PR Agencies

Strong relationships are founded, in part, on good communication. If that’s so, then why aren’t more relationships between brands and their PR agencies described in glowing terms? After all, professional communicators should be adept at communicating with each other, right? In the case of brand-PR agency relationships, there’s a bit more to it than communications. Here are five tips that will enhance this sometimes volatile partnership.

Every fall in NYC, PR News celebrates the agencies with exceptional campaigns at our Agency Elite Awards, which benchmark excellence in PR agencies’ key practice areas, from advocacy, crisis communications and social media to internal communications, media relations and reputation management. As we head into judging phase for this year’s awards on November 20th, let’s look back at some of last year’s highlights.

With March Madness permeating the zeitgeist in a few weeks, we asked some of the 2018 PR News Rising PR Stars to answer our roundtable questions this month. We asked, “What gets you mad about PR and communications?” And, “What can be done about it?” Their edited responses follow.

There always will be a competitor who can woo your best talent with money. Yet businesses that use only monetary incentives to keep top talent can win that battle for a time, but, eventually, they will lose the war. 5WPR founder Ronn Torossian argues employees who share your company’s vision and values are far less likely to depart. Fortunately, communications is key.

Tis the season for listicles. With every holiday party or cup of eggnog poured comes a treasure trove of lists recapping significant marketing and communications developments from the last year, along with forecasts for 2019. Among them, Boston-based agency Pan Communications has shared a roundup of what 19 notable CMOs and influencers are expecting for their fields in 2019. Here are some of the list’s top takeaways.

A sobering thought as we enter 2019–most Fortune 1000 executives don’t have confidence in their company’s ability to respond well to disruption or change. APCO Worldwide’s research of 527 of these executives lead it to join forces with three other PR consultancies to help companies become more agile. They believe agile and curious firms are better able to respond to change.

Communicators pointed to four major tactics that they have successfully implemented to earn trust, get their more difficult clients in the press, open their minds to spend, and change their opinions of the value that PR can bring to business.

For many communicators, September is the traditional kick-off for budget season. With this in mind, we departed from our usual roundtable format of a single question and asked senior communicators to discuss budget best practices and budget priorities and expectations for 2019.

A pair of major PR firms are taking a page from the playbook of consulting firms, offering clients easier paths to a variety of expertise. Weber Shandwick is launching a unit that will consult to brands about corporate culture. On its 90th birthday Ketchum is promising to encircle clients with 14 industrial specialities as well as the traditional PR communications offerings.

Created early in March, global communications agency Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW) unveiled its Asia-Pacific leaders as we went to press. Matt Stafford, president, Asia Pacific, BCW, said the merged firm’s Asia market leaders are in place and “most of our teams have already begun to move into the same office.”