HUNTER CENTRE FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP,

UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE

Colin Mason is Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. His expertise covers all aspects of the entrepreneurial process but with a special focus on entrepreneurial finance, particularly business angel activity. His research has a strong policy and practical emphasis.

He has undertaken research on behalf of various organisations, including Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, Scottish Enterprise, NESTA and Federation of Small Business and has been a keynote speaker at various EU and OECD conferences, seminars and workshops.

He has been a judge for the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (PSYBT) National Business Awards and both the British Business Angels Association (BBAA) and European Business Angel Networks (EBAN) investing awards.

He has held visiting positions at universities in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina.

Why PR?:

As a professor at Strathclyde University, Colin Mason receives PR services from the University’s press office. However, realising the need to appeal to non-Scottish media and the enterprise sector, it became clear that additional PR support was needed. A key reason for approaching Integra Communications was Integra’s specific expertise in small business/entrepreneurship and networks with relevant journalists.

Professor Colin Mason appointed Integra in 2011 to:

• Increase his media profile to attract UK-wide press interest
• Raise awareness of his research on a UK-wide level
• Gain more coverage on a UK-wide level

The Brief:

To increase Professor Mason’s profile as a leading entrepreneurial academic and thought leader in the start-up and ongoing development of SMEs.

To highlight the value of Professor Mason’s research in helping to shape and influence national policies on the support for SMEs.

The Campaign from February 2011 to present

Integra Communications identified a list of target publication titles as well as online opportunities. In addition, they agreed to monitor the press as well as anticipate ‘news’ in order to secure opinion and comment opportunities.

A Media profile of Professor Mason was distributed to key enterprise press journalists. Good relations with national media encouraged their use of Professor Mason’s expertise. In addition, Integra assisted Professor Mason in the development of ‘new’ ideas and expressions about the current and future state of SMEs and the issues they face. This fresh approach was needed to differentiate Colin from other Professors of Enterprise and to establish a national ‘voice’. Effort was made to position Professor Mason as a ‘Budget 2011’ commentator.

The Results to date:

Professor Mason has contributed to a number of articles in the Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times and other leading national media. At the same time Integra has secured Professor Mason a series of six articles in the leading SME publication Start Your Business.

Testimonial:

On working with Integra Director, Louise Third, Professor Colin Mason said:

“Her strategic approach to PR has been very productive. We have systematically planned new campaigns on a regular basis. I am delighted with the additional media coverage that Louise’s efforts has achieved for my research”

BioCity Nottingham provides business support, finance, labs & offices to fledgling bioscience, pharmaceutical, med-tech & healthcare companies. It operates one of Europe’s largest bioscience business centres, which is currently home to nearly 70 fast-growing companies, including R&D and business support services.

BioCity invests in early stage life science companies through its subsidiary, Mobius Life Sciences (launched in October 2009), which is the first investment fund in the Midlands region dedicated to the life sciences sector.

Why PR?

After a review of its PR activity, it became clear that, although BioCity had built an excellent profile on a local basis, it lacked the B2B PR industry expertise to successfully take its messages to a wider, national audience.  In particular, the board were keen to attract the interest of key influencers in Government, private sector investors and international collaborators.

Working with Integra on a project in 2007, BioCity’s executive board realised that Integra’s reputation in, and knowledge of, the enterprise and business growth PR media could prove invaluable to their plans to grow to become Europe’s largest Bio-incubator.

The Brief

The PR brief is to tell a diverse audience about the aims, asperations and successes of BioCity and to put Nottingham on the map. The target audiences were identified as:

• Potential tenants
• Nottingham residents
• Nottingham businesses
• Nationals – investors/government/city
• International collaboration

A further part of the brief was to help BioCity’s tenants understand the value of PR and how to use it for their own, individual purposes.

The Campaign 2007 – Present

Press Releases

Relevant stories are identified and targeted at key press including national broadsheets; industry titles including bio and pharmaceutical targets as well as a number of key websites. Aim to achieve comment coverage, articles, news items supported by story photography.

