News

As is the Packer Forbes tradition, a post-abseil celebration took place in a local pub nearby where it was decided that the team would better its charity challenge in 2012, so watch this space….The Stroke Association is the only UK-wide charity dealing with stroke in people of all ages, investing £2.6 million in support of vital stroke research throughout 2010.

As is becoming tradition, a post-race celebration took place in a nearby pub where the team swiftly began planning their next charity event of 2011. We will keep you posted on how we get on....

Race for Life is Cancer Research UK’s flagship event that has grown to become the UK’s largest women-only fundraising event. Since Race for Life began, an incredible 5.4 million participants across the UK have raised more than £362 million to fund the work of over 4,000 researchers, doctors and nurses dedicated to helping people beat cancer.

Sporting Red Nose Day T-shirts and noses we started off by making a range of red drinks including Cosmopolitans, Bloody Mary’s as well non-alcoholic options. Being a Friday evening, visitors soon started flooding in and we got to meet a diverse range of people from offices all over the building which included a publishing house, Hedge Fund Managers, Travel PR and NHS administration workers.

For each drink we asked for a donation to our Red Nose Day bucket and by the end of the night, the bottles were empty but the bucket was looking fuller! We managed to raise £445 which included £78 from an on-line quiz issued to our clients. The quiz asked respondents to match a quirky fact to a member of the team at Packer Forbes to unfold hidden talents; for each respondent the company donated £2 towards the Red Nose Day total. This quiz stays on-line until Friday 25th March.

Well done everyone, good effort!

Anna Gibbins, Managing Director of Packer Forbes explained, "Both the NHS and pharmaceutical companies need to re-invent the way they do business together. The reality is historically this has been uneasy relationship, with the NHS wary of commercial motivation and industry appearing too forthright in attempts to engage. This can be resolved if both parties are willing to listen and review the way they do business together, to explore innovative solutions towards improving services and care for patients. Effective communication which engages with the right people, at the right level and at the right time is crucial for the development of good working relationships."

The first briefing ran in November 2010 and looked more broadly at the potential impact of the Health Reforms on healthcare communications, whilst this latest event focused on the new GP consortia and how industry needs to evolve to support their role of improving local health provision whilst delivering efficiency savings.

Guest speaker Mark Wilkinson, Director of NHS Life Sciences Innovation Delivery Board (which represents NHS leaders, regulators, policy makers and pharma industry) told delegates how he is working to identify ways to improve strategic partnerships. He advised that current unchartered waters mean good communication across all stakeholders is absolutely key. He advocates getting a foot in the door and starting conversations without any hidden agendas, to shape business-to-business relationships based on trust. His organisation is spearheading events across the country to encourage NHS leaders to outline their needs and for the pharma industry to submit collaborative ideas to tackle these challenges.

Dr Tim Richardson, executive member of the National Association of Primary Care and Principal at a GP practice in Epsom also spoke at the briefing. He explained how under the new QIPP (Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention) agenda, quality has to be delivered at the same time as cuts in spending. Delegates heard from him how some GPs are currently considering how they can reconcile their role as both commissioners and providers of services. With a typical GP consortium currently spending two-thirds of its budget on secondary care referrals and treatment he said, "GP consortia will already be considering how to commission out-of-hospital services, potentially from Any Willing Provider". This provides opportunities for new partnerships between Pharma and GPs and could lead to joint-working covering areas such as chronic disease management, business case development and benchmarking and auditing the results of interventions.

Anna Gibbins said "Future communication with the NHS is going to be less about products and more about joint-initiatives that can offer value with proven outcomes. Although there are numerous historical examples of pharmaceutical companies working locally with Trusts to deliver improvements in healthcare services, there are also examples of failed attempts, which can reinforce reluctance to even enter into a discussion with the pharmaceutical industry. What is needed is a fresh new approach, based on solid insights. The key to success in this environment is to ensure a well thought-out strategic communications approach, which engages potential partners and facilitates open discussions."

A report from this event is available at www.packerforbes.com and the next briefing in the series will be held in May

– ends –

For further information please contact:

Anna Gibbins

Packer Forbes

Tel: 020 7036 8550

anna@packerforbes.com

We started off with an inspiring team building afternoon at The Groucho Club; the original media-based private members club in London’s Soho, learning how to release innovation and creativity with training organisation ?What If!

