Categories
Our Work

Irish Pro Share Association

As part of our longterm relationship with the Irish ProShare Association (IPSA), 4TC highlighted an issue that is of significant importance to Ireland’s business, banking and political communities.
It followed Ulster Bank’s decision to withdraw from the Irish market, which put at risk the future of one of Ireland’s most popular employee share schemes.

Save As You Earn (SAYE) is a Revenue-backed share scheme that has financially benefitted tens of thousands of ordinary Irish workers by letting them save salary in a tax efficient manner to buy shares in the companies they work for. However, only Ulster Bank accepted SAYE savings accounts and when it left Ireland, SAYE would be rendered non-viable unless another lender stepped in.

The loss of SAYE would have been a major blow to many Irish companies and IPSA, which advocates for increased employee share ownership in Irish business, wants the Government to safeguard SAYE.

4TC worked with IPSA to bring this important issue to the business community, legislators and general public alike. We distilled the technical complexities of SAYE and the legislation around it to create and communicate a clear and accessible story, before approaching specific media and preparing our client for interview.
The outcome was coverage which communicated the parlous situation and the raising of awareness in government and the financial services sector about what was at stake.

In 2024, it was announced that AIB would enter the market as a savings carrier for SAYE.

Categories
Our Work

Adoption Authority of Ireland

The Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) engaged 4TC to develop a public relations strategy and activity to accompany the enactment of the Birth Information and Tracing Act, and the rollout of services under this landmark legislation.

Our consultants worked closely with the CEO and senior members of the AAI team, delivering a broad range of services over a six-month period that included communication strategy, messaging, story development, content generation, national and international media relations, media training, issues management, and stakeholder relations with relevant government departments and organisations.

The Birth Information and Tracing Act provided, for the first time, a full and clear right of access to birth certificates, birth and early life information for all persons who were adopted, boarded out, the subject of an illegal birth registration, or who otherwise have questions in relation to their origins.

By telling the story of how the AAI could now provide individuals with information about their past – and help reunite them with their genetic family members – 4TC and the AAI were able to secure considerable engagement among the general public and the media in Ireland and abroad, and play an important role in ensuring the success of the AAI’s public information campaign.

Within three months of the enactment of the Birth Information and Tracing Act, more than 2,000 adopted persons, birth parents, and other relatives had registered with the AAI to state their preferences about making contact with birth relatives.

Categories
Our Work

Spry Finance

Specialist later life lender Spry Finance was launching two exciting new equity release products on the Irish market.

Spry’s core Lifetime Mortgage product enables homeowners aged over 60 to release value in their home without relinquishing ownership, selling up or moving out. The new products – the Second Home Lifetime Loan and Buy-To-Let Lifetime Loan – provide increased financial choice for older people extend this concept to property assets other than the borrower’s primary residence.

4TC has been providing communication services to Spry since 2022 – delivering on key objectives including raising awareness of the company and its products, increasing understanding of the reasons why older people choose equity release products, building trust with consumers, and enhancing the Spry’s reputation as a champion of later life.

Key audiences for the launch of Spry’s new products were the media, personal finance professionals, and consumers.

4TC’s consultants developed messaging around the new products, created a suite of written and video content for Spry’s digital communication channels and those of the company’s mortgage broker partners, prepped Spry executives for media interviews, and engaged in extensive media relations to ensure the story gained traction across national and regional media outlets.

The successful execution of the strategy resulted in extensive digital, print, and broadcast media coverage – including radio and podcast interviews – elevated awareness of the new products among consumers, greater buy-in from personal finance professionals for Spry products, and improved understanding of the equity release sector in Ireland and the reasons why an increasing number of older people are choosing Spry products.

Categories
Our Work

National Dairy Council

The National Dairy Council, the Irish farmer-funded marketing organisation working on behalf of Ireland’s 17,000 family-run dairy farms, briefed 4TC on its goal of bringing the consumer closer to the farmer.

While as many as 71% of people trust farmers to care for the environment, they don’t know what Ireland’s dairy industry is doing to reduce its carbon footprint and they don’t understand the threats and challenges it faces.

The task was to establish a voice for the NDC in the ‘contested space’ – that’s the earned media space, where your presence is dependent on the story you have to tell and your ability to make it interesting and relevant.

