It’s all change at Midnight

Midnight Communications is one of the most successful and longest established PR agencies in the South, with an impressive roster of business and consumer clients and a string of awards to its name. At the turn of the year, Alex Hankinson and Flo Powell bought the business from Caraline Brown, who founded the business in 1995. We caught up with the new Managing Directors…

Midnight has new MDs at the helm! Tell us a little bit about yourselves

Alex: I’m a PR through and through. I studied languages and then publishing at Postgraduate and went on to work at PR agencies in London for 10 years, specialising in strategic b2b consultancy and media relations. Soon after my first daughter was born we moved to Brighton for a better quality of life. I joined the management team at Midnight eight years ago and haven’t looked back!

Flo: My background is in the travel industry, where I spent many years as Director of the Association of Cruise Experts and of the Tourism Society. I then moved into business development and travel PR and really got the PR bug. I called time on my commute to London five years ago when I joined Midnight. Having those director roles so early in my career has been a massive help in taking the helm at Midnight and my travel days have helped us to build a great roster of leisure and lifestyle clients.

Why did you decide to buy the business?

We both love what Midnight stands for: it’s creative, energetic, entrepreneurial, nimble and unafraid to challenge. It’s such a strong brand with so much goodwill towards it. We respect Caraline’s fantastic achievements over the years and we want to continue her legacy in our own way. We’re keen to evolve our brand while staying true to its spirit. So, really, it was an easy decision to make!

How do you plan on building on a 23-year legacy?

Midnight is a great business – the last 23 years are testament to that. We plan to preserve the special culture we have at Midnight, nurture and invest in our teams, continue to do great work for our clients and to constantly challenge each other to be curious. The industry is changing so rapidly, with all the disruption that new technologies and new social norms have brought about, and we intend to stay ahead of the curve. Midnight was the first agency to specialise in digital media and we know that our future will involve much more of that.

Some consider PR to be a ‘dark art’, what do you actually do?

It’s definitely not a dark art, actually, it’s about shining a light on what businesses, organisations and brands do best.

When we take a new client on we often see that they are so busy doing great things that they forget to tell the world. No client is the same, they all have different challenges and different objectives but the one thing they have in common is that they come to us to help them get the credit they deserve. Essentially - we help build, maintain and protect reputations and in doing so help to grow our clients’ businesses.

Our skill is analysing the client’s commercial objectives and identifying ways in which we can achieve that and also give the media what it wants and needs too. We are a broker of sorts!

Day to day it’s eclectic. We’ll develop a strategy and the tactics will flow from that. We’ll be producing calendar-driven stories, research papers, comments on the news agenda, thought pieces, engaging social media campaigns, content for websites and blogs, videos and much more.

What sort of clients do you work for?

Our heritage is in business-to-business and professional services and over the years we’ve also handled the PR for some great brands and not-for-profit organisations. It’s a bit of a running joke in the office about just how diverse our jobs are. One minute we will be producing a 15-page research report about the impact of Brexit on the global workforce, the next we’ll be arranging for the BBC to attend a medieval jousting tournament, then the next we might be diffusing a potential crisis.

We’re proud to be a national agency that happens to be based in Brighton. We have local Brighton and Sussex clients, national and multinational clients.

There are very few boutique agencies who will handle such a wide range of clients.  It is challenging - and we love that! We find it keeps our wits sharp and ideas fresh. We draw on consumer tactics on behalf our of businesses clients and vice versa – we’re determined to never be an ‘off the shelf’ ideas kind of agency.

How has this year gone so far for Midnight?

It’s been an incredible year. We’ve been overwhelmed with the support we’ve had from the Brighton and Sussex business communities and from our clients. We’ve had good organic growth, as well as a raft of new clients, come on board, including three in just one week! We’ve also welcomed some talented new team members on board and have forged new partnerships with some complementary agencies to enable us to create even more diversity in our offer to clients. And today, we’ve just had news that we’ve been shortlisted for another four CIPR PRide awards. Life is good!

What does the future hold for the company?

We plan to consolidate and hone our sector specialisms more in the coming months and years. We’re also keen to offer our clients an even more rounded package. Many of our clients are asking for more content support for their marketing teams. In the last few months we’ve developed several aspects of our inhouse offer, including paid media, we’ve invested in our in-house video service and expanded our capabilities to deliver digital content. The lines are blurring between marketing disciplines but one thing is for sure: content is king – and PR agencies are ideally positioned to own that space. Exciting times ahead!

Thanks to Midnight Communications for writing this blog.

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk