Clearly shortlisted for national PR industry awards
It has been a year of awards for the Clearly team, but there are two more awards that we remain in contention for between now and the end of 2022.
On 6th October, Clearly will be competing in the national PRCA Grand Prix Awards at the Hyatt Regency in London in the categories of:
- National Medium PR Consultancy of the Year
- National Team & Culture Agency of the Year
To make the shortlist, Clearly needed to win the two categories above in the Regional awards that took place earlier in the summer. Which we did against some exceptional strong competitor PR agencies from across the South West. And we were delighted, as you might expect.
So, what made our entries stand out and woo the judges?
We changed. Rather, in 2021 we adapted, evolved, innovated, and developed our services offering, our people, and the way we do business in general.
We diversified the sectors in which we operate.
In March 2021, 80 per cent of Clearly’s client portfolio was made up of large-scale Recruitment businesses. This left the agency vulnerable to market conditions, and so an advertising, direct marketing, content marketing, and public relations drive was initiated to increase Clearly’s reach into non-Recruitment sectors, including:
- Accountancy & Finance.
- Law.
- Technology.
- Third Sector.
- Luxury Hospitality.
- Executive Profiling.
We diversified our services, too.
Clearly made a significant investment in developing and rolling out its creative content services (motion graphics, podcasting, vlog casting, video, animations).
The impact?
These two approaches had a significant impact on Clearly’s post-pandemic growth:
- Revenues increased by 17 per cent year-on-year.
- The new sectors outlined above constituted 39 per of all billings last year.
- The new creative service has since grown into a three-person team.
It doesn’t stop there. Clearly now has one of the highest client renewal rates in the business:
- 65 per cent of current clients have doubled the length of their original contracts with us.
- 45 per cent have increased their spend over the last 12 months through upsells (not rate rises!).
- 38 per cent of current clients came to use on a three-month project during the 2020 lockdown.
Combined, these initiatives set us up rather nicely to report record billings for the year 2022.
Is this enough to win in London? Yes it is, but then there are so many equally brilliant and positive stories among our fellow finalists that we are privileged to be considered alongside.
I do hope it will be the Clearly team walking away with both awards because they absolutely deserve them. If this is not to be the case, I will of course cry and wail ‘Why, but why’ when I’m catching the last train home that night, but I’ll still be damn proud of what this group of people has achieved.
