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Planning application approved for £7.4 million refurbishment of former magistrates court into offices and retail space 

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

Preston City Council’s plans to transform the Grade II Listed former magistrates court have been approved. 

Amounderness House will undergo a £7.4 million refurbishment and is one of six major projects planned under Preston’s Harris Quarter Towns Fund Investment Programme, for which the City was awarded £20.9m from the Government’s national Towns Fund initiative in March 2021.

Harris Quarter is a unique area of Preston undergoing a £200m investment programme to transform its historic buildings, sites and public realm into a diverse culture, leisure and employment offering, with Amounderness House located beside the £45m Animate cinema and leisure complex, which is under construction and due to open in Spring 2025. 

The refurbishment of Amounderness House, originally built in 1857 as a police station with several holding cells, will be transformed into a high-quality modern, flexible, multi-use workspace hub that Wrkspace will operate. 

Designed by FWP Architects, the sympathetic refurbishment of the Grade II listed building will create 26 offices circa 645 sq. ft and four craft or retail studios. In addition, the existing courtyard will be updated and open for public use.

Maple Grove Developments is working with Preston City Council and Wrkspace as Project/Development Manager to deliver the project.

Chair of Preston’s Towns Fund Strategic Board, John Chesworth, said:  

“It’s fantastic to see this magnificent building being brought back into use as it will help stimulate business, cultural, and community uses in Preston city centre. We are making significant progress in regenerating the Harris Quarter and seeing a ripple effect of interest in what Preston is achieving as an attractive place to live, work and play.”

Leader of Preston City Council, Cllr Matthew Brown, added: “On the back of this excellent news we can transform Amounderness House and capitalise on this asset being in public ownership and using it to support growing local businesses. Furthermore, in line with our Community Wealth Building principles we’re working with Preston-based Wrkspace to run this important heritage asset as it helps to boost our economy.”

Nik Puttnam, senior development manager with Maple Grove Developments, added: “Bringing new purpose to older buildings like Amounderness House is rewarding and we’re looking forward to making a start on the transformation of this superb historic building. Renovating listed buildings comes with its challenges, especially one that has been vacant for so long, but when complete it will complement other projects in the Harris Quarter and be an economic driver for the city centre .”

Rizwan Seth, managing director of Wrkspace, concluded: “The Wrkspace team are looking forward to welcoming Amounderness House into our flexible office space portfolio. The addition of a high quality city centre provision, compliments the existing business centre offering across the North West. Amounderness House will be a beacon for growth for new and existing businesses within Preston, encouraging flexible workspace provisions as the ever-changing working requirements evolve”.

Smith & Love Planning Consultants submitted the application on behalf of Preston City Council and the wider project team for Amounderness House, including Cowburn-Watson Box, SCP Transport, Eden Heritage, E3P, TRP Consulting, and Graham Schofield Associates.

Strengthening the reach of brand values through employee advocacy

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

Creating and communicating a culture of employee advocacy is important for fostering a supportive and engaging work environment. When employees feel empowered to advocate for their colleagues and the organisation, it leads to higher job satisfaction, increased productivity, and a stronger sense of belonging.

What is employee advocacy?

Employee advocacy refers to the promotion and support of a company’s brand, products, or services by its employees. Empowered and valued employees are natural ambassadors for their organisation, and are an authentic voice that can advocate in a positive way for your organisation, particularly for an online setting such as social media. 

By encouraging employee advocacy, organisations can tap into the power of their workforce to amplify their brand message, strengthen stakeholder value, improve brand perception, and increase the overall visibility and credibility of the company in the marketplace.

