Building B2B Brands... On a Roll with Bearings and Drives Ltd
At Zeus PR we are well-versed in working with a vast range of business-to-business brands across a whole host of industries, including those with a highly-specialised offering targeting a niche market.
When the leading, Cheshire-based MRO supplier and distributor Bearings and Drives Ltd secured exclusive UK distributorship for an industry-leading product, strengthening its offering and position in the market, Zeus PR got to work embarking on a hard-working B2B PR campaign to maximise awareness.
As a new client with a pioneering new offering, first and foremost it was important to gather all of those much-needed assets ahead of the launch. The agency booked and briefed a photographer for a shoot at the client offices, capturing images for the website, social media and media outreach, and made the website content revisions required, adding and re-formatting pages to include details of the exclusive product.
To generate visibility amongst the target audience, over the campaign timeline to date the Zeus team has secured regular news placements in print and on digital media websites to profile BDL. Kick-starting the press release programme was the launch of the CeramicSpeed Insulate offering, exclusive to the business - the story garnered a wealth of media interest, with over 20 items of coverage secured across key trade titles such as Bearing News and Food and Drink International, and regional business media.
Opportunities to place editorial feature content and expert comments have also been secured in abundance, with the powerful media exposure asserting BDL’s authority in the industry and promoting the innovation behind the CeremicSpeed offering. The PR agency liaised closely with the editors of target media titles to negotiate opportunities, working with them to develop feature ideas and identify upcoming themes. Throughout the course of the campaign so far (9 months to date), Zeus PR has placed features in print and digital titles on a monthly basis.
Recognising that nothing offers greater endorsement than happy clients, at Zeus we like to leverage this by sharing successes and showcasing client products with in-depth case studies. Following introductions from the BDL Directors, members of the agency team spoke with the firm’s clients to learn more about the technology in action and the significant ROI delivered. After interviewing the client and soaking up the knowledge, the agency drafted the case studies for website content and to re-purpose for press release content.
Additionally, case studies can be used to substantiate award entries; with a compelling entry drafted and submitted by the agency, also showcasing the innovative offering and first-class service, Bearings and Drives Ltd secured a coveted shortlisting for the Supplier of the Year award at the AEMT awards – a market-leading trade association!
For many of our B2B clients here at Planet Zeus, we manage their company LinkedIn feeds, with BDL being no exception to this. To amplify company news and successes, Zeus has been quick to share fresh links to media placement, while also driving interest and enquiries for the key service and product areas.
To find out more about building the reputation of your B2B brand, get in touch with the team.
A PR Launch for Bubbleology's Debut Into Grocery
Zeus PR was delighted to play an integral role in the hotly anticipated launch of Bubbleology, the UK’s first bubble tea grocery range!
The much-loved bubble tea drink, which has been introduced to grocery by Aimia Foods under a brand license agreement, is now on shelves in the form of two mixology kits and two single-serve packs. Consumers can choose from passionfruit and raspberry fruit teas with popping boba pearls, or taro and brown sugar milk teas with caramelised tapioca pearls. Quick, easy and fun to prepare, each flavour has been developed to recreate the Bubbleology experience in the home.
Working in close partnership with Aimia Foods and Bubbleology, Zeus PR executed a prolific trade media programme, generating significant exposure for the launch by securing multiple items of coverage amongst major grocery and retail sector publications (including The Grocer and A1 Retail).
This was amplified by the agency’s hard-working and high-impact influencer campaign, which generated consumer awareness and a flow of organic social sharing from over 20 highly relevant influencers to create excitement ahead of the nationwide launch. Celebrations were afoot when combined social reach from influencer sharing reached 400k, and carried on climbing!
If you are interested in finding out how we can support your product launch with a highly effective PR campaign, we’d love to chat with you. Please contact anthea.fosti@zeuspr.co.uk.
Zeus PR Expands B2B Portfolio with Five New Clients
Zeus PR is celebrating its appointment by five leading national, award winning business service providers.
