Former full-service agency consultant Arlo Guthrie last week
launched his new vehicle on the principle that clients are best served
by a dedicated account handler rather than a team of only
partly-committed staff.
ARLO GUTHRIE, Guthrie Communications
'For me, PR would be more accurately described as advocacy, or
championing. Acting as another's champion is a position of great
responsibility - especially in as public an arena as the media. Therein
lies the biggest advantage of the one consultant/ one client agency. The
client is always assured of absolute commitment from their advocate. And
unlike in the traditional agency situation, the client always knows how
much of their advocate's time they are buying. It's simple: all of it!
That also simplifies reporting lines. And the cons? Well, it does limit
the size of account we can take on. But hell, do I care? If it works for
our clients, it works for me.'
MARK BORKOWSKI, Borkowski PR
'It takes a lot of confidence to believe that a one consultant/one
client set-up can work. But it's also naive and lacks a sense of
reality. To handle a client's account properly, you need more than one
person's input so as to ensure there is balance, focus, creativity and
you maximise ideas. If you don't have this, you will suffer from tunnel
vision, as you won't have the balance of a team, or the outside
influence from working on other accounts, and you will do your client a
disservice. The one consultant/one client set-up will also lead to
burn-out on the consultant's part, as he or she tries to do too
much.'
RUSS BRADY, Co-operative Insurance Society
'If there are gaps within your in-house team, the idea of having a
dedicated external person appeals - but caveats apply. Will this
personalisation deliver in terms of a cost-benefit analysis to the
client? Will the external consultant have sufficient skills to fill the
gaps on their own? If these questions can be answered then yes, this
could be a real winner. People in my position are cynical of those
agencies who heavily play the pitch circuit but continue to stress their
undivided loyalties to their existing clients - often without any
justification. It boils down to more openness between agencies and their
existing clients. Any agency can produce a good pitch, but the real
winners will be those that can consistently deliver added value to both
new and existing clients.'
SALLI RANDI, Blue Rubicon
'One consultant/one client might sound like a good proposition: the
consultant would be able to get right under the skin of the issues,
understand what makes the business tick and, most importantly, be
totally accountable to the client. But there is the danger that the
consultant goes native, loses the freshness that outside thinking can
deliver, and fails to see the bigger picture. The other problem is
recruiting and retaining staff because, let's face it, most people
choose the consultancy environment because of the variety of clients and
projects it brings. The aim must be to convey complex messages in a
holistic way to all a company's stakeholders. And if you add to this
senior level implementation instead of delegating delivery to a junior
staffer, you get accountability as well.'