Fostering employee advocacy

Here are six ideas to consider when creating and building a positive culture of employee advocacy:

  1. Encourage open communication: ensure transparent and open internal communication channels throughout your organisation. This might include providing opportunities for your employees to discuss and share their ideas or any concerns. Listening – truly listening – to any employee feedback is vital, along with any follow-up that is required to act upon.
  2. Training: ensure your employees have access to all the training they require for their roles and beyond. Social media is a great giver – and taker – for a brand or organisation. Social media guidelines and real-life examples of how to behave online are important for employees to understand the impacts of commenting and sharing content online – both the positives and negatives. Education is essential.
  3. Sense of purpose: here at Limitless, we talk about purpose all of the time. What is the greater purpose and mission of your organisation? Do your employees know and understand the importance of this? When people feel connected to a shared purpose, they are more likely to advocate for your organisation and its goals. Focus on regular internal communications about employee work and contributions, and how this impacts the overall success of the organisation.
  4. Advocacy recognition: acknowledge and appreciate employees who go above and beyond to advocate for their colleagues and the organisation. Consider recognition reward schemes and publicly celebrating such employees.
  5. Diversity and inclusion: help to grow an organisational culture that values diversity and inclusion. Create and communicate a safe environment where every employee feels respected, included, and valued for their unique perspectives and contributions. Ensure that all employees have equal opportunities to participate and advance within the organisation.
  6. Wellbeing: support the workplace wellbeing of your employees however you can. There are many ways to help the entire organisation to prioritise their wellbeing – from walking meetings, offering flexible working, mentoring and wellbeing support services, along with employee assistance programmes – Calm has carried out research around workplace stress and wellbeing here, which is worth looking at.

Creating and building a culture of employee advocacy requires consistent effort and commitment from both business leaders and employees. By nurturing a supportive environment where advocacy is both valued and encouraged, you can help to create a workplace culture that thrives on collaboration, trust, and mutual support. This in turn, will strengthen your brand through its values.

If you need help with brand values and encouraging employee advocacy, please contact us here.

Want strong public relations? Here are five ways to boost your presence

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

In our previous post, we talked about ways to approach and assess an organisation’s communications strategy for maximum impact. Below, we look at five ways you can rethink your public relations strategy and boost your brand’s presence.

  1. Build and maintain strong relationships. Public relations centres around building and maintaining relationships with various stakeholders. These include media, customers, employees, investors, and community members. It’s essential to establish and foster strong relationships and trust with these groups, as they can help you to grow your brand, and also support your organisation in times of crisis.
  2. Be proactive! Effective public relations isn’t just about reacting to situations but also anticipating them. Be proactive by staying updated with your industry news, identifying potential issues before they become problems, and creating a crisis management plan in advance of ever needing one.
  3. Communicate clearly and honestly. Making sure your communications are clear and authentic is essential for quality public relations. Be transparent about your organisation’s values, mission, and actions – and make sure you’re walking the talk. If an issue arises, address it promptly, and provide honest and accurate information to all stakeholders across appropriate channels.
  4. Data data data! Analytics are key. Ensure you’re regularly monitoring and measuring results from your public relations activities. Analytics can be used to assess the effectiveness of your strategies and actions, as well as identify areas that you could improve. There’s a blog post here, where we talk about data decisions in public relations.
  5. Stay flexible. Public relations is constantly evolving, and it’s essential to stay adaptable and flexible as to the needs of your business and organisation. Be open to new strategies and approaches, and be prepared to adjust your tactics based on changing circumstances or emerging trends that you can use to benefit your business. Look at the agile communications blog for more thoughts on this.

Work with Limitless? 

Are you looking for public relations support and strategic advice? We can help you to achieve your communication objectives and be known. Contact Michael Gregory on 0845 625 0820 or drop us a message using this contact form here. 

Some of the best: PR and ad campaign wins in 2022

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

In a world that is often over-saturated on a digital level and crowded with content, it takes strategic, innovative outside-the-box communications to allow campaign messages to reach the right people and influence the required change.

We’ve done a rundown of a few of our favourite and memorable campaigns spotted this year…

OutHorse Your Email

Need a new out-of-office message? You need an Icelandic pony! OutHorseYourEmail.com is a fun campaign from Inspired By Iceland and Horses of Iceland, drawing attention to the fact that on average, 55% of workers check their emails whilst on holiday. The campaign’s aim was to encourage people to disconnect and enjoy their downtime – see it here. 

