TALKING BUSINESS
BALLYHOO MAKES A BIG NOISE IN THE PR INDUSTRY
Ballyhoo PR is an award-winning PR firm which has gone from strength to strength since it launched three years ago. Company director EMMA SPEIRS reveals what drove her to start the business and her exciting plans for the future.
The driving force behind Ballyhoo PR is a familiar face to many Chamber members. Before launching her business, company director Emma Speirs had an exciting career in public relations and publishing, including spending seven years at Northamptonshire Chamber of Commerce where she edited inbusinessmagazine. Emma left the Chamber to become a senior account manager
at a PR firm but in 2016 she decided to use more than a decade’s experience of working in in-house and agency roles to strike out on her own and launch her own PR and copywriting company for small to medium-sized businesses. Emma said: “I started the business for a lot of reasons that,
over time, became harder to ignore! When I was at the Chamber, members asked me if I could ‘do their PR’. I always declined saying I wasn’t able to and would signpost them to our members’ directory. “I was approached by a friend who asked if I wanted to set up
a graphic design and web agency offering PR services. We got as far as writing a business plan but then I had my second child and it wasn’t the right time, although I knew it would happen one day. “Then in March 2016, my husband and I went to New
York for a long weekend. We talked about how unhappy I was at work. By now we had two children and the agency I was with wouldn’t allow you to work from home and annual leave or time off in lieu had to be booked seven days before. There was no flexibility and it wasn’t working for me and my family. I decided in New York all I needed to do was find clients and I could work for myself from home and it would fit my life as a parent a bit better.” Ballyhoo PR initially operated from a home office
‘THERE’S A
MISCONCEPTION THAT PR IS A
LUXURY ONLY AFFORDED BY BIG COMPANIES’
but in the past year the growing firm has opened a new office and Emma has been joined by PR executive Katie Graves. The firm won the Corby Award for Best New Business in
October 2017 and earlier this year Emma received national coverage in a Daily Mail feature on people who suffer from imposter syndrome. Emma explained: “The journalist wanted to talk to women
aged 30 plus who are successful at work but privately lack self- confidence. It resonated with me so I put myself forward. “When the article was published, I was overwhelmed by the
response. Women were openly posting on my social media platforms that they felt the same while men were messaging me privately to say the same thing. It was as though men felt they couldn’t admit to feeling this way, which is sad. I was even approached by another mum who told me she was part of a gender equality panel at work and was going to raise my comments that being a mum with a career means you stretch yourself so thinly that you don’t feel good enough at anything. She said that rather than making things more flexible for women in the workplace, we need to look at making it easier for men to do more
at home and even things up a little. It made me proud that my comments might make a difference somewhere.” Today, Ballyhoo PR has an exciting list of clients which means Emma and Katie can be writing an article on honeymoons for a wedding magazine one minute and an internal newsletter for a doctors’ surgery the next. Emma said: “We don’t work with one particular sector or niche. I set up Ballyhoo PR to offer SMEs cost-effective PR and
copywriting services that can help them to share their story and raise their profile. There’s a misconception that PR is a luxury only afforded by big companies but it can be a really cost effective way of getting your messages out there. “Once upon a time, PR was largely about getting
coverage with third party media but now we can all publish our own content through websites, blogs and social media, PR covers the whole spectrum. We like to work with businesses to ensure the same tone of voice and language is used consistently. “We also help companies to write award entries and have
been really successful in getting many local companies through to the finals of regional and national awards. “Looking ahead I’d like to work with more medium-sized
businesses as their outsourced PR and Comms team for a few days a month, covering everything from a press office function to writing their blogs and managing their social media for them. “I also have plans to launch a PR club or academy in the next
six to 12 months. I’d like to take a small group of people and teach them how to do their own PR and get results. People would sign up for six lessons and each lesson will cover a different theme. By the end they’ll be able to secure their own coverage. This is something I’m really passionate about doing but keep pushing it back as we’ve been so busy.”
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 inbusiness 35
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