Surviving in a tough market

Hopefully you'll excuse the shameless plugging (as Dom puts it), but Hotwire was featured in the pages of this weekend's Financial Times as an example of a PR agency that survived in tough market conditions.

Kristin Syltevik, CEO of Hotwire, founded the agency in the middle of the Dot Com bubble bursting, but has somehow managed to come through this and build the agency into one of the fastest growing tech PR agencies in Europe.

With recent events and the state of the economy in mind, Kristin's advice is valuable for those PR agencies looking to weather the financial storm. The interview was also featured in a free podcast that you can listen to here, or you can buy the full length version here.

Here's a run down of her tips on how to survive in a tough market:

• The most important aspect of service provision is measurement - How can you prove that you are providing value for money?
• The next most important aspect is having industry knowledge
• Small organisations should always ask the client if they can let them have some dedicated office space which can become a sales focus for other departments (under appropriate circumstances, of course)
• Hire only the best - the main differentiator for service companies is the quality of their staff, which should be emphasised in all product literature and on the website

Kristin also says that if there was just one particular personal attribute she looks for when hiring people it is eagerness. In PR, as in all other service industries, you should be eager to please, eager to listen and eager to prove your value.

This last bit of advice is especially important given that Hotwire is currently hiring. Below is the official job advert and if you're interested in the position then please get in touch with either myself or Katy, whose details are below:

Programme Manager and Programme Director opportunities – London

We are looking for talented individuals to join our team. Superb client service is top priority for us - and we aim to recruit bright, proactive people with the potential to develop rapidly and be future leaders of the business. We were recently voted International Consultancy of the Year at last autumn’s PR Week awards and won the award for Best Technology PR Campaign. We have an ethos of developing people fast and involving all team members in new business and challenging client situations. Our culture is about delivering results and developing great careers – we are driven but we enjoy ourselves too!

If you are looking for a new opportunity and would like to be part of one of the fastest growing technology agencies in Europe, please email your CV and a covering letter to Katy Burgess at katy (dot) burgess (at) hotwirepr (dot) com. We look forward to hearing from you.