My Career: PR agency owner Rob Kenny

Did you always want to work in PR?
No, I don’t think you ever wake up as a six-year-old and think “I want to work in PR.” However, I studied hard throughout my four-year marketing course in TUD, which of course went hand-in-hand with PR. Due to the nature of PR, the qualities you need to have to succeed in PR and my obsession with all things media and influencers, I knew that PR would come naturally to me.

My most formative work experience was… I was the head stylist and co-director of the TUD fashion society show. I learned an incredible amount from taking part in that extracurricular programme. However, when I left college I went straight into a six-month placement in the Communications Store PR Agency in collaboration with The British Fashion Council. This was my first bit of exposure to the real world of PR. I had communication with a list of clients ranging from Erdem to Victoria Beckham and Versace (I even spoke to Donatella on the phone once!), so I definitely learned an incredible amount at a very young age.

My first real job was… I was a junior PR executive at a large agency in London. I was very much bottom of the pile at that time and my salary and input in the agency reflected that, but it was a fantastic stepping stone to help me move into PR over here in Ireland. Working professionally in London has always made me appreciate how lovely the industry is over here.

The most invaluable thing I learned early on in my career was… to work hard! You really stand out to management when you have a good attitude in the workplace, you can’t be afraid to get your hands dirty and there is no such thing as a bad idea. One of the best pieces of advice I was given was that if an employee is good enough, a job will always be made for them, even if that role doesn’t exist. They won’t let you go if you are good enough!

A common misconception about what I do is… whenever PR is mentioned in TV and movies, it can come across as being quite glamorous. Heidi Montag from The Hills and Samantha Jones from Sex and the City did us no favours in this aspect! It is often viewed as red carpet events and celebrity cover shoots and is often thought of as being quite “fluffy.” While there are certainly moments like these throughout PR careers, they take up the smallest fraction of our workload – 98% of the time you are working hard in your office.

My main responsibility in work is to… keep my clients happy and keep growing my amazing team!

The most challenging part of my day is… managing my workload. The nature of PR – and many businesses – is that some of your clients will have busy work periods at the same time. In that case, time management and delegation throughout my team are super important. We always manage to pull through and it is very rare that anyone (besides me) is working late.

I know it has been a good day if… I’m in a good mood when I get home! If my clients are all super happy when I leave the office at the end of the day, then I will have a smile on my face all evening.

I switch off from work by… making a gorgeous dinner with my partner Shane and delving into a brilliant series, we’re huge fans of any BBC crime drama.

Before I go to bed I’ll… undergo my multiple-step skincare routine which is carefully set out by Ireland’s leading skincare queen Eavanna Breen! Most evenings I’ll start off by using the Skinmade Clean Oil Cleanser, followed by the Eavanna Breen x Skinmade Intensive Hyaluronic Acid Serum and my personalised Skinmade moisturiser (made for my skin only). Next is retinol and then depending on the night, there may be another serum or two in there.

I prepare for tomorrow by… I think the nature of self-employment is that you are never off the clock. For at least half of the week, if not more, while we’re watching a series in the evening, I’ll have the laptop out finishing client work. It’s the nature of the job, unfortunately.

After a long week, I de-stress by… normally having fun weekend plans, whether that is dinner and drinks with my girlos and gays, a weekend away in a gorgeous Irish hotel (we love!) or a walk and lunch, nothing de-stresses like a well-spent weekend.

The accomplishment I am most proud of is… I guess, how busy the agency is today and how it continues to grow. Something that is highly unusual (I believe we are the only one!) is that the RKPR agency has never had to seek out a client, each client we have worked with (project or retainer) has come to us directly due to our stellar word-of-mouth reputation.

If you want to get into my line of work, my advice to you is… definitely to have an understanding of the job before seriously considering it. As I said before, there are some very glamorous assumptions about this career that are far from the truth for the most part. It is a huge amount of hard work, but that can be hugely rewarding too – I love it, I will never change careers! If PR is the path for you, then having a degree in PR or marketing is a hugely beneficial tool to break into the industry. PR internships are also invaluable in terms of gaining enough experience to fully break into the industry.

I have just finished working on… the successful press launch of a new Dublin 2 nightclub Seek. Every media brand you can think of, covered the launch.

At the moment I am working on… a very fun new brief for one of our clients, Virgin Media, involving multiple press and influencer avenues. It’s gonna be a fun one!