Hiring an Independent PR Agency (Like Us) vs a Big PR Agency

If you ask AI to help you find a PR agency, for the most part you’ll be served up with the really huge firms. Edelman, Burson, Weber Shandwick. The biggest global PR agencies who work with the biggest worldwide brands – bringing in up to $1 billion in fees.

And while they can be excellent choices for large multi-national corporates, they’re not the right solution for the vast majority of companies. If your business isn’t a massive global enterprise, then a good independent PR agency is generally your best bet. Here’s why.

• Big PR agencies typically charge a monthly retainer of £20k+
• They will usually mark-up costs by around 17.5%
• If they do accept a smaller budget, juniors will likely man your account
• Access to the agency’s top thinkers will be limited
• They can’t bend themselves out of shape to suit your needs
• Their solution for smaller clients will be ‘off the shelf’, less tailored PR
• Big PR agencies can’t be as responsive or nimble
• Your budget won’t go as far, as they’ve got big costs and overheads to cover
• The notice period you have to sign will likely be longer

They’re best suited to large, multinational enterprises.

Why? Because that’s who they’re designed for. Their fees, their employees, their approach. Large PR agencies exist to service large companies.

Monthly retainers can start at £20,000 per month, and they head up quickly. That’s before you add in the additional costs for things such as events, influencer fees, research costs and design. So if you’re not prepared to spend the money – you’re not the right type of client.

Yes, some of these agencies will accept clients with smaller budgets in mind. Especially if times are hard. But the reality is that even if you persuade them to work with a more modest budget, your business will be way down the pecking order when it comes to their client roster. You’ll possibly be viewed as a training ground for their least experienced staff. And you’ll only receive input from their most experienced and strategic thinkers at the pitch stage – when they want to win your business.

I can say this because I worked at one of the UK’s largest PR agencies and saw this first hand.

Indeed, just one year into working at a top 10 agency, someone I know was tasked with writing a pitch for a business with an annual budget which (in today’s money) would be £60,000. A decent enough budget you might think. Yet the agency saw such a spend as not enough to get excited about. Instead, it viewed it as the perfect pitch training ground for my friend, who was a junior team member. Frankly, the agency didn’t care too much if it won or lost the account and was more interested in training her than winning that account.

Now this isn’t to say that large agencies are bad. Far from it. Some of them, like the one I worked for, are fantastic. But they’re engineered for massive brands and for businesses with huge global briefs. Or for marketers who aren’t so much thinking about the results but are instead focused on making a ‘safe’ choice, a decision no one can criticise them for.

The vast majority of businesses aren’t like this. They don’t want a safe decision, they want a good one. For them, the best PR solution is a good independent PR agency.

Beyond budget, there are many other reasons why a good independent agency is a better choice for most companies. Here are a few of the key highlights.

NOTE: These advantages refer to good independent PR agencies. As with every sector, there are also some not-so-good options out there. But any serious independent PR agency (like us) will provide all of these and more.

Small independent agencies are often owned and run by people with big agency backgrounds – like me! So that same knowledge and expertise sit within the team.

I, for example, worked on the Gillette account for nine years. During this time David Beckham signed as the first ever brand ambassador. This was followed by the Gillette Champions campaign with Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Thierry Henry as the new faces of Gillette. I cut my teeth on that kind of stuff.

If I still worked in a big agency I’d be knee deep in the operations of the business by now, stifled by office politics and bureaucracy. Clients would be getting minimal access to me or my experience. But at a small independent agency I’m speaking to clients all the time. That top agency expertise is within reach for them as a matter of course.

In addition to getting better and more regular access to senior experts, an independent agency will value your business more. Your budget will really matter. You’re not competing with a client roster full of MNCs for attention. So, you’re more likely to be prioritised.

Your needs will be listened to, but more than this, the agency will be more willing and able to cater to your specific needs. There won’t be a one size fits all mentality, which larger agencies may be forced to apply to smaller clients.

Instead you’ll get a bespoke PR strategy that tailored to deliver exactly what your business needs.

A smaller, independent agency also finds it easier to be nimble and agile. With a smaller hierarchy it can make decisions faster. Less bureaucracy, more action.

PR strategies can be adjusted in hours not days. Your campaign can quickly pivot to capitalise on an emerging trend or a change in circumstances.  In today’s fast moving digital world, with a 24-hour news agenda, such responsiveness is a massive advantage.

Lastly, as already mentioned, budget optimisation is a huge advantage in a smaller agency.  It’s not simply that an independent agency will be more able to work with you. The agency will have lower overheads for your budget to cover. There won’t be a massive London HQ and expensive board directors to bankroll. You’ll get much better value for money. Check out our advice piece on PR budgets for an idea of how much an independent agency will cost.

The value for money also extends to costs. For instance, many (though not all) independent agencies like us don’t mark-up costs. So, if we commission photography for a client, the amount the client pays for the photography is same as the amount the photographer charges us.

In contrast, a typical larger agency will mark up bought in items like this by 17.5%, swallowing up yet more of the client’s precious budget.

With massive overheads, thousands of staff and such a big show to keep on the road, large agencies need to eliminate risk from their business where they can. One way they do this is to have a long notice period – typically 3-6 months. Indeed, many will tie a client in for the first year.

It’s easy to understand why they adopt this approach. It gives them plenty of time to find replacement clients, should they be put on notice. But for the client (e.g. you) it’s not good news.

You can find your business stuck in contracts when the shine has worn off the relationship, or your needs/circumstances have changed. During this protracted notice period the PR treads water, people are demotivated, and an agency is hardly going to do its best work for a company it knows is leaving.

Like many independents, we don’t operate like that. Instead, we operate on a one month notice period basis. We believe that if clients want/need to stop working with us, (they rarely do) it makes no sense to tie them in.

A good independent PR agency will offer all of this and more. And while there’s certainly a place for large PR firms, for most companies in the UK – hiring an independent agency is the way to go .

Here at Energy PR we’re an independent PR agency with 30 years’ experience. We operate across almost every major B2B & B2C industry – offering our clients a unique blend of in-sector expertise and cross-sector creativity. So if you’re after PR that drives real results, please drop me a line at susannah@energypr.co.uk.