What is PR worth to you?

Portugal’s cork industry has decided to invest £19 million in PR to promote cork as a better alternative to metal screw-caps on wine bottles.

The UK Government is now promising a cut of £650 million in its spending on marketing and consultancy expenditure.

How do those figures fit with your own PR budget?

I know how they fit with the budgets we manage for our clients – some of the South West’s biggest names in corporate, professional, and business services.

Let’s agree that, like bonuses for bankers, these figures are just “unreal”!

During the height of Maggie Thatcher’s privatisation drive, several PR firms made a “killing” by charging a fortune for full-page adverts in the FT and simplistic calls to “Tell Sid”.

Throughout the past decade, dominated by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Westminster-focused “Spin-doctors” have commanded ludicrous fees, just as questionable as MP expenses for moat-cleaning, home-flipping, and dodgy-dossiers!

But please don’t judge your hard-working, business-focused PR consultants on these extreme episodes.

We charge less than lawyers, we focus on your business-aims, and we deliver results that can be measured to prove the value of your investment.

You only have to ask any of our clients about this claim (or view our testimonials - www.sturgessvandamme.co.uk/content/testimonials )

On average, our clients have an annual PR budget of £30,000: a fraction of the sums spent by the Government – or the Portuguese cork industry. But they get results that vastly exceed that fee level.

Does that reflect your own PR expenditure?