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2022: Year In Review

What a year.  

It is always difficult to put into words how proud we are of the effort put in by our team throughout the year, and how happy we are to work with some of the nation’s leading brands. 

As we wrap up for Christmas, we’ve been looking back on a year which has been spent delivering remarkable content-led campaigns, securing vast amounts of coverage for our clients, helping them to reach their objectives, whilst delivering memorable campaigns to the media. Buckle up and enjoy the ride as we cover our highlights of the year. 

Highlights

In total, we managed 882 stories ranging from product launches and anniversary announcements to in-depth diversity studies, resulting in a new yearly record of 60,085 total pieces of coverage, that’s a whopping average of 68 pieces of coverage per campaign. We saw a huge increase of digital coverage specifically, as we continued to match the rising demand we are seeing from our clients for content including links, videos, quizzes and other visual assets,  

Speaking of videos..... we’d like to take the opportunity to give a big shout out to that department, who have handled over 200 videos for our clients. We all know how tricky these briefs can be, so that’s quite an achievement.  

Our in-house design team Oath Studio showcased their aptitude for quality digital assets that speak to the media, by delivering over 230 design-led projects.  

The market research arm of the business, OnePoll, oversaw 1.5 million completed surveys for our clients, asking over 15,000 questions. 

And to top it all off, we expanded into new territory, building out an in-house SEO team to continue to define how our content packages impact search metrics. We landed 23,853 all-important links for our clients, a high number of which were in top-tier media outlets.  

We also launched a dedicated brand-direct Creative operation, designed to provide consultation and campaign strategy, creative, activation and then post-campaign analysis. They delivered some truly stellar work, so let’s take a look at some of our most noteworthy campaigns... 

Our Work

For Essity, we conducted the UK’s largest ever menopause study, surveying 5000 women to reveal the little-known symptoms of the menopause and help launch their online knowledge-sharing platform, ‘Issviva’..  

We carried out the Bristol Love Report for eharmony, helping them boost sign-ups in the region by 50%.  

Our miniature bake sale with Guide dogs enlisted the 2019 Great British Bake-Off winner to create a teeny-weeny Victoria sponge to drive awareness of their initiative.

They were delighted with the results of our video-led activation and had this to say:  

“We have worked with 72Point on a few projects now and they have a good understanding of our charity and the content we are looking to land. For our 2022 Guide Dog appeal they picked up our brief and cleverly brought together some difficult threads into a fun and engaging idea expertly taking the traditional bake sale to a younger audience. The combination of content (spanning video, social and news) worked perfectly together and drove lots of traffic to our all-important appeal page, smashing the target and surpassing all expectations" 

For Resuscitation Council UK, we created the #ResusChallenge Tik Tok dance, featuring Oti Mabuse, to help spread the word about cardiac arrest and the fact that three quarters of British adults know CPR, but less than half feel comfortable performing it.  

@otimabuse I've done the #ResusCPRChallenge to raise awareness about cardiac arrest. Did you know three-quarters of British adults know CPR - but less than half feel confident performing it? In five simple steps, you can learn how to save a life. I challenge my sister @motsimabusetanzschule and the beautiful @thisisdavinamccall ♬ original sound - Oti mabuse

And for Nioxin, our design studio created a quiz titled ‘How much do you know about the hair on your head?’, featuring a collection of multiple-choice questions on hair thinning, follicles and more. The result was 10,000 click throughs to the quiz and great engagement with the brand.  

Thank You

As always, massive thanks to our clients who have trusted us to deliver this year. We’re all looking forward to what 2023 has in store!  

by Drench Design

Vacancy: Creative Account Executive - Bristol

Title: Creative Account Executive

Employment type: Full time

Start date: ASAP

Location: Bristol

Who we are:

72Point is the 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.

Who we’re looking for:

This is an entry level position for someone who is keen to work within a creative environment, and passionate about administration and teamwork.

Experience of the PR industry is not necessary, but you will demonstrate a good understanding of what 72Point does, its competitors and the national news agenda.

