Tim Dyson reports on the uptick in demand for PR in Silicon Valley – the return of the $10K a month start up spender. As he points out, the catch is that start ups want experienced PRs working for them – and they typically want $15K worth of service value.
On the first element, as we’ve documented here previously, there is a dearth of experienced, senior PR talent – both in the US and UK. Tim rightly notes that the last 5 years has seen an exodus of good people from the tech PR arena – so there is a mismatch between what clients want and what the industry can supply.
On the second point, clients everywhere are demanding more for less. Effectively, an immediate discount.
With my basic grasp of economics, I’d always understood that when a commodity was in scarce supply, its value went up – however, the reverse appears to apply here.
Nevertheless, that is the challenge facing tech PR companies. Somehow, I don’t see the supply of experienced PR personnel growing rapidly overnight – something tells me the people who have left the industry won’t be coming back any time soon – and besides, so much has changed in the last few years, their experience might be a little rusty anyway. And it’ll be a while yet before the bright young things of today have gained the level of experience demanded by clients – assuming of course that they too don’t quit the game early – given that investment in training in PR still seems to be in the doldrums, then don’t hold your breath.