What is the best PR company in Ireland and why? Other q's inside!

The Sweeper

I don't know these days, but it used to be that the Business Post and the Tribune were the ones who'd name and shame the PR companies that had made a dog's breakfast of things that week...

slumped

MinesBIGSLUT - Banned for a week for swearing (ref. dull-as-XXXX)

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Breaking any of these from now on will result in ban.

watersprings

the small ones get equally as cheesed off -I once got a telling off from a Dublin paper called the South City Express..... I was nearly in tears afterwards. Typical girl.. I know.;)

I think I may have said this in an earlier post... but the Connacht Tribune send you back an automated response... in a nutshell saying Yes we got your release and no need to ring us to check!

My attitude towards "ringing to check they got it" is:
1.If they are interested they will use
2. If they want more info or would like to do an interview - your numbers on the bottom!
3. If you call them and ask - Sometimes I would say you are halving your chances...particularly if they are having a bad day!

yamo

i've been a journalist in print and tv for the last six years or so, and consequently have had more than my fair share of dealings with junior and senior pr types. some of them have been good, some have been really, really bad. I've even ended up being really good friends with a few.

It never ceases to amaze me how staggeringly bad some people can be at their job. Press releases that were more like short stories, press releases that (spelling and punctuation wise) looked like they had been put together by just randomly hitting keys on the keyboard, and press releases that were so vague, had so little detail or were so pointless as to be a total waste of time.

the problem with a lot of pr people in Ireland is that they adopt the scattergun approach - email and ring every show, producer, researcher and writer in a radio/tv station or newspaper pitching them a random story. I think there's a need for people going into the industry to do a little bit of research on who does what and where. If you want to sell an item to Sunday Sport - ring RTE Radio Sport, find out who the producer is, get their email address and pitch the story straight to him or her. I guarantee you that you'll get a more favourable response than if you send it to a generic address as well as to all the producers and researchers you can find in RTE. it's not rocket science. Neither is the idea of minding your p's and q's when it comes to spelling and grammar.

for any aspiring pr types out there, I would recommend trying to get some sort of work experience while you're in college, or at the very least, write a few releases for college newspapers or college events. Practice makes perfect, and if you make a hames of a few things in college, such is life. Better to do it then than when you're dealing with reporters, editors and producers on tight deadlines!

if i can be of any help to anyone, feel free to pm me and I'll do my best to point you in the right direction. always glad to help...

jrey1981

This has been one of the most entertaining and informative threads I've read on boards for a long time.

As a lowly freelancer for a sunday broadsheet and a couple of magazines, I haven't had a lot of run-ins with PR people, but the few I've had have been helpful.

It's been interesting reading though, particularly MinesAJD and RogerD.

And as an afterthought, if anyone's interesting in some voluntary PR work, pm me.

twenty8

As someone who has worked in PR for over 10 years - the reaction from a number of journalists really annoys me.

I am lucky enough to work for a lot of very big companies and a lot of the releases that I issue are picked up and used. Sometimes we have to issue releases for reasons other than media pickup and I would never follow them up - you know what is a story and what is not.

You hear loads of stories about journalists eating the head off people who ask about 'did you get the release?' But did you also know that journalists have also eaten the head off people who did not ring and make sure that they got the release. This has happened to me on numberous occasions. This normally happens when a solid release is sent out and it not followed up to some publications. The next day you get a call from the editor ... why did you not send it to me.... I did, sent at x:xx pm.... well I never got it.......it was sent directly to your email..... ehh, well you should have rang me tomake sure that I got it, do you not know how many emails that I get.... oh, ok. Sorry.

There are two sides to the story - not always the PR persons fault. And I am sure that many journalists will admit to you that they are glad that they got a call about some releases as they may have missed it otherwise...

Anyway - just wanted to show the other side of the coin!!

MinesaG&T

Just joined Boards.ie after reading this thread.

