PR Case Study: Monarch – The Power of Nice

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Monarch and Tin Man sought to recapture ‘The Power of Nice’ with the first in a series of PR activations for airline Monarch’s 2017: The Year of Nice, after science-led research showed Monarch that its customers value manners, politeness and courtesy.

‘The Power of Nice’

Campaign: Monarch – The Power of Nice
Client: Monarch
PR Team: Tin Man
Timing: February – March 2017

Objectives

Monarch is a value airline and holiday company competing with the likes of Easyjet, RyanAir and Jet2. It wanted to increase “warmth” towards the brand, amplify its ATL strapline ‘Our people make us’ and give itself a more distinct personality.

Through a creative brand campaign, Tin Man was tasked with delivering buzz, coverage and awareness for Monarch – particularly in national broadsheet media.

Strategy

The world has become a pretty unkind place, with Brexit, Trump and economic uncertainty dominating the headlines.

Monarch’s key audience demographic is described as ‘Prestige Positions’ – a group who are 50 plus, financially secure, play an active role in family life and who value traditional, good customer service; something Monarch is great at.

Our research and planning showed that this audience is yearning for a return to the traditional values of politeness, manners and courtesy. As a holiday company, Monarch can’t cure all the world’s ills but it can make the travel experience nicer – one flight at a time.

Based on our insight and Monarch’s brand values, we devised the campaign platform – 2017: The Year of Nice – a celebration of traditional values that not only leads the PR comms strategy, but is also at the heart of Monarch’s above-the-line strategy.

Tin Man is bringing this strategy to life via four creative brand activations across the year, the first of which launched this month.

The Power of Nice

This campaign sets the context for the rest of the year, and begins to associate Monarch with being the ‘nicer’ low-cost travel brand.

It had three key phases, which enabled us to deliver blanket coverage:

1: How nice do you think you are?

As a launch pad, we polled over 2,000 respondents to determine how nice the UK population think they are and the anecdotal benefits of being nice, including how this positively correlates with self-quantified levels of health, success and happiness.

2: The science behind being nice

Following the research results, we conducted a scientific study with Goldsmith’s University to delve deeper, and understand the true power of being nice. We used ground-breaking FaceReaderTM technology to measure micro facial expressions when affronted with aversive visual and audio stimuli. This measured ‘niceness’ in biological terms.

Our study found there was a correlation between nicer people being healthier, happier and more successful. We also proved that Monarch staff are significantly nicer than the rest of the UK population.

3: The Nice Initiative

To embed the Power of Nice strategy throughout the business, Monarch put its money where its mouth was and launched The Nice Initiative to reward passengers simply for being nice. Customer service staff now have the ability to reward ‘nice’ passengers with extra leg-room upgrades or priority check-in, free of charge.

We have three further ‘nice’ creative campaigns launching across the year. Watch this space.

Results

This first campaign moment has delivered like no other. In just three weeks, Tin Man secured:

  • 118 pieces of coverage overall
  • 38 national pieces, including The Times, The Telegraph, MailOnline, The Independent, the Guardian and The Sun
  • Coverage secured in every daily national newspaper (and online version) at least once and up to four times
  • Coverage has gone international, with Australia, New Zealand, the US, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain and France covering The Power of Nice – a true indicator of impact
  • Early reports from the contact centre are showing an increased volume of bookings and the genuine surprise and delight of customers who’ve received free upgrades for being nice

And we have a happy client…

David Page, head of comms at Monarch, said: “So far, Tin Man has combined spot-on strategic insight with thoughtful creativity and a deep understanding of what sparks media interest. They then rolled their sleeves up and delivered a stand-out first phase of our campaign. Couldn’t be happier.”

RAVE wins comms brief for global stroller brand Goodbaby

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Marketing agency RAVE has been appointed by Columbus Trading Partners UK, part of Goodbaby International Group, to provide PR support around two of its national premium brands: Cybex and gb.

Goodbaby

Established in 2005, Cybex is a global company known for its luxurious car seats and strollers. The gb brand was later established in 2015 and offers “futuristic products for the modern family”.

RAVE will provide PR, social media, and creative and design support.

John Wilford, MD at RAVE, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Cybex and gb. Having already worked with baby product companies, Graco and Britax, we have a great insight into the industry and we’re really pleased to be adding these global brands to our portfolio of clients.”

PCA Predict hands global brief to Clarity PR

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PCA Predict, an address validation tech company, has appointed Clarity PR as its global comms agency.

