The Power of Creative Thinking in PR
The least-sung heroes of the advertising landscape, the relationship between marketing and PR is often so subtle that it’s easy to miss it. But what does this dance look like, what are the steps, and how does the advertising industry benefit from creative minds in their PR departments?
To discover how creativity fuels impactful campaigns, navigates practical constraints, and crafts engaging experiences in an era of media fragmentation, LBB’s Tom Loudon got in touch with some of Australia’s leading PR agencies, hoping to shed some light on this nuanced but crucial component of our ecosystem.
Tom Manning, creative lead at Havas Red, Tim Lele, national director of PR at Keep Left, and Blair Kimber, executive creative director at Keep Left, delve into the importance of creativity in PR, its evolution in the digital age, and strategies for nurturing imaginative thinking.
LBB> Why is creativity important in PR? How does it contribute to the success of PR campaigns and strategies?
Tom> The cognitive scientist Margaret Boden has this wonderful definition of creativity: “Creativity is the ability to come up with ideas or artefacts that are new, surprising, and valuable.” Being new, surprising, and valuable is the minimum I would expect from a brand that wants my time or attention.
Without the big media budgets afforded to advertising, PR campaigns must be that much more engaging and creative to earn their place in culture and conversation.
Blair> Creativity in PR is no different to creativity being powerful in other industries. Creativity is the one thing that can set you apart from your competitors. Without creativity or ideas, work will inevitably be blank and generic. It’s not a new thought, but brands are not just competing with other brands, they are also competing for attention from cat videos and Netflix. If you’re not using creativity as a way to resonate with your audience, then don’t expect to be around for long.
LBB> In today's digital age, how has creativity in PR evolved? How do you incorporate digital platforms, social media, and emerging technologies into your creative PR strategies?
Tom> PR campaigns have always sought to drive conversation and debate which translates very naturally to digital and social media. At Red Havas, there’s an expectation that our ideas could work across all channels. People consuming stories, content, or information aren’t making the distinction between whether that content is earned, social, or influencer. It’s a singular experience, which we at Red Havas call merged media.
What has changed is that work is becoming more insight-driven. Insights point us towards creative solutions that we couldn’t see before. They reveal something about how people think, feel, and behave – critical if you want to grab their attention.
LBB> How do you foster a creative mindset within your PR team or organisation? What strategies or techniques do you use to encourage innovative thinking and idea generation?
Tom> Coming from advertising, it was weird to join an agency without a dedicated creative department. But it didn’t take long to realise that the ideas come from everyone, every day, for every client. This means that creativity is part of everyone’s role – which I think is brilliant – and the challenge is helping our people gain the skills and confidence to have bigger, bolder creative ideas.
I run hands-on creative training to get people to practise new idea-generating techniques. But creativity doesn’t start and finish in one person’s brain. We spend a lot of time thinking about how ideas can be better shared, received, and built upon within teams and how we foster a creative environment as an agency.
A powerful question can provide many answers, and the one I always ask our people is this: what would it take to do your best-ever work at the agency or role you’re in right now? Creativity is a key ingredient for almost every single person once they start exploring their answers.
Tim> Building a creative culture is like gardening – it requires constant maintenance, feeding and pruning where required. The power of creativity really comes into its own when you have a team all pulling in the right direction and giving them the trust to take risks and make mistakes.
We have a culture of bringing the right minds into projects so we get as many perspectives as possible. This is hugely important at the start of creative problem solving – but then it’s important to let the people use the specialist skill sets to refine and craft the ideas into solutions that work.
LBB> In an industry that often faces challenges such as tight deadlines and client expectations, how do you balance the need for creativity with practical considerations?
Tom> Creativity is not a luxury. It’s an essential part of highly effective work. So, it’s not about ‘do we have enough time to be creative?’ but ‘do we have enough time to do good work?’ and if not, why not? Because if I was a client, I wouldn’t want to spend my money on a poor campaign.
That’s why it’s so essential that agencies and clients work together to create the conditions where great ideas can thrive. The world isn’t slowing down, so having rigour and clarity around that process is essential.
Tim> Having enough ideation time in an agency is a constant battle. There is never enough time, but on the flip side, nothing galvanises a team like a tight deadline.
Knowing when to go further and when to be smart in your response is crucial in today’s breakneck pace. You don’t always need to gild the lily, most of the time you just need a cracking idea and the minimum viable campaign to act quickly. We literally presented an idea to a client in a pitch recently on a post-it note.
LBB> Finally, do you agree with the following statement?
The drastic shift from traditional media has altered the concept of earned media. In this age of media fragmentation, newsworthy activations are more crucial than ever.
Tom> I agree to an extent. There are opportunities through new forms of media to not just read about a subject but to experience it. This offers brands a chance to shape and create experiences that people want to engage with, and activations are one way to do that.
Brands spend a lot of time trying to understand who they are, but it’s more important to understand who you’re for.
Tim> We’ve definitely seen the value of creative brand activations that can cut across channels increase in recent years, but that doesn’t mean PR agencies can be one trick ponies. To create effective work that cuts through it’s more important to create work that engages and resonates with your audience.
Sometimes the right approach will be to create a newsworthy brand action, but other times it may be a smart social idea that taps into a cultural trend, or an influencer-led third-party advocacy approach that builds trust. It might not be newsworthy in the traditional sense of TV news and print headlines, but if it reaches your audience and makes them think, feel or do something, then that is the ultimate goal.
