Public Relations Market Intelligence

Industry Outlook & Drivers

Public Relations Market Analysis and Global Outlook

Public Relations Outlook

• The global PR revenue of the top 250 agencies was valued at $12.3 billion in 2018 from $11.7 billion in 2017. Based on the annual ranking of the top 250 PR firms, the global PR industry grew by 5 percent in 2018
• Regions, such as Western Europe, North America, and some parts of APAC, such as Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, have high market maturity
• APAC and parts of Latin America are expected to be the growth-driving markets for PR services until 2020
• The strength of digital spend continues to be the major growth driver in the PR industry across regions
• The industry sectors with most growth is technology, healthcare, and BFSI

Public Relations Global Market Maturity

• The public affairs agency and specialty market (agencies specialised in a particular PR service area or business sector) in Latin America is still in the evolution phase, with the presence of very few specialised PR agencies
• The major challenge in European and North American markets is to find and retain critical talent at a time when the need for talent to manage specialised areas, like digital PR, is increasing

Public Relations Industry Trends

• The North American and European markets for public relations are mature, with ongoing mergers and acquisitions to increase geographic reach, industry-specific expertise and service execution expertise in areas such as media relations and digital and social media
• As expectations increase for demonstration of return on investment for all communications spending, there has been (and will continue to be) an increased focus on measurement and evaluation, where most of the buyers are investing 5–7 percent of their PR budgets in measurement. However, measurement and evaluation remains a weakness of the industry overall, and buyers are looking for improved methods for public relations to be viewed credibly by other functional departments, such as marketing, sales and financial
• Acquisitions or new strategic alliances and partnerships have been robust in the Latin America and Asia Pacific regions, such as Edelman’s purchase of the Colombian firm Position and acquisition of the Brazilian PR firm Ideal by Hill+Knowlton Strategies. The PR industry has been growing significantly, especially as consumer buying power has been rising in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Columbia
• Recent geographical expansions of PR agencies reflect a trend that indicates that buyers are looking at reducing roster size and want to have global contracts with incumbents

Public Relations Industry Drivers and Constraints 

Buyers are looking to work with their incumbents to create measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which take into account both quantitative and qualitative variables. However, the difficulties in measuring and evaluating agencies would remain a major constraint for the PR industry Sources: Primary Expert 1 and Beroe Analysis.

Rapid Use of Social Media:

• Increased adoption of social media is leading to increased spend in digital PR, with earned media being the dominant revenue driver Growth Driven by Content:
• A majority of the top buyers estimate that future PR growth is mainly derived from creating relevant content on traditional and digital mediums with an objective of building reputation among various stakeholders Rise in Technology Adoption:
• The PR industry is experiencing changes in response to new technology, expansion of new communication channels and greater use of data analytics

Constraints

Talent Crunch: PR Firms are not Mastering Digital and Other New Technologies 

• There is a growing need for diverse talent among resources to meet the PR agencies' demand for skilled resources in digital mediums
• Digital agencies are increasingly preferred over PR agencies for any of the digital PR requirements due to the PR agencies' lack of digital expertise
• In North America, agencies are recruiting from rival firms due to the lack of skilled resources in the industry. Mid-level talent is cited as a major concern in North American agencies

Constrained PR Budgets

Client-side budgets increased by an average of just 3–5 percent in 2017, and budgets are expected to increase even more slowly during the next five years, by roughly 2–3 percent per year. This is mainly due to the difficulties in measuring and evaluating the results of any of the PR campaigns

Sourcing Models: Comparative Analysis

• The sourcing model would differ based on the type of PR service and the objectives of the PR campaign. For certain specialized services, such as digital PR and public affairs, buyers look at following the unbundling approach
• Adopting a selective sourcing and unbundling approach provides the buyers with maximum cost-saving opportunities with no execution risk and higher quality