CorpComms Magazine

Public relations agencies are expensive. A top agency can charge a monthly retainer of £10,000 or more, simply to service a client's daily needs - and when a bid is made or a crisis erupts, fees can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Not only are agencies costly, but they can also be arrogant, insensitive and downright disappointing. They may promise the earth and deliver precious little. Senior executives may present at the pitch and never be seen again. Documents may be late, inaccurate and badly written. Media contacts may be severely exaggerated.

Not all PRs display these unfortunate characteristics, but many do. So it is important to find the right agency - one that will provide value for money and offer corporate clients something they cannot get in-house.

'We don't want a mirror image of ourselves. We need to find something extra,' says Stephen Whitehead, corporate affairs director at Barclays.

Lucy Neville-Rolfe, director of corporate affairs at Tesco, agrees that companies should seek out PR agencies that give them a little extra: 'You need people who are creative and bring a different angle,' she says.

Size matters

Of course, needs differ. Large companies like Barclays and Tesco have substantial in-house media teams and can cover the basics internally - or, as Susan Donovan, director of communications at John Lewis, puts it: 'We don't need arms and legs.' Smaller companies, or those with a lean in-house team, expect their PR agencies to be able to handle the daily grind. Reed Elsevier may be a multinational business, but only four staff are involved in corporate affairs, while other companies, such as the privately owned Caudwell Group, have virtually no in-house expertise.

Caudwell, known for its Phones4U retail chain, recently undertook a comprehensive review and is now in the midst of a sales process. Founder John Caudwell had kept a relatively low profile until last year. 'Once the review was completed, we appointed Smithfield, an external PR agency,' says head of public relations David Ginivan. 'We did not have any in-house experience.'

Across the board, however, all companies agree on one point. Whether they have dozens of in-house media operators or none at all, whether they are capitalised at £20 bn or £20 mn, whether they are multinational or entirely UK-based, they all expect high-level strategic advice from the public relations community.

'We want wise counsel and genuine knowledge and expertise,' says Patrick Kerr, deputy director of corporate communications at Reed Elsevier.

'I was looking for real strategic ability, people who could contribute to the thinking behind the business,' explains Donovan, who recently appointed Citigate Dewe Rogerson.

How to turn off a client

1 Failure to understand the company and its issues

2 Failure to turn up on time or deliver documents on time

3 Poor writing ability

4 Promising huge coverage and delivering a quarter-page in a minor trade journal

5 Inertia - waiting for the phone to ring instead of coming up with good creative ideas

6 Pestering the company for meetings just for the sake of it

7 Putting juniors with scant knowledge of the business on the account

8 Adopting an 'ever-so-humble' approach, rather than challenging ideas where appropriate

9 Patronising the client

10 Attempting to fraternise with the CEO to the exclusion of the corporate communications director

Advice squad

'The ultimate value-add is the strategic advice,' says Charlotte Lambkin, group communications director at BAE Systems. Lambkin initially worked for the group as an external PR at Bell Pottinger, and has retained the agency since moving to the other side of the fence 18 months ago.

'When I started out at Bell Pottinger, I used to focus on doing the administrative stuff really well,' she says. 'Then I realised that, while the practical stuff is important, sound advice is what really marks out one agency from another.'

And companies are not afraid of criticism - at least, that's what they claim! 'We want a genuine two-way relationship,' says Jon Bunn, director of public relations at Prudential. 'We want to be challenged. We don't want someone who will just sit back.'

'I want someone who will challenge us where necessary,' says Neville-Rolfe.

Telling it straight

What good internal corporate communications teams recognise is that the longer they work for a company, the more difficult it is to be truly objective about it. In many businesses people are sucked in and seduced by the corporate culture, which makes it harder to anticipate how the outside world will view particular activities or results.

'PR agencies can provide distance from a problem and an element of brutality or realism if you are too internally focused,' explains Whitehead. 'They offer a reality check or a sounding board for ideas,' says Kerr. Lambkin agrees: 'Having someone you can call and sanity check what you are doing can be really helpful, particularly if things start getting political.'

