Your Agency Brand Is the Most Important Thing About You
Brand-new campaign or big, looming crisis, communications teams are pivotal in shaping how stories are told, remembered and leveraged. 4A's ANGLES 2024, which is set to take place in New York City on 3rd December, will bring together comms experts and innovative visionaries reshaping the communications landscape. The powerhouse line-up of speakers will share insights on everything from new business and storytelling to must-attend industry events. The sessions will empower agency comms professionals with deeper insights into pitching and positioning stories, leveraging technologies, cultivating partnerships and more. The sessions are designed to help comms professionals from agencies of all shapes and sizes.
Speakers include Jon Iwata, executive chairman, data & trust alliance, and former IBM chief brand officer, Geno Schellenberger, CEO, Breaking and Entering Media, Adrienne Lucas, head of DEI & strategic partnerships, The One Club for Creativity, Leah Steinhardt, VP of marketing, POSSIBLE, Matt Ryan, CEO, Roth Ryan Hayes (RRH), Simone Oppenheimer-Mandel, co-founder, NBZ, and others. Check out the full line-up here.
Co-chairs of the 4A's Comms Committee, Rebecca Sullivan, director of public relations, North America, VML, and Suzanne McGee, director, marketing & communications, EP+Co, will be the emcees for the event. Journalists from a number of publications will also speak.
In anticipation of the event, the 4A’s, in partnership with LBB, asked some of the speakers about the evolving role of PR and comms in new business and growth, the dynamics between great work and strategic PR, and the hurdles they overcome in their line of work.
Courtney Williams, VP, head of business development at The Martin Agency, shapes the agency’s new business approach with a cocktail of strategy, insight and authenticity. She forges genuine connections with marketers and other industry growth leads. As the first point of contact for prospective clients at Martin, Courtney needs to ensure that it attracts brands that prioritise positive impact and cultural relevance and that partnership is built on more than just chemistry—but grounded in compatibility, shared purpose and lasting impact.
In the final article of our interview series ahead of ANGLES, we chat with Courtney.
LBB> For your organisation, what is the key function of PR and comms?
Courtney> At The Martin Agency, brand communications and consumer PR act as two separate functions. Our brand communications team is responsible for all aspects of internal and external communications as well as our external marketing efforts that help build the agency’s reputation, while separately, we have consumer and earned specialists who sit in our Cultural Impact Lab, which is an entity that is embedded into the creative process early to amplify the talk value of our work.
Both help fuel our agency’s reputation as a top creative agency, which directly influences the way in which we attract the right clients, empower existing talent and recruit new talent, and amplify our agency’s culture.
LBB> Earlier this month, LBB's CEO Matt Cooper penned a thought piece in which he said, "There is absolutely a direct link between successful, great work and good PR and marketing!" What are your thoughts on that?
Courtney> As a new business practice at Martin, we’ve always believed in connecting with people not chasing brands. The people behind the brands they work for have the power to fuel creativity, fight for the value of agencies and create work that breaks through. Find good people and you find good new business opportunities — and partnerships that endure.
The discipline of business development is truly one based in strategy and business acumen, but also through building good, compatible relationships through personal connections and reputation. Reputation begins by putting a stake in the ground for what you stand for and ensuring that every piece of comms for your brand remains consistent with that POV. There is a direct correlation between the reputation you have and the opportunities you’ll come across, which is why there should always be an intrinsic link between your business development and brand communications team.
At Martin, we have put rigour and intention behind treating our brand like we would any of our client’s brands. So, we’ve built a dedicated unit, called our Martin Brand team, whose sole responsibility is to elevate and amplify Martin's identity with the same passion, precision, and purpose we bring to our clients — ensuring that we stand out in every pitch, every project, and every partnership. Our former CSO, Elizabeth Paul, recently shifted into a newly created role for the agency as the chief brand officer. This role ensures that the agency has an executive-level sponsor who can reinforce the importance of investing in the Martin Brand. Within that team, I lead all net new growth efforts for the agency, and my partner-in-brand-crime, Katherine Sheehan, oversees our brand communications team. That team is responsible for media relations, crafting thoughtful PR strategies for the agency, our work and our people, managing our agency’s owned social channels and website, thought leadership, executive presence, awards strategy and execution and internal comms.
By staying in lockstep with this team, we can collaborate, refine and build upon our agency’s marketing materials to ensure that Martin has a consistent voice and POV, wherever you come into contact with the brand. To us, our materials represent our agency’s voice, and we treat every communication as an opportunity to build stronger relationships with the people who interact with our brand – from prospective clients and employees to other agencies and industry partners alike.
LBB> What is the most useful tool in the arsenal of a PR/comms professional working in advertising right now?
Courtney> Easy - relationships. But not just the relationships with the editors in the trades. Proactively building and strengthening the relationships with the people at the agency who are behind the work, next generation leaders, executive leaders, client partners and other agency comms professionals, the list goes on and on. Stories are only uncovered through conversation and care once trust is built, and when you can uncover the heartbeat behind what made a story a story, or that campaign a really memorable campaign, that’s when you unlock the magic of what people actually want to read about. And that will fuel your success as a comms professional.
LBB> In your opinion, how has the role and stature of a PR/comms professional evolved during your career span? Have things changed greatly?
Courtney> I actually got my degree in public relations and when I first entered the industry about 10 years ago, PR appeared to be a very reactive discipline. People would wait until the last minute to get their work covered and expect the piece to go viral by 10am the next morning. Well, actually…that still happens, so let’s use another example.
I believe the acceptance of PR/comms as a true discipline itself is what has evolved the most during my career. When I first started in this industry, there was one person assigned the role of ‘PR’ and they would be expected to do the job of 10, all as one. Don’t get me wrong, I know that for some smaller shops, this is still very much the case. But I want to challenge agencies of all sizes to make the investment.
Your brand is the most important thing about you. And you need a team of people who are as passionate about the craft as they are the agency. Lean into them. Give them the support they need, both in resources and in budget. Yes, give them an actual budget.
Like most things, we still have a way to go, but the job of comms is one that should be celebrated (and appropriately compensated). What they do may look like magic, but I have the opportunity to watch our comms team in action every day, and that is a tough, tough gig.
As a matter of fact, stop what you’re doing. Tell your comms team that you appreciate them. We could all do a little bit more of that.
