South Africa, March 25 -- There is a growing tension in how organisations buy PR.

Reputation, stakeholder trust, and crisis-readiness are now board-level priorities, yet the services behind these outcomes are still assessed through procurement processes intended for commodities.

The result is a mismatch that businesses feel, even if they struggle to articulate it.

Procurement can assess scope, pricing, timelines, and deliverables with precision. It can compare agencies on rate cards, resource allocation, and output volume, enabling structured, data-driven comparisons. It can also evaluate functional capability, compliance requirements, and commercial competitiveness. What it cannot reliably assess is how judgement is applied in practic...