A Q&A with PREScom Committee Chair Sean Brown

With the Pressie Awards turning five this year, StopPress checked in with Sean Brown, Managing Director at Mango Communications and the Chair of Commercial Communication Council’s PREScom Committee to find out how PRESCom has grown over the years, what the judges are looking for and how to nail a winning entry.

The Commercial Communications Council’s Pressie Awards is turning five this year, how do you think the PR, experiential and social media industry has changed over the last five years?

The major change in the past five years is that the majority of campaigns now aren’t just one discipline. The most effective work is always integrated in some way whether it’s social, influencer, PR, experiential, earned, paid, owned, or a mixture of them all. Plus of course there’s now TikTok.

PR is still largely about finding a great story or memorable experience and utilising the power of third party influence to deliver it, and a prominent story on the 6pm news or in a major paper remains hugely powerful. 

Social has become an essential part of any campaign, and increasingly we’re seeing socially-led communications strategies with a hero channel e.g. TikTok, rather than work being more traditional and TV-led. 

What are marketers asking for now, that they weren’t asking for five years ago? 

Marketers are asking for integration, which is why many of the campaigns are now multi-discipline.  It is very rare to get a brief that is just PR, experiential or social. PRES agencies started delivering integrated campaigns, clients saw they worked and are now asking for more and more.  

There’s also more focus on creativity as we compete even more for consumer attention. Clients are investing in strategic thinking and creative ideation, not just excellent implementation, from their PRES agencies. It is no longer just the domain of creative brand agencies.

Whereas once marketers bought media, then briefed the creative agency to make a TVC, now they are often briefing all their agencies to come up with the best idea, that is then leveraged across multiple channels.

What makes PRES agencies unique is we were agile before agile and scrums were born. Plus we’ve found that combining PR with experiential, social and paid media support is incredibly effective.

And of course, marketers are still looking for strong results. Increased sales, brand sentiment or/or engagement are important measurements. 

You’ve been judging The Pressies for the last five years, how have the entries changed over this time? 

This year’s entries are going to be really interesting as they cover the nearly four month period in late 2021 that Auckland was in lockdown, as well as the relative freedom of the last nine months.

Covid definitely changed the way campaigns were delivered with a steep growth in social and digital in 2020, which has not gone away, and now that we are allowed to gather, we’ve seen an increase in experiential. TikTok is also now dominating so it will be interesting to see how brands have been utilising it in the last year. 

From a judging perspective, we have higher expectations around strategic thinking and creativity than at the beginning. A PR campaign that just delivers good coverage or a social campaign that just generates good engagement isn’t enough – we’re looking for a focus on big thinking and with some creative sizzle. There needs to be a degree of difficulty involved.

We’re seeing greater analysis on the numbers and the results, which reflects both the growth of PRES as a discipline and the pressure to deliver measurable business results.

The quality is lifting each year and more agencies are entering. PR people are often not good at shouting about their work, but we’re now seeing the benefit of celebrating it, and making our clients famous. It really helps our PRES clients internally. 

The Pressies has a range of new award categories this year, what are they and what prompted this change?

Yes, we have the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion category which is about recognising campaigns that authentically connect with specific cultural, ethnic or under-represented groups. Many brands are somewhat active in this space already, but this is to identify campaigns that go beyond the hygiene layer. 

And we have a new non-profit category. Collectively a lot of agencies and in-house PRES teams do amazing work for charities. This is about celebrating that work and the good we do for our wider communities. 

As Chair of The Pressies, is there anything you particularly looking for when you judge? 

A good read. An entry shouldn’t be boring – it should tell a story just like the work we do for our clients. The judges are also looking for context to show why the work is amazing. Don’t assume we’ll know that it’s the first time it was ever done or that there were incredible challenges getting it off the ground – tell us and tell us how you solved it.

Of course, creativity, strategic thinking and results are essential. Oh, and great spelling! 

You’ve introduced a free entries writing workshop this year, what are you hoping to achieve?

PRES people are generally flat out the entire time, so these are often left to the last minute. We’ll always put our clients first, which means anything for the agency is left to the end. I want to start raising the capability of especially mid-level PRs and Account Managers to start perfecting how to write an entry, and how to sell and celebrate the amazing work we’re doing as an industry. There is so much amazing work out there – we need to be singing it from the rooftops. 

 What are you most looking forward to about The Pressies this year? 

Seeing everyone at the awards ceremony! And celebrating all the amazing PRES work that often doesn’t get promoted otherwise. We do such varied work and it’s exciting to see the results. I can’t wait to read some rippers. 

For more info and to enter The Pressies visit https://commscouncil.nz/pressie

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