Icelandic horses will reply to your email using a pony-sized keyboard to hoof out a reply on your behalf! The horses were taught typing skills by Inspired by Iceland, who built a giant replica keyboard with walkable letter tiles.

You can choose from three Icelandic horses who will write your email autoreply: Litla Stjarna Frá Hvítarholti, a fast-typing pony, but they might take a nap; Hrímnir Frá Hvammi, a horse who is assertive, efficient and has shiny hair; or Hekla frá Þorkellshóli, a friendly horse, who is trained in corporate buzzwords. Magic.

Claire Stephenson tested the autoresponder and chose Litla Stjarna Frá Hvítarholti as her typing pony. This was the result…

A fun and creative campaign. Agency  = SS+K

Plastic Is Back!

A campaign for Greenpeace, by Ogilvy Netherlands, highlighting the permanence of plastic waste.

‘Plastic is Back’ is part of Greenpeace’s wider campaign work around plastic waste and pollution, particularly microplastics. According to Greenpeace, a truckload of plastic enters the ocean every minute creating a ‘plastic soup’. Supermarkets in the UK produce around 800,000 tonnes of plastic each year. Unearthed – Greenpeace’s investigative journalists – discovered British plastic waste being dumped and burned in Turkey – impacting land and waterways and more crucially, human health.

The plastic packaging featured in the campaign was all gathered from beaches. Dairy packaging, bleach bottles and crisp packets – some of this plastic packaging waste is estimated to be more than 50-years-old, according to Greenpeace, with visibly vintage packaging designs.

A visually impactful campaign. Agency = Ogilvy Netherlands.

Ask for Henry

A collaboration between Morrisons and Heinz in October 2022, offered customers a free meal of jacket potato and baked beans, to help people during half term who are impacted by the cost of living crisis. A discreet way for people to request help when they “Ask for Henry” at a café counter.

Jojo De Noronha, the President of Northern Europe at Heinz said:

“October marks the birthday of a very special member of the Heinz family, our founder Henry J. Heinz. Henry brought comfort and goodness to others, not just through his food but his actions. We want to honour his good heart and kind spirit by doing what he did best, helping feed people in times of need.”

A social win for both brands.

Netflix

Netflix’s Stranger Things Season 4 drop was pretty spectacular. To mark the launch of the new season, Netflix created installations which popped up across the world.

Bondi Beach in Australia received an installation, as a “gateway” to the Upside Down. People in yellow hazmat suits gathered around the object. Netflix said on their Instagram channel: “Hawkins, do you copy? We could use a little help down here at Bondi…”

netfixanz on Instagram

Stranger Things art installations appeared across the world, from New York’s Empire State Building, Mumbai’s Gateway of India, to Los Angeles, London, Germany, Tokyo, Malaysia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Columbia, Stockholm, Milan, and Madrid.

Stranger Things Instagram/Netflix

A powerful teaser for global Stranger Things fans.

Limitless loves…

We asked some of our associates which campaigns and ads stood out for them this year…

Mark Sutcliffe, Associate at Limitless PR, said:

“The one campaign that really smashed it in 2023, wasn’t actually a campaign (or was it?). Whatever; it generated almost universal coverage across the full spectrum of media platforms and dominated the global news agenda for days.

“I’m talking about Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard handing his £3 billion clothing and accessories company over to a trust focused on funding environmental projects worldwide.

“The Patagonia Purpose Trust will generate around $100 million annually for projects that protect nature and biodiversity, support thriving communities and fight the environmental crisis.

“When it comes to walking the walk, this raises the bar to vertiginous new heights, demonstrating how for-profit business can also work for the planet. Or as Chouinard himself put it: ‘The Earth is now our only shareholder’.”

Photo of Yvon Chouinard by Campbell Brewer.

Claire Stephenson, Associate Director at Limitless PR, said:

“I’ve seen some amazing content and communications this year. 

