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Project PR has a brand new name and a brand new website. Rebranded in May 2011 as Genesis PR, we are a smart thinking, multi-award winning public relations agency that gets results.


To keep up-to-date on our new blog, please visit http://www.genesispr.co.uk/blog/.

SUFFOLK EMPLOYEE NAMED AS EAST ANGLIA’S YOUNG COMMUNICATOR OF THE YEAR

21 December 2009: Suffolk has notched up another first, with Helen Sharkey, an employee at PR agency Project PR being named as East Anglia’s ‘Young Communicator of the Year’ for 2009 by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Helen, who is 26 and from Felixstowe, was nominated for the award by her bosses at Project PR and her entry was endorsed by some of her clients, including East of England Regional Assembly (EERA). The judging process included a panel interview with three of the region’s most experienced PR experts, beating off stiff competition from five other finalists to scoop the top prize.

Judges selected Helen for her maturity and confidence as an excellent PR Account Manager. They said: “We were very impressed with Helen’s enthusiasm, attention to detail, passion for making a difference, desire to deliver the best possible results for her clients and breadth of work. She is without doubt a first class strategic thinker and an outstanding team player.”

Penny Arbuthnot, Director of Project PR added: “Helen’s results have been remarkable, yet she constantly strives for further improvement with each client, analysing and forward planning and using her excellent writing and media skills to best advantage. Helen is an outstanding young communicator on every front and we are thrilled she has won this award.”

Helen added: “I am shocked but excited and proud to have won the award which tops off what has been a great year for me. I really enjoy what I do, I have some great clients and am lucky to have a great team to work with at Project PR.”

Helen began her PR career working for Hutchison Ports UK as Corporate Affairs Officer based at the Port of Felixstowe. She joined Project PR in 2008 and has since been promoted to Account Manager. Her award was presented by Chartered Institute of Public Relations President Kevin Taylor on 7th December at the SAS Radisson hotel at Stansted. Over 120 PR practitioners from around the region attended the ceremony.

See www.projectpr.biz for further information about Project PR.

Ends

For further information please contact:

Helen Sharkey or Penny Arbuthnot at Project PR on 01473 326 401 (07885 238374)

Notes to Editors

1. Project PR and Marketing Ltd is based at: The Coach House, Reed Hall, Ipswich Road, Holbrook, Ipswich IP9 2QR. See www.projectpr.biz

2. The company was established in 1996 by Penny Arbuthnot and has grown to be a leading PR agency in the region now employing 6 staff.

3. In the 2009 CIPR Pride Awards for East Anglia Project PR won four Gold awards for Best Not-for-profit campaign (TBG Learning); Best Consumer Campaign (Ford Retail), Best Use of Social Media (Buster brand/National Plughole Week) and Best Young Communicator (Helen Sharkey). It also won two Silver awards for ‘Consultancy of the Year’ and ‘Best Use of Media Relations (Buster brand/National Plughole Week) .

4. In the 2007 Chartered Institute of Public Relations Pride awards Project PR won ‘Outstanding Small Consultancy’. It also won three further Gold awards for Consumer Relations (PR for the Ford Retail group of 55 dealerships); Best Website (for the Team Ipswich website) and Integrated Communications (a joint entry with Suffolk manufacturer Challs International).

5. Project PR works with a mix of private and public sector organisations handling local and national PR and marketing programmes.

Suffolk PR firm donates services to charity

Suffolk PR consultancy Project PR has adopted Ipswich Town Community Trust as its charity for 2010. The company will be donating its PR and media relations services to help build understanding of the Trust’s wide ranging work.

Penny Arbuthnot, Director of Project PR, says: “What struck me about the Community Trust is that it is carrying out some inspirational educational work with children and young people, although it’s currently known mainly for its soccer courses through the Ipswich Town link. As a company we like to put something back into our community and we’re delighted to help by giving our PR services to the Trust in 2010.”

Terry Baxter, Chief Executive, Ipswich Town Community Trust, said: “We are delighted to be offered this support by Penny and the team at Project PR who bring PR expertise and valuable extra resource. It’s given us a fantastic boost to our plans for 2010.”

Project PR will be helping to re-launch the Community Trust to the public, business, schools and the media. As well as free PR support it has donated £350 in cash in place of sending Christmas Cards to clients this year.

