Great Comms Can Help Ensure Great Work Isn’t Forgotten
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.
As director of public relations at INNOCEAN USA, Steph Clements is responsible for developing and implementing communications and marketing strategies for the agency with the aim of attracting new clients and recruiting and retaining top-tier talent. We chat with her to find out more.
LBB> At what stage of growth does the mantra 'the work speaks for itself' stop being enough, necessitating strong, strategic PR?
Steph> The work always speaks for itself, and strategic communications can help ensure you’re saying the right thing to the audience you’re trying to reach.
Reporters have a more challenging job than ever, with fewer people in the newsroom, clicks driving content and more noise than ever. And with more owned channels than ever, there is a time and place for pitching. The right communications partner can make sure you’re not wasting their time because, and this may be hard for some to hear, not everything is news.
LBB> The ad industry, as we know, is partial to an award show. What are your thoughts on the link between great comms and the winning of great awards?
Steph> A great awards communication strategy and activation isn’t going to win you any awards. The work needs to be great. But comms can help ensure your work isn’t forgotten.
I am trying to recall what I just watched on TikTok, let alone remember details about a standout campaign that launched last nine months ago.
Our collective culture’s attention span is less than that of a goldfish. Today’s comms professionals can’t only look to pitch campaign launch announcements. If the average brand consumer needs around seven touchpoints to convert from prospect to customer, why would this type of conversion be any different in this very specific B2B space?
With a strategic approach and consistency of your agency brand’s message across as many relevant channels, News jacking, speaking engagements, op-eds, and case studies or behind the scenes stories are all ways of reminding jury members about older work ahead of award shows.
But comms is just a tool to help amplify the work. Average work will always be average work.
This is why it’s even more important to have your PR/comms partner engaged and involved from the beginning of any campaign. We know what stories are landing right now. We know how to make narratives stronger. And we can flag and poke holes before production gets too far down the wrong path.
LBB> In your opinion, how has the role and stature of a PR/comms professional evolved during your career span? Have things changed greatly?
Steph> The job looks different from when I started my career 20 years ago - my desktop email platform was Lotus Notes, and it couldn’t follow me home; my company card was a Diner’s Club card; we cut out press clippings from our weekly print subscription with scissors; and I could smoke cigarettes at my desk in the Leo Burnett Building in Chicago - but the foundation of PR/communications is still the same: I come to work to tell the stories that need to be told.
Sometimes, those stories are internal, difficult messages with nuance and real-life consequences. Other times, those stories are external, a celebration of months, maybe even years of hard work.
LBB> How are you using AI within your department and how is it impacting the way you work?
Steph> While our leadership has been hard at work exploring digital transformation tools for the agency, I’ve only recently started to play with using AI in my daily work life. As the sole member of the INNOCEAN PR team, I use ChatGPT and Copilot as my extra set of hands. Gone are the days of copying and pasting the list of last year’s Gold and Silver Cannes Lions-winning work or searching for a reporter’s last three articles. I can see how, as my ability to write prompts improves, I can pass more of the busy work over to these tools, freeing me up to do the actual thinking AI can’t do… yet.
