Hello hello there!
March Madness
Where to start? We should be used to this by now, but Spring has sprung. We start the year knee-deep in planning, February disappears in the blink of an eye and then hey presto, March madness appears.
Events are back in full swing, spinning the plates of new business enquiries is a job in itself, and then as I’m one never to rest on my laurels, we have training and agency planning sessions to schedule in.
Projects this month have included everything from the unveiling of a new £15m showroom for a client, to a partnership with JOE.ie that reached 350,000 people in just two weeks, including almost 30,000 people participating in the weekly joe.ie quiz! Not forgetting our first-ever pieces of coverage in Scottish Farmer and Agriland.co.uk for a pedigree cattle sale in a Co Down Estate and multiple award entries for clients.
We held an agency planning morning, attended a special awards event at Hillsborough Castle and I was honoured to be asked to judge the inaugural PR Week People and Places Awards.
It starts with an idea
So many times when I look back at what we’ve delivered for clients, it started with an idea. A good idea. Over the years, this has been a true strength of the agency. My creative brain can be a challenge at times, but like everything, there are certainly many gains - including a never-ending supply of new thinking and ideas.
A few weeks ago, an idea that we discussed back in Jan for a client became a reality. From the initial idea to planning, outreach, scheduling, filming and the final edits, a new YouTube series is now live. Episode 3 has just aired and I’m so proud of what the team has produced.
For our client, they gain from the introduction of a totally new concept, benefit from rich content that has huge potential to grow in popularity, growing their audience through affiliations with the featured guests, and giving audiences another reason to visit their website.
I can’t wait to see how this series develops. The challenge for both the client and us is to stick with it, not become obsessed with the numbers, build on marginal gains, and give it the time it deserves to deliver – check out the series here: https://homesni.com/behind-closed-doors
In the business for new business
A big learning from last year, that I always need to remind myself of, is the need to have an ‘always on’ mentality for new business. To not get consumed by the current workload and always leave capacity for working on and embracing new business.
From the frustrating and often bewildering process of tenders (thank goodness for Sinead and her love of processes and paperwork) to open-ended briefs for FMCG brands, we must have responded to well over ten new business briefs in the last four weeks, and that’s not to mention new business enquiries for fetch Ireland - our micro-influencer platform that seems to attract lots of interest from brands outside of the UK and Ireland, as well as local companies.
Did we win them all… no! And thank goodness for that as delivery and quality for our current clients is paramount.
And I’m a big believer in that what we didn’t win, wasn’t for us. But we did secure several really exciting new pieces of work which fit our experience, expertise and ambition.
Time to get LEAN
In the midst of everything else, Sinead and I have been studying the concept of LEAN - based on LEAN manufacturing principles, it puts the customer at the heart of everything we do. I’m part of a book club of entrepreneurs who are deep-diving into the principles and then incorporating them into their businesses. Sinead at RNN is bought in and can see how we, and all businesses, can adopt LEAN principles to make our business more streamlined, our delivery more valuable and our culture vibrant.
One of the team quite rightly asked me: ‘why are we doing this?’ Because I’m a firm believer that none of us has it sussed. There’s always room for improvement and growth. Forward motion and curiosity make us richer in terms of our knowledge, learnings, how our business runs and what we can offer to others.
If you’re interested in finding out more about LEAN, here’s where to start – the Lean Made Simple website that houses hours of superb content from the book’s author, Ryan Tierney of Seating Matters - https://www.leanmadesimple.com/
And that brings me to a super blog article by Sarah - The Many Hats of PR. Sarah joined us in September from a marketing agency and six months in, Sarah was recently reflecting on how many different hats we wear in PR, our chameleon nature and the pace of the agency. If you have a few minutes to spare, check out Sarah’s blog here: The Many Hats of PR: Why Versatility is the Secret to Success - rnn communications
And so, thanks as always for reading. That’s you up to speed with all of the goings on at RNN this month (well, those that I can publish 😜)
If you’ve any questions on the above or would like to get in touch, my inbox is always open: riki@rnncommunications.com
For now, it’s over and out.
Riki
