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The PR sector in the North West – report published today
How-Do has joined forces with Business Link Northwest to create a unique report that looks to give an overview of the PR industry in the region for very the first time.
The downloadable PDF has been created to give an insight into the scale and relative health of the sector – rather than the performance of individual agencies – and is supported by specially commissioned research from Experian and analytical support from the CIPR.
It includes information on:
The number of firms within the North West
- The number of PR practitioners in the North West
- The size of firms within the North West; by turnover and by headcount
- A roll call of regional clients
- How the industry compares in relation to the national picture
...and much more
The report also provides a guide with relation to how Business Link Northwest can help PR firms; providing advice, business planning and ongoing support in this most keenly competitive of industry sectors.
Although the organisation’s advice is free of charge, it can be invaluable – and this is documented through the eyes of three regional firms of varying size and expertise that have benefited from having their very own BLNW ‘brokers’ on hand to help.
The report is the first in a series of six that will map the region's creative and media sectors: the other disciplines being broadcasting (TV, film and radio), digital industries, gaming/animation, publishing and advertising.
Collectively these will form a comprehensive overview of an entire regional industry that is increasingly vital to the UK economy and employs some 140,000 people in the North West.
www.businesslink.gov.uk/northwest
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A pet subject. I find myself agreeing with Mr Cook
The following extract from the document confirms the thoughts we wrote in a recent blog :
Digital PR, not all PR agencies offer it!
http://tinyurl.com/8cwh2y
"For as many agencies that seek refuge in these bunkers, there will be
similar armies that seek to secure themselves with a growing appreciation
of digital PR channels.
Digital specialists can skip across sub-sectors, plying their trade as easily
for consumer clients as social housing organisations, and in doing so lay
claim to interact directly with target audiences in a way that traditional
PR has seldom been able to achieve.
Digital, it should also be noted, is a medium that, while not being
immune to a downturn, is likely to prosper through its accountability and
perceived cost efficiency, while budgets for ‘prestige’ mediums such as
TV bear the brunt of cost-saving exercises.
Combining the strengths of digital and PR then seems like a sound
strategy for agency and client alike in the current climate."
interesting document
Probably not the best time to release a mapping document since as you point out in the report, three months can be a long time!
However, the real issue here is the continued polarisation of the term Creative Industries. Your front cover uses this term and even shows a number of images from the various sub-sectors, however you claim that your six reports cover the whole of the creative industries, yet there is no fashion report (as implied by the shoe on the cover) or music report (musical note) and not even a whiff of a mention of designer/maker or art industries.
This highlights the continued shifting by the NWDA (who manage Business Link NW) towards a policy of creative industries = media services. But this ignores the DCMS's (who part fund the NWDA) definition of the creative industries, which comprises 13 different sub-sectors!
I agree that maybe media services and creative industries support should be split, but given the NWDAs "all eggs in the mediacity basket" policy, what would happen to the truly creative industries? Particularly given that I could find you 2 or 3 examples of people calling up Business Link for support with their arts based business and being sent elsewhere?