Verity for PR agencies
PR work expands to fill whatever the client asks for, and the retainer does not. Verity records effort against retainer scope and holds the media relationships that produce the results.
Verity runs the agency. Media monitoring tools stay where they are.
Verity / Accounts
LiveRetained accounts
19
Over retainer
7
Coverage recorded
146
Crisis capacity used
2 accounts
Needs attention
Illustrative figures. Verity shows your own accounts in this shape.
How the business runs
A PR retainer buys a month of attention. What that month contains is negotiated continuously — a press release becomes a media tour, a comment request becomes a thought leadership programme, a bad news cycle becomes three weeks of crisis work. The fee does not move and the effort does, and seven accounts over their retainer is the agency’s margin being redistributed to clients who ask for more.
The second characteristic is that the deliverable is coverage, which the agency does not control. It can control the pitching, the relationships and the responsiveness that produce coverage, and those are recordable even though the outcome is not guaranteed.
The third is that relationships with journalists are the agency’s actual asset and are held entirely by individuals. Three key accounts depending on one consultant’s relationships is a commercial risk nobody has sized.
The fourth is crisis. Crisis work is unplanned, senior-heavy and consumes the capacity that retained work depends on. Two crises can quietly damage every other account in the agency.
The fifth is reporting, which clients expect monthly and which is rebuilt by hand because coverage and effort live apart.
Verity records effort against retainer scope, holds media relationships as agency records, and connects coverage to the work that produced it.
What Verity calls these things
What gets in the way
PR difficulties come from an expanding definition of the month and relationships held by individuals.
Retainer scope expands without a conversation
Additional work is absorbed because the relationship matters and the individual request is small.
In Verity Effort is recorded against retainer scope, so expansion raises a decision rather than a habit.
Journalist relationships are personal
The agency’s asset is a set of relationships held entirely by individual consultants.
In Verity Media contacts and interaction history are agency records, so a departure is a handover.
Crisis work consumes retained capacity
Unplanned crisis work draws senior time from every other account without being visible as the cause.
In Verity Crisis work is recorded with its effort, so its effect on retained delivery is attributable.
Coverage is not connected to the effort
Coverage is monitored separately from the pitching that produced it, so nothing is learned about what works.
In Verity Coverage attaches to the pitch, the journalist and the account.
Reporting is rebuilt every month
Client reports are assembled by hand from monitoring tools and memory.
In Verity Reporting is an extract from the records the work already created.
Account profitability is unknown
Retainer fee is known and effort is not, so nobody can say which accounts are worth keeping.
In Verity Effort at cost against fee produces profitability per account.
The complete system
One system across retainers, relationships, coverage and crisis.
Work
Each is work with a client, scope, recorded effort, activities and state.
Why it matters here The retainer is a fee against a scope that has to be recorded to be defended.
In practice Seven accounts over retainer by three hundred and forty hours.
Relationships
Media contacts and clients are records with interaction history, interests, coverage produced and preferences.
Why it matters here The agency’s asset is relationships, and personal relationships are not agency assets.
In practice Three accounts depending on one consultant’s media relationships.
Records
Pitches, materials and resulting coverage attach to the account, campaign and journalist.
Why it matters here Connecting coverage to the pitch is the only way the agency learns what works.
In practice Coverage recorded against the pitch and journalist that produced it.
Workflows
Scope changes, approvals, crisis activation and escalation move through defined steps with recorded decisions.
Why it matters here Crisis activation and scope expansion are the two decisions that reshape a month.
In practice A crisis activated with its capacity impact recorded.
People
Staff are modelled once, with effort recorded against accounts and crises.
Why it matters here Senior counsel is the constrained resource and crisis consumes it.
In practice Senior effort consumed by crisis against retained accounts.
Reports and analytics
Effort against retainer scope, account profitability, capacity consumed by crisis, coverage by pitch and journalist, and relationship concentration come from the records.
Why it matters here PR agencies measure coverage and rarely measure what it cost to produce.
In practice Profitability by account after effort at cost.
Verity AI
Verity AI answers from your own account, effort, media and coverage records, respects permissions, and can create assigned follow-ups.
Why it matters here The valuable questions are about scope creep and relationship concentration.
In practice "Which accounts are over retainer?" returns seven with scope reviews assigned.
Communication
Pitches, conversations and client approvals attach to the account or contact they concern.
Why it matters here A journalist relationship is a history of interactions, not a phone number.
