Sometimes it feels like PR has left the playground behind. In PR
Week’s Agency Report (21 November), the large number of consultancies
that achieved a five-star rating for their performance over the last
year is testament to the industry’s developing credibility.
Perhaps it reflects a manifest change within the public relations
industry.
While being overshadowed by advertising, PR practitioners have
occasionally been reluctant to display the experience and self-belief
that forces others to listen. What comes through strongly from the
Report is that PR consultancies are starting to take seriously the
demands of quality placed on them by clients. The successful ones have
found that PR has risen up the client’s agenda. In some instances it is
at the top, where it can and should stay.
The Agency Report could have been rather pointless - just another piece
of research masquerading as ’important issues addressed’. But it
succeeds precisely because it asks the right questions of the right
people and it subjects the PR industry to - for some - an uncomfortable
level of public scrutiny. Employing an independent research company was
not only sensible, it was essential. (As we all know, it takes only one
piece of partisan research to make journalists turn away in hordes from
our clients).
Yet how can the research be truly embracing if some companies decide not
to take part? To be of the greatest value to the industry every
consultancy that can be measured should be.
If we do not have the confidence to put our work forward for public
scrutiny we cannot claim any moral or actual authority. It should be an
absolute requirement that consultancies be measured, using the one
constant in this industry - our clients’ views, because if we are to
succeed and prosper we must consult and serve our clients exceptionally
well.
Yet that excellence, where it exists, needs recognition throughout this
industry and beyond. One way to achieve this may be to create a symbol
or emblem which five-star rated companies can print on company
stationery, for instance, as a mark of quality. This would identify that
the consultancy in question is recognised, by its own clients and the
industry, as being among the best.
It remains hard to fire enthusiasm among management and business
journalists as to the merits of PR. Much more work needs to be done in
this field, by individual consultancies and industry associations. Too
rarely do we see case studies or examples of public relations in action
afforded the same level of interest in the media as, for example,
advertising, yet the prominence of so-called ’spin doctoring’ is both
damaging and misleading for the PR industry. Initiatives like the Agency
Report help PR rise from the status of back room function to a
recognised and, crucially, a sought after discipline. If the
contribution we make is acknowledged and applauded by our clients, then
the world should know.
Ultimately, the pursuit of excellence, the employment of excellent
people and the attitude that ’only excellence will do’ is all our
clients want to hear. Just as we want our clients to succeed, so they
appreciate their consultancies being recognised for work.
It is a question of being grown up about what we do. If the Report has
done anything for the industry, it has shown how much the PR
practitioners have answered demands for measurable and consistent
quality.
