Mrs Buckét

Why did they hire us?

In January 2020, this fast-growing commercial contract cleaning and facilities management company announced plans to create 130 jobs new jobs and expand beyond Wales and into the South West. But two months later, the pandemic hit and their plans hit a wall. The company approached Clearly, having seen the impact that the public relations activity we were doing for ourselves was having on our ability to navigate the impact of the pandemic.

Key results:

• 144 pieces of media coverage across trade, regional, and national outlets. Highlights include:
  • BBC ‘CEO Secrets’
  • BBC One
  • Channel 4 ‘Steph’s Packed Lunch’
  • The Mirror
  • Business Leader
  • Insider
  • Management Tody
• Total audience reach of 1.3bn including online media and social media reach
• 3 major business awards
• Dates: March 2020-March 2022

The brief

• Run a media campaign to raise awareness of the Mrs Buckét brand to commercial and manufacturing organisations throughout the South West.
• Raise the profile of the business as an employer of choice, and attract the talent needed to help the organisation to scale its operations when restrictions were eased.
• Support the company’s existing new business sales efforts.
• Enhance the profile of Rachael Flannagan, Founder and CEO.

The brief was to help Mrs Buckét to create a campaign that would keep their name ever-present in the minds of their target market. It also needed to encourage new business enquiries that would enable the company to maintain its bottom line and position itself for future growth once the pandemic had subsided.

Reimagining communications…

Business leader priorities were rapidly changing at this time. Focus shifted away from selling and telling customers what they do and why theirs is the service provider of choice, towards greater concerns over the health and wellbeing of their employees. And of course, business survival.

Clearly’s team recognised this and explained that the approach taken by their former PR agencies over the previous five years simply wouldn’t work in the here and now. Instead, a radical rethink was needed, and a creative approach was required.

Campaign: #CleanUpTheNation

• Research emerged in April 2020 that found that COVID-19 had the potential to spread through surfaces and objects, such as cardboard. At the same time, Amazon orders were going through the roof as most people were forced into isolation and instructed to stay at home and the main means by which these deliveries come was via the postal services.
• We ran a campaign to raise awareness of the need for manufacturers and their entire supply chains to review their existing health and safety practices and make them fit for purpose. This included a series of articles and press releases providing advice and tips ranging from encouraging the use of protective clothing to decontamination.

Campaign: Changing attitudes towards cleaners

• While the nursing profession was rightly attracting the headlines and recognition within the media and among the public, we developed the idea of campaigning to ensure that the nations cleaners who were also on the front line were also included in the conversation. Before COVID-19, cleaners were often thought of as people who would come in and make your office look and smell nice. Their role simply wasn’t appreciated.
• To shift perceptions and change attitudes towards cleaners, we ran a series of stories that jumped on the back of issues that were currently front of mind for people. One example was a fear of re-entering the workplace when restrictions were eased in the late summer of 2020, another focused on the role of cleaners in mitigating the spread of the virus in hospitals and GP surgeries.
• We also positioned Rachael as an ambassador for the commercial cleaning industry by penning a letter petitioning No.10 to recognise cleaners as ‘key workers’ on a par with their nursing colleagues. This proved to be the beginning of a campaign that continues today.

Campaign: Is Rachael the Mrs Hinch of the commercial cleaning world?

Since mid-2021, Clearly began working on promoting the personal brand of Rachael herself, both regionally and nationally. To do this, we needed to really ‘get’ what she is all about – to understand the masts that she wants to pin her colours too.

We identified her realm passions and interests lie in:

• Leadership
• Entrepreneurship
• Mentorship
• Supporting and inspiring fellow female founders (and those who aspire to be) – á la Rose Review

We set about securing quotes and by-lines in relevant media, in addition to raising Rachael’s profile as a business leader by securing several judging opportunities for local business awards, speaker opportunities across several regional forums, and even a series of radio and TV interviews including the BBC’s ‘CEO Secrets’.

Media coverage

National media:

• BBC One
• BBC ‘CEO Secrets’
• BBC News
• The Express
• WeAreTheCity
• StartUps
• Management Today

Welsh media:

• Western Mail
• South Wales Echo
• WalesOnline
• Daily Post
• Business News Wales
• Wales Insider Magazine
• Wales 24/7

South West media:

• Bristol Post
• Business Live
• Business Leader
• South West Business Insider
• 114 pieces of media coverage
• 1,680,000 people reached

Business impact

The company didn’t create the 130 jobs it has hoped for in 2020, but it did boost its overall workforce by 25% that year with revenues of £2.9 million. As the momentum continued into 2021, Mrs Buckét created 330 new jobs – more than double the planned number for both 2020 and 2021 combined. At the same time, revenues increased by 55% to £4.5 million.

Accolades achieved

• South West ’35 under 35 Business Women’ by Bristol Post & Business Live.
• Business Leader of the Year (51+ employees) by Business Leader Magazine (South West).
• ‘Inspirational Women of the Year’ by WeAreTheCity.