The Value of PR Professionals Thinking Beyond Their Clients’ Industries
One of the biggest advantages of working in an agency isn’t simply the variety of clients you work with, but the perspective that variety gives you. Moving between industries means you’re constantly exposed to new ideas, challenges and conversations, making it easier to spot connections, identify opportunities and develop stories that resonate beyond a single sector.
I’ve seen this quite clearly during my time at Wimbart. While the agency has a strong and well-defined focus on the African market, which gives it a clear identity and unique selling point, the work itself spans a wide range of sectors rather than being confined to one specific area. From health and tech to venture capital, logistics, AI, NGOs and government relations, the variety is constant. Naturally, working across such different industries shapes the way you think over time. You begin to build a broader base of knowledge, and more importantly, you become more comfortable moving between sectors and applying what you’ve learned in one space to another.
Seeing the Bigger Picture
What becomes increasingly apparent is that no industry really operates in isolation, even if it might seem that way at first glance. Developments in one area often have a knock-on effect elsewhere, sometimes in ways that aren’t immediately obvious. A shift in regulation can influence fintech, but it can also affect investment flows or access to healthcare services. Advances in AI are not just relevant to tech companies; they are changing how logistics businesses operate, how governments think about policy, and how organisations communicate with their audiences.
When you start to look at industries in this more connected way, it becomes much easier to identify angles that feel timely and relevant, rather than predictable.
This is often where the strongest opportunities for newsjacking or thought leadership come from; not from looking deeper into the same space, but from looking slightly beyond it.
Learning Across Industries
Wimbart’s own growth reflects this way of working. The agency started out ten years ago with a strong focus on fintech startups in Nigeria, but over time expanded to work with clients across a wide range of countries and a wide mix of sectors. That shift didn’t just broaden the client base; it also influenced how we approach our work.
Moving between industries means you are constantly learning, and that knowledge rarely stays confined to a single account.
Insights gained from working with a logistics client, for example, might shape how you approach a health story focused on equitable patient access, where last-mile delivery and logistics coordination play a crucial role. Equally, a fintech report you read for a remittances client can influence how you craft narratives and messaging for a VC client facilitating diaspora investment across the continent. Working in this way often puts you in a position to introduce ideas, themes or angles drawn from outside your client’s immediate field, offering a perspective that feels both relevant and slightly unexpected.
Curiosity Creates Better Stories
Curiosity also plays an important role in all of this. Simply knowing what your client does or which products and services they are launching is not enough. You have to develop the habit of keeping your client front of mind at all times, so you are able to spot connections and identify potential story angles across developments in other sectors, the markets they operate in, competitor activity, and the wider interests of their target audience, even when those links are not immediately obvious.
Ultimately, this is part of what has enabled Wimbart to grow into the go-to agency for African companies, as well as for those looking to connect with African media and audiences, regardless of the sector they operate in.
The strength lies not just in understanding one industry well, but in being able to see how different industries intersect and influence one another and using that understanding to create work that feels both relevant and original.
In a field where ideas are everything, that ability to think across sectors is not a compromise on expertise, but what allows you to deliver it in a more meaningful way.
By Nouran ElRefaei, Account Manager
