‘It’s nothing less than corporate bullying’: CPRA condemns clients increasingly demanding free work
The Communications and Public Relations Australia (CPRA) has found that a large percentage of clients are increasingly demanding free work from their PR agency partners, and agencies are increasingly become submissive, exacerbating the issue of “corporate bullying”.
In its latest Agency Leader Sentiment Survey — which was conducted in February 2025 with 73 agency leaders from across the country — the CPRA was alarmed by the rise of “scope creep”, where clients would agree to a project scope and price, then put pressure on agencies to add more elements to the project, without a price increase.
Scope creep can also include procurement “holding a gun” to the head of agencies at the last moment, constant threats of replacement if an agency does not agree, lack of support from the marketing or communications client, or submissiveness from an agency.
I get that this commentary comes from a place of exhaustion after a long and tough 2024. Every industry in Australia has been operating in a per capita recession for almost two years so budgets are tight and client expectations are demanding. But it’s a bit ‘click-baity’ to throw around terms like ‘gun to the head’ when it comes to transactional PR. There are a lot of PR agencies that get stuck in the ‘tiddlywinks pool’ with clients that just want media relations for less. Sadly, they will always get used and abused. Chris mentions the one thing that agencies can do to avoid this. Starts with R…. Relationships. And not just relationships with the client contact but relationships in the boardroom and senior management (and if it’s a multi-national brand aim for the Australian MD, the APAC VP and so on). It’s amazing how quickly procurement will change the contract terms when they get a call from the CFO. And how do you do this? Remember, ‘senior people only talk to senior people’. You’re going to need to hire some experienced people (usually aged over 50) for your client relationship team and give them a healthy entertainment budget. And talk ‘communications’ not ‘PR’ – I guarantee you they are much bigger budgets.
Great article Chris. In my experience, agency teams will always work hardest on clients where they are respected and valued, a true extension of a client’s team. The threat of a pitch is never motivating or inspiring and nickel and dimming suggests that you really aren’t using your agency to the best of their ability and focused on a transaction vs. strategic advice. It needs to be a equally beneficial partnership – that’s where the magic happens.