By Former head of international communications at DJI and manager of policy initiatives for APAC at Meta, Natasha Gray, founded Emergent Public Affairs, a public relations consulting firm.
Emergent Public Affairs is a Singapore-based company that focuses on sustainability and new technologies. According to Gray, the company will operate in Southeast Asia and will seize the chance to expand.
The choice to start Emergent was made as technological disruptions like artificial intelligence (AI) start to alter the function of PR professionals.
Its industry’s greatest attribute is its capacity to swiftly manage and adjust to every opportunity or difficulty that arises. It was about this time that social media was beginning to change the nature of employment, as I recall. Devoted groups were established to provide ‘digital communications’ as a discrete service. Digital communications is just another tool in the toolbox for communicators today, according to Gray.
AI is causing us to experience yet another disruption, and we are also juggling incredibly complicated and unsolvable problems. It’s not only about conflict, heated geopolitical rivalry, divisive issue sets, or societal upheavals brought on by quick technological breakthroughs; rather, it’s about all of these things combined and influencing one another.
Emergent wants to “go beyond traditional stakeholders and engage communities more meaningfully” with this new launch, according to Gray.
In order to effectively advise your company or customer, you must be able to create plans that consider each of these aspects and deal with problems in a comprehensive manner. Being an expert in just one area or function and running isolated campaigns is no longer sufficient, Gray continued.
Along with her years of experience, Gray will bring to Emergent her years of expertise providing solutions like robotics and drones, immersive technology, and circular materials. She also announced that the company will take a programmatic, integrated approach.
According to Gray, “the Emergent model incorporates risk strategies, public policy, and communications.”
“The engagement between the emergent solution and the public needs to be nuanced, calibrated, and mutually-reinforcing in order to generate a positive and sustainable public affairs outcome. We accomplish this by using an integrated, programmed strategy rather than just isolated ads.
In 2011, Gray began working as a public affairs consultant, specializing in consumer electronics and aviation. She developed DJI’s enterprise communications capabilities in 2017 and oversaw the company’s global communications team, which was in charge of drone security and safety policy advocacy as well as consumer and enterprise product releases.
According to Gray’s LinkedIn, she oversaw issues management at the height of the US-China trade dispute. She joined Meta’s public policy team in 2022 with the goal of implementing research and activities that would increase the use of immersive technologies in education and health throughout the region.
Previously, Gray worked as an account executive for WE Communications and a consultant for APCO Worldwide. From July to December of 2023, she also provided freelance consulting services to technological companies.
Emergent joins other recently established agencies in the area, such as the marketing agency BOING!, which was founded by Ailsa Tan and is a wholly remote company whose mission is to challenge traditional agency patterns.
BOING! provides a range of services, such as public relations, events, branding, digital marketing, advertising, and strategy planning.
With a novel approach to workplace culture and client service, BOING! is also well-positioned to upend established agency models. In a statement, BOING! stated that it aims to reinvent the parameters of what it means to be a marketing firm in the modern day by embracing a paradigm shift toward remote collaboration and work-life integration.
