The regular reader (yes, deliberately not plural) of this column will know I rarely talk about exactly what I'm doing with my clients. Moreover, it's about stuff that I think, as an experienced communications and PR professional, is relevant to you. The impact of fake news on how we communicate the good stuff about our business, Facebook's changes and the politicizing of our daily media sources have all been subjects tackled recently.
It’s what I generally advise my clients when it comes to producing worthwhile content. Avoid the temptation to sell hard and instead offer something useful for your audiences instead. They’ll come back for more.
On this occasion, I hope you’ll indulge me just for a second. I have some big news. Having operated Glue PR for just over two years, it has now been acquired by London agency, W Communications. I’m the new head of W North, which is now operating from here in Newcastle.
Their founder, Warren Johnson, is a guy I last worked with when I left London for the North East 15 years ago. He set W up in 2009 and his ambitions to increase his agency’s footprint beyond London has seen him open up operations in Amsterdam and Singapore.
Then late last year he cast his eyes across the UK. Clients’ ever-changing communications challenges, and his understanding that London isn’t the be-all-and-end-all, meant he saw an exciting future to get beyond the M25.
For so many of us, the natural next business step is to expand from our North East bases and delve into the London market. Here’s someone doing it in reverse. And that’s a great story for this region.
Glue PRs clients have been wholly supportive. We’re already exploring the new opportunities the national and international set up of W can offer them. One wants to meet with my new colleagues in Amsterdam; my news drops at a crucial time for their own plan to expand in that part of Europe. Another wants to know how the London team can help with their specific challenges of enjoying real cut through in the capital.
At the same time, W’s clients in London, many of whom are household brand names, will now have the benefit of a dedicated pulse-checker in the North. It’s no secret that many London-based businesses were exposed by the simmering feeling of this nation and the manifesting Brexit vote. It’s easy to be trapped in the London bubble. The brave ones sharpen their nails when they press against it.
For W Communications, named by PR Week in 2015/16 as agency of the year, to land in Newcastle is a great coup for this region. It could easily have been any of the other major Northern cities. W picked Newcastle because of its vibrancy, its burgeoning digital culture and its geographical relevance to the rest of what is becoming an increasingly fractured UK map.
For clients, for the communications industry and its professionals in this region and for the region itself, W North’s birth in this great city is one to be celebrated.