4TC recommended upping the issues content of the NDC’s communication, focusing on the nutritional, social, economic and environmental initiatives which make Irish dairy farming sustainable.

Ongoing activity – including consumer research, messaging and positioning, media relations and executive media training – positions the NDC as an industry voice with something to say and a willingness to lead the conversation.

Categories
Our Work

Echelon Data Centres

4TC has been meeting the communication requirements of large-scale data centre provider Echelon on an ongoing basis since the company launched in 2019.

Echelon had become one of the leading data centre developers in Ireland and the UK when, in 2024, leading global private equity investment firm Starwood Capital Group acquired a 50% stake in the company.

The €850m transaction was one of the largest M&A deals in Ireland that year. It assigned an enterpise value of approximately €2.5bn to Echelon, provided the company with material capital for its continued growth, and primed it for accelerated growth through a new €900m debt facility.

This was one of the largest M&A deals in Ireland in 2024, and 4TC worked with Echelon’s senior executives and representatives of Starwood Capital to ensure this story was told in a controlled manner which met the requirements of both parties and leveraged the news value of the deal to enhance Echelon’s burgeoning reputation in relevant media both in Ireland and internationally.

4TC continues to provide communication services to Echelon in areas including media relations, content development, issues management, internal communication, and public affairs.

Sample Coverage

Categories
Uncategorized

Crumbs In The Bed? They Don’t Bother Irish Toast Eaters

CRUMBS IN THE BED? THEY DON’T BOTHER IRISH TOAST EATERS

Gallagher’s Bakehouse investigates Irish Toasting Habits

Gallagher’s Bakehouse investigates Irish Toasting Habits

    • More than half of us love toast in bed – but 45% eat it ‘on the go’
  • Butter the top topping – but 29% also like avocado, cream cheese or Marmite
  • Toast Spectrometer allows consumers to chart their toasting preferences*

To help consumers get to know their toasting preferences better, Gallagher’s Bakehouse has created its own Toast Spectrometer which identifies the 16 different stages of toast – ranging from ‘Butter Melter’ to ‘The Walking Bread’.

#ToastSpectrometer

Almost half of Irish people eat their toast on the go – in their car, on public transport or even on a bike – but even more of us believe bed is the best place to savour a generously buttered slice for breakfast.

These are among the findings of a new Irish Toasting Habits survey undertaken to mark the launch of the Gallagher’s Bakehouse range of sourdough breads, baps and rolls.

Research showed that 24% of people associate sourdough bread with ‘toastability’, Donegal-based Gallagher’s Bakery found as it set out to uncover just what Ireland’s toasting habits are, as this most unusual of years draws to an end.

The responses from the 1,000 people surveyed suggest that the Irish are a traditional bunch when it comes to toast and where, when and with what they eat it – however, the survey also threw up a few surprises.

Bed is best

We all know crumbs in the bed are a bit itchy, but – let’s face it – it’s where we’d eat toast if we had a choice and more than half of people would agree with us – even if they do consider it to be the ‘strangest place’ they’ve ever eaten toast. (As far as we’re concerned, strange is the 1% of respondents claiming to have eaten toast on a private jet.)

A whopping 79% of people say they eat toast for breakfast – a figure which rises to 85% for those aged over 55. However, 25% see toast a mid-morning snack, while one in five has toast before bed (it’s those crumbs again), and 12% favour a toasty midnight snack.

Looking at toppings, nearly 80% of respondents would go for the tried-and-trusted butter option, with jam coming in at 38%, followed by marmalade at 30%. Smashed avocado on toast might be trendy but it only tempts 10% of Irish toast lovers. It came just behind cream cheese, on 13%, while the English favourite Marmite was favoured by only 6% of respondents.

Mary Horkan, Marketing Manager, Gallagher’s Bakehouse, thinks that it’s the traditional nature of a piece of toast (just maybe combined with the tradition of sourdough[1]) that drives traditional behaviours around eating it.

“The Gallagher’s Bakehouse Toast Habits Research[2] demonstrates an entrenched traditionality amongst Irish Toast Eaters, to the point where having a quick slice in bed is seen as the ‘strangest place’ that they’re ever eaten it.

