Category:PR Industry
Corporations and other organisations forming the Public Relations industry including PR agencies, PR related business and PR related trade and networking organisations.
The PR industry is increasingly global. It is an increasingly concentrated industry owned by fewer and fewer Trans National Corporations.
- In recent years significant earnings have come from outside the US and UK for the first time. The biggest global PR firms are hardly household names, but their parent companies are even less well known (See Table 1: Top ten PR firms by revenue). These are huge communication conglomerates. In 2001 the big three were numbered amongst the Fortune 500 biggest global corporations with market values of between $10-20 billion. For example Interpublic one of the big three has offices in more than 130 countries in five continents It made $6.7 billion in 2001, 43% of which came from outside the US. WPP, parent of the best known PR agencies Hill and Knowlton and Burson-Marsteller, numbers over 300 of the Fortune 500 amongst its clients and over half of the NASDAQ index of tech stocks. In the last decade there has been an unprecedented surge of concentration and conglomeration in the industry, bringing together advertising, marketing, market research, PR, lobbying and a host of other communications services. In 1991 22 of the 25 top global PR firms were independent. In 2001, there were only 6. The conglomeration and concentration of ownership has been so marked that in 2001, for the first time, the biggest four accounted for over half (54%) of the global advertising, marketing, PR and lobbying market. That is more concentration than in most other industries and significantly more than the television and media industries. (Source: [1])
Contents
Globalisation of PR and advertising
The advertising industry changed profoundly in the mid 1980's. While the PR industry in the US and UK was growing, the advertising sector was in decline. In 1986 the chairman of Ogilvy & Mather in the United States, announced 60 redundancies, commenting: 'The business has changed. Anybody who thinks it can go back to the way it was is smoking grass' (Feinberg and O'Kelly, 1986). At this time, the seeds of current industry conglomeration were sown. WPP became a communication services group in 1985 and Omnicom was created in 1986. The Interpublic Group was formed much earlier, in 1960, and floated on the stock exchange in 1970. However IPG also underwent considerable change in the late '80's as the communications services sector began to coalesce into ever-larger conglomerates.
Concentration of ownership
In 1991 22 of the 25 top PR firms were independent. In 2001, there are only 6 independents in top 25. The conglomeration and concentration of ownership has been so marked that the biggest four now control more than half the global advertising, marketing, PR and lobbying market:
- WPP, Interpublic and Omnicom Group-the Big three ad organizations-became more dominant in 2001, claiming a collective 43.7% of the world's advertising and marketing services gross income of $39.28 billion, up nearly 6 share points from 38% in 2000. If Publicis Groupewere added to the group, the resulting top 4 could claim 54.6% of global ad and marketing services spending up from 48.6% a year ago. (Endicott, 2002, p. 1)
The biggest communication conglomerates
By revenue 2004
- 1. Omnicom ($9.7bn)
- 2. WPP ($9.4bn)
- 3. Interpublic ($6.2bn)
- 4. Publicis Groupe ($4.8bn)
- 5. Dentsu ($2.9bn)
- 6. Havas ($1.9bn)
- 7. Aegis Group ($1.4bn)
- 8. Hakuhodo DY ($1.4bn)
- 9. Asatsu-DK ($473m)
- 10. Carlson Marketing Group ($347m)
