Boutique/Small Public Relations Firm vs. Big Agency

During a brief (yet way too long) tenure with a consumer-related financial services firm, I had the pleasure of working with a global, top-tier public relations agency. My division’s budget was $100,000 for the year. The company chose to engage a well-known public relations firm because of name recognition and its ability to keep services for all of its divisions located across the country under one roof.

With this monopolistic relationship with our company, what did we really receive for our budget of $100,000? A high turnover rate of lower-level employees (often inexperienced interns), varying levels of management working on our account (waste), the impossibility of receiving good copy because of the lack of time spent on our account to fully understand the products and write cohesively about them (just as someone started getting the hang of it, they would get a better-paying job and leave or move to another department) – in essence, not as much as I’ve seen other companies receive from smaller agencies. Additionally, the management levels tended to be held by often young and inexperienced account managers. Large agencies have more to lose than a global conglomerate with multiple levels of non-invested employees. As a result, customer service is often sacrificed.

Setting aside the obvious bias I may have, boutique agencies on the other hand are operated by partners with vested interests. They do not have the high-turnover rate the larger firms do if they are run well. Every client is critical to its survival, thus, customer service tends to be superior and the cost of services tends to be very competitive.

They say variety is the spice of life. At the larger agencies, often low-level associates are stuck doing only grunge work on one client because that is where most of the time is spent and the cost per hour is lowest. At agencies, lower-level employees work directly with principals enabling them to quickly expand their knowledge base. They work on multiple accounts, often remaining appropriately stimulated mentally. Retention rates tend to be higher within smaller agencies.

One may argue the need to engage an agency with offices stretched out across the country, or in cities with a high percentage of media outlets. More often than not, editors are working remotely today, not in physical offices at the headquarters of their firm. In today’s electronic age, the face of public relations is changing as well (or should be) to a more virtualized work environment, lending flexibility to small firms that can have the knowledge and skills to take advantage of the technologies. In the long run, this will lead to employee satisfaction, efficiencies, and happy clients.