Posts Tagged ‘recession’
Has the PR industry reinvented itself post recession?
March 12th, 2010
In September 2008, on the day that the European Commission officially announced that the UK would fall into recession, I wrote a blog post entitled “The role of PR within a recession” offering some predictions on what I thought this would mean for the PR industry. The post sparked a fair amount of debate, and so I thought it would be interesting to follow-up this post now that we’ve come out the other side, to see how close or far off the mark I was.
1. The PR industry will reinvent itself
I made the prediction that “a recession will force PR consultancies to get their houses in order, and evolve or die”. Reading it back that sounds a bit harsh, and thankfully I don’t think too many ended up biting the dust…but a fair few have certainly been born.
I imagined PR agencies would “evolve” by quickly bringing their teams up to speed on social media, to ensure they were reaching both online and offline audiences in their consultancy. However, within the UK market there has been a growing trend for PR agencies to set up separate social media or digital PR consultancies - a few examples would be Hotwire launching 33 Digital, Next Fifteen setting up Project Metal and Fishburn Hedges opening up Brew. The list of internal social media teams at established PR agencies is also continually growing.
Moving forward, I think we will see more consolidation happening within this space as large PR agencies look to snap up smaller, specialist social media agencies, in order to accelerate their social media growth.
2. The profiles of individual PRs will become more important
The trend towards ‘Personalised Relations’ that we were seeing at the end of 2008 has undoubtedly continued. However Twitter has exploded exponentially within the social media PR sector enabling more PR folks to “become their own hubs” in the words of Jeremiah Owyang. Competition for share of voice has become fiercer, making it harder to spot the experienced social media consultants from those who are doing a good job of talking about it.
3. PR will no longer be a beauty parade
I would argue that the definition of ‘beauty’ has evolved within the UK PR industry. Today it is not so much about the company name, but much more about the agency’s online reputation and profile. We are increasingly seeing evidence of brands shortlisting and selecting agencies based on their social media assets, rather than the kudos of going with a big global agency. This is a positive trend that I hope will continue.
4. New business will be won/put to tender in less orthodox ways
From what we are seeing at Liberate Media, and hearing about among our peers, this is definitely becoming the case. There is still some nervousness around selecting a social media PR agency, and brands seem more comfortable meeting with agencies that have been recommended within their network of contacts, than taking the impersonal approach of putting a pitch out to tender. We are encountering the fierce pitch process less and less, and instead being given the change to demonstrate our knowledge and creativity within a less confined manner.
5. CEOs will need to prioritise PR more highly
This final prediction is difficult to assess, as I can only offer personal experience. It would be interesting to hear whether other agencies have found this to be the case.
At Liberate Media we did see CEOs and senior management dedicating more time to PR, and taking greater interest in social media. Our training services in particular were called on increasingly as CEOs wanted to upskill and take a more active role in their social media PR efforts.
** These are just my humble opinions. It would be great to hear back from people who commented on my original post, and others, on their experience of the above predictions.
PR for start-ups in a downturn
January 15th, 2009
Prior to Christmas I attended the second TechCrunch Talk - a discussion session for 150 start-ups, investors, and key players on the theme of: “CrunchTime: Opportunities and threats in the slowdown”.
PR came in for a bit of a battering during the panel discussion entitled “Will the startup service providers (lawyers, PRs, hosters) thrive or suffer? Will their startup clients appreciate their services…or not?”, with the general concensus among start-ups seeming to be ‘Do It Yourselves’!
So here is my advice for start-ups on how to approach PR in a downturn, and how to get the most out of your PR partner…
- Be realistic about what you can do yourself - as Andrew Scott, CEO of Rummble.com pointed out, wearing a branded T-shirt costs little, is something that you can do yourself, and will get you recognised. It’s a great starting point, but branded clothing is not for everyone and will ultimately have limited audience reach. Be honest about the tactical things that you might be able to pick up yourself in order to cut costs, but leave the strategy development and campaign management to the experts. Far better you focus your time and energies on what you’re good at - ultimately being an entrepreneur!
- Select an agency that will help you engage with your social media audiences, as well as traditional media - if you’re an online start-up you’ll understand that the consumer now holds the upper hand, and consumers in numbers now carry a lot of online influence. It’s crucial that your PR partner is able to deliver for you an integrated communications and engagement strategy that will ensure multiple touchpoints for your brand.
- Make sure you’re not going to be a small fish in a big pond - select a PR partner who will give you the love and care that you need, regardless of how much you are paying. Although your investment will roughly equal the amount of team resource you will receive, make sure you’re not going to get lost among far bigger brand clients.
