After completing his 20+ year tenure at OPR towards the end of last year, Graham White has wasted no time getting his new agency off the ground, with ten clients signed up.
“With more than 25 years’ experience in communication and reputation management for many of the world’s most innovative technology brands, including many start-ups, it made sense to remain focused in a sector that still inspires me,” said White.
The agency name Pratar is a Swedish word that simply means talking, to have a conversation, a name that White says perfectly explains the role communicators play for brands.
On a personal level, I read the words "prate", "prater" and "pratest" in Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Earth novel, part of the now greatly expanded Foundation Trilogy, and if you do a search for the words at this link in the Internet Archive, you can see where I saw them. This meant I knew exactly what Pratar meant when I first saw the name.
Diversions into the world of sci-fi aside, which technology companies regularly turn into science fact on what almost seems like a daily basis, let's get back to White's further reasons for using the word.
White said: “Our primary role in communications is to engage people, both inside and outside an organisation, to build, manage and protect reputation. It is a name that easily came to me for personal reasons, with family connections to Scandinavia.”
So, what is more detail on what Pratar does?
Well, we're told Pratar "provides a range of communication services to help organisations tell their stories and create conversations.
"This includes strategic communications, story development, thought leadership, earned media, media training, content, CEO and executive profiling. In addition, with more than 16 years running Australia’s largest and most successful technology PR agency, White is also providing business advisory services for agency founders and leaders."
White added: “Having walked in agency leadership shoes for so long I understand what’s involved and can provide advice, grounded in experience, to leaders who may need support."
White’s intention is to keep Pratar small, focussing on independence, stability and scaled collaboration with a range of specialist providers for specific expert skills.
“After more than two decades at Howorth and OPR I’ve been fortunate to work with some outstanding freelancers and specialist service providers, which works perfectly for a small agency like Pratar,” he added. “There are also many great ex-WPP people now running their own consulting businesses, who make great collaboration partners.”
Pratar’s current client roster comprises global technology sector leaders, emerging and established startups, and venture capital firms.
This includes Equinix, Castlepoint Systems, OurCrowd, Raiz Invest, Rockwell Automation, Vow Food, BMC Software, Luceo Energy and GapMaps. White is also consulting as a senior advisor into 6AM Agency, a specialist wellbeing and good living integrated communications firm based in Sydney.
For more information, Graham White invites anyone interested in Pratar's services to contact him the email address and phone number at the bottom of the Pratar website, alongside other ways to get in contact there too.
