How the Pandemic Has Required Innovation in Communications

Mark O Toole works with 150 Bond, a global operation with offices in the UK, Dublin and Ireland. They primarily are a communications company that helps CEOs present the right image both publicly and privately. He chatted recently with our director Ellen Gunning on her radio show “Mediascope”. The company’s website may be opaque but they know how to manage every external factor that goes into being a company.

Reaching people through Event management

They organize events for fortune 500 companies to get to know customers and gain traction. Events can be a different way for businesses to get connected. Finding the right venue and ways to engage the CEO is key to putting on a successful function. Relationships and creating bonds is what the company specializes in. Events are one way of getting connected to people. Now, the pandemic has created additional challenges in navigating networks.

Communicating during Covid-19

Virtual events make it difficult to maintain fluidity and get to know people. Mark adapted to this challenge by organizing zoom experiences with interesting discussions and experts. They held a beer tasting with journalists and public relations employees so both people could get connected and understand one another. Creativity is needed to find ways to meet people around the world in modern times.

Ellen agrees that smaller events with ten or twelve investors or officials make for more effective dialogues. Knowing who you are going to meet and feeling prepared for an effective conversation is the key to keeping people engaged. Getting to know who is who and picking out the right ones to follow up with isn’t easy. Smaller groups make it easier to get to know everyone on a deeper level.

Benefits Of Online Events

You might not get to see the whites of people’s eyes in online spaces. But in a global world, online events make it easier for people in different geographic spaces to meet up. The smaller groups afforded by Zoom calls also make it easier to form a proper link. Exchanging contact information and following up becomes easier when you are dealing with less people. As we adapt to the online world, communication aficionados Ellen and Mark recommend finding the benefits that come with the new challenge of meeting people behind a screen instead of face to face.

Pointy

Pointy is a fantastic and successful company that Mark O Toole has worked with. O Toole’s company has won a best long term campaign award from the Public Relations Institute for their work with Pointy. The genesis for the company that allows inventory to be catalogued online came from the founder’s inability to find a place to buy the craft beer online in spite of its presence in a small independent shop. People value local businesses.

Pointy has since been acquired by google. Mark’s company helped the business communicate their value effectively. Pointy knew that customers wanted a way to keep track of small businesses’s inventories. The only thing Pointy needed help with, was making their presence known in the market. O’Toole’s business acquires the best and brightest young people in communications, business and law to generate solutions to promoting companies in digital spaces. Availing oneself of the ever-increasing computerized tools available to them, is key to succeeding in this new economy.

Finding Diverse Young People

Mark has had a lot of success with holding recruiting events. He holds events that highlight how communications is evolving and what makes it interesting. Focusing on bright young people who are prepared to handle diversity and gender equality in the modern world. Every company is becoming a tech company. Finding people of every ethnicity, gender and people group who can use technology in innovative ways to help businesses succeed is key.

“Many people think that technology is a small sector. But it permeates every aspect of the business world” says Mark. Handling public relations for tech companies can be a daunting task. What makes a business a technology company? Every business is grappling with new software and programs. Young people with a firm grasp on what corporate public relations looks like for modernized companies are the key to succeeding in this brave new world.