Turning a property group into an expert thought leader
In Stats
278,462
Combined social impressions in one year
243
Pieces of coverage in one year
Key Results
An average of 20 pieces of coverage a month
National coverage, including a piece in the Times, which has a daily readership of over 17.5 million
Property Week coverage with over 300,000 monthly readers
Increase in monthly average social impressions from 14,223 to 26,888
Tags
Date 2021
About Leaders Romans Group
Leaders Romans Group (LRG) is one of the UK’s largest property services groups, formed by the merger of three well-respected, established brands: Leaders, Romans and Boyer, in 2016.
The problem
With an ambitious growth plan and limited marketing support, the company needed to raise awareness of the breadth of its brands and services and reinforce its brand values and local expertise. Property PR can often focus on acquisitions and service/product launches – as such, LRG’s previous coverage was mainly limited to small pieces in trade press. It needed robust PR support, and support on its LinkedIn social channel.
In addition to these challenges, LRG also required occasional support and guidance around crisis comms scenarios and issues. And, with an ambitious growth plan in place, LRG needed PR support on a variety of acquisitions, brand overhauls and launches.
The solution
LRG partnered with Berkeley Communications in 2020 to raise awareness of its business units and services and reinforce its brand values and local expertise. Over the last twelve months, Berkeley has built up a strong, consistent UK PR and social press office that has resulted in LRG being regularly featured in the property trade press, including Property Week, The Negotiator and Property Industry Eye. Increasing presence in daily newspaper titles is something that LRG has also been particularly keen to boost, and Berkeley has taken a two-pronged approach to this challenge.
The first has been keeping on the pulse of industry developments and updates, including the Stamp Duty Holiday extensions and budget announcements. Berkeley has also leveraged opportunities with LRG’s industry partners, including Zoopla and Rightmove, sharing regional and national industry insights and contributing to press releases. This has resulted in coverage in key titles such the Daily Mail, Daily Express and the Times.
Berkeley has also delivered a robust thought leadership campaign to ensure a steady stream of coverage. These pieces have revolved around a multitude of industry issues and predictions, including:
- 2021 can still be the year to turn the rental sector green
- Countryside getaway: what’s fuelling the rapid growth of suburban build to rent?
- How national lockdown spurred house buyers into action
Berkeley has also supported LRG’s acquisitions, brand refreshes and launches with group announcements, PR launches, new spokespeople profiling and accompanying social media activity, ensuring visibility across key trade press.
For the launch of Three Sixty Space, a new build-to-rent venture for LRG, Berkeley worked closely with the LRG team to produce press assets that carefully positioned the venture and the growth of the specific market. The news generated coverage in a range of titles, notably Property Week, a core target for LRG. Following the initial announcement, Berkeley capitalised on the new area of interest with in-depth thought leadership and social media activity that raised the profile of both the new brand and the LRG management team.
Alongside comprehensive social activity, a thought leadership programme and robust press office, Berkeley has also supported LRG with a messaging architecture for its varied and diverse brands, a crisis comms framework and a messaging bank. This ensures that the combined LRG and Berkeley team can promptly prepare responses to a range of crisis comms scenarios.
Now, social support is being extended to raise further awareness of LRG’s newer brands – including Mortgage Scout and Three Sixty Space – with website support also being offered to ensure that content is added to the growing LRG site.
Berkeley’s flourishing relationship with LRG and its ongoing commitment to storytelling has ensured that Leaders Romans Group has become a leading name in the property media space.
“The Berkeley team works smoothly alongside LRG’s marketing team to maximise content opportunities, raise awareness of our business divisions and position our team as go-to speakers in the industry. This has resulted in the consistent delivery of coverage across key trade and national titles that has helped position LRG and its brands as leaders in the industry with creative content and effective commentary,” comments Kiersty Sims, Group Marketing Director, LRG.
Do you need to grow your position in a new market or region? Our experienced press office team can help manage your international PR network.
