Pictures in the Press: Photography and PR

Professional photographer John Linton, who will be hosting a Fresh Series workshop with picture desk editor Chris McNulty on 25^th June in Glasgow, reflects on the importance of planning and getting your photo shoot right.

Imagine the scene – it’s the morning after your first major photo call, which was cobbled together on a shoestring budget at the last minute. You pick the papers up on the way to the office. Immediately you notice a puff piece with your client’s product mentioned on one masthead, and on opening all the nationals catch sight of your art directed shot printed on page three, full page, with you client’s logo spanning at least four columns wide. You smile….

Then of course, you wake up. There’s no need to explain that this is a fantasy. This just doesn’t happen; not because of any mistake you’ll have made but simply because a big advertorial with a teaser on the front page probably costs more than it’s actual worth to your client. The papers don’t give that sort of thing away for free.

Setting your Photo PR Objectives

Now let’s consider something more realistic. You pick up the morning papers. Eagerly, you start to leaf through the pile. You’re deflated and crushed after scanning the first one from cover to cover (including the sport, betting and telly pages) with no sign of even a paragraph. Off to a false start, you are mightily relieved once you’ve flicked through the rest. Most regionals and some nationals have used your shot further into the paper. The one with the smaller logo appears in a few, although at least one article crops it out. The product is mentioned in most of your shows either in the text or in the caption. One of them even runs with a pun related to your client’s business sector in the headline. Result.

What I think we’re getting at here is how to even your odds of getting that result. Coordinating well with the photographer is a major step in scoring PR points for your client’s brand.

Knowing what will kill those chances stone dead with a picture desk are key to this process.

At the talk we’ll discuss how to choose and brief the right photographer, where to be subtle (mainly with branding) and where to be bold (mainly with ideas) and how to put it all together in a package that creates a visual asset that your client can understand and should appreciate.

Our backgrounds in shooting PR campaigns and selecting shots on newspaper picture desks can hopefully help towards providing a starting point when organising your next PR photo shoot.

Photography for PRs:

John and Chris will be presenting a short seminar for the CIPR Scotland Fresh Series entitled “How to Write a Photography Brief” at the Blythswood Hotel at 6:30pm on Tuesday 25th June.

The seminar will discuss methods of getting the most from a photo opportunity.

• From choosing the best photographer for the job
• Writing a killer brief
• The top ten ways to making sure a shoot runs smoothly and gets to the desk on time
• The top ten mistakes that guarantee disaster.

This talk is an introduction for PR execs looking to help their clients have the best chance of getting a show in the papers without blowing their budget.

John Linton

John Linton is a freelance editorial and PR photographer enjoying his tenth year in the industry. He is regularly commissioned by national newspapers and magazines, and has worked for organisations such as the SRU at the 6 Nations, Land Securities throughout the build of the Livingston Elements Centre and the Scottish Leather Group, providing varied coverage from royal visits through to environmental report shots. Currently, he works primarily for the Daily Mail, Scotsman, BAE alongside various companies including Aura PR, while also organizing group exhibitions and managing sales from his own archive.

Chris McNulty

Chris McNulty is a freelance photographer and picture editor. His work regularly features in a range of national newspapers and magazines and occasionally the front pages of international newspapers.

During his eleven-year career working for national newspapers he has been fortunate to experience most areas of photography within this evolving industry, from picture editing to photographing world events and covering the everyday cut and thrust of the business from photography to working as a freelance Picture Editor across a number of titles including the Daily Record, Sunday Mail, Daily Express, Daily Star and Daily Mail. This has involved illustrating a diverse basket of stories from breaking news to features and of course the lighter side of life using a wide range of skills experience, while building an extensive book of contacts.

The Importance of Briefs

Ahead of her CIPR FRESH series workshop on How to Write a Creative Brief, Sacha Mason, Creative Director of branding agency Pocapoc Creative, gives us an insight into preparing effective design briefs and why they are an essential part of the design process.

In a world of tight deadlines and budget restraints how do you ensure you are getting the best from your creative team?  With a good brief.

A clear and concise brief sets the parameters, forming a road map, but should allow the designer to explore the creative landscape.

It helps you as the PR or communications professional managing the project to understand where you are going and how you will know when you get there, it will give you a useful starting point for determining your project evaluation, and it will ensure that your client gets the very best result for their budget.

Key elements of getting the brief and creative project are:

• Selecting the right designer for your project or event
• Ensuring the brief is clear
• Identifying and understanding key processes
• Budgets and scheduling
• Sign off procedures

Get these right, and you are well on your way to both an exciting and creative outcome! If you’re not sure on the above, do join us at the FRESH Event on 28 May in Glasgow to get your brief basics right. 

Sacha Mason

Sacha Mason is Creative Director and owner of Pocapoc, a brand development and design studio in Glasgow. With a career spanning over twenty years, Sacha developed over 100 brands in Scotland and across the UK and has a particular passion and speciality in communicating brand spanking ideas across print and web media.

A Day in the Life of a CIPR Scotland Secretariat

The CIPR Scotland is recruiting a new secretariat. For application details please see the end of this post. To help you understand the role we asked previous secretariat Elaine Fee what is involved in the role.

