Bridget Gillespie Paverd, CEO, GILLESPIEHALL, Inc.
- Q: What distinguishes you and your firm from other PR and Communication businesses?
- Attitude. Energy. Intensity. Commitment. Innovation. Talent. And I personally lead every project that GILLESPIEHALL, Inc. takes on, without exception.
- Q: How would you describe your job?
- As a PR practitioner, I have made a career out of telling the story for and of others - creating, shaping, infusing news through innovative words and photographs, using all the media conduits at my disposal. Whether we are saving reputations (damage control) or elevating them, our success is all in our angle.
- Q: Have you always run your own business?
- Just about. In 1987, after a five-year stint in corporate marketing and PR, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I started my international public relations firm in Johannesburg. My anchor clients were based in the US, Europe, and Southern Africa. They included Van Leer (Holland), Morton Thiokol (UK), Creteprint (UK), API (SA), and ERNII (SA). After settling in the US, I continued my PR business, operating as BGP Publicity, concentrating on media management, branding, and publicity. In 2002, I joined forces with Neal Hall M.D. and we formed our Philadelphia-based firm, GILLESPIEHALL, Inc. Working the North Eastern shore board is fabulous. I love the Washington DC-New York corridor. Nothing in the world like it!
- Q: How did GILLESPIEHALL, Inc. come about?
- In 2002 I worked with Neal on his riveting poetry anthology. I was his publicist. As a surgeon with a phenomenal gift for creative copy, he became invaluable to me as a medical resource, synthesizing often complex medical information and enabling our creative team to create digestible copy and sound bites. A large majority of our clients are health-based and having a Harvard-trained physician as a partner gives us an enormous edge over most health-based PR firms.
- Q: How does the partnership work?
- I am bold, creative, edgy, intense, and often unconventional in my methodology. Neal is intense, sequential, and analytical - a great strategist. The synergy works well to underpin our creative process and ideas. Our clients and employees benefit from our unique interplay. It has served them well. In the end, we always deliver on message, on time, on budget.
- Q: How does your publicity company BGP Publicity Inc integrate with GILLESPIEHALL Inc?
- BGP Publicity Inc is our holding company doing business as GILLESPIEHALL, Inc.
- Q: You are an American!
- I am, yes. I was born and educated in South Africa, as were my parents and their parents. Growing up under a despised, cruel, racist social system that eventually gave way to a revolution was often shocking, but certainly enlightening. After graduating from high school, I was awarded an international American Field Scholarship to study in the U.S. for a year. It was an invaluable, delightfully outrageous experience sampling Chicago as an avant-garde teenage student. In 1993, I moved back to the USA, and I became naturalized in 2000.
- Q: You have a host of national PR and social marketing awards. Tell us about them.
- Supported by a great, talented team of copywriters, editors, photographers, and graphic designers, we have done particularly well nationally, winning a host of awards for our public awareness, branding, and PR campaigns. We won the 2009 MarCom Platinum Award for the Clean Indoor Air Campaign we lead in Pennsylvania. In 2000, 2004, and 2005, we were awarded first and second place nationally for our business communication efforts in publicity, feature writing, and collateral material production. In September 2005 I was acknowledged for my business communication efforts by the National Federation of Press Women at a ceremony in Seattle, WA . Other awards include the DEWAR Business Award, Ad Club Gold Medal, and Delaware Press Association Communications Contest Winner.
- Q: Favorite projects?
- GILLESPIEHALL, Inc. is discerning in the clients and projects we accept. We enjoy all the campaigns we design and implement. One of my favorites has to be the air quality ad campaign we developed for the American Lung Association and Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. We actually got people excited about the deathly dull topic of air quality by using dead mice and screaming neonates. The four ads we produced were so provocative that we had the Californian based Environmentally Beneficial Behavior Placement in Television use them in popular network shows such as Scrubs and ER; also, the EPA in Washington DC called us to talk about national distribution. We also produced a sexy series of anti-smoking materials for 18-24 year olds that had a massive impact on our target audience - "Some butts are sexier than others..." I loved that project!(See collateral materials page)
- Q: What keeps you driven, motivated?
- Energy! Gusto. An insatiable appetite for that alluring angle. And really great clients! I am driven from within, always resolute to be better than the best - some call it aptitude, some my competitive spirit, others call it creative ego. I really love what I do. Mediocrity and 'good enough' are not on my list of options.
- Q: You have an impressive client base - any favorites?
- One of the fabulous advantages of being in PR for so long is that I have learned to assess a client very quickly. There has to be a rapport, a chemistry for a client-consultant relationship to work. We have that with all our clients - no exception. My favorite client? All of them! I have had the same caucus of clients for years, and they keep referring us to their associates. So as diverse as our client base is, it is fairly incestuous. People I work for know that I bring everything I have to their account - passion, creativity, leadership, loyalty, and responsibility. And a healthy desire for sushi and cheesecake.
Editors note:
Bridget is regularly invited to judge professional communication competitions, most recently the 2006 Delaware Photographic Society, the Indianapolis Press Association, and the Pennsylvania Press Club Communication Contests. Bridget serves as Publicity Chair on the Delaware Press Association Board, and is an active member of the National Federation of Press Women and the American Association of University Women.
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