Perfect Circle PR

Perfect Circle PR was appointed by ALLOW in October 2010 to launch the brand and help it attract new members. ALLOW is an innovative consumer data marketplace, the first of its kind in the world, so the challenge was not only to launch a new consumer brand, but also to launch a whole new industry. A huge amount of education needed to be done amongst the general public, but also the marketing community.

ALLOW is a free, online service that people can use to regain control over their privacy and personal information by opting out of marketing databases and the edited electoral register. Members can also use it to filter what companies contact them and when. They do this by setting their ‘permissions’ (what types of companies they are interested in hearing from) and their ‘intentions’ (when they are in the market for a specific item and intend to make a purchase). Members can effectively turn their data into cash as ALLOW splits the profits it makes from selling the data to companies with those members.

Perfect Circle PR began by defining the consumer and business key messages for ALLOW and creating a hit-list of journalists that would be targeted as key advocates. These journalists were primarily from national publications, but covering a wide range of beats, from consumer, to personal finance, technology and media. Journalists were also identified from B2B publications in the marketing and technology industries, as well as online, national radio and entrepreneurial/ small business media.

The media relations strategy was to avoid standard news releases and focus on creative, bespoke story ideas, tailored for each individual publication. This approach reaped huge dividends: ALLOW got nine pieces of quality national coverage in its first three months since launch, including the front page of the Wall St. Journal and page six of the Sunday Times. During that period, the ALLOW CEO was also interviewed on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Five Live.

All media coverage was leveraged via the ALLOW blog, facebook page and twitter feed, building word-of-mouth online.

This coverage had a huge impact on the business, attracting over 12,000 new members and opening the doors to significant investors during the second round of funding. Put simply, Perfect Circle PR has put ALLOW on the map, and a lot of people are sitting up and taking notice.

Quakle is a new entrant in the peer-to-peer lending industry and appointed Perfect Circle PR to handle its launch PR and drive membership. PR was the main way that Quakle decided to spread the word about its entry in to the financial services market.

Perfect Circle PR ran a messaging workshop with the founders of the business to define the key messages for the campaign and prepare the spokespeople for media briefings. Perfect Circle PR also prepared all of the written materials such as backgrounders on the company and the founders, as well as the main news release.

The campaign generated widespread coverage including the Daily Express, Daily Telegraph, Times, Sunday Times, Independent on Sunday, Independent, Which?, lovemoney.com, ThisIsMoney and Yahoo.

William Grenier Godard, one of the two founders of Quakle said: “The return on investment for the PR campaign that Perfect Circle PR ran for us was excellent and far better than expected.”

Quakle experienced a significant jump in membership numbers and funded loan requests a result of the PR coverage it gained, plus a higher ranking in search engines, which is vital for an online business.

“Instant, coherent comments and no flannel. Superb PR.”

Joe McGrath, editor, What Investment

“As a journalist, I have worked with Joe for the past 10 years, during which time he has occupied various roles. The important things however have stayed the same; he is a professional, reliable and amicable communicator who has never failed to deliver.”

Laura Howard, freelance journalist

“Joe has brought a new dimension to the PR of Legal & General’s Housing Business. He has wide experience of our market and applies this well. He makes an effort to understand all aspects of the business and thinks about these when making decisions and recommending approaches. Always approachable and willing to help and advise and acts with integrity- a credit to his profession.”

Gary Burchett, Managing Director of Housing at Legal & General

“Joe has worked for the mortgage and housing areas of Legal & General for several years and is one of the most enthusiastic and effective PR Managers we have ever had. He is constantly on top of the market, managing our media contacts and pro-actively proposing content for us to deliver. Over the last couple of years our PR coverage in trade press has grown and grown and now pays for all our activity, including Joe’s costs, many times over.”

Stephen Smith, Director, Housing at Legal & General

“Joe is excellent at his role within L&G. He works hard to help and support us with all our PR needs and never misses an opportunity to generate positive press coverage for all of us! Very strong recommendation.”

Adrian Clark, Chief Operating Officer, Protection at Legal & General

“There are very few in our industry that have the ability to fully understand all relevant and topical stories, and combine this with proper creativity, cut-through and humour”

Ben Thompson, Director, Mortgages at Legal & General

“Joe was a great asset to the team at Abbey. He has a great news sense and strong journalist contacts. He is very insightful and had a real passion for the products he managed. He was a pleasure to work with and I would highly recommend him to anyone.”

Tracy North, former Senior Press Officer at Abbey

For further endorsements, please see Joe Wiggins’ LinkedIn page.