What does a public relations (PR) officer do?
This week Emily chats to head of brand and partnerships, Amanda. She tells us the top four skills you need to succeed in the PR industry, and what a typical day looks like in the field
Participants
- Emily Slade - podcast producer and host, Prospects
- Amanda Bunn - head of brand and partnerships
Transcript
Amanda Bunn: As you grow up the career ladder, your network is everything because ultimately, that's your reputation. That's you know, you never know when you need to lean on them, but it's always really important to allow them to lean on you as well. I think it's really powerful when you've got a community.
Emily Slade: Hello and welcome back to Future You. The podcast brought to you by graduate careers experts, Prospects. I'm your host, Emily Slade. And in this episode I chat to Amanda, who works in PR.
Amanda Bunn: I'm Amanda and I am the head of brand and partnerships at a tech PR agency called Luminous PR.
Emily Slade: So can you give us a brief overview of what it is that you do?
Amanda Bunn: Yeah, of course. So I think when we initially spoke, I kind of stressed that I'm agency. So there is obviously you can be an in House PR person. So yeah, my career spans 20 years, which makes me sound very old. And yeah, day-to-day. So my role in the last two years has gone very to the commercial side of the business. So that's supporting the CEO, Kirsty, and kind of helping her win new business. And also, you know, getting partnerships with other marketing agencies and venture capitals firms, et cetera. But day-to-day it's a lot of marketing. So a lot of. A lot of although I am probably the worst person for my own social media, but for the business is fine. It's getting the team involved, it's doing a lot of proposals, it's talking to a lot of people. So networking, I do networking quite a quite a lot predominantly in London, which is always quite nice for a little evening trip out. But prior to that from APR perspective, the day would look very different. So you would manage clients you know you would have a variety of different clients that you would would would. And the whole objective is to kind of manage their brand reputation. You know that aligns with their business objectives in the media.
Emily Slade: And these clients, are they in a particular industry or could they be from any industry?
Amanda Bunn: Yeah, so my background goes back to, well, my majority of my background is B to C so business to consumer, but recent well, I've been at Luminous for five years this month actually. And they specialise in tech PR, so a lot of our clients are startups in the business, in the B2B space. So I have made that transition over to B2C PR, which is very exciting. And yeah, you can really see the difference that you're making.
Emily Slade: Yeah. Oh, lovely. So what inspired you to pursue PR in the first place?
Amanda Bunn: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there was a number of things I must admit when I came out after my GCSE, which I don't even think they're called GCSEs now. But when I came when I was doing my GCSEs, I must admit I didn't really have a clue what I wanted to do, so I stayed on to sixth form and did some A Levels. One being business studies and I really loved that. And I really love this component marketing. So I thought right let's let's explore this a bit further. So I went to university and did a marketing degree and one of the modules of that was PR and this agency owner came in and. Sold it to me like a very kind of rom-com like, you know, you dress smart, you look smart, youre drunk. You know, you went out and took clients for dinner. You took journalists for dinner. You you know. And I was just like, oh, my God, this is so glamorous. I really want to do PR and and still to this day, journalists for me sit on such a pedestal like they are like my celebrity in some sort of way because they're so hard to reach. So when you finally make connections with them, you are very much like, oh, my God, yes, I've done it. So. So yeah. So that's how I sort of explored it. I finished university in 2005 and got a job at a local firm in Norfolk. Sadly, no longer it's. This I did that for a couple of years as their sort of marketing and PR coordinator and then that's when I went to agency and the rest they say is history. So yeah, I've kind of worked my way up. Yeah, yeah.
Emily Slade: Yeah. Oh wow, nice I. That kind of answers my next question, which was what does your educational journey look like? Have you ever done any sort of top up courses or anything like that, or has all of? Knowledge come from working.
Amanda Bunn: Yeah, I would say it was really difficult. 'cause, when I finished university. I must admit there was a bit of naivety in me that was like, well, businesses are gonna want to, you know, I've done a degree. So why are businesses not want me? And then you have that chicken and egg where it's like, well, where's your experience? And it's a bit like. I've been studying for three years. Yeah. It's really difficult. So it was a bit chicken and egg, but I was really, really lucky to to get the the first foot in for sure. What was the question again, sorry.
Emily Slade: How how did you get that first foot in the door?
