PR agency or in-house: can brand reputation be left in the hands of strangers?
When it comes to boosting a business, does the comms leader outsource or build up a strong team?
Every PR professional will have an opinion on whether it’s better to work in an agency, or in-house. Agencies offer more exposure to diverse clients and the opportunity to learn from more experienced peers. In-house roles tend to be better paid, and impact measured more holistically, rather than by simply counting media mentions around a specific campaign. At least these are the arguments a quick Google search throws up.
But what are the pros and cons from a business perspective? Imagine you’re a comms leader looking to enhance your organisation’s comms capabilities. Do you build up a strong in-house team? Or do you outsource, and rely on the expertise of external agencies?
Here’s why I believe the answer might be somewhere in the middle….
No one knows your brand better than you
How many times have you received draft content from your agency that’s just not quite right. It’s not badly written and technically, they’ve met the brief, but it fails to link a particular project or piece to news to the company’s wider vision and ethos, the tone of voice is slightly off and some of the facts and figures are from last year’s annual report (because admittedly, the most recent version hasn’t yet made its way onto your website).
This is where an in-house team excels. They can plan campaigns and create content that keeps the bigger picture in mind, connecting the dots between what the business is doing now, to what they achieved in the past and what they want to do in the future. They have access to internal stakeholders who can quickly provide the most relevant, accurate and up-to-date proof points, and they can write more authentically.
But you don’t know it all
In my current team, we’ve got former journalists, ex-agency people, and others who have been in the industry so long, there’s no-one they don’t have on WhatsApp. As teams go, we’re an experienced bunch. But we know our limitations.
Last year, when our organisation specifically wanted to reach potential real estate investors in India, we knew we had to get an agency on-board. We simply didn’t have the contacts or a good enough understanding of India’s media landscape to know what would work. Working with one of the world’s largest PR firms, we were able to connect with their office in Mumbai and ultimately, secure meaningful coverage that was seen by the right people, delivering the right results.
Time equals money, money equals time
As a chunk of your budget, agency fees can be eye-watering and reviewing timesheets and approving invoices can be a headache. And that’s without factoring in the arduous procurement process, with endless rounds of pitches and PowerPoint slides. But an in-house team doesn’t come cheap either – there’s recruitment, salaries, employee benefits and training to consider.
With that said, if you are hiring the right people, keeping them motivated and providing opportunities for them to upskill and progress in their career, you’re far more likely to be able to create a team that believes in what you are trying to do and has the organisation’s longer term goals in sight – and the endurance to help achieve them. I have lost count of the amount of agencies I’ve worked with who bring out their all-stars for the initial pitch and kick-off meeting, only for them to never be seen again, or who suddenly inform you that your account director has been moved onto another project but they’re super excited to introduce you to the person taking over (who you’ll now need to spend time bringing up to speed…)
Stale thinking
Like I said in my first point, an agency (however good they are and however detailed your brief is) will never think and talk about your organisation in the same informed, authentic way that an in-house team can. But that’s not always a bad thing.
Be honest – how often do dig out an old press release and use it as starting point for something new? How often do you really look at your audience segmentation with fresh eyes and question if it reflects the current reality? It’s easy to rely on tried and tested approaches, coast along using the same assumptions and slip into autopilot. In reality, what worked yesterday, may not be the same tomorrow, leading to missed opportunities and underwhelming results.
This is where an agency can be invaluable. They bring fresh, outside perspectives that you might not otherwise have thought of. And they’re usually more confident in putting forward an out-of-the-box, off-the-wall idea or recommending a radical change in direction that an in-house team would be more wary of. If their bold idea bombs, they can shrug their shoulders and move onto the next client. If it’s your idea that gets laughed out the boardroom, it’s a different story.
Agencies eat, sleep and breathe PR like no one else. This means they are more likely to be up to speed on best practices, emerging technologies and the latest trends. It’s also why I’m so enthusiastic about my own in-house team dedicating time in their schedules to stay up to date with industry news, attend industry events and consider memberships to organisations like CIPR. They need to keep up.
So what’s my conclusion? I’ve worked with some brilliant agencies. At the start of my career, they gave me a crash course in the world of PR. They’ve inspired me to think more creatively, they’ve introduced me to new tools and technologies, and they helped me, as the director of an in-house team, deliver impactful campaigns across industries and geographies that I could not have otherwise reached.
While 80% of respondents to CIPR’s 20204 State of the Profession report held in-house roles, sluggish economic growth around the world may edge companies to increasingly look towards a more budget friendly outsourced model. Regardless, I will forever be an advocate for the in-house comms team.
Whether that’s two people or 200, a highly competent, highly collaborative and highly motivated in-house comms function (bringing in agencies to support, as required) is the best way to protect and enhance your company’s most valuable intangible asset – its reputation. When you think of it like that, would you rely on anyone else?
Katy Granville has been based in Dubai for nearly 15 years, delivering strategic comms around some of the region's biggest projects.
Further reading
How to avoid ghosting by clients
Andy Coulson: ‘I enjoy doing crisis comms work because I lived it.’
25 years of change for PR agencies… from metrics to social media