Damian Reece, senior counsel at Vigo Consulting, explores the reputational risks of a cookie-cutter approach to PR consultancy.

Size is the enemy of good PR and it’s a problem that’s getting worse. This means it’s a growing problem for Boards, shareholders and every other corporate stakeholder.

If you work for, say, a FTSE 100 or FTSE 250 company, the chances are you’ve appointed a PR factory, not a PR consultancy. There’s a massive difference.

Boards struggle with strategic communications and reputation management, especially where investors and the media are concerned. That’s not surprising. It can be a knotty problem and they’re not experts.

Boards are naturally risk averse and groupthink leads to repeat decisions on who they appoint as advisers. Understandable, but risky.

This propensity for Boards to appoint only from a small sample has allowed a particular business model to develop, now maturing to a size capable of supporting ever larger global consultancies backed by global financial sponsors.

This kind of consultancy model is simple but, ironically for clients, layers on extra risk when it comes to effective reputation management of clients.

As Boards concentrate the pool of advisory firms, these firms can vacuum-up clients generating scale and (in theory) super returns for their financial sponsors. But they can’t vacuum-up sufficient talent to service ever larger client rosters.

Yes, they have troops on the ground, but the pool of genuine, value-adding advisers required to navigate the knotty problems of reputation in even the largest PR factories is extremely limited.

Indeed, such institutions are often a turn-off to talent, while the financial models required by financial sponsors mean PR factories simply can’t afford (or attract) the real talent their clients require.

The inevitable result is that by flocking together with the same few PR factories, Boards and their management teams are increasing the risk of receiving a stale, cookie-cutter approach. And people still wonder why the reputation of British business is so poor.

Every client is different, but you wouldn’t know it judging by the solutions being offered by PR factories. The same old advisers offering the same old solutions are simply perpetuating the same old problems.

A PR factory is run to be as efficient as possible for shareholders but not necessarily as effective as possible for clients. Bespoke solutions do not come off production lines or out of AI engines.

Artificial intelligence is a tool worth deploying but it’s no substitute for authentic intelligence. AI is also a commodity application open to all and, in another ironic twist, undermines the traditional arguments made by PR factories regarding the advantages of scale.

Vigo Consulting has won the accolade of Agency of the Year precisely because of the fresh approach it brings as a boutique powerhouse based in London but with clients located from San Francisco to Singapore to Almaty.

Technology means we don’t carry the bloated cost base of PR factories, but we do carry immense scale in the assets that count – expertise, experience and tech-led insight. Crucially we are focused on only one stakeholder, our clients. Each is treated as it should be; an individual business or person with individual requirements and advised by individual experts who are always on hand.

There are examples where development capital has been positive in small and medium-sized consultancies. But the PR sector’s much sought after recurring revenues has now attracted a class of rentier investor set on consolidating those revenue streams into ever larger financial flows. Good for them, bad for their clients.

Of course, success means Vigo’s client numbers are growing, but we are growing with our clients’ success, not at our clients’ expense.