“A good dose of filth” was how my talk at last Thursday’s PR Fest in Edinburgh was described by Hotwire’s group head of engagement, John Brown, before going on to say that I “brought clarity to floating stuff down the Thames”, a PR agency and industry trope.
I’m pretty happy with that assessment, to be honest. Job done.
Having enjoyed a brilliant response to its inaugural first year, PR Fest, organised by the endlessly positive Laura Sutherland, returned for 2017 with a glowing list of speakers and panel members (and me).
As the founder of PRexamples.com, and the owner of this here PR agency – at which we pride ourselves on our ability to get creative – I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak about creative campaigns.
PR stunts are roundly and routinely mocked. In our increasingly measurement-conscious industry, they get knocked for being a relic of a bygone age of publicity, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
Just look at this case study we wrote up today, highlighting what happens to client traffic when a client story goes global thanks to the ability to spot a chance to be proactive and creative with data. As well as traffic increases, registration conversions, sales and link-building can be among the measurable outcomes, and I think we’ve forgotten, or potentially not even realised, just how beneficial creative thinking can be.
I was fairly nervous to be going up to talk, to be honest. I’ve only ever done a few talks, and as confident a person as I usually am, I knew this would be in front of people that worked at the more serious end of the industry.
Here are my slides from the talk: