Journalists rate Spark for Tech PR: Why, exactly?

PR Week has just announced the results of a piece of research into how PR agencies are regarded by journalists and bloggers. Spark has been highlighted as one of the top 3 highest rated agencies in the technology PR sector. A big well done to the whole Spark team and specifically Dom and Gary, who were highlighted for their media relations skills and client knowledge.

Every business wants to know where it is ranked in its industry, yet until now rankings by PR Week (the top 150 and top 40 tech consultancies league tables) could only give a limited view of how good, bad, or ugly a PR company is as they are solely based on revenue. Such tables tell us, or clients looking for an agency, very little about the quality of a PR agency’s work. The Most Rated Agencies research fills this gap. 1,400 technology journalists and bloggers were asked for their views on the PR community; rating us on friendliness, quality of stories pitched, accessibility and quality of background briefings.

It was really pleasing to see Spark rated No.1 for quality of stories pitched in the tech sector. Only last week I was talking to the editor of one of the major online tech titles and he mentioned how annoying it is that so many PRs still don’t understand what they want and therefore can’t package up their stories accordingly. Packaging really is what it’s all about, making sure that clients understand the need to tailor their story. The other day a client wanted the team to push a product announcement to the channel press: understandably he wanted the channel to be aware of his new product. But as our account manager explained, channel journalists don’t write straight product stories and get very irritated if they get a release that doesn’t focus on what their readers are interested in. Conversely, if we could pitch a story about the revenue opportunity in the product category it was more than likely we’d see a story.

It’s this focus on content that has always made the difference. And the importance of compelling content is only set to increase as communication through social channels becomes an integral part PR campaigns. Essentially the basics don’t change: if you can’t see why the content you are pitching is going to be of interest to the influencer you are targeting, why would they? Knowing your targets; why they should be interested in your story; and where on the page or site your story would fit are still the foundations on which good practice is built. Even if you are looking at direct engagement with your target audience, the content you serve has to be packaged in a way that meets their needs.

Being rated by journalists isn’t just about our relationships with them though. It’s also about how well clients understand and respect our advice. They understand when we say something is so boring that no one would want to read about it in a month of Sundays. Before any potential clients strike us off their list, we also give suggestions for getting your message out through a different storyline. The point being that as a PR company we must remember that, although our clients pay us, they are paying us for our relationships with influencers like the media; and knowing what makes them tick. And it’s well packaged content delivered in a friendly and efficient manner that builds these relationships and gets results.

Although the odd round of drinks might help too! If any journalists are reading this, I’m sure the team will be having a few tonight; so feel free to see us at the Green Man and one of us will buy you a drink.

Oh and if anyone wants download the report from PR Week about Spark drop us an email: [email protected]__