Do you want to start a career in PR or communications? Roxhill's in-house PR guru Emma Cripwell is exactly the kind of person you want in your corner.
During Emma’s 30-year career, she’s climbed the ranks, built lasting relationships with journalists, and learned what truly works in this wild and wonderful industry.
Today she has a glamorous CV, a contact book full of the UK’s top editors, and she’s sharing her hard-won advice for grads and new hires looking to start a career in PR and make a great first impression.
Notes app ready? Let’s dive in.
Pretty regularly I think how lucky I am to be a publicist for THE PIG Hotels. I have the dreamiest people to work with across all nine PIGs and at Head Office, and journalists can’t get enough of the hotels. Phew. Big phew. Because it just makes my job so much easier that I can put THE PIG in the subject matter of an email and I’m quietly confident a journalist will open it. Such is the gloriousness of this brand.
But it wasn’t luck that I’ve landed here, in the latter half of my career. Of course, there have been small moments of luck – though I could count them on one hand. The rest, my friends, has been sheer, unrelenting, fabulous, exhausting, exhilarating, gritty, overwhelming hard, hard graft.
My first PR role was at Berry Bros & Rudd, the wildly old and posh wine merchant opposite St James’ Palace. I was PR Exec and my boss once apologised for paying me less than her cleaner. I had to walk to work and make my lunch because I couldn’t afford the bus or to buy a sandwich.
We had a blast. And we worked pretty darn hard (except for the odd very long lunch at The Avenue or Le Caprice, but they were the exception – ish). Work started at 9am, finished at 6pm (if we didn’t have an event) and was frantically busy.
My first job was to clean out the brochure cupboard that everyone called ‘dusty corner’. I could have thought, ‘Moi? With a degree?’, but I just got the heck on with it and, actually, rather enjoyed it.
Next, I sidestepped to Ann Scott Associates, one of the great travel PR outfits of the noughties with Scott Dunn, Oberoi, Mandarin Oriental and further glistening clients on their roster. It was hard work, but huge fun. We were a posse of like-minded women who all got on fabulously.
We laughed, we cried, we posted press releases out every Friday night to land on a Monday morning – I know! We ordered cycling couriers to peddle transparencies of our client images across town to Vogue House or Telegraph Towers, which the journalists in turn would send to the print room and turn into an image for their pages – I know!
All of our PR selling was done on the phone, feet on desk. At a stretch, I got ten emails a day, but computers were definitely not central to our roles.
Fast forward another few years and I had founded my own consultancy, Angel Publicity. I took on my first employee and then another and then another until we were nine whole Angels. Yikes. It was scary. And hard work. We had clients that I can’t quite believe we had: The PIGs, Lime Wood, Le Sirenuse, Como Hotels & Resorts, The Wild Rabbit, OneFineStay. Silly, scruffy old me? Who’d a thought it?
Then, Angel was sold to The PC Agency where I became MD. For years, though, I had this simple yearning to return to my happy place, THE PIGs. So, two years in, I jumped ship and went in-house. 11 years on and I’m still here and couldn’t love it more.
Emma's top tips for starting a career in PR
Just graduated and eager to start a career in PR? Here’s the advice I’d give to anyone with an interest in communications:
1. Nail the interview
If you’re going for an interview at a lifestyle PR company and they ask you what you love, best not say travel/food/drink/whatever their specialist area is. Who doesn’t love travel and food and drink?
Say you love writing, you love efficiency, you love meeting with people and find it very easy making friendships. They’ll hire you on the spot.
2. Pick something that gets you excited
Do PR for something that you think is utterly fabulous – you’ll get excited about it and therefore ‘sell’ it beautifully to journalists. Think Dishoom, RIXO, Charlotte Tilbury, or Bollinger. I’m getting excited just writing that list.
3. Polish your social skills
4. Efficiency is more important than perfection
If you got a First in English from a Russell Group University, that’s fabulous. Bravo. But if you don’t match that with real time efficiency, your splendid wordsmithery is wasted.
Journalists are always on deadline and don’t have time to wait for you to reply to them. The sooner you reply, the more impressed they’ll be and the more likely they are to want to work with you again.
5. Today's junior reporter is tomorrow's editor-in-chief
The juniors you start to work with on any paper or magazine desk might not have mighty clout right now. But one day they might be the editor. Nurture that relationship and enjoy the ride with them.
I sit here now 30 years into my career and look across the editor’s desks – those roles are all filled by pals. It’s so soothing.
6. Everyone has bad days at work
7. Master the art of following up
There’s a difference between tenacity and being super annoying. If you genuinely think an idea is so good that you feel you must re-send an email in case they missed it the first time, that’s great – they’ll thank you for it.
If you keep emailing a journalist asking if they’ve read your email, they will have steam coming out of their ears and blacklist you.
8. Stick with it
If you’re passionate about PR, stick with it. Your first job might be unglamorous, you might have a tough boss, or tough clients, but staying power is its own reward.
Your hard work will pay off, the contacts you’ve nurtured will bear fruit, and the pack will naturally thin.
9. Book a masterclass
If you’re struggling to get your foot in the door of a PR agency, do attend the Publicity Masterclass that I run with my fellow superstar PR James Treacy. This isn’t a plug (much) but we have had phenomenal success rates in planting undergrads and grads in roles across some of the leading Travel PR companies in London. We educate in the morning, and the good’uns get hired in the afternoon. Simple.
Follow Emma’s tips and you’ll be well on your way to impressing your new boss, becoming the kind of PR journalists rely on, and starting a career in PR that’s full of opportunity.
If your company is a Roxhill client, you’re already one step ahead – you can attend exclusive events with top UK journalists to start building connections, download pitching guides to top-tier publications, and access insider advice you won’t find anywhere else.
Roxhill's exclusive events
As a Roxhill client, you'll get access to our in-person and online events with top journalists, so you can start building rewarding media connections.
Roxhill's exclusive events
As a Roxhill client, you'll get access to our in-person and online events with top journalists so you can start building rewarding connections.