August 8th, 2015
It’s August … But We’re Certainly Not Missing Out!
August can be ‘silly season’ in the PR industry. It can be a nightmare, because journalists are on holiday – typically a big issue with regard to national journalists – or a joy, because there are pages that need filling. The latter is mostly a regional phenomenon. But maybe, when you’re led by a Leo, you find the true fire in your belly in August … that’s what we put the current trends down to anyway! Some may be missing out; we’re certainly not!
On the new business side, experience tells us to write August off, so imagine our surprise to agree a fabulous six-month contract last week that takes us through to at least the end of January, and which so ticks all our boxes, and then receipt of yet another new business enquiry today.
Of course, we know full well that word is getting out there. We’re not stupid and keep our ear to the ground. We know we’re being closely monitored by competitors and we know, from their past comments, that we scare them with our creativity and awards. I recall someone once saying, “You can always tell who’s a Catapult client, because they’re everywhere you look.” That’s praise indeed!
This year has been fabulous for us, because we’ve taken on many ‘men from del Monte’ – men and women who like to say ‘yes’ and let us go for it, on their behalf. Our much-coveted awards, both national and regional, have been won because we found clients who liked to say ‘yes’. If we profile them, they are typically entrepreneurs, who want to really make headlines and don’t want ‘beige-coloured’ PR. They’re honest, kosher and not con men. We love finding those people. They stay the course. The latter are quickly found out by PR, just a few months in, as they actually daren’t sign off any press materials about themselves. We last the course with the credible; we’d rather actually do anything rather than work with the latter!
The last few months have really reaffirmed what Catapult is all about – working for people who want to make waves, aren’t content to sit in a rut and want excitement, fun ideas that make both their teams and the media smile, as well as concepts that project them into the limelight. We’ve had some amazing results already this year and we’ve so much to build on. We’ve seen past clients sell their companies on, within just a few years of being in the PR limelight, and heard them accredit that to us. That’s an amazing testimonial.
But the exciting point, from our point of view, is that we only got our new website in June, and then took our foot off the gas because of holiday periods, but now find we’re still attracting clients who recognise that we can take them further, faster than other PR agencies – and, often, at a fraction of the cost. We’re made in Lancashire, but we’ve never been your typical Lancashire PR agency – far from it! Our clients have come to us from locations across Britain, because we’re so different, driven and creative. Now, these points of difference are attracting overseas clients too – often in Italy, but not exclusively. We’re big sisters, extensions of a team, great allies and indispensable sounding boards. We don’t mind which role we play – we know we can deliver, whatever it is.
We feel we’ve hardly scratched the surface of where we can go within the next 12 months. We’ve a whole new team driving this, with some loyal partners, like Quentin James Design and Easiprint, and with a much-loved translator in Italy. Anyone who thought they’d sussed out Catapult and counteracted its USPz had better watch out, because it’s not all over by a long chalk – we’ve actually hardly started on our next phase of growth and, in fact, if a week goes by without us attracting a new client, we’re wondering what went wrong!
