How can a communications agency be sooo bad at communicating? If you can answer this question I will send you my favorite New York hand made chocolates. Seriously?! We hired a PR agency to promote a recent event. Now, everyone knows that PR agencies are worse than politicians when it comes to false pitches. At least with politicians you have a chance to vote them out after a few years, ignore them because they ignore you, or at least try to start a scandal so they get kicked out of office...but with a PR agency your bound by contract. Let's start from the beginning.
My boss's friend recommended this PR agency to me (clue number one). They had done an amazing job with other events (supposedly) and talked talked talked about their clients - but they didn't have a brag book and sent us online to see their outdated website (clue number two). Their vice president of sales is a twenty-four year old former Lizzie Grubman intern who can't seem to ever find her way out of our elevator (clue number three). Now, I occasionally play softball during the summer and you would think that with three strikes they would be out of the ball game...instead I willingly walked up to the plate and gently threw them ball - again. They then proceeded to miss and hit me in the head with a steel bat. Ouch.
Through the entire party planning process I had to harass them for information and status reports on where they were with sponsors for the event. I had to explain clauses in contracts that they worked on. And here's the real kicker. I had to request a list and clippings from the press placements that they managed to scramble together after the event. You would think a PR agency would be happy about the photos/mentions they managed to get a client especially if it's in US, People, Page Six, Life & Style, the Daily News, and the New York Times. Maybe they didn't want to send the clippings because they realized they spelled our name wrong in the tip sheet they sent out to these journalists (yes, yes they did).
If I were my boss I would fire me for listening to my boss and hiring them. Unfortunately I'm not my boss and I'm stuck with this agency for another three months - damn contract retainers! So what now (besides attempting to get sick so that I can take a leave of absence)? Deal with it. First, I've managed to sweet talk the assistant into patching me through to the publicist every time he won't answer the phone because he sees my number. I've also finally, and I mean finally, managed to get them to send me information in a word document and not just in the form of a choppy blackberry message. These are big steps.
We have another event next week and I just got back from scouting a venue (yes, it is 10 o'clock at night). It's supposed to be low key - 100 people, very specific target, easy set-up/break down. Let's see how much damage they can do in a week.
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2 comments:
Please do not attempt to put all PR professionals into the same category.
PR agencies have a tough job. Every client expects Oprah or Page 6. Granted, it does sound like you hired a dud, but do not claim to have hired the typical agency when you clearly hired a bunch of amateurs.
PR agencies do have a tough job, it's all about relationships for these people. My apologies if you feel like I'm creating a pigeon hole for PR professionals, but if you have a recommendation on who I should hire then please do let me know. I would love to blog on a great PR experience. As for Oprah or Page 6, I didn't expect these placements...but if you're going to get my events placed then please do spell our name correctly.
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