My internship is now well underway and I thought I would focus this
second blog post on PR consulting and what I have learnt so far about this type
of work. Ok, so I’ll admit it, when we have the whole discussion of ‘what would
you choose, consulting or in-house PR?’ in class, I usually end up on the
in-house side of the fence. But now that I have been at Linc Integrated (a
marketing and communications consultancy) for a while, I’ll admit I’ve learnt a
lot more about this style of work and what it entails. I guess you could say
I’ve developed a whole new appreciation for PR consulting work, and maybe even
sparked an interest in this area. So here it is my new insights on PR
consulting!
Firstly, I never really took into account how specific clients were,
well I did, but not to the extent of which I have seen now. I know the
logistics of how a consultant works, and to me it never really appealed having
a range of clients. I felt with consultancies you wouldn’t be able to get as
much of an in-depth insight into your clients and ultimately you would more
‘touch base’ on a range of work, rather than really getting to the nitty gritty
of working for one sole client. I’m not the only one who seems to think this;
there are quite a few articles which address the fact that consultants can’t
invest 100% into the client, such as this one here. To me it
really appears that in-house allows you to develop more of a connection, almost
like watching something you’ve worked hard on succeed in the end and following
their achievements over time, something you can be proud of and look back and
say “I made that happen”, this is something I really want to be able to say at
least once in my career.
But I think my time at Linc is slowly changing my perspective on consultancies.
Linc work with a HUGE range of clients, from not-for-profits such as Amana
Living, to big clients such as Bankwest and even AMP Capital (which owns
Karrinyup Shopping Centre, Garden City and Ocean Keys). Each of these clients
have different objectives that Linc are trying to achieve, and of course each
of these clients are very different on a number of other points.
I’ve so far worked on all three of these clients during my internship
and the thing that has really stood out to me is the fact that I have to
understand the client’s personality and style (yes they each have their own!).
This really became apparent when I did my first media release, which was for
Amana Living and then I did a media release for Garden City a few days later.
You see, Amana Living is more focused on demonstrating the benefits
they have provided rather than promoting the organisations name. Garden City on
the other hand had to have their name as the first word, in the first line of
every release. And so, each client has their own style of writing and
personality that is presented to the media, which must be reflected through the
consultants work.
Previously I think I’ve always imagined that the consultancy itself
more imprints a bit of its own style onto the clients work, but this appears
not to be true from what I have seen at Linc so far. It appears consultants are a
shadow of the organisation, and although they aren’t directly working with
them, they must still reflect the ‘brand’ consistently.
In a sense, I guess I’ve learnt that as a PR consultant you ultimately
put yourself in the shoes of an in-house PR person for that client anyway. As
I’ve began writing more media releases I know now to put my ‘specific client
hat on’ and try to really reflect the organisations style. I did struggle with
this at first though, which I think came down to the fact that I hadn’t met the
client and I hadn’t gotten familiar with how they want to be presented by Linc.
Another thing that I have learnt about consultancies from my
internship is that they work in sync with the PR or communications team of the
client. I found this a little odd at first because to me if you already have a
PR team behind your organisation, then why would you hire PR consultants
(especially since your own team would have a better understanding of your
organisation and what you’re trying to achieve)? This question had me stumped
for quite a while, and I ended up approaching my supervisor about it as I
couldn’t understand why PR people from the client would send me an email asking
me to draft up a media release, when I’m sure they are more than capable of
doing it themselves (and not to mention their email signature says they are a
PR Manager). I’m not talking about organisations that have one PR person, but
some clients even have their own communications team yet are still engaging in
outside PR through Linc.
Ultimately, my supervisor explained this is because most of the
clients we work with, who already have public relations, either focus strongly
on internal communications within the organisation or have little time to
organise bigger events and achieve increased media coverage. Interesting isn’t
it? I thought consultancies would more focus on working with clients who had
little or no public relations going on and needed someone to provide them with
this advice (or rather weren’t doing it to the best of their ability). I find
it a little funny that a PR consultancy advises and develops ideas for a PR
team (and not to mention these clients would probably be more critical of the
consultancy and their work). This has happened quite a few times in my
internship where I have been to meetings and we are pitching ideas to PR teams,
and I guess it makes me more nervous because they actually do know what we are
talking about. But nevertheless this is yet another lesson that I have learnt!
So would I still pick in-house over consultancies?
I wouldn’t say my answer is so firmly locked in anymore. From what I
have seen so far it looks like even if I do go in-house I could end up being
the client of a PR consultancy and they may do a lot of the external public relations. I
definitely can see that consulting requires A LOT of understanding of each
client and it really is a difficult job to juggle clients and each of their
priorities (I’m learning this really quickly!), whilst still trying to
effectively represent them.
Like anything else, each type of work has its pros and cons, and I
think it will really come down to experience and how a person likes to work. For
example, by working in-house it would be a lot easier to organise meetings and
your attention is obviously focused on that organisation, whereas consulting
you are still really on the outside but you get a better variety of work.
Overall I am really glad I’m getting this experience in a consulting
environment, I can see that this type of work requires a lot of flexibility and
the ability to be able to adapt to different clients. This article here from PR
Week sums up choosing between in-house and consulting quite nicely, by
finishing with the point that "The big similarity is that wherever you
are, you are dealing with human beings and you have to be good at understanding
how various personalities work and have real empathy”.
Well, they are my thoughts on consultancies. I’ve really discovered
that it won’t matter if I end up going in-house or consulting, as either one
will eventually provide me with the opportunity to look back and say “I made
that happen” and it will ultimately depend on which suits me at the time.
Until next time!
Laura x
I am 15 days into my second internship at the Public
Transport Authority (PTA). The PTA is responsible for the public transport infrastructure;
this includes building train lines, stations, bus stops ext.