“One of the most powerful campaigns is from CALM: The Last Photo, and why Suicidal Doesn’t Always Look Suicidal. A collection of images of people whose lives have been lost to suicide is striking and poignant. The communications dispel the myth that if someone is feeling suicidal or having a mental health crisis, we would know about it. The campaign highlights that exterior emotions don’t always reflect what is happening inside a person’s mind.

“This campaign points towards starting a conversation to save a life. Removing the stigma around talking about suicide and how people can talk about it can save more lives. Hats off to CALM and adam&eveDDB for this change-making campaign.”

Social media and employee advocacy 

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

Social media is a great tool for business messaging and sharing content with an audience. This includes employees too, which is often forgotten about. Encouraging positive use of employees using social media to share your organisation’s content and messaging is a powerful form of advocacy, allowing business messaging to be shared in an authentic way. 

Global research by LinkedIn and Altimeter Group looked at the top 100 of the most socially-engaged companies on LinkedIn with more than 1,000 employees. The results showed that employee social engagement boosts business outcomes.  

The top-line findings were that socially-engaged companies are: 

  • 40% more likely to be perceived as competitive 
  • 57% more likely to get increased sales leads  
  • 58% more likely to attract top talent 

Advocacy 

Employee advocacy is an important part of your marketing toolkit. Your people are the authentic, grassroots of your organisation. They can help with building brand awareness, trust with clients and customers, and importantly, forming stronger connections with all employees in the organisation.  

According to research by Nielson, 84% of consumers trust in recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising, and 77% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase after hearing about it from someone they know. Facilitating an authentic employee advocacy programme allows you to build strong messaging and sharing opportunities for new audiences. 

Hootsuite research shows that “employee advocacy also helps to retain and engage employees, especially Millennials who expect a digital connection with their leaders, community, and peers.” 

Understanding best practice for professional social media use is helpful in determining what your business needs and how to deploy it within your strategic communication plan. 

Which platforms? 

With Twitter being on shaky ground with the latest acquisition by Elon Musk, it’s a good time to reassess your social media for business, and audit existing platforms. For example, LinkedIn may be a key platform for your content messaging. It’s like a professional address book – recruitment, job searching and networking are all strong features. If, for instance, Twitter becomes obsolete as is rumoured, would you rely more heavily on LinkedIn, and could your employees benefit from some guidance on sharing business content? 

Key considerations 

Here are three key points to consider, to enable positive and successful social media for your business. 

  1. Have a clear and consistent social media policy – ensure your company’s social media guidelines are up-to-date and accessible to all employees. Include guidance on harassment, legal responsibilities of publishing content on public forums, and posting responsibly. Outline the official company social account handles and if staff are identifying themselves as employees of the company, do you need to encourage them to add a disclaimer to their bio, such as “All opinions are my own” for example? 
  1. Ensure staff have regular social media training – social media platforms and algorithms are continually updating and evolving. If you’re actively encouraging staff to engage and share content, providing basic support and information should be a minimum. Training on using social channels successfully will allow everyone to be supported and on the same page, keep cyber safety and security as a priority, and ensure brand messaging remains consistent.  
  1. Encourage social advocacy – consider setting up a specific programme to encourage employees to take part in social networking, content sharing and thought leadership. Could you incentivise employee advocacy through rewards and benefits? This could be anything from monetary or gift rewards, to recognition and company shoutouts. Employee advocacy programmes benefit both brand and employee: “brands enjoy increased awareness and controlled messaging while employees earn rewards and establish themselves as thought leaders in their field”. 

Hootsuite’s predictions on social media for businesses in 2023 indicate that those who employ a social-first approach towards their brand and customers, will benefit most. Maggie Lower, Hootsuite’s Chief Marketing Officer said: 

“Social media has never played a more central role to businesses. As businesses continue to look for ways to future-proof operations and connect with today’s tech-savvy customers, social media and digital marketing will inevitably play a part in nearly every business strategy. 

