Search engine optimization didn’t exist when Elizabeth Boyle Eckel started working at The Washington Trust Co. in 1991. The internet was in its infancy.
Boyle Eckel’s focus as the bank’s advertising head was on print newspaper ads. A half-page in a Sunday edition of the Providence Journal could reach the entire state. Not anymore.
The complex world of modern marketing hinges upon advanced, digital strategy and analytics, while a 24-hour news cycle demands businesses
respond at a moment’s notice. Washington Trust has expanded, too, more than quadrupling its number of branches since when Boyle Eckel began and adding wealth management and loan offices across state lines.
Which is why the bank recently hired a Boston-based public relations agency.
“We really want that sophistication and experience, and the skills that we don’t have ourselves,” Boyle Eckel said of the company’s decision to hire Norbella. “We need a strategy to help grow beyond the Rhode Island borders.”
Increasingly, local companies and government groups, including those with in-house marketing teams, are turning to public relations consultants.
Companies and PR firms say it’s a mutually beneficial relationship born out of business expansion and a more complicated marketing landscape. But some public access groups aren’t convinced.
Including Linda Levin, a former Providence Journal reporter, professor emerita at the University of Rhode Island and past president of the Rhode Island Press Association.
Adding an extra step for journalists on deadline to interview a company president or government leader – first contacting the PR firm, which in turn gets in touch with the company marketing team to set up a time with the executive in question – seems at best, inefficient, and at worst, results in an incomplete story, Levin said.
“It could have a negative impact on journalists trying to get information in a timely manner, but it’s also bad for companies and agencies who can’t get their message across,” she said.
That’s assuming a journalist can’t call up the government official or business leader directly, however. Reporters who regularly cover state politics or business probably have a list of personal contacts already, Levin said.
Boyle Eckel didn’t want Norbella to act like a gatekeeper between the press and the bank. She saw the firm as a way to make it easier to get news out and respond to reporters. The consultant is also helping the bank with market research and digital strategy.
Working with a large marketing agency can give a small business access to a much broader array of tools and expertise than it would be able to hire, said Giselle Mahoney, a partner at RDW Group in Providence and co-treasurer of the Southeastern New England chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
“You could hire an extra person [for your company], but you can’t expect that person to be a unicorn and bring expertise in all these different areas,” Mahoney said.
An outside firm can also offer countering perspectives, said Lynn Hall, director of corporate communications for Ocean State Job Lot Inc. The bargain retailer works with a Boston-based firm, Regan Communications Group, in addition to its 40-person marketing department.
“They’ve definitely swayed us to talk about something we normally wouldn’t have with the idea,” Hall said.
After a customer was hit by a car in a Job Lot parking lot, for example, the company wanted to lay low, but Regan encouraged it to put out a statement. In retrospect, Hall said it was a good idea.
Although Regan is based in Boston, its Providence office handles most of Job Lot’s press pitches, which means the names and faces are familiar to Rhode Island media. Kate Murphy, senior vice president for Regan who works in Providence, sees it as the best of both worlds.
“We have the local presence, so we know who the players are, but we have the resources of a larger agency,” Murphy said.
While Norbella isn’t based in Rhode Island, Boyle Eckel didn’t see that as a disadvantage because Washington Trust’s focus is growth in neighboring states. For local cities and towns or government agencies, working with a Rhode Island firm matters, said Christopher Hunter, managing director for Advocacy Solutions LLC.
The Providence firm specializes in government regulations and communications, from targeted advertising campaigns about ballot questions to longer-term services for agencies such as the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank and the R.I. Board of Elections.
The influx of federal relief dollars for government groups during and after the pandemic has increased demand, Hunter said.
“A lot of these agencies are dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars in programs that impact people on a daily basis,” Hunter said. “There is an expectation for communication and immediacy, and it’s really hard for one public information officer to handle the avalanche that comes through.”
John Marion, executive director for Common Cause Rhode Island, sees it differently. He fears having outside PR firms working for government agencies could obscure transparency and access for journalists and the greater public.
Case in point: several PR agencies declined to comment for this story, including New Harbor Group and Duffy & Shanley Inc., which had its contract for “on-call communications” with R.I. Commerce Corp. extended in December. Others did not want to discuss specific clients or jobs.
“It smacks of institutions becoming increasingly risk-averse,” Marion said.
In Washington Trust’s case, the decision was more straightforward.
“It would be great to staff up and hire a couple more people to do these things, but this job market is just so difficult,” Boyle Eckel said.