• Public Relations
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PR Planning for the Year Ahead - Retainer or Project, you choose?

KEY to optimising your company’s PR plans for the year ahead is, of course, choosing the right agency for your business, but also agreeing the best structure of your PR contract. The world of PR has changed dramatically over the past ten years with more demands on businesses and a much more flexible approach required by agencies to respond to these challenges. At RNN Comms, we offer a fluid model for clients, both in terms of resourcing your business, the best model for your business and billing, which can be in sterling or euro.

Outlining the differences to each model is the simplest way to identity which PR structure is best suited to your business.

Retainer clients: This is the PR industry’s bread and butter and is the most popular choice for clients. Here’s why:

• Monthly time / resource allocation dedicated to your business
• Dedicated point of contact including Director
• Strategic comms planning and ongoing awareness of your company / business / products / services
• On-call services / crisis management
• Flexibility in terms of planning and priorities
• Exclusivity within your market
• Best agency rates based on volume of business

Why choose retainer? If your PR & Comms requirements don’t have a specific start and finish date, if there’s a body of work identified or ongoing stories / multiple project work.

If you want to get the most from your agency - retainer models work. Like in many scenarios, the more we know your business, the more productive the relationship is in terms of horizon scanning, identifying opportunities, managing threats, ideation and delivering real value to the business.

Project clients: Growing in demand is project work. Here’s an example of the type of comms activities suited to project work:

• Campaigns with a start / end date
• Launch projects
• One-off stories
• Addressing a specific problem within a business
• Working to smaller budgets

Multiple Projects: When working with a client on a multiple project basis throughout the year, the agency team has the benefit of knowledge and learnings from previous campaigns but as project work is billed at a slightly higher rate, it would be more beneficial for the client to plan this out at the start of the year, and work with the agency to develop a retainer model that maximises budget, is well planned and has a dedicated resource.

Often clients start as ‘project clients’ but once they understand the benefit and value that a strategic comms and PR agency can deliver for their business, their model of choice becomes ‘retainer’.

Get in touch for more info on which model is best suited to your business! #RetainerExplainer