Issue two of AuraTalk brought to you by Aura PR- an e-zine created to help SMEs stand out in PR and digital marketing. Helpful hints and tips as well as a short showcase of Aura PR's recent work. Visit www.aura-pr.com for regular helpful blog posts.

1. H E L P I N G S M E S S T A N D O U T
I S S U E 2
AURATALK
Photography: Martin Shields

2. EDITOR'S NOTE
E D I T O R - I N - C H I E F
WelcometothesecondissueofAuraTalk!
Inthisissuewetalkaboutfindinginspirationeverywhere,anarticleinspired(funnily
enough) byPaulSmith,theiconicBritishdesignerwhovisitedGlasgowearlierthisyearfor
theHello,MyNameisPaulSmithexhibition.
Astimeschangeinpublicrelationssodobudgets.ItakealookathowPRbudgetsare
changing,nowwehavetopaytoreachaudiencesandbreakthroughthesheervolume
ofcontentbeinggeneratedacrosstheweb.Influencermarketingplaysahugerole.
WealsofeaturesomeimagesofthenewMiller& CarterrestaurantinGlasgow.We
workedwithGlasgow-basedphotographerMartinShieldstocapturethebrandandthe
essenceofthenewvenue,whichhasalreadyreceived30/30fromTheDailyRecord
reviewer,GaryRalston.
InternationalWomen'sDaywason8MarchandImadeapledgeforparity.Ilookatways
wecanhelpsetanequalbar,usingPRasanexample.
W W W . A U R A - P R . C O M
Laura Sutherland

3. IT IS THE LONG
HISTORY OF
HUMANKIND (AND
ANIMALKIND, TOO)
THAT THOSE WHO
LEARNED TO
COLLABORATE
AND IMPROVISE MOST
EFFECTIVELY
HAVE PREVAILED
Charles Darwin

4. INTEGRATE
PR & SEO
IT NEEDN' T BE A HEADACHE. IT
NEEDS TO BE SCALABLE
How to find inspiration... everywhere
As part of the Hello, My Name is Paul
Smith exhibition, at The Lighthouse,
Paul Smith came to Glasgow to
speak to students and young
designers about finding inspiration
everywhere.
5 unlikely places you may find
inspiration
#1 Embrace your daydreams
Daydreaming can you bring you back to a
place between real-life and fantasy. Dreams
and ambitions can play out and you'll be in a
world of your own.
Psychologist Malia Fox Mason once said, "By
allowing your mind the freedom to roam, the
chances that you're going to have an insight
are much higher. It's likely that you are going
to recombine pieces of information in a novel
way.”
#2 Pull an all-nighter
Sometimes when you're in a non-work
environment e.g. the phones aren't ringing
and people aren't pestering you with emails,
you are more likely to make a link to
something or when you're tired, you are more
susceptible to the influence of other ideas.
"Unfortunately, we can’t feel like that all the
time. And yet, in the workplace, we’re always
expected to meet -- and ideally, exceed --
expectations ... our inspiration levels
notwithstanding.
"As someone who has to write and create on
a daily basis, I’ve identified (with the help of
science ... thanks, science!) some less
obvious strategies for upping your inspiration
levels."
Erik sets out some tips...
The funny thing is, everything Paul said made
so much sense, but it was almost too simple.
Do humans make life difficult for themselves by
looking for a deeper meaning or analysing too
much?
Paul was talking about his fashion collection
inspirations and mentioned everyday scenes
that he took and made into a design. For
example, the shapes and angles which
shadows cast, the waves in their various
shapes and forms in the sea, a pattern from a
piece of furnishing.
Finding inspiration for our next campaign or
project can be that easy. Nowadays, we have
access to huge amounts of data. What is the
data telling us? What pattern does it show and
how does this translate into the design of our
strategy?
Sometimes, simple things that are all around us
and available to us are the most effective
places to look.
What about unlikely places though?
Erik Devaney @bardofboston says:
Knowing the underlying components of
inspiration makes it easy to see why it’s such a
powerful force. When you’re inspired, you’re not
just motivated; you’re thinking in a new way,
which can lead you to those big, breakthrough,
“a-ha” moments.

