Biz made the PR performance top for Romania
Romanian magazine Biz, together with Unlock Market Research, unveiled the PR performance top in Romania, based on collecting and analyzing more indicators like financial performances of the agencies and on their image among companies which pay for communication services.
With the research, Biz and Unlock aimed for a PR performance top, in which performance was measured in terms of financial performance accumulated from more business indicators and the performance as resulted from the perception of companies who pay for PR services.
According to the study, the top 20 most performant PR agencies in Romania looks as it follows:
The top resulted from correlating equally 2 tops, a top of business performance and a top of agencies’ performance from clients’ perspective. The business performance top was based on turnover in 2013 (33%), total amount of fees cashed in last year (33%), agency’s profitability (17%) and business increase rate in 2013 versus 2012 (17%). The second top was based on clients’ answers and analyzed, on one side, the 4 frequently used dimensions in evaluating PR agencies’ activity (analysis capacity – 27%, implementation capacity – 27%, creativity – 25%, reporting capacity – 21%) and, on the other side, clients’ perception over satisfaction, recommendation and performance of the agencies they worked with. For the study, questionnaires were sent to around 400 marketing, PR and communication managers from local and multinational companies that use the services offered by PR agencies.
Most of respondents (51%) worked during they entire career with maximum 3 PR agencies. The average number of agencies managers in companies worked with is 4. Most of respondents have over 6 years of experience in communication (84%).
The study was made between July and September 2014 and considered the financial data reported by PR agencies for 2013. A total of 36 PR agencies active on Romanian market were analyzed, with them entering the study by filling in a form and providing info like the names of shareholders, management team, turnover, profit, fees cashed in from consultancy services, team of consultants, clients’ portfolios, awards won in 2013, age average and experience in the field of their team members.
PR agencies bet many times on creativity but, when evaluating agency’s activity, clients mainly and equally appreciate analysis (27%) and implementation (27%) capacity and just after that the creativity (25%) and reporting (21%), which shows clients care more about the objectively measurable dimensions.
As resulted following the research, out of the 36 PR agencies that participated to the study, most work independently, without being affiliated to a Romanian or international communication group, with Romanians being their shareholders. Accumulated, the analyzed agencies run total businesses worth Euro 30M and have teams that, reunited, count over 500 people (400 are consultants in communication, the average age is 30 y.o and the average experience in communication is 7.5 years). Also, more than a quarter of the agencies never won a prize in specialized competitions or state they don’t participate to such events
Golin Romania is the agency that is the leader of 2014’s top of most performant PR agencies in Romania. Active under Golin Romania since summer, after a global rebranding, the agency is part of Lowe Group and, internationally, is affiliated to Golin Worldwide and is network’s first office in CEE. The agency was founded in 2006, as Lowe PR, than transformed in Golin Harris (2011). The agency has a team of 37 employees and is headed by Hortensia Nastase as Managing Partner since agency’s founding, together with Monica Botez (Partner, Head of Corporate Division) and Alina Balan (Head of Consumer Division). Golin Bucharest works with 29 permanent clients and 16 clients per project. In 2013, it lost 3 clients and won 25 others.
In PR, more relevant than turnover is another indicator, the fee income, namely the money cashed in for consultancy services or, more exact, the income which remains within the PR agency that aren’t related to the money coming from projects connected to the communication activities.
Although PR agencies are reluctant in unveiling their fee incomes, the situation saw a positive development for this year’s top compared to last year. In 2013, just 16 from the total 50 PR agencies included in the top unveiled their fee income while this year, 26 out of 26 accepted to provide the info. In percentages, the fees vary from 25% to 98% or even 100% from the total business turnover in 2013.
According to the study, the most notorious PR professional in Romania is, for the 2nd year in a row, Ioana Manoiu, Managing Partner GMP PR.
Note: This material used information and data first published by Biz Magazine