Do PR teams really understand your business
Profit drives most of the business world and that's the same for PR consultancies.
As PR agencies are people businesses, typically the model for most account teams is using the cheapest people to do the majority of the work...the 80/20 principle.
We had a conversation with a marketing manager this week and he had worked with a large (and in my opinion) very good technology PR agency. However, while the team, which consisted of two young ladies, was very nice, he complained that they just 'didn't get it'. Another anecdote is a marketing manager who was 'too embarrassed' to introduce the PR team to his technical division as they again didn't understand the company or its technology.
What these two instances show is that senior PR teams pitched and won the business and the actual account team didn't have as much (or even sufficient) experience to deliver on the promises.
This isn't solely a PR agency problem; we have had accountants and solicitors do the same to us - put the inexperienced junior on our account. It's fair to say that we have moved accountant to a smaller firm where we are more important, after also employing an experienced freelancer, who was good and did the basics well but lacked the time to give us the value-add advice we craved.
So how can PR account teams become more experienced? One way is to focus on a tight niche, be that IT security or open source. Another is to ensure that all teams have access to senior PR consultants who actually work on the account - that can mean a daily steer, making some media calls or reviewing writing. Of course, the MD of a 50 plus agency can't work on every account, but larger agencies also divide expertise by sector and that section leader can be involved.
The key issue here is involvement in the account by senior, experienced people - too often that involvement can be too little and too rushed.