“Luckily, we can point to the truly strange 15% who’ve had their toast in the bathroom and the absolutely-out-there 2% who’ve crunched a crust in a whirlpool spa.

“Similarly, butter, jam and marmalade achieved high scores when we asked what people put on their toast – and therefore it’s a refreshing to see 10% spreading an avocado, middle-eastern style, and 2% running with the southern Spanish staple of olive oil and garlic. We’ve even made a contribution to the Marmite debate – only 6% would put it on their toast, which would seem to imply that it’s hate it, not love it.

“Turning to sourdough bread itself – the oldest form of leavened bread, with a tradition stretching back thousands of years – we found that all the things we’re saying about our new Gallagher’s Bakehouse range were echoed by our research. Great taste was a quality associated with sourdough by nearly 50% of people, ‘good for gut health’ by 36%, and suitable for eating anytime by 33%.

“We launched the new Gallagher’s Bakehouse sourdough range hoping to change the way people think about bread. It looks very much as if we’re pushing against an open door.”

The new Gallagher’s Bakehouse range consists of sliced family-sized and smaller-sized Rustic White, Wholemeal and Multigrain family breads, bloomers, baps, gourmet brioche burger buns, and a new handcrafted healthy range of Digestive Boost, Vitamin Boost, and Spelt & Oats loaves. The full range is on shelf in shops now.

 

Gallagher’s Bakery has a track record of innovation in the retail bakery sector. Sister brand, Promise Gluten Free brand has become the No1 gluten free bakery brand in Ireland since its re-launch in 2019, while also successfully launching the brand in international markets.

 

About Gallagher’s Bakery

Gallagher’s Bakery was set up as a local, family-run bakery business in Donegal in 1968. Its products are stocked in almost 1,000 stores in Donegal, Connacht and across Northern Ireland.  Gallagher’s Bakery has a track record of innovation in the retail bakery sector. The company has successfully built its Promise Gluten Free brand into the No1 gluten free bakery brand in Ireland since its re-launch it in 2019, while also becoming a global player in that market in the UK and Canada. The company is now turning its attention to shaking up the mainstream packaged bread category, with a range of innovative handcrafted sourdough breads, baps and rolls.

 

Full information about the Gallagher’s Bakehouse range can be found at https://gallaghersbakehouse.ie.

Categories
Communication Training Content PR

Successful Communication Means Writing for Your Audience

Successful Communication Means Writing for Your Audience

“If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular.” David Ogilvy, 23 June 1911 – 21 July 1999), advertising tycoon, founder of Ogilvy & Mather, and known as the “Father of Advertising”.

There are many variations on this quotation – appears no-one can really decide (or remember) what it was that David Ogilvy actually said about writing. What’s certain, however, is that he believed in talking to his audience on their level.

Here are a few pointers to getting it right:

You’ll sometimes hear people saying ‘why use four words, when one will do’, and we’d wholeheartedly agree – unless that one word is ‘footfall’, or ‘outputs’ or ‘aligned’.

Even better, hear the voice you want to use in your head, and write that. Write everyday conversation. Leave your parties of the first part to the lawyers. Don’t think that lots of big words give your topic weight or make it more important.

Very few things are actually fun – and new products or services aren’t on the list. Besides, who actually gushes to friends and family about how ‘fun’ a thing is – or, worse, how ‘fun’ they are?

Same with being super-something. Being super-something simply means you can’t think of a proper superlative to describe how something you are.

There may be a million different reasons for people to do the thing you want them to do, or buy the thing that you want them to buy. But you can’t list them all – so pick the two or three that will most suit your audience, and that are the most easily explained, in common language.

Just because something is important to you, doesn’t make it important to everyone else.

Authenticity is not best delivered by half-a-dozen people working on a story, and it will be obvious. Discuss it beforehand. Agree purpose, direction and parameters – then let one person get on with creating the content.

Plain language is a discipline, forcing you to evaluate the way you communicate. Sometimes jargon and techspeak is an easier way to go than spending the time translating it into plain language that people will understand. And plain language does not devalue the product or concept that it is describing – if anything, it clears its path.