Amanda Bunn: That's right. Yeah. So. So yeah. So it was a lot of applying for jobs. I was doing my degree, and working as an auxiliary person at HSBC. And. I I I must admit, after sort of three or four months looking for APR role, I was a bit like oh, I don't know if this is the the job, the role for me. So HSBC were really kind and and wanted to put me on their graduate programme, which actually on the day of me going to sign the documentation, I actually was offered the role that I then went on to do so. Yeah. So it's all all kind of worked out for the better mm. But yeah, that's how I kind of got into it and just talking to people, making sure that you're kind of getting seen and heard, I think.
Emily Slade: And do you think that looks different now than to? It. Like back in the mid 2000s.
Amanda Bunn: Oh yeah, yeah, PR is different. You know, it's it's really evolved. When I when I first joined social Media wasn't, was it a thing and and. And I remember an agency I worked out when Twitter first came out or as it's known now, ex.
Emily Slade: Yeah.
Amanda Bunn: And you know, it was like what on Earth is this? You know? So. Yeah. And there's no doubt it will evolve. It will continue to do so. Journalists are different as well. You know, there was a time when you know, news desks, and I'm sure they are still busy. But you know, they would all be in the London offices and now the media landscape looks so different. There's so many more freelancers that work for different publications. You know, they're not necessarily based in London anymore. They're working from home or, you know, working from offices, shared office space. So it's a bit more difficult to to kind of make those relationships as such. So yeah.
Emily Slade: Mm hmm, yeah. What would your advice be on how to go about that in the modern landscape?
Amanda Bunn: I think it's be persistent but of but but be persistent with the right with the right messages with the right stories. I think time and time again we hear from journalists, you know they're being pitched things that. They absolutely would not write about and I think you know, so it is, it's really get a good understanding of you know, who, who your target journalists are. So for example with Luminousous our speciality is tech PR. It doesn't necessarily always mean that we're writing to the tech journalists. But what it does mean is that we have to a have a really good understanding of technology. So sometimes we work with academics that speak a not a different language, but they speak different. You know, they speak in an academic way. But actually our job is to really articulate what they're trying to say and make it simple for the media to understand, because actually they're not the experts they. About it, but they want to write about how it's going to make an impact on, say, businesses or on consumers. So yeah.
Emily Slade: Yeah, it's interesting.
Amanda Bunn: Yeah. So really, so the point that you are sorry that was a long winded way of answering that. But yeah is is is absolutely get to know your media, your target media especially get to know your regional media as well EDP were really helpful at the start of my career and they would allow me to sit in on a news briefing so I could understand the conversations they were having that they allowed me to shadow. So so. I think you know work with your regional media, because I think they've got to help you do your job because ultimately you're going to help them do their job. Yeah, yeah.
Emily Slade: Yeah, definitely coming off of that, what would you say the essential skills are that you need for a job in PR?
Amanda Bunn: I wrote these down because I didn't want to, so I think there's four things I think you have to be creative. So I think, you know, I think you have to have an element of where you can make. You can join dots and you can you know it's it's great that somebody you know I'm trying to think of it is is launching a new business, but actually it's about OK you're launching a new business, but what what impact is that going to have on the local community? What impact is it going to have on your customers? What? Why? Why are you launching? What's the need? So I think it's about being creative with that. It's not just, you know, it's not as simple as just writing a story and hoping that it gets filled. The next thing I wrote down was hustle. I think it's really important that you can hustle. We get asked quite a lot in conversations. You know. How good do you know the media? And the answer back to that is, well, actually the media, like I've said earlier are moving around all the time. So actually how good is your sales pitch? How good are you at hustling and and getting known journalists often say like they get 500 pictures a day in their inbox which? Is quite a considerable amount, so in order to stand out, how can you say what you want to say in a subject header and the first couple of lines? And so it's really about knowing how to pitch. I think not assuming that people know who your client is as well. I think that's one of the key things. Another is being strategic. There are brands that I think. Get coverage for the sake of getting coverage sometimes and it's more of an ego boost. And actually when you use PR strategically it can really help sort of empower your business objectives. It can help you meet them a bit quicker and you know obviously it can help your reputation. And then the 4th is resilience. Because the reality is you will be pitching, you will be ghosted, you know, and it it sometimes can feel a bit, you know, and clients. Sometimes I'm very lucky. I've had very nice. But there have been one or two, shall we say, that that have made me feel like I'm not good at my job and I, you know, and actually I can. I think 20 years in the industry, I think I can safely say that I kind of know what I'm doing and sometimes it's it's just being able to pick yourself up, dust yourself off again and just know what you're doing is. You know why?
