@FrontierPR

Specialist communications for social housing

About usFrontier PR is a full service communications agency that delivers creative and dynamic public relations campaigns for social housing.

Formed in 2007, we employ a dedicated team of former journalists, housing professionals and public relations strategists who are experts in social housing and regeneration.

Together we have worked with more than 20 landlords, developers and house builders on everything from profile raising campaigns and crisis situations, to change management, community engagement and social media strategies.

This means that we understand your market and the communications challenges you are facing.

Our experience has taken us from Scotland to Southampton – and everywhere in-between – while our around-the-clock service means that we are there for our clients wherever you want us, whenever you need us.

We specialise in supplyingcommunications services that help you to:

• Raise your profile and defend your reputation

• Best support change and internal transformation

• Become industry leaders on the issues that matter to you

• Engage with your customers in new and more cost effective ways

We get it

The housing sector is stepping up to the challenge of the housing crisis, which coincides with unprecedented pressures on landlord’s income, operating costs and reputation. The Government continues their commitment to building one million new homes by the next Parliament, supporting tenures of all types. Housing associations are revising their business plans to adapt to the new reality emerging from the Autumn Statement and the Housing White Paper.

To be effective, communications strategies also need to be re-aligned and the necessary skills and capacity need to be in place to support an increasingly complex set of demands

– and to make the most of emerging opportunities.

Balancing the need to communicate effectively in a more complex and sensitive environment while ensuring that your communications spend consistently delivers value for money isn’t always easy. That’s where we can help.

Our mission “ To use our niche expert knowledge

of housing and communications to deliver specialist, creative and intelligent communication solutions and measurable return on investment to our social housing focused clients.”

“ Our specialist support ranges from day-to-day, hands-on press office or communications activity to high level strategic communications planning, ensuring that your comms plan is fit-for-purpose in a rapidly changing market.”Aaron EastwoodAccount Manager

Our Services“ We have built strong, lasting relationships with our social housing clients. We offer strategic and tactical support to social landlords, which can be short or long-term, adding value by reviewing existing PR plans and applying frameworks to forge and deliver robust new ones. We can also support you in busy or challenging times, such as assisting you through growth, mergers and redundancies.” David Innes EdwardsManaging Director

Strategic Planning

Communications professionals are having to adapt the way that they work to meet new challenges within the social housing sector.

Rent reductions, welfare reform, Right to Buy, the challenges of housing an ageing population and commercial diversification are all having an impact on the business models of registered providers – creating new audiences, messages and stakeholders.

This comes at a time when communications teams are re-establishing how they engage with tenants, striking a balance between using traditional media and new channels.

Before undertaking any activity, Frontier PR will work with you to identify the areas where resources are needed and create a strategy that helps you define your communications objectives and achieve your goals.

We will work with you to lay-out what you want to say; how you want to say it; and who you want to say it to.

Crucially, we will also define and agree value for money - so everyone knows what success looks like when we get there.

Media Relations

Good media relations gets you seen, heard and read about in all the right places.

At Frontier PR we use our expert knowledge of media relations and contacts in local, national and trade media to:

• Help you take ‘ownership’ of the issues that matter to you within the sector

• Build your organisation’s image and promote the work you do to your tenants and the wider industry

• Defend your reputation against potential negative media stories

We help our clients tell their stories on TV, radio and in print media – but more importantly we get the right message to the right audience.

We’re also experts in using social media channels to make sure your stories reach key journalists, stakeholders and opinion formers who help shape debates in the social housing industry.

Change communications

55% of project managers cite effective communications as the most critical success factor in project management.

Whether you’re changing systems and processes for staff, communicating re-structures, redundancies or mergers, implementing digital solutions for customers, or simply want to engage your workforce more meaningfully in the change process, effective communication has never been more critical.

Organisations that plan communications effectively – and that communicate clearly are the ones who are also more likely to embed change more quickly, and to take their customers and teams with them, ensuring benefits are fully realised.

We recognise that the skills needed to manage complex change communications are likely to be uncharted territory for many in house-teams and for some, additional support will be needed to bridge the gap.

At Frontier PR we can help with:

• Organisational change communications - internally and externally

• Programme communications planning to support business transformation

• Behavioural change communications - e.g. channel shift

Our Services

Crisis Communications

How an organisation operates in a crisis can define its reputation for years to come.