You will be ambitious, organised, super-keen and a fast learner, and able to hit the ground running.

You must have a keen interest in popular news content across digital, social and print platforms, a fascination with how the industry works and a hunger to soak it up.

Excellent writing and communication skills are essential.

You must also be calm under the pressure of tight deadlines, brilliant at juggling multiple pieces of work, and friendly and warm via telephone and email communications.

The role:

Based at our Bristol HQ, the role will involve supporting our senior creative account managers and liaising with clients.

The successful candidate will contribute to brainstorm sessions, help pull together ideas, assist with project management and carry out full administrative duties relevant to client projects.

They will also liaise with the digital, video, design and social teams to ensure projects run seamlessly.

The successful candidate will have the flexibility of working from home once a period of training has been concluded. However, all staff are currently required to work from the office for a minimum of two days per week.

All applicants will have:

• Excellent written skills
• Excellent organisational skills
• Extremely computer literate – experience of Microsoft Office is essential
• Be confident and personable with the ability to quickly strike a rapport with people, both in person and on the phone
• An interest on the national media and consumer news

Salary and application:

Salary £21,675+ dependent on experience

SWNS also has a generous and growing list of employee benefits, including:

• 25 days annual holiday plus eight Bank Holidays
• Company pension scheme with employer contribution
• Hybrid working policy
• Enhanced maternity and paternity packages
• Life assurance scheme
• Shopping discount scheme, tech benefit scheme
• Gym membership discount, Cycle to Work
• Savings on childcare

Please apply to adminnewsgen@72point.com with a CV and cover letter.

Closing date Friday 8^th June 2023

by Drench Design

TOP TIPS FOR CREATING STAND-OUT BRAND VIDEOS - DAN HARDING & PRMOMENT

"Don’t create an advert. Sounds simple, but brand saturation not only dilutes the content, but loses engagement with the audience." - Dan Harding

Dan, Broadcast Director for Video at 72Point shares his top tip alongside industry specialists for creating stand-out brand videos with PRMoment. Read more here.

by Drench Design

A WEEKEND WHERE YOU CAN BANK ON GETTING COVERAGE - EMMA ELSWORTHY & PRCA

"In reality, there are pages to fill over a weekend, regardless of whether it is a bank holiday or not." - Emma Elsworthy

Emma Elsworthy, Director of News Generation at 72Point shares her thoughts on getting coverage over the weekend, alongside thoughts from industry specialists:

Laura Elvin, Head of News, SWNS

Jane Hamilton, Senior Journalist, The Sun / News UK

Geoff Maynard, Deputy Editor, Daily Express

Nicola Adam, Publishing Editor, National World

Read the full article here.

by Drench Design

Average Domain Authority On Coverage Secured For Clients Is On the Up!

By Head of SEO, Marten Lazarus

We are proud to announce that 72Point's average domain authority - for the coverage output we achieve - continues to rise. Throughout April we hit a new high of an average of 67 across our coverage tally.

Adding to our average tally of 46 articles secured per campaign,  that DA average is up 15% this year alone.

This is an important metric that points to a commitment to securing quality coverage, that helps move the dial on our client's objectives. In recent years, we have put a considerable amount of focus on taking the quality of our coverage to the next level, so we are delighted with this marked improvement.

Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). Domain Authority scores range from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to greater likelihood of ranking.

Domain Authority is based on data from Moz's Link Explorer web index and uses dozens of factors in its calculations. The actual Domain Authority calculation itself uses a machine learning model to predictively find a "best fit" algorithm that most closely correlates link data with rankings across thousands of actual search results that they use as standards to scale against.

by Drench Design

72Point acquires picture and video agency PinPep

PinPep Media Limited has been acquired by the SWNS Media Group, bringing it together with consumer agency 72Point and its other brands.

PinPep founders James Pinniger (Managing Director) and Joe Pepler (Creative Director) join the 72Point Board, and will assume the roles of Head of Visual and Creative Director respectively. The PinPep brand will remain, and not be consumed into 72Point.  

