Author: Riot

The role:

We’re looking for an experienced communications professional who wants to play a key role in driving forward our business with ambition, integrity and kindness.

About us:

Riot works with leading cultural institutions such as the newly established Nero Book Awards, Oscar-winning animation studio Aardman, the Edinburgh Comedy Awards and the Science Museum Group; iconic and beloved brands such as The Moomins and Winnie-the-Pooh; and ground-breaking, genre-busting writers and creatives such as Matt Haig and Caroline O’Donoghue.

Our core values are thoughtfulness, passion, collaboration and disruption, and they drive everything we do, from the clients we choose to work with to how we deliver our work and who we hire.

Riot is a part of the Splendid Collective, a network of ambitious, values-led agencies that includes three other agencies: Splendid Communications, Kingdom Collective and DIY Creative. The Collective is based at our offices in east London and offers a vibrant community with regular socials, office lunches, and a dog-friendly space.

Riot is proud of having earned The Blueprint diversity mark, the PR industry’s most rigorous standard for commitment to diversity and inclusion, and has recently been shortlisted for PRWeek’s People & Places Awards in the Diversity and Inclusion category.

About the role:

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, you will play a key role in the successful development and growth of the agency.

You will be a forward-thinking, commercially driven, passionate, enthusiastic, ambitious ambassador for Riot, who will share and champion the vision, culture and ethos of the company.

Your three core responsibilities will be:

• Acting as the senior lead on account teams, setting the strategy, vision and standards clients expect of us and supporting the team to deliver best-in-class work.
• Playing a key role on new business, preparing pitches and quotes as well as proactively generating new leads in line with our business strategy through networking and other tactics.
• Line managing senior members of the campaigns team, investing in their careers and supporting their professional development through coaching.

You will also act as a representative and spokesperson for the agency both internally and externally (at industry events, networking etc.) and contribute to our marketing efforts, which are crucial for promoting the agency and our reputation. Along with the other members of the Senior Leadership Team, you will lead from the front in upholding Riot’s Blueprint commitments and other diversity and inclusion initiatives.

You will play an integral role in client satisfaction, staff satisfaction, and shaping the future of our small but dynamic and industry-leading agency. You will be ambitious for yourself, for Riot, and for our clients.

Essential criteria:

• Experience working at senior management level either in-house or at an agency within the worlds of art / culture / entertainment – with experience of working in publishing preferred but not essential
• Strong, effective, inspiring leadership and management skills
• First-rate ability to provide clear, strategic direction
• Highly developed people and team management skills
• Excellent interpersonal, client relationship and presentation skills
• Excellent media relations, crisis comms and project management knowledge and skills
• Results driven and outcome focused
• Solutions oriented
• Sound business and financial acumen
• Creative thinker and first-class writer and communicator

 

Application:

Please apply with your CV and a cover note highlighting why you are interested in the role.

Please email the above to careers@riotcommunications.com and include ‘Application for Associate Director’ in the subject header.

Deadline for applications is Friday 25^th May but we will review on a rolling basis so early applications are welcome.

 

Other Info:  

Location: Shoreditch, London

Hours: Minimum of four days a week. Our working hours are 9.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. We offer flexible working and staff are welcome to work from home up to three days a week.

Holiday: 25 days per year, increasing by one day per year until reaching the full entitlement of 30 days, plus a day off for your birthday.

Salary: Dependent on experience; bracket available on request.

If we can help you by making any adjustments to our application process, please do let us know when you apply.

Natasha has been a book publicist for the last three years, working in the PR departments of some of the UK’s major publishing houses, including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and Hachette. She graduated with First Class Honours in BA Geography and have worked in publishing ever since. She loves the arts more broadly so when an opportunity came up to work at Riot, she jumped at the chance.

What are you most excited about when it comes to joining Riot?

Definitely the breadth of projects. Book campaigns are my bread and butter, but I’m really excited to be stepping beyond the pages of the book and working on an array of arts & culture campaigns more broadly. These include the Moomins, the Royal Institution, and the Nero Book Awards.

With no limitations in place, who would be your dream client?

Though there are many, I think I’d have to say Naomi Scott. I didn’t realise it until later in life, but I was first introduced to her when I watched the iconic Disney movie, Lemonade Mouth. Naomi Scott’s repertoire of work, just within tv & film, is impressive. Plus, seeing a brown, British woman achieve such fame is deeply inspiring.

