What Glasgow corporate communications can learn from Edinburgh agencies

What to take away

Glasgow public-sector and media employers named

Glasgow is Scotland's largest city and its communications labour market leans on public bodies. The Scottish Government is the biggest single employer of communications staff in the country, with directorates, agencies and ministerial press teams (Scottish Government - Wikipedia).

Glasgow City Council runs one of the largest local authority communications functions in the UK, covering press, digital, internal and campaign work. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the largest health board in Scotland, employs communications and engagement staff across hospitals and community services.

Other named Glasgow public-sector employers include Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Scottish Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland, the Student Awards Agency Scotland and Glasgow Life. Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Glasgow also run in-house teams.

Media employers in Glasgow include BBC Scotland at Pacific Quay, STV, BBC Radio Scotland, Clyde 1 and The Herald and Glasgow Times titles under Newsquest. Reach plc runs the Daily Record and Sunday Mail from the city.

Those newsrooms matter for corporate communications because they set the pace of local scrutiny. A Glasgow team pitching a story competes with public-sector press offices that already know the newsdesk.

Edinburgh's agency market and what it offers Glasgow buyers

Edinburgh has a dense agency market: public affairs shops near Holyrood, design and brand studios, and full-service PR firms. Established names include The Big Partnership, one of Scotland's largest PR agencies, with offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, along with the Edinburgh PR agencies Stripe Communications and Holyrood PR. Public affairs is served by consultancies such as Charlotte Street Partners, and many of these firms work for the Scottish Government, quangos, universities and financial services clients.

The offer to Glasgow buyers is capacity and specialism. An Edinburgh agency can cover public affairs at Holyrood, financial calendar work, or a rebrand without a permanent hire. That suits Glasgow teams with a fixed headcount and a variable workload.

Commissioning works differently from hiring. You buy a defined scope, a named team and a delivery date, then review the agency before you trust it (agency review before you trust). Glasgow buyers should ask for the account lead, not the pitch team.

Edinburgh agencies also bring measurement habits from client work: monthly reports, coverage books, sentiment tracking and message testing. Those artefacts are easier to audit than an in-house team's activity log.

Before you brief, know who does what on both sides: client lead, account director, press officer, designer, analyst (who does what). Ambiguity here is the most common cause of a failed Scottish agency engagement.

Hiring differences between the two cities

Glasgow hires from journalism, the public sector and in-house teams. Former reporters from The Herald, BBC Scotland or the Daily Record often move into council, health board or utility communications roles.

Edinburgh hires from agency account teams. Candidates arrive with client-facing experience, pitch skills and a portfolio of campaigns across sectors. They expect structured briefs and timesheet discipline.

Salaries differ less than the shape of the roles. Glasgow public-sector posts come with grades, pensions and defined progression; Edinburgh agency roles come with bonuses, client pressure and faster promotion.

The practical difference is speed. An Edinburgh agency can staff a campaign in weeks. A Glasgow public body may need months for a permanent post, so interim cover and secondments fill the gap.

For skills, both cities now face the same shift: drafts arrive pre-written, so judgement, verification and stakeholder handling matter more than production (skills that matter).

When you need a supplier rather than an employee, shortlist corporate communications providers on scope, references and measurement, not on size alone (shortlist corporate communications providers).

Briefing differences and how they show up in the work

A Glasgow public-sector brief usually arrives as a specification: objectives, audiences, channels, accessibility standards and a procurement route. The language is formal and the constraints are explicit.

An Edinburgh agency brief is shorter and more commercial: the problem, the audience, the budget, the deadline and the measure of success. Agencies fill gaps with their own research and assumptions.

The difference shows up in the first draft. Public-sector work tends to be accurate, cautious and slow to approve. Agency work tends to be sharper, faster and sometimes wrong on factual detail that a press office would catch.

Here is a worked example. A Glasgow health board wants to raise uptake of a screening programme. In-house, the brief covers clinical accuracy, equalities data and NHS branding. Commissioned from Edinburgh, the same brief would add audience segmentation, message testing and a paid social plan.

Both routes need a named factual authority. Someone must sign off clinical claims, and someone must own the response if a journalist challenges them.

Scotland's devolved context adds a layer. Policy responsibility sits with the Scottish Government for health, education and justice, while the Scotland Office handles reserved matters and intergovernmental relations (Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland - GOV.UK).

Practitioners in both cities share one professional body. The CIPR sets standards, runs training and offers Chartered status that public-sector recruiters recognise (Home CIPR).

Measurement differences and what each city can evidence

Edinburgh agencies measure against a brief: reach, coverage quality, sentiment, message pull-through and, increasingly, web or campaign conversion. Reports are frequent and client-facing.

Glasgow public-sector teams measure against accountability: audit findings, freedom of information requests, complaints, ministerial correspondence and reputation tracking. Reporting cycles are annual or committee-based.

Neither is wrong. The risk is borrowing the wrong frame. An agency-style coverage book will not satisfy a council committee, and a quarterly performance report will not tell a marketing director whether a campaign moved behaviour.

A practical compromise is a single measurement framework with two layers. Layer one covers output: volume, reach, accuracy, response times. Layer two covers outcome: awareness, trust, uptake or applications.

Checklist for a Glasgow team commissioning an Edinburgh agency:

What ONS labour market data settles and what it cannot

The Office for National Statistics publishes employment, earnings and vacancy data that lets you compare Glasgow and Edinburgh on hard numbers (Employment and labour market - Office for National Statistics).

Regional accounts add output and gross value added by area, useful when you argue for budget or headcount in a city comparison (Regional accounts - Office for National Statistics).

What the data settles: employment levels, sector mix, average earnings and the direction of travel. It shows that both cities have tight communications labour markets and that public-sector pay lags private agency pay.

What it cannot settle: briefing quality, agency performance, campaign effectiveness or the value of a single hire. Those need your own evidence from a pilot, a review or a reference call.

Use ONS figures to frame the business case, then use your own measurement to prove the work. A Glasgow team that can show both is harder to argue with.

Common questions