May 10, 2011
Top 150 PR Consultancies 2011 Peregrine Communications Describe your agency in five words ‘Specialist financial services communications firm’. How would you sum up 2010 for your agency? Peregrine Communications placed a strong emphasis on research-driven communication strategies in 2010, rolling out Perception Research analysis across our client base, and developing branding as a key differentiator for clients. This approach has been very successful, for both clients and Peregrine. We had a great 2010, Revenue grew significantly, 42.6% and we hired five new members of staff, increasing head count by 50%. Most importantly clients have found the audience intelligence data has added genuine value to their businesses. The acceleration of growth in 2010 has had a significant impact on the Peregrine team and culture. We made a strong commitment to the development of that team by hiring a Chief Talent Officer, Peter Win who joined the Board in December. This commitment was underpinned with changes to the structure and incentivisation scheme for Peregrine for 2011. As a result of the implementation of these changes 2011 already looks set to be an even more exciting year for us. What was your agency’s high point of 2010? The high point of 2010 for Peregrine was the realisation that client requirements were changing and our own growth was sufficiently significant that we needed to change the structure of our business. Total income received by Peregrine Communications increased by 43.21% and net income profit by 42.6%. Audiences are changing their media consumption habits and it is necessary for our clients to utilise different strategies and maximise their resources to get the best possible results for their campaigns. As a result it was clear that many clients needed access to the broader Peregrine team, as well as their usual account management team, to help them get the best advice and implementation for particular
strategies. The changes to our team at Peregrine make that access easier for clients and the five new team members that joined Peregrine highlights our commitment to clients, we can ensure that service levels remain high. What was the low point of 2010? We didn’t have any low points! Please give an overview of your staffing through 2010, including significant hires and internal promotions. In 2010 we hired five new members of staff, increasing the head count at Peregrine by 50%. Karen Wagg (IDM DIP) joined as a member of the senior team at Peregrine, from Polhill, in January 2010, bringing her knowledge of asset management and marketing communications to the team. Chris Marquardt joined from Signet, as a consultant in the alternatives space, bringing his knowledge of the North American and pan European marketing for Hedge Funds to the team. Emily Church joined in the summer of 2010, also from Polhill, she has fantastic rapport with clients and journalists, can focus on the consumer space and is an excellent client manager. Siobhain Barry joined to provide account management support to the team and Peter Win joined the Peregrine board as Chief Talent Officer, and is challenging us all to continue to raise our standards and attract more talent to the Peregrine team. What were your three best campaigns of 2010? • Frostrow capital’s – the future of the investment trust industry white paper. • Lutetia Capital – raising awareness of the company in the UK. • UK Structured Products Association – finding a media voice for a ‘new/young’ trade association What were your most exciting client wins of 2010? • Consumer Choices • Liontrust • Finisterre Capital
Of which achievement in 2010 are you most proud? When I established Peregrine in 2003 my intention was to offer clients a better standard of service and a team that could provide strategy, research and implementation. 2010 was a milestone year for me because these three areas really came together. Clients are starting to understand the value that audience research can provide their businesses and the feedback that we had in 2010 was that the results of this research had provided a significant difference to the business as well as the communications strategy and implementation. We attracted some great talent to the Peregrine team, people who are helping the business to grow and who are lending their experience and expertise to clients. Finally, we have been able to generate some fantastic results for our clients, and really that is what we measure our successes by. Assets under management have increased for clients, campaigns are more effective and audience perceptions are changing where and when they need to. What trends did you notice throughout the year in the industry i.e. Clients taking longer to sign off budgets? I believe that Peregrine is benefiting from a trend which favours a more specialised strategic approach. We have been especially successful where we have strong niche capabilities such as hedge funds, private equity, wealth management and structured products. How has digital changed the agency landscape in 2010? I think many people will look back at 2010 and see it as the year that everyone agreed digital had grown up. Certainly 2010 highlighted some significant changes in the perception of digital by audiences and clients. Advertising is now more likely to have a digital than print or broadcast focus for our clients. Twitter made a real impact on the media landscape – this is reflected in the twitter comments that are now quoted on broadcast and in print media. SEO marketing has
begun to really feed into PR strategies. And social media, hitherto suspected of being a fad, grew in stature and more focus is being placed on social media strategies than in the past. In the last few years I think it’s fair to say that some agencies have been able to get away with looking at digital strategies as separate to the ‘core’ PR strategy. This has always been a terrible way to manage communication strategies, albeit a nice way to double charge clients – which has in turn had a negative effect on client perception of digital marketing/PR in my view. 2010 was, I feel, the year where digital joined the communication channel strategy mix and left its place as ‘separate’ behind. Clients now expect agencies to understand the digital platform and include this channel within strategies. What are your plans for 2011? In 2011 we are determined to further deepen and improve the value that we can bring to our clients. To do this we have re-structured our business to put our clients at the centre of everything we do, we have made a strong commitment to create a better understanding of our client’s audience targets and distribution channels. Joining us in the summer of 2011 will be a new Head of Research, who will be providing valuable intelligence to clients on audience and distribution, as well as other areas. We restructured our business and incentivisation scheme in 2010, this is because in 2011 we want to become one of the most attractive companies to work for in financial services communications and so have made a strong commitment to the professional management and development of our team by hiring a Chief Talent Officer and we have put in place the industry’s most generous incentives scheme.