Mr James Acheson-Gray

Managing Director
Grayling Public Relations

Topic Synopsis

Building A Brand Through Effective (And Cost-Effective) Public Relations

A brand needs to be properly communicated to be successful and there are basically 2 ways to do it – advertising and public relations (PR). If you analyse the successful brands, you will find that they were built with PR but maintained with advertising. PR has credibility because it is what others say about you but many companies (and not just in Singapore) use advertising to build their brands because it is easier. James Acheson-Gray will show you the right way to use PR to build your brand and why it is not just more effective but also much cheaper.

Biography

James is the managing director of Grayling public relations, which has its Asia headquarters in Singapore.

James joined Grayling in London in 1994 and six years later moved to Singapore to establish the business in Asia. The company started with Rolls-Royce plc as its initial client, subsequently winning others locally such as British Airways, TNT, Visit Britain, DaimlerChrysler, Diageo and Rolex.

In Asia Grayling now employs over 30 staff at its offices in Singapore, China and Thailand. Grayling was voted Midsized Network of the Year in the PR Awards in November 2006, with the judges citing Grayling strong strategic counsel and ability to plan effective campaigns across multiple markets. Grayling was also included in Marketing Magazine’s list of top ten agencies in 2006.

James is a member of the Foreign Correspondents Association, the Institute of Public Relations of Singapore and is a director of the British Chamber of Commerce. He has an honours degree from Durham University in England.

He enjoys all sports in particular tennis and golf. He is 36 years old and is married to Annabel who is a physiotherapist. They have three sons.