Advice for expats joining the uk pr scene
Thanks to Ab Fab, Sliding Doors and the more recent Flack, London is seen as one of the world’s major PR hubs, luring comms folk the world over with the promise of working directly with the world’s biggest brand HQs.
I arrived in the UK four years ago with a suitcase in one hand and an Oyster card in the other, having switched my agency’s office in Sydney for its UK head office. Naively, I thought it would be similar to Australia’s media and communications landscape. This was not the case!
Here are some top tips for people who’ve recently arrived on the London PR scene, or are considering the big move.
Travel within the UK
As an Australian, there is a certain novelty to other countries being so close and, with that, a temptation to book as much annual leave for European trips as your bank account will allow. However, for all the diversity within the city, London’s PR industry has long faced a crisis of homogenous thought, with insights and ideas for nationally relevant brands often reflecting the insular perspectives and interests of consumers based within the M25.
Stay closer to home and travel to the UK’s many wonderful regions, cities and towns to understand life beyond the London bubble. If you have clients on your roster with locations or target markets outside London, make it your mission to visit their offices or branches, speak with staff and customers, and learn as much as you can about audience nuances.
Devour ‘telly’
Coming from a market with a small pool of celebrities and influencers, it was a big shock to discover the sheer volume of household names bandied around agencies in London. When it comes to brainstorming talent to put forward as a potential campaign face or brand ambassador, it can be easy to feel completely useless and embarrassed, because knowing the who-what-where of mainstream culture is a basic tenet of a consumer PR’s job description.
My saving grace has been the brilliance that is UK ‘telly’. From tent-pole reality programmes such as Love Island and Gogglebox to watercooler dramas such as Peaky Blinders and Killing Eve to the many brilliant comedy panel shows, breakfast programmes and long-running soaps – British telly offers a crash course on faces that often end up fronting a PR campaign. It can incidentally also arm you with the lingo and cultural references that help form new connections in daily conversation.
Read the industry news
It’s the basic advice that every PR has heard again and again, but carving out time to read trade publications such as PRWeek is the fastest way for any new arrival to clue-up on the local agency names and industry leaders.
Industry news will also serve as a cheat-sheet for the kinds of campaigns that work – or don’t work – for specific brands and industries, and will prevent you from suggesting floating something down the Thames in your first ideation session at your new job.
Network
Reflecting on the connections I've made while living and working in London, it’s not gone unnoticed that the majority of my closest friends here are colleagues or ex-colleagues.
I believe this is something to be proud of, and the social aspect of work life is one that we, as PRs and agency heads, should work hard to nurture and protect. It’s particularly pertinent at a time when conversations about flexible work and remote working continue to dominate leadership conversations. Time in the office – even if just two to three days a week – should be safeguarded, for the sake of simple human connection.
Written by Senior Account Director, Anna Craven