Hi all,
It’s been a while since we’ve seen anybody face to face, so we thought we’d get in touch to update you on the exciting things that have been happening here at Eskenzi PR.
We might be scattered all across the globe, but thanks to a video conferencing app that absolutely nobody found to be quite insecure, we haven’t let anything stand in the way of another six months of successes.
We even pulled off organising a live cocktail party with more than 60 attendees, all without breaking the government’s guidelines on social distancing!
Forgive us for blowing our own trumpet, but here are the highlights of the most unusual, challenging, surprising six months Eskenzi PR (and the world) has seen lately.
We made it halfway through 2020, hang in there!
With gratitude to all our clients and all the amazing people that have supported us through thick and thin,
The Eskenzi PR Team
Synopsys
Every December, our senior account director heads to the USA for an in-person meeting with her client, Synopsys. During the 2019 meeting, one of the goals she was tasked with was to secure a Press Association hit in the UK – we had managed this once in 2019, which really helped boost Synopsys’ share of voice, so it was something that would be welcomed in 2020 too. Here we are, two weeks into June, and we have hit – and surpassed – that target! In the space of five months, we have secured FOUR Press Association placements! This has resulted in over 650 pieces of coverage.
Anomali
At the start of May, Eskenzi PR was tasked with a one-off project to get coverage for a new client Anomali. The objective was to increase its brand awareness in the UK, and generate as much coverage as possible in one month. Eskenzi PR considered several campaign ideas, but it was decided that we would produce a consumer survey. This would put Anomali in front of mainstream, national and business media, as well as the security trade press. Eskenzi PR and Anomali spent some time brainstorming questions that would give us interesting and impactful media headlines. With COVID-19 being at the forefront of every media mind, we created questions around the proposed UK Smartphone tracing app – NHSx – and the public’s attitudes to it.
Through a programme of targeted pre-pitching in advance of the report going live, we managed to achieve coverage in over 35 publications. This included ZDNet, Infosecurity Magazine, Computer Weekly, Verdict and TEISS.
In addition, we pitched commentary from an Anomali spokesperson about the chance of scam text messages from the COVID 19 app, which was picked up by the Press Association – resulting in over 250 pieces of coverage, including the Daily Mail, Yahoo! News, AOL and Metro.
*SIDE NOTE*
As we’ve seen in this little case study, attaining exceptional coverage is partly down to writing a good press release. Because we would like to help you achieve this same success, we are working on compiling a resources page with guides and top tips on everything PR. To start, here is a guide on How to Write a Press Release.
CyberSmart
On the 27th of April, the Eskenzi PR family welcomed its newest member into the fold, CyberSmart. At our initial PR strategy meeting, among other matters, we discussed their goals. Their CEO, Jamie Akhtar, expressed that getting CyberSmart into SC Magazine would be one of his dream scenarios. Less than two months later, we placed an article in SC Magazine as well as secured an additional 7 pieces of coverage and counting, in the same publication. What’s more, we also got them into the BBC and The Times! This puts us on track to making CyberSmart a household name in no time.
European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards 2020 – Winners Announced!
The winners of the 2020 European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards were announced earlier this month in an event with a twist. Forgoing the usual booze up in a pub close to Infosecurity Europe this year, we took the awards ceremony virtual for a Zoom cocktail party! And thanks to Qualys, the headline sponsor, cocktail kits were sent to all registered finalists to join in for an online cocktail-making class given by Patrick Fogarty of Doctor Ink’s Curiosities / Stir Crazy.
Judges Yvonne Eskenzi of Eskenzi PR, Dan Raywood from Infosecurity Magazine, Javvad Malik from KnowBe4, Quentyn Taylor from Canon Europe and Shan Lee from Transferwise announced the winners in each of the twelve categories. For the full list of winners, click here.
Congrats to all the winners! Here’s to next year and getting together again in-person. If you’d like to find out more about sponsorship opportunities, please get in touch.
The IT Security Analyst & CISO Forum 2020
Eskenzi PR has opened registrations for the virtual IT Security Analyst & CISO Forum, which is available to just 10 vendors on a first come first served basis during the first week of November. The analyst community have urged us not to cancel this event, seeing it as one of the most beneficial events that they attend every year. Instead, they have asked for Eskenzi to host it virtually!
The IT Security Analyst & CISO Forum is an event that works for the CISOs, the Analysts and, of course, the vendors as everyone gets to participate in insightful, in-depth conversations. It’s an occasion to quiz analysts to find out whether you’re on the right track, how you compare with your competitors as well as what the appetite is right now for your kind of product or service. You’ll not only get to have 10 meetings with the world’s top analysts in cybersecurity but, on day two, you’ll get to gain great insight into what some of the UK’s leading CISOs are currently putting out tenders for, what trends they’re seeing and what they generally talk about behind closed doors. The analysts themselves always write about the event, so it’s not only great for raising awareness as well as building intelligence and knowledge around industry trends, but an exciting PR opportunity! What’s more, there’s a huge price reduction as the event will be virtual.
With just 10 spots available, we would urge you to book your place as soon as possible.
If you would like to know more about the IT security analyst & CISO forum, please contact yvonne@eskenzipr.com
PR on a Budget
In turbulent times, budgets may be getting slashed and companies may be thinking that they just can’t afford to retain a PR agency. But that certainly doesn’t mean that they should give up on PR altogether. We’ve done a number of projects for clients to keep them in the limelight including surveys, media alerts and arranging interviews for key spokespeople. These month-long projects can pack a real bang for your buck – see related news on Anomali’s nationwide study on the COVID-19 Contact Tracing App!
On a separate but related note, we’ve actually come up with some pretty good reasons why you might want to increase PR spend (in lieu of events etc), not least of which is to avoid being out of sight and out of mind!
Whichever camp you’re in, we’re always happy to jump on the phone and have a brainstorm.
