Month: April 2015

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Awarding Service

Public Sector Communications Awards shortlisted badge

We love producing great work for our clients and in-house concepts but it’s nice to receive some recognition from your peers that you’re doing something right.

So we are proud to be named on the shortlist for Best Large Agency in the UK Public Sector Communications Awards 2015

The UK Public Sector Communication Awards celebrate and reward excellent communication strategies and campaigns, teams and individuals in local and national government, emergency services and not-for-profit bodies from across the UK.

The awards take place on Thursday July 9 at The Emirates Stadium in London which is great news for our PR manager Chris Sealey, who’s an Arsenal fan.

It’s the latest acknowledgement of a strong year for #TeamDTW. In March we won the PRMoment award for Internal Communications Campaign of the Year jointly with Coast & Country Housing for the “I am Coast & Country campaign, based around our video.

This followed on from winning the CIPR North East’s Pride Gold award for the Hartlepool Vision project jointly with Hartlepool Borough Council.

We’re looking forward to it already!

#PSCAwards

PS – in other good news this week we’re back in PR Week’s Top 150 PR agencies in the UK – making an appearance at number 142 – which also puts us in the top 10 agencies in the north of England.

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CIPR’s new President on the organisation’s focus for 2015

Photo of S Pinch, CIPR president

Sarah Pinch is managing director of Pinch Point Communications, President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and a non-executive director for the Health and Safety Executive. Here DTW invites her to talk about her priorities  as president of the CIPR for 2015.

Every year the CIPR elects a new President, and after three years as the chair of the CIPR in the South West and many more as an active member, I am this year’s President. I came to office on February 1, as I was still on maternity leave in January. This was a first for the institute; and a reflection on how the work already highlighted here, by Sarah Hall my board colleague, on gender pay and gender equality in PR is central to making membership meaningful to CIPR members.

I was elected to focus on four areas and this is shaping my mission and the mission of the board for this year:

  • To make membership more meaningful to clients and employers
  • For the CIPR to stand up for a profession confident in its high standards and able to demonstrate its value
  • For the Code of Conduct and our CPD system to be positioned as assets that build trust in our practice
  • To reach audiences beyond the industry.

It’s my privilege and responsibility to lead a membership body that is represented by four foundations of professional standards in public relations, and thereby in turn we hope to influence business to understand what it means to be professional. Professionalism for members of the CIPR includes:

  • Being held accountable to a code of conduct,
  • Having the right skills or qualifications to carry out their role,
  • Being engaged in continuing professional development, and
  • Enabling the public to find validation of these points in a way that can be easily accessed and understood.

This means we have a busy, exciting and challenging year ahead. I hope many of you will join us.

 

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And They’re Off! The General Election Sweepstakes

Grand National
And They're Off!

The 2015 General Election is almost too close to call, but that doesn’t stop any of us trying.

We asked a few friends of DTW whose opinions we trust and respect to give us their views on who will be running the show come 8 May. Interesting reading!

David Cameron will be happy with the predictions as most respondents see him remaining as Prime Minister but half say it might not be for too long. The most popular scenario here is him remaining as PM and attempting to govern as a minority administration while one foresees a loose coalition between the Conservative party and the SNP – stranger things have happened.

The performance of UKIP could be critical here in the number of seats they could deliver to any potential coalition and all respondents saw them increasing their current tally of two, but whether it is one more or three more to a total of five MPs will be interesting to see.

Respondents were split on the turnout of the election, with half expecting an increase on 2010 and half expecting that to fall.

A range of key issues were suggested as to what would have the main influence in the election, but the most popular was the economy.

Steph Edusei – Chief Executive, A New View Ltd 

  1. Which party or parties will form the next government? Labour minority government – although I do think this will be a very close call
  2. Who will be Prime Minister after the election?  Ed Miliband
  3. How many parliamentary seats will UKIP have on 8 May? Five
  4. What will the turnout be? 64.3% (I think people are fed up of hearing about it all. Turnout in N. Ireland, Scotland and Wales will probably boost lackluster performance in England).
  5. What factors do you think will play a key role in the election? The NHS, the economy, immigration, social care (quality and cost particularly for older people)
Steph Edusei

Hugh O’Connor – General Manager, Merseylink 

  1.  Which party or parties will form the next government? Conservative & the SNP with some sort of loose alliance – although Labour & Conservative will be very close. Nicola Sturgeon could be far more influential as a Deputy PM than Nick Clegg.
  2. Who will be Prime Minister after the election? David Cameron (if he retains his seat) but Boris is waiting in the wings…
  3. How many parliamentary seats will UKIP have on 8 May? I suspect around five
  4. What will the turnout be? 61.5%
  5. What factors do you think will play a key role in the election? Overall performance on camera and quality of sound bites, in particular who comes across as the most genuine, although there is lots of time and room for any one of them to blot their copybook in the run-in
Hugh O'Connor

Ross Smith – Director of Policy, North East Chamber of Commerce 

  1. Which party or parties will form the next government? The Conservatives. They may lose some seats in England, but if the polls are anywhere near accurate in Scotland they could still remain the largest party. I’m not sure if they will find coalition partners though so they may attempt a minority government with the possibility of a quick European referendum
  2. Who will be Prime Minister after the election? David Cameron – although for how long is another matter
  3. How many parliamentary seats will UKIP have on 8 May? Three
  4. What will the turnout be? 66%
  5. What factors do you think will play a key role in the election? I think deep down, a large proportion of the electorate have a gut instinct for which of the two main parties they would prefer to lead a government, and I don’t think too many people have changed their minds on that since 2010
Ross Smith

Chris Taylor, Managing Director, DTW 

  1. Which party or parties will form the next government? I think the Conservatives will be the largest party but won’t have enough seats for an overall majority, so will try to form a minority administration
  2. Who will be Prime Minister after the election? David Cameron
  3. How many parliamentary seats will UKIP have on 8 May? Four
  4. What will the turnout be? 67%
  5. What factors do you think will play a key role in the election? Party leaders and trust in economic competence
Chris Taylor