Preparing for an interview at a leading public relations firm like Burson Marsteller can seem daunting. With over 60 years of experience advising top brands this global company seeks candidates who can think strategically and creatively to solve complex communication challenges.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the most common Burson Marsteller interview questions and provide sample responses to help you ace your upcoming interview. Whether you’re interviewing for an entry-level or executive role, being familiar with their high standards will give you an advantage.
1. Why do you want to work for Burson Marsteller?
This question gauges your interest in and knowledge of the company. Burson Marsteller looks for candidates who understand their core values and are passionate about joining their team.
In your response, mention your admiration for their work with leading brands and highlight some of their values that resonate with you, like strategic thinking, creativity, and collaboration. Share why your skills and experience make you an excellent fit to contribute to their high-caliber work. Convey genuine enthusiasm for the opportunity to grow as a communication professional with Burson Marsteller.
2. How would you handle an unhappy client?
Since client satisfaction is paramount, interviewers want to know how you’d address and resolve issues proactively. Demonstrate empathy, active listening, and solution-focused thinking. Share examples of effectively turning around a client’s dissatisfaction by understanding their concerns, taking ownership, and presenting thoughtful solutions. Position yourself as their partner in overcoming challenges together.
3. How do you stay updated on PR trends and news?
Continuous learning is valued at Burson Marsteller. Discuss your habit of regularly reading industry publications, attending conferences, monitoring news and social media, and connecting with peers. Show how you apply insights to provide timely strategic counsel to clients. If new to PR, share how you would actively educate yourself.
4. Tell us about a successful PR campaign you have worked on.
This question tests your hands-on experience running impactful campaigns. Walk through a campaign highlighting your role, the client goals, your creative strategy across media platforms, and the measurable results achieved. Quantify your success with metrics. If inexperienced, discuss a class project demonstrating strategic thinking and execution.
5. How would you promote a new consumer product?
Here they want to assess your process for launching a new product. Explain your methodical approach – researching target consumers, defining positioning, crafting tailored messaging for each platform like social media and influencers, executing a multi-channel strategy, and measuring performance. Use an example if possible.
6. How would you manage multiple clients and projects?
Managing various client needs is integral to public relations. Discuss your approach to prioritizing based on time sensitivity, allocating resources, tracking progress, and meeting deadlines. Share examples of successfully juggling multiple projects through organizational skills and adaptability. Emphasize being a proactive partner to clients.
7. What makes an effective PR campaign?
This allows you to share strategic insights into launching impactful campaigns. Discuss key elements like understanding audience insights, setting clear objectives, developing consistent yet creative messaging leveraging influencers, and executing integrated across media platforms. Highlight campaigns you find inspirational and why.
8. How do you evaluate the effectiveness of a PR program?
Measurement is key in PR. Discuss quantitative metrics like reach and engagement as well as qualitative measures like sentiment. Share creative ways you analyze results and convey data-driven insights to clients. If inexperienced, share metrics you would track like media mentions and social media growth.
9. Why PR over marketing or advertising?
Interviewers want to know you have a passion specifically for public relations. Share why you were drawn to PR – whether it was the ability to craft compelling narratives, form meaningful connections between brands and audiences, manage reputations, or think creatively. Convey your unique strengths that make you perfectly suited to a client-focused PR role over other communication disciplines.
10. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
This evaluates your career aspirations and interest in growing with Burson Marsteller. Share your vision for taking on more responsibility, managing larger teams, and leading strategic initiatives. Convey your eagerness to develop as a PR professional. Mention how you hope to innovate creative solutions and make a broader impact in partnership with such an esteemed agency.
11. How do you mentor junior team members?
Mentorship ability is valued here. Discuss how you set clear expectations, provide constructive feedback, encourage creativity, and motivate mentees to elevate their skills through trainings, collaborations, and open communication. Share examples of helping mentees advance in their careers.
12. How do you handle criticism from clients or colleagues?
PR requires collaborating effectively across teams and managing client expectations. Discuss your approach to receiving feedback professionally – listening actively, considering diverse perspectives, assessing constructively, and implementing improvements. Share how you provide feedback respectfully. Demonstrate maturity, empathy, and a growth mindset.