By which, obviously, we mean run it past someone who’s not been involved with the product, concept or project that you’re building a story around. Someone who doesn’t share your localised language, your buzzwords, your jargon, your shorthand. See if they understand what you’re saying – if they do, you’ve succeeded, if they need explanation – then it’s back to the drawing board

Writing in the vernacular actually isn’t that difficult. It just takes a bit of a shift in thinking and a little bit of practice.

We can help you with both things – and we’d be happy to talk to you about it.

Categories
Communication Training Content PR

Everyone Likes A Tech Story

Everyone Likes a Tech Story

Find the right angles, look for the hooks – everyone’s got something to say. We’d be happy to talk to you about finding your story, and telling it.

Everyone likes a tech story. We’re all fascinated by the rise of the machines. AI is the big buzzword, even if, truth be told, we’re not really sure what AI is. Just a few years ago – no more than seven or eight – the big buzz was around the IoT, or Internet of Things. Now, with the advent of 5G, the Internet of Things is set to become a real thing and – no exaggeration – revolutionise our lives.

Just as a refresher – because what with the information overload that is modern life with a smartphone, it’s sometimes difficult to see the tech for the vapourware – the Internet of Things (IoT) is machine-to-machine communication, without a human intermediary. It will enable smart cities – in which everything will be available, where you want it, when you want it.

We’re talking driverless taxis, parking spaces that let your car know they’re free, real-time information about queues, about loos, about booze and about news. Stuff that changes from location to location. You literally ain’t seen nothing yet.

It will also enable the rise of the machines. Not – I am fairly confident – robots from the future, but definitely smart appliances in the home. “Smart appliances?” you mutter, suspiciously. Yes.

Toasters that anticipate how much toasting they’ll be doing and on what setting, based on information received from the breadbin. Mattresses that may firm or soften their springs, acting on updates from the wine cooler. (OK – I made that one up.) Fridges that know when you’re out of milk and either add it to your grocery order themselves, or Whatsapp you to make sure you buy some.

Flights of fantasy? Nope. Samsung have not only already produced a ‘smart’ fridge, but are actively promoting it.

Recently, on this very blog, we talked about stories and what makes them. We identified a selection of things which – if they appeared in your story – would go a long way to making it newsworthy, and lead to the media coverage you’re looking for. One of them was technology – read the first two sentences of this post again, they explain why.

Samsung, of course, have got this covered. They’re not short on a bit of tech. But the way they got coverage for their smartfridge was nothing less than opportunistic genius. Because one of the other things that makes a story is human interest. And another thing that makes a story, which doesn’t get talked about in a communication context so much, is – sex.

Samsung came up with ‘refridgerdate’. A service you can sign up to in which the contents of your fridge match you with other people who have similar contents in their fridges. All done by the fridges themselves. Yes, you’re shaking your head. Yes, well, you’re saying, that can’t be real.

Doesn’t matter. It’s a fantastic story and, as it should have, it got the coverage. I listened to a radio piece – the presenter knew that it was stretching the boundaries. He said so. Samsung admitted that only 15 people had signed up – and they were all employees.
It didn’t matter. In the slightest. I smiled, because it was funny. It was up-to-date. It was relevant to one of the biggest shifts that will happen in our lifetimes. It pulled the strings and made itself news.

Your business may not be a tech giant. You might not think that you’ve got a story that could be news.

Well – don’t think like that. Find the right angles, look for the hooks – everyone’s got something to say. We’d be happy to talk to you about finding your story, and telling it.

 

Categories
Communication Training Content PR Social Media

Plain English and Authentic Communication

Plain English & Authentic Communication

If you’re concerned that you might be on the road to unlocking consumption occasions, we‘d be happy to talk to you about a sense check on the language you’re using and some recommendations for improvement – as and if necessary.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a company with a really impressive brand. One day the lawyers arrived and slapped a whole bunch of new rules on it, one of which was that it now had to capitalise BRAND in all of its external communication.

Come on – the communicators said – it looks ridiculous and, as this is earned media we’re talking about, it’s not going to survive into actual coverage and, more than anything, it is wholly inauthentic. No, said the lawyers, you don’t understand. You will do as you are told and whenever you mention the brand, you will refer to it as BRAND.

