Telum is looking to highlight the diverse and vibrant agencies in the Australian and NZ PR and communications landscape in upcoming editions of our PR Alert. We want to encourage networking, business opportunities, and to celebrate the great initiatives being worked on. If you'd like your agency to feature, get in touch at alert@telummedia.com

In this edition, we travel to Hamilton, New Zealand, for a closer look at the brainchild of Angela March. A small PR and content agency with a big voice, Brainchild has storytelling at its core.

What services does the agency offer?
Our offering is broad. From media relations, issues management and event management to influencer engagement, videography, visual content and social media. We think of ourselves as the thread that pulls our client’s marketing together. We’re channel agnostic and focus on telling great stories wherever our clients already are. The integrated approach is a powerful way to get results.

What size is the agency?
We are soon to be four. A small but talented bunch, we are all experts in different mediums. What we all have in common is the ability to tell a story in a way that resonates.

Where does your agency have an office?
We have an office in central Hamilton, but until recently, we were 100% remote. We are still, at our core, a flexible agency and will never be a workplace with rigid expectations of everyone at their desk from 9am – 5pm. We value time together, but it’s communication, not geography, that’s critical for delivering quality work. There are many great tools like MS Teams available to bridge the location gap.

Do you have a particular area of focus?
We are a PR and content agency, but we deliberately keep our focus broad so that we can deliver work that ties back to our clients' business objectives. We don’t limit our thinking to specific services or channels. That said, we also know where our strengths lie and where we need to collaborate with other partners to deliver. We just want to do great work that gets results - we’re not precious about how we make that happen.

Who is the founder, and why did they start the agency?
Our founder, Angela March, launched Brainchild with the vision of a curious, creative and strategic agency that did good business with good people. Collaboration is central to the way Brainchild operates, and that doesn’t just apply internally but to the way we work with clients, other agencies and freelancers.

What is next for your agency? What is the five-year goal?
We are currently in growth mode and focusing on meeting the changing needs of our clients - particularly in a digital PR sense. We communicate in a constantly changing world, which means we will be forever evolving, but we see that as a strength. If we ever get to the point where we think we know it all, it will be time to call it a day, because we will be doing a disservice to our clients.

In a sentence, describe your ideal relationship with a journalist.
Open, transparent and built on trust.

Tell us about a campaign you are currently working on or are particularly proud of.
We recently secured funding for a game-changing new anti-COVID product, and we are so proud of the role Brainchild has played in helping this product get a step closer to shelves.

The project was a real-life example of “If I were down to my last dollar, I would spend it on public relations.” When the client briefed us, we quickly realised just how critical the success of this campaign was for them to keep the lights on. As a team, we all felt personally invested in the success of this campaign. And of course, we were excited to share this innovative story of a Kiwi start-up with world-class agritech and science capabilities.

This was a small project, but a special one that more than delivered. We know this product will have a life-changing impact on people globally, and we are thrilled to have made a real contribution to that.

Any key PR trends your agency is keeping an eye on?
Smart PR is in! Data, AI and real-time tech are at our fingertips, so we watch that closely and look for ways to adopt these new approaches. The lines between disciplines are not just blurring, but disappearing, and I think the challenge for most agencies is understanding where to up-skill, where to hire in and where to partner to deliver PR 3.0. Going back ten years, most of us were claiming to be ‘digital’ but still operating in a largely traditional way with a bit of social media on the side. To get the best results long term, we can’t be traditionalists any more. It’s all about integration, pushing boundaries and using the many digital tools we have available to move the needle for our clients and the organisations we work in. PR is no longer the problem child of measurement.

What skillsets do you look for in new hires?
Aside from great PR and communications skills, we always look for people that are hungry to learn and willing to do things differently (the phrase “but that’s how we have always done it” is blasphemy to us). Creativity spans disciplines, too, so diverse skills and the willingness to collaborate is essential. Oh, and you have to be a good human. Speaking of new hires – we are hiring!