Lesley Singleton: one of the UK’s top 100 business mums
January 3rd, 2012 | Lesley | 0 comments
Well, what a lovely way to start the New Year – MumpreneurUK has named me as one of the UK’s top 100 business mums.
Scrolling through the list, I can see I’m in great company alongside an array of diverse and successful businesswomen, some of whom I’ve been lucky enough to work with in the past.
MumpreneurUK is a support network for mums and dads in business, offering advice, resources, articles and events to parents who run their own business as well as those considering starting a business.
Posted in About LS Media Ltd, Mumpreneurs
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Looking back, looking forward
December 28th, 2011 | Lesley | 0 comments
As the last few days of 2011 tumble by, I giggle as I find myself munching mince pies whilst simultaneously launching a new deprivation-free “have your cake and eat it” diet plan! My best intentions to make the festive period a work-free zone this year have been (happily) scuppered by some amazing new business wins in recent months and I thought I’d use this blog post to reflect on 2011 and look ahead to what’s happening in 2012.
This, the fifth birthday year of LS Media, has seen the business go from strength to strength, with a number of memorable highlights. There have been numerous new clients – long-term projects for luxury brands Swarovski Optik and The Sherwood Hideaway, plus ad-hoc work for long-standing clients Sporty Bump and Talk To The Press. I was re-hired by ParamountZone.com and implemented a ridiculously successful Christmas campaign for their iHelicopter product (reams of print and online coverage, plus a prominent feature on Channel Five’s The Gadget Show). Lawyers4Mumpreneurs, BeerBeauty and EasyWay Bucks all presented me with challenging capsule projects to get my teeth into and DietHeaven is currently giving me my first taste (pardon the pun) of the world of weight-loss PR.
In addition, I’ve been freelancing for the children’s communication charity, I CAN, and I’m delighted that I’ve recently been hired to handle the UK PR for global word-game phenomenon, Bananagrams.
So what’s in store in 2012? Well, I secured a number of press trips for The Sherwood Hideaway this past year, so I’ll be chasing up that coverage in the New Year and also launching their new Rustic-themed lodges, which are currently being built. Bananagrams is already proving to be a thrilling client to work with – 2012 will see me pinning down celebrity endorsements, large-scale sponsorship opportunities, supporting special limited edition versions of the games, pitching the range to TV and a huge blogger-outreach campaign to really get the UK buzzing about the range. In February, I’ll be heading out to the New York Toy Fair to meet the rest of the Bananagrams crew, which is a really exciting opportunity to get under the skin of the brand and further fuel my passion for it (and yes, I’ve already got my kids hooked on the games!).
Sporty Bump is extending its maternity sportswear range this year, so I’ll be implementing a campaign around that and hopefully securing even more celebrity involvement (Sarah Cawood is our latest celebrity fan). Over the next couple of months, I’ll be seeing the results of my work on the DietHeaven launch campaign as our bigger, exclusive features come to fruition. And there will be further work with I CAN as I support them with two of their major programmes this year: The Chatterbox Challenge and the Communication Triathlon.
What’s more, I start studying for my BA in Modern Languages this February with The Open University, so 2012 looks like being an exhilarating year on both the personal and professional front.
Looking forward to sharing the journey with you.
Posted in About LS Media Ltd, Client News
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Bananagrams hires UK PR
December 2nd, 2011 | Lesley | 0 comments
I am thrilled to announce that Bananagrams®, Inc., the creators of BANANAGRAMS®, the award-winning anagram tile game named Toy Fair 2009 “Game of the Year,” has chosen LS Media to handle its entire PR function in the UK, with immediate effect.
I’ll be handling publicity for all five games in the Bananagrams family – including Zip-It, Fruitominoes, Appletters and PAIRSinPEARS – working on campaigns encompassing print and broadcast media relations, celebrity endorsement, blogger outreach, social media and much, much more.
This is a hugely exciting development for me and further reinforces my ethos of working with brands I can truly get passionate about. The games have been invented by three generations of the Nathanson family and are underpinned by a heritage which actively promotes family interaction through playing games together, a value I share.
For more information about Bananagrams and how your family can enjoy them, visit Bananagrams.
Posted in About LS Media Ltd, Client News, PR
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Bloggers blagging freebies – my tuppence worth
November 4th, 2011 | Lesley | 22 comments
I, like many PRs, subscribe to a service called Response Source. In a nutshell, the system enables journalists, TV and radio producers, freelance writers and bloggers to contact subscribing PR consultants directly with requests for information – anything from real life case studies and expert opinion, to competition prizes and review products.
I’ve been a subscriber since my days at Consolidated PR and I find Response Source essential for the vast majority of my clients. In the past year or so, the blogging community has increasingly used the system to request review products. I have absolutely nothing against this: we’ve all been embracing the fact that good coverage extends far beyond just the papers and mags for years now, so it should be no surprise that bloggers are actively sourcing products to review on their sites. In my mind, it’s no different to a journalist calling me for a review copy of a book or DVD.
