‘It’s nothing less than corporate bullying’: CPRA condemns clients increasingly demanding free work
The Communications and Public Relations Australia (CPRA) has found that a large percentage of clients are increasingly demanding free work from their PR agency partners, and agencies are increasingly become submissive, exacerbating the issue of “corporate bullying”.
In its latest Agency Leader Sentiment Survey — which was conducted in February 2025 with 73 agency leaders from across the country — the CPRA was alarmed by the rise of “scope creep”, where clients would agree to a project scope and price, then put pressure on agencies to add more elements to the project, without a price increase.
Scope creep can also include procurement “holding a gun” to the head of agencies at the last moment, constant threats of replacement if an agency does not agree, lack of support from the marketing or communications client, or submissiveness from an agency.
“This behaviour is completely unacceptable and has to stop,” Chris Savage, chair of the CPRA’s Agency Leaders Special Interest Group, told Mumbrella.
“It amounts to nothing less in many cases to corporate bullying.
“Of course, it is fine for corporates to negotiate hard to get a best, fair price, but there is a difference and a line that is crossed when intimidation and implied threats come into play,” Savage continued.
CPRA’s chair, Helen Hutchings, added that the transactional nature of client-agency relationships has greatly aggravated this issue.
“The transactional is where we get the problem of scope creep, because heads of functions aren’t closely involved with procurement, and aren’t sitting at the table, and aren’t communicating properly with their agency partners,” she told Mumbrella.
“Sometimes it’s a race to the bottom in terms of cost, these behaviours come about because of ‘value for money’, which is really just a euphemism for the lowest cost, which then undermines the whole industry.”
Savage acknowledged that clients are also “in a world of pain” due to restructures, diminished budgets, and economic uncertainty, but stressed that is not an excuse.
“It’s not all clients, there are some fabulous ones out there. But it’s an increasing number, and that’s alarming.
“These client organisations are not giving away 25% of their product for free to their customers, they would not think of it. So why demand and expect the same from their agency,” he asked.
Chris Savage and Helen Hutchings
Other major concerns for the year ahead included staff costs, smaller/reduced budgets, productivity, talent retention, and operating costs.
“It’s clear from this research that the vast majority [of agency leaders] are saying this has crossed the line, they are under too much pressure,” he continued. “They have a gun being held against their head and this is not on.”
Likewise, Hutchings conceded that the blame cannot be put entirely on clients: “There is a role on both sides, agency leaders need to stay engaged with their clients on a regular basis and build the relationship.”
According to the new research, 53% of agency leaders are optimistic about 2025 being a year of growth, however, 47% are still cautious about the country’s economic conditions – of the 73 leaders, 40 mentioned “feeling the pressure”, with other common terms including “overwhelmed”, “exhausted”, and “burnt out”.
PR agency leaders also noted their biggest priorities for the year, which included business performance (79%), marketing (36%), and “all things” talent including retention and agency culture (28%).
The CPRA also noted the growing importance of the “neigbourhood effect” – and how it can solve issues on a wide scale, especially in regards to scope creep.
61% of agency leaders feel that other agencies will “do about the same” this calendar year, compared to just 17% who felt others won’t perform.
“We want a strong, prosperous industry,” Hutchings continued. “We’re quite a collegiate group, even when you put what you’d see as a group of competitors together, we’re all working for the good of the industry.
“It’s like that saying, ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’, that’s the goal.
“If we can address some of these challenges we’re having, in relation to how clients are interacting with agencies, I think it would benefit the whole industry.”
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I get that this commentary comes from a place of exhaustion after a long and tough 2024. Every industry in Australia has been operating in a per capita recession for almost two years so budgets are tight and client expectations are demanding. But it’s a bit ‘click-baity’ to throw around terms like ‘gun to the head’ when it comes to transactional PR. There are a lot of PR agencies that get stuck in the ‘tiddlywinks pool’ with clients that just want media relations for less. Sadly, they will always get used and abused. Chris mentions the one thing that agencies can do to avoid this. Starts with R…. Relationships. And not just relationships with the client contact but relationships in the boardroom and senior management (and if it’s a multi-national brand aim for the Australian MD, the APAC VP and so on). It’s amazing how quickly procurement will change the contract terms when they get a call from the CFO. And how do you do this? Remember, ‘senior people only talk to senior people’. You’re going to need to hire some experienced people (usually aged over 50) for your client relationship team and give them a healthy entertainment budget. And talk ‘communications’ not ‘PR’ – I guarantee you they are much bigger budgets.
Great article Chris. In my experience, agency teams will always work hardest on clients where they are respected and valued, a true extension of a client’s team. The threat of a pitch is never motivating or inspiring and nickel and dimming suggests that you really aren’t using your agency to the best of their ability and focused on a transaction vs. strategic advice. It needs to be a equally beneficial partnership – that’s where the magic happens.