Today our series features Charlotte Webster, Head of Clean Technology at CCGroup, GlobalCom PR Network’s partner PR agency in the UK – who gives us some insights into “Tops and Flops” in the British market (also relevant is the interview with Duncan McKean).
PR topics: tops and flops – what works best in your market?
Quality content is crucial in the CleanTech industry. The market is growing rapidly, meaning a thirst for news – whether product or project related. With the daily emergence of new players, it’s important for organisations to feel informed on the most valuable options available.
Changes in market drivers are shifting fast too, so challenging insight and expert comments are great ways of being visible to stakeholders particularly when it comes to policy changes.
Social media is on the rise in CleanTech, with original, educational and inspiring video content in particular becoming an increasingly important PR tool.
Most critically, what’s required is an open, can do attitude to communications from organisations themselves. Those CleanTech companies willing to challenge current thinking and talking to stakeholders clearly, regularly and rapidly are winning the race.
How important is industry expertise in your daily PR work?
Industry expertise is certainly important. Aside from anything else, CleanTech has a long and complex history so to be credible you’ve got to appreciate the social, political & environmental backbone of the industry – as well as the economics. The industry does not take kindly to those ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ without a thorough understanding of the market.
Are integrated international PR programs beneficial for your work?
The answer to that is, only if they’re integrated in the right way. Often good PR is communication tailored to a specific regional issue. More often than not international programmes fail to take market specifics into account. However, if regional differences are considered when running the international PR programmes, there can be space to make a real impact. My view is that the ‘global communications’ model is changing rapidly, with the rise of local and personal networks both on and offline. International organisations would do well to recognise that the traditional corporate comms model needs to evolve to keep up with social change. Simply, listen to the locals.