A strong brand should create, through visual means, an idea of the personality and values of a firm in the minds of audiences. Creating a defined brand in financial services is difficult to achieve – many firms are well known but do they have a clearly defined brand?
How a firm differentiates itself among its competitors allows it to better define its brand and communicate it more effectively. We have extensive experience in supporting and advising clients on reviewing and developing their brand identity and image. Providing the external expertise required to define and promote brand successfully to domestic or international markets.
In today’s communications environment managing the reputation of a brand is of vital importance – news is immediate and digital means global and accessible. Corporate communications defines how a brand communicates internally and externally to demonstrate its corporate strategy and its values. The execution of a business strategy must include a defined corporate communications strategy that presents consistent messages through proliferating and fragmented communications channels.
We understand how to manage a brand’s reputation on a global stage and use the international nature of our business to support the international nature of our clients, advising clients on how to promote one of their most vital assets: their reputation.
Reputations are now, more so than ever before, lost in an instant. Using crisis scenario planning, Hume Brophy can help you prepare communications for challenging corporate developments, so that should your company be faced with a difficult issue, your communications are as fast, accurate and comprehensive as the new media demand. Any number of issues can potentially impact your business, including sudden regulatory change, legal action, sudden administration, receivership or liquidation, company restructuring, political inquiry or industrial action. Through the following steps, Hume Brophy can help ensure that the reputational impact on your business is as limited as possible.
Social media and the utilisation of digital content to reach audiences at a local, national and global level is now an integral part of the day-to-day communications activity. As digital and social networks grow, there is a need for evolution so that businesses and organisations remain part of the conversation, ensuring they can and will continue to reach their key target audiences with the right message that meets their needs.
This democratisation of communications does represent challenges as firms adapt to two-way conversations that can have unforeseen reputational impacts. We work with clients to strategically navigate the social media and digital landscape, advising on the most appropriate channels, key target audiences and the right messages to maximise the opportunities and protect against risk.
Successful, well-executed media events can serve many purposes; they can be the ‘tip of the sword’ for your thought leadership campaign, effective and ongoing media relationship building initiatives and platforms from which to launch new products and announce major developments. Moreover, when fully developed, they can provide a very clear and active benefit to your business development, allowing you to get closer to your clients and prospects and demonstrate your knowledge and expertise in person. Hume Brophy can help to organise events scaling from media lunches and briefing to major industry conferences.
The media can be a highly effective tool for promoting your business and helping to drive your revenues. However, dealing with journalists can be a time consuming process, one which can draw focus from your day to day priorities. As your agency, Hume Brophy would act as a satellite press office, liaising with journalists on your behalf, acting as first point of contact for media enquiries, briefing the media on key corporate developments, building relationships on your behalf, and preparing your spokespeople for engagement. This allows you to make the best use of spokespeople’s resources, and ensures every interaction with media is as productive as possible.
Media engagement without proper preparation is a waste of time. Hume Brophy will guide you through every aspect of preparing to communicate with and through the media. Through on-camera training workshops, we will help your company’s spokespeople to define their key messages, hone their delivery and learn the tricks of the trade when dealing with print and broadcast journalists. This will ensure that each interaction with the press is as beneficial and productive as possible, and that the desired outcome is achieved each and every time.
Lots of firms think they know what their employees, clients, customers and even competitors think about their own firm – but not many know in any details how they are actually perceived. Only auditing perceptions with the most important stakeholders both internally and externally can any gaps in actual to desired perceptions be understood.
Hume Brophy’s approach to standalone stakeholder and perception audits allows full public relations programmes to be developed to support brand strengths and prioritise perception gaps in order to better match how a company wants to how it was being understood.
Hume Brophy has significant experience of working with trade and business association clients of all kinds. As well as providing them with public affairs and communications advice, we also work in partnership to provide high quality and cost-effective association management.
In this capacity we can provide flexibility and continuity. Our services include managing an association’s resources and administration; planning, facilitating and chairing meetings to maximise all board members’ time; advising on relationship building; and maintaining and growing an association’s membership.
Hume Brophy advises our clients on how to achieve the most impact from public affairs campaigns. Sometimes this will be by joining together with others with a common interest or those who can help demonstrate a broad base of interests.
We believe in the merits of building coalitions to achieve clients’ influencing objectives. Our services include delivering advice on appropriate partners, support with outreach, coalition set-up and management, and coordination of each campaign in line with our client’s stated objectives.
As legislation and regulation evolve and change, clients’ commercial interests and operations can be affected – from small increments to sea changes. Hume Brophy works to ensure our clients understand developments and new regimes, and then to ensure they are compliant.
Research, direct questions, meetings with officials, review of legislation and / or comparison of various government statements, all form part of the service we provide to clients – and sometimes their advisors – to support efforts towards corporate compliance and reputation management.
Our clients are under increasing public scrutiny from a complex set of stakeholders and influencers. Working closely with our clients, we help increase their understanding of how those opinions can impact their organisation by advising on the key reputation drivers affecting their business.
Hume Brophy has significant experience of delivering focused reputation audits, media relations campaigns, corporate events, targeted stakeholder outreach and crisis communications support – all designed to position our clients and their reputation with their target market and stakeholders.
Winning government contracts and working with governments and other public bodies requires specialist knowledge and understanding of rules and processes. We have proven expertise in helping clients across a range of industry sectors with regard to building credibility with governments.
Hume Brophy’s services include strategic counsel on how to engage with the target audiences, and how to deliver key elements such as policy and media monitoring, market analysis, issue management, message and materials development, advocacy and outreach, media and events.