13. Do you have any questions for us?
Always prepare thoughtful questions that demonstrate your interest in the company and role. Ask about opportunities for advancement, new business developments, mentorship programs, or biggest challenges facing the industry. You can also request details about day-to-day responsibilities or expectations for the role. Keep questions strategic rather than purely logistical.
Preparing responses to common Burson Marsteller interview questions allows you to showcase your public relations capabilities and potential as a valued team member. With thorough research about their brand and culture, coupled with confident and thoughtful responses, you will impress your interviewers and inch closer to joining the ranks of this prestigious agency.
Overcoming creative blocks – Kavitha Das, global social media manager at BBC StoryWorks
Carlota Pico 0:13 Hi, everyone, I’m Carlota Pico from The Content Mix. I’m happy to be here with Kavitha Das today. She is the global social media manager at BBC Storyworks and has worked in marketing and communications for over 12 years. Welcome Kavitha, and thank you so much for joining us today on The Content Mix.
Kavitha Das 0:33 Thank you, Carlota. Hello, everyone. It’s lovely to be on this podcast. Thank you so much for inviting me.
Carlota Pico 0:38 Well, thank you so much for joining us. It’s lovely to have you here. Kavitha, to start this interview off, I’d like to ask you a little bit about your background. How did you get to where you are today?.
Kavitha Das 0:48 So it’s been a long journey, as you said 12 years. It started off in Mumbai. So I’m originally Indian and I grew up in Mumbai. So I started out in public relations and worked at a few firms, MS And it seemed really intriguing, really fun. I didn’t know how to go about it because it was such a small scale. And that’s when I quit my job and just decided I want to explore this. This thing’s really interesting. It’s so different from public relations, and it’s online and there’s more writing and creativity. Sometime in 2010, I joined social media with a very small company that was one of the first in the country. Back in 2010 we were a group of five people. The person who writes the copy, manages the platform, does the listening analytics, and helps clients is the same person who does all of these things. And we did all of that. And so that’s how I started in 2010. I worked in India for around another five years. Then I moved to London in 2014. When I switched countries, there was a bit of a gap, and it’s hard to get used to things like that in a new country. There are always problems, like little potholes that slow you down. So then I decided to take a step back start kind of afresh. So I started off again as a social listening executive, try to get to know the market again. I also did contract work in social listening for the GSMA and the Mobile World Congress through Radian Six. They were like little copywriting roles. I did that to gain experience in this market. And in 2018, I moved to the BBC, and I’ve been working with them since.
Carlota Pico 3:12 Okay, well, what a fantastic brand. And I think totally resonate with your story as well, because most of my work is actually abroad. And right now I’m based in Madrid, and I moved back to Madrid in 2018-2019. But before that everything that I had done, which was PR campaigns for government, had always been abroad. So going back, even to my home market, meant I had to really get used to the culture all over again, even though it was my home culture.
Kavitha Das 3:41 Definitely. It’s this industry. To keep up with your peers and the industry, you need to take a step back and get back on track. That’s because the environment changes so quickly.
Carlota Pico 3:55 Yeah, definitely. You can imagine how much the world has changed since I left Spain in 2004 and didn’t come back until 2018. Okay, so let’s talk a bit about the skills you’ve gained over time. I want to get more specific about that. But I also want to focus on the qualities you have built up and the ones you were born with. When we’re job hunting, we often focus too much on the skills we can offer our future employers. But I think it’s just as important to think about the qualities we can offer, since we’re all born with them, right? As for skills, I mean that we can learn certain skills and that you can be taught to have certain skills. Let’s say you get promoted tomorrow and have to find someone to fill your new position. What qualities would you watch out for more than skills?.
