2021… it’s (almost) a wrap

As 2021 draws to a close, it’s a great opportunity to reflect on a year like no other! We’ve navigated a global pandemic for the second year running, significantly bolstered our team, and despite the unexpected places we have found ourselves, we’re ending it on a high. From our office expansion in May to our 10th-anniversary celebrations in June, we’d like to take the opportunity to review our fantastic personal highlights and hopes for the year ahead.

In May, we acquired even more space in our current building to expand our office. Not only has this improved the way we work, but it also means our team has even more room to think and create. 

In June, we celebrated a decade of TMPR. Although we might look slightly different than we did in 2011, we’ve managed to retain the same attention to detail, passion for what we do, and many of the same clients. It’s been an excellent opportunity to pause and reflect on how far we have come and has reinforced our ambitions for the future.

They often say a change is as good as a rest, so we have been lucky enough to strengthen our team with some fresh faces and exciting new talent. We have lots of great team-building activities planned for 2022, which will allow us to get to know each other even better.

Rebuilding the team dynamic after lockdown and becoming acquainted with the new members of the team has become increasingly more important to us. Tom, our PR and marketing consultant, is particularly happy to be back in an office environment. He has also been part of some exceptional campaigns on a national and international basis – go, Tom!

Louise, our director, is delighted with our personal and client award wins which demonstrate our excellent working relationships and recognise what we’re doing right. It’s always a bonus to celebrate mutual achievements in person, and fortunately, we’ve been able to raise a glass or two with our clients and team in 2021.

From further afield at her new base in Perth, Australia, Hazel has experienced significant growth in her skill set through a steady increase in responsibilities. Not only has this drastically improved her confidence, but it has allowed her to take ownership of more projects and reach for the stars!

Over the summer, Oliver joined the team and has proved an excellent fit. Oliver’s highlight has been meeting our clients face-to-face and visiting their places of work. Exploring the industries in person has helped him gain a broader understanding of what they do and has been great fun.

In late October, we were joined by administrator Charlene, who made the big move from Hong Kong to Wales. She’s loving it so far and is excited to explore more of the UK, starting with Peterborough and then hopefully London in the New Year. 

Chloe, our newest member, who joined us in November, recently bought a house in Penarth, just a stone’s throw from the office – now, if that isn’t convenient, we’re not sure what is! Chloe can’t wait to get stuck into some exciting client projects in the new year and learn as much as she can from the team.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to our wonderful clients and partners for their continued support over the last year. It’s been a pleasure to work with you, and we’re truly looking forward to creating more magic in 2022. For TMPR, the year ahead is about nurturing our new team, working on even more ambitious campaigns, and doing more of what we love. 

Working from home(land)

Working from home is a different experience for everyone. Love it or hate it, if you work in the PR and communications industry, you’ve probably had to use your home office (or kitchen or loungeroom) for at least part of the last year. Since starting my role at TMPR, my WFH experience has gone through many iterations. From learning the ropes remotely, to working in another time zone, it’s certainly been quite a journey.

Coming to the UK from Australia near the end of 2019 felt like the beginning of a great adventure. I had no set plans, except to see where life took me! Of course, in March 2020, things changed somewhat. My hopes of saving and travelling were soon replaced by just attempting to get through the strange circumstances I now found myself in, far away from home.

Starting from home

After a year in and out of lockdowns and a particularly trying winter bunkered down in Cardiff, things started looking up in March 2021: I found a job working for TMPR. From my little home-office I had my induction remotely, met new colleagues over Zoom, and introduced myself to clients through Outlook.

If you have ever started a new job from home before, you’ll know how disconnecting it can feel. It’s so much easier to ask your workmate a silly question, or get reassurance that you’re following correct processes in-person. 

Luckily, Louise agreed, and reopened the Penarth offices to help me find my bearings. Soon the office was alive again, with the team in one room – collaborating and communicating like a well-oiled PR machine. But I couldn’t escape the fact that something was still missing in my life…

It was coming up to two years since I’d been home, since I’d seen most of my family and friends, or smelled the familiar perfume of a eucalyptus tree on a warm day. With travel restrictions (and costs) being as they were, popping back to Perth for a short visit was out of the question.

