PR That Moves The Business

Toni Lee has been doing PR for the advertising industry for 28 years. She runs Toni Lee Communications, and she is a co-founder and vice chair of the BLAC Internship Program.

We talked about why she left a holding company and never went back, how she finds a point of view a leader did not know they had, why earned media suddenly matters more than it has in years, and what she means when she says a lack of bravery is what holds most companies back.

Here is our conversation.

Morgan: Tell listeners a little about who you are and your story.

Toni: I do PR for advertising, marketing and media companies, CMOs, anyone in this marketing ecosphere. I have had my own firm for 28 years, and before that I worked for leading PR agencies in New York. I was inside Grey Advertising leading Grey’s own PR and marketing work, and after seven years there I set out my own shingle.

I have been lucky. I worked for Ogilvy, which was transformational, being part of an organization that was founder-led with a real point of view. I got to launch companies like GroupM, one of the first big media holding companies. I have worked with places like Harvard Business Review, and with venture capital firms.

I really love this industry. Every day there is something new. It is never the same, and that is what has kept me going all these years.

Morgan: What made you decide to set out on your own?

Toni: It is interesting that you ask, because you are seeing it right now. Holding companies retracting. Layoffs everywhere.

When I was at Grey, I saw layoff after layoff. And I decided I did not want anybody else being responsible for my future. I wanted to be responsible for my future. The only way to do that was to have my own company.

I have thought about this a lot. I feel like I have been an entrepreneur since I was about 10 years old. Growing up we would start a little store, start a little something. I was always inventing. That streak just carries through. I still think of new ideas for my company every day, new offerings we could build, new ways to help. It is part of my ethos and the way I think.

Morgan: What has changed about how you work now versus back then?

Toni: When I started, I was largely the business. :)

I come from a school of PR where you roll up your sleeves and do the work, and that is the fun part. Writing the pitch, talking to the reporter, finding the story, knowing what reporters are looking for, building those relationships. That has always been my sweet spot.

For the first 25 years, that is what I did. I brought in partners here and there, freelancers for certain things, but I was doing most of it myself.

Over the past five years that has changed. I made a decision not to have just a business, but to build a company. There is a difference there. I am very aware that I now have almost 10 people I am responsible for, some freelance, some full time. That is a big responsibility, and I think about it.

This year I made a big move and brought in Belle Lenz as president. I have never had a president before. That was a real investment in taking the company to the next level, in bringing a level of leadership and organization we did not have.

I do not have much of an ego. So when Belle came in, I asked her what she thought we needed. I can get out of the way and let her say we should be doing this, we need that, why aren’t you doing this. And in some instances, tell me what to do.

Morgan: How do you think about team and culture in that new role?

Toni: My happiest moments are spent with my team, and I try to make space for us to come together.

We were all just at the Ad Age Small Agency Conference in LA. Lindsey, my first full-time employee, who is so dear to me, and Belle, all of us together. We had dinner with clients, lunch with clients, we were all in. But we carved out a day just for us. We went to the Getty Villa, had lunch at Shutters on the Beach, had dinner together.

You have to make time and be intentional, and try to make it fun. We have weekly calls and monthly team meetings with the extended team, which is something Belle brought us. And two or three times a year we are all in the same place, usually around the big industry events. Carving out that time when everyone is remote has made a real difference.

Morgan: What drew you to independent agencies?

Toni: I worked for the large holding companies, and I always thought that was the best thing to do. And then not working for them was also the best thing to do.

The independents are creating new ways to go to market. New models. They are upending what a traditional agency has been. They all have fantastic stories to tell, and a lot of them do not know how to tell them. They also do not know how to differentiate themselves. So we get in there and work with them to build a voice and a point of view.

I believe every agency needs a distinctive point of view. When you have one, you can build a platform around it that cascades from the leader to the agency itself.

I will give you an example. Jared Belsky at Acadia has been a client since he started the agency. We were talking about how they go to market, and he was excited about a new piece of business, and somewhere in there he mentioned that their clients pay for their own media because they do not want to be a bank.

I stopped him. Wait a minute, go back. What do you mean they are buying their own media?

He said, well, they pay for it. I said, nobody does that. He said, really? I said, yes, nobody does that.

And that became a mark in the sand. A very different, very transparent way of going to market. We built a whole point of view around it, and it has extended through everything since. He has taken a stand against principal media buying. He has given rebates back to clients. It all ladders up to an honesty you do not always see in advertising.

But it is his own initiative. It comes from him. We were just able to put a pinpoint on it. People know him for it now, and he was Ad Age’s agency executive of the year.

Morgan: How do you help a client find that point of view?

Toni: A lot of it comes out of a conversation where they are talking about what they do and what they believe, and we hear something nobody else is saying or standing for.

It comes from being students of this industry. Having worked in it long enough that we know when something is genuinely unique and ownable, and then knowing how to build a platform around it. And when I say platform, I mean all of it. What news are you putting out. How are you putting forward a thought leadership piece. How does that extend to LinkedIn, or Substack, or a speaking slot with a client where you talk about what you built together.

Morgan: What mistakes do you see companies make with their story?

Toni: There are always mistakes, and mistakes are good, because you learn from them.

