Britain’s Worst PR Agent

Entrepreneur and ‘business guru’ Guy Kingston is a man to keep an eye out for as he is on the hunt for ‘Britain’s Worst PR agent’. Kingston, who has clearly had a few bad experiences, has set up a forum on his website where dissatisfied clients can share their PR disasters.  As he so eloquently puts it “Have you had been ripped off, lied to or otherwise had your time and money wasted by a scumbag masquerading as a Public Relations agent?”

According to quotes from Kingston on the Management Today site the thing that has really got under his skin is cost: ‘Most seem to spend their time clocking up hours on projects they have invented for you rather than concentrating on delivering the results that you need’, he says. Empty promises is his other big gripe: ‘They will promise you lots of media coverage then when it doesn’t appear they simply blame you.’

I can understand his frustration if as he says in the piece he doesn’t feel he is getting value for money but it does highlight the need for an agency and client relationship to be just that a relationship.  It needs to be a two way thing to work with input from both sides.  It is essential that regular contact is maintained so the client understands exactly what you are doing and any potential pitfalls so there aren’t any surprises down the line. 

Personally, I have just got back home after a few beers with one of my clients after meeting a journalist and it is doing things such as this that help both parties get the most from the relationship.  It allows you to ask in an informal environment what they would like to see more of and what is working and also importantly what isn’t.

Recession? What recession!

There was a story on Silicon today which I hope will cheer a few of you up in tech PR with reports that despite a shakey global economic market, IT spending is set to pass the $3.4tr mark – up eight per cent from last year.  The research which came courtesy of Gartner also went on to explain that services and not products are dominating spending with IT and telco services making up 70 per cent of IT budgets.  All good news and long may it continue.

Obviously from a purely selfish perspective if people are still buying our clients products then they still have money to spend on PR….hopefully.  That said with so many doom and gloom stories out there about the impending recession I’m sure a number of agencies are looking to plan about what to do should the worst happen.  This is something we do quite thoroughly at Berkeley PR with quarterly, half year and annual forecasts / plans.  This is conducted not just for ourselves but also for our clients in terms of their PR campaigns.

I attended a credentials meeting this morning and was amased to hear that the company we were talking with had only just started receiving monthly activity reports and for the previous eight years had received nothing apart from the odd update phone call.  Unbelievable.  Don’t get me wrong I would rather just roll up my sleeves and get on with the job at hand but it is also important to be able to record the activities.  This should not just be to justify the PR agencies existence and retainer fees (which is very important) but also to help your marketing contacts explain to their board what they have spent the money on.  This is an approach I have always taken as I like PR to be transparent but if the doom merchants get their way, this will inevitably become an even more vital part of our industry.