10 years of eckfactor from perfeckt on Vimeo.
BY KAREN ECK: I started eckfactor because of a seed that was planted by my first female boss and mentor at the ABC, Sue Lester. She said: “Of all the people in this publicity office, I can see you owning your own business one day”. The thought had never entered my mind. I pushed it into the recesses of my brain and spent the next phase of my life working and traveling overseas on projects I could only dream of, including Mark Burnett’s Eco Challenge adventure race staged in Morocco, Argentina, Borneo and New Zealand.
When my husband and I returned from a stint in Washington DC, I turned down opportunities to rejoin the corporate sector, opting instead to open eckfactor with a staff of one: me.
eckfactor’s first locally based gig was to launch Discovery Channel’s joint production with the Australian Museum, a series about the cloning of the Tasmanian Tiger. I was hired by Discovery’s Washington head office and my job was to get this TV series into the news pages. The media conference, staged in the Botanical Gardens Restaurant was the perfect setting and every news crew available packed the room to hear Professor Mike Archer talk passionately about this extraordinary extinct creature and the quest to bring it back to life. I was so proud to see our Tassie Tiger story play out in news bulletins across the country that night, particularly sitting next to my client who had flown half way around the world for the global launch.
I moved from my home office to a rented desk in Pyrmont. Within a couple of months I had hired my first employee, Sally Tindall (now a press officer for the Prime Minister of Australia) and took over the floor of the building. In that space we grew our reputation as an agency that specialized in entertainment and television publicity, star tours and events. We came out of the starting gates with blue chip clients including Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Sony Pictures Television, ASTRA Awards, XYZ music channels and dmg radio. We enjoyed long standing relationships with them all, including Sony Pictures Television, which we still represent today.
My landlord was a former PR agency owner and journalist. He said: “I’ll give you 10 years, then you’ll be bitter and twisted.” He later told me that his PR business had grown so quickly he no longer knew who the hell some of the people were in his office. Soon after, he shut the doors on his business. I took it as a sage piece of advice.
I decided that I would deliberately keep the eckfactor operation tight, with a dedicated and experienced team who worked on projects they enjoyed.
We now operate out of our own premises in Harris Street and love the media hub the area has become.
Over the years we’ve hosted so many different stars, all interesting and great people: Donald Trump, WWE Superstars (yes, Big John really is big at 6’8”), The Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan, American Chopper, plus local radio, TV and film personalities.
The agency thrives on international brands and big ideas so when Oprah Winfrey’s production company Harpo selected eckfactor to handle media relations in a competitive pitch, we were thrilled. This was a big opportunity for Australia to show off to the world.
To help us assess and define our work, I created a simple tagline: Interesting Projects, Great People.
We certainly respect expertise and talent. Both of which are critical to the success of any effective publicity campaign.
The next chapter is exciting. I believe that our digital PR division, Perfeckt, headed by Adam Cubito, will continue its growth in supporting new and existing clients with added value. Our newly launched agency, Plus1Talent , in collaboration with Dean Buchanan, will selectively and passionately represent stars of today and the future.
eckfactor remains the mother brand and is fuelled every day by dedicated and talented people driving my VIP accounts, including Kym Druitt for CNN and Greg Vekiarellis for Sony Pictures Television.
As I reflect on 10 years, I would like to pay tribute to all my hard working staff past and present. Many talented people have walked through our eckfactor doors and while some have served longer than others, each and every one has made a memorable contribution to the agency.
You know who you are. Thank you.
November 2012
We make extraordinary happen
