Talking Point: Clarity begins at home
The Midlands has got talent… so why not use it? Liz Cartwright, managing director of PR firm Cartwright Communications, asks the question.
We were pitching for some work locally recently when during the process, we were asked why the company should choose us and not a London agency. I was perplexed. The company was Yorkshire-based and its clients are scattered throughout Yorkshire and the Midlands… and yet, they seemed to think that a London PR agency may be able to work more magic than a local one.
So, I said what I would always say: there are some excellent London agencies, but do you really need one?
It's no secret that London has historically been thought as the core of the media industry. While the likes of Nottingham, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds have made significant strides in playing catch up with their rivals in the big smoke, there has still been something of a misconception about London elitism, particularly within the PR sector.
I believe there's no question that on a regional level, the PR pack more than hold their own. This week, Nottingham-based Cartwright Communications has picked up a London client – because of our excellent knowledge nationally, and in the regions.
Quite often regional businesses are dazzled by the London PR agencies; they're down where the action is – and where the journalists from national titles are. So it makes sense to use a London agency, right?
Actually, no it doesn't. Regional agencies know the regional stories – and also have excellent relationships with the journalists that can matter most. And just because we’re an agency in Nottingham, it doesn't mean that we don't know the education reporter on the Guardian – or a business journalist on the Times, or just the right person to speak to on the Estates Gazette.
On the contrary in fact. When it comes to building up excellent contacts with national journalists, regional agencies can more than hold their own. Just this week, I have teed up four interviews in Nottingham with a visiting journalist based in London – lured by the offer of great stories, and an enthusiastic PR agency which knows exactly what he wants to write about.
It's my belief that London agencies can struggle with the regions. In my previous life as a journalist, when on the Nottingham Post newsdesk, we would regularly get PR execs from London agencies touting stories happening in Manchester. Manchester? Not really, I'd say, its two-and-a-half hours away. I could almost hear the PR reaching for a map…. I also think London PRs can often be out of touch with local news.
Turning up to the PR launch of a new car in Birmingham won't ever appear on a news list – especially when there have been 500 redundancies announced at a local firm.
The economic downturn has brought a need for value for money, and there is no doubt that PR agencies within the M25 are more expensive. In Nottingham, the cost of staff, rent and general business expenses are lower, and Cartwright Communications is able to pass on those savings to clients directly.
I know a business in Sheffield which signed up with a London agency and was shocked to find they would have to pay the first class train travel for two PR managers to travel to Yorkshire from their office in the capital.
But there are more than just financial reasons. Like the London agencies, regional ones have the skills. Many agencies I know across the Midlands boast a list of business clients – in London. Let's also mention PR professionals. With property prices sky-rocketing in London, talented PRs are moving out – and looking around the shires.
You could say there has been a skills migration and regional PR agencies are benefiting from this.
As an agency, we are in London almost every week, speaking to potential clients, journalists, contacts… Train travel is easy and cheap and we can be at St Pancras in a jiffy. But let's not forget conference calls and Skype - the communications challenges between client and agency are virtually irrelevant and are driving cost effective PR.
PR is historically first to go when budgets are being cut. But Cartwright Communications has discovered over the last three months that big brands are not so afraid of turning north for their PR needs, and this is a trend that we expect to continue as word of the great work we do spreads throughout the industry.
