Why is it that a PR agency can be ‘let go’ by one client for allegedly not performing, yet can win accolades by another client – more often than not a competitor to its original client?

What set me thinking about this were a couple of excellent – but different – commentaries I came across in recent weeks – a US perspective and an Australian perspective by Jocelyn Hunter, of Bench PR.

One of the points in both these – from an agency perspective – is the impact that the client giving recognition and praise to the agency can have on the performance of the PR agency and how it motivates them to go that extra mile.

It’s a bit sad in some ways that PR agencies need to have their egos stroked. However, PR agency life can be pretty demanding and sometimes the team working on the business don’t get the thanks they deserve from their own management, so client recognition can often be leveraged a long way. 

I’ve written several articles on the topic of client and PR agency relationships of which one on dysfunctional PR agency relationships which talks about what I believe is at the axis of every ‘dodgy’ client-agency relationship – issues of power and a failure of process.

In some ways the client-PR agency relationship is a bit like an iceberg. There’s the part you see on top, but underneath it there’s a whole lot more happening that’s not visible. 

In my experience the relationship at the top between the PR Director or Manager and the PR agency head or account director can be fine. But there can be real frictions among staff on both sides underneath these two that can undermine the whole relationship.

Without wanting to sound too much like an ‘old codger’ I think part of the problem is the lack of real business and life appreciation on both sides of the fence.

When I started out PR Directors were, in the main, professionals who had come into PR from journalism or had other corporate skills. They knew their way around the traps and understood how business worked. Likewise on the PR agency side where there wasn’t much room for juniors. 

Today, with much more professionalism around PR and communication (which is a good thing), most of those in PR in both the client and agency know nothing else apart from what they have been doing –public relations or communication.

That’s because they’ve graduated with a PR or communications degree and gone straight into an in-house or agency role.

I think that too often PR agency people don’t have a clue as to how business works, the pressures, protocols and processes that internal corporate public relations and communications people have to go through. That makes them unnecessarily intolerant about how their clients act and behave.

Likewise I think that the public relations and communications folk in corporate life often don’t really understand how a PR agency operates and pressures and obligations they have to meet. That makes them oblivious as to what they need to do to get the best performance from their agency.

I think there’s probably an opportunity for a lot more education to, from and about both sides – corporate and PR agencies. But would the egos and self-pride on both sides allow them to admit that perhaps there are some things they need to learn?

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While US PR practice when it comes to hiring, and working with, PR consultants or PR agencies can be perceived as rather legalistic Australian organisations are probably at the other end of the spectrum – just a tad too loose with their paperwork.

In my experience across Australia and New Zealand too few senior internal PR professionals, or those they report to, are mindful of some of the key business issues that can arise during a relationship between an organisation and a PR consultant or PR agency!

This came to mind this last week while viewing some US PR blog exchanges.

Ironically the questions, exchanges and discussions were about two of the perennial issues that I found arose most frequently during my PR agency tenure i.e.

1) Who owns the media lists and contacts that the PR agency uses?
2) What are the rules around the client hiring a PR agency staffer?

In my experience uncertainty around these two issues is often a consequence of there being no written contract between the client and PR agency, or one that simply doesn’t address key business relationship issues – a topic I have written about previously.

With regard to media lists the issue normally arose either when the client wanted, for whatever reason, to do some media contact that was normally handled by the PR agency. Or alternatively it became an issue when the client was changing PR agencies, or deciding to go completely in-house.

Both scenarios are almost certain to raise the suspicions or hackles of the PR agency. But that’s another topic for another time.

When it comes to protocols , and the legalities, my perspective is that:

1) Normally PR agencies subscribe to media information (most often electronic data bases that are continuously updated). In addition they establish their own media contacts and build media relationships as part of their business which becomes a key part of their ‘tools of trade’.
2) Media lists therefore become the proprietary intellectual property of the agency, with the cost of these services being part of the overhead structure of the PR agency which is recovered as part of the hourly billing structure.

Therefore in my view the client has no right, and the PR agency no obligation, to hand over media lists. However, I believe that it is not unreasonable for a client to ask for, and be supplied with by the PR agency, a list of media with generic contact details (i.e. general email, phone numbers etc).

When it comes to the hiring of PR agency staff by a client the issues are potentially more difficult – for both parties.  However, it’s a fact of life and with a bit of forethought it can easily be navigated to the satisfaction of both parties (or without spilling too much blood!).

