Strategic communications, built around your objectives.
There is no standard ACA campaign.
It starts with a conversation about what you need communications to achieve, whether that’s more patients or clients, standing out among your peers, credibility with the people who choose you, or the links and mentions that help you rank in search.
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From that, we write a plan: the brief, the audiences, and the messaging for each one.
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Only then do we work out where those audiences spend their time and build the campaign to reach them.
Strategy and positioning
What should you be known for?
Who needs to know it?
What expertise do you already have?
What needs to happen as a result?
We define the communications territory a client can credibly own, identify priority audiences and establish the people, messages and opportunities capable of moving them towards the wider objective.
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For an organisation, that means identifying the people who can credibly contribute to public conversations, establishing the subjects each should own and developing them into authoritative media voices.
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Sometimes there is one obvious figurehead. Sometimes the stronger strategy is a group of expert spokespeople whose different specialisms collectively establish the authority of the organisation.
Media relations and newsjacking
When a story breaks, journalists need people who actually understand it.
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We monitor the media agenda, identify where our clients’ expertise genuinely adds value and move quickly when an opportunity emerges.
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We gather the relevant knowledge, shape it into accurate, media-ready commentary and put the right expert in front of the right journalist while the story is live.
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Alongside reactive opportunities, we proactively develop stories, features and angles and build sustained relationships between our clients and relevant journalists.
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Our work spans national, regional and international print, digital, broadcast, consumer, business and specialist media.
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Done consistently, this changes a client’s relationship with the media. They stop simply seeking coverage and begin becoming people journalists seek out.
Thought leadership
Having an opinion isn’t thought leadership.
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Having informed, defensible ideas that contribute something useful to a conversation is.
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We work with clients to uncover those ideas and develop them into opinion editorials, authored articles, interviews, proprietary surveys and reports, and longer-term platforms.
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The objective is not simply to have a client say more. It is to give them something worth being heard for.
Features, columns and proactive story development
We don’t wait for journalists to ask questions.
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ACA proactively develops timely, evidence-led feature ideas around the expertise of our clients and pitches them to relevant national, consumer, business, lifestyle and specialist media.
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That can mean identifying an emerging trend, translating new research, challenging conventional thinking or recognising that something a client encounters every day is actually part of a much bigger story.
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The aim is often to move beyond one-off features towards a named, recurring column in a respected lifestyle, wellbeing, business or specialist title, building familiarity and authority over time.
Broadcast
Television and radio can establish authority at a scale few other formats can match.
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ACA identifies opportunities and pitches producers and researchers.
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Where appropriate, we also approach production companies and programme teams directly to identify documentaries, factual formats, guest expert opportunities and potential recurring contributor roles.
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Where it helps, we also support clients in creating a concise showreel to send to producers and production companies.
Media training
Being an expert and being a confident broadcast interviewee are different skills.
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We prepare clients to communicate complicated subjects clearly and concisely, under the time pressure and format of live and recorded media.
Case studies and human stories
Expertise provides authority. People provide stories.
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We identify and develop compelling patient, customer and founder stories, conduct interviews, find the strongest editorial angle and package them for print, digital and broadcast media.
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The strongest case studies don’t simply demonstrate a service. They show its impact on a person’s life.
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Strong photography matters too. Editors rarely have picture budgets, so we help clients supply images that make a story easy to say yes to.
Reviews and first-person editorial
Sometimes the best way to explain what makes a service, treatment or product different is to let a journalist experience it.
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For appropriate clients, ACA identifies credible opportunities for first-person editorial, treatment or service reviews and journalist experiences.
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Coverage is never guaranteed, and the editorial decision always remains the journalist’s.
Guides and professional directories
Authority isn’t built through press coverage alone.
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ACA identifies and manages listings in respected guides and directories, from doctors’ guides to luxury address books, that provide ongoing third-party recognition among the audiences who matter to a client.
Awards
We identify relevant awards and rankings, select the strongest categories and manage entries from drafting and submission through to PR amplification if a client wins or is shortlisted.
Speaking and strategic opportunities
Sometimes the most valuable opportunity isn’t an article.
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We identify conferences, panels, professional events, awareness campaigns, partnerships and other platforms capable of putting clients directly in front of the people they need to influence.
Events and private networks
For clients seeking high-net-worth or highly specific audiences, the right opportunity is often a private, invitation-only environment rather than the media.
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We identify relevant members’ clubs, wellness evenings, private banking events and other referral-led environments where trust already exists, and secure clients a speaker, expert or guest role within them.
Influencer and celebrity relations
Where they genuinely serve the strategy, ACA develops relationships with creators, public figures and their representatives.
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These can include authentic treatment or product experiences, patient journeys, editorial collaborations and social amplification.
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We prioritise relevance, credibility, audience fit and story over follower numbers.
Content and copywriting
We write press releases, articles, opinion editorials, biographies, Q&As, professional profiles, reports and other communications material.
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The principle is always the same: preserve the client’s expertise while making it understandable and interesting to the intended audience.
Photography and filming
Strong images and video are often what makes a story, a profile or a piece of content work.
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Whether it’s a client, a patient or a customer in front of the camera, we brief and source photographers and filmmakers, prepare the client for the shoot and oversee it on the day.
Social and digital
Where it serves the wider objective, ACA can extend PR activity through social content and digital campaigns.
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We work with experienced specialists across social strategy, content, influencer outreach and paid media to create integrated programmes where those disciplines genuinely add value.
Reporting and measurement
We agree what success looks like for each activity at the start, whether that is expert comment, a column, a guide listing or a speaking slot.
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Clients receive a monthly written coverage report, with regular meetings weekly or monthly, as often as needed.