About

I spent 17 years working for Scottish PR agencies, the last five of which as head of the world’s biggest PR company Weber Shandwick’s Glasgow office. Before that I was a journalist. Values have always been important to me.

In 2014 I decided to go solo. What would happen if I took everything I’d learned and did PR my way?

The result: Zude PR.

Integrity, Trust, Results?

I know a lot of people. High achievers. Good people. Marketing directors, heads of communications, MDs of small businesses, chief executives of global brands. They have one thing in common: not enough hours in the day. Most work too hard but really want to spend more time with their friends and family, doing the stuff they want to do (not that the two are mutually exclusive).

What if there was someone who had provided superior service to clients in Glasgow, across Scotland and the whole of the UK for a long time? Someone who was creative and delivered results. Someone who had integrity, someone you could trust.

That’s me that is…Zude PR.

Values

Call me old-fashioned but I think values are important. I’ve scoured the globe (Google) looking for inspiration; someone or something that would get to the nub of what Zude PR is all about. And who better than one of the godfathers of a related profession: advertising legend David Ogilvy, founder of international advertising, marketing and public relations agency Ogilvy & Mather.

Buy Zude PR and this is what you get (alright, they’re a bit bigger than me but you get my drift). Over to David Ogilvy:

We abhor ruthlessness. We like people with gentle manners. We see no conflict between adherence to high professional standards in our work and human kindness in our dealings with each other. The best results are produced by men and women who don’t have to be told what to do.

We like people who are honest. Honest in argument, honest with clients, honest with suppliers, honest with the company – and above all, honest with consumers. We admire people who speak their minds.

At the same time we admire people who listen more than they talk, and make a real effort to understand views that differ from their own. Candor is a virtue; arrogance is not. We admire people who work hard, who are objective and thorough. Lazy and superficial men and women do not produce superior work.

We exist to build the business of our clients. The recommendations we make to them should be the recommendations we would make if we owned their companies, without regard to our own short-term interest. This earns their respect, which is the greatest asset we have.

The line between pride in our work and neurotic obstinacy is a narrow one. We make our recommendations clear. But we do not grudge our clients the right to the final say. It is their money.

We try to create an atmosphere in which partnerships with our clients flourish. We attach importance to discretion – clients don’t appreciate agencies that leak their secrets.

We take new business seriously, especially new business from current clients.

We have a habit of divine discontent with our performance. It is an antidote to smugness.

We like reports and memos to be well-written and easy to read. We also like them to be short – and sent only to those who need to know what’s in them.

We are revolted by pseudo-academic jargon like attitudinal, paradigms, demassification, reconceptualise, suboptimal, symbiotic linkage, splinterisation, dimensiolisation.

© Oglivy & Mather 2014 | The Corporate Culture of Ogilvy & Mather, as set down by David Ogilvy.

Genius, couldn’t have put it better myself.

Biog

If you were expecting a bit more about me when you clicked on the ABOUT button, here’s a brief resumé:

• Raised in Cheshire
• Lived in Scotland for past 25 years
• Married to Rachel (on top of Cairn Gorm)
• Winner of 11 worldwide PR awards including the first PR award from the United Nations
• Writes for Social Media Examiner, MuckRack, PR Moment, PR Daily, Business 2 Community, SEMrush
• Dad to sons Zak and Jude (hmmm, what would happen if I joined their names together…)
• Thinks being nice is an underrated virtue
• Loves news and telling clients’ stories
• Trained journalist
• Weber Shandwick Glasgow PR office head 2009-2014
• Loves private and public sector clients in equal measure
• Specialises in helping organisations communicate effectively – in the best and worst of times.
• Fellow of the CIPR and #PRstack contributor
• Runs a bit
• Is on LinkedIn if you want the full sp