This month, I spoke to David Casey from North West Business Insider all about how important PR is during a recession. David spoke to several of the regions high profile agencies and excerpts of his interview are below:

“Measuring the true impact of a public relations campaign is an issue PR practitioners have grappled with for years. All manner of methods can be used to calculate return on investment, from counting column inches, to comparing editorial coverage with the cost of buying equivalent advertising space, but demonstrating the
value of PR to clients can be tricky.

But providing such accountability is imperative in the current climate. Although empirical evidence indicates that increasing spend in a recession can improve market share, clients need to see that their investment will generate a tangible return, otherwise budgets could be cut altogether.

Brian Beech, joint managing director of Biss Lancaster in Manchester, says: “If PR is just frothy stunts and unfocused corporate entertainment, it should be cut, but real PR is much more than that. As Microsoft’s Bill Gates once said: ‘If I was down to the last dollar of my marketing budget, I’d spend it on PR.’”
PR is vital for getting banks, funders and shareholders on side; communicating with staff and customers; and building relationships with third parties such as analysts, journalists and MPs, says Beech.

It’s a sentiment echoed by Jennifer O’Grady, founder of Democracy PR in Manchester, who says a communication void is never good for a business, and, in recession, can breed greater fear and damage the trust investors and customers have in a company or product.
“PR is a cost-effective solution for companies that want to maintain relationships with key stakeholders,” she says. “A small budget in the hands of a skilled practitioner can deliver an exceptional return on investment – from headline-grabbing national news to highly targeted e-newsletters.”

While the short-term budgetary gains of cutting PR are appealing, allowing a company to divert spend into other areas, the long-term impact may mean all investment to date is wasted effort . . . .

To read the full story, pick up a copy of this months North West Business Insider.