Slimming World is a UK-based weight management organisation known for its community-based support groups, run by 3,500+ self-employed franchisee consultants.
The PR and Public Affairs team, led by Megan White, plays a crucial role in amplifying the brand’s presence both nationally and locally. Megan and the team came to CARMA looking for a fresh approach to media monitoring and evaluation that aligned PR with the company objectives, as well as keeping up to date with best practice.
Absolutely! I lead the PR and Public Affairs team at Slimming World. We're a team of eight, covering consumer PR, corporate affairs, and thought leadership. Our job is twofold: managing national campaigns and supporting our consultants in promoting their groups locally. We equip them with media tools, advice, and campaign materials, helping them engage with local press.
We sit within the wider marketing and communications function, which includes social media, design, events, nutrition, internal comms, and more.
Company-wide priorities flow down into department-level “ultimate aims,” which then become individual goals. We hold monthly one-on-one sessions to review progress, and there's a real emphasis on understanding how our work contributes to the bigger picture.
Some tasks are more enjoyable than others but knowing the broader purpose - changing lives - helps keep us all motivated. Our members’ stories remind us of the real impact behind the PR.
In several ways. Media monitoring is key, it helps us understand how Slimming World is perceived externally. Like most in-house teams, it’s easy to get a bit insular so having that outside perspective is vital. CARMA helps us listen, not just react. We use it for competitive benchmarking and to track media narratives around health and weight loss.
We also developed a bespoke media monitoring framework with CARMA to align coverage directly with our strategic goals. This helps us evaluate not just quantity, but message delivery and sentiment.
It’s one of our favourite tools. We use CARMA’s Executive Report feature to produce a daily digest of Slimming World coverage, competitor mentions, and relevant health news. It lands in inboxes before 9:30 AM and feeds into a daily morning news meeting between PR, social media, and marketing teams.
It’s easy to use, mobile-friendly, and really popular - more people keep asking to be added to the distribution list! The summaries are digestible on the go, which is especially useful before meetings.
We’d been with our old provider for years, but things had become a bit stagnant. There was a sense of complacency from both sides. We wanted a fresh approach, rooted in best practices, and we needed wider media reach - especially local outlets and coverage in Ireland.
What really sold us was CARMA’s consultative approach. We didn’t want just clippings, we wanted expertise. Your team challenged us in a good way and helped us rethink our evaluation strategy.
It’s about integration. Rather than having separate silos of “coverage data” and “business goals,” we now align them. The monitoring framework we built together lets us map coverage to specific goals. That shift has been hugely valuable.
It’s also about collaboration. We don’t just ask and receive, we co-create solutions. That’s what a successful partnership looks like to me.
Come with your problems, not just your wish list. You’re not expected to be the expert in media evaluation - CARMA is. The more open you are about your challenges, the better the outcome. Let it be a collaborative process. That’s where the real value lies.
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