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Kevin Briscoe

Kevin Briscoe on the medium of storytelling

By Kevin Briscoe

Director, Briscoe PR

The art of compelling storytelling is one that Kevin Briscoe has mastered throughout his editorial career which began at the Portsmouth News with varied journalistic roles including reporting, newsroom and features writing, and TV Editor.

From regional press, Kevin moved to the Hampshire Police press office where, during a 10-year period, he became the Head of Media and Corporate Communications, rebranding and refocusing the messaging of the department towards proactive reassurance for its local citizen audience whilst garnering knowledge in crisis communications.

Such a wealth of experience is the fundamentals upon which Kevin founded his own PR and communications agency, Briscoe PR, in 2011. A decade later, the agency still thrives upon the virtuosity of captivating storytelling and writing at its core.

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Are there PR campaigns that you've worked on that you're particularly proud of?

Every year there is always something we do that I think is amazing and that I’m proud of.

Some recent ones include a retail client in Totton – Healthy Pet Store. We've helped to transform the business with some structured communications and different storytelling. It’s worked fantastically well – the business has been catapulted into significant growth and expansion.

We also helped a client to set up a street food festival in Southampton. It started as an idea, and we helped them to tell the story and get across their key messages. It was held a few weeks ago with 8000 people attending which was way beyond what they were hoping to achieve.

There are other areas that are less campaign-focused and more day-to-day comms. Clients like NATS, who I worked with for 13 years, supporting them on many different aspects of their comms – from managing the messaging around London 2012 to changes to airspace over London and terrorism and security threats. They're all significant pieces of work that I'm really proud of.

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"It’s a more subliminal way of increasing sales and awareness of a brand and products by telling stories through their social media."

What’s your approach to social media?

Our approach to social media is much more around storytelling and less about trying to sell a product or service. It’s a more subliminal way of increasing sales and awareness of a brand and products by telling stories through their social media.

I think a lot of businesses fall into that trap of just putting posts on their social media about the latest product or service without telling the story about why it’s important and why people might benefit from it. We try to add that missing piece of the jigsaw because, from our experience, when businesses create engaging stories, they start to see more sustained growth and build much longer-lasting relationships with their customers.

What are your creative processes as a team to put together solutions for your clients?

We work very closely with the client to really understand what they want to achieve. We find out what they really want, their absolute goals, and the outcomes they want from a campaign. And then we think about how to structure a campaign to be able to achieve that for them.

As a team, we’ll get our heads together, we’ll do board blasts, we’ll bring in extra people and specialist expertise if we need to – we’ll do all sorts of things. We then go back to the client with a proposal. We encourage all our clients to set performance indicators and clear objectives and goals, so they’re really happy and bought into what the outcomes are going to be from that particular campaign.

"I’m still a news junkie – I like to discover new things, I’m still eager to learn new things, and I do devour social media myself. I like to be in touch with what's going on in the news and people’s opinions on it."

Kevin Briscoe - Director, Briscoe PR

You also have roles in the wider community; how important is it for you and your business to have a positive impact?

I’m the chair of governors at Fareham College and a trustee of The Rainbow Centre for Conductive Education in Fareham.

I enjoy doing those sorts of things because it’s nice to be able to use the skills, knowledge, and experience that I’ve got for the benefit of a different sort of organisation that aligns with my values and ethics.

Where is your favourite place to visit when you need to get away and focus on your creativity?

I think we’re very lucky here in Hampshire. I enjoy getting out somewhere beside the sea, like Lee-on-the-Solent seafront or into the New Forest, or somewhere like Mottisfont Abbey to walk outdoors and get some focus.

If I need a longer break, I enjoy family holidays to Cornwall and our favourite place is the west coast of Ireland.

How do you consume your news?

I’m still a news junkie – I like to discover new things, I’m still eager to learn new things, and I do devour social media myself. I like to be in touch with what’s going on in the news and people’s opinions on it.

Sadly, I do tend to consume my media online nowadays and I listen to the radio a lot. I do occasionally buy a paper and I enjoy it when I do. I think it’s a great pity that regional newspapers are nowhere near as strong as they were. They were incredibly strong in the times when I was able to work as a journalist. I still think of myself as a journalist that does PR rather than a PR who used to be a journalist.