Boston PR Agency Requests On the Rise

Public relations programs have long been in vogue when money is tight. A PR agency typically can fill multiple holes in a company’s marketing team for a lot less money when compared to advertising.  So it should come as no surprise that PR is one of the first areas to make a comeback when economic conditions approve.

And improvement seems to finally be here.  In the past two weeks, Cercone Brown has received more new business inquiries than any period in recent memory.  Granted, we’ve been very fortunate during this downturn.  In fact, through hard work and creativity, CBC had one of its best years in 2009.  But that’s a subject for a different post.

If RFPs, requests for meetings and general tire kicking is any indication, client-side spending is making a comeback.  And though CBC is does not specialize in Boston PR (our clients are mostly national brands that are scattered across the USA), a many of these requests cite the Boston area as key to success.  Also interesting is the make up of the inquiries: only one is replacing an existing agency.  Several are overseas companies launching in the U.S. (China, New Zealand), and all target consumers (not B2B).

Social media is the other common theme, as expected.  But what may be surprising is that each and every company puts a premium on traditional media relations.  They want magazines, national TV, local press…the whole gamut. Seems the rumors of the death of traditional media are overstated (at least for now.)

We’ll keep you updated on how we do with these proposals.  In fact, we’ve quietly added a good number of new clients in 2010 that we’ve yet to announce (Orvis, Dr. Kracker, Green Mountain Coffee to name a few). But for now, the good news is that the spending seems to be on the uptick, and that’s great news for everyone.