“In 2023, businesses that take a social-first approach to their brand and customer care strategy will be the ones to reap the benefits. Stronger brand reputation, greater customer interaction, trust and loyalty – now and in the future – depends on it.” 

Maggie Lower, Hootsuite

Storytelling: the power behind the PR

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

Everyone loves a story. Everyone has a story. Humans have been telling and enjoying stories and tales since the dawn of time, from primitive cave etchings, to fireside whispers of myths and fables right through to high-level campaign and advertising stories.

When we talk about storytelling for business, we’ve only to look at some of the biggest brands for how they’ve cultivated such cast-iron strategies to connect and market to their customers, showcasing quality public relations. They effectively tap into the emotions of their customers, keeping it human and creating compelling stories and messages that travel the globe, seemingly without effort. 

Apple, for instance, projects a powerful, minimalist image, with a brand loyalty like no other along with a rack of desirable products. Their co-founder, Steve Jobs, was an advocate of impactful storytelling and said:  

“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”

World-renowned screenwriter and director, Robert McKee, said:

“Cognitive psychologists describe how the human mind, in its attempt to understand and remember, assembles the bits and pieces of experience into a story, beginning with a personal desire, a life objective, and then portraying the struggle against the forces that block that desire. Stories are how we remember; we tend to forget lists and bullet points.”

If you’re a business or organisation and want to connect to your customers, effective storytelling with a unique perspective can help you to create trust and relay your brand in an authentic way. Clear, concise and captivating stories will perform better in customer communications than those that lack strategy or direction.

Here are three questions to ask yourself when looking at storytelling for your business and how it can impact your public relations.

  1. Is your story genuine and authentic? Storytelling contributes to a strong PR and marketing strategy, as long as it is a truthful account that your customer can relate to. People have had enough of cheap gimmicks and blatant sales pitches: they want fresh, honest and clever stories from brands they can trust, and in turn, you could gain a valued customer.
  2. Is it directed towards your niche audience? Remember – you’re not for everyone. And that’s a good thing! If you’ve correctly identified your target audience, your messaging should be precise and appealing to them. Seth Godin talks about the potency of your story, that fits perfectly with your core public: “Great stories are rarely aimed at everyone. Average people are good at ignoring you. Average people have too many different points of view about life and average people are by and large satisfied. If you need to water down your story to appeal to everyone, it will appeal to no one. The most effective stories match the world view of a tiny audience—and then that tiny audience spreads the story.”
  3. Is it relatable? Does your story and messaging relate to your ideal customer? How so? Keeping your messaging aligned with your customer and their connection to you is a key point for any public relations. Helping them to identify with your brand forges trust and authenticity, making them more likely to become a customer. 

Seth Godin’s quote on how customers make purchases is a good example of the psychology of sales, and making your brand and product relatable: 

“People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic.”

Now human attention spans are reported to be at an all-time low – research suggests that the human attention span loses concentration after just eight seconds – there’s never been a better time to review messaging and storytelling for your brand.

These are just a few ideas you could consider when crafting a brand story or message. As always, we’re here to help. If you’d like to find out how we can work together, please do drop us a message. Contact Michael Gregory on 0845 625 0820 or use this contact form here.

The wisdom of crowds and the power of ‘buzz’

Posted on by Michael Gregory

One thing that Greg Wilson learnt early in his career, even before he was in public relations, was that people follow the crowd…

As a graduate in the late 90s looking for my first marketing job, I naively came up with the idea that if I could get my mates’ band a record deal, it would look amazing on my CV. I dutifully got a whole load of CDs printed and developed a “promotional pack” to send out to record company A&Rs, inviting them to a “showcase gig” at a renowned A&R pub in Camden. I hammered the phones asking if my beautiful promo packs had been received, did they like the CD? Were they coming to the gig? Several said yes. But on the big day, to massive disappointment, all-round, not one record company showed.

When I called to ask why, I remember one particularly honest response. The promo pack was very nice, he said. He even really liked the CD, but he was only ever really interested in coming to see bands who already have some “buzz”. Put simply, “selling” a band to a record company doesn’t work. Not unless they’ve already heard that you’re one to watch.