Broaching my concerns with Louise, she couldn’t have been more understanding. And, as it happened, a particular client was looking for on-the-ground support for their Australian operations. The stars were aligned!

Back to the mother-and-father-land

Soon I was in a mandatory quarantine facility in Darwin. ‘Working from room’, you might call it. This phase of my WFH experience was by far the most trying. I don’t know how many times I had to use “quarantine brain” as an excuse for silly slip-ups, but I still swear it is a real and dangerous condition!

14 days later I was working from my parents’ home (see: basement) in sunny Western Australia. After a week of meetings being interrupted by my dad showing me the crayfish he’d just caught, or my mum “just popping in” to see if I needed anything, it was somewhat of a relief to finally move into my current location, where I am working from home right at this very moment.

Remote self-control

My working life now is broken up into two distinct segments. When I log in in the morning, I sift through the emails that have piled up as I was sleeping the night before. None of my colleagues and very few of my clients are awake at this point. I then get to work on my list, chunking out my time to copywriting or daily administrative tasks, fuelled by too much coffee.

It can be tricky to stay motivated when your boss is asleep (sorry, Louise), but it helps to have a defined list. It’s a cliché for a reason – it really works! And the satisfaction you feel when crossing off each item is so rewarding, trust me.

Then the afternoon rolls around and, all of a sudden, I start getting notifications. People are rising! Replying! I’m no longer alone! Louise, ever the early bird, usually starts responding to my emails at around 7:30am UK time; Tom logs in at 8am. Then the meetings begin!

To the annoyance of, I’m sure, everyone that I work with, the best time to meet with me is between 9am and 10am in the UK. This then brings me to 5pm in Perth – but I often will stay logged in later than that.

Working from home, sweet home

Working from home(land) means that I have very unique working hours. I have the privilege of not needing to set an alarm anymore. I start work when I am well and truly ready, and finish on that same principle. The tricky part is then switching out of work-mode mentally. It can be hard to completely log off when your colleagues are in the full swing of their workday.

Still, the move back home feels right. On a sunny day I go out and work on my front porch, enjoying the particular birdsong of Perth. The kind of subtle background music that easily goes unnoticed when it surrounds you, but is sorely missed in absentia. If you catch me on Zoom between the hours of 9am and 10am, you might just hear it too.

Celebrating a hat trick of new hires

Shortly after the appointment of Oliver Thorne as a Marketing Intern and Laura Seymour as a Marketing and PR Consultant, this week TMPR welcomes Isobel Blackburn to the team as our new Marketing Intern .  

This is an exciting new opportunity for Isobel, having graduated from Cardiff University only two months ago with an English language degree and wanting to use her knowledge for something in a relevant field. Isobel has a passion for writing and a thirst for learning so being offered the position of marketing intern is the perfect way for her to get into the industry of marketing and she says she is “so excited to have found a position relevant to my degree.” Although Isobel has never had any experience in marketing before, she is keen to learn how it all works, and to see what she can bring to TMPR.

When at home, Isobel describes herself as a lover of all things plants, yoga, sewing and the outdoors and says that “being able to walk down to the seafront before or after work is an added bonus.” 

We wish Isobel luck with her new role and hope she is going to have a ‘sew’ amazing time here at TMPR.

Gold PRide Award Winners Nominated Once Again

The team at Technical Marketing & PR is thrilled to be once again shortlisted at the upcoming CIPR Cymru Wales PRide Awards in the “Small PR Consultancy of the Year” category. These awards celebrate and reward the hard work of the leading PR businesses and individuals nationwide. Nominations such as these always bring a lot of excitement for our team and this year is no exception.

This is the third consecutive shortlisting for the boutique agency, who has held the Gold PRide award for “Outstanding Small Public Relations Consultancy” since 2019. This shortlisting is evidence of the fantastic hard work that has been consistently delivered by our team for the past few years.

Louise Morgan, Director of Technical Marketing & PR, commented on the good news, saying: “To once again be shortlisted for ‘Small PR Consultancy of the Year’ is a great compliment to the continued efforts of everyone in, and surrounding our team, over the past 24 months. Following a challenging period for the industry and our clients, this shortlisting is a testament to the excellent work the team has done to keep us running smoothly.”

