Narrative PR, the public relations arm of full-service creative agency Bensimon Byrne, has welcomed Kathy Barnett to its team in the newly-created position of director of strategy and operations.
Barnett will be working on all existing client files, including Scotiabank and the Ontario Science Centre.
As PR become more integrated into marketing efforts, Barnett sees value in being part of a public relations team that operates so closely with a full-service creative shop.
“I’ve been in PR for a long time, and I’ve had the opportunity to work on a lot of integrated business, where the client brings together the ad agency and the PR agency and the direct people, and it always feels a little bit clunky,” said Barnett. “The creative piece tends to be driven from the ad agency and that core creative idea comes that way. Then you’re asked to make it ‘PR-able’ and it just doesn’t work that way in the real world.”
“We’ve seen some clients who are starting to bring integration to their tendering process. That’s the stuff that really excites me – being able to be at the table from the beginning. Sometimes the most strategic concept comes from the PR side, and that’s really what attracted me here.”
