Driving Value Through Your PR Consultancy

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Driving Value ThroughYour PR Consultancy

• Tom Wells MIPR
• Managing Partner
• Gyroscope

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• Benchmarking PR providers
• 1 Not at all confident 11
• 2 9
• 3 28
• 4 26
• 5 17
• 6 Entirely confident 9

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• Tom Wells
• 1984-1986 The Victoria Wine Co.
• 1986-1988 HJ Heinz
• 1988-1990 Green Moon PR
• 1990-1995 Paragon Communications
• 1995-1999 Consolidated Communications
• 1999-2003 The Electrolux Group
• 2003- Gyroscope

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• Todays presentation
• Why and when to use a PR agency
• Finding the right partner
• Building and maintaining productive relationships
• Measuring, analysing and evaluating results
• Benchmarking performance

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• Todays presentation
• Why and when to use a PR agency
• Finding the right partner
• Building and maintaining productive relationships
• Measuring, analysing and evaluating results
• Benchmarking performance

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• Public relations is a
• waste of money

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• Organisations in the UK spend
• 2.4 billion
• per year on PR

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• 1 billion
• of what they spend is
• wasted

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• Sources of wastage
• Short-termism
• Price not cost
• Management issues

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• Sources of wastage
• The biggest single source of inefficiency
• is outsourcing
• Wrong person
• Wrong task
• Wrong budget
• Wrong objective

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• No rules
• No instructions
• No template
• Some ideas
• Some hints
• Some sense of direction

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• Whats the point?
• What do you want to achieve?
• What is the organisational purpose which
  investing in PR might help you to meet?
• Increase retail facings of your brand in major
  multiples
• Win planning permission for new warehouse
  extension
• Build ethnic minority participation in local
  Government
• Manage imminent crisis

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• How long have you got?
• When must the objective be achieved by?
• How long will it take?
• Manage imminent crisis achieve immediately, no
  time available
• Secure planning permission by end of year,
  allow for three month consultation period
• Increase retail facings achieve by end of next
  financial year, 12 months required
• Build minority participation ongoing

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• What do you need to achieve it?
• And what havent you got?
• Manpower
• Specialist industry knowledge
• Creative flair
• Internal buy-in
• Basic administrative support
• Mass media outreach
• Events
• Instant resource
• Expert counsel

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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Criteria for outsourcing
www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
1 not at all, 6 essential
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Agency vs. in-house

• Agency
• Objective
• Not bound by rules
• Flexible staffing and resources
• All specialities and generalists

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www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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Agency vs. in-house

• Agency
• Objective
• Not bound by rules
• Flexible staffing and resources
• All specialities and generalists

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• Learning time
• Never 100 in the loop
• Cannot dictate
• Management time and hassle
• Networks seldom perfect

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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Agency vs. in-house

• Agency
• Objective
• Not bound by rules
• Flexible staffing and resources
• All specialities and generalists

• In House
• Inside knowledge
• In the loop
• Local connections
• Less administration

_

• Learning time
• Never 100 in the loop
• Cannot dictate
• Management time and hassle

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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Agency vs. in-house

• Agency
• Objective
• Not bound by rules
• Flexible staffing and resources
• All specialities and generalists

• In House
• Inside knowledge
• In the loop
• Local connections
• Less administration

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• Lack of specialities
• Rules-bound
• Seldom run by very senior
• management
• Not objective
• Finite resource

• Learning time
• Never 100 in the loop
• Cannot dictate
• Management time and hassle

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• Which agency?
• Process so far will give you some guidelines, but
  questions remain
• Large, small or freelance consultant?
• Generalist or specialist?
• Creative hotshop or good old pluggers?
• Thinkers or doers?
• High-level brand strategists or people who pick
  up the phone and pitch stories?
• Press coverage or contacts?

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• Network agency
• Infrastructure
• Range of skills and specialities
• Common standards and disciplines
• Flexibility
• Single-point admin
• Experience in international programmes

• Independent agency
• Always best available in every market
• No client conflicts
• Perceived as less expensive

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• Not present in every country
• Never 100 in every subsidiary
• Complex client conflicts
• Perceived as expensive

• No common standards or disciplines
• Complex administration
• May lack key skills or specialities
• Less experience in international programmes
• Finite resources

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• Large agency
• Infrastructure
• Sheer manpower
• Broad range of services
• Range of skills and specialities
• Experience in international programmes

• Small agency
• Pay for what you need
• No client conflicts
• Higher level of attention for smaller clients

_

• Cost of non-core services
• Complex client conflicts
• Client may be too small for full attention

• May lack key skills or specialities
• Less experience in international programmes
• Finite resources

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• Which agency?
• 1,500 agencies and consultants
• in the UK alone

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• The rules of agencies
• All agencies offer a unique combination of
  strategic insight and creative excellence,
  coupled with the media clout and contacts to
  deliver on strategy, on time, on budget. Honest.
• All agencies are exactly the right size for all
  their clients.
• All agencies are specialists in whatever a
  prospective client happens to be looking for a
  specialist in.

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• Competence
• Chemistry

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• Strategy Planning Creativity
• Media Service
• Competence
• Chemistry
• Respect Understanding Trust

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• The process
• Long list
• (Cull)
• RFI
• Shortlist
• Site visits
• Workshop
• Appoint

• Contract
• Induction
• Briefing
• Tasking
• Etc

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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• Wells First Law
• Above a minimum level of size and sophistication,
  all PR agencies are equally good, and the
  limiting factor becomes the clients ability
• to work with them

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com
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Quality of client brief
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• Wells Second Law
• Clients tend to get
• the agencies they deserve

www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com