Rethink’s formal introduction of its PR division Brand Narrative late final week is proof of an extended-standing strategic pillar on the centre of the company, mentioned Sean McDonald.
“We at all times outperform the media budgets,” mentioned the accomplice and chief technique officer. In different phrases, Rethink strives for strategic concepts and inventive campaigns that unfold far past paid promoting. “This has been one thing that we’ve at all times thought-about, however we’ve by no means performed intentionally—and now we’re doing it intentionally.”
Rethink Brand Narrative affords a variety of PR, content material, occasions and influencer advertising companies, and is led by Lianne George, previously director of way of life content material at Rogers Media, and editor-in-chief of Chatelaine, and Meredith Montgomery, previously vice-president at Ketchum. Rethink additionally just lately employed Rethink Christina Vardanis, previously of The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, and Best Health, as content material director.
The Brand Narrative workforce has been working with shoppers for the higher a part of a yr, however Rethink didn’t need to discuss it publicly till it had a portfolio of actual tasks in market. “We needed to ensure now we have performed one thing—present proof of idea—earlier than we mentioned something,” mentioned McDonald.
With the regular decline of the standard media ecosystem, and the explosive development of digital and social media, the silos of promoting, PR and content material have more and more converged during the last decade. PR businesses have added artistic expertise, and inventive businesses have chased virality and earned media.
But McDonald believes Rethink’s Brand Narrative will probably be completely different, partly due to the individuals they’re hiring.
In normal, the company seeks individuals who care about craft and creativity, and the mechanics of selling—how the completely different components work collectively, he mentioned. With Brand Narrative, they added one other high quality: “We want those that perceive the place and the way newsrooms are starved for content material, and the place and the way we are able to most contribute to them—with the perfect curiosity of our shoppers in thoughts.”
The different distinction, he mentioned, is that Brand Narrative is much less a stand-alone division and extra embedded experience infused all through the company, no completely different than technique, artistic or design. Brand Narrative is there when Rethink pitches new shoppers, and anytime a brand new temporary comes within the door.
“[W]e’re plugged instantly into the Rethink machine,” mentioned George within the launch introducing the brand new PR workforce. “We’re companions within the company’s strategic and inventive course of from finish to finish, which suggests the identical model insights and sensibility that inform Rethink’s artistic work additionally kind the premise for the model tales we share throughout channels.”
Developing band technique begins with understanding the cultural context, added McDonald. “That cultural context is knowledgeable by the media as a lot because it’s fashioned by individuals within the communities… So why not have individuals with an experience upfront to additionally feed into the event of technique, not the execution towards the technique?
“We need to create content material that’s inherently enticing to the publishers and to the individuals. And that’s primarily based on a technique that already has interpreted tradition and the chance of the suitable viewers being .”
The remainder of the Brand Narrative workforce consists of account director Sara Lemmermeyer; PR managers Jacky Le and Chenda McKissick; influencer strategist Karin Torn; and PR co-ordinators Kaitlyn Vian and Claire Tam.
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