Brands no longer compete for attention, but for trust

Raya Stefanova

Client Service Director, Paragraph 42

How would you introduce yourself in a few sentences to people who are just getting to know you and the PR agency "Paragraph 42"?

Our profession is now quite recognizable, but its complexity still challenges us to explain how, whom, and for what we consult. In such situations, I usually talk about us PR professionals as the guardians of reputation (пазителите на репутацията), whether it concerns organizations, corporations, brands, or individuals.

Specifically for me - I have 20 years of experience in strategic communications, entirely in PR agencies, which has given me the exceptional opportunity to manage the reputation of leading international companies and beloved global brands across all business sectors. 

Photo: Personal archive 

How many years have you been part of the agency and how has your role evolved to the position of Client Service Director?

Six years ago, I received an invitation to take on the role of Client Service Director at Paragraph 42 - a recognition that I accepted with great responsibility. Since then, my focus has been on the agency's team and our expertise, so that our clients have exactly the strategic thinking, consulting, and solutions they need.

I reached this point after 15 years in two other PR agencies, where I went through the entire journey - from working on individual client tasks, to independently consulting clients, to managing teams. One of the most formative experiences was working on global projects with the European and American offices of Edelman - an environment where you learn the leading global standards in PR through practice itself.

At Paragraph 42, we now have the same experience, thanks to the Ketchum network and the projects we work on within it.

What have been the biggest professional challenges you have faced over the years at the agency?

Past challenges have turned into experience and new knowledge, and each of them plays a role in my career.  However, there is one that seriously concerns me now - retaining young talents in the profession until they become valued consultants.

To become truly good at PR, a lot of knowledge, discipline, persistence, and long-term thinking are required. I meet many young people with potential, but I increasingly feel that the competition for their attention is enormous – positions that sound attractive, tasks that provide immediate satisfaction, the feeling that you quickly accumulate knowledge. However, truly meaningful communication requires exactly the opposite: patience, analytical thinking, and a willingness to work on complex cases and problems, to come up with solutions whose effects are seen after months, not hours.

This is a challenge that we are thinking about not only in the agency - the entire industry is addressing it.

What successes do you consider the most significant – both personally for you and for the team at "Paragraph 42"?

True satisfaction comes when you learn to see the small daily successes. No award or external recognition is as valuable as a meaningful meeting with a client, a productive brainstorming session, a truly good piece of material or an interview in the media, a clever event concept, a successful campaign presentation, a smart message. None of these are easy to achieve, but they are incredibly energizing and most importantly – they exist in every working day.

What happens in situations when the client disagrees with the pre-prepared communication strategy and insists on a different approach?

Actually, such a situation should not happen - and if it does, it is a symptom of a problem in the process, not in the strategy.

Creating a communication strategy is not a one-way action. The client starts with a brief, but their participation does not end there. While we analyze the context, study the behavior of the audiences, and seek insights, we often arrive at conclusions that change the initial framework - and that is good. The strategy is built gradually, in dialogue, like with Lego blocks. When the process works this way, discrepancies are resolved along the way, not at the end.

That’s why I have reservations about competitions as a practice. Agencies work with a superficial understanding of the client and their real problems, just to present ideas that will then be reworked multiple times. The result is a feeling of a lot of lost time - on both sides. True partnership between an agency and a client happens elsewhere.

How has consumer behavior changed in recent years and how has this affected the way brands communicate?

Consumers are now a very active audience. They have the tools to choose and verify, to comment and share their opinions in real time. This has changed the foundations of brand communication and is good news.

The change I don't like is different. In their attempt to follow technologies and rank higher in the competition with algorithms, many brands have lost something more important - the meaning of what they say. Instead of focusing on what we do and what we say, we started to think about what the algorithm likes. The result is communication that lasts 8-10 seconds and is forgotten before it leaves a mark.

You can slip into this spiral unnoticed, but sooner or later we will have to stop - because speaking loudly without anything to say is not communication. It is noise.

How is balance achieved between the authentic voice of the brand, the company's values, and the audience's expectations?

Balance is built at a strategic level. The answers to the questions of what kind of company or brand we are building, what its mission is, and how it will prove this essence in the lives of its audience every day - this is the foundation.

The authentic voice of the brand is not a matter of formulations, but of a clear understanding of who you are and why you do what you do. When the company's values are real, not declarative, and when you know your audience well enough - not just what they want to hear, but also what drives them - then the three things do not compete. They overlap.

The problem arises when communication starts from the desire to please, rather than to say something true. Then the voice is false, the values sound like an offer, and consumers "leave" and look for another brand.

How do you see the current state and development of the PR market in Bulgaria?

The PR market in Bulgaria is developing in the right direction - the profession is significantly more recognizable than it was years ago, and it attracts more and more talents. Research from our professional organizations shows something important: business leaders are increasingly aware of the need for a communication consultant by their side - not as a luxury addition, but as a strategic necessity.

However, the pace is slow for my ambitious nature.

Because the responsibility of PR professionals does not end with the clients we work for. We must continuously educate ourselves, pass this knowledge on to our teams, and remind those who make important decisions in politics, economics, business, and culture how important it is how you speak and what you say. Words are both power and responsibility. And the sooner this becomes a conscious practice, rather than a reaction in crises, the better.

Where do you see the agency in the next 5 years – in terms of positioning, type of clients, and market influence?

I will always want us to work on large campaigns that make sense and bring about social change – I firmly believe in the power of business to create conditions, to make the necessary partnerships, and to act where institutions lag behind.  

Of course, there are brands and companies that I really like as a consumer and whose reputation I would happily protect. But when I think about the next five years, my dreams are primarily connected with the team through which we will grow.

I can't wait to discover new talents with our current team - those we call "our people". PR specialists who know a lot but are curious and have the drive to take action. Those who are ambitious and love to create, but can also delve deeper. Those who are not afraid of complex contexts and challenges, but bring ease and creativity. And who can passionately fight for ideas.

The rest - clients, positioning, influence - happens easily, when you have such a team.