Danny Tan, who recently joined Grayling in Singapore as Managing Director, shares with Telum what he enjoys the most about being on the agency side, the changes he witnessed throughout his years as a communicator and his best advice for juniors in the industry.

You have more than a decade of communications experience. Tell us what excites you the most about agency work?
My friends think that I’m just a little bit mad to have stayed as long as I have on the agency side of the business, but the truth is that I’ve loved every minute of my journey so far. As a consultant, you get the opportunity to address a wide variety of business challenges through communications. Every client comes through the door with a unique set of challenges that you try your best to unpick with the tools that you have at your disposal.

At a global networked agency like Grayling, your toolbox includes access to the latest tools and platforms, as well as colleagues who have solved similar problems all around the world.

What are some of the biggest changes you’ve noticed throughout your years in the communications industry?
While there have been many significant changes to the way we communicate with audiences who are paradoxically more connected, yet harder to persuade than ever before, I think that it’s more interesting to examine something that unfortunately hasn’t changed enough in the past decade: the way that we measure our work.

Far too many communicators and their agency partners are still focused on measuring communications output, looking at story count, impressions, tonality, and so on. The truth is that these metrics are only relevant to other communicators. What the rest of the organisation really wants to know is: how have you added value to my business?

With the rapidly declining cost of audience sampling in Asia in the past five years, the biggest change that should have happened was a shift towards outcome measurement, integrating more closely with marketing departments which are typically further along in this regard. We hope to lead this change at Grayling.

What do you think are the key trends or issues that will keep you busy in 2022?
We’ve made it halfway through this interview without mentioning the pandemic, but I’m afraid that ends here. 2022 promises to be the year of the Great Reset, as the world (hopefully) shifts into endemic mode.

After a year in which many on both agency and client teams have decided to explore challenges anew, I expect that many clients will be hoping for a fresh start to 2022. This is a great time to revisit and challenge some foundational aspects of your communications programme with your agency partner, and tailor your programme for outcome, not output.

What is your one piece of advice for young PRs looking to make a career for themselves?
Get comfortable with the idea of maintaining a minimum level of discomfort in your career. It could be learning a new industry or sector; a new insights tool; a new influencer management platform. The point is that in an industry as fast-moving and dynamic as communications, the moment you start relying solely on your experience as a consultant and stop challenging yourself to learn or try something new, you essentially start moving backwards.

In many teams, I’ve observed that the most junior person is often given the responsibility of trialling these new tools and platforms. This is a great opportunity for hands-on learning that may not look that way when you first get the assignment. Always volunteer for the trial account!

What is your most memorable PR moment?
There have been so many amazing campaigns over the years that I have been privileged to be a part of, but what I suspect I will remember most when this is all over is the people that I’ve had the good fortune of meeting along the way.

The creative challenge of solving business problems through communications invariably draws smart, driven individuals to an agency. What I didn’t expect to find was that many of these individuals also turned out to be some of the kindest and most insightful people I would ever encounter. Needless to say, they’ve become friends, not just colleagues.