The Agency Advisory

This week, I unashamedly highlight the Chartered Institute of Public Relations State of the Profession Survey but also explore the role of lean ops in agency success, dive into what CMO’s really want, and offer some robust advice about tapping into emotions if you want to truly become a thought leader. Mix into this a timely reminder of ethics, advice on how to best present a P&L in a board meeting, an appeal for sponsors for the industry’s leading not for profit training initiative, and two great polls to get involved with and you have issue #30.

Thank you to all who have posted this week and particularly to those who have dissected and analysed the State of the Profession Survey. It’s been quite a week.

AI & its impact are top challenges facing the PR industry

Thank you to Andrew Bruce Smith for this great summary of the AI-related findings from the just published Chartered Institute of Public Relations State of the Profession Survey 2024. Read on if you are still sceptical or in denial about the use of AI in the industry. The fact that AI is seen as the area with the biggest PR skills shortage is very noteworthy. If you are in anyway challenged by the march of AI, then do invest in training - the CIPR has much to offer in this regard and Andrew Bruce Smith delivers excellent courses.

?Read ABS’s excellent summary of the AI related findings here:

PRs are underpaid & overworked says CIPR report

?Another useful summary of the same Chartered Institute of Public Relations survey, this time courtesy of Stephen Waddington who highlights the pay decline 2022 to 2024, the continued existence of the gender pay gap, the longer working hours, and the skills shortage. Stephen’s erudite insights extend to him questioning the paradox of management recognising the growing importance of PR practice with the gap that exits between PR expertise and the ability to deliver and demonstrate value. In his view, this goes some way to explaining the trend of PRs being underpaid and overworked and he postulates that until the industry can demonstrate impact and value, the situation won’t change.

?Read Stephen's analysis via his blog here:

Understand the importance of lean ops

?I’m grateful to Sarah Brougham , for sharing her experience and accumulated wisdom here on LinkedIn. In her latest post, Sarah succinctly offers up advice on scaling saying that agencies should not be in such a rush to grow that they forget to have the right processes and people in place. This is the approach I have taken with clients, helping them to realise that moving from a start-up to a scale-up requires the introduction of systems and processes to manage the growth. As Sarah puts it: “haphazard growth is unsustainable, consistent, predictable, scalable growth is what lasts.” Check out the mistakes the business made and, more importantly, what was done to overcome the roadblocks her business encountered in their growth journey.

Read about the lessons learnt here:

What CMOs really want

?With thanks to Matt Cross for re-posting, I have revisited dentsu’s 2024 CMO Report (published end July) and with a little bit of help from Claude.ai, offered a brief summary in a LinkedIn post last week. ?The report offers good insights into the rapidly evolving marketing landscape. The comprehensive analysis reveals significant shifts in CMO priorities and strategies as they navigate an increasingly complex business environment. These insights underscore the need for agencies to evolve their offerings. Full-service shops must be rubbing their hands in glee at this, but what does it mean for PR and comms firms? The importance of creativity it seems has never been greater.

Find the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eUGjFqhA

Why you must instil hope, anger or fear to become a thought leader

I came across an interesting post intended as part of a wider thought leadership discussion by Vincent Pierri . In it, he offers up an explanation why every piece of thought leadership should evoke the human emotions of hope, anger or fear. His argument is that unless your content makes people feel something, it just won’t work. I’ve seen and reviewed dozens of thought leadership pieces in my time (and have written a fair few) but I’ve not looked at them through the lens of hope, anger or fear. His framing of the principle as the need to make people act rather than listen or get interested is advice well worth considering.

Read Vincent’s post here:

Ethics in PR: a timely reminder

Ethics in PR is a topic that deserves more attention than perhaps it receives. With all the issues that have been highlighted this past week in the State of the Profession Report from the CIPR, ethics seems to have taken something of a back seat. I was drawn therefore to Jennifer Sanchis MPRCA MCIPR 's impassioned post reminding us that “as PR practitioners, we are in a unique position to be the voice of ethics.” Jennifer highlights findings from research by Mary Beth West, APR, FPRCA that too many toxic cultures use their PR departments to cover up misconduct. She goes on to list several frightening findings from Mary Beth’s research that deserve attention to all in this profession.

See the highlights from Mary Beth’s research in Jennifer’s post here: ?

How to present your profit & loss in a board meeting

I’m grateful to FinOps specialist, Rich Brett , for detailing the key metrics that make up an effective yet simple financial report. His advice is spot on, particularly the points about keeping it simple, being consistent, and knowing the narrative behind the numbers. I’d just add the importance of board members receiving the report ahead of time to allow for analysis and questions.

?How to present that P&L

Shorts

?Socially Mobile launches fundraising

Flagging this from Stephen Waddington and Sarah Waddington CBE CDir ChartPR ’s not for profit PR school, Socially Mobile . It is looking for sponsorship for the next cohort under the banner: 25 for 2025. If you can help, please do get in contact with Stephen or Sarah.

?Find out details here:

Two polls to get involved with and to follow

Has AI changed the structure of PR agencies from Ben Smith , PRmoment

PR Moment AI in agencies poll

?Does your agency use timesheets from Claire Quansah

?The timesheet poll

The launch of Nibble

Congrats to Andrew Bloch and Lizzie Earl on the launch of Nibble, a SaaS based freelancer sourcing tool. Looks interesting. Check it out.

Sound interesting? Check it out

If you like what you have read in this newsletter, please do repost it to your network, comment on one or other of the topics that have been covered, and if you don't do so already, follow me for more shared posts on matters relating to agency management and comms in general.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/andyjhwest/

Many thanks.

Andy