 My standard agency contract always had a clause that prevented either party hiring a staffer from the other (yes, occasionally a PR agency does want to hire someone from a client!).

This stipulated that during the period of the contract and for a period after the contract ended (most commonly six months or a year) neither party was able, without the consent of the other, to engage as an employee or consultant (either directly or indirectly in whatever capacity) any person previously employed by the other.

From the PR agency perspective this clause had the additional purpose of ensuring a key staffer (and our client!) was not poached by another PR agency.

I found that covering this up front in a transparent manner ensured that both client and PR agency knew what the protocols and rules were should this situation arise.

Of course, the real issue is the wording “without the consent of the other”. Clearly where the relationship between client and agency is a strong one both parties will wish to negotiate so that a mutually satisfactory arrangement can be achieved.

To me the fairest way of handling this is for the employing party to pay the other as a minimum the standard commission they would have to pay if they were hiring through an executive recruitment firm.

That at least provides the party losing the staffer (in my experience usually the PR agency) some recompense. And it’s no more than an organisation would have to pay to recruit a PR professional from the marketplace.

In the US they are often even more prescriptive in their contracts. Because the practice is probably more prevalent in the US many of their contracts state that should a client wish to hire a PR agency staffer that they must pay a recruiting fee equal to a percentage (I have seen amounts ranging from 25% to 50%) of the employee’s current annual compensation.

Taking the time at the start of a client-supplier public relations relationship to think through issues that can arise is a worthwhile investment. It’s a shame too few Australian organisations – or PR agencies for that matter – practice it.

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Australian PR Managers – if you are committed to running your PR agency relationship to the highest standard then take note from your counterparts who manage advertising agency relationships.

Often comments emanating from the advertising world can be taken with a grain of salt.  But I thought that those reported (albeit only briefly) from the latest Australian Association of National Advertisers (ANNA) ‘HotHouse’ forum on the future of client-agency relationships were worth repeating and commenting on.

Significantly, they came from the client, rather than the agency, side of the business. And from some of the biggest advertisers around e.g.- Nestle and Toyota.

 Some of the comments reported from the “HotHouse’ in AdNews were:

• “most traditional pitch processes are a form of speed dating. They really tell you very little about the chemistry of working together,” – Suncorp Group marketing head, Mark Reinke.
• “we will do almost anything to preserve the agency relationship. Frankly, if the relationship fails, our management structure tends to believe it can’t be all their fault. It must partially be our fault, so what are we going to do to fix the relationship?” Toyota divisional manager for national marketing, Peter Webster.
• “it (agency relationship problems) is usually always a people problem. You also need to examine yourself because sometimes it’s on our side,” Nestle director of group marketing and communications, Ian Alwill.

 The area of client-PR agency relationships is one where I’ve always held the view that the PR industry has a lot to learn from our advertising cousins.

 Advertising has been around for lot longer than PR. Many protocols and processes exist – on both the client and agency sides.

 From the agency side being a ‘suit’ is a role in itself – dedicated to managing the relationship, whereas in PR generally managing the relationship is just part of the team that does the ‘doing’.

In my experience there’s often not been the robustness – and might I say the professionalism – in the PR relationship as one sees down the corridor in the marketing-advertising aegis.

Both sides are to blame, but as I’ve written recently, I believe that the client has the ultimate responsibility to set the guidelines, tone and processes. That’s because they are paying the bill and they should be running the relationship.

However, with that comes the responsibility for having the ability, if problems arise, to look at both sides to pinpoint issues – something that the major advertisers reported from the ‘HotHouse’ forum appear to be willing (somewhat surprisingly to me ) to do. 

As for pitching, that’s more fraught with difficulty on the PR side than it is for the advertisers.  Because PR is so much more intangible than advertising there’s so much more room for subjective judgments to come into play (“making a decision between choosing another blonde or another brunette” as Ian Alwill is quoted as having said at the “HotHouse”).

As a consequence the PR industry in Australian is a long way behind our advertising cousins in having transparent processes that meet the standards that Procurement Departments internationally are demanding. 

This is evidenced by estimates I have seen that suggest that as much as 40% of Australian advertising pitching is being handled by third-party facilitators who run the process to ensure there is robustness and transparency.

While the key objective from involving an independent party is obviously to make the best choice, another of the key objectives of this is to ensure that the losing agencies at least exit the process having felt that the process has been fair, that’s there’s been a level playing field and as result there are no (or few) grounds for them to have any ‘sour grapes’.

