MARKETING
Who’s in the game? Eric Dixon, of Property Publicity, is a former broadcast journalist. His team also have journalistic backgrounds, a grounding, he says, for the success they have in catapulting their small agency clients up into the big boys’ game. They handle PR for a host of regional independents, including Mullucks Wells in East Anglia and Wilkinson Grant in Devon, as well as the prime brand Fine, with 30 offices. “We get good results for agents, getting
them on the same pages as Savills and Jackson-Stops,” says Dixon. “The key thing to consider is the reason a journalist is interested in a property is not the same as the potential buyers’. We have uncovered really remarkable stories behind the properties and that is down to our team of journalists here. “An agency may do better than an in
house PR because we get the helicopter view. With the best will in the world, in-house PR is blinkered by stories the company wants to push. We are not bound by office politics or fear of the boss over us.”
‘We have been able to provide comment and case studies and enabled us to
be on the radar when the press needs interesting ideas.’ JUne ingLis FinDeRs KeePeRs
Dixon claims great success with the way
they pitch stories, and says they have the nationals coming to them to fill space. “Are we value for money? It is measured
by column inches. Our job is to position the right story in front of the right journalist. However, getting editorial is not just about selling the property, it is primarily about brand awareness, getting the name of the agent onto the radar of the people who matter.” His client Dean Heaviside, director of
Fine, feels Dixon is doing a good job. “We’ve been very impressed by the way Property Publicity works. Within the first few weeks of taking them on, we received tens of thousands of pounds’ worth of editorial coverage in major national newspapers and magazines,” says Heaviside. “It has already made a noticeable difference to our brand.” Media Matters also employs former
journalists – poachers turned gamekeepers – with a keen eye on what makes a story.
36 APRIL 2011 PROPERTYdrum
They handle anything from a full-blown marketing campaign to holding the hand of a small business with no PR experience. One satisfied customer is Nick Salmon, MD of Harrison Murray, with 18 branches across Leicestershire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. “We believe the contacts and expertise of a good PR agency are worth their weight in gold,” he says. “We consistently achieve high levels of press coverage and can react quickly to requests for stories from journalists.”
What gets into PRint? Where the top end agencies score heavily is the investment they have put into their research departments. They can produce data which has instant newspaper appeal.
An agency might do better than an in-house PR because we get the helicopter view.’
Barely a week goes by without Savills’ research getting a plug in the press. “Stories about the most expensive street
in Britain guarantee column inches,” says Deborah Battsek, who began her PR career with Savills, but has run her own business for 17 years. “Research departments give the agency a very strong profile. I’m encouraging some clients to produce local research, I don’t believe in ‘the’ market – there are micro-markets everywhere. This benefits the business hugely; editors love it and the consumer likes it too.“ The way PR work now is virtually
unrecognisable from 20 years ago, says Battsek. Competition for reduced editorial space demands a more creative approach. “It has never been tougher, but it has never been more important. The power of the written word has a tremendous impact on the credibility of the business.” Rachel Colgan worked in the PR agency
at Trimedia, looking after press for a number of British house builders. She left to set up an in-house PR team for Barratt Homes Southern Region, so has worked both sides of the fence. “Barratt had been with an agency, but
costs were getting expensive. Gary Ennis, the Regional MD for Barratt Southern, also wanted a different kind of PR,” says Rachel. “Property pages (in newspapers) are not as thick as they used to be, so we wanted to generate stories which would appear in news pages. I do that by building community relations, working closely with schools and local residents.” Rachel’s team of three works directly
with five divisions of the company and she feels she has a better understanding of the firm’s needs than she did when working through PR agency line managers. “I’m working harder than I ever did in
my life,” she says, “but the team is happy with the service and I feel close to the company, with an understanding of what are their relevant issues.”
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