As the volume of review product requests rises, so does the cynicism amongst my colleagues in the PR world and I am guilty of the occasional eye-roll as I read another email asking for free stuff. There has been a lot of chatter on the web about this today after another PR sent out a spoof Response Source enquiry, but some of the fall-out from that made me feel a little uneasy about how relationships between PRs and bloggers are being managed on both sides.
Speaking from my own experience, I feel I’ve always had good relationships with the bloggers I’ve engaged for client campaigns. I put this down to spending time finding out who writes about what, how they might be influential to my target market and thinking creatively about how best to approach them (or “sorting the wheat from the chaff”, as it were). Erm, much the same as how I work with ‘traditional’ media and journalists then?
I think what jarred with me most today was the sweeping generalisation that bloggers have poor writing skills, only want free stuff and won’t deliver the promised review or will deliver it badly. A good PR will identify a good blogger, surely? I wouldn’t ask my client to part with their product if I didn’t truly believe that we would get a review out of the exercise – in the same way that I wouldn’t send a travel journalist on a press trip without confirmation of a fully-credited feature for my client at the end of it. In my mind, that’s just common sense and good practice. And the bloggers I’ve worked with in the past have all delivered. Yes, some took a little chasing, but then again, don’t we PRs have to spend hours calling journalists to follow-up on our press releases and pitches too?
I have devised and implemented blogger-outreach campaigns for a number of clients including gadget website ParamountZone.com, children’s communication charity I CAN and maternity brand Sporty Bump and know for a fact that the truthful, frank product reviews from bloggers have increased traffic to the product website and ultimately resulted in increased sales. In turn, the bloggers have been provided with a catalyst to decent content for their site, helping drive traffic and increase readership. A good result all-round then I’d say.
Comments welcome…
Background reading: Daryl Willcox’s blog post on today’s spoof Response Source enquiry
Posted in Online PR
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LS Media’s lawyer & client scoops Mumpreneur Award
October 7th, 2011 | Lesley | 0 comments
Dragons’ Den veteran Duncan Bannatyne was among the judges who voted business lawyer Suzanne Dibble’s venture Lawyers4Mumpreneurs a winner at the national Mumpreneur Awards ceremony on Sunday 25 September 2011.
The accolade recognises Suzanne’s growing practice for the outstanding support it provides to smaller, family-run businesses, since launching in 2010. The only law firm in the UK to do so, Lawyers4Mumpreneurs focuses solely on mumpreneurs’ needs in setting up and growing their businesses, offering friendly, cost effective, jargon-free business law advice. Suzanne spotted her opportunity in a market where many small businesses need legal help with protecting their business and growing it. Mumpreneur clients have kept her busy ever since, seeking and receiving high calibre advice and support on such matters as brand and data protection, advertising compliance, limitation of liability, franchising, licensing, contracts, distribution and investment agreements.
Commenting on the win, Suzanne says, “I’m delighted to be recognised at the Mumpreneur Awards, because the organisation really does stand for everything my clients are and hope to be, approaching business success in the same way as I do. With a high calibre and entrepreneurial judging panel including Duncan Bannatyne making the final decision, I feel it’s a tremendous accolade, which inspires me to do even more for the mumpreneur community and in support of my current and future clients.”
Lawyers4Mumpreneurs is unique in focusing specifically on mumpreneur businesses. Using primarily social media, Suzanne has established the practice’s reputation in the sector and grown her business from nothing to over 70 clients in less than two years, working part time around her now 14 month old baby and being available when it suits her clients. Growth this year has been largely fuelled by recommendations from scores of delighted clients. She has recently taken on two colleagues and plans to expand her staff to ten within five years, to meet the demand for flexible and user-friendly legal advice and services.
With 14 years of corporate law experience behind her, at DLA Piper LLP, Virgin, ITV Plc and on the main board of property firm Hamptons International, Suzanne’s professional excellence is assured. In her own practice she makes this expertise accessible to business mums, turning the potentially daunting experience of hiring a lawyer into an easy, pleasant and constructive one. She explains: “My clients love the fact that I am one of them, speak their language and explain things without legal jargon. I am passionate about helping their businesses grow and have structured what I do specifically to address their needs, offering a completely flexible service.”
Suzanne’s blend of experience means that she is a trusted advisor to her clients on both commercial and legal matters. Her input is so valued by some clients that they have asked her to join their boards of directors.
Sam Willoughby, multi-award-winning founder of parenting e-business What’s on 4 Limited, sums up the value of Lawyers4Mumpreneurs: “Suzanne’s involvement in our franchising has made all the difference to us making it happen. She took the time to understand the business and asked lots of questions to ensure we had considered every business and legal aspect of franchising. She really understood the pressures of a small business and particularly the juggle of being a parent running a small business. She delivered as promised, responded very quickly to emails, didn’t confuse us with legal jargon and was very fair and clear with the costs. After four years and three other solicitors, I have finally found one I can recommend and that I will use again.”
For further information about the services provided by Suzanne Dibble, recent blog posts, testimonials, awards and accreditations, please visit www.lawyers4mumpreneurs.com.
Posted in Client News, Mumpreneurs
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