Media Workshops

Integra Director, Louise Third delivers PR clinics for the tenants of BioCity to help them use PR as a tool for themselves. Typically, scientists are not interested in using PR.  Louise uses her expertise to explain the opportunities available to them and the advantages these could bring to their businesses.

Results

BioCity has seen its national and international profile increase significantly. As BioCity has grown it has achieved coverage of bigger stories in more prominent national and international media. Recently BioCity has achieved coverage in:

•  BBC local and national news
•  Mail on Sunday
•  Financial Times
•  Mednous
•  SP2
•  European Pharmaceutical Review
•  Midlands Business Insider
•  LabBulletin

One of the main success stories involves the creation of new businesses at BioCity after the closure of global pharmaceutical giant, AstraZeneca Charnwood. In March 2010 BioCity responded immediately to the closure plans by offering a package of support to its employees that included training, advice and help with office or lab accommodation.  As a result 35 new jobs have now been created, a success which was widely reported on TV and other national media.

“It’s been really great working with Louise.  She is very easy to get on with.  It’s also obvious that she actually cares about BioCity and its aims.  We’re not just a client to her, she’s very much part of our own team and that’s very important to us.”   Dr. Glenn Crocker – CEO, BioCity Nottingham

Pharmaceutical Development Services (PDS) is  rapidly growing consultancy offering expertise and training in numerous areas of the Pharmaceutical industry but with particular expertise in pharmaceutical development, regulatory affairs and quality systems.

As part of the company’s marketing strategy MD Michael Gamlen wished to build an online presence for PDS beyond their own website, in particular news about the company to be covered on industry websites in the UK and US.

The Strategy

PDS employed Integra Communications on a modest budget over a year to work with the company to develop newsworthy stories roughly every other month and to facilitate their distribution to pharmaceutical news portals.

The Results

Integra Communications developed newsworthy stories for PDS from such items as new office openings, the appointment of new associates and the offering of training services. Integra used its contacts across the pharmaceutical media to disseminate the material and achieved more than 50 items of useful coverage in a wide range of pharmaceutical media. The news stories also elicited a number of requests from editors for expert articles from PDS in their areas of expertise for pharmaceutical journals and websites.

Michael Gamlen says, “Integra has achieved exactly what we were looking for. The pervasiveness of the coverage has been demonstrated on many occasions, for example, a business that shares our base at BioCity Nottingham came to explore ways to work together at the request of their American arm which had seen coverage in the US.

Integra were very easy to work with, keeping us on our toes about identifying newsworthy items and writing them up in such a way that clearly caught the eye of their many contacts in international pharmaceuticals.”

The Mobius Life Sciences Fund, a new investment fund focused on providing seed finance for early stage bioscience, pharmaceutical, medical technology and healthcare life science companies, was officially launched on Thursday 1st October 2009.

The Fund is designed to fill the considerable gap in early-stage venture funding for a sector which is notoriously high risk and money-intensive.  At a time when many private venture funds shy from seed funding in this area, the Mobius Life Sciences Fund provides the crucial bridge in finance and expertise which will enable these supported companies to succeed in subsequent funding rounds.

The private venture fund is managed by BioCity Nottingham, one of Europe’s fastest growing bioscience and life sciences incubators. Mobius Life Sciences funds are securely generated through the incubator’s internal operating activity. It will coivest alongside other early stage investors, including business angels, and will act as a feeder to later stage funds. In addition, Mobius Life Sciences Fund has won the support of Nottingham City Council in the provision of unsecured loan finance alongside the Mobius equity investment.

Why PR?

The decision to create a funding stream was a major development for BioCity, the life sciences business incubator which has seen growth in occupancy to near 85% capacity, and demand for seed-funds rising.

PR at launch and ongoing as required would provide immediate recognition of the existence of the fund, crucial to attracting applications as well as fellow investors.

Relations needed to be built with the early-stage firms and University spin outs in search of funding, their advisers, Tech Transfer teams, co-investors and professional services firms.

The Brief

The PR brief for the launch was to attract media interest from East Midlands media, national financial press, national and international bioscience media. It included assisting with the planning and execution of the launch ‘celebration’, handling media enquiries and photography as well as seeking feature article opportunities.

