Perfect PR partner guide fails to please

mailingsIn response to your feature on public relations agencies (MW last week), I would suggest that the criteria outlined for choosing a PR agency – and the “expert insight” from the PR types who were quoted – could apply to any sort of agency: look at the work they have done before, give them a good brief and tell them how much they have to spend. Most firms would take the same things into account when they choose a plumber.

I was under the impression that Marketing Week readers numbered 40,000 marketing professionals. If the article is a fair reflection of their understanding of what differentiates one PR agency from another, then we’re all in trouble.

The reality that Marketing Week consistently ignores is that PR is becoming more and more important to marketing directors, and they are also quite capable of sorting the agency wheat from the chaff themselves, thank you very much.

Maybe what Marketing Week readers would really like to read about are some examples of PR campaigns that have a bit of creativity and that might actually impress them.

Surely that would be more valuable than the astonishingly bland comment that “results come with effective teamwork”. Marketing Week only mentions PR about once a year, but your readers deserve a bit more insight than the magazine has provided this time around.

Nigel Hughes

Managing director

Rattle Public Relations

Cheshire