Hogg delved into all aspects of public relations, from his own role with Teneo in strategy & communications to their wider work
Luke Hogg returned to UL, where he graduated with a Bachelors in Journalism and New Media as well as a Masters in Public Relations, to lead the last seminar of the series for students of “Media Challenges in the Digital Age.”
Mr Hogg is now working for Teneo, a global CEO advisory firm, where he has been since 2017. He is based in their Dublin office working in their Communications and Public Affairs team. Teneo is a global CEO advisory firm that was founded in 2011 and boasts in impressive list of clients within Ireland, like Toyota, Circle K and the FAI.
The seminar covered the day-to-day work that he covers in his role, as well as the differences and similarities between PR and journalism.
He illustrated the work that he and Teneo do through multiple case studies and examples. They worked with the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan for COP29, the largest annual climate change conference in the world.
On what their work entailed, Mr Hogg said, “Our job with COP29 was essentially to help them frame what it is that they wanted to say, their key messages.”
An example of Teneo’s work in managing a crisis is Krispy Kreme’s launch in Ireland in 2018. It was extremely popular, detrimentally so, as there was massive queues at the drive-through service of the store in Blanchardstown late at night. At 2am, there was huge noise disturbance as the cars began to beep their horns on request from a radio station.
Teneo helped Krispy Kreme in managing situation by apologising to the local residents and engaging with them directly. They managed to quietly re-open the drive-through service, where it has remained opened ever since with no issues.
Mr Hogg explained, “Since then we have not been having any problems. If a company can handle a crisis very well then they can actually get a boost from it… it’s important to handle it right.”
He also dispelled some common misconceptions that PR has surrounding it.
“PR people are not going to lie to you, it’s not in our interest…we will give you a statement, but there can be specific facts we can’t give to you.” Mr Hogg continued, also saying all clients are advised against lying and Teneo empowers its employees to disagree with their clients if their approach will bring negative outcomes.
As well as this, he explained that PR professionals can be useful contacts for journalists, as they can provide press releases as well as information on the companies that they work for.
He answered questions from the class in a Q&A session afterwards, where the students had the opportunity to ask Mr Hogg questions about his work or PR in general. He mentioned that a journalism degree has its advantages when transitioning into PR.
“I think if you have a degree in journalism you will have an opportunity to go into communications… writing and analytics are key skills in communications.”
He emphasised the importance of reaching out to PR agencies if a career in PR appeals to graduating students, especially those with communications-related degrees.