Julia Pearson is Head of PR and Communications at The Hoxton which has hotels in Shoreditch, Holborn and Amsterdam. She is also co-editor and co-founder of London On The Inside, which she established in July 2010 and has gathered more than 113,000 Twitter followers who want to know what’s hot in London. Originally from Middlesbrough, Julia studied Marketing Management at Northumbria University, before heading to the capital after she graduated in 2006.
The latest Hoxton Hotel opened in Amsterdam on July 6th 2015. It follows hotels in Shoreditch and Holborn in London.
A natural talker, drawn to public relations
I am a natural talker – think it’s the northern in me and I love meeting new people which is what PR is all about really! Building relationships. I am also much happier out and about that sat in front of a TV. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I turn the TV on in a year!
The reason I have always worked in travel PR is that I love to travel, discovering new places and cultures and trying out different foods and traditions.
My typical week
My typical week is probably meeting a couple of journos at one of The Hoxton hotels for breakfast, doing a showround or pitching a story. Then I will either work from one of the lobbies, head to our HQ or work from one of the Soho Houses.
The afternoon might be spent writing some copy for the website / blog / signs / Hoxtown events, planning some social media posts, meeting a contact for lunch, visiting a potential site (we’re currently working on some standalone restaurant concepts, one of which, Egg Break, just opened in Notting Hill), creating and distributing a press release on one of the Hoxtown events – our monthly events programme that celebrates the good and great of the neighbourhoods The Hoxton hotels are based in.
The key to building strong and effective networks
Be knowledgeable – if you reach out to meet someone know why you want to meet them. People are so time starved that taking time out to meet is hard and it’s good to walk away with ideas / plans, especially when you’re taking time out of your working day.
Oh and I try and meet every single person who asks me, even if it’s just for a quick coffee. There’s a lot to be said for face to face meetings when it comes to building networks. Being out and about is also key when it comes to networking – I’ve had some amazing opportunities come from a chance meeting at an event after a cocktail (or two!).
Last but not least have fun and be nice to people. It might seem like common sense but it’ll get you far.
Changing the hotel model
When The Hoxton started in 2006 it completely changed the hotel model, so much so it was labelled the “anti-hotel” due to its no rip off policy. It’s built up a lot of fans along the way because it took away things that annoyed people in traditional hotels like expensive mini-bars and inflated prices.
Good value is still very much at the heart of The Hoxton but now there’s a lot more competition we’ve come up with other ways to be innovative like The Apartment, our meeting and event space, and Hoxtown, our monthly events programme.
Plus the team are always looking for ways to “mix things up” and whilst we continually make changes we ensure they always stay key to our offering – for example we have an events programme, we want to offer interesting events that are either free or good value but are different in every hotel and influenced by the neighbourhoods. In Holborn we’d never do a street art tour but in Shoreditch it’s the perfect location. Even the events we do are either free or great value and we don’t make any profit from them – they are just some extra we can offer guests and locals.
I guess the short answer is that whilst we are growing, we never want to create a chain of hotels. We want them to be individual, inspired by the local area but still stay true to the Hox values.
The Hoxton Amsterdam has just opened and we’re booking our stay already… Please can you tell us about the work you did to raise awareness internationally?
Our first international hotel, The Hoxton Amsterdam is now open! To build awareness we secured an exclusive in a national newspaper and we have a whole load of media coming to out to review.
In the run up we created a press release and sent that out to key media – luckily journos are interested to see what the first Hoxton outside of London will look like and with The Hoxton, Holborn being such a great success it’s really helped the press take note. The old school PR campaign has run alongside a social media campaign, regular blog posts on our site and also ‘The Hoxton Shuffle’ – an online fruit machine game which gave out a whole host of freebies online to anyone who played – everything from rooms to coffees and cocktails.
How can women in comms roles use their communication skills to help break down the barriers for other women at work?
We can break down barriers by helping to communicate the great things women do in the workplace. We can make them champions and spokespeople for the brand, getting them coverage in the press to reinforce their positions in the workplace.
What is next for you and The Hoxton?
Next up we have The Hoxton, Paris, NYC and Southwark. We’re also looking at places in other European cities (I have everything crossed for Copenhagen – I love that city!) We’re also opening restaurants too, first up Egg Break and then there’s a couple more on the cards.
https://twitter.com/TheHoxtonLDN
