Monday poll: Are you expecting a Summer Slowdown?

Traditionally, Summer is seen as a quiet time for PR. Reporters are on vacation. Clients are away too. There are fewer conferences. No-one plans product launches for July and August. It’s a time to catch up on the planning, to get across that background reading, for training sessions, and perhaps some early cuts to a local bar.

A few clients even ask if the fees can be lower, so it must be quieter, right? But is that really the case? There are plenty of events (like this one tomorrow in SF and Sydney), product launches, and do reporters and clients really all holiday en masse? Not to mention the new business pitches while companies get aligned for H2. So is the Summer Slowdown still real? Are we wrong to save projects for a notional time ‘when things are a bit calmer?’ Should companies be confident in launching in August, perhaps beating the rush? Or are you expecting things to get a little quieter, so you can recharge for the September marketing offensive?

For those reading this via a newsreader, there is an AJAX-based poll pasted below which may not appear in this post via RSS. Please vote on the site – thanks].