The majority of decision makers at cyber security vendors are dissatisfied with their PR agencies, according to a new report.

Cyber security specialist PR firm éclat Marketing carried out an online survey that found 53% of clients consider their agencies aren’t proactive in coming up with new ways to generate coverage, while 58% said their agency hasn’t delivered coverage in a tier one media title in the past quarter. Overall, 68% of respondents said they were unhappy with the quality of coverage their agency is generating.

The survey was completed by 30 cyber security organisations over the past six months. A major gripe was the lack of clear objectives, with 33% saying they have no clear metrics or objectives in place with their agency to determine what constitutes success. Of those that do have metrics in place, only half are hitting their targets.

Another area criticised by the respondents was the standard of their account teams, with 50% rating them as average or poor. Some 61% believe their team has inadequate knowledge and understanding of the cyber security sector and 58% rate the media contacts of their agency as average to poor.

éclat Marketing managing director Dianne Canham said: ‘These findings are a damning indictment of the standards of PR professionalism in the cyber security sector. However, they reflect equally poorly on those clients who aren’t protecting their investment in PR by settling for second-best levels of service.

“Agencies also need to be braver and link results to remuneration and get rid of the tired old system of payment by hourly rates. We’ve been a strong advocate of payment-by-results over many years and our clients appreciate the fact that we’re sharing their risk and reward with them.  It also means that both agency and client are forced to agree on measurable goals each quarter, leaving no room for ambiguity on what constitutes success.”  

éclat Marketing has an online stress test [https://eclat.co.uk/is-your-pr-agency-doing-a-good-job/] for cyber security firms that suggests whether they should stick or twist with their current agency.