Sections

Tipping point: PR agencies retooling for an integrated future

By Steve Barrett, April 27, 2015

PR firms uniquely reflect the state of the overall industry and a poll of the most senior agency execs suggests their organizations are reaching a defining moment in terms of services, structure, talent, and opportunity.

Global agency figures depict a thriving industry

By PRWeek staff, April 27, 2015

The numbers across the top 30 global firms and 181 US agencies in this year's Global Agency Business Report illustrate a bright future for the communications industry.

What is the new PR agency?

By Steve Barrett, April 27, 2015

As the industry continues to evolve and undergo a revolution, the demands of clients are transforming the definition of PR and the PR agencies that provide services under that banner. Steve Barrett talks to senior agency leaders tasked with executing this transformation.

Bright future: Eight holding company chiefs on the future of PR

By Steve Barrett, April 27, 2015

As disciplines continue to converge, integrated offerings by PR firms are the driving force behind corporate strategies, say the CEOs of the industry's largest holding companies.

Watch: Twelve agency CEOs on the state of PR

By PRWeek staff, May 11, 2015

Chief executives from the largest global PR firms reflect on the year that was and look ahead to the future.

Agencies have work to do on diversity

By Steve Barrett, April 27, 2015

PRWeek surveys agency leaders on the all-important subject of diversity and inclusion and finds there is still a long way to go before the agency sector mirrors the customers of the clients their firms work for.

Agency Profiles

APCO Worldwide

BlueFocus

Burson-Marsteller

Cohn & Wolfe

Dentsu PR

Edelman

Finsbury

FleishmanHillard

FTI Consulting

Golin

Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Ketchum

MSLGroup

Ogilvy PR

Porter Novelli

Ruder Finn

Waggener Edstrom

Weber Shandwick

Follow the regional links to view 50 more profiles across the US, UK, and Asia.

