GMP PR – the star of Top PR Romania

Romanita Oprea Business, PR

Biz magazine and Unlock Market Research revealed the results of the first PR complex study in Romania about the reality of the PR local market and the vision the clients have about their curent, past and future agencies, during the event “PR and the WEB” organized at Howard Grand Plaza Hotel. According to the study the Romanian PR industry is a market with a big growth potential, estimated at a 36 milion euros value in 2012.

I was impressed with the event, especially because it was the first time I saw the Romanian PR industry happy, with the egoes left aside, curious and ready to see the results and, most of all, do something with the pieces of information gathered from the study. The stars of the night were the GMP PR (Agency of the Year, Best Pitch Presence and Ioana Manoiu – Most Famous PR Specialist), The Practice (Most Awarded Agency in 2012 & The Most Visionary Agency) and McCann PR (best awarness & most employed) teams. DC Communication became the most competent agency, while GolinHarris was awarded for the biggest number of clients won in 2012.

But the gala was not only about awarding agencies, but also for showing client’s view and perception on the agencies.

  • Clients and agencies

In the relationship between companies and agencies, a main characteristic is that 44% of the clients are satisfied with the agency they are working with, 50% say that they consider changing the agency after 3 years of contract and only 20% of the clients want to change their PR agency in the next year.

Creativity (33%), professionalism, reliability, the fastness with which the agencies are understanding their demands (32%), the strategic consultancy (28%), promptitude (14%) and flexibility (12%) are among the aspects that the clients are the most happy with.

When it comes to the things that can make them unhappy, the clients stated first the lack of creativity (16 %), followed by big costs (12%), the lack of strategic approach (11%), the lack of experience of the agency’s employees (11%), the lack of promptitude and flexibility (11%), bad communication (9 %) and the shallowness of the agencies (9%).

When deciding to choose an agency a client is looking for seriousness in putting in action and reaching the brand’s and campaign’s objectives (98 %), the professionalism of the team (95%), the strategic capability (93%), creativity ( 89 %), employees with experience & expertise (86 %). There are also important values such as: the rate of client retention (56 %), the portfolio of clients (46 %), the awareness of the agency (39 %), the rate of employees retention (33 %).

What is really interesting to mention and an important piece of information for many small, Romanian agencies, is that clients are not very much impressed by the fact that the agency is part of an international network, only 18 % of clients being interested in that aspect. And neither do the prizes. Only 12 % of the clients think that the awards the agency has won are important when they choose their future business partner.

As for the services provided by the agencies, the clients seem to be interested mostly in traditional ways of communication such as: relations with the media and with the key people, crises communication and management (68 %), consultancy in integrated communication (63 %), events organisation and management (63 %) and corporate social responsibility (61%). Only 56% of the responders said they would hire a PR agency for online communication.

  •  Methodology:

The research had two parts: gathering and centralizing the date from the PR players (active agencies from Bucharest) and a research run by Unlock Market Research in between 30th of April and 15th of May 2013 (Computer Assisted Web Interviews) on a panel of representative number of clients who use PR services in top companies in Romania (marketing directors, PR managers, Public Affairs & Communication managers). The panel of respondents was in a proportion of more then 81% made of specialists who work in the communication field for more than 6 years.

Top 10 Awareness

1. McCann PR
2. The Practice
3. DC Communication
4. GMP PR
5. Ogilvy PR
6. Graffiti PR
7. GolinHarris
8. Bortun Olteanu
9. Premium PR
10. 2active PR

Top 10 Competency

1. DC Communication
2. Graffiti PR
3. McCann PR
4. GMP PR
5. Rogalski Grigoriu PR
6. GolinHarris
7. Bortun Olteanu
8. Saatchi & Saatchi PR
9. Nicola Porter Novelli
10. 2active PR

Top 10 Pitch Presence

1. GMP PR
2. McCann PR
3. Graffiti PR
4. The Practice
5. GollinHarris
6. Rogalski Grigoriu PR
7. DC Communication
8. Ogilvy PR
9. 2active PR
10. Image PR

Top 10 Most Employed Agencies

1. McCann PR
2. GMP PR
3. Graffiti PR
4. Rogalski Grigoriu PR
5. 2active PR
6. GolinHarris
7. Bortun Olteanu
8. Saatchi & Saatchi PR
9. Image PR
10. The Practice

Top 10 Agency with the biggest growth (percentage rate) of the revenue 2012 vs 2011

1. Oxygen – 140 %
2. Total PR – 85 %
3. Shake Advertising – 70 %
4. White PR – 70 %
5. Trust Communications – 62 %
6. Antonescu PR & Consulting – 60 %
7. The Public Advisors – 53 %
8. TMT PR – 50 %
9. Conan Public Affairs – 45 %
10. V+O Communication – 42 %

Top 10 Most Famous PR Specialists

1. Ioana Manoiu
2. Crenguta Rosu
3. Eliza Rogalski
4. Hortensia Nastase
5. Mircea Tomescu
6. Monica Jitariuc
7. Imola Zoltan
8. Bogdan Theodor Olteanu
9. Sorana Savu
10. Corina Birladeanu

Top 20 Romanian PR Agencies 

1. GMP PR
2. McCann PR
3. Graffiti PR
4. The Practice
5. GolinHarris
6. DC Communication
7. Rogalski Grigoriu PR
8. 2active PR
9. Premium PR
10. Image PR
11. Ogilvy PR
12. Bortun Olteanu
13. The Public Advisors
14. Saatchi & Saatchi PR
15. V+O Communication
16. Smart Point
17. MakeSense PR
18. Total PR
19. Nicola Porter Novelli
20. BDR Associates

Most visionary PR agency: The Practice

Most awarded agency: The Practice

Biggest new business rate in 2012: GolinHarris

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Romanita Oprea

Material written by Romanita Oprea. 
About Romanita: Romanita is Communication Consultant and journalist and, during her career, was editor in chief for the Romanian edition of Campaign and worked for Strategic.ro, Smark.ro, IQAds.ro, Ad Maker, MediaWeek, Biz publications and was also producer of ” Marca Inregistrata” TV show