Singapore's fractionalised PR industry offers opportunities and challenges alike

When Sonya Madeira-Stamp, partner at East West PR decided to set up her own Rice Communications in January 09, she became one of the many top-guns in the PR industry who showed the confidence to support her practice with just one or two clients. Her client list grew to 20 in a year's time and 43 by now.

“Larger organisations have corporate standards, hierarchies, offer fewer chances of recognition and the scope of work is very different,” says Madeira-Stamp. “For someone like me who was ambitious, I wasn’t able to take up the kind of work that I wanted or the responsibility to advance up the ladder.”

Madeira-Stamp is not the only one to feel this way. Adrian Lee, founder and SVP of XPR, was a tech specialist at Fleishman-Hillard for years before deciding to set up shop with PR veteran Karen Ho and Gavin Foo. XPR now boasts with clients including Dell, Logitech, Symantec, Saleforce and Standard Chartered Marathon.

“In our experience, global clients want to work with regional PR agencies who offer professional service and flexibility,” says Lee. "We go after only MNC clients and deliver a personalised and professional service based on our years of experience," says Lee. 

Others who have joined the ranks include Twenty 20, Blah Blah, Linea, Siren Communication and Haystac, a two-man team which services Jet Star Asia as its primary client from its Singapore office. It was recently bought by Aegis Media.

“There is a vision to grow, but we are not really in a hurry,” says Sue Anne, general manager at Haystac in Singapore.

In a PR landscape dotted with numerous agencies, some stand a chance to survive while others don’t. According to Adrian Heng, a PR consultant and honorary secretary of IPRS in Singapore, the diversity is welcome as different companies have different budgets and a wide array of PR shops offer options to choose from.

However, he feels that a one-man show is not really functional. “Smaller companies that haven’t thought through their strategy often fall prey to the pressures and fail to deliver. This is particularly the case with those from a sales and marketing background who decide to start a PR agency,” he says.

As for the likes of those who have a firm understanding of the deliverables, last year was a good time to set up their agencies. "The financial downturn was a blessing for those who set up their independent firms as ad budgets moved to PR and businesses came to small shops," says Madeira-Stamp. "We also noticed that big clients went with small shops while small-to-medium size clients continued to strengthen their relationship with medium sized firms where relationships have been established." 

She goes on to say, “Those of us who have cut away from large companies, have serviced the MNC clients for years. In a way we become the PR brands in ourselves and clients follow us where we go. It is a service industry after all. You service well and the client stays with you."