No two clients are the same. In most industries it is possible to plan a 12 month budget against a 12 month activity plan. In others, however, activity is more fragmented and companies prefer to allocate resources to short-term projects.
Network PR is flexible in its approach to budgets, offering a number of budgeting options. These include:
Retainer System
Retainers allow companies to know exactly the maximum funds they have allocated (and progressively spend) throughout the year. With retainers, indicative outputs are agreed including such activities as an average number of media releases created and distributed each month, media monitoring, maintenance of media databases, programme management and reporting.
Project Basis
For clients with no constant level of PR throughout the year, being quoted and billed on a project basis is often a better way to budget. In these situations, Network PR gains the project brief from the client, and then presents recommendations along with estimated costs for client approval prior to the commencement of each project.
Fee Plus Projects
Often the combination of a base retainer to cover general PR functions such as media relations, media monitoring and market trends, with pre-quoted projects being undertaken when necessary throughout the year, suits many clients. This system certainly allows for more budgetary flexibility and the ability to alter the size of the budget quickly in the case of external financial pressures or market opportunities. |