Integra advised that not only would the new fund be news-worthy, but that the dual-nationality MLSF chairman, Lucy P. Marcus, would also be an ideal media spokeswoman and focus for news. Lucy’s profile was written for media use and new photos requested.

The Campaign – Ongoing

Strategic Plan

The Mobius Life Sciences Fund is to be regarded as an innovative, practical response to an urgent need for early-stage seed funding of the sector. Target audiences are Nottingham-based early stage bioscience firms, University research spin-outs, regional venture capital funds, and national investment funds. Potential incomers relocating to the Nottingham City-region are also a target.

Tactics

Media brief

A small number of financial and science media correspondents were briefed about the planned launch of the Fund. They were invited to the launch event at BioCity on 1^st October.

Press Releases

The launch release was constructed with input from Lucy P. Marcus, Nottingham City Council and BioCity. It was targeted at a national audience, with a second version aimed at international interests.

Following issue to selected journalists, web-based media and on the wire, Integra made follow-up calls to encourage news coverage and feature article interest.

Launch event

The event consisted of a late afternoon gathering of over 200 guests at BioCity; presentations by Glenn Crocker, Lucy P. Marcus and Councillor Graham Chapman. Networking over drinks and canapés followed serenaded by a jazz quartet.

Twitter and Linkedin

Social media channels Twitter and Linkedin were used to spread the word about the Fund. Several leading science commentators were encouraged to tweet on the day of launch, including former Tomorrow’s World presenter, Maggie Philbin.

Results

The launch attracted over 49 pieces of coverage, including Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, BioCentury, Mednous and the European Venture Capital Journal. Regional coverage was achieved in the Nottingham Evening Post, Business East Midlands, Nottinghamshire Today (social pages) and Midlands Insider.

A profile of Lucy P. Marcus was carried in Director magazine Dec 2009.

The evaluation of the launch event confirmed it as having been one of the most impressive gatherings of national and regional bio-sector experts, investors and innovators.

The Engineering Development Trust(EDT) are in receipt of emda funding as part of their STEM initiative. EDT run a number of schemes for students involving education/business and as part of their emda agreement wished to increase the profile of the schemes with the general public and the business community. EDT also wished to develop a library of case studies of their schemes including text for business development purposes. The Regional Director, in particular, wanted to comment into the specialist business press in the East Midlands to communicate with potential partner firms

The Strategy

Integra identified with EDT key events within their year which could generate news coverage. In particular these included the celebration and assessment days for the Go4SET programme for 12-14 year olds, the Engineering Education Scheme for Lower Sixth students, the awards events around the “Year in Industry” gap year programme and the GSCE and A level results. Using these hooks Integra employed a strategy of news releases and article placement work, particularly recognising the importance of good quality event photography to attract coverage. Integra’s strong links with local business press were used to achieve excellent comment coverage. Case studies were used as article material to provide substance

The Results

The coverage results compared to target are detailed below. Press achievements were 66% ahead of target and the quality of business press coverage exceeded expectations by some distance. Particularly notable were two large comment pieces in the Nottingham Evening Post around A level results and a double page spread in the Notts and Derby Chamber magazine on the work of EDT.

Geoff Jellis, EDT Regional Director for the Midlands and Wales says, “It is really satisfying to have a supplier that delivers on their promises. Indeed we have found that Integra have delivered well above the targets we have set them and the quality of some of the coverage in the local business press has been excellent. Working with Integra is very easy, they manage their activities in a way that does not intrude unduly into our busy events schedule and still achieve excellent coverage.”

Social Enterprise Day during Enterprise Week saw the launch of the government’s Social Enterprise Action plan and various other events. The Social Enterprise Coalition, the largest association of social enterprises in the UK wished to ensure that its views and contribution to the subject were properly represented in relevant media. In particular SEC wanted to ensure that social enterprise as an effective method of delivery of public services had a strong voice.

Activity

Integra Communications were appointed on a six day contract to assist the SEC Chief Executive and Head of Communications maximise the media opportunities. This meant working in liaison with Enterprise Insight (organisers of Enterprise Week) and the Third Sector Unit in the Cabinet Office. Discussions were held over media planning with all parties and an SEC briefing provided in advance to relevant journalists.