In my experience ‘sour grapes’ is still too prevalent on the PR side when pitches are lost.  I think that given the subjective nature of PR it’s much more difficult to avoid this. However, being more professional in preparing PR briefs, and running competitive PR pitches would help alleviate some of this (but I suppose you might argue that I would say that given that helping run pitch and tender processes is part of my business!).

It’s a shame that AANA keeps what’s discussed at its forum’s  strictly for members. Perhaps the PRIA , the IABC or the Registered Consultants Group within the PRIA could consider tapping into the experience AANA members have in managing agencies.  Based on the limited reporting from the AANA HotHouse I’m sure PR Managers – and PR agencies – would get great value from their experience and insights.

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Is a debate against the way users of public relations pay for external PR agency services likely to erupt within the Australian PR industry? That’s a question in-house PR Managers and PR agencies should asking given the revolt that seems to be emerging in the local legal profession about charging systems.

Judging by the space given to this topic recently by The Australian (and by other legal media over recent times), the legal professional is strongly against billing by the hour and advocating more fixed fees.

Furthermore it seems from media reports that law firms and their clients seem united on the fact that billing is one of the big areas of friction between them that detracts from, and undermines, the quality of service and the work done.

I will be surprised if the legal battle over charging doesn’t spill over into the PR sector. Potentially, I believe this issue is more meaningful, and contentious, than the effort by PR agencies to start charging for their intellectual property when pitching for new business which I commented on recently.

While there are clearly differences in the nature of the extent, scale and type of work done between the legal profession and PR, their core billing methodologies are both based on the hourly rate.

After 30 years running a PR agency I would be very surprised if a survey of Australian PR agencies and their clients wouldn’t bring to the surface concerns about how external PR services are charged. In my experience, billing and perceptions of value-for-money are never far from the surface in all agency-client relationships.

The latest survey figures I saw from the PRIA’s Registered Consultants Group  indicated that Australian PR agencies claimed that the majority (about 60%) of their clients were being billed on a project basis (which I assume to be principally hourly based) with 40% being billed by way of retainer.

Here’s my perspective on how both sides view the issues:

The users of PR services – the client:
• Retainers have become a less favoured method of remuneration – unless there is a major outsourcing of PR. In my experience most PR Managers (and more importantly their superiors) don’t think they get value-for-money. They think there’s no guarantee of delivery and performance from the PR agency to match the retainer. And they think they are beholden to an ongoing contract.
• Project fees or hourly rates are increasingly preferred because the client feels they have more control and flexibility.  It’s perceived to put the client in the driver’s seat.

The provider of PR services – the PR agencies:
• Retainers provide certainty of income and cash flow, and allow staff hours to be allocated to the client. Often a retainer is not as profitable for the agency, but the certainties that come with it make it attractive.
• Project fees or hourly rates have, from my observation, become more prevalent in recent years. This is partially because PR often works for different parts of a business (i.e. finance with IPO’s, corporate with crises, and marketing with product launches) which naturally lends itself to self-contained – and often one-off- projects. They have also been favoured by many PR agencies, facing more competition and lower margins, prefer to try and recover the actual hours spent on behalf of a client.

Interestingly, what this indicates is that while law and PR follow the same billing principles the trend in PR appears to have been the opposite to law i.e. away from retainers towards hourly rates and project fees.

In this regard The Australian had an interesting story on the Perth law firm Lavan Legal which has really cast tradition aside by abolishing the standard billing system that requires lawyers to account for every six minute period throughout their working day. Who would have thought this would transpire?

Some of the issues regarding the delivery of PR include that by nature PR is less definitive than the law, more creativity and less process is involved and, given the degree of contact and liaison needed with influencers and third parties, accurately estimating the amount of time involved is often fraught with difficulty.

Having said that I can’t help but go back to an earlier observation – too many PR Managers simply don’t manage their PR agencies well enough. If PR Manager’s want better outcomes from their budgets it should start with a clear brief and definition of the project that the PR agency is engaged to handle.

Furthermore, PR Manager’s have to begin to more effectively manage the progress of projects and campaigns as they evolve, and the activity of the PR agency, rather than simply waiting to the end only to find that the PR agency has overspent by 20 percent.

