Firms wait out retainer freeze from clients

Here's an article that was posted on PR Week's website. As an agency owner, I can definitely relate to this.

With an expected 2-million-plus US jobs lost in '08, some clients are putting PR firms on hold

A number of PR firms are reporting that clients are asking them to take a hiatus from full-time work as the country enters 2009 with a sense of trepidation.

The effect appears to be spread across verticals given the global impact of the financial slowdown that produced results like an expected 2-million-plus shedding of US jobs in 2008, and an 11-day work stop order in Japan at Toyota.

“You hear the same thing: ‘We still want you to be our agency of record. We don't want you to go anywhere. We just need you to hang on for a little while,” explains Aaron Kwittken, CEO and managing partner at Kwittken & Co. Two clients recently requested that the agency take a temporary hiatus from their retainer, he says.

In California, Morgan/Dorado Public Relations' founder and principal Josh Morgan says that within a six-week period, three clients put marketing programs on hold.

“It's been unprecedented, from what I've seen, that type of immediate reaction from so many people,” he adds.

Agencies are responding to the requests in different ways. New York-based Kwittken began handling project work for both clients during this time.
FULL STORY