Founders and Leaders – Declan Bradshaw
Ever wondered how to build a career in PR? To celebrate Babel’s 18th birthday, we’re chatting with our leaders about their career paths. Some took a straight line, others had twists and turns. In this episode of our Founders & Leaders series, we’re featuring Declan Bradshaw, one of our telco experts, agency “data nerd” and master of the written the word, to share his story...
Tell us a little about the sector/s you head-up at Babel
“I’m the odd one out in the sense I don’t head up a sector in the way some of the other senior team do. I work pretty closely with Paul on our telecoms portfolio because it’s a sizable area for us, and then have other clients in our enterprise and broadcast sectors. The main ‘hat’ I have in terms of heading something up is more in terms of services rather than sectors.
“I head up our media training service and I’m also our chief ‘numbers nerd’ (not my chosen title…) which means overseeing how we deliver insights for share of voice, share of search and that kind of thing. It’s nice to have the two really to balance both sides of my brain, one is very people-centric and gets me out to different offices, whereas one is very….not, and sees me deep in an Excel spreadsheet to find something clever to show.”
Give us a brief A-Z on how you got to where you are now (background industry, tech interests, etc)
“I always wanted to be a sports journalist or TV producer growing up, so studied broadcast journalism at Uni and freelanced around radio and tele jobs for a while. That being said, those industries are hard to break into and can sometimes be a ‘who you know’ not ‘what you know’ environment so I got impatient.
“I’d always been interested in advertising/marketing/PR as a field (no, not just because of Mad Men…) so decided to try it. I think in some ways it’s two sides of the same coin. Whether you’re telling a story as a journalist or selling a story as a PR, you still have to know what a story is. A brief stint at a marketing company in my home town of Cambridge led me to the big smoke and Babel. The tech part wasn’t necessarily planned, but I’ve grown pretty fond of it!”
Do you remember the first piece of coverage you secured?
“I don’t remember if it was exactly the first piece I secured, but it’s definitely the first one I remember getting a pat on the back for. We were working with a company called Track 24 which provides passive tracking technologies. This was January 2018, and you’ve probably long forgotten there was a rogue missile alert sent to residents in Hawaii that month which understandably caused a bit of panic. I pitched Track’s CEO as an expert on such alert systems to the Daily Express, which turned a conversation into an online story built around his comments. It came out 3 weeks to the day since I started, and I texted my Mum…
“We’ve always been good at that type of thing, proactive messaging combined with quick reactionary opportunism when the right story breaks. It’s probably still my favourite part of the job.”
What’s been your favourite client campaign and why?
“We’ve had some good ones, so it’s hard to choose one from 7 years. It’s easy to think back on the crazy stuff like putting on mega events with big names – and don’t get me wrong those were great fun – but I think we often get a greater sense of accomplishment from things like a research project that delivers good coverage, leads to inbounds, which lead to a few sales for the client. That gives the “job done” type feeling.
“The same applies to those clients where the relationship starts off a bit edgy, maybe they expect to be in the FT every day and that kind of thing, and over time you win each other’s trust and it ends up a really positive, easy relationship. Those are the campaigns where we can be super proactive, maximise opportunities, clean up on the issues jumps, give honest counsel etc. It’s great when clients understand that dynamic on day 1, but it’s been pretty fulfilling to work with those that maybe didn’t start there, but ended there.“
How has your experience shaped the way you lead our various campaign teams to deliver the best results for clients?
“I’ve been quite fortunate to work with lots of good people, so my experiences of how to deliver results and lead the teams have been pretty positive and easy to follow.
“I’m a football coach in my spare time and a quote that comes up a lot is that “the best coaches are just the best thieves”. I think that’s kind of true in this sense. I’ve just leaned on what worked for me when I was under various leaders in the business earlier in my career, and what led us to deliver good results, taken their best bits and then added a couple of different seasonings on top.
I don’t think I’ve got it all figured out yet by any means, but I think I do benefit from having come through the ranks within Babel and remembering what it is like at the various levels and what worked, and what really didn’t work, when I was there, to pass that on.“
One tip for future leaders in the industry
“I’ll give two half-ones and maybe they’ll make a whole:
- “It’s a smaller industry than you think, so having a network is so important.
- “Stick to your convictions. You’re the expert and you provide a professional service. Don’t be afraid to stick to your guns (politely) and use your expertise to give good solid advice.”
Thanks to Declan for sharing his thoughts and experiences from his time here at Babel. Be sure to keep an eye out for the next installment of this series where we’ll be speaking to another member of the senior leadership team.
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