5. INTEGRATE
PR & SEO
IT NEEDN' T BE A HEADACHE. IT
NEEDS TO BE SCALABLE
How to find inspiration... everywhere#3 Get outside your bubble
Everyone has habits whether it is with
friends, restaurants, routes to work or
television programmes.
Breaking those habits will allow you to
step out of your bubble. Research
suggests (via Psychology Today) that
there’s a correlation between openness
to experience and
how frequently people feel inspired. So if you’re serious about finding inspiration, give your schedule a
shuffle and expose yourself to some different perspectives.
#4 Write down all your crappy ideas
No idea is a bad idea! 100 crappy ideas are better than none at all.
Some people are better at working with a starting point on which to build rather than a blank page.
Everyone has their strengths when it comes to ideas.
A team mate might take one of your bad ideas and turn it into a great one.
#5 Forget the coffee, grab a beer
We'd encourage everyone reading this to 'drink sensibly', but we
do think that having a beer rather than a coffee can stimulate
some great ideas.
How many times has an entrepreneur said they started out with
the idea on the back of a fag packet or napkin?!
Apparently, alcohol can slow down how quickly the brain can process information. As we've already
identified it's not how quickly you can process information that counts.
Unlike alcohol, caffeine (at least initially) helps you focus. And when you’re focused, you’re not able to
make connections between different ideas as easily.
Breaking that focus is what allows inspiration to seep in.

6. HOW PR
BUDGETS ARE
CHANGING
I N F L U E N C E R R E L A T I O N S
PR budgets
used to be for
fees.
As we work to
the PESO
model we
need to ensure
there are
resources for
paid media.
Recently a client came to me with one budget that was for ‘PR’. I asked if there
was a budget for paid media, after our proposal had outlined the requirement for
paying to reach certain audiences, and the answer was no. The budget was the
full budget.
A few years ago, or maybe even still, most PR practitioners would have taken the
full budget as a fee. Not any more. If we’re going to do it right, we need to be
more flexible with our working.
I quickly worked out a third of the budget would be required for paid media to
reach a specific audience we had identified as key. ‘You fool’ I hear you cry. I’ve
realised that I will have to sacrifice a proportion of some fixed fees to paid media,
especially if the part of the brief is targeted at an audience you’re not going to
engage easily through editorial and social posts alone. And in this case
particularly, as there are fairly limited channels to use content marketing, for a
number of reasons.
So within a budget, the PR now has to consider design, photography, filming,
media monitoring, occasionally paid platforms such as MailChimp due to the
size of database, and now, paid media including paid advertising, bloggers and
social media advertising.
Forms of paid advertising I work with varies depending on the audience. I’ve
covered print ads, advertorials, email ads, online ads and skin take-overs on
websites.
Design has included everything from ads, email templates to social graphics.
Occasionally you can use the likes of Canva to develop your own visuals, but
when it comes to campaigns, it’s best to include this within the design brief, for
consistency and to come up with cool visuals which work over several graphics.

7. Bentley did a great job on Instagram recently, where it used three separate images, posted at different
times, to reveal one fantastic image. Similarly, for the Hello, My Name is Paul Smith exhibition (finishing
on Sunday by the way), Paul Smith created three images for us to use, across a Facebook advert, which
used the three image ad. The ‘Hello’ was spread across all four images and looked great when it was
set in the ad.
I had mentioned bloggers earlier. A lot of bloggers, particularly the influential ones which bigger brands
use, will now charge for reviewing, sharing and posting. Whilst we must always remember to be
transparent about the paid nature of the post, if you work in fashion for example, you are bound to have
to pay bloggers (or celebs on the likes of Instagram) to feature products.
According to a post I read on PR Daily by Abbi Whitaker, Facing the hard questions about paid content;
"A recent GroupHigh survey found that today’s influential social media users aren’t settling for free
products or promises of ad placements on their blogs. Roughly 70 percent of them expect cash
instead.
"Mid-level users are charging from $200 to $500 per post, and more than 80 percent say they accept
monetary compensation from businesses. “Influencer marketing” now looks more like the traditional
advertising business—monetary compensation for a contracted endorsement—than a public relations
strategy."
It’s right. PR practitioners need to start thinking about pursuing and nurturing influencer relationships.
Bloggers can be huge influencers and for that they command a fee – a slice of PR budgets.
The article also went on to talk about the value of a paid post:
"A celebrity without expertise brings little value. In almost every niche market, however, a handful of
bloggers with as few as 10,000 followers carry sizeable influence."
You should carefully consider who you think is an influencer and ensure they have a shared vision,
aligned brand, authentic voice that people will trust and connects with their followers.
Does your celeb scream ‘I’m promoting this brand’ or is the tone natural and with their own voice? As
with anything you need to attach a goal. What return will you get on your PR budget?

