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CENTRESPREAD: Putting a positive spin on PR business
by Chris Osuh28/ 4/2005
Andrew Spinoza is well-equipped to talk about PR and how it
affects the lives of people reading their favourite
newspapers.
Andrew, 43, was a journalist and is now poacher turned gamekeeper.
He knows what really lies behind the trade snobbery, public
caricatures and reactions to names such as Max Clifford and
Alastair Campbell.
I ask Andrew what his job involves. Pithily, he responds, "People
pay me to put them in newspapers, and sometimes to keep them out of
the newspapers."
Ever the PR man, he adds, "It's not about selling, it's about
persuasion and communication. What's important for us is to stay
invisible. We mustn't become the story."
Public relations people act as mouthpieces for the organisations
they represent. Their work involves showing these organisations, be
they football clubs, hotels or quangos, in the best light possible,
a specialised, and often difficult task.
In a typical day, a member of Spin Media's team might find
themselves interviewing someone from the Co-operative Bank about
the message they want to get across, then checking this information
and distilling it into a press release that journalists will want
to use.
Later, they might be organising a photocall with a Corrie star or a
Man City player, before attending meetings to plan the next day's
activity, or organising an event to celebrate the arrival of an
international store to the city or getting invitations out to who
they regard to be the "right people".
Andrew, originally a north Londoner who now lives in Heaton Moor,
came to Manchester University in 1979.
He was a founder journalist on City Life magazine in 1983, before
joining the Diary page on our sister paper, the Manchester Evening
News.
He became the Diary editor in the nineties, before leaving to set
up his own agency, Spin Media.
He never returned to London because he found Manchester
fascinating, "historically, culturally and musically", and he sees
the opening of the Hacienda nightclub and the Cornerhouse cinema in
the eighties as key moments in Manchester's evolution from
post-industrial backwater to UK second city.
He says: "I had an inkling Manchester was going to be on the up and
up, and as a journalist I had the inside track on the
changes.
"Going into PR, years later, was about playing a greater role in
these changes, and getting the chance to sit around the table on a
lot of interesting developments."
Today Spin Media is directed by Andrew, along with Geraldine Vesey
and Daniel Kennedy, and is one of the top five PR agencies in the
North West.
Employees at a good-sized firm like Spin can find themselves
working on anything from publicity for Vivienne Westwood's
Manchester store to the launch of Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho's
biography.
PR agencies are also fond of attention-grabbing campaigns and
stunts and, after the success of the Commonwealth Games in
Manchester, Spin Media came up with the idea of asking the nation
what the country's second city was. With the exception of people in
the West Midlands, the answer was unequivocally,
"Manchester".
This stirred, in Andrew's words, "a right hornets' nest."
Mr Spinoza cites regeneration as one of his passions. And he
believes the city's public relations professionals have a role to
play in the process.
He says: "We didn't build the buildings but we have been telling
the story every time a new hotel, or a swanky restaurant or a top
business relocates to the city.
"One half of the process is investment and construction - the other
half is getting that message out, and that's where we come
in."
I can't leave without asking Andrew about the company's ambiguous
name.
He tells me "Spin" was a childhood nickname.
He adds: "When we started the company the word spin had
associations with dynamism and intelligence. Since that time it's
taken on connotations."
My odd job: Members' Club
Deepa Parekh, 28, of Prestwich, has worked at Manchester's media
members' club, The Circle Club, since it opened.
Owner Dominic Apenteng, whose background is in television,
headhunted Deepa, who was working as a radio journalist at the
time, to come and work with him on his new project in 2001, which
he envisioned as a "meeting and networking space" for the city's
media professionals and creative types.
Both of them were aware that in the worlds of print, television,
PR, drama, music, PR and marketing, contacts are often
paramount.
They wanted to create a regional answer to London's famous members'
bars that would unite Manchester's media movers and shakers.
Today the Circle Club has 1,800 members, from fashion designers and
reporters, to architects and press officers, with an age range of
18 to 60.
Fame and money do not guarantee entry - to get in, you have to be
in the business.
As such, Deepa's job as business development director involves
everything from scrutinising membership applications, to arranging
events, activities and promotions that will be of interest to the
members.
Because of the nature of Circle, events can be industry-oriented,
like Land Rover and Sony BMG launches, exhibition showcases, or
film previews, or just good old-fashioned entertainment, like quiz
nights, comedy nights and shows from big-name DJs.
Deepa also negotiates deals for member privileges with companies
like the Lowry Hotel and Vidal Sassoon, as well as promoting
Circle's brand by creating links with trade organisations and local
cultural icons like the Cornerhouse cinema, and supporting forums
like the Black Arts Alliance and the Young Directors' Forum.
She says: "I'm always looking to add value to the membership. The
bar and restaurant are necessary so people have a space to meet -
but that's not really what it's about.
"We don't advertise ourselves so all the publicity we get is from
word of mouth, or through alliances we've made. We're not about
attracting celebrities. We get them in here because they know it's
a place where they come and relax, just as members know it's
somewhere they can come and relax, without having to queue for long
periods, get hassle from doormen, or get trouble from dodgy
characters inside the venue.
"Manchester's media and creative sector goes from strength to
strength, which means more and more people are networking. We try
and offer a place where people can do that in comfort, fostering
links between professionals in the city."
My CV: Shelagh Bourke
My first job was shampooing in my father's hairdressing salon in
Middlesbrough.
It was the seventies and I was 15. It was a very unglamorous
cornershop salon, with customers coming in for perms, shampoo and
sets.
I went to Warwick University to study French and Drama. As part of
my course I had to go to France for a year, teaching English to
school pupils not much older than myself. I lived in Marseilles,
which was a tough town then, you had to be streetwise.
After finishing my degree I taught French at a Middlesbrough
college. At the same time I worked in a whole food shop, which was
strange because I'd find myself serving the same people I was
teaching. Chris Rea used to come in and buy brie and we all used to
fight to serve him.
I then did a postgraduate bilingual secretarial course at the
University of Northumbria because teaching wasn't for me. At the
end of the course I got a job as publicity assistant at the
Newcastle Playhouse. I met lots of critics and it was a great
apprenticeship into the world of arts marketing.
After that I worked in theatre for a couple of years which involved
selling shows and doing PR for regional touring theatres.
In the eighties I took a year out and went to work as a Thomson rep
in Benidorm, working on Young At Heart holidays for the over 55s. I
organised bingo, whist drives and tea dancing. When I came back I
spoke really good Spanish.
I went straight back into theatre and cinema marketing, working for
the Tyneside Cinema. I found I'd finally got the job I wanted. I
got to use my French and Spanish skills and I went to film
festivals at Barcelona and Cannes.
I then became marketing and PR manager for the Theatre Royal.
It was very prestigious and I got to work with Jack Lemmon, Stewart
Granger, Charlton Heston, Anita Dobson and the Krankees.
Then I met my husband at a film conference and came to live in
Manchester.
I worked for the RSC and the Library Theatre. I also worked as
press officer at the Royal Exchange, right throughout the bomb,
before going freelance in 1998.
For the last two years I've been in partnership with Catherine
Braithwaite, as Lethal Communications. At the moment we're working
on Five Arts Cities, a project for Channel Five that takes us to
Newcastle.
I'm also doing PR for ten shows on the Edinburgh Fringe, and for
Garden of Delights, an extravaganza of art and performance coming
soon to Platt Fields Park.
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