Technical Marketing & PR not only remained fully operational over the past 18 months, but also achieved a record year of growth. What’s more, as the team marked 10 years in business back in June, this latest shortlisting is making 2021 a year to remember for all the right reasons!

The awards ceremony will take place on 5th October 2021 and will be an online-only event.

Interested in learning more about Technical Marketing & PR’s journey over the last 10 years? Check out part one of our anniversary blogs now.

An Exciting New Addition to the Team

This week at Technical Marketing & PR sees Oliver Thorne join the team as a new Marketing Intern. Living only a stone’s throw (or two) away from the Penarth offices, Oliver says that he has “no excuse not to get stuck in with the company right away”.

Having graduated from the University of South Wales in the summer of 2019 with a marketing degree, he claims to be “super eager to put his academic skills to practical use with Technical Marketing & PR”, especially after spending his time at the height of the pandemic being stuck indoors playing Chess, like most people (he presumes).

Commenting on Oliver joining the team, Louise Morgan said; “Having an intern such as Oliver at the company will be a huge helping hand to us, as he shows all the qualities we look for in a new recruit and seems more than comfortable to get a head start with the fast-paced nature of our line of work. We take great pride here in nurturing talent and helping every member of our team to grow and develop their practical skills.”

Since his first meeting with the team, Oliver says that he looks forward to the job at hand, claiming that “not only did the team seem very friendly and as equally driven as I am, but it also became apparent that the work undertaken at Technical Marketing & PR would offer myself some extremely valuable experience in the industry”.

What’s more, after being greeted and given his favourite chocolates upon arrival, he is more than sure that he is in the right place to thrive.

Welcome, Oliver!

Technical Marketing & PR: Nurturing New Marketing Talent.

We are passionate about nurturing emerging talent in the marketing and PR sector. After all, having the opportunity to hone your skills in the real world can make all the difference to a graduate’s career.

Last year we welcomed Alex Lambden to our team on a Student Placement. Alex was studying Politics and Spanish at Cardiff University and was looking to gain some industry experience within Marketing.

Alex made a real impact at TMPR. As a small team we work at a fast pace and are agile in our approach to ensure everyone is supported and that we get the job done collectively. Alex was on-board with this straight away and got stuck in with various projects across our diverse client portfolio.

Since finishing his studies Alex has gone on to secure a place on a Marketing Graduate Scheme with BT. He told us that the experienced he gained while working with TMPR helped him stand out from his competition and secure this new role.

Here’s what he said about his time with us:

“Graduates leaving university face an ever-challenging job market so it’s essential to have that standout ‘edge’ on your CV. Keen to leave my studies with a well-rounded experience, I reached out to the Technical Marketing & PR team where I gained some cutting-edge industry knowledge with a hands-on approach.

From the start, I dove into the day-to-day responsibilities of a boutique marketing agency and spearheaded important operations for our clients. While this was a new space for me, the TMPR team were true cheerleaders and supported me through how to make each piece of work my best, with a real focus on my self-development. A skillset I wanted to grow was to create inspiring copy, a new challenge for a starter like myself! The TMPR team allowed me to explore different forms of copy; co-ordinating the social media posts for one client, authoring press releases for another – I even got to see the behind-the-scenes of successful promotional video. I was so fortunate to have my first marketing experience with TMPR as I was given a wide range of responsibility which allowed me to figure out which part of marketing and PR I wanted to pursue going forward.

The team really captured the start-up culture in their office which is an ever popular theme in discussions for creating better workplaces. A constant hub of energy, the team and I constantly bounced ideas off one another to innovate the work we provided our clients. Regular check-ins and feedback further made TMPR a great place to work, I was always clear on how I could improve my performance while also celebrating both the team and my own’s triumphs. By the end of my placement, I had built up an impressive knowledge in the marketing field which I could go on and take with me to show graduate employers.

Since finishing my studies at Cardiff University, I have gone on to join BT’s Marketing Graduate scheme, with a current focus in commercial management. I often think back fondly at my time working at Technical Marketing & PR and I know the team set me with a solid foundation to become a rising star in marketing!”

