Australian PR agency selection processes changing

The way the PR agency selection process is conducted, including the actual PR pitch, is changing. Procurement standards and corporate ethics are increasingly demanding a more planned, disciplined, transparent, and objective approach to the way Australian public relations agency partnerships are entered into.

Given my 30 years experience in the PR agency world, and having been involved in a multitude of new business pitches, I see this change in way public relations agencies are hired as inevitable – and worthwhile.

Over the past decade many of Australia’s major advertising agency appointments have been arrived at using more clearly defined processes and procedures as well as the assistance and guidance of external advisors and facilitators.

Internationally PR agency selection is following this trend and this is likely to spread to Australia because the procedures used to appoint PR agencies do not always meet what is now evolving as accepted international best practice.

Choosing a new PR agency is one of the most important decisions that any PR Director/manager will face; the consequences of the decision will impact on the business, the Department and most importantly, the PR Director, for some period to come.

The reasons why an external resource should be used include:

• Because the agency selection process is a one-off event any PR Department’s resources are unlikely to be equipped to handle; also most Department’s are unlikely to have had any previous experience in this area.
• Managing an effective agency review demands a substantial time commitment and a tightly-managed timetable. In today’s lean business environment most PR Department’s don’t have the resources to pick up a project of this magnitude without it seriously impacting on existing commitments.
• These days, especially for larger organisations which must comply with Procurement Standards, its important that any decisions regarding business partnerships clearly avoid any suggestion of personal bias, adhere to the highest ethical standards and be conducted with complete transparency. Engaging external, independent, assistance is one way of achieving this.
• PR budgets are getting bigger and the PR Agency partnership is becoming more mainstream; therefore the process must be more rigorous.

To get the best outcome it’s advisable to follow a step-by-step formal agency review process.

That should initially determine exactly what attributes are required in an agency and then elicit the information and insights that will help ensure that initially the short-listed agencies, and then finally the agency that is chosen, meet the criteria.

The role of the external advisor will vary according to the circumstances. In some instances the PR Director/Manager may require simply a ‘helping hand’. In such a case he/she may not require assistance with determining a short-list of PR agencies – in which case the external advisor may assist with the RFP and take part as simply a panel member in the selection stage.

In other instances the PR Director/Manager may prefer to largely outsource the management of the process up to and including the recommendation or selection of the short list and for the external advisor to be seen as independently managing running the selection process.

If you wish to have a no-obligation chat about how you might review your agency arrangements please contact me.