Q&A with Weber Shandwick's head of creativity on the new role

My role will be split equally between offering creative counsel to existing Weber Shandwick clients – working with the strategic planning, digital and account teams on new business opportunities across a variety of sectors – and continuing to offer staff at Weber Shandwick the very latest in creativity training.

What do you hope to achieve in this role?

I have two aims. The first is to help dispel the myths that as a large consultancy we are not as flexible or as quick thinking as smaller boutique agencies. Our award cabinet and current client feedback already goes some way in helping to prove that we are just as versatile as any boutique agency. Secondly, I believe that as an industry, we PRO’s still play second fiddle to advertising agencies as the generic point contact for the ‘big idea’. I am lucky in my role to work very closely with our sister agency McCann Erickson and therefore possess first-hand experience of working with creatives from both PR and advertising backgrounds. There is no difference apart from the respect garnered from their clients – this is something PR people should aim to change, to get a priority seat at the 360 mix table.

How would you define the role of creativity in PR?

At the moment, creativity in PR is seen as counsel alone and not the lead decision. I am sure many PRO’s can remember a time recently where the idea presented was not the idea executed, because of client concerns or constraints. I hope that in the future the best PR agencies, like the best ad agencies, have the conviction to stick to an idea and not water it down. Risk assessment is a quality that PR agencies are yet to master.

Creativity is often not spoken about in terms of public relations - why do you think this is?

Traditionally, in the advertising industry you were either a creative, account manager or a planner. In PR, you were everything. In my first week in PR, I was introduced to the creative director of Hill and Knowlton even though I was a PA and didn’t believe I would be ‘getting creative’. He taught me that in PR, we must all think creatively, all of the time. As traditional advertising continues to be questioned in terms of its validity – and with many of the big success stories being arguably PR ideas (the Meerkat for example) – the balance of power is starting to shift and, with that, so is the emphasis on quality creativity within PR.

Also, what is covered under the ‘PR’ umbrella is evolving. When I started, it was about generating coverage for your client in print. While that is still important, some of the best creative work delivered by Weber Shandwick has been digitally lead, whether that be video footage that has successfully gone viral or simply brand pages on Facebook/You Tube etc.

Do you think the work you do from region to region will change or vary at all?

The training and the process is the same but the execution changes every time whether that be by region, audience, preferred media channel or brand character. I am spending quite a bit of time in our regional offices in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Manchester and Glasgow. I look forward to learning as much as training.

How will this role benefit clients and the services offered by Weber Shandwick?

I hope this role will demonstrate the importance the agency as a whole puts on creativity. It’s also important to be constantly re-evaluating the work we do and sometimes a different of opinion, from someone who is not on the account team can open up a number of new possibilities.

Is this a role that the company has anywhere else outside of the UK?

I am joining an ever-growing group of creative’s across the Weber Shandwick global network, including Jan-Dirk Kemming in Germany and Melendy Britt in Spain.