Home » Former 30 Under 30 Winner Nick Creevey On Backing Yourself For The Big Win

30 January, 2023

Former 30 Under 30 Winner Nick Creevey On Backing Yourself For The Big Win

On-time entries are closed, but you can still sneak in a chance at B&T’s 30 Under 30 Awards presented by Vevo because late submissions are open until Friday 5pm.

For your inspiration, we’ve got Nick Creevey, who snagged the gold back in 2013 and has risen the ranks of adland since.

Creevey was a consultant at N2N Communications when he won his award and he recently worked as the senior media advisor to Scott Morrison.

Check out what he’s got to say below!

B&T: What category did you apply for?

Nick Creevey: PR

B&T: What inspired you to apply?

NC: Back when I applied and even to this day I think PR can get a bit of a bad rap in the marketing and communications mix. I wanted to be involved in an award that could help promote some of the work that public relations and communications professionals do everyday, and show how that can fit into the communications functions of organisations.

B&T: In the short term, how did winning the award impact your career?

NC: The thing I remember most – being a relatively junior practitioner at the time – was how recognition like this helped cement my own understanding of how good some PR people are in Australia, and what it was going to take to measure up and succeed longer term in the industry.

B&T: How did it impact your career long term?

NC: Even though it was an award that was nearly 10 years ago, I’ve kept it on my CV because even to this day it’s something that recruiters mention pretty regularly. There’s a lot of very good PR and communications practitioners and advisers out there, so I’ve been happy to take advantage of the recognition from the 30 Under 30 whenever I can to stand out.

B&T: Have you applied for any adland awards since 30 Under 30? If so, how did your experience with 30 Under 30 influence this?

NC: Not long after being recognised at the 30 Under 30 I moved in house and then into a government media advisory role, so I haven’t been in a position to apply for awards like this.

B&T: What’s something you particularly like about how adland has changed over the past decade?

NC: Speaking from a pretty self-interested point of view, I think it’s been a welcome development that more agencies and organisations have their PR function at the table and in the room when decisions are being made. Too often in the past companies have said, ‘OK this is our decision about this issue, go and sell it or go and fix it publicly’ which is a recipe for disaster. Australia has come a long way with the access that public relations and corporate affairs functions have to senior leaders – and that leads to better decisions and better run companies ultimately.

B&T: Where does adland still have room for improvement?

NC: I’ll let the advertising and marketing specialists handle this one. But in the land of PR and corporate affairs, I think in-house teams can do a better job of affecting change in businesses. For example, we shouldn’t be helping a company smooth over the flaws in its ESG plans – it’s our job to get involved and make sure a company’s actions actually live up to the image it wants to present.

B&T: What message do you have for this year’s entrants?

NC: Back yourself.

Get started on your entry HERE, as the deadline for late submissions (Friday, 3 February 2023) will be here before you know it. You can download the criteria for each category HERE.

However, you MUST be under the age of 30 on the day of the event (Wednesday 29 March) to be in the running. So, be sure to include your ID and profile photo with your entry.

Oh, and please save your entry in a Word doc in case so many of you jump onto the awards portal that it crashes. It’s better to be safe than sorry!

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