Payment By Results – A Great Idea In Principle …

The issue of payment by results has been a hot topic among the PR fraternity for some time now. Of course PR agents have to be accountable and we must be able to demonstrate the value we bring to our client's businesses. At Pilotmax we work to clear objectives agreed with our clients and provide a range of evaluation services. However, personally I am still unconvinced of the real benefit to either client or agency of payment by results.

I believe a good agency shouldn't need to be incentivised to do great work for its clients. Furthermore, if you are going to adopt payment by results, how do you set targets that are fair to both parties?

PR differs from all other marketing disciplines in two ways: Firstly, we work with third parties i.e. the media, who have their own agenda; news stories can be dropped, features cut down, insertion dates changed or pieces chopped out altogether. Secondly, PR requires the active participation of the client and the extent to which they participate can influence the effectiveness of the campaign.

Given these external influencing factors, it is not possible to absolutely guarantee anything, which is why payment based purely on outcome has to be flawed.

Also targeting based solely on amount of coverage secured disregards the potential and relative values of the media providing the coverage. Not all media are of equal weight and reach, not all pieces of coverage get the right messages across clearly, so to evaluate purely on the amount of coverage does not show anything like the true picture. In fact, this approach may encourage an imbalance in coverage, what happens if the agency achieves its target before the campaign ends - does it simply stop work?

If a payment by results system were to be workable and fair it would need to take into consideration a whole range of elements: quality of coverage (content and media); extent of communication of key messages; quality of output from the agency; service levels; changes in audience perception and behaviour and the extent of client participation, to name just a few.

The variables influencing the success of a campaign are many and complex. By all means evaluate, that's vital for both agency and client in assessing the effectiveness of the campaign, but I'd advise keeping this process separate from remuneration issues.

By: Jane Herbert

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Written by Jane Herbert. Jane has nearly 20 years experience in public relations and is managing director of PR agency Pilotmax