Ipswich Town Community Trust was established by Ipswich Town Football Club in 1996 to provide football in the community but since then has developed a much wider role. Over the past year more than 60,000 people have taken part in activities, which aim to raise achievement levels and promote active and healthy lifestyles, primarily through the medium of sport.

Project PR is one of East Anglia’s leading PR agencies and won four Gold and two Silver Awards in the 2009 Chartered Institute of Public Relations Pride Awards for East Anglia – more than any other PR agency or organisation in the region. See www.projectpr.biz

Managing bad news

One question that PR teams will be hearing regularly from management in these times of recession is “how do we tell our loyal employees the bad news?” Plenty of companies have been in the news recently with first class examples of how not to do this, but there have been very few cases of successful delivery of the words none of them want to hear.

The key to making redundancies or implementing pay cuts without causing too much heartache and protest is simple. Keep employees informed, involve them as much as possible in the planning stages, ask for their opinions, and recognise their loyalty to your business.

We all saw the pictures of protesters outside the MINI plant who turned up to work only to be told there were no longer jobs for any of them. They were given no prior warning, no explanation, and no financial help or training to help them find new employment. They felt as if they just didn’t matter.

If employees are involved in important decisions made by their employer then they will feel a sense of solidarity and ownership towards the business. They are more likely to club together and unite behind the cause, and will be more willing to take a day’s unpaid leave, or a pay cut, because they feel like their contribution is helping save the business they are proud to work for.

This recession is played out 24/7 on the news, radio and in the written press, and everyone knows what is happening. Employees understand that businesses across the world are struggling, and they are intelligent enough to know that no one is safe, including them. They will see other businesses on the news making redundancies, and will be hoping that it won’t happen in their workplace.

If you start to notice a slip in business, call a meeting to warn your staff. If you start thinking about redundancies, get your staff together to brainstorm other ways of saving money, and ask them what they would be prepared to sacrifice. If you really need to make people redundant, speak to them personally in advance, and offer anything you can to help make the process easier, such as one day training courses, days off to attend interviews, or excellent references. Don’t be scared of being honest. Your employees will respect you for this and will be much more cooperative.

Don’t forget the unions, which can be particularly influential, both positively and negatively, in these times. Involve them from the start, work with them, not against them, and they will be more likely to fight your corner. Hide things from them, and spring redundancies on employees, and they will incite protest, disloyalty and resentfulness.

Train your middle management and line managers to ensure they know the key messages and are capable of presenting to their reportees. Arm them with as much information as you can so they can answer anything the employees have to ask. If you are reading this and you are a senior manager, make yourself visible, speak to your staff and make sure they know just how important they are to you.

Finally, make sure your plans don’t get leaked to the press. They don’t want to read their job is in danger on the front page of the newspaper! They might just choke on their cornflakes!

SUFFOLK PR FIRM SHORTLISTED FOR SIX AWARDS

4 September 2009: Ipswich-based regional PR consultancy Project PR has been short-listed in the annual Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) PRide Awards for no less than six awards – the most amongst all the PR agencies short-listed this year. The awards are held regionally to recognise outstanding PR agencies based outside London.

“We’re thrilled to be selected as a finalist in six categories covering our work in media relations, social media, consumer and not-for-profit PR. Our business has grown throughout the recession and we’re particularly pleased to be in the final shortlist for the most outstanding PR company in the Eastern region,” said Penny Arbuthnot, director, Project PR.

The awards that Project PR has been short-listed for are: Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy, Not for Profit (for national skills provider TBG Learning), Consumer Relations (PR for Ford Retail’s 40 dealerships around the UK), Best Use of Media Relations and Best Use of Social Media (for Suffolk manufacturer Challs International and their Buster brand of plughole care products).

Project PR’s account manager Helen Sharkey has also been short-listed for the Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year award. Helen, who joined Project PR in January 2008, manages three of Project PR’s clients: East of England International, East of England Regional Assembly and TBG Learning.

During the past year Project PR has won several new clients in competitive tenders including Ipswich Building Society and East of England International. The company’s team of six employees will now have to wait until 7th December when they’ll attend the Eastern region awards ceremony at the SAS Radisson hotel at Stansted.

This year the PRide Awards attracted a total of 1,448 entries from across the UK.

ENDS