New Client Win: The Upside Gallery

We are super excited to be working on The Upside Gallery Project which will transform the grey pillars that support the Wessex Way in Bournemouth into an amazing creative space of colourful art by world-famous mural artists!

This ground-breaking initiative, conceived and driven by Bournemouth-based creative agency, Paintshop Studio, and supported using public funding by Arts Council England, aims to showcase the wide variety and incredible talent that has risen from the street art and graffiti movement to show how art can transform and reinvent spaces.

We will be helping spread the word and raise awareness about the fantastic project which will be permanent for visitors and locals to enjoy as they pass through the area.

Our good friends at Greenwood Campbell are also working on the project to provide a mobile gallery guide which will be launching on Sept 28th and will allow visitors to the gallery to scan QR codes and access more information about the concepts, artists and progress pictures.

The art installation will commence on Monday 9th September and the final gallery will be ready to view on 22nd September – we can’t wait to see it!

For more information about the project head over to – http://upsidegallery.co.uk/.

New Client Win: Dorset Growth Hub

The team at Sunny Bird PR are delighted to announce they are working with Dorset Growth Hub.

As Dorset's premier business support agency, the Dorset Growth Hub are hosting an event in October, Dorset Growth Fest 2019. The free one-day event for growing Dorset businesses will showcase homegrown and international innovators and achievers who'll share the principles, skills and mindset needed for entrepreneurial and business success.

​After hearing success stories from a variety of business leaders from across the sectors, industry experts will host masterclasses on a variety of hot topics in the afternoon to supply you with the all-important ‘how-tos’ to enable you to put what you’ve heard into practice. 

​Sunny, founder of Sunny Bird PR, commented: ‘We are thrilled to be working with the Dorset Growth Hub on this fantastic event. We are passionate about supporting businesses and this event is all about that. A truly engaging and inspiring event specifically designed for Dorset-based SMEs, this event is really going to be something special.’
 

Journalist of the Month

Stacey Halls is the Deputy Chief Sub-Editor at Fabulous magazine and covers everything from celeb news and fashion to travel, health and lifestyle!

Stacey is working with us on our client’s luxury women’s only retreat brand - Bliss Sanctuary for Women, where she will be heading out to experience and review the newest location in Ubud herself! But before she heads off, she’s taken time out to answer our Sunny Bird PR questions, here are her answers…

What are the 5 words that best describe you?

Loyal, witty, obsessive, extroverted and lazy!

What magazine do you love reading and why?

Aside from Fabulous, I buy the Sunday Times every week for the magazine. It’s part of my weekend routine now, and I also love the Homes section because I’m big on home improvements. What can I say, I love a supplement!

What is your favourite book? 

The Ruby in The Smoke by Philip Pullman. I love a Gothic Victorian mystery and this one ticks every box.

Which song makes you dance?

My Head Is A Jungle by Wankelmut gets me on the floor every time.

What has been your best career moment? 

At Fabulous, probably getting to go on a press trip to Arizona. We went hot air ballooning, hiking and horse riding through a river – it was amazing. I’m also an author and seeing my first novel The Familiars published this year was definite a life highlight.

What advice would you give your 20-year-old self? 

Don’t live life in a rush.

Where are you happiest? 

Either curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea watching a period drama, or back home in Lancashire, walking on the hills in the dramatic weather.

Who would be your number one dinner guest and why?

My husband Andy because I’ve barely seen him lately!

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

I’d have a time-turner like Hermione Granger’s in Harry Potter. I know you’re not supposed to dwell on the past, but I often wish I had more time.

If you had to ask us one question what would it be? 

As Instagram is so huge now, what’s it like working with influencers and how do you decide on who to approach?

 SBPR: We love working with influencers and celebrities too! Social media influencers have become an indispensable asset for brand campaigns, especially on Instagram.

Instagram is by far the top performing platform for brands to reach new audiences quickly. It’s also the best channel for social action — with an average 3.21% engagement rate compared to 1.5% across all social networks, Instagram users are more likely to engage by commenting, liking and sharing content they consume.

When choosing which influencers to work with, for us it all depends on what brand we’re working with and which influencer aligns well with the brand. We check out their social media followers, their engagement rate and their audience demographics to see if they align with our client’s objectives and target audience.

For example, our client Bliss Sanctuary for Women focuses on solo female travel and welcomes ladies over the world to relax and heal at their sanctuaries. For this reason, we are concentrating on inviting influencers that need to take a break or that have suffered heartbreak – to give them a week of totally luxury and relaxation. From our influencer campaign we have increased Bliss’ Instagram following by over 24,000 followers and their sanctuaries are now booked up for the next couple of months!