However, notwithstanding the need for more disciplined management by PR Managers, the bottom line is that if those working within the corporate environment are revolting against the billable hour when buying legal services, what chances are there that their PR or Corporate Affairs colleagues down the corridor won’t catch the same disease and be forced to justify their actions?

It seems to me that at the very least this outbreak of war amongst the legal fraternity will result in both PR Managers and PR agencies facing increased scrutiny around charging and budgets in the near future.

Both should start doing their homework now.  PR people – both in-house and in agencies – need to take-on-board some of the arguments being made by the buyers of legal services. To me it begs the question as to whether the way the legal discussion is going PR is likely to head back towards the retainer and fixed fee.  That would be ironic!

Note: I’ve written on the subject of PR client-agency relationships and fees previously in PR Influences.

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There’s a move by PR agencies and PR consultants in Australia, under the auspices of  a group affiliated to the Public Relations Institute of Australia, to seek payment when they are pitching for new business.

Having spent my career on the PR agency side of fence, I know that PR selection processes is one of the main bugbears of PR agencies. So I appreciate the reasons behind the move by the Registered Consultants Group.

Nonetheless, I think they are embarking on a ‘mission impossible’ in an area that is really ‘wild west country’ in so far as practices, guidelines – and even ethics – are concerned.

The RCG conducted a survey around PR selection practices among its PR agency and PR consultant members during July. They’ve just released headline results this week and they intend to discuss the matter more widely at their national conference in Sydney in November.

PR agencies and consultants are canvassing the concept because they argue that they need to better protect their intellectual property during the PR pitch or selection process. And, of course, they see that their advertising cousins have been getting recompensed in various forms for many years.

This is a big subject, which I will write more about in the months to come, but here’s my feeling about why the PRIA and its PR consultant and agency members, will struggle to make substantive progress.

1. Unlike advertising, which is much more established, there are few accepted principles, guidelines or protocols when it comes to hiring PR consultants and PR agencies.
2. There are too many instances where potential clients blatantly shop for strategies and ideas from competing agencies so they can pick the best. It’s not uncommon for a potential client to decide not to go ahead with an agency appointment after a pitch process.
3. While there’s been an explosion in the use of PR and the number of PR agencies, most of the growth is coming from SME’s whose processes and approaches to hiring are often pretty primitive to say the least.
4. The level of understanding of PR is still pretty elementary in large areas of the market and it’s not easy to differentiate between PR agencies. So the client resorts to wanting ideas, concepts and strategies.
5. There’s a whole bunch of PR agency people out there who will do anything to win business, so if they decide to go that extra mile it forces their competitors into the same situation.
6. Too much of the PR focus these days is on the marketing end of the business, and within this context PR is often seen as a cheap(er) form of marketing.

So in short it’s a largely immature market – on both sides of the fence.

Regrettably many PR Managers, especially in SME’s, have little or no idea as to how a PR agency works and often they don’t know who to turn to for help. And many of the new PR agencies have little or no appreciation of what constitutes sound business practices.

But it’s also a two tier market.

As I’ve mentioned there’s been an explosion at the small end of the market among SME’s looking for marketing solutions and just raw publicity. This is where PR agencies are being increasingly burnt.

On the other hand at the top end of the marketplace – among professional service firms, public companies, government departments and multi-nationals – there’s a bit more circumspection – from both sides.

The RCG and PRIA move is certainly a bold one. As far as I am aware there’s no other international PR peak body that has succeeded in introducing a policy that members must adhere to. Some ‘recommend’ that potential clients should be encouraged to recompense a PR agency for strategy, plans and creative in certain circumstances. And others ‘encourage’ reimbursement of expenses incurred by agencies in pitching.

One development that will bring a degree of order and sanity to the PR pitching business is the intervention of Procurement people and processes and /or the use of outside facilitators to achieve greater transparency. It’s a trend that is gradually taking effect in PR internationally, not surprisingly following in the footsteps of our advertising cousins.

One report I read stated that around 40 percent of all advertising pitches in Australia are now facilitated externally and Vale International, a global advertising consulting company, reported in March 2010 that in 2009 procurement officers took over 77% of the decision relating to advertising agency revenue (although there are though some aspects of this trend that are also of concern which I’ll cover at some later stage).

This whole topic of PR pitches is a topic close to my heart. I’ve written several articles on and around this topic in PR Influences and even on this blog. And acting as an intermediary or facilitator in the pitch process or in the agency-client relationship is a role I set for myself when I embarked on my second career in late 2009.

