72Point Group Announces CEO Transition
72Point Group CEO, Chris Pharo will be stepping down after ten years leading the business. During his tenure, Chris oversaw its growth into one of PRWeek’s top 10 consumer agencies and helped establish 72Point as a major player in earned media and creative content.
Chris said the decision was his own and that he leaves the business “hugely proud of what we’ve achieved,” adding that “the company has an exciting future ahead and is in safe and capable hands.”
As part of the transition, Katie Earlam will assume the role of acting managing director of 72Point, working under group CEO Sam Barcroft, who oversees SWNS Media Group, 72Point Group and Creatorville.
Sam thanked Chris for a decade of leadership, noting that he “has played a pivotal role in shaping the business and driving long-term growth.” He added that the transition “creates an opportunity for the next phase of development, ensuring the business is aligned with the group’s ambitions in earned media and brand storytelling.”
Katie said, "I am delighted to step into the role of Acting MD at such an important time. I’ve watched Chris in awe as he has built 72Point over the last decade. I’m excited about the evolution of the business, as it is well-positioned for continued growth, creativity and impact.”
Katie brings extensive experience in journalism, creative strategy and communications to the role. She joined 72Point in 2022 and has since served as campaigns director and director of creative strategy, leading major brand campaigns and driving the business’s creative output. Prior to joining the company, she held senior roles at Goldbug Brand & Communications and spent a decade as a journalist, columnist and interviews producer at outlets including The Sun and Sky News. Her background across newsroom environments, content creation and PR strategy gives her a strong foundation to guide 72Point’s continued growth.
Creatorville Appoints Jon Eastman as Creative Director
Creatorville, the original video studio within SWNS Media Group, has appointed Jon Eastman as creative director. Jon joins to lead Creatorville’s next phase of growth, driving innovation across original digital formats, publishing, and audience engagement.
With more than 20 years’ experience in award-winning video and digital strategy, Jon brings a rare combination of editorial rigour and digital-first creativity to the role. He joins from The Times, where he served as director of video, overseeing content across YouTube, TikTok and The Times & Sunday Times’ digital platforms.
Previously, as director of digital video at Future Studios and a long-standing collaborator with Barcroft Studios, Jon helped define the modern landscape of social documentaries and branded digital content, developing hit formats for Channel 4 Digital, Truly, Marie Claire and other global brands.
At Creatorville, Jon will lead the creative vision and output across new formats and partnerships, building on the company’s mission to superpower brand growth through original video.
Jon Eastman, creative director at Creatorville, said, “When Sam told me his plans for Creatorville, I jumped at the opportunity. I’m joining SWNS at an incredibly exciting time - both for the company and the wider creator economy. There’s a huge opportunity here to shape the next generation of digital formats, and I can’t wait to get started.”
Sam Barcroft, group CEO of SWNS Media Group and founder of Creatorville, said, “Jon is one of the most talented and forward-thinking video leaders in the industry. His track record in storytelling, creativity and platform innovation makes him the perfect person to help take Creatorville - and our clients - into the next era of original video.”
Creatorville, part of SWNS Media Group, partners with creators, publishers and brands to produce bold, shareable and meaningful original video content for audiences worldwide.
SWNS Media Group Acquires Creatorville and Appoints Sam Barcroft as Group CEO
SWNS Media Group, one of the UK’s leading providers of news, factual content, and creative communications, has acquired Creatorville, the digital content consultancy founded by media entrepreneur Sam Barcroft.
The acquisition sees Sam assume the role of group chief executive officer and become a shareholder in SWNS Media Group. Current CEO Paul Walters will become non-executive chair and co-founder Andrew Young will become a non-executive director. Martin Winter will remain as SWNS managing director and Chris Pharo will remain as CEO of 72Point.
The move sees SWNS Media Group expand its capabilities into the creator economy, combining its long-standing expertise in journalism, earned media and brand communications with Creatorville’s expertise in social video, digital publishing, and audience-first content production.
