How to Buy PR for Business Impact

When the PR Council approached us about a session, our first thought was that PR is one of the categories procurement touches least.

It often sits on a retainer, renews on relationship, and gets reported in clips, impressions and share of voice. Hard to benchmark, harder to tie to anything the business cares about.

That may be about to change. AI assistants are becoming a starting point for product research, what they say about your brand depends on what has been written about it.

That puts PR squarely in the brand visibility conversation, and it gives procurement a reason to ask a different question: what outcome are we actually paying for?

What we will cover:

• What a good PR scope looks like today, and where retainers tend to hide cost
• How PR influences brand visibility in AI-led search, and whether that can be measured
• Moving from outputs (placements, impressions) to outcomes (recognition, consideration) in how agencies are evaluated
• What outcome-based and hybrid fee models look like in practice, and the risks on both sides
• The questions to bring into your next PR agency review

This is a working session with the industry body that represents PR firms, so bring your toughest questions about how the agency side prices and measures its work.

Presenters:

Kim Sample, President, PR Council

Hosted by

Christine Moore, RAUS Global, and Libra Balian, AlixPartners

The WMP community, hosted by RAUS Global and AlixPartners, exists to connect, uplift and help each other stay ahead of the curve. Come with a live problem and leave with a sharper set of questions.

When: Wednesday, November 18, 2026

Time: 12 pm New York / 5 pm London / 6 pm Central Europe]

Where: Virtual

Cost: Always free

Please bring your colleagues who manage PR, communications and agency relationships.

Let’s keep pushing the role of marketing procurement forward together.

Christine and Libra

PS. Join the Women in Marketing Procurement Network on LinkedIn.