Using external consultants to gain a different perspective makes sense, but it only works if companies have access to good, senior people. In the same way as journalists detest being palmed off on junior PRs who know little or nothing about the company they are supposed to be servicing, corporate affairs directors expect to deal with senior executives who have real knowledge and experience.

'We need senior people and we specify in our contract who will be on the account,' explains Whitehead. 'Sometimes they can help shift board opinion, but only if they are serious and respected professionals.'

 'We hired Bell Pottinger for Piers [Pottinger],' adds Lambkin. 'He has a strong relationship with Mike Turner [chief executive at BAE Systems] and he is also contactable when I want him.' '[Smithfield chairman] John Antcliffe casts a critical eye over what we are doing and is always there to bounce ideas off,' says Ginivan.

How to pitch

1 Find out as much as you can about the company

2 Make sure you have a clear brief and that you work to it

3 Demonstrate that your pitch is bespoke, not boilerplate

4 Make sure that the people on the pitch will be the people servicing the account

5 Try and include a former senior journalist on the pitch

Bright sparks

Corporate communications heads do not just want nominal seniority - they want brains and ideas. 'I wanted an intelligent, high-calibre team with a genuine understanding of the retail business,' says Donovan. Kerr states: 'We need to know that they understand the pressures and dynamics of our business and our communications objectives. They have to know what they're talking about.'

'Too many PR agencies just sit back and wait for the cheque at the end of the month. I want to be bothered with good ideas. I want them to be proactive,' says one head of corporate affairs.

Corporate affairs teams do not take kindly to being patronised, however, nor are they particularly thrilled when PR agencies try to cosy up to the chief executive or the chairman and exclude them. 'PR agencies have to be part of the team and work well with the communications specialists in the company,' says Neville-Rolfe.

'It is important for the consultant to have an open and trusting relationship with the corporate communications people. If they start trying to undermine the internal team, that can be very damaging,' says Lambkin.

Read all about it Many companies are also keen to use PR agencies that have former senior journalists in their employ. Some believe that journalists have a greater understanding of the media than those who have never worked in papers before; others believe that journalists have built up valuable contacts with City correspondents and editors.

'We use Brunswick, and they have Tim Burt, the former media editor of the Financial Times, on board. He is extremely clever and has genuine knowledge of our sector,' says Kerr.

'Having people who have worked in the media is very helpful,' adds Bunn. 'It provides added insight and can help with access at a senior level.'

'I would not hire an agency specifically because it had senior journalists on hand, but it is a very important part of the mix,' explains one corporate communications head.'Editorial influence can be really helpful, especially if you are trying to influence the agenda without being directly associated with a particular issue.'

Not that ex-journalists have exclusive access to City editors and their ilk. Alan Parker, founder of Brunswick, is widely respected for his ability to influence media commentators, and many people praise Angus Maitland, chairman of the eponymous Maitland agency, and Andrew Grant, founder of Tulchan, for their abilities in this area too.

'I have good relationships with the consumer and leisure correspondents, but I expect my corporate PR agency to have access where I don't - City editors and suchlike,' says Anna Glover, communications director at Whitbread.

'We need someone who understands the press and has good access,' says Isabel Vileda, head of investor relations at Cookson.

Access and understanding are important, but so are basic skills such as the ability to write grammatically correct copy and meet deadlines. 'I wanted a document by a certain date and my agency missed the deadline,' says one corporate affairs director. 'There was no explanation and no apology. It left me in a deeply embarrassing position and it felt like a betrayal of trust.'

'Sloppiness is extremely aggravating,' says another. 'I am aghast at the number of basic errors I come across. Documents are full of typos and grammatical mistakes.'

'Obviously, you need an agency with good writing skills and people with an eye for detail,' says Vileda.

Ultimately, the consensus among the corporate communications community is that chemistry is the all-important factor. 'You need great people - people that you like and you can have fun with,' says Neville-Rolfe.

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