Together, they will support growth across the group’s businesses currently comprising:
72Point - creates newsworthy and impactful campaigns in a page-ready format that achieve high volume coverage across print, digital, social,and broadcast. Its blend of news and PR thinking produces high-quality creative work that is editorially-robust and attractive to publishers.
SWNS- creates and distributes trusted news and lifestyle content to the world’s leading media outlets viaa proprietary newswire platform. As a result of its scale, quality and reputation it enjoys unparalleled relationships with publishers and plays a vital role in the global media ecosystem.
OnePoll- powers online market research and PR surveys with global human experiences; a dedicated in-house market research team carrying out insightful studies providing a framework for engaging, interesting and relevant content.
Creatorville becomes a new division within the group and will support the growthof standout content brands, create new video formats, and nurture next-generation talent.
Sam Barcroft, group CEO SWNS MG, said, “SWNS Media Grouphas always been an innovative and entrepreneurial business. By bringing Creatorville into the group, we’re combining SWNS’s journalistic depth and 72Point’s first class creativity and broad spectrum of brand and agency clients with additional social-first firepower. Together, we’ll help clients connect with fast-changing audiences through impactful storytelling.”
Paul Walters, chair of SWNS Media Group, added, “I’m delighted to welcome Sam to SWNS Media Group as our new Group CEO.Our shared long-term vision is to transform our business into the UK’s most exciting and effective media group. By combining our proven expertise in news generation and creative communications with Sam’s leadership in building communities around outstanding content, we will build our business on our shared journalistic foundations, amplified by the creativity, agility, and reach of a digital-native production studio.”
Sam, best known for founding Barcroft Studios and growing it into a globally respected digital content business - ultimately selling to Future Publishing in 2019 - brings deep experience in leading creative teams and developing original formats for new audiences. Through Creatorville, he has advised major media organisations including Channel 4, Hearst Networks and News UK on digital video strategy and IP development.
72Point Appoints Chris Prior as Chief Commercial Officer
72Point Group has named Chris Prior as chief commercial officer, as the business enters a new chapter of strategic growth following the recent launch of its Broadcast division.
Chris brings over 20 years of experience in the visual communications industry, having spent the majority of his career at Getty Images, where he held senior roles driving global commercial strategy, partnerships, and business development.
At 72Point Group, Chris will lead the commercial strategy across the group’s integrated content, creative, media, and insight services – which include leading agencies and studios: OnePoll, PinPep, 72Point, 72PointPLAY, 72Point Broadcast and Oath – with a focus on accelerating growth and deepening client relationships across the UK and internationally.
Chris Prior said, “Joining 72Point Group at such a pivotal time is incredibly exciting. The business has a strong reputation for delivering intelligent, insight-led content that gets talked about – and with the recent addition of a Broadcast offering, there’s huge opportunity to further expand how we support brands and agencies to cut through. I’m looking forward to working with the teams to unlock that potential.”
Chris Pharo, CEO of 72Point Group, commented, “We’re thrilled to welcome Chris to the team. His track record in building high-performing commercial teams and leading strategic transformation in the media space makes him the ideal person to help drive our next phase of growth. As we continue to evolve our offer and expand into new markets, Chris’s vision and leadership will be a major asset.”
The appointment follows the group’s continued investment in its multi-platform content services, including the launch of 72Point Broadcast – a new arm dedicated to audio and visual storytelling for agencies and brands.
Vacancy : Office And Finance Assistant - London
Role: Office and Finance Assistant
Location: London (Hybrid)
Salary: £25,000 to £30,000 depending on experience
Contract: Full Time
Reporting to: Finance Manager
Advert closing date: 15th December 2023
Who we are:
72Point is a market-leader in content creation. We generate, produce and deliver top quality news stories, pictures, videos, visual puzzles and animated infographics to the national news media and beyond.
Our client list includes a string of huge global brands, as well as some of the biggest names on PR Week’s Top 150.
We land coverage every day in print, online and via social platforms.
