REGION: East Anglia

CATEGORY: 25 – Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy

ORGANISATION: PROJECT PR

TITLE: SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN

TURBULENT TIMES

Background
Project PR’s success and growth is attributed to our fundamental focus on delivering the
best for our clients. We are a dynamic, multi-award winning agency with a team of
seven.
Our vision is to be recognised as East Anglia’s leading PR agency and a respected
employer in our community. Our values are based on providing excellent service,
creative flair and a results-driven focus for our clients.

As an employer we create an environment where our staff can flourish in their careers
whilst making a valuable contribution to our business and to their community.

Business Objectives
• To become a ‘PR Week Top 150’ agency by 2015
• Grow number of new client accounts and size (fee earned) by 20% p.a.
• Grow existing client income organically by up-selling and cross-selling our services
• Exploit opportunities: social media, video and crisis communications
• Motivate and develop our team to be highly skilled and enjoy their work
• Be a respected and responsible local business.
Example campaign – Ford Retail
Our PR and media relations work for Ford’s UK retail division is raising the profile of their
42 dealerships and building their reputation in local communities and within the industry.
We also write their staff newsletter, @FordRetail.

During 2009/10 the strategy has been to roll-out a series of Group-wide PR activities,
thereby proliferating the level of media exposure. Example activities include educating
local schools on road safety, taking part in BHF’s Healthy Heart Week and, most recently
during the World Cup, collecting hundreds of secondhand football boots for charity
‘Boots for Africa’.

We entered the UK’s leading auto industry awards run by AM magazine, coming second
in the ‘Community Initiatives’ category. Our PR around services for disabled motorists
played a significant role in helping Ford Retail win Motability ‘Dealer Group of the Year’
four years in succession.

Performance against budget

National and Public Annual
Total ROI
Period regional Relations PR
Circulation (PRV/Fee)
media articles Value (PRV) Fee
2007 489 13.6 million £1.38 million £xxk

2008 597 20.6 million £1.80 million £xxk

2009 Media monitoring suspended due to recessionary cost cutting

Jan-June 307 32.2 million £1.15 million £xxk

2010 (6 months) (6 months) (6 months) (6 months)

Outstanding achievements (including evaluation and performance analysis)

Business growth and marketing
We are now a significant force in the region through building our reputation and client
base:
• continued growth in turnover: £xxxk (2007/8); £xxxk (2008/9) and £xxxk
(2009/10) – 35% growth in two years
• strengthened our team by 75% since July 2007 to seven account handling staff
and zero staff churn
 • won the most awards (six) out of all agencies in last year’s CIPR PRide Awards
• classified as 4th most awarded PR agency outside London – The Drum
magazine March 2010
• won ‘Small Business of the Year’ in Anglian Business Awards, December 2007
• won more clients in last 12 months than any previous year, exceeding our new
business objectives despite the tough market climate: Highways Agency,
ConstructionSkills sector skills agency, Skills Training UK, Overeaters
Anonymous, Jarvis Cosmetics, East of England International, UKTI East,
Renewables East, Grant Thornton East, Ipswich Building Society and Smartbedz
• in 2008 we doubled our office space to accommodate business growth
• raised our game in marketing ourselves: new website, promotional video,
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube sites, new brochure
• raised our own publicity with regular offline and online media coverage
regionally and nationally (3 mentions in PR Week last year)
• increased activity in regional sponsorship, pro-bono work and business
networking

Innovation
We believe success is built on innovation and keeping ahead of the market:
• a forerunner in offering social media strategy and services
o won the first regional PRide award for Social Media in 2009
o worked with several clients in implementing a social media strategy,
including Ford Retail, Challs International and Ipswich Building Society
o marketed and run our own ‘Surviving and Thriving with Social Media’
event with 35 business attendees
o developed our A-Z Guide to Social Media (print and online)
• introduced a video PR and production service which has been used by clients
as an integral part of social media and other PR programmes
• developed a crisis communications service offering a strategic approach to
planning based on an established framework of procedures, templates and
training

Client achievements
Winning new clients is important but keeping our existing clients delighted is even more
important:
 • we receive consistently positive feedback – not just results but how we work
(proactive, responsive, strategic); we continually plan and evaluate each account
• introduced a range of creative new tactics for our client campaigns, such as:
o National surveys to achieve national broadsheet and online media
exposure for Christies Care and Challs International (National Plughole
Week with Oxfam).
o Social media campaigns which helped exploit online opportunities e.g.
Ipswich Building Society ‘Wonderwall’ launch, Ford Retail dealerships
o Multi-media solutions including video content for Highways Agency to
secure Government treasury funding for motorway projects
• written numerous winning award entries for our clients

Team and individual achievements

Our ethos ensures that everyone contributes towards building the business:
• we hold weekly team meetings to review accounts, let creativity thrive and
identify/resolve concerns
• we take a day out twice a year to re-evaluate our strategy and set new goals
• training and development is provided both on and off the job – developing our
expertise in social media and digital PR has been a key focus this year
• our CSR programme allows each team member to support one pro-bono client .
In 2010 Ipswich Town Community Trust, Ipswich Women’s Aid and Felixstowe
Regatta have benefited.
• we take part in charitable events such as the Midnight Walk, Jeans for Genes,
Bottle for Change
• we regularly provide work experience to undergraduates and school students

What makes this team special?

• We are all passionate about our work. More importantly, we deliver results that
habitually exceed our customers’ expectations.
• A great team spirit exists where everyone pulls together, especially when it
matters most!
• Clients keep saying how much they enjoy working with us.

Ends