What was the first book you fell in love with?

‘A Room with a View’ by E.M. Forster. It was my first introduction to classic literature, by which I had previously been so intimidated. Forster’s descriptive prose transported me to Florence and all that Tuscany has to offer. It was the book that made me fall in love with Tuscany, before I’d ever visited it. I also loved Lucy’s desire for exploration, which at the time was considered unconventional. Lucy is a real girl with real feelings and I found her incredibly compelling.

What are some of your other passions?

I love going to theatre! I often grab last-minute tickets and take myself on a solo trip to the West End – it’s one of my greatest joys of being an adult. I also enjoy grabbing dinner and drinks with friends after work – it reminds me that I’m living the London life my younger self dreamed off.

We are delighted to have been shortlisted for the Diversity & Inclusion Award as part of PRWeek’s People & Places Awards 2025!

“It’s often said that an organisation’s EDI initiatives can only be successful if its employees are bought-in and invested, and I’m so proud that’s the case at Riot. Every single member of the business is committed to making Riot a workplace where everyone feels welcome and appreciated; this shortlisting is testament to a real team effort and a shared vision for what a PR agency can be,” says Caitlin Allen, Riot’s Managing Director.

As holders of The Blueprint diversity mark, we are committed to providing equal opportunities to all communications professionals, from any background.

Congratulations to all the shortlisted companies!

Campaigns Executive

(Flexible/ Hybrid working)

 

The role:

We’re on the hunt for a Campaigns Executive with an ambition to progress their career in communications and a passion for all things arts, culture and entertainment.

About us:

Riot works with leading cultural institutions such as Oscar-winning animation studio Aardman, the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, the London Review of Books, the newly established Nero Book Awards, and the Science Museum Group, as well as ground-breaking writers and creatives including Matt Haig and Elena Favilli, and entertainment brands such as Moomin Characters and Winnie-the-Pooh.

Our core values are thoughtfulness, passion, collaboration and disruption, and they drive everything we do: from the clients we choose to work with, to how we deliver our work and who we hire.

Riot is part of the Splendid Collective, a network of ambitious, values-led agencies that also includes Splendid Communications, Kingdom Collective and DIY Creative. The Collective is based at our offices in east London and offers a vibrant community with regular socials, free breakfast daily and Thursday lunches twice a month, and a dog-friendly space.

Riot is proud to have been awarded The Blueprint diversity mark and is committed to employing a diverse workforce. You can read more about our D&I policy here and see our November 2024 diversity data update here.

About the role:

As part of the Riot team, you will support the campaigns team in planning and delivering high-quality, creative PR campaigns for our exciting roster of clients, encompassing media relations, events and festivals, brokering partnerships, influencer work, and much more.

As well as implementing social media campaigns for clients, you will assist with keeping Riot’s own digital channels up to date through content plans and asset creation.

You will be passionate, curious and solutions-oriented with exceptional attention to detail.

You will be a great communicator in all mediums.

You will manage agency processes, systems and procedures, including project and time management tools, effectively and efficiently to ensure campaigns are resourced properly and delivered on budget.

You will work directly with some of the best creatives in the world! In turn, you will get to work within a team of highly-skilled colleagues and have the opportunity and responsibility to deliver projects, both as part of a team and independently, as appropriate.

You will receive on-the-job training and a one-to-one line manager to support your personal training and career development.

Essential criteria:

• Foundational media relations and copywriting skills
• Foundational social media management
• A passion for culture and entertainment
• Highly motivated, passionate & curious
• Solutions-oriented
• Reliable & adaptable
• Excellent attention to detail
• Good organisational & multi-tasking skills
• Efficiency in managing tasks and meeting deadlines
• Excellent command of written and oral English
• Proficiency in Microsoft packages and Dropbox

Application:

Please apply with your CV (educational details optional) and a cover note highlighting why you are interested in the role / Riot.

Please email the above to careers@riotcommunications.com and include ‘Application for Campaigns Executive’ in the subject header.

Deadline for applications is 20^th December 2024.

Interviews will take place during mid-January 2025.

