Public relations services

Description

The Open University (OU) is seeking to appoint an integrated comms agency partner that can provide strategic leadership and delivery of pan UK OU marketing and comms strategy (B2B portfolio, media relations, consumer and social). The focus will be primarily on UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) media outlets with the potential provision to expand reach internationally in the future. The Open University is looking for an agency partner capable of delivering fully integrated campaigns that focusses on raising the profile of The Open University in the B2B arena, National, Regional, Consumer and social environments. The Agency must be creative and have the ability to be responsive and flexible in raising the profile of the OU’s strategic priorities. Media Relations: Corporate and Consumer and Social Media Strategy The successful agency partner will be highly collaborative in supporting us to move to more proactive, higher frequency and higher impact integrated comms, enabling us to maximise opportunities whilst building brand reputation and awareness. • The Open University will require the winning Agency to work as an extension to our comms and social teams on both a reactive and proactive basis as required. • We expect the Agency to play an instrumental role in driving stronger integrated comms targeting different audiences (general public, younger and harder to reach audiences) across multiple channels sectors. • Using our wide range of brand and campaign assets including BBC partnership, our world class academics, students, alumni, business and government partners and innovative technology, we need to be bolder at setting the agenda to ensure the OU is front of mind. B2B: PR and Social Media Strategy The Open University will require the winning Agency to develop, with appropriate support from the OU, a 6 to 12-month campaign plan that can be immediately implemented following the awarding of the contract. The campaign should satisfy the following requirements: 1) Be an integrated PR and Social campaign that focusses on raising the profile of The Open University in the B2B arena including apprenticeships, skills and productivity, digital transformation, recruitment and retention and management, health and social care and leadership; 2) In addition to maximising existing annual activity such as the Business Barometer report, the Agency will harness a range of creative and innovative ideas that meet the OU’s objectives with clearly defined timelines/schedule, e.g. explore more agile mechanics and virtual events; 3) Clearly identify the target audience and how the campaign will influence and inspire key decision makers; 4) Work closely with key internal stakeholders including BDU contacts, OU Media and Social, Faculties and Nations; 5) Appropriately capitalise on daily media opportunities or ‘newsjacking’ specifically related to activities outlined in the campaign plan; 6) Elevate senior Business Development Unit (B2B) spokespeople in various remits and develop the profile of the Corporate Director as the voice of The Open University to a business audience; 7) Development of strategic thought leadership pieces to raise profiles of key sectors with the OU leading the conversation. Including working in partnership with third party organisations or authors where relevant, to raise credibility and reach to target audiences; 8) Ensure all messaging is fully integrated across OU B2B channels and OU channels; 9) Deliver strategic guidance on how to maximise PR/social channels ensuring effective integration. In addition: 10) The winning Agency will work collaboratively with internal teams, external partners and specialists to deliver key strategic communications; 11) The winning Agency will deliver polling and survey-based reports, effectively managing and evaluating the campaign according the agreed procedures; 12) The winning Agency will ensure live activity is recorded in a shared document accessible to all stakeholders in The Open University’s agency account team; 13) All PR and Social activity must be approved by The Open University representative prior to any work being undertaken by the winning Agency. In addition, the winning Agency will not approach national journalists on behalf of The Open University without it first being authorised by the relevant OU contact.