PR Week Awards last night had an ethical theme and many of the campaigns that were up for awards were refreshingly purposeful, this reflects how the PR industry are playing their part in making campaigns for good to help for a better future.

TNR moved offices this summer from Victoria to Paddington as part of PA Media Group’s wider rebrand. The Point building in Paddington Basin is surrounded by canals and nature, encouraging some of our team members to use more creative ways of commuting to the office, Craig Gunn our Head of Photography being one of them, here is his story… 

There is nothing more rewarding when your photography and video projects work like a dream. The beautiful morning light you were praying for appears. The celebrity guest you paid a fortune for turns up on time, and is actually nice to work with. The client approves all your content quickly and the day after the release your work is broadcast on rolling news or making a splash in the middle of a national newspaper. But when things go wrong — and something always goes wrong — a dream scenario can turn into a nightmare pretty fast. I have taken some time to look at some of the biggest risks that projects involving photographers and videographers may face in their work and how to minimise the risks…

If interviews with politicians leave you shouting at the radio or the telly, or even switching off altogether, you’re not alone.  Cabinet ministers, backbenchers, local councillors and party leaders are frequently criticised and mocked for not answering questions yet they persist in making this serious mistake.  These politicians have usually had no professional media training or, even worse, bad media training.  The latter is all too often PR-led and focused wholly on core/key messages, which means that interviewees neither understand nor care about the priorities of the audience.  One infamous example is Ed Miliband’s ITV interview in July 2011, in which he repeats the same soundbite in every single answer, resulting in a laughable video that has been watched hundreds of thousands of times online.  More recently, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson so incensed Richard Madeley by refusing to answer his question on Good Morning Britain, that the presenter abruptly terminated the interview.

Our photography team has had a rock n’ roll time in the last two weeks. They visited Cannes once again with Golin for Magnum/Unilever and their annual film festival beach party event, this year with UK pop star Rita Ora, and just days later they were on a pleasure boat on the Thames watching a live gig by Grime artist Stormzy as he launched 5G in the UK for EE. These projects on the outside look busy and chaotic, we caught up with TNR’s Head of Photography Craig Gunn to get some insight in to how he was able photographically to provide the calm region at the centre of it all…..

EDITORIAL USE ONLY Stormzy performs at a 5G-powered gig beside Tower Bridge on the River Thames to mark the launch of 5G on EE, London.