PR + Creativity = Standout Campaigns

At a recent ICCO conference I attended in Milan, the key theme running through the two-day event was creativity in PR. It was clear from the many larger PR agencies from around the world attending that having the input of creative teams was becoming the norm.

What struck me was that for independent integrated agencies like KISS this has been the situation for years, giving agencies that offer a range of marketing services a distinct advantage over sole PR agencies.

Our creative team, headed up by Rich Bland and Dill Hill frequently work with the PR team to brainstorm creative campaign ideas both during a pitch, as part of an on-going retainer or to help us deliver on our ‘surprise and delight’ strategy.

Diversity in agencies is vitally important and all teams benefit from having a range of experience, interests, and life skills. Bringing in people of different ages and people who have worked internationally can also be interesting.

Working with visual thinkers like Rich and Dill on PR ideas is exciting; creative work is brave, they think differently and are great at seeing what everyone sees but are masters at putting it all together differently! We don’t always see eye to eye and by taking us out of our comfort zone, our creatives help produce daring and memorable campaign ideas. Clients might not necessarily always go with the ideas but they love being pushed out of their comfort zones.

One statistic that always sticks in my mind is that creatively awarded work has a 54% greater ROI than non-creative work. The need for brands to influence and engage with stakeholders has never been more challenging but on the flipside there has also never been so many platforms on which to do so.

Creative campaigns are often about helping clients tackle the really hard problems. Much of our work is focused on science, technology and healthcare clients and these industries often have obstacles to overcome, legislative restrictions or can sometimes just be fairly conservative.