t day's a winner from the start

He may not have backed the Gold Cup winner, but Target boss Colin Spencer found a winning cause in race week.

Colin ran a private tipping service during the four-day festival for clients of his PR agency in Painswick Road, Cheltenham.

He also placed a charity bet every day to raise money for Gloucestershire t day charities: the Spring Centre, Star College and James Hopkins Trust.

“It was just a bit of fun,” said Colin. “There were returns of £155 so we’ve made it up to £200. I should have followed my wife’s tips – she had 11 winners!”

t day is Gloucestershire's dress-down day that raises funds to help disabled young people. This year it takes place on May 6 when supporters will pay £1 to wear a t-shirt to work or school.

“This is a great kick-start for the t day appeal,” said committee member Kate Daws.

The Spring Centre’s Vice-Chair Steve Fisher added that this year’s event is more important than ever. “We’ve suffered a £60,000 drop in funding because of spending cuts and need to raise £130,000pa to keep going. We’re living hand to mouth so getting business support is really important,” he said.

Target also did the artwork for the t day leaflet free of charge, posted it to supporters and donated race tickets for the t day auction.

Colin uses his cocker spaniel, Winston, to front up his tipping column and calls it ‘Winston’s Tips, The Dog That Nose!’. He has a part-share in a racehorse in training with Tim Vaughan and is a member at Cheltenham Racecourse.

Twice the skills, twice the benefit

As a specialist PR agency, Target is well accustomed to generating conversations about its clients – after all, that’s the nature of reputation building.

Sarah Bryars, Chief Executive of Target, explains why they are collaborating with digital agency Swimming Hippo, to bring a new dimension to its PR service.

Traditional media relations skills are based on marrying the client’s agenda with the news agenda in order to generate newsworthy stories and interesting features, and providing well written copy that’s tailored towards a specific audience.

It’s these skills that place PR professionals in such a strong position to deliver the strategy and content for social media programmes, ensuring that the messages and tone of voice for each client are consistent and effective, whatever the communication channel.

But one of the many ‘added benefits’ that social media and online PR contributes to the marketing mix, is the direct impact it has on search engine optimisation, improving natural search rankings which in turn can help to generate leads, and sell products. And that’s what brings the discussion firmly back into the domain of a digital specialist such as Swimming Hippo.

We realised that clients need both the ‘content’ and ‘technical’ aspects of online PR and social media to work seamlessly, and decided the most effective way to achieve that was through collaboration with a specialist agency.

In my view the most successful business relationships thrive on a heady mix of ‘chemistry’ plus perfectly matched skills and experience. That’s certainly what we’ve found through collaboration with Swimming Hippo; a team whose approach to business strikes chords with our own.

Personable, knowledgeable, driven, and with a (rarely found) ability to explain technical functionality with no-nonsense language that is always centred on business benefits and results generation – that’s why we chose to work with Joe and his team. Whether building a new website, or developing an online PR programme together, we have great confidence in the quality, efficiency and integrity of the work they produce.

With two projects already under our belts, we’re looking forward to bringing our combined skills to many more clients, so watch this space. Or get in touchl!