brands we work with, are increasingly turning to digital PR as a means of improving their Google ranking.

Quite simply put - Google loves organic high-quality backlinks from authentic and highly credible websites and online publications. This is great news for companies that don't have an endless budget for Google Adwords.

With the rapid growth of digital publications, and online influencers (bloggers), there are a multitude of high netting channels to target in your quest for ranking more highly than your competitors, and a whole host of ways you can achieve a presence on their sites.

Here are some examples of how we help clients secure valuable placement, and hence backlinks from the digital media sites and influencers:-

• Produce concise and well written news releases for issue to the relevant digital media - carefully crafted and written for the target demographic in mind. Business, lifestyle or special interest.... These are then sent with strong imagery to the editors or influencers
• Promotions - offering 'the chance to win' for a subscriber, or special offers with a backlink to your site for further information (or even better create a special landing page on your website for the specific promotion). Or set up a special voucher code
• Offer key bloggers an opportunity to review for free your product or service, in return for a write up and a link to your website
• Run a press event or blogger event - allowing for some 'theatre' that promotes an aspect of your business for attendees to film - we recently held an event for Turtle Wax, allowing attendees to get their cars very mucky on a Landrover off-road experience, which made for great filming opportunities!
• If you have an expertise in an area, whether an accountant's firm, car repair business, upholstering or veterinary practice, offer a complimentary advice feature in the form of a feature in return for a brand reference and link back to your website
• Enlist the support of a high profile celebrity, who has a huge social media following, to support your brand presence at an event, product launch or a corporate event.

We are always excited to speak to brands about how we can support their Google optimisation - please feel free to get in touch if you would like to arrange a meeting!

by Zeus PR

PR Terms you Need to Know

Are you embarking on a new career in public relations?

It is a busy, exciting and constantly evolving environment, so it’s important to keep up to date with new phrases and key terms that you will hear around the office.

Understanding these terms is the first step to building your confidence as you attend interviews, or start your new role.

Key PR terms:

Advertorial  – Copy that has been paid for its insertion, usually with images.

Boilerplate – A short description of the company at the end of a press release, it is there to describe the ‘who’ and ‘what’ within release

Byline – A byline credits the author of the feature as their name gets published, usually with the date under the title of the article that they or their PR agency has written on their behalf

B2B – This means business to business, where clients use PR to communicate with tools that focus on reaching business audiences via trade magazines, business news pages, business related exhibitions, business digital networks such as LinkedIn, corporate networking groups, etc

B2C – This means business to consumer, where clients raise awareness of their product or services via consumer channels such as national newspapers, lifestyle magazines (or special interest media if you are targeting a very specific demographic), broadcast channels, consumer exhibitions, or the popular social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc

Copy  – The words that make up a feature or a news story

Editorial  – Copy that generally is placed by the print or digital title free of charge as it offers something of value to its readership, so its deemed good news and feature content (the backbone of most PR agencies)

Exclusive – An item of news that is given to one publication before any other.  It cannot be shared with other publications until it has been published by the first media outlet. ‘Exclusives’ can often be associated with celebrity news

Embargo – An embargo is a request that the information provided cannot be published until a specific date and time, due to the sensitive nature of the story. Of course some publications have been known to break an embargo in the past - so if a piece of news is highly sensitive, its always best to consider if this is the best route, or are you best releasing the news when its safe to do so

Forward Features – Forward feature lists are a schedule of topics that a publication will cover throughout the year. Knowing this information gives you a head start; you can inform a magazine editor about a story or client which is relevant to their upcoming articles

Long Leads / Short Leads – Publications are often categorised as to whether they are 'long lead' or 'short lead'. This refers to how far in advance they work - so Long Lead publications such as monthly magazines can typically work 4-6 months in advance, where as with the the weekly magazines 5-8 weeks is more the norm.     

Owned Media – Content created by your client or their PR agency, this includes company blogs, company website and social media posts

Photocall  – A photo opportunity styled to attract press interest at a specific venue, time and date. Issued in advance to news and photodesks with further information on what is being publicised

Page proof  – This is the edited version of how the piece will appear. If you are running a magazine promotion for instance your would normally expect to see a page proof once it has been laid out by the editorial team. This allows you to make any changes prior to the publication going to to print or being published online

Press Cuttings – Media coverage that has been placed by PR professionals – this can be across a wide variety of publications, from local to national publications

Press Pack – A pack which includes press releases, photos, videos and fact sheets about a client, service or product, these are often sent out by PR professionals to journalists at events and exhibitions or before a product launches

Press Release – This is a news story distributed to a range of media, which can include anything from the announcement of a new product on the market to a record-breaking company turnover

Trade Media or 'Verticals'  – This relates to the sector press in any given industry so the food industry for example have their own set of business related print and digital press - such as The Grocer, Grocery Trader, etc

This is just the beginning of the many key terms used by PR professionals every day, and it will help you understand the inner workings of the industry.

by Zeus PR

Top-Tips for Securing Strong Education Coverage

Carefully targeted education PR and marketing can greatly help to raise awareness, driving pupil recruitment in an ever-competitive market place. With many state schools producing results equally as good as independent schools, the choice of education provider between private and state is no longer as black and white. Similarly, the competition is heating up between state schools, offering parents increased choice. It now all comes down to who shouts the loudest.

Promoting a school or colleges key achievements whilst relaying the core values, is an integral part of the media relations work that we do. It is these USPs that we build into campaigns to generate engagement across a number of platforms including local press, glossy lifestyle magazines, blogs, social media and broadcast. Whether you want to strengthen your reputation, demonstrate your expertise or expand into a new market, it can come at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing and advertising.

We have put together some top-tips for securing strong editorial coverage in the education sector.

Think about your Story

The press receives an influx of varying new pieces on a daily basis, with any one journalist receiving up to 1,00 emails a day so, it’s always important to make your story stand out. Focusing on unique initiatives and achievements works well, but these do not always come about so, when they don’t write about key events throughout the year. Whilst your small bake-sale may not be a top-priority for the weekly newspaper, tagging the story onto topical events such as Mother’s Day or Christmas can be successful.

Focus on key education topics too, other schools and colleges will be shouting about their GCSE or A-Level results and World Book Day costumes so ensure that you’re included in the media round-ups.

Personalised Press Targeting

When issuing a press release personalisation is key – address the journalist directly, build a working relationship with them.

Think about the publication which you are sending the press release to. It’s key to consider editorial lead times - if you’re issuing a Father’s Day fundraising story to a glossy, local lifestyle magazine that you know has quarterly issues, perhaps suggest to the editor that the story may be more suited to feature online.

Branching Out

Supporting schools around the country we know just how easy it is to travel and so, parents and pupils will do this for a quality education too.

We always recommend to our education clients to extend out of their target catchment area with localised press releases. If you are hosting an art competition or talent show don’t just shout about it in the school’s local press and national education titles, extend your reach to a new area and tell the winning pupils local press too.

Safeguarding

The welfare and safety of children in schools is paramount and understandably, parents may not want their children’s name, age or address featured in the press. An easy way to overcome any safeguarding issues is to use images with more than six pupils in the shot, this way the journalists will not need to name each individual child.

Additional Coverage

We like to get our clients talking! When it comes to current events such as result’s day and exam season, contact local TV and radio stations offering expert opinion on revision tips and next steps. These ideas can also be put forward for thought leadership pieces in national education publications.

If you need any help raising awareness of your school and college with specifically targeted education PR and marketing, get in touch!

by Zeus PR