TMPR is rapidly growing and we’re on the look out for an enthusiastic, experienced marketeer to work with us.

We’re a close knit team based in the centre of Penarth and we love what we do!

If you’re interested in joining the fun, we’d love to hear from you.

Get in touch via: hello@technicalmarketing-pr.com

 

Hwyl Fawr and Diolch yn Fawr… Fairwell, Alex!

As the old saying goes, all good things in life must come to an end. And, that is true of our Marketing & PR Consultant Alexandra Davies’ tenure at TMPR.

Having been with the company for the last three years, Alex has decided to make the move away from the world of B2B PR and its technical regulations and free event notebooks (we love a good freebie!) and dab her hand at a new challenge. Reflecting on the last three years, this is what she had to say about being a part of the TMPR team…

 

Joining the team as a fresh, budding graduate, the last three years have been a whirlwind. From diving in at the deep end working on a national PR campaign in my first week, to facing a global pandemic and spending half of my time with the business in my own four walls, Technical Marketing & PR has been a wonderful place to learn, develop and spread my wings.

Although I’m drawing my three years to a close, I want to leave on a high and write about the things that have meant the most to me being a part of the boutique, award-winning agency that has given me the opportunities to develop and diversify my skillset.

 

  • There’s nothing quite like seeing your writing in print…

When I joined the team three years ago, the one thing I knew was that I wanted to write. Matching the energy of our Director, Louise, who has always said that we are first and foremost, writers… I knew Technical Marketing would be a fantastic place for me to develop my own personal writing style and adopt new copywriting techniques that would see me through my career.

Naturally falling more into the PR side of things at TMPR, proactive pitching and PR strategy has been a personal favourite of mine. Aligning messages and audiences to promote business priorities through strong PR campaigns has been a great way to build relationships with the media and educate the market on client offerings. As a result, one of the most rewarding parts of my role is seeing the work I’ve produced coming through the letterbox in trade journal titles!

 

  • Teamwork makes the dreamwork

Possibly the most important and rewarding parts of my role over the last three years has been working with the team. As a small agency, having the agility and flexibility to support colleagues to meet deadlines and achieve goals has been important and this is something the TMPR team has down to a fine art…

Beyond working in the office together, we’ve also done some great team building activities and have many a drunken tale to tell!

 

  • Winner winner chicken dinner…

Finally, being recognised as Wales’ Outstanding Small PR Consultancy was a huge highlight. Working hard to support our clients to achieve their marketing ambitions, TMPR has earned a rather unique position amongst its clients, forming an extension of their in-house teams. With this balance making the day-to-day easy to navigate, being named as an award-winning agency for the support we have provided and campaigns run was an incredibly special moment to be a part of.

 

As I close the door to our office in Penarth for the last time, (Tom, have you got keys? I’ve forgotten mine…) I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities that have been presented to me. From our clients, to the work and the team – it’s been a blast and I am proud to have been a part of the TMPR Team.

Keep smashing it guys ♥

10 Years of TMPR: the Origin Story, pt. 2

When Louise Morgan decided to go off on her own, it was simplicity that she had in mind. “The name, ‘Technical Marketing & PR’ wasn’t dreamt up trying to create anything funky. It’s the Ronseal school of business branding: it does what it says on the tin.” She laughs. Aptly, two small, branded paint-tins, filled with 10-year celebrations chocolates, perch on the coffee table of the newly refurbished Penarth offices.

In 2011 Louise’s niece was born, and she decided to move her offices to Derby to be closer to family. Business was booming, and while she held firm on her promise not to hire staff, freelancers were soon required for the overflow.

It was in Derby that she met a Welshman, who spurred the move of TMPR to Barry. And while ultimately not being “the one”, she does attribute their meeting to fate, as it is in South Wales where TMPR and Louise remain: “South Wales immediately felt like home. Living by the sea but only 15 minutes’ drive from Cardiff is very different to Derby or Manchester, and everyone is so friendly!”

But it’s not just the sunshine and smiles that kept Louise in Cymru, “Commercially, South Wales has proven to be an excellent fit for the business. It’s an industrial region where the construction and manufacturing sectors are buoyant, so I’ve really enjoyed developing our client base in these areas.”

