Poor old Intellisync. According to PRWEEK it’s on the hunt for an agency once again. This time last year it conducted a major PR search and replaced long time incumbent McGrath/Power with Cohn & Wolfe. Accompanying this search was a full page article in PRWEEK in which Rip Gerber, its VP of Marketing, gave the inside scoop on each of the agencies which tendered. Good for PRWEEK, rather less good for the agencies involved (the unwritten rule is that pitches are usually kept confidential by both parties).

The profile rather backfired when just six months later C&W was replaced by Eastwick, which it now transpires has also disengaged after a few months. These are all good agencies. A pattern soon emerges when a company has four firms in 12 months. The first few months of any campaign are the least profitable for agencies, so this track record will raise red flags among agencies in the valley during this next search.

But Intellisync is a good company and has appointed a new worldwide PR director from an agency, who will no doubt bring a fresh perspective and a greater degree of empathy. Hopefully this will draw a line under this annis horribilis. I’m sure there will be firms to step up to the plate since wireless apps are a hot press topic.

The lesson though is to take time over your selection process, to remain humble throughout, and to maintain relationships with those firms you did not select. I’ve worked with several companies where we weren’t selected first time. A PR pitch presentation is not always reflective of the ongoing relationship and selection processes are imperfect. We all make mistakes – some more than others it seems.