Movers & Shakers! PR expert Vanessa Green on emulating Wonder Woman and getting your FX firm’s corporate message right

A new year, a new era of innovation, and in the fast-moving FX industry, those at the cutting edge who are not content with simply going through the motions and emulating their peers before heading home at the end of the working day will likely reveal yet more industry-changing developments.

To give an insight into the personality, charisma and just what makes such things happen, FinanceFeeds met with some of the movers and shakers of the industry for an open and casual discussion on what the industry is likely to look like, with a splash of comedy for those who appreciate.

What’s new?

Fiona Butler, who has been working at Wigwam for the last couple of years has become a partner – partly because we’re experiencing increasing demand for our B2B PR services and partly because she’s done such a great job since joining the company.

We really enjoy working with entrepreneurial businesses, working closely with a CEO and senior team to get an in-depth understanding of the business so that we can ensure that the PR activity effectively maps onto actual business goals.

Many of our clients have been with us since we set up the business six years ago, and it’s great to see them grow. We take a lot of pride in the role we have played in helping them to gain visibility amongst target clients and partners. In many ways, not much is new as we have a very stable client base which helps us to have in-depth knowledge about the businesses we represent.

On the other hand, as we’re expanding, we’ve been able to take on more clients – from the financial services sector as well as other sectors. We now also work with an international law firm as well as well as an innovative company launching a new Point of Sale product which is set to transform the global retail market.

Ok, so nobody is perfect. What is the biggest thing you can improve on from last year?

It’s really important that we look at an organisation’s entire marketing programme and clearly define how PR fits in – not just in terms of having integrated marketing activity, but also in terms of spend to make sure that clients are getting value across all areas.

New clients often want us to start working for them straight away, as a result we feel we often don’t question clients enough about their wider marketing. For example, we’ve seen many B2B companies spending a disproportionate amount of time and money on social media, often yielding small, unmeasurable returns. I’m not saying that the money saved should be spent on PR, but that we could play a bigger role in helping clients look at the overall marketing budgets.

In addition, it’s sometimes too easy to take up all our time with very tactical activity such as drafting and issuing news stories. We need to make sure we never lose sight of the aspirational business goals and the role PR can play in helping a business to achieve these goals.

Funniest thing/ incident that happened in the office last year? Any cringe / epic fail moments?

Luckily there have been no epic fail moments but we have had some very memorable times. We work on the top floor of an old building and came into our office one day to find a major leak through the ceiling. We diligently sat at our desks and continued working whilst it poured with rain into our office. The rain filled multiple buckets which constantly needed emptying – and to anyone who phoned us that day, it sounded as if we were in the middle of a major flood.

If we are sitting here in one year from now discussing what you as a company have achieved in 2016, what do you hope to be the big achievements?

We’d like to build on the success we’ve had in the retail FX sector and continue to work with entrepreneurial businesses. It would be great to add to our client portfolio with a global brand. We’re hoping to win a big City-based client over the next 12 months.

If your company morphed into a super-hero or animal in 2016; what would it be?

In many ways we feel we already have superpowers! We’re like the Invisible Man –we’re not physically in the office of our clients but feel very much part of their team and play a significant role behind the scenes. Obviously, we see a lot of similarities between us and Wonder Woman, too!