5 Social Media Training Tips to Get You to the Top of the Newsfeed

 At Sunny Bird PR, we use social media to get our clients seen and heard over their competitors!

Our role is to get people doing something active as a result of the stories we tell – buying, joining, booking, liking, tweeting, sharing, thinking…

As 67% of the population are on social media, we think it’s an essential tool that you should be using for your business in order to attract new business, engage with your customers, showcase your products and build brand recognition. Plus – it’s free! If you’re not taking advantage of social, you’re missing a trick.

One thing you do need to be doing if you are on social media is keeping up to date, we always make sure we keep on top of the latest trends, new features and latest algorithms – for the sake of our clients and for our social media training course. We understand not everyone can make it to sunny Bournemouth for our courses, which is why we have pulled together some top tips that you can implement on your business channels to increase your engagement and get people talking about your business!

Tip 1 – Don’t do social – BE social!

This is a key theme throughout the course and is so important to consider when creating content and engaging with your audience. You can’t just schedule posts that talk about your business and your success and hope people will like, share and comment. In order to use social media to its full potential and get the most out of it for your business you need to ask questions and create content that inspires people to engage with it – is it brave? Is it newsworthy?

Tip 2 – Spend more time engaging

Did you know that you should be spending 20% of your time on social media broadcasting content and 80% engaging with your audience? That’s right! The algorithms across all the social channels favour engagement and posts that promote real life conversations between people and brands. This is important when scheduling in time for social, you need to make time each day to like and reply to comments on your posts and get involved with other accounts, ask questions, give feedback, and have real conversations.

Tip 3 – Prioritise video content

Are you making the most of your video assets across social media? Videos can grab attention and hook your audience; unlike a lengthy wordy post a video is easy to consume. 59% of people said that they find videos most engaging, compared to photos. You can film short videos using a smart phone which are perfect for social media, just make sure you scheduled time in to film them.

Tip 4 – Utilise evergreen content

We know… social media can be time consuming and can be the job that gets pushed to the bottom of the pile, but it doesn’t need to be this way! You can re-use photos and videos and re-share content you’ve previously posted that’s evergreen. Share case studies, testimonials, projects you’ve worked on over the years and schedule it in, so you don’t go weeks without posting and everyone is left wondering if you’ve closed down…

Tip 5 – Analyse your posts

How do you know what posts are performing well if you aren’t looking at the statistics!? It baffles us that some businesses just post and hope for the best. During our course we will show you exactly how to look at your analytics, compare your statistics to your competitors and work out which posts are performing well. This will impact what you post about go forward and hopefully overtime you will have the perfect mix of posts that people love to hear about and engage with.

We understand hiring a social media agency can be expensive for businesses who haven’t got the social media knowledge to do it themselves, which is why we host affordable half day courses at our offices in beautiful Bournemouth, Dorset. The event provides you with endless ideas to take away and implement on your own social media which are guaranteed to get you to the TOP of your clients’ newsfeed.

Our ‘Reaching Millions’ Social Media Course. will teach you everything you need to know about Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as everything from paid for advertising to organic reach and all the jargon in between. The course is jam packed with useful social media tips, essential tools to use and creative ideas.

Come along and learn how to up your game on social media and beat your competitors! Sign up to our next Social Media Course in Bournemouth on 23rd August at - https://www.sunnybirdpr.com/social-media-course.

New Client Win: Cornell Thomas

The Sunny Bird PR team is delighted to announce that they will be working with Cornell Thomas as he brings his Positivity Summit to the UK this September.

Cornell’s Positivity Summit held in London over two days will see inspirational speakers from all over the world sharing their unique individual stories. Speakers include Fiona Lamb, Claude Silver, Boyd Melson, Omar Al Busaidy, Charlie Lowe, Dr Jay LaGuardia, and Ryan Hayashi.

The Positivity Summit will also include a range of diverse workshops from being a more effective public speaker to learning how to master your memory, a speaker panel Q and A, and networking with amazing people from all over the globe.

The second day of the Positivity Summit will see Cornell taking attendees on a pay it forward day where everyone will hit the streets and help change lives for the better. The whole event is all about being part of something bigger than yourself as Cornell explains: ‘How long will you sit before you take a stand? The world will not change on it’s own. It’s up to those who are willing to come together to make sure it doesn’t fall apart. Your race, religion, gender, or political party holds no weight here. We will make a difference as one’.

Sunny, founder of Sunny Bird PR, commented: ‘We couldn’t be more thrilled that Cornell has chosen us as his UK PR partner for this incredible event. Cornell’s ethos and mindset is so inline with our own and from day one we have been so excited about this project. It’s going to be massive and the whole SBPR team are so proud to be part of the journey form day one.’

