MAD Promotions
Making A Difference in a PR world
PR Professional Karin Ridgers from boutique Vegan PR agency Mad Promotions, Billericay discusses the importance of making the right connections with and for her clients, and how support from business support programme Backing Essex Business has helped her align her plans, giving her increased confidence to see them through.
For 18 years, Mad Promotions (which stands for Making A Difference) has been supporting vegan organisations, businesses, and charities to gain media exposure and improved reputation, utilising its close ties to both local and national media to promote products, services and events.
Dedicated to providing a unique, personalised, and personable service, Karins always prioritises creating value for her clients, taking the time to really get to know her client’s business and its goals to ensure they get exposure to the right people.
Before diving into the PR world, Karin worked in Private banking, however a hobby in amateur dramatics saw her discover a talent for publicity and forming relationships in the media world. Having been a vegan herself for decades, it seemed an apt transition that if she were to make a jump into a new role and industry, that she would do it in an area she knew inside out and loved.
"One day I just was sitting in my office at the bank and I thought to myself, I really love PR, I love getting people publicity. I just went for it. I jumped in at the deep end and I’ve never looked back.”
Karin Ridgers, Owner, Mad Promotions
As a small team, Mad Promotions offers a real family feel, priding themselves on achieving excellent coverage, and also extending the service beyond that, offering a shoulder to cry on, a sounding board, and someone to brainstorm with. This service can’t however be accessed by just anyone. Karin and her team have a strong sense of morality, choosing her clients carefully to ensure that they match with her own vision and values.
““I’ve only ever worked with people that are making the world a better place, you know, whether that’s through their products or their services or their books or their business or whatever they’ve done, that’s the client that I love. I do what I do because I really believe in the person. Working with me is like having a real-life champion singing your praises to people.””
The Next Big Story
Having gone from strength to strength for many years, Karin recognised the slight change in the tide in the PR world. Whilst having strong beliefs that print isn’t dead, with many different audiences still engaging with news in a physical format, as well as radio, she knew that she would need to adapt and evolve her business into a more digital world. She started turning her attention to influencing, podcasts and getting her clients connected to celebrities.
““Just before COVID I got a little concerned, thinking I don’t want to be that person essentially selling VHS or cassette tapes. You know, there’s no market for that now. People now get their news in a different way. Whilst many newspapers and magazines are shrinking, there are now many avenues online that you can explore, plenty of vehicles to get publicity. I would just need to adapt. Businesses must pivot to grow and that’s what I’m aiming to do.””
Looking for some support to help her start on a journey of growth, Karin talked to some of her network to see what help there was out there. Previously feeling that most support was targeted towards start up or big employers, as a small but growing business, she didn’t know where to turn.
““I needed to know how to get to the next level. I’ve always been a bit disappointed because support always seemed to be for the start-ups or big companies that employ a lot of people and I always thought what about me? I’ve got a lot of work and I’ve got some good people working with me, where can I go, to learn how to stop doing all the work myself so I can grow””
Karin was referred to business support programme Backing Essex Business. Fully funded by Essex County Council, Backing Essex Business provides free business advice, access to business finance and free training and workshops for businesses across Essex, helping them to scale and grow.
Attending an online workshop called ‘Growth a Recession’ hosted by Backing Essex Business and delivered by Business Consultant Vicki Elliott-Potter from EPIC Ltd, she found she really connected with the host, finally feeling understood and listened to. Following the workshop, Karin was given the opportunity for some 1:1 mentoring with Vicki through Backing Essex Business, giving her the chance to talk through her plans, seek advice, and overcome any challenges she saw along the way.
““Working with Vicki was great. I really feel like she gets business especially businesses like mine. She chatted through my challenges, helped me shape up what I want to achieve, and encouraged me to showcase my services in a much more professional and concise way. I kind of felt like a huge sense of relief when I realized that after all these years of doing my business, my knowledge and my passion can still be channelled, it will just probably be through different vehicles”.”
Tomorrows News
A rule that Karin lives by, and also shares with others during talks she has led at national expos, is the three R’s, relationships, relevance and resilience. When you are a small business owner managing your own PR, you need to spend your time carefully to be able to get the most out of it. You need to build strong relationships in your area of focus, and ensure you are targeted enough to appeal to that market, and most of all you need to not be afraid to keep knocking on those doors, and never give up. As she looks to the future, her mind is set on reaching a point where she can grow the team and take a step back from the day to day, so that she can turn her attention to some other projects close to her heart including her website ‘VeggieVison TV’ a channel focussed on veganism, and an exciting additional part of the website VeggieVisionDating, a dating app for vegans and vegetarians.
Karins passion for PR and for veganism is evident, and we are sure to see her continuing to raise the stakes, and awareness of many vegan businesses across the world.
If you would like to find out more about MAD Promotions visit - https://www.mad-promotions.co.uk/
““I feel so lucky to have been given the support that I’ve got through backing Essex business. It just blew my mind and it was one on one support with somebody who I felt really cared and she could see the wood throughout the trees like I do for my clients.””
