The Most Prestigious PR Awards in the UK

Gary Freemantle, CEO, Clarion Communications, A WPP PR Agency

Winner of 'Campaign of the Year' & 'Live PR Event' at PR Week Awards 2011

I am proud to say that Clarion won the top award at last night's PR Week Awards, the PR industry's 'Oscars'. In front of 1,200 of our peers we collected the Campaign Of The Year Award, presented by host Alastair Campbell, former No10 comms director. Commenting on the winning campaign 'Lakeside's Living Christmas Fairy' the chairman of the judges DJ Collins, VP public policy and comms at Google, said "The best ideas are the simplest ones and this was a great example of how an idea reduced down to its core will shine".

How The Content of Newspapers Has Changed - 1986 versus 2011

By Howard Bowden, Head of News, Clarion Communications

In this ever-changing world of online PR strategies and social media campaigns, the humble national newspaper is still of great importance to PROs. Particularly as so many clients still put positive national print coverage above all other campaign objectives. This is why it’s vital for every PR professional to know what makes news in the nationals. But how is the digital age affecting the nationals’ news agenda? And how has it changed over recent years? Clarion Communications compared national newspapers from 2011 with their 1986 equivalents.

Social Media and Big Brands - The Blind Adoption

By Habib Amir, Head of Digital, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP Group. 

There is more to converting audience into loyal consumers then simply being on Twitter and Facebook.

Majority of the brands continue to dictate their messages via Social Media and fail to get them across. Is it time to ask why?


The overnight growth of social media has provided a unique platform with a multitude of options to engage with a local and global audience in real-time – and what this means for the “audience” is that they are now more than just spectators. As social media platforms facilitate a reciprocal conversation, audiences expect to participate, present and shape the world around them. And managing such expectations without a coherent strategy is not easy. So many of the biggest brands in the world choose to either ignore social media completely or adopt it blindly – with a “if it worked for them, it must work for us” mindset.

Staff, Social Media Policies and Managing Risk

Simon Wakeman, Head of Communications and Marketing at Medway Council

Social media policies may not seem the most exciting aspect of driving forward adoption of new technologies as part of the communications and marketing mix.

Mum's the word when it comes to trust

Debbie Jackson, Head of New Business, Clarion Communications

　

TV programmes, online forums and newspaper editorials are just some of the places mums turn to for recommendations about products or services - but nothing beats a recommendation from a friend. And as a mum of two boys, Lucas and Henry, I know how true that is.