An impressive individual with a wealth of experience in PR, Claire set up BOTTLE PR six years ago with fellow Director Will, employing their first member of staff in early 2005. Both Claire and Will have impressive career backgrounds, having worked for some of the world’s largest PR agencies, in addition to holding senior in-house PR positions. Their combined experience has enabled them to create a formidable team, totalling twenty-four, with industry specialists ensuring Bottle really can do PR for its deliberately diverse client base, with great effect.

Claire and Will’s infectious work ethic has enabled them to attract the best in terms of employees and clients, as Claire explains: “We are workaholics and work 24/7. PR is all-consuming and relentless. There is never any respite as there’s always another journalist to call and always another spin on a story.

Since day one, we have had ‘outstanding quality’ at the heart of everything we do.”

All the hard work has certainly paid off, as BOTTLE PR has a fantastic reputation, being listed by ‘PR Week’ as one of the UK’s top 120 agencies, and as the sixth fastest growing PR agency outside ofLondon: a huge achievement.

Will and Claire have a clear vision as to how they want the company to progress, with the invaluable input of non-Executive director, Neil Backwith, who advises on BOTTLE PR’s strategy, and two Directors, Carole Scott and Karen Cooper, who themselves have impressive PR careers Diversity has been the key to BOTTLE PR’s success, as Claire explains. “Unlike some PR companies, we don’t restrict ourselves to one specific sector, bu deliberately employ experts in certain fields, ranging from financial services, technology, property & construction, energy, and ‘green’ PR, to name just a few. We can then use this expertise across all accounts, where relevant.”

Growth has certainly been boosted by the impressive wealth of knowledge which BOTTLE PR has accumulated, together with the ever-expanding network of journalists and know-how, as Claire continues: “We are undoubtedly well-known and have earned a great reputation in a relatively short period of time. We have to continually refresh our links with the press.”

Being based outside London is regarded as an asset. “Our location isn’t a hindrance, as BOTTLE PR has representation in London two or three times a week, and, of course, we will travel wherever we have to in order to service clients’ accounts or to pitch for an account. Being based in Oxfordshire means we are not weighed down by large overheads, so we can invest more in senior staff. Many of the established London PR firms will use senior staff to pitch for work but the account will then be passed to a junior, which doesn’t always ensure the results match the original pitch.

“We are becoming something of a thorn in the side of the London agencies, pitching against them on a regular basis – and often winning ”

The BOTTLE PR philosophy is based on the four key principles which are adhered to from the initial pitch to the work which follows from winning an account. “We ask the same four questions after we have pitched, after we have planned a campaign and while we are implementing a campaign. Is it Vivid? Is it Grounded? Is it Relentless. Is it Magnetic? As long as we stick to these four clear principles, we will stay on the right track. We don’t want to be enormous and lose sight of our principles. I think a team of fifty would be more than sufficient to ensure we don’t lose sight of what we are about.”

Everyone at BOTTLE PR is equal. ‘Hierarchy’ simply doesn’t exist. “We believe our work ethic is clearly equitable to good results, and everything BOTTLE PR does has to correspond with our four core values.

The very nature of PR means we all have to work Hard every day at getting results for our customers.

Every morning we will review the papers and key online news sites to see what news stories there are for our clients to ‘piggyback’ . It’s a great way to start the day and creates a real buzz around the office. Individuals are each assigned a newspaper or online publication and share helpful stories regarding each others’ clients.”

As well as specialising in ‘traditional’ PR, BOTTLE PR has a firm grasp on the fast-moving world of digital PR, a trait essential for a successful agency. BOTTLE PR has grown precisely because it has been able to keep up with the movement of digital PR and understands the importance of digital media, whether this is blogging or social media. The team know how to realise the full potential of digital PR and incorporate it into their campaigns.

BOTTLE PR is an energetic, yet personable company which knows how to get the job done, and its team have performed PR miracles for start-ups through to some of the world’s biggest brands. As a testament to the company’s accomplishments, see below.

- Clients featured on 3 out of the 5 business news slots on the Chris Evans BBC Radio Two Show in One Week.
- 14 national press and broadcast interviews for a retail client in one day.
- 80% rise in year on year sales for a drinks client as a direct result of BOTTLE’s PR campaign.
- Huge increase in website enquiries from 50 per day to over 30,000 for a utility supplier after a positive profiling piece on Watchdog.
- Client featured in the Financial Times three times in one week.

Many regard PR as something of a ‘Black Art’. BOTTLE PR work in compliance with the new global standard for calculating the value of PR, as revealed in the ‘PR Week’ industry magazine in June. Seven new principles have been unveiled, decided upon by senior officials and two hundred delegates, as a step away from the method of Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE), which measures the success of PR through the amount of advertising space achieved. The new principles look for quality rather than quantity. BOTTLE PR use awareness surveys to assess whether a change in perception has been achieved for a client. The agency studies real business objectives, such as an increase in leads or website traffic, to assess the effectiveness of a PR campaign.

Claire concludes this is the way forward. “We fully comply with these standards and see them as a far more reliable form of measurement. As a company, we do our job well and our track record speaks for itself. The future of PR is inextricably linked to the future of BOTTLE PR and we have as good a graspon future developments as any PR firm in the country.”

www.bottlepr.co.uk