Company: Eulogy!
Company Description: Eulogy! is one of the UK’s top 25 independent PR agencies with a London-based team of 35 people covering consumer, B2B and online PR. In 2008, we acquired online PR agency Onlinefire and launched the UK’s first-ever directory of blogs, forums, websites and podcasts. We currently hold an agency of the year accolade from the PRCA and an IPRA and Stevie award, for B2B and consumer work respectively.
Nomination Category: Company/Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Overall Company of the Year – Service Businesses – up to 100 Employees

Nomination Title: Come on Eulogy! Lara Leventhal’s 2009

1. Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated company during the eligibility period (up to 500 words):

Accomplishments since July 2008

10% growth for 3rd consecutive year and profits above industry standards:
- Turnover for 08/09 was £3.4m, net profit REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION
- Forecasting REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION for 09/10
- 30% growth over 3 years
- REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION operating margin (industry standard 12%)

Big brand wins:
MTV
Brown-Forman
Beck’s
Zanussi
Post Office
Moneysupermarket.com

Staff retention: 90%
(Industry standard 75%)

Client retention: 82%
(Industry standard 58%)

Online activity: acquired specialist online PR agency, Onlinefire and won:
Post Office
Panasonic
Wyndham Hotels
Virgin Media

Agency performance
13 award wins & shortlists this year

How Eulogy! achieved this?
With innovation
Lara changed our thinking
- Introduced new business model: Thinking – Solutions – Delivery, a value-based
proposition designed to highlight strength of our strategic expertise and provide
clear differentiation in marketplace
- Developed a creative and strategic council for pitch preparation & business
development. Pitch success rate of 75%.

We launched Social Media Library
- UK’s first-ever directory of blogs, forums, websites and podcasts:
www.socialmedialibrary.co.uk
- 75 clients in 1st year of trading:
ASDA / Walmart
Disney
Sony BMG
Proctor&Gamble
Nissan
Unilever

With staff development
Lara has always known loyalty is critical to our development
- Staff retention rose to 90% (70% in 2007) against a benchmark figure of 75%
quoted by our trade body
- Increased per head training budget to REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION
- Retained Profit Related Pay despite economic climate
- Introduced Personal Development Fund – office-wide fund for increasing our skills
outside PR
REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION
- Introduced day Culture Passes – to improve our cultural knowledge
REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION

With diversification
Lara’s strategic acquisition of our new creative online sister agency, Onlinefire,
has enhanced what Eulogy! can offer its clients
- 53% of clients have taken up or are considering online PR
- 30% of new business leads specify online requirements in briefs

By exceeding expectations
A third-party assessment to ascertain how likely clients are to recommend us
scored Eulogy! at 86% against an industry average of 66%.

Our client retention rate is 82%, up from 70% in 2007.

Simon Dornan, Head of Consumer PR Virgin Mobile:
“Lara’s team turned a 30p tariff announcement into the most creative social media
campaign we’ve ever executed. The results were incredible. Increasing monthly
customer acquisition by 5.5% speaks for itself.”

Chris Hancox, VP Marketing & Creative Services, Comedy Central:
“It’s impossible to stress the critical nature of Eulogy!’s campaign, building our
audience share by 50% and increasing our peak time viewing by 65% when the
economic climate was decimating ad revenue for many of our competitors.”

Adrian Brady, chief exec at Eulogy!:
“What a story. Lara joined us 10 years ago and has progressed from account
executive to MD, in the process creating an award winning, top 20 independent UK
agency.”

CSR
Eulogy! donated over 4% of net profit to The Beacon Projects, an orphanage in
Blantyre, Malawi, to bridge the gap between what the orphanage generates itself
and what it needs to be economically viable.

2. List the URLs (web addresses) of any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that you would like the judges to see that support your entry. IMPORTANT: List each URL on a separate line, begin each URL with http://, and enclose each URL in square brackets. For example, [http://www.yourcompany.com/pressrelease.html]:

Our two minute creds
http://www.eulogy.co.uk/two-minute-creds

Our work with Comedy Central
http://www.eulogy.co.uk/case-studies/read/comedy-central.html

Our work with Virgin Mobile and the 30p tariff
http://www.eulogy.co.uk/case-studies/read/Virgin-Mobile-30-peas.html

Our awards
http://www.eulogy.co.uk/about-us/awards.html

We PR ourselves. Lara has made sure that Eulogy! is one of those rare
companies that actually practices what they preach
http://www.eulogy.co.uk/press.html

Our industry knowledge
http://blog.eulogy.co.uk/#

Social Media Library
http://www.socialmedialibrary.co.uk

3. Provide a brief biography of the person or persons who lead the nominated company (up to 100 words):

Lara joined as an account executive 10 years ago and has progressed to MD. In
that time she has been instrumental in developing Eulogy!’s brand proposition to
create an award-winning agency which is now one of the UK's top 20 independents.