Digital PR Agency

PR & Reputation Management Company

BrightHR

objectives

BrightHR makes specialist people management software for SMEs, and entrusted us to help establish the startup’s brand presence in this competitive sector. This is how we made some serious headlines.

objectives

BrightHR makes specialist people management software for SMEs, allowing them to effortlessly manage the Human Resources process, freeing up departmental staff for more hands-on sides of the job, and facilitating employees to perform tasks such as booking holiday days. This new startup company approached Smoking Gun PR to help establish a brand presence in the sector, with the following requirements:

Create awareness of the business and its product
Generate vertical trade through exposure in trade press and blogs
Target consumer media titles
Conceive and unveil a brand personality in keeping with both the service and company ethics
Assist in the business better-defining its audience

Here’s how we went about it…

strategy

The first, and perhaps most important aspect of this work was defining who the product was aimed at.

Immediately we identified three key demographics; business owners, HR professionals or the person(s) responsible for HR within the company, and employees who would buy into a ‘cool’ brand identity- talking about the product and enthusiastically engaging with the software at work.

Clearly the three represent very different sides to any business, nevertheless all would likely respond to one key message- long, mundane tasks do not have to be mundane, or indeed long, but rather quick, easy, and simple to complete. This could not be a fluffy PR campaign, which would likely put off those at the top of the ladder, but needed to be playful and friendly to welcome all the identified groups.

measurement & evaluation

We began by teaming up with an industry expert to set about conducting in-depth research, adding credibility to the overall BrightHR brand. For this we recommended Sir Cary Cooper, who ranked No.1 in the ten most influential HR thinkers in HR Magazine’s September 2015 issue, and is renowned for his knowledge in ‘wellbeing at work’.

The research was then unveiled to the industry at the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development) November 2015 conference, at which Sir Cooper was also a keynote speaker, and received the accolade of CIPD President- a happy coincidence that cemented BrightHR’s position; ahead of the curve.

Alongside Sir Cooper and his team of business psychologists at Robertson Cooper, Smoking Gun produced a report, It Pays To Play, outlining the benefits of fun in the workplace to all three target demographics. Featuring insights from 2,000 employees across the UK, the content was remarkable in offering a real overview of how much value could be added by adopting a more fun approach to work. From this we developed powerful, engaging content to roll out a full PR story that was then issued to the press and target trendsetters in the sector.

results

49

pieces of coverage including 15 national media hits in titles such as Daily Mail, Daily Express, mailonline, and The Sun, beating out KPI of 10 nationals.

One radio day

with Sir Cooper, producing 17 regional broadcast interviews

5 hits

in respected industry blogs aimed at HR pros, such as HRZone and Changeboard

213 individual

report downloads, and more than 3,000 page views for the It Pays To Play area of BrightHR’s website

8 pieces

of quality coverage on the BrightHR launch story in titles like Greater Manchester Business Week and recruiter.com

458,563,339

opportunities to see the brand, at a spend of £1 for every 7,643 eyeballs

results

49

One radio day

5 hits

213 individual

8 pieces

458,563,339

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