Growing up in advertising as a creative, most of my friends were in the industry. The ungodly hours spent on pitches and proactive, coupled with a much more pervasive bar culture at the time, meant that my professional and personal life were one.
Some of those friends have stayed lifelong friends – but my circle gradually matured beyond like-industried people. It’s healthier that way.
This is kind of how I also see how advertising has matured. Or at least going through puberty. I’m not about to launch into a sermon about how “TV is dead”, because it’s not, and I heard that for the first time in 2001 – but the assumption that you must lead with an above-the-line campaign in order to make an impact surely is.
Now let me circle back to my narrative before I too get lost. My friends were all fellow ATL people. The likes of media, shopper and PR were all afterthoughts who just needed to plonk your idea into those other channels. We didn’t associate with those people. Ok, maybe the media people. They got outrageous gifts (circa pre procurement teams with ethics) and threw crazy parties.
But things have changed.
Sure, there are amazing ideas that only work as a single medium. Cool. But that’s rarely enough. Great ideas also need a megaphone. This is where PR steps in – not as an afterthought, but right there in the first brainstorm. Not only do they add a great perspective and dimension to the idea, but they also share ownership of the idea right from the get-go. If you think they’re just there to photocopy your work, you should expect the equivalent of a few butt scans.
I also find that a competent PR team – having direct relationships with media, influencers and content creators – is often more connected to reality than most. They’re a good barometer for when an idea may be a bit tone deaf and can hold up a mirror to the brand – which means they won’t need to dust off that trusty crisis comms triage plan to clean up your mess.
Most importantly, they can make the work better. They can help craft your narrative into something that’s not just smart, but also credible, building long-term trust and loyalty with not only your audience, but your client.
Building mutual trust and respect between the creative and PR teams is good for culture. But it’s also good for business. Since embracing those people, we’ve seen an 80%+ pitch win ratio. Retainers have grown. The work is just better. We conduct newsrooms every morning to make sure we move ‘at the speed of news’. We’ve ingested an editorial-first approach to some of our key clients such as JSE, BDO and Redefine.
In the last few months alone, as a combined team effort, we’ve landed a suite of big clients such as Disney Plus and Crocs.
We call it “creative-led PR”. They call it “PR-led creative”, but who really cares? If you’re looking for a new friend who won’t just confirm your thoughts in an echo chamber, who will give you another perspective and challenge your assumptions – get down to your nearest PR team.
