2021 - we're ready for you!
So that’s 2020 behind us and what a year it has been!
No one could have anticipated this time last year what chaos and disruption lie ahead.
When we asked our IT department back in February if they could set up all our laptops so all staff members could work from home, they thought we’d gone mad.
But let’s not dwell on the global pandemic.
There are some positives to take away, though.
We proved, as many other businesses did, that we were able to adapt and to continue providing the same level of service for digital marketing, content creation and PR, even though our team was working from home rather than the office at Fox Valley.
Despite all businesses facing challenges, we’ve been able to plan campaigns for the year ahead that have reached out to new global markets.
With Brexit concerns at the forefront of many of our manufacturing client’s minds, we have worked with them to put international campaigns together that target new markets in India, the USA and South Africa.
In the construction industry, many of the magazines furloughed their advertising and editorial teams during the summer months, this meant that we had to work even harder to ensure that the content we produced was being used digitally. We also experienced greater interaction on social media during the lockdown, with some of our building products clients doubling or tripling their Linkedin and Twitter followers.
In the food industry, as you would expect, the market has been less volatile than others and some of our clients have seen unprecedented growth. We’ve had some great success in generating international and national trade press coverage for food manufacturing clients across Europe and the Middle East. Where exhibitions have been cancelled, we have been even more creative and come up with ways that clients can showcase new products to the market, without the need for face to face interaction. Here, PR and social media have been the main communications tools and most clients have found they have worked just as well as exhibitions.
For our public sector clients, such as Sheffield City Region, we stepped up at a difficult time for South Yorkshire when many businesses were facing closure due to the global pandemic.
We started working for Sheffield City Region Growth Hub on a PR and Social Media campaign which was designed to point businesses to the Growth Hub for guidance through the raft of government schemes designed to help them. It has been very reassuring in the last few months to be writing case studies of businesses who are now growing and even thriving, thanks to the support, whether that be through some of the Government loan schemes, or who the Growth Hub have helped to refocus with a new business plan or marketing support.
We have also been busy promoting the India Growth Champions Scheme, which is gaining momentum again and it is great to see local businesses starting to open up new trading opportunities with Indian companies.
Hopes for the future
So what does the future – or at least, the next 12 months hold….?
For manufacturers, most of our clients have a Brexit plan well in place and are prepared for what the consequences will be. We are excited to be working on so many international campaigns targeting metals, chemical, glass, energy and many other industrial sectors. Some of our clients are working on green technologies or recycling capabilities, sustainability and carbon reduction, with some exciting innovations to come.
Industry 4.0 is also keeping many of our clients busy as they are introducing digitisation into processes, enabling greater data capture, which is making manufacturing much more efficient and optimising quality. The UK as a whole and Sheffield in particular is becoming well known for its advanced manufacturing capabilities and it is great to work with so many diverse, ingenious businesses, such as AMETEK Land, Ovarro and Inspec Solutions, which are demonstrating the value of their technologies on a global basis.
We keep hearing optimistic news about the construction sector in 2021 and we expect to see the growth of offsite manufacture more than ever. A number of our clients supply into the offsite sector and it is remarkable to see the whole process from concepts to final build – with the majority of work carried out in a carefully controlled factory environment and with numerous sustainability benefits.
For the year ahead, our clients in the food sector are gearing up their PR and marketing activity, focusing on new innovations and with a clear view of the thought leadership articles we will be generating in the most relevant magazines, on their behalf.
We’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for a Happy and prosperous New Year. There will be challenges, but there’ll be opportunities too and if you are looking for a fresh new approach to your PR, content creation and social media, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Drop us an email hello@dragonflypr.co.uk or call 0114 349 5341 for a free no-obligation consultation.
Dragonfly PR is a Sheffield-based PR and digital marketing agency that specialises in media relations, content marketing and organic SEO for construction, manufacturing and food companies.