5 Ways to Save Porter Novelli PR
In many ways, the old model of big PR agencies is catching up with Porter Novelli quickly.
Suffering from a lackluster image … if any image at all … the agency represents the way PR used to be done, in bygone times.
Today’s subtle communication styles in the digital era have eluded Porter Novelli. Even the agency’s fairly new Web site sends a signal that they just don’t get it – a clunky site that uses dated flash technology not compatible with today’s wireless devices, like the iPhone.
The outdated big PR agency tactic of throwing as many bodies as possible at client projects in order to bill as much as possible no longer delivers results that sophisticated clients expect and demand. PR agencies don’t sell creativity, big ideas or results … they sell time.
With Porter Novelli’s owner, the enormous conglomerate Omnicom, hemorrhaging money in large part because of the mismanagement (strategy-deficient leadership) of flagship firm’s like PN, it’s just a matter of time for PN to do something purposeful to turn itself around or face the consequences.
Here are 5 ways Porter Novelli could be saved:
- Visionary leadership – the agency has been managed for well over a decade by visionless people focused solely on billable hours and the bottom line. It’s time for authentic leadership to inspire greatness and create a brand of differentiation … a position from which the agency can not only compete, but can clearly define a client advantage that does not today exist.
- Bold creativity – the agency needs to be recognized for creative ideas that make things happen for clients in today’s fiercely competitive world.
- Masters of digital – the agency must enter the digital era or die. With no big PR agency legitimately or realistically taking the lead in the digital revolution, the door is wide open with potential.
- Enhanced training – the agency has virtually no formalized training program that would support creativity and innovative thinking. Without training, PR agencies revert to old and bad habits that don’t make clients happy.
- Greater depth of expertise – the average age of staff at Porter Novelli is 27. The average person has three or four years experience. In recent years, senior staff has either been fired or driven out in order to save money … a sure sign of an agency on life-support. It’s time to hire people with significant expertise – who will bring visionary creativity – and who will know how to carve a distinctive new niche for the agency.
Porter Novelli can be saved … but it hasn’t begun trying, and the clock is ticking. Without a dramatic turnaround, I predict the agency will shutter doors within six months. When Porter Novelli falls, it will only be a matter of time until others follow.
Filed Under: Featured • Public Relations
About the Author: David is a veteran communications strategist ... writer ... blogger ... online publisher ... and Emmy Award winning former CBS Network News correspondent. He lives in the Washington, D. C., area, and works worldwide.
Doesn’t this kind’ve seem like the generic advice for any marketing services agency? And actually, if Porter Novelli were to fall, wouldn’t that provide more business and talent for other agencies? It only hurts the industry if the companies dropping PN are dropping PR all together.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by thoughtLEADERS: RT @DavidHenderson: 5 Ways to Save Porter Novelli PR http://bit.ly/7jdxLh...
Hi Dave. Interesting commentary on Porter Novelli. As the communications field continues to undergo fundamental changes, Porter Novelli has positioned itself to be a transformational force. This year the agency has added new talent, invested in new leadership development through Porter Novelli University, and developed new innovations in digital, including social media. The result of all of this has been the addition of global brands such as Monster, Wal-Mart and PepsiCo. The agency is well positioned for the future.
All the best,
Stephanie Agresta
@stephagresta
[...] 5 Ways to Save Porter Novelli PR | David Henderson – consultant, author, journalist *Very* forthright opinions about my ex-employer! (tags: porternovelli davidehenderson) [...]
Interesting commentary on PN, which I think can apply to any large PR firm right now. I have a boutique PR firm in Chicago, where all of the agencies have a large presence. I’m on the PRSA board and served as president in 2007. And we’re not seeing anyone take the lead in the changes our industry is encountering…and the changes that are happening a lot more quickly than any of us could have imagined.
I agree with Chris that if the large agencies fail, our industry is in a heap of trouble. I also hope Stephanie is right in that PN is doing the right things to stay afloat (as are the other agencies). But save the digital leadership position, from a PR perspective, for Arment Dietrich…we’ll take it!
Gini Dietrich
CEO
Arment Dietrich, Inc.
http://twitter.com/ginidietrich
Gini,
Thanks so very much for your perspective. I do not believe that Porter Novelli will remain afloat because the agency has been leaderless for so long, its economic model is outdated and the agency has not kept pace with the digital revolution. And, yes, I agree with you that those three elements impact all large agencies. There is a fourth fatal problem for the large agencies, and it is that the concept of the giant financial holding company is obsolete in today’s agency world. It restricts innovation and creativity while mandating that the agencies focus solely on delivering ever increasing billable hours.
Yet, about Porter Novelli … I believe they will be the first to fall because the agency is in such bad shape. It’s had managers but no leaders for so long that the situation is now terminal, from my perspective.
