For Barbara Nemekh, the two decisive steps in her career came through opportunities that initially appeared at the wrong moment. At Well PR Agency, she discovered her place in public relations under the guidance of a team leader she still considers a mentor. Her move to ACG later introduced her to a different scale of agency work, including responsibility for an international account spanning 15 Central and Eastern European markets.
Within six months of joining ACG, Nemekh became Regional Client Lead for VELUX. Today, she leads the brand’s PR and social media strategy across the region and co-leads its wider integrated team. The role requires a careful balance between regional consistency and local relevance, particularly in markets where media habits, influencer ecosystems and the editorial appeal of product communication differ considerably.
This year, the Hungarian Public Relations Association named her Young PR Professional of the Year at the PR Excellence Awards. In this interview, Nemekh explains why local agencies should never be reduced to execution units, how artificial intelligence is changing agency processes without replacing strategic judgement, where PR education in Hungary is falling behind the profession and why she still sees her future firmly within agency life.
This year, the jury of the Hungarian Public Relations Association awarded you the title of Young PR Professional of the Year at the PR Excellence Awards (PREXA), recognizing your outstanding contribution to the profession. Looking back on your career so far, what would you say was the defining turning point that shaped your professional journey?
My career’s first major pivot? Admitting my vocal range wasn’t cut out for being a musical actress.
Looking back, though, I actually see two defining turning points that felt almost fate-like moments where everything just clicked into place.
The first was joining Well PR Agency. I randomly met one of their team members at an event when they were hiring, but the timing wasn’t right. Later, when I realized I needed a change, the position was already filled, yet they still brought me in for a chat and ultimately offered me a role. Although I had worked in communications before, that was where I found my passion for PR and my place in the industry, largely thanks to my team leader at the time, whom I still consider a mentor today.
The second turning point was joining ACG, which brought a whole new scale to my career. Exactly one year before I joined, I attended the ‘Night of Agencies’ event and almost submitted my CV to ACG but backed out at the last second. Exactly a year later ACG reached out to me directly – we found each other at the absolute right moment. Taking on a 15-country international account (VELUX) and becoming its Regional Client Lead within six months was both an incredible opportunity and a powerful catalyst for growth. Navigating this level of complexity reshaped my strategic mindset.
What ties these milestones together are the extraordinary people and leaders who shaped my path. I’m deeply grateful to my former team leads and my current division head at ACG – and above all, to our agency’s owner, who has been mentoring me for over two years now. Her guidance has been fundamental to my journey. Both turning points taught me that professional growth is not just about the challenges you take on, but about the mentors who inspire you to master them.
And perhaps my teenage stage ambitions left their mark after all: I still believe that the best performances are built on discipline and preparation behind the scenes, so that the final execution feels effortless.
You are in a demanding role, leading the PR and social media strategy for VELUX across 15 Central and Eastern European markets. VELUX is one of the leading brands in its industry and a major advertiser. What are the biggest challenges you face when coordinating communications across such diverse markets, each with its own media landscape, cultural context, and communication practices?
Honestly, in a project of this scale, every single day brings a fresh set of challenges, and that’s exactly what makes it so rewarding!
One of the biggest complexities is that you can never just ‘set and forget’ a lead model. In our setup, as a lead agency, we serve as the central strategic hub: we design the regional umbrella strategy and coordinate local partner agencies across 15 markets in the CEE region to ensure consistency and execution. As the client’s business evolves, our operating model must dynamically adapt with it to stay effective.
Another major challenge is crafting a regional umbrella concept that resonates everywhere. An idea might sound brilliant at headquarters, but if it lacks relevance in one of the 15 markets, it won’t drive results. To avoid this, we continuously collect and analyze consumer insights and local agency feedback before shaping the umbrella strategy. Once the framework is set, the real work begins with localization and active stakeholder management.
Furthermore, cross-disciplinary integration is key. Although I am the PR and Social Media lead, together with our integrated Account Director, I also co-lead the overall brand team, ensuring that PR and Social Media don’t work in silos. Obviously, we can no longer ignore that PR and Social Media go hand in hand, but we also need to ensure full alignment with our marketing messaging.
In the modern media landscape, earned PR messages increasingly shift to digital channels, but media consumption varies drastically across markets. For instance, while we can secure fantastic earned influencer coverage in Hungary, opportunities in Czechia are much narrower, or at least the threshold for engagement is completely different. Conversely, generating earned media coverage through purely product-focused communication is nearly impossible in Hungary without a major product launch, whereas in Poland or Romania, product-centric topics are still highly appealing to the press.
Our answer to this was a fundamental mindset shift: trading rigid templates for trust and local freedom. Previously, we relied heavily on master press releases, but we realized that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach simply doesn’t work across 15 markets. More importantly, verbatim translations stripped our local agency partners of their creative ownership. Today, we define the strategic framework and core messaging at the lead level, but give local partners full trust and freedom to shape the story for their media landscape. We apply the same flexibility to execution: for example, where organic influencer activity works, we leverage it. Where it doesn’t, we substitute it with locally relevant tools.
