Navigating Agency Life – the highs and lows

At the start of this blog journey, I promised to be honest and authentic in my musings and this is still true today. I’ve had a holiday and with that brings time to reflect - amongst other things, I’ve been thinking about agency life, the agency rollercoaster, what it takes to build a great agency, and how we can deliver value for clients.

Agency life is quite unique.  We charge for our time, similar to accountancy, the legal profession etc but the difference is that working with a PR agency is a choice. I would argue that it’s imperative to all businesses, however, it’s not critical in the same vein as ensuring compliance with accountancy or needing legal counsel.

Agency Life is tough. So yes, it’s ‘PR not ER’ - correct and something we need to remind ourselves of daily - but it’s a demanding, fast-paced profession and our success is based on performance.

In the past week, I have met several business associates who have commented how “RNN is flying”, “your business is amazing”, “you’re winning everything”…

As we all know yet sometimes forget to recognise, social media is a highlight reel of our business.  Behind the images and graphics is a committed team that works hard every day to deliver for clients and the agency. We really care – we care about clients, how we can add value, how we can ensure every campaign is exceptional, give the best advice etc etc.

For me as the agency owner, in addition to the above, it’s also essential that I ‘mind our team’, show leadership, ensure the invoices go out (and are paid), monitor performance, conduct appraisals and schedule training, manage recruitment, spin the plates of new business, onboard new clients, manage clients departing (and they do from time to time), meet new contacts within client businesses and explaining who we are / what we do / how we support them, networking and so on…

It's all-encompassing.  It’s full-on. It’s a rush and takes a certain personality type to thrive on the hustle. I do, and have done for many years, but it’s important not to be complacent and to be mindful and protective of our energy. 

Why is this important:

A Women in PR survey in October 2023 revealed that:

• 66% of women in the PR industry have considered quitting their roles due to burnout 
• The major industry issues identified included stress, anxiety and burnout
• The 24/7 nature of the profession makes it harder to ‘switch off’ in the evenings or weekends
• 83% consider PR more demanding on time compared to other industries.

Over a long career, I have seen ‘burnout’ from others many times. Often those who started out in PR, particularly females, either leave the profession at a certain age or take in-house roles. Agency life is an amazing backbone for any businessperson, and so many of my former colleagues have gone on to start their own businesses in various sectors, and to much success. 

In PR Agency land, there’s no time for ‘quiet periods’ or to take your foot off the gas. Why is this? Even though many of you readers know us well, sometimes it’s worth a reminder of exactly how we get paid and how agency life works. 

We get paid for the work we deliver within an agreed time period. For this model to work, it means that the time we have committed to work for a client (e.g. 30 hours per month) needs to match what we deliver. 

Why this can be problematic:

• We recognise the challenges within all businesses and are flexible on our time allocations dependent on monthly requirements 
• Dependent on the client, project, media news cycle etc – it’s not always possible to deliver within the specified period  
• Our desire to deliver exceptional work - there’s always more to do, more hours to work
• Expectations:
  • A PR campaign is not going to make a product / service sell out immediately and we have a tendency to over-deliver.  PR should always be considered as part of an integrated mix of activities 
  • We cannot guarantee placement or a specific return. The national news pages are shrinking – PR news, especially in Irish media, needs to be breaking news or significant business stories to get traction
• We’re in the business of reputations and from time to time, this means challenging clients - this is uncomfortable but is a key requirement for us as professionals who ultimately want the best outcome for our clients and their businesses 
• A continual underestimation of the time involved in social media delivery and other aspects of comms 
• The strength of the story / product / service and engagement of the client
• The changing zeitgeist / mood of the nation / press.  From a project brief to delivery, things change. Something that would have been a shoo-in two months ago now doesn’t work for the news cycle 

There are also elements of what we do that are challenging to measure value – ideas, often business ideas, crisis management, OOHs calls, ad hoc advice…. the list goes on. 

How can we do better:

• Be effective in our time and delivery
• Be honest about what we can deliver and agree on realistic expectations
• Be more selective in our clients and new briefs
  • Work with clients who value our time and contribution  
• Ensure our agency values match those we work with 
• Charge for continual overserving and OOH work - something that I have shied away from until now 
• Continue to reinforce: it’s PR not ER 
• Always put our people first
• Switch off and continue with our four-day week model (everyone paid for five)
  • This model was adopted by RNN in September 2020 for exactly the reasons I have highlighted in this blog post and it’s one of the key elements in protecting our team and keeping them fresh. 

So when you hear us talking about client hours, contracts, KPIs please do understand that this is our currency. That’s why we must have contracts in place, notice periods etc.

We’re unlike many public-facing businesses that have 0000s of clients. We have a select number of clients with whom we’re 100% committed to delivering the best work, supporting them personally and professionally, and with the overarching goal of helping our clients to excel.  You know you can count on us in the good times, and importantly the bad. 

SO IN A NUTSHELL, THIS IS PR. THIS IS AGENCY.

We’re made of strong stuff, we hustle and we work in partnership with clients - always!

And we appreciate every single one of our clients. We’re part of the extended team and nothing pleases us more than when our clients excel.

As always, if you have any questions or thoughts on the above, please do let me know.

Over and out,

Riki