Journalist of Month

Caroline Lindsay is a features writer on The Courier newspaper, the second best-selling regional newspaper in the UK, as well as the daily papers for the Tayside region, Angus, Fife and Perthshire. Caroline is also editor of The Courier’s weekly food and drink supplement The Menu, which won best Scottish Supplement of the Year 2018/19 at the Scottish PPA Awards in Glasgow.

Caroline took some time out from her busy schedule to answer the notorious SBPR questions. Here’s what Caroline had to say…

What are the 5 words that best describe you?

Friendly, thoughtful, inquisitive (nosy!), diligent and spendthrift.

What magazine do you love reading and why?

Country Living because I’d love to have a cottage in the country, or by the sea, one day.

 What is your favourite book?

In a Good Light by Clare Chambers. It’s about a brother and sister who grew up in a rambling old house, their challenges as adults and resurfacing memories.

 Which song makes you dance?

I’m a self-conscious dancer but when I broke my arm a few years ago I did my physio exercises at home to Martin Solveig’s and Dragonette’s hit Hello. Very naff but it took my mind off the pain!

 What has been your best career moment?

When The Menu won Best Scottish Supplement of the Year at the Scottish Regional Press Awards.

 What advice would you give your 20-year-old self?

Look the world in the eye and be proud of yourself. Oh and that purple eye shadow isn’t a good look and no one’s fooled by those freckles you’ve added with an eyebrow pencil.

Where are you happiest?

At a beach on the Orkney islands with my family and border collie Bramble.

 Who would be your number one dinner guest and why?

Miranda Hart – she’d be funny and appreciative.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

It’s not quite a superpower but I wouldn’t mind being as fit as Milla Jovovich in the Resident Evil movies. She’s my girl crush.

If you had to ask us one question what would it be?

Why is your agency called Sunny Bird?

We get asked this one a lot! It’s because Sunny Bird is the name of our fabulous founder and managing director.

Work Experience Week

Work experience is a key step in choosing the right career and we believe that it’s important to give students the chance to understand an office environment. As a company we are very keen on giving students experience as we understand it is essential for self-development and securing a job in the future. During National Work Experience Week, the SBPR team welcomed 14 year old Tom from Twynham School and 15 year old Louise from Bournemouth Collegiate. We asked them both to write a blog at the end of each day to see how they were finding agency life and here’s what they thought…

Tom’s Day 1 blog really showed how the SBPR agency  can make a valuable first impression “I found my first day really enjoyable with the access to free drinks supplied for you”, and the kitchen continued to strike a chord with Tom as on Day 3 he went on to explain that SBPR had ‘good kitchen facilities’. Luckily Tom was equally impressed with the rest of the office too “my first impression on Sunny Bird PR is that it is very bright and vibrant and very fun.” Louise also had a great first day: “My experience on the first day was wonderful, everyone was very welcoming and friendly, and the working environment was very happy and relaxed.”

Before the teens arrived, we reached out to brands via social media and invited them to send their teen products into the office for Tom and Louise to review live on the SBPR social channels. Companies all over the country jumped at the chance and before long SBPR HQ was inundated with books, beauty products, food and drink products for them to try and review.

Louise was very pleased with this task “I got a lot of freebies to review and try out which I think is awesome!”, Tom wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about the beauty products but discovered a silver lining: “I wrote a review for a lip balm I got,” he said “but I gave it to my girlfriend because I didn’t want it and she did.” While the lip balm wasn’t a hit with Tom, he did make a fashion statement in the office by wearing the Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring every day.

We have a team lunch every Wednesday and this week we took the whole team to Flirt Café in the centre of Bournemouth which was very well received! Tom flexed his new PR muscles and proved that he was already thinking like a PR Pro: “I had BBQ pulled pork nachos and 3 bowls of chips, this was very tasty, so I wrote a review of the café and posted it on Twitter to create good publicity.”

Another team activity that went down well was our SBPR team yoga sessions, we have these twice a week with the amazing Lillie. Louise was brave enough to join us and experience her first ever yoga session: “I took part in a yoga session that the team do on Thursday lunch time. I have never done yoga before and honestly it was so relaxing. I felt sleepy during it as the lights were off and we had this special oil on that smelt so good. I think I might take up yoga class once a week, I feel like it will help me with things like stress, exam pressure and just general life situations that aren’t too good.”

Tom and Louise had a great week with us at Sunny Bird PR and we really enjoyed having them with us in the office. Aside from lunch, drinking free coffee, and reviewing products, Tom and Louise did an impressive job in learning the fundamentals of PR. They both wrote engaging press releases, created brilliant social media posts, developed a strong understanding of media types and helped prepare for the Miss Dorset final by organising over 250 goody bags. We hope they learnt some valuable skills that they can take forward through school and in their future careers.