PCA Predict founders – Guy Mucklow and Jamie Turner

Founded in 2001 by British technology entrepreneurs Guy Mucklow and Jamie Turner, PCA Predict processes millions of online transactions for some of the world’s largest retail organisations.

More than 11,000 customers worldwide use PCA Predict’s cloud-based address management and verification tools to ensure customer address data is accurate and verified during online checkout.

Customers include ASOS, Pizza Hut, Virgin Holidays, Everlast and HSBC.

Over the past year the business has expanded into the USA and mainland Europe. Clarity PR’s brief includes B2B comms, content creation and strategy, as well as locally delivered campaigns.

Chris Boaz, head of marketing for PCA Predict, said: “Not only is Clarity’s team smart, enthusiastic and creative, it has the international reach and integrated approach that’s uniquely suited to our ambitious growth plans.

“Having recently introduced major hires in Germany and launched a new brand – Addressy – into the North American market, we are entirely focused on building our in-market business and brand in those markets. Clarity is the perfect partner to help us do that.”

Sara Collinge, UK MD at Clarity PR, added: “PCA Predict’s technology is behind online checkouts for some of the best known retailers on the planet so we’re excited to be helping them crank up their comms efforts and expand into international markets.

“As our footprint matches with PCA Predict’s current business we believe we’re well placed to work on building on its market leading position in the UK, and growing its reputation amongst ecommerce companies in Germany and North America.”

The Climate Group makes two senior comms hires

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International not-for-profit, The Climate Group, has hired Luke Herbert as director of international communications and Nazneen Nawaz as head of media and corporate communications.

Luke Herbert

Herbert joins The Climate Group from Madano, the integrated communications consultancy, where he was director, working with multinational energy businesses and industry.

Previously, he spent seven years as head of government affairs at Jaguar Land Rover, focusing on UK and international stakeholder issues.

Herbert’s career combines external relations with a background in sustainable development, including spells with the Department for International Development (DFID) in Cairo and Shell International in The Hague.

He said: “Communications is central to The Climate Group’s remit, which is what really attracted me to the role. The organisation brings together the world’s leading businesses and sub national governments to drive climate action through high profile events such as Climate Week NYC to campaigns such as RE100, committing businesses to 100% renewable power”.

Also joining the organisation is former Arts Council England head of media, Nazneen Nawaz, in the role of head of media and corporate communications.

Reporting to Herbert, she will be responsible for leading the organisation’s global media strategy, integrated communications campaigns for key initiatives and reputation management.

She added: “The Climate Group has established itself as a leading and forward thinking climate organisation globally. I look forward to working with the team to heighten the impact of our communications.”

Helen Clarkson, chief executive at The Climate Group, said: “Communications across business leaders and all levels of government is critical in helping to secure clean energy solutions and innovative policies. By strengthening our communications team, I am confident that we can help to increase the momentum of climate action in the coming years.”

markettiers Manchester moves office

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The Manchester arm of broadcast consultancy markettiers has moved to a new base at the Neo workspace on Charlotte Street.

Manchester’s Neo development

The move follows the growth of the Manchester office which launched six years ago, and which recently announced the appointment of three new team members, including a new general manager.

Recently appointed general manager Josh Wheeler said: “This is a real milestone for markettiers in Manchester – and a real statement of intent and commitment to the area.

“Neo is the ideal location for us due to its digital capabilities, as well being an environment that can handle and support future planned expansion. The space at Neo allows us to host social events with the local PR community – which begins today with the Manchester PR Agency Pub Quiz.”

Chris Oglesby, CEO at property company Bruntwood, added: “We are delighted to launch this new evolved workspace and to have attracted such a wealth of creative customers, such as markettiers.”

markettiers also has offices in London and Dubai.

 

Abchurch retained by Myanmar investment company

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Abchurch has been retained by Myanmar Investments Limited, a Myanmar-focused investment company, as its financial and corporate communications adviser.

Tim Thompson

In 2013, Myanmar Investments Limited began trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, when it was established to act as a conduit for overseas investors looking to invest in Myanmar entrepreneurs and businesses.

Tim Thompson, senior partner at Abchurch, said: “We have had a very strong start to 2017, and indications are that this is set to continue across all sectors and internationally.”

Consilium and Westwicke form healthcare partnership

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Healthcare PR firm Consilium Strategic Communications has launched a joint venture with US healthcare-focused investor relations and capital markets advisory firm Westwicke Partners.

