The project

In 2021, as the UK was still grappling with the effects of the Covid pandemic, NORI HR & Employment Law was plotting another major growth spurt by making use of the Government's flagship Kickstart scheme.

Kickstart provided funding to create new jobs for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit who were at risk of long term unemployment, and whose job prospects had been worsened by the pandemic.

Jason and Amrita spied an opportunity to use the scheme to create 24 new Business Development Manager roles as part of their expansion plans.

But there was also a brand marketing opportunity to be grasped too.

Enter Fifty2M.

We used our PR skills to tell their Kickstart story, raising awareness of the brand, positioning it as a high-growth business, and highlighting some of the ways in which NORI HR & Employment Law differs from its bigger rivals.

What we did

Using our storytelling skills, we drafted and distributed a series of press releases to local and regional news media.

Key angles included:

• How a local business was benefiting from a flagship Government policy
• How NORI HR & Employment Law was using the scheme to create good jobs with great prospects for 24 young people otherwise at risk of long-term unemployment
• How the recruitment of all these new Business Development Managers was intended to help the company continue its stellar growth
• How NORI HR & Employment Law offers a more tailored, personal service compared to the cut-and-paste approach of national rivals

We also directed the photography so that we had a range of high quality images we could issue to journalists with our press releases - photos that illustrate the story always improve the chances of securing media coverage.

To strengthen the story and improve the chances of securing positive media coverage, we invited the local constituency MP to a press launch and also asked the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which administered the Kickstart scheme to provide a supportive comment from the Employment Minister, Mims Davies MP, for inclusion in our press release.

It worked.

The story was covered in the local and regional titles that mattered most, and, within a few weeks, NORI HR & Employment Law even got an honourable mention in Parliament during a discussion in the House of Commons - a mention that will forever be recorded in the Hansard, the official record of Parliamentary business.

What the client says

"As a small family run business where our specialism is HR & Employment Law, we were really struggling how to maximise the work we were undertaking through the Kickstart program.

"As business owners will know, the age old saying 'out of sight, out of mind' is so true when it comes to being visible to prospective buyers and growing your business. It was important to us for people to see the ethos of NORI HR with this work, including how we were giving back to the community by creating jobs for young people who really needed them. The key question was how to portray that in the right way.

"This is where Fifty2M came in. From the first-time meeting, we knew we were in safe hands. They didn't try to hard sell their services or push us down a certain path. They listened to what we wanted to achieve and absorbed everything about us and the company before making recommendations. Their knowledge in this area was second-to-none and immediately their strategy and action plan really blew us away.

"They came up with ideas that we didn't even consider (which is obviously what makes them the experts in this area) and started supporting us with implementing them.

"They took on a lot of the action points that were needed to be carried out, which allowed us to continue to focus on the business and what we are great at, leaving the Fifty2M team to do what they are great at.

"It was an added bonus that Fifty2M managed to secure the support of Sara Britcliffe MP in attending our offices to see the work that was being undertaken at a local level, and witness first-hand the great use the Government's Kickstart Scheme was doing, both for businesses and individuals. But they also managed to get a Government Minister to provide a supportive comment in our press releases, which added a whole different layer of endorsement.

"It was a nice moment when Lee at Fifty2M contacted us to let us know that Sara had mentioned NORI HR during a Parliamentary Session, and that we will be logged forever in the Hansard for the debate on Monday 17 May 2021."