Clear voice needed in market clamour

In the new economy, developing the best technology does not guarantee success. Instead high-tech firms need to distinguish their products, ensure they get noticed and present a compelling proposition for investors and consumers.

This is the message delivered by Ms Aedhmar Hynes, the newly appointed Irish-born chief executive of Text 100, one of the world's largest public relations agencies, with 23 offices across Africa, North America and Europe, and which specialises in technology-focused projects.

"The new economy is an economy of attention," says Ms Hynes. "To succeed you have to create enough of a profile for your company to rise above all of the noise created by the volume of technology companies being set up."

The growth of the "economy of attention" has spurred huge demand for specialist technology PR and lucrative rewards for its proponents. Text 100, which is quoted on the London Stock Exchange, this week reported a 59 per cent rise in pre-tax profit to $36.4 million (#43.5 million). Ms Hynes spent the past three years managing Text 100's North American operation, where public relations is a long-established profession.

"In the US now it's almost harder to get a good public relations agency than to get venture capital funding," says Ms Hynes. "The most critical things venture capitalists are saying is that technology companies must have strong VC [venture capital] funding, a strong banker and a strong public relations agency."

Europe puts a different emphasis on PR, she says.

"Public relations is an older industry in America and it extends much further, up to the boardroom level, compared to Europe. As a result budgets are much higher," says Ms Hynes.

Another reason for this is that it is harder to compare the benefits from PR with advertising.

But Europe is catching up and Text 100 has nine offices in the continent, including one in Dublin, which employs 20 people.

Several other public relations firms in the Republic have recently established dedicated technology arms to take advantage of the high-tech boom.

Nor is technology PR just for technology companies, according to Mr Nigel Heneghan, president of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland.

"The old economy businesses are beginning to embrace e-commerce and employ technology more widely," he says. "So I don't think the downturn in technology stocks will affect the sector much."