Hi Charlotte. What do you do?
“I'm Head of PR and Communications responsible for the UK & EMEA at Colliers International. My role includes internal and external comms and the Digital team that reports to me. We also have specialist teams for Marketing, BD, Events etc. and Social falls into everybody's remit.”
Why is stakeholder engagement important to your team?
“We've got to prove our worth.
We're in a businesses that's constantly looking at its costs and worrying about its brand and reputation. So they need proof points that what we do is working. And I think we have a responsibility to be as transparent as possible and demonstrate that we are achieving against the objectives that we've created for ourselves - and that the business has signed off on. The business needs to be reassured that it's getting a good return on investment.
I also think there's got to be an element of PR for the PR team. Surely, if we can't communicate our worth then we shouldn't be doing our jobs!”
Who are your stakeholders?
“All staff, including colleagues in Marketing, our Heads of departments and the CEO.”
How were you engaging them before Releasd?
“We had to produce a series of detailed monthly and quarterly reports for the UK business, and we were producing a lot of spreadsheets and different analytics that weren't particularly pretty. They were time-consuming to produce, and we weren't sure of the readership or open rate.”
Why did you adopt Releasd?
“People are looking for something short and concise; a one page overview. They just aren't reading long, detailed reports.
It was the ability to create reports that demonstrate results and include all different types of content in one place - coverage, broadcast, video, social - plus qual and quant measures.
We also felt that it would streamline our processes, and give us some analytics back in terms of engagement.”
“We've got to prove our worth. We're in a businesses that's constantly looking at its costs and worrying about its brand and reputation. So they need proof points that what we do is working.”
What impact has Releasd had?
“Everybody gets to see the coverage that we're achieving and how successful our work is. It’s really motivational for employees and gives them a sense of pride.
We’re able break things down into different integrated campaigns. Once a big event or campaign is over, it's quick to get back to our audiences to tell them what the results have been. We’re able to include the most quoted spokespeople, which gives them visibility within their own teams and demonstrates that they’re pulling their weight! We even talk about new joiners.
Because it’s very visual, it gives us the opportunity to demonstrate our results in a really sharp and concise way. We're able to present things in a much more digestible format than we were previously. When you're dealing with a time-poor audience in particular, giving them something quick, easy and image-led is really important.”