CEO profile raising for Adam Kerr
At 1pm yesterday, Ready Business Britain held a business travel online Q&A. Four business leaders were invited to join the panel to help business travellers: David Milner (CEO of Tyrells Potato Chips), Didier Rappaport (CEO and founder of dating app Happn), Scott Harper (COO of Malmaison) and Adam Kerr (CEO and founder of Tripism). This was an excellent opportunity to raise the profiles of these CEOs.
Exposure was the obvious gain for those involved, but the main prize on offer was really prestige. Ready Business Britain is a website run by The Times and The Sunday Times (in association with Vodafone). Taking part could only burnish a CEO profile.
Proof that this was the case can be seen from the calibre of companies represented. Mailmaison is a hotel chain with over a thousand employees. Tyrells is a household name among crisp lovers, owned by Bahrain-based Investcorp who boast $11.86 billion in assets. Happn is well-capitalized startup that raised €12.5 million in a recent fundraising round.
Even more telling are the three London-based PR agency that represent these three brands: Hudson Handler (Malmaison), Spider PR (Tyrells), and PHA Media (for Happn). These are large PR firms who represent deep pocketed clients, including Virgin Trains, Gazprom, and even the Qatar World Cup 2022.
So who is Adam Kerr, and how did the admittedly much smaller (and much, lower cost) PR agency Imp
Adam Kerr boosts his CEO profile
Communications manage to snag him a prime chance to boost his CEO profile?
This Q&A was a perfect PR opportunity for Adam, as a year and half ago he launched Tripism, a platform for sharing travel insights, recommendations, and know-how with other business travellers. Unlike any of the other panellists, Adam would be addressing his company’s core customer base.
Adam also had an ace up his sleeve. Before founding Tripism, Adam had held senior roles at a number of large corporations in different parts of the world and travelled extensively.
And how did the ‘David’ of Imp Communications manage to insert Adam among the clients of so many ‘Goliath’ PR agencies?
Easy. We just asked.
PR isn’t rocket science. Much of what we do is just recognizing opportunities for our clients as they arise and putting our clients forward to journalists. If this is done properly and promptly, that is often all it takes. We value our journalist contacts, but don’t believe the myth that PR is only a matter of contacts. If you can offer a journalist what they want, when they want it, that’s really what interests them.
Tripism benefits from a raised CEO profile
Back to CEO profile building, Adam did a fantastic job on the panel (including the benefits of Tripism for business travelers several times, with a link to tripism.io). He will have undoubtedly won a few potential Tripism users, but just as importantly he’s earned a valuable talking point for boosting his own credibility. Few media names can rival the caché of the Times and The Sunday Times. We’ve already made the most of it on Twitter, and he will be able to mention his invitation to join a panel run by these two august media outlets for years to come. And, as he took part as the founder of Tripism, his appearance’s halo affect spreads to his new company generally.
What’s next for Adam? Other CEO profile boosting activities include opinion pieces in respected publications like the Guardian, or appearing in real-life panels at important industry conferences.
All of these are possible, and Adam is well placed to do as much as feels the need for. He won’t need a top-price Soho-based PR firm to arrange it for him either. He just needs to give us a call.