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The average PR agency revenue for 2011 reached 18.6%, not quite as high as in pre-recession 2007, but heartening to agency owners nonetheless. PR agency profitability in North America spiked from a 2009 four-year low of 13.5% of revenues to an average of 18.6% in 2011 (see chart), according to the annual StevensGouldPincus Best Practices Benchmarking Survey results released in June 2012. Averaged from a total of 105 PR agencies in the U.S. and Canada, the 18.6% number compares with 15.6% in 2010, 13.5% in 2009 and 15.6% in 2008. “In pre-recession 2007, revenues averaged 19.7%,” says Rick Gould, managing partner at StevensGouldPincus, a N.Y.-based merger and management firm specializing in the communications field.... [PR agency rebound underway? JD]
I'm obviously a huge proponent of comedy in business but, as my comedy coach and the nation's sole chief comedy officer, Clayton Fletcher, always reminds me, ”If you have the least doubt about how appropriate your material is for the workplace, don't use it.” So, submitted for your approval, are three classic examples of the wrong use of comedy in business (note: the names have NOT been changed to protect the innocent)...
My good pal and now co-author of “Marketing In The Round,” Gini Dietrich, says we should be more personal in our blogs. Tell more stories. Acknowledge when we need to get better at how we run and market our businesses. In her blog, Gini has spoken with ruthless honesty about some of the challenges she’s faced in her business.
And though it pains me to admit when Gini’s right…
I’ll share a story in which she plays a major role.... [Great reminder for any business or solo consultant - JD]
Porter Novelli, a public relations and lobbying firm, was awarded a $20 million contract from the Obama administration to promote health reform. Porter Novelli, a public relations and lobbying firm, was awarded a $20 million contract from the Obama administration to promote health reform. “The campaign will inform the American people about the many preventive benefits now available to those with Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act,” a representative from the Department of Health & Human Services told PR Week, which broke the news. Porter Novelli, for those who followed the health reform debate, might be an odd choice to help promote the law. As I reported for ThinkProgress in 2009, the global head of Porter Novelli’s healthcare division manufactured a front group designed to kill public support for health reform. Peter Pitts, soon after being hired by Porter Novelli in two years ago, launched various Tea Party and conspiracy-laced attacks on the Affordable Care Act as the legislation made its way through Congress...
...In fact, those self-promoting blogs Marshall seems to think characterize agency efforts don’t represent the best agency blogging. Agency blogs that produce the kinds of results H&K has achieved spotlight thought leadership, not awards and new-hires. The ain’t-we-great style of blog—whether from an agency or a company—never appealed to anybody, a fact reinforced by Forrester research that dates back 3-1/2 years. When I asked study author Josh Bernoff about the Digiday article, he asked, “Did (agency blogs) have anything to say in the first place? Blogs are for thought leaders.” Which is exactly how Forrester approaches blogging. “Only Forrester analysts blog,” he points out, “and they are all, by definition, trying to be thought leaders.”...
Every now and then, I think back to when we were first setting up shop in 1989. ...Back in the early days of Crawford/Mikus Creative Marketing & Design, collaborating with clients was the name of the game. We were constantly on the road, meeting with clients about campaign strategies, discussing new projects, sharing layouts and doing press checks. Fast forward to 2012 and it’s a very different world. We’ve gone from face time to Facebook. Now, days or weeks could go by without seeing a client in their offices or in our studio...
Lots of agencies have booze on hand—Arnold in Boston even has an impatient and lonely beer vending machine that harasses employees on Twitter until they visit it. But JWT's Casa in Brazil has the most annoying agency beer fridge. It's hooked up to the shop's computers and refuses to open on Fridays until all staffers complete their weekly time sheets. [PR agency CEO, CFO, bosses, managers' alert! Must-have management tool! ;-) JD ]
...According to the Content Marketing Institute, content initiatives now account for more than 25% of overall B-to-B marketing spend, and 60% of marketers plan to increase that amount in 2012. A full 90% of B-to-B marketers do some form of content marketing, even if they don’t realize it, while B-to-B companies invest on average a quarter of their total budget on creating content. Other research has found that 90% of customers “find custom content useful,” and 61% of people “feel better about a company that delivers custom content and are more likely to buy from that company.” With outside firms now picking up a lot of important and available new content work, the folks at LaunchSquad decided to start a new kind of content marketing firm, Original9 Media....
‘A Call for Accountability’ in a Competitive PR Market... The role of PR has expanded over the years. The means for measurement and data analysis, though still a work in progress, have improved. Companies depend increasingly on public relations activities for building their businesses. As a result, PR has a greater responsibility to be accountable in ways that speak to a business’ bottom line....
I recently stumbled across an interesting article on Raintoday.com, a website aimed at sales professionals. Written by Colleen Francis, and entitled, 'What to do when your prospect or client goes silent,' the piece lists a number of reasons why aprospective client may be ignoring your follow-up calls as well as strategies for dealing with the silence. While there's nothing particularly revolutionary about her advice, I did like the author's three call, follow-up strategy for dealing with an unresponsive prospect...
We did pretty well at a leading PR industry awards program last week. Of the six programs we submitted for judging, two were named finalists. And, of those two, one won an award. So, if this particular awards' program embraced transparency, they'd have listed Peppercom's batting average as follows: .333 (for programs nominated)
.500 (for finalists that won)... Sadly, there isn't ANY transparency in ANY industry awards program. And, that's a shame because, as last week's event made clear to anyone in attendance, the large agencies TOTALLY dominate the proceedings....
