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One year of Special PR: Agency heads reflect on first year of business
Special PR celebrated its first birthday last month, so Mumbrella's Lauren McNamara sat down with managing director, Alex Bryant, and creative strategist, Kate Wilkinson, to reflect on the year that was, the present that is - including a new hire this week, and the future that will be.
The first year of Special PR Australia has truly flown by. And what a year they’ve had.
Having delivered projects across earned media, influencer, events and activations for the likes of Pepsi, Red Rock Deli, Smiths, Uber, Uber Eats, Mutti, Coopers, MACq0, and the Dylan Alcott Foundation, it has really, really been a huge foundational year.
Alex Bryant – who says she had long been an admirer of Special’s creative work – says the agency often had the understanding and thinking needed for earned creative and PR, so when she and Wilkinson joined to start the dedicated PR agency, it felt very natural.
“There wasn’t a big shift or need for us to come in and educate the team,” she tells Mumbrella. “The demand actually came from clients – they would tell the Special team that they were great earned thinkers, so thought it was crazy the agency didn’t have that dedicated capability.”
She says although there was a natural fit, and she knew Special PR would be a success, the past year has absolutely surpassed any of her expectations. Being able to walk into an agency that has that base knowledge of what creative comms is, was an amazing position, she says. Plus, being able to work with Special’s creative clients – including huge global brands including Pepsi and Uber – was an added benefit.
The natural fit also came down to how integrated the agency is, according to Kate Wilkinson. With experience from both holdcos and other indies, she knows first hand that advertising and PR can be siloed or fractured within an agency. But, the experience at Special has been the complete opposite.
“It really feels like we are a large team with slightly different disciplines running after the same ideas, rather than having that kind of fractious approach to things,” she explains.
However, being able to differentiate Special PR from the wider Special Group has been key to its success. Branding Special PR as its own capability, and giving it its own identity, made it clear to clients that it was more than just a small, in-agency power.
The PR team has taken on some huge assignments – including helping to launch Pepsi’s rebrand with an epic event in Sydney’s Circular Quay, to collaborating with Aussie dance legends PNAU to create a new song for Red Rock Deli, to petitioning renaming Canberra to CanBEERa when Uber Eats launched its alcohol delivery service, and so much more, all of which have been big milestones, with huge undertakings and rewarding results.
The Pepsi Pulse event, developed by Special PR
“The Pepsi project was one of our first ones from a PR perspective, and they showed such trust and bravery in being open with us to take on a slightly more interesting journey than we started with, and the eventual result was amazing,” Wilkinson reflects. “It was a great way for us to put a bit of a stamp in the ground to the kind of interesting, cool, cultural work that we want to do.”
Another huge undertaking – and one of the most rewarding projects to date – has been Special PR’s involvement with the Dylan Alcott Foundation and the Shift 20 Initiative.
“That being one of our first projects out the gate was incredible,” she continues. “Having such an amazing partnership with not only Dylan but everyone involved has been so special.
“So to have those two really big moments in our first year felt incredibly meaningful.”
The biggest milestone, however, has been the agency’s growth over the past 12 months.
Bryant says she naturally leads with her heart and gut, but the decisions behind Special PR have been incredibly strategic, forward-thinking to grow the brand and the wider business.
“We’ve been really deliberate in the way that we grow our team, the type of opportunities we run after. We really take the time to think about things, think about the opportunities, what we need to achieve our goals, and it’s about making sure we’re growing the team in the right way,” she tells Mumbrella.
The Special PR team
The most recent strategic choice has been the appointment of a new group account director, Reegan Saiani.
She joins Special with nearly ten years of creative earned experience, where she has led global and local integrated campaigns across both consumer and corporate brands. She most recently spent five years at Eleven and TBWA.
“We’re really excited for her to join us,” Bryant says.
The future is looking bright for Special PR. The pair say the next step is ensuring the agency has considered, sustainable growth. They want to continue building on the momentum they have had thus far.
“We’ve had this incredible entree into these amazing brands, and we’re making sure we continue to do them justice, but now that our team is growing, there’s so much more scope and opportunity for us to continue building out Special PR as its own entity,” Bryant says.
She tells Mumbrella the team will continue to develop its client roster, looking at different industries, looking for clients they respect who will let them do brave work, looking to briefs that scare them, looking to where they can explore their personal passions and grow individually, and as a team.
“There’s a lot to come, and we can’t wait for year two,” Bryant concludes.
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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