Few people begin their PR careers in the mid-nineties and reach such an exciting career peak thirty years later. However, Antony Mayfield, CEO and co-founder of Brilliant Noise, says he is currently at that very point.  

Having restructured Brilliant Noise in 2023, around AI, Anthony has spent the past few years helping clients change their relationship with the technology. In this episode of PR in the Real World, Tony sits down with Antony to discuss the lessons he’s learnt from a distinguished career and why “it’s a great time to have a brain”. 

Being useful can be the most powerful thing you can do: Early in his career, when social media was still new to the industry, Antony wrote a straightforward guide on social media and gave it away for free. As the only guide of its kind, it quickly gathered 2,000 academic citations and was translated into multiple languages. The lesson he took from it was simple. Giving something away that everyone can benefit from was a powerful tool to gain reputation.  

Scepticism must be part of working with new technology: Antony is clear about what scepticism means. To him, it does not mean dismissing new technologies entirely; it means working alongside them critically. It involves wanting to see the evidence and always questioning the output. Not accepting AI results at face value, he argues, is a core part of successfully working with any new technology. 

Give everyone a platform to share what they find: Antony’s advice to every client working within a team is straightforward. Give everyone access and run a weekly show and tell. At Brilliant Noise, the exercise bonded the team and surfaced unexpected connections that opened new ways of learning. The exercise is still running successfully at the agency and, as he puts it, nobody ever fails to turn up. 

The ability to reframe quickly will set agencies apart: After years of working closely with AI, Antony is direct about what success in the industry will look like in the coming years. The agencies most likely to succeed will continue to reframe the challenge and ask the right questions as the technology develops. Most agencies, he says, do not yet have the mindset in their leadership teams to recognise why that is such a crucial issue. Antony Mayfield’s career is a reminder that the professionals who best navigate change are not always the most technical. They are the ones asking the right questions and are willing to accept the technically evolving landscape and adapt. 

Listen to Antony’s episode now!