There’s More to Communications than Just Hourly Billing

The field of public relations and communications is rapidly changing, and agencies need to keep pace. Client needs and expectations have radically changed in today’s digital era. There’s more to communications than the passive tactics of yesteryear. Here’s an example -

I attended an informative conference hosted by a trade association in Washington recently and happened to observe two PR people who had been sent over by the agency that represents the association.

They smiled … a lot. They chatted and were pleasant. They sat attentively during sessions. And, beyond that … they did nothing. They took no notes. They took no photos or video. They just warmed chairs.

It reminded me that traditional PR agencies love client events … a time to send-in numerous staff members, all billing at full hourly rates. Here’s the most egregious example I ever encountered -

While head of global communications and marketing at Gulfstream Aerospace in the mid-90s, I supervised worldwide media attention on a series of historic long-range international flights of the then-new Gulfstream G5 corporate jet. It was around-the-world – Van Nuys, California to London, London to Hong Kong, a short hop to Beijing and Beijing to New York.

I had inherited the PR firm, Burson-Marsteller, which was billing more than $100,000 each month but produced little in the way of results for the fee.

Even though my small staff at Gulfstream coordinated all the media relations worldwide, B-M sent out about a half-dozen senior people from their Los Angeles office – none of whom had ever worked on our account – for the take-off of the G5 from Van Nuys.  They all billed a staggering amount for doing absolutely nothing. Same thing happened at London, Hong Kong and New York … hordes of Burson-Marsteller people showed up, billing hourly and doing nothing. Mostly notably, none of them asked if they could lend a hand. They were just there … billing.

In 15 years – between the mid-90s and today – not much has changed in the PR agency business. The PR agency business model is to sell hours … not results, but hours.

The problem is that agencies are still selling hours when the needs of clients in today’s highly competitive world are much greater and more complex, driven by the digital revolution and the critical need to achieve competitive differentiation. Agencies need to be more creative, imaginative, active and results-driven than to just stand around or warm chairs.

Incidentally, my small team achieved massive mainstream media coverage worldwide for the G5 … all by ourselves.

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Category: Featured, Public Relations, Reputation management