PR Tech Guide #2 – Expensify

What is Expensify?

In the words of the company, it makes expense reports that don’t suck. Expensify is simply the best and easiest application for creating and submitting expenses. This is a piece of tech that’s not by any means limited to PR, anyone could use it. It auto converts from different currencies and you can even use it to request to have your expenses paid in Bitcoins.

What we use it for
To report, claim, approve and pay staff expenses. It scans and reads receipts and it can be fully integrated with many leading accounting software packages.

Five great things about…Expensify.

1. SmartScanning. SmartScan inputs the receipt information, then matches the receipt to the expense, eliminating the need to do manual entries. It’s a huge timesaver.

2. Mobile. It has fully functioning mobile versions. You can photograph receipts on the go, and create and submit expense reports from your phone (Apple, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows).

3. Approvals – You can confirm submission, approve and pay from within the app and generate automatic emails as you do. It’s equally good for staff, managers and the finance team.

4. Best bit? Time saved…you don’t have to key in as much with Expensify. You can input bank and credit card data as well as smartscanning. It really is an expense app for the 21st century.

5. Recommendation? Absolutely, we recommend using the platform whether you work in PR or not.

PR Tech Guide #1 – Passle

What is Passle?

It’s a sharing and posting platform aimed at business. Passle allows you to capture interesting content, comment with your point of view, and add context. It allow ideas and web content to be brought together quickly and easily.

What we use it for
We use it to capture and share online media coverage that we generate for our clients. Think of it as a web based cuttings book.

5 great things about…Passle.

1. Gather, collaborate, showcase – Passle’s strapline and what it does in a nutshell. Created to make light work of corporate blogging, the web-based platform allows you to montage and showcase content from across the net in one, easy-to-share place.

2. Visually strong – every PR knows the aesthetic nightmare of trying to make online coverage look good. Passle provides a virtual coverage book for all digital pieces. It’s easy to share, easy to customise and a great way to showcase results.

3. Social integration – What’s more, Passle’s innovative social media integration function allows you to grab Twitter chatter around your coverage. Helpfully showcasing further results and reach to clients.

4. Best bit? Time saved…gone are the days of spraymounted coverage books. Passle helps cut time on creating slide after slide of messy-looking screengrabs.

5. Recommendation? We definitely recommend using the platform if you need a way to showcase high volumes of online cuttings. Take a look at our client, Raw Cut’s, Passle page in action here.

Rule 5’s PR Tech Guides

Since we set up the agency in November 2012 we have actively sought to use the best of the ever-increasing range of technologies. Applications that impact on every aspect of how PR agencies now work. This week marks the start of a new regular blog feature where we share insight into the applications and latest tech innovations that the Rule 5 team is using.

These technologies have improved every aspect of how we deliver a service: from the tools that we use to creat content, sharing amongst the team, uploading and issuing to the media, right through to how we evaluate and optimise our work. We will make the guides easy to digest, picking out our top five observations and recommendations based on our experiences. Over time we will build a contemporary guide to the vast range of technologies that help us to do everything better.

Why would we share this when it enables other agencies to gain insight? There are several reasons:

1. We are happy for other agencies to learn and improve because we want to be part of a movement that elevates the practise and delivery of PR.

2. Technology is constantly evolving and we are confident that Rule 5 will remain an early adopter and innovator.

3. We want everyone including prospects and staff to understand more about how we work.

For our inaugural feature we focus on business blogging platform, Passle.

‘Derby’ Win in Northern Marketing Awards

The agency took the award for Sport Campaign of the Year at the 2014 Northern Marketing Awards last night (October 16th). The competition was about as tough as it gets with both Manchester City and Manchester United on the final short-list. It’s not often a PR agency gets to win in a Manchester derby. Salford Reds Rugby League team was also on the short-list.

Rule 5 was given the award for work on the 2013 inaugural World Taekwondo Grand Prix. Commenting on the victory the judges said that the “campaign was a real challenge and a hard win for the organisation as the sport is not popular or well-known within the UK,” however Rule 5 had “attacked every possible opportunity to achieve their great results and coverage.”

“We’ve been nominated several times for awards in a sporting category” said Founding Director Julie Wilson. “It has been amazing to nail our first victory against some of the biggest sporting names in the world.” To complete the sporting theme the awards ceremony took place at The Point at Lancashire Cricket Club.

EATRIS Picks Rule 5 For Pan-European Brief

We’re thrilled to have been appointed to handle a European PR and stakeholder engagement programme for Amsterdam based EATRIS (the European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine).

The agency has been engaged to build advocacy and awareness for EATRIS’s strategy of taking biomedical innovations ‘from bench to bedside’ working with over 70 leading academic institutions across Europe.

Frank de Man, Finance Director of EATRIS, said; “We operate in a complex environment and Rule 5 demonstrated that they understand that. We were impressed with their credentials and are working with them to build sustainable relationships with key journalists and stakeholders.”

It’s an important win for the agency and is our first client located outside the UK. Work is already underway with the team conducting highly targeted media relations activity and informing the European science and medical communities about the links to world-leading facilities the organisation provides.

EATRIS is a new organisation providing a development pathway in the progression of biomedical innovations. EATRIS provides researchers, SMEs and medical companies with a single point of access to the expertise, facilities and clinical patient cohorts, expediting the treatment development process.

RULE 5