PLMR Group Media Snapshot: October 2024

This October we firmly welcomed in the Autumn season, with the clocks going back, school students enjoying a restorative half-term break before the final Christmas push, and communities across the country joining together to mark Black History Month, Diwali, Rosh Hashanah, and Halloween, to name a few.

It was also yet another remarkable month for UK politics with Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivering not only the Labour Government’s first Budget in more than 14 years but being the first female to ever do so. The Chancellor announced a total of £40bn in tax rises, the largest increase in a generation. Much of the political and media landscape is now focused on the response to the announcements. Meanwhile, after a turbulent election campaign, the political future of the USA has now been sealed with the election of Donald Trump.

All the while, PLMR Group has been busy holding timely events including the latest PLMR Insight Event with Michael Buchanan, Social Affairs Correspondent at BBC News, and several clients’ parliamentary receptions launching important research reports and white papers. We also hosted students from the Taylor Bennett Foundation, providing a PR Masterclass to inspire the next generation of comms experts.

In the media, we continued to secure an array of national, broadcast, trade and regional coverage for our clients – including a surprise visit from Ricky Gervais! Read on to find out more about some of our media highlights for October 2024…

The Sunday Express: Baby deaths expose faults in NHS baby care

Client: Lime Solicitors

Sector: Legal

PLMR worked with Lime Solicitors’ Medical Negligence practice to secure and launch a national media campaign, in collaboration with The Sunday Express, to expose the current state of maternity care in the UK and call for an overhaul of maternity services.

To start the campaign, PLMR secured national coverage with a press release in The Sunday Express on stillbirth medical negligence. The release was based on Freedom of Information (FOI) requests sent to all NHS Trusts in England, which enquired how many medical negligence claims involving stillbirths had been made to the Trusts in the last 11 years, and how much the Trusts had paid in damages as a result of these claims. The team has also reached out to a number of MPs to help champion the campaign, which will focus on patient safety and inequality in healthcare outcomes.

Through working closely with The Sunday Express and the Lime team to craft key messaging, we were proud to help promote Lime Solicitors’ expertise and their important work to a national audience.

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Business Green: Over 100 NGOs and academics voice support for The Global Biodiversity Standard

Client: Botanic Gardens Conservation International

Sector: Conservation and research

Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) is a plant conservation charity based in Kew, England. It is a membership organisation, working with 800 botanic gardens in 118 countries, whose combined work forms the world’s largest plant conservation network.

In October, PLMR worked with BGCI to elevate the profile of their newly developed certification system, ‘The Global Biodiversity Standard’ (TGBS), ensuring its launch at the 16th Biodiversity COP in Colombia would resonate widely and maximise its positive impact on biodiversity.

To enhance the publicity of the launch, we collaborated with BGCI to create a clear, impactful press release that would effectively convey TGBS’s mission and significance. The release highlighted the global coalition of support behind TGBS, underscored the Standard’s role in safeguarding biodiversity, and included supportive quotes from high-profile figures like Paul Smith, BGCI’s Secretary General, and Professor Pedro Brancalion, a leading expert in tropical forestry.

With this release, we targeted key media outlets in the environmental and sustainability sectors, securing coverage in top publications such as Edie and Business Green. These placements ensured that TGBS’s message reached influential audiences in conservation and sustainability.

The Carer: Ricky Gervais attends local care home’s fundraiser raising thousands for animal welfare charity

Client: Signature Senior Lifestyle

Sector: Social Care

Signature at Highgate, a North London care home, sought to host a high-profile fundraising event for Mayhew, a well-known animal welfare charity. The event was attended by notable guests including Ricky Gervais, Jane Fallon, and Peter Egan, and raised more than £15,000.

The PLMR Health and Social Care team provided PR support for this special event, facilitating trade media coverage and coordinating impactful press releases. We highlighted the story’s impact on both local community engagement and animal welfare, enhancing Signature at Highgate’s community presence and showcasing their commitment to meaningful causes. We achieved coverage in target publications including The Carer, In Your Area and Care Home Magazine.

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Schools Week: Research commission on engagement and lead indicators

Client: ImpactEd Group

Sector: Education

ImpactEd Group supports education and purpose-driven organisations to maximise their potential, increasing impact and operational sustainability. In October, the charity established a high-level research commission involving some of the country’s best-known education leaders in a bid to gather timely national data on student engagement that can act as a predictive tool for teachers and leaders tackling attendance, wellbeing and attainment gaps. It is England’s first study on student engagement and will collect data from more than 100,000 children and young people at primary and secondary schools across the country at different points throughout the academic year.

The team pitched articles and secured coverage in the leading education trades, Tes and Schools Week. The Tes article featured the Commission’s Chair, Dame Sue John, outlining why the Commission is needed, how it will work and how it will result in actionable insights to re-engage students in their learning. The Schools Week article was from ImpactEd Group’s Founder and Group Director, Jonny Sobczyk Boddington, and delved into why student engagement could be the missing piece of the school improvement puzzle.

This coverage was further complemented by a concurrent news piece in Schools Week and followed up a couple of weeks later by another article in Schools Week from ImpactEd Group’s researcher, John Jerrim, sharing the results of recent staff engagement research and how this engagement research angle is being expanded to students.

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EG: Fisher German makes 53 promotions

Client: Fisher German

Sector: Property consultancy

Fisher German is a multi-disciplinary property consultancy, working with clients in residential agency, commercial agency, planning, development agency, commercial property management, rural property management, infrastructure consultancy, green energy, and more.

Fisher German promoted 53 members of staff across all areas of its business in September, with the news expected to go out publicly in October. PLMR Advent worked together to ensure all sector titles and geographical regions were covered in a range of targeted press releases about the news ahead of the October deadline, interviewing a range of Fisher German staff who were lucky enough to be promoted.

On 1st October, the news was sent far and wide, and coverage was achieved in a whole host of outlets, including key trade titles EG and CoStar, and regional business and local titles up and down the country. Achieving this coverage enabled us to share Fisher German employees’ success with a broad range of audiences, from the local audiences reading news titles based on where Fisher German’s offices are, businesspeople who consume business titles, and current and potential clients of Fisher German who read property and other relevant trade titles.

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In other news...

The NHS 10 Year Plan: Harnessing the Power of Community

Client: The Caribbean and African Health Network (CAHN)

Sector: Health

PLMR HealthComms first started engaging with The Caribbean and African Health Network (CAHN) as part of a project on improving diversity and inclusion in clinical trials. Since then, PLMR HealthComms has maintained a relationship with Charles Kwaku-Odoi, Chief Executive of CAHN.

In October, Account Director at PLMR HealthComms, Matthew Spencer, sat down with Charles to record a podcast discussing the NHS 10-Year Plan and how the NHS can unlock the power of community care through trusted voices and trusted spaces.

In the podcast, Charles talked about the need for decision-makers to understand the communities which they are operating in and making policies for. Charles used an example of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, during which CAHN supported decision-makers and healthcare professionals to administer vaccinations in underserved communities across the UK by acting as the trusted messenger to these communities.

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We’ll be back next month with PLMR Group’s latest media hits, but in the meantime you can read more about PLMR’s award-winning PR services over on our case studies page.

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PLMR’s crisis communications experience is second to none, and includes pre-emptive and reactive work across traditional and social media channels. We work with a range of organisations to offer critical communication support when they are faced with difficult and challenging scenarios.