As a team, we’re energised and inspired by the impact we see Christianity having on lives and communities around the world, through the work of organisations and churches motivated by their faith to take action.
We love the fact that we get to play a part in this by telling the stories of our clients and the incredible work they do, and we’re delighted you’re here to help us do it.
They’re changing the world.
Our clients work in all sorts of sectors – from poverty relief to education, business to evangelical mission – but they’re all transforming the communities they serve for good, whether that’s locally, nationally or internationally.
Here are just some of the organisations we’re privileged to work with:
Our relationships with our clients are at the heart of our business. We see ourselves as an extension of their teams – and we’re delighted when they agree. It’s why we do what we do, right? Here’s what they have to say about us:
We're changing the story.
Let’s face it, Christians don’t always have the best rep in our culture. All too often, when faith pops up in your news or social media feed, it’s linked to a story about abuse, corruption, or arguments.
We're here to change that.
Yes, sometimes Christians fail to live up to the standards they claim to follow. It’s important that when they do, they recognise this, apologise and commit to change, and Jersey Road is here to help them do that.
But the impact that Christianity – and those who follow it – has on society is so much bigger and better than that.
All around the world, day in and day out, men and women of faith are dedicating their lives to reducing poverty, campaigning for freedom and justice, helping individuals flourish, caring for the environment and sharing the good news of Christ.
This is the story we want to tell.
Our vision is to see a different public narrative about faith: one that better reflects the value it brings to society.
By using our expertise as PR professionals, building excellent relationships with journalists, influencers and stakeholders and offering compelling, newsworthy content, we’re not just building our clients’ reputations – we’re also reframing the way faith is perceived in society.
Where we've come from
Jersey Road began in 2010. Initially our client base was broad and included secular and faith-based organisations. But a few years in, we felt the need to focus on what we were passionate about – Kingdom stories that communicated issues of faith both within the Church and outside the Church.
When the pandemic hit in March 2020 and the world locked down, we wondered whether organisations would still want to invest in PR. The good news was that people were more in need of Christian charities than ever – so we found more organisations wanting our help to raise awareness and support for their growing work.
As demand for our services began to snowball, we had to hire more talented people. By July 2021, we had doubled in size and hired our first account manager in Australia.
Excellence and innovation are at the core of our mission, so we’ve expanded our expertise as well as our head count.
We’ve added new services to our offering, building on our strong foundation of media relations with church engagement, digital content, influencer engagement and social media management to ensure we’ve got the right tools to help our clients reach their target audiences in the best way possible.
How we do things
Our culture is hugely important here at Jersey Road – and it’s based on four values that guide the decisions we make and the way we treat each other and our clients: we're purpose-driven, relational, excellent, transparent and generous.
We’re changing culture by helping Christians to speak out, telling powerful stories and inspiring people to action.
It’s a huge vision for a tiny agency, but we know we can do it because we’re all excited by the vision and motivated to play our part in making it happen.
How we're purpose-driven
The ability to build strong relationships is at the heart of both effective PR and a great team, so we invest time getting to know each other, our clients, journalists and influencers.
We know it can be hard to get to know each other when the majority of the team work remotely – so we make it a priority to meet up as regularly as we can, and to check in with each other often. Find out more about how we do this in the PR Playbook.
Know that if you’re feeling isolated or in need of a chat, you have Jersey Road’s blessing to pick up the phone to call one of your colleagues, or feel free to talk your manager or a director about how we can support you.
How we behave relationally
We're excellent
We believe that if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well, so we aim for excellence and professionalism in everything we do.
Scroll down for the PR Playbook: our step-by-step guide to the processes we have in place to ensure we’re providing the best possible service for our clients.
We offer both professional and personal opportunities for development, and we’re committed to ensuring that all the work we do is.
How we behave with excellence
We're transparent
We don't do spin. Traditionally, PR’s known as a murky business, but we’re breaking that mould by being transparent in our work and how we operate with clients and the media.
So, whether we’re pulling together a client quote, discussing exclusivity with a journalist, or holding our hands up when we could have done things better, we’ll be open and honest with the people we deal with – as well as each other.
How we behave transparently
We're generous
Our motivation is not to build a business; we’re here to give voice, profile and influence to faith-based organisations.
That means we’re committed to going above and beyond in our work, being generous in our words and supporting organisations – both large and small.
And it’s fun! There’s nothing we love more than the reaction of surprise and joy we get from someone when we’ve gone the extra mile to make them feel valued.
How we behave generously
"A generous person will prosper; whoever
refreshes others will be refreshed."
We don't live to work
We care about what we do here at Jersey Road - and we care about you too.
We’re interested in who you are outside of work, what you enjoy doing and the people you love. We celebrate each other’s personal milestones and achievements, we pray for each other’s families and broken boilers, and we cover workloads when someone has to drop everything and run to the hospital with a sick partner or kid.
We’re all familiar with the work-life juggle and we all know what it’s like to drop a few balls when things get too much. So if you’re ever feeling overwhelmed, please talk to your manager or a director; we’ll do what we can to support you.
Every winning team needs a good plan of action. This is ours.
The Jersey Road PR Playbook gives you an overview of what we do, how we do it and the roles we play within the team. It also outlines how we work, the tools and processes we use to deliver for our clients.
What we do
We work with clients in the UK, Australia and the USA: extending their voice, profile and reach through targeted PR and media relations strategies.
