BLP is a premier, full service law firm employing over 730 lawyers, including 190 partners, and almost 1400 staff, over 10 per cent of whom are based outside of the UK. The firm has offices in London, Moscow, Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Paris and Singapore in addition to relationships with more than 100 preferred firms in over 65 countries. Clients include FTSE 100 companies and financial institutions, major multinationals, the public sector, entrepreneurial private businesses and individuals.
BLP was named UK Law Firm of the Year 2008 at the Chambers Europe Awards for Excellence and has previously been awarded the title of Law Firm of the Year by both Chambers Europe and The Lawyer. Our five main pillars of expertise include Corporate, Finance, Real Estate, Tax and Litigation and Dispute Resolution. For more information visit http://www.blplaw.com.
This submission relates to the 2009 media relations campaign for BLP Tax. The practice has experienced explosive growth over the last two years, and is now the only London law firm to offer the full range of contentious and non-contentious tax advice across corporate, finance, real estate, funds, indirect taxes, personal tax, trusts and charities. With 22 tax partners and 35 Associates, it is now the largest and broadest based tax practice in London. In recognition of the team’s increased size and breadth, BLP Tax was awarded Best Tax Team in a Law Firm at the LexisNexis Taxation Awards 2009.
Although BLP Tax’s size is the largest team in any City law firm at the beginning of 2009, profile and market recognition were low. This document details the objectives, goals, research and planning, production, implementation and results of BLP Tax’s media relations campaign in 2009/10. The attached appendix provides further explanation of the ROI methodology, media coverage clippings and supplier costs for this campaign.
Objectives of the campaign
- Showcase BLP Tax to existing and potential clients in target sectors
- Raise awareness to generate favourable coverage
- Blend timely proactive campaigns with reactive comment
- Develop articles, briefings and events to demonstrate clear thinking and innovation
Strategy – broader business objectives
As a result of the financial crisis, a key objective of the firm has been to evolve our business model to ensure that when the downturn ends we are a stronger, more agile firm with increased market share. Key objectives of the firm are:
- Reinforce our international network and broaden our practice beyond English law capabilities
- Create a unique service offering by providing commercial and business-led advice rather than solely legal advice
- Build a strong reputation in all five core pillars of our expertise; Tax, Finance, Corporate, Litigation and Disputes Resolution and Real Estate
- Capitalise on the downturn by head-hunting London’s best legal practitioners
(this has resulted in over 70 lateral hires in the past two years)
Key objectives of the BLP Tax are:
- Raise the profile of the department by having a clear voice in the market
- Differentiate ourselves from the Magic Circle
- Differentiate our service offering from accountants
- Increase the revenue of the department
How this campaign relates to broader business objectives
As noted in section i., BLP Tax has experienced rapid growth in the past two years, however the majority of the market was not aware of the depth and breadth of the practice. The reasons for developing the 2009/10 PR campaign to achieve the objectives of BLP Tax were that PR is a key channel that reaches our target audience and is one of the fastest ways to change market perceptions. PR enables a focus on business issues while aligning with strategic objectives, raising the profile of BLP Tax as well as key product areas, for low risk and low budgetary outlay.
Campaign goals
- Increase profile of BLP Tax
- Develop thought leaders on key topics
- Drive business generation and growth
Resourcing
A dedicated media team of technical legal experts was assigned and two members of the Tax business development team were seconded to this campaign to manage the relationship between the PR agency and BLP legal team
Target audience
The target audience aligns with our client base and target prospects:
- Financial institutions and FTSE 100 and 250 companies (primary)
- Private clients (secondary)
- Public bodies and other opinion leaders (tertiary)
Media or channels used
The campaign was comprised of three cornerstone campaigns centred around key fiscal announcements throughout the year. The main message related to HMRC’s policies, focusing on the issues and implications of tax policy to business. The table below shows the media channels the campaign used. Refer to the results section for a breakdown of media channels for each of the three cornerstone campaigns.
Timescale of the campaign
For each of the three cornerstone campaigns, a timeline spanning over 65 days was developed and followed. The table below details the different stages of the campaign.
On the day
Face to face group media briefing
