Budgets Up and New Business Levels High for Global PR Community

ICCO Trends Barometer results for Q2 2013

Summary

The ICCO Trends Barometer for Q2 2013 continued to paint a positive picture of the global PR industry, with client budgets up, new business levels high, and progress being made on over-servicing. Consultancy heads continue to be optimistic about the future.

 

The International Communications Consultancy Organisation’s quarterly barometer of PR agencies performance revealed an overall positive outlook for the global industry. It also showed that most agencies have a formal digital policy in place, even where only a relatively small amount of their work is digital or integrated with digital.

 

Results

500_graph1

Six out of ten respondents indicated that their clients’ budgets had remained stable in the second quarter of the year. In contrast with Q1, more respondents had seen an increase in budget (24%) than had seen a decrease (16%).

500_graph1

Nearly seven out of ten (68%) respondents reported ‘busy’ or ‘very busy’ levels of new business, an improvement of 3 points from Q1.

500_graph3

Over-servicing continued to increase in Q2, but at a significantly lower rate than in the previous quarter. 26% of respondents reported an increase, down from 46% in Q1.

500_graph4

Overall, respondents continue to be optimistic for their consultancies’ future, though almost a quarter (24%) are less optimistic than they were, an increase of 4 points on Q1.

Digital

This quarter, we asked some additional questions to get more insight into the way agencies worldwide approach the question of digital integration.

500_graph5

A clear majority of respondents (62%) indicated that their consultancy has a formal digital strategy. 30% said that they did not have a formal digital strategy; and 8% indicated that a digital strategy was not relevant to their business.

500_graph6

​Only a quarter (24%) of respondents reported that more than half of their work for clients was digital or integrated with digital. Over a third of respondents said that 20% or less of client work is digital.

55_3753“These are very encouraging figures. ICCO’s Q2 barometer shows a confident, positive industry, with growing client budgets and healthy new business pipelines.

It also shows that even where agencies undertake relatively little digital work, they have digital plans in place – a sign that they are planning for the challenges of the future.”
Francis Ingham, ICCO Executive Director
twitter
Boilerplate

ICCO is the voice of public relations consultancies around the world. The ICCO membership comprises national trade associations in 28 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. Collectively, these associations represent over 1,700 PR firms.

ICCO Announces New Official Recruitment Partner

The leading international recruitment company Capstone Hill is named as ICCO’s new official partner

Summary

ICCO is an international trade body for the PR agencies who are represented through their national associations in 28 countries. We work with a small number of carefully chosen companies that provide services to PR firms worldwide, and welcome our new partner Capstone Hill Search.

 

The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) today announced Capstone Hill Search (Capstone Hill) as its new recruitment partner.

Capstone Hill is to become the first official recruitment partner of ICCO, providing recruitment best practice and advice to all ICCO member associations worldwide and their affiliated agencies. Capstone Hill will be also present as Sponsors at the ICCO Summit, which is set to take place in Paris on 10-11 October 2013.

 

500_capstonehilllogo

About Capstone Hill Search Ltd

Capstone Hill Search Ltd is a specialist search and selection consultancy, founded and led by Public Relations and recruitment industry experts. Their belief is that the public relations and communications industry is highly specialised and requires significant industry knowledge and contacts in order to be supported efficiently in respect of search and selection.

They service the PR and Communications industry in the UK, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

 

jamiemclaughlinphoto

“We see our relationship with the ICCO as the perfect partnership, reflecting the globalisation of the Communications market. Increasingly we see clients and candidates alike looking beyond borders to fulfil talent demands and career ambitions. Consequently we continue to grow our international network and broaden our market presence. Working closely with the ICCO will be of huge benefit to our customers.”
Jamie McLaughlin, Managing Director, Capstone Hill Search
Linkdin

 

55_3753
“We are delighted to welcome Capstone Hill as recruitment partners. Their professionalism, commitment to excellence and knowledge of the global PR jobs market perfectly complements ICCO’s ethos and international positioning.”
Francis Ingham, ICCO Executive Director
twitter
Boilerplate

ICCO is the voice of public relations consultancies around the world. The ICCO membership comprises national trade associations in 28 countries across the globe in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. Collectively, these associations represent over 1,700 PR firms

ICCO and PressPage Announce Partnership

The International Communications Consultancy Organisation chooses PressPage as the preferred supplier of newsroom technology

Summary

ICCO is the voice of public relations consultancies around the world, representing 1,700 PR firms in 28 countries. The partnership with PressPage will see the ICCO website fully equipped with a virtual press room that will become a hub for all of the organisation’s press releases, blogs and multimedia.

The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) today announced a partnership with PressPage, an international provider of online newsroom technology.

The partnership will see the ICCO website fully equipped with a virtual press room that will become a hub for all of the organisation’s press releases, blogs and multimedia. Connected with ICCO’s Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts, the online newsroom will provide a full channel integration that will facilitate the way ICCO communicates with the public.

500_logo_presspage

About PressPage

PressPage is the leading content-sharing-platform technology provider for social newsrooms, virtual press centres, and online media hubs; enabling today’s most engaging brands to become tomorrow’s best publishers.

Their technology is uniquely designed to add workflow efficiency and distribution effectiveness; allowing brands to tell an engaging and optimised online story that is published                                                                                      straight into the search and social worlds.

