Clients and their agencies give perspective on PR priorities

Published 2004

US corporations and their agencies both appear to agree that agencies should be providing more strategic advice - and after publicity and media relations, corporations say that help with positioning and messaging is what they value most from external agencies.

These are some of the findings from a major survey undertaken during May 2004 of PR agencies and their clients in the United States.

The survey was conducted on behalf of US-based PR News by the Counsellors Academy, a group within the Public Relations Society of America that represents PR agencies.

Strategy v tactical

While US corporations appear to be using their agencies more for tactical implementation work, both they and their agencies believe that strategic work should be lifted to be the predominant role.

Corporations believe that currently between 60 and 90% of the work their agencies do for them is tactical or implementation.

• 27% believe that 70% of their agencies work is tactical
• 17% believe that 80% of their agencies work is tactical
• 15% believe that 60% of their agencies work is tactical

But when asked what it ideally should be:

• 38% thought it should be 50% strategic and 50% tactical
• 22% thought it should be 60% strategic and 40% tactical

Agencies believe that the amount of tactical work is more in the region of 50% to 70%.

• 29% believe that 50% of the work they do is tactical
• 17% believe that 70% of the work they do is tactical
• 16% believe that 40% of the work they do is tactical

But when asked what is should ideally be:

•  40% believe it should be 70% strategic and 30% tactical
• 20% believe it should be 50% strategic and 50% tactical

Importance of agency services

The services corporations said they valued most from their agencies were, in order of importance:

• publicity and media relations   
•  messaging assistance
• positioning assistance
• issues management
• crisis communications
• creative services (design/production of materials)

When agencies were asked which services they considered should be the most important to corporate clients four outranked all others:

• positioning assistance
• messaging assistance
• publicity and media relations
• issues management 

How to improve relationships

The three actions corporations thought agencies should do were:

• make more effort to learn and understand their interests
• measure results in a more meaningful way  
• improve  our organisation’s visibility and awareness    

The three actions agencies thought clients should do were:

• provide larger, more realistic budgets
• provide better access to upper-level executives
• set clearer expectations for the measurement of results

Measurement of communications

Asked which methods they used to measure their communications program, corporation respondents ranked the options as follows:

• quality of publicity placements
• brand message delivery
• target audience reached v total audience
• advertising equivalencies
• reputation assessments
• behaviour or attitude change measurement through formal research
• sales
• leads generated and closed

How best to bill

A fixed monthly fee or a retainer is the preferred method of remuneration of both parties.

Corporate    

• 43% prefer a monthly fee or retainer
• 32% prefer to work on a project basis
• 13% prefer to work on an hourly charge basis

Agency      

• 51% prefer a monthly monthly fee or retainer
• 23% prefer to work on an hourly charge basis
• 9% prefer to work on a fixed fee plus an hourly basis for extra work

Footnote:

Note: The author of this article is a senior Sydney based independent corporate PR consultant with 30 years PR agency experience who works with PR Managers to help them get the most out of their relationships with PR agencies, as well as helping them review and select PR agencies. He also advises, coaches and mentors PR Managers and undertakes audits of PR Department structures and programs. He blogs regularly on PR communications topics similar to those in this article.

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