PRWeek's Top 150 PR Consultancies grow 9% despite tough year
Last year was one of mixed fortunes for the UK PR industry. The economy remained tough, the Cabinet Office confirmed it would close the COI and work became more project-based.
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Welcome to PRWeek’s Top 150 PR Consultancies 2012
Make no mistake, PRWeek's Top 150 PR Consultancies report is the most authoritative analysis of the British PR and comms industry.
It records the fortunes of the country's biggest PR agencies and is a strong indicator of what is happening to comms budgets.
It is true that several of the leading international agencies still feel unable to enter their annual figures thanks to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US, but we can accurately estimate their fee incomes. This is thanks to a rigorous formula based on the average productivity of similar-sized agencies, Companies House figures, and our own market intelligence and enquiries.
The picture that emerges is once again encouraging. The aggregate fee income for the Top 150 UK consultancies is £900m.
And significantly it now exceeds the pre-recession figure of £858m from 2008.
Most PR agencies increased fee income by ten per cent or more in 2011. This is an industry that, although briefly hit by the recession, soon recovered its historically dynamic growth pattern.
The twin drivers for this growth are, at the top end, the recognition by business that reputation is everything in terms of long-term shareholder value; and, at every level, the shift towards the digital conversation economy, at which PR professionals naturally excel. Comms experts continue to benefit from the democratisation of information and the power of creative content (about which Matthew Freud speaks eloquently here).
2011 will not go down as a boom year, but it was an important vote of confidence in a long-term growth discipline, which now contributes £7.5bn to the UK economy and more than 61,000 jobs, according to the PRWeek/PRCA PR Census 2011.
After a difficult Q1, 2012 is already starting to look encouraging. And bar unforeseen calamity, we can predict another year of double-digit growth for PR, which is one of the UK's few creative and entrepreneurial success stories.
Danny Rogers, editor-in-chief, Brand Republic Group
Top 150 analysis
Sector league tables
Top 25 Public Sector Consultancies
By John Owens, 23 August 2012- 1 Comment
Public sector agencies have fallen on hard times in the wake of the COI's closure, but integrated work and looming NHS reforms offer a ray of light, finds John Owens.
Top 25 Healthcare Consultancies
By Hannah Crown, 19 July 2012Healthcare PR agencies are being forced to diversify as proposed NHS reforms loom but the sector is still enjoying steady growth, finds Hannah Crown.
Top 50 Digital Consultancies
By John Owens, 24 May 2012With digital playing an increasingly important role in PR, John Owens looks at the agencies leading the way in the fast-changing landscape of online comms.
Top 50 Consumer Consultancies
By Kate Magee, 14 June 2012Despite clients showing continued caution and asking agencies to do more for less, consumer PR consultancies continue to thrive, reports Kate Magee.
Top 40 Technology Consultancies
By Sara Luker, 28 June 2012Tech agencies have seen higher demand for content creation and are under more pressure to prove value as clients become more mainstream, reports Sara Luker.
PRWeek's Top 150 PR Consultancies grow 9% despite tough year
By Kate Magee, 03 May 2012Last year was one of mixed fortunes for the UK PR industry. The economy remained tough, the Cabinet Office confirmed it would close the COI and work became more project-based.