Emily Slade: You're doing it. Yeah. Yeah. So how did you develop these skills?
Amanda Bunn: Oh wow. Honestly, I think resilience. I'm I I would say I can still improve. I think it's really disheartening when you believe that you have a story. That actually can could work for particular publications or even mainstream publications, and no ones listening. And but it's all about sort of going back and thinking, well, why maybe is my pitch not resonating? Back in the day when I was, you know, a wee, a wee young lady, I would be on the phone to these journalists. But journalists don't pick up the phone anymore. So it's really important that your your emails or you know that your direct message them through LinkedIn or something is really gonna resonate. Yeah, it's about, I guess it's just constantly asking myself why, why, why to build up the resilience creative, I'd say I'd. I've always been quite creative. I like I, you know, I I do. I like to put fun into things. I like to make things simple. I I don't think you have to make it hard for people. So it's like how can you tell a story where it's really SIM simple to understand the hustle. I love people and I I think I'm really I'm very comfortable in front of people. On stage, but I'm very comfortable on with people in a networking scenario, so it's just it's it's listening, it's being able to listen. Yeah. And then being able to sort of join the dots and being like right, you know, I can, I can see where this could fit in, yeah.
Emily Slade: Mm hmm. Yeah. So what's your favourite campaign to date that you’ve worked on?
Amanda Bunn: Oh, there are so many. And honestly, I was thinking about this the other day and I was thinking, Oh my God, like, what have I been working on that I'm really proud of? There's some, you know, earlier in my career, I did some amazing campaigns for local organisations in Norfolk. So Royal Norfolk show, I did the press office for them. Where she is, which was real fun, and we got to work with. You know, local celebrity Jake Humphrey because he was president one year and yeah, and we got Countryfile Adam Henson, you know, they were such highlights, you know, as a 25 year old and being able to, you know, talk to these people and, you know. Bernard Matthews. Also I did a campaign for way back at one of my first agencies and one of their ambassadors was Marco Pierre White. So we got to do this amazing. This is when bloggers first came on board and we did this whole mummy Blogger. Workshop, where Marco Pierre White cooked a roast dinner or cooked a Turkey, shall I say to? Teach these you know lovely women, how to cook the perfect Turkey for Christmas. It was really weird. It was done in July, you know? And it was like it was amazing. But all these women were swooning over there. They were loving him. So that was obviously a real highlight. A couple of years ago I launched the Ivy Brasserie in Cambridge, which then led me to launch it in Norwich as well, so that was quite nice. And recently, because like my line of clients have differed slightly, we do work with a lot more startups. So that's been a good education for me. In terms of their pain points and one of my biggest highlights. Is working with a tech organisation. They were a 3D body avatar platform, so if you for example were online shopping, this platform would be integrated into say the likes of ASOS or whatever. And what it would allow you to do is take a photo of your front and a photo of your side and it would create this body avatar. So when you're clicking on clothes you can see how they fit. Yeah, which is great. So from a sustainability point of view, you know, cutting back returns and things amazing. So we launched them back in November 20. Oh wow. 2020 No 2019. Possibly because then COVID here and then back in March. We did this like sorry. Lockdown. The first lockdown was lifting, which was what, June, July, I think.
Emily Slade: Yeah, of course, yeah.
Amanda Bunn: We did this little bit of consumer research to identify how, you know, consumers felt about going back into the High Street. You know, how would they feel about touching an item of clothing that maybe had been touched before by somebody else? And what we identified was that four out of five, sorry one, a fifth of UK consumers were were not going to return to High Street. So actually when you link that to an economy angle, when you link that to the you know the the High Street is dying as. The headlines say so when you start to Add all this up together, you've got quite a powerful story. So we went out with this story and it made nationals, which was. That's great. And it got our client really recognised and what happened over the course of six months was they got acquired. So within 12 months we launched them and they got acquired one of the Co founders is being a photographer and living his best life. You know, doing wildlife photography, which is amazing. And the other has set up his own another business and. It's a bit bittersweet because we lost them as a client because obviously they've, you know, done their thing. But on the flip side, you see the impact that really good, powerful PR can do.
Emily Slade: Are there any myths about PR that you’d like to debunk?
Amanda Bunn: Oh I had fun with this yesterday with the team because I was like guys, what myths should we get rid of? I think the first one is it's easy. I think people think of PR like. I don't think Ab Fab, the BBC comedy did a lot for our career. To be fair 'cause they made it look very glamorous and you know, all you did was get drunk and drink champagne and stuff. It's it's, it's hard. I think all from an educational perspective in that people don't understand what PR is, which for anyone listening, it's all about brand reputation and manage that in the you know in the external faces like media.