All the joy and spontaneity that you’ll find in a young, growing brand, or in a new industry sector, or a start-up company was sucked away overnight. And, probably as a knock-on effect, there was a shift in the language used when talking about the brand – notably it moved away from plain English, from how people actually talk, to how the brand guardians think people talk.

It’s not an uncommon phenomenon. Lots of big brands have suffered the same fate. Here, for example, is a compare and contrast – two food brands, in a 2020 BBC article about changing eating patterns during the lockdown:

“With so many meals being consumed at home it has unlocked many more occasions for consumption bringing families together at mealtimes.”

and

“We knew straight away with more people cooking and eating at home that it would go bananas and May was our biggest month ever.”

The first is a food company with a big brand of sausages. Roughly translated, it says ‘with so many meals being eaten at home, bringing families together, there are more opportunities than ever to enjoy your favourite foods’. Go further – replace ‘foods’ with ‘sausages’, why not? But ‘unlocking consumption occasions’? This isn’t how real people talk.

The second is a young company with a growing brand of tofu – which, the lawyers would say, is not bananas. But as there were no lawyers there, the spokesperson was able to sound genuinely excited about the success the company was enjoying.

And the moral of the story? Twofold. As communicators, we have to realise that the larger and more successful a business or brand becomes, the more rules there are around what you can and can’t do and what you can and can’t say. And we need to work within those.

However, as communicators we have a duty to ensure that the brands, companies and organisations in our care are remaining authentic, using plain English and explaining themselves in the language that their stakeholders would use.

If you’re concerned that you might be on the road to unlocking consumption occasions, we‘d be happy to talk to you about a sense check on the language you’re using and some recommendations for improvement – as and if necessary.

Categories
Communication Training Corporate Communication PR

Spokespeople and Messages

The Right Message, The Right Spokesperson

So let’s talk a bit about messaging and spokespeople and audience engagement.

So let’s talk a bit about messaging and spokespeople and audience engagement.

A commercial radio news bulletin, here in the Emerald City, concerning the renewal of a corporate sponsorship of a leading entertainment venue.

An opportunity, with the right messages and delivery, to enhance the general perception of a company, and get people on board.

 

Include detail, avoid buzzwords

The spokesperson talked about transforming the sponsored building into a ‘smart venue’.  This may well be a thing – but without any explanation, it’s a lost opportunity to connect with the audience. 

Then there was ‘improving customer experience’. Without specifics, why should anyone care?

It is too easy to substitute a shorthand term for the real message. 

‘Smart venue’, when we mean a building that can tell you where things are, tell you how long the queue for the ladies’ loo is and allow you to pre-order two hot dogs and four pints via an app on your smartphone. 

‘Improving customer experience’ when we mean discounted gig tickets, a chance to meet the band and 4G in the mosh pit.

Messages are the detail that gets people interested, draws them in, makes them want to be involved. In this case, however, both key points sounded like buzzwords from an approved list. 

 

Suitable spokespeople, not senior spokespeople

Agreeing a spokesperson is not easy – often simple seniority carries the day.

An approach is to establish a panel of ‘subject matter experts’ who take the spokesperson role when it’s their area. 

Another is to spread the responsibility – get agreement that a handful of senior people should alternate as spokesperson, thus limiting the exposure of any one in particular. 

And there’s selection of opportunity – the less able spokesperson gets the less pivotal gigs.

 

Training to tell stories

In the real world, of course, this doesn’t always work. The media want to speak with the CEO, and no-one else will cut it. 

Or maybe the news story is about a ground-breaking use of technology and only the CTO will do. 

Which is where, of course, the message and the spokesperson should be managed in tandem. 

Messages are not buzzwords, and a spokesperson is not someone reading buzzwords off a script. Training and rehearsal – above and beyond a simple ‘briefing’ – help the spokesperson to build their own story around the messages.

Telling a story that they’re comfortable with not only brings the message to life, but allows the spokesperson to be genuine in their delivery.

It’s the combination of interesting detail and genuine delivery, by someone who’s comfortable with the material, that creates audience connection and propensity to engage.

If you would like to know more about messaging, identifying spokespeople and training them to do the best job they can, we’d be happy to talk to you – for free, with no obligations.

TALK TO US

Let’s talk about your communication training needs