‘There’s a better way to earn attention’: Poem teams up with Phronesis to launch B2B comms offering with B2C lens
Leading earned creative agency Poem has launched a new culture-led B2B offering, Poem Resonate, in partnership with corporate reputation consultancy Phronesis. Speaking exclusively to Mumbrella, the agency founders share why such a service is needed in today’s landscape.
Poem Resonate will support Poem’s clients seeking to navigate the blurred lines between consumer and corporate affairs, as a “B2B offering with a B2C lens”. It has been designed as a reputation and business communications offering, but with a more unique, creative, culture-led approach.
With the rise of social media, the increasing importance of brand reputation, and the demand for authenticity, B2B marketing is becoming strikingly similar to B2C, requiring unique approaches for crisis management, reputation strategy, people-first comms, and more.
Brands are more visible in culture now than ever, because of this, consumers are more aware of brand reputation than they have ever been, and the increase of direct-to-consumer exposure has increased exponentially – both positively and negatively.
“You’ve got to engage people as consumers if you want them to care, regardless of whether they’re a corporate person or not,” Rob Lowe, founder and CEO of Poem, told Mumbrella.
“There’s got to be a better, more engaging way of getting people to pay attention and think differently, and that’s what the purpose of Poem Resonate is. We’ve already done a lot of this kind of thing for our clients, I’ve just seen more and more demand for it, and that’s made me realise that traditional PR is changing, and traditional corporate PR is changing.
“And it all comes down to the fact that we live on our phones, we’re all constantly connected to digital culture, and that doesn’t change if someone’s a corporate person or a pure consumer – we’re all doing it.”
He said there needs to be more collaboration between the “pointy end” of corporate communications strategy and what Poem does from a consumer lens – and the relationship with Phronesis is key to that.
Essentially, Poem Resonate will take what might be considered a more traditional corporate comms brief, and develop it with a B2C approach – whether that be through creative, social, or other channels that ideally engage audiences and earn attention more effectively.
Shane Allison, founder and CEO of Phronesis, said he’s seen similar models work before, and the opportunity here is incredible.
“To be able to bring together Poem’s exceptional leadership in creativity and consumer comms with our corporate lens is great,” he told Mumbrella.
“It all comes back to the idea that everybody is a consumer. When you’re targeting a B2B audience, you need to earn their attention like you would a regular consumer audience. And with the way we view the world of corporate reputation, Rob and the team have been great at creatively cutting through and helping people actually understand why a brand is doing something, or what they’re doing to improve their reputation.”
(L-R): Katie Raleigh, Shane Allison, Rob Lowe
Lowe added: “We’re reacting to the needs being created by the way society is developing. Brands can no longer hide behind what was traditionally business media, they need to be more strategic about their corporate comms approach and treat those people just like regular consumers.”
One of the key opportunity areas stems from the debate over a brand’s corporate responsibility, and whether it needs to take a stance on social movements.
“Brands now recognise that there are areas they want to play in, and there might be risk there, but they need a different type of offering to take on that risk,” Allison continued.
“So if you think about our expertise in managing that risk, we’re combining that with Poem’s ability to push a bit further into creative areas brands might not have previously considered, because that’s where the demand is today.
“We’re already seeing corporates advertise directly to consumers at quite a large scale – for example a TVC – so people understand who they are as a company, so they can improve their reputation,” he said.
“That’s definitely an area where there’s such opportunity.”
Keep up to date with the latest in media and marketing
Got a tip?
Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the agency beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
Linkedin
topics
B2B
B2C
communications
consumer comms
corporate comms
Phronesis
Poem
Poem Resonate
PR
Rob Lowe
Shane Allison
Have your say