Natalie Bruce, Media Relations Manager, Smith and Williamson
First comms job?
Associate at Walbrook PR
– Your role in three words
Make finance interesting! (…or try to)
– Favourite thing about the job
I love how much I learn through the job; whether it’s about football players’ finances, entrepreneurs or tax and company administrations.
– Your biggest challenge at the moment
Encouraging spokespeople to be more outspoken. It’s easy to stick to a ‘safe’ quote, but it won’t get you coverage.
– Career highlight
Working at ICAEW during the reviews in to audit. It was a high-profile topic which received a lot of national media attention – it was a very exciting time.
– Worst buzzword?
Overuse of the word ‘unique’ – unique product, unique offering, unique service…
– My interesting industry event
The entrepreneurs events at Smith & Williamson – the team are well connected with UK business founders, so they have some excellent speakers.
– Best piece of advice
Your relationships are very important, both internal and external. Always be kind, helpful, and hard-working.
– Print or digital? Digital. I love reading the comments.
– First publication of the day
The Times
– Interesting company no one has ever heard of
Softools. They’re doing some really interesting work in the app space – including running apps offline, ‘self-service’ apps and ‘app incubators’ so subject matter experts can build apps for themselves without needing to do any coding.
Laura Nathan, Entice Communications
– First comms job?
My first communications role was at Geronimo marketing in 1997 when I worked on several campaigns for the DFEE including New Deal, Millennium Volunteers and the Keep It campaign for the Inland Revenue. This was a real transition from my previous roles in recruitment, but many of the skills I had learnt were transferable. I later helped set up Geronimo PR with the founder of Geronimo Marketing before I left to set up my own lifestyle agency.
– Your role in three words
Trouble shooter and strategist
– Favourite thing about the job
Diversity. No one day is the same and I continue to learn every day, both from my team and my clients
– Your biggest challenge at the moment
Managing client expectations in an increasingly difficult economy and keeping up to date with all the changes in the media landscape
– Career highlight
Managing the global PR for a fitness tech innovation called Power Plate and recruiting A list celebrities from around the globe, including Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Elle Macpherson to name but a few
– Worst buzzword?
ROI!
– My interesting industry event
The Future of Influence- re the role of influencers
– Best piece of advice
Always treat people well on the way up, as you never know who you may meet on the way down.
– Print or digital?
Both. I know digital is the preferred medium for many clients because of reach and rankings, but I still feel that print has a place. It still gives me an enormous pleasure to see my clients featured in print but I realise that this does not always give the best ROI.
– First publication of the day
Dare I say it the Daily Mail online. For many of our clients this is the holy grail and we need to see what competitors are being featured and what health stories are breaking that may effect them.
– Interesting company no one has ever heard of
bioniq, www.bioniq.com; a health tech innovator who is embracing personalised healthcare