1. Pearlfinders recently launched into the U.S. market. What prompted that expansion? Where else does Pearlfinders do business?

We have a lot of European and British clients. The bosses of their sister agencies in the United States who have heard about what we do are interested, so there is a pull from the U.S. Agencies who asked us whether Pearlfinders can do something for them, as no one else is providing exactly what we are offering.

2. Pearlfinders is described as the “guy who can introduce us to the guy who…” by one of your clients. Tell us about that process.

Making a PR agency different is a difficult thing to do and everybody who runs an agency that does Public Relations, Communications or Marketing needs to know as much as possible about what’s going on with potential clients. Often, without enough information, they will contact a company, with an email or a cold call, and talk with an assistant or an intern, or somebody else with little knowledge and nothing to do with decision-making.

At Pearlfinders, we use press and media about acquisitions or mergers, as an example, as a trigger to contact the decision-maker at a company. We ask if the recent reports of company activity will give rise to PR or Communications work. By talking with the decision-maker we can confirm to our clients if there’s a good reason or if it’s the right time to contact that company with an idea or a proposal.

We also let our clients know how the decision-maker likes to be approached – email, phone, letter – and this gives our clients a step up.
 
We actually have no problem with access to decision-makers. We conduct over 4000 interviews a year in the U.S. What we do helps decision-makers as well. We can either confirm that there are opportunities with a given company or conversely warn off our clients that no opportunities exist at the moment. The decision-makers appreciate not being bombarded with proposals and emails.

3. Is using business intelligence such as Pearlfinders gathers and reports on a new way of doing business for PR agencies?

It is a completely radical way of doing business. Everyone has their contacts – the media, a black book. This is a systematic, more scientific way to approach potential clients.  Using the Pearlfinders information is definitely a step up in your contact with a decision-maker. Part of our business is educating clients how to organize and use a small amount of very high quality data to become more credible, more compelling.

4. Pearlfinders information “is uniquely relevant for the purposes of new business for all advertising, PR, marketing communications and creative agencies.”  Truly all? Does size matter?

We identify business problems. How a particular marketing or communications agency chooses to deploy their discipline to solve that problem is what matters for them. Size does not matter. We have many freelancers and one or two-person agencies as clients. What we provide levels the playing field and gives anyone in the industry an edge.
 
5. Do all clients get the same information, or is information tailored in some way, dependent on size, focus, etc?

There are no special services or pricing. Everyone gets the same information. We’re very egalitarian that way. Our clients get an email with alerts and click through to the reports they’re interested in on the Pearlfinders website.

6. Who are your clients?

In the U.S., our client list already includes for example Burson Marsteller, Ogilvy PR Worldwide, RF Binder, Saatchi & Saatchi, TBWA, Leo Burnett, Publicis (Seattle), Rapp Collins, Harte-Hanks, Jack Morton, Enterprise IG, Iris NY and Gertrude.  In Europe, they include leading PR businesses like Weber Shandwick and Manning Selvage & Lee.

7. How can Pearlfinders’ services help a small agency that might not yet have a lot of financial resources?

There is considerable ROI with the kind of reports we provide. We are priced to be democratic – $4,000 a year. I cannot think of another service that provides the kind of information we do and so reasonably. 

8. What are some of the hot trends you see for PR and marketing opportunities?

We do publish industry trends – a lot of trend information, especially long-term trends, is in the reports. The best solution here is simply speaking to decision-makers and having exploratory discussions about topics of interest – for instance what is happening in lateral technology.