PR freelancers prosper amid economic gloom

The number of freelancers working for public relations (PR) and event-organiser businesses has increased amid the economic gloom as demand increases from corporations that have limited budgets to promote products or build brand images.

Some clients prefer the flexible working style and quick results offered by freelancers.

Freelance PR worker Sarinya Sanmeema said recently that companies in various businesses still relied on PR to raise awareness of products, even those who never allocated money specifically to PR budgets. But amid the economic crisis and its unpredictable effects, these firms have limited marketing budgets, which is aimed to achieve specific results.

Freelancers offer an alternative in this situation. She added that freelance PR workers were more flexible and made decisions more quickly. They also offer lower service fees, for similar quality, compared to PR agencies.

Companies that want an immediate response from shoppers with limited budgets prefer the freelancers' PR style, she said. Sarinya is a former J Walter Thompson Public Relations employee. She resigned from the company in October last year and became a freelancer.

She said working in a big corporation had some restrictions and she wanted to be independent from those working conditions. Now she is quite happy with her job, covering six clients in various businesses this month alone - higher than her expectation of two jobs per month. Sarinya sends photo or news releases of her clients to the media and arranges group interviews. She also acts as a PR consultant and media buyer if her clients want her to cover those areas.

She said the number of PR freelancers had increased since last year. Freelancers need connections with related businesses, such as event organisers, advertising workers, media and marketing research firms.  Sarinya said she could not estimate the differential in the service costs between PR agencies and freelancers because it varied on project size and agreements.   

"However, clients of freelancers are small and medium-sized companies. Big firms or multinational companies are still using services from PR agencies due to their parents companies' policies, trust and long experience," she said. Sarinya said freelance PR workers did not snatch jobs from PR agencies because the clientele is different.   

"As far as I'm concerned, freelancers can fulfill PR jobs. We're not competitors of PR agencies," she said.  Chanintorn Sinwat, senior vice president of Verve Public Relations, said freelance PR workers' service fees could start at Bt30,000 per job, while minimum rate of PR agencies is at Bt100,000 per job, which is so different.

So, PR agencies like Verve have to provide integrated services such as marketing and research information, content consultancy and corporate consultancy to their clients to distinguish themselves from freelancers.    Apipat Kulvisute, a freelance event organiser, said price was not a key factor for corporations to consider hiring a freelance event organiser instead of event management agencies. Trust between clients and freelancers is the most important factor, he said. In addition, greater flexibility and simplicity of working style, compared with event-management agencies, are the advantages afforded by freelancers, he said.    "If clients have limited budget for event management agencies amid the economic crisis, they will have a limited budget for freelancers, as well," he said.   

He said clients of freelance event organisers were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are less willing to hire event agencies due to higher costs; large corporations who nonetheless have limited budgets, and clients that event agencies refer to freelancers as subcontractors.    Apipat said the main disadvantage of using freelancers was the need for liquidity.

As a result, they are unlikely to be hired for large-scale events worth more than Bt1 million, he said.   

Apipat has worked for event-management agencies for about 10 years. Among his previous employers are Far East DDB, Chuo Senko Thailand and Bangkok Showcase. He has worked as a freelancer for nearly three years.   

Somsanit Aneakpalin, managing director of CME, the corporate marketing event business arm of CM Organiser, attributed the rise in the numbers of PR workers and event organisers laid off by agencies and organisers amid the economic crisis, had become freelancers. And that is the reason why the numbers of freelance PR and event organisers have risen.   

"I'll give you an example. Let's say 12 event organisers join in one round of bidding - six of them are small and medium-sized organisers, half of the remainder are big agencies and the rest are freelancers," she said.    Somsanit said the advantage offered by freelance event organisers was reduced costs. They can organise one event on a 50-per-cent lower budget than an agency would need, she said.    "Freelance event organisers have the same experiences as agencies because they used to be those agencies' employees. So, it depends on the client," she said.