As the crafts of PR and advertising increasingly overlap, so too do the talent pools. So this week PR Week and Campaign asked advertising specialists who’ve taken roles at PR agencies what surprised them most about the move, and whether they think PR is underestimated by its paid counterparts. Having made headlines earlier this when he joined Smarts after stints at MullenLowe UK and BBH, our Group Head of Strategy, Ben Shaw, was amongst those asked. Here’s what Ben had to say:
“When you move from traditional above-the-line agencies and get into an earned-media machine, you find out 1. how ideas really come from everywhere, not just creative teams; 2. how naturally ‘culture’ sits at the heart of the idea – it has to have a hook or a reason why anyone would care; and 3. how that means the idea itself is often channel-agnostic. Isn’t everything PR? What is PR? Wouldn’t every idea work harder if people wanted to share and talk about the ‘why’, not just the ‘oh we didn’t make it with AI craft’?
Advertising agencies could really do with remembering that, in the age of lots of littles and the dearth of big broadcast moments, it’s more important than ever to put a ‘Why does anyone care?’ at the heart of big brand-out comms. It always makes the idea better, richer and fly further.”
Read the full article here.