When Dave Perry joined Xyron Semiconductor in Vancouver, Wash., this summer as VP of marketing, he quickly determined that the company's PR firm lacked the depth of knowledge
to effectively position Xyron's complex technology. Perry knew he would need to line up a new PR firm, and in fact the pitches started coming even before he had begun the official
search. "We had a constant barrage of mail, phone calls, emails," he recalls. "As soon as news of my joining the company hit the papers, I started hearing from an awful lot of
people."
After entertaining pitches from more than half a dozen suitors, Perry decided to move to a firm with which he had already done business in the past. "You can't beat the
confidence factor of having been with a group before," he says.
Others have made the same decision, and perhaps with good reason. While it may be a buyer's market for PR, corporate reputation is a fragile thing these days, and many
corporations are looking for familiarity and stability in the agency charged with safeguarding reputation.
Take for instance Los Angeles dentist Martin Gorman, who recently made a switch from a larger PR firm (Anthony Mora Communications) to a smaller shop.
In his seven-person practice, Gorman specializes in a form of dentistry that combines structural change with cosmetic improvement. Only about 120 dentists nationwide practice
this form of dentistry, called bio-aesthetics, and Gorman uses a PR agency to help educate the public about the benefits of such procedures.
With the larger agency, "I was basically just sending in a check and getting very little effort in return," he says, noting that he had gone months with virtually no media
coverage at all. "It seemed like the larger firm was not investing the personnel to really get the job done properly."
Bretton Holmes had once handled Gorman's account at Anthony Mora before going solo as proprietor of Holmes World Media. Gorman decided to switch firms on account of the paucity
of coverage he had been receiving. But the familiarity factor was what sold him on using Holmes.
Familiarity helped sway Gorman, but it was dissatisfaction that sent him shopping in the first place. PR firms are hungry for business, but clients are placing a greater
emphasis than ever before on seeing tangible returns on their PR investments.
In this results-oriented environment, some firms have turned the language of results into a selling tool - case in point: Gelphman Associates, the firm that eventually won Dave
Perry's business. "To woo clients, we continuously show how we can still be effective in a budget-challenged environment," says Rob Gelphman. "We offer references and case
studies. We suggest a project first to test us, and work toward a long-term agreement if they like us."
When Gelphman takes on a start-up firm as a client, he writes up a contract that allows for renegotiation "upon certain milestones as achieved by the client," rather than by
the agency, he says.
Other PR firms have likewise taken it upon themselves to deliver more measurable end results for their corporate clients. At Ackermann PR in Knoxville, Tenn., for example, EVP
Jeff Hooper says the firm went into "triage" last year. It began reporting results weekly, rather than monthly, "just so that we are constantly in front of them and they know what
they are getting for their money."
Weekly reporting might have seemed like an excessive request for a smaller client to make just a year ago, but with the pressure on to retain clients, corporate PR execs can
make such requests today with a fair degree of confidence.
Reporting is not the only area in which smaller clients are discovering that they have a lot more clout than they did a short time ago.
"There are a lot of stories now of clients saying, 'I could not get a call returned from XYZ shop, and now they are calling me every week to get my business,'" says Ryan
Donovan, associate director of the global technology practice at Ketchum.
Nonetheless, when shopping for the right firm, it has become doubly important to ensure that key executives who make the pitch will also be part of that team that handles your
account on an ongoing basis, as many firms are working on a variety of smaller accounts and may not have the same staffing structures they did in the past.
But getting a bigger bang for the same investment may not be the key issue on the minds of corporate executives, many of whom are under pressure from their boards to
scrutinize, and ultimately reduce, their PR budgets.
What can PR executives do when caught in that vise?
A change in representation is one option, but it only makes sense if the current PR team is not living up to expectations. If the present PR firm is meeting your goals, it's
time to take your case to the board with a verifiable demonstration of return on investment. That's where those weekly results reports come into play.
"I just naturally assume that our clients are being called all the time" by competing PR firms, says Andy Oliver, general manager of Lewis PR. "You can't stop that, and the
best way you can respond to all of it is to make sure you provide a measurable campaign, and to make sure you are hitting the objectives and goals in your campaign." Clients
should expect no less.
Perry Looks, Leaps
As VP of marketing at Xyron Semiconductor, Dave Perry was deluged with calls and emails from eager PR firms this summer. How did he make his choice?
Step 1: Narrow the field. Perry screened out firms that had no semiconductor experience.
Step 2: Face time. Perry entertained pitches from seven prospective firms.
Step 3: Go with the proven winner. "There were some darn good local players," says Perry. But in the end it was his past experience with Gelphman Associates that persuaded him,
proving that in some cases at least, familiarity breeds not contempt but contentment.