As a follow-up to the ‘fresh thinking’ theme from the ?What If? training, we then all participated in a hilarious cocktail making lesson with professionally trained barmen. An hour later and after many dropped bottles and dodgy cocktails were made, we moved on from The Groucho Club and escalated 32 storeys to the viewing platform at the top of Centre Point tower for a wonderful view over London and a sumptuous dinner served with our much-coveted annual Christmas awards. Much fun was had by all…as the photos show!

The first of the CONNECT evening briefing events was held in November 2010 and was titled ‘Looking Forward: The Impact of NHS Reforms on Healthcare Communications’. This event controversially stated that brand-focused PR campaigns are resigned to history. Instead communications initiatives that help reduce expensive referrals to secondary care and encourage management of patients in a primary care setting, are likely to create most impact with the new, influential GP consortia. Partnership working is the way forward for the NHS, which has been tasked with saving £20 billion by 2014. A challenge they can’t achieve alone.

Adrian Giles, lead of South Worcester GP Commissioning Consortium and executive Director for Government Relations at 15 Healthcare, was the keynote speaker at the briefing. He told the audience: “Pharmaceutical companies that grasp the nettle will flourish in this new environment. Those that adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach are most likely to flounder. Forward thinking pharmaceutical companies and enlightened GP consortia need to develop true partnerships based on trust and good communication. However, the focus needs to evolve away from brand and towards the real agenda, which is improved healthcare at a lower cost.”

Anna Gibbins, managing Director of Packer Forbes Communications comments: “Healthcare is a fast-changing environment, which is currently in a great state of flux. Our clients are relying on us not only to understand the changes that are taking place, but to interpret them and provide consultancy aimed at evolving the partnership opportunities. The role of PR in these partnerships is becoming clearer and the main aim of our CONNECT evening briefing series is to create genuine discussion amongst our clients about practical solutions that can meet both NHS and clients’ needs.

A report from this event is available to view and the next CONNECT evening briefing will be held in February.

An event was held in October to celebrate our 18 years in business along with a move to new, larger offices at Chelsea Harbour in West London and the announcement of several senior promotions, as highlighted in PR Week, strengthening the company’s management team.

Packer Forbes Managing Director, Alexa Forbes has taken the role of Chief Executive Officer and former Deputy Managing Director, Anna Gibbins has been promoted to Managing Director. Two additional senior staff members have also been promoted, Helen Rae to Associate Director and Annabel Lee to Senior Account Director.

These changes have been made following a steady expansion in clients, as well as staff and mark an important milestone in the history of Packer Forbes.

A post-race celebration took place in a local pub nearby where it was decided that the team would enter the event next year and hopefully other sporting events soon. Race for Life is Cancer Research UK’s flagship event that has grown to become the UK’s largest women-only fundraising event; in 2010 the races throughout the UK have raised over £38,000,000 to date.

No less than six team members have been awarded a promotion in Q2 2010. Rachael Priest has been promoted to Senior Account Manager, Joella Webber has been made an Account Manager with Ginnie Tuck and Gemma Rickwood both achieving Senior Account Executive positions. In addition, the company’s two most recent graduate trainees Fleur Wylie and Nicola Kent have both been promoted to Account Executive within six months of joining the agency.

This wonderful piece of news was also highlighted in PR Week and Pharmaceutical Marketing helping to raise the profile of Packer Forbes staff and the innovative STEPs programme to other PR agencies.

STEPs was launched in June 2009 to provide each team member with bespoke personal development solutions. The scheme is specifically designed to fast-track agency talent by utilising a variety of dedicated training initiatives to ensure continued and consistent employee development. Internal promotions are linked directly to successful completion of the different stages of the programme, the features of which are centred around delivery of exceptional client work and outstanding internal communication.

For more information about STEPs please visit the careers page of the website

Becoming finalists puts Packer Forbes and our work in the spotlight and highlights our success to our peers, clients and competitors.

Stop the Clot was a lifesaving, public health education campaign developed through the partnership of the charity Anticoagulation Europe (ACE) and sanofi-aventis. A blood clot acquired in hospital is the largest cause of preventable death in the UK and each year, as many as 32,000 people in the UK die as a result of blood clots they get while in hospital.

By securing campaign support from a range of newsworthy local people: sports clubs; MPs, Mayors and, most importantly, the local Trust hospitals, generating a series of media tools: news releases; factsheets; template feature articles and contacting over 400 journalists we ensured that our campaign had maximum effect.

The coverage exceeded expectations and reached a circulation of over 18 million people, it exceeded targets by almost 300% and two main regional TV stations; six BBC and 15 independent local radio stations covered the campaign.

To find out more about this campaign please visit the case study page of the website.