Scala – 2017 Round-Up!

As 2017 comes to a close we thought there was no better time to have a look back at all the work we’ve done this year and share some of our….and more importantly our clients….. highlights!

Parklane Plowden Chambers

2017 marked 10 years since the merger of Park Lane and Plowden Chambers to form the Northern barrister-powerhouse that is Parklane Plowden Chambers. We’ve been providing outsourced marketing consultancy and administrative services to them since January 2015

They kicked off their anniversary celebrations at the Modern Claims Awards in April, where they were crowned ‘Chambers of the Year’. Throughout the rest of the year they were shortlisted for a number of other industry awards, including ‘Barristers’ Chambers of the Year’ at the Claims Management Awards, Yorkshire Legal Awards, Personal Injury Awards and ‘Regional Set of the year’ at the Legal 500 Awards

Everyone knows a proper celebration wouldn’t be complete without a party, so we helped them host two!

They started with a ‘Throwback Thursday’ themed Summer Party, held at The Oracle in Leeds with a hog roast, drinks and an acoustic guitarist singing hits from the last 10 years.

Their annual Christmas Party at The Baltic, Newcastle, was also a huge success and a great opportunity to celebrate not only the 10^th Anniversary of Parklane Plowden, but also the countdown to Christmas. We’d hired karaoke pods for the ‘after-party’, which turned out to be the highlight of the event, and identified that there are several barristers and solicitors out there who can really hold a tune!

In November we assisted the Family Team with their ‘Family and Children Law Conference’ in York to over 100delegates. For the event, we booked the venue and coordinated with the events manager at the Hotel to ensure everything went to plan. We promoted the event across social media; designed the flyer; prepared a delegate pack; and secured the fantastic guest speaker for the event – Dr Elizabeth Kilbey a consultant clinical psychologist who appears on Channel 4’s ‘Secret Life of 4 Year Olds’.

If you have any upcoming events in 2018 and need any help organising them, contact us. We work hard to find the very best venues, arranging everything from welcome drinks, food and entertainment and will also attend to ensure it all runs smoothly. In the run up to the event, we will design and produce flyers, create an invitation email campaign using MailChimp and advertise the event across social media to ensure you have a full house.

Rebmark

In April this year, Rebmark Legal Solutions held their inaugural #NotJustForGolfers Charity Golf and Spa Day.

As the title suggests, this wasn’t your average ‘Golf Day’! There was something for everyone with a golf tournament, beginner’s lessons from Head Coaching Professional Oliver Barnes, or even the option to enjoy the fabulous spa facilities.

The event was held at The Mere, Cheshire and was a great success with over £2,000 raised for Meningitis Now.

We helped Rebmark with promotion of the event, sourced merchandise and goody bags for the day and attended to take photographs, keep all social media accounts up to date and ensure everything ran to plan. (We also managed to squeeze in a beginner’s golf lesson) We also produced a newsletter on MailChimp and circulated it to Rebmarks’ clients following the success of the day.

2017 has been a busy and successful year for Rebmark who were granted ‘Made in Sheffield’ status, an accolade famous internationally as a mark of origin and quality on the City’s manufactured products. Directors, Mark Hewitt and Rebecca Andersen were both born-and-bred in the city, so it was particularly poignant, after all, #Sheffieldissuper!

More recently, Rebmark have been acquired by leading American-owned data analytics provider -Verisk.Together, they will offer a combined set of solutions that span the scope of personal injury claims and provide analytics and decision support throughout the life of a claim.

Following the announcement, Mark Hewitt, Managing Director of Rebmark said, “Our increased market presence and ‘rise to fame’ in recent years is something that Scala has played a key role in.”

Switalskis Solicitors

At the end of last year, we assisted Switalskis Solicitors with the launch of their first marketing video. You may have heard us talking about it, a bit (ok, a lot – but we’re very proud of it!)

We worked closely with Switalskis throughout the video production, final tweaks and edits and were thrilled with the end-product.

The video was launched on the 1^st December 2016 using a Facebook campaign and enjoyed great success, with the sponsored post reaching over 19,00 people, with nearly 8,000 people viewing it within 6 weeks. We also monitored traffic to the Switalskis website following the launch, and there were some great results. The impact on website traffic was dramatic, with visits to the homepage increasing by over 250%.

This video can be viewed here.

Following on from the success of this video, Switalskis asked us to produce two more videos in 2017 to feature on their website and across social media, as well as producing a number of GIFs.

Again, we worked closely with Joe at Whistle Video to create imaginative, professional and effective marketing video’s.

The first of these was a client story for their clinical negligence page, featuring their client Greg, who sustained a brain injury shortly after he was born. The video moves away from the traditional ‘talk-to-camera’ format and instead tells Greg’s story, featuring his family and images from his home, showing the incredible adaptions that help make life easier. It also details the help and support Switalskis have given, and continue to give to Greg and his family.

This video can be viewed here.

