JIM DEVLIN

Principal Cunningham Devlin Communications

ACTIVITY We have been busy, with a slight uptick in 2022 over 2021. We are finding a consistent demand for public affairs services and communications services that cut into overall business strategy, which is hardly surprising. Our clients have consistently valued PR and their broader communications function. In the areas we work in, it is less of a ‘nice to have, if we have the budget,’ and more about ‘we need a consistent and effective communications strategy to achieve our goals’.

ESG ESG and green themes cut across everything. There is no longer a debate about the extent to which clients need to be incorporating sustainability into their business models. For some sectors, it is even more fundamental, e.g. farming and food, and power to an extent. This also means that, as advisors, we need to be up to speed right across the climate action and sustainability agenda, which can be a challenge given the speed of developments in this space and the volume of reports and consultations that need to be reviewed and monitored.

AGENCY v IN-HOUSE Communications is such a broad discipline. However, the advantage that a PR professional has is that they tend to understand media better. It is always surprising how many don’t, including those who worked all their lives in media, but not as PR professionals. But you never stop learning and we are all just a hair’s breadth from when it goes wrong.

IDEAL CLIENT A client who understands that communications really is at the heart of everything, and a client that is prepared to agree what are the goals they have from planned communications activities, and build around these, but are prepared to adapt plans where needed.

‘In the areas we work in, PR is less of a nice to have’