E-conomy boom drives European agencies forward

PR agencies have grown across Europe thanks to the dot.com boom, and are

being taken more seriously as strategic consultancies.

The PR Week Top European Consultancies league table 2000 shows healthy

economies, an increase in M&A work and a boost to the credibility of PR

as a result of the continuing deregulation of the telecom industry, and

new media IPOs.

Shandwick Europe MD Lutz Meyer said the combination of these factors

meant that the industry in Europe had ’leapfrogged a decade’.

Porter Novelli International held on to its position at the top of the

owned groups table with income in the EU and Switzerland of pounds 56.5

million.

The biggest network was again Worldcom, whose members brought in joint

fee income of nearly pounds 40 million.

As well as profiles of the agency PR markets in France, Germany,

Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands, this year’s

league features Austria for the first time, to reflect the growing

importance of the German-speaking markets.

Supplement inside.