Girl, You Know It’s True: Biz Journal PR List Flawed

By on January 3rd, 2008 In Agencies, Media

  

The Business Journal’s 2008 Book of Lists is out. (And, yes, I’m kicking off the New Year with a Milli Vanilli reference). 

Here are the Business Journal’s Top 10 Public Relations Agencies, which are ranked by number of full-time eqivalent PR employees (last year’s rank in parentheses) 

1. Riester (13) 
2 CKPR (tied 1)
2 Gordon C. James Public Relations (tied 1)
4 Barclay Communications (3)
5 Canyon Communications (tied 5)
6 Off Madison Ave (tied 5)
7 E.B. Lane (15)
7 Moses Anshell (8)
9 B.J. Communications (9)
9 Front Page Public Relations (n/l)
9 Mullen Public Relations (4) 

And here are the Top 10 questions those and many other agencies on the list may have asked themselves before they responded to the Business Journal:

1 How many employees do we have?
2 How many employees did we have during the year including turnover?
3 How many interns did we have during the past year and did any work full-time?
4 How many freelancers did we work with during the past year?
5 Can we count so-and-so as a PR employee because she answers the phone? 
6 How many PR people are in our [satellite] office(s)?
7 Which former clients would look good on the roster?
7 (tied) Which [advertising/marketing/B2B/dirct mail] clients would look good on the roster?
9 Does web design count as PR?
10 What place did we come in last year again? 

The point is, full-time employee count is a relatively poor measure to rank agencies.  It’s very “fudgable” (soon to be Miriam Webster’s top word or a new Keebler snack in 2008).

If the Business Journal really wanted to rank agencies they would rank sales volume, the same way they do for the local ad agencies and almost all of the other business categories in the book. 

(Interestingly, they have two lists for Ad Agencies — one for gross billings and one that’s the dreaded employee count. The true rank of the best businesses, then, would be the ones who bill the most with the fewest employees). 

In Phoenix, the vast majority of agencies are small (or even individuals) with a number of medium-to-large ticket clients. And maybe that’s the Long Tail of local agencies here. And maybe the top of the list wouldn’t change much if Biz Journal stat guys Dale Brown and David Wylie raided every agency for head counts.  

But, seriously, no potential client worth having would ever use an agency’s employee count as a measure when selecting a PR or any business partner.  It’s about the actual people and the success they can generate, starting with themselves. 

Show us the money.

Comments

Phoenix Richard Says:
January 3rd, 2008 at 9:32 am

This list was in the paper around September. Book of Lists just compiles what has run in the paper for the entire year. A handy reference, but by this time, outdated. The Book of Lists probably has Tim & Willy rated as on-air talent. Good-bye.

Celeste Says:
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:50 am

They should have a list for the Phoenix-based one man shows, we can put Expresso, Open Door, and the Media Push at the top!!

Dan Wool Says:
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:21 am

Or, 21 of you could combine under a single name and be the #1 firm in town.

Robyn Says:
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:41 pm

Great article content, but I think we all have to submit to the fact that the headline and Milli Vanilli reference made it infinitely more interesting and satisfying a read. :) Thanks for that Dan.

Roger Says:
January 4th, 2008 at 9:34 am

The list by billings list is flawed for advertising agencies and would be as well for PR firms. That is because there is no due diligence whatsoever on the Journal’s part to quantify the numbers submitted. But that’s only half the story because most agencies won’t provide proof of their billings. Personally, if they don’t they shouldn’t be on the list. If you want to really place a value on which PR firm is going to be best for your company – go visited them and speak to their clients. Other than that, get a dart and toss it at the list, you might get lucky.

Quotes for the week ending 5 Jan, 2008 « Says:
January 5th, 2008 at 8:40 am

[...] Dan Wool, on the Business Journal’s top 10 list of PR agencies in Phoenix using head count as one of the criteria, being flawed. [...]

Dan Wool Says:
January 5th, 2008 at 10:08 am

Roger, I couldn’t agree more. I understand the need for a private company to not share what are private earnings figures but if that’s the price of admission and proper confidentiality safeguards are in place, I don’t see the big deal either.

I think inherently if the list is a rank of largest on down then gross billings are a better measure than headcount.

Ultimately the true measure, as you say, is client and employee satisfaction. Some companies are even smart enough to be demonstrate this daily on their blog ;)

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