The most recent video we have produced for Switalskis fully captures their key marketing message, “National Lawyers. Across Yorkshire” and features beautiful drone footage of their 13 locations across Yorkshire (filmed by Joe), set to a piece of music that we specially commissioned a local artist to produce.

This video can be viewed here.

If video marketing is something you’d like to include in your marketing strategy for 2018, contact us on 0114 4070159, office@scala.uk.com.

PR – Switalskis

We love helping our clients tell their stories, and this year has been no exception. It’s been an incredibly, but very fulfilling year for us on the PR front.We have chosen two of our biggest PR stories as our highlights.

Both these cases have made not only local but national headlines, and hope to bring about changes in the law.

PR on Inquest into the death of Harry Whitlam and campaign to change drink-drive laws

Harry Whitlam died on the 9^th August 2013, aged just 11, when he was struck by a reversing tractor on Swithens Farm in Rothwell, Leeds. The driver of the tractor was over the drink-drive limit, but because he was driving a vehicle on private land, he could not be prosecuted by the police.

We were asked by Pamela Whitlam’s solicitors, Switalskis, to handle the media coverage of the inquest.

During the inquest, it came to light the extent to which the tractor driver, Gary Green, was over the drink drive limit. Up until this point the family hadn’t been told, and the fact that he was nearly 3 times over the limit and had not faced any criminal charges was shocking.

We therefore conceived and launched the Whitlam’s Law campaign to make drive-drive laws apply to ALL vehicles, irrespective of where they are being driven.

PR on stillbirth case & campaign to change Inquest laws

Jack and Sarah Hawkins’ first baby – Harriet- was born dead in 17^th April 2016 following a mismanaged labour by Nottingham University Hospital Trust.

The couple’s medical background enabled them to question the hospital’s original explanation as to the cause of death, “an infection”, and they embarked on an investigation that unearthed endemic failures and cover-ups by the Trust.

Through their lawyers, we were asked to handle the PR and help ‘blow the whistle’ on what had happened to them in an effort to help other families who had experienced similar treatment.

The full stories, how we helped, and the PR Portfolio’s can be found on our Portfolio page.

A strong PR strategy can create, maintain and promote a positive image, elevating your brand both locally and nationally.

We’ve helped a number of law firms secure local and national coverage this year, and will happily discuss any PR requirements for 2018 with you.

We can work on a retainer bases, or can provide media liaison for one off cases.

Awards

We love nothing more than an excuse to get dressed up at Scala, and this year we’ve had plenty of opportunities to dust off our glad rags and dig out our dancing shoes.

At Scala, we keep our eyes and ears open for all of the awards ceremonies happening in the legal sector.

Awards nominations and winning go a long way in enhancing brand visibility, and can often be reassuring to clients who might be unsure about differentiating between law firms when deciding who to instruct.

We will help identify relevant awards for you to enter, talk you through sponsorship opportunities and write award winning submissions on your behalf.

This year has been no exception and a full list of our clients and the awards they’ve been shortlisted for can be viewed below:

Awards
Personal Injury Awards
Shortlisted	Winner
Scala-Marketing Campaign of the Year	Switalskis | Janet Baker-Clinical Negligence Lawyer of the Year
Parklane Plowden-Chambers of the Year	Switalskis | David Greenwood-Claimant Personal Injury Lawyer of the Year
Rebmark-Supporting the Industry	Switalskis-Claimant Personal Injury Team of the Year
Morgan Jones Pett-Clinical Negligence Team of the Year
Switalskis-Outstanding Case of the Year
Claims Management Awards
Shortlisted	Winner
Rebmark-Best Use of Technology	Rebmark-Claims Innovation of the Year
Parklane Plowden-Barristers Chambers of the Year
Modern Claims Awards
Shortlisted	Winner
	Parklane Plowden-Chambers of the Year
Northern Law Awards
Shortlisted	Winner
Parklane Plowden | Michael Stubbs-Law Practice Management
Parklane Plowden | Steven Turner-Lawyer of the Year
Yorkshire Legal Awards
Shortlisted	Winner
Parklane Plowden-Chambers of the Year	Switalskis-Dispute Resolution
Modern Law Awards
Shortlisted	Winner
Switalskis | Amy Clowery-Rising Star of the Year
Switalskis-Personal Injury Team of the Year
Family Law Awards
Shortlisted	Winner
Switalskis-Family Law Firm of the Year – North
UKABIF Awards 2017
Shortlisted	Winner
	Switalskis | Mark Hollinghurst-Lawyer of the Year
42 under 42
Shortlisted	Winner
Rebmark-Mark Hewitt
ACQ5 Global Awards
Shortlisted	Winner
	Rebmark-Niche technology offering of the year (legal
	Rebmark-Mark Hewitt, Game Changer of the Year (legal technology)

We’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our clients a very merry Christmas and look forward to working with you all in 2018.

For more information on how we can assist with your marketing strategy, contact us on 0114 4070159, office@scala.uk.com.