Task Page Logo

Matt Phillips @ PPR

Matt lead us astray to the secret rooms of the Cleveland in darkest Paddington for a PR Tea Party…

Posted by Chris in Blogs ยป TeaParty

* The Elevator Pitch

Matt Phillips

The Scene

The Cleveland Arms in Paddington. Ancient, wood-paneled, and full of secrets. We were tucked out the back next to two gents trading war stories about the film sets they’d DPd on. “That scene (in Harry Potter) with the anamorphic was a bloody nightmare.” Two befuddled tourists who’d found their way in by accident remained in outdoor coats while they ate and left quickly. Perhaps the Cleveland was too Paddington for them. For sure though, the barman knew how to make a damn good negroni and we had many.

Ouch, dude

Matt’s co is a very cool, very unique PAYG PR firm. They work with in-house project managers and creators, and external specialists as required. So there’s a three-way process to manage that brings its own delightful and delicious challenges for us to explore through the lens of Task Page.

One great big juicy thing stands out though:

The complexity of keeping so many people in the loop and in time and on message across a zillion tasks with an indeterminate duration for each.

Not wrong there.

There’s a project manager talking to a client. The PM then translates what the client needs into a product (deliverable) and hands that task to a Doer. The Doer then talks directly to the client.

So immediately we have the translation issue between Client > PM > Doer > Client.

Good job the Task Page represents the single source of truth for a task at hand! More and more we’re understanding that creating an unambiguous brief and then locking it off is the source of pain for many agencies. So we’re fixing that ๐Ÿ™‚

The lifecycle of a task is sometimes not obvious. Some tasks are pondered for two weeks and done in a day. Some need to wait until an opportunity arises. Some are super quick and don’t really have a lifecycle. All this brings challenges with transparency and feedback to all involved.

That’s why we’re spending a lot of time working out how to streamline the feedback and monitoring process. No more “How’s it going?” emails, no more “15% complete” statuses, no more demonstration of work email.

The Last Word on PPR, by PPR

What’s PPR and why’s it different?

We are a PR agency for startups. We have a method designed for companies who aren’t already famous, we have an operational model that makes effective use of freelancers, and a pay-as-you-go service model.

Who we work best with

We work best with ‘constructive disruptor’ founders. Generally, that’s people who want to change the world for the better by being different and recognise that being networked and influential through PR makes it easier to achieve their goals

One more thing

Many people view PR as a strand of marketing, but it’s actually the opposite as the focus is not on the inside – brand, products, or features, but the outside – people, issues, and stories. If marketing is about building brand – how we want to be seen, then PR is about managing reputation – what we do and we are actually perceived in the real world.

Connect to Matt Phillips on LinkedIn and check out PPR Consulting!