 

Other Info / Benefits: 

Location: Shoreditch, London

Hours: Full time 9.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. We offer flexible working, with staff welcome to work from home three days a week

Holiday: 25 days per year, increasing by one day per year until reaching the full entitlement of 30 days, plus a day off for your birthday

Salary: £25k-£27k, dependent on experience

If we can help you by making any adjustments to our application process, please do let us know when you apply.

 

Riot Communications is proud to have earned The Blueprint diversity mark, an industry standard awarded to PR agencies who have demonstrated their ongoing commitment to removing inequality and barriers to progression for Black, Asian, Mixed Race and Ethnic Minority communications professionals.

As part of The Blueprint, we have signed up to the initiative’s 23 commitments, which cover a range of areas from recruitment and nurturing talent to company culture. One of these commitments is to publish our diversity data each financial year, which we are doing here for the first time.

We have put a good deal of thought into the best way to do this.

Firstly, although the Blueprint pertains specifically to race, we decided that we wanted to take a broad approach and look at other Protected Characteristics in addition. In fact, after a discussion about what was relevant, we decided to ask our team about all nine Protected Characteristics to show we understand all are important. We then added a few further questions of our own, for example some questions which we hoped would give insight into socio-economic background, which we also want to ensure is not a barrier to working at Riot.

Secondly, as an organisation, we believe that measuring our progress is the best way to ensure we’re moving in the right direction, and we absolutely want to demonstrate transparency on our journey. However, as a small business (in fact, the smallest to have been awarded The Blueprint!), currently with 10 employees, we are also very mindful of ensuring none of our team feel exposed or as if they are personally identifiable from what we post. We, of course, offered ‘prefer not to say’ as a potential response for every question we asked, but it is still important for us to consider this factor when sharing data from a small group, and this is the reason why certain points below are less specific than others.

Bearing that in mind, our staff survey conducted in November 2024 told us that:

• For a small agency, we have good diversity in terms of age range.
• 80% of our team are women, 20% are men.
• We have some representation from the LGBTQ+ community.
• 20% of the team consider themselves to have a disability (based on the Equality Act 2010).
• 40% of the team consider themselves neurodiverse. (Note: While UK law generally considers neurodiversity to be a form of disability, we wanted to ask this question separately. Our hope is that this allowed for both people who are neurodiverse and consider it a disability, and people who are neurodiverse and do not consider it a disability, to complete the survey in the way that felt right to them.)
• 30% of the team are Black, Asian, Mixed Race or Ethnic Minority.
• We have representation from at least two religions as well as individuals who are not religious.
• 30% of the team are parents.
• None of the team currently have other caring responsibilities.
• 50% of the team are married or in a domestic partnership. 50% of the team have never been married or in a civil partnership.
• 100% of the team have an undergraduate degree and 30% have a masters degree, doctorate or post graduate degree.
• Finally, we asked team members about the highest level of education either of their parents/guardians had completed by the time they were 19 years old. 40% reported this was secondary school or higher/secondary/further education. 50% reported this was an undergraduate degree or masters degree, doctorate or post graduate degree.

We are aware that being a truly inclusive agency requires constant learning and progression, and that there is always more to be done. This is a journey that we are always on together, and there is no end point – or, at least, we are certainly not there yet.

However, we are proud of the company culture we have created and that our team actively works to make Riot a place where people feel welcome. We look forward to seeing what more we can achieve in the coming 12 months.

We will report on our diversity data again in November 2025.

 

Picture: Riot team © Marc Sethi

Associate Director, Orla Houston-Jibo, shares her thoughts on the experiences of Black PR pros in our industry and reflects on what we can do differently.

October is Black History Month in the UK. Originating in the US and celebrated in the UK since 1987, BHM shines a spotlight on Black African and African Caribbean Diaspora achievement, and creates opportunities for everyone to share in, celebrate and understand the impact of Black heritage and culture in Britain.

Black History Month has its detractors as well as advocates: Why focus on Black history for just one month instead of integrating it more deeply into the mainstream history curriculum and celebrating the culture throughout the year? What’s the point of an annual celebration, when Black people continue to be marginalised in British society? Both are valid criticisms, and I’d encourage everyone to read more to understand the perspectives of those for and against it.

