Month: July 2018

Categories
News

What happened when Katie stood in for the Queen

An old vintage radio and a figurine of the Queen

Katie Mitchell is a Junior Creative at DTW specialising in film and digital engagement. Oh, and she does a nice sideline in standing in for members of the Royal Family. Here’s her story of the opening of the Mersey Gateway Bridge.

There was much excitement in the DTW office when we were first told Her Majesty the Queen and Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Sussex would be officially opening the Mersey Gateway Bridge.

From the PR and social media teams, to the animation and video crew – it was all hands on deck to get everything ready for the big day. I was even asked to stand in for the Queen during our preparation walkthrough, turns out she’s just as short as me!

On the day, we produced a short film to accompany a dance piece which took the audience on a journey through the history of how locals crossed the river over the years, right up to the construction of the Mersey Gateway Bridge. Her Majesty even commented on how much she enjoyed learning about the bridge’s history, which was also an experience I thoroughly enjoyed whilst working on the edit.

A right royal do

Our camera crews were granted permission to work alongside the royal rota on the day of the event, which was a big deal as it meant we were able to capture a close and personal insight of the events. From the moment Her Majesty arrived at Runcorn Train Station, to her appearance at the event in Widnes where she officially opened the Mersey Gateway Bridge, we were able to capture the exciting atmosphere. This certainly was a memorable day and from the smiles and laughs we captured, we are sure the Royals enjoyed it as much as us.

Despite the strong winds, and my disbelief at how perfect Meghan’s hair continued to look, the whole day went smoothly and we were able to produce a short video displaying the highlights of the day. This was then sent to the royal household for approval – a process which I was very excited about as I like to think Her Majesty sat and watched it herself.

Katie

 

DTW has provided strategic communications, PR, video and design support to the Mersey Gateway team since 2006 and it was thoroughly fantastic to capture such an exciting piece of history for them.

Categories
News

DTW picks up awards for infrastructure PR at PRCA DARE awards

Photo of Lorna and Hayley collecting the PRCA DARE Award

Our specialism in infrastructure PR and communications has been paying dividends.

We’re proud to say we have picked up two PRCA DARE awards – one for our work on the Northern Spire project with Sunderland City Council, which was awarded Best Public Sector Campaign, whilst work on projects like Mersey Gateway and others in the infrastructure sector was critical in helping us secure the Best Large Consultancy award.

We’re really chuffed with both of them – as it recognises our passionate and talented team delivering customer-focused solutions to achieve outstanding results for our clients.

The judges comments were great – they said “DTW felt fresh” and that the campaign work “demonstrated excellent planning, strong focus and clear objectives with a view to delivering great results”.

We know the value big infrastructure projects bring to UK plc – and we love PR and comms – so combining the two is great fun, really rewarding and full of hard work.

If you want to know more about our approach we’ve blogged about it enough times from the building blocks of good community engagement to case studies about Mersey Gateway and making best use of drones.

We also love a good chat – so just give us a call and we’ll be happy to see how we can help you.The PRCA DARE awards aim to recognise the best campaigns from across the north of England so for us to be winning against agencies from Leeds, Manchester and elsewhere was a real feather in the cap for us.

As well as strategic PR and marketing work we’ve also launched video and animation divisions in recent years and the team are working for clients from as far afield as Paris on infrastructure projects around the world.

David Abdy, Northern Spire Project Director for Sunderland City Council, said: “We’ve put communications at the heart of the Northern Spire work so it is great for the project to be recognised in this way. DTW have been a key part of the team here on site and we’re very pleased to pick up this award.”

Categories
Insights

Twitter: When brands break up

Screenshot of Twitter post from @virginmedia

**Editors note: This blog was originally published on 24th July 2018, with all details correct at the time of publication. The dispute between UKTV and Virgin Media has now been resolved, with an announcement on 11th August 2018 stating the two had reached a ‘long term agreement’ reinstating all of UKTV’s channels and services to Virgin Media.

Breakups – we’ve all been through them. The boyfriend who refused to wash his socks, the girlfriend who lost your cat, or the friend you realised you actually have nothing in common with. Accusations thrown around, harsh words said in the moment. Sound familiar? I thought as much. So, let’s all agree we can relate as we grab our boxes of popcorn and watch the spat currently playing out between UKTV and Virgin Media in the very public arena of Twitter.

