» Registration!
» Did you forget your password?
Personal audit? – 1048
Findings the real capacity of company? – 611
Finance analysis of your company? – 641
Analysis of crisis states of company? – 746
Motivation system? – 807
Crisis management? – 612
Advisor for concrete field? – 630
Others? – 612
Total votes: 5707
You can publish your advertisement here.
Academy »
Public Relations (PR) »
The client – PR agency relationship: love or just a passing fancy?
You know it indeed! You are a party of friends who go boating together
invariably every summer since high school. Over the years, new faces have been
added to the old golden hard core, them being the better halves of the
individual members as they choose to go down the aisle. Your friends get married
and you alone still prefer to stay single. You suddenly feel weirdly amid all
those married couples �
Things go likewise in the PR branch, too. All of your rivals have had their
PR agencies, and now it is your turn to pick one for yourself. It is a serious
step, so do think twice before you take it. Are you marrying the agency
concerned for love, or, rather, is it only a passing fancy? Signing the contract
establishes a relationship between the PR agency and its client which is no
different from the relationship between spouses in marriage. If spouses fail to
communicate, it is a signal that something has gone wrong. In the private life,
such a couple will, in time, come to a partnership crisis, in the public
relations, nonetheless, we cannot afford the luxury in the form of a partnership
crises. It equals a loss of time and a waste of the client�s money. The wedding
is going to take place! Before you join an agency for life, make sure you both
know who you are. Later reproaches such as: �All you can do is spending my
money!�, �You have disappointed me, I thought you were different… �,
�I do not want to commit myself yet, you know… � will not but make a
bitter ending of one doomed relationship. Keep in mind that it always takes TWO
sides to make a relationship. You and your PR agency! Therefore, here or
elsewhere, prevention is indeed better than cure.
1) Meet the PR
Were your ideas about the cooperation with your PR agency initially
different? Do you feel disappointed now? Have you fallen for the fallacy spread
by marketers that having the PR equals having ceasless publicity coverage in the
newspapers? Cross your heart: did you really know what it takes to do the PR
work?! If not, then make inquiries, read and make yourself familiar with at
least the basics of the PR work, thus enhancing your bilateral
communication.
2) Do not ask for miracles while you wait
A PR guy is not David Copperfield, he or she does not work wonders
while you wait. Every PR activity is based upon a PR strategy that your agency
is going to submit to you at the very beginning of your collaboration. The
strategy, however, may change, get updated or adapted in time to fit your
purpose better. For instance, wishing to reach in only three months the same
results that correspond to cooperation of several years is impossible. The PR
branch comes with its specifics; they are, among others, consistency, method,
professionalism and patience. Even Rome was not built in a day, so do not expect
miracles while you wait either.
3) Trust your PR guy
Do you have different ideas? Are you going to promote other topics than
those recommended to you by your PR worker? Do trust them! At all times bear in
mind you are dealing with a professional. You understand your branch of
business, your PR guys theirs.
4) �PR guy� does not judge you
A PR guy does not judge you, so do not be shy to speak with them
openly. They are on your side. You, as a client, are supposed to inform your PR
workers about current events in your company. They do not sit in your office
every day, so it is no way they know what comes off in the company. If you want
to get quality services, you have to provide quality and relevant information
that the PR agency can bank on. Equally, the communication from the side of the
PR agency should not be sporadic. An incommunicative PR agency equals a bad
agency.
5) Incessant talk wins no victory
Do not push your PR agency into artificially inventing topics that –
providing you and your neighbour have turned a blind eye to them – could
possibly be communicated in the media, unless your company has something real to
say this month. Remember – what looks like silence can actually be as good
as gold. Do not go public before you have had a good topic to avoid making
bricks without straw.
6) PR guy is not a sprinter, but a stayer
If we use the sports vocabulary, thus PR workers can best be compared to
long-distance runners. In no case we can refer to them as sprinters who have
dashed through one hundred meters to immediately yank their hands up behind the
finish line and rejoice at the superiority, which is rather typical of a
marketing team. PR guys run a marathon in the least. They have to spread their
stamina evenly over the race, hit the right pace while being able to react to
changes around.
7) Original strategy is not for ever
Do not resist additional changes, particularly, those concerning only
minor alterations to the overall strategy. If your PR agency wants to modify the
strategy in connection with a newly established situation, it surely does not
mean the agency of your choice is a bad one. On the contrary, you have chosen a
reliable communication partner who keeps watching for the latest developments in
you branch of business while modifying the communication strategy
accordingly.
8) Eternal skirmishes between marketing and PR guys
Every month we see another round of the hassle between marketing and PR
guys. Warriors from the marketing department are once again up in arms about the
work of your public relation workers, because to them it seems to be badly done.
The PR workers fight tooth and nail being pretty sure they have done their work
all right. Whose side are you expected to take? There is no single correct
answer to this question. Keep in mind, though, both the trades come with their
distinquished specifics, with marketers utilizing different, more easily
measurable tools, than PR workers, which is giving the former an advantage over
the latter that they will never hesitate to exploit.
9) Do not mistake PR guys for journalists
PR workers are not journalists who sit all day long in the editor�s office
writing articles for you and pushing them through the media. That is not the way
things go here! Unfortunately, it is one of the most frequent stereotypes people
associate with the PR work. Public relations is a complex line of business
designed to enhance and promote the image of your company or brand, as the case
may be, in the eyes of the general public. This is impossible to achieve by
simply sending out articles to the media on a daily basis.
10) Do not listen to gossip
A friend of yours told you his or her company had paid less for the
PR service and received more… .… Do not believe unfounded fables.
Regrettably, lots of people are still in the dark about what the PR really is
about, for it is often mistaken for promotion and commercial advertising. The
better days are still far away.
Prepared and compiled for you by a „PR1“ agency consultant: http://ownway.eu/pr1/
1 for the best, 5 for the worst: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Average: 2.97, assessed 310×
Last assessment: 22. 04. 2011
ACADEMY
THE CLIENT – PR AGENCY RELATIONSHIP: LOVE OR JUST A PASSING FANCY?
Assess the article
Discussion to article
Text advertisement
What do you help in finance crisis period?
Registration charge is used for advertisement and developmentThe best advisor�s presentation on title pageEuronest will carry you to the EU