Kelly Bennett, thriving at the nexus of creativity and commerce

I never had ink pulsing through my veins, which I guess is how I found my way into PR. I’d finished a Diploma in Journalism (following my time at University) and my first job was frankly one of the crappiest I’ve ever had. Alone in the TVNZ newsroom from 11:00pm to 7:00am, poised and ready for something newsworthy to happen in the night so we could immediately get a camera crew there. I knew then, it wasn’t for me. 

So I got a job as a lowly, account executive in a PR agency, not really knowing what PR was. I didn’t love that job, to be honest, but it gave me a good grounding and I was able to parlay what I learned there into another job and my confidence started to grow.

Kelly with his two children, Lucas and Maia

Despite the fact I was steadily growing my professional competence, I wasn’t focussed on that as much as I should have been when I was young. In fact I kind of drifted in my twenties. When I was 30 I got on a plane and went to Europe. On the flight there I was dreaming and scheming about landing in London and getting a PR job promoting films. There was one firm in the UK that would have enabled me to do that and I got an interview with them. The guy interviewing me said “you seem interesting. Go away and write me a paper about how you’d approach the opportunity”. I never wrote the paper! If I’d really wanted it, surely I’d have written that paper?!

My career finally clicked into gear when I returned home to NZ. I took over the reins of a small PR firm which was part of a larger, creative agency group. I learned how to grow a business and that I was good at it.  I got seven years of training with a safety net in place so when it came time to set up my own firm, I wasn’t afraid of taking the safety net away.

I started One Plus One nearly 10 years ago and I truly love what I do now. 

To me, PR is the fusion of creativity and commerce. My favourite part of the creative process is coming up with solutions to real life business problems and seeing clients benefit from the things we recommend, then deliver. It can be artful on lots of different levels. It could be a strategic recommendation to help our client amplify their brand or it could be in the way we tell a story to secure some earned media outputs, like coverage on TV.

In addition to that, you’re a ‘jack of all trades and master of some’. When you partner with a new client, you have to parachute into different industries you may not be familiar with. I thrive on the challenge of that and the variety of the work we do. I’d get bored doing the same thing every day.

I love that as a business owner, I can make decisions at pace without having to consult too many other people.  It was a little scarier when I was starting out but someone gave me some insightful advice - the more senior and experienced you get, it might seem like you’re doing less but you’re actually getting paid to make the right decisions at the right time. I’m proud of the fact that since we started One Plus One, save for a year in Covid, we’ve grown every year – and this year will be our best ever.

This year in particular I’ve been able to assemble a team around me – our best ever - which is another reason I’m loving work. I have many failings, but I know that one of my strengths is being able to spot and nurture talent. The older I get, the more satisfaction I derive from seeing people grow and get better than they thought they could. It transcends any commercial benefit from doing business.

And lastly but by no means least, I really love that my business partner and I own the space that One Plus One operates from. And I’ve learned that I really like the process of place making and that it’s actually a reflection of who I am. If we didn’t have the office in Parnell, in a strange way, One Plus One wouldn’t feel as tangible as it does to me.

In hindsight, I wish that I’d clocked on to the fact that the professional relationships I was building when I was much younger; the quality of the work I was producing; how I carried myself; and how I connected with what I was doing was more important than I realised.

For too long in my career I wanted “work” to be something other than what it was. I didn’t realise that it was up to me. I just needed to change my mindset and connect to it because it’s not up to anyone else. If I’d done that I would have produced far better work and accelerated faster. But everything happens for a reason, and I’m pleased to say that I’m the happiest I’ve ever been professionally, so it all worked out well in the end.

Related stories