Specific follow-up by SEC and Integra allowed the SEC to comment into a great deal of the day’s coverage including the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Times, BBC Radio 4 & 5. Fast reaction coverage was also achieved in the weekly sector press including Regeneration and Renewal and Third Sector.

After the day, effort switched to article placement initiatives which saw substantive articles written by the Social Enterprise Coalition appear in

Guardian Public

Social Enterprise

New Start magazine

Big Issue in the North

Co-operative News

Public Servant Magazine

Public Finance Magazine

Integra has been providing communications advice and support to Prowess for three years. Prowess is a national organisation established to promote women’s enterprise and effective business support to women. Prowess, like Working Ventures is financed by a combination of public money, fees from members and income from training and events.

Prowess core objectives have been to promote the concept of women starting in business, so as to lift the levels of women’s entrepreneurship in Britain and to encourage providers of business support, normally funded through government resources, to adopt best practice in providing business advice to women.

Integra has worked closely with the Prowess team to implement communications strategies which promote women’s business success, publicising weaknesses and failures in the provision of business support to women and engaging the opinion formers, funders and policy makers in the needs of women entrepreneurs.

Particular planks of the strategy were:

A high level of national media work based around successful women’s business startups, research commissioned by Prowess and policy comment national quarterly magazine distributed to Prowess members and all individuals identified as important opinion formers and policy makers in the sector. The magazine was tailored for its role by Integra and we also found a funder who was prepared to finance the publication for two years.

A particularly effective communications device was the publication of regional directories of business support for women in which the local business support organisations and networks were listed together with the facilities they offered for women. This was a particularly effective piece of communications as it enabled Prowess to engage with individual RDAs to ask them to develop a clear resource for women which helped map provision in their regions, identifying weak spots. It also provided a focus on women’s businesses with case studies and top tips included offering women thinking of starting businesses, encouragement, advice, guidance and role models for success. Finally it also acted as a spur to the provision of good business support to women and all the business advice organisations in the regions were being challenged on the extent to which they provided “women-friendly” business advice. The directories are a good example of how creative thinking can turn a mundane communications strategy into a highly effective one.

Prowess established a strong reputation for staging highly effective events around which Integra always achieved high levels of media coverage including television, radio and broadsheet coverage.

The work of Prowess has led to the issue of effective business support for women becoming a mainstream issue for central government and the Regional Development Agencies. The latest major campaign that Integra established for Prowess was a lobby through the national media for the establishment of a National Women’s Enterprise Task Force. It is understood from key individuals in Whitehall that the media campaign was major driver in the establishment of the Task Force which started its work in April.

Erika Watson, Executive Director of Prowess says of Integra’s work

“Integra’s knowledge of the enterprise sector enables them to grasp issues quickly and know which publications or journalists will be interested in our news. They have done an excellent job in getting the Prowess agenda of encouraging women’s enterprise into the national and business press”

Background

Atlantic Link Limited was founded in 2002 and now provides the world’s most advanced rapid e-learning tools based on the latest generation of Microsoft technologies.

The Brief

Integra Communications was appointed to raise Atlantic Link’s profile in the industry and to help sell the benefits of rapid e-learning as a new concept. The majority of companies requiring rapid e-learning were commissioning outside e-learning consultants at great expense to deliver it. Atlantic Link needed to send out the message that they could provide a better product at a much reduced cost.

The Campaign

Press Releases

Integra Communications has a wealth of experience and knowledge of the contacts and requirements of the national broadsheet media. Working closely with Mike, we identified potential hot topics and turned them into compelling articles that we knew would whet the appetite of the target journalists.

Case Studies and Articles

Part of the objective of the PR work was to build awareness of rapid e-learning as a concept and Integra succeeded in placing numerous articles in relevant press utilising Atlantic Link as experts to explain rapid e-learning and what to look for in a rapid e-learning package. By using “expert” articles and case study work, we secured more than 20 articles, of a minimum of a full page in size, in relevant training press over the two year period.

