Photo credit: The Herald Magazine ­ shoot with Morgan Cars 2011
AURATALKHELPING SMEs STAND OUT
Issue No.3
A human-centred process-
driven exercise for innovation
in business
Our top five tips for using
video in PR to excite, engage
and get shares
PR has the opportunity to
embrace entrepreneurial
thinking
DESIGN THINKING
IN PUBLIC RELATIONS
THINKING LIKE AN
ENTREPRENEUR
USING VIDEO IN PR TO
ENGAGE AUDIENCES

EDITOR'S NOTE
E D I T O R - I N - C H I E F
WelcometothethirdissueofAuraTalk.Iamreallypleasedwiththefeedbackfromourfirst
twoissues,whichseemtohelpourclientsandindeedotherPRpractitioners.
Inthisissuewethinkoutsideofthebox,lookingathowdesignthinkingprocessesand
entrepreneursovercomechallengesandturnthemintoopportunities.Wecanlearnfrom
otherindustiresanddisciplines- it'swhatmakesus innovative.Thebiggestopportunitywe
haveistolearnnewwaysofthinkingandhowthatcanapplyto business/organisation
strategy,ultimatelyleadingtosuccess.
ThePRofessionalsPRfestivalwillbekickingoffinamatterofweeksandI'mworkingto
developareallyengagingcoupleofdayswithspeakersfromNewYork,Belgium,
Stockholm,LondonandofcourseourveryowntalentinScotland.
Alsointhisissuewelookathowvideoengagesaudiencesandwetakeabrieflookatthe
2016WestEndFestival,whichtakesplacethisJune.BignameslikeBillyOceanandBelle
andSebastianhavebeenannouncedtoperformasthefestivalcelebrates21years!
Inthenextissuewe'llcoverThePRofessionalsandtakealookatwhatconsumerbrands
needtobedoinginthesummer,planningforChristmas!
Thanks- Ihopeyouenjoythisissue.
W W W . A U R A - P R . C O M
Laura Sutherland

IT IS THE LONG
HISTORY OF
HUMANKIND (AND
ANIMALKIND, TOO)
THAT THOSE WHO
LEARNED TO
COLLABORATE
AND IMPROVISE MOST
EFFECTIVELY
HAVE PREVAILED
Charles Darwin

Design thinking -
human-centred processes
In the past, design has most often
occurred fairly far down in the
development process and has
focused on making new products
aesthetically attractive or enhancing
brand perception through smart,
evocative advertising. Today, as
innovation’s terrain expands to
encompass human-centered
processes and services as well as
products, companies are asking
creatives to generate ideas rather
than to simply dress them up.
'Design thinking' is a method of meeting
people’s needs and desires in a technologically
feasible and strategically viable way.
It attempts to inspire the essential element of
creativity, the ability to take an abstract idea and
create something with it. It’s based upon the
fundamental belief that an unexecuted idea,
one that is never realised, is a worthless
proposition and that doing is equally as
valuable as thinking.
A big part of the Design Thinking concept
involves empathy for those you are creating for.
It’s often manifested through a series of
activities, which attempt to create an
experience of what or how your idea will
ultimately be consumed.
In public relations, a good example is in the way
we map a customer journey, either through
service, route to buying or user experience, for
example online.
It's essential that we understand the journey
before we can start to think of creative ideas.
Empathise
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
The process...

The interesting part of Design Thinking is like
the creativity it attempts to foster, the very
concept itself is continually evolving. One
example of a design thinking process could
have several stages: Empathize, Define, Ideate,
Prototype and Test. Within these steps,
problems can be framed, the right questions
can be asked, more ideas can be created, and
the best answers can be chosen.
The steps aren’t linear; they can occur
simultaneously and can be repeated.
The critical sixth step is to
LEARN!
Learn
The distinguishing characteristics of
Design Thinking?
- Finding simplicity in complexity
- Beauty as well as functionality
- Improving quality of experience
- Creating elegant solutions
- Serving the needs of people
- Design Thinking as a Strategy for
Innovation
When design principles are applied to
strategy and innovation the success rate for
innovation dramatically improves. Design
thinking is at the core of effective strategy
development and organizational change.
Aura's top tips for
developing design
thinking in your
organisation
While learning to be a good 'designer' takes
years, non-designers can learn to think like a
designer and apply these skills to leadership
and innovation. Hands-on innovation
challenges will guide you through a design
thinking process from start to finish.
#1 Develop the 5 discovery skills that
make up the Innovator’s DNA and
optimise your ability to innovate
#2 Examine the four primary forces that
shape innovation and 10 types of
innovation you can leverage
#3 How to connect more deeply with
customers to uncover opportunities for
innovation
#4 Transform insights and data into
actionable ideas
#5 Explore the tool-sets and skill-sets
used by designers: empathy for your
customers, idea generation, critical
thinking, aesthetic ways of knowing,
problem-solving, rapid-prototyping and
collaboration.
#6 Develop a wide variety of concepts
for products, services, experiences,
messages, channels, business models,
or strategies.
#7 Create and implement elegant
solutions that create value for your
customers, faster and more effectively.

