The Unsung Heroes of the Industry: Part Two

 

Because it’s a lot like… cobbler’s shoes. An agency needs to invest in its own brand, and tell its own story, to connect with clients, press, staff, new recruits, and the broader industry. Comms drives growth.

In a creative agency, an important part – and one of my favourite parts – of the job is getting the work out in the world, ensuring it’s seen and celebrated. It’s a big responsibility and privilege to be handed a thing that’s been dreamed up and miraculously made, protected into creation by lots and lots of people. Comms people are the ones ultimately trusted to tell the story of what the work is, how it came about, and why it exists, then to get that story into the right hands and in front of the right eyeballs.

I don’t take that lightly, because that work, at its best, moves people, moves markets, and moves clients forward in their categories and culture.

I’m using all of my journalistic, editorial, and storytelling skills. I’m sniffing out news and sharpening angles and riding the wave of the news cycle and scoring headlines – just on the other side of the fence. You can report on the industry for years, but being inside an agency gives you a totally different view. 

I’ve learned so much, but here are some things that are still, and always will be, a work in progress: How to run agency comms like a newsroom, and use all the talent in the building to tell our story. How to tell that story both globally and locally. How to focus on fewer things that make a bigger impact. How to balance the urgent and the important. How to zoom out to culture while zooming in to each piece of work, news, and opportunity. And how to use Outlook and Teams (a surprisingly big change from Gmail and Slack!).

I’ve been in business in the industry for 15 years (and 21 in PR).

As we all know, our industry is dynamic, fast-paced, creative, bold, joyful, and also incredibly competitive, and sometimes even brutal. For this reason and many others, PR and comms are so important.

The PR function enables agencies and brands to tell their stories, showcase their campaigns, and communicate their thought leadership expertise, among a number of other things. Elevating profiles and raising awareness are of course a key focus of PR, but in my business we are always aiming to spark interest from the target market who is going to bring our clients new business. It’s not ‘PR Darling!’ – it’s about building profiles in a strategic way, with the aim of making businesses more profitable...and more famous along the way.

I have always loved being in PR. Yes, there are moments when I don’t like it. These low moments are mainly due to the high expectations I place on myself and my competitive nature. PR is definitely not for the faint hearted – fast paced, quick turnarounds, late nights/early mornings chasing approvals and having your work on display for everyone to see. If you stuff up, there’s often no hiding it.

Having been in the industry for quite a while, I think it’s safe to say I’ve seen the best of the best and some of the worst when it comes to reporting, those infamous comment threads, negative discourse, and overall behaviour, but I do think we’re predominantly in an era of positivity and celebrating what we do in all its wonderful forms.

I love it when a client tells me they showed one of our articles to their Mum. I have the privilege of working with such a diverse range of people and so many highly driven, creative, smart, appreciative, lovely, and fun characters. With one long term client in particular, we spend the majority of our calls and coffee meetings laughing and reminiscing, which is always a good sign of a strong and positive relationship, I think. Strong and enduring relationships are what I pride myself on and I believe this is so important in PR, as it often requires a lot of trust, honesty, and transparency. A huge thanks to all the wonderful and supportive media too of course, as without them, I wouldn’t be in business!

Firstly it’s an awesome new business driver – we’ve had so many occasions where potential new clients have reached out after seeing us in industry news or at award shows. Being recognised by industry press really helps to cement our credibility, and as a new agency this has been so important for growth.

We also see a big impact on our recruitment. When candidates walk through our door, they often say they’ve read articles about us online or saw work we’ve recently released. As an industry, we’re still struggling with a post-covid talent shortage, so PR is a great means to sharing our people policies and benefits, ensuring we’re building a positive reputation within the industry and are top of a potential candidates list for places they want to work. 

Internally as well, we see PR and Comms having a great impact on retention and performance. We’re always sharing our PR coverage internally - everyone gets really excited when they see their work or their colleague featured in a story in our industry press. 

I joined Howatson+Company in its infancy and was quickly able to build some incredible relationships with our industry’s key trade journalists. Building these relationships with key media has been imperative as it’s meant I can work collaboratively with them on in depth feature stories about our brilliant people, our office spaces, our work and so on, which has ultimately led to us being recognised as a leading independent agency, and somewhere people want to work or work with.

Working in communications in any industry is a complex beast and requires empathy, strategic thinking, resilience, and the ability to juggle multiple balls whilst wearing many different hats: storyteller, problem solver, master deck (PPT) creator, saleswoman, educator, relationship manager, and often psychologist.

You can’t have enemies, you must be the calm in the storm, and above all else you need to be a vault of trust and a confidant to people at all levels across a business.

It’s no easy feat, but the diversity and adrenalin that my role brings is why it’s the right fit for me.

Every hour is different, and I do have a secret love for reading news stories and imagining what the comms team’s day started out like, or how it’s going (depending on the nature of the story).

Unless you’re working in the craft, you’re unlikely to know (or notice) the level of detail that goes into making an initiative a success – for example, the level of strategic thinking that goes into pulling together a one-page briefing document for an exec’s interview, or mapping out how you want your employees to think, feel and act when making an announcement internally.

At the crux of it, our role is to help make a brand or person famous, or on the other end of the spectrum, help to minimise mistakes or diffuse a crisis.

In our industry, comms teams can play an enormously strategic role in helping win new business, attract great talent, and create competitive advantage, as well as humanising marketing-speak into simple language.

And whilst my career today has evolved from the days of pure consumer PR, that feeling and those fist-pump moments when your team lands a story in a key strategic outlet are yet to fade, and I doubt they ever will. That’s how I know comms is the right career path for me.

But to be clear, no matter how awesome we are at our jobs, we cannot change a quote or headline that has already run in print.