Comments on: Are PR Agencies a thing of the past?

By: kparma

kparma — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:24:36 +0000

The company I work for doesn’t work with a PR agency. I work in marketing and we basically do all of the marketing and PR for the company. Yes, it is more time consuming and there is a lot more work. However, my company is smaller (about 80 FTEs) and a lot of our business is generated by leads through tradeshows and word-of-mouth. I don’t want to say hiring a PR agency would be a waste of time and money for my company, but I do think that we are doing pretty well for not having one.

By: gbohulan

gbohulan — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:59:50 +0000

As someone who interned for a PR agency, I do not think they are a thing of the past. They help achieve a company’s goal and help them build better relationships with their stakeholders. PR agencies are home for educated and professional relationship builders. Without that, it would be very difficult to run your business and do all of the PR on your own. Internal PR may know more about their organization, but a fresh, objective and outside perspective is always good.

By: mlmyers

mlmyers — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:08:39 +0000

I have also read some blogs about companies no longer using PR agencies and I think that eventually many people will realize that this trend is repeating history. While the concept of PR has been around since bartering was the popular thing to do, it took much longer to associate a name with the concept. With that being said, PR agencies have not always been around. Somewhere along the line, there became a need for the type of help PR agencies offer and since the PR field has skyrocketed. With the economy in its current condition, it makes sense that PR would be one of the “extra expenses” that would be first to go. But I think it is important to realize that just because money is tight does not mean that there is no longer the need for the work PR agencies do.

By: Mickey Siegel

Mickey Siegel — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 06:57:55 +0000

I completely agree with your point that an outside perspective is needed in order to properly implement a campaign. Way too often organizations believe that they strategies they are using are the best mostly due to them not wanting to see something that they came up with fail. By getting an outside perspective, it is easier to identify the problems as well as fix them.