Celebrating 21 years!
Since 2011 Aura has worked with Scotland's largest
community event, the West End Festival.
Aura works with the West End Festival (WEF) to help raise awareness of the events within the festival
programme and to position WEF as a leading event in Scotland - there really is something for everyone!
So far this year, we've announced the dates, launched the programme, announced headline events and acts,
including Glasgow's own Belle and Sebastian who celebrate 20 years, this year, Billy Ocean and many more.
We've also just launched a crowdfunding campaign to help the festival bring back it's much-loved Festival
Sunday in 2017.
We're looking forward to celebrating #WEF2016 - Friday, 3 to Sunday, 26 June! westendfestival.co.uk

Thinkinglikeanentrepreneur...
What does it take?
PR has the opportunity to embrace
entrepreneurial thinking
Business skills and entrepreneurship
are not the same thing. Business
looks at financials, spreadsheets
and marketing plans whilst
entrepreneurs look at finding
problems and coming up with
solutions. It’s the way someone
thinks.
f you look at risk, for example, business will teach
you how to mitigate risk and most people in
business fear it. To an entrepreneur, risk is
exciting, and creativity and innovation are
essential. If you learn more about being an
entrepreneur, you’ll learn how to embrace risk.
Entrepreneurs love to collaborate, share and
exchange ideas, even with potential
competitors. Something PR is often guilty of
running away from, thinking more like a
business, guarding innovation and ideas.
Being an entrepreneur isn’t a job, it’s about a way
of thinking and approaching challenges and
opportunities. Real entrepreneurs can flourish in
any sector, whether it’s government, not-for-
profit or business, as a leader or an employee.
Entrepreneurial thinking allows people to
identify the problem early-on and present a
solution. Something all businesses and
organisations absolutely require.
For PR, entrepreneurial thinking is possibly one
of the biggest assets a practitioner could
possess. It fits with how PR practitioners have to
deliver innovative and creative solutions to tell
client’s stories and help build brands.
Being the same as everyone else has never
allowed a brand to standout. Diversity in PR is
essential if we are to represent any business or
organisation which speaks to diverse audiences.
Technology is PR’s best friend. Technology is the
common denominator for all new successful start-
ups, including developing software, data mining,
algorithms etc
PR should be, arguably, scalable – entrepreneurs
are focused on scaling their business, more
rapidly, maximising productivity and delivering
faster more efficient results.
Thinking like an entrepreneur requires a unique
approach to the world and a mindset to help view
the world as limitless in its possibilities for
improvement, change and, ultimately, innovation.
PR seeks to change something.
A lot of entrepreneurs don’t succeed first time.
They learn and they develop as the grow. PR can
apply the same thinking – when innovating with
clients it may not always work out, but the
learnings from that will help you improve going
forward.
Business is all about building relationships. PR is
the driver of building and maintaining good
relationships with a business’ publics.
Relationships are essential for survival and growth.
Entrepreneurs instinctively build relationships and
keep growing them. Specifically, it means
recognising and valuing the people who you will
encounter in your business and personal life, and
bringing them along with you on your journey. You
have much to learn from others, just as they can
learn a lot from you. As Richard Branson put it,
“Other people have ideas also.”