I’d even more strongly encourage you to take a look at PR Week’s Black History Month-inspired series, focusing on the experiences of Black PR professionals in the sector. The stories report the findings of the PRWeek UK and the UK Black Comms Network-commissioned survey of Black and mixed black-heritage professionals in the industry. They make for disheartening reading with Black and mixed heritage PR professionals reporting receiving less written and verbal praise from their employers than they did four years ago and less praise compared to white colleagues. A majority of the Black pros surveyed also reported feeling overlooked in pitch ideation sessions.

The survey found respondents are more likely to receive a pay rise (14%) than they are to receive a promotion (6%), and that a lack of career progression, and a paucity of leaders and role models from Black and mixed  backgrounds means that two thirds of the surveyed pros are considering leaving the industry altogether.

Sobering figures indeed.

Personally, I’d love to see Black history recognised as an integral part of British history and mainstreamed into the curriculum – and culture – year-round. Until that happens, as agency professionals, let’s take a moment during Black History Month to reflect on how as colleagues, and especially as leaders, we can ‘get out of the way’. Creating an even playing field, with the same career development opportunities for Black and mixed heritage PR pros as everyone else, leads to a richer agency culture and ultimately, more nuanced, and impactful campaigns. In other words, a win for all.

Riot Communications has been hired to handle publicity for ‘the Oscars of Comedy’, the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, which will light up the Edinburgh Fringe throughout August, spotlighting the next generation of comedic talent.

Now in their 42nd year, the Edinburgh Comedy Awards have a proven history of spotting comedy brilliance. Past winners have amassed 528 television writing credits, 44 directing credits and over 1,500 acting credits, and nominees have 534 writing credits, 72 directing credits and over 1,200 acting credits on screen.

The Awards are responsible for launching the careers of the UK’s comedy elite, with previous award winners including Stephen Fry, Steve Coogan, Lee Evans, Al Murray, Sarah Millican, Omid Djalili, Eddie Izzard, Tim Minchin, The League of Gentlemen, Jenny Eclair and Frank Skinner. Many winners and nominees have gone on to have a significant impact on mainstream popular culture, writing, directing and acting in some of the most iconic television and film over the last four decades – including Green Wing and Smack The Pony (Victoria Pile), Sherlock (Mark Gatiss), Alan Partridge and Philomena (Steve Coogan), Car Share (Peter Kay), The IT Crowd (Richard Ayoade), Benidorm and No.9 (Steve Pemberton), Doctor Who and her eponymous TV show (Catherine Tate), W1A (Sara Pascoe), Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Romesh Ranganathan), Sex Education (Hannah Gadsby), Baby Reindeer (Richard Gadd) and Starstruck (Rose Matafeo).

Riot Communications specialises in arts, culture and entertainment. Its clients include publishers Penguin Random House and Pan Macmillan, Oscar-winning animation studio Aardman, cultural organisations such as the Royal Institution and the Science Museum Group, and cultural prizes from the Nero Book Awards to the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.

Caitlin Allen, MD of Riot Communications, said: “For decades the Edinburgh Comedy Awards have played an essential role in spotlighting the best up-and-coming comedy talent. At a time in which it feels harder than ever for new acts to launch their careers, they are even more vital. We are thrilled to be working with the UK’s most prestigious prize in comedy – and looking forward to spending the whole of August laughing so hard that our cheeks hurt!”

The shortlist for the Edinburgh Comedy Awards will be announced on Wednesday 21 August 2024, the Nominees’ photocall will be on Thursday 22 August and the 42nd Edinburgh Comedy Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday 24 August 2024.

It’s nothing new that in the cultural sector, as well as in much of the media, youth continues to be a prized asset. From the 30 under 30s to the lists of (usually young) debut novelists to watch, it can feel at times like writers and artists, however talented, get a decade or two in the limelight before they are thrust to one side to make space for the younger generation.

Riot has worked with the independent publisher, CHEERIO, for several years now, and in that time, Clare Conville and Harriet Vyner have published books by a number of rising stars including Megan Barker and Kandace Siobhan Walker, among others. But two recent campaigns with the publisher have driven home for me how necessary it is that we continue to celebrate writers further along in their careers too.

In April, the octogenarian and psychogeographer Iain Sinclair took readers back to Soho in its artistic heyday, retracing the steps of John Deakin, photographer to the court of Francis Bacon, with his brilliant book, Pariah Genius. Sinclair opens a portal for the reader, taking them to a version of Soho must of us born after 1980 will never know, and surely will never quite return – one where painters rubbed shoulders with gangsters and dockworkers drank among the art world elite.