Chris Pharo, 72Point’s Managing Director said: ”I have long admired PinPep’s work and as we build out our range of creative services, joining forces with James and Joe, with their vast knowledge of the power of pictures and video in bringing PR campaigns to life, was a no brainer.”

“We have made great strides in video production in the past few years and James and Joe’s experience will add a new dimension to the work so ably conducted by our Broadcast Director Dan Harding.” 

“72Point is regularly commissioned to handle words, video and distribution only to find Joe, or another great PinPep photographer on the same assignment. Now we are one team and I’m really excited to see what the future holds.”  

James Pinniger said: ”As soon as we started talking to Chris and his team at 72Point it was clear that they shared our vision and understood the importance of working closely with brands to create high-quality visual content for successful PR campaigns. ”

“We’ve always had ambitious plans for PinPep, and it quickly became clear that joining with 72Point would allow us to accelerate the growth of the business and tackle even more exciting projects. We are relishing the opportunity to work as part of this highly creative team, and can’t wait to get cracking.”  

Joe Pepler said:” When we were approached by 72Point, it became very clear right from the start that we were a perfect fit for each other. As a combined force we will be able to offer the complete package to clients at the highest of standards. There simply isn’t any other company that can match that. I’m incredibly excited to get going with the new resources at our disposal...let’s see where it can take us!”  

72Point ranked number 37 in PR Week’s Top 150 agencies (and no.8 in the Consumer PR rankings) with a fee income in excess of £10m. 

PinPep launched in 2017 and has worked with brands including Asda, Disney, Lego and Virgin Atlantic. 

Read more from PRWeek.

by Drench Design

Google’s Spambrain: Why Quality Link Building Is More Important Than Ever

Marten Lazarus, Head of SEO

You might remember Google’s announcement back in December 2022, an update to its ever-evolving link spam efforts called “Spambrain”, Google's spam-detection algorithm, designed to find and remove low-quality websites from the search results.

When I fell into SEO over 16 years ago, the techniques we were using to improve our clients’ websites would not even be considered today as it would be both a waste of time and incredibly risky for all parties involved! Google has come a long way in developing its systems and algorithms to, in my mind, try to replace as much of the human review required when determining what is constituted as “spam”.

If you look at what is considered spam today from old backlinks, it is obvious that these pages are not built for humans to read, but purely for links. I still occasionally see examples of this, but nowadays it is far more carefully done.  If you look at a bunch of the links pointing to your site and think “I would never read this page” then you might be sitting on a timebomb waiting for Google to bring the match to light the fuse.

As someone who worked in SEO before the Panda (low quality content penalty) and Penguin(low quality backlinks) updates, and can even remember the Caffeine update in 2010, it has (at least in my mind) always been a balancing act when it comes to link building. Something that might provide quick results and shoot your rankings up on Google does often sound very appealing. As the classic saying goes “if it sounds too good to be true”... and you know the rest!

Those that have more of a medium to long term view will already have realised that along with traditional marketing practices, SEO is an ever-evolving practice in which one builds an amazing website upon a strong set of technical principles and foundations.

For PR and SEO, it’s the best ideas executed in the best ways that bring top-class results – something that is true for both disciplines. It is also true that you remember a failed campaign, rather than the great early work that went into it.

When I train or educate people on SEO, it starts with how you think about your business, clients, and current and potential customers.  I then branch out into understanding what search engines are built to achieve – the highest possible quality of results based on what the searcher wants.  We must first broadly understand the criteria that search engines are using to best match these searches before we can then understand how to adjust things on our websites.

With increasing developments in AI and machine learning, it is a matter of when, not if search engines will be fullyrun by machines. A scary thought? –  perhaps this article you’re reading was entirely written by one.

by Drench Design

CREATIVE HITS & MISSES - Dan Harding & PRWeek

Daniel Harding, broadcast editor at 72Point, analyses this week’s creative offerings for PRWeek, read the article here.

by Drench Design