As experts in identifying newsworthy stories and enabling our clients to reach new audiences, we help them craft cut-through messages, produce compelling content, protect their reputation, increase media and stakeholder engagement and start public conversations that achieve their strategic goals.
Our People
Our client work is delivered by dedicated Jersey Road account teams, who act as an extension of our clients’ in-house teams, working closely with them to build their reputation with the media and key target audiences.
We operate on a matrix system, with each account team including a combination of people to suit the needs of the account. This is almost always led by an account manager, supported by either the senior account director or managing director, an account executive and one of our specialists within the team as and when they’re needed.
Our directors provide strategic oversight of the business and are responsible for business development and growth.
Here are some of the core areas that our people look after within their day-to-day roles:
Managing Director and founder Gareth Russell oversees the strategic and practical running and growth of JR, with the support of the other directors, and leads on new business acquisition.
Director of Strategy Lynda Martin leads on strategic and creative insight for our clients, including training the account teams in providing strategies for clients. She also leads our insight strategy, which aims to better understand the audiences our clients want to engage with.
Director of Communications Charis Gibson is responsible for how we present ourselves as an agency to external audiences and oversees our marketing and content production, including our positioning as thought leaders.
Director of Client Services Jessica Martin works alongside Gareth on business development and oversees the majority of our client work, supporting the account handlers both with programme delivery and from a client-side perspective. She also line manages account handlers and leads on quality assurance for client services.
Executive Assistant Dee Brown takes care of all things HR, finance, team meetings and activities, and she is the font of all knowledge when it comes to the workings of the JR operational machine.
Our account managers are usually the main point of contact for our clients, responsible for driving the implementation of much of the work we do for them, and the Jersey Road expert on their brand or organisation.
The account executives provide day-to-day support for the account manager, building media lists, monitoring coverage, drafting copy and client reports and deputising for them if they are away.
Account Director
Account Manager
Account Manager
Account Manager (Australia)
Account Manager
Account Executive
Account Executive
Account Executive
Head of Content Andrew Horton takes care of all our internal digital content needs and provides direction and support to the account handlers when digital content is required within their programmes.
Influencer and Engagement Manager Julia Hallawell provides direction and support to the account handlers when influencer work is a focus for campaign work with existing clients and for new business proposals.
Training and Development Manager Theresa Stone works alongside Gareth and the account teams to produce and deliver training for our clients. We equip clients to be prepared for media interviews, crisis communications and how they can most effectively tell their story and reach their audiences
Our clients - getting started
Before we start working with a client, we agree upfront the contract length, scope of work and core objectives, as well as sending them the Jersey Road PR Playbook for clients, which outlines how we work and what they can expect from working with our team.
We offer clients three levels of PR activity, with different levels of services and deliverables:
• Package 1 – Strategic PR and press office package
• Package 2 – Press office package
• Package 3 – Tailored projects
Some clients choose to work with us on a short-term basis for a project, while others will want to retain our services, which means we work with them on an ongoing basis. We also offer our projects as bolt-ons, either for short periods or for the entire duration of the contract, to allow for further flexibility to clients’ needs.
Before any client begins working with us, or if an existing client wants to brief us on a new project, they will need to complete a new business form or a launchpad form which provides us with all the information we need to get the activity up and running.
Each account team will meet with each client for status meetings once a month, usually on Zoom, occasionally face to face.
Our clients
- The client journey
The client journey demonstrates the core templated documents and activities that a typical client programme will include and can be found in the Client Journey folder on Dropbox.
This ensures the same high-quality service is provided across the agency. It also helps us be fully accountable and in touch with our clients, with regular reporting and opportunities to review objectives and deliverables with them.
Our clients - client
work approval processes
We go through a system of checks to ensure that every piece of work we produce for a client – from press releases to op-eds – reflects JR’s standards and style.
Please follow the process below, and don’t be afraid to ask other team members for their thoughts if you’d like to sense check something or you’re having a creative block:
Working life - regular
internal meetings
Relationships are the backbone of JR PR, and that very much includes our relationships within the team.
Our schedule of meetings aims to strike a balance between keeping us in touch with each other, sharing updates, creative ideas and inspiration - but not overwhelming everyone with meetings and giving us the space we need to do our work. We review these regularly to make sure we’ve got that balance right.
Working life – the
tools of our trade
Asana is our project management tool, helping us keep on top of our tasks and share projects with each other and our clients
Agility is our media database, enabling you to search for the right journalists to send your stories to and distribute your releases and pitches
Kantar is our media monitoring service so that we can see where our work has been featured
Coverage Book is our cuttings platform, which allows us to present our coverage and report on ROI for our clients
Dropbox is where we store all Jersey Road's files, keeping them in one place and enabling us to save, share and edit them securely
You can find logins in the Key Contacts and Codes document, located in the JR General file in Dropbox and you will receive training on all these brilliantly useful tools!
Working life - your
HR information
You will have received a Starter Pack which will have included the following useful documents:
• Contract
• HMRC New Starter Form
• GDPR Training and Policy
• Reference Request (if not already completed at interview stage)
• Employee Handbook
You’ll also receive a link to our HR system, BambooHR, a handy tool for all your employee information, from holidays to personal development.
If you have any questions about this – or anything else – get in touch with your line manager, who will be very happy to explain it to you.
Securing local media coverage is an excellent way to raise your profile in your community, build trust and encourage people to take action. Here are five steps to help you get great local media coverage:
