So I decided to dig around to find out what are the general perception of small/medium sized agencies and what would the folks in PR agency recommend to their clients. Note there are several medium sized agencies which are doing extremely well but don't get mentioned as much.
I decided to throw this question to some more PR experts on one of the social network and these are the responses I got:
Response 1:
Keep it open - Shortlist on the basis of the strategy presented by an agency. The dilemma might arise when the top two shortlisted agencies are equally good in terms of strategy but one happens to be a mid sized agency and other is a well established agency. The deal breaker is mostly the team servicing the account and the fees charged by an agency. Also the client needs to take a call on whether they want to be a big fish in a small pond or small fish in a big pond?
Response 2:
Bottom line: as a client, you never want to be one of the smaller clients on an agency’s roster.
You also don’t want to work with agency representatives who are essentially punching a time-clock; i.e., their wages and careers are not on the line if a client doesn’t get great service and results.
Work with people who are just as invested in your success as you are – financially and emotionally. Yes, they should be passionate about what you have to offer – not just looking for the next retainer.
If you are managing a start-up or mid-sized company, that means you should definitely go with a boutique firm or virtual team of highly experienced experts. That way you won’t be paying for a lot of people to sit in meetings or do busy work just to log billable hours. There is a lot of pressure in traditional agencies to make sure every hour is billable regardless of whether or not it is productive.
However, if you run a large company, you will need to go with a large agency because you’ll need a large quantity of PR folks to handle all the elements of your account. Knowing that a lot of time and money will be wasted is just part of the deal – and hopefully you’ll have enough slush
in your marketing budget to afford it.
Response 3:
In my opinion, it really comes down to the people and connections in the organization as well as the influence they can exert on others. Another factor is what you are willing to spend. In my experience with both large and boutique organizations, I have seen better success with the smaller organizations.
Why? Because unless you are able to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on PR,you re going to end up with junior pr associates at the big firms. It is inevitable.
Yes, they have a better network. but, there is a downside to that as well. Because there are so many people at a large firm, the individuals become less recognizable.
I like the smaller, boutique firms because they have had the experience in the larger firms and have made all their networks. Once they are in a small firm, they are typically the owners as well. Your best interests are theirs as well because they rely on you to put food on the table. In addition, they usually carry a much smaller client load, so they can dedicate more time to your company.
And, the amount of coverage you get is dependent on their network and how they are viewed by the journalists. But, it also has a lot to do with the quality of your news as well. I have my company by the WSJ and New York Times. That is a pretty difficult thing to accomplish when you are a small technology firm.
My recommendation, therefore, is go smaller if you don't have unlimited funds.
There were few more responses but they all point to the same things mentioned above. So net net I think it boils down to few things:
- Large Agency - Big Retainer, Less Quality time, Focused on standard deliverables, can mange big accounts
- Small Agency - low retainer fees, More focused quality input, Focused on making success of every deliverable, may not be able to manage large accounts
It will be interesting to know which are the best tier 2 level of PR agencies in India.
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