These include food safety, health and safety and fire safety specialist Shield Safety, retail solutions design, manufacture and installation business Silverpoint, MRO supplier and distributor Bearings & Drives business consultancy Strategi Solutions, and accountancy firm Clear Start Accountants.
The agency is working with each client to build their reputation in their individual target sectors, primarily with news placement and sharing valued industry commentary as experts in the field.
Anthea Fosti, Founder and MD at Zeus PR says; “The five businesses operate in varying sectors, but all share the distinct similarity in that they are pioneers and highly innovative in their approach to servicing their respective markets. It is a pleasure to work with each of the clients to share their unique insight and very many successes.”
Find your Happy Place! A Major PR Campaign for Horlicks
The Zeus PR team has been busy supporting iconic British brand Horlicks with the PR launch for its latest national consumer campaign!
With its new campaign, Horlicks seeks to encourage consumers to take a step back from the rush of everyday life and find a moment of calm – aided by an indulgent mug of Horlicks.
With the busy pace of a modern lifestyle, it can be difficult to remember to slow down, relax, and take a moment to ourselves when we really need it.
All too often we are juggling many responsibilities, both personal and professional, and carving time out from the rush of everyday life to unwind and reset doesn't always make it on to our to-do list.
Something as simple as hitting the pause button in between virtual meetings from the home office, taking time for a much-needed catch up with a loved one or savouring a calm moment in the garden with a delicious, comforting mug of Horlicks can be all you need to find your Happy Place.
Go to your Happy Place with Horlicks, anytime, anywhere.
Following on from the huge successes of several expertly executed campaigns and new product PR launches for Horlicks to date, the agency has been supporting the brand with it's 'Happy Place' campaign through several exciting PR activations including major brand partnerships to extend reach, placement of editorial promotions to generate exposure in key target publications, and securing wide-spread sampling opportunities to amplify campaign messaging.
If you are interested in finding out how we can support your brand with a highly effective PR campaign, we’d love to chat with you. Please contact anthea.fosti@zeuspr.co.uk.
Hitting the High Note for WaterBear Sheffield
As the pioneering college of music WaterBear prepares to open the doors to its second campus in September 2023, building on the success of its inaugural college in Brighton, Zeus PR has been busy working closely with the passionate team to support the college’s ambitious expansion plans.
Most recently, members of the Zeus team headed over to Yorkshire for the hugely successful WaterBear Sheffield launch event, held at the new state-of-the-art facility.
The agency generated a significant amount of pre-event media coverage, majoring on several press stories to maximise exposure for the hotly-anticipated occasion. On the day, the Zeus team pulled out all of the stops for our pioneering client – with interest from a key TV broadcast channel and film crews pushed for time, Zeus PR stepped in and captured footage of the ceremonious ribbon cutting on an iphone, sending to the media contact to secure prime time BBC News coverage.
A culmination of hard work by the passionate WaterBear team has created an unrivalled learning space for students keen to embrace WaterBear’s unique ethos of building a long-term, sustainable career in the music industry. Over 250 enthusiastic attendees passed through the doors for the event to enjoy an afternoon of live music and networking, including the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, industry partners, tutors, offer holders, parents and those interested in finding out more about the many BA and MA courses on offer.
Most effective ways for travel brands to generate major national exposure
At Zeus PR we are passionate about growing travel brands, and we love a fun and creative PR campaign to give bookings a real boost. To accompany the more creative ideas however there are a number of failsafe Zeus PR campaign tactics that we employ across the board for guaranteed substantial exposure. In this blog, we are happy to share these for Travel Agents, Tourism Boards, Tour Operators, Resorts and Airlines wishing to make 2023 their best year ever…..
Prime Time TV Show Placement
What brand wouldn’t want free TV placement, in return for gifting a short break or week’s holiday. For many shows they don’t need to be extra lavish, and if the theme fits – a weekend break in Paris may work as well as a luxury 4* holiday in a resort.
On behalf of our clients we research key opportunities on up and coming shows in the pipeline, link in with the show’s producers and negotiate the best possible placement exposure. For several of our clients we have negotiated major exposure on top TV shows, from Saturday Night Takeaway with Ant & Dec, to All Star Family Fortunes.
