PR agency is a public relations company. Independent business unit – the agency works with clients, carrying out tasks by its own forces, developing strategy and tactics of promotion in the market, and other elements of PR. As a rule, such an agency is a legal entity, it has a staff of professionals, on the creativity and competence of which depends on the number of clients and their fame.
What does PR agency do
In fact, PR-managers (agency workers) are some kind of intermediaries between a client (company, firm, enterprise, other business structures) and the public, in the person of customers, consumers of services or intellectual products. The work of pr agency melbourne consists of a two-way study of information: on the one hand there is the client with his tasks, expectations and plans, and on the other hand – the consumer, his hopes and opinions.
What is important in PR agency activities
- Work in real time – here and now. Realization of this helps to assess the situation soberly during the first contact with the client, and then it helps to outline the right steps of a public relations campaign.
- It is important to act in the interests of the client and at the same time the consumer. Such a position will allow you to go through all the steps and achieve the goal. Sometimes in the course of work, it is necessary to change the client’s mind – the target audience dictates its own rules.
- Own reputation. You can get a client with a million-dollar contract, but he will remain alone in practice. It is much more important to work so that the client carefully passes the agency to their partners and is recommended as a reliable springboard into business.
The PR agency is interested in creative employees – it is true that they can often create original schemes and achieve results in a short time. However with all this, the basis is also important – knowledge, skills, a desire to constantly evolve, to explore new ways.
Principles of PR agency work
The main principle is mutual benefit, as mentioned above. It is important for clients to promote their products (services) or strengthen their image and position in the market, and for the consumer – to get a quality product (service) and to stay satisfied. It is important that the PR campaign was built on honesty and authenticity, because any discrepancy or deliberate deception will entail a tsunami of distrust and, as a result, the collapse of the campaign. PR managers or agency workers should not only have professional skills, but also be a bit of a psychologist to understand sentiment and make timely conclusions.
Depending on the size of the agency and its history (length of time on the market, tasks performed and other parameters), there can be different departments:
- Media Relations (both conventional and electronic). One of the departments may deal only with relations with government agencies.
- Marketing – concerned with the promotion of goods or services in the market.
- Exhibition – engaged in representing the client at various exhibitions and similar events.
- Customer relations and others.
Today many large companies, corporations or enterprises prefer to have their own PR-agency as one of the departments. This option does not always justify itself, but it is more profitable economically.
PR products
- Time. The first thing that clients often buy from PR agencies is time. For various reasons a company feels an acute lack of time for important PR tasks, such as the lack of necessary employees in a given period, a high workload in connection with a major project, a special distribution of functions, unexpected and urgent tasks. By contacting the agency, the company gets the 40 working hours they were lacking.
- Resources. The second commodity is resources. Lack of people, including people with the necessary competences, often becomes the incentive to turn to public relations melbourne. Working with a PR agency allows not only to keep the level of activity and quality of communications, but also to find the right people for the missing positions at ease.
- Speed. The agency is a rocket launcher: it takes the space shuttle into orbit and shoots off to grab the next one. Often a company just needs to get the job done at the fastest possible pace, such as preparing for an urgent press conference, conducting analysis on an emerging crisis, or developing a briefing packet on short notice. The agency can do it quickly, and the company’s specialists do not have to go into rush mode.
- Technology and hands-on experience. Companies buy unique agency technologies. Technology to assess the effectiveness of PR, technology to work with the media, technology to organize special events, etc. The difference between specialists in agencies and corporate specialists is that corporate specialists attend training several times a year, and for specialists in the agency training is a daily routine.