For Richard Merrin, CEO of Spreckley, more than three decades in PR have taught him that while the industry has changed almost beyond recognition, the fundamentals of good communications have remained remarkably consistent.
His career began in 1989 at John Fowler and Partners in Stockport, where he worked alongside Sean Kennedy, an old-school PR practitioner who became a major influence on his approach to the industry.
“He taught me an awful lot about the industry and about the core elements of it and the skills that you needed,” Merrin recalls.
One of those lessons was simple: listen.
“Listen as an agency to a client, and that company in turn should listen to its customers. That is so incredibly important.”
The other lessons have followed him throughout his career: bring clients into the process early, protect reputation relentlessly and, perhaps most importantly, understand the people you are communicating with.
“The very best comms leaders, to my mind, bring together the commercial, they bring together the organisational awareness, but bring in empathy. Without empathy and understanding, you’re not going to get anywhere.”
Relationships that last
Merrin joined Spreckley in 1995, eventually buying into the business over time before completing a management buyout and taking it forward as an independent agency.
Relationships have been at the heart of that journey. He remembers a former managing director who kept a huge Rolodex on his desk, recording a small personal detail after every client conversation so that, when he called again, he had something genuine to ask about.
“He built relationships. And he was an absolute marvel.”
That same philosophy remains central to Merrin’s approach today. Some of Spreckley’s clients have been with the agency for 14 or 15 years.
“To us at Spreckley, that’s normal,” he says.
It is also one of the reasons Merrin believes the human side of communications is becoming more important, rather than less, as technology develops.
Authenticity in an AI world
AI has, unsurprisingly, become a major part of the conversation. Merrin is the first to acknowledge the productivity gains it brings, particularly when it comes to research, ideation and brainstorming.
But Spreckley has drawn a clear line when it comes to content.
“We’ve got a very rigid AI policy within the business. No copy is ever written by AI in my business.”
For Merrin, AI should be a productivity tool, not a replacement for creativity or judgement. In fact, he believes the growth of AI-generated content is making authenticity more valuable.
“In an AI-driven world, authenticity becomes the great differentiator.”
That is particularly relevant in financial services, where Merrin sees trust becoming a genuine competitive advantage. Communications, he argues, cannot simply be a constant stream of loud messages; they need to be sustained, credible conversations with stakeholders.
“Technology is making communications infinitely faster, but it goes back to people. People make it believable.”
Proving what PR actually does
Another major change Merrin has seen is the way clients are measuring PR.
Spreckley has always tracked traditional metrics such as share of voice and media coverage, but Merrin believes that is no longer enough. The question clients increasingly want answered is what that coverage actually did for the business.
That has meant working much more closely with clients to understand website traffic, sales funnels and wider commercial outcomes, alongside the traditional media metrics.
“You can talk airily about brand awareness and reputation. Most people are using PR as a hard-nosed business tool.”
Data is now central to much of Spreckley’s work, helping the agency identify what audiences think and feel before building campaigns around those insights. For Merrin, the strongest campaigns bring together data, storytelling and human experience.
Speed is changing everything
Merrin remembers a time when a new business brief could involve hours of face-to-face conversations, weeks of research and painstaking preparation. Today, particularly in financial services, a regulatory announcement or major market development can appear in the morning and be old news by the afternoon.
“You’ve got to be able to jump on what is going on and immediately get a response out of the market if there is one to be had.”
That puts enormous pressure on both agencies and clients to be flexible and responsive. Being a big company or a well-known brand no longer guarantees that you can take your time.
For Merrin, the communications professional of the future needs “mental dexterity, flexibility and to be nimble”.
What comes next?
After more than 35 years in the industry, Merrin’s advice is surprisingly straightforward.
“Communications should simplify complexity, not add to it.”
And campaigns should do more than generate attention. They should change something – whether that is behaviour, perception or ultimately a business outcome.
The tools will continue to evolve, and the pace will almost certainly continue to increase. But for Merrin, the fundamentals remain the same.
Listen. Build relationships. Understand people. And make it believable.