UK Partner Agency Interview - Robert Bownes: “The biggest hurdle I see is startups lacking perspective”
Photo by Jack Finnigan on Unsplash
Dear Rob, please tell us a bit more about your agency Old Street Communications - where are you based and what are your services and clients?
We’re based in London - near Old Street which is the tech centre of the country. We specialise in B2B communications for tech startups. This can range from media relations - getting your startup in trade and national press - to developing a communications strategy from scratch, thought leadership programmes and content creation. Our clients range in size from pre-Series A startups to established corporations. We have a particular specialty in fintech, blockchain, agrotech, proptech and data science.
Why and when did you decide to start your own agency? What do you think has been missing in the UK PR market?
I had thought about starting an agency from pretty much the beginning of my career. It was driven by wanting to build something from scratch and also because I thought I could create an agency with a very different take on working with startups. The thing I noticed was that PR agencies that work with startups don’t reflect that industry by embracing its technology and culture. In many ways, PR agencies function as they did ten years ago. Simple use of platforms like Google Docs or Slack could drive a huge amount of efficiency. This meant more time can be dedicated to executing PR campaigns rather than using up a startup’s money on admin tasks or account management. Add to this the cultural elements of flexibility, speed and a results driven approach and we’re on the road to developing a special way of doing PR.
Robert Bownes - CEO and Founder of Old Street Communications
“The biggest hurdle I see is startups lacking perspective. It’s an easy and understandable thing. When you’re surrounded by a team passionate about delivering a product you can start to develop your own language and way of looking at things. Recognising that you’re in a hugely competitive market with literally thousands of other businesses equally passionate about their product and vying for attention is the first step to understanding what can and can’t be achieved by PR. ”
How has the tech PR scene changed since you started working in PR?
It has got a lot more competitive. If you look at a big part of PR - media relations - it has become much harder to execute. There are fewer journalists, publications and much more emphasis on easy, ‘click-baity’ articles. Add to this the fact that there are more PRs and companies looking to do PR, and you have a scenario where more people are fishing in an ever shrinking pool. As a result, media relations campaigns have to be much more precise and it is more important than ever before to build relationships with individual journalists.
Of course, this isn’t to say it’s doom and gloom, it just means that what PR achieves for a company is changing. PR agencies have diversified their offering - there’s more of an emphasis on content creation and dissemination of coverage that is achieved. This is resulting in a further blurring of the lines between marketing and PR. However, what always needs to be remembered is that when a company comes to a PR agency, what they fundamentally want is to see the name of their business in the news.
What are the biggest challenges for startups in the UK?
There are headwinds in relation to securing funding and the right skills. However, plenty has already been written about that and the less said about Brexit the better. What I can comment on is how startups approach the media. The biggest hurdle I see is startups lacking perspective. It’s an easy and understandable thing. When you’re surrounded by a team passionate about delivering a product you can start to develop your own language and way of looking at things. This can give some founders a blinkered approach - an assumption that because they care so much about their product or service - everyone else should. This can lead to a desire to make outsized claims about their business or an uncompromising approach to how their product is described to journalists. Ultimately, this leads to disappointment and frustration. Recognising that you’re in a hugely competitive market with literally thousands of other businesses equally passionate about their product and vying for attention is the first step to understanding what can and can’t be achieved by PR.
What is your advice for German startups that want to conquer the UK media and market? What makes a story news-worthy for a British journalist?
From the German startups I’ve worked with I’ve seen that nearly all of them are well equipped to thrive in the UK. The UK and Germany are very similar in terms of working practices, culture and approach. The biggest challenge for a German company is to find a way to make their company or product relevant to a UK audience. Journalists need to cater to their own audience which in most instances is very UK-centric.
German companies may also not be aware that UK tech journalists tend to be much more cynical than anywhere else and completely baulk at the idea of any type of story that comes across as ‘marketing’ - rightly so, I might add. The general first response of a UK journalist to a story is ‘so what’, rather than ‘that is cool, tell me more’. This means thinking beyond the idea of getting coverage on your product or company alone - you need to bring something else to the table. Whether it’s an angle that showcases a new trend, provides insights into how tech might develop or is in someway quirky and interesting.
Where do you see differences in PR in Germany and the UK? What works in both markets and what doesn’t?
General news for startups such as funding, big expansions or research will work in pan-European English language titles such as TechCrunch, Computer Weekly or Tech.EU. UK-specific tech trade and national press will not be interested in this type of news from a German company, as I’ve mentioned previously, something else needs to be brought to the table.
What could German startups learn from their British counterparts?
Honestly, I don’t see a huge difference in the culture between startups. I can’t really point to a ‘German approach’ versus a ‘UK approach’.
How are German startups and the German tech scene perceived in the UK market?
I think holding a notion that there’s a particular type of startup that a particular country produces is foolish. You get good startups, bad startups and average startups in every country. Anyone who spouts off generalisations about a particular ‘type’ of company that comes from a certain country doesn’t really know what they are talking about.
Germans love hands-on advice. Do you have 3 tips or tools that startups should use to get media attention in the UK?
Sure! Not necessarily, the top tips, but these spring to mind:
Tailor your message to focus on how what you do impacts UK businesses or consumers
Have some thick skin - UK journalists can come across as rude, but they are generally just doing their job under a lot of pressure
Be patient - getting media attention is a long term project - building relationships and credibility takes time, so recognise that the media coverage levels you get in German are going to be much lower in the UK to start with
Do press releases still work in the UK?
Usually - there really aren’t many other ways to efficiently deliver news to a wide audience. The key is to write them well - no marketing fluff or unnecessary detail - and only use them when you actually have something to say. Funding announcements or major partnerships - great! The fact that you’ve redone your website - no.
What tech and PR trends do you see for 2020?
Usually we get one or two flavours of the year - last year it was cryptos, this year it was blockchain and now it looks like it’s artificial intelligence in 2020. This can be a blessing and a curse if your company operates in these areas. Media coverage is easy to come by during the peak of the hype cycle and then it dies a death as journalists become bored by being pitched by everyone trying to shoehorn blockchain into what they do. The trick is to try and ignore these short term trends and focus on the fundamentals - good businesses doing interesting things will always get good coverage if they employ good PRs. That’ll be true next year, the year after that and hopefully until the year I retire.
How do you think PR or your work specifically will change with a potential Brexit?
Jesus you ask a lot of questions. I don’t really think it will change at all - at least not in the short term. Brexit has rumbled on for so long that I think most companies are fully prepared.
Last but not least: What do you enjoy about the work with Laika and German clients?
I don’t. No, I am obviously kidding. I enjoy Laika’s creative and collaborative approach to PR - they are good team mates. Collaboration is a key part of PR - it can’t be a master-servant relationship. All the German clients I’ve worked with have understood that and have had a very transparent and honest vision as to what they want to achieve and why.
Thank you for your time, Rob!