Emily Slade: Yeah.
Amanda Bunn: Umm. And you know, it's it is hard. You have you, you get knocked back a lot, you get ghosted a lot. You have clients that think they are right which you know they know their brand better than anyone else, but actually. They're not the PR experts and and sometimes you do have to have that conversation where it's like you've hired me for a reason. You know, just.
Emily Slade: Hmm.
Amanda Bunn: You know you've hired me for a reason. Like I would hire you to do a job because I don't know. You know, I don't have the skills or I'm not comfortable or don't know. So I would say, yeah, it's it's a lot harder than it. It kind of looks. I saw an amazing victim post literally yesterday. That said, this lady she's APR and and it said. I always wanted to be a journalist and for the last 15 years it's been amazing to have my pieces in the media but not be credited for them because actually what tends to happen is we write the press releases or we write the thought leadership articles and then a journalist credits them and so it's it's, you know, we're we're quite a hidden, you know quite a hidden what is it we're just. We're magical. None. And then I think also. It's it's a short term solution. It really frustrates me when clients are like or, you know, people come to us and say, you know, I I just, I just need this or I want to be on the front page of the FT for example, I've had that numerous times. And my answer back to them is why? Why do you want to be on the front page of ft? The reality is the the the Financial Times, you know, they feature the FTSE 500 businesses or, you know, rather large brands that we all know and familiar with. If you're a startup, you're going to want to be in sifted, which is ft startup publication and that's where investors go. That's where other start-ups are reading. You know, so people can get a better. Business the reality is the media are not going to write commercially about your organisation. They're going to write about how your organisation might have an opinion about something or how it's potentially impacting a certain industry, but they're not going to write about the benefits of how you'd save a customer X amount of time or whatever. Yeah. So short term solution I would say is a bit of a myth because actually it's about the long term. It's about how is your brand seen over time, how does it evolve, what messages is it portraying? You know what benefits can it do? And it you know that that's not something you can you can do overnight. It's not social media. I think there's another one. It's it's not social media is. It is. It's a part of it. There's a there's a line at the mate. What I'll say at the moment, but there's a digital PR and then there's PR and I've I've been a digital PR manager. And. It it felt. I I I yeah. Digital PR is all about the link building, but journalists are really cottoning on to how the commercial value of a link. So actually you know Google from an SEO perspective. Still very much. Still very much values, brands that are talking, you know that are included in high authority articles and stuff. So brand awareness is is absolutely key. But yeah, it's not social media. I would say there are. I personally I can write a LinkedIn post I can write. A. What do you call a tweet nowadays? An X tweet. Whatever you can write a case like that, you, you know, I can do all that, but actually when it comes to the creative, so like your skills of editing a video, I absolutely would be like. I'm doing so you know it's it's kind of like leave it to the experts. The final one. It's it's so much more than a press release and I think, you know, I have numerous conversations daily and everyone's like, oh, I just want to get this press release out and nine times out of 10, what they want the press release to be about is not newsworthy. So it's, you know, there's so many tactics PR can cover, such as reacting to mainstream news, and we call that. Award entries, which are amazing thought leadership, which is much more sort of opinion based, but it's kind of those 800 word articles that you see in a lot of the trade publications. It can, yeah, it can be numerous things. So it's not just a press release.
Emily Slade: Yeah. No, that's so interesting because I think it's it is one of those jobs that people might not actually know or have an idea about because of things like Ab Fab and they're like, oh, brilliant, you just go and drink at lunchtime and then go home. So it's interesting to know that actually, and you'll probably you're balancing all of these different clients and you have to, you know carve out time throughout the week for all the do like there's a lot.
Amanda Bunn: There is a lot, yeah. And I think it's, I think it's, you know. I don't. I still think there's a whole education that needs to be made around PR because done right, done strategically and done when it's aligned with every other element in a business. So what we sometimes see is you know, the sales team are going off and saying one thing, the marketing team might be doing this. And then the PR is going off saying this. So actually it's about aligning if you know what your business objectives are, then actually if you've got your PR aligned with that and you've got your sales team aligned with that, then actually you can become really powerful because every exit point of your business. You're all saying the same thing. Yeah. Amazing.
Emily Slade: Do you think? It will become social media more. Or do you think there will always be room for traditional?