Helping clients establish and manage industry representative and other interest groups, develop and promote unified policy positions, lobby effectively and build enduring relationships with key decision makers and interests, is often grounded at a local and / or grassroots level.
Hume Brophy has extensive experience of working with local interests and of activating grassroots campaigners and advocates – engaging with constituency parliamentarians and politicians; activating local media interests; amplifying the centralised and strategic messaging with localised nuances, context and influencers.
At Hume Brophy we help our clients to detect and anticipate trends or changes in the political environment which may have important consequences for their business. Issue management is important when decision-makers are actively looking for or responding to stakeholder expectations and perceptions.
We support our clients to build, maintain and repair important relationships with key stakeholders. This could be via direct engagement on an issue with policymakers or through active campaigns which seek to influence how issues are framed.
Hume Brophy specialises in understanding legislative and regulatory landscapes and in supporting clients to navigate them. Our team of highly trained specialists have direct experience of working in parliaments, government and politics, bringing to our clients unrivaled insights and intelligence.
Whether a client seeks to shape legislation, understand EU / national regulation, promote or drive specific programme or strategy, engage government or international institutions on policy frameworks or environments, Hume Brophy has experience and capability to advise, execute and deliver.
Public affairs is often local and it is important to be able to understand market nuances. Hume Brophy can help companies enter markets that are new to them by providing advice and consultancy on communicating with policymakers and relevant stakeholders.
Whether our client’s interest is a new product launch or in a policy or political issue, Hume Brophy can help with designing a winning strategy. Our services include training, positioning, stakeholder mapping and engagement, risk mitigation and importantly, building trust.
Real-time monitoring is an important part of our services to clients. Hume Brophy provides parliamentary monitoring, intelligence gathering and political updates with alerts on developments, to inform strategies and ensure that clients are positioned to respond to emerging issues or news.
We also undertake horizon scanning to anticipate the direction of legislation or regulation, supporting clients’ future planning. Our teams monitor draft legislation, government and Commission programmes, political manifestoes and speeches, to improve our understanding and ability to provide sound intelligence.
Hume Brophy helps our clients to achieve successful and well-targeted events that facilitate engagement with policymakers and other stakeholders as well as providing a strategic platform for debating and shaping policy, as well as sharing national and international best practice.
We advise on appropriate event, from large conferences, exhibitions to bespoke salon dinners, roundtables and fringe events, and on programme design, speakers and invitees. We manage logistics so our clients can focus on what is important for them: content and engagement.
Knowing who to engage, when and how, is a critical part of any successful public affairs campaign. Our presence in multiple markets at the coalface of political, legislative and regulatory developments facilitates quick, insightful identification of appropriate and relevant stakeholders.
Our teams equally understand how and when to engage stakeholders to build coalitions and alliances, to drive effective communication of often-complex issues. Targeted, timely, informed engagement is the cornerstone of effective public affairs and we pride ourselves on this strength.
Hume Brophy consultants have worked at the highest levels of government, political parties, international organisations and national parliaments. Our team has the experience and expertise to advise companies, trade associations and individuals on the most appropriate strategic direction and approach.
Our dedicated client teams are led by senior consultants and include sector specialists, committed to effective outcomes on behalf of clients. We work with other advisors and in-house teams to devise the most appropriate strategies, with 24/7 availability and commitment.
Training our clients in how to manage direct contact with political, official, regulatory, ministerial and media stakeholders, and to communicate professionally and confidently in briefings, public hearings, press conferences and other public fora, is very important for all our campaigns.
Understanding protocols, effective routes to success, pitfalls and challenges of political engagement is a critical part of our service offering. Providing training on local norms, contexts and ‘hot buttons’ is part of our valued provision to clients – new and old.
A strong and effective investor relations programme is essential to achieve a full and fair share price, exceed regulatory requirements, diversify shareholder base, broaden sell-side coverage, decrease share price volatility and provide a supportive platform for M&A.
Our experienced team works with large international companies and emerging growth companies to present the equity story in the most compelling way, manage market expectations, monitor message adoption among investor audiences and address any issues that might arise. We proactively leverage our network of contacts in the investment community to help clients broaden their sell-side coverage and target new investors.
Navigating capital markets is an increasing challenge, and disclosure requirements and understanding investor sentiment are critical to the success of any fundraising activity. Our team has a wealth of practical experience of the IPO and fundraising process with insight and knowledge from working in-house as well as from advising numerous listed companies.
Our experience includes supporting companies across various markets with clients listed on major exchanges in Europe and the US. Our team has an unrivaled network of contacts in the investment community with the buy and sell-side and excellent relationships with the media and a successful track record of generating high quality media coverage.
Our IR training is tailored to the specific needs of the company. Our sessions carefully balance theory with practical tips on technique and delivery to ensure spokespeople manage direct contact with the media and/or analysts and investors to communicate professionally and confidently in interviews, while presenting, and at press conferences and other public events.
Hume Brophy has advised on more than 100 IPOs, M&A transactions and fundraisings in addition to numerous media management and investor relations programmes. The team has a longstanding network of contacts across healthcare sell-side analysts, European venture capitalists, institutional investors and advisors.
We have a successful track record in conducting in-depth perception audits which provide an insight to the views of investors, media, influencers and the wider stakeholder group. The results are presented in a qualitative and quantitative manner which allows you to measure development of opinion over time.
Here at Hume Brophy we have excellent and longstanding network of contacts with sell-side analysts across Europe. We develop and execute programme to expand coverage for our clients.
