Working Together

Work­ing Together

The GPRA advises its mem­ber agen­cies to draw up a bind­ing agree­ment with clients, tai­lored to the type and scope of project, on the ser­vices to be pro­vided and com­pen­sa­tion for such ser­vices before begin­ning work on the com­mis­sioned project. GPRA mem­ber agen­cies always work accord­ing to free-market principles.

Con­trac­tu­ally agreed duties and obligations

In order to ensure a pleas­ant and pro­duc­tive work­ing rela­tion­ship, the con­tract should define all duties and oblig­a­tions of both par­ties pre­cisely. The fol­low­ing points should be spec­i­fied in the contract:

• The object of the agreement
• The con­trac­tu­ally agreed services
• The duties and oblig­a­tions of the agency and the client
• Remu­ner­a­tion (includ­ing expenses)
• Details on the acqui­si­tion of rights
• The terms of payment
• The dura­tion of the contract

Costs incurred when work­ing with a PR/Communications consultancy

Costs for con­cept devel­op­ment and pre­sen­ta­tion
This includes ser­vices such as research, strate­gic analy­sis, con­cept devel­op­ment and the draft­ing of pro­pos­als for courses of action.

-> Ser­vices are not ren­dered free of charge for the pur­pose of obtain­ing a com­mis­sion or pay­ment at a later date. Devel­op­ment and pre­sen­ta­tion of con­cepts are invoiced.

Costs for ser­vices ren­dered by the agency
These include pro­vi­sion of a con­cept, con­sult­ing, plan­ning and real­iza­tion of mea­sures and project designs. Such ser­vices are remu­ner­ated on the basis of a flat fee or an hourly or daily rate, as agreed in advance. GPRA mem­ber agen­cies use time-recording systems.

Third-party costs
These are incurred when sub­con­trac­tors are com­mis­sioned to carry out cer­tain work, e.g. pro­duc­tion (print­ing, lay­out, web­site design), pro­mo­tional events, eval­u­a­tion and doc­u­men­ta­tion, and when ser­vices (e.g. legal con­sul­ta­tion, spe­cial­ist authors) are ren­dered by exter­nal specialists.

Expenses
These include photocopies/print-outs, postage, tele­phone and Inter­net charges, travel and trans­porta­tion costs, travel expense accounts, insur­ance cover.

Costs for PR/communications services

Fees for con­sult­ing ser­vices and the real­iza­tion of cam­paigns dif­fer accord­ing to the par­tic­u­lar project and the com­pany involved, and depend on a num­ber of fac­tors, such as:

• The pro­fes­sional expe­ri­ence of the consultants
• The com­plex­ity of the project
• Where and under what con­di­tions the work is car­ried out

The table below pro­vides an approx­i­mate range of hourly rates charged by PR/communications con­sul­tants with dif­fer­ent lev­els of expe­ri­ence accord­ing to a recent sur­vey (2007) of GPRA mem­ber agencies.

Hourly rates for con­sult­ing services

Posi­tion	Approx­i­mate fig­ure low end	Approx­i­mate fig­ure high end
Exec­u­tive	230 €	320 €
Senior Con­sul­tant	170 €	220 €
Con­sul­tant	130 €	150 €
Junior Con­sul­tant	90 €	120 €

The fol­low­ing cri­te­ria are inte­gral to the suc­cess of any com­mu­ni­ca­tions campaign:

• A qual­i­fied situation/problem analysis
• Cre­ative problem-solving ability
• A clearly defined, appro­pri­ate message
• Sug­ges­tions for fea­si­ble and effec­tive measures
• Expert real­iza­tion of the com­mu­ni­ca­tions strategy
• Detailed eval­u­a­tion and mon­i­tor­ing of the campaign’s effectiveness

Of course, in PR as in any other field, the low­est quote may not nec­es­sar­ily be the best offer.

The ser­vices pro­vided by GPRA mem­ber agen­cies are tai­lored to the client’s spe­cific require­ments; accord­ingly, hourly rates must be nego­ti­ated on a case-by-case basis.

GPRA e. V.
July 2007