They say “you can’t go home again,” but sometimes you have to get back to your roots to move forward. That’s what PR maven Mia Pearson is doing after leaving her plum role as president of Fleishman-Hillard Canada to launch North Strategic, with a plan to reinvent the industry with social media savvy.
It’s not the first time she’s taken a risk. In 1996, after three and a half years making her mark with two of the country’s largest PR firms, Pearson founded High Road Communications. The boutique firm flourished, working with some of the world’s largest brands, and Fleishman-Hillard bought it in 2000.
With North—which launches without any clients—Pearson is getting back to her entrepreneurial roots to create what she calls “a very different breed of agency,” one designed to reward innovation and lead in the social media space. It’s an exciting time to be in PR, say North co-founders Pearson and Justin Creally (former president at High Road). The advent of social media and the growing need for organizations to engage in dialogue with consumers has changed the game completely.
“PR has never had such a powerful seat at the table,” says Pearson. Ken Wong, associate professor of business and marketing strategy at Queen’s University, agrees. “The fundamentals and the objectives of good PR and good social media management are the same: It makes perfect sense for PR to have a major voice in how social media is integrated with other marketing elements.”
Clients need their agency partners to lead, but most traditional agencies aren’t moving quickly enough. “If we don’t seize this opportunity, we are going to loose it,” says Pearson. “Clients were frustrated with the industry’s inability to infuse social media in everything we did.” She grew frustrated trying to propel change inside a multinational. “The retraining and retooling of traditional agencies is taking too long and clients are looking for it now.”
Cynthia Keeshan, corporate communications director at Microsoft Canada (the client that High Road built its reputation with early on), says technology is changing communication so quickly, it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. In turn, companies rely more on agency partners for outside perspective and fresh insight.
“There is more pressure on brands than there has ever been in terms of being immediate and accessible… it puts a lot of pressure on communication professionals because that pace is never ending,” says Keeshan, who worked with Pearson for eight years. “Mia sees how things are shifting and she understands how clients are grappling with it.” To respond, Pearson wanted to be able to move quickly in an industry that demands it. “[Starting fresh] was the smartest way to seize this opportunity. I needed to get back to that energy of being entrepreneurial and moving fast. We will be able to make decisions without the bureaucracy.” The focus will still be on earned media, but by building a new agency and model, Creally says North can embed the social media vision from the ground up instead of reworking existing structures.
Wong calls it a smart approach: “It is hard to break free to do that new-age thinking when your history, training and experience is in more traditional media. I’m not saying it can’t be done, [but] it is hard to change how you think about your work.” At the moment, social media is still a technological means of achieving viral outcomes and guerrilla marketing, says Wong. “But the more sophisticated users are also using social media to create distinctive customer experiences that generate a consumer outcome that is perfectly aligned with their brand.”
Pearson believes the social media strategy must “authentically live and breathe” within each team member from the outset. At North, every employee at the table will have been recruited for social media know-how. The firm is also doing away with timesheets and billable hours. Success, says Pearson, will be measured on meeting clients’ goals and moving business forward. Having “skin in the game” elevates the agency to that “trusted advisor status” and makes for a powerful and creative partnership.
“Mia is very tenacious and intelligent, but she’s also street-smart,” says Keeshan of Pearson’s quest. “She has good intuition and as a client I always respected her insight.” Facebook Canada president Jordan Banks, who has worked with Pearson in a variety of capacities, concurs: “She has been an astute thought leader in the digital space for a long while and I have an immense amount of respect for her ability not only to dream but also to make those dreams a reality…. Bottom line is that Mia is a winner and she has a meaningful and significant track record of success and achievement.” North’s co-founders have also earned a reputation for building and motivating highperforming teams. In 2010, Pearson saw Fleishman-Hillard receive a Best Place to Work Award. It’ll come in handy as they plan to ramp up quickly (with two undisclosed hires as of press time) and create an agency that’s about awarding talent rather than lining a holding company’s coffers.
As for clients, Pearson is confident marketers will be drawn to North’s fresh approach. “We want clients who are interested in changing course, taking risks and being brave.” Peers agree if anyone is capable of leading the way, it’s Pearson, for whom moving forward is going back to what she loves—growing great companies.