I wish the PR agencies and consultants luck, but it’s difficult to see an easy solution – for either the buyer or seller of PR services – in the immediate future.

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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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This week’s BRW (June 3-9) focuses on what I believe is the tip of an iceberg in Australia – a quite widespread ‘disconnect’ between organisations and their PR agencies and PR consultants. 

Quite simply I believe that most organisations are simply are not getting the most from their PR agencies or consultants; largely because they don’t know how-to!

Too often they are only getting half of the benefit they should expect from using a PR agency or consultant.  And they often know it!

BRW touches on the topic in its article on public relations – but mainly from an SME perspective.

Their front cover sets the scene by proclaiming ‘Using Spin Doctors – get the most from PR firms’.

Inside in its ‘The business end section’ Leo D’Angelo Fisher examines how small to mid sized companies such as business software company Attache, accounting firm William Buck and management consultant Vantage have struggled to find the right public relations relationship – and deliverables.

Leo D’Angelo Fisher sought my views, and quotes me in his article on public relations, because to the best of my knowledge I am the only person in Australia who specialises in helping internal PR Directors and Managers in a range of areas including how to better manage their relationship with PR agencies and consultants.

As well I’ve written several previous articles on managing client and PR agency relationships in PR Influences including articles about making internal and external PR work, how to get the most out of external PR resources as well as providing tips for first time users of public relations.

Of course the temptation is to confine the issue BRW highlights mainly to the SME market.

Not only does that sector often attract PR agencies who know little more than publicity. SME companies seeking PR are often first time users who have unrealistic perspectives, and expectations, of what PR might do for them – – and especially how quickly they can expect to see results. Not to mention limited budgets to achieve it!

But in my experience the ‘disconnect’ extends right up the corporate tree to some of the biggest users of external PR services.

While there are some very capable PR agencies around that have the ability to really add value to their clients’ businesses, having spent 30 years on the agency side of the fence it’s my belief that I know that many PR Directors and PR Managers often don’t know how to get the best out of their PR agency.

There are many reasons – indirect and direct- that can contribute to this. They include:

People issues:
• A lack of senior management commitment to PR which inhibits the whole relationship with the PR agency, and especially attempts to make the PR agency more accountable.
• A lack of knowledge by the PR Director or Manager as to how PR agencies work and what is ‘best practice’ in client-agency relationships.
• International management from people with the organisation who don’t understand the Australian environment.
      
  Structural issues:
• Functional reporting line issues around marketing, HR, PR etc.
• International reporting line issues.
• A lack of clear definition of the role of internal v external PR and communication, resulting in ambiguity re the PR agency role and contribution.

Deliverable issues:
• Not having a clearly enough defined view of the role PR and communication can play in helping achieve business outcomes.
• Too much focus on ‘outputs’ rather than ‘outcomes’ from PR agency.

 PR agency management issues:
• Ambiguity in reporting and responsibility.
• A lack of clear process and procedure in the day-to-day PR relationship.
• No regular or annual review process.
• No dispute procedures or mechanisms for addressing relationship issues
• No formal contract.

The role of a PR Director or PR Manager can be lonely and challenging. On the one hand dealing with the internal challenges and politics; on the other hand having to manage an external resource, often without the necessary first-hand knowledge and experience.

In my experience most PR Directors and Managers value and respect their PR agency. However, they often know in their heart that the results could be better and that both parties would be happier if some issues could be addressed and solved.

Most PR Directors and Managers also know that it is their responsibility to solve these issues. Regrettably few seem prepared to take the steps necessary to achieve this, which is a shame.

PS  You might be interested in other recent blogs I have posted on this topic under PR Agency Relationships

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Australian and New Zealand PR Directors and Managers and their PR agencies should be reviewing their roles, responsibilities and protection as legal proceedings on both sides of the Tasman put corporate public relations practices in the spotlight.

In Australia 10 former directors of James Hardie are arguing about a press release in the NSW Court of Appeal. They were found guilty last year of having breached their duties based principally on a contention by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) over what was said in the press release relating to the funding of Hardie’s asbestos compensation trust.

In New Zealand , where there has been a flurry of actions instigated by its Securities Commission, Lombard Finance is facing criminal prosecution, accused of misleading investors through its prospectus, road shows and other company communication efforts.

It’s ironic that in these two cases it’s been the Directors of the company that have faced the music. 

