Evolving and maturing your reactive pr strategy - and the journey to take your clients on, to be able to deliver best in class activity.

1. Evolving and
maturing your
reactive PR strategy
Sophie Rhone
Digital PR Director
Dentsu
Slideshare.Net/SophieRhone
@SophieRhone

2. We stopped
95% of our
activity at
the start
of covid

3. We stopped
95% of our
activity at
the start
of covid
WHY?

4. Because our campaigns
were also in lockdown

5. This left us
with nothing…

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…causing a
MASSIVE
dip in
our links
First
lockdown
2019 2020

7. We saw a change in
content being produced

8. We asked journalists
“What do you want?”
30% 29% 26% 15%
Helpful
Guides
Expert
Opinion
Data Fun & Quirky
Content

9. Then delivered what
they needed…

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2020 2021 2022
Links

11. After two years of delivering
reactive I’m going to tell you
how our link numbers
increased by 98%

12. PR’s only tend to share the
outcome and not the journey
Client
Brief
Results

13. Brands wanted in on reactive
Payday loan companies ”we
want to offer financial advice”
Oh, we don’t want
to talk about that it
Yeah, we can
do reactive, but
we have a 2
week sign off
Can we do
reactive on
our new
store
opening?
We are closing for
the queen's funeral.
Is there anything
we can do?

14. Reactive Maturity Framework:
Making reactive work harder
INITIAL
Ad hoc
Building Trust
DEFINED
Agreed
Process
INTEGRATED
Proactively
pushing
capabilities
PROGRESSIVE
Optimising
best in class
activity

15. INITIAL
Stage objective
o Pique and manage
interest
o Stress test the
client’s processes
o Generate results
Client is invested into the
process, therefore will pay
more attention, provide
more support and be
braver with ideas
Stage benefit

16. Initial: Examples
o Free Insights to rack
opps (Google Trends)
o Highly relevant and
topical Ideas
o Suggest simple
execution (quotes
and commentary)
What you can
do in this stage
o Supply in-house data
o Spokespeople available
for comments
o Understand prompt sign
off times
What the client
can do in this stage

17. DEFINED
o Build a process with the
client so it’s repeatable
o Be consistent with
insights and ideas
o Reporting on results,
tracking keywords
Higher trust from client
which delivers efficiency
through process.
Stage objective Stage benefit

18. Defined: Examples
o Test new data sources
e.g. Met office data,
survey data, sales data
o Identify topics and
talking points across
their business
o Set timing SLAs
for story types
What you can
do in this stage
o Map spokespeople to
story types
o Create templates for
data access
What the client
can do in this stage

19. INTEGRATED
o Show your client that
an integrated approach
with both parties is
valuable
o Bring in social and paid
thinking
The client is proactively
working for us and feeding
in data for us to utilise
reactive
Stage objective Stage benefit

20. Integrated: Examples
o Look at ownable data
within the market
o Level up ideas with
influencer involvement
o Free reign to be bold
o Evaluate performance
outside of SEO or brand
What you can
do in this stage
o Lean into industry
talking points
o Introduce existing media
contacts/influencers/
they might already work
with
What the client
can do in this stage

21. PROGRESSIVE
o Empower the client to
be the best
o Leading the industry,
you work in by
innovating and testing
creative execution
Premium relationship with
senior client stakeholders
who trust and challenge
your ways of working
Stage objective Stage benefit

22. Progressive: Examples
o Pushing boundaries on
activation (PR STUNTS,
industry firsts, etc..)
o Testing influencers in
different scenarios
What you can
do in this stage
o Involved in all marketing
planning activation
o Supply you with brand
activity for the next
quarter to help you
shape those BOLD ideas
What the client
can do in this stage

23. o Our job is to help
clients EVOLVE
o All clients have their
OWN PACE and
challenges
o BUILD CAPACITY
with the client instead
of just ideas
Key Takeaways

24. THANK YOU
Sophie Rhone
Digital PR Director
Dentsu
Slideshare.Net/SophieRhone
@SophieRhone
Evolving and
maturing your
reactive PR strategy
Sophie Rhone
Digital PR Director
Dentsu
Slideshare.Net/SophieRhone
@SophieRhone