We are part of the SWNS Media group. SWNS proudly brings the heartbeat of Britain to life for our biggest news brands. Every day, hundreds of our stories, images and videos are published and broadcast across the national media.
SWNS content spans breaking news, court cases, amazing human interest stories, consumer issues, health studies, scientific breakthroughs, opinion polls, and stunning imagery and viral videos.
We distribute to the biggest news publishers in the world – from the Sun, Mirror and Daily Mail to the Times, Telegraph and New York Post.
Job Description:
72Point is looking for someone to provide administrative support to the finance team and the wider business as well as to assist with daily operations. The candidate will be working closely with the sales team to coordinate their clerical requests in a timely manner as well as liaising with HR, IT and facilities to monitor and report any problems within the London office. The role focuses on data entry on our CRM Software system – Salesforce, our finance system – Sage200 and other business tools.
Currently our staff are required to work Tuesday and Wednesday from the office.
Key Skills:
- Excellent organisational skills
- Strong attention to detail
- A positive attitude with a willingness to help and assist
- Being able to assess and prioritise tasks to meet deadlines
- Good verbal and written communication skills
Key Responsibilities:
- Assisting our Business Analyst with processing large data entry on our CRM software system
- Producing and analysing data from our project management system Taskray
- Supporting the Finance team with raising invoices, PO’s and reconciling monthly figures
- Ordering supplies for the London office and reporting/sorting any issues with equipment/ facilities that may arise
- To provide daily sales reports for tracking performance to the Chief Commercial Officer
- Monitoring and distributing inbound leads
- Administrative support to the sales team which includes assisting with supplier and customer onboarding, amending data on Salesforce and providing customer reports when requested
About you:
- Proficient in Microsoft Outlook – specifically Excel
- Experience in using Salesforce is desirable
- Eager to learn and develop their knowledge and skills within business administration
- An enthusiastic and motivated candidate that goes the extra mile
Please send through all applications to: hr@swnsmediagroup.com
72Point climbs PRWeek's Top 150 and Consumer Top 100 tables
We are delighted to see 72Point rise to no. 7 from no. 8 in PRWeek's Consumer Top 100, sitting alongside Ketchum and Smarts.
We have jumped 5 places in PRWeek Top 150 to no. 32 from no. 37, with a 22 per cent increase in revenue, we continue to grow year on year, taking on new talent, ways of working and remarkable clients.
These results are a testament to the hard work of our team throughout the past year. We continue to evolve our services and brands, bringing on PinPep to add to the portfolio of brands within 72Point; OnePoll and Oath. Our campaigns are reaching new heights, impacting consumers and brands internationally.
View PRWeek's Top 150 here and Consumer Top 100 here.
Vacancy: CRM Administrator (part-time)
Title: CRM administrator (part time)
Remote working with monthly visits to the London office (Farringdon)
Salary: £28 - 30k per annum (Pro-rata)
Contract hours: 20 pw
72Point is an award-winning international public relations company. As part of SWNS Media Group - together with OnePoll, Oath, PinPep and Play – 72Point generates national media exposure for household name brands, with targeted media coverage and multimedia content solutions.
Climbing in the PRWeek Top 150 to #32 we are placing brands at the heart of the nation’s conversations. This role is for the London team.
The role involves:
- Providing general administrative support for the marketing and sales functions
- Data entry
- CRM administration
- Completing regular internal system audits
- Preparing, maintaining, and distributing appropriate written and digital records, information, and reports
- Making configuration changes to the CRM to deliver new functionality in line with business requirements
- Identifying improvements to existing processes and make solution recommendations
- Regular reporting sessions with senior colleagues on the progress of projects
- Liaise with external 3rd party agents
Demonstrable experience
- Salesforce CRM & Reporting
Preferred experience
- Hubspot
- Taskray
Successful candidate
- Experience of managing and developing CRM systems
- Data management
- Excellent organisational sills
- Attention to detail
- Accuracy
- Self-starter
- Problem solver
- Can do attitude
28-30k per annum (Pro-rata)
Proposed Start Date: ASAP
If interested, please email CV's to tyra.bateman@72point.com
Why Content-Lead PR is Essential in 2023 - Sam Brown & PRCA
We’ve teamed up with the PRCA to host a hands-on training session on how to create a content-led PR campaign. It’s taking place on 30th of March remotely.
