PR veteran shares 25 years of lessons on how to future-proof your brand

Noreen Heron, founder of the Chicago-based Heron Agency, is a connected leader who blends creativity, strategy and relationships to deliver impact. 

A self-made entrepreneur, Heron never worked at an agency before launching her own and has since led award-winning campaigns for Procter & Gamble, Hyatt, Smirnoff, Orangetheory Fitness, Paper Source and Massage Envy, while also championing Chicago’s cultural scene with restaurant, theater and event clients. Her reach extends from managing communications for six Broadway national tours to representing celebrities including Prince, Jerry Seinfeld and the Beach Boys.

The lifestyle and hospitality communications agency is celebrating 25 years.

What was your first job in comms or PR?

My first job was representing the musical “Nunsense” for Chicago’s Forum Theatre, and it was a publicist’s playground. “Sister Act” was not yet out, and it was just at a time when the world was ready to look at nuns in a more humanistic way, not just reverentially. What a fun, creative time it was representing this production! I created a local nun’s “star search,” where we had sisters performing a number each week before the actual show, which was huge for sales, as the parishioners and parents from the churches and schools would buy tickets to see them. I did a contest where we asked people to write in about their favorite nun and she would get a free ticket to the show; an audience full of nuns is a media visual gold mine! Then we had the cast in parades for every holiday, and we would add festive holiday items to their habits, which made for fun visuals. The show ran for four and a half years in Chicago.

 When you started Heron as a one-woman shop in 2000, what was your vision—and how does it compare to the agency you’re leading today?

At the time, I was thinking that I was between jobs; however, when I look back, it must have been my goal to start a firm as I bought 200 tubes of drink stirrers and sent them out all over, saying, “Want to stir something up? Call Noreen Heron.” I had been the PR director at Hyatt Regency Chicago for five years and never expected the vice president of marketing at the time, Tom O’Toole, to call me and say, “Would you like to represent half of Hyatt’s domestic portfolio?” What an amazing anchor client. Numerous big pieces of business came in right away and my vision was simply to do the very best that I could to service them, and I worked maniacally to earn results. In terms of the firm today, now I have a much larger team who all work maniacally!

Looking back, what were some of the most pivotal risks you took that ultimately paid off?

Each time you hire a full-time person, to some degree, there is risk because I never laid anyone off for 20 years until COVID-19. I felt that if I were to commit to someone, it was my responsibility to keep enough business coming in to never alter that, because in my estimation, otherwise, employees feel like it’s a very rocky setup. Getting my first office and the overhead there was a risk, and then a much larger office in 2022, which was a ground-up renovation of a former gym, was certainly risk-taking. The biggest challenge, though, was carrying six full-time people over COVID-19 and not knowing if we would recover eventually (we had 59 clients and went to three).

What have the past 25 years taught you about being a leader that you didn’t know when you first started?

Clients may come and go, trends may evolve, but the team is the heart of your success. I’ve learned to invest in people, to mentor and, most importantly, to learn from them too. I have a lot of respect for my team members and I want them to operate always from a place that honors their own integrity. At 25 years in, I think less about the next client and more about the impact we’re making for our team, our community and the stories we help tell. That’s the real legacy of leadership.

How do you celebrate wins for yourself and for your team?

We have lunch together every Tuesday, which I purchase for the team, and it is our opportunity to come together in an informal setting and chat. I also feel I want my team to always feel appreciated, so for many years I have given a 7% 401(k) and a bonus with gifts.

What’s a tool you use every day?

I read the Morning Brew newsletter, which provides a succinct update along with links to stories about what is going on in the world that should be on my radar.

Isis Simpson-Mersha is a conference producer/ reporter for Ragan. Follow her on LinkedIn.