Just a few weeks later we toasted to the 80^th birthday of the legendary journalist Lynn Barber, and the publication of her new memoir, A Little Art Education. In little more than a hundred pages, Barber recounts her journey from art class hanger-on to Turner Prizer juror, along the way striking up enduring friendships with the likes of David Hockney, Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas. That’s not to mention a memorable encounter in her early career with a certain Salvador Dalí.

Both of these incredible books have taken me to places I can never go to, and in the company of great artists I’ll never have the chance to meet. In both cases it is only possible because in one way or another the writer too was there. And as a result, so am I.

I’m not the only one to have been affected in this way. Our job has ultimately been to ensure that both titles get the attention in the media that they deserve, and in all the coverage the respect and admiration for these two veterans of their trades has been plain to see. The magazine covers might be dominated by the fresh-faced and bright-eyed, but words like ‘peerless’ and ‘inimitable’ are reserved only for those who have been at the top of their game for the longest time. So here’s to the older generation – and thanks for your memories.

With the exception of a pause during WWII, the Royal Institution’s Christmas Lectures have run continuously since 1825. No mean feat, this annual tradition has made a huge impact on the accessibility of science for the general public, which is why we have loved working with the Ri over the past six years. 

After consistently robust media campaigns, we decided, for Christmas 2023, to implement an influencer campaign to complement  a more traditional media-led approach. The Ri were keen to raise awareness of the 2023 Christmas Lectures in the 13-19 age group, and we suggested that developing a social media influencer campaign was the best approach for targeting this demographic.

We began by carefully considering which types of content creators to approach – we needed influencers that were curious, thoughtful and age-appropriate to align with the Christmas Lecture ethos and brand. After presenting several options to the team at the Ri, we settled on three strands of influencers – ‘science with a twist’, ‘booktokers’ and ‘things to do in London’. 

In the science space, we joined forces with the wonderful Pandora Dewan and Nina Chhita (Nina.draws.scientists). Both creators produce science-driven content, sharing insightful nuggets of history and discovery with their followers. Nina and Pandora are avid fans of the Christmas Lectures, so they were thrilled to be invited to a behind-the-scenes tour of the Ri during the busy pre-Christmas filming period. In addition to seeing how the Lectures are made, the influencers also received a tour of the Faraday Museum and archives with the Head of Heritage and Collections, Charlotte New. 

We were so pleased with the wonderful content Nina and Pandora produced off the back of their tour. Pandora posted an Instagram Reel sharing her favourite piece of information from the Lectures – the potential to understand whales by using AI to recognise patterns in their language. Nina chronicled the history of the iconic Christmas Lectures and shared her favourite topic – The Chemical History of a Candle. Their insightful and inquisitive content totally aligned with the Christmas Lectures ethos, and included the key call to action to watch the Christmas Lectures on BBC iPlayer. 

The Ri has a wonderful library and a huge collection of rare first-edition books. Looking beyond science influencers, we decided to approach ‘booktokers’. Creators with a passion for books were invited to explore the library and archives, producing evergreen content showcasing the Ri as a unique day out in London for book lovers. Charlottechaoticbooksxo uploaded a lovely video all about the Ri’s vast collection. 

The team at the Royal Institution was impressed by the strategic and thoughtful nature  of our influencer campaign. We helped them forge strong relationships with content creators who they can work with going forward as they continue to target a teenage demographic.

As part of our work with Moomin Characters this year, we wanted to engage with the LGBTQ+ community through a bespoke Moomin Pride event. There’s a natural affinity between Moomin and the LGBTQ+ community as not only was their creator, Tove Jansson, a queer woman but the themes she explores with these beloved characters also resonate with the queer community.

We entirely created the event from ideation to implementation, sourcing queer bookshop The Common Press as an event partner and forming an intersectional panel of Moomin fans and experts in their creative fields to discuss the Moomins and the queer legacy of Tove Jansson’s work.

This was a sold out event and The Common Press shared that it was not only their most popular Pride event this year, but one of their most successful events ever. We also secured features about the event and the wider subject of Tove Jansson and the Moomins in both PinkNews and Metro.