In his leader column PR Week’s Danny Rogers has given his thoughts on consolidation (or lack of it) in the PR industry. Alongside his top line predictions for 2011, he makes the comment that “few PR agencies have achieved the scale required to challenge management consultancies – or even some advertising shops – for really lucrative strategic comms contracts from big business”.
In many respects he’s absolutely right. Scale is often a necessity when squaring up to the competition, and especially when you’re hoping to catch the eye of the newest big brand (with matching budget), being a fish capable of powerful breast stroke isn’t a bad thing.
But if we put scales (pun intended) aside for a moment, there’s also the issue of whether PRs are actually able to generate this kind of strategic thinking at all. It still amazes me that for every carefully considered, objectively underpinned and strategically directed campaign, a myriad more exist (at least at pitch stage) that go straight for the tactical spectacular, without a moment’s thought given to the ‘why’ and the ‘how’.
I think there are two fundamentals at play here. Firstly, a lot of PR agencies and consultants don’t know the difference between a strategy or tactic, and think objectives such as ‘make me / my brand famous’ are enough to govern the campaign. What’s more, they often bypass the ‘thinking’ part of the process entirely, and move straight on to dazzling creativity and tactics.
Secondly (and perhaps more tellingly) is the reticence of some clients to share with their agencies the salient details needed to make these kinds of strategic decisions in the first place. This study from late last year stuck in my mind, as it begs the question, if the marketing function is disconnected from a business’s strategy, what hope for (bolted on) PR?
I would say this (it’s our blog after all), but as an agency we pride ourselves on not only knowing our Os, Ss and Ts, but on our ability to confront clients, regardless of their size or the scale of the challenge, to demand the information and insight we need to make the informed choices necessary to achieve agreed and measurable objectives. Not only does it mean we’re all swimming in the right direction once the campaign goes live, but it also makes for a more exciting and inspiring journey for both us and the brand we’re representing.
