Procurement Pocket Guide - STIR

BEYOND THE PITCH. A Procurement Pocket Guide to Stir Key information for procurement professionals 2017

Enquire to enrich.

I NT RODU C TION

At Stir, we believe that through enquiry we learn and by learning, we enrich the quality of our work.

Our enquiry-driven approach lays the foundation for imaginative creative ideation and memorable execution.

We engage and influence our clients’ target audiences through the power of advocacy, to enact long term perception change and drive genuine value.

Our enquiry-driven approach to PR manifests itself in both the functional and cultural. We think you have to believe it, to live it. From the carefully considered skillset of the team, to the establishing of a truly collaborative partnership with our clients, enquire to enrich runs through every action taken and decision made within our agency.

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BELIEVE IT, TO LIVE IT.

C L I E NTS

A selection of our clients.

Stir works across a number of food, drink and lifestyle clients, both on a retained and project basis.

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RE T E NT I ON AND GROW TH

We must be doing something right because our pillar clients have been working with Stir for a number of years and the scope of work continues to grow (therefore, so does our agency!)

2014 First campaign secured with single brand (£50k value)

2017 Working across five brands with year round campaigns (£500k est. value)

2012 F irst campaign secured with single brand (£40k value)

2017 Working across eight brands with year round campaigns (£850k est.value)

2013 A ppointed as Rexam European Trade PR Agency (retained)

2014 S ecured project work at global level in addition to a European retainer

2016 Appointed as retained European Communications agency by Ball (following acquisition of Rexam, June 2016) * NOW TRADING WITHIN BALL

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With each campaign grounded in strategic insight and activated with creative flair, Stir’s work is highly regarded by clients and

01

Assurance

Service Exemplary client service record with 26% organic growth YoY Annual client review conducted to assess

throughout the PR industry

agency performance and client/

(DETAILED CASE STUDIES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST)

agency relationship

An audited member of PRCA, with our Client

(REFERENCES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST)

Services Director on the UK PRCA Council

Measurement in Communications (“AMEC”), playing a consultative role on the agency member offering £2million indemnity insurance Listed 131 in pr weeks top 150 agencies

Value Industry benchmarking and a regularly reviewed and price-compared supplier list ensures that Stir’s prices remain competitive (RATE CARD AVAILABLE ON REQUEST AND FIXED TERMS CONTRACTS CAN BE NEGOTIATED)

05

Members of the International Association for

03

FO CU S E D ON B E ST PRAC TISE

Quality

04

02

Focused on best practice.

Innovation Not satisfied with repackaging insight generated by others, Stir works with neuroscientists, psychologists and trend strategists to develop more effective ways of targeting audiences, influencing behaviour and measuring campaigns (EXAMPLES OF INSIGHT GENERATED AVAILABLE ON REQUEST)

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STIR’ S DEFINIT ION OF P R

Communication (via varying channels) to a defined group of stakeholders (i.e. consumers, customers, internal stakeholders) to influence behaviour change, in

E X PE RT I S E & RESOURC E

order to elicit a desired outcome (purchase, brand loyalty, reputational awareness, etc.)

Successful PR can be enacted in a number of ways. Here is a (not exhaustive) list of areas in which Stir has expertise: • Trade and consumer press office • A dvertorials / advertising • C opy writing • B rand partnerships • I nfluencer engagement • C ontent creation

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• Social & digital strategy, inc. Community management

Stir is a team of 25, including specialists you would not expect to find in an agency of our size: Personnel by function:

• SEO

15 Client staff

• Brand launches

01 Creative

• On-trade support

01 Production & styling

• Events and experiential • Creative artwork and printed materials generation

02 Planning & strategy 06 Other / administrative

C LI E N T ARE AS

Sales.

23% Trade.

77% Consumer.

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Client areas.

36% Drinks.

37% Food.

15% Lifestyle.

12% Other.

13 12

Stir in numbers. * (Happy to provide statement of turnover, profit & loss and cash flow for most recent two years)

15 14

25 Employees.

17 16

6 Prof itable years in a row.

Low cost base, passing savings onto client.

Experience in multi-currency environment.

Working with clients on retained and project basis.

Over ÂŁ2 million turnover annually.

No one client is greater than 20% of the total business. hellostir.com

Best in class campaigns.

Felix cat food is the UK’s best-selling pet food brand. Despite this accolade,

Stir was appointed to drive consumer awareness of Woodford Reserve,

20% of convenience store owners were unaware of its popularity and so

and make it the No.1 Bourbon Brand in the UK.

more likely to stock the brand’s closest competitor. Stir was tasked with activating a trade PR campaign to challenge this mis-perception and drive listings of Felix across the convenience store category.