Our team has a huge amount of experience in managing communications crises having worked on some of the sector’s biggest stories.

We offer media training and put plans in place to make sure you are prepared for every eventuality.

Frontier PR will be there for you during a crisis to operate a 24 hour press office, manage communications channels to avoid misinformation, and ensure the right messages reach tenants, staff and the media.

We provide regular scenario training to make sure that your team know their roles and responsibilities in the event of a crisis situation.

Media Training

Speaking to the media can be one of the most challenging and daunting experiences an organisation faces.

The course of a story and an organisation’s reputation can be re-defined by the answers given in these pressure situations.

That’s why it is absolutely essential that every landlord has a number of well-trained, well-briefed spokespeople who can deliver clearly defined messages, whatever the circumstances.

Frontier PR provides bespoke training that matches the individual needs of landlords.

We help organisations plan for every scenario to ensure that your staff are confident and prepared to handle media opportunities, and are able to deliver the right message at the right time to boost the reputation of your organisation.

Event Management and Support

Events are a highly effective way of getting your message heard through direct contact with target audiences.

Frontier PR can take your organisation’s presence to another level through:

• Hosting events that can help engage with and influence politicians, peers and other key stakeholders

• Sponsorship and partnership with key industry events to maximise your presence

• Roundtable events and forums to establish thought leadership

• Developing themes for exhibition stands, or hosting fringe events and receptions at conferences

With comprehensive preparation, a great deal of imagination and thorough promotion, Frontier PR will ensure that you stand out from the crowd and deliver.

Our Services

Social Media

Social media has changed the way we talk to each other.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are now essential parts of every company’s communications mix – although we are always on the lookout for new methods that will help us interact in new ways with our audiences. How you present your organisation and respond to online dialogue through these channels will be a major part of defining your image, and a key tool in breaking down barriers with communities and tech savvy generations.

The team at Frontier PR has run social media campaigns for some of the UK’s biggest brands, and can help you:

• Engage with new, and often hard to reach audiences

• Manage the perception of your brand in the online community

• Raise the profile of key spokespeople and establish them as leaders on key industry issues

• Develop social media strategies to ensure that policies and procedures are in place for your online activity

We can also use social media to bring campaigns to life, using videos, animation and online engagement to give your stories the edge in the battle to grab media space.

Digital and Online

We’ve created dozens of digital solutions for our clients.

Whether it’s digital platforms such as mini-sites or an interactive infographic that brings complex messages to life, we work with you to develop innovative designs that will bring your campaign to life online.

We’ve created a number of solutions for our clients including:

• Fully integrated websites

• Project specific micro-sites

• Blogs that help to raise the profile of key spokespeople

• Video footage that brings campaigns and presentations to life

• Infographics that distil complex messages

• Interactive animation clips that keep your audience engaged

Frontier PR can deliver from inception to launch, helping you build a presence that reflects your organisation’s values and image in the digital age.

Public Consultation and Planning Applications

We’re experts in engaging with communities on major housing and regeneration projects. Our team has worked on planning applications for some of the country’s biggest companies, including Tesco, Dobbies, Long-Port Group, and Keepmoat. Together we have worked on more than 50 high profile and often controversial applications.

We work on the frontline where you need us most, and we are as comfortable meeting local residents in community halls as we are engaging with politicians in the boardroom.

Frontier PR focuses on delivering the right messages to the key decision makers in communities where you operate.

We specialise in securing ‘buy in’ from the public and local stakeholders and use their stories to highlight the benefits of your projects to deliver positive outcomes at planning committees.

That means we only operate in sectors we understand, and where we know we can add value and deliver a genuine return on investment. We tailor all of our campaigns to the individual needs of our clients, taking into account the unique combinations of business objectives, audiences, messages and issues.

