2018 Irish Enterprise Award

14 EU BUSINESS NEWS / 2018 Irish Enterprise Awards , Best Public Relations Agency - Dublin The Publicity Loft is a Dublin-based beauty and lifestyle PR agency that is dedicated to providing innovative solutions across the digital and traditional media spaces. We invited Managing Director Amy Buckeridge to tell us more about the firmand how it achieves excellence for its valued clients. The Publicity Loft is an intimate but highly effective PR company with an unrivalled attention to detail and a passion for keeping standards high. Amy outlines how the firm achieves this with every client to ensure that they always receive a unique service tailored to meet their needs. “Here at the Publicity Loft, our aim is to deliver only the smartest PR strategies that result in measurable commercial success for each of our clients. Our communication, both with our clients, our team and our client audiences, is second to none. We are constantly evolving because we know the importance of being ahead of the game in the media industry. We always bring a fresh and exciting approach to every client meeting. “In an industry is constantly evolving, we have to stand out and be game changers. Working with us at Publicity Loft, clients welcomed into the family. We strive to make sure each of our clients gets the one-on-one attention needed. Over-delivering is something we love to do, and we pride ourselves on our full-service communications approach. We specialise in lifestyle PR and have a very strong reputation within the beauty and fashion industry for building brands. We have an in-house design and videography team that works alongside our content creators, along with digital marketing and PR executives to provide a well-rounded approach from concept, through to execution and delivery of results.” It is the firm’s focus on offering the highest possible quality service, rather than simply being the largest PR firm in the business, that sets it apart from the competition and marks it out as the best possible option for clients, as Amy highlights. “Leading industry changes and staying true to ourselves as a company means more to us at the Publicity Loft than just being the biggest firm of our kind. We want to perfect the art of what we do, not grow out of control for the sake of it. Being true to our word in terms of delivery with clients is vital. Whilst we do want to create the most memorable campaigns around, we know that our clients need to be able to assess and measure our success on a particular project. Accountability is incredibly important to us. Delivering the cleverest campaign only counts when it is paired with strong results. Our dedicated team is structured in such a way that there is a support system, a very clear path to follow as to how we deliver our campaigns and report on the outcome.” Staying at the forefront of emerging market developments is crucial for a PR company working in the fashion industry, which is renowned for being led by trends, and as such Amy is eager to showcase the firm’s knowledge of the latest developments in the market and how the Publicity Loft will adapt around these. “Operating in such a fast paced market, we see each new trend as a new challenge to get excited about. Lately, there has been a more strategic use of influencer campaigns in particular. Ireland has seen the influencer sector grow massively in the past 18 months in a way that other countries haven’t necessarily experienced yet. Ireland has been one of the largest users of Snapchat per capita in 2017, however this is starting to slow down. Soon it will start to level off, and there will be a new normal. To adapt around this change, we believe that influencers will have to treat their work as a profession in terms of accountability and incorporate Snapchat and other social media sites into their accountability process. “Today, we believe that influencer content, while always changing, is proving to be far better value than more ‘traditional’ forms of advertising and therefore it’s an area that will continue to grow. Another trend we are seeing is that GBA17005 PR and marketing roles are merging in terms of devising these strategies and in terms of the best use of ‘personality’ marketing and PR. One of the biggest challenges for PR, in particular with influencers, is managing any loss of trust, as an influencer is only of value (in PR terms) if their followers trust in them. They need, and we need, measurable deliverables. Results are key, as the industry no longer revolves around column inches alone, it is instead about having full engagement with the end user. Brands will start to use artificial intelligence more to chart engagement, and so chat-bots are going to become more and more common.” Building upon its current success, going forward the Publicity Loft is set to evolve its service offering and expand in order to meet the constantly changing needs of its clients. Amy concludes by discussing these plans in more detail and sharing the exciting developments that the firm has in store for the long term. “In 2017, we invested in bringing design and videography in-house in order to give immediate and comprehensive support to our clients. This year, we have already kicked off by taking on a new head of content creation. Most of the PR team recruits of late have been primarily