Campaign Showcase: 2017 Public Affairs Awards Consultant of the Year

Joe Cawley, Account Director, Four Communications

Joe Cawley is an Account Director with Four Communications, leading on new business for strategic land clients, managing and training a junior team and working across a broad portfolio of clients. Over the year Joe’s successes include:

1. Securing a strong annual pipeline of new business
2. Delivering a winning campaign for Heart of London Business Alliance’s ballot
3. Providing key though leadership materials for a wide variety of clients

Ralph Scott, Deputy Managing Director of Four Public Affairs:

“Having been with us for less than 18 months, we have really thrown Joe in the deep end. He has been a real asset to the team, led pitches and won new clients as well as building solid relationships and added value to our existing clients. The comments of his clients and colleagues speak for themselves; he is a real asset to Four Communications.”

New business

Joe has been tasked with specific responsibility for delivering new strategic land clients, as well as contributing to new business in London. Since arriving at Four, Joe has a proven track record of securing new business including clients like Grosvenor GBI, Countryside (Both New Business & Communities and Partnerships), Fruition Properties and Barratt London. Across this activity he has:

• Identified numerous leads and referrals
• Successfully converted multiple pitches into projects
• Delivered 10+ projects contributing to a growing annual pipeline

Bissan Zamzam, Project Manager at Fruition Properties:

“Joe led the pitch team from Four to secure work on a site of ours in London. We were impressed with his knowledge of the planning system and the area in particular. After nine months of working together, and with the project coming to an end, we are looking forward to working with Joe across other sites in the near future.”

Marketing

The success of the company rests on actively marketing the brand and services; showing clients how Four can help solve their business problems and add value. Four’s public affairs division specialises in the politics of London and the Home Counties, and showing clients and prospects the in-depth insight the agency has in these areas and how is relevant to their challenges is our main focus.

Joe has taken to this with vigour at Four. He has taken time outside of work to build original political insight and thought leadership for the business and our clients. This includes regularly representing Four at London First events, NLA events and borough workshops, whilst his attendance at events ranging from Party Conference to local council meetings creates an invaluable political knowledge base. This has successfully been converted into added value for the business and clients, for example through:

• Dozens of client responses to national, London and Westminster based consultations
• Creation of industry thought leadership material for clients, securing speaking platforms and rising client profile
• Providing marketing assets to display Four’s insight into the political world

Alex Robinson, Development Director, Grosvenor GBI:

“Joe’s understanding of the local politics where we work is a key asset when we look to engage with communities about development. His insight into the overall outlook of the Government in relation to development helps us take a more long-term view of the industry. We really value Joe’s input and look forward to continuing to work with him.”

HR

A key aspect of Joe’s job is to train, support and manage his team. Joe is passionate about in work development and focuses on getting his team into training courses, encouraging attendance at external meetings for increased experience and supporting them into networking opportunities. His contribution includes:

• Providing opportunities for account executives to take the lead on clients to support their development
• Accompanying account executives and managers to networking events to build their networks
• Managing the Four Public Affairs mentoring programme

Since starting at Four he has helped five members of the team to progress and achieve promotions.

Laurie Sanderson, Account Executive at Four Communications:

“Joe is incredibly supportive of training and advancing those in his team. I joined as a graduate just over a year ago and Joe has helped me improve the quality of my work and how I think about approaching problems. He is a great manager and role model.”

Clients

In addition to securing new clients, Joe has excelled at delivering effective campaigns that deliver change, whilst building strong working relationship with some of Four’s biggest existing clients. Over the last year, for example, Joe led on Heart of London Business Alliance’s BID renewal campaign. From developing the strategy to writing the business plan and producing the materials for the campaign, Joe supported the client in every aspect of the ballot. With the ballot won by the largest ever margin in March 2017, Joe continues to work with Heart of London and is now finalising their approach and activities for the next five years.

Ros Morgan, Chief Executive of Heart of London, said:

“Joe’s insight and commitment were crucial in developing the messaging, producing the collateral and delivering the campaign for us to achieve our best ballot result as a BID in over fifteen years. It was a hectic time for us and, having newly come into the role as Chief Executive, Joe’s knowledge and expertise really provided the basis for our winning campaign.”

Conclusion

Joe has had an exceptional year at Four and is surpassing expectations for a relatively new joiner at his level of seniority, the level of new business alone shows this. However, it is his commitment to the team, both delivering for the wider team and his mentoring of his team, that really sets him apart and why, we believe, he should be consultant of the year.