By Cassy van Eeden

As a result of this shift, PR agencies have had to adapt in one of two ways to remain relevant: either they provide an all-encompassing, 360-degree array of services or they make use of outside parties.

Leave it to the professionals

By outsourcing some of the services that their clients require, PR agencies are able to create a project-specific team of specialists.

“Outsourcing allows an integrated PR firm like ours to pull in the best-of-breed,” says Monica Braganca, Johannesburg business director for marcusbrewster. “This is central to our company vision about delivering the best.”

Kerry Seymour, CEO of Splash PR, says that outsourcing means “that we are able to select the best suppliers for each project we have so that we don’t copy and paste from one project to the next”.

“I don’t believe that clients are necessarily looking to work with one agency for a full 360-degree approach,” says Braganca. “I think clients want to know that their agency is able to pull that ‘super team’ together for them.”

As Andre Fourie, strategic communication director at marcusbrewster explains, there is currently a culture of collaboration in the PR industry which is being driven, in particular, by Millennials. “Letting everyone do what they do best whilst working together toward a common goal is the current best practice,” he says.

Saving time and money

Why employ someone fulltime for the sake of having an in-house service when they will only be needed to work on specific projects?

Michelle Govender, managing director of Brightspark Communications, explains that the agency’s need for photography and videography services is “very project-based”. “There is no need for a dedicated in-house resource. Also, it saves hugely on salaries when it’s project-based.”

Seymour notes: “It reduces our risk of having too many fulltime staff who are not kept busy when we don’t need a particular service.”

Managing director of Clockwork Media, Tom Manners, says his company outsources videography as it is an art which takes “time, experience and money” to pull off successfully. “We’ve found that outsourcing this element to professional teams works best.”

“I don’t have sufficient on-going work to warrant employing another person,” says Shirley Williams of Shirley Williams Communications. A further plus, explains Williams, is that “you only pay when you need work done”.

The downside

Although outsourcing and collaboration is effective, it is not without its faults.

Govender explains that often suppliers are equally as busy as the agency is. This means that the company will have to seek out another supplier in a short space of time.

Seymour agrees: “Our suppliers are not dedicated to us, so there are times when we need them and they are not available.”

Another shortfall with outsourcing is that outside suppliers and freelancers will often not know the client well. “Freelancers just don’t have the longevity and [a] legacy [of] understanding that permanent staff do."

Do you outsource any of the services you provide? What has your experience been with outsourcing? Let us know in the comments below.