Facebook’s coming IPO has shone a spotlight on the financial upside of social media, but it’s important to keep in mind how much potential social platforms hold for serving the public good. Social media is helping advance the mission of non-profit organizations across a broad range of issues. In fact, nonprofits account for some of our industry’s most successful and impactful social programs that serve to elevate visibility, advance messaging across a broad range of constituencies, and assist with fundraising....
Whichever training courses you choose to offer, remember that in addition to the specific skills your team will gain, a training program is a chance to share three important things... quality standards, company "artificial intelligence" and agency vision/culture... [Great PR agency advice from Ken Jacobs - JD]
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My favorite TV character rant, linked (loosely) to the practice of public relations, is the one delivered by PR pro Eli Gold of “The Good Wife,” who is played superbly by Alan Cumming. Faced with a boneheaded media relations move by a political colleague, Gold lets loose with a wonderfully escalating barrage of outrage. He caps the tirade by spitting out a final, scorn-saturated insult,“The one thing I hate is an amateur.”
In the spirit of Eli Gold, but with a kinder, gentler attitude, I present the worst, most avoidable, most amateurish PR mistakes. Call them the 7 deadly sins....
As I scanned the monthly issue of PR Week (a thought that always makes me chuckle, by the way), I was startled by the glossy, full-page advertisements from a few of our industry's global firms. They literally jumped off the pages at me. Each was exquisitely designed and executed. Each obviously cost a ton of money to place. Each said exactly the same thing. And, here's the kicker, each MISSED the most important word in today's strategic communications landscape. Before I reveal the word, I must first share the holding company taglines...
Here's a press release and PR fail that provide a double take and a serious lesson for every junior public relations pro. Unfortunately, it comes from a big agency that should know better. The headline tells the story: Dismembered bodies and gunned-down landlords: Reminders to screen tenants [One of the worst news releases you'll ever see - JD]
When deciding whether to work with a new client, how do you tell if you should invoke the "Life's too short" rule? That's the subject of this month's newsletter.... [Michael McLaughlin shares heartfelt advice any consultant can appreciate - JD]
I distinctly remember my first boss at Hill & Knowlton telling me Uniroyal was very late in paying its invoices and that I needed to collect the outstanding monies ASAP. ”This makes both of us look really bad to management,”... But, before I could pick up the phone, my boss provided some additional counseling. “Come up with a list of day-to-day activities, provide Lynn with updates and, then, at the very end, apologize to her for having to even mention the subject of money, but ask if she'd mind checking on our invoices,” he suggested.... [Great financial tips for PR agencies and solo PR pros - JD]
There’s no such thing as a stupid questions, only stupid answers. Faced with pressure to generate pageviews, content managers have gotten into the habit of being a mile wide and an inch deep in their coverage. Trading depth for breadth and playing to the lowest common cultural denominator. We have to, right? Because today’s content consumer is pressed for time and brain cells and will probably only scan your headline and your bolded keyphrases before they will largely blindly like, Tweet or pin your just-another-post-in-the-sea content. Except that that’s not true. Despite what people might say, society is not getting dumber, we’re getting smarter. We want better information faster....
Courtesy of Odwyer’s PR I learned today of a speech he [Lord Chadlington] recently gave at the Public Relations World Congress, and of characteristics he looks for in his senior employees and just had to share it....
While rummaging through my sock drawer the other day, I found myself unable to locate a clean, matched pair. I asked my wife if there might be any in the wash. She responded by telling me to check the mismatched sock pile in the laundry room. The name triggered a Pavlovian response, and I was immediately transported back in time to a major new business pitch we were making. We were up against some major players and challenged by the prospect to present “ideas that would get an agency fired.” As you might expect, we soon found ourselves struggling to formulate three truly innovative (and agency firing worthy) suggestions....
The public relations industry is a festival of shamelessness in which the most shameless are never shamed. We are here to change that. This is PR Dummies. Celebrity endorsements are costly. Getting Jennifer Hudson to endorse a product would cost, at minimum, tens of thousands of dollars. Instead, why not just shamelessly drop Jennifer Hudson's name all over your press release, despite the fact that you actually have nothing whatsoever to do with Jennifer Hudson? That'll work. This is one of execrable PR agency 5WPR's favorite tactics.... [Speaking of bad PR...]
In this episode of “Cubes,” we tour the offices of Lippe Taylor, an award-winning PR agency that specializes in marketing to women. Located just off Manhattan’s Union Square, Lippe Taylor HQ has a plush, homey vibe. The loft-like space contains a paper note chandelier, a sample closet brimming with beauty products, an in-house art department, and a “Privé” room for private phone calls (and private romances), plus many more cool features....
This past week, I was filling out PRWeek's annual ranking for PR firms and thought to myself, if there were a couple of things I would love the world to know about public relations, what would they be? So I determined to share with the world the five confessions from inside a top national public relations firm....
Let’s wrap up this series on “Designing An Effective Agency Training Program” with three points that I trust you’ll find valuable: “Build Support From Training Cheerleaders Throughout The Agency,” “Seek Participant Feedback Regularly And Modify The Program Accordingly,” and “Cultivate A Learning Environment.”...
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