The mindset of the modern communicator

We recently hosted an event in partnership Waggener Edstrom on the changing skill set of PR people.

The premise of the event was that public relations has changed and therefore the skills and the mindset needed to be a successful communicator must have changed. A propensity to take risks has become an important attribute for modern communicators.

First up was a guy I've been trying to get along to our PRmoment events for a while - Harry Dromey, Head of Mischief at Paddy Power.  Harry’s role is to position Paddy Power’s brand in the following context:

• At the heart of the action
• Innovative
• Audacious
• Controversial

Paddy Power wants it's stunts to be irresistible to the media and highly shareable on social media.

The whole premise of the Paddy Power brand is to be memorable and create mischief. In his interview for the job, in 2012, Harry was told by the then Paddy Power, CEO Patrick Kennedy “If you never cross the line you probably aren’t close enough to it.”

Some of the highlights of Paddy Powers stunts in recent years include their World Cup campaign around the Amazon Rainforest. This campaign ended up creating 35 million Twitter impressions in 48 hours.

First of all Paddy Power provoked controversy by releasing this image: