Why consolidation is a cause for PR celebration
27 November 2020
In a guest column, exclusive to Connectivity, Richard Stone, Managing Director of Stone Junction — the first-ever PR agency for the Fourth Industrial Revolution — explains why PR consolidation is a cause for celebration.
About this time of year we’ve all got one white-haired, red-faced man on our minds – no, not the prime minister – Santa Claus. Every December 24, his team of pocket-sized elves deliver the goods right from the heart of the north pole; a single location.
And that’s how your PR campaigns should work too – one centralised agency or office, achieving magical results.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘Father Christmas is fictitious *checks to see if any children overheard*. My global engineering PR campaign is not.’ And you would be right. However, there are plenty of real-life reasons to consolidate your PR – millions of pounds worth of reasons.
Consolidate your message
Hear something said often enough and you’ll begin to associate those words with whoever spoke them; ‘ho ho ho’ for example. These words – or to use a marketing term, “message” – represent your audience-facing brand; something which needs to remain consistent in order to be easily identified.
In a 2019 Edelman study, 61 percent of global consumers said that ‘being a good communicator with a strong, responsive, consistent presence’ was a deal breaker when buying from technology brands. For a business that regularly relies on global consumers, this could be the difference between success and a metaphorical lump of coal in your stocking.
By using a single agency, organisations remove the risk of inconsistent and ineffective messaging. Content will be the same, proofing will be the same; distribution, skills, tone, voice and feel will all be the same. And if something needs amending? You only need contact one agency to get the issue resolved.
The Jeff Daly quote, ‘two monologues do not make a dialogue’ comes to mind. He might as well have said, ‘two (or more) agencies do not make an effective brand conversation’.
Consolidate your territories
Despite living in an invariably connected world, most consumers only care about what’s happening in their local neighbourhoods. Bah! Humbug!
However, as marketeers and international engineering businesses, it’s our job to keep an eye on the wider picture. Local but also global.
A common response is to find separate territorial PR companies who take care of regionalisation for you, with one in each region. This is normally the position of last resort though; because everyone understands the drawbacks.
But finding a single agency which speaks 13 languages in house, has achieved multiple chartered awards for global campaigns and boasts three language or international relations doctorates isn’t as hard as you might think. In fact, it’s as easy as emailing sayhello@stonejunction.co.uk.
Having a specialist account team rather than making the entire agency specialist in one territory, allows us to focus on each region whilst being aware of the campaign as a whole. We can handle regional and local variations inhouse, saving not only time and money, but also delivering on the needs of a decentralised management structure flexibility and quickly.
Adaptation is crucial. Technology and other STEM businesses are renowned for not quite judging the market right. For example, when Nokia first launched its Lumia mobile in Spain nine years ago, it failed to realise its biggest mistake yet. Lumia is Spanish slang for prostitute. As you can imagine, they ended up on the naughty list.
It takes both time and considerable effort to get regional marketing right. Which is why experts (that’s us!) exist to help.
Consolidate your savings
Saving money over the festive period is nigh-on impossible; reduced-output, holidays, festive-bonuses, buying that 7,000-piece Lego Millennium Falcon with two buildable Porgs, a stud-firing bowcaster and informational fact plaque…
But, by consolidating your PR campaign, you could save yourself some cold, hard cash.
Using one agency for multiple territories can be massively less expensive, often fifty per cent cheaper in each region after the first. No additional agency fees, graphics fees, multiple tool subscriptions etc. The list could go on.
And that’s not the only thing you save either.
According to PRWeek, PR consolidation reduces internal management time by up to 36 per cent. “[PR separation allows] too much time to be spent on firm management; diffused accountability; an absence of efficiency in idea creation and execution; reduced quality control [and] potentially reduced market impact”.
By keeping the campaign in one location it allows senior marketing management to spend more time focusing on decision making, strategy, planning and evaluation and less time on implementation and having meetings with local agencies. Just like Santa’s elves.
Consolidate your reach
Despite the hardships 2020 has brought, it has also revolutionised the way we interact remotely. From virtual exhibitions and video conferencing to cloud computing and other centralised work products – the business environment has changed, with more change set to be wrought in 2021.
It’s now never been easier to communicate with people, whether locally or globally. Zoom’s daily users, for example, spiked to 200 million in March from 10 million in December – that’s enough ‘sorry, you’re on mute’ to last a lifetime.
Regardless of technical faux pas’, this virtual world makes consolidating a PR campaign more logical. Single agencies can achieve more through technology than their networked regional counterparts. Meetings can be virtual, so you’re no longer limited to picking a local agency. An engineering business in Israel for example, could find an engineering PR expert in Stafford without wondering how they’re going to communicate.
The whole world is your virtual oyster. Unless you’re Santa. I’m going to need that Millennium Flacon in person I’m afraid.
Richard Stone is the founder of Stone Junction, a specialist technical PR agency delivering international and digital PR and marketing services for scientific, engineering and technology companies.
Santa, if you’re reading this, he’s been a very good boy this year and desperately wants the 7,000-piece Millennium Falcon LEGO set with two buildable Porgs, a stud-firing bowcaster and informational fact plaque.
If you want Stone Junction to take over your global PR campaign then why not email him (Richard, not Santa) on richards@stonejunction.co.uk.
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