West of England
Case studies
CIPR PRide Awards 2008 – West of England
Category Number: 5
Category Name: Business and Trade
Consultancy: Trimedia
Entry Title: South West AIM Barometer
Client: BDO Stoy Hayward
Background
BDO Stoy Hayward’s Bristol office is part of the world’s fifth largest accountancy network, and offers a range of consultancy services including tax advice, business restructuring, forensic accounting and audit. Trimedia is retained by BDO Stoy Hayward to promote its services to businesses based in the South West.
The Bristol office has grown rapidly in recent years, offering additional areas of expertise including handling the requirements of companies listed on the alternative investment market (AIM). Trimedia was tasked last year with raising its profile with this audience in particular.
This was difficult within a crowded regional market in which the ‘Big Four’ accountancy firms offer similar services, along with a number of regional competitors. Space in the main business newspaper for the region (the Western Daily Press) is therefore at a premium. In addition, unlike competitors, the firm does not advertise in regional press and did not have a budget for sponsorship.
Within a relatively small retainer, the challenge therefore was to raise awareness of BDO Stoy Hayward’s AIM expertise in order to help the firm stand out, in turn generating new business.
Objectives
In practical terms, Trimedia’s objective was to gain coverage in the regional media for BDO Stoy Hayward’s AIM expertise. The business development manager for the region would then follow this coverage with approaches to AIM-listed companies.
As other accountancy firms had little media profile regarding AIM, the ultimate objective was to establish BDO Stoy Hayward as the leading voice of expertise on AIM.
Media coverage had to therefore:
- Reach a wide business audience
- Clearly reference the name BDO Stoy Hayward
- Demonstrate expertise in the South West region in particular
- Offer commentary from a clear spokesperson in order to ‘humanise’ the regional voice of BDO Stoy Hayward
Results were to be evaluated against these objectives, plus circulation figures and size of articles achieved.
Planning
Working with BDO Stoy Hayward Marketing Communications Manager, Amir Hussain, Trimedia approached Bristol Business School (BBS) at the University of the West of England to investigate the possibility of producing a regular report on the health of AIM-listed companies in the region. Statistical evidence would demonstrate BDO Stoy Hayward’s in-depth knowledge of the region, plus additional commentary would demonstrate an understanding of the market’s direction and factors impacting it. Following discussion about the format of such a report, it was agreed that BBS could produce a quarterly weighted index of AIM-listed companies in the South West region. Meetings were then arranged between BBS and BDO Stoy Hayward to agree the contractual relationship between the two, plus timings for delivery of the statistics.
Trimedia advised that an exclusive relationship with one newspaper would be beneficial in order to guarantee media coverage for the index results every quarter. The Western Daily Press was recommended as the paper with the largest footprint in the region, plus a well-read weekly business supplement. After confirming the feasibility of the index, Trimedia therefore contacted the business editor of the Western Daily Press, held a meeting to agree the format, and then agreed that on a quarterly basis it would provide details of the top-performing companies, statistics on the region’s performance as a whole, and commentary from BBS and BDO Stoy Hayward.
To add value for the paper, Trimedia agreed to produce case studies on particular AIM-listed companies each month, to detail recent company news that has contributed towards its AIM performance.
Implementation
Each quarter Trimedia receives statistical information from BBS on the best-performing AIM-listed companies in the region. Trimedia then contacts three of these to interview senior staff and draft case studies. The case studies give a brief company background, followed by an explanation of why each has performed well in the last quarter. Trimedia then works with each company to ensure approval is given, plus photography is sourced to accompany the copy.
Sumus Mulberry
Smallbone SciSys
Trimedia also receives statistics on the region’s performance as a whole, comparing it against national figures for AIM and the full FTSE 100. The information is provided as raw data, plus as a graph plotting the comparative figures. Trimedia then drafts commentary from BDO Stoy Hayward to explain month-on-month alterations in the value of the region, plus differences between the value of the region and the national picture. This is compiled as one large feature together with commentary from BBS and provided to the Western Daily Press.
Creativity
The suggestion of an index was an innovative approach to the brief. Rather than a one-off feature or press release, the index has developed into a regular publication, firmly establishing a link between BDO Stoy Hayward and AIM. Importantly, the approach has also been successful because it provided an opportunity for the Western Daily Press and Bristol Business School to demonstrate their commitment to monitoring the market in the region. The collaborative approach has therefore added credibility to all parties.
In addition, the suggestion of using case studies has enabled the Western Daily Press to expand the publication of the quarterly statistics into a broad feature reflecting the successes of businesses based in the region – an important aim for a regional paper.
Results
The SWAIM Barometer was launched in April 2007 with a double-page spread and BDO branding on the front page of the supplement. A double-page spread has since appeared in the Western Daily Press for each quarter until April 2008. In recognition of its success, the Western Daily Press has recently committed to running the feature for another year until April 2009.
Each of the four features have been spread across two pages (eight pages in total), displaying BDO Stoy Hayward branding prominently and including commentary from a BDO Stoy Hayward expert. Circulation figures reveal that the features will have resulted in 174,000 opportunities to see (OTS) in hard copy alone, with additional OTS online.
BDO Stoy Hayward has also used the SWAIM Barometer results for a direct marketing campaign. Together with press coverage the initiative has generated a number of new business meetings for BDO Stoy Hayward’s Bristol office.
Budget: Band A
[1,003 words]