After more than 10 years working in PR I can hand on heart say I’ve executed a huge variety of campaigns that have required input that would stretch the dictionary or theoretical course book definition of ‘public relations’.
In my experience, carrying out effective campaigns that are well received by the client, as well as the identified target audiences, are as much about how the work is executed as the actual work we do. Attitude can go a long way to helping to build longstanding relationships, especially when it comes to getting stuck in when it may seem beyond the call of duty.
Clients will undoubtedly appreciate the extra lengths we go to in order to make things run as smoothly as possible and that is what leaves a lasting impression and results in them coming back for more. Just last week I had my hands in the washing up bowl on an exhibition stand to keep the coffee flowing for journalists, had sourced some chalk for an on-stand prize leader-board and was assisted by two colleagues who dropped everything and drove a 60 mile round trip to ensure USB sticks were delivered on time.
On more than one occasion, I have heard the little voice in my head say “You never would have believed it if 10 years ago someone had told you this is what you’d be doing,” but this is exactly why I love working in PR a decade on and why I love making clients’ lives easier and campaigns run to clockwork.
Examples include standing ankle deep in mud on a rugby pitch whilst directing a film crew and ordering 20 professional Rugby League players to lift bags of cement and race in wheelbarrows. Or driving to London and back on a Sunday to stick posters to a cement mixer with Velcro. Or standing over a world champion darts player as he plumbed in a copper T-joint. Or tweeting into the small hours of the night as a brand ambassador is representing the company on national TV. I could go on.
Colleagues can recount similar examples – recreating a beach with a ton of sand on a railway concourse in the wee small hours of the morning, handing out jellied eels in the rain in the grounds of a cathedral and standing on a London rooftop whilst an Olympic medallist tries to generate 1KW of electricity on a Watt bike, or accompanying our ‘Queen’ lookalike to Kate Middleton’s home town on the day of the Royal Wedding thus missing out on the extra bank holiday.
At Connect PR we are not afraid of getting stuck in, or working at unimaginable times of the day or going the extra mile to make clients’ dreams a reality. This is what we thrive on and we believe it’s what makes our clients stick with us year after year after year.
Kathy, Account Director
@Mummypuddleduck