I’ve had a pretty varied PR career. I’ve worked in-house, in massive global agencies, some boutique UK tech agencies…and my current stint as freelancer / nano agency / freelance collective.
All of the agencies I’ve been lucky enough to work for have been brilliant in their own ways. One thing that has stayed with me though, is why on earth would a smaller company choose a big agency?
Small fish, big pond
At a bigger agency, a small client – and the generally much smaller budgets they have – can get lost. You’ll see someone senior once a month if you’re lucky, and the account is run on a day-to-day basis by two much more junior team members. Sometimes they will be brilliant and sometimes less so. But they are all learning on the job. That’s fine, but it is hard to learn without guidance.
You can also be sold on the broader access to knowledge and expertise. Yes, there might be a public affairs team and other PR sector teams. There may well also be access to teams around the global, ensuring you (theoretically) have access to global talent. But that doesn’t come for free, it’s always a paid-for add-on. And realistically, how often are you going to need that?
The right fit, not the right name
There’s a reason that clients go with a big agency. If that client is a major brand, then it may well have a need for international counsel and a team that can easily scale. The agency will probably work with other big brands and that makes it easier to go with a more familiar option. But it’s often true that the big agency needs you less than you need them. At a smaller agency, the opposite is true – your success is their success, and they know it.
At a boutique or nano agency, you’re likely to deal directly with the most experienced person in the room. The person pitching for your business is usually the same person doing the work. That continuity matters. They know your messages, your sensitivities, your history and more. There’s no knowledge loss every time someone moves on.
Hidden costs and budgets
There’s also the question of budget. What might be a massive retainer to a mid-sized or boutique agency, would be a drop in the ocean to a big global agency. At a big agency, losing a small account is an inconvenience. At a small agency, it’s much more impactful.
Here’s something that isn’t often seen in a creds deck. You’re sat in an amazing office in a big agency, and you are one paying for it! Budgets are spent partially on PR, but also on offices, management layers, and a range of overheads. None of that appears in a line on an invoice, but it’s there. A smaller agency is leaner, which means more of your money goes on the actual work. If your budget isn’t big to start with, then that’s an attractive option.
Big agencies can make sense for bigger brands. But otherwise, I’m not sure.
My advice if you’re a smaller or challenger brand? Work with as small an agency as is realistic. You’ll be loved, prioritised, be given all the service and attention you deserve and will likely get much better results.
