10 January 2025
Which is more important in delivering a PR programme: creativity or consistency?
Well, when most PR agencies are pitching for a new account they are keen to show off their creativity to impress a potential new client.
The big idea, the clever stunts, things that will make you sit up and take notice.
It’s all good stuff and, done well, it will certainly make an impression amongst your target audience.
But there’s something more important that you need to see to be sure your appointed agency will deliver.
It’s not as glamorous or sexy as the creative ideas, but it’s what will make or break your long-term success.
It is consistency.
It’s all well and good having a few high-profile PR stunts spread across the year, but what an effective PR campaign needs is coverage on a regular monthly, weekly basis. You can’t afford to drop off the radar of prospective customers.
You will be forgotten quickly.
A high profile, highly creative campaign will get you noticed, but its afterglow doesn’t last long.
In a day or too, it will be a faded memory.
You have to keep the momentum going.
What’s the next story? How do we make things happen? Who’s going to make sure the PR keeps producing week after week, month after month.
As well as the creative PR campaign ideas you need to be confident that the agency can keep the PR flowing? How will they get across the messages you need to your customers to hear? How good are they at seeking out PR nuggets and turning them into newsworthy stories.? How do they keep the momentum of the account going when everybody (including you) is so busy? Who is responsible for driving the account?
These are the important things that determine if your PR is going to achieve what you want or if it will just flatter to deceive.
So, creativity or consistency?
Ideally, you’d have both, but if I had to choose one or the other it would be consistency every time.
