Buzzing around London

Over the last few weeks our PR team took to the streets of London, hundreds of mini jars of honey in hand, to visit journalists at the national, consumer and trade titles we speak to every day.

A desk drop used to be a classic PR technique. Pre-pandemic, a press release would accompany a gift that would land on journalists desks for them to cover on that day (ideally) with an electronic version arriving in their inbox at the same time. In spring 2020 we hand-delivered hundreds of money plants to the business and money desks across the capital, to celebrate our 25th birthday and remind them that we’re here to help money stories grow. Unfortunately, Covid hit a few days later - some journalists managed to take their plants home or keep them alive over their visits to the office, but many were lost. In a silver lining, a journalist wrote a short story based on the idea, which won her awards for fiction!

Then the pandemic killed the desk drop - hundreds of journalists working at home aren’t quite so easy to reach in one fell swoop.

But with journalists now back in the office, for at least a few days a week, it’s firmly time for the resurrection of the art form. I think it’s a great way to keep yourselves, and what you stand for, on journalists’ radars - and for those you haven’t met yet, to begin to build relationships with them.

While we tucked into pizza on Budget Day, we spotted that Asda’s PR team had sent the money and politics desks at the nationals a hamper full of snacks to keep the journalists fuelled on one of their busiest days of the year. Smart, timely, and relevant.

We chose to send journalists a pot of honey and a personalised honey twizzler. Not the first thing you might expect from a financial services PR agency. But, in ancient times, honey really was money. It was used to pay taxes and barter in shops. And today, it still is. Pollinators, like honey bees, contribute a huge $22bn to the European agricultural industry per year - not just in the honey they produce, but the crops they fertilise which grows the food we eat.

While we don’t confess to be experts in hives and honey, we do pride ourselves in being experts in finding different ways to tell a story. Hence the honey desk drop. All with the plus side that our honey comes handmade straight from a Teamspiriter’s hive in the Sussex countryside.

And we decided to hand deliver the honey because it’s critical for us to be out and about, meeting journalists face-to-face - media excellence requires personal relationships. And it was great fun for the whole team, embracing the March showers and negotiations with receptionists across the city.

And so far, it’s received rave reviews.

“Thanks so much – it’s really "sweet" and kind of you all!”

“The honey pots are so cute and the little TS honey dippers were incredible. A happy team!”

“My colleagues who have tried the honey say it is delicious so thanks very much."