As the festive season unfolds, the team at Montpellier embraces the spirit of joy and reflection with 'Montpellier's 12 Days of Christmas'. This unique celebration serves as an opportunity for our dedicated team members to pause and ponder the achievements and milestones for 2023. Each day leading up to Christmas is marked by a thoughtful exploration...

In the dynamic landscape of digital marketing, SEO has always been a crucial factor for businesses striving to establish a strong online presence. Over the years, search engine algorithms have evolved, becoming smarter and more discerning in determining the credibility and relevance of websites. In this evolution, link building has emerged as an integral and…

Public relations (PR) is an ever-evolving field that plays a crucial role in shaping public perception and maintaining the reputation of organizations. As the digital age continues to transform the way we communicate and engage with information, the field of PR has witnessed significant trends and shifts. PR is an essential aspect of any business…

There is rarely ever a one-size-fits-all solution for a PR or marketing campaign, although there are some shared attributes. One of these, in my view, is collaboration. That isn’t just limited to within an agency or creative team, or even geographical locations. Creative tools and Cloud-based software have made putting a winning campaign together a…

I'm a great believer that any PR and marketing company, particularly ones which operate on a retainer basis as we do, should see themselves as a surrogate part of the client’s management team, and/or marketing department. In this post-pandemic world of hybrid / remote working and shared Cloud-based resources, this is especially important for the...

At this time of year, we tend to get excited by TV Christmas ads and decorations from leading designers and brands. Something else that we as creatives look forward to is the announcement of Pantone Color of the Year by the Pantone Color Institute. The colours are selected by Pantone’s expert colour stylists and trend…

It may sound – at face value – a little trite, but clients pay us for our leadership within the professional realm and area of our experience of expertise. As reputation management and public relations consultants, this means providing advice that is focused unequivocally upon the strategic objectives and needs of the organisation, or products,…

Established platforms like Adobe Creative Suite and Hootsuite are likely to keep their place at the top of the Christmas tree, so to speak, for some time yet, but there are some great alternatives that have aided collaborative working. One of my personal favourites is Canva, an online design tool that enables multiple ‘teams’ to…

The world of graphic design is constantly evolving and changing. In recent years, we have seen a shift towards minimalism, with designers opting for clean and simple designs that focus on functionality and user experience, driven to a large degree by web and UX design crossing back into physical design. This trend is expected to...

What is a targeted audience and why it is so important in a business marketing strategy? A targeted audience is a group defined by specified behaviors and demographics. Brands offer content curated to their audience’s needs, and in turn, individuals feel more connected to the brand. Understanding your audience is a crucial aspect of effective...

Three ways SEO can boost your business’s growth What is SEO?  Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, is the process of maximising the number of visitors to your website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine. The better visibility your pages have in search results, the...

How infographics can help online content stand out Infographics are an effective way to hold reader interest and help explain complicated or data-heavy topics in an interesting and visual way.They can also be used as a tool to drive traffic to your site from social media and are liked and shared three more times than other...

Four ways to improve your social media engagement If you are using social media for business, you’ll already know that it can be a powerful tool for building your brand and cultivating an audience online which, in addition to supporting the public profile of the brand, can bring in potential clients from a whole new...

Multimedia experience in your website Now more than ever a business’s website is one of the first points of contact for many people. First impressions are crucial in any situation and your website has to provide a premium user experience as one of the most impactful extensions of your brand. A multimedia experience is important...

12 days of Christmas 2021 We love great marketing campaigns, and Christmas is arguably the most challenging time of year for brand marketing, with everyone cramming in to get a slice of the turkey. Some brands have become synonymous with Christmas, massively increased sales with clever campaigns and created adverts so popular that their release...

Each year, on the first Thursday in October, National Poetry Day celebrates the contribution that poetry makes in our lives. The event encourages people, particularly school pupils, to “enjoy, discover, and share” poetry, and even try their hand at writing themselves.   Montpellier senior PR account manager and resident poet, Dan Burton, explores why National Poetry…

As an intern and career-changer, Montpellier PR is providing me with valuable experience in corporate communications. Reasons for choosing PR, its parallels with my former teaching career, and learnings so far should offer some modest musings to readers. In 2019, I tended my resignation after multiple successful years in teaching. I was leaving to pursue…

Montpellier’s CEO, Guy Woodcock, formerly an infantry officer, shares his expertise on leadership and resilience in times of crisis.  I was an infantry officer prior to setting up my business and, in many ways, the principles of armed conflict translate directly into commerce. For the principles of ‘attack’, read sales. For client-retention, read the principles…

A year ago, few people had heard of Covid-19. Now we live in a changed world. “Lockdown”, “Isolating”, “Shielding”, “Social Distancing”… these newly coined terms have become everyday parlance. Look around you and what you see would also have been unrecognisable in 2019. Now it’s the norm to see people out and about in masks,…

How to nurture visitors and convert hits into leads With COVID-19 expected to continue imposing disruption on trade shows and face-to-face events for many months, business growth rate now relies on the strength of a company’s online presence more than ever. Roger Taylor, creative director at award-winning Montpellier PR, explains how content converts hits to…

Many brands come and go with whatever the current trends are, but solid foundations require an enduring brand. Examples of brands which have endured over the years are rarer, but equally, these are the ones you know and trust, for exactly that reason. Over fifteen years ago Montpellier designed a new brand for the Maldives…

Covid-19 has done a real number on the economy, hasn’t it? With high streets closed and everyone holed up in their homes, the economy contracted 20.4% between April and June this year – the first time there’s been a recession since the crash of 2008.1 Recent graduates face a brick wall where a road should…

