By Nicky Regazzoni,
Co-Founder & Co-CEO, The PR Network
If you’re entrepreneurially minded, I don’t believe there’s ever been a better time to set up a new PR agency, particularly in Africa and other emerging regions where economic prospects remain relatively strong, despite global market headwinds.
The convergence of key trends driving rapid change in how we work and do business is creating the perfect platform to establish new model agencies built to withstand the current turbulence. I have first-hand experience. I co-founded The PR Network (PRN) with Georgina Blizzard as a virtual PR agency with a remote workforce just before the last big recession of 2008 and 12 years before Covid-19 normalised remote and hybrid work models.
The proposition was ahead of its time, but it was future-proof. Today, PRN is a £4.5m PRWeek top 100 agency, working in 40+ countries.
Accept that the old world is gone
I started my PR career 25 years ago in the UK, working for a technology PR agency based just outside London, close to the UK HQs of big technology companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and HP.
The PR industry and UK working culture were completely different from today’s
Building a PR agency involved finding an office, hiring as many talented permanent staff as cash flow allowed, and pitching to clients. From that point, agencies were (and still are!) challenged with balancing the number of clients with the number of staff. Talent and staff retention presents a huge challenge; it’s almost impossible to match the experience and capacity of the staff on the payroll with evolving client needs. These issues prevail. Although technology and globalisation enable people to work from anywhere rather than spend their money commuting to an office, agencies still build their business models around an office-based, permanent employee workforce.
George and I had run P&Ls and account teams at big London agencies, including Citigate and Bite. We visualised a new type of PR agency which would be unrestricted by the skills and capacity of the people in the building. We decided we did not need a building at all; instead, we’d mobilise a brilliant network of independent consultants and boutique agencies and create virtual teams, which we would direct from our home offices in the UK.
This gives The PR Network three major advantages over office-based agencies:
- Lower overheads. We keep our fees competitive and invest in service delivery.
- Talent is not an issue. We have access to a limitless global talent pool.
- No team churn. Our associate partners work for themselves and love what they do.
The agency has also played an important role in the industry by providing flexible work opportunities to working parents and carers who may otherwise have left the workforce. We have provided contract work to hundreds of senior professionals over 17 years.
Build an agile workforce and invest in the best remote working tech tools
Today, there are eight permanent members of the PRN team in the UK, supported by an extensive global network of associate partners working in EMEA, Asia-Pacific and the Americas.
The model is successful because it is built on lean principles. We have lower fixed costs than traditional agencies, and as a result, we’ve grown slowly yet consistently year-on-year. Rather than overextending our permanent team and risking burnout and mental health challenges, we win and service new clients based on the capacity of our existing network.
The global nature of our business has also created a solid foundation for sustainable growth, as there will always be economies growing more slowly or contracting faster than others. As we represent clients on all continents and in most major business centres worldwide, we are protected to some extent from market forces. This was especially important during the pandemic, where lockdowns started and stopped at different times across the world, and consequently, had a major impact on media coverage, events and activations.
The PRN Hub, which coordinates all our multi-market programmes via our team in the UK, ensures best practices and fast onboarding of new partners without impact on the client. This ‘hive brain’ means we are continually learning about each region on the ground and can guide our clients to the best approach, live as trends appear, and react in real-time. This is critical with today’s 24/7 news cycle – which became the norm for PR professionals to contend with in 2020 – and with many channels and platforms to monitor.
Adopt a localised approach by partnering with experts
2020 was also the year we won PRN’s largest account, Western Digital Corporation, starting with representing the company in 18 countries. This year, we have expanded our work in Africa, which is directed by the PRN Hub in the UK. To increase efficiencies in Africa, fine-tune the output and further develop a robust local presence quickly, we opted to use in-country experts working in native languages. We have found this approach to be most successful in building client profiles over the past 17 years.
A sustainable business model must also now be based on green principles
Finally, as a virtual agency with no office, no staff travelling to work, and most meetings being 100% virtual, it means we have a very low carbon footprint.
From a business strategy perspective, we feel comfortable knowing that we can scale while having a comparatively minimal impact on the planet. As we focus on the green agenda in November for COP27, sustainability in business has never been more important.
It’s also increasingly important for clients and employees to see their agency has strong ethics, demonstrated through B-Corp or other statuses.
Green credentials and balancing profit alongside people and the planet are key aspects to consider when looking at the optimum structure for a progressive, sustainable business in 2023.