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1:00 am, April 28, 2008
Letters
NEVER MIND THE COVERAGE, FEEL THE MARCOMS MIX
The article headed Pay-as-you-go PR (Crain's Manchester Business, April 21) starts from the wrong assumption: that the client's objective when engaging a PR agency is — and should be — media coverage.
If you follow this through, it is easy to think that the success of PR can be measured in the quantity and quality of coverage alone. Hence payment by results seems like a sensible option.
However, I'd say that for a good PR agency — rather than a pure media relations agency — the quantity and quality of coverage is a very one-dimensional benchmark for success.
Good media coverage has become harder to achieve — certainly in the B2B market where there are fewer magazines, fewer pages, and fewer journalists than there were 10 years ago.
Traditional media sources have also become less valued — the internet alone has created a whole new breed of intermediaries between vendor and customer, who are increasingly influential and who dilute the impact of the newstand press.
The skills of a PR professional — effective personal communications, good writing, a creative brain, and a chameleon-like ability to slip between the mindset of different audiences — are very transferable.
So as their traditional channel of communication has been degraded, good PR professionals have looked for new ways to reach their clients' customers. And of course, new products to sell to their clients.
As a result, PR agencies are increasingly the engine rooms for whole marketing communications campaigns. Yes they might handle the media relationships, but they also deal with analysts and other influencers, consult on audience-appropriate messaging, translate product features into benefits for sales collateral, and drive the content for the full marcoms mix.
I have no problem with payment by results based on coverage — my previous agency was using it successfully back in 2001. But it can only measure a small part of a real PR campaign.
And as one of your interviewees noted, it also depends very much on the client's input and responsiveness. I'd suggest measuring four or five benchmarks, some of which provide a clear indicator of where the barriers to coverage might lie — eg compare comment opportunities offered to the client with the number that their spokespeople were available to complete.
Sandy Lindsay makes a valid point: you can't do effective PR unless you get to know a company and their target media, so I'm very suspicious pay-as-you-go press release outfits.
All you're likely to get from that is a couple of reprints of the release in the darker corners of the web.
Tom Cheesewright
Director IO Communications Ltd Manchester
LOBBYING FOR OR AGAINST C-CHARGE IS "SIMPLISTIC'
I am writing in response to your comments in the Our View column headed “No More Accidents” (Crain's Manchester Business, April 14) in which you stated that the business community needs a lobbying group which will fight its corner with the policymakers. When commenting on the TIF bid/congestion charge and the views of business, we need to be clear that it is not possible to take a simplistic approach to lobby for or against.
In the most comprehensive and largest survey of businesses across Greater Manchester on this matter, it was revealed that whilst many businesses oppose the plans, equal numbers are in favour, citing the huge potential benefits to the economy from almost £3bn of investment in public transport.
Businesses want to be able to make an informed and reasoned decision on whether the TIF plans would have positive or negative implications for their operations.
At present, this has not been possible as the details behind the plans are dependent on the level of funding the government allocates to Greater Manchester and this has yet to be decided.
The most constructive approach at present is to ensure that businesses have all available information and that they engage with GMPTA and AGMA, to express their concerns and enable the authorities to understand their needs.
The Chamber of Commerce has been working proactively with key partners across the region to ensure that this very thing happens; the hauliers' event as reported on your front page is evidence of this.
Once the full details behind the bid have been made public and businesses are fully aware of the proposals, the Chamber will be commissioning an independent survey to be conducted by the University of Salford to find a true and informed view of the Greater Manchester business community.
Only with an established single voice of business can someone fairly fight their corner with policymakers.
Miranda Allan
Chair of the Greater Manchester Chamber Transport & Environment Committee
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