Chris Lewis on gunning for PR's 'Big 10'

“Imagine an industry where the top 10 brands haven’t changed in decades. It’s an oligarchy!” Lewis said in an interview with Campaign Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong.

Next to the Edelmans, Weber Shandwicks and Fleishman-Hillards of the world, Lewis PR is a small player, with $35 million in fees in 2012.

However its smaller size is the agency’s advantage, asserted Lewis. UNlike most of the top agencies, it is independent, and Lewis PR has the added advantage of being employee-owned.

“We will do what the competition is unwilling or unable to do: Out-invest them, be faster, and go to areas of the world they’re not strong," he said. "Big organisations are unable to move swiftly into new areas. Our profits are reinvested in our people. Ask the big 10, where does their money go? A pension fund in Zurich? Public shareholders?"

This year, the agency is looking to expand its network of 25 offices to 10 new markets. So far, three of the 10 have been launched: Bangalore, Kuala Lumpur and Amsterdam.

The agency is also making investments in new vertical sectors, most recently launching digital communications arm Lewis Pulse.

Sanjana Chappalli, who heads Lewis Pulse Asia-Pacific, explained that its launch represented the formalisation of the agency’s digital capabilities and an increased investment in tools and talent. “In the last year, Lewis Pulse has seen investments of around £500,000 (US$774,000) and in context with continuous investment, we’ve spent $5 million in the past three years,” Chappalli said.

The team has grown rapidly. When Chappalli joined a year ago she was Lewis PR's sole digital marketing employee. She now leads a team of six, which is still growing. “We have art directors, digital strategists and community managers, but we’re not just looking for specialists," she said. "We’re looking for people who understand digital comms in a holistic and integrated manner.”

Pulse brings in its own clients as well as working with the PR-arm, but creates digital work that goes beyond the scope of traditional public relations.

For example, Chappalli said, Pulse handled launch activities around the introduction of the new Porsche Cayman in Asia and was responsible for the concept and execution an online decal contest named ‘Code of the Curve’ in Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia, which targeted design students. The digital arm also developed and aligned campaign messaging through different touchpoints including a website (which it developed), above-the-line, direct marketing and social-media management. The site averaged 4,800 unique visitors per month and high levels of social engagement, reaching 74,000 users on Facebook in two months.

“We don’t look on Pulse as a public relations company but as a digital communications company, one that has everything under one roof,” said Chappalli.

Currently Lewis PR’s revenue breakdown globally is 60 per cent from digital work, 30 per cent from consumer brands and 10 to 15 per cent from crisis communications. In Asia-Pacific, its revenue is more evenly divided between digital and consumer.

The launch of Pulse is a start to addressing a fundamental problem with the PR industry, Lewis said. “Our advantage over the ad agencies is that we are able to help a client out very quickly, whereas the ad agencies take weeks if not months. Our disadvantage is that we can deploy this afternoon but with no ability to craft creative strategy. What’s needed is a fusion of the two.”

Lewis also believes that it’s dependent on the agencies to create the talent it needs, rather than relying on universities. His namesake agency has invested $390,000 in a graduate research fellowship for creativity named Kupambana.

“We don’t need more traditional PR people, we need videographers, graphic designers, creatives who are not just fluid but fast—we have to own the means of creative production," he said. "The masses don’t want to read anything anymore. If they do read it, they want it in 140 characters or less. It’s the difference between donuts and protein bars.”

This is an investment the ‘big’ agencies are failing to make, claimed Lewis. “Not a big enough proportion of their profits are invested in staff, training and digital," he said. "We’re the first to launch a passport scheme in which everyone that joins us has a chance to be posted to other offices around the world to have a chance to see things from another perspective. Lewis PR is also a meritocracy, not a hierarchy, as the oligarchs tend to be.”

This difference will impact the work created by the agencies, he believes. “Clients can sense the difference," he said. "If you have to measure everything the agency does, the relationship’s over.”

With only so many global agencies, the Fortune 500 have had the same narrow choice of agency to partner for the past 20 years, Lewis argues. With his aggressive expansion plans, he aims to shake up the list. “In a lineup of Chevrolet, Chevrolet, Chevrolet… we will park an Audi,” he said.