Grayling looks back on first year in mainland China

The first foot in the door for the company in the mainland brought the company’s Greater China office count to two, alongside the existing Grayling hub in Hong Kong.

Hotel Éclat Beijing is Grayling Shanghai's most recent client, having being appointed on a one-year retainer basis to support the opening of the hotel and cover traditional and digital media relations, social media marketing and travel site partnerships.

Other notable wins last year for its full-service strategic communications services include Jelly Belly Candy, Economist Intelligence Unit, comparison shopping engine Extrabux.com, Interface carpets, and Steel Storage—with less than 10 full-time staff working on this client roster.

Apart from these larger client relationships, the agency has also been routinely pitching for and winning projects for mainly consumer outreach and crisis management over the past 12 months.

The business pipeline this year is strong, said Gaywood, adding that in her thirteen years in China, she has found that "we often have to educate consumers about the concept of the product itself before promoting the brand".

"Take our client Steel Storage for instance: because the concept of self-storage facilities was a foreign and unfamiliar one, what we did in the B2B space was to create investment interest from real estate players and for consumers, by giving advice in lifestyle magazines on how to declutter your home."

This year she sees new business opportunities beyond corporate public relations. "Some of the local Chinese governments have shown interest in 'city branding', and we have been invited for such pitches," she said.

Being in Shanghai makes Grayling ideally placed to manage client communications programmes across China, including in Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and further afield. Gaywood says she has visited local business media and TV stations in cities such as Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Suzhou to build up agency-media relationships.

Grayling Shanghai's growth is set against a challenging competitive backdrop, with the larger PR agencies such as Edelman, Weber Shandwick, and GolinHarris continuing to increase in number and size.

"We are not afraid to take a pitch against the bigger agencies," added Gaywood. "One advantage we have is when clients realise they won't get personal attention from senior management like they will with us," she said.

"We are very considered in the way we approach our business," said Bruce Shu, Asia-Pacific MD of Grayling, adding that the agency values quality in its growth path. "For example, we are not too emotional about things; we give our staff time to think instead of the horrible working hours typical of the PR industry. This makes us positioned really well to handle crises and also to provide real business advice to our clients".

In the minds of many clients, the scope of PR work is usually very narrow—media relations and event management, but many agencies are not making the transition well enough to change this perspective in China, said Gaywood.

"In fact, we are more than just PR, we also dish out business consultancy and general support services for new overseas clients entering China, such as practical matters like lawyer and accountant recommendations".