- Build a relationship with your PR supplier - it goes without saying that PR is a people industry. If you make proper time for your PR partner and allow them to get to know you, you will reap the rewards. It’s a simple equation - the more you put into PR, the more you will get out of it. If you’ve gelled and built a good relationship, you’re likely to get more consultancy for free, and goodwill when you need to delay your payment etc!
- Make use of your PR’s network of contact and clients - PRs like myself have formerly worked as journalists and have a big book of contacts. Similarly, we have useful client contacts and connections into our client’s clients, and so on. Don’t be afraid to talk to us about our other clients to see if we can make useful introductions.
- Offer to pay upfront - if you’re after a discount, be honest about what you can afford, and offer to pay three months in advance. This will remove any nervousness in your supplier about your ability to pay, and they’ll be inclined to match your goodwill gesture with extra value for money.
- Ask for weekly activity updates, and propose regular meetings - there should be no need to manage a good PR partner, but in a downturn you want your money to work harder for you. Weekly updates will ensure that you’re both on-top of your actions, and additionally provide the PR with all the collateral and information that they need from you so that they’re not held back.
- Measure results - in a downturn, results become more important than ever. Ask your PR to benchmark your position at the start of the campaign, and repeat this reguarly in order to track the success of your PR investment.
The role of PR within a recession
September 10th, 2008
It’s official - the UK will fall into recession in 2008, the European Commission has this afternoon predicted. The gloomy facts can be read here in this BBC report.
So what does this mean for the PR industry, and what can we expect to see happen over coming months? Here are a few of my own predictions…
The PR industry will reinvent itself
Over the past couple of years, there has been increasing pressure on the PR industry to wake up to the impact social media is having on communications, and evolve. Some have responded more quickly than others. Liberate Media was infact set-up back in August 2006 to respond precisely to this change, and since then we’ve seen other agencies set-up in-house digital divisions. However, this movement has not spread across the whole of the PR industry at the speed it should - it hasn’t gone unnoticed by industry critics and observers that many more traditional PR agencies have turned a blind eye, largely through fear of the unknown.
A recession will force PR consultancies to get their houses in order, and evolve or die. So, in actual fact, a recession could ultimately be a good thing for this industry, separating the quality, digitally-aware practitioners from the run-of-the-mill.
The profiles of individual PRs will become more important
We’re living in an era of Personalised Relations - PR has always been about engaging with people, but the personal touch is today more important than ever. Jeremiah Owyang, senior analyst at Forrester, in his blog talks about PR folks becoming their own hubs, where “they’ve developed real relationships with influencers regardless of who their client list is”. If you’re looking to hire a PR who ‘gets’ online PR, it’s becoming easier and easier to spot them. Blogging and microblogging is making it so simple for PRs to build their own profiles, above and beyond the agency they work for - it’s a great way of assessing who’s truly active within social media, and who’s just talking about it.
PR will no longer be a beauty parade
This prediction is somewhat biased, but I say it with the experience of having worked as a trade journalist for six years. For decades, selecting a PR agency has been somewhat a beauty parade. Large brands have often felt more comfortable employing a well-know London-based agency, based on the kudos of having their contact details on their press releases. However, in my mind, a recession will place smaller, more niche PR consultancies in a position of strength, based on their ability to adapt their business model more rapidly in line with changing economic conditions. Definitions of ‘beauty’ will evolve, and be more about the ROI and quality of service a consultancy can deliver.
New business will be won/put to tender in less orthodox ways
The pitch process has been perfected by PR practitioners - weeks go into preparing, and the delivery is generally rehearsed to perfection. But as many brands will have discovered, this is not always the best way to select a suitable PR partner. The team who present will not always be the team you end up working with, and once the business is won, enthusiasm levels will quickly switch to the next exciting pitch that comes through the door.
As budgets become reduced, and ROI becomes key, word-of-mouth and recommendation, as well as networking, will I think become a more widely used route to winning business.
In addition, as all aspects of digital communications merge, new business will also be won through collaboration with partner agencies. Keeping yourself isolated is no longer an option for successful PR agencies.
And finally…CEOs will need to prioritise PR more highly
It goes without saying, that in order to get the most out of your PR resource, you need to make it a two-way relationship. This takes time, and many PR campaigns fall down on senior people not dedicating enough time to their PR campaign, be it for media interviews, signing-off press materials, or attending meetings etc. In a recession, brands who continue to see the importance in PR will need to make sure their investment is working harder for them, which means devoting more time to it.
We’re living in an age where conversations happen online about your products and services, in real time. When consumer spend is low, those who engage with their publics will reap the best reward. Your PRs cannot pretend to be you - and so CEOs etc will need to make more time to engage in these conversations around their brand.
** These are just my humble opinions. It’s an unsettling time for the PR industry (which has never done a great job of doing its own PR), but let’s hope the recession offers the shake-up the industry needs. Please let me know if you have other predictions to add to my list above.