FTI Spotlight Series: Erin Miller

Erin, how do you feel the communication landscape has changed over the last two years (as a result of COVID or other factors) such that the data-driven insights and/or creative digital solutions have become more integral to a company’s planning or strategy?

We obviously saw a major shift towards virtual events. For our video team, that meant getting more into virtual streaming and virtual event management production. This was a bit of a learning curve, but a learning curve we know how to take.

Some clients were more hesitant in those early days to adopt certain digital ways of visualizing data, but as the reality of the situation sank in, more and more went with it. The reality is, everyone is online now. I think the pandemic forced some companies to fast-track some of these digital solutions earlier than they otherwise would have, whether that was updates to their websites or digital interactive ESG reports, or a burgeoning interest in podcasts and more video content.

What unique solutions is FTI bringing to help clients navigate this changing landscape?

As a team, Digital & Insights (D&I) is always sharing information about the latest trends and staying up to date so we can bring our clients the freshest and most innovative thinking. We’re constantly pushing clients to think about things differently and to adopt approaches they may not have considered, such as digital interactive ESG reports, podcasts and more video content. We are extremely insights driven, and we can back our insights up with robust research that we also do in-house.

I’m so glad you mentioned research, Erin. What advice do you give companies or brands who are beginning to consider using primary research and data? And/or creative and digital to reach their stakeholders?

Research is essential to doing business. FTI is an insights driven company, and our team do a lot of robust research that we build our campaigns on for clients. Through research we can find out what people actually care about, why they do what they do, where their customers are getting their information, where we need to be. That has a direct impact on what we create for clients, be that paid media or what properties we need to target in terms of creative assets. We can find out what kind of visuals people respond to, the age of people responding to material, all kinds of things. All of that is really critical in terms of ensuring that the content we create makes sense and it’s a big differentiating factor that FTI has over others in the space, that our insights are backed by data.

We do research, build strategic thinking on top of that and then we move forward. Without those components, clients just wouldn’t get a good return on investment.

What advice would you give young career professionals who are just starting out in this business?

I would tell them to read the news and stay up to date on what’s happening. I think, especially in the creative world, there is a tendency to just focus on our craft and the fundamentals of creative and design; on your style, your personal aesthetic, all of that, which is, of course, critically important. When you’re in an environment like FTI, however, you have to think a little bit bigger.

You have to think about how the things you’re creating can play out in the real world. We do a lot of projects that center on prevalent, real-world issues that are very relevant.. Being able to see that bigger picture in terms of how general trends of audiences, their online habits and how those types of things apply to our work is important.

What have you personally learned most from your time at FTI?

There are so many smart people here at FTI, who just really know their stuff inside and out, whichever industry they work in. That has been such a highlight for me. Being able to pair so closely with subject matter experts and bring my own view and my own lens of creativity to projects and to say, “Okay, have you thought about it this way?”, or “have we considered this?”. The creative world just slots so neatly in alongside all the things the subject matter experts at FTI are doing and those two worlds work so well together.

Finally, on a personal note, what’s the last book you’ve read or show you’ve watched?

Inventing Anna on Netflix. It’s an adapted, semi-fictionalized docuseries about a fake German Heiress who cons the New York City elite. I’ve been loving documentary style series lately, and this one has such a dramatic story.

Sounds wild! The world can be a crazy place! Thanks for your insights, Erin.