Overseas Public Relations

Are column inches more powerful than advertising?

'There is only one thing worse than being talked about: that is not being talked about' Oscar Wilde, 1903

Once described by Malcolm Muggeridge as "organised lying", public relations is perhaps the least understood of all management tools, but it wins export business. This is 'reputation management'. Consider space in the editorial pages of your trade's magazines in Brazil, Germany, USA or Japan for the price of an envelope, paper, and stamp. Interesting?

Our team or wordsmiths are ready to help project your product or service story through the world's media. We will construct your story and ensure it receives the best attention from the right editors in magazines and the press overseas.

China's power industry is served by at least seventeen periodicals, (which might feature a UK product story) but these are very hard to trace, even online. Being fluent in Mandarin does not make it much easier - as our team discovered.

The UK food industry is served by forty-nine different magazines. Which one (or group) should carry your story? Almost any industry has a loyal media, powerful in marketing terms. We recommend clients seriously consider overseas PR.

'An exporter's three-minute feature slot on a foreign TV news programme can be worth £10,000 of advertising or sales trips. PR should be part of the exporter's marketing strategy, be measurable, and be directly related to sales' says one of our specialist team, an exporter turned marketing & PR specialist.

'At the minimum, consider a quarterly trade press release campaign co-ordinated with your overseas distributors. Even small exporters can write their own press releases to tell the world what they offer'.