What the Flack? How the PR Brain Works with Abby Draper
With over twenty years in successful strategic communications, it is no question that to know Abby is to be amazed and amused simultaneously. To work with her is to see drive, grit, and determination in action. She’s a strategist with a get-it-done attitude - thoughtful, but eager to push a creative boundary. She’s hilarious (and one of the kindest people you’ll meet).
LBB> Tell us about your current role and what you do?
Abby> I was brought on to work with Humble & Wallop to add strategic public relations capabilities to its newly refreshed and thoughtful key tenants. It is my responsibility to make sure that all of the pillars of public relations are brought into the agency's daily efforts and that each of those pillars maps back to what Humble & Wallop stands for. This includes integrated strategy, media relations outreach, event planning and execution, crisis communications, reputation management, content creation, social media, and more for Humble & Wallop itself and its clients.
Working with a company whose values reflect my own allows me to be personally and professionally passionate about how public relations can amplify its meaningful mission, which includes:
○ Honest Partnership. We challenge brands to create for their audiences, not themselves. We’ll speak up when the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes, no matter how uncomfortable the conversations may be.
○ Streamlined Management. Our creatives work directly with clients, saving projects from a dark hell inhabited by games of telephone, rain delays, and budgets gone rabid.
○ Speed to Relevance: Culture moves too fast to spend time navel-gazing. Once we have a truth, we put it to work, we test it, iterate on it, and move forward.
○ Creative Collaboration: Brands deserve a place at the creative table. After all, they're the ones who take the fall if the work doesn't work. So we treat them as accomplices and instigators in the creative process.
LBB> And how did you get to where you are today?
Abby> I started my career at a boutique agency in Baltimore where I was focused on traditional media relations. This was at the advent of brands being curious about leveraging social media to cast a wider net and I became passionate about learning more. With tenacity, I proactively absorbed everything I could about marrying traditional PR outreach with social media on behalf of the agency's clients. After persuading my boss to let me try a few things I was able to prove success and in turn, created the agency's first social and digital media department.
A larger agency in the area caught wind of what I'd done and poached me to work for them. I proved to be an asset to some of its largest clients and accelerated my career pretty quickly. Ultimately, I was managing a fully integrated client based in Orange County so the company asked me to move to LA to help open its first west coast office. I did and after basking in the successes that came with that, I took a breather from agency life and practiced PR, social media, influencer marketing and networking on my own in Los Angeles.
That allowed me to expand both my portfolio and my rolodex, while also reconnecting to other elite professionals from throughout my career – including Matt McDermott, president, Humble & Wallop who I have known and admired for nearly two decades.
After leaving the City of Angels to make my way back east, I was able to finally convince Matt how productive it would be to work together and here we are.
LBB> What does your average day look like?
Abby> I think anyone in public relations can agree that there is no such thing as an 'average day' which is one of the things that keeps it so exciting. With the rapid evolutions in this industry, we have to keep up with trends, journalists, news stories, competitors and so much more to be successful. Since I started my career, I have had to learn how to work in tandem with the ever-changing world of social media; how to leverage public relations in integrated strategy ideations; how to tell a brand story during a time of crisis like 9/11 or a pandemic; how to turn desk-sides into virtual happy hours with target media; the inception of influencers and brand ambassadors; how to manage a team remotely – the list goes on and on but the point remains – there is no such thing as an 'average day' in the world of public relations.
LBB> For your organisation, what is the key function of PR and comms? Is it about company culture? Attracting clients? Empowering talent? Something else?
Abby> I think it’s a little bit of, 'all of the above'. Ultimately, bringing public relations into the mix for the agency and its clients is to offer services and strategies that amplify positive perception with relevant audiences in the right places at the right time.
That said, it has brought a new level of energy, thinking, and talent to the forefront. Introducing how the 'PR brain' works to a team of people who are established creative geniuses and think much differently is a blast and only makes the work better, in my opinion. We’re eager to continue to prove that.
LBB> PR has always been about finding the story / finding the angle. What is your process for staying ahead of the content curve and serving up something fresh and engaging?
Abby> One of the many reasons that Humble & Wallop benefits from adding PR capabilities to its services is that its core tenants – mentioned above – align with how to actively, thoughtfully and meaningfully always keep things fresh and engaging. By making sure everything we do maps back to our mission is how we remain ahead of the content curve.
LBB> Historically Advertising folk have a very different relationship with the media, especially the press, than PR folk. Advertising is about buying ad space and being able to dictate how and where something is presented - that’s a degree of control you can barely dream of in PR. Does that tension still exist, and if so how do you navigate that tension?
