As more and more PR agencies position themselves as content providers, it will perhaps come as no surprise that PRCA members have requested that a Creative Group be added to the membership association’s 24 existing sectoral groups and seven regional groups.

As PR agencies become more integrated, offering many of the same services as advertising and marketing professionals, it is more important than ever for PR professionals to solve the ‘creative’ problem.

The group will be chaired by Nick Woods, Waggener Edstrom EMEA creative director, who says, “Most people in the industry recognise that, while we have small bursts of creative excellence, on the whole we could do better. This means training, inspiring and provoking the whole industry, from apprentices to students, execs, directors and not a few agency MDs. It means creating a better understanding of what exactly we mean by ‘creative’ which is rapidly becoming the most over-used and yet simultaneously misunderstood term in the industry.”

The PRCA has added Creative Group to its list of groups representing the PR industry and those who operate in it. The Creative Group is a specialist skill group for creatives in the UK PR industry. It aims to inspire creativity by fostering creative talent and helping to build a stronger creative culture both in agencies and across the industry as a whole.

Ogilvy PR’s head of media and entertainment, Blair Metcalfe, will act as vice-chairman. He says, “Creativity is the means of solving problems, but right now it is one of our industry’s greatest challenges. We want to bring people together to foster creativity in all corners of the PR world. As you might expect, we are going to be a bit creative in our approach; working with peers to challenge the industry and preconceptions of this essential element in everything we do. We have the vision and passion to celebrate and explore creativity’s value to our industry; stimulating a new era of creativity we can all be proud of.”

The first official Creative Group event will run on 22 July.