PR fee decided by measurement….

It was great to see Michael Bland in print, in this weeks PR Week, talking about payment by results. This has proved a hot topic ever since a couple of PR grandees decided to launch their own agency on the revolutionary basis of ‘no win, no fee’. By referring to win, there is the implication that there need to be some achievable and finite result deemed either success or failure. In many professional areas this is not a problem; in PR this is.

Adrian Wheeler and Christopher Broadbent (behind Agincourt Communications) say they will only take on projects where the finishing line is identifiable and progress measurable, ie getting a planning application passed. Michael Bland says that this could work, but only in a small number of instances. I have to agree with him that PR is one element of mix of activities leading to an inexact and often subjective outcome.

Whilst Adrian and Christopher have been around long enough to know what type of projects their costing structure can work on, the worry is that others could try to apply it to all sorts of eventualities, or even that clients submit briefs demanding this style of charging, with the research supporting the charging mechanism. Definitely one application media evaluation was never designed to support!