In the Barry Business Centre Louise grew TMPR to new heights, though always with the help of freelancers. It wasn’t until she met her now-husband, Christopher, that she entertained the idea of hiring staff again. “He said you’ve got all these freelancers, ‘why don’t you just employ somebody?’ And I thought ‘why not? I am the only shareholder, I can make my own decisions about the future of the company.’”

With business booming and a growing sense of stability, Louise made her first hire, and then another. Soon enough the little industrial space where they’d set up shop was feeling quite crowded, and it was time to start looking for bigger and better offices.

“It was then that I first started to feel excited again about building something.” Louise reminisces, “With IVE it felt from the start that the goal was just to build it, whereas TMPR, it’s always been a part of me.”

Organic growth is a recurring theme in Louise’s management style, and one of her favourite aspects of owning an agency, “I like to nurture from within, growth of the business comes from coaching & training the team, so we grow by increasing capacity rather than headcount.”

When asked why she chose to focus on construction and manufacturing marketing in particular, Louise gives a wry smile, “The thing that made me fall in love with construction was Approved Document E of the building regulations, and that is no joke.”

She recounts the 2003 amendment to sound insulation requirements with the confidence and flow of a woman who has immersed herself fully in the world of technical literature and specifications for the last 18 years.

“In 2003 there was a change to the regulations which decreased the acceptable noise transfer between dwellings. So during a massive rise in people living in apartment blocks, you had strict limits on noise that could go between apartments, airborne and impact. It was quite technical because there was different routes to compliance, whether it was robust details or pre-completion testing, and I was just like ‘oh my god, let me just soak this all up!’”

In what is still a very male-dominated industry (women represent around 11 percent of the workforce in the construction sector), when Louise entered the construction and manufacturing world it was even more so. This only served to spur Louise on: “being able to go into meetings and hold quite technical conversations, dealing with technical directors and writing technical articles, I just really felt like I was on a path that felt right for me..”

Technical. PR. Marketing. The Ronseal academy of business branding. The nitty gritty, the get your hands dirty approach. That’s what TMPR has represented over the last ten years.

And what is Louise looking forward to most for the next ten years? “It sounds boring,” She admits, “but more of the same.” A lot of our clients we’ve worked with for the whole time we’ve been operational, so I’m looking forward to seeing if we still have those clients in the next ten years. Indeed, Louise’s first client at that first agency was Promethean, who remain a client of TMPR to this day.

TMPR has only ever grown from recommendations and referrals. Louise attributes this to her “clients come first” mentality that she had steadfastly adopted when getting the business off the ground.

“Because we work differently to other agencies, we become part of the team of our clients. We get the best of both worlds, the autonomy and variety of an agency, while feeling like you’re part of something bigger.”

Bigger seems to be the motto at TMPR this year, with new offices, new faces, and a big ten-year celebration on the horizon, it’s hard not to get swept up in the excitement of witnessing a company, and director, in their prime.

10 Years of TMPR: the Origin Story, pt. 1

Louise Morgan wasn’t sure what she wanted to glean from her university experience, but she knew she wanted to write. Starting in a French and European studies degree that just didn’t quite fit, she switched to psychology, having an interest in human nature.

So how does a psychology degree lead to a long, successful career as a Marketing and PR director? “It was a happy accident.” Louise smiles, “I did my third-year placement at a charity in their comms department. I discovered PR there, when I had always thought I wanted to be a journalist, and just fell in love.”

The charity kept her on after her volunteer placement, as a communications manager during the summer between her third and fourth year. By the end of her degree, Louise already had 5 months of real-life experience under her belt. Unsurprisingly, she was offered a job before she’d had a chance to graduate, at TDM, a PR agency in Macclesfield.

Everything moved very quickly then (literally), “I had my last exam on the Friday, had to buy a car, pack up and move all of my things from Birmingham to Cheshire over the weekend, and started my first day on the Monday. I never looked back.”

She didn’t slow down either. From there she shifted gears to an employer comms agency, where she was introduced to the fast-paced corporate life. “It was all big bonuses, champagne, and ‘oh we’ll take everyone up to the Lake District for a team building weekend, all expenses paid in a swanky hotel’.”

