All Spin Class articles

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin Class: Back to reality

    2023-05-18T00:00:00Z

    Now that the coronation is over – the coronation of Sweden’s Loreen as this year’s Eurovision winner (Soph and I voted for Finland’s Cha Cha Cha) – it’s back to the mundane world of real estate.

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: AI

    2023-05-04T00:00:00Z

    After seeing the BBC headline ‘Is your job at risk from AI?’, Soph and I were heartened to discover the answer is not yet. When we asked Google’s AI bot Bard to “write an amusing 250-word column on a UK real estate PR firm, called Pastis Communications, founded by Soph ...

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: the power of three

    2023-04-20T00:00:00Z

    Soph and I often advise our clients to stick to the power of three when communicating. “When you’re on a panel or writing a column or a LinkedIn post, focus on making three points. Two is too few and four is too many,“ we say.

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin Class: Consultation

    2023-04-05T00:00:00Z

    Public consultation is a misnomer. The word ‘consultation’ implies a two-way discussion that leads to a mutual decision.

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: return from Mipim

    2023-03-23T00:00:00Z

    Our week away in the south of France at Mipim is over for another year and it’s back to a banking crisis.

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: MIPIM 2023

    2023-03-09T00:00:00Z

    When Soph and I land in Nice on Sunday, the temperature is forecast to be 24°C. This is a little nugget of information we like to share with our cold UK clients.

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: start-up

    2023-02-23T00:00:00Z

    Soph and I have been targeting start-ups and newish companies for new business, so it’s a surprise that our only approach so far this year has come from a sizeable European investment manager.

  • Spin class
    Online

    Spin class: four-day working week

    2023-02-09T00:00:00Z

    Soph and I enjoyed reading that British challenger bank Atom said it was delighted with the changes brought about by its new four-day work week (adopting a change that was pioneered by Pastis Communications).

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: nice in Nice

    2023-01-26T00:00:00Z

    The trade magazine Tunnels and Tunnelling was always known by hacks as Bores and Boring. This sobriquet sums up nicely the current state of the real estate PR world.

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin Class: New Year

    2023-01-12T00:00:00Z

    New year, same sh*t. 

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: Annulus Horribilus

    2022-12-08T00:00:00Z

    Now is the winter of our PR discontent. It’s cold, everyone’s on strike and there’s bugger all client news for us to announce. 

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: in the name of good PR

    2022-11-24T00:00:00Z

    Soph and I like to think we give PR a decent (LOL) name. We don’t lie to journalists; we don’t bully them; and, if they’ve stacked up a story early, we confirm it (off the record, of course).

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: CEOs

    2022-11-10T00:00:00Z

    Excessive remuneration, high carbon emissions, tax avoidance… Our real estate CEOs are not held in the highest regard in the outside world, and we PRs tend to be very cautious about letting them loose with the press in case they slip up.

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: portfolio sale

    2022-10-27T00:00:00Z

    Bafflingly, Soph and I are living in a parallel world. While the UK has slumped into financial chaos and turned into a laughing stock, our little business has been doing rather well, mostly.

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: mini-budget

    2022-10-13T00:00:00Z

    The sun shone and 40,000 of us packed Munich’s trade halls, but the mood at Expo Real was decidedly gloomy. As if the prolonged war in Ukraine was not enough, the Brits were reeling from the chaos caused by Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget. 

  • Spin class
    Professional

    Spin class: mini-budget

    2022-09-29T00:00:00Z

    The “oh shit” moment came when a client told me the cost of real estate debt had soared to 7.5% and was rising rapidly.

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: quiet quitting

    2022-09-15T00:00:00Z

    At last, we’ve picked up a new client. Well, his business is new – life sciences – but he’s not, as we worked for him when his previous company, a flexible workspace provider, went bust during one of the Covid WFH lockdowns. His business model is simple: chase trends, jump ...

  • Spin class
    Professional

    Spin class: August

    2022-09-01T00:00:00Z

    August is the nerviest month. Granted, it’s nice to be lazy and go on holiday, but doing no work for clients, having meetings cancelled and receiving out-of-office replies to emails does not bode well when you’re sending your monthly retainer invoices to them during a downturn. 

  • Spin class
    Online

    Spin class: Solar farms

    2022-08-04T00:00:00Z

    You can always rely on politicians to jolt you out of your reverie. 

  • Spin class
    News

    Spin class: heatwave

    2022-07-20T23:00:00Z

    What a slow week it has been. The stifling heat on Monday and Tuesday meant Soph and I barely moved. We both have fans but they seemed to make little difference. And the emails slowed down, too. The summer lull has started very early.