European agency fees and references: what should a Hong Kong-listed company compare?

Write one comparable brief

Set out the investment decision, countries, sectors, expected milestones and current uncertainties. Ask all candidates to separate recurring work from launch work and potential crisis support. Specify what the in-house team and other advisers already do. Without these boundaries, one proposal may include research, drafting and local adaptation while another assumes that the client supplies finished materials. The resulting price comparison would reward different assumptions rather than better value.

Price the real delivery team

Request named roles, expected involvement and the allocation between senior advice and execution. Clarify who will attend decision meetings and who produces the first draft of sensitive material. Ask how holidays, time-zone gaps and urgent requests are covered. A Hong Kong-listed group should distinguish routine monitoring from a response capability outside agreed hours. Do not infer continuous coverage from a global logo or the presence of an emergency phone number.

Make anonymised references useful

A confidential case can still describe a sector, broad geographic scope, project stage, the adviser's responsibility and types of deliverables. Ask what can be verified and what remains confidential. A role in preparing a management brief is different from leading a whole transaction communication programme. Avoid requiring disclosure of another client's confidential information. Instead, ask for a redacted sample or a practical exercise that demonstrates the relevant skill without overstating the earlier mandate.

Separate activity, outcomes and attribution

A meeting list, publication count or media-reach estimate describes activity or potential exposure. Ask what changed in stakeholder understanding, response preparedness or the consistency of public information. Where an agency claims a business result, examine the basis for attributing it to communication. Approvals, sales and valuation depend on many factors. Prefer a candid account of contribution and limitations to a dramatic result that cannot be traced to evidence.

Clarify the contract's moving parts

Compare included countries, languages, revisions, reporting, research costs, travel, partner fees and media-monitoring tools. Establish who approves additional work and how a changing transaction timetable affects the budget. Specify file ownership, access to working documents, confidentiality and exit arrangements. Where paid distribution is proposed, distinguish it from editorial coverage. This produces a budget discussion that the communications lead, finance and procurement can understand in the same way.

Agree the first review before signing

Define the initial outputs, approval dependencies and review date. A useful review asks whether the diagnostic changed the plan, whether evidence gaps were resolved and whether the team can act on the materials delivered. Record any reprioritisation rather than counting work against an obsolete brief. Belief System can prepare a scoped proposal with explicit deliverables and assumptions. The objective is a mandate whose value remains understandable throughout the European expansion.

Sources and reference points

Reference sources checked on 9 October 2026. The proposed methods and hypothetical situations are Belief System analyses. Your advisers determine the rules applicable to your project.

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