We had the chance to talk to Hollie Boodram, who is the Public Relations Account Strategist and Manager at Otter Public Relations. She gave us some very useful information about how OtterPR helps develop thought leaders and top-tier clients, how psychographics can be used to learn more about consumers, and how psychology affects marketing.
Hollie Boodram is a publicist at OtterPR working with an array of industries spanning from business to lifestyle. Her clients have been seen in top tier business, tech and lifestyle publications, Forbes, Bloomberg, Business Insider, the TODAY Show, and more. She prides herself on building a trusting relationship with her clients and constantly evolves communication goals to support their evolving brand.
Previously, Boodram has worked in marketing, social media, professional sports and corporate communications and had her own communications business. She has a passion for sports and fitness as she was a professional cheerleader for the Canadian Football League. She has a BA in English and Communications and Post Graduate Degree in Public Relations and Media Technology. She considers herself a foodie and loves to travel.
What is your role at OtterPR as a publicist? And how has your journey been in establishing a trustworthy relationship with your clients and continually evolving communication goals to support the evolution of their brand?
I’m an account strategist and manager. I oversee strategy and Publicists in garnering clients’ media coverage. I oversee around 30 brands and businesses many of which have IPOs and are multinational. I work with clients throughout an array of industries ranging from business, lifestyle, beauty, fashion, tech and emerging tech to strategically position them and communicate effectively to each of their stakeholders and the media. I develop communications objectives and strategies to broaden and grow client brands through research and analytics and create media plans and campaigns.
My role is to support Account Executives with all PR tasks including pitching media, media monitoring, ideation, networking with media, problem solving, client management, internal communications and effective stakeholder outreach strategy. I review and edit materials to be published and recommend revisions or changes in scope, format, content, and methods of dissemination and I review and analyze the client’s products and review or revise materials prepared by writers to adequately portray the company’s vision and meet the creative strategy needs of the client.
In terms of developing a trusting relationship with the clients to evolve their brand. Clients are extremely passionate about their business and want to ensure the work we do is nothing but beneficial. Building a bridge of trust between ourselves and the client allows the flow of media to move faster and when a client trusts you and your decisions on their behalf it allows us more creative freedom to develop strategies and methods to grow their brand effectively. You build trust by getting to know the person behind the brand, build a genuine relationship and friendship, be an outlet and connect with them in different ways, show yourself as a human being not just a professional.
How does Otter PR, as one of the top 100 PR firms in the country, bring fresh content and perspectives, and assist in the development of thought leaders and top-tier clients?
Our diverse staff lends to our ability to draw from different perspectives. Our staff all have extensive backgrounds, mine is in corporate communications in pro sports and also now more in lifestyle and consumer, some come from politics, lifestyle, business, finance, the list goes on. Matching a team member’s personal and professional expertise with a client in a specific niche allows us to understand them in a way that is more than just a “job” because we’re passionate about the industry as well.
Also our staff range in experience, many of those who have been in the industry for decades have experience to lend to and those who are newer to the industry have their finger on the pulse of the newest industry trends. An amalgamation of the two ends of the career spectrum and knowledge does create teams and in turn work that benefits the clients goals whether that is thought leadership and credibility or anything else.
As Psychographics refers to the social characteristics and statistics of a human population, how can this study of the size, age structures, and economics of various populations be applied to a variety of situations?
Psychographics aren’t meant to be applied to a “variety of situations”. When working on a communications or PR campaign, psychographics are used as a research strategy to effectively connect with an audience. If we know an audience’s behaviors, not just their archetype, we can communicate in a way that connects and engages with them and better target them. At the end of the day our goal is to connect our clients’ messages to their stakeholders and by understanding those stakeholders or demographics psychographics we can better do so.
In a broad sense we’ll understand which publications to connect with and build a relationship with or where to host activations or partnerships throughout a client relationship.
How, in your opinion, is Psychographics useful for analyzing consumers based on psychological characteristics and traits such as values, desires, goals, interests, and lifestyle preferences?
For instance if our clients demographics are mothers aged 35-45 we need to under their psychographic indicators in order to one pitch the media in a way that shows we know their audience and two offer messages they will engage with to ultimately buy into our clients brand messaging. So if we do research and find mothers aged 35-45 in a certain area typically grocery shop for their family after work, and a percentage of them pick their kids up from school or childcare then we know we can reach them by engaging with publications indicative of their lifestyle and in places where they spend their time this is a generalization but the purpose is to connect with a large part of a given demographic based on their behaviors. For a communication tactic an activation at a school event for kids would be a great way to reach mothers in the targeted demographic and for a PR tactic, reaching out to a publication often sold in the grocery store, or that working moms read. Psychographics are meant for research on our stakeholders to better understand and market communications messages to them.
What influence does psychology have on marketing? How will it contribute to a precise marketing strategy?
Being able to understand an audience is the difference between a client actually seeing ROI and a PR team being good versus great. Some of the largest communication campaigns in the world were able to develop trends and change cultural thinking because the communications team were able to effectively identify the psychology of those being marketed to. To get into someone’s head means you can understand them, know what they want and then create the guise of offering it to them through your product or client’s product. Simple as that: learn what people want and make them think you’re giving it to them. Or spin your product in a way that does give them what they want or make them think it’s what they want. Our whole job is creativity based on understanding people. The better you are at understanding audiences and what they want and when the more likely stories and campaigns will get picked up.
What does it take to understand psychographics? And how is your brand relating to people’s actual psyches, emotions, and complexities?
Research, research, research. Once you identify demographics, through research and educated understandings of archetypes you can create a list of psychographic indicators and behaviors. Educated understanding of an archetype means you can make educated presumptions based on what you know of certain groups based on fact and experience. Doing thorough research and also looking into the demographics of a publication, looking at the content a publication puts out and understanding who engages with it also helps in this.
Once you know someone’s behaviors and thought process, you can appropriate messaging in a way that speaks to their needs and wants. If your demographics are young women and you’re a beauty brand. Understanding what women of a certain demographic are interested in is important. If you find they engage most with social media and certain celebrities on social media, understanding that celebrities behaviors and messages is important. If Kim Kardashian’s outfits are trending, then playing into that and marketing your beauty brand in a way that accentuates and complements the Kardashians trending outfit is how you’ll connect with that audience whether it is just for one campaign or on-going.