To date, as far as I am aware, no PR Director or Manager or a PR agency has been caught in the legal web, although James Hardie’s former head of public relations Greg Baxter (now with News Corp) was reportedly grilled intensively at the court hearings last year (but as a witness – not as a defendant).

And ironically one of Lombard’s Directors facing prosecution– Lawrence Bryant – ran a public relations agency in New Zealand for a number of years!

So if corporate PR practices are being put under the regulator’s blowtorch what does it mean for those in work in, and advise on, public relations and communication – from within the company and from external PR agencies?

There’s no need to panic. But there is a need to address the issue in a deliberate and formal manner so that protection is afforded to all.

I think that focusing on the following three actions will provide 90 percent protection for PR Directors and Managers and/or PR agencies:

1. All those who might draft or release corporate communication must have formal indemnity protection. In my previous PR agency life all contracts included this provision (although whether there was always a formal contract with the client is another matter!). PR Directors or Manager’s should insist on this as part of their terms of employment and this is especially important if they act as the organisation’s spokesperson.
2. At a policy level there should be a written, codified procedure for the approval and release of corporate public communication which the PR Department and/or PR agency formally agrees to. This should include appropriate levels of authority for the approval of all materials – and their release. The aim of this is to ensure that if the internal or external PR advisors follow this procedure they are automatically afforded a degree of protection (and if they don’t they only have themselves to blame if they find themselves in the gun).
3. At the implementation level ideally every piece of written corporate communication that is released (or any messaging or scripts that are to form the basis of answering questions) should be formally signed as approved by the responsible executive. In the old days a client had to sign everything produced by its ad agency.  PR people have, in my experience, been lax in this regard!

For the PR Director or Manager there’s a double challenge. On the one hand they have to act on behalf of their organisation if their PR agency decides they want to have greater indemnity protection. On the other hand they have to negotiate an appropriate indemnity for themselves.

There’s one other matter to consider. That’s when an organisation is clearly facing challenging times and the corporate communication is demonstrably risky. In such situations it is always wise for the PR or communications people to draw up specific agreements and procedural

Of course, all kinds of side issues arise. Merchant bankers, lawyers and every Tom, Dick and Harry like to get involved in press releases and public communication. Not to mention the Corporate Counsel!

That’s fine. What I’m proposing is unashamedly aimed at protecting the butt of the PR and communications people. If others get in the act and there’s a foul-up so be it.

My three actions sound simple. But from experience they can be difficult to implement. Over my career I’ve had many arguments with the legal counsel of clients about how communicators need to be, and should be, protected by indemnification. And in the rush of battle getting your Managing Director or CEO to actually countersign a simple press release can be seen as awfully pedantic and small minded.

Nonetheless times are changing for Australian and New Zealand public relations and communications’ professionals.  By taking a more professional and disciplined approach we might just help keep some of our masters out of Court. Then they would thank us!

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Dysfunctional relationships with PR agencies are about as common as marriage relationship issues. This week I felt like the PR Doctor (or relationship counselor) as a long-standing corporate acquaintance had a cry on my shoulder about the troubles she  was having with the organisation’s PR agency.

The concerns/complaints were nothing I hadn’t heard before – and experienced first hand during my 30 years on the agency side.

There were lots of first-hand examples of ‘we wanted this’ but ‘they did this’. But summed up they came down to an apparent disconnect between PR agency and PR department staff and disappointment at some of the outputs and outcomes from the PR agency’s work.

The sad thing is that this Australian organisation is one that any PR agency would be falling over to work for; and the agency has a good reputation, good people and does good work. And they’ve been together for nearly three years and to the outside world it seems a solid and good relationship – a good marriage between two parties suited to one another!

To continue with the medical analogy like any doctor there are a range of tests and procedures that I adopt when faced with working with an organisation that has PR agency relationship ‘problems’ and has determined that it wants to seriously diagnose work to address them. Now’s not the time to go down that path!

But in a general sense like all relationship issues it’s my experience that there are normally faults on both sides.  The courting stage (ie PR agency selection) was exciting, the honeymoon (the first 2-3 months) were fulfilling. But now the PR relationship has to run on a day-to-day basis and its not going as smoothly as both parties (or at least one!) had hoped.