We’re experts in the field of social housing, and our team has worked with a wide range of landlords including:

• Salix Homes

• ForViva Group

• Stafford and Rural Homes

• Peaks and Plains Housing Trust

• Hanover Housing Association

• Weaver Vale Housing Trust

• Halton Housing Trust

• Knowsley Housing Trust

• Mossbank Homes

• Isos Housing

• Sanctuary Housing

• The Riverside Group

Along with suppliers to the sector such as:

• Mobysoft

• Seddon

• Keepmoat

• Omfax

• Daikin

• Housing Partners

• ROCC

We also run a series of hugely successful leadership forums including:

• Progress: Leadership In Housing

• Housing People

• The Green Housing Forum

“ Frontier Public Relations is a valuable addition to ForViva’s PR team, providing consistent and regular support, as well as helping to plug any gaps at peak times and holidays, even coming in to work within the team. They are fantastic to work with - professional, creative and most of all they have an excellent understanding of the social housing sector.”

Sally Battye, Head of Marketing & Communications, ForViva Group

“I needed professional expert media management and comms advice urgently and discreetly to plan and deliver very sensitive messages around a significant event. I turned to Frontier PR based on its reputation and experience and was delighted with their attention to detail, responsiveness together with calm and confident advice.”

Tim Pinder, Chief Executive of Peaks and Plains

Our Work

At Frontier PR we take a knowledge-based approach to public relations

Case Studies

ForVivaForViva began working with Frontier PR in 2013.

The ambitious landlord, which owns 14,600 properties, was looking to raise its profile within the sector, and establish itself as an industry leader in key delivery areas such as health and housing and welfare reform while also promoting its role as a developer within the North West.

In 2014 Frontier PR managed to secure almost 100 pieces of coverage in key trade and national media outlets, with features, news stories and comment articles appearing in the likes of Inside Housing, 24 Housing, The Guardian Housing Network, Social Housing Magazine and on Radio 4.

Members of the ForViva senior team also made contributions to the National Housing Federation and the Chartered Institute of Housing blogs.

ForViva has been a long-time champion of greater links between health and housing services in England, and was keen to start a national debate on how best to improve ties between the two sectors.

Frontier helped support a year-long campaign which included:

• Funding a report with leading think tank IPPR North into the growing challenges of an aging population

• A roundtable event with Inside Housing to discuss how the housing sector can better work with health professionals

• Arranging for Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham to open the new 66 apartments at Amblecote Gardens extra care facility

The campaign has brought ForViva’s message to the centre of the health and housing debate, with senior staff invited to speak at all major industry events on the issue.

Salix Homes

Frontier PR has been working with Salford based social housing provider Salix Homes since December 2012.

Multi award-winning Salix Homes, which manages around 8,500 properties, required Frontier PR to work collaboratively with its accomplished communications and press office team.

In particular Salix Homes identified the need for Frontier PR to draw on its specialist knowledge of social housing issues in order to provide out-of-hours press office and crisis management support as and when issues arise.

“We were initially impressed with Frontier PR’s credentials and specialist knowledge of the social housing sector. They had a clear understanding of the issues facing the market, which was very reassuring from our perspective.

“As an agency they have proven to be responsive and flexible in their approach – responding to the varied needs of our communications team with timely professionalism.”

James Allan, Marketing and Communications Manager at Salix Homes

Contact Us

Arch 29, Sackville Street, North Campus Incubator, Manchester M60 1QDSat nav reference: M1 7JA

Tel: 0161 306 8502

www.frontierpr.co.uk

enq@frontierpr.co.uk

frontier-pr

@frontierpr

Frontier Public Relations

Awards PR Moments 2016 ShortlistB2B campaign of the year Not for Profit campaign of the year

CIPR Pride Awards 2015Not for Profit campaign of the year (finalist)

Frontier PR hosted the first Let’s Talk Housing event at the Conservative Party Conference in October 2015 as a platform to debate how to tackle national perceptions of social housing.

The first event brought together politicians, housing professionals and journalists to discuss what lessons could be learned from the past and to look forward to housing’s future.

Since then, a series of regional Let’s Talk Housing events have been held, firstly in the North East with Isos Housing in April 2016. This event supported Isos to build closer working relationships with key politicians and stakeholders both in the North East and nationally.

A further regional event is planned for early 2017 in the South West, focusing on the challenge of building 50,000 homes across Gloucestershire by 2020. Let’s Talk Housing is facilitating high level speakers for the event, alongside key partners from construction and the private sector, enabling housing providers to build relationships with key stakeholders and influence the national debate on housing issues.

info@letstalkhousing.co.uk @LetsTalkHousing #LetsTalkHousing

If you would like to host your own Let’s Talk Housing event get in touch today: 0161 3068547