Using video in
PR to engage
audiences
Mobile is increasingly taking over a) how
we consume media and b) our evenings!
Do you sit on the couch with your mobile beside
you? Guilty!
The time has come for PR practitioners to up the
tactics and start using video in PR. It keeps your
audience excited, engaged, and you are
effectively encouraging them to share the
content.
A study done by Forbes stated that 75% of senior
executives surveyed said that they watched work-
related videos at least weekly, and 52% watched
work related videos on YouTube at least once a
week.
Cisco forecasts that by 2019, video will make up
80 percent of all consumer Internet traffic, up from
64 percent in 2014. They also forecast that every
second, more than 1 million videos will be
transmitted across the Internet.
Some quick statistics:
- Millennials turn to YouTube for instructions. - -
67% of these users say they can find a video on
“anything I want to learn.”
- 5 percent of all videos are responsible for 95
percent of all views.
- Globally, a third of people watch more videos on
their mobile devices than last year.
Aura uses video for all of its clients, from the West
End Festival, to The Lighthouse's exhibition and
events, through to The Big Lunch. Each has its
own YouTube channel for hosting the videos and
URLs are used for posting on social. We also
upload files directly to Facebook as it prefers
direct uploads and will normally rank your content
higher than if it was a link used.
Here are our top 5 tips for using video in PR:
#1 Storytelling - it says more than a press release
You can capture emotions, allowing the audience
to get a flavour of the brand's personality and an
authentic approach is always the best.
A real-life video can inspire people to take action
based on the emotional connections. Think of the
ad campaigns which have moved you to tears.
Videos should be telling a story and gaining a
reaction.
Figure out what you want the story to do - what
action do you want the viewer to take?
contd...

#2 A picture says a thousand words - so what
does video do in a minute?!
It doesn't take much effort to watch a video, and
with most videos being effective at 30 seconds,
viewers can consume more information than just
a visual image.
Aura has started using iPhone for recording and
iMovie for editing. A two-minute interview 'on
location' can be quickly edited, topped and tailed
on-site and uploaded immediately.
Think about using sound-bytes rather than long-
winded interviews . Give a top-level overview -
short videos have been proven to get more views
according to testing done by video management
service, Wistia.
#3 Authenticity -Testimonials are critical for
businesses and organisations. The willingness of
someone to speak in a positive way about their
experience, you just can't buy. Well, you can, but
then that's not necessarily authentic as it's paid for.
Video testimonials are more effective and may
take a little extra effort, but the impact of video will
be greater than copy on a website. As I
mentioned before, you can upload directly social
platforms or you can upload to YouTube and use
the link.
This recent video Laura did for the West End
Festival launch was shot on iPhone, edited in
iMovie and uploaded to YouTube and directly to
Facebook. It's had 1000 views on Facebook in
less than a week! If we had a budget we could
have paid to promote the post reaching a wider
audience - but we don't.
#4 Got a great news story or blog post? Turn it
into a video
Repurposing a news story into video is a great
idea, particularly if the news was a success
originally.
If you have a blog post which was successful,
why not take the key themes/points and turn it
into a video? You could even do a mini series,
taking one key point at a time.
#5 Make it easy to share - Video, as owned
content, is a great opportunity to promote
branded content, in an entertaining and engaging
manner. With sharing button embedded, video
can be shared over multiple platforms with very
little effort.
The easier you make it for people to share, the
broader reach you will have.
According to YouTube’s social statistics:
17 million = the number of people that people
have connected their YouTube account to at
least 1 social service.
12 million = of those connected and auto-sharing
with at least one network.
150 years = number of years of YouTube videos
that are watched each day on Facebook.
Over 50% = the number of videos that have been
rated or include comments from the community.
How Aura uses video:
To activate launches and news announcements -
once the news has been broken across print,
broadcast and online media, get your video ready
and start to share.
Offer videos as part of a news story - some media
outlets, increasingly, will use video content you
provide in a raw format
Think of video as a visual podcast - in the past
we've used videos for discussion and debate
Bring events alive - whether you pre-record a
video for use at an event, record and broadcast
live at an event or produce a video from an event
Use video to entice sponsors - sponsors want to
know what they will get and what the sponsorship
is all about - show them, visually
Trailer - get people excited about an event or
piece of news coming soon by recording a trailer.

aura-pr.com
Aura works across the UK with a wide range of clients, large and small. We'd be delighted to hear
from you should you have any enquiries.
T: 0141 337 6712 E: hello@aura-pr.com Tw: @AuraPR
A highly creative, solution-driven public
relations consultancy working across paid,
earned and owned media.