Kavitha Das 4:57 That’s a really good point actually. Because when we’re looking for people, we often mix up skills and qualities, even though they are two separate things. In all honesty, I care more about qualities than skills because I know that social media is a tech field. Plus, you can teach them the skills—how to use Ad Manager and figure out the analytics—that they need. But what you need are those qualities to run the show. The most important thing I look for, though, is fearlessness—the ability to try new things without being afraid of them. Because there’s so many new things that come on the different social media platforms every day. You can’t be saying that, oh, that’s new. I don’t know how it’s going to work or how it’s going to look like. You’ve got to try it. You have to see things as they are, and this is what I look for in a social work peer or colleague: In 2010, one person was in charge of everything. I would never have been able to do paid social media if I hadn’t risked $200 to find out what Facebook ads would look like in 2011. You’ve got to try, you’ve got to experiment. And that’s one quality I look for. Another one, because when you work for any company, you don’t just work with one department; you work with clients, vendors, and other departments as well. That being said, I think two really important things are being able to keep going after things no matter what. If it doesn’t happen the first time, you can’t drop it, you’ve got to be at it. There’s only one way to make sure it gets done: keep going after it. People forget. Once more, you need to call them and ask, “Do you remember this conversation? We need to try this again.” Third, I’d say it’s patience and the ability to see things through to the end. Things don’t always get done right away, so you have to be able to wait. You can’t be angry at things, you can’t get frustrated soon. You’ve got to be able to be patient and work through things. I think these are the three main traits I look for in a person. I can work well with someone who has these traits.
Carlota Pico 7:23 That’s fantastic advice. And I completely agree. I also think it has a lot to do with our background. We have to change so much as we move from one market to the next that we’ve had to be interested. We’ve had to be flexible. We’ve had to adapt.
Kavitha Das 7:37 Yeah. These kinds of things transcend all jobs. But it’s not just social skills. I think a worker, peer, coworker, or boss who has this is easy to get along with and can get a lot done.
Carlota Pico 7:51 And this actually transitions perfectly into my next question Kavitha. It was said that Facebook’s CEO said, “In a world that changes really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” Ask yourself, “What is a personal or professional risk that you’ve taken that paid off big time?”
Kavitha Das 8:17 If I remember correctly, I think I already said that I was four years into my career when I quit my job in 2010 with nothing new planned to just take a look at what I was doing. I just finished with my junior role. As a junior executive, it was time for me to move up the PR ladder. Everyone was surprised—you’re doing so well, why are you quitting now?—but I said, “No, there’s more.” There must be more; this other thing is really interesting. It’s not a big deal, but I trust that with all the technology around me and how fast it changes, this will be somewhere, and I quit my job. I sat at home for three months, just figuring out how to go about this. “Who do I talk to? How do I get into this industry?” I think that was a big professional and personal risk for me to take at the time, but I did it. Looking back, I’m glad I did it because I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t. Risks in my job: I do a lot of paid social media and advertising, which is a risk every day because you don’t know what you’re getting. You estimate something and the CPM and CPC and the rates change every day. Wel that’s a professional risk but that’s the job description.
Carlota Pico 9:53 Yeah, definitely. Now let’s talk about your area of expertise. We’ve already talked about it a lot, but the CEO of Walt Disney says that creativity and innovation are what make a company live. This is Kavitha. Because of the global pandemic, which social media campaigns have you liked lately and why? Of course, I’m asking you this because you live and breathe social media every day. So who better to tell us about the brands that right now are the hottest ones?.
The question you asked is very interesting, because I think the brands that did really well in the last four or five months were the ones that were able to connect with their audience by telling them what was going on and then helping them or giving them something extra, instead of just pushing their products at them and saying, “Oh, my sales are going down.” I really need to push this more and get people to buy my stuff. Your conversation with another person, who is having a very hard time, proves that it can’t be that. So I think the brands that did really well were the ones that were able to connect with people on an emotional level and understand them. Another brand that did really well in this market, at least, was Guinness when they made the whole ad around St. Saint Patrick’s Day, they were kind enough to say, “Yeah, we celebrate every year, but this year is a little different.” But we’ve got our plan for 9000 year lease. So we’re still going to be here when you’re back from this hard time. And I think that message would have really hit home with a lot of people because it came from the heart. It showed different aspects of Irish country life and how it connects Guinness to the world. That was a really nice brand. Plus, I think another thing that worked really well was — it’s a small thing that Timeout did in every city where it did so well because they knew their place in the lives of their readers. There were no physical events during Timeout. There was neither a beer festival nor a theater performance. This meant that I didn’t know what to talk about. But they adapted their social content to say – Oh, we have all these live streams. There is a yoga teacher at these times, this time, and this time, and there is a live DJ session at these times and these times. This way, they were still able to fit in with the audience’s social life and keep them doing what they would have done in the real world. They were able to get their fans to do in the virtual world, which I thought was a great way for them to deal with the change.
