Refine
A voice when the world went dark.
Flipping plans on their head to ensure opportunities are not lost.
The challenge.
After joining Shine For Women I brought in the PR agency The Think Tank, and developed a strategy to raise awareness of Shine in order to reach new sectors and drive business growth. The focus was on media across key verticals, and building out the profiles of the two Co-Founders as experts in women’s personal and professional development.
We were all set to go, and then a couple of weeks later, we entered the pandemic. The world shut down. Travel and events were banned. Our work, which to that point had been in-person, stopped.
Rather than pause PR activity, we decided to carry on, and to use this as an opportunity to maintain and grow our share of voice, even if that meant doing things differently…
The solution.
It became clear early-on that COVID was having a disproportionate impact on women. More women lost their jobs, and took longer to get them back again, than men. And women took on the bulk of household and caregiving responsibilities such as home schooling. As a result, women reported more mental health issues than men. This provided us with a natural angle to respond to the press, and we began to get a wave of Tier 1 opportunities.
Beyond that, wider topics in the news such as enforced remote working and the impact on workers’ psychological safety, also allowed Shine to speak with authority as an organisation that creates human cultures.
It was an opportunity to provide genuinely insightful advice, whilst raising the profiles of our Co-Founders and the Shine brand.
By keeping a close eye on the news agenda and reacting quickly to opportunities as they arose, coverage included live appearances on Sky News, BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour, BBC Radio 5 Live, LBC, as well as thought leadership in The Sunday Times, The Independent, Evening Standard, The Telegraph and Forbes.
The results.
The coverage ensured that Shine For Women had a consistent and high-profile voice throughout the pandemic and beyond.
Activity gained ~2k likes, and a reach of 375k viewership and 7.1m listenership. Time spent on the Shine website increased 78% YoY. It also positioned the Co-Founders and the business as leading experts on women’s careers, providing Shine with credibility when pitching for new clients.
Not only that, it became apparent from conversations with potential clients that we had given the impression that business was thriving during what was in reality a challenging time, thus maintaining our position as market leader.