The Consilium team

Consilium and Westwicke already support shared clients, but the new partnership will see the two teams work together to provide healthcare focused investor relations advisory and communications programmes, both in the US and internationally.

Mary-Jane Elliott, managing partner at Consilium Strategic Communications, said: “We are pleased to be formalising our relationship with Westwicke which further expands our international offering in US IR and strengthens our ability to reach the increasingly important US investor community.”

Consilium and Westwicke have offices in London, Baltimore, Boston, New York, San Diego and San Francisco.

Tom McDonald, managing director at Westwicke Partners, added: “Consilium has established itself as the leading independent strategic communications consultancy in Europe. Its team is known as a leader in the international healthcare sector and we are delighted to be building on our already strong relationship through this new joint venture.”

Edinburgh-based start-up ZoneFox appoints Aspectus

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Aspectus, the specialist communications agency for the financial services, energy, technology and engineering sectors, has been appointed by Edinburgh-based cyber security start-up ZoneFox to deliver its UK communications programme.

Sophie Hodgson

The agency’s appointment follows its project to launch ZoneFox’s Augmented Intelligence machine learning platform. Alongside a traditional PR programme, Aspectus will work with ZoneFox to deliver a fully-integrated search and pay-per-click (PPC) programme.

Lynsey Jenkins, marketing director at ZoneFox, said: “Aspectus is proactive, creative and has an innate understanding of the security market. Acting as our brand ambassador and delivering a constant source of press opportunities, Aspectus will massively help ZoneFox elevate our brand in a very noisy market and engage with our audiences around our User Behaviour Analytics (UBA) platform, technical expertise and USPs.”

ZoneFox specialises in security systems that combat the business issue of insider threats.

Sophie Hodgson, head of technology at Aspectus, added: “ZoneFox is such a fast paced, dynamic and exciting company. We’re thrilled to be working with it, and have already seen some great results.

“Moving forward we want to utilise our expertise and relationships in order to establish the company as the authority on User Behaviour Analytics and the insider threat by promoting its award-winning technology and Jamie and the team’s expertise across multiple channels.”

 

 

Gong Communications launches ‘purpose’ offering

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B2B PR and marketing agency, Gong Communications, has partnered with Destria Partners to launch an offering that will help organisations to “define and activate their corporate purpose”.

Narda Shirley

Ethical leadership expert John O’Brien will lead the Destria Partners team of purpose strategists to provide a range of services that helps organisations to link their business objectives to society, create ethical policies and practices, develop purpose-driven products and services, inspire employees and educate and engage with wider stakeholder networks.

Narda Shirley, managing director at Gong Communications, said: “In today’s complex and challenging world, thriving businesses are the ones that promise something more meaningful – they have purpose. Having a clear purpose can inspire people, build trust and drive growth. Through the launch of our purpose offering we can help organisations to realise this potential.”

O’Brien has worked with over half of the companies in the FTSE 100, as well as an array of high-net worth individuals, governments and not-for-profits.

He added: “Inspiring and effective communication is integral to empowering businesses to work towards a shared purpose and achieving the positive results of marrying corporate objectives with clear social goals. Partnering with Gong bolsters our cross-sector capabilities to give clients the best possible team to deliver fresh thinking and first-class programme delivery.”

 

Ruder Finn UK appoints Shelley Facius as head of technology

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Juice PR founder Shelley Facius has joined Ruder Finn as its new head of technology. She will be responsible for growing the practice, working with the agency’s UK and global teams, and providing senior counsel to clients.

Shelley Facius

With more than 20 years of experience in PR and comms, Facius has held director-level roles at Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Fleishman Hillard, and Spreckley Partners, in addition to in-house positions with Oracle and Coretech, a WPP company.

Facius is a former vice president of WPR (Women in PR) and is currently a WPR committee member. She is a mentor in the PR Week Mentoring Programme and has been an elected member of the PRCA’s PR Council.

She also had her own consultancy, Juice PR, for more than five years, with clients including Sage X3 and Strato  – part of Deutsche Telekom.

Nick Leonard, UK MD at Ruder Finn, said: “Technology is hugely important to our business, as it underpins pretty much every industry and so many aspects of our life. With Shelley’s experience and drive I am positive that we can accelerate growth in our successful tech proposition, as well as working towards owning the health-tech communications space.”

Facius added: “I’m very excited to be joining Ruder Finn at a time of huge opportunity for the business. Working with the global tech practice led from the US, there is significant potential for international business development and collaboration with divisions like healthcare and internal communications. The open and honest culture is also one that suits me well.”