Why PR shouldn’t stay in its lane
Caroline Catterall, CEO of Keep Left answers the question: Are there risks with generalisation and leaving an agency with no specialty?
A few weeks ago, we proposed to a client who was having some challenges with their press office that we should think more creatively about how to meet their communications goals.
They loved it and were very excited about the idea of getting a diverse team of “thinkers” together from across the agency to ponder their brief, but then proceeded to add this caveat: While they wanted us to “think big,” they also wanted us to “stay in our lane.”
What that meant was stick to media relations.
Hi Caroline, in the last year we’ve seen both Special and H&Co double down on their pr offering. The independent agencies can normally be more flexible and responsive with their models so I predict that this will be a continuing pattern as more creative (and media) agencies take PR in house.
The interesting thing for PR agencies is do they want to butt heads with the creative agencies or specialise in extremely good PR services, or find a clearly defined middle ground.
Great article and an increasingly important issue for PR agencies to reconcile.
Hi Adam – I think the middle ground is where we need to play. Clearly defining this is the challenge though…
PR agencies always have done amazing creative work – and are increasingly owning it.
Rather than creative agencies taking PR in-house, I’m excited to see more PR agencies take creative work in-house to create the type of cutting edge work that earns attention – not buying it – in a way that brands are crying out for in what’s left of 2022.
I think there’s more for creative agencies to reconcile than PR 😉