 Tom Faust |
In an evolving and volatile media environment, maintaining an active and vigilant public relations program has never been more essential to enhancing corporate reputation and supporting business goals. At the same time, the communications industry is under greater pressure than ever as a plethora of services, technologies and other tools become available to businesses. The most recent example being a bevy of free, AI-powered solutions that can—in theory—write press releases with the click of a button.
It’s understandable that, in an uncertain economy with companies looking for every opportunity to manage costs, the prospect of leveraging such resources looks like an attractive option. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy. AI-enabled tools may be able to tackle the mechanics of more mundane PR tasks, but they can never replicate the full spectrum of services, experience and relationships that a strong agency partner brings.
In this time of endless options, dazzling technology and wild claims about the “end of PR,” it’s wise to take a step back and really examine critical areas where agency partners add value far beyond the press release—areas that are often forgotten when solely focused on checking the PR box with the lowest possible cost.
Real strategic counsel
One source of the idea that an agency can be replaced with Chat GPT is reducing PR to press releases. If you are using your agency primarily to write and issue press releases, it’s no wonder the relationship is not valued. The “highest and best use” of your agency partner should be providing informed and expert advice that draws on multiple professionals’ years of experience.
| This article is featured in O'Dwyer's May '24 PR Firm Rankings Magazine (view PDF version) |
This should range from testing corporate messaging for credibility and differentiation to bringing new and creative ideas, to helping optimize language and devise strategy when communicating with employees, investors, partners and customers around challenging issues.
A good agency also acts as an “honesty broker” that ensures its clients doesn’t get tunnel vision, where “hard selling” products and services to media takes the place of providing strategic insight or sharing market knowledge. Agencies know how to find the sweet spot where the media’s needs and the client’s business objectives can meet in a way that makes for a compelling story that will engage target audiences more than any list of product features.
True media knowledge
Media relations is about so much more than the pitch. With newsrooms continuing to shrink, the ratio of PR professionals to reporters continues to increase. As a result, the competition for attention is fierce. This means that building and maintaining relationships with media is more critical than ever for success. Even if you have compelling news
This is where experienced and connected PR professionals can provide a critical link. Because they interact with media on an ongoing basis, have a strong understanding of the media at many levels: individual reporters’ likes and dislikes and the kinds of pitches that will resonate, as well as the requirements that the reporter’s editor might impose before publication. Finally, they understand how the outlet’s editorial policies, workflow and approach could affect the interaction.
A strong communications partner should also be able to think broadly about how to segment content and turn a single piece of coverage into many by ensuring that each reporter has a compelling angle that gives them a reason to write. We recently helped one of our clients maximize the coverage on an IT research report by adopting this approach. While the client was initially looking for one solid story in a leading technology outlet, we advised they customize the data by vertical markets, giving an entirely new group of industry-specific reporters access to bespoke data that addressed the concerns of their distinct readerships. This resulted in 10x the coverage that a narrower approach might have generated.
Holistic campaign design
A good agency will also help you integrate paid, earned and owned media cost-effectively. More and more opportunities across media outlets, industry conferences and podcasts, come with a price tag. But that doesn’t mean they should immediately shift to the sales team. A holistic communications plan ensures that these various channels complement each other with each playing its specific role.
For example, a large international investment firm was struggling to choose between whether certain content was appropriate for the IR team or for PR, where the ideas and insights held greater value. We devised a strategy that satisfied both needs and extended the content into other channels as well. As a result, the fulsome campaign includes owned, earned and paid media that worked seamlessly together.
Advance crisis preparedness
Crisis management is communications in the moment. This need arises for every company sooner or later, and agencies tend to be valued most highly when they are “in the foxhole” with their clients, running interference, fielding inquiries and mitigating negative fallout. Rarer is the work done in advance of the crisis that can have a huge impact when things go badly.
An agency’s first job in this vein is to push clients to invest time in preparation. It’s all too common for companies to push off thinking about crises until they are in the middle of one. From experience, we know that scenario planning, identifying stakeholders, establishing media protocols and developing other elements of a crisis playbook can and should be done as part of the client’s strategic planning, and that should be reviewed and updated annually.
Social media enhancement
Finally, and a more recent development for B-to-B companies, is a comprehensive and strategic program to enhance a company’s social media presence. Although social media has been around for more than two decades, too many organizations still struggle to use these platforms to their full potential. We’ve seen everything from companies with zero corporate profiles to those whose activity is limited to reposting news releases. Still, others have stronger content but lack any sort of coordination with the profiles of key executives.
An agency partner should bring proficiency in both the mechanics of social media as well as content strategy that encompasses frequency, length and category of posts, in addition to content promotion via paid boost campaigns.
It would be misleading to say that emerging technologies such as AI have no value in communications. Every PR firm I know is working on how to best leverage AI-powered tools to ensure they don’t get left behind. But, as exciting as the new technology may be, they are no replacement for the myriad, uniquely human ways that agencies do before, after and completely separate from the iconic press release that deliver strategic value to our clients.
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Tom Faust is Managing Director at Stanton.
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