David
David,
You are right on target regarding Porter Novelli. For nearly a decade the agency has been run by short-sighted managers who lack leadership skills or vision. Worse still, PN’s senior managers interpret any creative thinking by those working for them as dissent and move quickly to get those folks out of the agency. Despite a few recent wins, the agency has dropped nearly $100M in revenue in the past 24 months. Quite frankly, I’m surprised that PN has failed already.
Hi David,
I think I agree with some of your points, but having worked in the London Porter Novelli office I’m not so sure all the criticisms are valid.
For example, we had a highly active and engaged creative director who helped us push the creative envelope and we had training to help us do this too. Having worked at other agencies since, I would in fact single out creativity as one of PN’s strengths. I think Porter Novelli’s ‘Jack n’Bill’ online agency was a great online, creative idea.
I’m also not sure the criticism of the website is valid either. I think it gets across the idea of engaging in conversation and letting its people speak on its behalf rather than putting forward a centralised view of the company. This is important. The fact that it doesn’t render on mobile well is immaterial – it’s simple enough to build a parallel mobile site, as in fact Edelman is doing with edelman.mobi.
Looking at digital in other ‘big’ agencies, I think Edelman are doing pretty well. Sure, they’ve made mistakes, but that’s because they explored new ground, and their investment in people like Steve Rubel is admirable. I’ve worked in the Fleishman-Hillard digital team too, and they have a significant investment in digital married to creative. Likewise, PN has in the past invested in people from outside the traditional PR world such as Mat Morrison and Marian Salzman to help it move forward.
I know the financial charts don’t look so great but which charts do nowadays? On the whole it looks to me like Omnicom has at least trended with the Dow.
So I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom specifically for Porter Novelli, or for digital at larger agencies either, even if they’re having tough times right now. Now, whether or not PR is in trouble, well that’s a meme that makes the rounds on a regular basis…!
Wow, it’s almost like you’ve been roaming the PN halls over the past few years. You’re spot-on about the old guard of senior leadership. Two of them in the flagship office alone have been haunting the halls for a combined 40 years. And the past ten of which have focused solely on billability. They make personnel decisions (hires and layoffs) based only on billability and not on creativity. Look at the facts … our new COO was a financial officer from Omnicom. In that former role, he had the unenviable job of chewing out PN’s senior leadership for revised P&L plans that consistently didn’t meet their targets. He has stated in no uncertain terms that if you’re not billing, you’re gone. PN has slapped on a few Band-aids with personnel here and there, but the creativity and agility problems are endemic to the old-guard senior leadership.
Interesting discussion about the future of agencies. I feel compelled to correct a few points about Porter Novelli. It is true that the biggest obstacle to success and growth at Porter Novelli is intrenched “leadership” who manage to the margins with an eye toward self-preservation. Marian Salzman was a brilliant addition to the team — and the sole mastermind behind initiatives like Jack and Bill mentioned by an earlier poster. However, she lasted for only a year and is now successfully leading a competitive firm. Stephanie Agresta faithfully relays her employer’s talking points, but it is well-known that the high profile global brand “wins” she mentions have not lead to revenue growth and so the endless rounds of layoffs have continued into the fourth quarter with recent significant cuts in the London and DC offices.
Hi David
Interesting mixed views here. But I believe that Porter Novelli can turn this around – and be positioned as a ‘knowledge source’ in moving forward. But changes will need to be made – as Stephanie Agresta discusses.
I hope you and your readers don’t mind me mentioning that there’s also an interesting ‘conversation’ unfolding on my blog – http://lee.smallwood.ws/2009/12/social-media-lessons-learned-a-retrospective-guide/ – based on what’s happened to Porter Novelli in the UK.
As a rule, I wouldn’t normally redirect attention to my little bit of the social media ecosphere, but I think both these conversations are linked – not just because of Porter Novelli being involved but also because of the implications to all businesses dealing with these ‘new’ communication challenges…
Best wishes,
Lee.
The last time PN had truly great leaders was when Jack and Bill (Porter and Novelli) were there. They were brilliant, but it was all downhill after that. In their haste to sell out and take the money, they left a nice-but-not-a-leader guy in charge. His selections for senior positions were disastrous. John Brodeur could have turned the tide, but Omnicom let him be pushed out. And after that, it was mediocrity followed by menace. Omnicom bears some responsibility — they see the outflux of great people and do nothing, but perhaps the method in their madness is to let PN fail and then consolidate with FH or another respectable in-the-family brand.
Dave:
As an ex-PNer, I agree with your post. Today, PN has no great leaders. They all started leaving after in the new millennium and those in charge have been looking for their “Corporate Soul” (their term, not mine) ever since. Bu the real problem is not PN, but rather the DAS and Omnicom management, that rewards poor (PN leadership) behavior with promotions and bonuses, while the RAF do most of the work. As the overseer to PN, DAS should have acted on the lapse in true leadership when it first saw holes. It did not, and I was there to witness it.
[...] The PR firm that promoted this dodgy piece of flackery appears to be Porter Novelli, a part of Omnicom Group and an agency that should totally know better. Or perhaps maybe not! [...]