  It is perfectly obvious to anyone that business leaders are currently navigating uncharted waters as never before. The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a period of extreme uncertainty and financial pain to businesses across all industries, both large and small. As well as managing resultant disruption to professional and personal lives, most business leaders…

Recorded remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Montcast interviews Edward Loades of Black Cliff Media on what can be achieved through video content and animation, when the option to film does not necessarily exist.     Hosted by our lead audio-visual content creator and PR account manager, Dan Burton, Montcast hosts interviews with PR and…

We are living in extraordinary times. There has not been a world-wide disaster like COVID-19 in most people’s living memory. It’s led to a public health crisis, and to what extent it will affect the global economy remains a worrying unknown. What is clear, however, is that face-to-face marketing and communications, such as launch events…

Facing pressure from an ageing population and the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the healthcare landscape is, as it always does, adapting to change. The knowledge and skills of tech-savvy millennials, who have grown up alongside the rise of the smartphone, social media and almost any service being available online, fuels the growing HealthTech sector, predicted…

It has been proposed that Ofcom will hold social media companies to account for potentially harmful content on their platforms. This follows two recent terror attacks in London and the UK government’s aim to tackle terror threats and extremism, including the ‘influence’ of harmful and extremist content being posted and shared on social media platforms….

Integration of new technologies is usually swathed in scaremongering and controversy, but facial recognition has had more than its fair share. After more than two years of a global heated debate, the European Commission is now considering a ban on the use of facial recognition in public places for up to five years.  Guy Woodcock,…

Fifteen years ago, above a Californian pizza shop, history was made. YouTube took its first steps into the world. From a small acorn, it has grown into the world’s largest online video search engine, with an audience of some 2 billion-plus monthly users.   And those users are posting content about literally everything from instruction videos…

Welcome to Montcast; the new podcast courtesy of Montpellier. Hosted by our lead audio-visual content creator and PR account manager, Dan Burton, Montcast will delve into the issues faced by the PR industry, host interviews with journalists and influencers, and shed light on key topics with PR and communications. In this first episode, Dan interviews…

It’s 7pm and dark outside. You’re struggling to type by the poor light of streetlamps filtering through the window. The phone has been ringing off the hook all day, you haven’t had a chance to eat since breakfast and you should have gone home two hours ago. But you haven’t finished updating your spreadsheet and,…

Facial recognition is under the microscope again, after football fans and civil liberties groups have criticised its deployment at the upcoming Wales derby between Cardiff City and Swansea City this Sunday. Most football fans turn up to enjoy the match and have a good time. Some may have a bit too much to drink and…

Good content and outreach are the pillars of both an effective PR and SEO strategy, so it naturally follows that these two disciplines should be made to work hard together. Which SEO tactics should PRs be using to produce stronger content and deliver optimum results for our clients? Our creative director and SEO expert, Roger…

We love great marketing campaigns, and Christmas is arguably the most challenging time of year for brand marketing, with everyone cramming in to get a slice of the turkey. Some brands have become synonymous with Christmas, massively increased sales with clever campaigns and created adverts so popular that their release has become a highly-anticipated event....

Deepfake may be the newest threat on the horizon to PR and media relations. We have previously discussed other threats from our fast evolving digital sphere to the integrity of our industry, including fake news, mistrust in social media and manipulative algorithms. The rise of deepfake is the final piece in an increasingly complex puzzle…

Up until recently we were all networking. Now, we are ‘internetworking’. A recent trip to Digital X 2019 in Cologne, and the opening speech from Deutsche Telekom’s CEO Tim Hoettges, got me thinking. He rightly pointed out that Millennials, Gen Y and Z are buying differently. They spot greenwashing a mile (or 1.60934 km) off…

Today, the ways in which we can communicate our clients’ mission and value proposition are endless, but when news spreads fast and wide, stories can hold less meaning. The rise of social media over the past 20 years means that we can now reach our clients’ target audiences wherever they are in the world, at…

The language we choose to describe our business and its proposition is paramount to attracting the right clients, workforce, investors and other stakeholders who will be important to our future success.  The same applies to non-profit making organisations whose support base is vital to their ongoing objectives and reputation. In the digital age of online…

Ten years ago, Bill Gates spoke about the malaria epidemic in his TED talk, Mosquitoes, Malaria and Education. Why is that talk so significant? Because, in it, Gates makes a prediction that has very recently come true – that we would finally have a working vaccine against malaria. He also reveals the key to his…

Step Back in Time… To celebrate 50 years of the PRCA, we’ve taken a look back at how PR has changed throughout the decades. From the nostalgic glamour and lavish parties of the 1970s to the coffee-chugging digital age, we present 50 years of PR. Which decade would you rather work in? 70s 80s 90s...

We live in an age of oversharing. Social media is an endless stream of information and opinion – much of it utterly disposable. With more ways than ever of communicating, we can all feel the pressure to take part. When Mies van der Rohe coined the phrase less is more back in the 1940s, he…

AI systems detecting cancerous tumours and robots assisting surgeons in operating theatres sounds like a scene in a science-fiction film; but, in less than a decade, this could become reality. The healthcare industry is slowly, but surely, heading for digitalisation as governments and medical experts recognise the potential of AI in saving lives. At the…

Brand identity is important: a recognisable name and image. Something that stands out and is easy to remember, but that doesn’t mean your identity has to be set in stone. Kim Kardashian West is one of the most recognisable names in the world. From a sordid reputation to a family friendly star. From modern day…

Here at Montpellier, we are all about people and the stories they tell: our wordsmiths strive to capture our clients’ personalities and vision and we always consider the audience that our words will reach; our designers capture the narrative journey of a brand in an image. So when we all got together for our “vision…