Celebrity Ambassadors
Teaming clients such as icelolly.com up with major A’listers such as Stacey Solomon, or travel themed names such as we did with Place in the Sun’s Laura Hamilton for Teletext Holidays, to enjoy a holiday courtesy of your organisation, will extend your reach and profile considerably.
Add press shots, media interviews and a social media package into the mix and boom! You have hugely cost effective 360 PR campaign – with print and digital media and significant social media traction into mix.
Press Familiarisation Trips
What better way to secure super strong media reviews and build a long-term relationships, then plan an accompanied trip to enjoy the service / and or destination you are looking to promote.
Media & Influencer Reviews
We regularly speak to national travel editors and writers, partnering them up with gifted breaks for them to review. Domestic Breaks away work just as well, for example for our client, the bespoke Welsh coastal firm Ben & Holly’s Hideaways, we regularly set up weekend breaks for press reviews
National Newspaper Travel Pages & Magazines
By getting to know the format and lead-times of the national press travel pages you can secure inclusion at no cost in the weekly deals columns that are run over a weekend. Working closely with the travel editors, we do this on a weekly basis, and it’s not unusual for us to have clients featured each and every week in the travel sections for the major national newspapers from the Daily Mail and Express to the Daily Mirror and The Sun.
We Can Assist You!
If you would like to discuss further how we can propel your domestic or overseas travel brand, do get in touch……
Life Beyond the Launch
You’ve launched your new product, so what next? To grow your sales pipeline, you should be working towards having a constant presence in front of your target demographic.
So, how do you do this?
Give target consumers more reasons to love and purchase your product all year round - this is where a hardworking and well-executed PR campaign comes in.
Leveraging seasonality is a key part of our PR strategy for some of our FMCG clients. We generate significant media coverage on a regular basis for well-known food and beverage brands such as Horlicks and Drink me Chai, with media placement of recipes using the brand’s innovative products as a key ingredient.
We incentivised Horlicks lovers nation-wide to purchase during the summer months with placement of a range of dessert-inspired drinks recipes that were specially developed to be enjoyed cold, complemented by malty, toasty notes of Horlicks, in major national titles. This not only secures exposure for the brand, but also educates consumers on other ways to enjoy the product and promotes extended usage – this can work for most food and drink brands!
We run similar PR campaigns on an ongoing basis for Drink me Chai, the UK's leading alternative hot drink brand, securing product placement and recipe coverage in food and drink publications, women’s weeklies and high domain authority online magazines.
Leveraging seasonality to secure visibility and extensive reach month after month for our client, fragrance-led household brand Fabulosa, includes curating seasonal tips and advice with which to secure print and digital PR coverage in key target publications.
Creating a buzz not just initially but also beyond your product launch and attaching relevance is key to preserving your brand’s share of voice and getting your product noticed in a competitive market.
These tactics apply to brands of all sizes too; even if you are a small brand, there is no reason why you can’t get national coverage in glossy monthly magazines or on high-ranking digital sites!
If you want to find out what this could look like for your brand, we’d love to chat with you. Contact us on 01260 271450 or email anthea@zeuspr.co.uk.
Maximising PR for Homes & Interiors Brands
We are super proud of our specialism in providing homes and interiors companies of all sizes, with hard-working Lifestyle PR & marketing campaigns to successfully drive awareness of their brands and boost sales.
For those who are starting out, or simply haven’t considered as yet the value that can be brought to their business by editorial content rich Lifestyle & interiors PR strategies, we have put together several pieces of key advice to inform and turbo charge your brand!
1. Diligent media research
The first starting point in any PR campaign is to make sure you have an up-to-date media list with key press and influencer contacts across your target demographic. Set yourself a task of finding those key writers. Consider monthly and weekly home interest and consumer magazines, homes supplements and pages on the national newspapers and on digital channels together with home influencers.
Also, many magazines, newspapers and digital channels utilise home interest freelancers, so these are also key. Many of the more experienced freelancers work across several media titles.
