Kudos for the best PR or communications work or award-winning PR campaigns done by PR agencies often falls on the wrong shoulders. In many cases it shouldn’t be the PR agency that gets the accolades; more often than not the praise belongs with the in-house PR Director or PR Manager.
Likewise, if the PR or communications effort isn’t working its often wrong to simply point the finger at the PR agency. Instead look at who is meant to be managing the agency.
I was reminded of this a couple of weeks back when a long time acquaintance, a senior in-house PR pro (let’s call her Sue) who has employed PR agencies for as long as I can remember, confessed that she was having trouble getting the best out of her combined resource – her in house team and the external PR agency.
That someone with so much experience should be having this issue surprised me – especially when as we discussed the detail it was clear to me that the fundamental problem was a lack of proper management of the agency. Sue was essentially to blame for the problems as she wasn’t effectively managing her PR agency!
But then again perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. During my 30 years running a PR agency the number of really good PR Directors or Managers my agency worked with who were getting the best out of the PR agency was limited.
Mostly, there was limited direction and management from the client – which if the agency was not conscientious could lead to sloppy practices and work on our side. In this situation everyone in the agency knew that we were probably only doing a 70% job and that if we were going to do better the initiative had to come from us.
Occasionally, there was a micro manager from the client side. That often led to excessive and duplicated work, wasted hours on process, a focus on outputs instead of outcomes and inevitable cost overruns (which the agency had to wear!). In this situation those working on the account saw themselves as just the equivalent of factory workers. No break-through work was likely to emerge in this environment!
Then there were the PR Directors and PR Managers who knew what they wanted – and sought to manage the agency in a way to maximise outcomes. These were the clients that attracted the best people in the agency and achieved the best work. The relationship was based on mutual respect and professionalism – but always knowing who was boss (and paying the bills!).
So what are some of the key attributes of a good PR Director or Manager when it comes to managing a PR agency:
1. Accepts that it is his/her role to direct or manage the PR agency – not be dictated to by the agency.
2. Sets clear parameters, and boundaries, regarding the relationship – not leaving any room for misinterpretation or misunderstandings
3. Takes responsibility for delivering the strategic brief or direction that the PR agency is to follow – not leaving the agency in a vacuum.
4. Puts in place clear processes and procedures (e.g. reviews) throughout the relationship period – so that routine mechanisms exist for issues to be addressed.
5. Sets clear budgetary parameters while exhibiting a flexible and open approach to dealing with issues relating to budgets – thus providing a pressure valve for a topic that is one of the biggest causes of agency frustration.
6. Is a conduit to other members of the management team – recognising that it is to their mutual benefit for a PR agency to have access to, and be respected by, others within the client organisation.
7. Shares in the PR and communication success and the failures – not someone who takes the credit when things go well, but blames the agency when there’s a glitch.
The discussion with my in-house friend Sue which sparked this blog bought home to me that in-house and agency PR people are a bit like Mars and Venus (with apologies to Dr John Gray who wrote a great book some years back about the male-female relationship).
While Sue’s very experienced, and has worked a lot with PR agencies (albeit small agencies), she, like many other in-house PR professionals, has never worked on the agency side.
Therefore despite her on-the-ground experience Sue doesn’t really understand what drives PR agencies – and more importantly how to get the best out of them.
But perhaps most importantly Sue philosophically hadn’t, in her mind, accepted that it was her responsibility to actually manage the PR agency as she manages her own internal staff – rather than regarding them as some kind of external resource simply there to ‘do stuff’.
My experience tells me that the really best work that PR agencies do often results directly from the direction and management of the client. Conversely some of the rubbish work that is done is often (but not always) a direct consequence of poor or inadequate input from the client at the start of the process.
I’ve never worked in-house. But I’ve worked with enough clients over many years to know what PR Directors and PR Managers need to do better of they want to make relationships with their PR agencies more productive, and get better PR and communications outcomes.
It’s called managing. You abdicate this at your peril when you work with a PR agency.
Don’t rush to automatically blame the PR agency when something is not working. Look at yourself first. It’s up to you to manage them!
Note: If you are interested in reading other articles I have wsritten about hiring or managing PR agencies go to PR Influences
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