When I was asked the question – “So what is a typical day in the life of a CIPR Scotland Secretariat?” I was really was really stuck for an answer.

I spent 5 months doing the job and yes, there were the usual administrative tasks, like looking after the emails that come into enquiries, and attending meetings and taking minutes but nothing prepares you for the complexities of being involved with such a dynamic committee of interesting people, all with passion for being the best CIPR Scotland Committee ever.

This kind of passion sweeps you along with it and you can’t help but get carried away and to take on jobs that were never part of the job description!

The typical parts of the job are general admin and support for the Chair, the secretary and the treasurer.

You are the first person that members speak to through the CIPR Scotland email, which can be very interesting as our members know how to ask a question!  You also get to work with the events system to input all the training and events organised by the Committee, that is no mean feat as they organise a lot of training and events for the Scottish membership!

You get to attend all the training events to act as host, registration and to represent CIPR Scotland to the attendees and trainer.  This can sometimes involve an early start as courses are held around Scotland.  That was actually one of my favourite jobs, I loved getting out to meet with members, and of course, non-members who attend the training.  I have been a CIPR member since 1988, so representing an organisation that I have been proud to be a member of for 25 years, wasn’t a job it was a pleasure.

This year I helped with the first Student Event, this was also a pleasure as the students hadn’t organised an event before, so had to be led through the process.   It was nice to be able to help them understand the complexities of organising what was a very large event.

So is there a typical day I guess not, so it would be best not to expect one.  What you can expect is lots of fun, big personalities, lots of friendly and very passionate people, some administration, long and complex minutes, and one of the most interesting jobs I’ve had in a long time.  It was an honour to be involved, so I recommend you apply now!

One last thing, remember everyone on the committee is a volunteer!

Elaine Fee (Previous Secretariat)

If you would like to apply for the position of Secretariat please download the job description here. Email your CV and covering letter – or any questions – to Katrine Pearson (k.pearson@3×1.co.uk) and CIPR Scotland (enquiries@ciprscotland.co.uk) via this link.

About Elaine Fee – Owner, the PR Company

Elaine Fee is the owner of, award winning, The PR Company, and has been a CIPR member since 1988, she was on the Scottish Committee in the late 80’s.

She started her career in PR when working as a clerical officer with the Equal Opportunities Commission.  PR was soon her passion, so she moved into a full-time PR role with the RAC, a move to the AA a year later meant the start of an 18 year passion for a brand that was so deep, it was said her bloody was yellow! After redundancy, and a short career break to do some voluntary work, she had a short stint in Advertising, where she managed and developed Road Safety Campaigns

After the Event: FRESH How To Write A Design Brief (Edinburgh)

The first of our series of FRESH events launched earlier this week at Fiddler’s Elbow in Edinburgh and Steve Christie from Brightspace gave his insights on how to write a useful and effective design brief.

It was a great success, with lots of great feedback and questions from everyone who turned up. For those who couldn’t make it, Steve has kindly popped his slides online.

FRESH is a news series of event offering practical PR advice and the opportunity to learn new skills, specifically designed for PR students or those in their first few years of PR. The programme of hour long events will provide you with essential information and advice on the skills that are key to your development in the public relations profession.

CIPR Scotland will be holding a similar event in Glasgow on May 28th and will this time be presented by Sacha Mason, Creative Director at Pocapoc. You can book tickets for this event here.

Aberdeenshire: Creating The Brand

What makes us passionate about where we live and how does this passion create an infectious buzz that makes somewhere THE place to be?

Aberdeen City and Shire communicators have an important role in supporting the promotion of the place where they live and work, encouraging further growth and aspirations for the area. We want to hear from you about how we can contribute to the creation of a place that supports our business aspirations and ensure we maintain the competitive edge.

So, how do you brand a place and ensure that you use your natural advantage to full effect?

On Tuesday 14^th May, the CIPR will host a special event at RGU which will give delegates an insight into how you promote place, demonstrate civic leadership, engage with, and listen to communities, and encourage pride in where you live and work.

There will also be an opportunity to learn about the creation of a bid for Aberdeen City of Culture, along with all the benefits that could be gained for the City and the surrounding area.

Aberdeenshire is an incredibly diverse and naturally stunning area – from mountain to sea, castles to ski resorts, all within easy commuting distance to a vibrant City Centre.

The area has a buoyant economy and communities that boast traditional fishing villages, vibrant market towns, remote agricultural communities and busy commuter-belt developments. Aberdeenshire has claimed the title of best quality of life in mainland Scotland four times, in the past seven years. With an economy that has largely avoided the economic troubles of the rest of the UK, thanks to the oil and gas sector, Aberdeenshire is fast becoming one of the most desirable places to be in Scotland.

Confirmed as speakers are:

• Kate Bond, Head of Customer, Communication & Improvement at Aberdeenshire Council;
• Belinda Miller, Head of Economic Development at Aberdeenshire Council;
• Rita Stephen, Bid Development Manager for the City of Culture Bid for Aberdeen
• Cllr Jill Webster, Provost of Aberdeenshire (@ProvostAbdnshre). 

In addition, there will be an open discussion session to explore the brand of Aberdeenshire, what it means to the communications industry and how we can work together to position ourselves as THE place to be.