I have been working in PR for many years and run my own business (small/medium sized). And practically speaking you have GOT to ring and follow up a story, too bad if it upsets a journo. Many many times I've been asked to re-send press release because they cant find the email, or having problems with email and forward it to provate address etc etc.

A journo for the Examiner couldnt find a release I'd sent and after three attempts we finally got it through to a private email address - the piece was made into a double page feature.

We DON'T charge unfounded fees to clients, and we work damn hard for retainers. Yes we do have to report to clients, just as journos have to account to their editor. Journalists make our life a helluva lot easy when they are civil and give us a "yes I'm interested" or "no not this time" , on the otherside we help journos with providing press releases, stories, experts , pics, profiles etc -it would be a helluva lot harder and messier for the media if there were no PR's.... think about it.

It would be like a world without Simon Cowell, Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh lots of new talent but no one would know about it....

So lets all play nice....

Leon11

MinesaG&T wrote:

It would be like a world without Simon Cowell, Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh lots of new talent but no one would know about it....

So lets all play nice....

I think that would be a perfect world:D

jdivision

I think it should work like this:
Press release gets sent, one phone call made to each journalist. If they don't ring you back it's because they are too busy. Let it go. Don't keep on sending it to them and don't keep ringing them. There are some very good PR people in Dublin but there are some godawful ones too. Same as it is with journos. And the follow up call from a PR person can be important, I missed out on going to an important press conference a few months ago because nobody in work got the email. PR person said three people in the office had been sent it, none got it. Was extremely annoyed afterwards about it.

niceandfriendly

The best pr companies as far as I can see are Fleishman Hillard who are worldwide and have campaigns such as the Olympics campaign and Coca Cola! And Kennedy PR which is an Irish owned company who do PR for Brown Thomas.

As far as a career in PR is concerned I was interested in it but after working as lacky to "celebs" in a "top" irish nightclub I am totally turned off! You either need to buy into or not!

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

Dub6Kevin

Don't just think of agencies. You also need to consider in house PR.

I've worked in both and they are very different animals.

Agencies do need to hustle, are probably a bit more prone to the scatter-gun approach and do, if we're honest sometimes seek to over-sell weak stories in order to be seen to work for their retainers. It is possible to specialise more in an agency so if one is particularly good at crisis management, consumer, event management or whatever it is more likely that it will make up most of your work.

In house practitioners often have to be a jack of all trades and so don't have as many opportunities to specialise. The advantage is, however, that they do get to see the whole picture of a company and how the PR activity is impacting upon the bottom line. They also tend to develop very strong relationships with the media interested in their sector so don't need to resort to the "did you get the release" tactics.

I would advise anyone starting out in the industry to look at both alternatives. It's a question of horses for courses.

TravelJunkie

rogerd wrote: »

Look, much of what has been written here is complete b*****ks. I've been in PR over 20 years, having a couple of degrees under my arm. No journalist experience, no drinking journo buddies, no daddy connected to anything or anybody, worked in three consultancies/agencies, in-house for past 7 years. And I'm earning well over 200k pa. and bloody deserving it too.

Like many in-house PR departments and consultancies, I'm searching for good experienced people right now and like everybody else am having serious hassle finding good people. What we are all looking for are honest, intelligent , hard working guys or gals who are not caught up in this status crap and just want to achieve something in their lives. Where the bloody hell are you?????

If you want to get on in PR, get honest, get hard working, get intelligent and get bloody ambitious. It's a great career and pays very well - but only if you are serious about it and stay away from all the bull****.

I think in-house does cut out the BS. But, not everyone has that luxury. I worked in Agency in Ireland , now inhouse, and I've also worked in international agencies abroad.

You mention honesty and this is what I find differs here from overseas. In my prior career I could be very straight-forward and 'tell it like it is', in Ireland, everything in PR has to be sugar-coated and people/clients/daddies don't like to be contradicted.

Unfortunately, the person who is an honest hardworking individual as you mentioned mightn't get anywhere anyway, because he/she still has to do the networking, shmoozing, and who-knows-who to get anywhere - whether they like it or not.

