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FAQs

What is ‘Payment-by-Results PR’?

Companies normally hire PR agencies on a ‘retained basis’, where the client pays a fixed fee each month, in return for a set amount of service from the agency’s team. To ensure the number of hours delivered is equal to the service level agreed, most PR companies operate time billing systems, which take account of the differing charge-out rates of team members.

Results PR instead offers payment-by-results PR. We make no charge for our employees' time spent on the account. Instead we charge only for the actual newspaper coverage we generate for clients. Put simply, we work on a ‘no coverage, no fee basis’. If we generate media coverage, we charge for each cutting according to a matrix of prices. If we generate no coverage, the client pays no fee. However, we’ve never had a campaign yet where we’ve not generated coverage, so you can rest assured Results PR will deliver!

How do you charge for a particular piece of coverage?

The fee for each piece of coverage is decided by a combination of these two variables:

  1. The quality of the newspaper title (divided into five tiers) and
  2. The impact of the article for the client (divided into five possible results)

These two variables produce a matrix of prices, against which the client agrees to be charged. To request Results PR’s fees matrix, click here.

Will you end up charging me for coverage in media titles that we don’t wish to appear in?

We regard getting you into titles you wish to be included in as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Put simply, the titles you don’t wish to appear in are unlikely to be interested in your story, as it won’t appeal to their readers.  For example, if you’re a new portal for yachting enthusiasts, it’s unlikely that the women’s weeklies will cover you! Of course, from each campaign there are often a variety of media sectors we can target, and we do need to charge for each result. But we’ll be focusing our energies on the media you most wish to be involved in – and invariably those media will be most responsive to our campaigns.

In our first planning meeting, we will discuss the top media titles of each section of the campaign that justifies media activity and journalist response. This means there is a focus for activity and the campaign achieves the results that meet the needs of your business. From time to time, publications beyond the list may cover the company; although we do not have any editorial right over who writes about the business we can provide the correct information. Any further title that does provide an article is extra coverage result for your campaign.

What activities will you undertake in your campaign for us?

Our payment-by-results based PR campaigns are no different to campaigns undertaken on a fixed fee basis, so the activities encompass everything you’d expect. We’d initially meet with you to achieve a full understanding of your company and its market positioning. We’d then create key messages for the campaign, draw up a PR plan, develop a media backgrounder and boilerplates for your company, and then launch our campaign to the media. Once the campaign is underway, we would keep you fully involved at every stage of the media’s response! At the end of each month we’ll deliver you a report, together with a cuttings booklet containing key information about each piece of coverage, such as the media title’s circulation and frequency and the Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) of the result (this calculation tells you what the coverage is worth in advertising terms).

Our team is experienced in breaking news, reputation management, media training, analyst relations, developing thought-leadership, creating debate, product placement, guerrilla marketing, event marketing, social media, sampling and promotion and experiential marketing.   

Results PR will work to tailor a campaign around your company and market position, and can help bring in broader PR techniques including qualitative and quantitative market research.

If we hire you, we may continue our own internal PR campaigns at the same time. Will you charge us for coverage that’s actually due to our work?

No, we simply charge for coverage that has resulted from our work, our campaign development and our campaign messaging. 99% of the time it’s 100% clear which source the coverage has resulted from, so a dispute is incredibly rare!

Is it sensible to hire an agency when we handle some of our PR internally?

It depends on the brief. If we believe that from the element of your PR that you’re willing to outsource we can reasonably produce the levels of coverage that make a payment-by-results relationship sensible, then we’ll see this as a win-win situation for customer and agency alike. On the other hand, if the campaign could potentially waste your time and ours, it will be sensible for us to politely decline the opportunity.

For businesses who manage PR internally, outsourcing campaigns is often a worthwhile path – this then provides the team with a powerful additional resource for targeted activity.

Will you agree to work on a fixed-fee basis?

If a client prefers the certainty of a fixed fee relationship – or if a client asks to change to a retainer after having started with us on a payment-by-results basis – then we will honour this request. Our sister brand Rooster has evolved an advanced time billing system for its clients, which we adopt for clients choosing to work with us on a fixed-fee basis.

Can I hire Results PR on a payment-by-results basis, but then change to fixed fee PR once I’ve seen you produce results

Yes. Our service agreements expressly create this as a right for our customers. Our only proviso is that if customers convert to a fixed-fee retainer, we will continue to charge for any results that we generated from work that took place during the time the client was operating under a payment-by-results agreement. Once this coverage stops coming in, there will be no more payment-by-results charges to pay, purely the fixed fee.

Will you also handle media launches and other press events on a payment-by-results basis?

We have done, and we’re always happy to discuss such opportunities. Depending on the brief, and the level of work involved, we sometimes handle such activities on the basis of charging for media coverage resulting from the launch and a payment-by-results fee based on the level of media attendance.

What industry sectors does Results have experience of?

We’ve handled campaigns for brands in areas including: financial services, fmcg, technology, beauty, fashion, business, motoring, home interiors, property, education, health and fitness, retail on and off-line, sport, leisure, food and drink.  Our many case studies show that our team has the ability to take on any brief, research the client and its market, creatively brainstorm, develop the right campaign and messaging, and then go out and get exactly what our clients wants: results! 

Are there any circumstances in which you’d refuse to take on a client?

Yes. If we genuinely believe, based on the brief, that extensive coverage is extremely unlikely, we would politely pass the opportunity up. A key issue here is that we’re not just avoiding wasting our own time – we’re making sure that your valuable time isn’t wasted too, by embarking on a campaign that could be a struggle!

What is Rooster?

Rooster, the sister company of Results PR, is the UK's leading travel PR and marketing agency created in 1999.  It services a wide range of clients from tour operators to airlines and major tourist boards.