Though PR has always played a role in creative brand communications, a new generation has opened the door for PR to become more involved in the creative process at the ground level, from idea to completion. Chatting with Pierre Hubert Meilhac, Vice President at Ogilvy Paris, we learn more about the agency's “Earned-First creativity” approach to PR capabilities.
How would you describe the functionality of the partnership between an agency and its PR counterpart?
Well, what makes Ogilvy sort of unique is that PR is a core expertise, as much as Advertising and Branding. Other agencies say they have this, but it usually remains at the group level whereas our Branding and PR experts sit together in the same office. So, the partnership is close since we integrate PR strategists from the start of the thinking process. Which is key if you want to enhance the talkability of a campaign. Most creative agencies tend to consider PR agencies as “amplifiers,” whereas at Ogilvy, we advocate for a genuinely “Earned-First creativity” approach that unleashes the power of earned media. And to be successful, it needs to integrate PR experts in the team who develop the creative brief, and then all along the process. It is even truer when working with influencers who also need to be activated at a very early stage.
Back in the day, PR was about protecting a brand and its reputation largely through earned or free media: Press releases, statements, stories, and crisis management. What has led to the PR function becoming more creatively oriented?
Protecting a brand’s reputation is still a good part of what PR does, even to a greater extent since the world has moved onto a poly-crisis cycle. But what you are referring to is truer for corporate PR and issue management communication. There has always been a consumer side to PR that was about creating engagement in pop culture, which meant being more creative. So, I would say PR has always been creatively oriented. It is just that PR was not really invited to the creative table by the agencies who held the briefings. Now it has changed because we have a whole new generation of marketers both in agencies and at client level. We have moved from a mostly paid approach to marketers who understand the power of earned. And thus, PR agencies are better considered and become increasingly visible on creative campaigns.
How are you leveraging modern tech and/or social media in client work, and what value does it add to the creative process?
Everything must be social at heart. Because social media is where the news and conversation are created it is very important to use it to inform your strategy. We build dashboards for our clients which help get the pulse of what is driving engagement and conversation for our target audiences, consumers, or opinion leaders alike. When it comes to tech such as AI, we have started integrating it quite early.
See the campaign we did last year with Tinder, “A not so classical date”: social monitoring helped us find the insight that young people enjoyed classical music, and then we used AI to create an engaging idea in the app.
What kind of projects does your agency call on a PR counterpart (in-house or external) to get involved in? In what ways have brand communications evolved in light of having a more integrated partnership?
Any campaign whose aim is to create engagement or societal impact involves some kind of PR thinking. As the industry has moved from image to impact, the partnership with PR experts is crucial. The success of a campaign is largely based on its ability to create conversations, and PR has this understanding and empathy rooted at its core. Combined with creativity it is the most powerful way to create meaningful and long-lasting change.