5th anniversary of A+P in Australia: Reflection

One of the most interesting aspects of PR is its potential is pretty much limitless. What PR is continues to evolve, as does what it means for brands. And that’s been an interesting thing to witness, particularly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. What’s been encouraging to see over the years is how clients have continued to invest in – and prioritise – PR. 

What has become clear – especially through the pandemic – is more organisations are seeing PR as a ‘must have’ rather than a ‘nice to have’, and something they can’t afford not to have if they want to maintain strong share of voice, differentiate themselves and drive growth. 

For our team, that means we continue enjoy longstanding client relationships – relationships built on mutual trust and our ability to help move the needle in our clients’ businesses. 

I remember how exciting it was to onboard our first clients here in Australia. We were fortunate enough to launch with some impressive global brands, like Thoughtworks, Rodan + Fields and Pinterest, which all chose to work with us because of the strong A+P name and reputation. But I believe they then stayed with us because of our ability to truly partner and deliver value.  

Our people are everything, and I firmly believe we have some of the best in the business on our team. But curating the right team isn’t something that happens overnight. That takes work, and we certainly experienced challenges in finding the talent we needed to steadily grow. With the onset of the pandemic, we also faced the toughest talent market I’ve seen in my more than 25 years in PR.  

Today, I feel privileged to work alongside a passionate group of colleagues – each of whom bring diverse expertise and experience that enriches our market offering. Not only that, we also genuinely enjoy working together and collaborating with our clients, because it really is all about the work for us. Nothing more and nothing less. 

We’ve never been the sort of team to shout about our successes from the rooftops. We’re a humble bunch at heart (and we think our results speak for themselves). But we’ve always talked about ourselves in the same way – that what we offer is genuinely unique. We like to think of it as the ‘best of both worlds’, because we are small and mighty on the ground yet backed by all the  incredible talent and resources of A+P and its global reach. Not many agencies can offer that – they are either a boutique local agency or a big multinational. Both offer benefits, and we have always felt as though we encapsulate the best of both. 

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we need to be prepared to expect (and accept) the unexpected – and learn to go and grow with it. 

Looking into the crystal ball, we’d certainly love to continue our solid track record in retention – both with team members and clients. We want to create an agency experience that people want to become part of, making their mark as a team member or as a client and having an agency partner that can achieve what no one has before.  

With our strong heritage in technology, we hope to continue building out our B2B and B2C tech portfolio, as well as branch out further into healthcare. 

As a team, we’re excited to see how and where PR continues to evolve, particularly as we increasingly live in the digital world and look ahead to life in the metaverse. 

Categories: TechnologyConsumer BrandsCorporateHealth