8. When it comes to paid ads, it’s exactly the same. Did you use a specific URL to monitor clicks and
visits? Did you have a call to action? If it’s an online ad, make sure you’re monitoring the effectiveness
of it – you can easily change the ad or the URL. How are you going to measure your activity?
The difficulty in deciding on a budget for paid media is when it comes to splitting the fee for
managing the account, creating the content and delivering the results, no matter what the platform.
We suggest scoping out a range of media and costs and how they are suited to the client’s brand.
You’ll quickly find out which will reach the right audience and fit in with your other plans and that will
illuminate some. At the moment, I’m working on a TV commercial for my client, after negotiating
audience, spots and overall portion of the budget. For this project TV is the most effective route to
engaging this specific audience. The package is cost effective, too.
Finally, we need to be mindful of activating the campaign across other platforms, reinforcing the
message to the audience. This comes back to the overall strategic plan and ensuring timings and
messaging are aligned with audiences, platforms and goals.

9. MILLER &
CARTER
GLASGOW
USING PHOTOGRAPHY FOR PR
OPPORTUNITIES
LAUNCH

10. On International Women's Day (8
March), I made a pledge for parity.
I first attended an Adam & Co International Women’s
Day event about eight years ago. I was invited along
to drink cocktails and chat to other women in
business. At the time it felt more like a ‘girl power’
social event, not really getting to grips with the
challenge of gender equality.
It wasn’t until I really had the opportunity to hear
from a passionate CIPR board colleague Sarah Hall
in 2014, where she led on a piece of work with the
CIPR, which issued a commitment to its members
and the wider Public Relations profession to tackle
the issue of equal pay for women and gender
balance in the workplace.
Sarah then went on to use the CIPR’s report to call
the PR industry to action, to grow up and take equal
pay seriously.
The CIPR’s research in 2015, “highlighted that a
clear pay inequality gap of *£8,483 exists in favour
of men, a figure that cannot be explained by any
other factor such as length of service, seniority,
parenthood, or a higher prevalence of part-time
work amongst women. Findings also reveal the
biggest influences on the salaries of all public
relations professionals; with gender identified as the
third biggest influence on salary, more so than
education background, sector of practice, graduate
status, and full-time/part-time status.”
In January this year the CIPR also held a debate at
the House of Commons. The motion ‘Requiring
large firms to publish pay data will end the gender
pay gap in a generation’ was proposed by Mary
Whenman, President at Women in PR and
seconded by Lisa Townsend, a lobbyist and former
Conservative parliamentary candidate. Sarah Pinch,
CIPR Past President, led the opposition of the
motion, and was supported by Stuart Bruce, CIPR
Council member and Founder of Stuart Bruce
Associates.
The World Economic Forum in its Global Gender
Gap Report 2015 estimates it will take until 117
years to achieve global gender parity in the
workplace. 117 years until companies and
governments are equally led by men and women.
And 117 more years of talent pipelines and
professional promise not fully realized. Read more
here on the EY website. It’s right when it says “The
world economy is driven by sustainable value and
business growth, which depend upon attracting,
optimizing and retaining all talent. It’s in every
organization’s and every nation’s best economic
interest to fully utilize and optimize the talents of
women.”
This is not a tick-box exercise and it’s not for the feel
good factor!
What can we do?
#1 Recruitment and selection process – fair
decisions on salary and work
#2 Better access to training
#3 Encourage mentoring
#4 Expertise and knowledge, systems and
processes ensuring equality
#5 Equal work within jobs
#6 Best practice with job reviews
#7 A path to leadership with career advancement
opportunities
#8 Consider paternity leave and flexible working in
your corporate culture
#9 Build supportive environments
The CIPR’s gender pay resources is a good place to
start and the IWD website hosts many resources
too.
THE
GENDER
BALANCE
play your part

11. 8 CREATIVE
WAYS TO USE
PINTEREST
Pinterest is a platform for research, planning, buying and doing –
the possibilities for business is huge and it marries well with how
PR strategies can engage in a creative way. There are 1 million
business users now on Pinterest!
Here are some example of how Aura currently uses Pinterest for PR and marketing and some ideas we’d love
to work on with clients:
#1 To develop creative
Start a board and start pinning posts to it – use the search function adding key words. It’s inspiring and you’ll
come across ‘layers’ of pins. We’ve started using this for pitches, rather than fully developing creative
concepts. It means you can share the board with the client and you can develop it together, so when it comes
to developing the final creative, you’re all on the same page
#2 To build a library
Using Pinterest as a showcase for images, creative design works etc is a good way of collating a library for
using in creds
#3 Reaching a new audience
With over 100 million monthly users on Pinterest, there is a platform ready for crowdsourcing, as well as
considering Pinterest as a platform to showcase products and services across the globe
#4 Increase traffic to websites
Image-led pins with a snappy caption are winners, from how-to’s to products. It helps if you know what your
audience will search for, using the right key words so it’s in the right category, but always remember to add a
URL!

12. #5 Customisation
Customisation is a must for any PR engagement strategy. Getting to know your audience on
Pinterest is all about looking at what they pin and what they are into. In the age of customisation,
brands have a big opportunity to customise their products and services to their audience. This is
also replicable across other platforms with sharing.
#6 Competitions and live engagement
Brands can get their audiences to talk about what they are doing and post pins with hashtags to
follow the story. For example, automotive brands can invite their audiences to take part in a
competition or live activity and ask them to pin pictures as they participate. It could be something
as simple as a campaign for a specific model of car to take part in ‘the world’s biggest car tour’, with
pinners from across the world being engaged with their own cars. Or if they are really extravagant,
the brand could hand pick one ‘Pinfluencer’ from each country and give them a car for a week.
#7 Recruitment
By using pins created to demonstrate qualities and skills required, build Pinterest boards to recruit
great talent and ask applicants to build their own boards to demonstrate how they fit the bill
#8 Activate your brand ambassadors – your employees
By getting your employees to pin products to their boards and with genuine recommendations,
tips and pointers, consumers can buy products already having done their research
Final tip – remember to ensure your products and images on your website always carry a Pin
button!
It's not all about pretty pictures - what story do they tell?

13. SCOTLAND'S
FIRST PR
FESTIVAL -
BY AURA
Collaboration will be key to driving forward change and improving the
knowledge and skills of practitioners
16-17 June in Edinburgh.
Book tickets via the website.
Last year, Aura announced it would be develop and
organise a festival for public relations, which would
bring together all sectors and areas of public
relations.
As PR moves into marketing, digital and advertising
spheres, PR has a real chance to develop strategies
which engage across multiple platforms.
The festival was born out of frustration of too many
events which neither inspired or were in-depth
enough to help practitioners in Scotland improve
their knowledge and skills. If we're not careful, PR
could be left behind!
Laura Sutherland carried out research amongst the
PR community to ensure the programme would be
informed and relevant. Of course, bearing in mind,
that sometimes, people don't know, what they need
to know!
Bringing key people from across Scotland, England
and as far as Belgium, New York and Stockholm, the
programme covers a wide range of topics, from
automation and tools to future proofing and
diversity.
The festival will hopefully be an annual event, with
plans already underway to confirm the venue and
dates for 2017.
Support has been given from the two key PR
member organisations, CIPR and PRCA, as well as
business support from Hiscox and Press Data.
We've also made headway with our relationshihp
wiht AMEC - the international association for
measurement and evaluation of communications,
which we will take a live feed from into the festival.
There's no point in reinventing the wheel, but there
is a point in bringing quality events such as The
PRofessionals to Scotland - it's crying out for
substantial learning events, which inspire,
encourage collaboration and share best practice.

14. aura-pr.com
Aura works across the UK with a wide range of clients, large and small. We'd be delighted to hear
from you should you have any enquiries.
T: 0141 337 6712 E: hello@aura-pr.com Tw: @AuraPR