Led by co-CEOs Fernanda Tchernobilsky and Daniela Graic, the company says it is halfway between advertising and PR
Originating in PR, Pros moved away from the formula based on press relations, releases and relationships with journalists to transform itself into a multi-format communications agency, as defined by co-CEO Daniela Graicar.
A journalist by training, the executive explains that Pros is halfway between advertising and PR agencies, with the aim of generating talkability and different actions for brands. Pros is in a place that is challenging, because it does not have a format to follow, but at the same time full of opportunities. We find our place in creative and strategic PR, which enters the communication plan before the press office.
To exemplify the thought, Daniela cites a case developed for Grupo Boticrio on the occasion of the launch of Botik, a brand for 40+, whose idea was to create a platform for influencers in this age group.
It could have become a release, but we took it upon them to create a platform and proposed inviting women who had content, but didn’t have the audience they deserved. Hundreds signed up for the contest and we chose around 200 to participate in a course that we created together with Youpix to train 40+ influencers. They learned how to make the content more attractive and ended up becoming an organic community to talk about Botik, she recalls.
According to the executive, it was from then on that Boticrio began to see Pros as a PR partner capable of launching products in a new way. This year, we won all the other accounts of Grupo Boticrio that we have not yet served, reveals Fernanda Tchernobilsky, co-CEO of Pros.
Fernanda states that, in competitions, they compete with both advertising and PR agencies. Last year, for example, Pros developed the concept of the Father’s Day campaign for O Boticrio (which featured more affectionate fathers) and AlmapBBDO created the film, she recalls. An advertiser by training and with experience in large live marketing agencies, such as BFerraz and Hands, Fernanda has been at Pros for four and a half years and brings experience with events and brand activations to the agency, matching the company’s corporate communications DNA. Daniela.
The transformation we had to make to become a multi-format agency was not easy. And it was a visceral transformation, it wasn’t cosmetic. Most PR agencies don’t have a creation and planning area like we do, with 30 people. We have our own production team to get ideas off the ground. We went through a change in the company, but also a heavy investment to bring these people from the market, because only with them can we deliver the multiformat, says Daniela.
For the executive, the big change in the communications market is that previously the big idea had to come from the brand’s advertising agencies and then call PR at 40 minutes into the second half to announce when everything was ready. And today it’s different, we start at the beginning to understand what the challenges are and we can come up with an idea that could even become a film, he explains.
According to her, everything also depends on the CMO who is in charge of the brand. We see many CMOs who believe that PR can lead an idea and there are those who believe in the traditional model, of letting the advertising agency create and the PR to publicize it later. And there is also the CMO, like Mondelez, who created an interesting model, which has David and Leo as agencies, Loures as the brands’ PR agency, and Pros enters the middle with the function of generating talkability for the brands and different actions.
For Cia Mller (owner of cachaa 51), Fernanda remembers that the agency started with PR and about a year ago it gained the full account. The client realized that we could collaborate with many more strategies and the big idea, she reinforces.
Today, Pros also buys media. We understood that there was no point in having a super idea, creating a great activation, and not embracing the power of the media to amplify and take communication to more people. Our Trojan Horse has always been PR, but after we enter the client we show our tools, compares Daniela.
Read the full article in the printed edition of December 18th