PR Week publishes 2007 PR agency survey

PR Week has published its 2007 survey on PR agencies, based on the highest fee income earners.

(Unfortunately PR Week has a subscriber only website so I cannot link through).

London PR agencies dominate as you would expect. North West PR agencies are represented although whether they are well-represented is hard to say. A number of agencies including Mason Williams and Paver Smith declined to supply fee income figures and this must apply to agencies throughout the country. Good on you.

Now, any survey in the PR industry is going to be controversial and the usual round of useful insights and denunciations will follow.

There is no survey that really satisfies the agencies or helps clients choose their supplier, that has to be based on personal rapport, enthusiasm, skill, experience and understanding of the clients' business and aims.

We have to say fee income does not necessarily mean better service. Smaller agencies and freelancers can offer very high levels of service and can often be a better option than larger outfits. Indeed, many smaller clients cannot afford big agency fees or often there is not the "fit" with a bigger supplier.

I came across some interesting comments on the 2006 PR Week survey that claim all is not as rosy in the PR garden as the 2007 income based surveys suggest:

• 44% of PR agencies just break even.
• Agencies with the healthiest net worth just have £100,000 i.e. in the bank and so a loss of a few clients could be catastrophic
• Fee income risers still have poor pre-tax margins

The author of the comments Andrew B Smith states that a league table based on net worth / profitability would be much more useful, but who is going to supply those figures?