Maja Pawinska Sims 03 Dec 2021 // 4:00PM GMT
LONDON — Former Grayling executive Kat McGettigan has set up a new agency to help small to midsize PR agencies with new business strategy and pitch support.
McGettigan was at Grayling for nearly four years before leaving this summer, latterly as global head of growth. She was previously head of the Manchester office and head of consumer. Before joining Grayling, McGettigan was at M&C Saatchi PR, in senior roles including head of consumer and head of client services, and also worked at Weber Shandwick and Talk PR.
Fine Lines is billed as “the agency-growth agency to help businesses grow faster and further,” with a training and consultancy offer that includes “post-pandemic pitch proofing” as agencies return to real-life pitches; growth and new business strategy workshops; a “pitch doctor” for live pitches; and “plug in and play” support throughout the year.
McGettigan told PRovoke Media: “Having worked at big networks and smaller independents I saw a gap in the area of new business. Big agencies have the luxury of full-time new business people, but for smaller agencies it’s a struggle to pitch and grow at the same time. I have a passion for helping people get better at new business and become more confident as they win and grow. The idea is that agencies who haven’t got the budget or bandwidth to support a full-time head of new business can plug in, very flexibly, to independent, senior expertise.”
She added: “Pitching is a huge investment. Agencies spend thousands of pounds and hours on pitches, and it still takes a long time to write a bad deck. I’ve always been militant about rehearsals, and telling a coherent story rather than multiple people writing different parts of a ‘Frankendeck’, as well as qualifying out leads: do we have right expertise, are the team excited, will it be possible, does their budget match their ambition, will this change perceptions of the agency?”
Fine Lines is already working agencies including a luxury specialist and a public affairs consultancy, and McGettigan said her target clients “are in a stage of transition from revenue point of view, from small to midsize, or reappraising their proposition.” She is planning to expand the business through a flexible collective model with other senior consultants: “We’ve always had freelance creative directors, why not freelance new business directors?”
Grayling global CEO Sarah Scholefield said: “Kat played a significant part in Grayling’s international growth over the last few years, successfully leading some of our major new business pitches. She is extremely skilled at the new business process and, through Fine Lines, is taking her very best skills and making them accessible to all. I think she will be a great asset and partner to any business through her new venture.”