A year-long trade PR campaign, supporting on-pack promotion, delivered blanket coverage within key titles, including Convenience Store, Independent Retail News and The Grocer through advertorial and editorial coverage and print, online and mobile advertising.

Overall reach of over 1,000,000 Perceptions of Felix as No. 1 pet food amongst convenience retailers shifted from 20% to 31% (HIM Shopper Research, 2015-2017)

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Stir identified Woodford Reserve’s excellent reputation amongst bartender and mixology contacts and therefore engaged these individuals as Brand Ambassadors to deliver brand experiences through the classic bourbon serve, The Old Fashioned.

Supper clubs, pop-up bars and a hard working press office gave Woodford Reserve the edge over other Bourbon brands and drove market share.

32% Brand growth in 2014

100% sale increase in Waitrose

30 Pieces of coverage generated with reach of 78 million in first year of three year camoag

Best in class campaigns.

To drive sales of the premium W1 Miele washing machine, Stir

Having worked with S.Pellegrino for three years to grow market share

developed an influencer based campaign that was a far cry from

in the on- and off-trade, Stir was tasked with assisting with a transition

the usual product reviews of white goods.

from water brand to lifestyle brand.

Targeting an affluent female audience, aged 35-55, Stir applied the

Stir sourced and developed a listings and experiential opportunity with

insight that the target audience invests heavily in their clothing, so why

lifestyle retailer Harvey Nichols, creating a month-long rooftop takeover

not the machine they use to clean it? Teaming up with 10 high reaching

in it’s flagship Knightsbridge store. A S.Pellegrino Italian café by day and

fashion bloggers, Stir challenged the influencers to wash notoriously

Michelin-star restaurant by night, the campaign provided a space

difficult items (cashmere, leather, sequins, studs) and report back.

to host journalists and engage consumers in the “right” lifestyle setting.

Social posts, blogs and long form features resulted in engagement

Over 27 pieces of short-lead coverage, reaching 15million target

with 3 million relevant consumers

The inclusion of a UTM code allowed followers of the 10 influencers to purchase the W1 direct from Miele at a promotional price, also allowing Miele to see immediate return on the PR investment

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ABC1 consumers Relationships forged with four Michelin starred chefs, opening doors for new commercial listings and future partnerships

References.

“I would highly recommend working with Stir, the ongoing tenacity in which they deliver projects is

“Stir has run Rexam’s B2B

impressive, they are savvy negotiators and ensure

European press office for over

that as an agency the quality of their work stands out

four years. Not only do they

against their competitors. We know that when we hand them a project on one of our Nestlé brands,

deliver outstanding results,

we are in a safe pair of hands.”

building year on year but they

EMMA COELHO, STRATEGIC BUYER, COMMERCIAL PROCUREMENT - NESTLÉ

are constantly striving for best practice, pushing us as a business to deliver in innovation and creativity.”

“I have worked with Stir for over four years, which has seen them grow their business from working on a single project on one brand to now working across the

ELISABETH TANGUY, SECTOR COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER - BALL CORP

whole American Whiskey portfolio in both trade and consumer. Every year Stir come to brand planning with strategic direction and new creative ideas helping us deliver against our business objectives year on year!”

FFION JONES, SENIOR BRAND MANAGER - JACK DANIEL’S & NAW SUPER PREMIUM WHISKEYS, UK

I NT RODU C TION

The Captivate Group.

Stir is part of Captivate, a collection of six creatively led agencies that are aligned by connected thinking, but distinct through their specialist execution‌ Current procurement partners work just with Stir or cross discipline with the group‌ whatever makes sense from both a creative yet commercial point of view. But, the main benefit of Stir’s belonging to Captivate? Our entire team is well versed in working effectively and efficiently with the other marketing disciplines that your brand teams are engaging with.

hellostir.com

Creating platforms that spark conversation between consumers and brands. Campaigns that live & breathe amongst the community.

Offering expertise in retail and brand design: retail environments, brand communications, brand creation and visual identity.

Delivering the most inspiring creative concepts for events and experiential, focusing on brand, consumer and culture.

THANK YOU. A Procurement Pocket Guide to Stir Unit 7.02, Tea Building

STIR BLOG

56 Shoreditch High Street

chris.grabowski@hellostir.com

London E1 6JJ

@hellostir.com

Company registration details: 07438655 | Ownership: 18.75% WPP 81.25% Privately owned