TLDR: new business(es). 2 minute video here explains more:
In case you looked at the blog I posted yesterday about the new Radioactive Group and @RadioactiveTal (here: https://t.co/q6INUR5IPn) and thought ‘eurgh, that’s a lot of rambling to get through’… well, here’s a video explaining it all.
— Rich Leigh (@RichLeighPR) September 6, 2019
MULTIMEDIA RAMBLINGZZZ pic.twitter.com/ACDekRlTrp
PREFER TO HAVE A READ? START HERE
I was giving a talk earlier this year to business owners at Kingsholm Stadium, the home of my first love, Gloucester Rugby. https://www.instagram.com/p/BtS6qtwggJf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link There I was in my Gloucester shirt (attention seeking, ME!? I just wanted the powers-that-be there to know that if they wanted to offer me a contract I could save them a bit on kit…), talking at a packed tourist forum about the changing media landscape and I had something of an epiphany. This was a month or two after Johnston Press was saved from administration and, as a PR agency owner, talking about how Facebook and Google’s dominance has taken the food out of the mouths of more traditional publishers and created an ever-moving line for them to toe, I realised something. I needed to take stock, future-proof and de-risk to ensure we continue to grow. The risk to public relations isn’t AI, or a lack of diversity, or that we’re somehow not perceived to be ethical or professional enough to whisper into the ears of upper management. All of those things are important and we need to consider each, but for me, it’s the changing way clients allocate their budget. I’m not ashamed to say that, in building Radioactive PR, we still lose clients, just like every other agency. And the number one reason is because marketing directors and CEOs are being pressured and applying pressure to see a return on their spend. ‘Rich, we can spend the £xk a month on paid social and PPC, split-test and predict a return that’s just not possible with PR. I have a budget to manage and board and investors to keep happy’, said one outgoing client, who still refers potential clients our way.
The Radioactive Group became the answer
Under the holding Group banner, I aim to build a number of service-based companies that will operate with their own P&Ls, some more scalable and automation-ready than others. We’re speaking to the client-side buyers already, so for me it’s a case of creating agency offerings that each serve a particular need. I’m aware this isn’t rocket science, and that I’m not the first to see the need for this overarching model, but as we approach our fifth birthday at the end of the year, it feels like the right time for us to grow up and out. Having spoken to a few marketing director-types at companies we work with, I’ve earmarked content production, a dedicated paid social arm, a speaking bureau and a couple of others as important to the Group. ‘If we could one-roof everything we spent out for, we would’, one said.Radioactive Talent
But, with performance top of my mind, the second limited company in the Group, joining Radioactive PR, is Radioactive Talent.
