PR agency IMPACT Communications has re-launched as The IMPACT Agency, bringing a new insights practice to market with humans – not just data – at its core.
A true hybrid of PR, creative and digital disciplines, The IMPACT Agency is independently-owned by PR pioneer and managing director Nicole Webb (pictured above).
The agency is working with clients such as Nestlé, CSR, Gartner, The Executive Connection, Unisys, Zuper, Crime Stoppers and The Australian Theatre for Young People.
“The big data wave of the last five years has seen an explosion in analytics and data-led strategy,” Webb said.
“Data is great, but without context, it fails to explain why we do what we do. We felt the pendulum has swung too far; that marcomms professionals had forgotten that on the other side of the data were human beings, living and breathing in the real world.”
To coincide with its re-launch, the IMPACT Agency hosted an expert panel event, Humans First: Why you can’t afford to ignore Behavioural Economics, with speakers from the NSW government, superannuation disruptor Zuper and Ancestory.com.
“The marketing industry has been attempting to change people’s behaviour for years, but many of our behaviours are ingrained, intuitive and subconscious,” Webb said.
“These modes of thinking dominate the majority of our decision-making and are strongly influenced by context, ‘anchors’ and ‘shortcuts’ to navigate and simplify our thought processes.
“Behavioural economics enables deeper understanding of target audiences, and these insights strategically inform campaign activity to influence, nudge and change human behaviour.”
From its pure PR origins 18 years ago, Webb says The IMPACT Agency has continuously disrupted itself to adapt, evolve and stay ahead. Its new practice areas and services include a new category of personas, a behavioural economics model, moment mapping and a digital hub.
“We are seeing divergence across our industry,” Webb said.
“Consultancy firms are acquiring creative agencies, some digital work has become commoditised and strategy is no longer specific to one discipline.
“Among all of this, we wanted to zig where others are zagging and really focus in on the true purpose of communications: to connect with people.
“It might seem unusual to rebrand using a similar name, but the name means a lot to us. IMPACT says exactly what we do: we create real IMPACT for our clients’ businesses.”