Then input the data into a spreadsheet with full contact details so you can revisit and update on an on-going basis.
As an agency specialising in the homes sector, it is imperative for us to continually add to these lists. This allows us to ensure we have captured key moves as contacts move onto to other media channels. If you are doing your own PR outreach, we highly recommend you do the same.
Desk research on Google and Instagram is great for sussing out the main digital writers, and then sifting through the hard copies of the magazines and newspapers should help. Also make calls to the publishing houses (although since the lockdown it is increasingly hard to speak to journalists on the phone).
2. Strong imagery is key
Glossy home media and newspapers supplements, together with lifestyle digital magazines rely on beautifully styled images to adorn their pages.
It is definitely worth investing in a shoot, of both product shot cut-outs images on a white background, and also styled ‘lifestyle images’. Lifestyle images allow you to really ‘sell the product in a setting that shows it off to its best’ in a mock home or garden setting. Remember you are selling a 'desirable lifestyle'.
3. Getting your press information right
Whether you are launching a new product or range, or wishing to generate media attention and editorial coverage for an existing line, simply emailing a journalist will generally receive little attention without following a specific format.
For product pitches, keep it brief and always include the information in the body of the email. This should include detail prices, stockists and general product information, and a weblink. You should attach a high-resolution image/s (minimum resolution 300 dpi is standard.
Top home interiors journalists can receive 1000 email pitches a day, and missing info will only infuriate them. This may mean that you are potentially discounted from inclusion in a major feature in a key broadsheet!
4. Building & maintaining press and influencer relationships
Media and influencers value most highly those contacts who can supply content rich information and images in a timely format ahead of deadlines.
Once you have the media lists, make the most of them by reaching out to see how you can support any features in the pipeline that the contacts might be working on, as well as drafting a thank you email back to them after they have included you in one of their features!
After reading the above, if you simply don’t have the time or the resource to undertake a proactive PR and marketing campaign for your brand, we would be delighted to discuss how our agency can support you. Please contact anthea.fosti@zeuspr.co.uk
The Power of Awards – Writing a Winning Award Entry
For many clients, as part of their PR programme, we manage their company award-entry programme, achieving for them much success in securing coveted accolades and the heightened exposure which comes with the high-profile award schemes.
To assist businesses who haven’t as yet dipped their toes in the sometimes-confusing world of awards. Or perhaps those who have entered several without much success as yet. We have put together a brief guide sharing some key insights from our team.
Which awards are right for me?
This all depends on where you want to achieve exposure and increased visibility?
The first step is to identify the purpose – so for example, are you looking to showcase your achievements in a specific sector? If so, many sectors will have supplier awards – ideal for demonstrating the value you can bring to a legal, insurance, manufacturing or a healthcare business for example.
Or maybe you are interested in securing profile in a peer-to-peer awards programme i.e. within your own industry. Ideal for attracting interest from a potential buyer or investors if you want to benefit from funding, an exit or even take a step down from your business for example.
Regional business awards, may also be on your radar, for the same reasons above. Or are also useful for building your employer brand, and attracting interest from potential employees. Many programmes have employer recognition awards for instance.
How do I go about it?
Set time aside to research thoroughly which ones are worthy of your time. There are hundreds of schemes, and not all are equal!
Awards often have media titles aligned to them, which can be particularly beneficial as finalists and winners are typically profiled in the print issues and on their digital platforms, giving you free valuable exposure.
Also, some awards initiatives charge for entry – so internal budget considerations then come into play.
Be mindful of deadlines
Writing this blog in mid February 2022, we know from our experience and research that many of the schemes for this year have already closed.
Typically, the entry deadlines are 6-9 months before the glittering ceremonies take place, so if you see a competitor collecting an award that you could have pipped to the post, make an advance diary note once you have checked the entry date/ deadline for the following year so you don’t miss out.
Preparation as always is key
It is very difficult to sit down and draft an award with a blank sheet of paper. More often than not you need lots of details and need to be prepared to share data such as statistics to show key indicators to prove your case for example, demonstrating growth, efficiencies, happy clients giving testimonials, whatever will strengthen your case as to why you should win.