In practice A journalist’s interests and past coverage, available to any consultant.
Control
One permission model and one audit trail across every record.
Why it matters here Absorbing scope is a margin decision made by account leads under relationship pressure.
In practice Scope beyond retainer requiring an explicit decision.
Locations
Units roll into the agency with accounts, effort and reporting following the same structure.
Why it matters here Sector practices have different coverage dynamics and profitability.
In practice Profitability and scope creep by sector practice.
Orders
Retainer invoices, project fees and pass-through costs are recorded against the account.
Why it matters here Pass-through costs in PR are smaller than in advertising but still leak.
In practice Event and monitoring costs recovered against the accounts that incurred them.
Suppliers
Suppliers carry their costs, terms and the accounts they serve.
Why it matters here Monitoring and distribution costs attach to accounts and are often absorbed.
In practice Monitoring cost attributed to the accounts it covers.
Work in motion
These already happen. Recorded against scope, the month stops expanding for free.
The comparison mid-month is what makes the conversation possible before the month is gone.
Coverage disconnected from the pitch teaches the agency nothing.
Crisis work draws capacity from every other account and should be visible as the cause.
Three accounts resting on one person’s relationships is a risk that can be reduced deliberately.
A report that is an extract rather than a construction takes minutes rather than a day.
Verity AI
Verity AI reads the same account, effort, media and coverage records the agency creates as it works. It answers across accounts, respects permissions, and can turn an answer into scope conversations.
Verity / Ask
Verity AI only returns what the person asking has permission to see.
Without chasing
Each runs from the agency’s own records at the point the condition is met.
When
Effort passes retainer scope
When
A crisis is activated
When
Coverage appears
When
Relationship concentration exceeds threshold
When
A reporting period closes
What you can understand
Scope, capacity and coverage from the work itself.
Verity records the agency’s work and relationships. Media monitoring tools continue as they are.
One system, different ways of seeing it
Everyone works from the same records.
Managing partner
Which accounts are profitable and which are at risk?
Effort against scope, profitability by account, capacity consumed by crisis, relationship concentration.
Account lead
Is my account within scope?
Effort against retainer, coverage produced, client reporting, scope conversations due.
Consultant
Who am I pitching and what do they cover?
Journalist history and interests, pitches outstanding, coverage recorded, effort to log.
Where it is used
Effort recorded against agreed scope, so expansion raises a conversation mid-month rather than an absorption at the end of it.
Journalist contacts and interaction history held by the agency rather than by individuals, so a departure is a handover.
Crisis effort recorded with its draw on senior time, making its effect on retained accounts attributable.
Coverage linked to the pitch, journalist and angle that produced it, so the agency learns what works.
Client reports generated from records rather than rebuilt monthly from monitoring tools and memory.
Effort at cost against fee, so the agency knows which accounts are worth keeping.
Plain-language questions across scope, capacity, coverage and relationships, with conversations assigned in the same step.
Getting there
Media monitoring and distribution tools continue and are mapped during implementation. Clients, retainers and scopes, media contacts with history, and live campaigns are brought across.
Implementation runs about four weeks: discovery and mapping, configuration, migration, then an ongoing operations partnership.
Questions
Verity AI answers questions from your own account, effort, media and coverage records: which accounts are over retainer scope, how much senior capacity crisis work consumed, which accounts depend on one consultant’s relationships, which pitches produced coverage. Each answer can become a scope conversation.
It records what the agency controls — pitching, interactions, responsiveness and effort — and links coverage to the work that produced it when it appears. It does not claim to measure the value of coverage, which is a judgement rather than a record.
Because PR work expands to fill what a client asks for and the fee does not. Comparing effort against agreed scope mid-month is what makes the conversation possible while the month can still be shaped.
Journalists are agency records with interests, interaction history and coverage produced, so relationships are institutional rather than personal — which matters because three key accounts often rest on one consultant.
Crisis work is recorded with its effort and its draw on senior capacity, so the effect on retained accounts is attributable rather than experienced as everything slipping at once.
Coverage, activity and effort are already records, so a monthly report is an extract that takes minutes rather than a construction that takes a day.
No. Monitoring and distribution continue and are mapped during implementation. Verity holds the accounts, scope, effort, relationships and the reporting across them.
About four weeks: discovery and mapping of retainer scopes and media relationships, configuration, migration of accounts and contacts, then an ongoing operations partnership.
They are usually the clients you like most. Tell us how effort is recorded today.