TutuKaka

Have to say this was a very interesting thread. Lots of experienced contributors willing to give the inside view of the PR industry.

sunshinegirly

I was just wondering if there is a directory of PR companies and what clients they look after. I'm looking for the PR company for SuperValu and Olympus?

Thanks

kevin99

The Sweeper wrote: »

How's this for plausible?

I worked for one of the biggest PR companies in Ireland for a year and a half. I've worked as a journalist in Ireland (admittedly quite some time ago now) in both the trade press and the broadsheet papers.

The PR industry in Ireland is small. You'll discover this when you organise upwards of three photoshoots and realise you use the same two models from Assets for everything you do.

Ireland's daily broadsheet media is comprised of two longstanding papers and a rural sheet with national pretentions. Most of the Sunday papers are generated at the end of massive print-runs in the UK and transported overnight in one of the biggest air-sea operations in Europe.

The only people I ever knew in the Irish PR industry who got somewhere had important daddies, important relatives, important friends or had journalist drinking-buddies in their pockets.

The Irish PR industry panders exclusively to the client's wallet. There is none of this marvellous high-level hoo-ha of "we don't pester journalists if the story doesn't count" - bollocks. Irish PR companies just make damn sure the work experience plebs and the junior account executives do the faxing and the follow-up phonecalls. Just ask any journalist in Ireland how many times a week they get some utterly rubbish "did ye get de press releeese?" phonecall from some 21 year old graduate who thought it was all about parties and pretty shoes.

Markets outside Ireland have a far more broad range of media to appeal to - you can specialise in greater depth; indeed you have to. You can't just hit every publication with a spam of press releases - you have to learn to target specific sectors because otherwise the audience is just too broad.

The only people I ever knew in Irish PR who had successful careers in spite of a lack of important daddies and important pals were sh1t hot at their jobs, and every last one of them had learned their trade in the UK, America or Australia.

Ireland's PR industry, because of its size, is all about who you know. There are arguments that may say that makes it easier for you to get ahead; after all there are fewer people to know.

For me, it's like Christmas - the same sh1te songs every year.

Wake up. In Ireland inc it is not what you know, but who you know.

Rigor Mortis

sunshinegirly wrote: »

I was just wondering if there is a directory of PR companies and what clients they look after. I'm looking for the PR company for SuperValu and Olympus?

Thanks

Jesus this old thread, this was a clanger of a row.

I think Fleishman-Hillard act for SuperValu, they certainly used to. Olympus I havent a notion.

PennyJellies

Geest wrote: »

This is turning into a truly interesting thread! I am reading everything and taking all advice on board guys. Let's keep the ball rolling....

Agreed!

iredia

Hi, I am considering in pursuing a career in PR. I have a background in sales and marketing for a number of years. I am thinking of doing a MA or Postgrad in PR.

Would this be enough to get in to this area?

I've heard employment possibilities in Ireland are few and far between. Which companies do hire?

Are most of the opportunities in Dublin or are they in other parts of the country?

What would be the starting salary even though I have a number of years of sales experience?

What are the career opportunities open to somebody with a MA in PR...could you work in other related areas such as marketing, advertising etc?

Thanks

markesmith

Looking to use a PR company, got a budget of about €60k for a launch in January, hoping to hit radio, press and hopefully TV.

Industry is B2C financial services, new entrant into market.

Can anyone make any recommendations? No touting, of course!

Mighty thread btw

trippyrez

markesmith wrote: »

Looking to use a PR company, got a budget of about €60k for a launch in January, hoping to hit radio, press and hopefully TV.

Industry is B2C financial services, new entrant into market.

Can anyone make any recommendations? No touting, of course!

Mighty thread btw

The two that spring to mind for me would be Q4PR and Drury of the top of my head. Both have strong track records and any dealings I've had with both have been excellent.

Intouch9

I've heard WHPR is quite good too.