Search Relations will be the first agency to fuse search with public relations expertise to help brands manage their reputations and communicate more effectively through this channel.
PR offerings are overwhelmingly focused on press coverage with often very weak ‘online PR’ add ons. Meanwhile search, which is responsible for almost 60p in every pound spend in online advertising, is still almost completely a direct response sales channel. This means that for the majority of brands a huge communications opportunity and a significant threat to their reputation is being missed.
The rationale behind the new agency is based on the growing influence of search engines in our everyday lives. When a brand is in the news, search engines are the first port of call for consumers, journalists and other stakeholders reacting to the story to find out more. And with thirty million people each month using this channel what appears on the first page of Google has enormous influence and impact.
Managing this space in an age of user generated content and social media, where a video on YouTube or a Facebook Group about your company can become prominent and wide reaching very quickly is what Search Relations is set up to do. The search engine results page is the most valuable piece of digital real estate and we believe this is modern front line in reputation management.
Paul Mead, who is currently Managing Director of VCCP Search, will continue in this role as well as heading up Search Relations. He says: “Search is the most influential and important element of any digital PR strategy. It’s the gateway to all the content on the web, from blogs to news feeds. Whatever people are saying about a brand they are likely to have accessed the content through search. We believe the first page of search engine results is the new front line in brand communications and the battle is won or lost through search strategy.”
The new agency was launched at St Martin’s Hotel, London on November 28th, 2007 By Lord Bell, Chairman of Chime, Chris Satterthwaite, Group Chief Executive of Chime and Kevin Murray, Chairman of the Bell Pottinger Group. Also present and giving a seminar on the importance of search in developing and maintaining a brand’s reputation was Rachel Whetstone, European Head of Communications at Google, dubbed ‘the worlds biggest reputation management system’ by Wired magazine earlier this year.
Mead explains the ethos behind Search Relations: “With the huge growth of the online channel and social media, in particular, many major brands are, at best, failing to take advantage of huge communications opportunities or, at worst, leaving themselves wide open to significant damage to their reputation. What is required is depth of expertise in both search and public relations. No other agency is as well placed to deliver on this commitment as the combined teams coming together as Search Relations.”
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For further information contact Paul Mead at Search Relations on 020 7592 7590 or visit www.searchrelations.co.uk