When that happens, the direction of travel is reversed. Bands with “buzz” often ended up with record companies fighting to sign them up, to the utter dismay and disbelief of all the other bands who are pitching themselves so relentlessly.

This was an early lesson that the perceived “wisdom of crowds” trumps salesmanship and fantastic marketing every time, no matter how beautiful your sales pitch is.

But how exactly do you define “buzz”? Well following the music business example, it was hearing the band’s name from venue owners, promoters, sometimes rival artists – basically anybody who didn’t have a vested interest in the band’s success – before receiving the CD and gig date. It was about being seen to already have fans. A following, if you like.

After more than 20 years in the public relations profession, the same still goes. If your buyers can see evidence of your greatness, outside of what you are telling them directly, they will follow that crowd wisdom – and buy-in to all your empirical evidence that you are the right choice.

This is the lesson for sales and marketers who are unsure about the value of PR. Hone your marketing and your sales pitch all you like. But if you want to be a superstar, make sure you have the “buzz” to back it up. Be the one to watch before you try to sell, and selling will suddenly seem easy.

In fact, they may just come to you.

Limitless rebrands to support expansion plans

Posted on by Michael Gregory

Limitless has undergone rebrand of it’s visual identity to mark the start of a five-year growth plan for the agency.

The strategic public relations and brand communications agency is to expand nationally and internationally through organic growth, joint ventures and acquisitions. 

Michael Gregory, who joined Limitless alongside existing directors Greg Wilson and Richard Slater in November 2020, said: “The pandemic provided us with a chance to recalibrate the business, focus on what we do best and rebrand our identity. And that’s to help our clients be known for what they want to be known for.

“It’s a simple proposition and one that gets to the heart of the matter. It helps us to shape campaigns that achieve clients’ brand and communication objectives.

“The next five years are going to be exciting for us and all our partners. We’ve got realistic plans in place to grow the business domestically and internationally. We’re talking to like-minded partners in the UK and Europe, to collaborate or form structured partnerships that will benefit clients.

“Our growth will be fuelled by doing an excellent job for clients. That’s the sure-fire way of getting to where we want to be.”

Get in touch HERE to book an initial free of charge strategy session.

Why you should create a powerful brand purpose

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

The days of telling your audiences your organisation, product or service is the best thing since sliced bread are well and truly over. In fact, that concept probably ended when Apple famously launched its ‘Think Different’ campaign in 1997. You’ll still find that campaign message on some Apple products demonstrating its power.

As consumers, we’re continually bombarded with brand messages and not all of them well thought out. Plus, we’re much savvier about who we want to engage with. We’re just not that easily won over anymore.

We want to know what a brand stands for and if it resonates with our individual values and needs. It’s vital when looking to engage with your audiences, your brand messages are authentic and born from a profound purpose.   

Brands communicating their purpose are arguably more successful in engaging with their audiences, and it’s not just the preserve of big brands. Organisations realising that defining a purpose helps cultivate a point of difference. A brand purpose has to be genuine though because consumers can see through the hasty box ticked brand message.

It’s not new thinking. If you want to know more about this, then read of Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why, which he wrote 11 years ago. In it, he says people are more likely to buy into a product, service, cause or movement when they understand the ‘why’ behind it.

It’s a powerful concept, but it doesn’t stop there. Once you’ve defined your ‘why’ , it’ll need to play a central function in shaping brand messages and what you want to be known for.  

At Limitless, we’re big on this. Before devising a brand communications strategy, we help clients define their purpose pinpointing what they want to be known for. Based on research and audience profiling, we design and deliver strategies that help clients achieve their communication objectives.  

The key is to focus on marketing tactics after you’ve defined your purpose and what you want people to know. Campaigns that have a purpose are more meaningful and have greater impact in building brand value.

 Think about it. What’s your purpose? What do you want to be known for? If you’d like to know more, contact Michael Gregory to see how we can help your organisation.