Probate. Perhaps not something you’re overly familiar with, but you may have noticed it’s been hitting the headlines recently, since the Government tried to push through proposals to significantly increase fees. For the past few months, it’s been keeping the Stand team very busy.

The client

SFE (Solicitors for the Elderly) is an independent, national membership of lawyers who provide specialist legal advice for older and vulnerable people, their families and carers. When it comes to older client law, SFE is the gold standard.

The probate debate

Probate is something most of us will have to deal with at some point in our lives. A grant of probate is an official document issued by the court, which allows family and loved ones to process estates and access the money and assets left to them by someone who has passed away.

Read more “The fight for fair probate”

After an excellent April of #CrackingClientCoverage here are our highlights for the month!

The Maiden Factor

BEST BROADCAST SPREAD OF APRIL 2017

This April saw the return to the UK of Maiden, the yacht skippered by Tracy Edwards MBE and her all-female crew in the 1989/90 Whitbread Round the World Race.

After a year-long restoration in Southampton, Maiden will sail again as an ambassador for The Maiden Factor, fundraising for girls’ access to education across the globe.

We launched The Maiden Factor with a bang – and secured national broadcast coverage on BBC Breakfast, BBC News at One, The One Show, Sky News and there is still more to come… watch this space.

Read more “Our #CrackingClientCoverage for April”

After commissioning some research to build the ultimate water-cooler conversation story, last week we created a fantastic buzz for The Reading Agency’s World Book Night.

The story, which looked into Brits’ reading habits, received over 20 pieces of national and consumer coverage, as well as being picked up by regionals nationwide.

Here are some of our favourite pieces: Read more “World Book Night: Revealing the nations reading habits and hang-ups”

The internet has been abuzz this week with the news of United Airline’s reaction to a video showing a man being violently dragged off an overbooked aeroplane. But what has damaged their reputation almost as much as the initial video being released is the CEO’s PR response.

Read more “What can we learn from the United Airlines debacle?”

On Sunday, between team Stand we hosted TWO Contact the Elderly tea parties. I (together with my boyfriend and his Nan) hosted one in Essex  and Nyree hosted the group she set up in Peterborough –  both were afternoons filled with tea, cake and most-importantly – laughter. For me it was my first ever time hosting (Nyree is a seasoned regular!), so it was so great to experience the magic of one of Contact’s parties first hand. Read more “Hosting my first Contact the Elderly tea party”

We had a fantastic March with plenty of #CrackingClientCoverage to share!

Read more “Our #CrackingClientCoverage in March”

Our Standing Up 4 Sitting Down campaign, developed and delivered in partnership with Anchor has been shortlisted for two awards:

Not-for-Profit Campaign: Recognises the most effective public relations work by a charitable or Not-for-Profit organisation in any sector, as well as public relations consultancies working in partnership with them.

Best Use of Media Relations: Recognises the successful use of media relations in a wider public relations context that captures the imagination and meets client and/or campaign objectives.

Read more “We’ve been shortlisted for two CIPR Excellence Awards!”

At Stand we are avid consumers of media. From newspapers to magazines, websites and television – there’s a plethora of ways that we follow, digest and discover the news. It’s this constant curiosity that leads to our weekly team emails sharing documentary recommendations, must-see shows and most-recently – our must-listen podcasts.

Like many people, I got sucked into the podcast world last winter with the now-iconic true-crime Serial podcast, a series that had me attached to my headphones as I binge-listened to the story of Adnan. Did he? Didn’t he? It was the talk of the office.

Since then, I have moved my podcast listening beyond true-crime (a bit stressful pre-9am) and have discovered some great podcasts that are not only super interesting, but also really handy in the PR world.

Here are my top picks for you to listen to at the moment (in no order). Read more “What podcasts you should be listening to right now”

Like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Father’s Day, International Women’s Day has become an annual calendar event that brands love to get behind.

Is this ok? It’s debatable. But there’s no denying it’s the world – and industry – we live in.

It’s to be accepted as long as, sitting alongside each company’s pretty Instagram post and PR stunt, are meaningful measures to facilitate gender equality.

Read more “The brands jumping on International Women’s Day 2017”

After an amazing start to the year, February has proved to be another successful month full of #CrackingClientCoverage and other exciting projects! Here are some of our favourite bits.

moneycorp

It’s been a busy month on the moneycorp account and one area we’ve seen particular success is on Twitter. In February, we achieved a record 450 new followers in just the one month. With a much more hands-on approach to this social platform in 2017 we are seeing incredible results already – December saw 113 new followers, whereas January received 295, and last month we were heading towards 500! With a winning combination of travel inspiration and engaging news stories, we are excited to keep up this pace on moneycorp’s social media in March.

Read more “Our #CrackingClientCoverage in February”