INDUSTRY PROFILES
Lou Draper - PR
Q.
Describe your journey in a nutshell (where you started, when you started, how many staff, and your role)
I've worked in PR for nearly 20 years. I started out organising events for a large corporate, and then moved into copywriting for radio when I had an opportunity to work for a legend in the PR industry. I didn't really know what PR was back then, but in our industry style of "hit the ground running" I was well immersed in no time at all.
Since then, I've worked in-house and run my own agencies. I started a consumer PR firm called Rockstar PR in 2006, which after a move from Auckland to Wellington transformed to LOUD in Public to focus on the growing tech sector. After the birth of my children, I realised that working on my own was a tough gig, and so started my third PR firm with a talented PR and Comms strategist in Wellington, David Cormack. Our firm now, Draper Cormack Group, serves a wide range of companies here in Wellington, but also in Auckland and beyond in the US.
Since then, I've worked in-house and run my own agencies. I started a consumer PR firm called Rockstar PR in 2006, which after a move from Auckland to Wellington transformed to LOUD in Public to focus on the growing tech sector. After the birth of my children, I realised that working on my own was a tough gig, and so started my third PR firm with a talented PR and Comms strategist in Wellington, David Cormack. Our firm now, Draper Cormack Group, serves a wide range of companies here in Wellington, but also in Auckland and beyond in the US.
Q.
What do you think your business and your team excel at (areas of expertise)?
Being Wellington based, we have strong Government relations skills in our team. We work with a number of Government departments here, as well as private businesses in the tech, transport, hospitality, and design industries. I think we're mostly known for our media relations skills and our approach to working with our journalist and editor colleagues. My experience in hospitality has been a useful tool with our consumer facing clients, and we're quite good at putting together events that our clients love.
Q.
What brands are you currently working with?
We work with Data Ventures, Stats NZ, Mojo Coffee, Vector, Catalyst, and a whole raft of others. Our website has most of them all listed so any media friends can easily see who we can help them out with in the first instance.
Q.
What’s a recent campaign you are super proud of because you either came up with a big creative idea; worked with a minimal budget; or exceeded expectations?
Most of our campaigns we can't really talk about, but we have a couple of fun things coming up with Mojo that have been fun to work on.
Q.
What are the greatest challenges the industry is currently facing?
I think the answer most people expect here is the narrowing of media opportunities. The landscape of media relations is very different since I started out back in 2000. But with social media, and the rise of content production to help companies tell their stories, I think the biggest challenge is actually cutting through the noise and getting engagement. The effort that goes in to a social campaign, or even a single post, has such a short shelf life.
Q.
What do you love about the industry and your business?
I'm a creative at heart, and I love the fast pace of PR. I love working for myself and having my own business. Consulting in PR can be really tough, but the pay off by working with different clients and industries in sometimes short time frames, means I am rarely bored.
Q.
What do you tear your hair out about?!
Press releases. If your PR person has a good relationship with the media, a press release is not needed. It wastes time and money for the client, and if it's a corporate environment, getting a "release" signed off usually means the story window has long passed by the time you can spam your journo mates with a presser. A press kit on the other hand is definitely useful.
Q.
What’s your greatest career achievement to date?
Three successful PR firms that I personally have started from scratch. We work with some big business here in Wellington. Sometimes I have to pinch myself of that fact. Who knew back when I first started out in PR that I'd have some seriously powerful people asking for my advice? Bizarre. Love it though.
Q.
And your worst disaster!
Back in the early days of Facebook advertising, I had a well known business wanting to run a campaign. Because the rules were quite a lot looser, my firm at the time produced a cool campaign, however the launch coincided with a new rule change at Facebook and they threatened to close down my client's page with thousands of followers. Lots of apologies and negotiating with Facebook to not do that, meant it was sorted out quite quickly, however that particular business did not remain in our stable after the stress of it all. Sad face. They are a cool company.
Q.
What’s next for you & the business?
Expanding and scaling. My business partner and I never wanted this business to be an enormous power firm, but it's getting to the stage where we do need to hire permanent staff, as opposed to using contractors to help us out. So we're currently working on that and what that model looks like for later this year.
Q.
If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?
Food and fitness is my absolute passion. And while I am a food and fitness coach with fitbyforty.nz as a side hustle in my spare time, if PR was not my longstanding career, I can guarantee I'd be fully immersed in helping people to eat better and get off the couch.
Q.
Your Socials: (Email/Twitter/Website)