- 11. MDC Partners ($317m)
- 12. Incepta Huntsworth ($280m)
- 13. Monster Worldwide ($252m)
- 14. Digitas ($252m)
- 15. HealthStar Communications ($203m)
- 16. Alloy ($194m)
- 17. Cheil Communications ($186m)
- 18. Aspen Marketing Services ($180m)
- 19. G2R2 ($180m)
- 20. Tokyu Agency ($176m)
- 21. George P Johnson Company ($173m)
- 22. aQantive ($158m)
- 23. Doner ($156m)
- 24. LB Icon ($83m)
- 25. Clemenger Communications ($147m)
- 26. Select Communications ($145m)
- 27. Epsilon ($144m)
- 28. Cossette Communications ($140m)
- 29. Richards Group ($134m)
- 30. Bartle Bogle Hegarty ($116m)
- 31. M&C Saatchi ($114m)
Source: [Advertising Age]
Other significant groups
PR industry organisations
UK
US
Table 1: Top 25 global PR firms by revenue
| In 2001, the largest Global PR firms by revenue in US$: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking | PR firm | Global income US$ | Parent company |
| 1 | Weber Shandwick Worldwide | 426,572,018 | Interpublic |
| 2 | Fleishman-Hillard Inc. | 345,098,241 | Omnicom |
| 3 | Hill and Knowlton, Inc. | 325,119,000 | WPP |
| 4 | Incepta (Citigate) | 266,018,371 | (from 2004) Huntsworth |
| 5 | Burson-Marsteller | 259,112,000 | WPP |
| 6 | Edelman Public Relations Worldwide | 223,708,535 | Edelman |
| 7 | Ketchum, Inc. | 185,221,000 | Omnicom |
| 8 | Porter Novelli | 179,294,000 | Omnicom |
| 9 | GCI Group/APCO Worldwide | 151,081,645 | Grey Global Group WPP |
| 10 | Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide | 145,949,285 | WPP |
| 11 | Euro RSCG Corporate Communications | 124,158,504 | Havas |
| 12 | Manning Selvage and Lee Ltd | 116,019,465 | Publicis Groupe |
| 13 | Golin/Harris International | 113,247,644 | Interpublic |
| 14 | Cordiant Communications Group | 90,655,000 | WPP from 2003 |
| 15 | Chime Communications | 85,482,720 | WPP 29% |
| 16 | Ruder Finn | 80,348,000 | Independent |
| 17 | Brodeur Worldwide | 70,001,900 | Omnicom |
| 18 | Waggener Edstrom | 59,890,800 | Independent |
| 19 | Cohn & Wolfe | 57,779,000 | WPP |
| 20 | Rowland Comms Worldwide | 42,666,000 | Publicis Groupe |
| 21 | Text 100 PR | 33,676,739 | Next Fifteen Communications Group plc |
| 22 | Kreab | 29,555,280 | Independent |
| 23 | Grayling Group | 19,514,937 | Huntsworth |
| 24 | Chandler Chicco Agency | 17,903,408 | Independent |
| 25 | PR21 | 15,714,232 | Edelman |
| Sources: Council of PR Firms (US), PRWeek UK and European Rankings, PRWeek Asia APAC rankings Notes: Global PR agencies are defined as having offices in two or more continents. European income converted at the average rate over 2001: GBP/USD at £=$1.44. Average rate over 2000: GBP/USD at £=$1.51. Company notes: Incepta income incorporates PR-related research, design commissions, events and other communication activities. |
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The top PR firms in the UK 2004
| Top PR firms in the UK | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group name | Company Name | Year end | Gross income | Turnover | Staff costs | Employees | |
| 1 | Hill & Knowlton | Hill & Knowlton [1] | Dec. 2003 | 22,306,000 | 33,557,000 | 12,200,000 | 262 |
| 2 | Weber Shandwick | Weber Shandwick | Dec. 2003 | 15,335,000 | 26,178,000 | 11,126,000 | 255 |
| Acclaro International [5] | Dec. 2003 | 21,000 | 32,000 | - | - | ||
| Weber Shandwick Technology [6] | Dec. 2003 | 2,912,127 | 4,140,175 | 1,629,812 | 30 | ||
| Total | 18,268,127 | 30,350,175 | 12,755,812 | 285 | |||
| 3 | Financial Dynamics | Financial Dynamics* | Dec. 2003 | 18,637,000 | 21,078,000 | 12,157,000 | 132 |
| FD International | Dec. 2003 | - | - | 454,000 | 5 | ||
| Total | 18,637,000 | 21,078,000 | 12,611,000 | 137 | |||