For Carlota Pico 12:49, I think you brought up two really interesting points: first, it’s important for brands not to push their own personal agendas on social media; second, it’s important for brands to listen to and connect with their audience, because their content won’t work if the audience can’t connect with the brand. Actually, I read a great quote the other day that said “content is king only if you’re read.” If nobody’s reading you, then your content doesn’t really matter.
Kavitha Das 13:23 It doesn’t. That’s very true, very true.
Carlota Pico 13:26 Okay. I also want to talk to you about the major lessons that you’ve learned throughout your career. And especially during this time, what do you think the future of social networks will look like?.
Kavitha Das 13:37 So there are two paths to this. The lessons I’ve learned in the past are still useful to me now and in the past, even though my life and the world around me are always changing. There’s a really interesting article, which kind of very succinctly puts the lesson across. It’s an anecdote about how in Honduras, there was a river. And they were planning to build the bridge over it. And they call the Japanese and they built a really durable bridge over it. And after a couple of years, there was a massive rainfall and huge monsoon and a storm. Also the river just changed. So then the bridge was not over the river anymore. The river was beside the bridge, and the bridge was over land. This didn’t make any sense. This article was in Business World, which is one of the best business magazines in India. And the writer said it very well: one of the most important things we’ve learned recently is not to build things to last, but to build things to adapt. So it shouldn’t be built to last it should be built to adapt. One important thing I think we should all learn is how to make something that will last through all kinds of times, whether we’re building a brand, a personal life, or something else. Moving forward, I think that social networks will be more about how people’s relationships and interactions change because they are all about people. As a result, people were spending more time on their phones and less time interacting with each other before the pandemic. They wouldn’t look up and would walk right past each other without noticing. But I think that social networks should change in response to the lack of human interaction that people have felt lately. I hope that in the future, social networks can encourage people to interact with each other more than push them away, and they should also work to bridge the gap between humans and technology instead of making it bigger.
Carlota Pico 16:02 I love your response, Kavitha, because I’m a former entrepreneur. I believe that part of your answer comes from the time you worked at a startup in India a few years ago, right? Also, startups have to learn how to change all the time, right? They’re building a brand, so they have to swerve in one direction or another so that people can use their products, buy their services, etc. So they’re constantly adapting according to customer feedback. But I think that lesson should be learned by all kinds of brands, not just startups. All brands need to keep changing their features, content, and services to fit what people want. Big brands need to do that as well. I also think the example you used is great; thanks for bringing it to our attention. So, since your job is to collect content, how do you know what content will work and what won’t on different social media sites?
Kavitha Das 17:07 Again, there isn’t a clear rule or set of tips for that because a social media campaign has so many variables. What kind of person are you trying to reach, what kind of content do you have, and even the platform where you want to share it are all things that matter. Because, say, content about tourism would be very different from content about business or trade, and content about education would be very different from content about those topics. This is because the platforms are very different. But I think one thing that is true about all of this is that it should be something that can be seen from different points of view. So it can’t just be one opinion. In order for it to be useful for everyone, it needs to have more than one side. So if it’s about a university, you have different kinds of students. There’s some students who like the academic part of it. There’s some students who like the extracurricular part of it. There’s some students who just like to go to college that has beautiful architecture and a beautiful library. Talking only about the academics, like “Oh, we have an amazing math program” or “Oh, we have an amazing astronomy or astrophysics program,” will turn off students who want to come to your college for the sports, drama club, or other activities outside of school. Or you’re not talking about your legacy and history. Say I’m a 300 year old University, and I have this beautiful Gothic library. Everything needs to be talked about so you can connect with all kinds of people. So I think that’s what I think is great content which has multiple perspectives. And it needs to be shareable. It has to be succinct. If you’re talking about a particular particular point, it needs to be quick. Because people on social networks and platforms don’t have much patience, they just scroll through everything. You have to be quick; what you want to say must be said in 15 to 20 seconds, and you have five seconds to grab their attention. If you say something great in the first five seconds, they will pay attention for about a minute. I think that’s really important.
