When is the right time to hire a PR agency?
Every brand has a story. But not every brand is ready to tell it to the world.
At Adhesive, we often meet founders and CMOs at a familiar crossroads. They’ve built something meaningful. Momentum is building. Yet the question remains: is now the right moment to invest in professional PR support?
The answer isn’t defined by your balance sheet alone. It’s defined by your readiness to create impact.
If you have the ambition to disrupt your category, you need more than belief in the product. You need the infrastructure, clarity and capability to support that ambition at scale.
You may be experiencing steady growth, but if your brand is easily forgotten or confused with competitors, your story isn’t sticking. This often happens when teams are too close to the product - deeply invested, but without the distance needed to shape a compelling external narrative.
Preparing for the next inflection point
In the corporate, tech and lifestyle sectors, moments of rapid change - funding announcements, national retail launches, major product development or market expansion - demand agile and considered communication strategies.
PR is not a tap that can be turned on at the moment of impact. It requires lead time to build credibility, relevance and momentum.
A strong PR runway typically looks like this:
Three to four months out: Finding your story and refining the opportunity, angle and core messaging.
Two months out: Identifying earned media opportunities and building genuine journalist interest.
Launch phase: Making it stick through coordinated, high-impact storytelling.
If you have a significant milestone on the horizon, the best time to engage a PR agency was yesterday. The second-best time is now.
When passion needs professional scale
We love working with passionate founders and ambitious marketing teams. Passion is often the reason brands exist in the first place.
But passion alone can’t be relied upon to navigate a crisis, manage a complex media cycle, or support a spokesperson under pressure.
If your internal team is spending more time reacting to inbound media enquiries than proactively building the brand, it’s a clear signal that additional support is needed.
A PR agency provides the bandwidth and expertise that allows your internal team to focus on what they do best - while ensuring your story reaches the right desks, screens and minds at the right time.
The cost of waiting
Journalists across all media pillars are inundated with pitches every day. Without a strategic approach - and the trust that comes from consistent, professional engagement - even the strongest stories can be overlooked.
Waiting too long to invest in PR often means missing critical moments where visibility, credibility and narrative leadership are won.
The right time to hire a PR agency is when your ambition for your brand exceeds your current ability to tell its story.
Final thoughts
Whether you’re looking to disrupt the tech landscape, earn the attention of business leaders, or redefine a lifestyle or consumer category, the right partner can help you move from momentum to meaning.
At Adhesive, we help brands find their story, earn it, and make it stick. We call it Stories that stick.
Learn more about Adhesive, our award-winning work and the team behind the narratives at
www.adhesivepr.com.au
Even better, drop us a note to arrange a call. We’re a chatty bunch.
hello@adhesivepr.com.au