Competition winners' communications toolkit 1

Competition Winners' Communications & Media Toolkit

Introduction

Congratulations! Your project has reached the stage where it has been awarded

funding from Innovate UK.

Innovate UK is all about helping innovative ideas to flourish, and effective business

communications is a vital part of any enterprise’s path to growth. That is why we

encourage you wholeheartedly to take a proactive approach to communications.

To help out, we’ve put together this Competition Winners’ Communications &

Media Toolkit. It’s intended to help you, no matter how big or small the project or

your PR knowledge is.

The toolkit covers:

1. Announcement checklist

2. Your story – in-house PR

3. Social media and Innovate UK

4. Appendices

a. PR agencies

b. Innovate UK descriptors

c. Disclaimer

Even if you are a communications expert, we hope that you will find parts of the

toolkit useful. We would greatly appreciate your feedback so that we can

continuously improve the support we offer, share best practice and success stories.

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Announcement checklist

So you are ready to make your announcement. What next?

i. Let us know, get in touch

Firstly, let us know what you plan to do. Drop us a line and share your press release

to pressoffice@innovateuk.gov.uk or call us on 07766 901 150. If we are doing our

own communication activity relevant to your project we will let you know. By being

co-ordinated we can best amplify all our communication, so let’s keep in touch.

ii. Approval?

We are not here to vet or to approve your announcement; we are here to help if

you need it. We positively encourage you to publicise your project and wish you

every success. Many of the companies we fund find that they get stronger traction

in the media or can appear more credible to potential customers, partners or other

investors if they can demonstrate their support from Innovate UK. So let Innovate

UK be part of the story you tell too. This toolkit shows you how you can do this.

iii. Government ministerial support

Sometimes government ministers may want to make an announcement in which

your project features. If this happens we will let you know and to make sure your

announcement is co-ordinated with government to get maximum impact. If you are

the lead partner of a consortium, please ensure that all of the partners in your

project are aware of this approach to media activity.

iv. How to describe the support from Innovate UK

When you mention Innovate UK in your announcement please spell it out in full. We like to be described as the ‘UK’s innovation agency’. For info, here’s our full description we use on our press releases:

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Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency. It works with people, companies and partner organisations to find and drive the science and technology innovations that will grow the UK economy. For further information visit www.innovateuk.gov.uk Also, as a way of linking us to your work we encourage you to consider detailing why

Innovate UK funding and support will make a difference to your work going forward,

perhaps through a quote from your relevant spokesperson.

We encourage you to use our logo on your publicity material, which is available to download via this link https://www.dropbox.com/s/99tdvfaef4r1aie/Innovate%20UK%20logo.jpg?dl=0

It is vital the funding figures are accurate and where funding is split between

Innovate UK and businesses within a project (for example, as part of our

collaborative R&D programme), please use the wording such as - “co-funded by the

UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK”.

If your project is being undertaken by a consortium, make this clear too. Get

approval from the lead partner of the consortium or, if you are the lead partner,

ensure that the other partners are happy.

Funding from Innovate UK comes in various forms, so we have prepared

descriptions of each of them for you use – they can be found in the Appendices.

v. Quote request for your press release

As you can appreciate, we run several competitions and fund a lot of companies, so

receive numerous daily requests for quotes. We don’t have the capacity to offer

quotes on an individual basis to competition winners. However, please check when

contacting us in the first instance as we may have written and shared our own news

story about a specific competition result and be able to provide an agreed quote

related to that.

vi. Think about who you want to tell about your story

When you come to publicising your project, think about who might want to know

about your success as this will help you target your communications effectively. This

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could range from other figures in your industry, an industry body you’re a member

of, members of the local community to potential customers and investors or multi-

nationals.

The media is a great way to reach large and diverse audiences, but you can also try a

more direct approach. For example, we’re often told by MPs and other elected

representatives that they are very keen to hear about companies and projects in

their areas that have been funded by Innovate UK. So why not drop them a line and

tell them about your success at the same time you’re contacting journalists – they

may even want to provide you with a supportive quote for your press release or visit

you. You can find contact details for all your local representatives here:

https://www.writetothem.com/

Your story – in-house PR

In-house PR can be much more cost-effective. You do not have to spend the time

educating an external agency all about your project and by doing your own PR, you

have an even greater stake in its success. Even in a communication world

transformed by social media the role of crafting an effective press release is the

foundation of effective public relations.

You have to put yourself in the place of a journalist. As this guide

https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/jul/14/how-to-write-

press-release suggests, ask yourself these questions:

1. Is there anything 'new' in my story?

2. Is there anything unusual or unexpected about it?

3. Would this be of interest to anyone outside my business?

4. Will anyone actually care?

Then you must carefully structure your press release. Start with the most important

information. The introduction should address the who, what, why, when and how of

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your project. Leave the least important information at the end of the release. This is

known as the inverted pyramid structure.

The part of the press release you should spend the most amount of your time

getting right is your quote. Journalists like to put a name and a face to a story, so the

language you use in the quote is crucial, as this often is the only thing they will use.

Do not waste opportunities by using phrases such as “We are delighted...”, or “I am

pleased…', because as question 4 (above) asks: Will anyone actually care?

Use your quote to state the tangible benefits of your project, such as: How it saves

money, how it is good for the environment, how it creates new jobs. Essentially,

anything that is positive and new.