Carlota Pico 19:30 I would add that it’s important to remember that people have a lot of different interests, even though it’s great to make content for different personas. So we’re not black and white. I mean, you can talk to the same person about the same topic and look at it from different points of view, because both points of view may work for that one person.
Kavitha Das 20:00 Yeah, that’s a really good point. It’s possible to enlighten someone by telling them that they might be thinking something completely different. They’ll then say, “Oh, yeah, that makes sense.” I should probably go for that.
Carlota Pico 20:13 Yeah, definitely. Well, you’ve already offered great tips, Kavitha. But I want to talk a little bit about engagement. So what are your top three social media marketing tips for increased engagement?.
Kavitha Das 20:25 When I think of engagement, it’s not just how many times a post was seen, liked, or commented on. Engagement, for me, is quite a wholesome thing. Because of this, I believe it is very important to keep track of our posts. This helps us understand where your content has been. So, how many times has your link been clicked on, where has it been clicked from, and what countries has it reached? When people share something and then leave a comment, that’s the most engaging form of engagement because you get direct feedback about your content. People tell you what they like and don’t like about it. You might realize that what you were trying to say wasn’t quite what the audience got out of it; they got something else. And that gives you time to go back and change something about what you’re doing and come back. So, I believe that one of the main goals of social content should be to get people to interact with it. I know it’s always about how many clicks we got, or how many video views we got. It’s also about how much feedback you get, which I believe is a key part of engagement.
Tollefsen 21:49 Does that mean you would tell social media managers or professionals to also change their content based on what people are saying? For example, if I post something that my community doesn’t really like, would you tell me to go back to that channel and change it to see if what I’m trying to say works better in a different way?
Kavitha Das 22:11 Yes, definitely. This brings us back to A/B testing on paid social media, since we make five different versions of the same content. We added different pictures and types of text to it, which again brings us back to the idea that people have many sides. So we put in copy with different views on the story to see which one works best. And then we say, okay, fine, if it’s about this country, maybe people really like the binaries here. The binaries are doing really well, so let’s keep talking about that. Or, the architecture is really cool, so let’s keep talking about that. So I think that really helps us hone or kind of chisel our strategy.
Carlota Pico 22:55 Okay, Kavitha. To wrap up this part of the interview, I’d like to know if you have any tips for marketers like me who are having trouble making interesting and useful content for our social media channels. For example, do you use a concentration tool or something else to help you do this?
Kavitha Das 23:12 Actually it’s combination of things. Sometimes, when you’re working on a brief, you just hit a wall and can’t think of anything else to say. Your creative juices seem to have dried up. I switch between my analytical right brain and my creative left brain and back again. When I feel like I can’t think of anything else and I’m not getting any new ideas, I tell myself, “Okay, let’s stop being creative.” And let’s do something more analytical because we’re using a completely different side of my brain. And I go and look at my budget. So I look at my invoices, look at my finances. Also, try to figure out my PO system. That’s another part of being a social media manager: handling all the money that comes in for advertising. So while you’re doing that, you get a little break. And then when you come back, you realize that you feel so much better about the creative process. And it’s like you’re starting afresh after a good break. And so you can kind of work through that block. Taking a break to go get a drink of water, talk to someone, and come back also works. What’s amazing is that the creative process is a lot about the things you’ve done. You could just go talk to someone and come back with some stories. That could give you a new idea afterward. So, yeah, I think that being creative, or at least telling stories, is all about your experiences and the stories you hear from people around you. So I think that’s the combination of all these things together.
Carlota Pico 24:53 Yeah, I agree. It’s funny because I wanted to buy a great book that would be useful for my job, which is to interview great marketing professionals like you while I’m on vacation in two weeks. And so I came across Larry King’s autobiography, and he’s a fantastic journalist. He’s been doing interviews for the past 20 years. Which is why I bought it. I can’t wait to start reading it and learn some of his tricks.
Kavitha Das 25:25 That’s a great book. It’s really nice. You should definitely try that. It’s very engaging because he writes a lot of anecdotes, so it’s not a lot of just preaching. It’s all stories in the middle. So it’s very interesting.
