Professor Robert Winston chats to stakeholder at The Essential Baby Care Guide launch
Diana Hill introduces The Essential Baby Guide to the media and stakeholders at Chandos House
This week ROAD has been managing the launch of The Essential Baby Guide, the first product developed by The Essential Parent Company.
The launch event was held on 25th April at the Royal Society of Medicine at Chandos House and – despite torrential downpours – was attended by more than 50 media and stakeholders including representatives from the NHS, UNICEF and St John Ambulance. Guests got the chance to meet The Essential Parent Company founders, Dr Rebecca Chicot and Diana Hill, and Professor Robert Winston who introduced the guide.
Today, the ROAD team has been busy with the broadcast media: Professor Winston appeared on This Morning telling Philip and Ruth all about the guide; and Rebecca and Diana hit the airwaves around the country from Manchester to Guernsey with a series of radio interviews. With an exclusive interview with Professor Winston also expected in this weekend’s Mail on Sunday, media interest remains high.
ROAD is also running a social media campaign, managing Twitter and Facebook for The Essential Parent Company and has secured a series of expert webchats through askamum’s Facebook page. We’re also engaging with mummy bloggers offering exclusive content and access to the campaign experts.
So far the PR campaign is reaping rewards with hundreds of visits to the essentialparent.com website during This Morning and orders flooding in.
Statin use is almost ubiquitous amongst the over 55s – and for good reason. There seems no easier, quicker way of reducing cholesterol levels and therefore reducing heart attack risk. Thing is, if you stop taking the pills, cholesterol levels will shoot up the very next day. So what? Doesn’t sound so hard to keep talking the pills. Mmmm – not always so easy – some folk suffer with side effects associated with their statin, such as myalgia (muscle pain to you and me)
ROAD Communications is fascinated by patient engagement and concordance / compliance issues. We build programmes to help patients and doctors better manage illness. We’re doing a piece of early exploratory work looking into the experience of people taking statins – if you are on a statin we’d be grateful if you were able to do our 5minute survey (but only if you are or have recently been on (last 12 months) a statin to control your cholesterol) – simply click here – https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QXHZDP3
ROAD has won a brief to provide PR support for problem skin brand, Salcura. ROAD will be starting work over the coming weeks after beating two other agencies to the post.
The all natural range of problem skin solutions has recently won increased distribution in Boots, high street pharmacies and retailers nationwide.
Recent research shows that the key trend set to shape the skincare and beauty market in 2011 is ‘Down to Earth’ with consumers increasingly looking for natural ingredients and ‘free-from’ formulas. According to market forecast group, Mintel, paraben-free claims actually outpaced organic and all-natural claims in new skincare, hair care and cosmetics launches in 2010*.
ROAD has created a no-nasties positioning for Salcura, and has identified a clear word of mouth strategy for the brand. “ROAD will be running a social media and blogging programme focused on early adopters and recruiting them in to a trial, tell and reward community” says ROAD’s Managing Director, Paul Jarman.
“We were very impressed by ROAD’s focused insight and research into the brand and our target market,” says Marketing Director Paul Davis. “Their PR strategy combined the perfect mix of both traditional and new media tactics.”
ROAD featured in this weeks PR Week magazine and on the website with the Salcura win!
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When it comes to the world of social media, most of us seem to fall into 3 camps: 1. Real Worlders: “I hate the whole thing! You won’t catch ME using Facebook, Twitter etc. MY colleagues, friends and contacts are in the REAL world. Who wants to have their dirty washing aired in public? It’s all ego-driven madness and marketing. Besides, ‘Big Brother’ may be watching, and I mean he of ’1984′ – not Channel4!”
2. PermaScrnrs: “I’m happily addicted. It helps my career and my business. Do it or die (commercially). The broader you broadcast, the better. Wt’s up nxt + hw cn I gt it ystrday?”
3. On-the-Fencers: “I dip in and I dip out. I probably don’t spend enough time on social networking, and am possibly out-of-the-loop with the latest options. For now I do as much as possible, but I’m only just keeping my head above water. Social networking’s like sleep: Essential, but impossible to delegate…”
SO… Which are YOU? Are you going with the flow or swimming against the tide? When it comes to the business of PR, social networking is ideal for generating ‘earnt’ rather than ‘paid for’ endorsement. People love to recommend products and services. It’s part of our highly-evolved, hard-wired drive to help others, which has far from disappeared, despite what the cynics say. Wikipedia is a case in point. It’s the culmination of 100 million human hours of time – all of which were unpaid.
However some firms perceive a lack of control over social networking, and fear of the worst – a damaged reputation for instance – rather than focussing on the benefits to be reaped. With time though, and further positive case studies, ROAD believes this balance will shift.
Key to successful social networking is insuring content is fresh and interesting, integrating all platforms, monitor feedback constantly, and respond immediately whenever possible. The fact Google recently announced that Facebook and Twitter posts boost a company’s ranking in search engines means the only remaining question is: How much longer do sceptics feel they can hold back the waves?
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