It's time for PR agencies to regain market share lost to digital!

Today as the PR adapt to the era of digital communications, a lot of agencies face thought competition from digital ones, and struggle to maintain profitability and retain market share lost to digital. Producing one-off online campaigns and digital marketing projects no longer works, proving that PR and marketing agencies need to adapt to new era, and use the right tools in order to regain its position.

Recent statistics show that the digital marketing is gaining bigger market share, while traditional PR and marketing are losing it. Some examples here:

Leading communications groups WPP[i] and Havas[ii] are doing extremely well, with WPP posting a 10 percent increase in full year profits and Havas a respectable nine percent for the same period. In WPP, while the top line growth for PR at 6.2 percent was lower than the advertising and media arm of the business, which posted 12.2 percent revenue growth, PR still increased its profit margin by 0.3 percent to 16.1 percent. WPP reaffirmed its long-term target to improve the staff cost/revenue ratio by 0.3-0.6 percent per annum, with a focus on the application of new technology. For Havas, digital and social media now make up 23 percent of revenue compared to 19 percent in the previous financial year. This is a 20 percent annual growth rate and at this level digital revenues will account for 50 percent of the firm's revenue within four years.

The latest research from Kingston Smith W1[iii] indicates that PR bosses are very optimistic about 2012 with 71 percent predicting greater profits. Perhaps with a greater focus on digital and the application of smart technology, the industry will also be able to rise to the challenge of controlling the cost/revenue while taking back territory from the digital agencies.

Saying that, in the digital age, agencies need to change their mindset from a one-time, one-hit wonder approach and turn every project into an instant global sales opportunity to kick those pesky digital agencies out of their PR field.

That's why Hammerkit is here, giving PR agencies tools to execute online campaigns faster and better with greater global scale, so they can regain market share that they are now losing to the digital. With Hammerkit repeatable solutions, PR agencies can build intelligent web services that are based on a coordinated, connected and collaborative production process, instead of wasting time and efforts on creating new campaigns each time!

[i] Source: WPP FY 2011 Results, 1.3.2012
[ii] Source: Havas FY 2011 Results, 1.3.2012
[iii] Source:”PR Bosses retain 2012 optimisim, finds Kingston Smith”, PRWeek.co.uk