Mismanaging your relationship with an agency is a surefire way to derail your public relations efforts - not to mention your credibility with senior management.
Gina Titus, director of marketing for Aircraft Shopper Online (ASO), an online retailer for used aircraft, discovered just how serious the problem could be when she hired
S&S Public Relations last August. "We got pretty limited [media] coverage, and [were] pulling teeth to get things done," Titus says. "I was at my wit's end, and my president
was breathing down my neck saying, 'We're throwing this retainer away.'"
When her S&S account executive left, Titus spelled out the problem for the new rep, Jenny Cebalo.
"We were disgruntled and the account was in disarray," Titus remembers. "We told [Cebalo] if it didn't turn around in x number of months, we would have to seriously reevaluate
the relationship." Cebalo's responsiveness revived the relationship and Titus says she couldn't be happier with her agency now. The experience provided a powerful lesson for ASO
in terms of its expectations and how to manage their agency relationship to get the most out of their retainer.
PR NEWS talked to Titus and other corporate communications gurus to identify where stumbling blocks most often occur. We elicited cautionary advice and their top remedies for
when things go awry:
Be crystal clear about what is and is not included in your retainer.
Know which services you can expect to receive as part of your retainer and what
is a perk. Determine whether projects like an annual report are billed separately.
Set out an action plan at the onset of your relationship and track the
agency's success. Titus considers her lack of specific directives as a major
misstep in the early months with S&S. "This was our first experience with
a PR firm, and we didn't know what to expect." After months of miscommunications
and little progress, Titus began her work with Cebalo by setting out firm objectives.
"We set targets," she says, and then carefully tracked Cebalo's success in meeting
those goals.
Be open about internal issues. The most successful client-agency partnerships
are those in which agency reps work as an invisible part of the corporate team.
Kim Reingold, Polaroid's senior PR manager, works with PainePR on promotions
for Polaroid's target markets, including adult consumers. She ensures that the
Paine team has access to her staff at least once a week through a telephone
meeting. "They understand our dynamics internally," she says. "They will sometimes
offer big ideas, but they understand that certain internal programs won't support
those ideas."
Diana Massaro, VP of marketing at Solid Systems, a regional data hosting company in Houston, takes team building with her agency, Loudmouth, one step further. "We meet once a
week, face-to-face for three hours," Massaro says. "I give them more information than our [internal] marketing department. They need to know what's going on in our company."
Evaluate constantly. Reingold uses a report card Paine created to evaluate
the agency on a regular basis. It allows her to assess the agency based on criteria
including creative thinking, administrative support, account management and
media relations skills. With each report card, Reingold encloses a letter detailing
recent accomplishments and setbacks.
Chris Carey, manager of brand marketing communications for Ross Nutrition, the manufacturer of nutritional products Ensure and Similac, works with several PR firms on a
project-by-project basis. Carey surveys her internal teams on how well each agency is responding to company needs. Does the agency provide solutions to problems? Do they alert
Ross to staffing changes?
Confront problems proactively. "If you don't say it, the agency can't
act on it," Reingold says. "We've worked with agencies where we've had challenges.
We've [reevaluated] quarterly to make sure we've fixed things. You have to have
constant communication to make sure problems don't bubble up."
Open, honest and near-constant communication is the key to overcoming any glitches in the relationship, Solid Systems' Massaro says. She uses Instant Messenger (real time e-
mail) to stay in constant contact with her agency, addressing problems almost before they happen in an informal daily dialogue. "We've been very honest about what's working - and
what's not. We have conversations about everything, including our employees, to make sure things are right. It's open and honest communication about everything."
(Carey: (614/624-7541, [email protected]; Massaro: 713/481-2909; Reingold: 781/386-3573, [email protected]; Titus: 415/945-5397, [email protected])
Creative Consulting Models
Agencies clamoring for new business due to the soft economy mean favorable deals for prospective clients. Try replicating these alternate working styles with your agency of
choice:
Shelly Walk, corporate secretary and general counsel of Oglebay Norton, a holding company with a small corporate staff, creatively worked with her PR firm, Edward Howard, to
solve her IR/PR needs in conjunction with the company's streamlined staffing model. An IR specialist works in ON's office alongside staff 16 hours a week, functioning as part of
the internal team but with the full suite of agency expertise and capabilities behind him. "I could hire someone fulltime for less but I wouldn't have access to a whole agency,"
says Walk. ([email protected])
Shelton Communications Group, Dallas, has appointed a Director of Special Projects to "make rain" on a project by project basis, rather than a retainer. "More people are apt to
sign up for ervice at a negotiated flat-fee rate at this time," says Stacey Gaswirth, Public Relations VP. ([email protected])