This is an expression we use a lot at Six Degrees when trying to explain to people what we do. It works quite well actually, because it doesn’t try and analyse the ‘science of PR’ or the workings of it – it just says what it does on the tin.

When we talk about fame of course, this could mean recognition among hard-core electronics engineers, mobile developers, gamers, software users and other niche groups – not fame of the Big Brother kind! Then again placing a client in the BB house next year could be rather a clever stunt?

But never has the ‘we make you famous’ tag struck me as more relevant than in recent days when I read about Cisco’s acquisition of old client ScanSafe (www.scansafe.com) for its web security capabilities – see here.

My eyes watered when I saw the $183m (£111m) price tag, but remembered hearing co-founder and CEO, Eldar Tuvey say that one day they would be a £100m company. How right he was and I like to think we played an important part over three years in making ScanSafe an attractive and credible company.

When it comes to current clients, it’s always with mixed emotions that you learn that they have been acquired or merged with a bigger organisation. On the one hand, you’re delighted you helped ‘make them famous’; on the other you know the brand name will disappear and probably the account along with it. That’s PR!

We’ve seen this happen a few times in recent years – Zyb acquired by Vodafone, Trolltech by Nokia, and Empirix’s web application testing division acquired by Oracle – and we will see it happen again I’ve no doubt.

In fact, some companies actively approach us wanting us to make them attractive to a buyer, and we’re happy to do so, but when the time comes to finally ‘hand them over’, it feels a bit like being the father of the bride handing her to her husband to be at the altar.

So the question’s not if, but “when will I, will I be famous?”