Amanda Bunn: I think there's. Yeah, I think there's a place I think media is changing. So I think the mainstream media, you know, like the dailies, I think there's a place, there's a place for them. There's a place for broadcast, there's a place for. You know, trade publications for sure. I think the way we digest media and I think the way we digest news is is different and will evolve. I think the whole thing around the fake news. You know, at the moment is quite terrifying that, you know, anybody can say anything. Yeah, I think I think there's certainly a place. I don't I I think it will remain a place in my lifetime. I don't think it will change. You know, I say that too much more, but you know, in 20 years we've had so much more. I think video will be a big part of it and I think that's definitely something I've probably need to upskill myself on in terms of being able to, you know, maybe craft a piece of editorial to, you know, supplement a pitch or something. But yeah, I I don't. I think it's. I think there's still very much in need of it. I think it just the way it's consumed is different.
Emily Slade: Yeah, we've debunked the myths. Is there something about your job that people outside of it might find surprising?
Amanda Bunn: Yeah. Yes. What did I I had? Yeah. OK. So I what it can do for businesses, I think I've, I've touched on it a moment ago, but I really do think that PR can do wonders and I've seen it do wonders, particularly more from AB to B perspective. And you know, just it, it can really help build authority. It can really help build your credibility as a brand, as a spokesperson for that brand as well. From a consumer perspective, I mean, if you've got X amount of influences saying. You know, this is amazing. That's that's an amazing endorsement. So rather there's one of my colleagues was literally talking about this this morning when we were talking about the myths actually. And she was saying, you know, there's that saying where. If somebody says they're good at playing football, that's a marketing message. But if somebody says, Oh my God, that person is a superstar at football, that's really good PR. So it's like it's the difference. So yeah, I think. I just think the impact it can have on businesses is amazing. Yeah. Or brands, I should say.
Emily Slade: So I guess finally, what have you learned in your career that others could benefit from?
Amanda Bunn: It's really important to listen. It's really important to listen. I I look back on my former self, my 20 year old self. And I. So ambitious. I was so ambitious and I wanted the manager titles and I wanted the director titles. And I I do recall my boss, who I was my one of my first agencies when he promoted me. My next question would be and how do I get to the next? And he'd be like, I hate promoting you because you're just not taking your time. To learn and I yes. So I would definitely say listening and learning from your peers, I think. They're they're crucial. They're they've definitely be crucial in my learning, for sure. Listen in. In addition to the peers, I would say listen to your network. They'll always be individuals that are the same kind of hierarchy as you. You might not know them, but I definitely think there's a there's there's benefit in reaching out to them and being like, hey, let's go for a coffee or. Or whatever. Just to understand you know how they're learning, how what they're getting out of their. Because actually it might be that you can do something a little bit different or they can learn from you. Your network will be as you grow up the career ladder, your network is everything because ultimately that's your reputation that's you know that's you never know when you need to lean on them, but that is always it's always really important to allow them to lean on you as well I think. Powerful when you have a community around you for sure and be realistic. You know I. I think I definitely like, I say, probably had very unrealistic expectations and maybe thought, you know, every every Hollywood ROM com I have realised this. They're even advertising PR they. And so I've I've definitely realised that that is not, you know, the truth. I mean, it is lovely having the handbags and. The reality is I can't walk in her heels, you know, and I need a rucksack for my laptop and stuff, so I think, yeah, it's just being realistic and just, yeah, listening. And I just wanted to say the lessons as well is knowing the media. So know the media that you're, you know, be familiar with them. You don't have to read them page to page. You don't have to scroll, you know up from up to from what, I'm sorry to say you don't have to scroll from the top to the bottom. Yeah, you don't have to scroll from the top to the bottom, but there is definitely benefit in having a good understanding of the media and what they're about.
Emily Slade: Amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time today.
Amanda Bunn: Thank you.
Emily Slade: Thanks again to Amanda for her time. You can head to Prospects.ac.uk for more information on working in PR. For a full-length video version of this episode, check out our YouTube channel @futureyoupod. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Thank you as always, for listening and good luck on your journey to future you.
Notes on transcript
This transcript was produced using a combination of automated software and human transcribers and may contain errors. The audio version is definitive and should be checked before quoting.
Find out more
- Discover what you can do with a public relations degree?
- Read all about being a public relations officer.
- Take a look at 7 tips for starting a career in PR.
- Head to iTunes or Spotify to leave us a review.