”Their informal, personable style very much mirrored our own, making for an ideal working relationship, but was complemented by the professionalism and an excellent understanding of the commercial requirements underpinning their work. The contacts and relationships they forged with publications in our chosen industry sectors were strong, and the team worked them hard to secure the firm the best possible opportunities to comment and feature.
Chris WilsherFormer Head of Marketing, Thomas Eggar
The challenge
How a 13-year partnership saw Midnight helping Thomas Eggar take its place on the national stage
What could you achieve working long-term with a specialist B2B PR agency with a proven track record in helping brands grow?
Our journey with law firm Thomas Eggar answers that question with big emphatic: “more than you can imagine”.
Thomas Eggar wasn’t always the powerhouse regional law firm it is today (now part of Irwin Mitchell). It was once a small, well-respected, but little-known local law firm with a single office and a big ambition to grow. That’s when Midnight started working with the firm which led to a 13 year-long relationship to provide PR support.
As a local firm, it was evaluated solely against other regional firms in its five core specialist sectors: Private Client, Sport, Retail, Technology and Construction. The challenge was to shift the firm’s perception in the minds of ideal clients and position Thomas Eggar as a national law firm that could compete against the major firms in its respective sectors.
Throughout the 13-year journey, the strategies shifted, yet the core objective remained the same: position Thomas Eggar as a national law firm and help it punch above its weight in its key sectors.
How Midnight met the challenge
Early on, we identified the critical strategy to meeting the challenge of Thomas Eggar’s growth was focusing on the relevance and quality of the coverage we looked to place. There were three focus areas, including the national press, where we would look to place comments from our lawyers on topical items in the news agenda. In the trade press, our goal was to communicate sector expertise with by-lined articles and features, and regional press activity would focus on key messaging, news and CSR at each office location.
We began by highlighting the firm’s extensive sector expertise by providing proactive and reactive media comment to breaking national and business news agendas. We wanted to convey the firm’s specialisms in technology, construction, retail, sport and private client work, so we had plenty to write about.
In the trade press, we developed informative thought leadership articles for placement in select legal publications and filmed several ‘talking head’ videos on a range of topical themes shared across targeted platforms.
Top-tier coverage driven by top-tier relationships built on trust
Working on the Thomas Eggar account was a blast – and that was entirely down to the close relationship we maintained with the fee earners for whom we were building media profiles. Campaigns, where the team can follow the news agenda, are always fun to work on, and throughout the campaign, it proved fertile ground for securing coverage.
Often the need for clients to oversee every aspect of campaign output can reduce responsiveness – but not with Thomas Eggar.
As long as marketing was looped in, we were trusted to build relationships and effectively have free rein to talk to the solicitors. As a result, we could be more responsive to opportunities to place comment as soon as stories emerged.
As the solicitors saw our great work positioning the firm and raising its profile nationally, their enthusiasm to support this with their contribution became a competition between fee earners for PR Star of the Month. One solicitor darted outside halfway through an event to dictate a comment to the national press as they were so keen to support the campaign.
Highlights included a Thomas Eggar lawyer featured on the front page of the Daily Telegraph discussing non-dom tax status and Budget Day when Sky News interviewed the firm’s tax director throughout the day. In addition, our approach helped Thomas Eggar achieve the coverage required to position itself as the “go-to” law firm for retail and publications in all its key service sectors.
Underpinning all activity was a constant stream of news about the firm, including appointments, hiring, new office openings and CSR activities. Although we worked with the firm on PR and publicity across its five key sectors, we maintained flexibility when they wanted to focus on specific specialisms such as sports law.
A snapshot of one year’s results working with the firm in building its national profile shows our approach’s impact. In one year, we generated more than 300 items of coverage, with at least half in national and top-tier titles, reaching over 1.3 billion readers. This level of coverage exceeded our target by 20%.
We achieved 94 opinion-led article placements and a 40% increase in national and top-tier coverage year-on-year – trebling media coverage scores within six months.
A unique partnership that delivered long-term impact and value
Over 13 years, Midnight was an integral part of the journey of Thomas Eggar from a local firm to a regional firm of six offices across the South East and eventually a merger with national giant Irwin Mitchell.
As the firm went through different stages of growth and evolved its positioning, shifting the narrative may have been challenging. However, our close partnership allowed us to work personally with their lawyers, with whom we had developed a trusting relationship and helped secure the coverage needed to support the client’s ambitious growth plans.
Although Thomas Eggar’s PR function was eventually taken in-house due to the merger with Irwin Mitchell LLP, our journey together shows what we can achieve working closely as a partnership built on mutual trust and a commitment to driving tangible business results.