E-newsletter

Atlantic Link to deliver a regular e-newsletter to an Integra-hosted database of sales contacts.

Results

“We were more than satisfied with the level and quality of coverage we achieved. We even secured coverage in both the Financial Times and the Sunday Times, something we would never have achieved on our own! “We feel we were very well advised with regard to the direction our PR took. Andrew really rounded off the rough edges of our messages and the more subtle approach certainly worked well for us. “And Integra are great to work with. Whilst they are extremely professional in their approach, we enjoyed a very relaxed, informal relationship.”

Background

Rachel Elnaugh is one of Britain’s highest profile female entrepreneurs.  Her company, Red Letter Days, generated over £100million in turnover in the 16 years she was in charge.

In early 2005, Rachel shot to fame as one of the original Dragons in BBCTV’s “Dragons’ Den”.

The Brief

In April 2007, having suffered at the hands of harsh media interest following the crash of Red Letter Days, Rachel appointed Integra Communications to help achieve the following goals:

• Rebuild her personal brand

• Reposition her as a champion for entrepreneurship in the UK

• Handle speaking enquiries/engagements

• Help promote her book “Business Nightmares”

“I chose Integra because Louise Third is highly respected and, because a big part of the brief was to help rebuild my personal brand, her ‘endorsement’ of me has been invaluable.”

The Campaign

Coverage has been secured in national press including the Daily Mirror, The Financial Times and The Sunday Times.  Additionally, a lifestyle story on Rachel and her family was featured in The Derbyshire magazine.

Louise rewrote Rachel’s speaker profile and sent this out to over 150 business organisations to raise awareness of Rachel as a champion of entrepreneurship and as an expert on a variety of business related topics.

The launch of Rachel’s book was supported with a targeted PR campaign which resulted in a large volume of coverage including an appearance on the front cover of “Director” magazine.

Results

Rachel’s new venture is going from strength to strength.  Her book is a great success and the demand for her to speak at business events has continued to grow steadily.

“The aims have certainly been achieved.  All of the PR to date has been supremely positive and the working relationship with Louise is fabulous.  I think she understands me!”

The following excerpt is taken from the printed acknowledgements in Rachel’s book

“Andrew and Louise Third at Integra Communications, who believed in me and encouraged me as well as breathing new life into my PR.  The press coverage they have obtained for me has been entirely positive so far which I believe reflects their integrity and purity of intent.”

Women in Rural Enterprise (WiRE) is a national organisation which helps women in rural areas either to start up or expand a business.  WiRE offers its members access to a national quarterly magazine, a website with member notice board, virtual network, free listing on the rural marketplace and business resources, reduced rates at national shows and exhibitions, PR and media opportunities.

The Brief

WiRE appointed Integra Communications to:

•Raise brand awareness on a national level

• Build membership

• Gain PR coverage for WiRE member businesses

• Help with lobbying and policy information

• Help with inclusion in funding bids and projects

“We chose Integra because of their expertise in the enterprise sector and, particularly, their contacts and interest in women’s enterprise.”

The Campaign

Integra Communications helped organise the first WiRE conference in 2005 which attracted over 200 members.  Louise was invited to speak on ‘How to work with the Media’ alongside Kitty Corrigan, features editor of Country Living magazine. Integra went on to PR the Annual Conferences and several regional conferences between 2006 and 2008.

A campaign of regular press releases followed aimed at national and regional media including trade titles such as Regeneration and Renewal.

WiRE team and members regularly appeared on BBC Radio 4 Farming Today, BBC TV Countryfile and BBC TV Working Lunch. Farmers’ weekly, Farm Life and The Farmers’ Guardian ran features in early 2008.<

Around 20 WiRE members were the subject of features in trade press and lifestyle press including titles such as Country Living; She and Craft Magazine.

Results

The profile of WiRE was undoubtedly raised and membership grew and is continuing to grow.  WiRE and its members also received a greater understanding about how PR works.  “It’s not just about thrashing out a press release but has to be sustained and long term.”

“It felt like Louise was part of the WiRE team.  She made life much easier for us and I know she worked above and beyond the call of duty in promoting WiRE.”