For the next in our ‘Meet the Thinkers’ series of interviews, we sat down with The Think Tank’s PR Director, Jo Wilmot.
As leader of our multi award-winning PR team here at The Think Tank, Jo’s responsible for developing effective media strategies to increase and sustain our clients’ exposure. With her extensive PR skills and B2B experience, she helps corporates, brands and senior execs build authority and shape conversations all around the world.
We spoke with her to learn more about how PR has changed in recent years and what brands can do to maximise the returns on their media strategies.
Hi Jo. What are some of the typical challenges facing clients nowadays and how do you help them overcome them?
I think there’s business challenges and then there’s marketing challenges.
As far as marketing challenges go, I think marketing has become much more complex. The old certainties around audiences and where you can find people have kind of dissolved, so it makes a marketer’s job far harder.
The sorts of businesses we work with might have specialists in one or two areas but, unless it’s a very big team, it’s very rare now to have internal specialisms across all the marketing disciplines. New channels are launching all the time, which is hard for businesses to stay on top of. It’s our job as an agency to do that for them.
But while there are new channels to reach people, I think the old rules of marketing remain: that you have to be interesting and you have to appeal to people emotionally.
Tell us about some of the campaigns you’re particularly proud of from your time at The Think Tank.
One of the key ones that I think was really special was Noise Annoys with Oscar Acoustics, which was centred on the business costs of high noise levels in office environments. Our research discovered that a quarter of UK employees produce poorer quality as a result of noise in the office; we produced content to raise awareness and demonstrate how Oscar Acoustics could address these challenges.
Off the back of that content, we developed an integrated campaign which generated lots of quality leads. Working across so many different channels, the results and impacts were far more than the sum of its parts. Whilst the kernel of the creative strategy originated with the PR team, we demonstrated how a well-executed integrated campaign can be heavily amplified by leveraging the right channels.
Another exciting aspect of Noise Annoys was the fact that it was very, very people-orientated. In B2B marketing it’s easy to forget about the people who actually use the end product. With this campaign, we focused on people working in offices and the sort of challenges that they face, as well as the impacts that poorly designed acoustics in office environments can have on stress levels and productivity.
We were really lucky that the client trusted us and our expertise, and it resulted in a powerful campaign. The idea worked well and it generated significant leads for Oscar Acoustics and numerous award wins too.
Another campaign that I think was impressive was the launch of Avery Dennison’s Embelex platform. Avery Dennison is a global materials science and digital identification solutions company, so developing the strategy for the announcement of its new embellishments platform was very exciting.
There was a fixed launch date, so we had to make sure we made a big splash across the key trade media both in terms of advertising and earned media. We then devised thought leadership themes to create momentum, and there was further PPC (pay-per-click) activity.
Outside of the launch, I was really proud that our efforts secured sustained earned press coverage and visibility. The PR team did fantastic work securing a high volume of thought leadership and positioning Avery Dennison in a way that people perhaps hadn’t seen before.
Do you have any advice for B2B brands looking to drive visibility?
To reiterate: you can’t rely on just one channel if you want to see a real impact. Even on a relatively small budget, there are ways to use multiple channels really effectively, and it’s something we do all the time for our clients. You don’t always need a huge budget, and often budget constraints can be a helpful aid to creativity.
Another thing – and this might just be a personal bugbear – but I sometimes wonder if people have forgotten the value of quality photography. Nowadays everyone’s got really powerful camera phones in their pockets, but conversely, the quality of imagery has decreased as it’s become a skill that’s viewed as something anyone can do.
Putting a small amount of budget into getting some really amazing photography can be really beneficial for brands because, if you get that iconic image, it can still gain massive traction.
What changes are coming over the horizon that brands need to look out for?
We can expect to see increased fragmentation and increased specialisation. And I think one of the potential risks of tools like AI is that it removes opportunities for younger people to get into the marketing industry. Because a lot of the jobs that they do, or traditionally have done, are not necessarily going to be there. So I think we need to look at ways that we can ensure a good talent pipeline, even with the rise of AI.
Lastly: as a team leader, how do you get the best out of your team?
It’s about giving people opportunities and giving them the chance to step a little bit outside their comfort zone. It’s also important to be clear on what the expectations are and what ‘good’ looks like.
I’m really, really, really proud of the work that we do at The Think Tank in terms of staff development, team development, skill development, and how we train people. That includes the work we do with all our early career and entry level colleagues in the PR team, who are enrolled in the CIPR (Chartered Institute of Public Relations) diploma to help develop their craft skills.
There’s also the fact that we bring in world leading coaches such as Fran Longford and Daniel de Costa, as well as the soft skills development and support we do with people like Lara Milward to really help people grow. What I want to do is equip people for a really great career, whatever their future holds.