Over the years I’ve found that the two most common issues are around:
• Power. Both the PR Director/Manager want to be recognised by general management for their contribution. However, sometimes a PR Director or Manager can feel vulnerable or threatened and deny the agency access beyond them. In other situations the PR agency can be too aggressive and assertive and try and go around the PR Director or Manager. Neither is healthy or productive.
• Process. Very often there’s a lack of reporting systems and mechanisms governing the relationship. That means the lines of responsibility and accountability can cause expectations to become blurred. In such situations good outcomes are difficult – if not impossible – to achieve. 

Taking a comprehensive ‘health check’ that pinpoints all of these is the starting point to getting the relationship back on track.  The issue is whether this can be initiated by the PR Director/Manager or whether it’s best to bring in an independent party.

As I said to my acquaintance, seldom do either of the parties wish to part company.  But too often that’s exactly what the outcome can be within a few months if nothing is done to address the issues. And as with her case, there was little wrong that couldn’t, with goodwill on both sides, be fixed!

The sad thing is that as with marriages there are a lot more unhappy client-pr agency relationships out there than there should be. And it’s so silly when the underlying issues are not that insurmountable or the remedies that difficult.

All it takes is the courage and commitment to address them.  And being the initiator of that first step is often half the battle!

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With the clouds of recession in Australia now fading more PR Director’s and PR Manager’s seem to be deciding that its time to ramp up the public relations and communication effort.  As a consequence PR agency relationships are being put under the microscope resulting in an upsurge in PR agency reviews and selection processes.

Evidence comes from an increase in announcements by marketers of competitive PR agency pitches being planned or having taken place, and successful PR agencies issuing press releases about their wins.

But with the increased activity around PR agency reviews and selection processes, comes the inevitable grumbles. Whether it’s just from sore losers, or whether some of the practices employed in choosing a PR agency do genuinely leave a lot to be desired, it’s hard to tell.

Having spent 30 years on the PR agency side, and been through my share of pitches,  I’ve seen too much that has gone wrong. And because I strongly feel that much could be done to produce improved results for both the client and agency if more structure, process and commonsense were applied, PR agency selection is a service I’m now offering.

A lot of the gripes from PR agencies comes from the pitch process itself – and I will write about this at some point in the future. But I think as many frustrations arise in the first part of the process.

What my experience tells me is that many PR Directors and Managers, by treating the initial stages of a the pr agency selection process as more of an administrative chore, actually end up eliminating PR agencies that might actually be the best choice in the final analysis.

Some of the key factors that determine how you get the best short list to finally pitch include:

 
1. How you handle the incumbent PR agency.  If, as many organizations do, you aren’t up front with the incumbent and they suddenly find themselves in a competitive pitch with a group of pre-selected agencies it doesn’t send the right message to your future PR partner. If you treat your current PR agency this way, isn’t that a good indicator as to how they are likely to be treated once the honeymoon is over?

 
2. How you arrive at your initial list of PR agencies. The PR industry is diverse, especially in these days of specialisation. Yet how some organisations arrive at a list of PR agencies they want to hear from is not only frightening, but often incredibly hit and miss. A lot of time needs to go into this part of the process. Regretably often that doesn’t happen. So the process is flawed, and very restricted, right from the beginning. 

 
3. Your brief/RPF (request for proposal). It’s not easy to prepare a proper brief, but inadequate and poorly thought through briefs are probably the biggest complaint by PR agencies.  Too often organisations delegate the task to someone within the Department who has the time. But that’s normally a more junior person without the right experience for the task. The Brief or RFP is probably the single biggest factor in an organisation getting the PR agency that is the right fit for it.

 
4. Your qualifying pre-selection process. Too often a number of agencies are asked to provide a written credentials or capabilities submission and the decision as to who goes to the short-list and actual pitch is made solely on this without the opportunity for face-to-face contact. If the brief is inadequate then this process may result in the potential best agency being excluded because something has been excluded or misunderstood.  This is often the single biggest gripe and frustrations of agencies and it directly leads to bad decision making at this crucial preliminary phase of the PR selection process.

 
5. Management of the initial phase.  This is not a job for a junior or an administration person. It needs someone who is a PR decision maker who is going to be personally engaged with all those invited. From this group will come your eventual new PR agency partner. You want to create an environment that provides every opportunity for the right agency not to get lost or eliminated because of administrative procedures. So be connected, be available, and meet the agencies face-to-face. It’s worth the time commitment.

How organisations go about selecting a PR agency is changing. However, regrettably many of those involved in the PR agency selection process have little understanding of how agencies work. Too often, in my experience, the importance and relevance of this initial part of the process is completely under-estimated.

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