Stephen Morgan, managing director of health care for Asia-Pacific at Weber Shandwick Hong Kong, said the major role of a PR firm was to provide specialist knowledge to clients. 'We are able to provide strategic insight because we have cumulative knowledge of an industry.'

With companies as their clients, PR agencies normally work closely with the sales, marketing and communications departments to help companies create, manage and enhance relationships with their stakeholders. Martin Spurrier, chairman of Edelman Hong Kong, said: 'We need to determine what the key messages are, what the story is about. The message is critical. Then we can identify who and what medium channels are used to disseminate the message.'

A good relationship with the local media and a thorough understanding of what intrigues their interest helps with the job. Ms Hilton said: 'We develop stories that journalists would want to cover, which means we make the client's message newsworthy. This differentiates a PR firm from an ad agency which usually focuses on developing content for a paid promotion, such as a commercial.'

According to Ms Hilton, many PR firms in Hong Kong are generalist in nature, although many international firms have regional headquarters set up in the city. Within each firm are different practice groups, which contain a number of people who work on similar types of clients or media. When discussing the benefits a PR firm brings to a client, Ms Hilton said: 'We provide an inside and outside perspective. The inside is the industry knowledge, and the outside is the media angle.'

As with many other industries in Hong Kong, a main challenge facing PR firms is finding talented, qualified people, especially in the ranks of middle management, account managers and upwards. Mr Spurrier said retention of staff was also of concern, as there was a lot of job-hopping within the industry.

An ability to link creativity to a hard business objective is what is expected of people working in this industry. Ms Hilton said: 'Someone needs to have the ability to multitask. Each client needs to think that they are the only client being dealt with at any one time. So you may be on the phone with a corporate client and at the same time a consumer client sends you an urgent e-mail. You need to be able to handle this with common sense. It is extremely demanding to work in a PR firm.

'You also need to have excellent writing skills and the ability to find an interesting angle to a story. You will need to take a large amount of information and make it interesting. Additionally for Hong Kong, people should be bilingual at least,' she said.

The PR industry in Hong Kong is a dynamic market, according to Ms Hilton. 'It is as sophisticated as anywhere in the world. It is also extraordinarily diverse, with more firms being founded in good economic times.'

Mr Spurrier explained that even when the market wasn't good, the industry had proven to be resilient. This was especially important now with the exponential growth of business on the mainland.

The increasing number of mainland companies using the services of Hong Kong PR firms has in fact presented another challenge to the local operators.

Ms Hilton said: 'Chinese companies are not used to working with consultants, and the form of media on the mainland is very different from what it is like in Hong Kong. But the opportunity is in the chance to work from the ground up with a company and educate a CEO of a mainland enterprise on communications.'

Mr Spurrier said the prevalent use of new media was starting to change the PR industry. 'The internet allows anyone to access and upload just about anything as well as speak to anyone, anywhere. There is now a sphere of cross-influence happening, which includes websites such as YouTube and MySpace.

'Virtual marketing such as SMS and blogging is the latest trend in that it is influencing the role of traditional public relations, and has largely come about because of the inquisitiveness fostered by the new media channels where information is accessed.'

Mr Morgan said despite the challenge from the firm side and the evolving industry, the job prospects in the industry were fantastic. 'Landing a job in a Hong Kong firm means you are well-placed to grow your career either in Hong Kong or elsewhere,' he said.

Key players

Assistant account executive

Account executive

Media specialist

Account manager director

Jargon

Practice an industry-based area such as health care, corporate, technology and consumer that an individual or team will work on

Crisis management the management of a client's reputation in the face of some public challenge in the form of an investigation, media inquiry or shareholders lawsuit

Word-of-mouth marketing using average people to generate interest in a company's products or services, which can take many forms of marketing, including viral, buzz and grass roots

Pitching an attempt to get positive media coverage or an analyst review by using prepared presentation materials such as press releases