Is PR just BS?

Johannesburg - Nearly two-thirds of SA companies surveyed recently believe in hiring public relations consultancies as "extra arms and legs".

This comes from research conducted by Meropa Communications, a leading PR consultancy, in which clients and consultancies were both asked for the most important reasons for hiring a consultancy.

It was given as the fourth most important reason by 64% of clients in the survey, but only 21% of PR consultants agreed.

It implies that PR staff are often seen by clients as simple manpower or womanpower, gofers and runners, perhaps manning registration desks and looking professional (or merely pretty) at an event. This was the widest point of disagreement between clients and practitioners.

The PR consultancies themselves believe the main reason companies use public relations agencies is because of their strategic insight and experience.

But the clients say it's because the PR execs have a knowledge of how media works.

But the disconnect is not as great as it appears at first, because these two reasons are the top reasons given by both groups - though in a different order.

Both groups agreed that the third most popular reason for hiring a consultancy is its writing skills.

Meropa Communications was rated in AdReview in May as South Africa's second largest PR consultancy. The questions were put to 44 top corporations and 39 leading PR firms - a small sample. While 80% of the PR responses were from executives at MD level or higher, only 17% of the client responses came from top management.

Other reasons given, in order of importance, were:

• Consultancies have a broad product offering: 69% of PR people thought this is important, against only 55% of clients.
• Cheaper than advertising: clients 41%, PR 33%.
• Cheaper than doing it in-house: clients 20%, PR 15%.

- Fin24.com