Category: Outstanding In-House Public Relations Team Company: Belfast City Council Number of staff employed (including executive / support staff) in the in-house team: 24 comprising: Head of Comms 4 internal 1 advertising 1 publications 2 marketing/comms 4 web 3 designers 7 media 1 student 1 admin. Annual public relations budget showing areas directly under the control of the inhouse team: Of our 460k budget, 180k is used for print/postage of our residents magazine. Other costs include: Internal communications Photography Licences/subscriptions Staff/office costs. Departments cover their own advertising costs, but we negotiate to ensure best value, saving many thousands per year. For Tall Ships we doubled the value of advertising. Business objectives and analysis of team performance against budget: Our main business objectives are to: manage the council s image/reputation
engage with ratepayers promote work of the council support political process work with partners for benefit of the city promote Belfast as a great place to live, work, visit and invest. In 2015-16 we performed within our 460k budget, despite major expansion and structural changes. A brief overview of business / team strategy: Our main responsibility is keeping ratepayers, staff and councillors informed about council activity through integrated communications and to promote Belfast regionally and internationally. Increasingly, we re involved (with other stakeholders) in promoting Belfast internationally as a city to invest in and visit. We offer a 24-hour media service and play a central media role in major events and in emergency situations. A key focus is social media, with 62k Twitter followers, 41.5k Facebook fans and 2k Instagram followers. Our mobile responsive website recently won a recent SOCITM award. We manage most of the council s design and advertising internally, reducing council spend by about 750k per year. Our award-winning magazine, City Matters goes to over 156,000 and plays an integral role in our communications. A summary of commitment to CPD and professionalism: Six-monthly Personal Development Plan updates and line manager meetings Support for work-related further education (eg CIM Digital Marketing Diploma) Work-based learning (shadowing opportunities, training and mentoring) Media training Plain English training for all communications staff. A summary of recent outstanding achievements: Managing communications around Local Government Reform. We took on more powers, a larger geographical area and had major structural changes but thanks to our strong communications set-up, staff/public were well-informed Managing communications for the global Tall Ships Races 2015 (race organisers declared the level of media interest as unprecedented ). It was the biggest spectator event in NI with over 500k attending Working with partners to showcase Belfast at the internationally acclaimed Giro d Italia, 2014
Working with BBC to deliver the Sports personality of the Year, 2015 Planning/delivering the official opening of the new Waterfront Exhibition and Conference Centre and managed all the PR activity (April 2016) Marketing the successful Belfast Bikes scheme, surpassing figures for similar-sized UK schemes Achieving significant savings by managing composite local government recruitment advertising Doing 90% of design in-house, saving 250,000 per year Numerous CIPR over past three years including Golds in 2013 for City Matters and Outstanding In-House Public Relations Team, in 2014 for Inner-City Recycling Scheme, Best Use of Photography or Design and Best Use of Digital and in 2015 for City Matters. A summary of a campaign you are particularly proud of, including details of the brief, objectives, strategy and tactics, outputs, outcomes, and budget: Brief: In early 2016, we developed a City Centre Development and Regeneration Strategy targeting international investors. This involved new markets and working in partnership with property developers and Lanyon Communications to promote Belfast as a city for investment. Objectives: Encourage international investment Establish a network of partners to promote Belfast Achieve national and international coverage. Strategy: Attract national appeal through local initiatives Reach out to international markets through established investor forums Maximise contact network eg PR partners, Lanyon Communications Integrated approach including media, social media, app, portal and video. Tactics: 1. Go to Market event at St George s market ( market theme) promoting: Talent - highly educated workforce Technology super-connected Tax - corporation tax and potential for businesses. Outputs/outcome: attracted major national journalists from influential property publications (including Co-Star and Estates Gazette) securing widespread coverage.
2. Presence at MIPIM We showcased the city at MIPIM 2016 (Cannes) - the world s biggest investment event. We secured a statement from Rory McIlroy encouraging investment in Belfast. Actor James Nesbitt also recorded a video praising Belfast and highlighting our young talent. Outputs/outcome: Our attendance put Belfast on the map and attracted significant national media coverage, including two FT articles. Our presentations attracted among the highest levels of footfall and we gained awards from FT s fdi magazine for Friendliest Small City to do business in Europe. Around 20 potential investors have since invested in the city as a direct result of MIPIM. 3. Technology - app, portal, social media We created a MIPIM app and are developing an investment portal. We also established the @BelfastMIPIM Twitter handle. Outputs/outcome: wide use of app by delegation and high level of Twitter engagement. We ve continued to build on our international reputation and recently worked with Rockefeller Institute in Washington to provide PR support for becoming a member of the elite 100 Resilient Cities group (first in Ireland and one of five in UK). Budget: This initiative was primarily funded through private sector (cica 160k) with 60k contribution from ourselves. Communications cost 10k including: Launch and promotion of Go To Market at St George s market MIPIM expenses including design of stand and video production App and portal development Photography. Most of the communications was done via existing channels and resources, saving on agency costs. A brief statement on what makes you special as a public relations team: Our multi-skilled team delivers effective integrated communications for the council. We have one of the busiest press offices in NI, dealing with 1,500+ enquiries per year. We respond to 95% within the same working day (most within an hour). We issue 500+ releases per year and over 91% are covered by the media. Each year we support 80+ events and take the lead on major international events like Tall Ships. We also lead PR for VIP visits including US President Barack Obama, Her Majesty the Queen and more recently, Prince Michael of Kent. Other major events include citywide celebrations like St Patrick s Day and Christmas Lights switch-on. We ve continued to deliver against the backdrop of Local Government Reform - one of the most intense transition periods NI has seen.
We provide advice on communications to other local authorities and government departments. We recently organised and hosted a workshop for the PR public sector with Downing Street s Director of Communications.