Some time back, we went for a pitch to a particular company and it turned out that the client knew every top people in the PR industry, including everybody at our headquarters. ‘How much budget do you have for a PR campaign?’ ‘Don’t worry about that. I will have it fixed with your headquarters.’ ‘We need at least 7-10 days for developing the plan’. ‘No. No. I need the plan day after. No delay after that at all. I will call your headquarters and I will make sure they will do the arrangements’. We went back to office, did a quick discussion, and called back, ‘We cannot handle this account. You can tell headquarters about it.’

A company wanted to sign up a particular agency. They liked the credentials, its plan, and everything was in place, except for one thing. The feedback about the company from the agency’s market survey turned out bad. No payment to vendors in time. The senior managements unimaginably treat PR as a press coverage department. The agency decided to let go of the account.

A client always wanted to talk to the top people in a PR agency, is never satisfied with any coverage, and there are faults galore with the agency. The threats kept coming - perform or perish. The top boss at the agency finally decided to meet the client. His reply to the client was – ‘Sack us if you will, but please don’t continue giving threats’. There was no sacking and the client relationship had improved drastically ever since, I heard.

These are some instances that have been happening with the PR industry I have come across recently. Should I assume that 5 years back, this couldn’t have happened? A retainer fee was everything. Now that is not enough. PR agencies are coming of age, and big ones particularly are setting the standards for the industry. Just as the clients say, there is no dearth of agencies; the agencies today say there is no dearth of clients. They want to handle only those companies that see genuine strength and believe in PR, are ethical and practice fair play with partner companies. Five years later, our clients will see what we are upto. A company refused by 3-4 agencies will have a tale to tell.

There are others. Some time back, an upcoming spa in Delhi signed up an agency, made the agency toil for 6 months – all of the pre launch, launch of its spa, and the post launch PR – and finally decided to blame the agency saying it had not been working satisfyingly. The spa company did not release the retainer fee due - all of six months. Seems like they figured out that the agency has not been performing, at the end of everything, after six months. Now they will invite for another pitch. The top agencies will drain their brains out and they will select the best. The cycle will go on, until somebody stands up, again.