“PR Superstar as the name suggests is really world-class. Jill has far exceeded our expectations. Her knowledge of journalism is second to none. She’s got all the right connections and knows how to open doors. She amazes us with the endless high-profile PR opportunities she creates.”
Barinder Hothi, Co-Founder and Managing Director, The Knowledge Academy
In just over five years, husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Dilshad and Barinder Hothi have gone from zero to creating the biggest training company in the world. Based in Bracknell, Berkshire, The Knowledge Academy now runs 5,000 courses – from business, finance and legal, to animation, IT and even aviation – in 210 countries, and has a turnover of £35m. Along the way, they have bagged numerous high-profile awards and are nominated for ‘Rising Star of the Year’ at the UK Private Business Awards 2015, sponsored by PwC.
As well as helping to tackle the UK skills shortage, The Knowledge Academy has made education affordable and taken it to some of the remotest and poorest parts of the world. This has enabled everyone with internet access to learn new skills and gain qualifications that help them secure jobs and improve their lives.
I was briefed to increase brand awareness of The Knowledge Academy and its offerings in the UK and ultimately drive enquiries and new business.
10 years after I first worked with the entrepreneurial duo, Barinder called asking me to PR the newest member of their now 1,100-strong team – their 18-year-old daughter Amrita, who they are training to be the company’s future CEO. I was of course delighted to help.
I know that journalists are always on the lookout for the next ‘big thing’. So I produced a newsworthy press release about this power couple and their phenomenally successful business. And I targeted local and regional media, as well as TV and Radio, business magazines, trade journals, and national newspapers, both online and offline.
Other PR agencies told the Hothis that the best media coverage they could expect were industry trade journals. But the first piece of coverage I secured for the couple was an interview with The FT at its HQ near London Bridge with the paper’s enterprise correspondent Jonathan Moules. And so it continued, with large photo features in national newspapers like The Sunday Times and The Mail on Sunday, and even a full-page article in FT Weekend, plus top-selling business magazines including Management Today and the IoD’s Director, which produced a double-page spread. Aware that journalists are bored with featuring the archetypal businessman (white, fat, bald, middle-aged and middle class), I offered up Barinder for interviews: a young attractive woman of Indian heritage from the UK and from a working-class background.
It wasn’t long before BBC TV and Radio were also interested including Radio 4’s The Bottom Line, a business show hosted by Evan Davis, presenter of BBC2’s Newsnight.
