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For the first time PRWeek has listed the top 25 agencies in the public sector, highlighting a diverse group facing changing attitudes. By Matt Cartmell
PRWeek's first public sector league table reveals some well-known players, and a few surprises. Geronimo Communications is definitely one of the former - the agency that has become synonymous with public sector PR has scooped £5.7m in public sector fees, more than three times that of its closest competitor, Trimedia.
One trend that Geronimo MD Laura Oliphant has noticed over the past year is the speed with which a new brief can be agreed. 'The pace has stepped up a gear. There's an urgency around making decisions on the brief,' she says. 'The other challenge is the number of new areas into which an agency can go. Online and experiential are terms that are becoming far more common in public sector comms.'
Coming second with £1.9m in fees from central government work, Trimedia shows how valuable a quality regional presence is for picking up public sectorwork.The agency has offices in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Southampton, and five affiliates in Belfast, Cardiff, Dublin, Newcastle and Norwich. Trimedia head of regulatory affairs James Ford says education and skills are high up the Government's comms agenda, as is the issue of equality, with the equality bill being unveiled soon. Ford also espouses the growing trend of running multi-disciplined campaigns in public sector briefs.
'We're doing more stakeholder comms work. For the consumer protection regulations campaign for the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform we've been able to say "here's a media relations programme" and run it in tandem with a stakeholder relations programme. We've been able to use the publications of small business trade bodies and sector bodies to get our message across.'
Consolidated came in at number three, with £1.2m of new business. Agency MD NickClark says he has noticed an increased focus on education and skills.'There are major investments in this area,' he says. 'And for me there is a growing importance placed on the environment. That's where I will expect to see more work.'
Munro & Forster Communications and Grayling UK complete the top five, but the sixth and eighth spots are taken...