Abby> I wouldn’t call it tension, specifically with the team at Humble & Wallop. Rather, I’d call it ongoing education and respect for collaboration. By hearing perspectives from each specialist and having productive conversations about how to be most successful on behalf of our clients and agency, we continue to grow in understanding how all agency capabilities can work best in tandem. Yes, paid media and earned media are not the same thing, but there are places in the room for both parties, and we always welcome a good time.
LBB> And what other common misconception do you advertising/production people have about comms and PR?
Abby> Since I’m not an advertising or production person, I’m going to toss this question to Matt McDermott to answer.
“Thanks, Abs. I think that advertising and production folks aren't always aware of just how much legwork goes into getting a story picked up. It's not just the crafting of it, the timely research for each publication and reporter, and keeping up with trends and editorial calendars - it's also the relationships that have been nurtured over time. While a great creative idea may sell a client, it's a lot harder to sell the public. It takes a long tail approach that's in motion long before the idea's been conceived.”
LBB> To what extent do you feel 'the work speaks for itself'? To what stage of growth can a business rely on this mantra to gain more clients?
Abby> While great work can speak volumes on its own, we believe, from a lot of collective experience, that it's more the power of presence and personality as a team, as an agency, and as professionals ourselves. We want a natural relationship with all partners, which is why we are applying collaboration, true teamwork from the beginning, honest conversation and big ideas to every table we sit at, with everyone that is there.
LBB> When it comes to getting coverage/PR for a creative campaign in the consumer press, how should creative teams go about working with their agency’s comms and PR experts?
Abby> What’s cool about working with creatives on developing the right pitch angles for the concepts and campaigns that they’ve created, is that they can articulate an effective story with ease, grace and perfection having been so close to it. This makes it very simple to share with the media. I’ve never worked with a creative whose end-result is 'newsworthy' that wasn’t ridiculously excited to talk about it. They make the job of media relations very easy because the story is told first-hand and shared with genuine joy. I encourage PR practitioners that are trying to earn media coverage for creative campaigns to let the creative team tell you the story first, and use your media relations skills to take it from there.
LBB> When a business is faced with very bad news, what’s the key to getting through it?
Abby> While this can feel like a complicated and daunting question, the answer is actually the opposite – it’s quite simple. The key to getting through bad news as a business, or really in general is honesty, humility, and a lot of grace.
LBB> Generally speaking, how do you approach the hack/flack relationship?
Abby> I am very careful to make sure that I do not send out blanket announcements, or mass pitches. I try to really know who I’m sending a story or interview idea to before I send it by understanding their beat, their voice, who their audience is, etc. I am also very proud of the network I’ve maintained over the last couple of decades and try to leverage that as it makes sense. I pay close attention to platforms like HARO, MuckRack, Cision, social media, and physical subscriptions to publications to be meticulous in my approach. I can assure you I probably don’t get it right every time, but I can also assure you I make every effort to at least try and surround myself with people that support those efforts, no matter the outcome.
LBB> How does doing comms/PR/marketing for the advertising/production [as appropriate] world differ from any other industry you’ve worked in?
Abby> As I mentioned before, it’s different from promoting other industries in that those who are creating and producing concepts are legitimately excited about their work and offer insights and enthusiasm that can’t be made up – they’re real stories, from the real people behind-the-scenes.
They also understand PR differently than a lot of sales and marketing clients might from the beginning, so there is less of a learning curve, which means more placements and awareness sooner. Everyone wins.
LBB> What are the most useful tools in the arsenal of a PR / comms professional working in advertising / creative industries right now?
Abby> Trade publications. Never stop reading them. Always know what the competition is up to. Look for 'eggs'; don’t skip commercials; know the journalists at these trade pubs and be where they are when you can. It moves quickly being that it’s an industry filled with very smart people with the same end goal, so keeping up is crucial.
LBB> In your opinion, how has the role of a PR / Comms professional evolved during your career span ? Have things changed greatly or do core tasks / principles remain the same?
Abby> The role of a public relations practitioner changes every single day. As mentioned earlier, there is no such thing as an average day so to be successful, it is crucial to keep up.
That said, the core principles will always remain the same in that our main objective and desire is to create stories and circumstances that keep our clients top of mind for good – great, actually – reasons.
LBB> What frustrates you about the way the media and PR have changed over the years?
Abby> I can genuinely say that the growth and expansion of how this profession continues to change is not frustrating… It's exciting.
LBB> And what excites you?
Abby> Ha! That worked out well! What excites me is what we discussed before – no day ever looks the same. It’s nearly impossible to find this profession boring. No idea is too big, no story should ever be told the same and no conversation is out of bounds. Working in public relations is the gift that keeps on giving.
