Don’t shoot the messenger

I was stuck by a report in The Telegraph today that Lord Mandelson maybe taking on the role of unofficial information minister for the Government. This could include video briefings via the Downing Street website and weekly on-the-record briefings with journalists.

Putting party politics to one side, I welcome any developments that make the process of Government more transparent and easier to understand for the electorate. The key is going to be making sure that the information, dare I say message, is not lost in negativity towards the spokesman.

Lord Mandelson’s career has been controversial as it has been successful and you have to ask if this was a commercial communication whether you might recommend a less contentious spokesperson. On the other hand we all know that gaining mass media attention often requires a name – celebrity, business person or politician. It is a tough call but I for one will be putting the Downing Street briefings into my RSS reader and watching with interest.

Pumped and Dumped

I have to agree with Ross Furlong’s comment on a PR Week survey published today that agencies often get ‘pumped and dumped’ in the pitch process. The survey surmised that getting paid for pitch ideas is a good thing, with 83 percent of respondents in favour of payment for thinking.

The PR Week piece does not mention if the survey was of in-house PRs or agency but this is not a new debate on the agency side. An agency I was running in the late-90s received £10,000 from a car manufacturer for an idea that we pitched. I don’t recall being paid for any ideas before or since.

The other bigger issue is the pitch process itself which often leave agencies feeling bruised and out of pocket for the pitch costs. Although other disciplines seem to have it tougher. Sir Martin Sorrell mentioned at last week’s PRCA Conference that WPP had submitted a media pitch document that ran to an incredible 36,000 pages. Ouch!

My view is that if I was on the client side I would be happy with the current pitch process.

I guess that the question consultants should be asking themselves is whether the fact that payment is such a rare thing is a reflection of the quality of our ideas, massive over supply of agencies or simple commercial commonsense on part of the prospective client?

What are you selling? I’ve never heard of you.

Whether you believe that the end of the recession is in sight or it is a dead cat bounce, being able to add new clients and fees is crucial for any agencies success.

I got an email from new business agency Rainmaker a few weeks ago pushing the results of the annual Rainmaker survey which highlights what clients like, and don’t like about how agencies approach and sell to them.

It is well worth a read. Three points in particular stood out for me:

1. Overall, the general impression is that the economic situation has increased the quantity of approaches decision-makers are receiving from agencies, in many cases at the expense of quality.

2. 71% of the respondents felt that agencies do oversell to them, and that it has a negative effect on that agency’s chances of working with them. A further 10% agreed that agencies oversell, but were more forgiving of why they do it – ‘a necessary evil’.

3. When asked specifically about pet hates, we received a variety of responses. The most common response was when they are approached by people who haven’t done their homework, or demonstrate a lack of understanding of the business – 30% of respondents mentioned this.

All good reminders on what we need to avoid when approaching prospective clients. But it seems that we maybe missing a trick. Surely the best recommendation is a personal one, rather than trying to differentiate your agency from the UK’s 3000 PR agencies through a cold call.

During the summer and with my PRCA hat on I had lunch with Anthony Wreford, Deputy Chairman of Omnicom Europe. When asked which agencies he thought were going to be successful during the economic downturn he suggested that it was those with two key differentiators.

Firstly, winning agencies will have a proposition that is clearly defined, well packaged and most importantly differentiated. I’m not convinced that all of us would be able to answer yes if asked whether our proposition truly differentiated our agency from competitors, big or small.

Secondly, he felt that it was those agencies that had a real network of contacts to sell the proposition to that would benefit fastest from any uplift in the economy. Again how many of us can honestly say that we have an active networking programme in place that is effective and consistent? If the answer is no then it seems that now is time to start to get your senior team members to get out there and make contacts.

So good advice from Rainmaker and Anthony Wreford, and something I am sure that we would recommend to our clients.

The rubber HAS hit the road

Very pleased to see that Porter Novelli has won the won PR Week's 'The Big Idea'.

In her video interview for PR Week (above) Porter-Novelli's associate director Shilpa Saul said that she felt that PR was best placed to provide media neutral communications because it demands real understanding of audiences; the creation of two way dialogue and on-going communications.

Seems she was right.

NSPCC director of comms John Grounds, said that Porter Novelli won The Big Idea because of its impressive insight into key target audiences.

We should take heart from this independent confirmation that PR has the central role to play in the development and implementation of media neutral campaigns.

Time for the rubber to hit the road

I’m going to be watching the results of PR Week’s initiative – The Big Idea - with interest. It’s the first time that I can remember a public pitch for a media neutral campaign for a major organisation such as the NSPCC, with all the major communications disciplines involved.

Now I know I’m hugely biased, but I would have thought that Porter Novelli would be able to demonstrate that PR really is the best placed to deliver a media neutral. After all, a good PR campaign demands a detailed understanding of all aspects of an organisation, and the various media channels that are best to influence customers, employees and stakeholders. Plus, with a fee for time based model channel decisions should not be influenced by potential revenue returns from specific media choices.

In the video above Mindshare’s MD Ita Murphy explains why she thinks a media agency is best placed to deliver a media neutral campaign.

Harsh. But is it fair?

Thanks to Jon Silk at PR Geek

Social Media Stats to Take Notice Of

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

Thanks to http://mediasnackers.com

Be A Person!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=227365&title=be-a-f@#king-person-dealer-or
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

We all know that things are tough in the automotive industry but it seems that some companies have simply forgotten that they are dealing with people. Chrysler's dealer comms leave a little to be desired!

Clients and agencies in a recession - the reality?

Thanks to Todd Defren, Shift Communications www.pr-squared.com

International PR - we're not that different really

I was at an ICCO meeting last week before attending the Paul Holme’s Sabre Awards at the amazing City Hall, Stockholm.

Part of the ICCO meeting was a round table discussion from attendees representing PRs from 20+ countries around the world – South America, Europe, Africa and North America.

It was interesting to see that many of the changes we have seen in the UK market in the last 12 months have been repeated in other countries. The top six trends were:

1. Decline in print media on the back on collapse in advertising revenues
2. Advertising sector pushing hard for digital communications budgets. Sweden was the exception where the PR sector seems to ‘own’ digital communications.
3. Downward pressure on all budgets across all sectors
4. Clients asking for more for less
5. Pitches asking for projects rather than retainers
6. Strategic consulting and crisis advice growth areas

On a positive note, Brazil is forecasting one and a half percent growth in its economy for 2009 and with South Africa’s banks precluded from taking foreign investment the country’s financial sector has not been hit as hard by the credit crunch. Although with the average South African worker have nine dependents the impact of unemployment is considerable.

If you are looking for an overview of the international PR sector take a look at the latest ICCO World Report – published earlier this year – and what I believe is the only annual report specifically on the PR sector.