| 4 | Ketchum | Ketchum | Dec. 2003 | 12,777,036 | 23,498,142 | 6,517,755 | 132 |
| The Maitland Consultancy [1] | Dec. 2003 | 5,860,304 | 6,740,274 | 2,912,680 | 34 | ||
| CGI Brandsense | Dec. 2003 | 2,895,541 | 4,300,008 | 1,504,173 | 33 | ||
| Total | 14,070,203 | 19,820,107 | 7,285,660 | 134 | |||
| 5 | Fishburn Hedges | Fishburn Hedges Boys Williams | Dec. 2003 | 11,365,927 | 15,243,875 | 6,632,948 | 97 |
| 6 | GCI/APCO | GCI London | Sept 2003 | 5,434,902 | 8,962,446 | 3,173,188 | 80 |
| GCI Financial Group [4] | Sept 2003 | 303,345 | 440,121 | 241,223 | 3 | ||
| GCI Healthcare | Sept 2003 | 1,159,807 | 1,733,142 | 565,828 | 15 | ||
| APCO UK | Sept 2003 | 3,164,719 | 4,028,949 | 1,955,725 | 36 | ||
| Total | 10,062,773 | 15,164,658 | 5,935,964 | 134 | |||
| 7 | Porter Novelli [8] | Porter Novelli Limited [8] | Dec. 2003 | 11,447,519 | 14,631,686 | 7,069,599 | 137 |
| 8 | Euro RSCG Biss Lancaster | Euro RSCG Biss Lancaster | Dec. 2003 | 5,314,358 | 8,779,825 | 2,868,807 | 67 |
| 9 | The Shire Health Group | Shire Health Group [2] | Dec. 2003 | 412,100 | - | - | 0 |
| Shire Health London | Dec. 2003 | 2,116,346 | 2,707,159 | 1,715,350 | 44 | ||
| Shire Health International | Dec. 2003 | 3,562,722 | 5,365,197 | 1,066,425 | 28 | ||
| Total | 6,091,168 | 8,072,356 | 2,781,775 | 72 | |||
| 10 | The Band and Brown Group | The Band and Brown Group | July 2004 | 5,531,380 | 6,940,486 | 3,030,599 | 77 |
| 11 | Golin Harris International | Golin Harris International formerly Weber Europe | Dec. 2003 | 2,768,000 | 4,742,000 | 1,347,000 | 34 |
| Weber Europe formerly Golin/Harris International [3] | Dec. 2003 | 1,686,000 | 1,946,000 | 881,000 | 19 | ||
| Total | 4,454,000 | 6,688,000 | 2,228,000 | 53 | |||
| Harrison Cowley | Harrison Cowley [1] | Dec. 2003 | 5,114,325 | 5,830,311 | 2,973,333 | 89 | |
| 12 | Buchanan Communications | Buchanan Communications | Dec. 2003 | 5,067,481 | 5,772,065 | 2,720,717 | 34 |
| Staniforth Communications | Staniforth formerly TCG | Dec. 2003 | 3,460,982 | 5,615,733 | 1,820,639 | 51 | |
| 13 | Pleon UK [7] | Pleon UK | Dec. 2003 | 2,431,205 | 3,807,572 | 1,870,260 | 30 |
| *1 The figures include turnover and gross income from outside the UK, which is not usually included in the PR Week figures *2 This is a holding company *3 On 1 January 2004,all of the assets and liabilities of Weber Europe formerly known as Golin Harris International, another group company, were transferred to the company at net book value *4 The company ceased to trade with effect from 30 April 2003 *5 The company lost its only contract at the beginning of the year and thereafter ceased to trade. Fleishman-Hillard is not included owing to a change in year end. All the figures have been obtained from the latest accounts filed at Companies House. The staff costs are total staff costs per the accounts, including pension and social security costs. We have only included the trading companies in the table. *6 Formerly Miller/Shandwick Technologies *7 Formerly Brodeur Worldwide *8 Formerly Countrywide Porter Novelli | |||||||
Top 150 2007
RESTATED TOP 150 FIGURES (NEW ESTIMATES) Company Fee income (pounds) estimate Staff
06 05 % change 06
Burson Marsteller 18,646,075 15,750,000 + 18 175 Fleishman Hillard 13,212,076 12,075,000 +9 124 Cohn & Wolfe 11,187,645 10,500,000 +7 105 MS&L 10, 654,900 9,450,000 + 13 100 Ogilvy 7, 458,430 7,350,000 +1 70 Sarbanes Oxley affected agencies without Companies House entry
Subcategories
This category has the following 3 subcategories, out of 3 total.
Pages in category "PR Industry"
The following 91 pages are in this category, out of 91 total.