While Louise was impressed with the perks on offer, her heart just wasn’t in it. PR and marketing beckoned, as did TDM, and so she returned with a promotion to account manager.

Louise was happy to return, “I thought I would stay forever, I loved them and everything about them”. She was on track to taking over as PR director, when the unthinkable happened, and the company suddenly became insolvent, closing practically overnight.

Louise wondered whether she should go off on her own. Clients offered their support and loyalty, but she felt shaken by the company’s downfall, and under-prepared. To ease niggling doubt she went to another agency, bringing with her many of the clients she had worked with at TDM.

Still, the question of whether or not to start up a new agency became a frequent quandary, and all the while one of Louise’s clients in particular kept coming to her with a tempting proposition…

And so, client became business partner, as they joined forces to create IVE Global, a PR and Marketing agency for B2B companies. “Proactive. Creative. Innovative. That’s what IVE stands for.” – An ambitious motto to suit the company’s global ambitions.

Working day and night, Louise and her new associates built IVE from the ground up. By the end of two years they seemed to be going from strength to strength, having been shortlisted for the CIPR’s Outstanding Small Consultancy (North West), and gaining 3 more members of staff.

However, the company was not to last, as life got in the way, and the other partners sadly had to go in different directions. When Louise found herself burdened with the grim task of having to make her employees redundant, she vowed never to hire staff again.

She decided instead to make a fresh start as a freelancer, trading under the name TMPR…

 

What does TMPR stand for? Will Louise ever hire staff again? What is part E of the building regulations? All these questions and more answered next time on TMPR: the origin story…

How to reduce unsubscribers with the power of the preference centre

Picture this: it’s Monday morning, you check your emails with trepidation. Suddenly, you are hit with an overwhelming tide of digital correspondence.

You put up a mean fight, sorting the influx into various subfolders, a red flag here and a delete there, in your hunt to find those crucial pieces of information amongst the slurry.

It’s 9:05am, and your tired little brain already needs a break. You cry out to the Outlook Gods, “There must be an easier way!”

Well, there is: UNSUBSCRIBE!

Simple, no?

The unsubscribe button oft gets neglected in favour of move-to-trash (or willful ignorance, for those hoarders amongst us), which does nothing to curb the bloat of our inboxes with unnecessary content. But trust us when we say there is something so satisfying in that little act of rebellion: hitting the “opt out” button.

 

Minimalism: fashion statement, or state of mind?

When militant cleaning – Marie-Kondo-style – swept the world in 2017, we experienced a collective eye-opening to the clutter in which we allow ourselves to be surrounded. But clutter doesn’t stop at the physical world.

Our digital space is just as important to keep clean for peace of mind, and ease of thought. You wouldn’t believe how much head space gets freed up when faced with a decluttered inbox, allowing you to focus on the important stuff.

But don’t just take our word for it: a recent study found that 60% of Brits feel less stressed after decluttering their devices, 69% feel more productive, and 71% feel more organized.

 

The best defence is a good preference (centre)

“But wait”, I hear you say, “Why is TMPR espousing digital minimalism? They handle my e-marketing!” Yes, if you’re reading this there’s a good chance you are one of our clients who rely on email marketing as a major source of revenue (and no, we haven’t been taken over by a rogue gang of Zen Buddhists). We’re here to tell you there’s a way to avoid the unsubscribe: a solid preference centre is worth it’s bytes in gold!

Any good marketer knows there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to what an audience will respond to, so why would emailed content be any different? Preference centres put the consumer in the driver’s seat, giving a feeling of control, and allowing your subscribers to decide on the content that is meaningful to them.

Allowing subscribers to tailor what they see, and how often they see it, helps mitigate unsubscribe rates. It also gives you valuable insight into what your customers really want.

In keeping with the hyper-personalised world that digital media and marketing has become, tailored content can be super useful if funnel marketing is your bag. And as data privacy laws are tightening for third-party collectors, Preference Centres provide a direct source for first-party data.

An engaged, interested reader is far more likely to share your content, widening your audience in a way that is far more valuable than “delivered” numbers on a stats report. So, while an email a day may not be able to keep Dr Unsubscribe away, stop worrying and embrace the power of the preference centre.