"It will be a fun, interactive and engaging couple of hours, where you’ll learn lots of great tips to take back to your workplace." - Sam Brown
The session is hosted by our crack-team of PR supremos – Sam Brown, award-winning Creative Director with over 20 years of experience working with the world’s leading brands; Katie Earlam, Campaigns Director and former news and showbiz journalist and columnist at The Sun and interviews producer at Sky News with an unrivalled contacts book; and Emma Elsworthy, Head of News Generation, who has been working with leading brands and agencies to supply stories that power the media agenda – with expert knowledge of what lands and what doesn’t - for over 20 years.
To find out more about how to curate content-led PR campaigns that drive brand impact, join our training course with the PRCA here. Or if you want to find out more about what why content-lead PR is essential in 2023 click here.
NOT A PR GIRL - International Women's Day
72Point's Creative Director - Sam Brown spills the beans on why the term is part-derogatory, part-sexist, and as such, we are banning it!
PR has always been a very female-friendly business. Agencies and in-house teams are very often female-dominant spaces, and spaces in which intuition and tact is as valued as data and numbers.
But with that female-dominance comes the much-used term of ‘PR Girl’. The term that’s used to describe a communications professional of the female gender. Or is it...!?
In my 20-odd years in the business, I’ve used the term PR Girl numerous times, and of course, I’ve had it used against me. I say ‘against’ as it always feels so derogatory. I admit that I’m guilty of it, even though I roll my own eyes every time it slips out of my mouth.
When you google the term, the first page is full of articles like ’21 tips before you date a PR Girl’, complete with descriptions of the females being multi-taskers who speak in sound bites and immediately hit you up on social media.
The ‘official’ definition is shown as:
‘…pretty event helper who greets your customer, talks a bit about your product or just stands there looking beautiful to draw people to your booth. Some people also use the title to refer to a promo girl, which is basically the same thing.’
Not great, is it?
Don’t get me wrong - this isn’t a menstrual-winge to coincide with International Women’s Day. It’s an issue that reflects our entire industry. Think about how PR is deemed the lesser-sibling of advertising – it’s the Big Ad Men versus the Little PR girls.
Or how (in the 00s and 10’s at least) it was a little PR girl approaching a burly male news editor to pitch their story. PR’s are always the ‘little one’.
But things have so drastically changed. PR’s are often male, news editors are often women, and we don’t have to stumble over a pair of DDs on page 3 to get to the news pages anymore.
The world, it would seem, has moved on.
So, if the industry has evolved so much; if our importance within the marketing mix is so much stronger, and if our work is more measurable and effective than ever… then why, oh why, do we still use the term that is so squarely stuck in the 1980s?
Today – on International Women’s Day 2023 – I am leading the cause, with my colleagues at 72Point by my side, to officially BANISH the term PR Girl!
For this, I am installing a ‘swear jar’ on my desk, and I shall throw in a quid every time it slips out of my mouth. I promise to pull up everyone that I hear saying it… nicely, and in a very tactful way, of course. And I will wear it loud and proud on my t-shirt to literally say it ‘with my chest’!
PR professionals, please join our cause and together let’s BANISH the term PR Girl for good.
It’s not big. It’s not clever. And we’re no longer the little ones.
'Lowlight? When Jedward threw a can of hairspray at me.' Dan Harding's Creative Q&A with PRWeek
"My background in journalism continues to serve me well, but not resting on your last project is the absolute key. A lot of the time you spend trying to prove you are up to the task. But the reality is, in doing that you are pushing yourself further than ever, regardless of if you thought you could do it or not. I continue to prove to myself that I’m up to the challenge, and any doubt that I have just drives me more. We learn as we go."
Dan Harding's Creative Q&A in PRWeek, read it here.