Do not neglect the power of images. You are much more likely to secure great

coverage if you have compelling visuals. Business pages are full of pictures of

middle-aged white men in suits, so try to find something that will stand out. If your

project is at a conceptual stage, investing in computer generated imagery or other

concept artwork may well be cost-effective.

Finally, do not forget the basics. Make sure your press release is dated. State clearly

whether there is any embargo. Ensure there are full contact details (phone, email,

social media links etc.).

Now you need to get your press release to its audience. Firstly make sure that the

news section on your website is clearly sign-posted. To drive people to your news

there are various things you can do. We will address social media later in this guide,

but an email distribution list is still an effective channel. Identifying your audience

may take a lot of Googling or picking the brains of people you trust with the right

knowledge.

If you have the budget you may wish to invest in using a media database. There are

many on the market and you will need to investigate which is going to meet your

needs cost-effectively. A Google search brings up many competing products.

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Social media and Innovate UK

The way that individuals and organisations communicate has been transformed by

social media in a fantastically short space of time.

Not all social media channels are the same. A 140-character tweet can be very

different to a posting on LinkedIn. Not all social media channels may be right for

every company so it is best to prioritise as you can’t be everywhere and you can’t

support every platform. Before choosing which social media channels you may wish

to engage with – and bear in mind engaging often means starting a conversation,

not just broadcasting – ask yourself these questions?:

1. Who is your audience?

2. What is your message?

3. What value is there to your audience in your post?

4. What tone of voice is right?

When you are ready to go, don’t forget to say hi to Innovate UK by using

@innovateuk in your tweets. We’ll say hi back so you know you’re up and running!

Appendices

a) PR agencies

One way of potentially maximising publicity for your project is to engage a PR

agency. They have expertise in getting companies’ messages through to the media.

That expertise comes from experience with dealing with many clients and having

frequent contact with journalists, leading to a thorough understanding of the media

and its myriad outlets.

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The most important factor in any PR agency's success with you, the client, is a great

relationship based on trust and a thorough understanding of your business. It can be

a big – and potentially expensive – step to employ a PR agency, so ask for

recommendations from people you trust and look for testimonials.

A good starting point for you is the trade association for public relations agencies in the UK, the PRCA. http://www.prca.org.uk/membership/directory Appendices

b) Innovate UK descriptors

Standard Innovate UK description: Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency. It works with people, companies and partner organisations to find and drive the science and technology innovations that will grow the UK economy. For further information visit www.innovateuk.gov.uk Programme-specific descriptions: Catapults: Catapult centres are overseen by Innovate UK and are places where the best of the UK’s innovative businesses and researchers work together to bring new products and services more quickly to commercialisation. Focusing on areas with great market potential, Catapults open up global opportunities for the UK and generate economic growth for the future. For more information, please visit www.catapult.org.uk Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund: The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund aims to bring together the UK’s world leading research with business to meet the major industrial and societal challenges of our time. The fund was created to provide funding and support to UK businesses and researchers, part of the government’s £4.7 billion increase in research and development over the next 4 years. It was designed to ensure that research and innovation takes centre stage in the Government’s Industrial Strategy and is run by Innovate UK and the Research Councils on behalf of UK Research and Innovation. Smart: Managed by Innovate UK, the Smart scheme offers funding to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage in R&D projects in the strategically important areas of science, engineering and technology, from which successful new

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products, processes and services could emerge. https://www.gov.uk/innovation-apply-for-a-funding-award#find-an-innovation-funding-programme SBRI: The SBRI programme uses the power of government procurement to drive innovation. It provides opportunities for innovative companies to engage with the public sector and gain contracts to solve specific problems. Competitions for new technologies and ideas are run on specific topics and aim to engage a broad range of organisations. SBRI enables the public sector to engage with industry during the early stages of development, supporting projects through the stages of feasibility and prototyping. https://www.gov.uk/innovation-apply-for-a-funding-award#find-an-innovation-funding-programme Launchpad: Launchpads provide funding for business innovation that aims to support the development and strengthening of clusters of high-tech companies in specific theme areas and geographical locations. They provide base funding through dedicated Innovate UK competitions for approved research and development projects and act as a catalyst to help the companies behind the projects to attract more investment. https://www.gov.uk/innovation-apply-for-a-funding-award#find-an-innovation-funding-programme Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs): KTP or Knowledge Transfer Partnerships http://ktp.innovateuk.org is Europe's leading programme helping businesses to improve their competitiveness by enabling companies to work with higher education or research and technology organisations to obtain knowledge, technology or skills which they consider to be of strategic competitive importance. The UK- wide programme is overseen by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, and supported by 16 other public sector funding organisations. Missions: Innovate UK supports key events known as entrepreneur ‘missions' run in partnership with UK Trade and Investment. Missions involve the pick of innovative and often early-stage UK companies in Innovate UK priority areas or themes including digital, healthcare or clean technology travelling to countries strong in innovation and enterprise, such as the US, China and Brazil. While there the companies have the opportunity to make new connections and meet potential investors, suppliers and customers and grow their business internationally. https://www.gov.uk/innovation-get-support-and-advice

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c) Disclaimer

Innovate UK does not endorse any of the products, services or companies

mentioned in this guide. It mentions sources of information that you may or may

not choose to investigate. Innovate UK does not take any legal responsibility for any

course of action competition winners may choose to take.