[Interview] George Coleman, CEO, The PHA Group

Under George Coleman, The PHA Group has transformed from a public affairs firm into an earned-first, full-service agency.

Combining agility, AI-driven strategies, and integrated capabilities across earned, paid, social, and digital, PHA helps brands cut through today’s noisy media landscape. The agency is expanding internationally while redefining modern PR with bold, results-driven creativity.

How did you strategically evolve PHA Group from public affairs to a full-service agency?

PHA was founded 20 years’ ago by one of the UK leading newspaper editors.
The communications landscape was very different back then. YouTube had just launched. Facebook celebrated its first birthday. Twitter was still only a twinkling in Jack Dorsey’s eye.

It was the days before ‘User Generated Content’, influencers, social commerce and so much more that we take for granted today.

If the last two decades have been all about the rise and rise of social media, we’re now entering an AI-first age. An age defined by significant flux in media consumption. Growing disintermediation. And the demise of the traditional sales & marketing funnel.

At the same time: social, economic and political disruption has become the new norm. The world is faster, more chaotic and complex than ever.

In this operating environment the question on top of mind for every brand is how do we cut through, earn attention and drive impact?

We used to think in swim lanes: earned, digital, social, paid. Today, however, creative is the jump ball. The agencies that will win are those who excel at earned-first creative with the capabilities to execute across every channel to engage audiences everywhere they are, always. Agile, integrated, data driven.

PHA is built for this. We’ve intentionally ditched the anachronistic PR agency archetype and evolved to become an earned-first integrated comms agency. While our skills & capabilities have massively expanded, that sense of what makes a great story – what makes people pay attention and engage -is as strong today as the moment the agency was founded.

How do you see The PHA Group evolving in the changing PR landscape?

The biggest evolutionary force in PR is AI. We’ve fully embraced AI as a tool to augment our work. But it’s simply not enough to replicate & automate existing processes. The real power of AI is in completely reimaging the way we work both individually and as a firm. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is being hyped by PR agencies because it emphasizes the value of media relations. But that’s not the whole picture.

Algorithms draw from a complex ecosystem of sources. To fully optimize how brands show up in AI answers you need a full suite of capabilities, including a deep technical understanding of search and discoverability.

Later this year we’ll be launching an entirely new type of agency operating system that will transform the impact we can generate on behalf of clients. It will be an industry first-of-its-kind, so I don’t want to give too much away here. But it will elevate the importance of strategic consulting and creativity – where we, as humans, can add most value.

Correspondingly, at the other end of the scale, I do expect common processes to be highly commoditized as they become more and more automated. Consequently, we will see fewer people in the industry delivering more high-value consultancy work.

What makes PHA’s approach unique compared to major holding companies?

The holding group model is fundamentally broken. Scale is no longer a benefit, but a barrier to good work. Agility and speed have become paramount.

An agency’s ability to dynamically blend and re-blend teams to match a constantly changing need for skills, capabilities and expertise is the difference between trending and being a follower.

The sweetspot is the combination of boutique size with a full-service offering across earned, paid, social and digital. At the centre of that venn diagram is unboxed thinking, unboxed creativity.

PHA can deliver anything a holding firm can, but without the friction or management overheads. Clients and talent are taking notice.

In your view, what are the biggest challenges and opportunities facing PR firms today?

The biggest challenge is a lack of vision and confidence. PR has and will always be a highly creative, strategic function. But it’s been held back by an outdated, outmoded concept of what PR actually is.

PR does not equal media relations. PR is all about earning attention, inciting action and driving impact. It’s not just top of the funnel. Our contribution goes all the way through to conversion. And we do it across every channel, including paid. It’s all about earned-first creativity. That’s what stops thumbs from scrolling, not the fact you’ve simply paid money to show up in a feed.

We’re increasingly the lead creative agency for clients, doing above and below the line execution. TVCs, OOH, experiential. PR opportunity is predicated on turning up with more swagger and confidence in the strategic value we can create for clients. No more inferiority complex in relation to the ad guys. It’s our time to take centre stage.

What are the future plans for the agency?

We’re steadily expanding our international presence, and are particular focused right now on growing operations in the US both organically and through acquisition. Over the next year or so we’ll see our footprint grow in the Middle-East and Asia.

We’ll continue to drive our twin track of AI innovation and hiring the brightest and best talent. Our big bet for the future is on the combination of AI + human delivering high value strategic consulting and creativity.

Beyond that, it simply boils down to doing great work, having fun and winning a few awards along the way.

www.thephagroup.com

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