Raising a glass to 2019, by Nick Freer

There’s a line in the recently released Martin Scorsese movie The Irishman where Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa, played by Al Pacino, asks truck driver and budding mafia hitman Frank Sheeran, played by Robert de Niro, “I heard you paint houses?” Word of mouth has passed through the underground crime world of the Eastern Seaboard of 1950s America and Frank Sheeran’s currency is set for an inexorable rise.

Without wanting to draw too many comparisons between the dark arts of killing people for a living and running a PR agency, word of mouth has been the most important factor in building the Freer Consultancy into a bona fide player on the Scottish PR scene since I launched the business after losing my job in the wake of the financial crash just over a decade ago. 

Following my wife (as she is now) to Edinburgh, when I arrived in this city I knew no one, literally no one, professionally or socially, when I got off the train at Waverley one chilly afternoon (it was midsummer at the time).

By translating my experience of advising FTSE listed companies on the London Stock Exchange (I spent ten years with Maitland in London) to the Scottish context, I found a niche advising fast-growing SME companies like online travel search site Skyscanner (acquired by Ctrip in 2016), online tyre retailer Blackcircles.com (acquired by Michelin in 2015) and tech incubator CodeBase around corporate PR; helping each to build a narrative in the press that would raise profile en route to milestone events like VC funding, M&A, IPOs and other significant events on the corporate timeline. 

When one of my first ever clients asked to meet me at the office at home I had exaggeratedly told him about, which in reality included the matrimonial bed, a 6-month old baby and a battered old laptop, I remember spending a frenzied couple of days rearranging the house and spending a stupid amount of money on furniture and furnishings to make the place look less like the misrepresentation I had made it out to be. From memory, I think I may also have put the baby in a cupboard.

Fast forward almost ten years and my agency is doing much the same (the PR stuff rather than the stuffing babies in cupboards bit), namely supporting SMEs and entrepreneurs around PR strategy and delivery. In terms of the business, 2019 has been another good year. It’s been fun too - I think in the main because of the people I’ve had the chance to work with. People like Cortex CEO Peter Proud rank highly here, watch this space in 2020 for all things Cortex, and Carolyn Jameson who switched from Skyscanner to Copenhagen HQ-ed customer review site Trustpilot. Overall, we now have a good mix of what I describe as old and new economy clients (although in truth, software and digital transformation have begun to blur the lines).

Among the highlights from the old economy: supporting one of Scotland’s oldest but most dynamic law firms, Anderson Strathern, in what was a record year for the firm; advising the EICC team including around the venue winning the much-coveted TEDSummit; raising profile for the UK’s newest private bank, Hampden & Co, and; handling PR for property specialist Rettie & Co’s push into the build-to-rent sector. Meanwhile, Freer Consultancy clients like Tayburn, Denholm and MadeBrave have reinvented each of their own agencies with digital-led propositions.

Among highlights from the new economy: working closely with UserTesting, the first Silicon Valley tech company to open an international HQ in Scotland; advising Cultivate (one of the many tech startups and scale-ups we have worked with over the last ten years) and Deliveroo as the latter acquired the former this July; supporting entrepreneur Mike Welch as he launched his new tire venture Tirescanner in the US; advising second-time founder Paul Reid's new venture Trickle; handling PR around Money Dashboard’s record-breaking crowdfund; guiding PR activity for digital skills academy CodeClan; supporting Turing Fest around the Scottish Tech Startup Awards; handling Care Sourcer’s joint announcement on funding with Scottish Enterprise and; supporting global tech advisory bank GP Bullhound around acquisitions in Scotland.  

As we reach the end of the year (and the decade), we'd like to thank all of our clients, suppliers, associates, mentors and peers not only for all their support over the years but also for the many lasting friendships that have been made along the way. Together, we've been through the ups and downs, as well as the highs, that come with business life and life in general. While there has been occasional blood, sweat and tears, this has been the exception rather than the rule. So, a moment to reflect and raise a glass on New Year's Eve or Hogmanay as we call it in Scotland. To another year, to another decade and let's hope it's a roaring good 20s for us all! Slàinte mhath!

An edited version of this article appeared in The Scotsman on Monday 23rd December 2019