For creative input, as an extended workbench, as a sparring and implementation partner for large projects - there are many reasons why companies choose to work with a PR agency. Often there is also an urge behind it on the part of the press offices: The PR agency may ease their workload. Less work for the companies due to the efforts of their PR agency – does this equation work? We clearly say: yes and no! If a PR agency does its job well, this can sometimes even lead to a bigger workload for the companies and the press offices involved.
Just to put that in perspective: A PR agency is of course there to provide its clients with the best possible support and to relieve them of work in all areas, be it the development of the communication strategy, the preparation of press releases and authored articles, the management of social media channels or the organisation of interview placements. But wherever communication projects are implemented, work is created – both on the agency side and in the press offices of the companies.
There are a few simple reasons for this:
1) An agency aims to tap into the expertise of its client companies. To achieve this, it is dependent on intensive exchange with the management and experts in the companies in order to create content for public relations. Together with them, the consultants develop concepts for communication strategies, conduct briefings for authored articles, arrange interview placements or organise speaker slots at trade fairs and congresses.
2) The agency wants to create content! Texts for press releases, the company's website or the latest commentary on market events – an agency can do it all. But texts also necessitate coordination, the management and responsible experts in the companies have to deal with the content. It is not uncommon for agencies to experience that this involvement with text formats contributes to the formation of opinion in companies and triggers thought processes. This is sometimes time-consuming, but at the same time incredibly valuable!
3) The agency thinks about how it can translate the knowledge of the companies into PR formats. Often the data that a company generates, for example through its products and services, are hidden treasures. With this "Business Intelligence" the company creates new communication occasions and can prove its expertise. Like any other treasure hunt, however, the recovery of a company's own data treasure is also associated with work. The agency makes it its business to point the way and to help with the excavation. But the key to the treasure chest is always in the hands of the companies
4) Fresh ideas are the lifeblood of PR, they enable companies to remain relevant and create exciting content for the media and the public. It is one of the most important tasks for agencies to regularly come around the corner with new ideas and thus provide new impulses for the PR of companies. But ideas are one thing, implementation is another. In order to get from the idea to the concrete implementation, the consultants in turn depend on the manpower and willpower of the protagonists in the companies
In short, an agency can initiate many processes to take corporate communication to the next level. It can accompany these processes excellently and actively help with the implementation, be it with strategy development, text creation, coordination of press appointments or with the content and graphic design for company websites. The benefits: The visibility of the companies increases, their communications profits enormously.
However, the experts and press offices of the companies remain involved in all projects. More PR means more work for them too – but at the same time more input, more success and more output. Agency and company go hand in hand here and working together is twice as much fun.