Now, I’m not here to comment on who’s right or wrong in what is clearly a complicated negotiation of contracts and something I know nothing about. Instead, I’m going to happily sit here in my comfort zone and analyse who’s doing the better job of managing their reputation and communicating with their audience. (TLDR*? It’s UKTV)

So, before we begin, I’ll catch you up on what the issue is here. Around four million Virgin Media households have lost access to 10 UKTV channels following a dispute over fees. Virgin Media have said that UKTV are “holding back channels” and asking for “inflated sums of money for its paid channels like Gold.” UKTV have said that Virgin Media want to “drastically cut” the fee they pay for their channels and UKTV just can’t afford to take the hit. Got it? Good– let’s go!

The news first broke on 19thJuly and since then UKTV have tweeted about it (including retweets, not including replies) 19 times, whilst Virgin Media are trailing behind with a slightly less impressive 3**. Now, whilst I’ll usually champion the whole “quality over quantity” approach, in this situation, with such a major change to the package they pay for, Virgin’s customers want to be kept updated with conversation about what’s going on. They want to know that this issue is at the forefront of Virgin Media’s minds. And, most importantly, they want to feel as though something is being done about it. 19 tweets say, we’re here and we’re concerned, three tweets in the space of 6 days doesn’t really cut the mustard.

Screenshot of Twitter post from @virginmedia
Screenshot of Twitter post from @UKTV

As with the tone of most arguments, it’s all a little “he said, she said.” But if we compare the tweets being put out by each account, UKTV have done a great job of putting Virgin’s customers first, whilst explaining their own point of view. Virgin Media on the other hand are taking an approach more concerned with directing the blame away from themselves and trying to instigate a manhunt for UKTV. Not very classy. It’s worth noting that at the time of writing, Virgin Media haven’t issued any tweets about why they’re asking for more money from UKTV.

Whilst we’re here, I’d like to do a quick shout out here to UKTV’s use of video throughout all of this. Great use of video is so important in social media and has been for a long time. Platforms like Twitter want to show it, audiences want to engage with it and it’s way more personal than a press release.

Whilst Virgin Media have posted a video, it’s a recording of a BBC News clip showing their Chief Digital Entertainment Officer giving his statement, retweeted from the Virgin Media Corporate Twitter account which isn’t even remotely consumer facing. Come on guys, let’s try a little harder…like our friends over at UKTV. They’ve issued two of their own pieces of video, presented by their General Manager for Comedy and Entertainment channels, straight to camera so he’s directly addressing the audience, making them feel acknowledged and heard. And the content hits the mark too, clearly explaining UKTV’s point of view, recognising Virgin Media customers’ frustrations and apologising. Whilst this is turning into a bit of a love letter to UKTV, I will give credit to both brands here – their choice of spokesperson is spot on.

Choosing someone who is clearly in charge and is directly involved in the situation is important as it gives them authority and credibility.

UKTV Tweet:

Virgin media Tweet:

When it comes to engaging with their audience, in this situation it’s incredibly important. Not only to provide them with good service, but to manage your reputation and influence how customers perceive your brand. To their credit, Virgin Media have done a great job of responding to frustrated customers and haven’t just ignored their complaints. On the other hand, as we can see in the examples below, a lot of their replies are obviously coming from a batch of stock responses.

Screenshot of Twitter responses
Screenshot of Twitter responses
Screenshot of Twitter responses
Screenshot of Twitter responses
Screenshot of Twitter responses
Screenshot of Twitter responses

Now, don’t get me wrong – stock responses can be very useful, but they start to become problematic when responses are required in such high volume. Although very handy for your workload, they do come across as robotic and lacking in personal touch.

And it doesn’t go unnoticed:

Screenshot of Twitter responses
Screenshot of Twitter responses

So, this blog is getting a little long, so I’ll wrap things up. What can we all learn from this? It’s not that Virgin Media have done anything outstandingly bad here, they haven’t.

But UKTV have done a much better job at engaging with their audience and promoting themselves as a brand who put their viewers first.

My main takeaways are:

  1. Keep those stakeholders primarily affected, such as customers, at the forefront of your communications
  2. Engage your audience with meaningful conversation
  3. Use engaging and informative video to convey your messages

Hannah

*Psst! In case you’re not into internet abbreviations, TLDR = Too long, didn’t read, although that’s probably not relevant given the length of this one!

**Accurate at the time of publishing.