Carlota Pico 25:41 Well, I can’t wait. What this means is that the next part of our interview will be our set of quick fire questions. To start this part, I’d like to ask you about your source of inspiration. Who do you look up to? Who motivates you?
Kavitha Das 25:56 I mean, I have different inspirations for different parts of my life. My family, especially my parents, really inspires me to be patient and keep going even when things get hard. They are both like a force of nature. So they will push you and they will stay at it and they have brilliant follow through. I’m motivated to keep going because of that part of it. If you hit a block, you have to walk through it; you can’t just change directions. You have to walk through the block and go through it. That’s really inspirational. But on the other hand, one woman that really inspires me is Serena Williams. I know it’s a cliche but she does. She’s misunderstood for being brash and rude on the court. But there’s this other side to her which is just being so determined. She didn’t give up. She had such a bad medical period, but she decided to jump back. She may not have done great, but it must have taken a lot of work for her to come back and not really do well the first time she came back. And she left the tournament with her head held high, which is very inspirational. It really inspires you to be at it and your problem seems so small.
Carlota Pico 27:23 It also fits with what your parents always say: if there’s a problem, you just have to solve it. And you have to just face it head on and find a solution to that.
Kavitha Das 27:37 Because they taught me to be the best version of myself. In other words, you don’t have to be the first or best at anything. Just be the best you can be. So that’s just what you should strive for. That’s it. That’s all we can do.
Carlota Pico 27:54 Yeah, it’s like do better, right? You should always try to be doing better. Okay, how about a book, a hashtag, or a publication that you’d like to suggest? It’s 2019, after all.
Kavitha Das 28:11 There’s an Instagram handle that I really follow and love is the NASA Hubble. The NASA Hubble Instagram handle is just brilliant. A telescope is what it is, and they keep posting pictures of the planets and nebulas that the telescope takes. And there’s one of the Orion Nebula which is just fantastic, and of the Northern Lights. It’s one Instagram thats just awe-inspiring. So I always look forward to content from the NASA Hubble. And also, in this lockdown period, I’ve got a lot of time to read. And it’s been a mixture of a lot of books. So it’s a bit of fiction. It’s a bit of philosophy. So there’s this book that came out, The Silent Patient, and that was a real kicker. And it’s really interesting. It’s a psychological thriller and it really keeps you in your chair. But on the other hand, there is this really short version of what Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor, taught. It’s a lot of philosophical learnings of himself. It’s kind of his diary, which is published. It’s written in everyday language and isn’t very philosophical, but it’s really helpful in these tough times to help you understand and deal with what’s going on. So I think these are the few books and few handles that really helped me through this period.
Carlota Pico 29:36 I’m gonna have to add those books to my summer reading. They sound great. Now that the interview is over, I’d like to know what your favorite app is right now and why.
Kavitha Das 29:48 My favorite app in social media is definitely Instagram at the moment. And with the introduction of Reels, I’m really intrigued how Reels is going to do. Reels is like the new TikTok on Instagram. So I really want to see what kind of content comes on there. Because it’s not a separate app. It’s within Instagram. So how does it do as compared to TikTok? And personally, I love playing board games. It’s a very content writer niche. I love playing word games. There’s a solitary app called Wordscapes. It’s like Boggle, you keep making words with the alphabet they give you. I don’t know when 45 minutes to an hour passes by. And I’m like, oh, I passed 15 levels. But it’s a really engaging app. And it really keeps your mind flowing and keeps it exercised if you want to call it that.
Carlota Pico 30:44 Okay. You must have a really big vocabulary.
Kavitha Das 30:49 I wouldn’t want to go that far to say a great vocabulary.
Carlota Pico 30:56 Well Kavitha, thank you so much for joining us on The Content Mix. It was awesome to meet you to pick your brain on so many different subjects.
Kavitha Das 31:02 Thank you so much for having me. It’s been great.
Carlota Pico 31:05 The pleasure has been ours. And to everybody listening in today, thank you for joining us on The Content Mix. For more perspectives on the content marketing industry in Europe, check out The Content mix. We’ll be releasing interviews just like this one every week. So keep on tuning in. Thanks again, have a fantastic day and see you next time. Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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Mark Schaefer interviews David Rosen of Burson Marsteller
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