Australia’s AdNews recently featured its ‘Top 40 under 40’; a list of young comms execs making their mark and creating world-class work across the agency, client and media sides.
Despite the fact the PR is very much in the ascendency (if not quite the top dog just yet) as the most essential of communication tools, not one PR practitioner made the AdNews list! I put my PR feelers out and several luminaries (thx guys) nominated a mix of PR high flyers including:
Janine Davis, Porter Novelli’s head of consumer marketing
Roxy Jacenko, 27-yr old MD of lifestyle PR outfit ‘Sweaty Betty PR’
Laurissa Mirabelli, ex-PR head at BMW who has recently joined Volvo
Brendan McClements, former H&K PR and now CEO at Major Events, Victoria
Elke Pascoe – at 28, currently 2iC at Edelman Healthcare PR
FYI, the AdNEws criteria included:
In a position of leadership, on the rise or running their own show.
Must have respect of bosses, peers and competitors
Rewriting or reinterpreting marketing rules
Must be in tune with community attitudes
Have an opinion and not afraid to share it
So, on which criteria did these young PR’s fail to qualify nomination on; given PR’s preference for comms ‘stealth bombing’, was it ‘to have an opinion and not be afraid to share it’?
And will PRIA write to AdNews and remind them of the prowess of the abovementioned, maybe for next year’s list?