What I’ve learnt being at Hotwire London

What have I learnt while being at Hotwire London? A lot. That would be my short answer. During my time at Hotwire I noticed that it doesn’t matter where a PR Agency is located geographically, there are certain things that are the same no matter what. We have clients we like, and then there are those we aren’t too keen on. We all have to work on key messaging, strategic planning, new business pitches, releases, media relations, bi-lines, features, brainstorms, creative angles and of course reporting. We may call them different things and we sometimes will go about achieving them differently, but in the end our goal is the same – we need to get the coverage to please the client and we will do what it takes to achieve our goal. PR people have thick skin worldwide 🙂

My point being that my time at Hotwire taught me that on the PR front Active PR in Dubai and Hotwire PR in London deal with the same things on a daily basis, the vibe in the office is similar and the media, despite the UK media’s harsh reputation in Dubai are actually extremely friendly.

It was when I was chatting with Emma Hazan, Deputy MD of Hotwire London that I learnt quite a lot about Hotwire, the history, their innovation and how they have dealt with the shift in the PR industry throughout the region. I learnt that;

• Hotwire was founded in 2000 and launched into the market during the whole .com craze/crash
• Hotwire has three main principles – transparency, practice specialism and international capabilities – with offices worldwide
• Hotwire started with only 2 people and now have 180 people worldwide
• Hotwire have a Global Mobility Program, employees can request to be transferred to another Hotwire office somewhere in the world for a certain period of time in order to gain the experience they are looking for as well as develop a better understanding of that particular market
• Hotwire is always looking to diversify and breach new sectors and industries
• Hotwire could be considered industry leaders as every year they launch their ‘Digital Trends Report’ where I learnt that digital storytelling, digital health and social user experiences were all successful 2013 trends and growth in security and business maturity on social media will be trends in 2014
• Media trends throughout the European market looks to be booming for financial services, technology, consumer and public affairs
• The PR industry has considerably shifted towards online within the past 5 years. More and more media are moving to online forums, clients are happy with online coverage, if a story goes viral it is exceptional, social influencers such as bloggers and you tubers can make or break a campaign and the news always breaks first online – broadcast and print are always late to pick up a trending story.
• Print media will soon be phased out completely.

I find it awesome that PR translates across the globe and I am extremely intrigued to watch and see if PR in the GCC/Pan Arab region follows in Europe’s footsteps and online become the tier one coverage we strive so hard to attain.