Shared objectives equal shared successes in PR
What makes a strong relationship between a client and their PR agency? Of course it helps when personalities gel, but it’s just as important to establish very clear guidelines and targets from the start. In our view, achieving shared goals is the key to making client and agency build high levels of trust – and perform at their very best.
That’s because it’s human nature to want to do great work and feel motivated: an antagonistic, task-oriented relationship does nothing to inspire either client or agency. Indeed, relationships between client and agency become sub-optimal and eventually break down when common objectives are not agreed and a blame culture takes over.
So how does Citigate Dewe Rogerson collaborate with its clients to establish the ground rules that lead to shared success? These are some of the first steps that we always work through:
Establish a regular schedule of face to face meetings as well as calls: direct communication engenders more trust and ideas exchange than remote discussion- Hold joint creative sessions so that ideas and business objectives are shared from the start: PR should always support commercial imperatives
- Ensure that there’s a deep understanding by the agency of the pressures faced by their clients: this will help to put behaviour into the correct context
- Check that the client has a detailed and accurate picture of what is achievable in terms of time, budget and media appetite: setting false expectations can only result in disappointment
- Understand that every relationship is different: respect the personality and culture of the client and recognise that relationships can never be commoditised
- Put the right people in the team to ensure a good fit and that all areas of capability are addressed: don’t be afraid to review this on a regular basis
- Show the client that you can work well with other agencies from complementary disciplines – marketing, advertising, sponsorship – rather than taking a defensive stance and seeing other agencies as a threat