Start well in advance – maybe ask you clients as a project is coming to the end, if you can enter it into an award. Hopefully they will be very obliging as it will heighten their profile too!
Attend attend, attend
Presuming you follow our guidance; and have prepared your submission well, you should stand a good chance of being shortlisted for an award.
This being the case, whatever you do – you really must go to the ceremony!
Purchasing a ticket shows your interest, commitment and respect for the organisers.
Leveraging the Win
After all the effort that has gone into researching, preparing and submitting the entry, keep in mind the need to maximise the opportunity to the full.
Press releases and social posts on your channels can be employed effectively at timely points to give you a few ‘bites of the cherry’.
You should be announcing your delight at being shortlisted as you receive the news, and then posting perhaps in the run up to the ceremony.
With the cherry on top being your big win on the night, complete with a post-event press release and event images. This should be being issued to key media, shared on your website and on your social feeds to make sure no one is in doubt who won the award!
And if the above all seems too much…..
Hopefully after reading our guide, you feel much more equipped to go forth and win lots of awards, however the whole process can be very time consuming, so do feel free to enquire about how we can support you if this is the case.
After all, we love nothing more than seeing our clients collect another trophy for their cabinets!
Media Placement to Celebrate 2021 Client Successes and Sharing New Year Ambitions
We love nothing more than ending a year on a high, with lots of well-placed media coverage, promoting clients end of year successes and sharing their New Year visions for an even bigger and better following year as we enter 2022.
What a great way to celebrate the year gone by and whet appetites for what’s to come!
As a hard working and initiuitive PR agency, we relish compiling these media round ups across a whole host of sectors, hitting the press in a timely fashion to secure for our clients best in class digital and print press coverage in their target categories, whether this be inclusion in hard copy magazines and newspapers or on online media channels - in general business titles or in the vertical sector tech, healthcare, retail and other niche sector publications.
Examples include media releases produced for a tech company client – the software automation specialist Endpoint Automation Limited (EAS), who we were thrilled to announce that they doubled their turnover to £1.8m, and are now targeting £2.2 in 2022. The business has a lot to be optimistic about – it has laid firm foundations for future growth, as well as unveiling their latest initiative ‘EASy Way’ offering clients who use automation technology, a fully managed delivery and support service.
For our client, the innovative and award winning sustainable fabrics manufacturer Meryl Medical, we enjoyed the sharing some positive news for the global environment, as the firm sets to increase their 2022 mask production output by potentially 50% in response to the substantial consumer and industry calls for a sustainable alternative. The company is seeing a heightened demand for sustainable alternatives in light of an increasingly familiar sight of discarded disposable masks, causing irreversible harm to the environment, with an estimated 55 million single-use face masks used daily in the UK taking an average of 450 years to decompose.
We also manage similar business press placement campaigns for many of our consumer brand clients – we were particularly thrilled to share their year end achievements, and plans for 2022 growth, informing the business community and the fmcg sectors that they operate within. To illustrate, our home fragrance-led client Fabulosa, enjoyed another mammoth trading year in 2021 with £39m sales to 31st August 2021, and we worked with our media contact network to share their future ambitious growth plans by successfully announcing the opening of their landmark new site containing almost 60,000 sq ft of production, warehousing and operational office space.
And for another consumer client - Sollution Fires the new generation highly efficient, authentic and stylish electric fires brand, we were able to generate media exposure on yet another trading high for the manufacturer as they celebrate their massive acheivement of a substantial sales uplift of 58% in 2021, and now targetting a further 30% hike in turnover over the course of this coming year.
For the vast majority of our clients we run annual media placement campaigns, working with them throughout the year to share their news, supporting brand visibility and cementing industry positioning, as well as enhancing their SEO rankings with lots of valuable high domain authority organic media links pointing to their website.
If you think we can benefit your business, and would like an informal discussion on how we can support you across 2022 and beyond, please get in touch with Anthea Fosti on anthea@zeuspr.co.uk