But I think sometimes leaders believe they have a distinct, ownable point of view when they do not. They have tied themselves to it, they are married to it, and getting them to think otherwise is hard.

I have heard a lot of new business consultants say, don’t tell us about your agency, tell us about the problems you solve. That is the right approach. What you have done and how you have done it is what shows what you do best.

I always say, don’t tell me what you are going to do. Do it. And then we can talk about it.

So when I help a client build a thought leadership platform, I ask them what their clients are asking them to solve. What is keeping those clients up at night. That is where you start building a voice.

Morgan: You have a framework you call the Four W’s. Take us through it.

Toni: It starts before the framework. It starts with a point of view that PR is a driver of business growth. Our clients tell us the work we do creates pipeline for them. We believe PR must drive business results, or it is not working.

To do that, we build around four W’s. Your wins, your work, your wisdom and your worth.

Your wins are the news you own. A piece of new business, a new hire, a new piece of IP you launched.

Your work is what you have put out in the world. It does not always have to be creative. It could be an interesting way you solved something through media, or a brand you helped build through design or innovation.

Your wisdom is what you think. Your point of view on the marketplace, and how you are helping solve client problems.

And your worth is the most important one, especially today, because there are so many places people are reading news now. You cannot guarantee anyone will see the other three unless you activate behind them. How are you taking the wins, the work and the wisdom and putting them out on LinkedIn, or in your own newsletter, or on Substack. That is your worth.

Morgan: A lot of executives are nervous about putting themselves out there. How do you talk them through it?

Toni: I was on a panel last year where one of the panelists said you have to get over the cringe. That is really what it is.

LinkedIn is the most powerful business platform right now. I read it before almost anything else in the morning. I get a lot of my news there, a lot of information about what my clients are doing.

We help our clients write their LinkedIn posts, because it is genuinely hard for a leader to articulate something about themselves, to be vulnerable that way, and to share without it becoming chest beating. And we know it works when the leader shares it and the company shares it after. So we build a calendar and make those posts part of the program.

Morgan: How do you decide which channels are right for a client?

Toni: All of our clients say they want the business press. That is somewhat of a holy grail. It is really hard to do, and I am not sure their clients are necessarily reading it.

Most of their buyers are at the CMO or marketing level. They are reading Ad Age, they are reading Adweek, or more importantly they are reading the vertical press for where they do business. If they are a CPG client, or food, or QSR, those vertical publications are really, really important. We are increasingly steering clients toward the healthcare trades, the fintech trades, whatever the vertical is. Those are equally important, and they are very much a business driver.

Morgan: How has AI changed your work?

Toni: PR has never been more important than it is today, because of the way search engines prioritize content. Earned content is king right now. The LLMs are looking for your quote in Ad Age, your quote in a food and beverage trade.

I had a call recently with a prospective client who said, we haven’t done PR in years, and we understand that with discoverability and search we have to be doing PR. It is an imperative for our brand to be found.

I was at an Ad Age roundtable on AI with some serious thinkers in that world, and a client of mine happened to be there and said his company was being discovered in search. I said, a little tongue in cheek, that is because of PR. And it led to a very big conversation. Because yes, that is what is changing how you get discovered today.

Morgan: If earned media feeds the AI answers, does that change what a brand should spend on?

Toni: You are seeing CMOs understand they need to build their brands, and a lot more of them are investing in that themselves. Every CMO is looking for their next job. Their tenure is not forever, so they want to make the most of the successes they have. That is true for their brands too.

You are also seeing brands use PR to supplement what they do in advertising. I was at Possible this year and Kraft Heinz was talking about using PR and events to do things they had never done, like racing a Wienermobile before the Indy 500. That is PR. You had a Pop-Tart come to life at the Super Bowl.

At the Ad Age Small Agency Conference this year the winner was an agency called Conscious Minds, and the work they do for Starbucks has transformed both companies. It is not traditional agency work. They put a giant Starbucks cup at Coachella. They knew their fan, they knew what that fan wanted, and they were in the right place.

It is the combination of all of it that is making PR more powerful.

Morgan: What holds companies back from doing work like that?

Toni: A lack of bravery.

Sometimes to get what you want out there, you have to be a little brave. Every CEO has to be able to say, okay, I will take the fall for that if it goes the wrong way. That is a hard thing to do, and it can also change the trajectory of where you are.

More and more of my clients come to me now and say, this is not the ad we created, this is the engagement we created, this is how we are going to activate this brand in culture in a way that goes beyond advertising. And they are looking to us for how to elevate that to earn press.

Crispin Porter was famous for saying put the headline in your ad, think like a journalist. Today I would say it is more of a culture-forward approach.

Morgan: What are you most excited about right now?

Toni: I love watching agencies that have been around a long time figure out how to reinvent themselves and come to market in new ways. It is not just agencies. It could be a company, a brand. That whole idea of reinvention for today’s marketplace is really strong.

And it is not only about how we are using AI. It is how are we changing the way we show up. What are the new ways we are helping clients solve problems. New offerings, new IP.

Business is evolving faster than ever, and that is what I love about it. No day is ever the same.

Find Toni on LinkedIn, as well as her site.

You can listen to every episode of Chief Brand on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows.

Need a brave brand (and a brave C-Suite team) on social media? Talk to Morgan at thoughtleadertoday.com.