Crains New York - February 18, 2013 - (Page 14)
SMALL BUSINESS
Specialty PR firms take on Goliaths
BY EILENE ZIMMERMAN
P
ublic-relations
firm
Spector & Associates
used to represent companies in many different areas, including education,
energy, telecom and financial services. But about two years ago, with
the economy tanking, many of its
clients—particularly in financial
services and energy—began cutting
their public-relations budgets.
“We saw clients bringing their
PR requirements in-house,” said
Elliott Suthers, vice president of the
12-employee company. “We made a
decision that we would stay competitively positioned by focusing on defense, health care and high technology, as these are somewhat immune
to economic ups and downs.”
Those markets made sense geographically, too. “We were seeing a
lot of health care startups and Big
Pharma companies relocating and
expanding in New York City,” Mr.
Suthers said.
Having already done work for
pharmaceutical giants, the firm
made a smooth transition to representing health care startups like
eCaring, one of its newer clients.
“We see a lot of potential on the
back end, as these companies
grow,” Mr. Suthers said, noting that
Spector & Associates is profitable
and its revenue has more than
tripled over the past two years (he
declined to reveal the actual revenue number).
Double-digit growth
Public relations is a $4.2 billion
industry in the U.S., according to a
report in September from investment firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson. It was hit hard by the recession,
but that only added to challenges
brought by a changing media and
communications landscape, according to Matt Shaw, senior vice president of the Council of Public Relations Firms, a trade association.
Becoming more specialized has
helped many PR agencies—especially small ones—compete. As a result, Mr. Shaw said, the industry has
14 | Crain’s New York Business | February 18, 2013
adjusted well: “The recession
slowed things temporarily, but the
past three years have seen doubledigit growth in the U.S., according
to our data.”
A 2012 survey by StevensGouldPincus, a merger and management
consulting
company specializing in PR,
AVERAGE hourly
found
that
billing rate at
billing
rates
financial-publicity
tend to be
firms, 2011
highest among
PR firms focused
on
AVERAGE hourly
sports/enterbilling rate at
tainment,
sports-publicity
health care and
firms, 2011
public affairs.
Source: StevensGouldDukas PubPincus data on flat rates
charged when workers of
lic Relations—
varying seniority levels
participate in a project
which
had
clients in a variety of industries, including the financial sector—began narrowing its
focus to financial services about two
years ago. Now the firm works with
hedge funds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, investment
banks and wealth advisory firms.
“For us, as a small firm aspiring
to be a midsize firm, this is good way
$201
$195
to go—you can’t be all things to all
people,” said Richard Dukas, president of the profitable agency, which
has 16 employees and had about
$3.5 million in revenue last year.“It’s
hard to compete against the Edelmans, Rubensteins and Ruder
Finns of the world if you don’t have
expertise in a particular area. Now
we do compete with large firms and
other specialty firms—and we often
win in finance—because we are experts in that area.”
Round-the-clock service
About two years ago, Ron Gold,
president of Marketing Works, a
public-relations firm with offices in
Manhattan and Long Island, began
focusing more of his company’s resources on the nonprofit arena. He
becomes an integral part of the nonprofit client’s team and makes himself available around the clock.
“A larger firm does not give that
kind of personalized service,” said
Mr. Gold, whose profitable business
has three employees and about
$500,000 in annual revenue.
In two years he’s added 10
clients, mostly nonprofits, largely
through referrals. Revenue is
growing at 25% a year, according to
catherine gibbons
Owning a niche helps
small local outfits
compete against the
big guys—and grow
REFOCUSED: Elliott Suthers’ firm, Spector &
Associates, is going after high-tech, defense
and health care work to gain an edge.
Mr. Gold.
“We recently teamed up with an
Internet marketing firm that specializes in nonprofits and won the
contract for the Institute for Community Living,” he said. “We beat
out high-profile New York PR firms
because of the accounts we both had
in the industry.”
It’s hard to spin it better than
that. Ⅲ
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