Previous Reports

US 2014

UK 2014

US 2013

UK 2013

Global Agency Rankings 2015

The top 50 PR agencies in the world

Agency 2014 Total Revenue ($) 2013 Total Revenue ($) Change % 2014 Total Staff 2013 Total Staff Change % 2014 Revenue ($) Employee 2013 Revenue ($) Employee Change % Headquarters
1 Edelman 1 812,300,000 745,600,000 9% 5455 5175 5% 148,909 144,077 3% Chicago
2 Weber Shandwick† 680,000,000 590,000,000 15% 4000 3700 8% 170,000 159,459 7% New York
3 FleishmanHillard† 600,000,000 550,000,000 9% 2700 2600 4% 222,222 211,538 5% St. Louis
4 Ketchum† 510,000,000 490,000,000 4% 2500 2500 0% 204,000 196,000 4% New York
5 MSLGroup 2 †† 485,000,000 490,000,000 -1% 3016 3055 -1% 160,809 160,393 0% Paris
6 Burson-Marsteller† 450,000,000 450,000,000 0% 2300 2300 0% 195,652 195,652 0% New York
7 Hill+Knowlton Strategies† 380,000,000 380,000,000 0% 2500 2400 4% 152,000 158,333 -4% New York
8 Ogilvy Public Relations†† 300,000,000 300,000,000 0% 2500 2200 14% 120,000 136,364 -12% New York
9 Brunswick†† 230,000,000 230,000,000 0% 900 784 15% 255,556 293,367 -13% London
10 BlueFocus 216,900,000 123,000,000 76% 2140*** N/A 0% 43,380 35,143 23% Beijing
11 Havas PR†† 208,000,000 208,000,000 0% 1200 1200 0% 173,333 173,333 0% New York
12 Media Consulta International 3 ** 189,881,160 166,623,426 14% 684 674 1% 277,604 247,216 12% Berlin
13 Golin†† 178,000,000 165,000,000 8% 1200 1000 20% 148,333 165,000 -10% Chicago
14 Cohn & Wolfe†† 175,000,000 157,000,000 11% 1200 1100 9% 145,833 142,727 2% New York
15 FTI Consulting 4 169,600,000 167,000,000 2% 630 656 -4% 269,206 254,573 6% New York
16 Porter Novelli† 145,740,000 140,000,000 4% 686 686 0% 212,449 204,082 4% New York
17 Grayling† 125,000,000 123,500,000 1% 950 970 -2% 131,579 127,320 3% London
18 APCO Worldwide 118,112,600 120,345,400 -2% 635 658 -3% 186,004 182,896 2% Washington, DC
19 Waggener Edstrom 106,676,000 117,608,000 -9% 705 828 -15% 151,313 142,039 7% Bellevue, WA
20 ICF SCM 5 96,726,560 48,135,325 101% 528 280 89% 183,194 171,912 7% Fairfax, VA
21 inVentiv Health PR Group 6 †† 90,000,000 86,750,000 4% 344 321 7% 261,628 270,249 -3% New York
22 FSB Comunicação 7 ** 85,876,448 76,210,557 13% 655 596 10% 131,109 127,870 3% Rio de Janeiro
23 Finsbury†† 85,000,000 81,000,000 5% 206 200 3% 412,621 405,000 2% New York
24 W2O Group 82,625,212 75,050,000 10% 402 397 1% 205,535 189,043 9% San Francisco
25 Ruder Finn 73,891,000 63,249,000 17% 565 525 8% 130,781 120,474 9% New York
26 Hopscotch Global PR Group 8 ** 71,017,947 71,059,991 0% 542 542 0% 131,029 131,107 0% Paris
27 Bell Pottinger Private 9 ** 70,686,758 55,939,010 26% 278 241 15% 254,269 232,112 10% London
28 Vector†† 67,000,000 54,000,000 24% 376 294 28% 178,191 183,673 -3% Tokyo
29 Res Publica Consulting Group 10 ** 66,547,626 68,951,256 -3% 418 435 -4% 159,205 158,509 0% Montreal
30 Kreab Worldwide 11 ** 63,958,570 66,670,620 -4% 400 350 14% 159,896 190,487 -16% Stockholm
31 PMK-BNC†† 62,150,000 55,000,000 13% 258 228 13% 240,891 241,228 0% Los Angeles
32 Lewis PR 12 ** 61,444,110 44,800,000 37% 490 409 20% 125,396 109,535 14% London
33 Text100 13 57,306,333 50,337,135 14% 549 492 12% 104,383 102,311 2% New York
34 MWW 56,715,000 48,020,000 18% 248 217 14% 228,690 221,290 3% New York
35 Instinctif Partners 14 ** 55,640,094 51,199,394 9% 372 355 5% 149,570 144,224 4% London
36 Finn Partners 15 52,797,000 44,375,000 19% 370 298 24% 142,695 148,909 -4% New York
37 fischerAppelt 52,523,030 52,003,000 1% 360 340 6% 145,897 152,950 -5% Hamburg
38 ICR 51,663,463 43,322,436 19% 130 110 18% 397,411 393,840 1% New York
39 We Are Social 49,000,000 38,677,478 27% 500 400 25% 98,000 96,694 1% London
40 Freuds 16 ** 46,774,164 43,877,537 7% 213 237 -10% 219,597 185,137 19% London
41 DeVries Global†† 45,000,000 47,250,000 -5% 243 201 21% 185,185 235,075 -21% New York
42 Hering Schuppener 17 ** 42,816,340 41,303,910 4% 180 180 0% 237,869 229,466 4% Düsseldorf
43 Dentsu Public Relations†† 42,000,000 40,000,000 5% 253 235 8% 166,008 170,213 -2% Tokyo
44 DKC 41,500,000 36,500,000 14% 199 171 16% 208,543 213,450 -2% New York
45 Newlink Group 18 41,000,000 26,000,000 58% 350 355 -1% 117,143 73,239 60% Miami
46 Marina Maher Communications† 40,000,000 32,300,000 24% 150 120 25% 266,667 269,167 -1% New York
47 Zeno Group 19 39,900,000 35,900,000 11% 276 256 8% 144,565 140,234 3% New York
48 Citigate Dewe Rogerson 20 † ** 38,000,000 37,600,000 1% 125 125 0% 304,000 300,800 1% London
49 Allison+Partners 32,730,000 28,848,000 13% 230 165 39% 142,304 174,836 -19% San Francisco
50 Llorente & Cuenca 21 ** 32,458,343 27,388,264 19% 350 330 6% 92,738 82,995 12% Madrid
Notes
† indicates revenue and staff figures are PRWeek estimates owing to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) or agencies declining to take part
†† indicates revenue figures are PRWeek estimates as per† (staff numbers were provided by agency)
1 Edelman's 2013 global revenue has been updated this year from the figure reported last year ($740,874,796) due to a reallocation of some revenue attributed to Zeno Group last year that should have been attributed to Edelman
2 MSLGroup's 2013 staff number was misreported last year
3 Submitted figures for Media Consulta International were €142,800,000 (2014) and €125,460,000 (2013)
4 FTI's 2013 revenue figure reported last year – $186.2m – included rebillables and pass-throughs and has been updated this year
5 ICF's 2014 numbers incorporate revenue from Olson Engage, which ICF acquired in late 2014
6 Formerly known as Chandler Chicco Companies
7 Submitted figures for FSB were in BRAZILIAN REAL - R$ 201.912.705,62 (2014) and R$ 164.386.170,80 (2013)
8 Submitted figures for Hopscotch were €53,409,000 (2014) and €53,505,000 (2013)
9 Submitted figures for Bell Pottinger Global were £42,882,042 (2014) and £35,762,057 (2013)
10 Submitted figures for Res Publica were 73,488,543 - $CAN (2014) and 71,019,794 - $CAN (2013)
11 Submitted figures for Kreab Worldwide were €48,100,000 (2014) and €50,200,000 (2013)
12 Lewis PR reported its 2014 global revenue as £37,275,000.
13 Text100's 2013 revenue figure reported last year – $50,418,281 – was updated after an internal review
14 Submitted figures for Instinctif Partners were £33,754,000 and 2013 revenue as £32,732,000
15 Finn Partners' 2013 revenue figure reported last year – $44,283,790 – was updated after an internal review
16 Submitted figures for Freuds were £28,375,494 (2014) and £28,051,104 (2013)
17 Submitted figures for Hering Schuppener were €32,200,000 (2014) and €31,100,000 (2013)
18 Newlink Group's 2013 global revenue was mistakenly reported last year as being more than $35 million
19 Zeno's 2013 staff number was updated from last year's report following an internal review.
20 For Citigate, PRWeek's calculations placed its estimated revenue at £23,058,000 (2014) and £24,038,000 (2013), respectively.
21 Submitted figures for Llorente & Cuenca were €24,410,275 (2014) and €20,622,140 (2013)
**For all firms that submitted revenue figures in currencies other than US dollars, we are using the US Federal Reserve's 2014 average rate of exchange to determine 2014 revenue in $US and the US Federal Reserve's 2013 average rate of exchange to determine 2013 revenue in $US. The rates for British pounds is £1 = $1.6484 US (2014) and £1 = $1.5642 US (2013). The rate for Canadian dollars is $1.1043 CAN = $1 US (2014) and $1.03 CAN = $1 US (2013). The rates for Euros is €1 = $1.3297 US (2014) and €1 = $1.3281 US (2013). The rates for Brazilian Real are $1 US = R$ 2.3512 (2014) and $1 US = R$ 2.1570 (2013)
***BlueFocus' 2014 staff number was changed after an internal review.