For years, the honest advice from many communications consultancies to early stage tech businesses or those operating with limited resources considering rolling out a PR program has been some version of: "Not yet. Get your proof points in order. Build a few more customer wins. Then come back when there's something to work with."
That advice was sound. PR built on thin foundations does not produce results, and in our opinion a program that underdelivers is worse than no program at all. We have given that counsel many times, and we stand by it.
But the conditions around it are changing.
Gartner's prediction that mass LLM adoption will double PR and earned media budgets by 2027 reflects a structural shift in how buyers discover and evaluate brands. AI-generated answers are increasingly shaping first impressions, shortlist decisions, and vendor research.
That’s important because the inputs feeding those answers are, by and large, earned and owned content. Research analysing more than 23,000 AI citations found that earned media accounts for nearly half of all citations when a buyer searches for a brand by name — media coverage, analyst commentary, thought leadership, and credible third-party references.
This means organisations that choose to delay rolling out earned PR programs face considerable business risks. Simply put, businesses without earned content are ceding ground to competitors who have it.
That’s not to say the fundamentals don’t matter. Building strong foundations and a base of credible content still comes first. However, it makes more commercial sense today for businesses with genuine momentum but limited public presence to start an integrated earned and content strategy earlier now than they might have two or three years ago. Better to be ahead of the pack than playing catch up.
Einsteinz won’t be changing its approach to being selective when considering the right timing for PR programs. We will continue turning away business when the fit is not right or when we cannot see a clear path to delivering value. However, businesses should probably be aware that the right moment to start a program might be sooner than they think.
If you're not sure where you sit, it's worth a conversation.