Balancing a centralized framework with diverse local interests requires managing a complex network of stakeholders where everyone feels valued and heard. A centralized message without authentic local input is just an empty shell. Navigating this synergy is our most crucial task – and as an interesting side note, even the creative benchmarks for award-winning campaigns differ from country to country, which makes this journey endlessly inspiring.
Naturally, measurable business impact is crucial everywhere, but the winning formula varies. In Hungary, standing out from the media noise with a sharp response to a strong insight can often secure a win. By contrast, in a market like Czechia, success requires a fully polished, multi-layered campaign combining strict KPIs, innovative execution, and a strong purpose-driven narrative. Identifying these nuances and shaping our submissions accordingly is a thrilling challenge.
From your perspective, what are the biggest challenges in collaborating with PR agencies? Given that you also work within an agency environment, what do you expect from agency partners to build a successful and effective collaboration?
The answer comes down to one fundamental principle: true partnership.
As a lead agency, we must ensure that we never treat local agency partners as mere execution units, while also making sure they genuinely feel the value of their input. Localization is far from a robotic task when we talk about PR. It requires local insights, tailored execution, and tools fine-tuned to the specific tastes of the local media and consumers.
Agency life demands a very specific mindset: you need to be fast, highly efficient, and capable of pivoting instantly between topics without compromising quality. This is what we expect from our agency partners, along with a mutual sense of partnership, which we actively extend to them in return. In a regional chain of this scale, everyone has a clear role, but that doesn’t mean simply acting like good soldiers following orders. We need to play as one team, where every partner takes ownership of their individual responsibility – all while respecting the shared framework, which is essential for a 15-country operation to function seamlessly.
How well does Hungarian society understand the importance and role of public relations today? Do you believe the Hungarian education system is keeping pace with the knowledge and skills that modern PR professionals need?
Honestly, PR is still often viewed as a side quest in Hungary, which is quite ironic, given that Hungarian society often feels like it operates in a state of continuous crisis communication.
When it comes to education, PR is rarely in the main spotlight. It is usually treated as a byproduct of marketing or a small segment within broader communication and media studies degrees. At best, students can choose it as a specialization or get a module or a few lectures dedicated to PR, and even then, the focus tends to remain on traditional PR models.
While traditional foundations are essential, the industry is evolving rapidly. Pure earned media is increasingly rare; paid strategies often take the lead, and the focus has dramatically shifted toward social media and influencer marketing.
On a positive note, higher education frequently brings in active agency and client-side professionals for guest lectures, offering valuable real-world glimpses. However, these remain brief snapshots compared to the bigger picture. Higher education provides a good theoretical base, but those entering this field will inevitably learn the true essence of modern PR on the job.
How extensively do you use artificial intelligence in your agency work? Is there any legislation in Hungary that adequately protects the intellectual property, expertise, and creative work of communications professionals in the age of AI, or do you believe the legal framework is still in its early stages?
In our daily agency work, the initial fear that ‘AI will take our jobs’ has largely settled into a much more realistic perspective. AI is currently far from replacing strategic PR thinking, nuance, or human sense – qualities that are indispensable in our field.
However, as an efficiency booster, it is invaluable. We extensively leverage AI tools to streamline repetitive processes, especially in data analysis and reporting, which frees up substantial strategic resources for our team. Furthermore, AI plays a growing role in the rise of Performance PR. Just an example, there are tools to connect PR content with measurable, performance-driven results and automated distribution.
As for the legal framework, it is undeniably still in its infancy when it comes to protecting creative work and intellectual property. While the EU’s comprehensive AI Act provides an important overarching framework for risk management and transparency, Hungary does not have a standalone domestic AI law yet. Instead, IP (Intellectual Property) disputes still rely on traditional copyright legislation, which was never designed for generative AI. Proving ownership or tracking the use of human expertise remains extremely challenging, so the legal landscape will definitely need to evolve alongside the technology.
In the absence of formal legislation, self-regulation and industry standards become crucial. In fact, the owner of ACG also serves as the President of MAKSZ (Association of Hungarian Communication Agencies), which recently published a comprehensive AI Guide for the industry. This document serves as a vital compass not just for our agency, but for the entire Hungarian communications market. Proving ownership or tracking the use of human expertise remains a challenge, but initiatives like this show that our profession is actively shaping its own ethical and operational frameworks alongside the technology.
With your years of experience and the success you have achieved, do you see yourself one day taking on the role of Director of Corporate Communications within a brand, or do you believe agency life offers a more dynamic, challenging, and diverse career path?
Most people are actually surprised when I tell them that I don’t long for a corporate client-side role. In our industry there is a common belief that agency life is just a stepping stone: you climb the ranks to a senior or management level, master the craft through diverse challenges, and then naturally transition to the client side.
While that is a well-trodden path for many, I consider myself a true ‘agency person’ at heart. I thrive on the dynamic pace, the constant variety, and the ever-evolving challenges that agency life brings. There is a unique fulfillment in delivering real, strategic value to clients from the outside, acting as a trusted partner. Right now, I still see immense potential and opportunity for growth on the agency side. As long as this environment continues to motivate and push me to evolve every single day, this is exactly where I belong. Of course, never say never. Life can always bring exciting turns, but for now, my heart and my passion are fully here.
