As a smaller PR agency we are certainly biased when thinking about the theme of this article we reached out and asked our clients, in-house PR professionals, about their experiences and PRO’s & CON’s about working with smaller PR agency vs. bigger PR agency.

Smaller PR Agency

+ Have more detailed local shopper insight and contact directly with agency’s CEO.
+ Collaboration is quicker and usually more productive.
+ Prices and quality of local sub-vendors are usually better and less expensive.
+ The same team works on the project from pitch to execution.
+ Everybody in the teams knows how to do everything, small agency does more multitasking.
+ Team’s are usually more flexible and go above and beyond agreed workload.
+ Easier to adapt and deliver on a small budget.
+ Value client more.
+ Bring more out-of the box ideas.

– Capacity
– Prepayment might be required

Bigger PR Agency

+ Client has access to bigger number of creative PR people.
+ Client feels more secure to hire global agency who already worked for large clients.
+ With bigger budgets larger agencies can prepay immediate project expenses.

– Quality of PR teams hugely varies from country to country, especially on smaller markets.
– Learning new skills takes longer as everybody specializes in one specific field.
– Much less flexible to adapt to clients budget or specific small market need.
– Different teams present the project vs. those who execute.
– Clients with smaller budgets often get junior team members to work on project so project
execution quality suffers.

Even though each of the listed pro’s and con’s has it’s merits at the end of the day, what matters most are the people. Those people who really know, love and do their job passionately are those who do it exceptionally. This seems to be the rule for both large network and smaller PR agencies.

When we asked our clients about pro’s of the agency they worked with they always named their accounts name and spoke emotionally about what a great job they did.