 

 

David Gallagher

“PR agencies these days use a variety of tools to promote their content – the old-fashioned press release is dead. As the trade body for PR agencies we do not only have to understand these trends, but to follow them too, and I am glad that ICCO is now equipped with the latest communications technology with the help of PressPage.”
David Gallagher, ICCO President; Senior Partner and CEO EMEA of Ketchum
twitter  Linkdin
55_3812

“We are delighted with this partnership. With the PressPage technology, agencies will be able to add immediate value to the way they service their clients, as well as to their own way of communicating. The ICCO newsroom will serve as a perfect example of how PressPage can be used as a news and blog page.”
Bart Verhulst, Co-founder and CEO of PressPage
twitter  Linkdin
Boilerplate

ICCO is the voice of public relations consultancies around the world. The ICCO membership comprises national trade associations in 28 countries across the globe in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. Collectively, these associations represent over 1,700 PR firms.

As women increasingly outperform men, is feminism becoming irrelevant?

Guest blog post by Sally Costerton, Founder of Sally Costerton Advisory Limited

For many years the idea of feminism and equality have been largely synonymous. Indeed Wikipedia defines a feminist as someone one who “advocates or supports the rights and equality of women”.

​In an excellent recent article, Spectator Editor Fraser Nelson  suggested that this concept is coming apart.  He opined that with the success of young women at all levels of education and in the workplace, we may be seeing a long term trend where the ‘British economy will become feminised and utterly transformed’. As well as outperforming boys in at school, girls are now the majority of University graduates and women in the 22-30 age- bracket are paid more than their male equivalents.

It is reasonable to assume that  these young women might wish to settle down and have children with men their intellectual and social equals, but if this trajectory continues there will not be enough suitable men to go round. Successful women will be faced with the choice of either not having children or “trading down” to find a father for their children. This raises the interesting prospect of the equality debate going the other way.

Throughout my 25 years in the PR industry, women have always greatly outnumbered men in all levels below the Boardroom where the relationship is almost completely inverted.

The industry is typically almost entirely a graduate profession and remains a very popular choice with high performing graduates. When I ran H&K we had hundreds of highly qualified applicants for our graduate entry scheme often with two or more degrees, several languages and various exotic hobbies to hire from. And all that for 18 grand a year. So our industry should be a leading indicator of the trend Nelson is identifying.

Rather depressingly, over my quarter century the paltry amount of senior women seems to have barely shifted. We have hardly been standard bearers for the equality agenda – let alone a feminist one. Maybe these women could afford not to return to work after having children. Or perhaps their husbands were not prepared to face the perceived stigma of being the primary child carer. My experience (primary bread winner, flexible supportive husband) was rare ten years ago when we decided to role reverse.  It felt like a difficult choice for us both. Now society seems much less judgemental, and I am happy to see far more couples making this choice.

But logically, despite the carnage of the child bearing years which typically see a worrying chunk of talented women leave the industry, the preponderance of bright motivated women who either have no children or who are the primary bread winner should lead to at least equality in the boardroom. It will be interesting to see whether if  in the next 10-15 years women reach the top of the industry to the degree that their number and talents deserve.

And on their own terms, not solely by making typically ‘male’ choices.  If so, we will not really have moved at all on the feminist agenda, although the equality debate may be deemed to be over.

Boilerplate

This article originally appared on Sally Costerton’s personal blog “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: A Survivor’s Guide”

PR Industry Titans to Speak at ICCO Summit 2013

London, 8 July 2013 – The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) today announced that registration is open for its biannual Summit for PR agency professionals. The event will take place on 10-11 October 2013 in Paris, and will feature top industry leaders and thinkers from around the world discussing issues and trends affecting the public relations practice.

 “Change or Perish: The Future of PR”

The PR industry currently faces a transformational period, with many challenges coming from the rapid expansion of digital, the convergence of channels, the growth of competitors, and new opportunities and threats coming from earned, paid and owned media. The goal of the Summit is to provide delegates with insights into how industry leaders have set out to combat these challenges, and to educate them on what future trends will determine the look of the PR profession.

Among the highlights of the Summit is the “Agency of the Future” panel discussion between agencies who have recently restructured their operations. Moderated by Paul Holmes, Editor-in-Chief of The Holmes Report, the discussion will feature presentations by GolinHarris International CEO Fred Cook and Fleishman-Hillard CEO Dave Senay.

Lord Chadlington, CEO of Hunstworth plc, will deliver his keynote on 11th October, and will be joined by heads of the biggest independent agencies in Brazil, Russia, India and China for a panel discussion afterwards.

The Summit will take place in a luxury conference venue in the centre of Paris, and will include a garden cocktail event and gala dinner in honour of the French Public Relations Association Syntec, which celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year.

Complete information and online registration are available on the summit website, www.iccosummit.org, and participants booking before 10 August 2013 are eligible for a discounted, “early bird” rate. Gala Dinner registration will be announced shortly.

 

55_3753

“This is the highlight of the global PR calendar, with the world’s most powerful agency heads speaking. If you are serious about PR, you’ve got to be there!”
Francis Ingham, ICCO Executive Director
twitter
Boilerplate

The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) is the voice of public relations consultancies around the world. The ICCO membership comprises national trade associations in 28 countries across the globe in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. Collectively, these associations represent over 1,700 PR firms.