Communique breakdown: PR bosses on 'tough' north west

We asked north west agency bosses about the challenges they face in the region. Is the market there really that tough? Are there too many agencies? And how will the market look come the end of the year? Here's what they told us...

Brian Beech, managing director, Biss Lancaster

The market has been tough in line with the rest of the UK economy, but that's only been in the last 18 months or so and certainly not for a number of years as the statement suggests. I think the reality for Communique is that the brand ran out of steam.

PR in the North West is highly competitive, but that's a good thing as it keeps all of us on our toes.

The number of PR consultants in the region simply reflects the available business and I don't think that will change. If anything, we are seeing more business coming into us from way outside the region as clients know they will get better service at a decent price than simply opting for London.

I don't think the PR scene here will change much at all this year, with the odd dropout being replaced by a brighter, better new model.

Charles Tattersall, managing director, Citypress

I think Burson-Marsteller is using a PR line to justify a business failure. The reality is that good regional agencies do well and can outperform the industry average in both growth and margin.

Unfortunately, Communique lost its edge after it was sold to BM because Paul Carroll exited the business and the remaining management team would not have had the same motivation or capability to drive the business forward.

The North West is a tough market for PR agencies if they rely on the region for their revenue. There are a lot of agencies, mainly pretty small, that are competing for a finite amount of income. This can drive down value for both clients and agencies.

The upside is that there are some large businesses headquartered in the North West that want large agency resources and service but delivered with a local account team. Equally, there’s a good market for freelancers and very small agencies, most of which I hear are doing well. The dangerous part of the market is the middle ground and medium sized agencies have suffered. This is the space that Communique found itself in.

PR agencies don’t die because of market forces unless they are really badly managed. They just generally run out of steam, which I think is the case with Communique. Many of the agencies in the region shrink and expand like yo-yos dependent on client demand. This will continue to be the case. Few can claim consistent year on year growth.

Manchester is increasingly seen as a good location for national PR agencies to be located. The only downside about the market in general is the lack of seriously good talent in Manchester compared to London and the fact that regional agencies don’t generally invest enough in their businesses, specifically staff training.

Jo Leah, managing director, Weber Shandwick North

Is the north West a tough market to run a PR agency? No! Is the North West a tough market to run a global PR agency? Yes!

Let’s face it: ourselves, Biss Lancaster and Burson-Marsteller have to deliver pretty massive numbers. In fact the sort of numbers that would keep the region’s ‘lifestyle businesses’ in new Prada, Ping and Porsches every day of the week.

We have had to change the rules because we wouldn’t have survived by hacking our rates to play in the region. Over 75% of Ws North profit comes from national and international clients won and handled by this regional team.

But you need a system that allows you to play like this and I’m not convinced Burson-Marsteller ever believed that big clients could be pitched for and won in the regions. Our CEO Colin Byrne hails from Salford and he gets it. His support means one of Weber’s top 5 accounts in Europe (aldi) was won by and is handled by team Manchester.

£million plus accounts usually go to Soho not Salford and there are just not the same pitch opportunities sadly. But we do scrap amongst ourselves too much when we should be collaborating and talking up our regional talents to automatically attract the big spenders to the cool North.

Are there too many of us? In some ways ‘yes’ because it knackers the talent pool because anyone half decent sets up their own shop. (A bit of pot and kettle there because I actually set up Lawson Leah Communications with Guy Lawson in the same year Communique started .. I just sold out after 8 years not 15 plus.. and stuck with it.)

Dougal Paver, managing director, Paver Smith

The region’s PR scene is in rude health but, like all markets, there are winners and losers.

The cost of entry in to the sector is virtually nil so it’s always going to be fragmented and highly competitive. The trick is to drive value and performance so that you can defend your ground on your own terms, not on price.

Consolidation may happen for defensive reasons, but I’m not betting on it being a defining feature of the year. Egos, pride and personalities tend to get in the way of it in our sector and, frankly, it’s much less risky to just shut up shop and start a new one if that’s what’s needed.

I don’t think the north west market is tougher than any others. Standards are generally pretty high, but that’s a good thing for both agencies and clients. The sector has seen a slight contraction during the recession, but seems to have weathered it in good nick. Sad to say for a brand that was once so dominant, the market will have forgotten about it in short order and moved on.

Jamie Markey, managing director, JAMpr

The north west is no different to any other region; there’s business to be won regardless of location, all it takes is graft, personality and real results.

The recession certainly impacted on marketing spend during the last year. However, JAM actually witnessed an upturn in PR activity during 2009, as clients focused more on PR than advertising because of the messages it delivers and the great return on investment it brings. The north west is certainly home to some of the big PR hitters but the ratio of agencies to clients weighs in our favour. There’s room in the region for any agency willing to work hard and deliver the right results. It really is an end of an era with the closure of Communique. It set the bar on how an impactful and headline-grabbing campaign should be executed – any agency could learn a thing or two from the Communique of old.