Oligarchs to ministers: Why contacts, not content, keep this PR guru at top

TIM Allan must have one of the best contacts books in London. The public relations man began working for Tony Blair in 1992, served as Alastair Campbell’s deputy in Number 10 and then Rupert Murdoch’s director of communications at Sky, before launching his agency, Portland, at the age of 31 in 2001. Now he has sheikhs and oligarchs as well as ministers and media moguls on speed dial.

But as Allan prepares to celebrate Portland’s 15th anniversary with a big party at the Natural History Museum this week, he says PR “has changed from a contacts business to a content business”. His agency has grown from four people in a box room in Bloomsbury Square who “called a few journalists” to a 200-strong team on the Strand that advises on strategy, with an inhouse studio that creates advertising, magazines, websites and infographics.

Recent work includes an advertising “takeover” of the ticket barriers at Westminster Tube station for drugs giant Pfizer, a Can the Tax website for the British Soft Drinks Association in protest at plans for a fizzy drinks tax, and a glossy magazine for Qatar’s embassies.

Asked to name other clients, he pauses to remember “which ones are public”. Google, Apple, McDonald’s, Heathrow’s third runway campaign and the governments of Kazakhstan, Jordan and Morocco give a flavour, as do Portland’s offices in Nairobi, Doha, New York and Washington.

He is “very happy to defend the work” that he has done for foreign governments on

“openness and engagement”. Clients pay well, especially if they have an unsavoury reputation or legal problems. Turnover more than doubled in three years to £22.7 million in 2015 and is heading towards £30 million, which would make it one of London’s top 10 PR agencies, rivalling Freuds and Teneo Blue Rubicon but behind Brunswick and Edelman.

Allan avoids financial PR, which he says hasn’t changed much in 15 years, and focuses on corporate PR, which has grown because of what he calls “externalities” — scrutiny from social media and parliamentary select committees as well as the public’s demand to know more about companies.

Portland has also benefited from London’s growth as a global news and financial hub, and Allan hopes it “stays that way” after Brexit. More than half of Portland’s work now comes from clients outside the UK.

PR rivals wonder how much Blair has helped Allan. Portland grew slowly in its early years and gained momentum after 2007 when the former prime minister started advising foreign governments like Kazakhstan, a project on which Blair and Portland collaborated.

Allan hasn’t worked with his old boss “for years” and “he’s never sent me an invoice”. Has he ever invoiced Blair? “I can’t remember how things were structured.” Still, it says something about Portland that Jeremy Corbyn’s allies recently accused the agency of plotting against him, a claim that Allan says was “ludicrous” (as do most neutral observers).

He sold 81% to Omnicom in an estimated £20 million deal in 2012 and Portland’s latest accounts reveal the US ad giant has exercised its right to buy the remainder from staff, including Allan’s 11% stake. The price depends on Portland’s profits by 2019.

“I love running my own business,” he says, although he maintains the company is less dependent on him than many other founder-led agencies.

Inside his personal office, where there are framed cuttings about Portland’s 2001 launch rather than flashy art, he works at a “stand-up” desk, with not a chair in sight .

HE isn’t sentimental. Portland’s first client was Sky but they parted ways eventually and he agreed a non-compete deal for six months. After “six months and a day”, he began working for archrival Virgin Media.

Despite all his talk about content, contacts still matter. At least half a dozen Portland staff used to work in Number 10, which he regards as an unrivalled training ground. He has also recruited a starry list of advisers, including Campbell, Michael Portillo, ex-Sky boss Tony Ball, = former Treasury minister Kitty Ussher and ex-Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski.

Allan’s career is proof that in the world of high-end PR, it’s still about who you know.

Gideon Spanier is head of media at Campaign