Is Performance PR Ethical?
A friend of mine teaches ethics at a prestigious university. I once asked him how he decides whether behavior is ethical or not. He thought for a moment, then said, “If everyone the behavior impacts would be ok with it if they knew all the facts, then it’s probably ethical.”
How does this apply to performance PR? First, we need to make sure we’re talking about the same thing.
What is Performance PR?
In an attempt at transparency about performance PR, the first challenge is that performance PR means different things to different people. For that reason, if you see a blog post with the title “Performance PR is a Scam” or “Performance PR is Unethical” then that doesn’t necessarily mean their opinions contradict those you’ll read below (since yes, my intent with this post is to show that performance PR can be 100% ethical). It may be a matter of semantics or alternative definitions.
To make sure we’re talking about the same thing, allow me to share my definition of what performance PR is.
Performance PR is any public relations service wherein the service provider is compensated primarily or solely on results.
Based on this definition, you could say that all PR is performance PR, because any PR firm that fails to provide results will ultimately get fired. However, that would be a misreading of the definition, because the implication of being compensated on results is that if you don’t perform, you don’t get paid. In contrast to this, the traditional PR firm model is to charge a retainer fee, whether or not the desired results are obtained. While the continuation of the compensation may be in doubt, compensation for the duration of the retainer is not. In other words, most PR firms get paid whether or not they deliver results.
Performance PR, on the other hand, is when the PR firm gets paid only if they produce results. No PR, no pay.
Now that we have a working definition of what performance PR is, we can move on to how it works and see if in the process of transparency we uncover any ethical dilemmas.
The Facts About Performance PR
The fact is, performance PR, like any other service, can be ethical or not depending on how the service is provisioned. If you order a hamburger from me, is it ethical or not for me to deliver it? It depends on what happens behind the scenes. If I steal the hamburger, or make it from old meat I found in the gutter, or I buy the meat from ranchers who are cruel to their cows, then you could make the case that I am an unethical hamburger seller. Likewise, it’s certainly possible to be unethical about the way one procures PR deliverables and provides them to a client. Unethical PR practices may include:
Paying journalists for favorable PR
Knowingly providing false information
Spinning information to the point where it’s effectively false
Creating journalistic content and including clients without full disclosure
In all these cases, this unethical behavior could apply just as easily to traditional PR services as to performance PR.
So why does anyone claim that performance PR is unethical?
Those making this claim seem to be saying that PR results cannot be promised, and therefore it’s unethical to offer a guarantee, which is what performance PR ultimately does. With performance PR, a firm either takes payment upfront but offers a money-back guarantee, or they don’t take payment until the desired PR results are secured.
However, there is a difference between a guarantee and a promise. A promise says, “I will do X.” A guarantee says, “I will do X or else I will do Y.” If someone makes a PR promise then yes, this is unethical. PR results cannot be promised because if I tell a client, “We are going to get you into Forbes,” then the only way I can promise that is if I have a contractual relationship with Forbes whereby they have to take anything I send them. Nobody has this relationship, therefore the promise cannot be made.
It’s possible that I could have a relationship with a journalist at Forbes, and they could tell me, “I’ll publish anything you send me, no questions asked,” but Forbes wouldn’t like that so it would violate the definition of ethics given at the beginning of this blog post. Regardless, even if a writer said that to me, there is still editorial oversight at Forbes and therefore the writer couldn’t truly keep their promise and therefore neither could I.
The way we do performance PR here at Canvas goes like this:
We develop relationships with journalists. They make no promises to us, but we develop a relationship such that we’re pretty sure they’ll at least take a look at anything we send them.
When a client approaches us, we screen them to make sure they’re a good fit. That means we like what they do and feel like we have the relationships necessary to get them the PR placements they’re after.
We charge a flat fee per placement, we take payment upfront, and we offer a 90-day, money-back guarantee. If we don’t get the placement, the client can get a full refund (or we can continue pitching).
Once hired, we talk to our journalist contacts to pitch the client. If all goes well, we secure the placement and everyone’s happy. Sometimes more than one pitch is necessary.
The only things that are different about the way Canvas does PR compared to any other PR firm is that we charge a flat fee per placement and we guarantee our work. If anything, you might say there’s more opportunity for ethical problems with the traditional PR retainer model. What’s less ethical than taking money for a service and delivering no results?
Except I wouldn’t actually say retainers are unethical, it’s a different service. The PR firm isn’t saying “We guarantee we’re going to get you PR placements,” they’re saying, “We’re going to do the best we can to get you PR placements, but it takes a lot of work and there’s no guarantee of success so we’re going to charge you for our time and effort, even if we don’t get results.” That doesn’t sound very attractive, I admit, but there are times when a retainer makes all the sense in the world because it’s the only option.
For example, let’s say you’re Elon Musk, and you need someone to increase the ratio of positive to negative press. In that case, Elon would hire someone to be a press contact and field calls from the media and try to influence them in a positive direction. They might also do proactive outreach. If Elon hired someone on a performance PR basis the incentives might not align with the long-term outcomes Elon wants. Performance PR is a better fit for short-term PR deliverables.
An example of a short-term PR deliverable might be, “My company needs to be in an Inc. article by next month so we can put an Inc. logo on our website.” That’s the type of scenario where performance PR can shine, and a retainer might take too long and cost too much.
Whether or not performance PR is the right fit for you and/or your organization is a question only you can answer (although we’re happy to help!). However, I hope you can see that there is no inherent dilemma about the ethics of performance PR.
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